No turn 1 play, turn 2 can't play vs disruption, no smart scales like other pendulum that can alter scale or pop scale to search missing piece. So basically a huge BAIT, trash deck
It's hilarious you hold it to the standard of a different playstyle .-. Qliphort isn't designed as Odd-Eyes or Igknight. It broke the meta when it was released for months straight.
You probably won't get a nuts T1 play. But a dolid guess is you can Disk right away (assuming you get 4 Pends, which most likely had a Scout). Which opens into 2 more and amazing set up. Not to mention Skybase.
So first of all it has no floats whereas Abyss actor can play sassy rokie and 90% of meta decks can't otk through him. Then your argument "QLI was tier 1 in tcg" is a total bullsht because you can't compare tcg with duel links at all. Third, the ability to manipulate scales is a PLUS, and without it you have an handicapped designed archetype.
The deck was dominated back then because of floodgates like Skill drain, Summon limit and Vanity emtyness, imperial wall for the side, .etc Which won't come to duel link in the next few years.
Ofc they also miss their boss.
They don't have the mornach storm forth so Soul exchange is replacement, I don't see it being used here, noob build much?