Konami is actively analyzing tournament data to inform game balance and product development, and has begun sharing insights, such as the top 10 most-sided cards from YCS Knoxville, offering valuable strategic information to players.
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it might not always seem like it but
Konami actually takes pretty good care
of paying attention to what cards people
are actually entering and winning and
topping tournaments with I mentioned
this because if you've ever played in a
regional flight and won that regional
flight you might know that you can't
actually get your decklist back that
decklist as well as other topping lists
from y CS and regionals gets sent off to
Konami for them to research and that's
sort of some of the ways that they
actually address the current format and
make new bandless and products and for
the most part Konami doesn't share
whatever information they have with the
general public this means if you want to
know a topping or winning deck list you
can't just go on the official Konami
site if you paid attention to you yo way
back in the day when meta game comm was
where all the Yuya articles were posted
you might remember that they actually
did post the topping deck list but that
changed when Konami took over and I
think in general it's for the better if
you or someone that topped an event
maybe you thought your deck was super
special and you don't want to share it
with the world
now you don't have to worry about Konami
sharing it with everyone without your
permission in general though nowadays if
you want to learn someone's deck list
you don't go to the official Konami site
you have to go to a third party website
like YouTube or Facebook or TCG player
Konami has decided to share with us the
top ten most side deck cards out of the
top thirty two of ycs Knoxville and this
is pretty unprecedented and pretty darn
cool sure you can find some of this by
looking at the posted deck list but a
lot of the players that topped Knoxville
seem to be withholding information and
that's no surprise because the wcq is
coming up and usually the last ycs for
the wcq you find a lot of people
withholding their side decks withholding
their main decks
so while Konami isn't saying exactly how
many copies of these cards were played
we at least can look at this and know
yeah okay some of these cards are rising
or falling in popularity I want to make
two final notes before we break into the
lists the first thing is that you really
do have to keep in mind what the actual
top 32 deck breakdown looked like which
is something that they have posted you
got to keep in mind that there were 10
Marcus stacks nine danger thundered x8
Salomon great decks and five sky
strikers there were no rogue decks that
topped this event and also keep in mind
if a card is being played in both orcas
and danger thunder is a lot more likely
to end up on this list because they took
up a lot of the top 32 the other thing
to keep in mind is that this is only
counting this side deck even if a card
is commonly played in the side deck or
the main deck it's not counting any of
the copies that were main decks and
that's a pretty big deal with a few of
these entries and of course if you'd
like to purchase any of the cards that I
talked about in today's video because
you're trying to get a leg up on the
competition for the wcq make sure to
check out TCG player com there is a link
in the description they are kindly
sponsoring today's video talking about
these top 10 most side deck cards this
is really cool because you know these
cards are successful we have proof that
they currently are being used it's the
perfect time to pick them up if you
don't have all these cards and there's
no better place than TCG players at
number 10 we have denko ceqa which to
some players like myself when i first
read that said oh that actually makes a
lot of sense there were a lot of danger
thunder dragon but looking at the list
that we have available we have around
half of the thunder dragon list publicly
available to people that want to see on
tcp player looking at them only one of
the ones that's actually out there
played den Kousaka and sure they played
three copies of it
but I think if anything this is showing
me that there's a lot of different
variety and what people are actually
playing in their side decks for a card
like dung Kousaka to be on this list if
it's not very popular just with the list
that we have available that implies that
the other cards especially the ones on
the bottom of this list maybe weren't as
popular as a lot of people think they
were without looking up any of the
decklist that are available you might
have guessed that then Kousaka was a
staple 3 of an every single Thunder list
and that would imply that like a whole
bunch of people were playing a lot of
these cards however if you go through
the side decks that are available you'll
notice that a lot of people are playing
a lot of different tech options that yes
do similar things but not quite the same
and I really want you to keep that in
mind when we talk about the number 9
entry which is mystic mine now looking
at the denko's second entry we can see
that mystic mine wasn't nearly as
popular as a
I seem on the initial read-through of
this top 10 list however it does mean
that more players than just the sky
sticker players are actually side
decking this card most the sky stagger
players were main decking one or two
copies of mystic mine and there is side
decking one or two copies to make a
total of three copies between their main
and side deck but the very fact that
mystic mine is on this top 10 list and
also we do have some of the Orcas lists
available you can see that a lot of
Orcas players were trying out mystic
mine either in the main or side deck
it's an incredibly powerful card against
the dangerous thunder dragon list when
you go second and they already are
playing cards like terraforming and cell
rotation just seems like a natural fit
to sort of blank out the entire Thunder
board do their full combo and then you
can use the Galatea to play your own
field spell over the mystic mind to
break it the big takeaway here is that
if you play against orcas at the wcq
keep in mind that they very likely are
going to have at least one copy of
mystic mind between their main or side
deck and they have a lot of ways to
access it so if you go first against
them be prepared to get mystic mind
don't decide out all of your back
removal because a lot of their cards are
monster effects you want to make sure
you have some sort of out to a
degenerate field spell because yeah
mystic mine is annoying when it's played
in a pure deck and it's really strong
when it's played in the sky strikers but
it's especially crazy played in a combo
deck because now you can't hand trap any
of the Orcas combo cards the next three
cards actually were a three-way tie so
eight seven and six were all cited the
exact same amount first off we have draw
land lock word which was pretty insane
for me to read and when I went back at
the decklist I saw that it actually was
cited quite a bit recently drone lock
bird has sort of fallen out of favor it
wasn't getting cited nearly as much as
it was like six months ago but it looks
like it's back in full force if people
are really playing it this much at least
in the top thirty-two of ycs Knoxville
it's not super surprising when you think
about it because this card against the
danger thunder dragon deck which is
probably the second best deck of the
format is basically an extra copy of
artifact lancia sure they can still
banish cards but by turning off their
search effects you really lose a lot of
the utility of the danger thunder dragon
deck for
example you no longer you can search off
eBay be cast dragons you don't get the
drawers off the danger monsters and you
also can't do your big guard dragon
combo by summoning bro tar in searching
in the chaos leve in year while Drona
lock bird isn't nearly as impactful as
artifact Lancia it still is a really
really good choice because you're not
always gonna draw those Lancias against
orcas maybe not as good but does have
some utility against both Salman grades
and sky strikers the other big Dex of
the format the next card that was tied
was electric virus and this isn't super
surprising if you've been looking at the
danger thunder dragon list out there
right now because this is pretty much a
staple side deck card as a three of and
a lot of those lists maybe not as much
of a staple as some of the other cards
when we get to the higher points of this
list but in general it is still very
very popular and for a good reason the
thing that you do Electric virus that
you let your opponent's set up their
entire board and then they summon a hot
red dragon archfiend you can steal it
with the Electric virus and now I don't
really have a lot of ways to deal with
your cards because you can use the hot
red dragon archfiend to bait these
zombie Stein and then their only real
form of interruption if they did the
full combo is the hieratic link monster
which isn't that much against a mere
match because you can do so many plays
with the danger thunder monsters some
players already knew the electra virus
was popular and they started not playing
hot red and instead played crystal wing
which is a pretty decent counter to
electric fire it's because you can just
think get its effect in that way
electric fire is still baits a negation
but it's not quite as good as stealing
the hot red being able to use the effect
than also using it for link material and
then the last card of the three-way tie
was fantastical dragon phantasm a and
this is where I want to make a note that
this is only looking at side decks and
that's very very important because this
was probably one of if not the most
played cards in the entire top 32 if we
look at main and side decks but the fact
that matter is a lot of people were
already meaning this card in danger
thunder in salem and great so it's not
going to be as high on the list as you
might expect it to be sure a lot of
people are still side decking and it's
still a very good card in the side deck
and you can't play it in every deck most
of the Orcas decks weren't playing this
card and all the sky tiger decks weren't
playing this card but it's still very
popular especially when you look at the
main deck so might
and it's still a very powerful card it
just means that not everyone out there
is making this card quite yeah a lot of
the danger Thunder decks are still just
not meaning any hand traps and just
going full combo although admittedly
when you look at the list breakdown some
people still our main decking that
fantastical dragon phantasm II in those
danger Thunder lists even though they're
not drying in the hand traps they are
fixing their hand and getting a ton of
value off of that draw effect next up
and we're no longer talking about tied
monsters we're at the number 5 spot and
that is ghost ogre and snow rabbit very
similar to drill operator this is a card
that sort of went out of the meta for a
long time a couple months now and
suddenly it's back in the game the
biggest reason this card happens to be
very good against both sky strikers and
danger thunder the reason was get again
sky strikers it's pretty obvious you hit
the multi roll and that stops a lot of
their recycling plays especially now
that they're down just one Kagari
against the guard dragons you can use
this card because all them require you
to have something pointing to a specific
spot to resolve their effects by using
ghosts uglier they can't resolve because
they don't point anywhere anymore and
that's a pretty big deal it definitely
shuts down a huge aspect of their
opening combos once again when you're
planning insects like orcas and danger
thunder there is a really amount of hand
traps that's too much you want to have
as many cards as possible to stop them
from playing the game because if those
two decks get to play the game and get
to do their full combo you're down a lot
of cards and also they have a crazy big
board by using more cards like ghost
ogre and draw mock bird in addition to
artifact lancia you can definitely help
prevent yourself from having to play
through one of the most devastating
boards in the game at the third and
fourth spot we have a two-way tie and
the first card is no material I've
talked about this card a lot in the past
I actually think it's a huge sleeper
pick and clearly people are picking it
up for ycs Knoxville in the wcq it makes
sense especially if you're not playing
phantasm a witch money of the Orcas
decks weren't this card just completely
stops the entire Orchestra if it
resolves the reason is is that when you
do the Orcas combo you have to summon a
link to nightmare monster and both of
them in the game right now don't have
downward pointing arrows Phoenix and
Cerberus only point up and then either
to the left or right which means if you
use no material on them you're probably
just can't summon me
tonight for the rest of the turn but no
material is also good against Salman
greats in danger thunder maybe not to
the extent as orcas but as I've
mentioned it in past videos it's pretty
solid just slowing your opponent down
right now no matter what deck you're
playing you don't want your opponent to
combo off obviously with decks like
danger thunders and orcas it's a little
scarier if they actually full combo but
even against things like salmon grates
it's good to just blank their turn and
make them make awkward or uncomfortable
plays no material is a card that can do
that and that means a lot of people were
trying to play it in their side decks at
Knoxville and likely at the wcq tide
would no material we have Dino wrestler
panca tops which is an incredibly
versatile side deck card that can deal
with pretty much any rogue strategy in
the format it certainly has applications
against all four of the top decks maybe
not the best card against any of those
decks it's really good against sky
strikers though especially for not
playing fantastical dragon themed
Tasmania but in general the sheer value
of prank' tops against those other rogue
decks of the format is not to be ignored
keep in mind that there aren't a lot of
formats out there like the one we're in
where you have four different top
strategies there's a lot of formats
where there's two different best decks
maybe three different best decks but
right now there's truly four different
decks that you can play that are all
considered meta and that means that you
have to have a lot of side and main deck
spots for those decks in that way when
you're building your side deck you
really want to have a card that's good
against pretty much every rogue deck you
can encounter just so you're not taking
an auto loss to those decks and those
rogue matchups is no better all-purpose
neutral card than the Dyna wrestler
because that can really deal with almost
any deck you're expected to play against
and while it is pretty good against the
top decks mainly I think the reason
people are playing that especially
outside of the seconds light decks I
can't play a lot of the other cards you
might think of against rogue strategies
you really want to have a card that can
just plow through the decks that aren't
the expected meta just to make sure you
don't have nothing against them
especially if your main decking tech
options against the meta lenses aren't
good against those rogue decks you need
to take them out for something what else
take them out for then a card that has
2600 attack is a free special summon and
can also blow up a car died either
players turn and then you have the
number 2 spot that I'm pretty sure if
you looked at the main
and side decks would be almost tied with
the number one spot however almost all
the salmon great players were main
decking this card and that's twin
twisters what's interesting is that
despite the fact that eight of the top
thirty-two we're making this card and
most of the salmon great players were at
least least ones that we have knowledge
of right now this card still is number
two on the list and it's number two
because it's being played in almost
every deck out there right now
especially if we're looking at just the
top four strategies things like sky
strikers want to play this card against
the mere match and against orcas take
out those fog blades in orcas and
thunder dragons won't play this card to
not lose to floodgates index like sky
strikers Salomon greats are usually main
backing this card so they're probably
not contributing too much to these cards
placement on this top 10 list but still
twin twisters is everywhere and this
list proves it so if you're playing a
rogue back row deck like altar guys or
guru control you really have to be
prepared to play against twin twister
and Dan Kousaka a lot of rounds and that
brings us to the number one spot and if
he lists that we have available or
anywhere to look I think that it's safe
to say that almost every single person
if not every single person with side
decking three copies of his card so it's
no surprise that it's at the number one
spot on Konami's lists artifact lancia
is the only good counter to dangerous
under and orcas that works every single
time in every single scenario it's
especially funny against orcas because
it can stop your opponent from using
call by the grave on your other hand
traps but overall it's just the one of
card or the three of card I should say
but the one specific card that you can
draw against those two top decks which
are the most popular decks right now I
just completely stops their entire turn
it just forces them to pass pretty much
in a lot of cases may be endangered
thunders sometimes you can play through
lancia and get a few negations out there
but as far as the orcas that goes almost
all of their combos revolve around
banishing multiple cards so artifact
lancia just stops their turn entirely I
don't think this choice will surprise to
anyone but what it means in case you
didn't know is that if you're playing a
rogue strategy that requires you to
banish cards and friends come to mind
now I'm sure there's all this stuff as
well if you're playing a deck like that
it's a really really bad
time for you to be playing it's a huge
uphill battle because every single
person in an event pretty much are going
to be playing artifact Lancia in this
side deck it is I've never really seen a
situation where there's been this much
of a staple side deck card I mean twin
twisters gets up there and we've seen
other cards come close but it's really
crazy to think that every single deck is
playing artifact Lancer right now no
matter what duck you're playing you just
don't want to lose to danger thunder or
orcas and this is the best card to stop
their big combos anyway though that's
gonna wrap up today's video I'm sorry
it's a little bit longer than my usual
videos but I just really felt like I had
a lot to say about all ten of these
entries I don't know if Konami will do
this going forward but it was really
helpful and I think it's a really cool
way to drive more traffic to the Konami
articles right now is not a lot to read
out there they post sporadically they
don't really do consistent uploads for
those articles and while I do think some
of their uploads are important this
really is like a really unique
perspective that you can't get anywhere
else the strategy articles are cool and
all by actually giving us information
that you can't find as a public just
regular player is really awesome and I
hope going forward they do more of it
because I think people really
appreciated their insight anyway though
I'll see you guys later thing is so much
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