Welcome to September 5th. That means two things. A) My birthday is in five days and B) We are five days into the new format. I had the privilege of going to one of the first regionals of the new format on Saturday, so now it’s time to compare notes and share observations. There were several things I saw there that didn’t surprise me one bit, but many other things did.



First, let’s look at what decks there were (and this is by no means complete):


Chaos – Just Kidding! Good riddance!…moving on.

Machine – Before the format started, this was my pick for the new CC deck. It hasn’t reached CC status yet, but it is definitely one of the top picks. The object of the deck is to run lots of deck thinning Machines, filling your Graveyard. Then you play Overload Fusion to summon a Chimeratech with more attack power than any monster ever needs to have. With Future Fusion restricted, this deck runs slightly different than the Chimeratech OTK’s we saw in the Top 8 of the Japanese Nationals. This new version runs more like a Chaos/Return deck. It plays the game normally, just doing its thing, then, the second it sees its opening, it makes one huge attack for game, right out of nowhere.

Warrior Toolbox – This was one of the most obvious choices, no? Warrior Toolbox has always been an off and on tier 1 deck. Now, one of their most valuable tools just got unrestricted to two per deck. If you think this is the no-brainer deck of the format, you would indeed be correct. The majority of my matches on Saturday were against this archetype. The decks biggest strength is its stability. For example, it doesn’t get hand-screwed because it has no DARKS or LIGHTS in its Graveyard. However, with that decreased risk comes a decreased reward. This deck lacks any real finisher aside from maybe a couple of teched Monarchs. I expect to see this deck evolve quite a bit from its current state. I think, similar to the format of last October, the Warrior Toolbox will be splashed in many different more creative things.

Apprentice/Swap – I decided to do a little scouting before the tournament began. Walking around, it seemed like every other person was running multiple Apprentice Magicians. While 50% is probably an exaggerated estimate, there were definitely a lot more than I expected. The worst part is, I can’t even explain why. One would think that Magician of Faith hitting the restricted list once again would DECREASE the number of Apprentice Magicians. Nope. Keep an eye on this deck.

Those were probably the three most popular decks, however, were they the types that swept the Top 8? Negative. It was some of the more innovative players that walked away with invites. Regrettably, I didn’t stay to see the Top 8 for myself. I dropped at 4-2, at which point, the Burger King across the street became a top priority. However, a little research has revealed some of the winning deck types. Most notable was a Zombie deck, a Shrink deck, and a Blockman deck. Yes, you read that correctly…a BLOCKMAN deck. If that isn’t a huge step in the right direction for the metagame, I don’t know what is.


Next, let’s talk about a few individual cards:


Stein – I know you’re all on the edge of your seat waiting to hear the verdict on this one. I think I had Stein played on me once the entire day…ONCE. And, I won that game anyway. Not getting Stein-sacked the entire day made for a very good day. I guess it’s true that Ring of Destruction is successfully doing its job of keeping tech-Stein in check. Don’t get me wrong, there were still Steins to be found in the room, but they no longer seem to be an auto-inclusion by players who hope to get lucky.

Royal Decree – There I was building my deck. I knew that during format 3.0 players ran double digit trap counts. I also knew that format 4.0 ended with a pair of Decree as a borderline staple. With that in mind, what the heck should my trap count look like in THIS format? Survey says…Decree wasn’t activated on me at all. I think one of my opponents ran it, but it got destroyed before it was ever flipped. If this trend continues, it seems we’ll all be able to “Ring for game?” safely.

Return from the Different Dimension – Three and a half minutes after Chaos hit the ban list, the Deck Depot was flooded with Bazoo/Return decks. Guess how many times I heard, “Return for game?” If you guessed anything greater than zero, you would be wrong. In fact, I only saw one Bazoo deck in the room. So let’s recap, I didn’t get lucksacked by Stein or Return at all. I love this format already.

Stein, Decree, and Return were three of the most defining cards of the last format. Now they seem to have totally vanished from players’ decks. What will take their place?

Exiled Force – There were very few people in the room not taking advantage of being able to play two Exiled Force. It didn’t matter if they were playing Warrior Toolbox or not. With Nobleman of Crossout back where it belongs, something had to fill the void. Exiled Force has stepped up. I think you’ll be seeing A LOT of this card for at least six months. By the way, my new favorite card is Sand Moth.

Other than Exiled Force, I don’t recall seeing any cards often enough to make them worth noting (with the exception, of course, of the ones that will never change…Cyber Dragon, Breaker, etc. They’re all as big as ever.). I know it sounds cliché, but this truly was the most diverse regional I’ve ever been to. No doubt some of that diversity was the result of the confusion that always begins new formats, but I didn’t feel that any one deck asserted itself as overly dominant. With that said, I demand that you all go build new decks…NOW!

If you have any questions about things you were wondering about the new format that I didn't mention...please ask.

If you had a similar experience, or more importantly, a different experience...please share.

**UPDATE**
To see the decklists, see POST #19.

I like how you do your articles. Neatly divided, and with good discussion. I am a tad surprised Decree didnt see rising...I assume people rather "Ring for game?" than Decree it.

It's called OCD. :p

This is of course completely true. Wait until an SJC hits. I haven't really seen any diversity in my area. Mostly warrior toolbox with Monarchs.

great article....very impressive!!!!!!!!

nice article; good initial analysis of metagame.

While there was no Regional around here over the weekend, I did see alot of diversity. I saw:

1) Dark World (there were actually 3 being run on Sat.)
2) Beastdown
3) Soul Control
4) one poorly built Chimera OTK
5) a wacky feild control/beatdown deck (which I lost to in the semis)
6) Zombie/Phoneix (I was the only one running it)
7) Earth Beatdown

That is what I saw/fought during the tourments the weekend. It was a very nice change of pace (even if I did lose in the semis on Sat.)

I am still waiting for gravekeepers to get a little props.....so far in this format mine hasnt lost a tournament (only 2 tournaments so far but still its working great). Even those dreaded cookie cutters seem to fall pretty easy to it. Yet it still doesnt even get a mention....oh well maybe in 6 months...or atleast till i win a regionals with it.

I wonz0r my tourney with a tbs.dek

;x

my area has had a large increase in horus control decks.....about every third person has one....it's so over used now i decided to go with something else....i won my most recent torni with an exodia deck

I've been trying my good old Earth beatdown my Soul Sphinxes/Megarock return decks. Not really good when it comes to topdecking, but it usually gets quick field advantage and often wins before the opponent could fight back. I was lucky enough to beat a Stein OTK by using Waboku against Heavy Storm and following up with a 4200-attk Megarock Dragon on my next turn.

I also came up against a Chimeratech OTK and again, Waboku did the trick. Overload Fusion was negated by Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell,(which stops various types of OTK decks, as well as Soul Control, Gravekeepers, Swap/Tomato control, Warrior toolbox, etc) making Dimension Fusion a dead draw. Chimeratech was easily taken care of by a Hammer Shot.(why am I using these rediculous cards? Because they work. :) ) A bit more tweaking and my deck might actually top 8 in an SJC.

I was at the butler regional and without any effort you could see and some people would even tell you.... Wait for the next Shonen Jump to see what people REALLY will play... Right now its all still evolving and we're all just waiting to see what comes out as the new cookie cutter...

In any event i faced, Random defencive deck, Toolbox, Stein, Chimerastein, Burn, Monarch...

Hearing book of life for game was rather aquard and made my ears twinge in the last game of the finals. But The format is definitely going to be interesting untill something takes over.... but i dont see it happening... i think this one is going to be more Rock paper scissors oriented. But we will see.

machines i figure would pop up every where, least i still have my machine deck up and running. :D

Great article, you are very neat and precise with your work.

I normally don't reply to articles unless they are very informative or has that certain something to catch my eye and grasp ahold of my attention.

With that being said... I love how you pointed out your current experiences in this new format. It is very informative and your OCD really came in handy. Haha.

How did Monarchs fair?? Did you see/hear/play any Macro-decks? What other odd and diverse deck types did you see being played in large numbers??

Keep up the great work ZaQ! :grin: