A new ban list means that the food chain has been disrupted, and the metagame is about to shift. Some decks gain even more power, while others lose their grip on the top rung of the ladder. Let's explore the top five decks of the format, based on representation, results, and the very small ban list update we just had.
5. Bystial Dragon Link
Well, despite being heavily hit in theory by losing two copies of and two copies of , the deck can still do everything it used to, albeit somewhat less consistently. In my opinion, he Chaos Space hit was more impactful than the Magnamhut; however, it is not the end of the world. These cards can be replaced with either board breakers like or cards such as that do not play into , which is seeing heavy play this format.
Granted, it is more difficult now to access your , . The deck's combos remain the same, which is good news for Dragon Link players. Basically, the deck only needs to slightly adapt to the loss of four cards. In any case, Dragon Link is a very versatile deck that keeps evolving with each passing set and ban list. With the predicted rise of Tearlaments and the popularity of Unchained, this deck remains a good choice as it plays Bystials in the main deck. It will continue to see play and players will find ways to keep it relevant. After all, the deck just won Worlds!
4. Branded Chimera
Branded Chimera is one of the surprising entries to the list of top decks in here. It is very resilient, searches cards like there is no tomorrow, and interrupts and finishes out the opponent out of nowhere. With the deck relying on two distinct engines, the engine and the engine, it can function with only the Chimera portion, which you will see more of due to the number of cards in the engine. Depending on your opening hand, both engines can be one-card combos.
If you open or , you can easily end on three interruptions while ripping a card out of your opponent's hand during the end phase of your turn. You have to use your normal summon though, so searching for Branded Fusion is somewhat dependent on either having it in hand or getting to it via . Contrary to the Branded Despia deck, this strategy can play a lot of non-engine cards and try to hedge against cards that can cause it trouble by playing .
The deck has a good Unchained matchup and generally does well against many other top strategies. It excels going first, but is also very decent going second. The strategy will only get better after Age of Overlord has dropped since it contains two new illusion monsters and a new fusion to add to its arsenal to support and its army of monsters.
3. Tearlaments
Tearlaments is back with a bang! Its mortal enemy is no longer in the picture, and its secondary enemy is now limited. The deck is still extremely explosive with a very high ceiling. Now that its most important main deck monsters are limited, the deck has to compensate with cards that do something when milled, such as Shaddoll or even Lunalight cards. Age of Overlord will introduce the new Horus cards, which will elevate Tearlaments even more.
For the moment, it is an incredible deck that can counter the current top strategies, most of which appear to be graveyard-reliant. The deck can easily make to shut down the opponent, and its extra deck is like a Swiss Army knife that has the right tool to battle each strategy. As of now, the only huge threat for and friends is , but this card is almost exclusively played in Floowandereeze–which is actually gaining popularity.
It remains to be seen how competitive the deck will be. Personally, I expect it to remind everyone why it used to be such a feared deck in the past.
2. Purrely
Purrely has consistently been on top of the decks-to-beat list. With untouched in the recent ban list, it can still do what it does best–play a compact core and fill the deck with non-engine cards that are tailor-made for the format. is still a very respectable boss monster that is very difficult for players to run over. Not only is the deck good on its own, but the Dark World variant should be very interesting to explore post ban list with Kashtira not around anymore.
Unless the deck gets further hits or plays non-engine cards that are not suitable for the current meta, it is difficult not to see it perform right now.
1. Unchained
Lastly, we have Unchained. The deck was really buffed by the release of support cards in Duelist Nexus. The interesting thing is that Unchained has never been one of the top decks over in the OCG. This is a clear proof of how different the formats are between the respective regions. The lack of certainly appears to have a hand in this difference. In any case, it is a fact that Unchained is here and that it is terrorizing the metagame.
Toward the end of the format, it was considered to be the deck to beat, even with Kashtira still running around. It had a surprisingly good matchup against Kashtira and Purrely, and even managed to win a YCS without facing too much trouble from the top decks in the format. Its popularity in recent YCSs show that players have complete faith in the strategy. For the moment, and the rest of the support in Duelist Nexus made it the undisputed deck to beat. It is very resilient to most hand traps and needs to be on the receiving end of more than one interruption to stop it in its tracks.
We will see how the format develops and if these decks maintain their positions as its top contenders.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.
