The MetaGame or meta for short, refers to decks that are used in recent competitive use, demonstrating success and victory in professional play. More specifically, when duelists talk about the Meta, they discuss what deck styles and strategies are more versatile as well as dominant in game play. Several decks have placed high in tournaments. Current decks that place high in tournaments are: DinoRabbit, Inzektor, Chaos Dragon and Wind-up. Other recognizable decks include: Dark World, Frog Monarch and Heroes.

Many of us have stumbled upon the term “tier”. Tier essentially describes how likely it is for a deck to top at a major tournament. They are a general representation of the best decks. However, there is no official tier list so it is based off the player’s interpretation. For example, Inzketors are identified as a tier one deck as it is known for winning regionals and topping at YCS. Tier one decks are the most powerful decks and top in tournaments consistently. Tier two decks are the next best below tier one. They are usually found in the top thirty-two deck lists and typically doesn’t top due to tier one decks. But below tier two is three. They are one of the weakest decks and are lucky to make it to any tournament; lacking the essentials of winning most duels.
Now that you are familiar with the meta, know that different play style and strategy. As we explore the meta, tier one decks are known for their dominance within the game that are proven to be successful through its strategy.

First off is Dino Rabbits, one of the most played decks that focuses on Rescue Rabbit and Tour Guide from the Underworld to summon Sabersaurus and Kabazauls for your deck in order to Xyz summon Rank 4 monsters. Common choice are Evolzar Laggia and Dolkka. Evolzar Laggia uses its effect to negate spells, traps and summons by your opponent. On the other hand Evolzar Dolkka uses his effect to negate up to 2 monsters effects.
Second is Inzektor, an aggressive archetype that picks off cards and swarm. The goal for successful “Inzektor” play style should be to control the field via hornet’s destruction effect.

Last but not least, Wind-ups. This deck uses a variety of single-use monster effects that control the field while Wind-up Factory gives hand advantage. Typically wind-up decks are used to perform the loop in order to limit your opponent’s hands. It also has easy capabilities for Xyz summoning.

As I conclude this article, please don’t get too caught up in the meta. Playing the meta is usually very autopilot and can get boring. There is nothing wrong with playing a tier two or lower deck. It’s time to d-d-d-d-duel!

decent article, u forgot a main point of dino rabbit tho. ur right that it does use tour guide, but its tour guide into leviar and then use that to abuse the rabbit. its an important combo of the deck and should be known for potential users who wish to use it.

You forgot Chaos Dragons ._.

It's listed but I didn't feel like going into detail about it

MemorySP wrote:
As I conclude this article, please don’t get too caught up in the meta. Playing the meta is usually very autopilot and can get boring. There is nothing wrong with playing a tier two or lower deck. It’s time to d-d-d-d-duel!

False. No deck is autopilot. The players are what make a deck autopilot and the game is always changing. YCS may look like the same old story every time, but each and every duel is individually different. Also, when trying to teach someone how to play a deck, you're pushing them in the wrong direction and that's why we consider this term "autopilot." Everyone plays with a unique playstyle, but when we try to cram this awesome strategy some genius out there came up with and copy it card for card, that's when we lose the tactics and beauty of this game.

Wind-Ups don't need the loop to play strongly, Rabbit doesn't need dolkka/laggia to control the field, Inzektors don't need to pop with hornet every turn and Chaos Dragons with REDMD is gimicky at best. A good player is what makes a deck good and just because you know how to pull off the combo popularized by the meta doesn't mean you'll top at YCS. This is exactly why people who play Tier 2 decks can beat people who play Tier 1 decks. Just because the deck is considered to be better, doesn't mean squat except how easy it is to play.

Niko327 wrote:

MemorySP wrote:
As I conclude this article, please don’t get too caught up in the meta. Playing the meta is usually very autopilot and can get boring. There is nothing wrong with playing a tier two or lower deck. It’s time to d-d-d-d-duel!

False. No deck is autopilot. The players are what make a deck autopilot and the game is always changing. YCS may look like the same old story every time, but each and every duel is individually different. Also, when trying to teach someone how to play a deck, you're pushing them in the wrong direction and that's why we consider this term "autopilot." Everyone plays with a unique playstyle, but when we try to cram this awesome strategy some genius out there came up with and copy it card for card, that's when we lose the tactics and beauty of this game.

Wind-Ups don't need the loop to play strongly, Rabbit doesn't need dolkka/laggia to control the field, Inzektors don't need to pop with hornet every turn and Chaos Dragons with REDMD is gimicky at best. A good player is what makes a deck good and just because you know how to pull off the combo popularized by the meta doesn't mean you'll top at YCS. This is exactly why people who play Tier 2 decks can beat people who play Tier 1 decks. Just because the deck is considered to be better, doesn't mean squat except how easy it is to play.

I'm inclined to disagree.
A deck can be throughly designed to be autopilot, all the person has to do is memorize the loops and thats about all they do. Instead of attempting to achieve some degree of skill in the game, they simply play a simply designed deck intended to easily create advantage through cheap methods (Hunter loop, Inzektor wiping fields then pwning when attacking directly).

I'm inclined to agree that you at the very least need SOMETHING of a brain to play autopilot decks, but not much more than that.

Niko327 wrote:This is exactly why people who play Tier 2 decks can beat people who play Tier 1 decks. Just because the deck is considered to be better, doesn't mean squat except how easy it is to play.

The reason that people who can beat Tier 1 decks with Tier 2 is because sometimes the player whose simply memorized the autopilot sequence can be outplayed by the more skilled duelists of YGO, but it takes an a lot of skill and a well-built deck to take down an autopilot deck. (basically, an anti-meta deck)

I'm disliking where the meta is going because every time Konami releases more cards, the meta becomes more and more diverse, making a single anti-meta deck that is built to counter all types of meta more and more difficult to achieve. Meaning that eventually you will have to build an anti-meta deck for each individual meta deck type.
On the bright side, it will become more humorous to watch meta decks duke it out because you won't be able to tell which deck is more broken than the other.

Eheroduelist wrote:

I'm inclined to disagree.
A deck can be throughly designed to be autopilot, all the person has to do is memorize the loops and thats about all they do. Instead of attempting to achieve some degree of skill in the game, they simply play a simply designed deck intended to easily create advantage through cheap methods (Hunter loop, Inzektor wiping fields then pwning when attacking directly).

I'm inclined to agree that you at the very least need SOMETHING of a brain to play autopilot decks, but not much more than that.

of course a deck can be inclined to be autopilot, but it didn't begin that way. Cards in the very nature that they are inanimate objects can't be autopilot. You have to have some sort of a brain to recognize the loops existing within the combo of cards (which is less relevant nowadays since Konami began creating archetypes) AND being able to build a very consistent set of 40 cards to pull the loop off. The reason the decks that have these easy loops are considered autopilot is because the cards themselves have very broken and overpowered effects, so a lot of people try to play them "autopilot." Those are the players that lose to people who use decks that aren't even considered Tier 2 anymore.

Eheroduelist wrote:

Niko327 wrote:This is exactly why people who play Tier 2 decks can beat people who play Tier 1 decks. Just because the deck is considered to be better, doesn't mean squat except how easy it is to play.

The reason that people who can beat Tier 1 decks with Tier 2 is because sometimes the player whose simply memorized the autopilot sequence can be outplayed by the more skilled duelists of YGO, but it takes an a lot of skill and a well-built deck to take down an autopilot deck. (basically, an anti-meta deck)

You don't need an anti-meta deck to beat very popular top tier decks. Also you have to take into consideration that anti-meta decks can also be considered top tier "meta" decks at times (e.g., Skill drain beatdown). And that's exactly what I mean. No deck becomes Top tier simply because it's autopilot, therefore all these top tier decks that are accused of being autopilot in my opinion are wrongfully accused. I never fail at beating Chaos Dragon players on DN because most of them play the deck all wrong. If it was such an autopilot deck, how could anyone play it wrong?

Eheroduelist wrote:

I'm disliking where the meta is going because every time Konami releases more cards, the meta becomes more and more diverse, making a single anti-meta deck that is built to counter all types of meta more and more difficult to achieve. Meaning that eventually you will have to build an anti-meta deck for each individual meta deck type.

How is that a bad thing? Wouldn't you hate seeing the same 3 decks being played over and over again? The top 32 at YCS is varied now, instead of them all being the same 3. I think that's healthy for the game and also makes it a bigger challenge to create very competitive Tier 2 decks. It feels much more accomplishing in that matter. I don't think making an anti-meta deck is any harder either, since the game is very monster effect based still. running 3 veilers, 2 maxx "c," 3 doomcalibur knights, 3 macro cosmos, and you're set lol. Personally I hate running anti-meta decks anyway cuz they take no skill to build and they don't take much skill to play either. The concept is almost exactly like stall decks in a way. They do everything in their power to stop the opponent from doing anything, and there is no ultimate combo or strategy besides throwing down cards with effects that keep your opponent from doing anything. Anti-meta decks are just a more aggressive version of stall decks.

Inzektors were made to be Autopilot though, no matter what you want to think. Just look at the Archetype. There is NO WAY that Konami didn't know and WANT Inzektors to be Top-Tier, broken, and bought. Inzektors completely destroyed the OCG this format, leaving them as the #1 thing to hit. And tbh I think they wanted Inzektors to advertise XYZ more than they actually did, but that didn't work very well, even with Ladybug being released.

Inzektors this format in the OCG were like when the format was made to make Lightsworns Tier 0.

And by the way, no deck can be Top Tier or Meta "at times" -_-

i like vylon otk!

Niko327 wrote:

Eheroduelist wrote:

I'm inclined to disagree.
A deck can be throughly designed to be autopilot, all the person has to do is memorize the loops and thats about all they do. Instead of attempting to achieve some degree of skill in the game, they simply play a simply designed deck intended to easily create advantage through cheap methods (Hunter loop, Inzektor wiping fields then pwning when attacking directly).

I'm inclined to agree that you at the very least need SOMETHING of a brain to play autopilot decks, but not much more than that.

of course a deck can be inclined to be autopilot, but it didn't begin that way. Cards in the very nature that they are inanimate objects can't be autopilot. You have to have some sort of a brain to recognize the loops existing within the combo of cards (which is less relevant nowadays since Konami began creating archetypes) AND being able to build a very consistent set of 40 cards to pull the loop off. The reason the decks that have these easy loops are considered autopilot is because the cards themselves have very broken and overpowered effects, so a lot of people try to play them "autopilot." Those are the players that lose to people who use decks that aren't even considered Tier 2 anymore.

Eheroduelist wrote:

Niko327 wrote:This is exactly why people who play Tier 2 decks can beat people who play Tier 1 decks. Just because the deck is considered to be better, doesn't mean squat except how easy it is to play.

The reason that people who can beat Tier 1 decks with Tier 2 is because sometimes the player whose simply memorized the autopilot sequence can be outplayed by the more skilled duelists of YGO, but it takes an a lot of skill and a well-built deck to take down an autopilot deck. (basically, an anti-meta deck)

You don't need an anti-meta deck to beat very popular top tier decks. Also you have to take into consideration that anti-meta decks can also be considered top tier "meta" decks at times (e.g., Skill drain beatdown). And that's exactly what I mean. No deck becomes Top tier simply because it's autopilot, therefore all these top tier decks that are accused of being autopilot in my opinion are wrongfully accused. I never fail at beating Chaos Dragon players on DN because most of them play the deck all wrong. If it was such an autopilot deck, how could anyone play it wrong?

Eheroduelist wrote:

I'm disliking where the meta is going because every time Konami releases more cards, the meta becomes more and more diverse, making a single anti-meta deck that is built to counter all types of meta more and more difficult to achieve. Meaning that eventually you will have to build an anti-meta deck for each individual meta deck type.

How is that a bad thing? Wouldn't you hate seeing the same 3 decks being played over and over again? The top 32 at YCS is varied now, instead of them all being the same 3. I think that's healthy for the game and also makes it a bigger challenge to create very competitive Tier 2 decks. It feels much more accomplishing in that matter. I don't think making an anti-meta deck is any harder either, since the game is very monster effect based still. running 3 veilers, 2 maxx "c," 3 doomcalibur knights, 3 macro cosmos, and you're set lol. Personally I hate running anti-meta decks anyway cuz they take no skill to build and they don't take much skill to play either. The concept is almost exactly like stall decks in a way. They do everything in their power to stop the opponent from doing anything, and there is no ultimate combo or strategy besides throwing down cards with effects that keep your opponent from doing anything. Anti-meta decks are just a more aggressive version of stall decks.

Decks like Inzektors were blatantly designed to be autopilot. Six Samurai were designed to be autopilot back when Shi en was @3.

Konami does this intentionally, believe it or not, so that idiots who can barely read the cards can play and win. Why? So that Konami can make money.

Can't say I blame them, people want to buy overpowered and auto-pilot decks, why not sell it to them and then ban the important cards later on so that they can reap the money more and more? They ARE a business. But running YGO like a business is killing the fun in the game and will eventually drive anyone with a brain away from it.

The diversified meta is good in some aspects, yes. It's not the exact same deck with exact same loop 1345654345676543456789876543234567876543 times.
However, it's the same set of decks over and over and over again. CDs, Wind-ups, Inzektors, Dino-Rabbits, the same-old decks that sack, rape, and slaughter any old-fashioned or adequately built deck that accidentally steps into their path.

Am I saying that I want anyone who can throw together a mish-mash of random cards to pull off a win?
No. However, I am saying that the same people who can barely throw together a mish-mash of random cards together can netdeck meta and beat someone who has a skill level light years away from them. That kind of bothers me a tad.

"I never fail at beating Chaos Dragon players on DN because most of them play the deck all wrong."
Thus proving that a majority of duelists on DN have no flipping clue what they're doing.

Not saying anyone on here is like that (or isn't skilled enough to beat the deck in normal circumstances), but I guarantee you if you've played DN you've encountered some noob that can barely understand the concept of Normal Summoning vs Special Summoning.
And a good portion of us have lost a duel or two to these imbeciles who are using Chaos Dragons.

U guys hate the meta we had yet this new format will dwindle down to the same 3-5 decks.

New format will hopefully kill a majority (hopefully all) the abused meta and make normal decks playable without getting Laggia sacked every turn or OTK'd by CDs.

i liked this format even with the sacky