What to look out for this Format

What to look out for this Format

As we all know, the March 2011 banlist has been applied onto KCVDS. Now, a lot of people don't know what to do with it, or simply cannot decide between the many options this banlist provides. Of course new releases would be welcomed, but even without them there are a lot of options for us duelists to explore. I will use my humble experience and opinions regarding the March 2011 banlist to inform you of the decks that you will face a lot in this format.

Let’s begin with the deck that brought the most commotion in the YCS Dallas and had 8 builds standing tall in the Top 16, otherwise known as Six Samurai:



With the Legendary Samurais the ones old archetype gained new life and has been seen all over the World in the past events since their release. Now we also know they lost 2 copies of their Book of Moon and 2 copies of their Gateway of the Six. This itself slowed them down a bit in my opinion, since Gateway wasn’t needed to be maxed out. It merely increased the chances of opening with 1 or even 2 Gateways, but for the new Six Samurai builds to pop off, 2 or 3 copies of Gateway of the Six are in my opinion an overkill. So what sort of builds should you expect? I will take the winning deck of YCS Dallas and change it as I see fit for our current format, so here goes;


As you might be able to see, even with the loss of 2 copies of Gateway of the Six the deck holds so much speed throughout their Shien’s Smoke Signals, which function like a Reinforcement of the Army. But that is not all, folks. The Six Samurai players still have the 3 copies of Six Samurai United and their 3 copies of Upstart Goblin. I myself included 1 copy of Spirit of the Six Samurai for the reason to equip it onto Grandmaster or Shi En for that extra draw if you destroy a monster in battle and as an important bonus Shi En and Grandmaster will gain that extra attack power you will surely benefit from. The deck itself will remain as a Tier 1 in my opinion, and since we have all seen the devastating power of it, we will all hold our side decks ready in order to counter as much as possible of this deck to overcome it.


This brings me to the second deck that has had a lot of commotion regarding its wonderful achievements in the last couple YCS events. I’m talking about Gravekeepers of course. I will tweak the deck list of the runner up of YCS Dallas as I see fit to our current format, so here goes;


The loss of 1 Royal Tribute is a loss that isn’t that important, since most GK players ran only 2 copies of Royal Tribute in their decks anyway, but the loss of 2 copies of Book of Moon is a bigger deal. When playing this deck I myself like to recycle Spies and get their effects again in my upcoming turn or in the opponent's battle phase, to force out that Solemn Warning. The deck actually has only lost these cards and they aren't of big importance, due to the first turn Royal Tribute plays you can perform and the load of monster destruction and negation you have at your disposal. This deck will definitely stay as a Tier 1 deck and will be played a lot, if not even more than they already were played.


X-sabers, the deck that has been feared, seen and played a lot since they gained their power. Even after the loss of Rescue Cat they proved to be an archetype and deck to keep in mind while preparing your deck for an event. This will not change one bit in my opinion and foresight. Surely they lost the use of Cold Wave and their multiple copies of Book of Moon. But they can still use Trap Stun to stun your backrow and nuke it with XX-Saber Hyunlei. Once more, a decklist that will work in our current format from yours truly, so here goes;


As mentioned earlier, XX-saber decks have to fill in the blank spots of Cold Wave and Book of Moon, which can be done rather easily by Trap Stuns and Gold Sarcophagus in my opinion. Why Pot of Duality and Gold Sarcophagus together? This is to search out those Trap Stun copies as fast as possible while the Darksoul’s search out your monsters, perfectly balancing things out. This is what I expect to been seen a lot, you might also want to keep Saber Hole in mind, since I know a lot of people will main deck those as well. I expect XX-saber decks to still be on the Tier 1 or Tier 1.5 list, this due to their swarm capabilities and one turn kill plays.


This brings me to a deck that has seen so many formats and banlists that I cannot even begin to describe how persistent the deck and their users are for running it, although it must be said that Gladiator Beasts have always been on my personal lists of good decks in every format I have played in. And here comes a decklist according to my own opinions and thoughts;


Gladiator Beasts also lost the usage of Cold Wave, but it isn’t like that is such a big loss due to the release of Forbidden Lance. In my humble opinion it is actually better now without Cold Wave than like it was with it, because it opens up more plays, mainly a Miracle Fusion ones. When you get hit by a Solemn Warning you can still proceed with a Monster Reborn or Miracle Fusion to get the job done. Expect a lot of Gladiator Beasts users especially in the beginning of the March 2011 format. The archetype will not be a Tier 1 deck nor a Tier 1.5 in my opinion, but a Tier 2 for sure.


Now the time is here for my favorite deck of all times. Although it has been hit pretty hard with the release of the March 2011 banlist, it will still see competitive plays even if it means I'll have to do it all on my own. Of course, I’m talking about Plant Synchro/Debris Hime/Quickdraw Plants. Because of the many losses: Dandylion, Debris dragon, Book of Moon, Cold Wave, the Plant Synchro users need to either evolve above their love for the deck that, or incorporate some other ways to let it pop off just as fast and consistently for it to be competitive. There are a lot of variants out there at this point in the format, but as I have my own preference I will go with them. Thus here comes a decklist I think will be played a lot within a month;



As you might see, this variant changed a lot from the previous Plant Synchro decks of our last Format. Of course the March 2011 banlist had everything to do with it, but I personally don’t see that much of a change, in meaning of the speed and the potential of the deck. In our last format the deck had proven to be fast, consistent and even ruthless at times due to the fast synchroing the deck was capable of. Now in the current format we might not synchro summon at the same speed, but Chaos Sorcerer makes up for that loss in my humble opinion. The deck is still just as fast, if not faster and dangerous to face. It will most likely be placed onto the Tier 2 list or Tier 3 until it proves itself once again.


They have just been released in the TCG as a structure deck and yet they have already seen many victories in locals and regionals. The hype is nearly as large as when Gravekeeper’s won the first 3 prices for YCS Atlanta: everyone is checking up on them, trying to find out how to play with and what would be the best build. Because of so many people trying to figure this out, there are many different variants out there such as; Falcon Dragunities, Black Dragunities, Volcanic Dragunities, pure Dragunities, and many more. Now numerous discussions have emerged around the question; “What is the best build so far?”. I myself have no straight answer to that question, although I do have my preference and that is a pure Dragunity deck. A deck like that would be something within the lines of;



As some of you might have seen right away, that is the fact I posted the build with 3 copies of Terraforming. This is due to the heavy fieldspell format we are heading into, for example: Gravekeepers, Geartown Demise, Disaster Dragons (since they might also run Dragon Ravine), your typical mirror match; maybe even Malefics and obscure Six Samurai builds. Something that must have caught attention in this build is double Pot of Avarice, this is due to the fact you dump, search and synchro a lot with Dragunities and thus you fill your graveyard rather quick and easy. Not to mention the Cards of Consonance engine. The deck is fast and has a lot of potential, but unfortunately it has the typical weaknesses for a graveyard based deck and therefore a good player knows how to make the match hard for you game 2 and or game 3. I do not expect this archetype to be Tier 1 but Tier 2 for sure, this due to their massive speed once they pop off and easy synchro summoning into level 6 synchroes and level 8 synchroes. So be prepared to face this.

Something that also caught my eye was that Formula Monarchs and Fish OTK decks are not hit at all by the release of the March 2011 banlist. Of course they lost Cold Wave, but that small loss is easily replaced with Trap Stun or Dust Tornado’s. So let’s take a look at Formula Monarchs first;


This deck is known for its abuse of Formula Synchron and gaining advantage with their Monarchs and Light and Darkness Dragon. The deck is very consistent and because of it being not hit at all, will see more plays than in the last period of the September 2010 advanced format. The deck itself has many weaknesses but a good player knows them as well and prepares himself fully by having a good side deck at his disposal. The deck will probably be Tier 2 or Tier 3, but still a deck to keep in mind while entering an event.


Before we go over to a different attributed deck I wish to warn you about the dangers of the Fish OTK decks out there. This deck is also not hit at all apart from Cold Wave, but as explained earlier it is easily replaced with Dust Tornado’s and Trap Stuns. Fish OTK decks are fast and most of them are consistent, but as any OTK based deck out there they usually have issues with that consistency from which we can take advantage. But before you are able to do that, you have to at least know what they could look like, so here is an example of a Fish OTK deck;


The deck is known for being fast in its set-up and OTK by the effect of Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth. If you can put a stop to Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth, you basically stop the deck in the first game of the match. But then again, you could take safer approach and target their graveyard set-up: Treeborn Frog + Fishborg Blaster. It is that precise set-up allows the Fish OTK players to keep having the tribute requirements needed for Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth and (or) synchro for Formula Synchron to gain a fresh draw. The deck won’t see that many plays I presume, although if you face it and they catch you being off guard you are pretty much done right there. The deck will be below Tier 3 or will be Tier 3, not sure about that myself.


Regarding those people that think Blackwings have rolled over and died, I devote this part of the article to you. Blackwings have been hit a lot of times when a new banlist came out and have survived every single one of those banlists. Although now, it might be harder than ever for Blackwing players to continue topping Regionals and YCS events. For the loss of 2 copies of Kalut and 1 copy of their Icarus Attack many people have resorted to a Vayusworn or Vayu Turbo type of Blackwing deck, which is actually doing quite well for now. They abuse the second copy of Card Trooper that became usable due to the March 2011 banlist. I myself prefer the Vayu Turbo Builds over the Vayusworn decks due to my own experience with both decks and their consistency. So here is a Vayu Turbo build you might come across;


Due to the mill effect of Card Trooper they are able to generate a lot of speed and a lot of aggressive plays while maintaining advantage over their opponent. This however is also done in the Vayusworn builds out there but they use the Lightsworn engine and Chaos Sorcerers in those builds, which I find less consistent than the decklist posted above. I do not expect them to become a Tier 2 deck but you never know with Blackwings, seeing they have survived so much already.

Of course you will see many other deck types out there, for example: Scraps, Chaos Demise, Chaos Stun, Flamvell, Infernities, Machina Gadgets, Gadget Stun, Light Beat, etc. But in my humble opinion, they haven’t lost as much as the above mentioned deck types. Nor will they become Tier 1 or Tier 2 decks in my opinion. But as some of you might have noticed already, I left out 1 specific deck because it deserves its own special place within this article: Disaster Dragons.


Disaster Dragons have never been gone but mostly overlooked by the majority of Yu-Gi-Oh! Players throughout the World. The deck has only lost 2 copies of Book of Moon which can easily be replaced with Forbidden Chalice. Not that Forbidden Chalice stops your opponent from swarming the field with Synchro Monsters but it does allow you to manipulate your own Light and Darkness Dragon and save it from a premature destruction. But why does this deck deserve a special place? Two words: Chaos Sorcerer. Due to Chaos Sorcerer's unlimited status as of the 1st of March 2011, a lot of people will make Chaos variant deck types and thus meaning a lot of Dark and Light attributed monsters, which also means a lot of Light and Dark attributed special summons. And what other deck has the perfect main decked answer to that than Disaster Dragons?
So without further ado, a decklist provided by yours truly;


As said before this deck has lost the usage of Book of Moon and is now able to replace its loss with Forbidden Chalice. But that is not all that has changed this deck. The Dragons have gained a 3rd copy of Gold Sarcophagus, which adds that extra search power to get the big moves going and thereby pop off. In spite of their huge powerhouses and Light and Darkness Dragon which takes at least 2 good resources away, the deck still will be below Tier 3 and won’t see that much plays, although you guys need to be ready if you happen to face it.

Now that you have seen some example builds of the decks most likely becoming Tier 1 and 2 you guys need to prepare and get your own game on. So good luck with all that and I hope you all enjoyed reading this article.

Very nice article TDP! It was informative and I like that you included decklists. I'm going to have to disagree with you on that last part where you mentioned the decks that won't be Tier 1 or 2. I think many of them have a HUGE chance at being Tier 1 or 2, particularly Light Beat (which is already Tier 1 IMHO) and Scraps (which are already Tier 2 and with only 1 book to stop it can launch itself to Tier 1 IMHO). Even Flamvells could be at least Tier 2...I've been using them lately and kicking the crap out of meta xD

Light Beat, wont be that great irl and the meta and tiers are determined in real life YGO. Scraps might be tier 2 but i dont see them reaching that level for any longer due to more agressive builds rising to the top of Regionals and YCS's. Same goes for Flamvells btw, only flamvells have something else that scrap and loight beat dot. Rekindling, but ones the meta has been truely formed Flamvell wont be Tier 2, nor will they been seen a lot until the end of the format i guess.

Also non Tier 1 and 2 decks are kicking the crap out Sams, Dragunities, GK's and Sabers because the decks havent been perfected yet ( at least that is what I am seeing and judging from all the different variants out there of each deck ), ones they do get "perfected" tier 2 or lower decks will have a very very very hard time against the "perfeced" meta.

You're correct about a lot of what you said. The decks you said will be top will be top, and the meta hasn't fully formed yet, and lower tier decks will have a tougher time when it does. But I believe that this format, even more so than last format, has the opportunity to have many different decks be able to top. If a good player pilots what used to be Tier 2, I think they can top YCS's. We already see that happening with Flamvells and other not-usually-meta-decks topping. Will that happen when the meta fully forms? I don't know. But in my opinion, it COULD happen if people played other decks besides gk and sams. sams in particular will still be the boss, but Konami has balanced this format a LOT better than it has in recent times (remember Tele-dad and Zombie formats when nothig else realy topped but them?)
ps: why doesn't this have more comments, this article is awesome!

I say this because at the times a formats meta is fully set most creative decks or below Tier 3 decks are not that good versus the meta. For the soul reason the meta has been set and "perfected". Although it might of course change due to the last YCS and the current Regionals. Which obviously I didn't hold into account while making this article, since I simply just cannot look into the future.

Thanks for the appreciation for the article, since it is highly appreciated by me myself and I. I also wouldn't know why not more people like this article on SDA but I guess people just don't like it that much. But I assure you my upcoming article will have a lot more comments... .lol