Announcement from , TPC Manager
Despite my message last week, we have decided to keep this season's TPC onboard for one last list with VRAINS world launch as we onboard the brand-new Top Player Council. Their first list will be on October 10th.
Tier 1
TPC Comments
Salamangreat instantly established itself as the best deck in the game, and arguably one of the strongest decks we've ever had. Its existence in the meta already made an impact in the relevant backrow and techs, with this being one of the first times ever since their release that Loading... and Loading... are not only suboptimal, but even nonviable to some extent. Instead, Loading... took their place, as spinning back the Salamangreat Link Monsters to the Extra Deck is one of the few ways of dealing with the deck consistently. Speaking of consistency, the deck was gifted with a potentially godlike one, as it received Loading... , Loading... and Loading... all in one go. However, most lists choose not to max out Mining and Debug, as, contrary to Circle, they have some drawbacks. Debug eats your Normal Summon away from Loading... or Loading... , which would be preferred, and doesn't set-up anything but follow-up by itself, since without any extenders, you are required to re-Link your Loading... away to summon the Loading... . Also, being a LIGHT monster isn't the best, as you will need to Link it away into Balelynx if you want to summon Loading... or Loading... , and at the same time, although it's a fairly niche interaction, it can be negated by the on-field effect of Loading... . Cynet Mining instead requires a discard, which can be a steep cost if you didn't have another Salamangreat card paired with it, and it's still not amazing if the discard is something like Loading... or Loading... . They both serve as pseudo-extenders going second, as Debug can search Meer, which can immediately Special Summon itself out, and Mining can discard a Salamangreat to search for Gazelle, which can then also summon itself out. This means that a lot of players give up on the consistency of the Deck to fill in more tech slots, which help with dealing with potentially bad matchups: Loading... for Loading... (and Loading... itself in the mirror), Loading... for Galaxy Photon and Mirror...the list goes on. Overall, this was a really successful release for VRAINS, and it's very likely that Salamangreat will be a constant presence in the format for time to come.
Salamangreat has entered the format and immediately showed how powerful they are in this format. Access to Loading... really makes the deck that much better. It's able to extend through a lot of disruption and have a great Turn 1 and 3. Loading... being able to protect, Loading... being able to recycle, and Loading... being able to push is an amazing trio, and that, alongside Salamangreat's room to run oppressive techs is why this deck sits as the sole Tier 1 deck.
The long-awaited Vrains World update brought new characters and cards, but none have had the impact so far that Salamangreat enjoyed immediately on release. With most of the cards that made the deck viable in TCG/OCG, this extremely consistent and resilient deck made its mark on every tournament and solidified itself as the deck to beat when preparing for an event. However, Salamangreat has a glaring weakness; its ATK ceiling is upsettingly low. It struggles when dealing with high-stat monsters and the MCS results showed how exploitable that weakness truly is. Unless Salamangreat continues to innovate in how it can handle powerful monsters, I can see a future where it is no longer the best deck as duelists learn how to stop it in its tracks.
Tier 2
There are no Tier 2 Decks
TPC Comments
Tier 3
TPC Comments