Overview
In case you missed it, this week's Meta Weekly was the first Meta Weekly after the meta more or less settled around Rose Dragon and Meklord. The finals exemplified as much with a TPC three-game-slugfest where
's Rose Dragons took out 's Meklords,Interview with Negative1
How does it feel to win this Meta Weekly?
I think this is my 10th Weekly win, and given the milestone this win does feel a bit better than some of the others
What are your thoughts on the Selection BOX Meta?
I think Loading... is stronger that my initial impressions led me to believe. The initial value of an untargetable 2600 ATK Monsters is still great as a number of decks struggle to contest Yazi effectively, but the ability to access Loading... and subsequently Loading... is impressive at breaking through boards and pushing for damage. I think Loading... competes well with Loading... , and while Floodgate can have higher payoff against Meklord and Rose Dragon going first, I appreciate the value Compulse can provide going second into established boards (as well as the utility of bouncing your own monsters in rare occasion).
How did the day go for you? Any notable matchups?
I played against four Rose Dragon and four Meklord today, which wasn't too surprising since those were the decks I expected to be most played. I lost 1 game against Rose Dragon in Swiss and lost 1 game against Meklord in finals, but overall I felt like my deck was well-equipped to contest the most-played strategies.
Anything you'd like to say about your decklist?
When building the deck I had 23 cards that I felt were strong, but after thinking through what I would want to Side in for the mirror match, I felt like I wanted to add 3 Loading... without subtracting any cards. My solution was to just main 3 Dirge because I believe the mirror match to be the most difficult matchup for Rose Dragon to win consistently; if I played against a deck where Dirge wasn't useful I would side them out. Every other matchup is favored enough that you can get away with this sort of strategy, in my opinion at least.
Anything you'd like to see change about the meta?
I think as long as Konami makes more powerful decks I am happy. Something that I as well as many other players enjoyed about the recent DDD and Burning Abyss formats was how powerful both decks were and how they both were open to meaningful deckbuilding and gameplay decisions. If there is only 1 strong deck then I think things can get boring as decks get optimizing for solely mirror matches, but if there is a second contender then you can make meta calls that will directly affect your performance. I know many people are uncomfortable with Konami tying every new deck to a Skill, but as long as decks offer players more decisions I am not opposed. However, I would appreciate if, instead of only releasing new deck specific Skills, Konami gave us some good new generic Skills for characters in VRAINS world. I believe generic Skills have done a great job at rewarding creative players more often than not, and having less limitations permits for more player agency which I am all for.
Lastly, do you have any shout-outs you'd like to make?
As always, shoutouts to my friends
and , as well as , , and the moderation team for hosting the tournament.
Winning Decklist:
That's all we got for this DLM Champion spotlight! What kind of questions should we be asking in the future? Comment down below!