Meta Discussion: November 2016

The threat of Zodiac Beast is real, as its fame shows no sign of stopping in its upward climb.

 

Lullaby of Obedience has been a popular choice recently since mirror matches are more common now than ever. Using it on Zodiac Beast Marmorat, as many would have realised by now, would leave your opponent with only two copies of Marmorat, and thus unable to pull off the combo effectively. Going second, you can use it to call forth an unused Speedroid Terratop or Marmorat that was shuffled by Daigusto Emeral because your opponent was greedy for a draw.
Lullaby is perhaps best used in Infernoids, which abuse its status as a Normal Spell card and hence, searchable by Left Arm Offering. With the large capacity of mills done in the Infernoids decks today, no thanks to Lawnmowing Next Door, players are even starting to play Magical Stone Excavation in order to retrieve their used or milled spell cards. This increases the chance of them obtaining their spell cards to turbo the deck or in this case, activate Lullaby. Previously only occasionally witnessed as a single copy in Infernoids, Lullaby of Obedience is slowly gaining traction and making way into the Main Deck of not just Infernoids, but other decks like Metalfoes and ABC as well.

Book of Moon and Mind Control have been popular since the start as they are old staples which many players are familiar with, and thus, turned to for help. Book of Moon replaces Book of Eclipse as the main focus of the meta now is the prevent blockages and obstacles that are stopping the player himself from achieving his goal. This is a stark contrast to the previous month where the need to escape lockdowns involving Majespecter Unicorn - Kirin, Blue Eyes Spirit Dragon and ABC-Dragon Buster are so common such that Book of Eclipse is a necessity. Book of Moon allows players to play around Skill Drain, a common trap that ABC deck now uses. A sub-par answer to miscellaneous traps, it also avoids an opponent's Flying "C" and neutralises the threat of an opposing Zodiac Beast Drancia.

Mind Control is effective is obtaining possession of the opponent's monsters, and threatening to still Drancia would likely tempt and force your opponent's hand, as they activate Drancia's effect prematurely to destroy the targeted monster. Aim it on another of your opponent's monster, like Daigusto Emeral, and you would have killed two birds with one stone - Drancia has its effect activated and one monster of your opponent's destroyed.

These two spells serve as threats that are sufficient scary to bait the negation of Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy. A close substitute and more permanent answer to offensive threats, and one capable of bypassing Number 38, would be Compulsory Evacuation Device. Like Book of Moon, Compulsory Evacuation Device has a large window of opportunity to activate, since both cards have no activation condition whatsoever, making them an effective proactive trap to have by a player's side. The only downside to Evacuation Device is that it allows the targeted card to be potentially reused, so it doesn't work wonders against Flying "C".

Something I learned from RoadOfTheKing is Forbidden Apocrypha's rising popularity due to its ability to avoid negation from Starlight Road and Stardust Dragon.

Decks that contains 'floaters', monsters capable of replacing themselves on the field upon leaving, hence maintaining field presence, can work their way around a Zodiac Beast Drancia. Thus, Burning Abyss does have potential to make a comeback, seeing how a declared attack by Cir or Graff can leave the Burning Abyss player without much of a scratch.
Like ABC decks, they too have the ability to run Skill Drain to augment their deck's strength.
Despite having said so, Kozmos continues to be ignored and unrepresented.

Darklords seemingly fade out of existence, as their potential in this meta looks bleak. Blue-Eyes' field set-up and monsters lockdown are incapable of posing a threat to Zodiac Beast decks. In order to keep up with the demands of the game, they have to incorporate plenty of spells and traps to survive, adversely affecting the deck by slowing it down. It is only sad that our game's iconic dragon may be experiencing the harsh reality of power-creep.

Metalfoes hop onto the bandwagon and choose to add Zodiac Beast into their arsenal as well, and it looks like many have settled on Guiding Ariadne to suit the deck's need for a lower set of scales.

D/D/D suffered badly from the latest list's hit but players and fans have remained hopeful since Akaba Declan participated in a duel in the anime recently, foreshadowing the release of further support cards for the archetype.

Crystons decks are trying to will themselves up the charts, enjoying their newly released support. I vaguely recalled a casual comment by players of how it secured victory in a Japanese tournament but I am still scouting for this piece of evidence/news. It has gotten fairly popular here since last week, with the ability to pose a threat by bringing out Stardust Warrior.

A couple of Spirit Beast decks continue to make appearances. These several miscellaneous decks reminding players in Singapore to keep their Side Deck options diverse.

Conclusion
Personally, I continue to metagame with my Metalfoes, and at the same time, enjoy some fun with my Zodiac-Beast Yosenju Kaiju. The Zodiac Beast engine isn't broken, and reports of the game state being too bleak because of their existence is obvious exaggerated. That or, the statement probably came from someone who never witnessed the darkest era of Yugioh - Dragon Rulers. This pales in comparism by sooooooooooo much.

Personally, I think that the Zodiac Engine, be it Elemental Triangle or Marmorat himself, can stay, but Speedroid Terratop provides too much of an unfair advantage for it to stay in the game.