It looks like some players are electing to skip using Synchro monsters at all in the ongoing Synchro festival for YuGiOh Master Duel, instead choosing to run True Dracos instead.
In preparation for the Synchro Festival, Konami made sure to create a special banlist that would ban other types of special summoning- Fusion, Rituals, Xyz, etc.
However, the lack of a more specific banlist did create a new problem- decks that didn’t use any extra deck monsters at all could still flourish, assuming they were good enough to compete against Synchro monsters.
True Dracos in YuGiOh Master Duel
True Dracos are one half of the True Draco/True King archetype, and fit this niche exactly by having monsters built around tribute summoning. Their special gimmick allows them to bypass the speedbumps that come with tribute summoning by instead consuming continuous spell and trap cards as tributes instead, while their own line of spell and trap cards also allow them to activate additional effects when being sent this way.
Worse still, True Dracos are an excellent control deck- their three main monsters in YuGiOh Master Duel all have effects that can activate in response to enemy effect activations- part of which includes activating their spell and trap cards directly from the deck.
Fans React To True Dracos
Many fans have taken notice of this strategy, and have complained about the prevalence of True Dracos in the Synchro Duels.
“This is the worst event yet, if you run into people playing synchro decks they play solitaire for half an hour and end on 4 3000+atk monsters with multiple negates or you run into some fuckers running annoying as fuck control decks like true dracos with skill drain“, writes Twitter user gui120199
Some have even said its not so much a loophole as it is necessary- some of the in-game challenges are just easier to activate with True Dracos compared to any Synchro decks.
“Feeling forced into playing True Dracos in Synchro Festival because of the normal summon and destroy in battle missions”, says @sorarodays7, “LOL Synchro combo is fun and all but it won’t get you progress on those effectively“.