Hey Guys, I'm back and bigger than ever.
As you all know, I'm in America for the year, but that doesn't mean my interest in the game has gone with it. I've been actively following the game and keeping up to date with the meta. My closest card store is called alternate Universe and it's where Frazier Smith plays. I say locals, it's like a 2 hour bus ride away and I haven't been bothered to travel there just yet.
However I do intend on going o the ARG open in Ohio.
Since the format begun we have had a YCS and the first of many ARG opens, which had tremendous success. This has given shape to the meta and shown us what decks are dominant and which are flops.
The most notable player of success in these events has been Patrick Hoban, who is fresh off his North American nationals win, a 3rd place finish at YCS Toronto and his 1st place finish at the ARG in Ft Worth Texas. Talk about a run of success.
This is where I want to start, Hoban piloted his Dragunity Dragon Ruler deck to these finishes.
I've tested the deck but I am really not a fan of it.
The deck includes the 4 Dragon Ruler monsters played in 3-off's in combination with some of the dragunity engine, most notably Dux, Phalanx and dragon ravine.
It has access to many plays such as easy access to level 8's, rank 7's and Hieratic Dragon of King Atum in order to pull out Red Eyes Darkness Meal Dragon from your deck for easy OTK potential.
The deck has incredible sygenery and can abuse dragon ravine to make very quick and explosive plays very early on in the game to put mass pressure on the opponent.
The deck has been described as the new 'Tele-DAD' due to being able to set up a strong position field then being able to lock it down with Vanity's emptiness, a card I will be discussing later (spoilers).
Next up we have the 'normal' Dragon Ruler decks, like what i'm playing at the minute and am really enjoying.
It's a fairly more interesting deck with less linear plays. It involves playing copies of debris dragon, card troopers, hand traps and 1 star tuners. The main focus of this deck and the Dragunity deck are similar, make 8 star synchro monsters quickly and lock the board up.
I played against someone and taught him how powerful Crimson Blader (spoilers) was in the dragon mirror match.
I thought having to know how to play the deck last format was imperative, but this format getting advantage of all your dragons is so important because card incremental card advantage is extremely relevant again.
Next up is Spellbooks. A deck that was the bane of my competitive career last format, and this format is no better. In the hands of a good player, the deck is insanely powerful. Getting to draws a turn and having the ability to search your deck almost at will is huge. However at least this format the deck doesn't have the ability to summon Jowgen on turn one and then make their Blue Boys 2000atk beaters with star hall which seems to have rotated out of favour.
The deck is fairly linear and is one of the best toolbox decks ever, having the incredible ability to search for what you need at almost any time.
The deck reincorporates High Priestess of Prophecy again in order to have a 'boss' monster and make use of an incredibly powerful card.
A deck that was all hype in my eyes when the banlist came around is Blackwings. I'm really not a fan of this deck yet and never have been.
I will give the deck merit however, the deck is a very good control deck and if it opens the terrifying double/triple whirlwind then if has a constant advantage stream, coupled with backrow this can be a truly horrible deck to play against.
Another deck I would like to discuss would be Mermail, but I'm hoping to get my good friend Luke Symthe to write an article for me on the deck fresh off his YCS trial win at Trading post games, Belfast.
I believe this would give you all an insight I couldn't provide into the deck.
In my eyes, the format is shaping up to be a one deck format, and that seems to be dragon ruler variants. I don't like saying things like that, but as for now the most consistent deck seems to dragon ruler, if you are going to YCS London please be prepared to face that deck at the top tables and be sided for it.
I have man more articles coming up and I will try to get them out before YCS London. I am very busy here but everyone needs a constructive outlet and I hope this can be mine.
Until next time readers
Enjoy,
AJ
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