Announcement from , TPC Manager
This is the Last Tier List for this iteration of Top Player Council. The first Tier List for the new Top Player Council will be on January 13th.
Until this point, Konami has been approaching Skills in such a way where you have two effects: one to help you to search your pieces and another one to help you going second. Predaplant and HEROs are taking the Skill structure to a new level where you have non-interactive ways to completely dismantle your opponent's plays (with a searchable Loading... / Loading... ).
The problem with this approach is that these Skills are splitting decks not by archetype power, but by the tools the Skill itself is giving to the deck for free. For example, Tri-Brigade is a very powerful deck, but since it lacks a Skill to search Loading... you end up with a deck that either has a chance to brick or a lower ceiling to prioritize consistency (ergo the deck is inherently weaker because it lacks a "Consistency Skill").
Futhermore, Predaplant and HEROs are inmediately stronger because they have "searcheable Kaijus" on top of their consistency Skills. At this rate a deck will need at least a consistency Skill to even compete. I don't think searchable Kaijus is the proper way to introduce powercreep into the game, but it seems to be the route that Konami has taken nowadays.
Tier 1
HEROs' strategy is pretty simple but quite hard to deal with. The Turn 1 set-up usually consists of Loading... (with the option of leaving it face-down for the Predaplant matchup) and a Loading... (with the potential for Loading... to draw into some techs). This deck is also realls strong Turn 2 thanks to Super Poly / Loading... to clear monsters or Loading... to clear backrow. It can even OTK a Predaplant board with Loading... in hand with just engine. After Loading... gets released, I expect this deck to be even more dominant, but for now it's already good enough to share the Tier 1 spot with Predaplant.
HEROs have gotten a new Skill in Dragonic Contact that sets up big Boss Monsters in the Armed Dragons and Loading... material in Loading... . This, alongside the Super Poly search gives the deck a very scary Turn 2 that will only improve with the announced support. Other than that,the Skill also provides grind-game by re-summoning the Armed Dragon and generating Loading... s for free pops on the opponent's turn.
Going second, the tdeck has the usual HERO power-play of going into Loading... with Loading... to get 2 Big dudes, a pop, and card draw to find techs (making it easy for HERO to adapt to bad matchups).
HERO had already proven to be strong even before the new Structure Deck. With the upcoming addition of Loading... and Loading... , the deck becomes even more intimidating. These cards make Loading... a tool to either Draw 2 cards, place a card on the Bottom of the Deck, or Special Summon a 4500 ATK boss monster that can shuffle all your opponent's Monster, Spell/Trap, or Graveyard cards back into the deck. I believe that with these two cards, some of HEROs' current unfavorable matchups could turn favorable.
With the introduction of Loading... and Loading... in the upcoming week, HERO's will become even stronger. The potential to consistently draw four cards allows you to see most of the cards in your deck, mitigating bad matchups by playing the right techs. What makes this deck hard to counter is its versatility, offering multiple independent strategies. For instance, the Armed Dragon summoned every turn with Dragonic Contact , the free Loading... that can break an opponent's board, and Loading... , which can do multiple different things on its own. The deck doesn't solely rely on any one gameplan, such as Graveyard plays or a specific combo line, and is therefore less vulnerable to popular hand traps.
I believe Loading... might gain popularity in the upcoming format. It can potentially slow down an opponent after Loading... or Loading... while also remainiong useful against other decks.
Predaplant gained a very hard matchup in HEROs. which forced players to go back to Loading... to help clear the face-down Loading... . However, Loading... is still quite good for Lyrilusc protection, so we'll have to see what the fully adapted Extra Deck ends up looking like. Despite HEROs' very good performance this week, its other bad matchup in Ghostrick had a bit of a falling off, which led to a continued postive showing for Predaplant.