Hey guys, Chief Siddharth here. 

The ARG Metro Series in Detroit just came to a finish. The results were more than surprising.

Here is a breakdown of the decks that made the last 8:

• 2 Nekroz
• 2 Qliphort
• 1 Burning Abyss
• 1 60 Card Control (BA+ Shaddolls+ Artifacts)
• 1 Evilswarm
• 1 Fire Fists

The decks… And lists for that matter… were pretty surprising. You can find them here. 

1st- Jeff Jones, Fire Fists

2nd- Kyle Warfield- Burning Abyss

3rd- Logan Hilbert- Nekroz

4th- Dan Strzeszewski- Qliphorts

5th- Gabe Oroson Weine- 60 Card Control

6th- Brad Larmie- Qliphorts

7th- Jalen Wang- Nekroz

8th- Greg Williams- Evilswarm

Thoughts and a brief summary of the tournament:

• Jeff Jones does it again. Jeff Jones isn’t your ordinary duelist. He is no doubt a ‘scrubby’ duelist who enjoys winning with decks often considered ‘underdogs’. This time, he won an ARG using Fire Fists. This wouldn’t be surprising usually, but in a Nekroz format one wouldn’t expect Fire Fists to win. Well done Jeff Jones. 
• 60 Card Control does it again. Billy Brake comes up. He won YCS Dallas with a 60 card mashup of meta decks in the Shaddoll format last year. This time, another duelist had done his homework on 60 card control. The Shaddoll- Burning Abyss engine clearly had it’s advantages, but the Artifacts, namely Lancea put in a lot of work. The Nekroz matchup was probably the easiest for that deck, which came 5th. 
• Qliphorts and the surprise factor. So many people expected Qliphorts to be dead following the f/l list, and they sided in such a way too. The tournament side deck lists, and main deck lists show little to no Mystical Space Typhoons. One wouldn’t expect such lethargy from all these top players. The result was that Qliphorts made a good ole showin in the last 8. 
• Masked Abyss struggles. Burning Abyss needed to adopt the power of heroes to stay alive. With new heroes a heartbeat away and many abyss variants clicking into place, the path is a wayward one for this deck. 
• Nekroz struggle to keep hold. The predictions for the format centered around the fact that Nekroz would become fairly easy to side against. These predictions were spot on, with Nekroz garnering 25% of the last 8 and struggling in general. Bullying everyone is one thing, but it may be Nekroz’s turn to get bullied this format.  
• Format conducive to rogue? Rogue was going to be a major player this format, and this is regardless of Nekroz dominance. Yet this showing suggests that this format is far more open than predicted. Lightsworn and Sylvans to top later? You never know. 

The ARG tournament could act as a signal for future fun, or may be a blip in Nekroz dominance. 

YCS Chicago may see more of the same. Tele-DAD, Sylvans and Heroes are among the decks which are expected to be seen. 

Don’t forget to check out the tier rankings which will be updated as the format progresses. Hopefully rogue continues to dominate the meta.