Often the most intricate and telling parts of a metagame are displayed in the unique single card decisions that are prevalent in that metagame. Battle City Amsterdam was a great example of this, as several cards shaped the metagame in ways unseen in other regions of the world.
With a play environment that was generally more liberal with its face-down monsters than other metagames, Nobleman of Crossout was as popular as ever at Battle City Amsterdam. Many players took the concept of punishing defensive play even further by running a single copy of Dark Ruler Ha Des, despite being unable to search for it. The metagame was such that searching for Dark Ruler Ha Des wasn’t entirely necessary—play was often so conservative that whenever a player drew Dark Ruler Ha Des, it was likely to be useful.
Additionally, Fiend decks are popular in many areas of Europe, so a decent amount of Fiend decks were used in the event. While most North American Fiend decks would use Dark Necrofear as the main reason to build a Fiend deck, many players in Amsterdam instead emphasized Dark Ruler Ha Des instead, or chose to implement both themes into a single cohesive Fiend-oriented deck.
Byser Shock is one card that saw testing in North American metagames, but was generally disregarded shortly after the release of Pharaonic Guardian. However, in Europe it seems to have gotten some second looks, and several veteran players played it in Battle City Amsterdam. Though its ATK and DEF are nothing short of hideous, Byser Shock’s effect is a winner, even though Tribute summoning it might not be desirable. Byser Shock is desirable in the graveyard—many players Special summoned it to use its powerful effect without giving up a monster in play. More players in this event took advantage of drawing out spell and trap removal in the early game by committing to more face-down spells and traps than would be considered the global average, providing Byser Shock with the perfect chance for offense that a duelist needed to press a win. In addition, the fact that it fits nicely into Fiend decks was noted and exploited by several Fiend players.
With more big tribute monsters running around than usual, the answer for many players was simply higher attack numbers, and in some cases one Jinzo just wasn’t enough. Though equip spells were a bit more common than usual, Smashing Ground and Fissure were not as popular in this environment as they were in some of the year’s other premier events, resulting in a prevalence of Summoned Skull. Summoned Skull was often more difficult to counter than a United We Stand, Mage Power, or Axe of Despair. Some ambitious players even went so far as to run a Delta Attacker to see if they could pull off a nearly one-hit-KO with three Skulls attacking unblocked. Hard to pull off, but definitely entertaining when it happened!
Premature Burial saw a lot more play than usual for three major reasons. First was its availability. With Call of the Haunted being a scarce card in some areas, and with players coming from such a wide range of geographic areas all across Europe, some players simply found they had to go with the next best thing to Call of the Haunted, which is generally regarded to be Premature Burial.
Second, Premature Burial has always been a favorite of good and not necessarily veteran deck builders, and while many players might snub it for general use (albeit not in specialty decks), the cross section of skill levels represented at Battle City Amsterdam 2004 was such that many mid-level players were present and experimenting with Premature Burial.
The best reason of all to play Premature Burial was the presence of high-level monsters in many decks. Even in the decks of players who would be considered veteran in any play environment, European or otherwise, more high-level monsters were present than would be considered average on a global scale. As a result, many decks had better potential targets for Premature Burial than would normally be possible in North America or Asia. Premature Burial is a pretty good deal when you’re using it to reliably grab something with more than 2300 ATK and a good effect or two, and especially when combined with Byser Shock, Premature Burial was an excellent card.
Creature Swap was seen in many decks, and strayed outside of the usual constrains of Control and Chaos Control, working its way into many Beatdown and Chaos Beatdown decks. Many players were using one or more copies of Scapegoat, so the “I give you a sheep token, you give me your Jinzo,” situation was available to many duelists. In addition, it gave a good answer to the many face-down plays that players made, and it fit nicely into the environment, since many players were running more tribute monsters than a North American or Japanese player would generally see in their metagames.
In addition, Turbo Chaos decks got the usual boost that they would normally get from Creature Swap, using it to give the opponent Mystic Tomato or Shining Angel so it could then be destroyed in battle.
Magic Cylinder saw a ton of play, to the point that it seemed like everyone who was highly competitive was running one. It was a game-deciding card all day long, and its abundance in the metagame has deterred some players who would otherwise begin their first turn more aggressively. Magic Cylinder has proven itself as a metagame-shaping card due to its effectiveness in the early game, despite the fact that more Jinzo was played at Battle City Amsterdam than it was at the World Championships, US Nationals, or Canadian Nationals.
As a slight offshoot, Spear Dragon is seeing slightly more play than it currently does in most other metagames, which is due in part to Magic Cylinder’s influence. Between the increased number of face down desperation plays in the opening turn, and the fact that Cylinder at least negates the cost of Spear Dragon and Goblin Attack Force’s attacks (turning them to defense), Cylinder has given players yet another attractive reason to run Spear Dragon.
Magic Cylinder can be seen as the root of many of the choices shaping the European metagame—the presence of Dark Ruler Ha Des, Byser Shock, and Creature Swap can all be seen as products of Cylinder’s influence, and it’s one of the main factors in the conservative play style that is seen so frequently throughout Europe. Battle City Amsterdam is a great example of single cards shaping the metagame in identifiable ways.