Starting Fresh into the New Format

The Best Decks, Previously

• Tri-Brigade Zoodiac
• Drytron Featuring Fairies
• Dragon Link

After that came a whole slew of tier two decks like Invoked variants, Prank-Kids, and more. Preparing for an event was quite difficult under such circumstances. There was an insanely high number of good strategies that all required different cards to counter them. There was no clear fifteen-card side deck or main deck to counter the meta. was great versus Drytron and Tri-Brigade but horrible against Dragon Link, for example.

New Format, Kind of Similar but Different

The best deck Dragon Link is gone, at least in its former form. This is actually a huge deal. Dragon Link was miles ahead of all the other decks. There were no clear counters. sometimes made a huge impact, but other times it had no impact at all. usually traded for a single negate in their end board and was terrible versus other rogue decks. The loss of Dragon Link makes it easier now to side and maindeck certain cards.

So what is left to claim the title of best deck? Well, that answer is a little bit difficult. In theory, Drytron is simply the best deck. Needing only two cards to set up a full combo resulting in an end board of , , and plus four fairies in hand is quite insane. It is tough for any normal deck to play through his. Even if you open , you still have to deal with two . It's not unbeatable, but it's close. The reason, though, why I added the caveat of "in theory" is the small detail that there is an opponent sitting across from you. When in a vacuum this deck is easily tier zero, the right interrupt on their starting turn and the Drytron player might not end on such an impressive board after all.

That and the fact that exists makes me argue that through pure consistency Tri-Brigade is still the best deck of the format. Even though it doesn't really do a lot, the deck looks really good on paper. plus multiple hand traps is often enough to win the game. The deck can almost always make a play and end on at least a set Revolt, and that's a lot more than Drytron does when getting double hand-trapped.

Even though the two decks are very different, you can main a lot of similar cards against both Tri-Brigade and Drytron. Tri-Brigade lost the but is still one of the best decks while Drytron remains unhit. Both decks have a weakness to and . and also both work wonders versus both decks. almost instantly wins the game versus Drytron just like wins versus Tri-Brigade. Both decks are very strong, consistent, and resilient. But they aren't unbeatable.

Rogue Strategies

Next to the two meta decks there's a crazy number of rogue strategies showing promise in this format. We have:

• Invoked Dogmatika
• Shaddoll (with or without Invoked)
• Prank-Kids
• Sky Striker
• Burning Abyss variants
• Eldlich
• Dinosaurs
• @ignister
• Salamangreat
• … and probably a lot more.

It's insane how many decks are viable to play right now. This is due to the impact that certain cards have versus Drytron and the low power of Tri-Brigade. It's easy to compete with these two decks. It's a great time for rogue players and I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming Remote Duel YCS is dominated by a bunch of different decks. Siding in these matchups might be more difficult as you don't know what exactly you're up against in a tournament.

Invoked and Dogmatika are very weak to Droll & Lock Bird, on the is also really solid. Cyclone also works wonders versus Prank-Kids as well as trap decks like Eldlich, Burning Abyss, and Sky Striker. You can play some more high-value cards this format too to catch people off guard. will definitely make a comeback since it's very impactful against Sky Striker and other trap decks. I'd even go as far as to say it's good versus Tri-Brigade as they lose every card on the board except the Revolt.

For the rest … hits almost every deck like it always does. It's a safe bet going into a tournament. and are great cards to put in your side deck as well to be prepared for any trap strategy. Another card people often overlook is , which might be exactly what you need to either banish a Drytron or .

So … How Do you Prepare?

I wish that answer was the same for every tournament. It's really easy to netdeck something, play that at locals, and then be surprised your record is 1-3. A lot of decks are crafted for a specific tournament. The most recent West-European Remote Invitational Qualifier winner for example had multiple in his main deck. Back in that format, a little unorthodox. But he knew there were going to be a lot of Prank-Kids players since the French really love their Pranks. He was ready with the call and it proved to work.

Just like he did you need to analyze your own metagame. Purely because Drytron and Tri-Brigade are the best decks, that doesn't mean people at your weekly locals will exclusively play those decks. You will probably have a rough idea of what everyone in your immediate community likes and should be able to make an accurate choice of staples to play.

As for the Remote YCS that is coming up, you now have a general idea of the meta. There is a vast amount of viable decks. But maybe this YCS isn't about what you prepare to play against, but what you prepare to play yourself. Is it correct to side or main Droll If you know Drytron won't be that represented as it hasn't ever been? Do you main and since they hit a bunch of viable decks right now? Do you use three or six slots of your side deck for back row removal? Or do you main / already?

There's still a little time. Go out there and go prepare. The game is in an amazing spot right now. Every deck can win, and so can you. Enjoy!

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.