Bolt SpiderGlorious Victors Starts Small
Zenet is the first archetype from Deck Build Pack: Glorious Victors, and it has proven its worth, as some OCG players have been seeing success with it using an engine with the new Call of the Haunted archetype from this year's Maze of Muertos booster set. As the main card of the engine, Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts has been seen being run at 3 copies per Deck. This card lets you reveal it from your hand to Set a Call of the Haunted from your Deck or GY, and you discard 1 card afterwards, mainly Pumpking itself. This is because the Call of the Haunted that was Set by this effect can be activated that same turn, and the new Pumpking has an effect when it is Special Summoned, which lets you Special Summon 1 Level 6 Zombie monster from your Deck that doesn’t have 1950 ATK, but you can only Special Summon Zombie monsters for the rest of the turn. There are plenty of Level 6 Zombie monsters you can Special Summon with this card from Changshi the Spiridao, Great Mammoth of the Netherworld, Officiating Reverie, and the newest addition Hublot the Dark Directory of Death (YGOrganization Translation) from Beyond the Brave.
The second archetype from Deck Build Pack: Glorious Victors, Raise Moon, has some players go out of their way to get the highest rarities of Magical Mallet, a card that is an option to play in the Deck. With every effect of theirs getting triggered when they are drawn (which can miss timing so your Upstart Goblins won’t work here), this card shuffles any amount of cards from your hand to your Deck, then you draw a number of cards equal to the number shuffled. This will trigger plenty of Raise Moon monsters to gain additional advantage, as the theme does not like searching in the slightest. There are plenty of other cards you can run that can give you an advantage, like Sacred Sword of Seven Stars, Reload, and even Hand Destruction if you want to force the opponent’s hand even more.
There isn’t much to talk about for our third theme from Deck Build Pack: Glorious Victors, but there are plenty of cards that Trirealm Rift can use. Emergency Teleport happens to be one of the most important cards for the Deck since it allows you to Special Summon any Level 3 or lower Psychic monster from your hand or Deck. This can Special Summon any of your monsters to help trigger their mandatory on-summon effect, which banishes the top cards of your Deck to get the ball rolling of making your second Deck around the banished face-down cards. The Special Summoned monster will be banished at the End Phase, but you can Tribute it away for your higher Level Trirealm Rift monsters if needed so you can gain additional cards that are banished face-down.
While each theme shares the new spotlight, over the next few months, we will be seeing more of what these themes can do. With a new OCG Forbidden & Limited list slated for the start of next month, hopefully it shakes their game up enough to put one of these three Decks at the top of the charts.
The Future of the Meta
With Magnificent Monsters having a huge impact on the TCG, players flock to pick up copies of the brand-new Dark Magical Curtain for the Light and Darkness Ritual Piles. Being a 3-of for the Deck, it allows both players to Special Summon a DARK Spellcaster monster from the hand or Deck, but neither player can activate their effects that turn while they’re face-up on the field. This allows Decks like Yummy to incorporate a copy of Witch of the Black Forest in their lists to then Link it away for an Artemis, the Magistus Moon Maiden, thus triggering the effect of Witch to search for a monster with 1500 DEF or less, which makes this card a one-card starter. One card players are searching for with this combo is Droll & Lock Bird, which is great for countering Decks that are heavily reliant on searching. This card is heavily hyped, and the price has been rising and falling constantly over the past week, but soon we will see where this price settles after YCS Paris, France, next week.
With the import of Dark Magical Curtain, Dark Magician Girl the Magician’s Apprentice, has been cleared off the market to the point it has hit well over the $80 mark but now has settled around the $68 mark. This card is one of the few cards players have opted to use with the Light and Darkness Ritual Deck in order to search for Gandora-G the Dragon of Destruction and use its board wipe effect, which you activate by paying half your LP. This destroys as many other cards on the field as possible on the field, and if you do, banish them, then you Special Summon another copy of the Dark Magician Girl the Magician’s Apprentice, from your Deck. Being a Level 6 DARK Spellcaster, she can also be used to Special Summon Dark Magician of Destruction, which lets you add 1 card that mentions Dark Magician, or Dark Magician itself, from your Deck to your hand to extend your plays or help with your board.
With the advent of Ritual Summoning and Tributing being highly looked at right now through Light and Darkness Ritual, Mitsurugi, and Clown Crew, some players have been looking at Mask of Restrict as an option in their Side Deck. Preventing any form of tributing is massive in the current game, as some Decks cannot function without it. Only seeing some play is fine, but maybe soon, it could be the forefront of the meta going forward if things keep heading the way they are.
Another card that is seeing some play in the Side Deck that has seen some sales and is being played against Light and Darkness Ritual and the plethora of floodgates being used today happens to be Trap Eater. This Level 4 DARK Tuner sends any Continuous Trap Card from the opponent’s field to the GY, and this is not an activated effect, so the opponent cannot use their Mind Shuffle’s effect to tag their Ritual Monster out for the next one. Being a Level 4 Tuner also has its merits, since you can use it with a Level 6 LIGHT or DARK monster for Chaos Angel or a Level 4 monster for the many Level 8 Synchro Monsters players are using today from Ecclesia and the Dark Dragon, Stardust Dragon - Victim Sanctuary, and Psy-Framelord Omega.
The next coming weeks will make or break the player base as we’re currently waiting on a new Forbidden & Limited list to shake up the metagame. More players are taking a break from the game at the moment as things keep getting piled together into the new 60-card pile Decks.
Edited and co-written by Angryjon