September 2011 Ban List Discussion

In every blog I look this time of the year there are articles commenting on how will the Ban List will affect the next six months to come and even though I wasn’t planning to do it I will write a similar article to express my opinion.

New Banned Cards

Mind Master (from Limited)

Giant Trunade (from Limited)

Royal Oppresion  (from Limited)

Fishborg Blaster (from Unlimited)

Mind Master: This is an obvious choice for the Ban Hammer since he has no “once per turn” in his effect hence pairing him with Brain Research Lab and you have Substitoad for Psychics.He is gone for good.

Giant Trunade: hmm this was in my opinion 50-50 chance of getting banned since it secures the OTKs and stuff. I don’t know really maybe it will be back one or two formats later.

Royal Oppresion:  At least! Enough with the madness, throwing this in every deck there is. Bye Bye, I hope forever.

Fishborg Blaster:  When I saw this I thought : “What the hell?”.  But I found several  reasons for the Ban Hammer to hit this and also believe he will return next format or at least in a year. First of all I believe it is a move from Konami in order to propel the Fish fans to the new Fish support of Generation Force since the Fish Synchro OTK is unplayble now with the ban of Trunade and Blaster. As a Fish player myself I am not going to do such a thing, I will just keep my deck intact and wait for the return of Blaster. But the primary reason I found was an OCG card Rescue Rabbit (OCG here stands for Oh Cruel God  why again?). If you have Treeborn Frog in the field and Fishborg in the Graveyard ,you summon Rescue Rabbit bringing two level 4 Normal Water Monsters, ditch for Blaster twice making 2 Hyper Librarians (or two any level 5 Synchro), ditch again for Blaster, Synchro Formula Synchron with Treeborn and then Synchro all for Shooting Quasar Dragon. But the Rescue Rabbit is moribund (or moribanned to be exact) hence it will open the ground for Fishborg Blaster again.

New Limited Cards:
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning (from Banned)
Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En (from Unlimited)

Shien's Smoke Signal (from Unlimited)
T.G. Hyper Librarian (from Unlimited)
Debris Dragon (from Semi-Limited)

Lonefire Blossom (from Semi-Limited)

Pot of Avarice (from Unlimited)
Formula Synchron (from Unlimited)
Primal Seed (from Unlimited)

Heavy Storm (from Banned)

Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning:  The longest name in the game, two of the greatest effects there are and a ridiculously easy summoning condition and (Voila!) the return of a card that is expected to single-handedly shape the next format. I am not that optimistic that it will be able to do such a thing but it still is a great card hence his return, along with some other changes in the Ban List, make Twilight/Chaos a solid deck option for the upcoming format.

Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En: Samurais where expected targets for the Ban Hammer and Shi En is one of the two cards that Samurai can use at one and the one with the less impact to the deck.

Shien’s Smoke Signal: This is the second card Samurais lost and the one that is going to hurt more.

T.G. Hyper Librarian: Expected and justified and to be continued in the next ban list.

Debris Dragon: The first hit to Plants and well justified since this is one of the most broken Tuners out there.
Lonefire Blossom: The second hit to Plants and also a painful one.

Pot of Avarice: The third hit to Plants and the Tengu Engine even though it affects other deck too. With this the Plant Engine is officially dead.

Formula Synchron: This is I believe done in order to stop some of the madness made with T.G. Hyper Librarian and with him being hit with the Ban Hammer next list Formula will return I want to believe.

Primal Seed: What? I had forgot this card existed. I know there are some loops and stuff but yet hardly viable.

Heavy Storm: Heavy Storm AND Dark Hole AND Mirror Force AND Torrential Tribute = Where is my Starlight Road? This card will have the greatest impact to the format and the way the decks are built mainly due to it’s reputation. There is a 15% of the opponent to open with this, you are not going to risk and set three cards aren’t you? Surprisingly this card is bad in OTK’s since it can be stopped from Stardust Dragon and Starlight Road. But wait there is more: As you will see below there is also Unlimited Mystical Space Typhoon. Heavy Storm and three MST, seriously? Bad format for traps, really bad (don’t forget the approaching Dark World Lightning).

New Semi-Limited Cards:

Summoner Monk (from Limited)
Tragoedia (from Limited)
Necro Gardna (from Limited)
Dewlauren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier (from Unlimited)
Destiny Draw (from Limited)
Swords of Revealing Light (from Limited)
Mind Crush (from Limited)
Call Of The Haunted (from Limited)

Summoner Monk: Nice! I am a fan of this card and now with all the plethora of Xyz and level 8 Synchro’s he is more awesome than ever.

Tragoedia: Another Twilight boost and a safe move, a balanced card at two I believe.

Necro Gardna: As above it is a zone of defense for the Twilight Duelist. I guess I should buy a couple of Debunks after all.

Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier: Cool name and cool art but other than this is just a boring First Turn Kill loop with Symbol of Heritage and some other  cards that I don’t remember in order to draw your whole deck.

Destiny Draw: At last! That is all I have to say.

Swords of Revealing Light: Konami is mocking us. With three MST (even though not everyone will run three I believe at leat main deck) and Heavy Storm this is not gonna see much play.

Mind Crush: Cool! Well just make sure that when you play this card you NEVER call out something like : “Grapha, Dragon God of the Dark World” or “Goldd, Wu-Lord of the Dark World”.

Call of the Haunted: This could be good if there was not three MST and a Heavy lurking around the corner.

New Unlimited Cards:

Judgment Dragon (from Semi-Limited)
Spirit Reaper (from Semi-Limited)
Overload Fusion (from Semi-Limited)
Mystical Space Typhoon (from Semi-Limited)
Megamorph (from Semi-Limited)
Gravity Bind (from Limited)
Icarus Attack (from Semi-Limited)

Judgment Dragon: I am not sure if Twilight Duelist will run two or three of those so I do not know if this will have a big impact in the flow of the game.

Spirit Reaper: Not a fan of this card. Limited, Semi or Unlimited does not matter to me, I am not going to run it anyways.

Overload Fusion: With no Trunade the OTKs fall short hence this card will be no problem.

Mystical Space Typhoon: This should be either Limited or Semi, I don’t get why Konami have recently got so much Spell/Trap hate.

Megamorph: Same thing as Overload Fusion plus the usual three MST thing.

Gravity Bind: Same as Swords of Revealing Light. Continuous Cards and especially Traps are not gonna see much play.

Icarus Attack: With no Oppresion, one Kalut, one Gale and one Whirlwind Blackwings are not coming back.

So that’s it.  No Equip Spells and very limited amount of Field Spells and Continuous Cards will mark the next Format. I believe that hand and grave abuse will continue especially as a protection resort. Effect Veiler, D.D. Crow, Gorz, Necro Gardna, Tragoedia and more I expect to see a lot the next six months. Cards that I expect to rise in popularity are obviously Starlight Road and Debunk and possibly Treacherous Trap Hole. Dimensional Prison and Bottomless are expected to lose their popularity or at least will stop being throw ins in every deck.

Decks I believe that will dominate this format  are Twilight, T.G. Tengu or some other TenguTourGuideBirdmanDivaZombie variant, Agents, Dark Worlds, Rabbit-something when it is released, and maybe Hero variants especially if Esquiridao is released.

Thanks for reading and till next time

-Eatos

Here is the link to Shriek where I saw the Ban List changes

http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/38747774/