Introduction to Tenpai Dragon

Overview

Tenpai Dragon is an explosive, mahjong-themed, blind-second OTK deck, known for its 37,000 damage combos. It primarily consists of two sets of cards: "Tenpai Dragon" (the main deck monsters) and "Sangen" (Spells, Traps, & Synchro Monsters). It has seen success in both the TCG and OCG, even in formats with Fiendsmith, and is expected to be a meta threat in Master Duel.

Table of Contents

1. Main Deck
2. Extra Deck
3. Example Decklists
4. Combos
5. Matchups
6. Tech Cards to fight against opposing Tenpai

Strengths:

• Great consistency. A typical Tenpai Dragon engine consists of ~15 cards, where 14/15 of those cards can lead to an OTK line. (Specifically, everything but Loading... can get into a 1-card OTK line.) Thanks to this, we choose to not run all our starters - we have more than enough!

• A lot of non-engine slots. Due to the small size and sheer consistency of the engine, we can run 25 handtraps, 25 board breakers, or a mix of both.

• Protection from interaction. Unlike a deck like Numeron, Tenpai has a good amount of protection. Loading... makes FIRE Dragons unaffected by activated effects in Main Phase 1. With enough engine, you can summon things like Loading... (preventing all opponent activated effects in Battle Phase), or Loading... (destroying everything on field).

• Doesn't lose to Maxx "C". Loading... is not a turn stopper to us, since card advantage doesn't matter when your opponent is dead. The extra draws might cause them to draw more handtraps, but that's much lower impact than normal (plus, it doesn't matter once we stop all activated effects!).

• Master Duel is a Best of 1. There's no side deck, so it's harder for other players to tech against a Tenpai player. Also, most other decks like to go first; this means, when playing Tenpai, losing the coin toss is totally fine (except in the mirror).

Weaknesses:

• Can't do much other than OTK. Our going 1st board is often Loading... + handtraps pass, maybe 1 negate at most. Of course, most decks want to go first. We should only expect to go first in the Tenpai mirror, or against other OTK decks like Ancient Gear.

  If an opponent has a way to stop an OTK, such as Loading... (which Snake-Eyes can summon), the game's pretty much lost.

• Players might tech against it. Tenpai's performance in both TCG and OCG was great (pre-Ryzeal). However, both metas are different than Master Duel; the success might not translate entirely.

  • Unlike both paper formats, Tenpai was "pre-hit" on release: Loading... is at 2, Loading... is at 1, and both Loading... and Loading... are banned. (Note that Terraforming is at 1 in the TCG/OCG; Summoning at 2 w/o Terraforming ~= Summoning at 1 with Terraforming.)
  • Compared to the OCG: I think we can expect players to tech against Tenpai harder in MD than when it was first released in the OCG. Plus, we don't have Loading... or Loading... right now.
  • Compared to the TCG: In the TCG meta, board breakers are significantly better than in OCG/MD. In MD, being "stuck" to handtraps could impact the deck as a whole.

• Very vulnerable to interruption w/o field spell. If an opponent has a way to clear the field spell, the main deck monsters can be stopped with a disruption or two. The field spell is not 100% required due to the sheer non-engine the deck has, but it really helps.

Misc notes:

• It is a linear deck. This doesn't impact the deck's strength, but Tenpai can be boring to some players. The skill floor and ceiling are lower than other decks. It's not skillless: you'll need to understand your opponent's points of interaction, need to use your non-engine/Extra Deck effectively, and know the deck's quirks, but it is less skillful than a deck like Branded.

• It is a clear target for the banlist. Loading... could get limited to 1 quickly, and other cards like Loading... could be hit in the future.

Main Deck

The "Big Three Dragons"

The original three main deck Tenpai Dragons. They are each based on the Sangenpai, or dragon tiles, used in mahjong.

All three of these dragons share the following Quick Effect: In the Battle Phase, Synchro Summon using this monster as material. If you have 2+ dragons on field, you can use this to dodge targeting effects, like Loading... , in the Battle Phase. (If you didn't get to use Chundra's effect, both Loading... and Loading... can bring it back.)