National Alliance Insights: Weeks 1-3
Date: May 2 - 18 2025
Overview
ALIN National / State Championship Wins (Weeks 1-3)
Known Events: 23 (20 Nationals, 3 State Champs)
Mitsurugi: 12 = 52%
Maliss: 5
Primite Blue-Eyes: 3
Memento: 1
Regenesis: 1
FS Bystial Primite: 1
The World Premiere Takeover
Mitsurugi has taken the entire metagame by storm and is arguably the best deck of the format! Between Pure, Ryzeal, Fiendsmith, Ogdoadic, and even Horus, there's a lot of variety to choose from! The deck's engine is both excellent going first and second and it has a lot of room for defensive cards.
Ryzeal is currently the leading variant due to how seamlessly the two decks are able to bridge into each other. Ice Ryzeal, Sword Ryzeal, and Ext Ryzeal can get you to Mitsurugi thanks to King of the Feral Imps. Meanwhile, the Level 4 Mikoto monsters can easily summon out Ryzeal Duo Drive. Both Ryzeal Detonator and Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi are already formidable in their own right, but combined they are incredibly difficult for most decks to deal with. It's no slouch on the draw either, as the Ryzeal monsters tend to be must answer cards, and you can pick apart boards with the likes of Tornado Dragon and Evilswarm Exciton Knight before wiping out your opponent with Ame no Murakumo's mass destruction effect.
For Rank 4 setups, there are a lot of viable options which are all up to player preference. Gallant Granite can be used to search Nibiru to further fortify the board, Daigusto Emeral can be looped with Eclipse Twins to overwhelm the opponent with draws, digging for more defensives and perfecting your grind game by shuffling back necessary engine requirements back into the deck such as the Mikoto monsters. Lastly, Evilswarm Ouroboros can also be brought back by Twins to decimate the opponent's hand twice, which Murakumo further piles on.
Pure while not as explosive as Ryzeal, gets to flex a few of its more underappreciated tools. Futsu no Mitama no Mitsurugi is an incredible defensive pillar of the deck, making it extremely difficult for duelists to push through the overwhelming amount of resources it can bring back. Mitsurugi Great Purification is a lot more reliable, which is utterly devastating when combined with Murakumo. Mitsurugi no Miko, Wousu is an archetypal Kaiju that pays you off while softening up the field at the same time. Mitsurugi Mirror and Mitsurugi Magatama are more on the niche side, but they provide decent enough utility.
Dominus Impulse, Pot of Extravagance, Pre-Preparation of Rites, Gordian Slicer, and Evilswarm Nightmare are some of the exclusive cards the pure version can run that other variants aren't able to do so as easily if at all, with the former being arguably the best non-Mulcharmy hand trap of the format. A few Fiendsmith Mitsurugi lists are incorporating the Magistus Chorozo package in order to let Fiendsmith cards access King of the Feral Imps. The high Extra Deck commitment is not a problem, as Fiendsmith cards and Murakumo are more than enough to take over games and it boosts the variant's overall consistency.
Maliss March Hares On!
Maliss remains as solid as ever despite having to deal with multiple blowout cards in the Side Decks (Mulcharmy Meowls, Artifact Lancea, Chaos Hunter) going into games 2 and 3. People have resumed playing Maliss C GWC-06 once more due to how crucial it is and to have it alongside Maliss P March Hare for the opponent's turn. Topologic Bomber Dragon remains at large, but people have been playing it alongside Allied Code Talker @Ignister for the added flexibility of choosing between which endboard boss is better for the matchup. A.I. Meet You is a popular side deck card for when the deck goes first, to help beat Lancea by getting to Backup @Ignister .
The "bait" deck of Maliss Fiendsmith Bystial has experienced a very sharp decline compared its prominence in the last format, but is still a decent strategy nonetheless. MFB's niche of "beating" Lancea has somewhat been made redundant due to the ALIN support completely breaking the deck wide open.
Bronze Beryl
Primite Blue-Eyes is managing to stay strong despite the overwhelming power of the 2 top tier ALIN strategies, maintaining its top 3 placement. It recently got a new toy in the form of Ancient Fairy Life Dragon, which allows it to go for 5800 damage with Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon. Dominus Purge remains a premium card the deck is able to run, potentially shutting off the key search that Ryzeal, Maliss, Mitsurugi and most of the other decks may rely on.
Some of the lists that performed well in Nationals are opting to play Blue-Eyes Jet Dragon or Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon to help out with the destruction effects of Ame no Murakumo and Detonator. The Primite engine continues to be a huge crux for the deck, especially with the proliferation of the Mulcharmies. With Primite Dragon Ether Beryl and/or Primite Lordly Lode in hand, you are able to create low to the ground setups that play well into them involving Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres and Primite Drillbeam. Dragon's Mind is an increasingly popular side deck tech for the deck, able to straight up seal games when it gets going.
Regenesis is also the premier user of said Counter Trap and is seeing some decent usage, winning Panama Nationals and topping a few other events.
Beyond the Triad
Crystron, Ryzeal (non-Mitsu), Atlantean Mermail, Azamina White Forest, Memento, and Fiendsmith Evil Twin are some of the other contenders of the format, managing to perform decently well in spite of the incredibly high power level of the Alliance Insight metagame.
Branded Despia had an incredible showing at the Greece Nationals, with their lists opting to forgo the Albion the Sanctifire Dragon lock. Despian Proskenion is an incredible Super Polymerization target that fuses off a Despia, Murakumo, and Detonator. This Fusion monster can also deal with Eclipse Twins attempting to bring back Detonator by summoning it to your side of the field, while Branded Opening helps hedge against their many destruction effects.
In terms of non-engine, the Mulcharmies are currently the most played cards alongside Ash Blossom which is partially used to stop them. Most lists are maining Mulcharmy Fuwalos with a majority of duelists also running Mulcharmy Purulia alongside it, while Mulcharmy Meowls is seeing dedicated side deck play with Lancea and Chaos Hunter. Nibiru, the Primal Being is also popular in lists due to being solid to draw with Mulcharmies, but can be a little shaky on its own. D.D. Crow, Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion, Bystial Magnamhut and Bystial Druiswurm are seeing a bit more play due to their decent applications going into the format. Droll & Lock Bird is also another breakout star to help combat Mitsurugi.
Conclusion
Our Nationals Alliance Insight format has mostly stabilized with both Mitsurugi variants and Maliss on top of the metagame. Mulcharmies are currently the dominant non-engine of choice due to influence of the two decks, but some of the other decks are still able to compete to an extent. We'll have to see if Battles of Legend Monster Mayhem will change anything in the forseeable future. Until next time folks, Renren out!
