What made you choose this deck for the tournament, and what were your tech choices?
So I was testing Drytrons out for the Senate, and it turned out they were broken. Rituals got hit, I decided to stick with the deck, and... welp, they're still pretty darn good. In a meta where banishing effects are at a premium, and the graveyard functions as a second hand, Trishula is the perfect boss monster a deck could ask for. Couple that with the searching power of Drytrons, and draw engines like Shaddolls or Spellbooks, you have the ability to consistently remove from play any threat from any zone, as early as your opponent's first turn. For mid to late game, Natasha and Phaleg close out games by crippling their board, and boosting your own.
Because this specific ritual build is new to Trinity, it's hard to label certain card choices as techs. Drytrons have frankly outclassed Impcantations, and they don't work well together regardless. Otherwise I would say most of the picks are just staple inclusions for rituals and their new space overlords, though I suppose only playing Maximus for Nadir is unconventional. I found that Ecclesia and Fleur conflicted too much with Drytrons. In the extra, I ran Gaia and Lanphorhynchus for multiple Natasha activations under the summon limit. Gaia was used over Berserker because I disliked giving free Knightmare draws, and it has the benefit of being fodder for Meteonis. Anima has a similar bonus type utility for being an easily accessible Spellcaster when Knowledge is hard drawn.
Would you make any changes to the deck?
Ironically, Trishula's greatest strength is this deck's greatest weakness. Graveyard banish is the deck's kryptonite, ways to mitigate that would be my primary adjustment. Pot of Greed, while very fun to play, may not be necessary, so the Trinities could be changed around as well.
How did your matchups throughout Swiss and Top 4 go?
Most of the games were decided on if I could quickly get out Trishula uninterrupted, and if I couldn't, Megaliths were used to slow down the pace. In a majority of the matches this held true, with two exceptions. Through misplays and a not so optimal hand, game 1 vs Burrito was a fast surrender from me. Through the rest of the set, I had consistent card advantage output and he was unable to get the Evil Twin engine live. Additionally, in game 1 vs Anim, Shenshen prevented my ability to search and snowball, but in the remainder of set, the Nekroz engine and the Drytron spell/trap interrupts created too many disruptions for the Synchro-based strategy.
Top 4 had many disappointing misplays on my side, yet the deck was able to pull through in spite of my sloppy gameplay. Veiss's graveyard centered list of Malice and Shaddoll loops unfortunately had a naturally bad matchup against Trishula, also with lacking consistent ways to push through Megalith walls. In finals, I surprisingly fought vs Dragonmaids for the first time throughout the tourney. Despite dealing with a turn 1 Buster lock in both games, I drew a very fortunate hand of Set Rotation and Nadir to out a first turn Sphere in game 1, with Maximus enabling Trish afterwards. In game 2, all the boss monsters were on full display, going into Trish, then Natasha back to back, stealiy Guilty's Savage with a live negate, followed by Phaleg to close the set.
Do you have a favorite play of the tournament?
In the second game vs Guilty, drawing Pot of Greed from Och, then Avarice off Greed, and then setting Wendi to draw even more from Beast the following turn was pretty fun.
What are your thoughts on the current state of the Trinity metagame?
The meta is mostly healthy. Dragonmaids, Witchcrafters, and Rituals all have very strong loops that dominate games when left unchecked, and certain floodgates, notably the Buster lock, completely shutdown some strategies, even if for a turn. But overall, there's been enough diversity in both decklist submissions and top cuts so it's fine for now.
Iceberg
Guiltygear
What made you choose this deck for the tournament, and what were your tech choices?
I played Rokket Dragonmaid Buster Blader. Nothing too innovative, inclusion of Buster Blader because the power level is high so blanking a few turns is pretty effective, though it did cost deck integrity and consistency somewhat. I mainly wanted an edge against meta and a hope that snowballing would work against rouge. Maids have many strengths, mostly infinite snowball engine and what is essentially invincibility to battle unless disrupted, and they go even and are fairly low commitment upon meeting disruption. The weaknesses include that they have less over all opponent interaction compared to other strategies, mostly just Tidying and extra deck monsters like the Borrels. They also monopolize summons midgame, so there isn't much need for engine splash. Rokkets cover early game and provide recovery, and are a very safe Dragon Shrine or Ravine send. They activate a lot of recovery plays late game, help use Furious and are decent enough dragon extenders if Maids aren't getting off the floor. Odd-Eyes is a decent splash because Revolution Dragon provides half the requirement for Chaos Pendulum Dragon, and Odd-Eyes Fusion is both a comeback mechanic and consistency for fusion plays. I like to side out Odd-Eyes for more targeted engines though. Played some minor trap support to make the Buster engine more worthwhile.
Would you make any changes to the deck, and what did you take away from the tournament?
This tournament I did not learn a whole lot about the deck, though I learned plenty on technical play decisions. I want to rework the side deck and extra because Maximus is table flipping on resolution. I mostly focused my side around breaking big monster locks like Witchcrafters, as well as the mirror. Next time I want more protection from destruction and ways to respond to the opponent playing on my turn beyond just good removal. I don't really know how to innovate the main deck going forward. The Buster engine caused some over all inflexibility to translate to alternate strategies. I would not mind being able to side out the Busters, but it has too much commitment for removing it to be optimal. Monster Reborn was nothing special, but Levianeer is not that easy to summon and Terraforming is not particularly important. Dragon extenders like Darkwurm and Destrudo are questionable, but I want the option to use Heiratic Spheres as often as possible.
What made you choose this deck for the tournament, and what were your tech choices?
I actually chose the deck within the last two hours before the deadline as I was between quite a handful of barely-functional lists until I eventually settled for the one above. It didn't really have any playtesting, so most of it was just theorycrafted lines of play and understanding until the YTC finally rolled around. Fortunately, the barrier of entry for the packages used is pretty low, so it wasn't exactly too difficult to abuse, especially with respects to Trinity's summon limitations and my deck's ability to break boards. My techs were Naelshaddoll Ariel and the Graydles. I ran Ariel in main because in every event beforehand when I was playtesting pure Shaddolls, she would come up Millhouse and win a lot of match-ups for me, sadly in the YTC she didn't really need to be used much at all. Similarly, when I needed her to be useful in topcut, she was a garnet in the hand. The Graydles were just lazy ways to monster steal that dodged virtually everything in the damage step. Useful against post-Tidying Dmaids since they would only realistically out your board with battle or effects and virtually a defense line versus Spellcasters since they don't really have any significant ways around the Graydles. They felt very cheeky, lame, but were effective. Notably, it came up pretty extraordinarily in my match vs. the OTK Gem-Knight list piloted by Ricape. I played Electric Virus and Puppet Plant as potential search targets for Sangan vs. the Tier 1 decks but alas. They never came up. Lastly, Gumblar could be considered a tech just because of all the snowballing in the format, but I only really used it once ever, so it didn't really show its worth.
Would you make any changes to the deck?
I would redo the entire extra and main deck. The deck lacked answers to negation boards and protections on top of protections. It wasn't really made to beat any of the Tier 1 lists, just to have fun really. Without major edits, the inclusion of Borreload Furious Dragon in the ED for its GY effect in tandem with something like I:P Masq to further abuse Nadir to its maximum potential would make playing against the deck a nightmare in all honesty, at least for normal decks. As for playing against the Tier 1 threats, I just really needed to run more sacky backrow and focus less on actually playing like intended. Even if consistency suffers, most of the decks besides Dmaids cannot recover from such a devastating blow. Otherwise, I wouldn't advocate for the Shaddolls at all. Just Dogmatika Unchained.
How did your matchups throughout Swiss and Top 4 go?
Swiss was pretty easy. I only went against a Tier 1 deck once and that was an unplayable match and my only loss in Swiss. Most of my wins were attributed to spamming Abominable Unchained Soul and his on-summon effect, but to give credit where it's due, the Unchained cards are just amazing at breaking boards in general. In topcut I was eliminated vs. Berger because I lacked any ways to deal with Natasha and Aratron. Was a deck-building error on my part, but it's what it's, I guess.
Do you have a favorite play of the tournament?
Against Pancake I used Rakea to pop my Shaddoll Dragon and destroy one of his Pend Scales, crash after and go into the Soul of Disaster and Link off his Persona Dragon, then end with Malice in hand. I guess my setup for Gumblar was objectively good in theory as well, but it was executed poorly. It is probably better with something like Bomber or Zeroboros so the window for counter play is much smaller to the point where if the opponent even breathes, they lose their entire board.
What are your thoughts on the current state of the Trinity metagame?
I don't like it. It's very snowbally with a lack of any real comeback pieces for older strategies to rely on. Even matchup knowledge only gets you so far in the wake of some of the powerhouses in the format. If the norm is for everything to be as fast as it is now then, I guess with a little less disruption in the format (which is technically a buff to the otherwise unplayable combo decks) then maybe it would be fine and overall healthy for those looking for a faster Trinity, but that isn't at all suggesting a Trinity in which everything is viable. Judging from how the current situation of the Tier 1 decks of Witchcrafter and Dragonmaid are handled, I guess we'll get the answer of what's the direction the community wants to go in. For now, it's pretty bad.
Veiss
What made you choose this deck for the tournament, and what were your tech choices?
I like playing the same deck for whole seasons, this season I'm playing Spellcaster-tribal. Especially exciting because of the release of the Magistus archetype which significantly increases the ceiling for the deck imo. As for techs I decided to beef up the Dogmatika package and include a Shaddoll package focused on resolving Shaddoll Beast's flip effect for extra consistency. I also included a copy of Ice Dragon's Prison as the co-pair with Nadir because it effectively answers many of the current meta threats in Rituals, Dragonmaids, and other Spellcaster variants. Similarly I included the Magician's Hand suite to protect my setups and hinder my opponent.
Would you make any changes to the deck?
I should probably be on Upstart Goblin, but I cut it because of the meme. Realistically I think it would be smarter to play Aussa's or Eria's to have a higher chance of resolving the Charmer link's effect, but the Dandy > Link play is too useful to switch imo. I kinda wish I had been on Borreload Savage Dragon to make with Zoroa, might consider cutting something to include that. I might also consider shaking up where I use my Trinities between Schmietta, Creation, and Patronus. Patronus especially seems like a decent response to what I predict will be many people's answer to the current meta: more banishing removal. I'm also considering adding more stun elements, as well as some funny tech engines.
How did your matchups throughout Swiss and Top 4 go?
Matchups overall went pretty well. Was able to go all of swiss without dropping a game. Sadly had to take a tie with Spydorking because of time restraints.
R2 against Anim I was able to take the set even though I don't really know what any of the virtual world cards do. During g1 I made a play I liked where I used Maximus to send Nadir to shuffle back his copy of the Level 9 Synchro. G2 I opned a really ugly Verre + Luna set up that Anim couldn't out.
R3 vs Veiss was tricky because I know first hand how good looping the unchained cards can be. G1 I open a weird omega loop with patronus that let's me gain a ton of advantage over a few turns, while also keeping Paleozoic Dinomischus out of their hand. I did get Setuppercut resolved against me tho, that was cool. I end up winning the set when Veiss decides not to play g2.
R4 vs Krasher was an interesting look at the mirror. G1 I open Luna + Spirit Charmers, and then make Verre on the following turn. G2 I start on Verre with Magician's Left Hand, but the Verre get's Karma cut. Luckily I opened patronus and he misses with Cosmic Cyclone. Krasher than concedes when I get rid of their Unpossessed with Twin Twisters.
R5 vs Burritos was another showcase of how nutty Magician's Left Hand is. It pretty immediately shut them out of G1. G2 I open Left Hand again and go into Math + Beast. He has the Mind Control to out it and make phoenix, and then has the Ballista Squad to answer my aruru. I then go into Haine and am eventually able to get set up with patronus leading to an eventual win after I out Gussari.
In top cut I lost to Guilty on Dmaid 1-2. Started off G1 alright with Nadir, but Guilty opened Spheres + Tidying which is gross. Guilty then goes into CEDA (this isn't the only time), but I have the better follow up and can close out g1 with Maximus. G2 I make Verre with Left Hand, Bystreet and two grave hate cards. He baits them effectively then blows me out with Puppet Plant and CEDA. G3 we get into a pretty ugly grind after he Ashes my Schmietta. I miss his Tidying with Cosmic and things go down hill from there. I draw into a pretty clutch Nadir banishing most of his big Maids, but by this point he has Sheou online. Eventually Guilty turns on the Buster Lock and the game ends pretty quickly after that.
Do you have a favorite play of the tournament?
Favorite play of the tournament is probably the interesting ways that Omega came up all tourney. Hard to really pinpoint something super interesting, the deck is pretty consistent and relatively turtle-y.
What are your thoughts on the current state of the Trinity metagame?
The trinity meta is in a kinda weird spot right now. On the one hand it feels like there's a decent amount of viable decks. On the other hand they all feel pretty toxic and I'm not a fan of that. WC and Dmaids will almost definitely be taking hits when we get to the next mainlist after champs. Unlike last season though I think the generic staples are all in about the right place, maybe we'll move Nadir/IDP up to 1p. As always I look forward to hearing people's opinion. Here's hoping for YTC top 5 in a row next month.
Izanangi
