Overview:
While Dragoon Drift was tested upon Drift’s release and found limited success, this combination has risen to prevalence in the Burst Classic meta over the past 6 months as skilled players have learned to optimize their set-ups and launch. When balanced tuned with either Yell or Polish and launched at medium power with a hard bank, Dragoon Drift has a high probability of bursting its opponents and an even higher probability of outspinning them. More recently, we’ve begun to see Bearing Drift combinations take hold, which has raised even deeper concerns for the community due to the fact that combinations like Anubis Bearing Drift have a high success rate against both Dragoon AND competitive same spin setups.
DC’s competitive Burst Classic community sees the banning of Drift and Bearing Drift as the best path forward in order to promote a healthy Burst Classic meta. While some believe that we need to take further steps to restore BSC to its former glory, the banning of Drift and Bearing Drift will ensure that Dragoon can play a healthy role in the BSC meta and elevate a diverse crop of stamina drivers that will ensure that players don't feel punished for using attack.
Why are Drift and Bearing Drift an issue? (TSO’s take)
Historically, Burst Classic has found favorability in the DC metro area because its characteristic right spin meta allows both KO and burst attackers to shine. While some believe that this ethos was first threatened with the inclusion of stamina dash drivers, all members of the MD community and every participant on our past 3 BSC has expressed disappointment and concern over the presence of Drift, which has been exploited for easy success on Dragoon, and more recently Bearing Drift. Combined, these two drivers have elevated the viability of stamina set-ups to the point where players that have historically relied on attack no longer feel that the risk is worth the benefit.
The frustration in MD is palpable and frankly has gotten to a point where competitive players no longer want to play what used to be their favorite format. While I can acknowledge and appreciate that Dragoon has been less of a problem in other regions, I want to lay out the issues now, as Attack on Dragoon is the last BSC tournament in our area until Drift and Bearing Drift are no longer a threat.
Event Timeline:
September 3rd - Dragoon Drift and Dragoon Zone’+HasZ are first identified as a concern in MD at Classic Classics. Friedpasta sweeps unranked deck format, going undefeated and not giving up a single point when Dragoon was used.
November 20th - The next time Burst Classic is hosted in the region, Dragoon sweeps once again. This tournament is also unranked deck format and Friedpasta and I use Dragoon Drift to win every point against players who without Dragoon in their deck. During this event, it also becomes apparent that combinations designed specifically to counter Dragoon Drift—including Neptune Bearing Drift, Driger Orbit (tilt launched), and Chaos High Xtend’ in defense mode—are either inconsistent or ineffective against players that know the most effective way of launching Dragoon. When attack is used, we observe that its chance of bursting or being KO’d against Dragoon is 50% or higher.
March 5th - After taking yet another break from Burst Classic, the format is hosted once again at Attack on Dragoon. This time, nearly competitive player comes prepared with a Dragoon Drift or Dragoon Bearing Drift combo. During the tournament, Broyeeto discovers Anubis Bearing Drift, which we observe is the first combination that can both out-spin Dragoon and beat other same-spin stamina. Anubis Bearing Drift’s unnaturally high burst and KO defense makes it an automatic deck choice from this point on. All top 4 placers use Dragoon in their deck throughout first and second stage.
Community Commentary:
Broyeeto:
1. Dragoon encourages slower gameplay, something which classic is known for not having in the past, being the most “healthy” burst metagame. In the optimal deck currently you have: dragoon drift, dragoon counter (BDR on a solid stamina layer like a2), and then a third combo that looks pretty bc it sits there and does nothing.
2. Dragoon forces judges to have to use their cameras rather than with classic in the past being able to be judged without video review very easily and confidently. This extends event times considerably, so Dragoon is not only unhealthy for the game, but for everyone playing’s time as well.
3. Dragoon beats attackers, straight up. If both combos are launched correctly for the most part dragoon will win. With attack there is always a little luck so maybe you get a good round or two but overall it makes zero sense to run attack when you can use anti-dragoon bdr combos. These drift based combos eliminate the matchup chart entirely, making the revolve, orbit and defense trio basically useless and no longer usable against other competent players (I used driger s h o but I only use it Vs new players because it has less risk than dragoon, also beats the QD stuff that JC runs 5-0 every time haha).
4. Most stamina drivers have been completely outclassed by bdr, the main one that still remains from “old classic” (a year ago) is Hxt+’ because a chaos h Hxt+’ will generally burst the bdr combo tldr bsc is literally just bst but attack doesn’t work at all. In bst, attack doesn’t feel great but at least it works.
Friedpasta:
Bearing Drift has incredible opposite spin on par with drift, but [also] has incredible same spin. Even without balance tuning. it can go even with other top tier stamina options that are well balanced.
Drift centralizes the meta around dragoon. its high LAD allows dragoon to outspin most combos not intended to outspin it and even takes hits from the best attack combos like g2 unite. [Drift] completely changes the meta from a same spin meta with lots of type diversity to a stamina triangle where everyone has to run a deck of 3 very similar types of combos.
BearsFTW: Drift and its variants give dragoon F a place as a simple spammable check to every possible matchup as something that will tie or os almost every right spin stamina as well as being difficult to KO by attack. Getting rid of drift/bearing drift allows the meta to become a lot more healthy imo as you get rid of a single combo that beats everything as well as right spin bdr combos that would otherwise dominate stamina even more so without dragoon. The way I see it in short is that dragoon F as a layer is not the problem here its drift/bearing drift that propel it to something so oppressive and really shouldn't exist in classic.
SpinZero: I think BDr and Dr should be banned because it’s pretty obviously not fair to have high stamina/LAD drivers that can practically solo everything opposite spin in an almost entirely right spin meta.
Mr. Memes: I feel they [Drift and Bearing Drift] are the only drivers that makes dragoon relevant in Classic rn. Even if you don’t use BDR for opposite spin in Classic, it’s same spin is so potent that anything that isn’t drift or free spin can’t contest the high LAD ceiling it presents. Also, because of the greater margin of error of using attack in Classic is in general, you will be lucky to get any good hits in let alone even getting a wall bounce at that point.
While Dragoon Drift was tested upon Drift’s release and found limited success, this combination has risen to prevalence in the Burst Classic meta over the past 6 months as skilled players have learned to optimize their set-ups and launch. When balanced tuned with either Yell or Polish and launched at medium power with a hard bank, Dragoon Drift has a high probability of bursting its opponents and an even higher probability of outspinning them. More recently, we’ve begun to see Bearing Drift combinations take hold, which has raised even deeper concerns for the community due to the fact that combinations like Anubis Bearing Drift have a high success rate against both Dragoon AND competitive same spin setups.
DC’s competitive Burst Classic community sees the banning of Drift and Bearing Drift as the best path forward in order to promote a healthy Burst Classic meta. While some believe that we need to take further steps to restore BSC to its former glory, the banning of Drift and Bearing Drift will ensure that Dragoon can play a healthy role in the BSC meta and elevate a diverse crop of stamina drivers that will ensure that players don't feel punished for using attack.
Why are Drift and Bearing Drift an issue? (TSO’s take)
Historically, Burst Classic has found favorability in the DC metro area because its characteristic right spin meta allows both KO and burst attackers to shine. While some believe that this ethos was first threatened with the inclusion of stamina dash drivers, all members of the MD community and every participant on our past 3 BSC has expressed disappointment and concern over the presence of Drift, which has been exploited for easy success on Dragoon, and more recently Bearing Drift. Combined, these two drivers have elevated the viability of stamina set-ups to the point where players that have historically relied on attack no longer feel that the risk is worth the benefit.
The frustration in MD is palpable and frankly has gotten to a point where competitive players no longer want to play what used to be their favorite format. While I can acknowledge and appreciate that Dragoon has been less of a problem in other regions, I want to lay out the issues now, as Attack on Dragoon is the last BSC tournament in our area until Drift and Bearing Drift are no longer a threat.
Event Timeline:
September 3rd - Dragoon Drift and Dragoon Zone’+HasZ are first identified as a concern in MD at Classic Classics. Friedpasta sweeps unranked deck format, going undefeated and not giving up a single point when Dragoon was used.
November 20th - The next time Burst Classic is hosted in the region, Dragoon sweeps once again. This tournament is also unranked deck format and Friedpasta and I use Dragoon Drift to win every point against players who without Dragoon in their deck. During this event, it also becomes apparent that combinations designed specifically to counter Dragoon Drift—including Neptune Bearing Drift, Driger Orbit (tilt launched), and Chaos High Xtend’ in defense mode—are either inconsistent or ineffective against players that know the most effective way of launching Dragoon. When attack is used, we observe that its chance of bursting or being KO’d against Dragoon is 50% or higher.
March 5th - After taking yet another break from Burst Classic, the format is hosted once again at Attack on Dragoon. This time, nearly competitive player comes prepared with a Dragoon Drift or Dragoon Bearing Drift combo. During the tournament, Broyeeto discovers Anubis Bearing Drift, which we observe is the first combination that can both out-spin Dragoon and beat other same-spin stamina. Anubis Bearing Drift’s unnaturally high burst and KO defense makes it an automatic deck choice from this point on. All top 4 placers use Dragoon in their deck throughout first and second stage.
Community Commentary:
Broyeeto:
1. Dragoon encourages slower gameplay, something which classic is known for not having in the past, being the most “healthy” burst metagame. In the optimal deck currently you have: dragoon drift, dragoon counter (BDR on a solid stamina layer like a2), and then a third combo that looks pretty bc it sits there and does nothing.
2. Dragoon forces judges to have to use their cameras rather than with classic in the past being able to be judged without video review very easily and confidently. This extends event times considerably, so Dragoon is not only unhealthy for the game, but for everyone playing’s time as well.
3. Dragoon beats attackers, straight up. If both combos are launched correctly for the most part dragoon will win. With attack there is always a little luck so maybe you get a good round or two but overall it makes zero sense to run attack when you can use anti-dragoon bdr combos. These drift based combos eliminate the matchup chart entirely, making the revolve, orbit and defense trio basically useless and no longer usable against other competent players (I used driger s h o but I only use it Vs new players because it has less risk than dragoon, also beats the QD stuff that JC runs 5-0 every time haha).
4. Most stamina drivers have been completely outclassed by bdr, the main one that still remains from “old classic” (a year ago) is Hxt+’ because a chaos h Hxt+’ will generally burst the bdr combo tldr bsc is literally just bst but attack doesn’t work at all. In bst, attack doesn’t feel great but at least it works.
Friedpasta:
Bearing Drift has incredible opposite spin on par with drift, but [also] has incredible same spin. Even without balance tuning. it can go even with other top tier stamina options that are well balanced.
Drift centralizes the meta around dragoon. its high LAD allows dragoon to outspin most combos not intended to outspin it and even takes hits from the best attack combos like g2 unite. [Drift] completely changes the meta from a same spin meta with lots of type diversity to a stamina triangle where everyone has to run a deck of 3 very similar types of combos.
BearsFTW: Drift and its variants give dragoon F a place as a simple spammable check to every possible matchup as something that will tie or os almost every right spin stamina as well as being difficult to KO by attack. Getting rid of drift/bearing drift allows the meta to become a lot more healthy imo as you get rid of a single combo that beats everything as well as right spin bdr combos that would otherwise dominate stamina even more so without dragoon. The way I see it in short is that dragoon F as a layer is not the problem here its drift/bearing drift that propel it to something so oppressive and really shouldn't exist in classic.
SpinZero: I think BDr and Dr should be banned because it’s pretty obviously not fair to have high stamina/LAD drivers that can practically solo everything opposite spin in an almost entirely right spin meta.
Mr. Memes: I feel they [Drift and Bearing Drift] are the only drivers that makes dragoon relevant in Classic rn. Even if you don’t use BDR for opposite spin in Classic, it’s same spin is so potent that anything that isn’t drift or free spin can’t contest the high LAD ceiling it presents. Also, because of the greater margin of error of using attack in Classic is in general, you will be lucky to get any good hits in let alone even getting a wall bounce at that point.
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