Overview
In case you missed it, This Week's Meta Weekly was a great showing for Karakuri and Shiranui, taking over half of the Top 32 spots. In the end, however, we had ZENITH's Blackwings up against Kaminapro's Invoked Roids, with ZENITH taking a clean and decisive 2-0 in the Finals.
Interview with ZENITH
How does it feel to win your first DLM tournament?
I was never expecting to win to be honest, I've just really enjoyed playing the competitive BO3 format of the DLM events. But winning felt amazing, when I won game 2 of the finals I got pinged so many people congratulating me. I think this is my 4th or 5th meta weekly I've participated in, at first I was just learning matchups/the meta and getting all the Blackwing technical play down, but it all came together this week and in my opinion my play was really solid.
Anything you would like to tell the viewers about yourself?
Yeah, I've actively played the TCG for a few years now and I also have fond memories of playing Blackwings as a kid at locals in 2009/2010. Blackwings have always been my favourite deck in the TCG since I got back into the game, and I've always found time to play them at locals even while I've had meta decks built to play at bigger events. Naturally Blackwings are also my favourite deck in duel links; The fact that my favourite deck of all time is meta and I get to compete and even win with them is such a great feeling.
How did the day go for you? Any notable matchups?
I actually think this was a really good week for Blackwings. A low amount of Crystrons entered - which is a very difficult matchup for Peak Performance Blackwings. I had triple Loading... in my Side Deck for Crystrons but never actually faced any. I also felt that a lot of people were going to be on Invoked Roids, not because it's particularly great, but because people do not like dropping Loading... and will try to make him work in whatever deck they can. While Invoked Roids is a hard matchup for Blackwings in my opinion, I felt that it would scare away many Ritual Beast players (a hard matchup for Blackwings) which is why I opted to drop the Loading... from my Side Deck. Combo Shiranui is also a deck that seemed like it would be well represented, and their lower backrow count makes it very easy for Blackwings to OTK them. I played against a lot of backrow decks this Meta Weekly - Loading... was easily my most sided in card. Karakuri is a pretty even matchup that I played against 3 times, if you go 1st they can't OTK you, they just have to beat over your monsters and hope you don't have sufficient followup, and they have to be wary of the potential set Loading... also. But a lot of the time Blackwings won't have the ability to play around the triple set backrow, so it could go either way. Overall, my matchups were pretty good this week.
Anything you'd like to say about your Decklist?
I'm pretty adamant about not maining Loading... , you can't accurately guess what you're up against game 1. You don't really know what you're playing against and it's a 50 / 50 toss whether Necrovalley will even do anything in that scenario. Still though, Necrovalley is a ridiculous card and it's always worth maining Loading... and siding Necrovalley in Peak Performance just so you can bring it in when you need it. Necrovalley honestly won me a lot of games this week. Conversely, I only sided in Loading... in the Blackwing mirror. Triple Loading... was for Crystrons, but I didn't play any. You don't really want to side System Down vs Karakuri instead of Loading... , because if you set Offerings going 1st you can just instantly win the game sometimes, in Top Cut I set Offerings going 1st vs Karakuri, he normal summoned Loading... , I popped it and he set backrow and passed. While this doesn't play around Loading... , I think this play is worth it. Loading... was for backrow decks, and the 3rd Offerings works in many matchups. Loading... is my 7th Extra Deck slot over something like Loading... in case I do actually play against Ritual Beasts, as Samurai Destroyer can destroy the Winda without triggering her floating effect, so you can whittle down their resources and win that way.
Lastly, do you have any Shoutouts you would like to make?
Yeah, I had a lot of fun with my tournament experience, as I most often do. I really enjoy the competitive Bo3 format - it's something Duel Links is sorely missing and I think DLM is great and their events fill up a huge hole in the Duel Links experience (competitive BO3 play). Shoutouts to DLG for giving me their energy in the final, and shoutouts to Sneed and Chuck for being based.
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!