Hey guys, Chief Siddharth here. Today I’ll be looking through the most powerful decks in the current meta. All the decks were either released or given support in Duelist Alliance and The Secrets of Eternity.
The current meta is a touchy topic for many. Large amounts of criticism were directed towards Konami by a few people who used decks that have went out of fashion. On the other hand, those who have cash ready to build the best decks of the meta are enjoying themselves more than usual. Time to look at the big boys and find out who is really broken.
The Big Boys
The four cards above represent the four most dominant archetypes in the current meta. Take a good look.
Qliphorts
The first and only deck to utilize the new Pendulum summoning mechanic, Qliphorts are among the most popular decks in the current meta. Lead by their key searcher called Qliphort scout, the qliphorts are a series of unique monsters. However, their incredibly diverse range of effects can counter most deck types and work very well, and this diversity rivals that of Shaddolls themselves. Bouncing and MSTing through tributes! OTKing with a 2800 attack point monster! No bad draws! Swarming beyond limit! More consistent than consistent decks! Qliphorts have made some base changes to our meta-game. Firstly, they have brought a rebirth in the main decking of three MSTs. Not using three of these things is now considered suicide, as your leaving yourself open to blind pendulum summoning against the popular Qliphorts. In fact, spell and trap removal as a whole is more important. (I even run Dark World Lightnings now). Next, they have brought less-sought after cards like Bottomless Trap Hole back into the limelight. Running the maximum number of these guys, along with the less popular Giant Trap Hole can prevent you from being swarmed into submission.
When I first took on Qliphorts (used by my good friend), I lost miserably. Days of duelling churned out nothing but losses. But as my DW deck evolved, I still lost but not as frequently. Eventually, through practice, and more deck enhancements I finally reached a point where I could go head to head with qliphorts, and at least win a game in a match. Getting out-fought, out-swarmed, out-bounced, out-smashed and out-played so often can get to your brain. Never fear, and don’t fail to perservere! Search for more options and combos. My messiah against Qliphorts was Eradicator Epidemic Virus. No pendulum zone, and Qliphort scout for 3 turns can prove devastating for the deck. Activating that card usually means winning the duel in this case. Some call it a win-more but I utlilize it as a key component of my deck whenever I draw it. This means I go to great lengths to activate it. Whats your messiah? Just keep testing on Dueling Network or in real life till you find out.
Qliphorts are destroyers. They make openings in the field to crush the opponent. They are ruthless in their approach. The only true way to beat them is to aggressively fight back, or crush them entirely with card effects. Stalling, the go-slow approach and control wont make the cut. The Qliphorts are good, but greatness is something they haven’t achieved, even with the secrets of eternity. Being popular and consistent, prepare for them in tournaments!
The three scout searchers!
The Necloths
The Ice Barrier monsters were too good to be true. The Forbidden List stopped their uncontrollable power. Now they’ve been reincarnated in a simply unstoppable deck.
A few months ago, the xyzs welcomed the fusion monster based Shaddolls into the meta. And boy did they get steamrolled. The Shaddolls were the top dogs. Then the pendulum monsters arrived to challenge that perch. Now we welcome a type of monster that has either been under-utilized, or been too inconsistent to use. Notice I didn’t say welcome back. Ritual monsters, barring a popular Relinquished, and a few others, were never too popular to begin with.
Enter Necloths. People who have trapped the power of legendary creatures into their armor. This new archetype didn’t gain too much popularity when it first released, particularly due to the trend in Qliphorts. While they started slowly, once they caught fire, there was no turning back. While my time facing Qliphorts had a happy ending, and a progressive sense of victory over those machines, the same cannot be said about my time with Necloths.
My first view of these unstoppable water-lords was in a tournament towards the end of October. I played OCG then (don’t worry, I play TCG now). Using a cookie-tuner test deck against a relatively early qliphort player, I lost my match 2-0 despite a good game 1. My focus wasn’t entirely on my game though. While my opponent made thoughtful moves, anticipating a non-existent power in my deck, I watched nearby as my friend (machina-gadgets based on xyzs) got ripped apart by an unusual fella using these ritual monsters. Considering the fact that I had removed my relinquished from my test deck, I later had a chat with my friend, who lost his match faster than my cookie lost mine. What I heard was both wonderful and frightening. That guy used something called Necloths. Rapid ritual summoning, speed searching, anti-extra deck capabilities, super-swarming, and even a monster that has the effect of Trishula! I was astonished, but didn’t pay much heed considering that everyone seemed to have some powerful deck or the other. After all, Necloth sounded like some holy clothes or something.
But the Necloths were not done yet. They had just started. As I briefly contemplated building Shaddolls in the weeks following that day, I stumbled upon Necloths, who were in the same category as Burning Abyss, Shaddolls and Qliphorts apparently. But I shrugged them off once more.
The next tournament I used my dark world deck. My first duel was against a player who used an EXODIA OTK deck in the previous tournament. Before the match, I frantically looked through my side deck for anti exodia cards, and prepared them for siding in game 2. Anticipating the same deck, I Mind crushed on his first turn, and called a piece of exodia in haste. I suspected something was wrong when my opponent grinned, cackled and revealed his hand. To my horror, he revealed a hand full of light-blue ritual monsters. Necloths. At that moment, I knew I lost, which my opponent echoed out loud. I got crushed in 5 minutes. Flat. Game 1 finished in the next turn, and game 2 was also a matter of a couple turns. The cherry on the cake for my opponent was when he used his Necloth of Trishula to banish all three of my Graphas in one swift move. ALL 3! And that was when I had 5 cards in my hand that too.
The tournament was only, and I mean 90% Necloth and Qliphort users. But my experience with Necloths made me wonder what the point of this game was. Thankfully, the group matches ended with a Qliphort player beating the Necloth player, and I sighed in relief. Those water creatures could be beaten after all. But my fears returned almost immediately. My friend, a solid Qliphort user ended up crashing out in the quarterfinals. This was after winning 4 matches and 8 duels in a row in the group stage. What did he lose to? Necloths. Trishula and co destroyed the pendulum creatures. The final of the tournament was also Necloth vs Necloth. The winner? Necloth.
Overall, the Necloths are ritual summoning beasts who require relatively less searching power than other decks, yet recycle more and deal more damage. Speed, incisive smashing, banishing, this deck has few if any weaknesses.
Easily the best deck of the meta, and maybe the strongest deck since Tele-Dad, excluding unlimited Dragon Rulers. Super-powerful, but gonna be smashed by the January banlist. A good reason to complain though.
The Ally of Justice Catastor reborn:
The Necloth of Catastor
Burning Abyss and Stellarknights
While I have had experiences and multitudes of duels with Necloths and Qliphorts, I have not seen a live duel with a Stellarknight or Burning Abyss user. But after reading an article on wikia, it’s safe to say that these decks are ridiculous in the current meta.
Burning Abyss decks are extremely versatile, considering the fact that they can swarm the field when you have no back row, and that they can also use controlled milling to their advantage, with many graveyard effects. This versatility gives them a good advantage over many decks. Also, self destruction is also used well, as Burning Abyss monsters have 2nd effects that activate when sent to the graveyard. This can be compared in a way to qliphort helix and q Utilizing rank 3 xyzs such as wind-up zenmaines also helps. An underlying advantage Burning Abyss players have is the fact that most players consider them weak because of the effect which all Abyss monsters share. A top TCG deck, but is it the best?
Stellarknights are much different. While they do swarm at rapid rates reminiscent of dragon rulers, they also gain easy pluses like a dark world deck. But this isn’t all. All the Stellarknights have strong effects which activate on summon. Satellarknight Alsahm is one, which inflicts 1000 damage to your opponent on summon. While Burning Abyss can also mill and self -destruct to win, Stellarknights can deal damage through something as basic as summons. They also have access to the rank 4 xyzs. But not only is this deck powerful, its consistent too with a few searching options available. Damage through open play is good, but can it beat something as fiery as Necloths?
Conclusion
Rankings
- Necloths: Too powerful, too consistent, and difficult to beat. Best deck around, but will be hit the most by the ban list.
- Stellarknights: Solid deck with multiple methods to victory, and is consistent at the same time. Can’t imagine losing with such a deck. (Except to Necloths) The engines of the deck will be hit by the f/l list, otherwise its simply not fair.
- Qliphorts: Mr.consistent is extremely good in the current meta, and that’s only as long as qliphort scout stays unlimited (until january). Will be hit by the f/l list, but until then its top class.
- Burning Abyss: Tough choice for third between this and Qliphorts. Solid deck, but won’t be touched much by the f/l list. Instead, anti-support such as shadow imprisoning mirror will be brought back into the spotlight. Not to be feared if you can side against it.
So that’s it from Chief Sid for this post, stay tuned for more.
Tactical Fouling 