Yesterday’s NeoGoat local brought 18 players for 4 rounds of play, with three recorded feature matches showing a pretty varied field.
Chaos was still present, but this event also gave space to stranger builds: Plant engines, Skill Drain, Equip Warriors, Earth Beasts, Monarchs, and Zombies.
Round 1 Feature Match
Red-Eyes Plant Skill Drain vs Monarch
The first video showed one of the most unusual decks of the night: a Red-Eyes Plant Skill Drain build.
Against Monarchs, the deck managed to control the pace well. Skill Drain helped shut down key monster effects, while the Plant and Red-Eyes pieces gave it enough pressure to keep advancing the game.
Winner: Red-Eyes Plant Skill Drain
Round 2 Feature Match
Chaos vs Divine Sword Warrior
Round 2 was a full three-duel match between a Chaos deck and a Warrior deck focused around Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade.
The Warrior deck had strong grind potential, using its Equip strategy to keep resources flowing and apply pressure. But after three games, Chaos proved more stable. The deck’s removal, power cards, and comeback potential carried it through the set.
Winner: Chaos
Round 3 Feature Match
Red-Eyes Plant Skill Drain vs Earth Beast
The Red-Eyes Plant Skill Drain deck returned for another feature match, this time against an Earth Beast deck.
This time, the Beast deck managed to break through. With solid bodies, pressure, and enough momentum to fight through the control elements, Earth Beast took the match and stopped the Red-Eyes Plant run.
Winner: Earth Beast
Final Round Feature Match
Zombie vs Earth Beast
The final round featured Zombie against the same Earth Beast deck that had just won its previous feature match.
Earth Beast came in with momentum, but Zombies ended up taking the final match. The Zombie deck’s recursion and efficient pressure were enough to close the tournament on top.
Winner: Zombie
Final Thoughts
This tournament showed a nice mix of NeoGoat ideas. We had Chaos, Warriors, Monarchs, Zombies, Plants, Skill Drain, Red-Eyes, and Earth Beast all showing up in relevant matches.
The most interesting part was seeing non-standard decks actually reach the feature table and win games. Even when Chaos is still one of the most familiar choices, NeoGoat continues to leave room for strange engines and forgotten strategies to compete.
Decklists and videos will be shared in the next post.
NeoGoat will enter one of its strangest eras yet. Chaos Sorcerer has finally been removed from the format, Black Luster Soldier returns under strict limitation, and multiple forgotten strategies may finally have room to breathe again.
And there is no better place to witness the beginning of this new meta than the Fifth NeoGoat Online Tournament.
The first experiments have already begun.
And this tournament may become the very first real glimpse into the June 2026 metagame.
Confirmed Participants
Costeño
Linares
Perales
Bernardo
Palacios
Gaona
Felipe Pinales
Rojo
Eight duelists.
Only one will become champion.
Format
NeoGoat Format — June 2026 Banlist
Major changes include:
Chaos Sorcerer forbidden
Card Destruction forbidden
Black Luster Soldier limited
Miracle Fusion semi-limited
Book of Moon semi-limited
Dinosaur’s Rage added to the format
Banisher of the Radiance added to the Extra Card Pool
Elemental HERO Gaia added to the Extra Card Pool
What To Expect
The first weeks after a new banlist are always unpredictable.
Players trying to rebuild Chaos shells.
Experimental HERO variants.
Zombie decks attempting to adapt to the slower environment.
Warrior strategies making a possible return.
And probably several duelists trying to discover whether a single copy of Black Luster Soldier is still enough to completely steal games.
This may also become one of the first tournaments where aggressive and midrange decks can properly challenge the format again.
Prize Support
🥇 1st Place
$800 MXN store credit
🥈 2nd–4th Place
1 Blazing Dominion Special Box
🎟️ 5th–8th Place
2 free tournament entries
Following the event, selected decklists, replays and tournament results will be published on the NeoGoat blog and Deck Library.
The core card pool consists of all OCG cards released before Cybernetic Revolution. The following links detail the cards that differ from traditional Goat Format.
OCG-Exclusive Card Pool: Vanillas (including Rituals and non-effect Fusions):
The NeoGoat Anniversary “À La Carte” event produced one of the strangest collections of decklists seen in the format so far.
While Chaos strategies were still heavily represented, many players experimented with unusual tech cards, control engines, floodgates, Ritual interactions, and forgotten archetypes trying to adapt to the special event rules.
In this post, we’ll be showcasing some of the decks used during the event, along with brief explanations of their strategy and notable card choices.
From Gravekeeper lockdown builds to aggressive hybrid strategies and bizarre side deck techs, the tournament ended up feeling less like a solved meta and more like a giant NeoGoat laboratory.
⚠️ Note: For this event, Ritual Monsters used for the special À La Carte rule are shown in the Side Deck section when uploaded to the NeoGoat Builder, since the current builder does not yet support Ritual Monsters inside the Extra Deck area.
All featured decklists will also be available on the new NeoGoat Builder site. Players can test opening hands, edit lists directly in-browser, and download .ydk files for simulators.
25 duelists entered the NeoGoat anniversary special event for 5 rounds of Swiss using the experimental “À La Carte” format.
This wasn’t a normal NeoGoat tournament.
For this event, Ritual Monsters were placed in the Extra Deck while their Ritual Spells remained in the Main Deck. Once the Ritual Spell resolved normally, the Ritual Monster was summoned directly from the Extra Deck.
The Golden Pass was awarded to Gustavo Chapa. The Golden Pass grants free entry to all NeoGoat tournaments during June and July.
Round 1 — Reasoning Combo vs Gravekeepers
One of the most memorable matches of the tournament was Marcos’ Reasoning/Monster Gate combo deck against a Gravekeeper Ritual control strategy.
The duel immediately showed how explosive the anniversary format could become.
Duel 1 — Heavy Storm swing
The combo player opened aggressively with Fusilier Dragon and backrow while the Gravekeeper player established Necrovalley early alongside Morphing Jar.
The game exploded after Morphing Jar resolved.
Both players discarded everything and drew 5 new cards, instantly changing the pace of the duel.
Breaker the Magical Warrior tried to push damage, but Scapegoat absorbed the pressure.
Then came the turning point:
Heavy Storm.
Necrovalley and multiple set cards disappeared at once.
Immediately after clearing the field, the combo player activated Reasoning.
Fusilier Dragon hit the field for free.
Then things became even worse for the Gravekeeper player:
Brain Control steals Breaker
Breaker gets tributed for Airknight Parshath
Parshath attacks Morphing Jar
draw effect resolves
Fusilier attacks directly
Main Phase 2 → Metamorphosis into Dark Balter the Terrible
Suddenly the field was completely locked down.
Dark Balter immediately destroyed the Gravekeeper set monster next turn, Fusilier continued attacking directly, and the Gravekeeper player conceded shortly after.
Duel 2 — Necrovalley pressure
This duel went very differently.
The Gravekeeper player established Necrovalley early again, but this time backed it up with Gravekeeper Spy and Gravekeeper Assailant pressure.
The combo deck attempted a Summoner Monk into Sacred Crane setup:
discard Book of Moon
special summon Crane
draw card
Monster Gate on Crane
Airknight Parshath appeared from the deck…
…but Bottomless Trap Hole immediately removed it.
That completely killed the momentum.
The Gravekeeper player carefully rebuilt Necrovalley after Mystical Space Typhoon destroyed the first copy, then slowly converted the field advantage into lethal pressure.
A well-timed Book of Moon during battle phase also created an awkward combat step where Summoner Monk was forced into attack position and destroyed.
The combo player quickly ran out of resources and conceded.
Duel 3 — The Masked Beast appears
The deciding duel became one of the wildest games of the event.
The combo player started fast again:
Summoner Monk
Sacred Crane draw engine
Monster Gate
another Sacred Crane
multiple backrow
But this time the Gravekeeper player flipped Royal Decree during the End Phase, shutting down several defensive options.
Airknight Parshath appeared again through Reasoning and immediately started generating advantage.
Then the entire duel suddenly transformed because of the anniversary rules.
The Gravekeeper player activated the Ritual Spell for The Masked Beast.
Using two Gravekeeper Spies as tribute material, the gigantic Ritual Monster emerged directly from the Extra Deck with 3200 ATK.
The room reportedly exploded when it hit the table.
Masked Beast immediately destroyed King Dragun in battle while Breaker cleaned up tokens.
But the combo deck somehow survived.
Pot of Greed found the answer:
Metamorphosis on a token → Thousand-Eyes Restrict.
TER absorbed The Masked Beast itself.
The impossible comeback looked real.
But after several more exchanges involving Lightning Vortex, Fusilier Dragon, and repeated pressure, the combo player eventually stabilized and closed the duel.
One of the strangest matches of the tournament.
Water Plant Deck Takes Over
The breakout strategy of the event was easily the Water Plant deck.
At first glance the deck looked bizarre:
Abyss Soldier
Lonefire Blossom
Sylvan Hermitree
Frost and Flame Dragon
Salvage
Mother Grizzly
Lord Poison
But throughout the event the deck kept generating huge value loops.
