The Meta and the Banlist: Kings, Space, Hell, and the Circus!

After a lot of tournaments, tops, and general activity in the children's card game we all know and love, the meta has finally been set more or less in place. In case you're under a rock and don't know what that meta is, let's go over that!

1.) Monarch variants, with 28.40% of all tops in the TCG
2.) Kozmo variants, with 27.16% of all tops in the TCG
3.) Dracopal, PePe, and Odd-Eyes Performapal Pendulum variants, with 16.54 of all tops in the TCG
4.) Burning Abyss variants, with 16.30% of all tops in the TCG
5.) Qliphort, with 5.19% of all tops in the TCG

Other decks that have topped include: Yosenju, Majespecter, Merlantean, Magician, Igknight, Beatrice Turbo, and Counter Fairy, which all cumulatively make up 6.41% of all tops in the TCG.

So with the top five decks and some rogue decks in place, we can begin to look at what make these decks meta.

Monarch: There are two main variants of this deck, those being the Domain Lock variant and the Extra Deck variant. Domain Lock, as the name suggests, aims to lock your opponent down, namely out of the extra deck. The Extra Deck variant actually uses the extra deck, unlike the Domain Lock variant. Some of their key cards are Ehther, which allows easy disruption with Kuraz and/or Stormforth; Pantheism, which acts as their main form of draw power; Erebus, which acts as more efficient removal; Edea, which is the main recruiter of the deck; Eidos, which keeps the engine rolling; and The True Monarch, which acts as recycling and tribute fodder.

Kozmo: Basically, you summon small stuff, get big stuff, summon the big stuff with the small stuff, and then float with the big stuff. There are two variants of this deck, being Pure Kozmo, which is more control-oriented, and Fire King Island Kozmo, which is more combo-oriented. Some key cards are Dark Destroyer, which is their main boss monster; Dark Planet, which is a more recent addition that acts as another boss; Tincan, which acts as your main searcher; Kozmotown, your other searcher and recycler; Dark Lady, which is your main stun monster; and Strawman and Storm Troopers, which let you recycle and form most the combos in the FKI build.

Pendulum: These basically all follow the same theme, regardless of variant: summon things, keep summoning things, and use the extra deck with the things you keep summoning. Most cards that aid this deck have already been hit, but a few that haven't been touched yet include Pendulum Sorcerer, which acts as your set-up card and searcher; and Lizardraw, which serves as a search engine.

Burning Abyss: Most of these variants are Phantom Knight variants, which use the other archetype to aid in access to the rank 3 engine, or more pure variants which often tech anti-meta factors like Kaiju. The main cards that haven't been hit yet/are widely considered to need a harsher hit are Dante, their main extra deck boss monster; Cir, their reborn of the deck; and Fogblade, which is more or less a searchable Fiendish Chain.

Qliphort: Basically, this deck does one thing: stuns. All the variants have run Card of Demise, and all of them are more or less floodgate.dek. The main cards that could be considered for hits are any of the floodgates in the deck, or Card of Demise, a draw power card that works wonders in slower decks and anti-meta.

I don't claim these are all the best cards in the decks or the ones most liable/worthy to be hit, but they do tend to be the most often discussed in some form or another. With that being said, it all boils down to one question: what do you guys think should be hit? Feel free to suggest cards I didn't mention. The above descriptions were more or less a starting point for those unsure of what they might hit. I'll restrain from posting my own detailed opinions for now, to keep the initial responses as unbiased as possible. That being said, I'll be glad to see what you all post! And as always, happy dueling. ~

Keep the Monarchs safe! We've waited YEARS to be on top--we deserve to stay there! Monarchy! Monarchy!

So here are my preferred hit ideas for the decks in the Meta:

1.) Monarchs: For the Monarchs, I personally say we should follow the OCG in this situation and cut down Domain and Pantheism to 1 each. My reasoning for this is mostly centered around how doing this will not only cut the Domain Lock down a peg by giving them only 1 copy so they would need to focus on protecting it if it was a true Lockdown based build. Domain Lock is honestly a bad situation as you need to rely on your hand with MST or TT to get rid of it before you opponent goes off too much. The other hit to Pantheism would be good as well as not only will their main draw card cut down but one of the main searchers will also be restricted as I normally have seen Monarch players grab 3 of a particular card (Tenacity, Domain, Stormforth, etc...) so that we are forced to choose that particular card for them. So I feel hitting those two will certainly slow the deck down.

2.) Kozmos: I'd say the biggest hit is on Dark Destroyer mostly because Destroyer itself is ridiculous. A boss monster you pops a monster on summon, is immune to being targeted, and can bring in more ships and Psychics when destroyed. Other than that, probably Tincan or Kozmotown could get hit to get the deck from getting its own pluses and hopefully slow the deck down.

3.) Pendulums: From this, I mostly see a hit for the Pendulum Sorc who may be Dante in disguise. Either way I have seen him in action and it is scary how powerful he is with a pop 2 cards and search two Performapals to get out more draws from the Lizardraw and also a search through Monkeyboard. So the OCG is right on this hit when the limited this bastard. Lizard can stay imo because I feel like Pendulum Sorc is the chief problem and is what will be the final nail in the coffin.

4.) Burning Abyss: While I have admitted this is one of my favorite decks, I will fully admit to its power. Dante at least could get hit though idk about Cir being banned like I have heard others say they wish for him. I'd say a limit is fine for him as well. As for the varients, PK Fire can stay though a hit to Fogblade may be needed coming up since it does what is does best in locking down an effect and attack. I just do not know what else to say on this one except that.

Finally, 5.) Qliphorts: TBH, I never expected this deck to come back like it has. But that shows the power of Card of Demise. This is a touch call for me since I like CoD for the bonus draw power for my decks like Aroma and S-Knights. But even still I'd say floodgates in the deck are a good hit potentially like Lose 1 Turn and Rivalry.

So that is my 2 cents on the Meta and what I want to see changed.

Pantheism: Painful choice and POG in one card? No. It limits card design.

Dark Destroyer: Eh, it'll slow them down but they mostly make rank 5s if it's the FK Island deck. But DD needs a hit, same for Kozmotown.

Tincan: is a 1 of in FK Kozmo, and a 3 in Pure, so that honestly, needs to be hit because of the pure amount of BS this single card pulls.

Pendulums are fine. BA are fine.

Demise: Fuck you. This card has to be hit. They run it in Monarchs AND Kozmo too. It's a free +2.