Yu-Gi-Oh! Age of Overlord: The Next Meta Shift

It can be difficult to judge where a competitive deck can arise from, when we look at the history of Yugioh’s core sets.  These sets are defined as being big, holding both archetypes and generic staples, and coming out every 3-4 months, but their relative power level can vary dramatically.  It often comes in waves, with there being a series of middling, largely unmemorable sets, followed by the crash of a potent card pack, where it seems every card within was tailored for competitive duelists.  Not since Power of the Elements can it be said that a core set lived up to those expectations; while Darkwing Blast had the Bystials & Kashtira Fenrir, and Duelist Nexus capped off the support for Purrely, Age of Overlord, coming October 19th for North America, won’t disappoint.

I’d like to first touch upon the archetypes introduced in this set, which have become a significant meta share in the OCG — Horus, which vaguely supports Horus the Black Flame Dragon, and Diabellestarr alongside her paired archetype of Snake-Eye.  Horus is the next iteration of Eldlich in many ways, with large, sticky threats that benefit most in being the secondary strategy to more combo-oriented decks.  In the OCG, it’s seen play alongside Tearlament, Volcanic, and essentially any strategy not reluctant to dump their hand on bodies.  The flagship monster, Imsety, Glory of Horus, sets up their enabler on its own, being King’s Sarcophagus, and from there you can invest up to 3 more cards from hand into being fodder for sticky Level 8 threats.  This pairs excellently with Volcanic, notably, which can use all three copies of Volcanic Shell as part of this cost to retain as much in-hand advantage as possible.  Konami’s marketing of this archetype has been plentiful, too, with Duamutef, Blessing of Horus even being the Sneak Peek card, and much of the press release coverage hyping these cards.

My verdict?  I think Horus as a standalone strategy won’t come into its own until maybe Phantom Nightmare, where it receives a secondary version of King’s Sarcophagus, but as an engine it’s likely to see immediate experimentation.  For the TCG especially, many people are pitching it as a Synchro strategy, tuning Level 2s to the Horus monsters, resulting in things like Chengying or Baronne.

Next is Diabellestarr & Snake-Eye, which is like Adventure Token and Burning Abyss rolled into one.  Diabellestarr stands alone, with currently only one maindeck monster and a bunch of Spell/Traps, although in the OCG she at one point was in >20% of all decks.  As a splashable card, she relies on being able to use your on-field resources, transforming dead cards left errantly behind from a combo line into bodies, bodies, bodies.  Her search Spell, “The Sinful Spoils Hunter Fiend” is a 2-for-1 over two turns, providing an endless loop of advantage, so long as you have a few cards to spare.  Snake-Eye is similar — you’re incentivized to sacrifice cards in a HOPT loop between Snake-Eyes Oark, Excel, and Wight Birch while ending on Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon, which itself ports into two of your smaller bodies.  If you’re familiar with how Cir/Dante/Graff works, this is similar.  The major difference comes down to far more accessible Spell Speed 2 looping, something BA lacked back in the day, as well as being far more generic, able to pitch any other card, not just a Snake-Eye.

My verdict is as positive as I can possibly suggest: These cards will change how we approach Yugioh.  If you’re playing a deck that generates a lot of ‘empty advantage’, cards in hand or on the field you’re not actually able to use effectively, these cards happily act as a sub-engine to transform those stragglers into win conditions.  The best deck in the OCG at time of writing is Rescue Ace with a sizable Diabellestarr package, and I haven’t even mentioned that Rocket Synchron meets the Snake-Eye’s search condition, giving you multi-tuner access more readily than ever before.  If you skipped out on buying Kashtira Fenrir, be sure to at least grab some copies of Diabellestarr the Dark Witch.

In terms of generic power, AGOV isn’t lacking either, giving us the best Link-2 since Spright Elf (now banned), in the form of S:P Little Night.  This I:P upgrade is two pieces of removal in one, for any deck able to make a Link-1 without sweating.  Scareclaw, Salamangreat, and more are going to benefit, but in truth nearly every deck playing an Extra will have S:P.  Infernoble receives Angel Ring, an Equip Spell that insulates their boards, all of the Visas decks get Visas Samsara, a Level 4 version of their core starter that recycles extra copies, and you better prepare for Infernal Flame Banshee searching a copy of Nemeses Flag will be the groan-worthy play of the upcoming format.  Much like the free Wyrm searches that got Archnemeses Protos banned, this is likely the card to see Archnemeses Eschatos bite the dust.  There’s even a Zeus counter, in Stellar Nemesis T-PHON - Doomsday Star, although it’s probably overhyped; this card is good, no doubt, but is shockingly niche in practice.  That said, it’s the only card among all of these which is subpar in play, the rest I can attest through testing to be powerful pieces that will shape our competitive environment.

Next up are the support for existing strategies, and there’s quite a selection here.  Starting off with the current meta threats, both Chimera & Labrynth have made splashes as Tier 2 strategies, even though the environment hurts their gameplans.  In AGOV, though, each receives a card that helps them in a different way — Berfomet the Phantom Dark Ruler, and Arias the Labrynth Butler.  Berfomet is a mid-combo Fusion Monster, which helps continue your plays past Droll, or helps you prepare if you know Nibiru is on the horizon.  Compared to the other Fusions in the strategy, it’s far more noncommittal, which helps the deck play low-to-the-ground against opponents who are otherwise packing sweepers.  Arias, on the other hand, is just a fantastic piece of support, helping to set up the turn 1 Traps Labrynth is known for, and even allowing, potentially, for a Big Welcome Labrynth before you even hit Draw Phase!

There’s also Vanquish Soul Jiaolong, the fabled ‘2nd good FIRE-Attribute VS monster’, which should help the deck’s reliance on keeping cards like Ash Blossom in hand.  For more rogue strategies, there’s also support for Mannadium in the form of a smaller Synchro Monster, Reptile Pile (as I spoke about in this article), and several others.  If you’d want to call it support, there’s also the expansion of the Armored Xyz series, a group of freely-ranking-up monsters that supply draws to Rank 3 spam strategies.

But I can’t possibly leave this article off without speaking about my beloved Tistina; DUNE introduced the strategy with a group of highly efficient swarm tools, and we’re poised to get another 7 cards in AGOV.  The deck is already close to good, with many locals tops reported, and a new Mathmech brew being talked about, but part of the strategy’s appeal was the low passing bar for its second wave.  Tistina, more than anything, needs names, as it’s largely restricted currently by having only a few cards to port between.  In AGOV, there’s a chance we’ll receive the other two ‘Animals’, like Sentinel & Hound, and if the cycle continues, they’ll be Levels 1 & 2, and FIRE & WATER.  If this is the case, Tistina not only gets to fully abuse the Diabellestarr engine by having a Level 1 FIRE, but also potentially Toadally Awesome by having a Level 2 WATER.  It’s not just coping, either, this wishful thinking takes a cue from many other archetypes — Konami rarely leaves an ‘elemental’ cycle incomplete for long, outside of Plunder Patroll.  In any case, we should know what the new wave does in about two weeks!

While I’m writing this, Unchained is seen as the ‘deck to beat’ in the TCG following Kashtira’s hits on the banlist, and I think a lot of what’s here may shake that up.  Snake-Eye & Diabellestar both recur advantage better than Unchained can work through it, and moreover, Horus punishes any opponent foolish enough to actually pop one of their monsters.  Much of what we’re getting would have lost badly to Ariseheart, but that threat is gone now.  Unchained seems powerful in the face of an unsolved format, especially one whose best deck has been decapitated, but AGOV might be enough to turn all of that on its head.  If I had to make a bold prediction, I think Labrynth may be the next top dog, competing with a Diabellestarr-packing Rescue Ace.

And that’s a wrap on the new Ghoti support!  I’m such a big fan of these cards, their art, and their playstyle, and I’m incredibly happy to be able to share the fruits of my plentiful testing.  Where do you think Arionpos could see play?  What does Ghoti need to hit meta contention as a pure strategy?  I’d love to get your thoughts in the comments below!