MW130 Champion Spotlight - Victor Li

In case you missed it, This Week's Meta Weekly was an explosive one, with several different decktypes showing up to play. The Finals, however, were an incredible set of games between two TCG Veterans, full of huge swings, missing Shogunsagas, and great play. After the dust settled, Victor Li coming out on Top, besting Lorenzo Roma's Lightsworn Deck with his Level Duplication Shiranui, despite accidentally removing his one Loading... from his Extra Deck Game 1. With this win, Victor Li is the 11th highest ranking all-time player on the DLM Ladder, and we got a hold of him for an interview, check it out!

Interview with Victor Li

Anything you want to tell us about yourself?

I am a professional Duel Links and TCG player from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I played the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG for over 15 years since the game first came out, and I have been improving my game ever since. In TCG, I have won regionals and topped YCS multiple times. In Duel Links, I have won multiple tournaments. My goal is to win worlds in the next few years.

Congratulations on your win! How does it feel? Must've been intense with that misclick Game 1!

This is my second DLM tournament win, I won Meta Weekly 87 with Master of Destiny Desperado. I was so mad at myself after misclicking Loading... out of my Extra Deck. But I knew I was suppose to win that finals, I just didn't know how. But I'm glad everything worked out successfully! To give some context, early in TCG I lost to Lightsworn a lot and they've always been my biggest nemesis. I always used Zombies to play against them, so I was hyped to play against Lightsworn in this finals using Zombies. To win this finals, it's truly special. So I think all that hype and excitement caused me to misclick, hope it never happens again, haha.

How do you feel about the meta right now?

I think the meta right now is very diverse with many Top Decks, especially after the new Box came out. There are 5 Tier 1 decks in my opinion: Shiranui, Crystrons, Elementsabers, Dark Magician, and Blackwings. I feel like the meta is pretty balanced right now, and every Top Deck has a balanced chance of winning. We saw that Lightsworn did really well in this Meta Weekly as well, so it's really down to the players who are willing to innovate and take their decks to the next level.

Why did you go with Shiranui?

I just think Shiranui is the most consistent deck in the meta right now. What's funny is that I saw Cris Olivier use Level Duplication Shiranui in the last Meta Weekly, and I wanted to one-up him by winning this one because he lost in finals. I wanted to be the first player to win with Level Duplication Shiranui.

Anything you'd like to say about your Decklist?

I used Level Duplication instead of Level Augmentation because it's not optimal to make Loading... Turn 1 without any pops. I played Loading... instead of another Loading... because I realizeed I rarely summon the second one, and Squiresaga can sometimes destroy Loading... . I mained 2 Loading... s because Shiranui is inherently bad against Blackwings and Crystrons, and Needle Ceiling solves that. I mained Loading... because it counters Elementsabers, which is another bad matchup (plus you need Lancea to make Squiresaga).

If you could make one change to Duel Links right now, balance or otherwise, what would you make?

If there is one change I would make, I would nerf Dark Magician a bit because it's OP, especially with Loading... . It's very hard for decks to beat Dark Magician if they open well. But all-in-all, I think the last banlist already weakened all of the Tier 1 decks to a balanced level.

Anything else you want to say about your Tournament Experience?

I still had no idea how I won this finals, I mean had a feeling that I was supposed to beat my nemesis deck in the finals, but I just didn't know how it was going to happen! This is the sweetest win I have had in a long time. It was also also the toughest, by far!

Lastly, do you have any Shoutouts you would like to make?

I wanted to shout=out Divine and my Vorpal Swords Clan for their endless support. I truly appreciate all my teammates! I also want to shoutout Lorenzo Roma my Finals opponent for making it to Finals with Lightsworn, it was an incredible feat! These Finals were by far the toughest I have ever experienced.

Winning Decklist: