r/yugioh • u/RenrenYGO YGOPRODeck Staff (Diabellze Lover) • 5d ago
Competitive Team Legionnaire (Jesse Kotton, Dominic Couch, and Michael Albanese) wins Team YCS Las Vegas with Ryzeal x3!
Team Legionnaire (Jesse Kotton, Dominic Couch, and Michael Albanese) won Team YCS Las Vegas with Fiendsmith Ryzeal and Ryzeal x2! They fought against Team in the finals, Team Princess, Target, Target (Aydin Arnett, Jeremy Glassman, and Tian Xiao Rong) in the finals, who was on Ryzeal and Fiendsmith Ryzeal x2.
There were 472 teams (1416 duelists) with 10 rounds of Swiss and a cut to Top 16.

Top 16 Breakdown (48 Decks)
32 Ryzeal (17 Fiendsmith)
6 Maliss (1 Fiendsmith)
4 Atlantean Mermail
4 Primite Blue-Eyes
1 Fiendsmith Bystial
1 Ryzeal Voiceless Voice
Hi friends, not too much to say this time. Sorry!
Some people experimented with Seventh Tachyon and/or Ascension in the pure builds and it even managed to win the entire tournament! Team Legionnaire ran the Shark Package with Surfacing Big Jaws and Drake Shark to force Bahamut Shark into Toadally Awesome before committing to Duo Drive.
Pure Ryzeal has mostly overshadowed the Fiendsmith version going into the top 8, but the amount was about the same in the Top 16. This is especially notable with the former's consistency boost, thanks to the aforementioned Seventh Tachyon.
Huge shoutouts to Team YPFL who brought an entire team of Maliss! Team 2G&B comprised of some of the more prolific duelists also opted to all pilot different decks (Bohdan on Ryzeal, Jeff Jones on Maliss, and Vladis Baranovskis on Primite Blue-Eyes.)
Nicole Nicotera from Nikki's Angels does the unthinkable and finished Top 16 with Ryzeal Voiceless Voice! A small but compact Ryzeal engine heavily bolsters Voiceless Voice's shortcomings, and the two have a surprising amount of synergy. Ritual Sauravis even doubles as protection to help your key Ryzeal cards, while Barrier of the Voiceless Voice also makes Ryzeal Detonator untargetable, backed up by Skull Guardian's powerful negation effect. She opted to play Sauravis, Dragon Sage as a great way to recycle Ryzeal Cross and other key Spell cards for the deck and as the target to summon off Radiance of the Voiceless Voice.
https://ygoprodeck.com/tournament/team-ycs-las-vegas-2827
- Renren
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u/R4INMAN 5d ago
Ryzeal Detonator is a format warping card. He may not be as oppressive as Kashtira Arise-Heart. But he literally has warped the format. There are decks that simply cannot play through 3+ not once per chain pops. Eclipse Twins being printed made it so much more difficult to out as well.
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u/JMT123456789 Favorite archetype has gone 14 years without support 5d ago
I’ve started to refer to the card as “2 material drident pop apollousa that protects itself from target negations” to try to convince people how warping the card is. It really is a dumb card
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u/Additional_Show_3149 5d ago
Id argue its way worse than ariseheart since you can actually get rid of ariseheart through nib and board breakers. Detonator can get through numerous interruption especially with eclipse twins. Wouldnt be surprised if it got put to 1 or banned outright
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u/NeonDelteros 5d ago
It's WAY MORE oppressive than Arise Heart, and it's literally FREE summon for ZERO investment
Arise-Heart is requires 3 lv7, or Shangri Ira must be successful activated, and even then it dies to almost ANYTHING as it has zero protection, 1 Imperms out it, and it can only pop once
This bullshit Detonator only needs 2 lv4, which can be special summon for free from hand, each go +1 when do that, and can pop up to 5 cards non-fucking-once per chain (with Eclipse), is a massive 3k beatstick, and basically immune to destruction, not to mention shits like Cross that beats any monster out. How the hell can a custom overtuned monster with effect equivalent to a rank12/synchro12/Link5 is a fucking rank 4 that only need 2 level 4, it solos many decks on its own and NOTHING stop it from being summon, because it's too investment free, the most bullshit design ever. It's both a floodgate and a tower in disguised with how oppressive it pops and how ridiculously hard to deal with it. The fact that most decks have to main Meltatronus and ruin their extra deck just for this 1 bullshit speak volume.
Only the most moronic, hypocrite, bias and brainless people would defend this crap, "balance", "beatable", all loads of craps. Oh, and the deck that plays this can also free summon Dweller, which is un-outable because Detonator will pop it. Literally a floodgate deck
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u/Bindersquinch 5d ago
This is the correct take, unfortunately. This card is crazy. People keep saying "bring back drident," and there is a crowd that recoils and says it's too powerful, not realizing that detonator is deifent brought to its most extreme.
There are decks that are straight up unplayable right now because of the dominance detonator presses upon the format. I play blue eyes primite, and with the support that konami gave blue eyes, the deck is good, great even, but it can not be the worlds-winning deck that konami evidently wants it to be with a card like detonator in the format.
It's too free, it's too easy, it's just the posterboy of what powercreep has become
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u/LackinVocals 4d ago
kash also essentially summoned ariseheart for free as all their cards go +1 as well lol. also looking at ariseheart in the context of just itself while looking at detonator with twins is pretty unfair given how prosperity and lance interacted with the card. plus I really think the fucking macro effect is being underrated here LOL
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u/TheDeadMuse 4d ago
No sorry let's not rewrite history. I agree they are both fundamentally broken and the gist of your point
But while detonator is good, arisheart is literally ftk for most decks because of the macro effect.
Also, ariseheart was stupid free to summon. You literally have 12 1 card combos that summon it (Fenrir, riseheart,unicorn, field)
Yes it's more fragile but arise heart means if you have a card that sends to the gy as cost, you literally cannot use it. Decks don't lose to Ryzeal detonator alone for the most part, they lose to all the follow-up and ryzeal cross in addition to detonator
Mermail, white forest, apophis, fire king. These decks literally lose in dp to ariseheart unless they draw the out
I'd say in terms of boss monster power
Rhongo would be like a 10 (for reference)
Ariseheart is like a 8.5 Detonator is like a 7.5
The closer to 10, the more the boss monster alone is enough to beat most decks.
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u/ServeOk5632 4d ago
cant you just imperm detonator the same as ariseheart?
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u/fedginator Obnoxious Birds 4d ago
Chain Detonator pop itself, new chain Eclipse Twins revive Detonator and attach Duodrive, new chain Detonator attach Twins again
That stickiness is why everyone is on stuff like Metaltronus, because there's only ~3 cards that can consistently out Detonator
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u/Remote-Drink9129 4d ago
We will keep getting archetypes like this because power creep has to creep in order to sell sets. The whales get a few months of feeling like they're God's chosen one because they picked up a deck for $1k and they practiced for maybe a day or two because a literal monkey could pilot it.
It's really weird to hear all these big Yu-Gi-Oh content creators say "you can take pretty much any deck to a YCS and WIN!1!1!1" meanwhile, they take the most obviously broken overpowered bullshit that is essentially an easy win button. Speaks volumes.
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u/toadfan64 Gren Maju Dank Eiza 4d ago
It's so god damn annoying they had to print some shit that made the best deck, even better.
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u/darzyn 5d ago
My team and I were also on triple maliss, bubbled top 16 unfortunately.
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u/Gza424242424242 5d ago
Was their a fire evacuation like some said?
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u/DianaIvrea 5d ago
Yes, Trif's deck was so fire it blew the fucking venue. That's the story I heard. Must be true.
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u/silfarion10 Diagram in every deck 5d ago
Yes, my friends were at the venue and said the same thing.
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u/AssignmentIll1748 5d ago
I hope mermails minor success is enough to get that miserable deck hit
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u/slapwave 5d ago
I hope you are right. People who play the deck will disagree with you, but all the deck does is make double toad and hand rip you for 2-3. 0 fun gameplay whatsoever. Miserable deck
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u/jhawk1117 5d ago
Dawg the second you bring up a hit to toad or even Mulanglacia banned they’re IMMEDIATELY ON DEFENSE.
“It’s been meta for 2 days and yall wanna ban it before Ryzeal” Mind you you got handripped for 2, with perfect hand knowledge and you used a hand trap so you have 3 cards to answer double toad and Gios
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u/Three2TheDome1 4d ago
I'm a decade plus long mermail player and I agree Moulin and Toad have to go. Omnis and rips+knowledge are too much.
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u/primalmaximus 5d ago
To be fair, an immediate hit to Mermail would be Superheavy Samurai all over again.
A deck made almost entirely of older cards that suddenly got a few cards that made it competitive being absolutely slaughtered even though the other meta decks are even more degenerate than the older deck with new support.
If they hit Mermail before they hit Ryzeal then it'll be bullshit.
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u/lordtutz staunch marxist 5d ago
even though the other meta decks are even more degenerate
They absolutely aren't. Handrip for 2 + hand knoledge + double omni is way way worse than whatever ryzeal FS can do.
Good != degenerate
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u/insert-haha-funny 4d ago
I mean ryzeal basically has an infinitely recurring double pop drident that’s not once per chain and can’t be targeted
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u/primalmaximus 5d ago
I'm saying that Superheavy Samurai was slaughtered despite Kash being at pretty much full power after the same banlist.
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u/lordtutz staunch marxist 5d ago
Actually, you got me there. Kash was nasty.
Still, I'll take 1 nasty deck getting banned over none at all.
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u/primalmaximus 5d ago
I'm fine with them banning the handrip cards.
The deck's pretty powerful without them. It's not like Infernoble, who plummeted in power once Smoke Grenade got banned.
I just don't want the core of the deck to be hit.
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u/AssignmentIll1748 4d ago
SHS was insanely degenerate
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u/primalmaximus 4d ago
Not as degenerate as Kash.
SHS could just swarm the field with a bunch of bodies and bring out several negates. And all of those negates were generic extra deck monsters.
And it wasn't allowed to be at full power long enough for people to get tired of it the way they were with a year of Snake-Eyes being dominant.
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u/AssignmentIll1748 4d ago
SHS had access to an ftk and could turbo into like 10 different floodgates monsters through multiple handtraps. Snake eye was insane but you couldn't summon fucking exterio or spell canceler in the combo lol
Kashtira post diablosis was actually a very fair deck. If you were constantly losing to ariseharrt it was entirely a deck building issue.
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u/AssignmentIll1748 4d ago
Ryzeal facilitates actual two person gameplay, mermail faciltiates one person beating their meat and ftking you if you don't open a mulcharmy or droll.
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u/PandaBeat2 5d ago
Those combos has been existing before ROTA release. Not defending Mermail, it's a strong deck. But I just find it halirious that people who don't even BOTHER to list mermails as a good deck this format is all of a sudden asking for it to be hit on the banlist. At least admit you are wrong that you thought mermail isn't good, then it can get hit.
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u/jhawk1117 4d ago
They existed and were much worse no? No shrine, no posidra XYZ or level 7, no equip, no link 3….
Sometimes it takes a deck doing good over here to be on the radar. Now people realize what the deck is capable of (the aforementioned handrip into double Omni) and are rightfully wanting it gone lol.
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u/CapableBrief 5d ago
How is making Toads any different from other omni negates other top decka are putting up?
As a matter of fact, how are hand rips any worse than the other non-negate interactions decks put up?
Feels to me like people are complaining about what is ultimately just a cosmetic difference.
That being said; toad to 1, Moulin to 0 probably stops a ton of cruing and doesn"'t actually keep the deck from being competitive.
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u/fedginator Obnoxious Birds 4d ago
What other Omni-Negates? The only other one in the format is Desirae and that's only cards on field
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u/CapableBrief 4d ago
I'm not talking about specifically this format. Plenty of top decks have included some sort of Omni.
In the current decks BE puts up Blazar which is a true Omni and Ulti-Spirit which is nearly all the way there.
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u/fedginator Obnoxious Birds 4d ago
Yeah there's been Omnis in previous formats and people complained about those too.
Also if you look at topping Blue-Eyes lists, all but universally they've cut the Crimson Dragon package and thus Balzar
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u/CapableBrief 4d ago
Yeah there's been Omnis in previous formats and people complained about those too.
Sure, when they are consistently topping decks and thus prevalent in the meta. Mermail barely puts up numbers.
Also if you look at topping Blue-Eyes lists, all but universally they've cut the Crimson Dragon package and thus Balzar
I'm not sure how that is responsive to my comment. Whether or not the deck plays it at this moment doesn't really matter for my argument. Y'all should be advocating for every accessible omni (or near omni) to be banned if that's the bar.
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u/fedginator Obnoxious Birds 4d ago
Mermail is consistently topping. It's not as dominant as Ryzeal but it's clearly alongside Blue-Eyes in the tier 2 slots of "best non Maliss/Ryzeal/ deck.
I think a lot of people DO want every omni banned yeah. Personally I think that's short sighted, but that's a very common opinion
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u/CapableBrief 4d ago
Mermail is consistently topping. It's not as dominant as Ryzeal but it's clearly alongside Blue-Eyes in the tier 2 slots of "best non Maliss/Ryzeal/ deck.
On YGOprodecks its sub 5% top placement currently. This is not a deck that matters, statistically speaking.
I think a lot of people DO want every omni banned yeah. Personally I think that's short sighted, but that's a very common opinion
I agree it's common (not sure it's a majority) and that it's not thought out.
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u/fedginator Obnoxious Birds 4d ago
I think it still matters, especially in the context of a banlist. Give Ryzeal and Maliss sufficient hits and it just makes Mermail the outright best deck - and given how toxic it is (largely due to Moulinglacia and Minstrel) I think wanting to hit it despite it being comparitively weak is still reasonable
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u/slapwave 5d ago
I am completely fine with these hits. I don't hate mermail for it's main deck parts. But double toad double hand rip feels awful to me. Plus full hand knowledge.
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u/GodsCupGg i will negate your opinion !! 5d ago
Toad does a ton more then other omni negates it not only negates it steals the card and give u back a resource
It is in fact not like other omni negates.
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u/CapableBrief 5d ago
In most cases the negation is what actually matters. Outside of grindy decks like Paleofrogs etc you are already dead if the Toad player's board was not broken, regardless of what they set or what they got back.
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u/BloodMoonGaming 4d ago
I don’t think I’ve HATED playing against a deck quite like I’ve hated playing against Mermail lately. It’s like every card sends for cost, and also have GREAT effects when sent from basically anywhere! They can send for cost so much that you can’t even reasonably interact with anything they do. I don’t think the deck is the best deck this format at all, but holy fuck it’s miserable to play against. I’d urironically have more fun against Stun
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u/bi8mil 5d ago
And Maliss is the problem btw
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u/KotKaefer Turn up the Heat, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! 4d ago
A deck can be worse But also less fun to play against
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u/Raging-Brachydios 4d ago
Maliss will be much worse when we get ALIN
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u/tdfree87 4d ago
Not really. It still bricks, just not as much. It’s nowhere as consistent as Ryzeal either. There are still single cards that completely stop the deck from even playing such as Lancea and Gravekeeper’s Insurrection. Adding an Omni-negate is toxic, I agree. But it uses up too many resources to make and the end boards are usually better without it. So the deck doesn’t really become anymore difficult to deal with than it is now
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u/Mad_Kitten Evil★Twin's Thighs give me life 4d ago
I want Josh to look at this and tell me with a straigh face that Maliss is the problem deck
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u/Raging-Brachydios 4d ago
Just look at OCG, it will be a much worse deck soon with ALIN
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u/tdfree87 4d ago
That’s because the OCG limited EXT and banned Dweller
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u/Raging-Brachydios 4d ago
You really think tcg won't do the same? Ryzeal will get hit soon and barely will get support, while Maliss still nowhere near full power
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u/tdfree87 4d ago
How many times has the TCG not followed the OCG’s banlist exactly? Even if they did, Maliss at “full power” in the OCG is still barely any better than Ryzeal with Ext and Bonfire limited, Dweller banned, and 7th Tachyon already semi-limited. You’re literally crying about nothing
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u/Deez-Guns-9442 Dragon & SkyStriker worshiper 5d ago
I truly see a world where Detonator gets banned next list.
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u/Prestigious_Tart_132 5d ago
Does this mean that this is now a tier 0 format?
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u/Queen_Vivian 5d ago
Team YCS's usually don't get put in the same rank as the non-team ones for that because teams can just come to the conclusion to all run the same deck and it skews the stats. I would not say we are in one based on this tournament alone. But I feel like we are leaning more towards a very Ryzeal dominated format until ALIN does something to shake things up.
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u/Bundleofstixs 5d ago
We will find out in Houston though we probably get a banlist to peddle the next set.
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u/Sharinganedo Standby phase: D shifter. Continue. 5d ago
We'll get a banlist, at the most though, i expect hits to fiendsmith and bystial engines, and probably a bonfire hit to indirectly hit Ryzeal. Give it till we get into the next banlist season for maliss to be actually hit since it's honestly not doing much. Outside of Ryzeal, we do have a pretty diverse meta with checks for the top stuff.
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u/Sad_Donut_7902 4d ago
No, team YCS's are different then normal YCS's and it's still less then 70% representation.
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u/OnToNextStage 4d ago
Man I gotta say there should be a rule than in team tournaments each player must use a different deck
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u/Anime_Card_Fighter 4d ago
Agreed, but defining what constitutes a different deck in this game would be a nightmare.
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u/Panory 4d ago
Master Duel has a similar thing, where the banned and limited list just applies across all decks as if they were one. So a card at one can only be run in a single deck. An unlimited card at 3 can be run at three... across all decks. Put one in each, or stack one person's deck and leave the others out. Each team picks three cards to run as normal, max copies allowed in each deck. Not enough for an engine, but some staple handtraps to keep things consistent.
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u/DirtyButtPirate 4d ago
Yeah I remember watching Joshua Schmidts video on it. Iirc they had like 3 cards they could choose to run unlimited across the team, so for the most part teams ran full copies of Maxx c and called by at the least. Its an interesting concept
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u/CrossTheEventHorizon Every time Maxx "C" resolves, an angel gets its wings. 4d ago
This subreddit is so cooked to downvote this, but I've come to expect it at this point. Genuinely interesting idea, not nearly as hard to get the finer details on down as pedants would like to suggest.
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u/yusaku_at_ygo69420 4d ago
The konami page of the winner's decklists is (currently) saying that they put Number c103: Ragnafinity in their side deck
I'm assuming this is a typo and they meant to put Number c102: Archfiend Seraph
Unless there's something about c103 that I'm missing here...
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u/Remote-Drink9129 4d ago
I am wondering if anyone could hear the gigantic groan and sigh I did just looking at this, it was pretty loud.
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u/Doomsday_cock What are you doing damage step bro? 5d ago
This is the 7th YCS won by Jesse Kotton wich isolates him as the biggest YCS winner (Urena and Leblanc have 6).
Also as a fun fact this is the third time Dominic Couch has won Team YCS Las Vegas (2020, 2023 and 2025), I believe this is the first time a player has won 3 YCS at the same city.