Archetype Predictions for the Summer of 2014

I tend to think of the time between Nationals and Labor Day as Yugioh’s off-season.  Mid-August brings the opening of training camps where a large number of rookies will get incorporated into the doolists’ teams.  Then we’ll have a new F & L list and the season opener, which usually takes the form of a Canadian YCS. Given this low period, I had intended to save my archetype prediction list until the fall.  

While those dynamics remain essentially unchanged, this year’s crop of Duelist Alliance rookies will bring a cosmic do-over to the game of Yugioh.  The chaos sorcery is further enhanced by a new summoning mechanism.  While the impact of pendulum summoning will not be fully felt until the New Challengers set, it will benefit certain archetypes. Given these changes, I felt compelled to update my list.  Besides, someone asked me to do so.  

The table below gives my order of meta defining archetypes from strongest to weakest.  The larger number to the left is their predicted rank; the smaller number to the right is their former rank.  I’ve done my best to represent all the archetypes even though that very designation is somewhat artificial.  Is H.A.T. an archetype? 

Here are some of the assumptions used to revise this list: 

Newer archetypes take precedence over older ones.  Fire Fists are likely stronger than their ranking would suggest.  However, most FF players have probably moved on.  Similar logic can be applied to Geargia.  That said, the OCG makes a strong case for the primacy of Shaddolls.  Stellarknights are not as strong as a pure archetype; however, these cards will likely get integrated into a number of decks. 

Only the fastest will survive.  Midrash is a difficult monster to overcome. Though a number of decks can make a run at the Spamalot title, only a few will be able to beat this Hebrew, wind, puppet thing.  The most viable contender is Infernities, which have neat ways of incorporating many of the newer cards.  

Double ROTA will have an impact. This may be the breakout format for Noble Knights. The deck does not relay on a lot of summoning and it can make pretty beefy combatants. Evilswarms also move up the list, as they do whenever the meta moves away from XYZ summoning. ROTA will give a substantial boost to Six Samurais, which are one of the few decks to also benefit from the return of Goyo.  

Many light themed decks will suffer collateral damage.  Side-deck hate that is aimed at Stellarknights and Sacksworns will have an impact on several lesser played archetypes like Constellars, Hunders, Worms, and Batterymen.  Sorry guys.  

Pendulum summoning will have a modest impact. I have not completely overlooked this mechanic.  Gadgets and Monarchs have both moved up the list.  I have also given some love to Ninjas, one of my favorite archetypes.  Hanzo and Mist Valley monsters can bring out Dark Simorgh with relative ease.  At least as the rules are currently interpreted, the Persian god can keep monsters out of the pendulum zone.  

Enjoy your summer.