Top Player Council Thoughts

In the wake of huge changes imposed by the recent Forbidden/Limited List updates, we have correspondingly huge changes to the Tier List. And as we continue to test the side-deck vs 2-deck formats, this will again be an update with side-decks in mind.


Tier 1

Winning both Meta Weekly 42 and DLPT 19, Masked Heroes have come through the banlist updates largely unscathed. Two of their biggest counters (Fur Hires and Amazoness) were hit hard, and losing Loading... simply forced players away from Fusion variants back to the previously-inferior Balance builds with heavy backrow. Being able to sit on strong protection like Loading... , Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... (among others) is a great advantage against aggressive decks like Vampires and Blue-Eyes. And because Loading... allows you to spit out a huge offensive threat in Loading... that can poke for damage through other players' defenses, the deck has a combination of strong defense and consistent offense that is very difficult for most decks to deal with.

Meanwhile, Vampires have not changed much in the post-banlist meta and are still a fast, consistent, versatile deck. Losing Cyber Style was a big nerf for many reasons, however, in particular making it harder to go into Loading... at will in more simplified game states. Loading... is becoming more popular for the mirror match, Loading... remains a common side-deck counter, and Loading... is now competing with Loading... for spots in the main deck. Trunade has the benefit of clearing away the backrow abused by Heroes and Gladiators, but Enemy Controller can single-handedly win the mirror. Most, if not all, top Vampire decks have both of these cards accessible through side-decking. Sealed Tombs is still quite prevalent as well, used both by and against Vampire decks, having the benefit of also being great against Blue-Eyes and Spellbooks.

TPC Comments:

Luke Tyler:

Vampires remain prevalent after taking very minor hits from the banlist. Despite the popularity of Sealed Tombs, the deck has decent matchups across the board and remains the flexible deck that it was before the huge meta shift.

Heroes now use Balance as their primary skill, guaranteeing them playable hands every game. The deck is no longer an agressive deck with the potential to control the gamestate; it is now the opposite - a control deck with the capability to make aggressive pushes.

zaidking:

Despite the Hero nerf, they were easily able to adapt and through testing with SkillShot (before the previous Meta Weekly) I definitely did expect the deck to perform pretty well. It deals with every deck we currently have and is very agile with its side deck. I do think this deck is the best we have at the moment. As for Vampires, they have dodged the banlist and only lost a few cards + Cyber Style which makes almost no difference compared to the other decks (which became close to unplayable since their consistency has dropped a ton as well as their power).

Flips:

Heroes: The use of good backrow and Loading... makes this deck very powerful in the current meta. You are able to be protected against decks like Vampires and Blue-Eyes or at least stall with all of these backrow cards to eventually draw into your Mask Changes. (Lately Blue-Eyes players have been teching more cards like Loading... , Loading... , and ECon to deal with Decider stall, however.) Although it is harder to draw 2 now without Loading... you are still able to get your Celestial draws off, just not as often.

Vampires: Since Vampires were not hit at all from the recent banlist (besides cards used in the build such as ECon and Trunade), this deck still remains very powerful. Most of the Vampire players have adjusted to 1 Trunade plus more defensive backrow (such as Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... ). I would argue the deck was stronger with 2 Trunade and ECons but this deck is still very powerful in the new meta.


Tier 2