Fixing the tiers for the new format has been in the back of my head for a while. That is because it wasn't really a priority as many things at this time due to my exams. It was late yesterday that I seriously went through the metagame as it is being formed now to try and get a feel for its exact current state not just in tier 1 but what some may call tier 2 and 3 as well (although the definitions past tier 1 get really vague).
First of all in this format you see Wind-Ups, certainly the top deck at this time. Of course just like it was relatively simple to prepare against before it is so again so while due to the power it has it may see a lot of time dominating the metagame, I'll go ahead and put that at the lower possibilities until a serious competitor emerges that would make you not want to main anti-wind-up cards.
I thought with that, that I knew more or less the TCG format to be wind-up, hero, geargia and moved on to check the OCG and see what dominates there. The answer to what dominates the OCG according to the latest tournament results posted on shriek is "nothing". In all relatively big tournaments (at least 50 people, usually around 100) there a different deck wins everytime, while the spread of the tops changes as well. If this were something to continue it would make this one of the most diverse and balanced formats of recent years.
With that information and with nothing to add to the Hobby Tier banlist from the OCG side of things (atlantean mermail came to mind but not even that would be as consistently topping as it should be even when taking into account its hype, at least not yet) I checked again the TCG side of things and the only sample of it we have, Toronto (Various regionals results had inconsistent tournament wins and many tops by various decks) to find that save from Wind-Up, no other decks really stood out as tier 1, at least not as much as Wind-Up is now or as the top decks of the previous format were. Instead, the pattern that seems to be repeating is that any old deck that can fit a good control/stun lineup in the s/t slots can do well, for example Gravekeepers, Six Samurai, even things like Worms, etc. and decks that would come second to the competition before now seem to get better chances: Dark World for example. We also see Geargia managing to make it, as with the slowed down format, Geargiarmor works. YCS Guatemala wasn't as much of a reliable sample (not to look down on the YCS players like Galileo De Obaldia and Angel Flores played in) but in general it did provide a consistent result after factoring the local metagame.
Of course Hero variants now make decks to look out for. Just like the tornado fuss was silly, the escuridao hype isn't trustworthy either, wouldn't really say that is the reason for their success. In fact, while Alive OTK was a deck to look out for, it didn't manage to do that well and is currently outdone in both OCG and TCG by its slower counterpart, Gemini/Bubble Beat. That much coincides with the rise of control and stun strategies in the metagame, and for all that there is a simple explanation.
During the course of the game, stun and anti-meta strategies receive some form of aid either by actual new cards in the game or by players building an efficient anti-meta strategy, allowing them in most formats to combat the top threats in the game. The engines of those top tier strategies can be hit, as we saw it happen with Wind-Ups and Inzektors in this banlist for example. Stun on the other hand is much harder to hit unless you take out a large number of cards in the banlist. Not to say that there cannot efficient anti-stun hits by the banlist, the banning of Royal Oppression comes to mind to disprove that claim. However they are much harder and unlikely to harm than the mainstream strategies.
As a result, when the main decks of the format are all hit and slown down, the relatively unharmed anti-meta strategies that could already threaten them, now are able to become a formidable threat in the metagame. The most notable stun engine at the moment and the one that is most benefited by the state of the metagame is Gemini Beat. For at least 2 years now Gemini Beat has been around consistently as a notable stun threat, with Warrior Xyz giving it now good offensive potential to use in the top tier, making it a top contender with the current circumstances. Following that other major stun decks or viable anti-meta strategies make a showing, with rabbit managing to carry on into this format.
There is a second and good justification for the current state of the metagame.
"It's too early."
As it has just been 10 days and with the first YCS of the format never able to provide answers, we are now just seeing the format in the making. It could be that in the US/European YCS after this one or the one after that, we'll see a solid metagame with certain top decks to beat, not just in the TCG but in the OCG as well.
As it is now however, and with me having misplaced my crystal ball, I'll have to put this perhaps inaccurate tier list up for Hobby and Kiddy Pool, with only 2 decks banned for Hobby and perhaps some decks not hurt as much as they should be in Kiddy Pool. If there is enough play in those 2 tiers, they will probably have certain changes made soon, and certainly after we get a better image of the metagame, they will be fixed.
http://www.worldduelingacademy.com/t3197-tiers#44181
