New and reprint sets get everyone excited. While Common Charity players won't be playing their ultimate copies of Aluber anytime soon, there are new strategies enabled by the release of the Crystal Beast structure deck, Darkwing Blast, and OTS Tournament Pack 20. Let's check in on the format!
New sets always come with metagame changes. In the world of Common Charity, even reprint sets tend to change the format substantially, albeit not always for the better!
Graveyard Strategies Get Hit!
Starring in Structure Deck: Legend of the Crystal Beasts is a card we are all too familiar with— is a powerhouse in Advanced Constructed that stops all graveyard-reliant strategies in their tracks and enables some powerful tier two decks. Even though no one has yet developed a strategy that can break it using only common cards, it is a ticking time bomb.
Speaking of cards that hit the graveyard, is one we didn't previously have, and it's probably going to warrant some play. Stopping threats like , , , , or seems really good on paper. That said, we'll have to wait and see whether or not it becomes an important card to consider in the metagame.
Last, but definitely not least, news come from OTS Tournament Pack 20. It's pretty incredible to hear, but up until now, we did not have a common printing of . Considering the big focus on cards that activate in the graveyards in every top contender deck, rank four decks have gotten a really good tool to combat them.
A New Strategy Hidden in a Hidden Village!
Ninjas are a fan favorite strategy, and with the new support from Darkwing Blast combined with the OP20 reprints, they suddenly have a card pool deep enough to even become a coherent strategy. is probably the most important card in the deck, and you will be able to pull them as commons from OP20 packs! While we won't have access to the new fusion monster, you will be able to pitch a Ninjitsu Art trap to to summon Hanzo from your deck, triggering Hanzo and adding to your hand. The latter will then summon itself, recurring the trap you pitched to Upstart.
is another great addition to the card pool, making your Hanzo a one-card interruption via , but also giving you some follow-up possibilities with . Another really good card in Darkwing Blast is , which gives you both generic removal that can be used on spells, traps, or monsters (giving you a searchable out to floodgates like ) and recursion once the equipped monster is dealt with.
Even some of the old cards are really good! is an amazing removal tool that can be used to summon in-engine. And if you are going first against a backrow-heavy deck, makes Hanzo a one-card .
Rank Eight Madness!
While some of the really good enablers for rank eight strategies, such as and , have been available in the format for a while, there seemed to be no payoff for them. Structure Deck: Legend of the Crystal Beasts introduces . While the search pool for Melody isn't that big right now, it's still easy access to Levianeer, which is probably one of the cards with the highest raw power attached to it that is legal in the format.
OP20 is no slouch either, adding as an actual rank eight payoff for Dragon decks wanting to use cards like and . Up until its reprint, we only had ten options, and once you start looking at them, they weren't exactly the cream of the crop.
New Amazoness Cards!
The new Amazoness support is enough to make the deck playable. While their play style seems similar to Lunalight (pendulum plus fusion), Lunalight doesn't have an individual card as powerful as . Their fusion monsters are no slouch either, with being really easy to summon via War Chief. Also, can protect your other cards, getting to attack twice if you used as material, which can add {c=Amazoness Secret Technique} to your hand, giving you even more opportunities to fusion summon.
The deck even has its own Yellow Marten in , which adds Polymerization to your hand to kickstart your fusion plays. While I don't expect Amazoness to be a top-tier contender, it has a lot going for it. It's probably the strongest deck that can utilize the Vernusylph package, and if we ever get a common reprint of , it would make Princess a one-card , which is pretty good already.
Naturia Joins the Format!
Naturia, while lacking their native boss monsters in and , have gotten very, very powerful cards in Darkwing Blast. When combined with the reprint of in OP20, it makes for a compact engine that can accomplish a lot. Starting with , you can summon from your deck. The latter can send Sacred Tree to add to your hand, which you can then special summon to make a level nine play such as . You can also just send to resurrect it later with either Camellia's effect or even .
If your opponent ever summons from their extra deck, you can use Mole Cricket's effect to come back and, as long as their monster is larger than Camellia, you get to summon two Naturia monsters from your deck. This includes as a floodgate, as a way to ensure your survival, or even Horneedle so you can negate summons. Camellia being a plant also makes it so you can summon her with , which was conveniently reprinted as a common in OP19.
Conclusion
While by far the largest impact on the format comes from Dweller, Belle, and Shifter, it's yet to be seen whether one of the new strategies is good enough to battle with Tenyi, Lunalight, Scrap, and Predaplant for the tier one throne. We will have to wait and see!
If Common Charity sounds fun to you and you want to brew with the new cards, you can find a very active community on Discord. Come by and say hello!
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.
