Welcome to Day 2 of YCS Anaheim
Now that the dust has settled on the first day of Dueling, we have a good idea of the layout of the tournament!
Metalfoes are the big Deck so far – they have very powerful plays, ‘searchability’, and flexibility. Their flexibility is shown in just how many variants of the Deck we are seeing. Some are using pure Metalfoes Decks (mostly with Majespecter Raccoon – Bunbuku and Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin), while there are also more dedicated Majespecter, Yang Zing, Kozmo, and more variants. Since the main Metalfoes engine is so simple, it’s easy to fill in the Deck with whatever else you’d like.
Toadally Awesome isn’t a Deck type on its own, but it’s made a huge impact on what Decks we’re seeing here in Anaheim. Mermails are the biggest one – they’ve been on the rise since Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince was released in Breakers of Shadow at the start of the year. Mermails can easily Summon Toadally Awesome thanks to Bahamut Shark, and they can back it up with a variety of Rank 7 and Rank 4 Xyz Monsters, or Synchro Monsters. Besides Mermails, there are many Paleozoic Decks out there. Those strategies use a selection of Frog monsters and the Paleozoic Trap Monsters to play Toadally Awesome and other strong Rank 2 monsters. Using the Paleozoics for an Xyz Summon keeps them from being banished, so they can continue to return to the field. Finally, HERO Decks are using Bahamut Shark (via Elemental HERO Bubbleman) to play Toadally Awesome.
The ABC Union monsters from Structure Deck: Seto Kaiba are also very popular. If they can Set up their Graveyard, such as with Bujintei Tsukuyomi, they can easily throw down ABC-Dragon Buster. Even without that power play, they have some amazing moves using Union Hangar and their Unions, and the search power of Gold Gadget and Silver Gadget give them the consistency they need.
One of the newcomers to the top tables is the Darklord Deck. Darklords have been around for a long time, even being featured as YCS Prize Cards, and now the strategy has come into its own with the release of new Darklords in Destiny Soldiers. With Banishment of the Darklords and Darklord Contact giving easy access to the Darklord you need at any moment, plus many new Darklord Monster Cards, the Deck can hit hard with huge monsters or playing it safe by sitting on Vanity’s Fiend or Archlord Kristya.
Besides these, we also have Infernoid, Burning Abyss/Phantom Knight, Yang Zing, Blue-Eyes, and much more! It’s quite the varied field of Duelists!
