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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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| The Nationals Metagame: What's Missing? |
| Jason Grabher-Meyer |
| June 26, 2004 |
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Sometimes the most interesting part of a major tournament’s metagame isn’t what is being played, but what isn’t being played. With the wholesale usage of Chaos and Chaos/Control in the U.S. Nationals 2004 metagame, there isn’t much space left for other decks. There’s a tiny bit of Machine, a good amount of turbo One-Turn KO decks with Magical Scientist, and a Last Turn deck or two, but really other than that there hasn’t been much variety. Which begs the question, why? With so many options proven time and time again as being viable, why did several archetypes fall by the wayside? Let’s look at some of the major decks that were virtually unrepresented at Nationals.
Zombies: Surprisingly, the deck that saw so much play on the Thursday and Friday leading up to Nationals has seen absolutely no play in a main deck incarnation at the event itself. In a hand control/Chaos-happy environment like this event’s metagame, Despair from the Dark and Fear from the Dark just beg to be played. It’s possible that Zombie players are so accustomed to using Ancient Sanctuary cards that they’ve under-estimated the worth of a Zombie deck without AST cards, but frankly that’s the only explanation I can find for why Zombies haven’t seen play. Regenerating Mummy is great, especially in a metagame overrun by Chaos Emperor Dragon, but the deck can certainly win tournaments without it. Zombie decks can really out-manoeuver Chaos decks simply due to the range of options they can present for themselves. D. D. Warrior Lady can cut off a Zombie deck at the ground level by removing Pyramid Turtle from play, but with a bit of side decking skill the deck can easily overcome that. The mysterious lack of Zombie decks is completely boggling.
Warrior: The missing Warrior decks, however, are not boggling. The metagame is one skewed towards either massive maintenance of board presence (Chaos/Control) or a blazingly fast win (One-Hit KO/Last Turn/Machine), and though Warrior decks are fast with the over-extension, they’re hard pressed to take an early win against decks that run monsters like Mystic Tomato and Shining Angel. Against such a deck an early-game over-extension without effect-based monster removal is worthless: all that ends up being accomplished is that the Warrior player has an empty hand and a full field ripe for Raigeki or Dark Hole, and the opponent has a conveniently thinned deck. Against a Magical Scientist One-Hit KO deck a Warrior deck is going to be slightly weaker than others simply because they don’t play Torrential Tribute as often as other decks do (since Torrential would often create card disadvantage), and against a Last Turn deck the small pings of damage just provide helpful and safe progressions towards Last Turn’s low-LP condition. Warrior decks weren’t a good choice for this metagame, and it’s not a surprise that they weren’t played.
Archfiend: Archfiend decks are another deck type that, by all logic, should be seeing play in Nationals. Considering that Chaos and Chaos/Control decks have such a dependency on Mystic Tomato and Shining Angel, Terrorking Archfiend is a beyond-impressive card. Always an asset, mini-Balter is an even better card than normal in Nationals’ metagame: with so many Tomatoes, Angels, Morphing Jars, and Cyber Jars providing speed and thinning, Terrorking could shut down the speed that’s currently the driving factor in this event. If an Archfiend player was to run Dark Necrofear, a Chaos player would definitely think twice about dropping that Emperor Dragon or Luster Soldier into play. Unfortunately virtually no one seems to have taken up the cause of Archfiends. Why? Probably because it’s just an under-rated deck on the whole. Not many people run Archfiend decks despite their strengths, mostly because they haven’t been nearly so explored as other decks have been. Archfiends might be extremely potent in the future, much like how Scientist One-Hit KO decks are enjoying a resurgence in power now, but at the present Archfiends just aren’t having their moment in the sun.
Direct Damage: Direct Damage decks have so many options for different methods of dishing out the hurt that they’re undeniably powerful in concept. The problem is execution. In a hyper-aggressive, speed-driven metagame like Nationals, a deck focused on winning via direct damage just doesn’t have the consistency needed to go the distance. Can they come close? Definitely. But they just don’t quite have the level of resiliency required for an event at the National level.
Gravekeeper: Necrovalley is probably the best Chaos-hosing card in the environment right now aside from Jowgen. Unlike Jowgen though, it can be very difficult to deal with when it’s protected, and every serious Gravekeeper player is experienced at keeping it on the field. Why Gravekeeper decks didn’t have much representation at Nationals is a mystery; it’s the one deck that has a solid, resilient, sustainable element that shuts down Chaos entirely. A player running a Gravekeeper deck could have very well taken the day here at Nationals. Though they stumble in the mirror match, there wouldn’t be any mirror matches, so it wouldn’t be a concern. The lack of Gravekeeper decks was a surprise to most onlookers.
Manticore Exodia: With all the “I got my combo, I win” decks floating around the Nationals metagame, the lack of Manticore Exodia is a bit mystifying. Personally, the only explanation I can see is lack of specific experience: Manticore Exodia decks take a huge amount of specialized skill to play, so they’re very difficult to pick up and thus most players don’t bother. A tiny percentage of the playing population can successfully run a Manticore deck, and I’d speculate that the threat of Chaos Emperor Dragon destroying multiple Exodia pieces in a single turn (to which the deck has no real answer since it topdecks poorly) is the main reason. In reality, this isn’t truly a big issue, but it was probably enough to scare anyone who did briefly consider running the deck.
Other decks, such as Legendary Ocean Water, Turbo Fire, Earth, and Beast simply aren’t proven enough in premier level tournaments, and thus weren’t safe bets compared to the decks that did make the cut for Nationals. In some ways it’s a bit unfortunate that the field wasn’t quite as varied as it could be, but competition has been heated and exciting regardless. Mirror matches are everywhere, so those that have done well have truly been the most experienced and best prepared.
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