Tier 1
TPC Comments
Rose Dragon is the dominant force in the metagame, to the extent viability of other strategies hinges on their Rose Dragon matchup. HERO variants and Meklord are both capable of drawing into their Side Deck tools, most namely Loading... , or in some cases they main will opt to Main Deck the card. The only remaining deck on the Tier List that isn't centered around this mini-game is Galaxy Photon, but mostly because the deck has the ability to overpower the others even if it might lose to itself about a third of the time.
In the first week the deck joined the Tier List I said that if the other decks did not adapt to counter the Rose Dragon then the deck will be dominating and will dominate the Tier List.
Now after a few weeks, Rose Dragon is almost the next Tier 0. This is primarily because of the skill that makes a guaranteed one-card combo along with the guaranteed searchable Loading... in hand which can help to play around the backrow. let alone the ability to use Limit 2 cards like Loading... and Limit 3 cards like Loading... .
The deck has turned to be the most played deck in ranked duels and in tournaments (almost half of the players use Rose Dragon in tournaments) and that is what Konami really hates, so I expect the deck to be killed by the new banlist as it is really cheap and could make many decks disappear for good. Perhaps they will put Loading... to Limit 2 along with giving the Skill a more difficult condition to activate.
And here comes the question: isn't the time to ban Loading... and Loading... , so the banlist isn't warped around playing these two cards?
Tier 2
TPC Comments
Elemental HEROs are promoted to Tier 2 for this week's Tier List, backed up by decent results over the past week.
Seems like the formula to being a successful meta deck nowadays is having a consistency skill, consistent core and room to run tech cards. Rose Dragons and Meklords are prime examples and Favorite Duel Elemental HEROs is yet another deck to join this category. In addition, I think the banlist hit to D/D/D and its slow phase out of the meta allowed this variant of HEROs to gain traction.
While this deck doesn't have as many aggressive or lethal turns like Meklords or Rose Dragons, it makes up for it with raw card advantage. Favorite Duel in tandem with Loading... allows you to garner card advantage turn after turn, drawing into your disruptive Traps while putting down beatsticks such as Loading... and Loading... . I'd like to put emphasis on Neos Knight in particular, as being able to clear multiple monsters is a valuable tool when playing against Rose Dragons. Furthermore, you can sometimes cheese a win through Loading... . So, remember to always attack directly with Neos Knight, for the flex.
In terms of disruptions, you have a plethora of Traps to choose from. Loading... , Loading... , Loading... and Loading... are some of the more prominent and popular ones at the moment, being effective against multiple meta decks. Floodgate cards such as Loading... are also an option. What's nice about this deck is you can always switch the Traps around as the meta develops.
All in all, Heroes as an archetype has plenty of room for further experimentation and testing. Let's see if anymore versions pop up within the next few weeks before or during the September KC Cup.
I said last week that HEROs were arguably Tier 2 due to its ability to use several different Skills and experimenting with decks to fit any specific meta state. This week we saw a huge increase in Favorite Duel decks, which happen to be really strong in the current meta. The representation and performance of this version has put them in Tier 2 and we are forced to start differentiating between Elemental HERO decks (which are using Skills that lock them into Elemental HEROs) and the other HERO Decks (that use more generic Skills allowing them to play more generic HEROs like the Vision and Masked HEROs) due to the two decks being played extremely differently (besides utilizing the in-engine Draw 2). The Extra Deck and playstyle look nothing alike. Regular HEROs stays in Tier 3 for the week. HEROs are a fan=favorite deck for many and I expect to see a lot of continued deck building ideas and experimentation going into the upcoming KC Cup.
Favorite Duel Elemental HEROs has become a better option to counter Rose Dragon, its access to a lot of staples and having its own drawing engine makes it a consistent deck. In addition to all the staples it runs, most of the time you are gonna be able to Summon monsters with over 2600 ATK and that is enough for this meta. Loading... being able to attack two monster makes it a good option against BRD as well.
Something that really caught my attention is that in a non-Side Deck format, the deck might do even better. This is because right now I think the only natural counter to this deck without the Side Deck are HERO Variants with Loading... . Another option to counter this deck could be D/D/D, as most of their monsters have a good amount of ATK (Loading... is also gonna force your opponent to use two backrow cards, but again the main problem of D/D/D is its own consistency).
In the last two weeks we saw two new lists for HEROs (one with Wounded Hero and Loading... and another with Favorite Duel and backrow) while also having the old lists with Vision HEROs.
The strange thing is if we take a look at what is in common between the Elemental HERO lists with Favorite Duel and the other lists we will see that they only share a handful of cards with other HERO variants (including Extra Deck). This is why TPC decided to separate between the Elemental Hero Lists from the more generic HERO lists, placing the former at Tier 2 and the latter at Tier 3.
The advantage Elemental HERO deck has is that you can do the combo with only one card (which they run 10 copies of between three Loading... , three Loading... , three Loading... and one Loading... ) and the other cards in hand can be set in the backrow to stop the opponent's combo.
Control decks with heavy backrow are exactly what is needed in the current meta but Rose Dragon still has Loading... , Loading... , and Loading... to help play through those cards.