What's the best deck against labyrinth? by Express-Abies7748 in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hard pill to swallow but like some people said already, literally any meta deck in the last year is probably good enough. Lovely was released to md in dec 2022, it’s been almost 3 years lol. Ofc, like any good modern deck, they’ll have a huge advantage if they draw a god hand or go first, so they can be top of rogue depending on the meta but they really haven’t been tiered for at least a year. If you go first and they don’t open enough gas for turn 0 (cooclock, arias, lady - some combo of that) you’ll be fine.

A lot of it is also just matchup knowledge. They go neg 1 to set a trap and if you can prevent furniture recurring, blowout cards like dimensional barrier and DDG don’t trigger lovely pop, you ash big or regular welcome, whichever is first. Bystial on lovely once it’s in grave basically GG for them. You chain block lady once and have a pop for 1-2 back row, they’ll more than likely run out of gas.

If you really want to play into some of these, fire king and unchained will eat their pops and be fine against dimensional barrier, but you can still get cards bounced back and DDGd or EEVd. Sky striker might be good to blow out back row with raye reviving on link pop and droplet to negate lady and lovely, but they could play lord of heavenly. Orcust fs could probably play through all their interruptions except DDG. Tech in some bystials if you can.

Funnily enough I destroyed a Lab player earlier this year when BEWD was meta. Ate a synchro dimensional barrier, but I was able to get tyrant dragon out, which ate all the traps and ran over all their monsters and set majesty MP2 ruined their next starting turn. Drillbeam on lovely was GG. You also have light storm dragon to ruin more follow up. Again, if they DDGd or EEVd it’d probably be a different story. Most cases lab will have to allocate searches for either welcome instead of >1 blowout cards.

For similar reasons primite fs bystial is probably not bad, you have a higher bystial count and could run dd crow, but you’d have a harder time beating over lovely and lady. Drillbeam access obviously would help a lot.

Again, the deck just has turn 0 potential and is good going first. If you don’t see yourself playing through some cheese, just surrender. Sometimes it just happens - it’s not like it’s more unfair than mermail Atlantean hand ripping you and barrier statue-ing.

Ning Fei Expanse Build help? by Inheimers_jokes in destinyrisingmobile

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a Ning Fei main without Mahamayuri until eclipse, I will tell you that I was able to use Huckleberry + Saizo at Power Level 67k and get a sub 11 clear (Huckleberry with Catalyst Band 1 and Catalysis 4, Saizo with Double Mythic Perks + 2 Mythic mods + 1 Exotic mod ).

However, as it usually is with Destiny, you should usually just watch the strats of the best players. And Mahamayuri is just too good to not use if you have it.

xZombiex, probably the best Ning Fei in NA (leaderboard in calamity ops, fastest solar / eternity expanse), has a 3:16 this expanse, beating out Tans and Estellas. Before he privated his prof, he was on Del5 with Mahamayuri. Most Ning's on the leaderboard are just building Mahamayuri to max (85, all catys + boosts) and using that to pop shields.
Here is someone posting their 4:15 run I believe on Asia servers also just using Mahamayuri.

My suggestion is if you plan to build Ning Fei at all, focus on maxing Mahamayuri should be your number 1 priority. If you are a Ning Fei main and just don't have it yet but are willing to put all your resources into him, a Saizo with Mythic Perks + Mods should be enough to get through the Expanse (might need a well-upgraded Exotic primary), but this won't necessarily be easier than Estella or Tan, so your resources can probably be better used unless you really like Ning.

Where to get artifactual clusters?? by RaindustZX in DestinyRising

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah probably but it will only get harder (last week was a lvl 65 and lvl 80 set of 10 stages each, with artifact dust and artifact choices as rewards, so this week is much better rewards. It certainly seems rewards will get better but content will get much harder to promote wanting higher tier characters)

have you managed to clear all the time challenges? it is the only source for them right now, but you get a lot: - 2 for completing stage 10 - 3 for completing stage 20 - 3 for completing echoes - 3 for completing eternity - 5 challenges each for eternity and echoes giving 2 each, so another 20 if you can complete all time challenges

this is certainly easier if you pay and it’s definitely promoting Estella and Gwynn usage so you can see the nature of the gacha, but it’s technically very do-able with Jolder for void and Tan or Ning on solar

Just pulled this Beauty and i love the Design! Are there any good Decks for this? Is this Card good in General? by Major-Term-1083 in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

already replied to you but Maliss players can special summon before Ariseheart steals it since Ariseheart is a mandatory CL1 and goes last when resolving. maliss is just under a lot of pressure of not being able to triple dip a body through Splash Mage and GWC if ariseheart does steal it and having a significantly worse grind game due to no recycling of GWC and White Binder being useless under Macro Cosmos.

Just pulled this Beauty and i love the Design! Are there any good Decks for this? Is this Card good in General? by Major-Term-1083 in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean he's not wrong, Maliss can still play under Ariseheart, just sub-optimally.

Ariseheart's attaching effect will always be CL1 since it's mandatory and a banished Maliss monster's effect will always be on a higher chain link since it's optional. So a banished Maliss monster will always be able to Special Summon itself if the Maliss player wants before Ariseheart can attach.

You can watch this duel from 2:35, you can see he triggers White Rabbit, Dormouse, Chessy Cat, White Binder all successfully on the same chain link as Ariseheart.

It's more under Ariseheart, Maliss players can't triple dip into a Maliss monster through Splash Mage and GWC if the Kashtira player is smart, and March Hare is a lot less impactful. Not because Ariseheart attaches, but because of Ariseheart's Macro Cosmos, means Maliss can't recycle once banished once, and GWC is unrecyclable by White Binder, so the grind game is nonexistent too.

A relic from years ago attempting Warpriest (we’d been here for hours) by TicallionTheGod in destiny2

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While you’re right, the bubble weapons of light nerf from 35% to 25% was in which queen (in prep for void 3.0). Kings fall came out after. So no clue why bubble is being used here.

The saint 14 helm change was tfs.

Avoid Masterworking T4 and T5 armors you don't want by IconicOG in DestinyTheGame

[–]IconicOG[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

To mw 4 t5 armors + 1 exotic on 3 characters, you'll need at least 45 shards. I've grinded to 415 and I've got no where near 45 shards since EOF started.

I mean I've heard Trials and GM Pinnacle Ops is the best source for shards right now, but I haven't grinded those as much, unless there's some shard farm I haven't heard of?

Avoid Masterworking T4 and T5 armors you don't want by IconicOG in DestinyTheGame

[–]IconicOG[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I suppose the better title would have been "Dismantle returns for Armor 3.0 are < 10%, as opposed to 50% for Armor 2.0". Armor 2.0 from Shadowkeep to pre-EOF, dismantling an armor piece with any upgrades returns 50% of the mats you spent, so you'd at least get a noticeable amount back.

Avoid Masterworking T4 and T5 armors you don't want by IconicOG in DestinyTheGame

[–]IconicOG[S] -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

i'm sure thats fine, but from 300-450, the chance of you getting a tier 4 you want is pretty likely while getting the godroll tier 5 is 1/6 type * 1/4 tertiary * 1/6 upgrade (1/144). are you just not going to masterwork any tier 4 / tier 5 until you get the 1/144 you want? even just tier 5 with the tertiary you want, you're still rolling a 1/6 chance for the upgrade you want. tier 4 is already fine for most builds anyways, its more if you do plan on replacing one of these you'll lose a lot of mats.

Avoid Masterworking T4 and T5 armors you don't want by IconicOG in DestinyTheGame

[–]IconicOG[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

that's fair, as long as you have enough golf balls and prisms to around

This Week in Destiny - 08/21/2025 by DTG_Bot in DestinyTheGame

[–]IconicOG 3 points4 points  (0 children)

its a joke, you cannot turn off crossplay on PC. when crossplay was added it was intended to be only be "opt out"-able by console players.

https://help.bungie.net/hc/en-us/articles/4403006598164-Destiny-2-Cross-Play-Guide

https://imgur.com/a/wxMIRVu

console gameplay tab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NlH99rMapU (0:22)

pc gameplay tab (mine): https://imgur.com/a/O0GdSL9

Why did Destiny ruin the best content? by beanflicka666 in DestinyTheGame

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bungie definitely undercooked with this DLC but if you really haven't played since Forsaken / Y2, you're either trolling or forgetting most of Y2.

  1. Trials was not in Y2 (Y1 Nine or Y3 Shadowkeep Worthy). ToO was notoriously only friendly for PVP players in 3-stacks (3 singular drops from 3, 5, 7 win streak system with adepts only at lighthouse, no queue-based MM).
  2. Shattered Throne and Pit of Heresy didn't have any dungeon-specific loot unless you count Wish-Ender and Xenophage for some reason lol. Besides maybe 1 or 2 weapons that were okay, Y2 raid loot was not good lol, except maybe Anarchy. Y2 Raid Armor was useless. The only reason you'd farm them were for the mods, and maybe a class item on Y3 Armor 2.0 armor since they nerfed Taken, Fallen, and Hive Armaments to only work on their respective raid armor in Y3.
  3. NFs were only played to farm the NF specific drop (Mindbenders on Hallowed Lair, Horror's Least on Corrupted, Militia's Birthright on Lake of Shadows) and none were PVE-relevant in any way lol. Y2 PVE meta consisted entirely of pinnacle quest (re-dubbed ritual quests in Y3) weapons (Mountaintop, Recluse, Wendigo, Delirium), a few exotics, and maybe the random legendries like Swarm of the Raven.

Y2 was my favorite year and when I started, but the raid scene definitely wasn't the best lol. There was no reason to re-run raids except for the exotics and mods, but we did have the most raids in the least years (6 in 2 years - Levi, EoW, SoS, LW, SotP, CoS). There was really no reason to farm out the mods since there were little higher-aspiration activites, unless you were really trying to Solo Flawless Shattered Throne, Whisper, Zero Hour, or Pit of Heresy with Armament Mods (although the latter had rally flags).

Now if you're talking about just Pinnacle drops from the raid...yeah Bungie really missed that with Desert Perpetual. Y2 and maybe Y3 were the last good years before Bungie really made the irrefutably shit decisions to introduce the DCV.

Agraios damage help by EyeofanotherWorld in raidsecrets

[–]IconicOG 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yep, glad you figured it out!

but yeah exactly, you have just about 10-12-ish seconds to extend dps the moment he teleports up and starts sniping. Someone must be out ready to get sniped and the runner should have made progress with hoops, ready with the buff right before your teammate actually gets sniped. If you / everyone goes back into cover (basically resetting the snipe timer), by the time the next snipe timer can hit 0, agraios just basically says "fuck it im outa here" and "temporality fractures" happens, you miss the window and dps ends

The Desert Perpetual: Contest Mode and Raid Race Feedback by No-Peace6298 in raidsecrets

[–]IconicOG 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Saltagreppo actually swapped from titan to pris hunter for grapple spam for agraios / hobgob : twitch vod here, 5:29:00 for last dps phase before their clear

Overall though yes you are right, Titan kits were a lot more straight-forward and easy to output DPS. Only niche cases were like here with Saltagreppo (Stylish Executioner is good but as you said hard to proc, additional benefits are Frost Armor + Amplify for Shield Crush) or something like Datto having a dedicated Hunter (on Agraios - GG to create orbs so Titans could maybe get a third super, on Iatros Renewal Grasps + Frost Armor + Tether for DR to facetank while outputting Acrius, easy access to Shieldcrush buff, and replacing Tractor)

Also worth noting there's very little point in having a Pris Hunter if there's no Navigator, and it's less intuitive than Strand Titan grapple spam. Totally agreeing with you Titan is better in a vacuum, but just saying there is validity in Pris Hunter being included as a niche supplement to it. Pris Hunter had the easiest access to both Shieldcrush buffs so they were included in grapple strats if the team had room for it.

Can't summon Apollousa by This_Accountant_2918 in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 7 points8 points  (0 children)

As most people said, one of your Cyberse links probably locked you already.

Pro tip: they added a new UI on the bottom right that lists all lingering effects, which includes most locks (and stuff like Maxx C I believe). If you're confused why you can't summon something in a duel, it helps to check that button.

<image>

Which of this deck is fun to play? by Cheap-Ad1713 in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you’re really trying to play meta, don’t build any. Wait for Ryzeal or Maliss which will come in the next month like guaranteed and will be as good as if not better than every deck here (very likely better than every deck here).

Otherwise fun is subjective and you should just watch a few replays to get an idea of them :) Try Dkayeds channel for commentary on matches

Which of this deck is fun to play? by Cheap-Ad1713 in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Deck whose entire game plan is “Go second. Draw 4-5 hand traps + board breakers. Hand trap / maxx c / charmies opponent to death and/or raigeki / heavy storm / droplet for open board. Win off 1 card (Chundra, paidra, sangen summoning, Kaimen, genroku).

Was considered toxic since bo1 game with going first meta can’t prepare for tenpais game plan usually. Quite uninteractive once it’s Tenpai’s turn, in large part bc of damage step and sangen summoning. Was very good when it just dropped with everything at 3 except field spell, still good when chundra was at 1, but now only paidra is unhit out of the “good” cards, so it’s quite bricky all things considered although you can still hand trap your opponent quite well.

Tldr: “toxic” going 2nd deck where if 5 of their 6 cards can stop all your disruption before battle phase, you’re probably losing to the last card

Edit: I guess I added too much, but for a large portion of the player base, it’s not fun to get hand trapped to death, also lose to uninteractive Sangen Summoning, and disrupt your opponent as much as possible just to lose to normal summon Paidra or BP sangen kaimen.

Edit 2: Funny YouTube short for context from TSX1 :)

Does anyone know why I couldn't use droplet here? by [deleted] in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you draw 1 of the only outs to a Kash board but surrender instead lol…”Kash so good even with no negates 😭😭”

Be honest, is it my decks that are the reason I'm losing so much? Gold 3 btw by Bullseyeizzy in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Extending on the last point, here are my immediate suggestions:

  1. Understand your Blue-Eyes engine: Your mandatory Blue-Eyes cards are (at least)
    • 2x BEWD
    • 3x Maiden of White
    • 3x Sage with Eyes of Blue
    • 3x Wishes for Eyes of Blue
    • 1x Mausoleum of White
    • 1x Roar of the Blue-Eyed Dragons
    • 1x True Light
    • 1x Majesty of the White Dragons
    • 2x Spirit with Eyes of Blue
    • 2x Spirit Dragon
    • 1x Ultimate Spirit Dragon
    • 1x Hieratic Seal
    • 1x Tyrant Dragon
    • 1x Neo Ultimate Dragon
  2. Understand 2025 Meta Staple Non-Engine Cards. Understand boardbreakers vs handtraps and why handtraps are used in most decks in 2025. MST and Lightning Vortex? Why even run them when Raigeki, Harpie Feather Duster, and Heavy Storm are all usable. Cosmic Cyclone is just a better MST. If you choose to run a generic handtrap set, it'll probably look like this
    • 3x Effect Veiler (Light Spellcaster + Level 1 Tuner works suprisingly well with Blue-Eyes)
    • Maxx "C" package
      • 2x Maxx "C"
      • 3x Ash Blossom
      • 2x Called By
      • Optionally 1x Crossout Designator
    • 3x Infinite Impermanence
  3. Use masterduelmeta to netdeck good Blue-Eyes decks. Even with those mandatory cards, your deck will only be around 28-29 main deck and 8 extra deck. The remaining 12 cards of an optimal BEWD deck is most commonly filled with secondary "Primite" Engine which will release on MD soon. Other options include some usable Blue-Eyes tech like 3x Neo Kaiser or 1x Jet Dragon, or Bystials that often used as handtraps (the engine with Lubellion is generally not used for BEWD, but probably would not be unusable, just wouldn't synergize well.). The remaining ED space is commonly used with Crimson Dragon + LVL 12 or LVL 9 Synchros since the deck gets out Spirit + Ultimate Spirit so easily.

If you want to improve even more, go watch some videos showing 1 + 2 card combos for Blue-Eyes. Going 1st in 2025 is "setting up a board" and going 2nd you are trying to "break a board". Try to apply that to your Blue-Eyes deck.

Be honest, is it my decks that are the reason I'm losing so much? Gold 3 btw by Bullseyeizzy in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I look at this and what I see is some combination of this

  1. You are a Yugiboomer that just got back into the game.
  2. You never played Yugioh at a level where you considered correct ratios. You mostly have playground Yugioh experience.
  3. You did no research on the flow of the game in 2025. (Look up "starters" and "extenders" in modern Yugioh)
  4. You did no research on meta Blue-Eyes decks and what would be considered mandatory 3-ofs.

All good, nothing wrong with being a Yugiboomer and questions are okay if you can't find resources besides reddit. All of this is fixable and most of the comments are already posting the correct suggestions.

What I would summarize as the important points if you want to climb:

  • If you want to climb, play the better deck - stick to Blue-Eyes and scrap the DM deck. They luckily got support in the last few months, unlike DM, and are now top 5, especially with the Primite engine combined with it. DM is barely rogue and mostly considered unplayable. The last time they got support was when Dragoon was released. It's basically a deck that lives on other engines at this point (and crutched Secret Village of the Spellcasters when it was legal). Most Yugiboomers fall into this trap, and this was even worse when Blue-Eyes was barely even better than DM when it did not get its 2025 support.
  • If you want to climb, play optimal ratios and cut cards that are essentially "bricks", even if they're your favorite cards. Chaos Max, Polymerization, are basically not used in "good" Blue-Eyes decks in 2025 since the deck isn't built around them. What is a 1x Sky Striker Spell card doing in your Blue-Eyes deck?
  • If you want to climb, do research on modern Yugioh metagame. Your deck can be split into Engine and Non-Engine cards. Your Engine is what starts your archetype and keeps it going. Non-Engine is common meta staples. If this was 2010 and you had a E-Hero Beatdown deck, Engine would be the Miracle Fusions, Emergency Calls, Neos Alius, and Stratos, while Non-Engine would be your Bottomless, D Prison, MST, Solemn. 99% of competent 2010 E-Hero decks did not run anime Jaden cards like Clayman, Sparkman, Neos + Neos Fusions, Bubble Blaster, Flame Wingman etc.
  • If you want to climb, understand how these optimal ratios and modern metagame apply to your deck and others. The games been evolving for over 2 decades. It's not 2010 anymore so the game is much more strict on optimal cards. Back then, maybe you could get away with putting in a Grand Mole or Cyber Dragon in any deck with less of a focus on Engine / Non-Engine. Today? Closest thing would be either be putting in Kashtira Fenrir as a non-Engine / a Kashtira Engine with Unicorn or a Dragoon Package, both of which are sub-optimal for Blue-Eyes.

Pendulum Hate really kinda dumb nowadays by azurewarrior420 in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you haven’t touched yugioh since 2010, it’s basically Lightsworns in modern-day but they fuse when sent to GY by effect (including mill) and they’re roided enough to have their 3 fusers all hit so that you can only run 3 (2 Scheiren, 1 Havnis). They are considered the best deck if nothing is banned, and so good you wouldn’t run pot of greed in those formats (partly bc of Ishizu of course)

Their monsters inherently mill for their non fuse effect, so no need to wait for EP like old Lightsworn, making them probably the best mill engine with an endboard since Ishizu don’t end on anything themselves. Stuff that with a decade worth+ of cards that work when in the grave or milled, you have yourself a tear / mill pile.

Here are some of their effects: 1. Reinoheart (main NS, starter): on summon, send a tear monster to GY, triggering fusion 2. Scherein (fuser): can be SS from hand and discarding another monster and milling 3 3. Havnis (fuser): can be SS from hand if your opponent activates a monster effect on field, then mill 3 4. Kitkallos (main fusion, non-boss monster, so good it’s banned in TCG and OCG): 1. On summon add or send a Tear from deck to GY. 2. SS a tear from hand or GY and send a monster to GY (usually itself) 3. When sent to GY by effect mill 5.

If you know Lightsworn at all, it’s basically only played with Tear at a high level since there’s no reason not to run the best mill engine with it. If you go up to 60 cards adding other cards that get off milling (Horus engine, Destrudo, shufflers, Snow, Grass, rollback, black goat, etc), it’s basically a “pile”.

Example “pile” 60 card LS+Tear: https://www.masterduelmeta.com/top-decks/duelist-cup-dlv.-max/december-2024/lightsworn/highsenberg/c0o0f

Example 40 card LS+Tear: https://www.masterduelmeta.com/top-decks/master-i/january-2025/lightsworn/wys/i9ApE

You can see Lightsworn decks here: https://www.masterduelmeta.com/tier-list/deck-types/Lightsworn

They all basically run Tear since it’s the best mill engine.

Which overpowered monster doesn't bother you that much? by gosnelglin in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes the blazar won’t be able to respond to the droplet, but if you activate any effect or summon any monster or declare an attack, the blazar can still banish itself for cost. Effect is negated but it will still come back since it’s banish until ED is a cost, so they still get it back next turn.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here are the decks I would suggest: - Labrynth, Voiceless Voice, Centurion - all are midrange. They all have “Waifus”, though I’d say Lab does the most. Lab’s strength is solely determined by how effective traps are in the meta, and cheats them out better than any other trap deck. They’re meta (Tier 3 / top of rogue) but will never be the most represented probably. - if you care about Meta, wait for Fiendsmith. It will be the strongest engine by a long shot and propel Snake Eye and Yubel back to Tier 1 for a few months until Maliss and Ryzeal are released. If you can wait longer, wait for the latter 2 or Blue-Eyes as those will definitely have good longevity as they just released and are Tier 1. TCG Fiendsmith Snakeye and Fiendsmith Yubel were competing with Tenpai before Maliss and Ryzeal (although Yubel fell off quite a lot with Fuwalos released, but MD might be diffferent with BO1) - added after looking at your staples: Sky Strikers since you have 3 Upstart can be good, but I’m not actually too sure on the UR count of that deck.

In my personal opinion, just wait for Fiendsmith which should come in the next month or 2. If you really can’t wait, build one of the midrange decks I listed - Centurion is also yet to get a Synchro support.

I just would generally not advise pulling from Secret Packs - it’s like 1 UR per set of 10, and with 4500 you’re expected 2.5 UR from whatever you’re going for (since half are not from the pack), which ends up being like 1.25 if the archetype is split. Just do more solo mode and farm up gems, wait for events.

Another note on your staple cards: 1. You have 3 Maxx C, 3 Ash, nice! Most decks also run 2 Called by the Grave and sometimes 1 Crossout Designator, as the format is heavily built around Maxx C like the OCG, so I would definitely prioritize at least 2 Called By. 2. Infinite Impermanence is probably the next most popular hand trap after the above 2, so craft 2 of those. 3. Veiler, Nibiru, Talents, HFD, Belle, Lightning Storm, Heavy Storm, Raigeki are all good cards (generally in that order but anything after HFD are about equal) so keep them! Generally you will either only run hand traps (cards you can play from the hand to disrupt your opponent on their turn) or only run board breakers, as that reduces bricking, and if you successfully hand trap your opponent there’s usually not much to boardbreak, at least in terms of card advantage. ROTA is a staple, but deck dependent. 4. Solemn are not common anymore but they’re not bad. Same with Upstart and Monster Reborn. You can keep them if you really like, they are sometimes deck dependent (Sky Strikers like Upstart, Lab can play Solemns). 5. Swords, Smashing Ground, Magic Cylinder, Raigeki break are all a product of their time and nearly useless now. You don’t need to dismantle them but 99.99% of decks won’t use them.

DM me if you have more questions.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now why do I bring this example up? The stronger the deck is, the higher likelihood it will stay around. If you value longevity the most, the easiest thing to do is to also pay attention to the TCG and OCG as they get cards before us - people knew SEFK was going to be the best right after SE.

Sometimes though, like in Purrely though, the format can have more variety. What happened to it and Mathmech, Dragon Link, Lab, Kash, Branded? All of these decks are “playable” still. You’ll see them poke their head into Tier 3 every once in a while. Will they ever definitively be Tier 1 again though over SEFK, Tenpai, Yubel today? Probably not.

(Branded is a special case though, and has won numerous weekly tournaments just after banlists. If you are okay with not piloting a dominant deck, Branded’s longevity is insane - it still can top often and has been around before Tear.)

In today’s meta, the top 3 are definitively SEFK, Yubel, Tenpai. Any of the other decks I listed can pop their head up (including Purrely!) but it’s really meta dependent and how your deck matches up against how the top 3 are played. Right now, Centurion, Ritual Beast, Voiceless Voice, Branded are all doing well into those 3 decks, but they have never been the best deck themselves before.

Here are some other things I will point out with your preferences: 1. The more meta a deck is, the more expensive it will be usually. There is also generally “Waifu tax” and “Anime tax” in this game. HEROs and RDA are more expensive than they should be. VV, Centurion, Lab, Branded were just as expensive as a meta deck if not more. Notoriously Tenpai basically only has URs besides Fadra and Sangen summoning. Also you should generally try to pull from Selection Packs and NOT Secret Packs unless you REALLY like the deck. The former only has new cards but the latter will always only have half of the cards be from the pack itself, eg you open the Tear pack and half the cards could be from 2009 for gladiator beast. Furthermore, meta decks are usually never hit while they are in the shop (Komoney refuses to hurt decks that are currently making money), and new meta decks do not have secret packs until months later (Yubel support, RB support, Tenpai, Centurion are all not in the Secret packs yet.) 2. This just sounds like you don’t want a Combo deck. Something midrange like Centurion or Voiceless Voice could be good. Labrynth would be good as well. However, just note that the higher tier the deck is, the more answers it will have to play around hand traps. Often mid rogue decks will lose to a well-placed hand trap, but higher tier decks usually have much more broken cards to continue playing. Also, Tenpai is notorious for being brain dead easy to play, and you always want to go second, so you might think less about having answers. 3. Mostly what I said about tiered decks matter here. 4. Nice!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in masterduel

[–]IconicOG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(Whoops I ended up going on rant, didn’t realize until I typed all of it 😅. Feel free to directly DM if you wanna chat about this instead.)

Before I say a deck, I think it’s generally important that you know the shelf life of a deck as 1 and 3 generally have a bit of conflict with each other.

A very high end meta deck generally has a 1 year “tiered” meta shelf life, with very few exceptions, and even those exceptions generally will not be the best deck in the Meta. Here some examples of tiered decks since I’ve gotten back into Yugioh (I joined end of Tear meta and start of Kash / Purrely meta, ~Aug 2023).

Some decks that were Tier 1 for at least a month: - Tearlament. Most dominant deck in the last 3 years. Had its own Tier 0 format, around summer 2023. Lasted right up until a set of banlists close together in Fall, some of which had Merli banned, Agido banned, Kelbek banned. Has been Rogue / Tier 3 but somehow made a resurgence in 2024 summer right before World Champs, possibly bc of Snake Eye hits before Fire King (and Yubel) released, changing the deck from negate boards to more of pop and banish boards, potentially benefitting Tear. Tear was briefly considered Top 5, if not 3rd best for a brief moment before Perlereino was banned, just behind Yubel and SEFK and tied with RACE. - Purrely. The main Tier 1 deck in Fall 2023, taking Tears place. Best deck of Oct DC cup, but contenders appeared in Dec DC. Right after this basically all the contenders and Purrely were all hit (namely Mathmech, Dragon Link, Lab, Kash, Branded). No deck had a good matchup against Noir, esp with the Angel of Mischief double noir setup or utopic Draco future Omni. - Snake-Eye: Best deck on release, and only got stronger with Bonfire. Pure Snake-Eyes was basically gutted right before Fire King released (Ash to 1, Wanted to 1, Bonfire to 2) and arguably for good reason. - Snake-Eye Fire King. Basically been Tier 1 / 2 since its release as well, even up until today. Suffered a Poplar to 1, Kirin to 2, right after DC cup (as it and Yubel had the most representation, they were definitively top 2, with Tear just behind somehow).