JUNE 2008

Analyzing the Meta - Ice-eyes

Greetings, o people of Pojo!
Since the release of LODT, a new metagame has fast emerged. There are three power decks and several other rogue decks being run. Examining tech and the side-deck is key to beating these decks - a well-reasoned side will help enormously, especially in your worst matchups.

The Big Three:

Dark Armed Dragon
Stripped of key cards, the deck has slowed, yet it is still a potent force. The dragon can cause huge momentum swings and the deck is designed to go from being beaten down to having 8000 damage on the table in the blink of an eye. Many matches involving the Dragon see the player of the draconic fiend described by Matt Murphy as a 'homonym to decimation' see the unfortunate opponent of the Dragon taking a stranglehold over the game only to be devastated by multiple dragons.
The deck's key weakness is its reliance on grave manipulation. Though it manages to alleviate this weakness somewhat with a huge amount of said manipulation and the simple fact that if you manage to remove their monsters with, say, D.D. Crow, they're just coming back with D.D.R. or Escape, tech like The Transmigration Prophecy is effective. A very useful tech card for confronting the Dragon is Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. Though few decks are set up to run this now that Gladiator Beasts are eschewing the Mirror for Gyzarus, it is an effective shutdown to the entire deck of the Dragon player.
The other way to stop the Dragon is to stop it getting anywhere near the field. Cards like Crush Card Virus, Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush are excellent at this.

The Gladiator Beasts
The Gladiator Beasts have burst back onto the scene. After winning at Minneapolis, they disappeared, making few waves at Nashville. However, with the release in Light of Destruction of Elemental Hero - Prisma and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, they dominated St. Louis, all of the top 4 running both Prisma and Gyzarus alongside the traditional Heraklinos-based lineup - though some eschewed Secutor.
They have a strange way of being able to explosively destroy an opposing field in the blink of an eye with either insane Test Tiger-based plays or the brutal Prisma combo. For any of you who don't know how this works, it does so like this:
1) Have a Gladiator on the field.
2) Summon Prisma. Use his effect to pitch Bestiari.
3) Return both Prisma (now named Bestiari) and the other Gladiator to the deck to get out Gyzarus.
4) Blow away your opponent's field with his effect and attack directly.
5) Use the effect of Gyzarus, returning him to the fusion deck to Special Summon Laquari and Darius.
6) Darius' effect Special Summons Bestiari from the graveyard.
7) Contact fuse for Heraklinos.

One huge strength of the Gladiators is their dominance over defense-position monsters. Let's say you set a monster on your first turn. Your opponent summons a Gladiator, Special Summons Test Tiger and tributes it to return the Gladiator and get out Secutor. They then ram the Secutor into your monster. They take a little damage and take two free Gladiators, which they then fuse for Gyzarus or Heraklinos.
However, they can be defeated. They have two major weaknesses.
The first is to Solemn Judgement. If you use it on the Contact Fusion of Heraklinos, you've now made a one-for-three trade and taken massive control of the game. The second is the fact that they have to attack in order to do anything. Cards like Dimensional Prison and Swords of Revealing Light are suddenly valid side-deck options.


The Lightsworn
The lightsworn, a new archetype from LODT, are explosive and powerful. Their volatile special summoning abilities allow them to swarm the field effortlessly. If you manage to deal with that, they then drop Judgment Dragon. After a quick blow-up of your field, they have just enough damage to finish off the rest of your life points.
They do, however, have some inconsistency issues. This is shown by the fact that only one Lightsworn deck made the top 16 at St. Louis. Light-Imprisoning Mirror is brutally effective tech, as are the ever-useful options of Solemn and Divine Wrath to back it up. If you look at Jerome McHale vs. Dale Bellido in the final round of Swiss at Louis, you'll see how a few well-placed Counter Traps destroy them, especially Wrath.

Rogues:

Big City
A rogue deck that made few but effective showings at St. Louis, the Skyscraper 2 - Hero City deck can generate easy and clean card advantage with Elemental Heroes Stratos and Ocean. They do, however, have two weaknesses.
The first is identical to Gladiators. They have to battle. If you cut them off from that, destroying their monsters with effects or stopping them with cards like Dimensional Prison when they try to ram Stratos, their deck will eventually fail. Tech like Kinetic Soldier is also effective against such a Warrior-based deck.
The second is an over-reliance on Stratos. If you manage to remove him from play, your opponent will have an uphill battle ahead. Cards like D.D. Crow are therefore very effective.

Counter Fairies
The fairies have an amazing ability to create a setup which you don't want to destroy, knowing that if you play that one-for-four Storm, it's going to get negated and your opponent will draw or blow away your cards. With the release of Honest, you can no longer even attack their Artemis or you'll lose out to the 'best damage step trick ever'. As Dale Bellido found out, you can't even chain an Honest of your own because of the way the chain works.
However, Fairies do have one very obvious weakness - they need their traps. Although they've got a variety of counters, if you set Royal Decree on your first turn and activate it during their End Phase, there's not a lot they can do besides a lucky Meltiel play. Jinzo, though they have answers in the form of Freed and Solemn Judgement, is equally ruinous.

Monarchs
The Old-School Monarch concept has been adapted for the modern age, with Limit Reverse one new card. They've had some degrees of success, with two in the top 16 at St. Louis. However, they're relatively easy to tech against; Pulling the Rug simply ruins this card-advantage based deck. It just aims to create good trades and one-for-ones until they can press their one- or two-card advantage when you're down to nothing. They're only doing so well these days because no-one is actually siding against them.

So, there's a lot to think on here. Side deck options are limited to fifteen cards, so analysis is needed to figure out what to side. Both Mirrors are good picks, things to stop battle or halt it before it can get to that stage can find a spot, Royal Decree seems like a good option. In the end, like your main, the side is just choice with relevance to the metagame of the format and locality.