Notes & Combos

N.B: I am back on blind 2nd Mekk-Crusadia

Most difficult season in a while. I faced Yubel, Centurion, and VV pretty much blind and had no idea how to build to counter everything. It's clear that I've been taking longer and longer to reach M1 following the release of SE in Feb. TBF, I'm getting a lot busier IRL and haven't been having fun in recent formats, so I've been taking things easy. However, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that post-SE archetypes simply have too many different modes of interaction in hand and GY such that an impoverished, face-up, and straightforward on-field deck like Mekk-Crusadia really struggles to keep up. It was one thing to just have to deal with Kirin et al.; these new decks all have wildly different characteristics, making it very tough to gameplan for turn 1.

So I do think that early climbs are well and truly a thing of the past for me. Nonetheless, I will continue to strive for M1 in my free time, aiming to finish by the end of the 2nd week instead of the 1st week from now on. (FYI if any of you have faced a Mekk-Crusadia deck in Rating Duels, that might be me—I hit M1 yesterday but was too lazy to write this up earlier lol.)

Why back to blind 2nd?

• It seems people are now spamming breakers like Evenly, Duster, LS, Super Poly, and Droplet. This change must have happened post-Yubel, because I got sacked by board-breakers this season a lot more than I used to. I even got hit by 3x back-to-back Evenly once. Obviously, I have no way of reliably setting up S/T negates in pure World Legacy. While breakers are rampant, IMO, going 1st with pure WL is simply untenable. There is no recovery whatsoever.
• Gamma is back in full force. Gamma on Girsu going 1st really sucks. Going 2nd into a board makes Gamma a little less scary I guess lol.
• As aforementioned, too many effects in hand and GY right now for the pure WL board to properly control with just Secret + Lib bounce. S:P provides a GY banish but it's not super reliable and often too slow in response.

Why no board-breakers then?

VV and Centurion have omni-negates that eat up Evenly/LS, while Yubel is playing Iblee and isn't that hurt by Evenly. Moreover, I was often unable to deal with whatever card my opponent kept after Evenly or even their follow-up with cards in GY or hand from their combo plussing on turn 1. It's also sad that I can't really afford to play Droplet or Super Poly.

Thus, once again, I preferred to trade early with HTs to prevent these new and superior decks from snowballing card advantage, including getting cards in GY. Simplified gamestate remains the key for me. The difference is that I'm less likely to get caught out by Evenly/LS on turn 3 going 2nd than on turn 2 going 1st, and even if I do get hit by Duster/Super Poly/Droplet etc. in the mid-range, my opponent wouldn't have a fresh hand with full combo afterward. The WL board still does a job if my opponent has had their board broken and is playing into WL Secret with, like, 2 cards instead of 6...kek

Tech choices

• This is the standard blind-2nd Mekk-Crusadia I've always played. Spam HTs, break a hopefully weakened board, establish WL Secret in a simplified gamestate, and control to win.
• 3x Droll because it remains a turn-ender against a good range of decks unless your opponent opens cracked.
• Belle stays; really good against so many cards right now! Belle is perennially underrated...but not in my deck!
• 2x Veiler because SEFK has become less prevalent. Annoyingly, VV has a way to dodge Veiler too, but it's not as bad. It's the next best HT up.
• Red Reboot's a good choice right now IMO. Yubel, Centurion, and VV all play annoying traps that can remove my NS, effectively ending the duel right there. Just too bad RR can't deal with all the OP spells left on the board.
• I cut 2x Memory for more HTs. I just felt like I was often drawing Memory when I really needed a HT, and it wasn't helping me win most of the time. It's a slight consistency hit if we're strict, but I was tired of automatically taking Ls from not opening counterplay.
• TY-PHON was pretty underwhelming. It's neat to have in the toolbox, but it never was much of a game-winner like Zeus. It does give me a way forward from an Imperm-ed Girsu, but it just sits there after that...I'll continue testing it though. It just didn't do enough to displace Almiraj.

Been getting whipped in Rating Duels so just know the deck is really weak and the climb was a slog as always. Nothing more than draw-the-out gameplay. This surely can't be the best approach, but whenever I'm clueless, I just brute-force with blind 2nd. Hopefully I can come up with something better next month. Please let me know if you have any tips for countering the meta. Thanks!