Campus League Top Decks Representation

The Asia Campus League - Philippines was held at Robinson's Galleria on the 28th of October 2023 which gathered a total of 60 participants. These players fiercely fought on five (5) rounds of Swiss with the Top 16 Single-Elimination cut.

Champion: Martin Owen Calleja [North Caraga Region]

Top 2-5
Van Joseph Lipana [Rizal]
Rob Reyan Yvan Belgica [North Caraga Region]
Chris John Pandoy
Chrizald Azama [North Caraga Region]

Top 5-8
Aian Jhay Maculata [Rizal]
Steven Jeroud Vitangcul [Region V - Bicol]
Kenneth Mercader [Rizal]

Fire King Diabellestar

Martin Owen Calleja was hailed as a champion in the 2023 Asia Campus League Philippines held at Robinson's Galleria, Ortigas on October 28, 2023, using Fire King Diabellestar. Konami released Structure Deck R: Onslaught of the Fire Kings, the latest re-vamp of 2012's Structure Deck Onslaught of the Fire Kings with its up-to-date supports as well as strategies. Fire King focuses on destroying their own cards to facilitate combos and generate advantages, which involves disrupting the opponent's board with board breakers and destructions.
With the release of the legendary Fire King Ponix, Sacred Fire King Garunix, and Diabellestar the Dark Witch, Calleja was able to secure the first 5 rounds of the event, as well as the single elimination rounds to achieve victory.
At the same time, support from Age of Overlord's Super Starslayer TY-PHON Sky-Crisis also played a significant role in his deck as a contingency staple in dire situations.

Rikka

Karl Steven Renevera was hailed as champion in ODA's First Season Ranking tournament Week #3. Rikka had always been a contender in Southern Bicol and is slowly dominating Central Visayas, specifically on Cebu and Bacolod. Reneverra was the previous BDA (Bicol Duelist Aliiance) Grand Champion title holder with same deck before it was disbanded earlier this year, and was ODA's (Order of the Duelists in Albay) First Season Side Event Grand Champion using Live-Twins.

Rikka's Rikka Konkon that was released from Power of the Elements was the archetype's most crucial card to counter as it is the heart of the "tribute for cost" mechanic, one of the best counters to any boss monsters currently available, similar to Kaijus, and its ability to inherently go second with this mechanic is extremely vital to the deck's power level.

Konkon's effect is when the user would be required to tribute their monster to activate a "Rikka" card and/or effect, they could instead use opponent's monster as a cost for it, effectively bypassing any form of protection, except by being unnaffected by card effects. At the same time, Konkon allows the user to set any 1 "Rikka" Spell or Trap directly from deck to field if they control a Rikka monster, which can the be activated immediately in the same turn. It had already proven its competetive level as it became part of the recently concluded World Championship 2023.

Labrynth

Jhomar Maravillas went Top 2 on ODA (Order of Duelists in Albay) Weekly Ranking Tournament, with Labrynth. He fought against Karl Steven Renevera (Rikka) but unfortunately lost at game 3 during finals. Maravillas was the Top 15 in the Swiss Rankings of the recently concluded 2023 Duelist Cup Philippines held in Manila using Purrely, but already had abandoned the archetype right after the hit on OCG Banlist Regulations last June. He opt to focus on consistency build to maximize the chance of getting good starting hand. During the time this report was made, Arias The Labrynth Butler is not yet released, and so the build was mainly focused on getting as much starters as possible. He also included 3 Nibiru, The Primal beings on the deck to assure that he can have a counterplay against most meta decks such as Tearlaments. Maravillas is currently Top 2 in the overall ladder in ODA followed by Renevera. Labrynth is a Trap-focused deck that is composed of quick-effect shenanigans that allowss the deck to par with most combo decks within the meta. The deck can set-up lots of interruptions even during opponent's turn when going second, and create protection and disruption. The deck can also set-up most trap techs, which includes Dimensional Barrier, Virus, and Infinite Impermanence, which are crucial to current meta game.

RESCUE-ACE

Armell-John Gabuya had been Champion 4 consecutive times in multiple Weekly Ranking Tournaments and events held across Robinson's Galleria and other OTS within Rizal and Feliz using Sinful Rescue-Ace. Gabuya was the previous Grand Champion of Duelist Cup 2023 Side Event, using the same deck.

Rescue-Ace's core mechanic is mainly based on disrupting opponent's plays that focuses on affecting their monsters and swarming the backrow with 4 set Spells and Traps for another set of interruptions for the next turn. The most crucial part of the deck is the presence of Rescue-Ace Fire Hydrant, its level 1 monster that facilitates the deck's overall bonus effects and power. Rescue-Ace was released way back from 2022 in Deckbuild: Amazing Defenders together with Purrely and Mikanko Archetypes.

The deck's power increased its potency with the release of Diabellestar along with Sinful Spoils and Snake Eyes archetypes. Diabellestar engine is an archetype of the Sinful Spoils that works together by summoning Diabellestar just by sending 1 card from hand or field. When resolved, it consistently setups the board with a negate and they can also special summon 1 level 1 Fire Monster from deck, meaning they can easily search Rescue-Ace Fire Hydrant for another line of play.

Tearlaments

Castel Noleal went first-runner up two consecutive times in Order of Duelists in Albay End Season Ranking Tournament and 1st Season Grand Championship Side Event. He was previously a contender of Black Luster Soldier Event 2023 Manila and was ranked 43rd in the recently concluded Duelist Cup 2023 participated by 203 players, but this time, he modified his setup and included Naturia engine, an unusual setup for the deck which is similar to the engine used on Runick decks.
The release of Diabellestar and Sinful Spoils from Age of Overlord jumpstarted a boost on the consistency of the deck. Diabellestar is a level 7 monster which can be summoned by sending a card from field/hand as cost, which means they can have new access to Chaos Ruler synchro since the Sinful Spoils Spells can search "Jet Synchron" being a level 1 fire monster.
To answer this, Noleal instead included Naturia engine which focuses on dropping Naturia Rosewhip on field which limits opponent from activating Spell/Trap Cards to once per turn. "Naturia Mole Cricket", when on grave, has a trigger effect that special summons itself when the opponent special summons a monster from the extra deck and on the field has a quick effect that tributes itself as cost to special summon any "Naturia" monster from the deck, special summoning "Naturia Camellia" which on summon sends any "Naturia" monster from deck to grave, sending "Naturia Rosewhip" as target, and later on summoning it from grave from its trigger effect when the opponent summons a monster.