Things are gearing up for Round 1 here in San Jose, California, for the 81^st Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series tournament. The 80^th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series is actually still going on, since the event in Bochum, Germany is held this same weekend, but started earlier today because of time zone differences.

What better way is there to kick off the weekend, than by taking a look back at YCS Toronto, the most recent YCS Tournament? YCS Toronto was the first of the new format, which began on September 1 when the Forbidden & Limited Cards List was updated. Toronto also gave Duelists their first opportunity to use cards from Duelist Revolution. Variety always comes out when Duelists are confronted with new options for their Decks and Dueling style, and YCS Toronto presented no exception.

Competitive Duelists spent the weeks leading up to YCS Toronto discussing which Deck would be the most powerful. They tested against friends and rivals, competed in local tournaments, and experimented with new cards, all to figure out which Deck is the best one to enter the format with.

But even when YCS Toronto began, most players just couldn’t agree. The most popular Deck in Toronto, Gladiator Beasts, was only 15.1% of the field! In second and third place, with Deck representations of 13.0% and 12.6% respectively, were X-Sabers and Blackwings. Quickdraw Dandywarrior Decks trailed behind, comprising of only 9.2% of the field. In total, the 4 most popular Decks in Toronto were used by less than half of the players!

What does this all mean? For Duelists here today, it gives indication of the “Decks to beat.” Duelists who built their Side Decks to contend with these 4 most popular Decks will have a decisive advantage. Jowls of Dark Demise, Chivalry, Gottoms’ Emergency Call, and more will all be key cards during Matches. Even Cyber Dragon and System Down, most effectively used to beat Gadget Decks (the 5th most popular Deck type in Toronto, comprising of 6.5% of the field), may turn a Duel around against a small fraction of the Duelists here today.

For Duelists looking to gauge the power of each Deck and predict which Decks will be successful this weekend, these statistics have a different meaning. If you look at the 5 most popular Decks from Toronto alongside the Top 16 results, you may be surprised. Some of the most popular Decks in Toronto didn’t place a lot of Duelists into the Top 16, while a couple of sleeper hits brought some Duelists more success than most players expected.

Blackwings, for example, was the third most popular Deck in Toronto, but didn’t place a single Duelist into the Top 16. Does this mean that fewer Duelists will be running it here today? Or does it mean that Blackwing Duelists will reach out for innovative tech that can fly them back to the top of the competition? We’ll find out this weekend, along with the answer to the question on the minds of every Crow fan: How many Blackwing Decks will make it to the Top 32?

Kalin fans can rejoice, because Infernities, unlike Blackwings, ended the Toronto tournament with a fantastic showing. There were only ten Infernity Decks at the Toronto event, but 2 of them made it to the Top 16 – a 20% placement ratio, highest among all Decks! A lot of players wrote off Infernity Decks when Infernity Launcher was limited to 1, but that might have been a hasty assessment, and Toronto’s results may indicate a strong future for Infernity Decks. Infernity Decks over the Summer were all focused on the first-turn-kill speed strategy. Now that Infernity Launcher is Limited, Infernity Decks are having to look more towards the longer game.

As a result of their success, Duelists are looking at Infernities in a powerful new light. Their popularity may be on the rise, and they may start placing a lot more Duelists at the top of tournaments. But watch out, Infernity fans. Now that players know that Infernities are a force to be reckoned with, you can expect them to start including cards like Crevice into the Different Dimension in their Side Decks to beat Infernities.

Four other Decks in the Top 16 (Chaos, Lightsworn, Light Beatdown, and Synchro Dog), made it there without being one of the 5 most popular Decks in Toronto. Which means the field is wide open for anyone to win. Nine different Decks made it to Day 2 in Toronto, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see that much variety emerge again this weekend.

Decks have been tested, cards have been tried, and Duelists have been practicing, but the question of which Decks are the strongest, still remains. Stay with us throughout YCS San Jose, as we attempt to answer this ongoing question.