Hello everyone! Renren here, back with this week's Tech Report! YCS Indianapolis was the first big tournament of the AGOV season, and it kicked things off to an incredible start! Super Starslayer TY-PHON - Sky Crisis and S:P Little Knight have proven to be staple Extra Deck monsters for nearly every deck as expected. Many new faces managed to climb through the ranks and power through the event, and many interesting developments were seen throughout multiple decks. Without further ado, let's dive right in!
If you wish to see the topping lists for the event and other details, feel free to check here!
Isolde the Firefighter!
Deck: Diabellstar Rescue-ACE
Notable Tops: YCS Indianapolis Top 16 / YCS Indianapolis Top 16 / YCS Indianapolis Top 32 / YCS Indianapolis Top 32 / YCS Indianapolis Top 32
Diabellstar Rescue-ACE had an impressive showing in YCS Indianapolis and is shaping up to be THE deck to beat in the current metagame. The Sinful Spoils package has made it incredibly consistent and has a lot of space for defensives in either hand traps or Power Spells.
Top players are still trying out various packages and often have different ratios when building the deck. This can be seen with the number of Diabellstar the Black Witch used or their particular combo setup. (Terahertz, Baronne + Savage with Jet Synchron, or a small Infernoble lineup). With that being said, let's talk about the most popular and performing one this entire weekend. I present, the Isolde package. The play is quite simple, as various 1-card or 2-card combos can get to it. Let's go with Rescue-ACE Air Lifter for this example.
NS Air Lifter to add EMERGENCY! and use it to SS Rescue-ACE Hydrant tributing Air Lifter. Use Hydrant to search Rescue-ACE Turbulence and Special Summon it by banishing both Lifter and Emergency. Use its effect to set 4 backrow, and then since Hydrant is on the field activate ALERT! to add Rescue-ACE Preventer to your hand. Summon out Preventer by banishing Alert and then link both Preventer and Hydrant for S:P Little Knight. This will trigger Preventer's effect, which gets you back the banished Air Lifter.
Lifter and S:P can now go into Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights! Isolde's first effect will add a copy of Rescue-ACE Impulse to your hand, and then the second effect mills "Infernoble Arms - Durendal" to summon Infernoble Knight Ricciardetto. Ricci will revive the Air Lifter, and we're almost there. Make Baronne de Fleur with Ricci and Turbulence, and a 2nd copy of S:P with the remaining warriors. Don't forget to banish the other S:P in the GY to prevent enemy Dharc the Dark Charmer, Gloomy attempts.
The most optimal way to do this line does require 2 S:P which can be a big hurdle for budget players. If you only own 1 S:P, running Ferocious Flame Swordsman is a fine alternative but makes you vulnerable to certain hand traps in the middle of the combo. If you don't own any SP, you can run a 2nd copy of Ferocious as Baronne + Impulse and the Rescue-ACE setup is still potent in its own right.
Fusion Mercenaries
Deck: Diabellstar Rescue-ACE
Notable Tops: YCS Indianapolis 2nd Place / YCS Indianapolis Top 16
Rescue-ACE is no stranger to Fusion monsters, as it has occasionally called upon the talents of Mudragon of the Swamp with Proxy F Magician and Instant Fusion for targeting protection or Rank 4 lines with Puzzlomino. Both options were popular sightings for sure, but they're definitely the norm. These two Fusion monsters, on the other hand, are something else.
Millennium-Eyes Restrict is an interesting Instant Fusion option that helps insulate against multiple hand traps, notably Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, and can put up a lot of pressure either going first or second with its partner Relinquished Anima. Being free S:P fodder that can trigger its initial banish is also a huge selling point for the card. Ryhan Jabri took it one step further and incorporated a Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians package to revive it and keep its disruption permanently, or climb into a surprise Accesscode Talker in order to finish the game alongside Turbulence or Preventer.
Gilti-Gearfried the Magical Steel Knight is an absolute unit that can shred through the S:P Little Knight + Baronne de Fleur board thanks to Super Polymerization, providing a beefy answer that's difficult for Rescue-ACE to deal with in the mirror. Its negation against targeting and double attack will often put the opponent in a tough position. Because it trades so well with both CONTAIN! and EXTINGUISH!, it's much better to just float and survive through it rather than answer it with your backrow, as it eats too many resources.
Not only that, because of S:P's prominence in the metagame, smart players can take advantage of it by leading with Air Lifter and then using Super Poly to deal with the threat and also dodge certain targeting effects. Gilti-Gear can proceed to pick apart the rest of the board with a little bit of help, even being able to banish the Spell that summoned it to boost its ATK, making it so it has a wider array of applications other than just the mirror match.
Cats Strike Back
Deck: Purrely
Notable Tops: YCS Indianapolis Top 4 / YCS Indianapolis Top 32 / YCS Indianapolis Top 32
Purrely is managing to hold its own in the current AGOV environment, though it's definitely a tough one for it. Opposing S:P and Rescue-ACE's interruptions are quite devastating, and people playing D.D. Crow to hedge against other matchups has caught the cats in the crossfire. Still, a couple of talented players were able to take it pretty far into YCS Indianapolis.
Lyrilusc - Ensemblue Robin has once again returned as a premier Rank 1 for the deck, with players even making sure it's part of their endboard. This is because of its powerful ability to bounce monsters that get Special Summoned, allowing the Purrely player to buy turns, force an early Battle Phase, and try to push turn 3 with Epurrely Happiness. When paired with Summon Limit, the minimal setup is extremely difficult to play through. It helps that both Delicious and Happy Memory are able to protect either card from being destroyed if needed.
Another adaptation they've been doing is to make use of Dimension Shifter and/or Gravekeeper's Inscription! While not a total turn-ender against Rescue-ACE, with the help of another Hand trap, you can really shut them down from getting to a crazy board, letting you sweep it up as the turn passes back to you. it also eases up the matchup against the likes of Unchained and the various Tearlaments variants.
Honorable Mentions
Archnemeses Eschatos had a ridiculous run this weekend in Thomas Durnil's Top 16 Diabellstar Rescue-ACE list, locking opponents out of the game left and right! It's been made much more accessible with Infernal Flame Banshee searching Nemeses Flag. It'll be interesting to see if more lists pick up on it.
Blackwing - Sharnga the Waning Moon is a newly sighted tech for Spright that's an excellent extender going first or second, allowing the deck to be less worried about its Normal Summon getting removed outright. It saw play this weekend in Spright Tri-Brigade, with Sharnga being a Winged Beast giving Tri-Brigade Kitt and Tri-Brigade Kerass extra fodder to use for their effects. Unlike Blackwing - Gust the Backblast, it doesn't conflict with Kashtira Fenrir and even works with the card, making the two great partners. Its potential has yet to be fully explored, as Sharnga being a Tuner opens up lines for powerful Synchro monsters such as Herald of the Arc Light to help against tough matchups.
Sinful Spoils of Subversion - Snake-Eye is a decent sideboard option that allowed players to make the Diabellstar package a lot stronger going second, now having on-demand removal to help play through boards and out troubling monsters.
Realm Eulogy is a great 1-of for Mannadium released in AGOV, allowing you to play through targeting and removal interactions, acting as a potent archetypal defensive card.
Cattycorn returns once again as a Side Deck tech for Sunavalon Rikka, allowing players to search the dastardly Necrovalley to hinder Rescue-ACE and absolutely cripple Tearlaments and other GY-based strategies.
Scrubbed Raid saw heavy play in Johnny Nguyen's Runick stun list, being incredibly effective at protecting Runick from opponents trying to OTK them, as its effect to end the Battle Phase is not once per turn. It also lets the deck play around Skill Drain by sending Geri the Runick Fangs to the GY allowing you to add back Runick Fountain to your hand.
Conclusion
That wraps up our look into the various tech cards for this week! I hope this article's given you some nice insight as to what's going on in the post-AGOV metagame. Until next time folks, Renren out!
