It’s Round 6, and it’s a great time to check out the metagame at the top tables here today. We grabbed the decklists for the top twenty tables for the round and broke down all twenty matchups to give you an idea of what’s dominating here in Atlanta. Check it out . . .

The following duelists were 5-0 heading into the round:

Table 1:

—Maurice Brantley with TeleDAD, featuring two Plaguespreader Zombie and one Necroface

—Joe Arechia with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie

Table 2:

—Mark Vazquez with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie

—Lucien Lemelin with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie and two Thunder King Rai-Oh

Table 3:

—Damian Singleton with Lightsworn, featuring three Plaguespreader Zombie

—Felipe Dejesus with Lightsworn, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie, one Phantom of Chaos, one Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, three Enemy Controller, one United We Stand, one Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, and one Royal Decree

Table 4:

—Chi Hui Ylum with TeleDAD, featuring two Plaguespreader Zombie, one Armageddon Knight, and three Threatening Roar

—Timothy Howell with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie and one Threatening Roar

Table 5:

—George Velasquez with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie

—Da Lee with Lightsworn, featuring two Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid, and two Royal Decree

Table 6:

—Jonathan Gray with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie, one Necroface, and one Snipe Hunter

—Henry Su with Lightsworn, featuring one Threatening Roar, and two Monster Reincarnation

Table 7:

—Victor E. Reinert with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie and two Mind Control

—Yanio Sato with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie, and one Strike Ninja

Table 8:

—Brett Berner with Thunder King Beatdown

—Jesus Santos with TeleDAD, featuring one D.D. Crow (no Plaguespreader)

The following duelists were 4-1 heading into the round:

Table 9:

—Jonathan Barber with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie

—Steven Zimmerman with Prisma Gladiator Beasts, featuring two D.D. Crow, and one Gladiator Beast Retiari

Table 10:

—Wesley Johnson with TeleDAD, featuring two Plaguespreader Zombie

—Luis A. Gonzalez with TeleDAD (no Plaguespreader)

Table 11:

—Gerardo Torres with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie

—Bobby Chambers with TeleDAD (no Plaguespreader)

Table 12:

—Ernest Riches with Macro Cosmos, Featuring two D. D. Assailant, one D.D. Warrior, two Caius the Shadow Monarch, and two Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

—Cody Morgan with Lightsworn, featuring two Threatening Roar (no Plaguespreader)

Table 13:

—Henry K Stevenson with Lightsworn, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie

—Rodney Charles with TeleDAD, featuring three Plaguespreader Zombie

Table 14:

—Dustin Benoit with TeleDAD, featuring one Jutte Fighter

—Sam Ahn with ZombieDAD, featuring three Plaguespreader Zombie, one Cyber Dragon, two Armageddon Knight, and three Destiny Hero - Malicious

Table 15:

—David Harper with Burn, featuring Lava Golem and Caius the Shadow Monarch

—Chris Arantes with TeleDAD, featuring one Plaguespreader Zombie

Table 16:

—Oscar Sandavall with TeleDAD — no Plaguespreader Zombie

—Kirk Rowe with Twilight Zombies

Table 17:

—Michael Lux with TeleDAD, featuring two Teleport and one Plaguespreader Zombie

—Spencer Johnston with Twilight, featuring three Plaguespreader Zombie

Table 18:

—David Efird with TeleDAD, featuring Snipe Hunter, Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, Junk Synchron, and two Cyber Valley 

—Justin Voyles with Thunder King Beatdown

Table 19:

—Shaun Kuchta with Lightsworn, featuring Herald of Creation

—Shawn Duyer with Prisma Gladiator Beasts, featuring three Thunder King Rai-Oh, two D.D. Crow

Table 20:

—Joseph Roberson with ZombieDAD, featuring three Book of Life, three Pyramid Turtle, three Solemn Judgment, and three Raigeki Break (no Malicious, no Teleport)

—Richard Carden with Lightsworn, featuring one Phantom of Chaos, two Cold Wave (no Plaguespreader)

So, some interesting statistics! Of the 40 players seated at the top 20 tables right now, sixteen are running TeleDAD with Plaguespreader Zombie. Six are running TeleDAD without Plaguespreader. The Plaguespreader variant has definitely been more successful (or at least more popular) thus far here today.

Between the eight Lightsworn duelists in the top 20 tables the reverse is true. Only three Lightsworn duelists are playing Plaguespreader Zombie, while five have found success without it.

From there, two dedicated ZombieDAD decks are in the top 20 tables — one is the Japanese-inspired build (but not running Emergency Teleport), while the other is more traditional, not playing Destiny Hero – Malicious or Armageddon Knight. One more duelist is playing Twilight Zombies, a bizarre deck that’s really working out despite looking exceedingly random. One more is in the top 20 with a more conventional Twilight build.

Two Gladiator Beast players have made the cut, while two more Thunder King players have done so as well. Finally, one Burn deck and one Macro Cosmos deck round out the count.

It’s a surprisingly varied metagame. Zombies on their own are underperforming, while the success of decks like Twilight and Gladiator Beasts are surprising given their poor reputations. TeleDAD with Plaguespreader seems decidedly better than Plaguespreader without, though many duelists are only running one copy of the new Zombie. I think we’ll see that change in Shonen Jump Championship Detroit, once the card is easier to get. At the same time it’s tough to tell if the lack of Plaguespreader in the successful Lightsworn builds is an issue of the card’s quality in that deck, or simple availability.

It’s shaping up to be a great metagame with some surprises in store for Day 2, so stick with us as we count down the final three rounds!