Notes & Combos

Wake me up, when this format ends~~

Normally I'm quite cheerful during my M1 run recaps but truthfully I have very little positive to say about this format. My personal run was absolutely flooded with Elf Notes and Elf Note hybrids.

The Elf Note ability to push into a board is frankly laughable, and they couldn't go second through a wet paper towel. However on the other side, every version is essentially trying to hand rip you twice and end on at least 2-3 omnis, which mathematically means you are completely screwed. So win or lose, there is VERY little interaction to be had

The rest of the meta was...fine, it's your average mix of annoying combo decks, Odion decks trying to cheese you with counter traps, and slightly overtuned but overall tolerable "fair" decks that at least have the decency of engaging in a game of yugioh with you (Branded Dracotail this season).

I don't have a lot to say about this specific deck because it's pretty similar to last season. Called By was good both for and against us, so it's kind of a wash. Just be extra careful about droll! You could play fuwa because that's the only card that really lets you consistently not get run over by elf notes, but you're still playing "draw the out" and hoping they don't have a way to negate it. Also Fuwa has really bad synergy with striker imo, so I don't like it unless you have a LOT of discard synergy

Instead, let me talk about Pot of Sloth!

So actually I am working on a going first version of the deck with Pot of Sloth (crazy I know), but that will have to be saved until I posted my Rated duels list

Why I don't think Pot of Sloth in a Vacuum is good right now:

• The most troublesome common matchup going second right now is Elf Note. I would say most other matchups are largely winnable (again, amongst common MUs)
• Againts Elf Note, without a charmy, you are not resolving Sloth in reality vs 2 hand rips and multiple Omni negates
• If you want to go with a hybrid Charmy/Sloth approach to help Sloth resolve into like an 80% board then that's fine but then you need a way to incorporate charmies which for the most part aren't great in Striker
• And if you want to blind 2nd you run into the issue that you're still at the mercy of the opponent drolling or Maxx C'ing you behind the board

Overall I am exicted to try out a Sloth deck going forward, but this more normal deck may be more your mileage if you just want to copy a deck that works right now!

Keep it up Striker fam!