Pojo.com has just put up an article written by your humble author discussing the current Yu-Gi-Oh! Metagame and its implications for original strategies. Unfortunately due to the nature of the Pojo beast, you’ll have to wait for part two later in the week if the link interests you.
The concept of the big five (or slices of pie) is one that I will constantly reference when discussing deck-building strategy and such. The idea is that Cat Synchro, Blackwings, Lightsworn, Gladiator Beasts, and DARK variants are all relatively well represented in the top tier of tournament decks. You can visualize this by cutting five equal pieces of a pie. As a result of this, they tend to shore up each others’ weaknesses over ten rounds of swiss against a rogue or anti-meta strategy. And thus, it is very difficult for any deck outside of this pie to perform well.
You can see an example of this in the pie chart, where the strong representation levels of the different decks squeeze out everything else in a manner that has never occurred in formats prior. Please read this analogy in tandem with the article linked on Pojo.com. I took the numbers listed on Konami’s coverage of Yu-Gi-Oh! at Canadian Nationals and simply adjusted the numbers to match the U.S. metagame at Nationals. Blackwings were decreased a bit in favor of Cat Synchro (which was originally 10.5% but is much higher now) and DARK decks (which were at 4.5% at Canada but far higher due to various innovations).
When I continue the series of Why X (archetype) Wins, it will reference the strengths and weaknesses of each of the big 5 slices and also point you to which deck best fits your play-style and personality profile.
You can always leave feedback for that article in the comment section below, or send me an e-mail to jaelove@go-ygo.com. Thank you.
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Waiting on hearing about your experiences at Nats
Also, rhubarb is delicious, and I’m not in the least frumpy 
Good article Jae, and I look forward to reading your thoughts on Cat and GB, and Dark Variants (as they’re the decks I run).
I find myself wondering if anyone should care about the apparent demise of the anti-meta deck given that there’s enough variety between the top decks (and variants therein) to satisfy practically every player or playstyle.
I agree that it is kinda ironic that a diverse metagame actually means that “anti-meta.dek” cannot rise above tier2. Little City or Stun or whatever oppression+drain deck you are running has to be able to deal with Glad’s combat tricks, Blackwing’s swarms, Cat’s Synchros+ColdWave, LS’s sacks, and DrainDAD’s CCV.
in mtg they define a balanced metagame as a field where multiple decks are competitive and you have aggro decks beating control, control decks beating combo, and combo decks beating aggro. In ygo though almost every deck is either a combo deck or a aggro+control deck because there is no cost system requiring you to focus on one style or the other. and then konami takes steps to screw combo decks and the players are left with only aggro+control decks to use.
(of course these days mtg decks have actually started looking like ygo decks with popular builds of 5CC and 5CB able to simultaneously play all the best control cards as well as all the best aggro cards)
While I agree with your main point (attributes of the top 5 decks pushing out anything else), I think the pie analogy was a bit flawed. The analogy makes it very easy to understand, but I just didn’t like the way you said “there isn’t enough room for other decks”. You should stress that the Pie comes directly as a RESULT of the Strengths/Weaknesses and the Nature of the Top 5 decks. I don’t know, maybe it was just me. I got your main point and it is an important one, I just don’t know if the pie was the best/most accurate way to represent it.
I don’t know if I got my point across here…
No that definitely makes sense LL Cool. The blog post is actually an extension of the article. The article and part 2 actually delve into the individual decks (and why anti-meta/original decks are doomed to fail against their combined might). I should edit the OP to better reflect this.
It was quite a good article there but you need to think more into the future. Skill Drain Plants won the Japan Nationals 2k9 and are very strong, can go above lightsworn, bw, cat sync, gb. The question really is:
How well can the “Top 5″ decks cope under skill drain?
lightsworn = pretty poor and the deck itself is just mill, mill, mill. Effectively siding in ls is primarily pointless as most of the new choices will get milled.
blackwing = not too bad. effective swarming can save them,
gb = poor due to lack of tag lol, gbs beatstick is easy to beat
rescue cat = not too bad, they can survive on combos
Then, it isn’t long until september…
with dark strike going for a limit, POSSIBLY JD, rescue cat – maybe that pie will open again for some more innovation as the tcg is still miles behind the variation in ocg “metagame” *cough* dare i use the word. Don’t get me wrong, I like this type of state where there isn’t one deck dominating (yes, teledad i’m talking to you) with 4-5 decks dominating but I foresee further innovation in the months to come.
Good article once again.
Thanks Francis. BTW we were all duped by the Shriek hoax. It turns out that the decks winning/placing in Japanese Nationals were actually DARK and Synchro cat variants, not Plant Drain.
what a qt pie
I personally think Airbellum and DSF should go to 1, and just leave Cat and Monk as they are.
@francis, i agree with jae in that any1 who doesn’t think antimeta is utterly unplayable right now (unless you consider gbs and some dad varients to be antimeta) is doing it wrong. LS sides in anticipation of LIM and Dfissure so they obviously will be prepared for the antimeta matchup. Also, opp doesn’t rly hurt them due to access to lyla, ryko, and celestia so they have a good chance of outspeeding your hitting skill drain. They also can have turn 1 setups (draw 2 with garoth, mill multiple gardnas, hit multi wulfs, sarc) that cannot be countered by antimeta. Cat synch, although weak vs drain, generally sides decree and trap stun and can still outpower you. GBS can get around drain pretty easily through book of moon shananigans and they will play as much as or more defensive cards than an antimeta player. However, opp really does hurt them. BWs shit on all forms of antimeta as icarus in 3s is seeing a ton of maindeck play and they can bring in delta crows for games 2-3.
also can’t figure out how to edit my post but antimeta gets shat on by bth which is seeing so much main deck play atm.
Airbellum has no need at all to go to 1. Don isn’t broken, this isn’t either. Because he’s a tuner doesn’t change that.
The fact that Cat is a +1 is what’s bothersome.
Hey JAELOVE. I’ve been playing Yugioh since metal raiders. I stopped for a few years and I am getting back in. I’ve chosen to play my long loved monarchs. Do you not think that monarchs can hold a strong place in the game? The diversity of their destruction power combined with their fairly consistent field presence make them a fairly formidable opponent do they not? While these top 5 decks all have the possibility to OTK- like you said in your article- if their OTK attempt is thwarted by a simple Threatening roar, royal oppression or (though I don’t like to use them) solemn Judgement are they not left wide open for a retaliation from the opposing deck? Granted I am a little rusty on my game but I have been reading a lot of articles (including your own) and I think that I would be fairly prepared to face these decks with my own Monarch build.
I have never jumped on the mainstream build of decks. Even back in the days of CCC builds when BLS-EotB was making people scared to NOT use him, I have been stomping them down with my faithful Anti-meta Monarch builds. I don’t fear the current top-teir decks becuase they are very common and 80% of players play them. Doesn’t it make them more vulnerable? If it is at the point in the game when a player can play Mind Crush and randomly call a card and get it RIGHT then perhaps these decks aren’t so scary. I know what is coming, so I can just prevent it, right?
What I am trying to say is that I feel that the true top decks are those that fly under the radar and can ADAPT to fit every format. Top tier decks that depend entirely on 1 or 2 cards are very vulnerable to being mangled by the banlist. Rescue cat decks just wouldn’t work or would be slowed down to the point where they would be as vicious as a kitten (I know) if summoner monk were to bite the dust. I’m never discouraged over the same decks being played everywhere and dominating the metagame because once you know how to beat them, you know how to beat them all. Now granted it takes skill to do that. I am not saying that I have this skill to do it and up to this point, I haven’t seen any anti-meta decks frequently topping at big tournaments. However, I encourage people to stand out against these decks. I know that come the next banlist, though I might lose a Caius or Raiza or two but my Monarch deck will never fully be destroyed by the banlist. It will adapt and continue to thwart the current “top tier decks” what ever they may be.
I’m sorry for this rant on your blog but I hope you read it and at least take what I have said in to consideration.
You’re friend,
GeNo- (Of Pojo forums)
there should be decks taking advantage of the OTK approach this format has
I can see the chart with Black Feathers and DARKs combined taking over 50% of the list by the end of the year, personally.
Black Feathers will just see a continued increase in use. Crow’s an anime character, his cards sell well to the kids, the players, and the assholes who don’t give a damn about anything except power. To add to that, his cards are as splashable as hell, his archetype is variable as ****, and as long as 5D’s continues(which oughta be at least another year or two), it’ll continue to grow in size and versatility. More users+more cards=more versatility+more wins=more fame=repetitive growth.
DARKS just gain power from Black Feathers. If other variants die out, they can just merge with the Black Feather archetype. If not, they always have the widest array of options.
Gladial Beasts require skill and allow for the most control options, true. However, they’re becoming increasingly unwieldly from what I can see, and I can’t see them lasting much longer in the game, especially due to the Black Feather way of slaughtering everything through sheer numbers and force growing popular.
Lightsworn…better not lose Judgment Dragon to the banlist, and they’d better be able to hold up against the increasing number of cards that pose a threat to them.
Cat Synchro…okay, who can honestly see this lasting for another year?
All in all, BFs will stay an important part of the game(and the anime) for as long as 5D’s lives from what I can tell.
This approach did make a lot of sense and it’s the combined strengths and natures of each of those five decks that garners such vast percentages at larger premier events. That “constant pressure” is definetly a factor that makes it difficult for anything outside of that circle of archetypes to make it to the end as I expected that at Nationals.
But Cat wasn’t a problem till Airbellum came. Plus Cat helps out other decks like gladiator beasts which don’t need to get hit by the list anymore. I’ve also seen Cat used in plenty of other rogue decks like Crystal Beasts.
The problem, Reaper, is that Gladiator Beasts don’t need the help that Cat/Samnite provides. One can argue they don’t even need Gyzarus (or War Chariot). They’re already good enough just swinging for advantage through battle and Secutoring into Herk (in normal, slower formats without so many broken cards).
That’s the thing, those five decks (in addition to housing boss monsters) have access to “enablers” of varied levels which as a collective unit, make them as tough as they are. Depending on their cost/requirement/summon type, it’s easy to identify its worth to its deck. For example, take Lightsworn:
Your high level enablers such as Celestia, Lumina, Honest, Aurkus, and Charge of the Light Brigade are cards you don’t want to see come down if you’re on the opposing end since they need very few resources to get going and provide the most momentum.
Low level enablers aren’t as threatening but still have some worth to the field. These cards likely improve when more cards are present on the field. Garoth, Wulf, and Lyla are examples of this.
Because of these varied levels, the top 5 decks can perform well by winning through the presence & momentum that either the boss monster delivers or the enablers provide.
It may be late to ask this but at what point did you put together this theory? I read on Yugioh Forums a quote from you on duelistgroundz saying “Any deck can be top tier assuming it has a decent advantage engine” and that the format is “really wide wide open”. (Whatah should remember these quotes as he posted responses on Yugioh Forums). It has been a few months but the restriction list hasn’t changed since and there have been a minimum of events/packs since then due to the breakup of ude/konami.
I put together this theory after Nationals. There were many problems with that post I made on DGZ.
The first was Blackwing and Airbellum had not been released yet (and I don’t follow the OCG so I was completely unaware). The second is that my success against LS using Tele-DaD made me underestimate the deck completely.
So basically the power creep of cards since the dawn of this format has made the theory.
I was gonna ask about how the hell does Macro get placed in a 2% with the right build base you could still kick major ass with it