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

Winners Side: Antithesis - Deck Download

Winners Side: ProfessorHastig - Deck Download

Losers Side: Rabbid. - Deck Download

Losers Side: LeoVoid - Deck Download

Losers Side: Loop - Deck Download

Losers Side: Nash_BridgEs - Deck Download

Alt-win continues to see play, even with Empty Jar remaining absent

Alt-win continues to be seen as a legitimate and viable strategy, continuing the trend of the previous qualifier with a  total of five alt-win decks in qualifier #3. The five consisted of three Burn decks, one Spell Economics FTK deck and one Library FTK. Once again, Burn is the most successful of these alt-win strategies, owing to its greater consistency, and simplicity. Library FTK and Spell Economics FTK depend on a greater degree of technical play and experience in order to use correctly, due to their sequencing requirements, fragility and at times ambiguity regarding when to combo and when to hold on for the seventh card in the hopes to increase the probability of seeing out the combo. Furthermore, the rise in popularity of Spell Canceller as a powerful solution to Library FTK, Economics FTK and the Reasoning/Gate deck makes the already difficult games two and three even worse. One last thing worth noting is that of the thirty one players in total, only one player sided Neko Mane King. Yu-Gi-Oh! Has always been a cyclical game, and when a deck or card falls out of favour, it opens a world of opportunities for the perceptive player to make a
meta call…







Goat Control surges in popularity
A whopping nine players piloted Goat Control in this competition, up 33% from the previous qualifier. Of those nine players, Shining Blue-eyes performed the best with a 5-2 record. The Goat Control players amassed a total record of 12-18, with that record being propped up by Shining Blue-eyes’ performance. The greater demands in technical play, coupled with the lower power when compared to Thunder Dragon Chaos and slower early game compared to Anti-Meta Warriors place Goat Control in a difficult position. It lacks the raw power of Chaos deck that can summon Chaos Sorcerer on demand to clear opposing threats, instead relying on Thousand-Eyes Restrict and the singular Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. Combining this with the increase in play of battle traps and Raigeki Break as a solution to an opposing Blade Knight, King Tiger Wanghu and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer make it particularly difficult to make an Airknight Parshath stick and gain value. The environment is simply hostile to Goat Control right now, and could remain so for some time. It very well may be a case of lacking the quality and quantity of threats boasted by other decks in the meta.

Anti-Meta Warriors stall, while Thunder Dragon Chaos declines in popularity

Anti-Meta Warriors hold their place with three players opting for the deck in our third qualifier. As mentioned previously, Yu-Gi-Oh! Is often a cyclical game, and players adapt to the meta. If players begin to stray away from certain strategies due to metagame considerations, the meta can shift wildly. In this case, Thunder Dragon Chaos’s popularity has halved from eight players in qualifier #2 to four in qualifier #3. The deck often takes time to get started; combining this with the strong early game of Anti-Meta Warriors and the Chaos deck’s reliance on flip effects that fall victim to Blade Knight could be considerable reasons for this. Consequently, a decrease in popularity for a deck that Anti-Meta Warriors should theoretically prey on may cause a reduction in the play of Anti-Meta Warriors, as the justification for choosing this deck over others is now weaker.

That’s all for our brief breakdown of our SJC Freeroll Qualifier #3

Is Thunder Dragon Chaos officially the “best” deck? Yet again Thunder Dragon underlines it’s status as the deck to beat with another impressive performance. NASH_BridgEs crosses the finish line with a unique list packing Skilled Dark Magician and Royal Decree (alongside a lone, teched Seven Tools of the Bandit). His list attempts to alleviate one of the main issues typical Thunder Dragon Chaos lists have, namely their inability to apply pressure and aggro without Chaos Sorcerer or Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. The strategy relies heavily on setting flip effect monsters like Magician of Faith, Dark Mimic LV1, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and more. The natural consequence of spending your normal summon each turn on a set monster is that the palyer may find it difficult to clear opposing set monsters off the field, allowing the opponent to assemble field presence, tribute fodder and risks falling foul of a Tsukuyomi loop if the Thunder dragon Chaos player is unable to draw Nobleman of Crossout or Raigeki Break. “Rogue” decks continue to represent themselves in impressive numbers Eleven players opted for so-called “non-meta” decks in qualifier #4. The refreshing variety contains multiple Flip Control decks (one of which is piloted by our resident minor celebrity and Twitch streamer Morpp) while we also see Gravekeepers, Zombies and an innovative Rat Toolbox deck piloted by metin7. Of the players who opted for a “rogue” deck and strategy, Di4na performed the best with a 4-2 record using Library FTK, eventually falling victim to KL1993’s Anti-Meta Warriors and Blue Version’s Thunder dragon Chaos.

That’s it for our first four qualifiers but don’t forget, there’s one more on the horizon! 09/07/2019 will be your last chance to earn a chance to win an SJC Dark End Dragon, worth upwards of $1,000! Do you have what it takes? If so, sign up to our Discord server and register for tournament to prove your worth. Best of luck, duelists!

The namesake deck of the format once again fails to perform, with the five total Goat Control players recording an overall record of 10-10. The environment continues to prove hostile, with popular decks like Anti-Meta Warriors countering the Goat Control strategy in a number of areas ranging from preventing flip effects with Blade Knight, Nobleman of Crossout and Light of Intervention, and countering Thousand-Eyes Restrict with maxed out King Tiger Wanghu and Compulsory Evacuation Device. While perhaps Goat Control’s best aggro tool Airknight Parshath falls victim to maxed out Sakuretsu Armor and Mirror Force, and being run over by Blade Knight. Thunder Dragon Chaos utilizes the raw power afforded by Thunder Dragon and a suite of Chaos monsters to overwhelm the Goat Control player.

Goat Control players also continue to undervalue Gravekeeper’s Spy; of the five Goat Control players, only one ran 2 copies of Gravekeeper’s Spy along with 1 Gravekeeper’s Guard. Anti-Meta Warriors seek to decide the duel in the opening turns, and the longer the game drags on the more favourable it becomes for the Goat Control player. Every extra draw phase is more valuable for Goat Control than for Anti-Meta Warrior, and consequently the defensive utility of Gravekeeper’s Spy as well as its ability to act as tribute fodder for Airknight Parshath makes it a legitimate main deck choice players continue to overlook.

Beastdown is rejected by the masses after the first SJC Freeroll Qualifier, in which Beastdown was the joint most popular deck choice along with Thunder Dragon Chaos. However in this second installment, only one player (who also used it in Qualifier #1) opted for the deck. It scored an unimpressive overall record of 10-12 in the previous Qualifier, and in this Qualifier the lone Beastdown player’s record was a disappointing 1-2. Beastdowns main advantage has traditionally been to counter the Goat Control matchup, but with Goat Control quickly losing ground to Thunder Dragon Chaos and Anti-Meta Warriors, the justification for the Beastdown deck is lacking. Players seem to have abandoned it for other superior aggro decks. Alt-win rising in popularity In the first Qualifier, the alt-win category consisted of only two Burn players. This time however, we see two Burn players, two Library FTK players, and one Final Countdown. Library FTK scored a disappointing 1-4 while the lone Final Countdown player was booted out at 1-2. Yandi’s Burn however pushed up to fourth place with a 5-2 record before being eliminated by James400’s AntiMeta Warriors. Alt-win typically encounters difficulties against aggro decks which have grown in popularity lately, making alt-win an interesting choice given the current meta. That’s all for our SJC Freeroll Qualifier #2 metagame breakdown, but be sure to check-in for Qualifier #3 and #4 too. Until next time, duelists!

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.

 
Among those five players, only two opted to run Gravekeeper’s Spy: Loop and irey. The Goat Control players sported mixed results; the best performers were Loop (who ran Gravekeeper’s Spy) and InsiDS (who did not) who both crashed out in Loser’s Quarter-Finals. In fact, on the topic of Gravekeeper’s Spy, out of the 36 entrants only 4 players opted to run the defensive duo. In a metagame filled to the brim with aggro decks like Beastdown and Anti-Meta Warriors, Gravekeeper’s Spy stands out as a paragon of defensive solidarity, guarding it’s owner from common threats such as Blade Knight, D.D. Warrior Lady, Beserk Gorilla, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, and recruiters like Mystic Tomato and Shining Angel. In fact, the very same aggro decks Spy excels against made up around 42% of the competition! Gravekeeper’s Spy isn’t a one trick pony either; it has applications vs the Goat Control matchup, and doubles up as a pressure tool to rapidly switch from defense to offense. Allowing the player to switch from a lone set monster to a three pronged assault in the space of a turn affords its owner the necessary flexibility to either stall, or deliver rapid combinations for quick take downs.

Aggro takes center stage this time with a whopping 15 entrants, likely owing to its often favorable matchups against popular choices like Goat Control and Thunder Dragon Chaos, two decks that would have been anticipated as important threats. Interestingly Chaos Recruiter appears to be an underappreciated threat as an aggro deck which has a strong matchup against other aggro choices like Beastdown and Anti-Meta Warriors. Gearfried is also nowhere to be seen in the aggro classification despite its strong match up against Thunder Dragon Chaos; perhaps spankthemonkey is the only in our Discord server who truly appreciates the Iron Knight’s talents… As expected, Goat Control continues to remain the most popular choice in the Control classification despite underwhelming showings as of late. Players need to adapt their decks to a changing landscape that is gradually being taken over by Aggro. Gravekeeper’s Spy is certainly a strong option to stave off the ever-present Blade Knight, as well as keep a body on the board if Exiled Force destroys one of them, although the presence of King Tiger Wanghu who is capable of destroying the second copy while maintaining field presence is a problem for the card. Some brief thoughts on future deck construction Players are trending towards building for the early game. The most represented deck category – aggro – prioritises a strong early game as part of both its deck construction philosophy on play. The decks that comprise this category take risks and make aggressive plays in an attempt to prevent the opposition from setting up their best plays. Heavily played cards like Blade Knight, Mystic Swordsman LV2, Abyss Soldier and Nobleman of Crossout prevent opponents from resolving key flip effects like Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, Magician of Faith, Magical Merchant and more. The environment is harsh to these set monsters in general, although high defence choices like Gravekeeper’s Spy, Legendary Jujitsu Master and Roulette Barrel can stifle aggro players. Consequently, Control and Combo decks who aim to build resources and setup in the early game are at a disadvantage unless they draw the right combination of defensive traps to stave off the aggro players. Goat Control players might consider Jinzo who is a serious threat to aggro decks who run heavy trap counts, and a suite of Gravekeeper’s Spy not only staves off early game aggression but allows the player to assemble tribute fodder. Airknight Parshath is overwhelmed by the searchable Blade Knight, never mind Exiled Force as well. Individual card choices aside however, as a whole, Goat Control that have traditionally built their deck with the long game in mind may have to change their core philosophy to avoid extinction. That’s all for our SJC Freeroll Qualifier #1 metagame breakdown, but be sure to keep an eye out for the rest of the SJC Freeroll Qualifier’s metagme breakdowns as we continue to record the development of the Goat Format meta! Until next time, keep dueling!

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

It should go without saying that Sangan is one of the most versatile cards in Goat Format. Being able to search powerful cards like Sinister Serpent and Tsukuyomi is a huge deal and greatly increases the consistency of seeing those powerful monsters in a given Duel. However, Serpent and Tsukuyomi are not the only cards Sangan can search, and they most definitely should not be the only things you consider searching with the fiendish burger patty (as I affectionately like to refer to Sangan as). In this article, I will go over a list of some of the more common monsters Sangan can search, and when they would each be good to grab off of Sangan’s effect.

​One of the most common questions I see in the Goat Community is "how do I side deck as x deck for y matchup"? More often than not, the answer people will get in response is "it depends", and that isn't because people don't want to help others learn how to side - it's because this is probably one of the most open-ended questions you can ask a Yu-Gi-Oh! player and depends on a variety of factors. These factors include things like how common a bad matchup is, how many cards you can afford to side in/out without making the overall strategy fall apart, and what you expect your local metagame to be.

So who's ready for the biggest free online Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament of all time? I know we are! Without further ado, here's all of the info for our SJC Freeroll, in which we're giving away SJC prize card Dark End Dragon!
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When: Saturdays 8/10/2019, 8/17/2019, 8/24/2019, and 8/31/2019 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
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When: 9/1/2019 and onwards, 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 when you enter.
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
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We anticipate the demand for this tournament to be extremely high, and thus our goal was to create a tournament structure that would be easy for our staff to run and provide the maximum potential for participation. Because of this, we decided to run a tournament in what is often called a "pool" structure.

The three double elimination tournaments that we ran in the past have all gone exceptionally well in terms of time-to-completion and player satisfaction, so we want to keep doing what's working. However, running this as one double elimination tournament would have the issue of the tournament taking a long time to conclude and providing interested players with only one particular date that they could enter; if they had something else going on that day, they would miss their one and only chance to win their SJC Dark End Dragon. By doing this hybrid pool structure, we feel that we will provide almost every player a chance to enter and win this tournament, regardless of whether they've got a wedding to attend on one particular Saturday or whether they live in America or Europe.

Our playoffs are effectively a continuation of these double elimination pools from stage 1, with one difference. It will be run "non-live" (aka "find your opponent"). Although these non-live tournaments tend to have inherent issues associated with them, we believe that these issues will be mitigated based on the fact that this stage of the tournament will only have 8 players, all of which will be highly motivated to find their opponents, as they will have a lot of skin in the game in that they will be very close to winning the big prize.

Although this pool structure may seem a bit complicated to those who are not familiar with it, we believe that it will overall offer the best possible experience for the Goat Format player-base. Pick a Saturday or two in August, make sure you've got several hours set aside, and you'll have a chance to win your very own SJC prize card, Dark End Dragon! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask us in the comments.