Notes & Combos

--Preface--

Konami's incompetence never fails to amaze others and irritate me to no end, with this meta being a disaster where lowercase skill is not only rare, but legitimately hampered by broken staples that shouldn't be allowed anywhere, not here nor in MD or TCG/OCG, the timer contributing to tilting from both me and the opponent, and the most stupid idea of keeping the 5-streak system for KOG.

Meanwhile, everyone plays

• Stun (any floodgate makes a deck stun, after all)
• FTK attempts with Princess Mokuba
• REArm
• 相剑 with IntMem
• Branded with Dragoon, summoned by milling Goddess
• Ra
• Odion
• Chimera
• BE
• DM
• Dino
• several lesser-showing decks

...with every kind of non-game HT like Droll, the P2W duo Belle and Imperm, Nibiru, Veiler, sometimes Crow and the Ritual HT duo, Kaijū (especially the searchable Sphere Mode), as well as the classic spell duo of Droplet and BoE, which, by themselves with Nibiru and Kaijū, are enough to make the whole climb a joke.

In a situation where nobody plays with a clear mind, and Konami pushes for the most unhealthy skilless format, even my climb was successful only due to luck and cards that go second; perhaps skill is present in low Platinum and lower, but in high Platinum and higher, it's everything but, thanks to the combination of rank inflation and a coinflip system that makes everything a violation in human rights.

In short, the meta is too varied, utterly balancelsss, too coinflip, too unhealthy, and entirely luck based, based entirely around drawing the out, along with a Skill Privilege so big that a deck viability is entirely decided by whether they can run the most staple without giving up too much consistency, and Dragoon being a card that shouldn't be legal in ANY format, let alone this one, just like the handtraps I mentioned above: whether you go first or not, the only thing that matters is that you draw cards that either finish the opponent on first turn, or break going second, by being even more broken the former.

And that's where I come into play: I'm the duelist that was about to blunder off the very last match, against Dragoon Masquerade. The joy...

--Deck Choice--

Me and ThunderSan117 on the Swordsoul Mains server were often discussing lines and ratios. They were more for as little as possible over 20...I was for piles of staples.

The deck is focused on maximizing card advantage with 七 and Summit, by pitching 莫 or 大 to activate 原 to then be revived by Summit to get 2 or 3 new cards before they can Droll. Unfortunately it at times is weak to Crow.

• Ecl is the card you'd always want to draw, to either shuffle or discard, thanks to the relationship with 金. I personally used her less than you'd think, due to being better for Skill triggers, and in the GY. The Special Summon tho comes into play when I need to summon 孽 without committing the NS, and it's even good to NS with many names in hand, to summon 冰 before 七 and 霄. You always want 2 in the starting hand

• Shralb is a staple in 相剑, and I spent a dream ticket for a second copy. I have never regretted it since. It allows you to lighten the deck and mill 孽子 to draw 1 card, and serves as a trigger for the IntMem. Every 相剑 player should play it

• You play 3 孽 because we got a broken Skill that can actually compensate for how trash 相剑 normally is, unlike VBond, which was known to force you to play bricks like Iris. 1 in the starting hand is better but IntMem is currently 2PD at the moment, so we play 3. The difference will show. The hard part is whether to commit NS or leave it to Ecl via 金. And the fact it sends to the GY from hand, which we have one less card from the other formats. Sigh...

• 原 is everything, tho you don't want 2 at the same time and it's a bad HOPT "use" effect. Summit etc, one of the 3 good 相剑-mentioning cards alongside Ecl and the Synchro version.

• Merc is just for triggers. Unlike Shralb, it's also triggered if banished by Bralb. It's my replacement for the would be 3rd Ecl. Please play 3 Ecl. You won't likely ever use the protection effect, and/or it won't suffice.

• 大 is the weakest 相剑 monster, due to being ignition, thus preventable, and being bad unless setup going first. Still the main trigger for 影, with no other outside of 镜, on your own. But one thing it has over 莫, is that it doesn't require a 相剑 in hand.

• 纯 is ever useful to dodge stuff, if you can acquire it with the Skill or draw it. Since Circle is unusable and not a 相剑, anyway...

• 莫 is good only because of 冰, for she otherwise would be a living hindrance, which she still is. Unfortunately, she doesn't require setup, unlike 大

• 金 got buffed considerably after IntMem's release, and nerfed because of "stall prevention" from the banlist. Easy to pitch as they are to reveal, they serve very well on the GY... Just don't expect it to be pitched by 原 or used from hand

• Droplet should just be banned. Not even limited. Banned. Tho, unlike BOE, it's actually HOPT

• 3 CC was a mistake due to the prominence of Branded and being dead, but I needed to raise the chances to draw 2. BOE is better for the choice of running 3 copies of a staple... unfortunately, I only have 2 BOE. Still removes the set backrow that will absolutely tear you apart.

• BOE is a broken card that ruins YGO more than it's ruined rn, and every match in which is played, which, in DL and thanks to Tenpai in the TCG/OCG/MD, it's everywhere. Should have never been printed, and, while potentially backfiring unlike BoM, it affects everyone at once on the field. As a result, it destroys every matchup that's not Fusion, and it's at resolution. Every match is based on whether you have it, including Skill viability (whether you can keep it or need to shuffle it). Please ban this scourge: it's the antithesis of interactive YGO

• Emer searches either 金 or any card that's not Blout or Summit. Considering the importance of 原, we need to play 3

• Summit revives what is pitched by 原.

• Blout works when it works and can be used to activate by 莫 after being searched by 宵

• 镜 isn't exactly the easiest to summon but it can be enabled by Bralb, and is a wincon on its own, as well as a searcher of 孽

• Klad is immune from ED monsters, can OTK, and uses everything with 2.5k or higher. Compared to Grand, it's more generic use, tho less than Dash.

• Bralb annihilates LIGHT matchups that Klad or 孽 can't touch, on top of summoning 镜 without needing an ED monster around, BEFORE they can do that. Better than Slube imo

• Is there anything that 七 can't do? With the draws and continuous card annihilation, as well as SS control, 七 is the main ED monster, way more than 影, outside of specific matchups or board/turn order situations where he's not enough. But it can easily get rid of a lot of stuff.

• 天臂 is able to break matchups and save yourself from ruin. A truly wonderful card in a format wrecked by low LP. Most importantly, it counters Brade.

• 霸 is so broken that it made 相剑 become meta alongside Protos. Here? Makes no exception, tho Srade could stop you

• 冰 is the best endboard monster in this deck. I don't need to explain why, just play it. Stay 冰淇淋, 弟弟!

• Even though there is hardly more need or space for another 宵, he still remains the needed endboard and searcher...but never in the same turn. Ah Konami...

Finally free, I don't have to suffer the worst meta since the Rebeka one. Thank you luck, for allowing me to still win despite my near fatal mistake on the KOG match!

Get me out of this