Good day to everyone – new week, new short articles. Today I want to talk about the Thunder Dragon Chaos deck which is gaining in popularity and also proving itself with 1 some strong results – namely Lukaz occupating #1 ranked spot and also achieving highest ELO of all time. It's time for you all to stop letting him get away with all this free ELO.

Thunder Dragon Chaos' gameplan is simple and linear – snowball the card advantage provided by tons of flips and combos with Card Destruction/Graceful Charity to overwhelm the opponent. Thunder Dragon Chaos digs trough its deck quickly, thus seeing these powerful one-ofs more often, which is the entire point of the deck.

Congratulations to the top 10 Goat Format players of September 2019. All GoatFormat.com tournaments are counted as ranked games, we had 5 tournaments in the month of September and and the success of Lukaz, Di4na, Rabbid., and Loop in the SCJ Freeroll tournaments is shown here with their presence in the top 10. If you want to prove you are a top Goat Format player join our discord server and participate in our ranked games/tournaments!  We will be posting monthly top 10 rankings going forward, from October 2019 onward any player who makes it into the top 4 ranking will qualify for the GoatFormat.com World Championship in 2020. Look for more info on the GoatFormat.com World Championship coming your way soon!

Stage 2: SJC Freeroll Playoffs
When: 9/9/2019 and onward, until the tournament concludes
How to enter: You will automatically be entered for being a winner's bracket or loser's bracket finalist in one of the four qualifiers above. You must submit your decklist by 9/12/19. Submit decklist to MMF via discord.
Simulator: DuelingBook.com only
Decks: Locked. You cannot change any cards in your deck between rounds. However, you may use a different deck than the one that you played in the qualifiers.
Rounds: Double elimination, no time limits. All rounds are played "non-live" (arrange a time with your opponent to play). All replays of your matches must be sent to staff.
Prizes: 1st place = SJC Dark End Dragon. If you wish, we will buy it back from you for $300, which is about 30% of its market value.
​Glitch/disconnect policy: Any provable glitches that render the game unplayable will result in a redo of the game in progress. Glitches caused by one particular player (such as the "hand reveal glitch") will result in that player being given a game loss. All disconnections will result in a game loss (unless they occur during sidedecking).
Expected total tournament duration: 15 days

Winners Side: Lukaz - Deck Download

Winners Side: Di4na - Deck Download

Thunder Dragon Chaos claims the crown of SJC Qualifier #1 despite an otherwise unimpressive performance. Thunder Dragon Chaos continues its reign as one of the most popular decks with yet another victory, however, looking underneath the hood reveals some concerning numbers. The joint most popular choice with 6 entrants (alongside Beastdown), the Thunder Dragon Chaos collective delivered an overall record of 12-10, with the eventual winner Lukaz recording an impressive 6-0 through the gauntlet. Without his individual performance, the record becomes an abysmal 6-10. While Thunder Dragon Chaos boasts a massive power level once the engine gets going, a combination of internal and external deficiencies continues to hold it back. Thunder Dragon Chaos’ often lukewarm early game is typically only mitigated by setup cards like Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity and Card Destruction that allow the deck to adjust its hand and graveyard to begin its power plays. Combine this with a metagame ravaged by aggro decks that prioritise a relentlessly aggressive early game like Beastdown, Anti-Meta Warriors, and Chaos Recruiters and the result is a harsh environment for the deck. What’s also interesting is the mixed popularity of Metamorphosis within the deck. Of the 6 players sporting Thunder Dragon Chaos, 3 opted to run Metamorphosis and 3 decided against it. Metamorphosis requires slightly more deck building concessions in a Thunder Dragon variant because somewhat atypical additions of Dark Mimic LV1, Scapegoat. Raigeki Break also proves the dominant choice over Phoenix Wing Wind Blast as part of the trap lineup; just 3 copies of Phoenix Wing Wind Blast in total were ran among the Thunder Dragon Chaos core, with Lukaz opting for a ratio of 2 Raigeki Break with 1 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. In fact, Lukaz and Liri were the only two players in the entire tournament to run the card. Perhaps Raigeki Break’s capability to permanently clear traps, flip monsters and crucially Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and Blade Knight was valued over the one turn delay offered by Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. Of course, if there’s one thing Phoenix’s are known for, it’s their mythical ability to rise again from the ashes… Goat Control continues to over promise and under deliver Goat Control sported a total record of 13-10 among the five players who opted to use it.

What’s that? A fifth qualifier for the biggest online Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament of all time? That’s right, due to the fraudulent entry of a player who qualified in the winner’s bracket of SJC Freeroll Qualifier #2 and the losers bracket of SJC Freeroll Qualifier #3, we will be holding SJC Freeroll Qualifier #5! Any player who has not already qualified from the winner’s or loser’s brackets from SJC Freeroll Qualifier’s 1-4 is eligible to enter SJC Freeroll Qualifier #5.
 
When: Saturdays 9/7/2019 at 1 PM EST (10 AM PST, 6 PM UK time)
How to enter: Entry will be in the #tournaments channel of our discord server. Signups will start approximately 2 hours before the tournament does. You must submit your decklist when you enter.
Simulator: DuelingBook.com only
Decks: Locked. You cannot change any cards in your deck between rounds.
Rounds: Double elimination, no time limits. All rounds are played "live." Once pairings are announced, you will have 20 minutes to find your opponent before you are given a match loss.
Prizes: Winner's bracket finalist will move onto the winner's bracket of stage 2 of the tournament (see below). The loser's bracket finalist will move onto the loser's bracket of stage 2.
Glitch/disconnect policy: Any provable glitches that render the game unplayable will result in a redo of the game in progress. Glitches caused by one particular player (such as the "hand reveal glitch") will result in that player being given a game loss. All disconnections will result in a game loss (unless they occur during sidedecking).
Expected total tournament duration: 7-8 hours
 
Check out the brackets and coverage from our previous SJC Freeroll Qualifiers 1-4.
 
And look for metagame coverage/analysis of  the previous qualifiers coming this week to goatformat.com