TPC Comments
This weeks Tier List is very much a clean up of the new metagame. Harpies remain anchored at Tier 1 as it is the main deck to have an inherent out to the new contender in the metagame, Melodious, who takes a very deserving Tier 2 slot as the new "gatekeeper" of the meta. They ask the question: "can you deal with an indestructible monster who takes no battle damage?" and can back that up with other win conditions such as reducing you to 0 ATK with Loading... & banishing key cards from your graveyard with Loading... .
Tier 3 consists of decks just managing to hang onto relevance by having somewhat decent Harpie matchups and the ability to compete with Melodious on a coin-flip & tech-determinant basis. Thunder Dragons & Blue-Eyes don't make that cut, as Blue-Eyes is punished very hard by Melodious and Thunder just can't keep up anymore with their best hands requiring more luck to see than ever before.
Tier 1
TPC Comments
Harpies are still the best deck. Although they still struggle with matchups such as Lunalight they are the most consistent and powerful deck in this format. Their built-in Loading... skill shreds through backrow decks with ease and their disruption with Loading... is still highly effective. They also still have easy access to their side cards. There is a trend starting with Harpies ditching the second Loading... and gaining the ability to run Loading... in return. Harpie players have also started to run Loading... to combat Lunalight. With all this being said, Harpies remain as the sole Tier 1 deck.
Tier 2
TPC Comments
After another week of getting to see the deck in action, what's not to like? The Melodious fusion monsters are a surprisingly powerful toolbox. Between your three main fusions you have great defensive and offensive options. Loading... is the boss monster every deck wish it had (looking at you, Synchro era), having built-in protection from all destruction + battle damage combined with an absolutely nutty offensive ability that can destroy any Special Summoned monster after damage calculation. Oh did I mention that second effect causes burn damage? Unless your name is Loading... you are not going to have a very easy time outing this card without drawing into effect negation or Loading... . Even with that, the Melodious deck is consistent enough to run as many techs as Onomat used to run, which means they can build around the existing outs to Bloom Diva by running cards like Loading... & Loading... , for example.
All that being said, you don't even have to rely on Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir to be your win condition. Loading... has a triple Loading... Quick Effect that can be activated during Damage Step (because it modifies ATK). You can also banish your own cards, enabling the pairing of Loading... with other powerful Traps. Melodious' last fusion, Loading... , simply is able to attack twice at 2500 ATK, potentially 3000 ATK when paired with Loading... .
The kicker is that all of these Fusions are unbelievably consistent thanks to the skill From Songstress to Maestra , which turns Loading... and Loading... into one-card Fusions. Backing that all up is Loading... , an absolutely amazing hand-trap.
Melodious continues to rise and ascends to Tier 2 status with positive results in the last week. The deck is able to win games against non-Harpie decks fairly easily with the power of Loading... and From Songstress to Maestra . Most decks need to open a combination of techs to out Bloom Diva and will almost always auto-lose to a well-timed Loading... . However, the Harpie matchup remains difficult with no clear answer in sight on how to make the matchup much better. It seems players are opting to use Loading... to negate the Loading... bounce but this is simply a band-aid type of solution. Furthermore, with no way of removing Loading... outside of Loading... , the deck struggles to side in multiple copies of Loading... which is the best card against Harpies. Nevertheless, the deck has shown great things so it emerges as the second deck to beat behind Harpies - but cannot be classified as a Tier 1 deck at this time.
Melodious is our first tiered meta deck since Gaia, and a very well-deserving one at that. Melodious can put up a lot of pressure on the board quickly and consistently through their Fusion Monsters that are oppressive in their respective matchups, such as Loading... and Loading... , while also keeping themselves safe from decks that don't have loads of monster removal thanks to Loading... . Melodious is a force to be reckoned with, and the only thing keeping it from being a dominant Tier 1 deck is its Harpie matchup. Fortunately, there are some good techs for the matchup such as Loading... (and Loading... , of course). Melodious' performance has been promising and the deck has definitely established itself in the meta.