Thursday 16 June 2011

Lost Sanctuary's impact on the meta


It's been a while since I last made a post, so I thought I'd cover the new structure deck that is now available in the TCG.

For all of you who have been keeping an eye on the OCG, you will know that Hyperion Agents have been very successful since their release. Mid game Trishulas followed up by a themed Dark Armed Dragon and Vanity's Fiend on steroids makes for a powerful archetype.

However, call me a sceptic. but I don't think this archetype will do as well in the TCG. It's the Gravekeeper factor all over again. What I mean by that is the deck's reliance on money cards not included in the deck, namely Archlord Kristya, Pot of Duality, Trishula and Solemn Warning. In the OCG Kristya, Warning and Trishula are all available as commons in the structure deck, DREV and their gold series respectively. Additionally, PoD is a super rare in the OCG as opposed to secret rare. This means PoD is in greater supply and consequently costs less.

After a quick look on Troll & Toad, Archlord Kristya goes for $79.99 each, Pot of Duality goes for $133.99 each, Solemn Warning goes for $97.99 (in minimum rarity) and Trishula goes for $59.99.

So let's do some maths.

3x Structure deck = $30
2x Archlord Kristya = $160
3x Pot of Duality = $400
2x Solemn Warning = $200
1x Trishula = $60

Roughly adding up to $850.

It will cost a lot less to make in the UK & European meta, mainly because we don't overvalue stuff that drastically. That, or T&D like to rip people off.

As you can see, Agents are hardly the budget deck. One could try to run it without Kristyas or PoDs, but in all honesty they have no chance of winning anything without them.

If you have that sort of money, you're better off building GKs. They cost less and are more powerful on the whole. On that note, GKs existing in the TCG meta will really hurt Agents. Valley locking down the GY weakens the deck substantially, probably costing an Agent player game 1 at least. I'm sure one or two will top a YCS, but will probably only top with an experienced or non-budget player.

That was my opinion. As always, I want to here other people's opinions. Leave a comment with your thoughts.

~Valafar123

3 comments:

  1. The deck is still the nuts... I run a build on DN without any money cards (It's my once my decks come in the mail IRL build).

    You don't need Duality or Warning or Kristya or Trishula to make the deck good anyone that says that should be shot. and GK's are a weakening archetype they are no longer as prevalent as before in USA. (In Europe they are probably still ridiculous though).

    Agents also are as consistent as Dragunity and also there is absolutely no deck that doesn't benefit from POD, Warnings, Kristya, and Trishula (By the way those are all not cheap in OCG only Warning is cheap and it's still around the price of our D.Prison. OCG Gold Series is completely different from ours.

    You are like many other people make it seem like POD and Warning are god. There are other substitutes that do essentially the same thing with a different cost. POD just makes the deck cheating (It becomes obscenely consistent with POD) but it doesn't need POD to win. It barely needs Trap Cards so Warning is unnecessary. Trishula is great yeah but honestly it isn't a Money card anymore and Trish is definitely no longer 60 it's more like 45-50 and unnecessary.

    You listed a lot of fluff that makes decks just more consistent for people who want to shell out so they don't have to innovate which is one of the points of YGO.

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  2. @Yuginshin: I'm not normally one to rebuke my followers, however, you seem very naive.

    Firstly, you [i]do[/i] need those money cards for the deck to function. I can tell you this having played the deck extensively. If you look at the OCG meta, every build that tops has those money cards in it.

    Without PoD, the deck simply isn't consistent enough. Without Kristya, the deck is fractionally as powerful. Without Trishula, well, that's just silly. The entire point of the deck is a mid game Trishula.

    Don't compare anything to Dragunities. Dragunities were bound for failure months before they were released in the TCG. It's a weak archetype that got far too much attention. Mainly because people don't do their homework and just jumped on the bandwagon. Someone who observed the OCG meta (which is a lot more tolerant compared to ours) would know that they had no possible hope of becoming meta.

    Warning is god rather fittingly. I did some statistics for a post I didn't finish. Out of the all the Solemn Warnings in the last YCS possible, 95% were mained in top 32. That percentage increases as you move further up to top 16 and top 8. Solemn Warning is probably the most staple trap in the metagame right now, tied with its counterpart.

    PoD is necessary in decks that require it, it's that simple. I have an entire GK deck save for PoDs, but I wouldn't dream of using it.

    There are no substitutes for PoD and Warning. You main them or you don't. Filling a deck with substitutes is a bad idea to say the least. One would be better off putting something else in the main to help compensate, like CED or D Prisons.

    If you don't shell out money, you don't compete. That simple.

    ~Valafar123

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  3. If that's the case then the majority of players shouldn't compete. It's quite simple to win without those. Divine Wrath has never failed when I needed a Solemn Warning sure it's not as godlike but it is still a great card and has just as many uses as Warning. PoD cannot be replaced but if you build the deck a little differently it can be. Kristya is the only card for Money that is necessary for Agents as I've tested extensively without it and lost duels I would have won had I had it.

    I have a Gravekeeper deck that doesn't run Solemn Warning or PoD but how I've built it those aren't as needed as they would be in the standard build.

    If I had Warning/PoD would i run it? Yes of course I would in a heartbeat but I'm not going to shell out money for overly priced cards or boxes on the secondary market. The only reason you see people Topping with them mained so often is because most of them have topped before so have made enough money or Trade Value from this game to afford them.

    And on the Dragunity comment you have to admit they are deadly consistent albeit bad and I've never lost to one.

    On the substitute comment... CED is a substitute... D.Prison is nearly a staple in most decks... Try building the deck so that it functions just as well without Warnings or POD. (Trish isn't really much of a money card (Then again I'm a douche and don't consider 40 dollars to be a lot for a piece of cardboard but double that and add 10 for something you need 2 of is too much)).

    Thank you for trying to reexplain your post to someone as naive as me who must not be a competitor because I don't shell out money for a hobby I love due to having many other hobby's that take similar shelling (Including other card games). I don't dislike you or your views I just don't agree with some of them that's all. Normally I like everything you post. I wasn't trying to call you out as wrong (Though it sure looked like it) I was trying to explain how i see it. So instead of mucking up your comment section with something that won't get anywhere I'll just agree to disagree with you and lets leave it at that and return to friendship.

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