This is the first Tier List for your new Top Player Council.

DanielYGO

We have a very interesting format. Thanks to the introduction of the latest box "Sign of Harpies" we have a little shakeup in the meta. There is a new deck/variant in the format which is F.A. Star Seraph Darklords (as some in the community like to call it: Carlords). That deck plays Loading... which with the help of Level Augmentation becomes a big boss monster which is hard to out for a lot of decks. Especially if we put into consideration that Loading... is being played to make it uneffected by Spells and Traps making it even harder to out. Thanks to that, people started to find cards / decks which can deal with it, effectively leading us away from our 2-deck format, at least for the time being. Who would have guessed that a 4200 monster which is unaffected by activated monster effects which also banishes all opponent's cards wouldn't be healthy? Definitely not me. Thankfully, Star Seraph Darklords was never the most consistent deck and by introducing the three Hang On Mach and three Forbidden Lance, people needed to cut Darklord engine pieces, making the deck even more bricky. With that, the deck will probably not be dominant in the format but needs to be respected in some form to not auto-lose to. As such, the meta is going to be similar to the last one moving forward but with some new faces as well a shift in techs to be able to deal with F.A. Hang On Mech.

Drizzels

With the release of Loading... with the latest Mini Box and fast recent success, the competitive community was shocked for a moment. At the beginning, people thought the combination with Level Augmentation and cards like Loading... to protect Mach was super unfair and would be immediately nerfed. During the MCS, we saw a lot of creativity and meta decks adapting to Mach with cards like Loading... and Loading... as well as rouge decks like Amazoness or Ritual Beasts coming out again.

Even though Loading... is obviously a strong floodgate, but the overall meta shifted into a more control-oriented meta that is still main;y dominated by Blue-Eyes and Darklords, but not on the same level as before. Additionally, this MCS was using the no side KC Cup format with no side deck, even though the KC Cup Stage 2 is still two weeks away.

Looking back, it will be interesting to see if the KC Cup results will reflect the MCS Top Cut representation or if other /n ewer decks will get developed to counter the meta.

Tier 1

TPC Comments

Buns

As seen in the MCS, Blue-Eyes quickly adapted to the Level Augmentation F.A. Darklord builds focused on turboing Loading... by changing their discard Traps to more efficient backrow to out it such as Loading... and Loading... . With that, Blue-Eyes remains one of the strongest decks (along with Darklords), without having a big weakness against anything.

uloska

There is not a lot to say about Blue-Eyes. The deck remains as the main, or at least one of the two main threats of the format alongside Darklords. The prevalence of turbo builds focusing on summoning Blue-eyes Spirit dDagon as fast as possible has dropped for the re-appearance of more Trap heavy builds (affectionally referred to as Brick-Eyes) to deal with the introduction of Darklord builds using Loading... , which can single-handedly kill the whole Blue-eyes deck if you don't draw any answers to deal with it. A new opponent has also appeared in the form of Harpies. The build using Loading... is tailored to deal with Blue-Eyes decks, however, it is not a hard counter and the matchup can go either way depending on the draws. Overall, the deck retains its spot on the list and is unlikely to go anywhere unless it gets hit by the ban list or another direct counter deck gets introduced.

Navelar

Blue-Eyes struggle against Loading... , but I don't think Mach isn't going to stay at large, and even if it does, Blue-Eyes would continue to play a more control-oriented build in order to out it quickly. Blue-Eyes hold their ground at Tier 1 because they still pose a massive threat to the rest of the game.

Davide Magri

Unironically, the F.A. build made people realize how strong Destiny Draw is, when paired with 4 to 5 techs. The "Stick and Chair" combo is as strong as ever, and despite the annoying matchups in Shiranui and Amazoness that the presence of Loading... revived, the deck is still in a really healthy spot, as it also picked up the MCS win. However, the more the meta evolves, the less Darklord cards are being ran, which essentially makes it awkward to name this deck. Loading... isn't seeing play in most of the F.A. builds, and some people are going as far as to cut Loading... as well to fit in more tech slots. Overall, both the F.A. build and Destiny Draws build are likely to see play until the deck gets inevitably hit on the banlist, and it'll be a force to be reckoned with in KC Cup too, with Detiny Draw having the edge.

EatMyBroccoli