Meta Discussion: August 2016

More like Meta Observations though...
The date is 200816

Metalfoes decks has evolved and changed with the introduction of INOV.

Long gone are the Blackwing - Gofu Vague Shadow and Cyber Steins as players tech in Arphomage Sloth into the deck for its anti-meta capabilities. Decks nowadays rely on their extra deck so much. Blue-Eyes is probably the only deck that packs enough punch to clear it with its arsenal of main deck monsters.

Also, Metalfoes decks turn back their roots and opt to go for fusion-based control instead of the previous Ultimaya + Cystal Wing lockdown. Now they seem to rely on Fullmetalfoes Alkahest. Stein seems to have completely fade out of existence from the deck. Super Polymerisation starts to see more play, having been moved from the side deck to main, mainly (pun intended!) because as Starve Venom Fusion Dragon.

Gofu is still played in some deck buildss, although maybe not maxed out at three copies. It serves as a tribute fodder for Kirin, if the player can only manage to get one Kirin on the field for that turn. And also, its tokens, as usual, are used as targets for destruction to resolve Metalfoes pendulum effects.

Metalfoes witnessed a decline in performance with the release of Dimension Barrier, which hurts the deck greatly.

D/D/D players , following the trend in Japan, started to play Beatrice the Eternal Lady in their decks in order to make sub-optimal plays. Others, like GeoTheBacon, continues with their go-big-or-go-home deck build, and continue to cry out loud in despair when he fail to draw his combo pieces. Explanation: (RoadoftheKing)

Players also began to put aside D/D/ Savant Copernicus for D/D Savant Thomas. Savant Thomas is a Level8 and more Level8s in deck allow players to boost the deck's speed and consistency by playing Trade-In. Swirl Slime to summon Savant Thomas also allows players to summon Rank8s more easily, such as Number 38: Titanic Harbinger. The inclusion of Trade-In also allows players to place techs like Lava Golem in the main deck, something GeoTheBacon would go into more detail about, when he completes his third part of the article. It is in works...

Azazoth and Outer Entity Nyarla saw more play in recent months for ABC decks to threaten their opponents in Mirror Matches to use Dragon Buster's effect quickly, or suffer.
For those unaware, ABC seems to have completely dropped their Rank5 engine and synchro options, option to commit fully to the R4NK. It is touted as being a faster and more consistent build, as Rank4 monsters does indeed have a lot of options to offer. However, this leaves them vulnerable to Flying ''C'', tempting me to include a copy in my side deck myself. They have few options of clearing it, except for maybe a suicide attempt.

Players continue to ultilise the double-edged sword - Anti-Spell Fragrance - in order to shut Metalfoes down for good. D/D/D, HEROes and ABC decks started main-ing a playset more often, despite the fact that it may slow the user down as well.
Apart from Anti-Spell Fragrance entering the main deck more often, D.D. Crow has also started to see more play in the Main as well.

Another interesting addition to the meta, which has been absent for months, is Retaliating "C". Probably mainly used on HEROes , as their A Hero Arrives and Mask Change can provide an opening for Retaliating "C" to drop onto the field, causing them to probably lose their limited copy of Shadow Mist and have a taste of their own medicine of what Dark Law banishing effect feels like. As previously mentioned on my article on ygoprodeck, Metalfoes should be on the lookout for this card as well, as Retaliating "C" can cripple this pendulum deck too.

Speaking of returning, Heroic Challenger Excalibur and Blade Armor Ninja return to the scenes in the HERO decks, after being absent in the meta for years, providing the user with enough damage to push for the game or achieve an OTK.

The arrival of Darklords in the OCG and rogue DARK Synchro Decks have seen some players side Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror to keep these decks in check. Phantom Knights Burning Abyss aka Phantom Abyss aka PK FIRE, suffers as well.

And speaking of our fiend friends, Phantom Abyss decks continue to suffer from a decline in performance and popularity.

As for Blue-Eyes, there doesn't seem to be much significant changes. If there is anything worthy of a mention, it is the inclusion of Stardust Spark Dragon, which was previously neglected, in the extra deck to be summoned via Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon.

Just stray observations and changes to the meta over the past few weeks. May not hold true for the entire OCG metagame as these are just sights and trends in Singapore. Also, let me know in the comments if you find these type of articles interesting. We can try to make it a monthly thing.

As we close in on our 100th post, (this is about post number 97 93) I have prepared an article to explain to our newer readers about our blog - our beginnings, re-introducing our members. And of course, finally explain why the blog is named Dueling Cancer. For those who are still unaware.
Stay tuned, hope you look forward to it.

- Ken Sir