Overview
In case you missed it, This Week's Meta Weekly, the last of the experimental format, was a real Witchcrafter showcase, with several clawing their way through Swiss and making Top 32. However, none of them made it to the Finals, where we had Drizzels and his Cyber Dragons handily defeating ChuChuMTFKR and his Ritual Beasts in two quick games.
Interview with Drizzels
Anything you want to tell us about yourself?
My Name is Drizzels, I'm 23 years old from Germany and I've been playing Duel Links since April 2019. I started Duel Links because of Six Samurais, a deck I played in the TCG around 10 years ago, and even though it's not meta relevant anymore, it's still one of my favourite decks. I am the leader of Team De~Fusion where we are competing in Clan Wars and other leagues. I won Meta Weekly 120 with Dark Magician and this is my second big torunament win.
Congratulations on your second win! How did your day go?
It was a really cool night. At first the Meta Weekly started after midnight German time and I didn't really plan to attend since NA Weeklies usually hurt my sleep schedule. I just kinda went in with the Cyber Dragon deck I played the previous week, but not with any big expectations.
The Best-of-1 Swiss rounds were really crazy. In 8 rounds I played against 7 30-card Shadow Game Witchcrafter decks and 1 Cyber Dragon mirror match. After a 6-2 record I made it into Top 32 where i played against Elementsabers. Game 3 of Top 32 was the hardest match of the whole tourney and normally I would have lost right there.
I won over another Cydra mirror Top 16 and Gouki in Top 8 I faced only teammates from Top 4 onwards. Playing against Craig in the Top 4 and ChuChu in the Grand Finals, both of whom are my teammates and close friends, was a lot of fun, we made a big party of it in Voice Chat.
What was your read on the meta right now? Why did you go with Cyber Dragon?
Even though we've had meta decks around for a really long time like Shiranui, Elementsabers and Dark Magician, there is still huge variation in decks you can face. (of course facing 7 witchcrafters in 8 rounds makes this statement look bad). In DLM tournaments new decks are played more than in other community events. So while I expected a lot of Witchcrafters and some Evil Eye on top of a lot of Dark Magician and Blackwings. I chose Cyber Dragon as it has great overall matchups against these decks. Of course there are still really bad matchups like Crystrons, Shiranui and Ritual Beasts but I hoped to make it into Top Cut anyway since for Best of 3 I had hard counter cards in my Side Deck like Loading... or Loading... . On top of that, Cyber Dragon is not the most complex deck and for playing in the middle of the night here in Germany it was easier for me to play this than a combo deck. The helmet thankfully worked great here
Anything you'd like to say about your Decklist?
The best tech cards for me were definitely Loading... and Loading... . I won 4 games going second against Turn One Loading... pass with Herald and not even Loading... in the Graveyard couldn't protect them. Econ is a great tech against Elementsaber to steal their Loading... , or to econ take the important monsters from Crystrons, Shiranui and Ritual Beasts. It won the first game of the finals on its own. Aside from that it can still defend you, which is why I'd rate it stronger than Loading... or Loading... due to its versatility. Herald is in general a really important card, as an out to Loading... and Loading... .
If you could make one change to Duel Links right now, balance or otherwise, what would you make?
Several meta decks have been around around for a long time, which is why I would very much appreciate a big banlist. A lot of cool decks got released in the last couple months like D/D/D, Gouki, Mayakashi and Evil Eye. However, because of old meta decks like Shiranui and Dark Magician those decks sadly never got to show their full potential. Cards like Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , Loading... and maybe Loading... need to be limited to 3, and perhaps should be hit harder. A banlist that really kills all older decks would be amazing but I sadly doubt that it's going to happen.
Lastly, do you have any Shoutouts you would like to make?
Shoutouts to my Team De~Fusion. In yesterday's weekly, five out of six members that entered made it into Top 32, three of which made it to Top 4. It was a great pleasure fighting my friends and even if I would have lost I wouldn't have been too sad.
Special shoutouts to Snyffus, AndyTsang, Lorenzo Roma, oHiMi, heyheycraig and RaW who spent the whole night with me in voice chat and prevented me from falling asleep in the hour-and-a-half wait for the Grand Finals at 6 AM.
And of course shoutouts o everyone else from our Team and the boys on the CH Discord. I am looking forward to more tournaments: improving my MCS results is my next target!
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!