Breaking Down the Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-Limited List: April 29th, 2019 List
Hello Pojo Readers, Crunch$G back to break down the F/L List once again, only this time I’ll talk about the adjustments made on the list set to go into effect on April 29th, 2019. I feel this is fair to give my own personal thoughts on the list and what changes are made to it and how some of my opinions might have differed from what I said previously. This was supposed to be a small list to tidy things up in the format as mentioned by Konami, which I can understand as players are happy with the format right now, so there’s no need to make many very drastic changes. There are eight changes that will go into effect on April 29th, so I’ll get right into them.
Summon Sorceress
From Unlimited to Forbidden
The first of three bans on this list is Summon Sorceress, a Link-3 well known for extending combos to crazy extents, as summoning anything from the deck with no real restrictions afterwards besides negating the monster’s effects is too good, and Summon Sorceress was way too generic for that kind of effect to be put onto her with so little restricting you. It isn’t as broken here as in the OCG as they have Crystron Needlefiber, but Summon Sorceress allows for so much, especially with Guardragons and Orcust right now, that it does deserve the ban it received here. As for when it could maybe come back, I feel a card like this is always going to be good, no matter what the format is like, so I think they might need to restrict the summoning condition or the effect a bit more if you want to consider adding this back into the format again. Now with her gone, Crystron Needlefiber will be a much more welcome addition to the TCG.
Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon
From Unlimited to Forbidden
The next ban is a card that probably begged for something like this to eventually happen to it. Number 95 was way too easy to summon, whether you had Level 8s aplenty or the Guardragons to help you summon it, and the fact it could dump any three Dragons from your deck to banish cards from your opponent’s deck was insane. This card is arguably the biggest reason the Dragon Rulers were finally banned four years ago and now it was used to make big boards to help dump Arkbrave Dragon and Amorphage Goliath to get said Goliath on the field and prevent your opponent from using their Extra Deck. Another use was to make the Gandora FTK viable in the TCG with Number 6, but that came to light just recently and now it is banned before it can see more use. Dark Matter Dragon promoted degeneracy for Dragons, so its ban was long overdue arguably. It will take some power creep to welcome this back in the game, and I don’t know how you can really errata it, but with it gone, now we have one of the best chances to be able to safely bring the Dragon Rulers into the format once again.
The Phantom Knights’ Rank-Up-Magic Launch
From Unlimited to Forbidden
I honestly never thought there would be two Rank-Up-Magics banned, but here we are. Rank-Up-Magic Launch was easily searchable off Silent Boots and Rusty Bardiche and helped summon powerful Xyzs like Outer Entity Azathot on the opponent’s turn, or summon monsters like D/D/D Duo-Dawn King Kali Yuga or True King of All Calamaties in decks that have no business summoning them. This was already too powerful in decks that could splash in Phantom Knights like the Orcust deck, and that would of gotten better after Dark Neostorm when Orcust got their Rank 8, so it was time for this card to go. Maybe after a few years when these decks aren’t as powerful and when Azathot is banned as it is arguably worthy of being banned, then maybe we can see this card in the format again.
Lady Debug
From Unlimited to Limited
There was no way they would directly hit Salamangreat after the deck was released not too long ago, so this is a great way of indirectly hitting the deck. Lady Debug is a great searcher for any Cyberse deck already out there and will be great when we get future Cyberse archetypes. A Normal Summon getting you any Level 3 or lower monster of any type was going to be very good, and Lady Debug proves it is very strong even with a type that doesn’t have as many members as other types so far. Sure we are getting Cynet Mining, which doesn’t require the Normal Summon, but there is a discard and even then I can see that card joining Lady Debug someday. For now this hit to Lady Debug helps limit the consistency of Salamangreat, which is good, and I don’t know if/when this can come back, but I can imagine it someday when they are done pushing Cyberse so much.
Phantom Skyblaster
From Unlimited to Limited
Basically, this is just another card that produces Tokens, which therefore makes it not age well into this era of Link Summoning. Phantom Skyblaster produced so many Tokens so easily, as it really only relied on how many monsters you had, which is easy with Danger! monsters running around and many other Special Summon effects. This was just going to allow many Link Monsters to come out with great ease when they had no business doing so. Saryuja Skull Dread is probably a big example of a Link Monster that is easy to summon and make use of with Phantom Skyblaster, and while Saryuja deserved a hit as well, hitting Skyblaster is a step in the right direction. If anything, this card could warrant a ban in the future just like Grinder Golem received last list. Summoning Tokens like this isn’t good with Link Summoning around, it makes bigger monsters come out way too easily.
Sky Striker Ace – Kagari
From Unlimited to Limited
The biggest piece of recovery the Sky Striker deck had, Kagari was just so good at improving the Sky Striker consistency by getting back an Engage or giving you some protection/disruption with cards like Afterburners or Widow Anchor. That along with its ease of summoning with just one Sky Striker Ace – Raye or a copy of Hornet Drones, Kagari was easy to bring out and the benefits of getting her with such great ease were too big to not let this card get hit eventually. Now the deck didn’t get hit that hard, this is really the only hit the deck received since Engage will be reprinted soon, but a hit to Kagari hits the recovery that Sky Strikers had and now they have to adjust to make use of Kagari with other cards like Magnet Reverse or Hercules Base to make use of it again as well as finding ways to keep the Kagari safe from never being used in the duel again. It’s a card that deserves the limit and I cannot imagine it coming back until the distant future.
Super Polymerization
From Limited to Semi-Limited
In an era where big boards are highly popular, Super Polymerization can really shine with many options to help out said boards like Starving Venom Fusion Dragon or Mudragon of the Swamp or Salamangreat Violet Chimera to help out relevant meta decks. The card pool was allowing for some big and dangerous boards to be produced and we needed more ways of outing them without hurting any potential plays you might of had by too much, so an addition of a second Super Polymerization really helps players be able to out these boards. For now, two seems like a good number, but I don’t think a third will hurt so much more than two already would, but even then I don’t think the card will hurt the format, but instead help it if anything.
Miscellaneousaurus
From Limited to Unlimited
The last change on this list was the return of Miscellaneousaurus from limited status all the way back to three. I do remember saying that this card would be too powerful to return to three when I broke down the F/L List initially, but now I do reconsider saying that. Sure Dinosaurs will be powerful, and the World Legacy cards in Dark Neostorm could help the deck do the things it could once do when it had Denglong, but the other decks have gotten so powerful to the point where I don’t think Dinosaurs will do too much if all they recieve back is Miscellaneousaurus, if anything I imagine they’ll be a good rogue deck at most now. This card is still a little iffy, but I feel more comfortable about it now compared to when I first talked about it over two months ago. It’s a welcome addition back into the Dinosaur arsenal and gives the deck more potential to do some cool things.
In Conclusion
When it comes to the top decks, I don’t imagine much will change. Orcust will do well when they get their Dark Neostorm support with or without Summon Sorceress and Rank-Up-Magic Launch. Guardragon variants like Danger Thunder Guardragons lose a big play with Number 95 gone and you might have to adjust how you use the Guardragons without Summon Sorceress, but I’m sure the deck can figure out how to thrive without them. Salamangreat lost consistency and Sky Striker lost recovery, but they are far from dead in the water. Super Poly and Miscellaneousaurus being at higher numbers allows for experimentation, and while I wish we got more to experiment with, we didn’t need much if the player base is happy, so I said this list did a good job at taking the best decks down a peg so other things can compete. Sure there are a few more things that could of been done like Saryuja going to one as well as bringing back Construct and Shurit to three, this list did a good job in putting the meta in check.
Thanks for Reading,
Crunch$G
