SJC Freeroll Qualifier #2 Metagame Analysis

We've got another round of metagame analysis here for you, coming in hot from our second qualifier tournament for SJC Freeroll!

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. Combo typically encounters difficulties against aggro decks which have grown in popularity lately, making combo decks 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!