The Forbidden & Limited (F&L) List for the 2016 World Championship is a special mix of both the TCG and OCG lists with additional modifications. Because of that, the 2016 World Championship becomes a very unique tournament in terms of what strategies are being played. This is a fantastic opportunity for highly skilled Duelists because they can analyze what they think will be the strongest strategies for a completely new environment. Luckily, any Duelist who has made it as far as the 2016 World Championship is definitely at that skill-caliber, so things are looking exciting for this weekend.

The Blue-Eyes Deck remained essentially untouched compared to both the TCG and OCG F&L Lists, so going into the event it is the strongest contender. Blue-Eyes is all about one thing: raw power. It can dump massive Dragons onto the table with enough ATK to end any Duel in the blink of an eye thanks to cards like Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon and Return of the Dragon Lords, so the best way to beat it is either trying to disrupt it while you can or outlasting it after they’ve committed resources. In addition to being able to put out huge amounts of damage quickly, Blue-Eyes strategies also tend to focus on Rank 8 Xyz and Level 9 Synchros for some very powerful effects.

There is a bunch of strong Rank 8 Xyz to choose from. Strong openings with Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy or Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand can end a game almost immediately, but the Galaxy-Eyes Xyz Monsters are the ones that Blue-Eyes really wants to summon. Step One is Xyz Summoning either Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon or Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon. Which one doesn’t matter too much, because you’ll immediately be ranking it up into Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon. You can then destroy a face-up card by just detaching a material before you rank up one more time into Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon! This is the definite end goal because Dark Matter Dragon can kick a ton of Dragons from your Deck to the Graveyard, meaning you can activate a ton of great effects from cards such as The White Stone of Ancients as well as The White Stone of Legend basically for free. Not only that but Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon can easily clear away a field like nothing, but that’s really just a bonus.

For Level 9 Synchros, the go-to is definitely Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon. It stops multiple monsters from being Special Summoned at the same time so it’s a huge threat to Pendulums, and can also stop a Graveyard effect once pert turn. The real reason it’s so powerful though is its other effect, it can ribute itself to summon a LIGHT Dragon Synchro from your Extra Deck! This gives you an abundance of options from Level 7s like Black Rose Moonlight Dragon to Ancient Fairy Dragon for various forms of removal or acceleration, to the mighty Level 9 Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon. Normally the monster Special Summoned by Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon would eventually be destroyed by the same effect that brought it to the field, but the Level 7 Synchros can be used as Synchro Materials for larger Synchro Summons such as Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, and Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon prevents its own destruction so you are rarely affected by the drawback.

Since we expect to see a lot of Blue-Eyes this weekend, the mirror match is all about building and breaking fields. If you open well going first, powerhouses like Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy can shut off a lot of key spells, and Return of the Dragon Lords can give additional defense to your field. Going second you gain an advantage because you get an additional card and your opponent is forced to invest cards to establish a field so that they can defend themselves, but if that field isn’t strong enough then you can easily take it down and render them almost out of cards. The key to this is Number 46: Dragluon, essentially a Snatch Steal for Dragons with claws. It can give you a huge tempo swing by stealing their best threat so you can take over the Duel.

Will the next King of Games be taking notes from Kaiba’s handbook? Or will they find a superior strategy? Stay tuned to coverage this weekend to find out!