After 10 rounds of Swiss, the field has narrowed down to just 32 Duelists. Going into the tournament, Blue-Eyes and Metalfoes seemed to be the Decks to beat. Blue-Eyes accelerates huge Dragons onto the field for massive Synchro and Xyz Summon plays, while Metalfoes represent the most proactive Pendulum strategy available. Burning Abyss Phantom Knight was also expected to have a decent showing, but maybe not as strong as the other two.

Here’s the breakdown of the Top 32:

8 Blue-Eyes
6 Metalfoe
6 Majespecter
5 Burning Abyss Phantom Knight
2 Kozmo
1 Lightsworn
1 Mermail
1 Infernoid
1 Burning Abyss Monarch
1 Phantom Knight

Blue-Eyes had a very impressive showing as expected, taking up the most seats in the Top Cut at a whopping 25%. Metalfoes also did fairly well, but the big surprise of the weekend was the success of Majespecters. Both Pendulum strategies claimed six Top Cut slots each. Five out of the six Majespecter lists were focused on Ties of the Brethren, and if you missed the Tech Update piece on that strategy it’s definitely worth looking at it. A single Ties of the Brethren equates to two additional Majespecters as well as two searches. You can see why the strategy did so well and caught Duelists off guard, especially since Ties of the Brethren was just released in Legendary Decks II. Five Burning Abyss Phantom Knight Decks also made it through, which seems right around the number that most players were expecting. The last strategy to have more than just a single copy making it through was Kozmo, one Deck centering around Card of Demise while the other chose a more aggressive version.

The remaining seats in the Top Cut were filled by a few more interesting Decks. We saw a lot of combo Lightsworn variants this weekend focusing on snowballing an advantage by filling their Graveyards and converting it into a huge field. There were a few different varieties in the tournament, some using Zombies, others playing way over 40 cards, but the single variant that made it through is a pretty straightforward Lightsworn Deck. Mermail is a powerful and aggressive WATER-based strategy that can win a Duel in a single Battle Phase, even through some pretty impressive obstacles. A single copy made it through to the Top 32, which is not surprising given how powerful of a Deck it is. Similarly, Infernoid is another strategy that has a lot of potential when the Deck draws a good hand. If an Infernoid Duelist is lucky enough to start with Reasoning or Monster Gate and fill his or her Graveyard with monsters, there is little that can opponent can do to stop it. To round it out, a single Burning Abyss Monarch Deck made it into the Top 32, which is very surprising given the hits to both Burning Abyss and Monarch Decks on the most recent Forbidden & Limited List changes. The final slot was taken by a pure Phantom Knight Deck, which seems similar to the early variants of the strategy we saw when Phantom Knights initially emerged.

Will Blue-Eyes reign supreme this weekend? Or will Metalfoes take down another YCS? Is this new Majespecter variant going to beat both of them? Stay tuned to find out!