TPC Analysis on Banlist Impact
A Word From , TPC Manager
Hello all, in light of the recent balance update, the Top Player Council will, in lieu of a Tier List update, which would functionally be obsolete by tomorrow anyway, walk through the current Tier List decks and how the recent Balance Update has affected them.
Current Tier List
Harpies
TPC Comments
Konami comes through with another awful banlist. Instead of killing Harpies' Hunting Ground , the gatekeeper of interaction for the game, they decided to put Loading... to 2, so now Harpies will simply replace 2 copies of Nest with Loading... or Loading... . This slightly reduces consistency, but your deck is now even more sacky, hooray. Loading... will continue to gatekeep backrow decks and we will remain in a Turn 2 OTK Loading... + Loading... meta.
Harpies have been affected by the recent banlist putting Loading... to 2, this has weakened Harpies' potential of easily penetrating through backrow, while also slightly weakening their consistency, as Nest was also used to search a Loading... off of another, less-thretening Harpie monster. However, despite these changes, Harpies are definitely still in the meta, Swallow's Nest is somewhat replaced with things like Loading... or Loading... , and the regular combos of the deck are still there. Harpies also have a lot of tech space due to having a small core, making them able to side better than other decks and thus to pretty much always have techs that help you against certain match-ups. Also, replacing Swallow's Nest with MST makes certain match-ups better than what they were before (Destiny HEROs and Gaia are good examples). Overall, the deck did get hit, but is definitely still playable and will very likely hold a strong position in the upcoming meta.
I think all of us can agree that Loading... was not the nerf that we were expecting (looking at you Harpies' Hunting Ground ). Nevertheless, it was a very good hit from Konami as it severely reduced the consistency of the deck. You're no longer able to open Loading... as consistently as before (3 Channeler 3 Nest out of 20 cards previously, as compared to 3 Channeler 1 Nest now). Furthermore, Swallow's Nest also facilitated the effectiveness of Loading... as a great skill, being able to pop multiple backrow when working in tandem. Without multiple copies of Swallow's Nest, the effectiveness of Harpie's Hunting Ground does go down by a certain extent. Finally, now that Nest is Semi'ed, Harpie players will have to choose between Loading... , Loading... and Loading... , all 3 of which are insane cards to have.
All in all, the hit was a very good one. It hurt Harpie's consistency without outright butchering the deck to oblivion. In my opinion, the deck is definitely still within the Tier List and we'll just have to see how players build the deck going forward.
P.S: No you don't simply replace 2 Nests with 2 Loading... s.
The new banlist has sort-of flipped the meta on its head, with the most dominant deck, Harpies losing Loading... . This is a significant hit, as they are no longer able to unbrick themselves and dodge backrow like they usually could. The deck will still see play but it is a lot weaker than it used to be.
Melodious
TPC Comments