Notes & Combos

It's been quite an eventful week for Master Duel. A new banlist, a new Selection Pack, and a new format to figure out. Ishizu Tearlaments lost 6 cards from the banlist, most of which being the Ishizu shufflers. Does this mean that the Tier 0 menace is no more? Has Tear fallen off? In short, this format will probably not be Tier 0 due to Branded and Spright getting large buffs from the new support and Tear being slightly weaker. However I believe that Ishizu Tear is still the best deck.

The reason I think that Ishizu Tear is the best deck is because the deck's playstyle and overall consistency is relatively unchanged. Yes, it lost Terraforming and some Ishizus, but this doesn't change Tear's gameplan. Their plays and endboard are still pretty much the same. This just means that you're less likely to get blown out by the shufflers. "Chain Havnis" is still as strong as ever.

Another reason Ishizu Tear is still good is the existence of Garura. Garura's addition to the game is incredibly impactful because it means that Super Polymerization is able to beat so many more endboards. Decks like Floo, Dragon Link, Spright, etc. can now reliably lose to a Super Poly. Garura's existence has turned Super Poly into a meta defining card. Tear is the best user of Super Poly because Tear can already hard-fuse into both Mudragon and Garura meaning that you don't waste Extra Deck space. Also, most Tear endboards dont' lose to Super Poly because your monsters are either immune to it (Kaleido-Heart) or float from it (Rulkallos, any main deck Tear).

Let's discuss one more topic: the Bystials. If you don't know what they do, they're essentially D.D. Crows for LIGHT/DARK attribute monsters and are also huge bodies with great effects attached to them. In other words, they're some of the most broken hand traps Konami's ever printed. Now many decks, notably Dragon Link and Branded, have very good synergy with the Bystials, but you can pretty much slot them into any deck that has the space, including Tear. Tear's use of the Bystials is particularly interesting because the ability to hard-fuse into Garura means that Garura + a Bystial gives you access to Beatrice. I don't think I have to explain why that's so strong in Tear. Additionally, most of the Tear's being DARK actually gives the deck synergy with Baldrake's effect. So basically, even though the deck "loses to Bystials" Tear can use them just as effectively as other decks using them.

So yeah, Tear is still a top contender.