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[OCG] July 1st, 2018 Limit Regulations


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Week #5 of the OCG 2018.07 format.
 
This report will cover 32 top-performing decks from 6 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 28 – 31 July 2018.
 
OCG2018075.jpg
 
10 Sky Striker
 
9 Altergeist
 
4 Thunder Dragon:
3 Mono Thunder Dragon
1 Diabolos Thunder Dragon
 
3 HERO Gouki
 
2 ABC:
1 Mono ABC
1 Greener HERO ABC
 
1 Blackwing
 
1 Greener Shaddoll Sky Striker Dinosaur
 
1 Greener Burning Abyss Chaos Thunder Dragon
 
1 Zefra

 


 

Sky Striker
Kinnikuso (きんにくそ) went 7-0 (excluding 2 byes) and finished 1st in “Atsu CS with Hatti CS” which had 59 participants.
 
He ran Inspector Boarder in the Side Deck for the Altergeist match-up. As most Altergeist are packing Secret Village of the Spellcasters and Anti-Spell Fragrance against Sky Striker, they have significantly less answers to Inspector Boarder. Their main out would be to activate Infinite Impermanence on Inspector Boarder and that would allow them to activate their Altergeist monster effects.
 
However, since Inspector Boarder is summoned to the Main Monster Zone, it would cause several Sky Striker spells to be unplayable.
 
 
OCG2018075_SkyStriker.jpg
 

 
Altergeist
Ui Ui (憂々) went 7-2 and finished 2nd in “Atsu CS with Hatti CS” which had 59 participants.
 
Altergeist players are starting to run Wee Witch’s Apprentice in the Extra Deck as an out to Inspector Boarder. The effect of Wee Witch’s Apprentice makes all DARK monsters on the field to gain 500 ATK/DEF and all LIGHT monsters on the field to lose 400 ATK/DEF. That would bring up Wee Witch’s Apprentice‘s ATK to 1900 and pull down Inspector Boarder‘s ATK to 1600, effectively allowing Wee Witch’s Apprentice to attack over Inspector Boarder.
 
However, Wee Witch’s Apprentice is not easy for Altergeist to Special Summon as it requires 2 DARK monsters. This is mostly accomplished by using either Linkuriboh or Relinquished Anima and Altergeist Multifaker. When Wee Witch’s Apprentice is later destroyed by battle or effect, its trigger effect could then retrieve Multifaker.
 
The threat of Inspector Boarder is a strong consideration for running Mind Control over Electric Virus in the Side Deck.
 
OCG2018075_Altergeist.jpg
 

 
Thunder Dragon
Kuta (空太) went 4-3 (excluding 1 bye) and finished 3rd in “5th MCS with Hatti CS” which had 37 teams (111 participants).
 
He ran a Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair in his Main Deck as a threat against Sky Striker and Altergeist.
 
As Darkest Diabolos cannot be targeted by the opponent’s card effects, this makes it immune to the likes of Sky Striker Mecha – Widow Anchor, Sky Striker Maneuver – Afterburners!, Altergeist Meluseek and Altergeist Silquitous.
 
Darkest Diabolos can be Special Summoned from the graveyard or hand when Superbolt Thunder Dragon is Special Summoned by tributing a DARK non-Fusion Thunder Effect Monster. Normally this would only be Bolt Thunder Dragon or Beastial Thunder Dragon. But when Lair of Darkness is on the field, all face-up monsters becomes DARK, allowing Avian Thunder Dragon, Origin Thunder Dragon and Thunder Dragon to trigger Darkest Diabolos as well.
 
However, this concept of running Darkest Diabolos in Thunder Dragon is largely experimental and the relatively poor performance is reflected in the mediocre tournament record.
 
OCG2018075_ThunderDragon.jpg
 

 
OCG201807-5.jpg
 
The huge spike in the performance of Altergeist this week puts it toe to toe against Sky Striker.
 
Thunder Dragon remains a popular choice, but was unable to breakthrough with Altergeist giving it a hard time.

 


https://roadoftheking.com/ocg-2018-07-metagame-report-5/

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Woah, Altergeists are doing really well in OCG. I was planning to get back into the game (not IRL) with an Mekkinvoked variant but if Altergeist are doing better I will give those a shot instead. I have a bit of a thing for Spellcasters, after all. Hence why I insist on Invoked variants, but I digress.

 

A bit off-topic but any idea on how are they doing in TCG? What are they missing there? I'm doing a bit of research and I found that at least a couple of cards were mistranslated by TCG and do slightly different things that hurt them.

 

Speaking of Invoked, could it merge well with Altergeist? They may not have many LIGHTs for Merkabah, but Raidjin or Purgatrio should be potent enough. I have also been pondering on Caliga's impact on the meta. Or are they too reliant on the Normal Summon to spend it on Aleister?

What about other Spellcaster support? For instance, since Multifaker is DARK, Dark Renewal comes to mind, and they seem to be comfortable with backrow so it looks like it could go well with the Deck, IDK.

 

I find amusing how Prankatrops is being used a a side deck card. IIRC it's uncommon for archetype cards to stand out like this. I can only think of AoJ Cycle Reader when LSs and other LIGHTs were at the top.

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Week #6, #7 of the OCG 2018.07 format.
 
This report will cover 51 top-performing decks from 8 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 5 – 14 August 2018.
 
OCG2018076.jpg
 

 
13 Sky Striker
 
11 Altergeist
 
4 Good Stuff Link
 
3 Junk Doppel
 
3 Thunder Dragon
 
2 Greener Infernoid
 
2 HERO Gouki
 
2 Magician:
1 Performapal Magician
1 Performapal Supreme King Magician
 
2 Trickstar
 
1 ABC
 
1 Blackwing
 
1 Cyber Dragon
 
1 Greener HERO Plant FTK
 
1 Lightsworn
 
1 SPYRAL
 
1 Wind-Up FTK
 
1 Yang Zing Dinosaur
 
1 Zefra
 


 

Sky Striker
kazuma went 6-0-2 and finished 1st in “43rd Adachi CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3).
 
The recent surge in popularity of Altergeist running Secret Village of the Spellcasters is giving Sky Striker a difficult time.
 
To improve the odds against Secret Village of the Spellcasters, Sky Striker is back to running Clara & Rushka, the Ventriloduo in the Extra Deck, and 1 Effect Veiler in the Main Deck.
 
Effect Veiler can be Special Summoned by Crystron Needlefiber and that would allow the Sky Striker player to activate Twin Twisters or Harpie’s Feather Duster to destroy Secret Village.
 
Dinowrestler Pankratops and Typhoon are available in the Side Deck to deal with Secret Village.
 
 
OCG2018076_SkyStriker.jpg
 

 
Altergeist
Hasegawa Akira (3rd in World Championship 2015, 5 – 8th in World Championship 2018) and Arikawa Ryuhei (5 – 8th in World Championship 2018) were running Altergeist and finished 3 – 4th together as a team in “10th Yokkaichi Cup with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3).
 
Hasegawa went 8-0, while Arikawa went 5-3. Both were running similar list, except for the Side Deck where Arikawa cut 1 Zombie World and 2 Heavy Storm Duster for 1 Dinowrestler Pankratops and 2 Skull Meister.
 
The increased popularity of Altergeist meant that the mirror match is a more frequent occurrence now, causing Anti-Spell Fragrance to be less desirable in the Main Deck.
 
Without Anti-Spell Fragrance, Hasegawa has to make up for his Spell disruption by going for 3 Secret Village of the Spellcasters and 1 Metaverse.
 
Metaverse functions as the 4th copy of Secret Village of the Spellcasters, and remains useful after Side Decking for pulling out Necrovalley or Zombie World.
 
Necrovalley is disruptive to Gouki, ABC, while Zombie World stops Thunder Dragon from Special Summoning Superbolt Thunder Dragon and Thunder Dragon Lord.
 
 
OCG2018076_Altergeist.jpg

 


 

Conclusion
 
 
The current competitive scene has Sky Striker and Altergeist split at the top, while Thunder Dragon and Gouki has fallen out of favor.
 
OCG201807-6.jpg
 
Unfortunately Deck Build Pack: Hidden Summoners has no impact on the competitive scene.
 
The Bon Festival in Japan is a week long break and there are several tournaments held everyday.
 
The biggest tournament in China, the 8th China National Championship (CNC) will also be taking place in the upcoming weekend.
 
The results from these tournaments in Week #8 will be monumental in shaping the competitive scene for the rest of the OCG 2018.07 format.
 

 
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Week #8 of the OCG 2018.07 format.
 
This report will cover 144 top-performing decks from 13 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 15 – 21 August 2018.
 
OCG2018078.jpg
 

 
 
6 Good Stuff Link
 
6 Thunder Dragon
 
6 Trickstar
 
5 SPYRAL:
4 Mono SPYRAL
1 Greener SPYRAL
 
4 Cyber Dragon
 
3 ABC
 
3 Infernoid:
1 Greener Infernoid
1 Greener Lair Infernoid
1 Lair Infernoid
 
3 Wind-Up FTK
 
1 Atlantean Mermail
 
1 Blackwing
 
1 Burning Abyss Chaos Thunder Dragon
 
1 D/D
 
1 Demise True Draco
 
1 Junk Doppel
 
1 Mekk-Knight
 
1 Performapal Supreme King Magician
 

 
59 Sky Striker
 
18 Altergeist
 
17 Gouki:
14 HERO Gouki
2 Greener HERO Gouki
1 Mono Gouki
 
6 DARK Warrior Link:
5 Mono DARK Warrior Link
1 Greener DARK Warrior Link
The decline of Thunder Dragon and the rise of Altergeist has opened up the opportunity for Knightmare Link decks to perform well in the competitive scene.
 
The increase in Knightmare Link decks is not apparent initially as the deck can be built in a variety of ways – Gouki, DARK Warrior Link, Good Stuff Link, SPYRAL, ABC. However, when their numbers are tallied together, they hold a strong 25.7% of the competitive scene, double that of Altergeist.
 
Knightmare Link decks’ setup with Extra Link is difficult for both Sky Striker and Altergeist to deal it. Borrelsword Dragon and giving the opponent Knightmare Corruptor Iblee is often enough to shutdown Sky Striker, while Red Reboot leads to a One-Turn-Kill (OTK) against Altergeist.
 

 
OCG2018078-Japan-China.jpg
 

 
Interestingly both the Japanese and Chinese players have come to the same conclusion that Knightmare Link decks are a strong contender for the current competitive scene, but they have developed different decks for the same approach.
 
Gouki is common among both regions, but the Japanese players went with Good Stuff Link, while the Chinese players took on DARK Warrior Link.
 

 
Sky Striker
Matcha (抹茶) went 7-1-1 and finished 1st in “4th Puchi Alpha CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3) which had 64 teams (192 participants).
 
The increased popularity of Knightmare Link decks have players allocated more Side Deck cards such as Skull Meister and Different Dimension Ground against them.
 
Skull Meister is able to negate Destiny HERO – Malicious, Dandylion, Doppelwarrior, Glow-Up Bulb, Jet Synchron, the various Gouki monsters, and many more Monster Effects that trigger in the graveyard. Skull Meister is unaffected by Magical Mid-Breaker Field, and multiple copies can be activated within the same turn, thus running 2 to 3 copies is great against an opponent who tries to power through the Maxx “C” challenge.
 
Different Dimension Ground is a great answer against That Grass Looks Greener. At times it has to be preemptively activated before the opponent Link Summon, but it would still be a decent tempo play that earns you a turn.
 
OCG2018078_SkyStriker.jpg

 


 

Altergeist
GenGen went 7-0-1 and finished 1st in “Summer Duel Fes 2018” (Team 3v3) which had 56 teams (168 participants).
 
He ran Scapegoat to protect himself from being OTK by Knightmare Link decks, especially when his traps are shutdown by Red Reboot.
 
Offensively, Scapegoat can also be used to Link Summon Summon Sorceress (through Linkuriboh and Security Dragon). Its effect can be used to Special Summon for Altergeist Meluseek by targeting another Spellcaster monsters. This allows him to go into Knightmare Cerberus and then Knightmare Gryphon in the Main Monster Zone. By shutting down the Monster Effects of Special Summoned monsters with Gryphon, Knightmare Link decks would have a difficult time developing their board.
 
He has also been experimenting with Grand Horn of Heaven. One of Sky Striker’s typical play is to send Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! to graveyard using Sky Striker Ace – Hayate, and then retrieving it in Main Phase 2 by Link Summoning Sky Striker Ace – Kagari. Grand Horn of Heaven can be used to negate the summon of Kagari, instantly ending the Main Phase 2 and proceeding straight to the End Phase. This caught many players by surprise, often causing them to end with an empty board.
 
 
OCG2018078_Altergeist.jpg
 

 
Gouki
Shirasagi Mayuri (白鹭茉百合) and Xiao Pei (小裴) finished 1st and 2nd respectively in “8th China National Championship” which had 536 participants.
 
They ran almost identical builds, but Xiao Pei chose to cut both copies of Dinowrestler Pankratops for the third Twin Twisters and the third Infinite Impermanence in the Side Deck.
 
Shirasagi Mayuri went 15-0, a perfect run, while Xiao Pei went 11-2-2.
 
They have chosen to go for a 60-card That Grass Looks Greener Gouki build, enabling them to run 4 Equipment Spell cards in the deck. This allows Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights to Special Summon Armageddon Knight and further extending the combo.
 
But more often Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin is Special Summoned by Isolde to discard a monster from the opponent’s hand. This would commonly pick off Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion, ensuring that Gouki Re-Match and Soul Charge would be able to resolve successfully later on.
 
An in-depth article written by Xiao Pei about the deck construction and card choices is available in Chinese: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/5854957721
 
OCG2018078_GreenerHEROGouki.jpg
 

 
OCG201807-8.jpg
 
 
The metagame continues to evolve during the week of Bon Festival in Japan and CNC in China.
 
Sky Striker and Altergeist have to adapt and adjust their builds against threats from the various Knightmare Link decks to remain relevant in the competitive scene.
 

 
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Week #9, #10 of the OCG 2018.07 format.
 
This report will cover 46 top-performing decks from 11 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 25 August – 4 September 2018.
 
 

 
OCG2018079.jpg
 

 
11 Sky Striker
 
10 Altergeist
 
6 Gouki:
3 HERO Gouki
2 Mono Gouki
1 Greener HERO Gouki
 
5 Good Stuff Link:
4 Mono Good Stuff Link
1 Greener HERO Good Stuff Link
 
2 Thunder Dragon
 
2 Trickstar
 
1 Atlantean Mermail
 
1 DARK Warrior Link
 
1 Gem-Knight
 
1 Greener HERO ABC
 
1 Greener HERO Infernity FTK
 
1 Junk Doppel
 
1 Mekk-Knight
 
1 Meta Beat
 
1 Wind-Up FTK
 
1 Zefra
 


 

Sky Striker
Nao (なお) went 8-1 and finished 1st in “Super! Ryusei no Arashi Cup with Hatti CS” which had 63 participants.
 
As the number of Thunder Dragon has fallen, Sky Strikers are now cutting back on Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion and Infinite Impermanence in the Main Deck, and making space for more Effect Veiler.
 
Effect Veiler is more tuned for the current metagame – it remains useful against the Sky Striker mirror match, enables Twin Twister to be played on Secret Village of the Spellcasters against Altergeist, and is always relevant against Gouki and Good Stuff Link.
 
OCG2018079_SkyStriker.jpg
 

 
Altergeist
Benzou (べんぞう) went 8-1 (including 1-bye) and finished 3rd in “Super! Ryusei no Arashi Cup with Hatti CS” which had 63 participants.
 
He used a similar build based on Hasegawa Akira’s deck featured 3 weeks ago in OCG 2018.07 Metagame Report #6, #7.
 
Super Polymerization is one of the best answer against Thunder Dragon and the various Knightmare Link decks (Gouki, Good Stuff Link).
 
Against Thunder Dragon, Super Polymerization will be used to Fusion Summon Predaplant Dragostapelia by using the opponent’s Superbolt Thunder Dragon and Thunder Dragon Lord.
 
Against Knightmare Link, Super Polymerization can be used to Fusion Summon Diplexer Chimera or Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, depending on the opponent’s board.
 
Diplexer Chimera can be Fusion Summoned by using the opponent’s Linkuriboh, Firewall Dragon, Tri-Gate Wizard and Topologic Gumblar Dragon.
 
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon can be Fusion Summoned by using the opponent’s Linkuriboh, Knightmare Unicorn and Borrelsword Dragon.
 
Since cards and effects cannot be activated in response to Super Polymerization‘s activation, Tri-Gate Wizard will not be able to negate it.
 
 
OCG2018079_Altergeist.jpg
 

 
Gouki
KBT went 8-1 and finished 1st in “Hatti CS × Surugaya Cup in Surugaya Takatsuki Trading Card House” which had 64 participants.
 
He ran Token Collector in the Side Deck as a Tech against Good Stuff Link.
 
Good Stuff Link is very reliant on generating Tokens using Dandylion, Crystron Rosenix, Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion and Blackwing – Steam the Cloak to extend their combo.
 
Not only does Token Collector destroys the Tokens, it also prevents further Tokens from being Special Summoned.
 
Since Token Collector can be triggered from hand and then Special Summoned onto the field, it plays around Magical Mid-Breaker Field and Called by the Grave.
 
However, it has too niche of an application in the current competitive scene and is rarely useful outside of Good Stuff Link.
 
OCG2018079_HEROGouki.jpg
 

 
Good Stuff Link
Yabu (やぶ) went 6-2 and finished 2nd in “58th Oretachi Trading Card Division CS”.
 
Good Stuff Link is built around Link Summoning Crystron Needlefiber and using its effect to Special Summon Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion. They will then be used to Link Summon Summon Sorceress. The “Mecha Phantom Beast Token” will be Special Summoned at one of Summon Sorceress‘s Link Arrow, allowing the effect of Summon Sorceress to Special Summon Crystron Thystvern.
 
Crystron Thystvern and “Mecha Phantom Beast Token” will be used to Link Summon Cherubini, Black Angel of the Burning Abyss, whose effect will send Dandylion to the graveyard. Dandylion‘s effect will Special Summon 2 “Fluff Tokens”, sufficient to go into the typical Knightmare and Firewall Dragon setup.
 
Crystron Thystvern can be banished from the graveyard to add Crystron Rosenix to hand, which can be used to discard for the cost of activating Knightmare Mermaid‘s effect.
 
The typical combo ends with an Extra Link with several Knightmare Link Monsters and Borrelsword Dragon on your field, with Knightmare Corruptor Iblee on the opponent’s field, essentially locking out the opponent from performing any Special Summoning.
 
OCG2018079_GoodStuffLink.jpg
 

 
Conclusion
 
OCG201807-9.jpg
 
Knightmare Link decks continue to put out good results. If we combined all of them together (Gouki, Good Stuff Link, DARK Warrior Link, ABC), that would bring it to a total of 28.3%, exceeding that of Sky Striker.
 
The current competitive scene is quite evenly split among Sky Striker, Altergeist and Knightmare Link.
 
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Week #11 of the OCG 2018.07 format.
 
This report will cover 28 top-performing decks from 5 tournaments that were held in Japan and China during 8 – 9 September 2018.
 

 
OCG20180711.jpg
 
10 Sky Striker
 
8 Altergeist
 
3 Good Stuff Link
 
3 Greener HERO Gouki
 
1 Blackwing
 
1 Greener HERO Infernity FTK
 
1 Greener SPYRAL
 
1 Thunder Dragon

 


 

Sky Striker
Massu (まっすー) went 8-0 and finished 1st in “5th Y Nagaoka CS with Hatti CS” (Team 3v3) which had 25 teams (75 players).
 
With significantly lesser Sky Striker mirror matches, Shared Ride has been largely relegated from the Main Deck to the Side Deck. Sky Striker Mecha – Eagle Booster has also been cut from the deck.
 
OCG20180711_SkyStriker.jpg
 

 
Altergeist
Tsujimura Ryosuke “ひつじ” (2017 World Champion) went 5-2 and finished 3 – 4th in “Oretachi Trading Card Division CS ☆ Summer Cup 2018” which had 39 participants.
 
Traptrick has been seeing play in the Side Deck of some Sky Striker decks, functioning essentially as the third copy of various Normal Traps due to space constraint.
 
However in Altergeist, Traptrick works as a Swiss Army knife that can set the appropriate Normal Trap to deal with the situation.
 
Infinite Impermanence for negating a monster effect and other Spell/Trap effects in the same column, Heavy Storm Duster for clearing the backrow Spells/Traps, and Altergeist Manifestation for reviving Altergeist monsters.
 
After Side Decking, Traptrick can also be used to set Metaverse, which in turn will activate Secret Village of the Spellcasters directly onto the field.
 
OCG20180711_Altergeist.jpg
 
 

 
Conclusion
 
OCG201807-11.jpg
 
Towards the end of OCG 2018.07, the format has largely settled around Sky Striker, Altergeist and Knightmare Link (Good Stuff Link, Gouki).
 
Extra Pack 2018 has little impact on the competitive scene. The only notable performance is a Vendread in the Top 16 of “Duel City 2018 Tianjin”.
 

 
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