Notes & Combos

Notable Changes From Season 24

I climbed to Master V with the list from the previous season before Superheavy Samurai (SHS) was released:

https://www.masterduelmeta.com/top-decks/master-i/december-2023/mathmech/800-588-2300-empire/2Arb3

I climbed Master Rank using a list slotting in 17 handtraps in 42 cards. I could have played 16 handtraps in 40 cards but I wanted to play Gamma for it's multiple roles of removal, negation, small world bridge and Maxx C out - Driver's slot makes this difficult. The main difference with this list is that I do not play Dotscaper, Eccentrick, or Multiplication. I did not miss Dotscaper as a small world bridge outside of drawing Parallel eXceed which is rare to open it without a normal summon. I relied on Gamma and Veiler to bridge the rest.

My strategy against SHS was opening two handtraps. One of the best combinations was Nibiru + effect negation to deal with their Baronne insulation. While I sided with Gamma in this case, I played Veiler over Imperm because it combined much better with Maxx C + Nibiru as my opponent tries to OTK with a negate up. I think Droll was strong vs SHS but I fear the matchup is extremely aware of that and they've developed strong countermeasures (Baronne + Handtraps, Bagooska + Handtraps, Scythe, Verte for Sanctifire + Snow). I did not face too much SHS so maybe I am respecting it too much. My current handtrap lineup does not perform as well against Branded or Labrynth compared to DD Crow or Belle.

For the missing Multiplication, I relied on Update Jammer + Accesscode more often. There's a case for cutting Update Jammer if you play Multiplication and vice versa.

Matchup Breakdown in Diamond Only (80 Duels; 33 Heads, 47 Tails)

• 13 Bystial Branded (16.3%, W/R = 53.8%)
• 10 Kashtira (12.5%, W/R = 50%)
• 10 Mathmech (12.5%, W/R = 80%)
• 5 Vanquish Soul (6.3%, W/R = 40%)

Matchup Breakdown in Master Only (30 Duels; 18 Heads, 12 Tails)

• 4 Bystial Branded (13.3%, W/R = 75%)
• 4 SHS (13.3%, W/R = 100%)

Because of how quick the climb was, Master has a very small sample size, so it may not be worth drawing conclusions from. Next climb should be a better indicator of how SHS is represented. They should not be an issue, but like Kashtira when Arise-Heart debuted, just their presence alone is enough to make me prepare for them. Like Kashtira, it's likely I drop the cards respecting SHS for other matchups - Branded is definitely a more pressing matchup to build for.