YCS Madrid 2014 Recap

Last weekend the highly anticipated YCS Madrid took place. Some of you may ask why was this YCS highly anticipated. In this article i want to explain why this YCS was so special. Roughly 500 players attended this event which was a surprisingly small number. I personally had expected a higher number (approximately 700 – 800 players) since Madrid is a popular city which many players were keen to visit.

Two things made this event remarkable. It was the first YCS after the new Draw Rule became effective – meaning that the player to start the game has to skip his draw phase and starts with only five cards in hand. Players were discussing this change in depth and how it would affect the game. Previously, everbody wanted to start the game. There was no downside to beginning. Now, the player to start the game can set up, but has the disadvantage of being one card behind. Which deck wants to start and which deck prefers to go second was a matter of discussion and I expected this YCS to lead the way. I was really excited to see how players would handle these changes at a large scale tournament like a YCS.

The second big change since the last YCS was the release of Duellist Alliance. The new set also was highly anticipated, because it was expected to change the metagame completely.  During the nationals season there were a few decks competing and able to win a big scale tournament like Mermails, Lightsworn, Dragons, HAT etc. The new set was expected to establish new top tier decks – and looking back at the YCS– we can say for sure it did. Duellist Alliance introduced four new archetypes into the game and three of them were the most successfull decks at the tournament. One of them even won YCS Madrid (and YCS Toronto, which took place at the same time in North America). The metagame consits of Shadolls vs. Satellarknights vs. Burning Abyss. For those that followed the coverage oft he event, which has improved a lot since the introduction of a live stream of the feature matches, could see that the older decks just could not keep up with those new decks. Even though the archetypes use completely different engines, the constant flow of cards and ressources make them stronger then older decks like Mermails (which won European Nationals).

Satellarknights is a light theme, that’s focused on rank 4 XYZ summons. Rank 4’s are the most powerful XYZ monster at the moment.

Burning Abyss spams a lot of Rank 3 XYZ Monsters.  The monsters recycle each other again and again and you can hardly run out of ressources. The weakness of the deck is that Rank 3s are not as powerful anymore.

Shadolls is the first deck that is able to use fusion monsters successfully thanks to shadoll fusion, which allows the player to search the fusion material monsters out of the deck and therefore reducing the amount of necessesary ressources.

Those three decks took 27 spots out of the Top 32. Only 5 s called rogue decks that are not out of Duellist Alliance  could place in the top 32. The change in the meta also forced players to prepare for these matchups resulting in side decks.  full of light and dark imprisoning mirrors. It reminded me a lot of the DAD vs. Lightsworn era. Shadolls seem the be the best deck at the moment due to their flexibility: they can play its fusions as well as synchros and XYZ monsters. It also can play super polymerization which is a win condition on its own due tot he fact that it cannot be negated and use opponents monsters for a fusion summon. The card is especcially good vs. Satellarknights and gives the deck the edge over its competition. Otherwise i think that satellarknights were the better deck. It has a stronger tutor with Deneb and a really strong control card with Stellarnova Alpha. And as mentioned earlier Rank 4s are the best toolbox. They can solve almost any problem.

Unfortunately YCS Madrid was also the last big tournament with this format. In approximately two weeks we will get a new banned list meaning that the format will change again. Although I do not expect the new cards to get hit. That would be very unusual. Meaning the next YCS in London will probably have a different metagame. The game remains fast paced just like we love it.