PLAY'S · Meta · Source dated 6 Aug 2026

The current New Division meta, in English

Lionel decks hold three of the five Tier S slots, and four of the five climbed this week. The format is two weeks old and still moving.

There is no English tier list for Duel Masters PLAY'S. The one on Duel Masters Meta is empty — the page exists but no decks have been added. The PLAY'S Wiki's metagame page stopped updating in 2022. So this is a translation of the Japanese list from Kamigame, last revised 6 August.

First: ND and AD are different formats

If you have watched Japanese PLAY'S content and wondered why there are two tier lists, this is why.

Format	Japanese	Card pool
New Division	ND	Rotating. Older packs fall out over time.
All Division	AD	Everything ever released. No rotation.

Separate ranked queues, separate metagames. A deck that is Tier S in AD may not legally exist in ND. This article covers ND.

The current environment is built on DMPX-03 PRECIOUS IDOL FESTIVAL, live since 23 July. Kamigame began publishing tier placements for it on 27 July.

Tier S

SFive decks · four climbed this week

Deck	Type	Build	Difficulty	Move
Water/Dark Magic Tools 水闇魔導具	Control	Medium	High	▲ from B
5c Lionel Heaven's Gate 5cライオネル天門	Control	High	Medium	▲ from A
Fire/Light Raid 火光レイド	Beatdown	Very high	Low	▲ from A
Light/Dark Lionel 光闇ライオネル	One-shot	Medium	Medium	▲ from A
Fire/Water/Dark Dragerion 火水闇ドラゲリオン	Beatdown	High	High	held

Lionel is the story Two Lionel builds sit in Tier S and a third is in Tier B, and all three do something different: Light/Dark is a one-shot kill, 5c Heaven's Gate is a control deck, Light/Water/Dark is a slower control build. A card flexible enough to anchor three strategies across two tiers usually means one engine is defining the format.

Fire/Light Raid is the one to watch if you are short on resources. Build cost is rated "very high" — the most expensive in the format — but operating difficulty is "low." It also won the most recent sanctioned tournament (103rd Fliegen Cup, 3 August). Expensive to assemble, straightforward to play, currently winning.

Dragerion is the only deck that held its position, which makes it the most established of the group.

Tier A

AFour decks

Deck	Type	Build	Difficulty	Move
Mono-Fire GouGouGou 火単轟轟轟	Rush	Medium	Low	held
Gouhaten 光水自然轟破天	One-shot	Very high	Low	▲ from B
Water/Nature Scolar 水自然スコーラー	One-shot	Medium	High	held
Ajisai! 光水自然アジサイ！	Control	High	High	held

Mono-Fire GouGouGou is the cheapest entry into a competitive deck. Medium build cost, low operating difficulty, one civilization so no colour problems. If you are starting from nothing, this is the least painful path to a functional ladder deck.

Tier B and C

Tier B: Fire/Zero Merabeat （火零メラビート）, Dark/Nature Danger Deon （闇自然デンジャデオン）, Fire/Water Raid （火水レイド）, Light/Water/Dark Heaven's Gate Lionel （光水闇天門ライオネル）, Light/Water/Dark Savvark （光水闇サッヴァーク）, Light/Water/Dark Lionel （光水闇ライオネル）, Fire/Light/Nature Bolshack （火光自然ボルシャック）.

Light/Water/Dark Lionel and Fire/Water Raid both fell from Tier A this week. Danger Deon is new to the list.

Tier C: Nature/Zero Joragon （自然零ジョラゴン）, Fire/Nature GouGouGou （火自然轟轟轟）, Light/Water Heaven's Kirico （光水ヘブンズ・キリコ）.

Kamigame defines Tier C as decks that appeared early in the format and then disappeared as the metagame was solved. Treat it as a record of what has been figured out, not a list of options.

Reading the Japanese labels

Deck names are built from civilizations plus the key card, so once you know six characters the names decode themselves.

Character	Civilization
光	Light
水	Water
闇	Darkness
火	Fire
自然	Nature
零	Zero (colourless)

単 means mono-, as in 火単 — mono-Fire.

Japanese	Archetype
速攻	Rush. Attacks from turn one, poor in long games.
ビート	Beatdown. Slower than rush, functions in longer games.
コントロール	Control. Disrupts, then closes with a finisher.
ワンショット	One-shot. Assembles a combo and ends the game in a single turn.
ビッグマナ	Big mana. Ramps hard, wins with expensive cards.
カウンター	Counter. Wins by punishing the opponent's attack.

Caveats Tier lists are opinions. This one is Kamigame's editorial judgement, not a computed win-rate ranking, and their own page says so. The format is roughly two weeks old, and their page carries an explicit warning against spending crafting resources on a list this early. Four of the five Tier S decks moved this week, which supports that warning.

Sources

Tier placements, deck types, build and operating difficulty: Kamigame (kamigame.jp), New Division deck ranking page, last updated 6 August 2026 20:48 JST. Kamigame is an editorial site; placements are their staff's assessment.
Tournament result: 103rd Fliegen Cup, 3 August 2026, via the same source.
Format definitions: Kamigame's own explanation of New Division.

Related: what the official account has said about DMPX-03, the set this format is built on.