Notes & Combos

NOTE: Don't bother playing Mekk-Crusadia if you want to climb Diamond with a World Legacy deck; save yourself the pain and just play pure Mekks (consistency and Lava Golem access) or Orcust.

This climb was truly hellish.

I started off playing board breakers like DRNM and Evenly instead of HTs (apart from Maxx C) because that's all everyone said to do when I looked up opinions on beating Spright before their release. After bouncing between D4 and D5 at least 5 times, I finally realized that I had to go back to being a HT bot because my Mekk-Crusadia build doesn't have as much gas as other blind second decks and simply cannot keep up with Spright and Runick in the midrange game. It became clear that the most effective strategy was to deny fully developed boards by using HTs (hence dealing with fewer interruptions on turn 2) and then just OTK with Equimax instead of trying to clear the whole board and set up WL's Secret. I just cannot generate enough card advantage to consistently win that way in the Spright era. That said, I still relied on Secret in over half of my games as it's easy to strangle decks attempting to recover after having their board broken (since they would have spent most of their hand to build it) with Indigo's 2x negate. It's just notable that Equimax OTK was back on the menu for me in a massive way.

Tech options:

1. Standard Maxx C/Ash/Imperm set: As above, allowed me to face smaller boards that I could more easily OTK through. Ash and Imperm feel wasted vs Spright, but denying them access to Red or Carrot was sometimes decisive when OTK-ing! More importantly, without them I beat Spright more easily but just about lost to most other decks. This is a Spright meta, but I don't think I faced its variants in more than half of my duels. Branded Despia, Runick, and all that still abound, and Ash on Branded Fusion/Ash or Imperm on Hugin can still swing the game. Hitting Kaspitell, Ze Amin, and other decks' starters ultimately won me more games overall than forgoing HTs for board breakers vs Spright did.
2. Belle + Nibiru: Nibiru ended games when it resolved. Perhaps it became more useful when Cancer Runick became less prevalent following the release of Ishizu mill. Belle was clutch in a few games (vs Superfactorial and Fountain draw), but was also crucial against Spright players' CBTG on Maxx C. Resolving Maxx C is extremely important: not just to prevent further board development, but also to draw more gas/tools given my deck really doesn't plus all that much. I also had Ghost Ogre in for a bit, but didn't get as much use out of her.
3. Duster+LS: With Spright having everyone in defense, LS became mostly a backrow sweeper and a way to trigger the opponent's turn 2 combo earlier to force weaker interactions (Superfactorial, Dreaming Town, Branded in Red). Still crucial.
4. DRNM: Absolutely the card I always wanted to see vs Spright. Stops the OTK, but whenever I got it in hand I simply prepared to go for the WL's Secret combo and play the midrange game instead. I had it at 3x initially, but it bricked too much against cancer stun decks and the like, so I opted to diversify into other breakers such as:
5. TTT and Droplet: TTT was dead a lot of the time and does somewhat clash with DRNM, but when it resolved I usually won. I ultimately couldn't find anything better for its spot (wanted backrow because of Mekk column requirement), but I did like having Raigeki in its place too. Droplet is incredible...but discarding is a massive cost when you play Crusadias. Still, I didn't have to negate EVERY Spright monster to OTK, so it was actually amazing. Settled for 1/1/1 ratio with DRNM here out of respect for the wide range of decks I faced on the ladder. Better to have the out somewhere in there than not at all.
6. Pankra/Kaijus: Not enough value on a per-card basis and bricked against cancer stun decks.
7. Evenly: Why did I suddenly drop Evenly after having used it for the last few seasons, especially when everyone else is now playing it? Two reasons. 1) I was often unable to establish a board when the opponent kept Fountain--an issue that compounded with the rise of Runick Spright; generally, my board presence was itself limited when the opponent's board only had 1 card left due to the Mekks being so needy for columns. In the past this was fine, but the draw power and recovery of Spright are impossible to overcome without the proper WL's Secret setup. 2) Outlasting Spright critically depended upon opening DRNM/CBTG/Imperm to deny the Elf revive for a searcher. When I played Evenly, I did have 3x DRNM, but this was just too much of a high-roll and I often watched Spright run over my Astram + WL's Secret setup as the game dragged on. My list just cannot compete in the midrange any longer.
8. Zeus package: Actually came in handy a few times against Spright and Runick, but I honestly don't like it all that much unless I somehow got Secret in hand (draw or Morning Star search). In the 3rd replay on my account, you'll see me misplay thinking I still had Borreload Savage in my deck! I miss that guy and all the other toolbox options I had before. Might go back to that.
9. Crossout: Major shoutout to Crossout for stopping Duster and Lightning Storm on my WL's Secret! Literally game-winning protection there.

Moving forward, I will have to experiment with go-first variants as I really felt like I was hitting the limit with a go-second strategy given my personal deckbuilding constraints (1 of each Crusadia + only using World Legacy supporting engines). For now though, the gameplan remains to deny fully developed boards, break said boards, and then look for the OTK or set up for the midrange. I had to be really careful in picking interactions to engage (reading opponents' delays) and very patient in ordering my plays.

Hope this helps; feel free to DM or ping me in the Crusadia channel if you have questions or want to discuss specific matchups!