Meta Discussion: September 2016

Still waiting for Brionic to be released...

Darklords continue to gain traction, being second in popularity in Japan, losing only to Metalfoes, which held its stand and placing. Blue-Eyes seems to be diminishing in terms of representation, a phenomenon shared for Singapore's meta as well.

Blue Eyes players add Silver's Cry to their deck, in an attempt to abuse Dragon Spirit of White's effect and disrupt the opponent's play during their turn. Being a quick-play spell, it is superior to Return of the Dragon Lords in that aspect, accounting for its usage and popularity in the TCG where backrow removal options are more limited.

ABC decks employ Chaos Hunter as a side deck option for mirror matches, and it hinders Blue-Eyes' backrow removal and graveyard retrieval process as well. Slightly slows down Metalfoes and for Darklords, they can't resolve Allure of Darkness and all decks piloting Pot of Desires will end up having a dead card in hand rather than a card that can generate pluses. Chaos Hunter's effect is directed only towards the opponent, and unlike Kycoo, it has extensive coverage - extending to the field, hand and grave, whereas Kycoo's effect only covers the grave. I am personally main decking it as a tech card in Hippo Metalfoes.
(Yes, Hippo Metalfoes. Performapal Hip Hippo helps in summoning it as well.)

Perhaps the most interesting sight to behold is the addition of Skill Drain by Metalfoes players in Japan. The argument is that Metalfoes can pop the continuous trap whenever needed and required, and Fullmetalfoes Fusion can be used to play around Skill Drain. Not a completely foolish option, but a risky one nonetheless. This keeps up, players are gonna splash in Anti-Spell Fragrance in mirror matchups, just for the surprise factor and the coz-I-can.

Speaking of Metalfoes, Cyber Stein makes a reappearance in top decks these few weeks. A logical assumption would be to provide the deck with more summoning methods, on top of the synchro and xyz plays, by introducing a fusion summon without the use of a spell card. This may be all for the sake of combating Dimensional Boundary, which is Metalfoes' poison and kryptonite. Solemn Strike is also another card worthy of that praise, but is more easily baited out and unlike Boundary, is not always chain-able.

As always, Naturia Exterio and Last Warrior from Another Planet remains as troublesome obstacles to overcome. Gaia Drake, the Universal Force is a lesser-known option, having its own protection capabilities and effect.

Phantom Abyss' presence continues to plunge, fading out of existence, similar to Bastion Misawa in the GX anime. (yes I am so salty about that lol)

Kozmo and Kaiju is finally available in the OCG, but the locals held on 10th September only saw one player piloting each, despite the initial hyped popularity of Kozmos. However, seeing how EP16 was only released on 9th September, perhaps players have yet to assemble a complete set yet.



Conclusion
We have only seen barely half of September and interesting sights has already surfaced. Let's hope the banlist brings about more changes to the game.