The Yu-Gi-Oh! metagame here at Origins 2004 has been steady for Thursday and Friday. On the Constructed side, players have been using tight 40 to 42 card decks for the most part, and though players speculated that Chaos variants and splashes would be popular and dominant, few could have guessed just how popular they would have turned out to be. Over 200 players competed in the two Last Chance Qualifier tournaments, all vying for a place in the Yu-Gi-Oh! U.S. Nationals event. Out of that pool, more than 85 percent of the decks included at least one copy of Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End or Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. Most decks running the two Chaos monsters focused on them, using the traditional support of Shining Angel, D. D. Warrior Lady, and Mystic Tomato to thin the deck and maintain board control while waiting to draw into a Chaos monster. A surprising number of players were smartly pressing the limit of speed by running everything they could to get to the unsearchable monsters asap. Many more players were running Thunder Dragon and Mirage of Nightmare to give their decks an aggressive edge.
The reason? Mirror matches. With so much of the metagame being Chaos-based, the only thing defining one Chaos deck from another is often speed. Speed is arguably the one weakness of a Chaos deck, as builds can often perform erratically depending on what is topdecked. Though Mirage of Nightmare hasn’t been a fan favorite for a lot of players, most Chaos decks were using it in the Last Chance events.
The variable speed of Chaos has shaped the other fifteen percent of the metagame as well: successful and popular Chaos alternatives so far at Origins have been those that can out-speed or out-manoeuver the rest of the field. The most popular speed option has been Machine based decks, since they can reliably claim victory by turn 3 if an opposing player has poor board control in the early game. With Limiter Removal providing huge attack bonuses to Mechanical Chasers, Cannon Soldiers, X-Head Cannons, and Reflect Bounder, the deck can churn out massive quantities of battle damage at unpredictable times, and with Ring of Destruction and Cannon Soldier (backed up by Magical Scientist to provide more tribute fodder) it can also claim wins or create pressure via direct damage. The result is a deadly deck that is often difficult to approach—one that can sweep duels before Chaos, or anything else, can get off the ground.
The popular choice for maneuvering around Chaos has been Zombies; the portion of the field not running Chaos has shown a huge enthusiasm for victory via shambling hordes as the deck has easily claimed the number two spot in popularity. With recursive resilience giving Zombie players the potential to swarm a Chaos player unexpectedly, as well as some of the best topdecking options available to recover from Chaos Emperor Dragon’s effect, Zombie decks can make a strong showing against any archetype provided the all-important Pyramid Turtles start hitting the table early on.
In addition, a few rogue decks have seen serious play by a brave few: Magical Scientist, Earth, Light, Warrior and a few other theme decks saw play in the Last Chance and general Constructed events. Level of play has been high and virtually all players seem to have an excellent grasp of rulings, metagame, and what they personally need to do to win.
Thus far, most competitions have been dominated by Chaos decks. Though Machine and Zombie decks saw victory in a few of the smaller Constructed tourneys on Thursday, Friday’s tournaments were thoroughly cleaned up by Chaos. In the Last Chance Qualifiers, both Top 4 lineups were pure Chaos. Chaos decks, with their big-hitting key monsters and their indomitable maintenance of board control, are clearly the deck to beat in this weekend’s competition.
On the Limited side, players have been doing draft and sealed events with Ancient Sanctuary cards. The metagame hasn’t been particularly varied, as Ancient Sanctuary is so focused on Light monsters, so it’s been skill and occasionally luck that have been determining the winners of the events.
Popular monster choices have been clear. Absorbing Kid of the Sky is a clear favorite, since in Yu-Gi-Oh! Limited play, face-down defense monsters are so common. Whereas Constructed offers a great deal of defensive traps and spells, Ancient Sanctuary doesn’t give players the chance to defend themselves with many cards like Waboku and Mirror Force. As a result players often have to resort to using their normal summon on a defense position monster, which gives Absorbing Kid the perfect chance to claim a kill and use its effect. Since LP gain means so much more in a 4000 LP format than an 8000 LP format, the impact of Absorbing Kid is definitely being felt.
Beyond that, strong defense monsters and monsters with effects that clear the board when they’re attacked have been highly popular. Protector of the Sanctuary has been a first-round pull for many players, and it’s been a deciding factor in many games.
The big bomb in the set is definitely Wall of Revealing Light. In a format where defensive traps are scarce and not many monsters have more than 2000 ATK, Wall of Revealing Light just shuts down games left right and center. Any player lucky enough to draft multiples of it have generally tried to create the fastest decks they can, sticking to twenty cards and thinning what they can just to get to the Wall. Though activating the Wall at a 2000 ATK threshold costs 2000 Life Points, there’s just virtually no way for a player to get through the Wall once it’s going, and if you’re not packing Solar Rays or comparable sources of direct damage, you’re probably finished. Despite the fact that some players have shied away from Wall of Revealing Light due to its cost, it has no doubt been the defining card in the AST limited format.
Overall, it’s been defense that has ruled the con for Thursday and Friday. Whether it’s Chaos’s indignant refusal to leave itself open to attack, plugging the field with Tomatoes, Angels, and Warrior Ladies, or Wall of Revealing Light and Protector of the Sanctuary’s dominance of draft and sealed competitions, it seems as if defense has become the defining factor in the Origins 2004 metagame.