Current Tier 1 Decks

Now we have a lot of decks that have been introduced into this current meta that decks are either overrated or undermined based on their abilities to swarm the field and perform an OTK.  Right now, these decks are the most prevalent and are the so called Tier 1 decks that dominate the meta.  When I say dominate, I mean you can see them anywhere and any place no matter which part of the world you go to.  In the TCG, we have:

1. Six Samurai
2. Tengu Plant
3. Fish FTK
4. Gravekeeper
5. Hero Beat

These decks are so prominent that you can literary predict the way the opponent will run the deck once you see the first card he plays and this makes countering such deck infinitely easier!  For example, if you want to kill Six Sams, just put in Kinetic Soldier and knock them dead!  In fact, all these decks are susceptible to anti meta counters such as Dimensional Fissure etc.  In the OCG however, these decks prevail:

1. Black Feather
2. Debris Doppel Dandy
3. Light Dual
4. Six Samurai (again)

If you observe carefully, you can find discrepancies between these two totally different formats.  As Michael (from DeathAspect) pointed out, Konami has completely wrecked the game and the potentials of other decks such as Jurrac etc are completely eliminated due to their inability to swarm fast enough.  I feel that this should not be the case as there are people who want to try other decks but the second they bring these decks to a tournament, they are almost immediately wiped out and these decks will later be just flung to some random corners in their room.

Konami really should do something about this broken format.  Ban the cards that are disrupting this game play (Solemn Warning, Giant Trunade etc) and don't release cards that might do the same.  I see a lot of bloggers saying that heavy storm should be unbanned but I don't feel like it.  I mean, yeah, obviously heavy storm is much more balanced than giant trunade but then again, it provides opportunity for an OTK.  I don't like that idea and I think players should not rely on OTK but rely on their skills of interpretation and intuition.  For example, your opponent sets 2 cards facedown in their backrow and you have a good monster in your hand that can gain you your victory.  Then, you would need to interpret the situation and decide whether it's a bluff or not and act accordingly, that should be the case of playing Yu-Gi-Oh! competitively.  It's not about who can produce an OTK the fastest but rather, who can deceive the opponent and make use of the situation to his own benefits.  That is what we call a game of wits!

Furthermore, I honestly think that there are some decks, with the appropriate support, can shine.  We can already see one shining.  That's the T. G. deck.  T. G. is completely balanced and they allow a fun gameplay since you always have a chance of turning the tide around based on the card you take from your deck and the options in your hands.  Some other notable mentions are:

1. Dark World
2. Jurrac
3. Gusto
4. Ghiski

Let me elucidate you on the potentials of these decks and what can Konami do to make it more playable.  First up is Dark World.  As mentioned earlier in my posts, Grapha is indeed one of the most powerful and broken boss monsters ever released in a structure deck.  As long as you can discard it into the graveyard by a card effect, it's an automatic +1 and summoning it out later makes it a +2.  Not much boss monsters can generate such a huge advantage.  Even for Master Hyperion, it only fetches you a +1 when it hits the field but whether it can resolve its effect successfully or not depends on the cards your opponent plays.  I think grapha should be semi-limited to balance out the Dark World deck.  Konami should really include "Dark World Corridor" into the deck.  Most of the time, Dark World players lose the game because they are not able to discard the dark world monsters in their hand albeit 3 Dark World dealings, card destruction, 2 Dark World Lightnings and morphing jar.  It's just too situational, so this deck can at most be a Tier 1.5 to 2.

For Jurrac, I can see a lot of potentials with Evolvo monsters being released.  As dinosaur monsters, this deck can make full use of fossil dig and generate huge advantage by getting destroyed or destroying cards.  They can set Jurrac monsters as the Vanguard that protects the evolvo monsters while the evolvo dinosaurs form their strategies.  I played against Jurrac players before and was a bit disappointed by the lack of support by Konami.  This deck can easily outwit Dragunity which, in my opinion, needs more tweaking by Konami too.

Gusto and Ghiski operate on the same basis.  Search your deck for the required cards and form a combo to wipe your opponent out.  The only drawback of this supposedly fun decks is the cards are all Duel Terminal cards making them extremely arduous to procure and not many players have the monetary support to get these cards.

I understand Michael's frustration when he says that Konami has totally destroyed the game they created.  I am gonna start playing Magic The Gathering and see what's the difference between these two games and why so many YGO players switch to MTG.  Until next time, see ya~