TCG Meta Deck Representation & Breakdown

Deck Breakdown:

• 7 Tenyi Swordsoul
• 7 P.U.N.K. Variants (2 Adventurer, 2 Therion, 2 Synchro)
• 6 Branded Variants (4 Despia, 2 Eldlich)
• 3 Floowandereeze
• 3 Sky Striker
• 2 Drytron
• 1 D/D/D
• 1 @Ignister
• 1 ABC Therion
• 1 Dragon Link Adventurer

Deck Highlights

Sky Striker

Poe Jiang came 1st place and became the new Champion of YCS Hartford with his Sky Striker deck.

For this event, Poe chose to play a Sky Striker deck with a heavy emphasis on Mystic Mine and other Meta-Call cards. The 1st thing we immediately notice when we look at Poe's list is 3 copies of Mystic Mine and Demise of the Land. Mine is self-explanatory as one of the most controversial cards of the past few formats. In Striker, it's great for helping you stall until you've amassed enough resources to break the opponent's board. Demise of the Land also helps by giving you another way to access Mine. It also helps you set-up another Mine in case your opponent happens to get through the 1st one. 

We can also see 3 copies of Dimensional Barrier in the Main Deck along with 3 copies of Trap Trick. Barrier was a great card for this event as both Swordsoul and Branded variants were heavily represented throughout the tournament. It's also a good card in other matchups such as Synchro combo, Drytron and even D/D/D. Trap Trick is a card that assists in getting to Dimensional Barrier or your other Trap cards. This is more applicable in games 2 & 3 where Trap Trick can also fetch Artifact Sanctum or Evenly Matched if necessary.

Overall, Poe's deck was built to set the pace of the game and stay in control. With cards such as Mystic Mine and powerful Traps to control the tempo, Poe's deck could easily drag the game out until he was in a favorable position. And with Striker being such a good deck to slowly whittle down the opponent and grind out games, it isn't too difficult to see how this deck did so well. 

Drytron

Justin Singh placed Top 4 at YCS Hartford with his Drytron deck.

For this event, Justin chose to play a Drytron deck featuring a Field Spell we're all too familiar with. Of course, we're again, talking about Mystic Mine. Mine is a good card in Drytron since it's a deck that's naturally great at baiting out disruptions. This means if Justin went 2nd, he could bait out his opponent's disruptions with the standard Drytron combo and then drop Mine once it was safe. Afterwards, he could slowly drag out the game until he could push through his opponent's board or just deck them out. This is further supported by the 1 copy of Ritual Sanctuary that recycles Spells from the GY to ensure Justin wouldn't deck out 1st.

It's also worth mentioning that this version of Drytron has become more standard with the return of Cyber Angel Benten to 2. With Herald of Perfection being dropped since Eva isn't legal, most Drytron builds have transitioned to playing Vanity's Ruler instead. Ruler is powerful card that is searchable with Benten and fits very well into Drytron's playstyle. With Drytron being a deck that's so good at pushing out damage, they usually only need to hold the board for a turn before pushing for game on Turn 2. And since Ruler is a great card at preventing your opponent's development (especially if you have Magikey Unlocking backing it up), it's a great choice to fit this role.

Adventurer P.U.N.K.

Hani Jawhari placed Top 8 at YCS Hartford with his Adventurer P.U.N.K. deck.

For this event, Hani chose to play a combo deck that uses the P.U.N.K. engine alongside other good cards to build powerful boards. Adventurer P.U.N.K. is strong due to their flexibility and their ability to start a play from almost any 2 cards. With so many small engines, the deck is very consistent and can generate threats from a bunch of different angles. One example of this is Sangan; which is both a 1-card Crystron Halqifibrax or can search for a hand trap if you have an extender.

The deck is also quite flexible as it can set-up boards in accordance to what it's playing against. This is especially relevant in the later stages of the event where you generally know what your opponent is playing. Because of this, Hani also chose to play 1 copy of Token Collector in the Main Deck. Token Collector is a powerful card against Swordsoul and decks that play the Adventurer package and can be accessed through Foolish Burial and Shooting Riser Dragon. This makes it very easy to access and hard to play around in Game 1.

We can also see 3 copies of Foolish Return in the Side Deck. Return is a strong card against Branded variants as they rely on their GY for most of their effects. With most of the Despia monsters, Branded in Red, and Fairy Tail - Snow interacting with the GY, Return is good as it can hit all of them. Furthermore, unlike D.D. Crow, Return is a Spell card; meaning it cannot be negated by Tri-Brigade Mercourier. This makes Return quite powerful as while most Branded decks can play through Crow with Mercourier, there is much less counter-play to Return.

Branded Despia

Jordan Gallacher placed Top 16 at YCS Hartford with his Branded Despia deck.

Branded Despia is still a solid deck that's great at setting up strong boards with little commitment. The 2 most unique things about Jordan's deck is the inclusion of Crossout Designator and Forbidden Droplet over the more popular Super Polymerization.

Crossout Designator is a strong utility card that's good in both the mirror match and for playing through hand traps. With Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring being so prevalent this format, Designator is valuable as one of the few ways to play through it. Designator is also useful in Games 2 & 3 where it can negate Dimensional Barrier which would normally cripple your turn.

In Jordan's deck profile, he said Forbidden Droplet was his replacement for Super Polymerization. While Super Poly is a strong card, Jordan argues that it isn't good against Therion variants and decks that can Scythe lock you. Because of this, he opted to play Droplet as it's good against both of those decks. 

Conclusion

Tenyi Swordsoul, Branded variants and P.U.N.K. variants are the most popular meta contenders; representing over half of the Top Cut. Floowandereeze and Sky Striker rank closely behind with 3 representatives each with Drytron also returning to the meta with 2 representatives.

Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer has almost completely disappeared from the Top Cut as most players don't feel that the Destiny package is worth running without Predaplant Verte Anaconda.

P.U.N.K. has also become the standard engine for most decks facilitating the Synchro combo. This might be due to P.U.N.K. receiving another extender in DIFO as well as the Rose Dragon package being hit.

Many players would summarize the Top Cut of this event to be dominated by one card; Mystic Mine. With Mine present in so many of the Top Cut decks for this event, it wouldn't be surprising to see it on the chopping block soon. Mine can be an extremely frustrating card to play against that most players would be happy to see gone.

References

• YCS Hartford 2022