Overview
In case you missed it, This Week's Meta Weekly had a decent amount of variety in the Top Cut, with several different Decks like Gouki, and interesting builds of meta Decks like Level Reduction and Destiny Draw Blackwings. In the end, however, Anthoxe and his Elementsabers took the W in a grueling 3-game slugfest againt one of his worst matchups against Puzzles' SSA Crystrons.
Interview with Anthoxe
Anything you want to tell us about yourself? What's your history with the game?
I've been playing Duel Links since the beginning, but I discovered the competitive scene kinda late. I started to play tournaments in the Koa'ki Meiru meta and now it's a real pleasure to play at a high level, I enjoy it a lot!
Congratulations on winning the Meta Weekly! How does it feel?
After multiple Top 4 and Top 16 finishes, I finally won a Meta Weekly. That's one objective out of the way, now the next step is to win an MCS, haha. I didint expect SSA Crystrons, to be honest, since the deck lost a lot of popularity post-banlist (which why I stopped siding Loading... ) but its still a hard matchup for Elementsabers. I knew he was playing only one Loading... so my plan was to force him to use Impact then summon Loading... . In the first game I summoned Cocytus too early and he was able to zero it out with Impact. In Game 2 I forced him to use Impact early so I just went into Cocytus and won.
What do you think about this meta? Why did you go with Elementsabers?
I think this meta is balanced: all decks have positive and negative matchups aside from Witchcrafter. It's always the same decks dominating the meta, and it's been that way for about a year, because of the weak new boxes (that will probably change with the new Xyz cards). I chose Elementsabers because its a multifaceted deck. I enjoy playing control decks like Elementsabers more than OTK decks, and since the banlist they're in a good spot because of the nerfs to Dark Magician and Crystrons, Elementsabers' hardest matchups.
Anything you'd like to say about your Decklist?
I decided to play a 24-cards deck, as in my opinion it's the best ratio for Elementsaber, with a lower chance to open double Loading... , combined with classic backrow and one Loading... for added consistency. I decide to side Loading... to counter Witchcrafters and Blue-Eyes. Loading... I sided specifically for countering Shiranui and Loading... , but it also worked against Crystrons. I sided a Loading... for Invoked Neos but it's also good against Dark Magician and the Mirror. Finally, I sided one Loading... to have an out to Loading... and Loading... , and it was also good against Blackwings and SSA Crystons, since I didn't run any Loading... it was my only out for the Loading... engine.
If you could make changes to Duel Links right now, balance or otherwise, what would you make?
The main change I would like to see would be a way to choose whether or not you go first or second, like in the TCG. I would like there to be proper match system that let's the loser of the first game choose as well, because in a game like Duel Links it's a really important factor to winning games, and shouldn't be decided by a coin flip, in my opinion.
Lastly, do you have any Shoutouts you would like to make?
I would like to give thanks the Official French Ranking who allowed me to discover the Duel Links tournament scene, and also HNT, the best French team with a lot of good players and a super cool leader.
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!