The analysis of all 1760-something Deck Lists from the 150^th YCS in Columbus isn’t done yet, so I can’t tell you what the overall most impactful cards from Crossed Souls were. The analysis of the Top 32 Deck Lists, on the other hand, is done, so I can tell you what the top 5 most successful cards from Crossed Souls were over the YCS weekend! These are ranked based on how many copies of each appeared in the Top 32, and just for fun I’ll compare it to my prediction list for the most impactful CROS cards from before the event as well.

All in all, 10 cards out of Crossed Souls were represented in the Top 32 of the event, many of which appeared in multiple different strategies instead of being tied down to a single Deck. Here are the top five Crossed Souls cards that carried Duelists to the Top 32 of the 150^th YCS!

5. Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit

This was a bit of a surprise for me. I expected to see a lot more Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit owing to its multitude of functions and the ability to play its effect from your hand during either player’s turn. Combine that with the resurgence of Qliphorts, which Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit is extremely good against, and it’s shocking that it only clocks in 5^th on this list. Now that more Duelists are aware that Qliphorts are still a legitimate strategy, I would only expect to see more Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit as we roll on to WCQ season.

4. Lose 1 Turn

As I just mentioned above, Qliphorts are still a legitimate strategy, and a big part of that is because they can run Lose 1 Turn without penalty. It doesn’t really matter that your own Special Summoned monsters get turned to defense position because you’re more than likely just Pendulum Summoning to get Tributes to Tribute Summon Qliphort Stealth. I wonder if we’ll start to see more specialized builds of Qliphorts that run multiple copies of Qliphort Monolith to take advantage of their status as 2400 ATK Normal Monsters…

3. Fiend Griefing

Now this was definitely a surprise. I wasn’t expecting Burning Abyss to come back until the North American WCQ. It’s definitely a Deck that I thought people would sit on for a month so they could analyze the results and trends from Columbus and then take the WCQs by storm. Instead, it showed up in force in Columbus, generally packed with multiple copies of Fiend Griefing to act as both a Foolish Burial and a pseudo-Transmigration Prophecy to interfere with the opponent’s Graveyard. Honorable mentions to both Barbar, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss and Draghig, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss which also saw play in the Top 32, though not to the same level as Fiend Griefing.

2. Galaxy Cyclone

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to see much Galaxy Cyclone until the middle of summer, but I’m glad it’s been such a hit from the start! Normally it takes Duelists a long time to warm up to cards with similar functions to Mystical Space Typhoon, and with the trend towards including Mystical Space Typhoon in the Main Deck gaining steam, I thought Galaxy Cyclone just might not show up at all. But it did show up, and it did a lot of good work for a lot of Duelists this weekend in multiple strategies! My favorite use of Galaxy Cyclone from the weekend was how it was being played in Burning Abyss. You can use it when you draw it, or when you send it to the Graveyard with Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss and play it’s effect from the Graveyard, so it’s an all-around useful card to have! It also saw play in both the Main and/or Side Decks of multiple Nekroz Decks as well.

1. Tellarknight Ptolemaeus

I wrote before the event that I thought Shaddolls were about to run into a brick wall, however even I was shocked to find out the wall was also titanium reinforced. Shaddolls were hugely popular over the weekend, but zero Shaddoll Decks made it to the Top 32. The whole reason they were so popular is that they had a presumed amazing match-up against Nekroz, the most popular and successful Deck of the weekend. But did they really? Can you really say you have an amazing match-up against any Deck that can blow you out of the water in any game by just having 2 Level 4 monsters on the field? I submit that you cannot, and until Shaddoll Duelists find a way around Ptolemaeus and Stellarknight Constellar Diamond that’s as easy to pull off as Diamond is to Summon, they’ll continue to struggle.

So how does this list compare to my list of cards I expected to make an impact? It’s not apples to apples, as I’m quite aware that Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio had a far greater impact on the event as a whole than it did in the Top 32, but in the end 3 of the 5 cards from my first list also wound up on this list, just not in the same order.

Tellarknight Ptolemaeus absolutely stole the show, while there were fewer Decks based around Lose 1 Turn than expected. Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit’s influence and popularity is likely to expand as more players come to understand what the card really offers them and how it works. Galaxy Cyclone made its debut far earlier than expected, but it seems Duelists have yet to either master the intricacies of Oracle of Zefra or just ditch the intricacy part and run them in ‘tellarknights to search big bodies, removal, and the ability to drop your whole hand at will. Fiend Griefing was in my Top 5 cards that could make the 5^th spot of my first list (it was 8^th after the runoff), and wound up exceeding my expectations, which was a very pleasant surprise.

Clear Wing Synchro Dragon would have been 6^th on my initial list, and while there weren’t enough copies represented for it make this list, it’s encouraging to see that it did make it to the Top 32. The number of Duelists that are Synchro Summoning has been at an all-time low as of late, and I’ve had a hard time trying to reconcile that with the fact that Synchro Monsters never stopped being great, keep getting better, and Tuners are getting better as well. Perhaps the Synchro-users are just biding their time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike?

So that’s where we stand after the 150^th YCS. Crossed Souls made a sizeable dent in the Top 32 of the event with 10 different cards represented – a number that’s actually huge when you consider that half of those cards can be played in any Deck and only one of the 10, Zefrasaber, Swordsmaster of the Nekroz belongs to a brand new Deck theme.

The Central American WCQ will happen the weekend of June 19^th. The North American WCQ is up next, one week later, and we’ll be doing a live stream from Nashville. One week after that, the European Championship will take place in Dublin and the South American WCQ will be going on as well. Between now and then, Duelist Pack: Battle City will be out and that’ll have at least 1 new card that’ll shake things up a bit. More on that later, though! For now, you can watch the replays of our live streamed matches from Columbus on our official YouTube channel. Good luck to everyone preparing for their shot at going to the World Championship!