The 2nd booster set. I’ve written about this a few years ago, but the meta has changed a bit.
Muka Muka was the big change; it was incredibly underrated on release. I thought it was horrible when it came out and Pojo’s Card of the Day gave it only 2/5.
Essentially, you summon it in turn 1 for 2100 ATK, instantly +1 by running over La Jinn or a 2000 DEF wall, and even if its 1800 ATK with 4 cards in hand, it’s still good. (Decks with this card to use less traps (5-6 instead of 8-10), Decks use Thunder Dragon to inflate hand count, so that their Muka can beat the enemy Muka.
A 2100 ATK beater can change how people build decks, opting for utility monsters rather than vanilla monsters (like 2000 DEF walls or 1800 beaters) that just lose to it in battle. We’re seeing a little bit less of those decks that rely on 2000 DEF walls + Robbin Goblin when they’re attacked into.
In 2002, most competitive decks would use 6 1800 LV4 beaters 3x La Jinn + 3x 7 Colored Fish. Now, it’s just La Jinn.
Dark Elf is less used now that there’s less Fish to counter, and more Muka to be countered by.
Summoned Skull used to be in most decks back in 2002. None of the decks in the top 8 use it right now. With how easy removal is, tribute monsters often feel not worth it. And with so many of the meta monsters being lower ATK, 2500 is often overkill.
In the top 8 deck lists, we see some diversity. Thunder Dragon has been used in some interesting ways (Magic Jammer, Card Destruction, even fusing for Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon).
The top 2 decks use Last Will, which can search out the majority of the meta monsters. One of the decks (with the 6x 1800 beaters) uses Reinforcements, which makes sense; it would help Fish and LaJinn get over Muka, whereas Waboku wouldn’t.