Elemental Dragons are the most broken deck I've had the misfortune of playing: as I missed the Tele-Dad format. There are some people who argue Elemental Dragons aren't hard to beat or they aren't broken... I say to them "wake up and open your eyes to the truth". They are broken, end of story and anyone who argues with this is either a troll or just naive.

Now that I got my rant out of the way, it's time to start this article. 'Facing the Meta' will be a series of articles where I point out the weaknesses of the main meta decks in online YGO (not TCG, OCG). In this format which I like to call Scissors-Paper-Rock, Elemental Dragons are one of the main decks where if you go first and get a decent hand, it's very difficult for the opponent to come back (alongside Evilswarm, Spellbooks and to a lesser aspect Fire Fist).

The Meta has become incredibly fast, with the main meta decks being very spam and OTK-ish. I hate to say this, but if you are dueling Elemental Dragons and they get their first turn LADD/Draco-sack and you don't have the right cards in your hand... there really isn't much you can do.

However, it is a different story with matches and even in singles, they aren't unbeatable. With the right siding and playing with the next few points in mind, we can all survive this joke of Konami's.

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Dragon Capture Jar anyone?

If only we could do a Pegasus and use Dragon Capture Jar... never fear, I have other cards that can turn that frown upside down.

Playstyle

First, briefly let me explain how E-Dragons work. The babies can discard itself and another Dragon monster to special summon it's grown form from the deck. And when the grown versions are banished (in hand or grave), it can add themselves or the baby version from the deck to the hand.

As you can see, these just generate advantage so they can continue the spamming next turn: of course, the deck has a limited number of plays before it is left with no plays: way less than other decks. Another reason why the deck is so feared is due to the easy access to LADD. Now LADD in itself isn't bad but given how easy it can be searched with Eclipse Dragon: a first turn LADD is one of the most common plays they do.

Like I mentioned before, there is a limited number of plays, so this deck CAN overextend. Not by summoning too many monsters: but too many, too fast. This is key to managing a E-Dragon duel.



In general, E Dragons will get about 5 major waves of spamming in a duel. I do not have the calculations to back me up but when I look at duels I won against E Dragons that seems to be the average number before they start to run out of plays. Force them to pump out monsters: bait their plays, and if the Dragon was special summoned from the grave with its own effects... Prison/Bottomless is a great way to make them lose their momentum.

Another part to mention is, NEVER leave a LV 7 face up on your field, in fact, never leave anything that you don't want Big-Eye'd without protection as trust me, they will hit Big Eye 3 times during a duel: easily.

Predict what they'll do: the plays Elemental Dragons does are very linear, save the Effect Vieler for Big Eye or Phantom Beast, use the Maxx C the instant you see a baby's effect etc.

Siding

Let's start with the obvious cards: Anti-Special summon monsters. Elemental Dragons rely on special summons and their strongest monster that can be normal summoned in general is Reactan at 1800 attack points. Therefore, anti-special summon monsters are a great card to side in or even main. With the only real way out either being by attacking with the baby dragons or Blaster's effect: you are guaranteed a win if you can take advantage of this.

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Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Evilswarm Ophion, Jowgen the Spiritualist, Kristya, Crimson Blader

The second types of cards are those that stop the Elemental Dragons that aren't monsters. Most of the Elemental Dragons rely on removing them from the game to take advantage of their searching. The babies can surpass this of course, but it still stops most of their plays.

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Soul Drain, Necrovalley, Imperial Iron Wall, Mind Drain, Vanity's Emptiness

Finally, the cards that don't stop them in the tracks, but can punish the opponent for over-extending (yes it can happen), or just keep you in the game.

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Effect Veiler, Maxx 'C', Electric Virus, Metaion, Breakthrough Skill, Gozen Match, Rivalry of the Warlords, Lava Golem, Chaos Hunter, Kycoo, Morphing Jar #2, Colossal Fighter, Thunder King Raioh, Droll & Lock Bird.

Phew... well that's more than you thought isn't it?

Bad match-ups: Evilswarm, Elemental Dragon Mirror
Decent match-ups: Everything else (sorry but it's true)

Well that's all from me for now: next time I'll do one on Evilswarms, until then good luck... may the Gods bless us in this meta of madness .