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TPC Comments
, World ChampionDark Magician is a pretty versatile deck, its Turn 1 is either Loading... to floodgate Skills (and Loading... ) or Loading... as a pop, as well as Loading... 's GY effect to negate. You can also have a Loading... banish with the help of Loading... . One of its main strengths lies in Loading... , which allows a lot of really strong plays due to its ability to make your cards unrespondable to and your monsters unaffected.
Dark Magician has a ton of potential in the current meta. It offeres solid set-ups for going both first and second (especially with Loading... and Loading... . With the help of Loading... , you can set-up Loading... to summon an unaffected Loading... during your opponent's turn - which is especially strong against match-ups where floodgates aren't as effective.
For matchups like Shinobird and Blue-Eyes, Loading... becomes extremely valuable, giving you full knowledge of your opponent's hand and better control of your plays (while also locking your opponent out of "revealing" cards for their Skills). You'll also have Navigation protection against common board-breakers like Loading... and Loading... and Loading... for further reinforcement. One of Dark Magician's biggest strengths against Shinobird specifically is having a 3500 ATK Loading... that's hard for Shinobird to remove (since Dark Magician is not an Effect Monster for Loading... ), making it a key survival tool for the matchup.
, World ChampionDark Magician could be the sleeper pick of the format. It has recently done quite well in community tournaments, competing amicably with the established Blue-Eyes / Shinobird / Rebecca Dragons triangle. Loading... is the star card in certain matchups, being useful going first and second. An unaffected Loading... and making Spells non-respondible is amazing. A key problem in dealing with Loading... is also solved by a searchable Loading... . I'm interested to see how Dark Magician will perform going forward.
There is currently no niche in this meta that Shaddoll can fill anymore. The Top Decks just have the right tools to deal with its board going second with just one tech card (sometimes just engine can be enough) and Shaddoll does not have the capability to break the Turn 1 boards of the best decks. This makes its position in the metagame extremely bad and has led to a vast decline in Shaddoll popularity and results.