YCS Leipzig: Aftermath & Analysis

Just one week after YCS Atlanta, YCS Leipzig took place, over in Europe. According to Konami, there were 1137 participants, a healthy number, from all over Europe. With the timing of the event being so close to that of YCS Atlanta, it wasn't likely that there would be any real change to the structure of the meta. It was already made apparent from YCS Guadalajara and Atlanta just what the top tier decks of the end of this format were, and leading into the beginning of next format: Dino Rabbit, Wind Ups, and Inzektors.

The Top 32
19x Dino Rabbit
6x Inzektors
4x Wind Ups
1x Plant Synchro
1x Gravekeepers
1x Agents

Source
As expected, there weren't any surprises here, as the 'big 3' decks continued their dominating streak from last week's YCS Atlanta. Dino Rabbit, in particular, was again the clear cut dominant deck. Seeing as neither of these 3 decks will be affected in any way by the banlist (which in fact more or less finished off 2 dying decks in the TCG in Plant Synchro and Agents), one can presume that they will continue their dominance up until the release of the next booster set Galactic Overlord, which boasts the powerful Hieroglyph / Holy Mark / Sacred archetype. Granted, it's unknown just how much of an impact that will have in the TCG, but they certainly have potential.

Going through the list of players who topped though, there are quite a few names that I recognized, including Michel Gruner (winner of YCS Bochum) and Stephan Sluis (winner of YCS Paris), as well as others that have topped YCS events before, like Schumacher, Weber, and Long. Having a good amount of decent (or better) players top the final YCS before the next banlist is a good way to finish off the format imo.

The Top 8
4x Inzektors
3x Dino Rabbit
1x Wind Up

The Top 4
3x Inzektors
1x Dino Rabbit

Gradually, every deck but the Inzektor decks were whittled down considerably as the Top Cut rounds progressed. By the time the Top 4 pairings were put up, there was but one Dino Rabbit deck remaining, out of the initial 19 that made the Top Cut.


The Finals
Stephan Sluis was able to pilot his Dino Rabbit deck, the last one remaining, to victory, cutting down his opponent's Bug deck to become the first player to win 2 European YCS events. Congratulations to him.
I wonder if the domination of this event by Dino Rabbit, including the eventual victory, will finally spur Konami to take a good look at the state of the TCG meta and do something about it?


Other Thoughts
Again, Europe's YCS coverage team pushed out yet another fine product, as there were tons of timely updates with working pictures, and the Top 16 decklists were already posted by the end of the event.

I'm really not expecting the meta to change at all until GAOV, as it's pretty clear that Dino Rabbit has the edge among the 'big 3', with Wind Ups and Inzektors jostling for 2nd and 3rd place. I believe that Wind Ups have the slight edge over their buggy rivals, due to greater flexibility of plays and subsequently a greater number of options. The numbers from this particular event seem to reflect that, as 4 of the 78 total Wind Up decks topped, yielding ~ 5.13%, while 6 of the 122 total Inzektor decks topped, yielding ~ 4.92%. In comparison, 19 of the 149 Dino Rabbit decks topped, yielding ~ 12.75%, a noticeable difference.

This all makes sense of course. Dino Rabbit is the least susceptible to hand traps amongst the 3 decks. Effect Veiler is pretty useless as it's only able to hit Tour Guide plays. Maxx "C" will indeed net you 2 draws, resulting in a +1, but you will have to give up that +1 in the attempt to get rid of Laggia / Dolkka, the Walking Solemn and Walking Divine Wrath respectively, both of which would ideally be created from 1 card anyway (Rabbit into 2 vanillas, or Jurrac Guaiba pulling out another copy of itself). As such, neither hand trap really stop the deck.
In comparison, Wind Ups are able to play around Effect Veiler to some extent, but are shut down by Maxx "C". There are exceptions, such as when the player is going for game, and can ignore the draws generated by an opponent's "C".
Inzektors, in contrast, aren't really hurt by "C", but don't like being hit by Effect Veiler.
Even after side decking, there are plenty of hate that can be sided against both Wind Ups and Inzektors (Gozen Match, Rivalry of Warlords, Macro Cosmos, Cyber Dragon, etc for the Toys ; Shadow Imprisoning Mirrors, Prohibition, D.D. Crow, Macro Cosmos, etc for the Bugs), all of which can cripple the deck to some degree, while there aren't cards that can devastate the Dino Rabbit deck to that same extent. Snowman Eater is probably the best bet, but a few Dino Rabbit players are starting to side stuff like Shield Crush in anticipation of that. Either that, or they could just bring out a Dolkka to back up the Laggia, or vice versa.

Personally, I have a bit of a bias towards HEROes as a decent pick with which to counter the meta. The deck's biggest asset, arguably, is the versatility with which one can construct a side deck, as it can pretty much flawlessly integrate the aforementioned side deck cards that adversely affect both Inzektors and Wind Ups. Even against Dino Rabbit, which appears to be a somewhat unfavorable matchup due to the presence of big beatsticks with negation effects, neither Dolkka nor Laggia are able to stop Super Polymerization, and the HERO deck can also be tweaked to accommodate Skill Drains as well, which pretty much shits on the meta. The deck isn't affected a whole lot by Maxx "C" and Effect Veiler, much like Dino Rabbit, which is yet another plus in my books.
The biggest disadvantage is probably a lack of speed (hopefully Maxx "C" will enable it to keep up), and unlike more mainstream decks, how it is unable to rapidly generate advantage, which can be of concern at times. Still, I like the deck enough that I can safely say that at the moment, it's one of the decks that I'm considering to play at YCS Long Beach.