Top Player Council Thoughts
After MCS XIV we have multiple changes to the Tier List, based on the results of the event and the continued development of the meta.
Tier 1
Koa'ki Meiru has remained in Tier 1 as the dominant deck of the format. Top-performing builds have trended away from Balance , instead exploring higher monster counts (including Loading... ) and Loading... + Loading... for mirror matches.
TPC Comments:
monkeyboy44:
Koa'ki remain as the sole Tier 1 deck due to continually unrivaled dominance in tournament top cuts. They may not win every single event, but expect them to make up a majority of top cut and plan your main and side decks around them accordingly.
ThreeD:
The latest MCS and Meta Weekly showed that Koa'ki Meiru is still dominating the meta as it was the most played deck with the most tops. The meta evolved around it with cards like Loading... being popular again or Loading... in side decks, but Koa'ki Meiru is still hard to handle for most decks thanks to Loading... (one of the best cards in the game) and powerful side deck cards like Loading... , Loading... , or even Loading... .
Tier 2
Buster Blader has been promoted to Tier 2, as one of the best counters to Koa'ki Meiru. Loading... being Dragon-type means that Buster Blader's "lockdown" combo only requires Loading... , instead of him alongside Loading... . Buster Blader has been the target of a lot of side-decks in recent weeks; this will only increase as many decks struggle to break their full board without specific counters.
Karakuri has been placed in Tier 2 following a strong performance in the MCS. Easily the best Synchro deck in Duel Links, Karakuri excels at turboing through their deck for high-impact tech cards to quickly end duels. Immunity from Sealed Tombs is very nice, but being locked out of Loading... access by DNA Surgery is not. Because of a very wide Tier 2, Karakuri can hope to sneak by without too much side-deck attention. Otherwise, blowout cards like Loading... and Loading... will wipe entire Karakuri boards for free.
Masked Heroes have remained in Tier 2, with some players now opting to include Loading... and Loading... at the expense of some other Destiny Heroes. Dian's 3000 DEF is great for walling off Koa'ki Meiru for a turn (chaining Loading... to Maximus' effect), and using Sealed Tombs all but ensures they will lose most of their board in the End Phase. Whether Solid Soldier and Dian are part of the best version of Masked Heroes remains to be seen.
Vampires have been demoted to Tier 2. Very few players used Vampires in the MCS and although it had one good placing in the top cut, it would be hard to justify their position next to Koa'ki Meiru in Tier 1 after Koa'ki's relative dominance of the Top 32. Vampires' versatility remains a strength, however, and they can easily hold their own in this meta.