Counters to Meta and Anti-Meta Decks

Sorry readers. I’ve been busy with university assignments.

I was going to discuss the ban list and what sort of qualifies a card to be banned, but as the new ban list comes in on April 1, I’ll leave it until then. Instead, I’ll talk about some strategies to defeat some of the Meta decks in the game right now. This can of course change with the new ban list.

For those who don’t know, Meta is basically any popular deck. So that’s your Lightsworn’s, your Evilswarm’s, your Dark World’s. So, you have your Meta, and you have the anti-Meta, if there is a such a thing. So your anti-Meta decks are decks like Madolche and Masked Heroes. The reason I say there isn’t really such a thing called “anti-Meta” is, because most players play the Meta decks, the anti-Meta becomes popular and as a result moves from anti-Meta and becomes Meta. Currently, the most popular Meta deck is Nekroz, though Six Samurai and Lightsworn do still see a lot of play, at least in the duels I’ve played and seen on the Dueling Network, almost every second duel is against either Nekroz, Six Sam or Lightsworn. The popular anti-Meta right now is Masked Heroes and Satellarknights. I’m currently working a new deck to defeat them, but below are some of the tactics I’ve come across that at least level the playing field, if not tip it in your favour.

Lightsworn Decks

The ultimate strategy of a Lightsworn deck is to summon “Judgment Dragon” (JD). I don’t care what you say. There is not one player who uses Lightsworns without running at least one JD in their deck. So you do you counter JD? If they get it out, you’re done basically, so to be effective, you have to stop it before it hits the field, so I advise a trap card called “Skill Drain”. This card will negate monster effects, so your opponent can’t mill their deck each turn, so they have to go and get the four Lightsworn monsters into the graveyards traditionally, either via tribute or battle, which gives you a bit of control of when JD hits the field. Should your opponent manage to get JD out, “Skill Drain” will negate its destruction effect, turning it into a 3000 attack point beatstick. Still dangerous, but a bit more manageable because you can now “Mirror Force” it (or “Dimensional Prison” or “Magic Cylinder”, your pick really). “Skill Drain” doesn’t negate effects that activate off the field though. For example, it won’t stop your opponent from using the discard effect of “Honest” because it activates in the hand/graveyard (which is not considered part of the field). It will not negate the equip effect of “Vylon Prism” because the effect activates in the graveyard and it is then considered to be an equip spell card, not a monster. It won’t negate “Wulf, Lightsworn Beast” summoning condition, because it is not an effect. It is a condition. So “Skill Drain” basically cripples this deck. Downside is it will negate your Monster effects as well.

Another good card to use is a monster called “D.D. Warrior Lady”. If your opponent summons JD, you can summon this (after they blow up the field) and attack JD. You will take damage, but you can then banish “D.D Warrior Lady” and that will banish JD. If you have “Skill Drain” active, you can still do this because the banishment effect of “D.D. Warrior Lady” activates in the graveyard, not on the field. If you do this, make you sure you have something to protect yourself with.

Evilswarm Decks

I have never successfully defeated an Evilswarm deck. My deck is probably going to become obsolete in the next few days, so I’ll be experimenting a bit to defeat these decks. One killer property of Evilswarm decks is that they prevent you from special summoning level 5 or higher Monsters. One way around that is to use a deck that doesn’t rely on special summoning strong Monsters. Lightsworn is a good way to go. Lightsworn, I’m not too familiar on when it was released, probably started out as the anti-Meta for Evilswarms, and then became Meta itself.

Make sure you load your deck with destructive spell and trap cards, especially “Bottomless Trap Hole” and “Mirror Force” for traps and “Tribute to the Doomed” and “Dark Hole” for your spells. All four of those cards will allow you to disrupt your opponent’s strategy and possibly deck them out if you can’t win by other means. I don’t aim to deck an opponent, but if I get desperate enough, I do. It’s a last resort thing for me, and it is really easy to deck out with Lightsworn if you mill JD to the graveyard.

Nekroz Decks

The last Meta I’m going to talk about is Nekroz. I’ve defeated it once and that was by luck. The key to the prevent them from using their Prophets which can devastate your strategy. One stops you from special summoning, another prevents their Monsters from being destroyed by card effects. It’s a strong deck, but not unbeatable. Remember what I said before, there’s a way to beat everything if you have the cards.

I suggest a lot of traps and spells. Since the key is their Prophets (whose effects activate when they are banished for Ritual Summons), you can use a trap card called “Imperial Iron Wall”. That stops cards from being banished from anywhere so it can delay them or stop them entirely. “Negate Attack” is good as well. Their monsters can be protected from destructive card effects, but they can still be affected by them if they don’t destroy. If you can, use a “Soul Release” spell card to banish the Prophets from your opponent’s graveyard preventing them from using them to Ritual Summon. That’s all I’ve got for now. Nekroz is very popular on DN so if you play on it, be prepared to face Nekroz. Have a strategy in mind because they can easily FTK or OTK. For those who don’t know: “OTK” stands for “One Turn Knockout” which is when then take you from 8000 to 0 in one turn. “FTK” stands for “First Turn Knockout” which is exactly the same as an OTK, but they do it on their first turn.

Anti-Meta Decks

Madolche

Madolche decks are very difficult to deal with. Very difficult to get Monsters into the graveyard. There are the Crystal Beast 2.0 essentially and can be just as destructive even though the Monsters a relatively weak. If they get “Tiramisu” out, you’re gone. You are gone. Very few ways to counter it because it can shuffle anything back into your deck and you can’t chain to it, because to start a chain, the card must be destroyed or in some cases banished.

Rely heavily on trap cards against a Madolche Deck, “Fiendish Chain” in particular because it will stop the effect of “Tiramisu” and allow you to destroy it, but you have to activate it before the effect of “Tiramisu” is activated (because you can’t chain it). Use decoys to try and bait the effect out and then hit it with “Mirror Force”. “Dark Hole” works too. You’re not going to overpower it unless you manage to Syncro or Xyz Summon in one turn. “Skill Drain” will also work to your advantage.

Masked Heroes

Masked Heroes are another deck I struggle against and will probably still be popular for a while. “Dark Law” in particular will cause you headaches, though relatively simple to defeat, its banishment effect will create a lot of problems for you. You can only add cards by drawing them in your Draw Phase, or you lose one random card. I’ve come close to beating a Masked Hero a few times. It’s not an easy deck to play against. In terms of how frustrating it is, I have it up there with Burn Decks.

In some ways, the counter to it is similar to Madolche. Lots of defensive traps. Use “Bottomless Trap Hole” to deal with “Dark Law”. “Dark Hole” won’t go amiss either, but prepared for a long duel. A Masked Hero deck won’t be defeated easily.