Meta Weekly 224 Champion Spotlight - Negative1

Interview with Negative1

How does it feel to win this Meta Weekly?

I haven't played a Meta Weekly in a few months so it's nice to return on a high note. It's unfortunate that entry numbers are not very high but c'est la vie.

Why did you go with Phantom Knights?

I think if I were to play only 1 deck without side, I would want to use Metalfoes as I don't think it has any major weaknesses in Best-of-1. However, Metalfoes is far more susceptible to blowouts like Loading... , while Phantom Knights are more resilient; the cards that are super effective against PK are few and far between, not to mention are mostly Traps and therefore much slower.

How did the day go for you? Any notable matchups?

I mostly played Phantom Knight mirrors today; I feel like I bricked a tad more times than I'm used to, but there were a number of games where my opponents also bricked, so who's to say if I was the only one. If you finish with the win nobody really cares about the starting line. I played 1 game against D/D/D in Top 16 and Loading... let me Draw 3 and put a Loading... in grave to output lethal; PK doesn't mind putting engine cards into grave so most of the time the drawback of discarding is not a drawback at all.

Anything you'd like to say about your decklist?

For my main deck I just used the first place list from the KC Cup, and for my Side Deck I sided what I thought would cover the most meta matchups. Some Trap Cards like Loading... and Loading... are functionally 1-for-1 trades if played through, but are noticeably impotent going second. Loading... can deal with their best-case scenario, can work going second, and can win games if drawn in the mid/late game. It's also effective against Gandora, since you can send a Loading... and Loading... to have a Loading... to both prevent Gigant search and set up a negate. Loading... is to beat all the Pendulum decks, since you draw so far into your deck to fix your hand and to see techs. Basically all cards I sided resulted in game-winning levels of advantage swings for the most-relevant matchups. Unless there is a meta shift or a card I overlooked, I don't think I would change anything about my main or side.

Any Balance Updates you would like to see in the near future?

I do have some opinions on game balance that are maybe not as popular, but in short there are four main cards that I think should be addressed: Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... . Book and MST I think should go to 3, and TTH and E-Con I think should be banned. I think when the power level of techs exceed the power level of engines the game can feel repetitive, and the presence of new decks in the meta is happening at least in part because we finally have engines that are not dominated by the techs available. Book is the most versatile tech card without contest, and the best deck of every format since release has used it to some extent. MST to 3 would prevent decks from swapping off Loading... as if nothing changed, and hits to E-Con and TTH I think are necessary because they are both blowouts in their own respects. They may not always be part of the meta, but when they are, TTH can evaporate boards and E-Con and end games in an instant.

Lastly, I think they should do something about Loading... , not because Harpies are meta-dominating like they used to be, but because it is almost completely dependent on opening Channeler or Loading... . Without them the deck is abysmally weak and with them the deck is oppressively uninteractive; That's not engaging gameplay, that's a slot machine.

Lastly, do you have any shout-outs you'd like to make?

Shout outs to my team Genkai Code and my friends for support, and thanks to the mod team for the tournament!

Winning Decklist: