Announcement from , TPC Manager
This is the Last Tier List for this iteration of Top Player Council. The first Tier List for the new Top Player Council will be on January 13th. Additionally, Tier Lists will be moving to Tuesdays. This decision will be made in order to allow for more time for comments, producing a more substantive updates overall.
Generally the metagame is becoming wider in large part because Turn 1's are retaining their power while Turn 2's have not seen significant improvements; the strength of a "draw the out" strategy is when there are limited outs: full dinosaur Turn 1, full chimera Turn 1, full drytron Turn 1, all of these are combo strategies that effectively win if left unanswered. As long as these decks aren't nerfed or heavily powercrept they will likely remain for a while.
In my opinion, we're finally out of the coin-flip-simulator meta. We have more than a couple of skill-based decks in the format at the moment, with Branded Despia being on top at the moment. What's important is the mirror match trends closer to 50/50 with player skill being a more-deciding factor at the moment (and I can frankly say the same about a ton of meta matchups). We will have to see if this will change in the next few weeks, when Loading... enters the meta, but only time will tell.
Tier 1
The previous Despia deck had received additional support, changing the whole strategy. The deck has received a whole new back of tricks, allowing for more elaborate plays than Loading... into Loading... . This is primarily thanks to their new cards:
Loading... is a Quick-Effect Non-Targeting Banish that also sends an Albaz Fusion Monster for additional advantage. This is notable a "soft once-per-turn" so you can use a spent Mirrorjade for another Copy and use its effect again.
Loading... is the bridge from Loading... to Mirrorjade, allowing you to recycle material along the way.
The infamous Loading... simplifies your core play, sending the material for Albion from Deck to start your daisy-chain to Mirrorjade.
Loading... is a monster effect negate from the Hand if you control an Albaz Fusion Monster.
Loading... searches Mercourier and makes it so your opponent cannot negate the activation of your Fusion effects or respond to your Fusion Summons.
Generally speaking, the popular line of play going first is to start with Loading... into Branded Fusion, sending Loading... and a LIGHT for Albion, then banishing Fallen of Albaz and a DARK (preferably Loading... ) which then discards a card (preferably Loading... ) to Fusion Summons Mirrorjade. Then you fuse the Aluber and Albion for Loading... , which also triggers Albion's effect to set Loading... for your opponent's turn.
With Loading... and Loading... , Branded has arrived on the scene as a Fusion engine to be utilized by other decks (with Despia being the most powerful)
Loading... is a huge problem for a lot of decks, and Theater of the Branded's Opening can facilitate multiple one-card combos that lead to multiple points of interaction.
If you already have Loading... or Loading... in hand this combo is bolstered. You can even swap Loading... for Loading... easily.
In my opinion, Branded is more of a player skill-determinant deck more than anything, since it doesn't rely on the coinflip or a power card resolving (being able to play against anything that isnt a functional FTK). The mirror match in particular is particulaly skill-intenstive, where knowledge if interactions and Branded Fusion targets can win the day.
I truly hope the meta we've established doesn't change all too much with the upcoming addition of Loading... , but we'll have to see how that will go.
, World ChampionA key point to emphasize is the gap in power between Branded and the other strategies is actually not as large as it may appear. While Branded itself may seem inherently powerful, it doesn't actually have the power of a Tier 0 strategy; the heavy representation is a product of a number of factors including ease of use and ease of access. What it lacks is more specific and reliable answers to diverse gamestates, most notably floodgates and strategies that output multiple negates. Back in august and september, Despia had major representation in the metagame with similar strengths, but its popularity resulted in counterplay developing that despia lacked the flexibility to adapt to. I expect a similar pattern to unfold with the current Branded deck as it now has even fewer ways to deal with backrow and effect negation besides trying to use as many effects as possible to force a play through
Even though everyone‘s eyes are on Branded at the moment, Shinobird is one of the decks that can definitely keep up with it. The ability to draw 5 cards on their first turn makes them able to dig for a lot tech cards, so if Branded is popular they can simply play counter cards against it and have a very high chance of seeing them.