Anti-Meta

An anti-meta deck is any deck that is built to counteract the most popular decks being played.

There are many different Anti-Meta decks, such as "Little City", "Gadget Oppression", and "Stun (Anti-Meta)". The usual theme of Anti-Meta decks is to prevent the opponent's Special Summon, as many current decks in the meta focus on Special Summon. Some Anti-meta focuses on removing from play your opponent's monster since most meta decks require the graveyard to work or can't function while Removed from play. This changes occasionally every banlist and usually isn't the same every banlist.

The Current Meta appears to be Gadgets (namely the Machina variants), X-Sabers, Frognarchs, Frog Burn FTK, and Infernity variants. Other notable decks are Monarchs, Synchro Cat, Blackwings, Quickdraw Dandywarrior, Heralds, Gladiator Beasts and Lightsworns.

Negating Effects

 * Thunder King Rai-Oh is arguably one of the best anti-meta monsters, with 1900 ATK, it can also jam Reinforcement of the Army, Sangan, Charge of the Light Brigade, Gladiator Proving Ground, E - Emergency Call, Black Whirlwind and other cards that add cards from your deck to your hand other than drawing. It can also be sent to the graveyard to negate a Special Summon which can usually be game ending.
 * Destiny Hero - Plasma is a good alternative to Skill Drain, as it only negates your opponent's monster effects and not your own. The ability to equip your opponent's monsters to itself and gain half of the equipped monster's Attack can be annoying for your opponent (especially when you Tribute their monsters to Summon Lava Golem or Volcanic Queen to their side of the field beforehand), but Plasma doesn't have equipped card protection like monsters such as Power Tool Dragon or Reliquished have. The requirement of 3 Tributes to Special Summon it is hefty, but Scapegoat can allow you to summon Plasma quickly.
 * Doomcaliber Knight is a great beatstick with 1900 ATK and a solid 1800 DEF, and tributes itself to negate a monster's effect. This can be really annoying for your opponent to work around; if they drop a big monster like Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon, they'll have to use up extra cards to destroy it or your back row before they can use their effects. This card can also negate monster effects that activate from the hand like Honest, Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow, and Gorz the Emissary of Darkness. Just make sure not to use your own monster effects when this card is on the field.
 * Prime Material Dragon's first effect is good if your opponent uses a card that inflicts burn damage, but the main reason it's here is because it can negate your monsters from being destroyed by a card effect by simply discarding a card.
 * Giant Trunade and Heavy Storm can clear all spells and traps on the field so you are clear for attacking for one turn (excluding Honest).
 * Cold Wave can stop spells and traps for one turn allowing you to make a easy attack and to prevent your opponent from winning easily.
 * Book of Moon flips a monster into face-down which has many useful purposes such as negating attacks, stopping effects and hindering your opponent from Synchro Summoning by flipping the tuner face-down.
 * Gravekeeper's Guard can return a monster to your opponent's hand when flipped.
 * Gravekeeper's Spy has a solid 2000 DEF and a Flip Effect that allows you to search for another Gravekeeper's Spy or Gravekeeper's Descendant as defense and for tribute fodder.
 * Gravekeeper's Watcher can negate the effects of monsters in the hand like Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow, Honest and D.D. Crow.
 * Royal Decree is a good anti-meta card mainly because most decks use traps and negating them can damage the deck a lot and your opponent will usually be defenseless.
 * Divine Wrath can negate a monster effect with a cost of just discarding one card which can save you from losing.
 * Skill Drain is a great Anti-Meta card. It takes away all of the power from the decks out there today. If they bring out weak monsters such as Gladiator Beast Murmillo and you use skill drain you now have a free attack target.
 * Koa'ki Meiru Guardian was used in many Rock Stun builds because its effect is similar to Doomcaliber Knight except you can choose when to use it.
 * Protector of the Sanctuary can stop Solar Recharge, Destiny Draw, Pot of Avarice, Gladiator Beast's Respite, Gladiator's Return, and Trade In.
 * Corridor of Agony is excellent against gladiator beasts because it prevents them from returning to the deck and from attacking altogether.
 * The End of Anubis is excellent against cards that activate in the graveyard like Sangan, Mystic Tomato, Dandylion, and Giant Rat. Basically any card that activates in the graveyard can be negated by this card. It also has the effect of negating cards that target monsters in your graveyard like Pot of Avarice and Recurring Nightmare. This card, however cannot negate the effects of Dark Armed Dragon and Dark Necrofear because their effects are costs.

Preventing Special Summons

 * Thunder King Rai-Oh again for his repeated success against the Meta game.
 * Royal Oppression can negate Special Summons which can usually win the game and almost all meta decks special summon often.
 * Testudo Erat Numen holds back any powerful monsters that can be special summoned, including most Synchro Monsters, Gorz, DAD, JD and most other key finishers in meta decks, similar to Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. The advantage of this card is its high defense which would mean your opponent has to use up a destruction effect or normal summon a high attack monster to kill it.
 * Vanity's Fiend and Vanity's Ruler can block completely block special summons.
 * Jowgen the Spiritualist neither player can special summon and can destroy all previously special summoned monsters by discarding a random card.

Removing from play
Almost all Meta decks use the graveyard, so removing cards from play can be the ultimate negation. Cards like Banisher of the Radiance also prevent the activation of cards that send a card to the graveyard as a Cost, such as Honest. Also, cards like Dimensional Prison are handy because they cannot be negated by Stardust Dragon or My Body as a Shield.
 * Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer can remove from play 2 Lightsworn monsters, 2 DARK monsters, and maybe even up to 2 Gladiator Beasts from your opponent's graveyard just by inflicting damage which can cause a lot of damage to your opponent if used at the right time. This card can also null Dark Armed Dragon's effect and other monsters that focus on removing from play.
 * D.D. Crow can be chained to things like a Gladiator Beast Darius, Judgment Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, and Call of the Haunted and disrupt their plays.
 * D.D. Warrior Lady and D.D. Assailant can be used to remove monsters like Stardust Dragon to make the duel easier for you.
 * Macro Cosmos removes from play every card that goes to the graveyard, most of the meta deck these days send a lot of cards to the graveyard or can get harmed when cards are removed from play.
 * Banisher of the Radiance is like a Macro Cosmos except it is a monster, this card can be quite annoying if you can keep it long enough for your opponent to remove vital cards from their deck by milling or destroying a gladiator beast they can't get back.
 * Dimensional Fissure will remove from play all Lightsworns your opponent mills if activated early and will remove Gladiator Beasts so your opponent cannot get them back, but can sometimes be useful in a Gladiator Beasts deck since Gladiator Beasts go back to the deck while Spell and traps like War Chariot can be recycled with Equeste
 * Bottomless Trap Hole can be used in response to a special summon and remove it from play instead of normally sending it to the graveyard.
 * Dimensional Prison can save your monster and remove from play your opponent's monster at the same time.
 * Crevice Into the Different Dimension as of March 2010 this card is great against a ton of decks.
 * Useful targets for the above cards include:
 * Gladiator Beasts(Darius targeting Bestiari)
 * X-Sabers (Gottoms' Emergency Call, Faultroll, Ragigura)
 * Infernities (Launcher & Mirage)
 * Machina (Fortress)
 * Monarch (Treeborn)
 * Frogs (Removing their key monsters)
 * Quickdraw Dandywarrior (Pot of Avarice, Drill Warrior, Dandylion)
 * Zombie (Mezuki, Zombie Master, Doomkaiser Dragon (although this can hurt yourself), Plaguespreader)
 * Lightsworn (Lumina, Reincarnation, JD, Beckoning Light)
 * Hopeless Dragon (REDMD)
 * You can chain D.D. Crow or Crevice Into the Different Dimension against any of the afore mentioned cards when the opponent tries to use them.

Others

 * King Tiger Wanghu can destroy weak monsters before your opponent even gets to used them, common ones include Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner, most Tuners, and Test Tiger.You can also combine it with Burden of the Mighty to increase the targets for this card.
 * The Transmigration Prophecy is similar to D.D. Crow, above, but can also counter other anti-meta cards, e.g. by returning a Judgment Dragon back to the deck if it is targeted by Crevice.
 * Cyber Valley can be annoying at certain times, you can negate an attack and draw a card and ending the battle phase, or you can remove it and another monster you control or took with Brain Control or Enemy Controller and draw 2 cards, or your can remove it from play and 1 card from your hand to add a card that can be vital from your graveyard to your deck.
 * Necrovalley can be used to completly lock down the graveyard by not allowing cards to be selected (e.g. The Transmigration Prophecy, Pot of Avarice) or removed from play (e.g.D.D. Crow,Crevice)
 * Neo-Spacian Grand Mole can be a very annoying card since you can return your opponent's monsters easily like Stardust Dragon or Goyo Guardian.
 * Raiza the Storm Monarch can spin one card with just one tribute, select a monster that can't be summoned the same turn they draw it and they have lost a draw for a turn.
 * Caius the Shadow Monarch can remove from play a monster like a Gladiator Beast, Lightsworn, or a DARK monster and inflict damage at the same time.
 * Shrink is a good anti-meta card because it can be used to destroy monsters with high ATK and are out of your monster's reach like Goyo Guardian.
 * Burden of the Mighty can be used to slightly weaken your opponent's monster and can be combined with King Tiger Wanghu for a wider range.
 * Lightning Vortex can be used to clear your opponent's field of monsters when they swarm (e.g. Blackwings)
 * Nobleman of Crossout can take out any cards that the opponent sets, such as Ryko, Mega Hamster or Sangan.
 * Nobleman of Extermination removes a face-down spell/trap which acts like a Mystical Space Typhoon, if it was a important trap card you chose then you won't have to deal with it for the rest of the duel.
 * Trap Dustshoot can turn a opening hand with a good monster into bad ones by simply activating this card, you also get to see what cards your opponent might set.
 * Torrential Tribute can ruin your opponent's swarming just by chaining this card to a summon.
 * Threatening Roar and Waboku are chainable traps that can make you survive the battle for 1 extra turn.
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast can spin a card to the top of your opponent's deck so they can't draw a new card for the next turn.
 * Compulsory Evacuation Device can do almost the same thing except it goes to the hand which is good for getting rid of Stardust Dragon.
 * Enemy Controller can switch the position of a monster when about to attack or your can tribute a monster and take control of a monster for the turn.
 * Breaker the Magical Warrior makes a 1900 beatstick while it has a Spell Counter which can also be removed to destroy a Spell or Trap Card.
 * Starlight Road negates effects of cards like Heavy Storm, Lightning Vortex, and Mirror Force. Any effect that destroys more than 1 cards on your field. And you get to summon a Stardust Dragon for more protection.

Monsters

 * Thunder King Rai-Oh
 * Breaker the Magical Warrior
 * Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
 * Jowgen the Spiritualist
 * King Tiger Wanghu
 * Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
 * D.D. Crow
 * D.D. Warrior Lady
 * D.D. Assailant
 * D.D. Warrior
 * Prime Material Dragon
 * Cyber Valley
 * Koa'ki Meiru Guardian
 * Koa'ki Meiru Sandman
 * The End of Anubis
 * Banisher of the Radiance
 * Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
 * Raiza the Storm Monarch
 * Caius the Shadow Monarch
 * Gravekeeper's Commandant
 * Gravekeeper's Guard
 * Gravekeeper's Spy
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
 * Testudo Erat Numen
 * Vanity's Fiend
 * Vanity's Ruler
 * Battle Fader

Spells

 * Shrink
 * Forbidden Chalice
 * Burden of the Mighty
 * Cold Wave
 * Book of Moon
 * Necrovalley
 * Enemy Controller
 * Dimensional Fissure
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Smashing Ground
 * Fissure
 * Soul Taker
 * Corridor of Agony
 * Hammer Shot
 * Prohibition

Traps

 * Royal Decree
 * Royal Oppression
 * Trap Dustshoot
 * Macro Cosmos
 * Divine Wrath
 * Dimensional Prison
 * Threatening Roar
 * Waboku
 * Negate Attack
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
 * Compulsory Evacuation Device
 * Starlight Road
 * Skill Drain
 * Mirror Wall
 * Dark Bribe
 * Mind Crush
 * Crevice Into the Different Dimension
 * Grave of the Super Ancient Organism

=Side Deck=

The side deck of an anti-meta deck is important since one deck can't counter every deck in the meta. Using the side deck lets you add cards that don't work as well in general but are powerful against a certain threat. These cards usually counter something better than the above cards since they shut down a certain part of your opponent's strategy rather than stopping powerful cards. For example, Legendary Jujitsu Master is not as powerful against most decks but, against Gladiator Beasts it stops them from using their effects. With 1800 DEF Gladiator beasts will have a harder time destroying it since they don't have any monsters with more than 1800 ATK (except Laquari with it's effect). This shuts down a main part of the gladiator beast player's strategy which is switching out to activate the effects.

Monsters

 * Blackwing - Sirocco of Dawn (Against Blackwings)
 * Consecrated Light (Against Darks)
 * Legendary Jujitsu Master (Against Gladiator Beasts)
 * G.B. Hunter (Against Gladiator Beasts)
 * Wattfox (Against Gladiator Beasts)
 * Dimension Fortress Weapon (against Lightsworns)
 * Neo-Spacian Dark Panther
 * Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World (against X-Sabers)

Spells

 * Corridor of Agony (Against Gladiator Beasts)
 * System Down (against Machines)
 * Prohibition (against key cards in an opponent's deck)

Traps

 * Imperial Iron Wall (against Macro)
 * Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror (Be careful not to use these in large quantities if you have DARK monsters in your deck)
 * Light-Imprisoning Mirror (Be careful not to use these in large quantities if you have LIGHT monsters in your deck)
 * Grave of the Super Ancient Organism (This stops most Synchros and powerful cards such as Gladiator Beast Gyzarus and Dark Armed Dragon)
 * Crevice Into the Different Dimension
 * Gottoms' Emergency Call (against X-Sabers)
 * Starlight Road