Breaking Down the Yu-Gi-Oh October 3rd, 2022 Forbidden & Limited List
Crunch$G
The wait is finally over. Hello Pojo Readers, Crunch$G here to discuss the latest Forbidden & Limited List update for the TCG that’s set to go into effect on October 3rd. Coming into this list, we had a format where Spright and Tearlaments became some of the best strategies after the release of Power of the Elements. Before that, we had P.U.N.K. goodstuff, Swordsoul, and Despia doing well, though most of that fell off a little after Power of the Elements was released, even though they’re still playable. I believe every winner of a YCS this format had Mystic Mine in their Deck in some form. Also, OCG recently brought back Spellbook of Judgment, so that was expected over here. Overall, let’s see what they actually did.
Fairy Tail – Snow
From Limited to Forbidden
Well I’m glad Konami quickly realized the TCG didn’t want this card back in the game. Honestly, I’m glad to see Fairy Tail – Snow go back to being banned. A Quick Effect ability to banish 7 from the graveyard to revive itself and serve as a Book of Moon, all with a lack of a HOPT and once per chain so you can dodge this being disrupted. Overall, that’s just not fun to deal with, especially with how easy it is to get the card in the graveyard. We have a few generic options to dump any card from Deck to grave, and Tearlaments mill so fast that they should quickly get Snow in the grave. Hopefully Snow stays banned this time, I really don’t like the card. Only positive from this coming back is that it showed Konami is willing to experiment again.
Ronintoadin
From Unlimited to Forbidden
Ronintoadin has honestly been a pretty strong card for the Frog package since release. Being able to revive it as many times in a turn as you want just by banishing a Frog from grave was very good. With Spright becoming a top contender and them using Toadally Awesome on all of their end boards, I guess they were due to hit something in the Frog package. Ronintoadin being banned instead of Toadally Awesome does keep the latter able to still technically be useable in Spright, it’s just much harder to get it on the end board now that you don’t have the quick revive of Ronintoadin. Though with Ronintoadin gone from the game, it gave Konami the room they felt like to bring an old friend of his back, but more on that in a bit.
Crystron Halqifibrax
From Limited to Forbidden
Limiting Halqifibrax really did nothing major, to be honest. This is a ban that feels like a long time coming considering all the strong combos the card enabled and all the powerful Tuner monsters the card got banned just cause it existed. The existence of Halqifibrax was always going to limit how Konami designed Synchro archetypes from this point forward, so getting the card out of the game in every format opens up the room for some stronger Synchro archetypes to be released and for all these strong Tuners to come off the list, though more slowly than it probably should be. Halq is probably one of the last broken Link Vrains Pack cards to remain in the game, so good it see it gone finally.
Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon
From Unlimited to Forbidden
This I’m a little disappointed by, but I understand why it had to go. Chaos Ruler being a generic Synchro might of been a mistake, considering on Synchro Summon it gave you a free mill 5 and the ability to add any LIGHT or DARK monster to your hand if you revealed one in those 5 cards, of which there are a ton of good generic LIGHT and DARK monsters in this game to begin with. P.U.N.K. made summoning this card way too easy and generated a ton of advantage for summoning it. Kinda stings to see this card go before we got the new Chaos cards in Photon Hypernova and before the likely retrain of the Chaos Dragon Structure Deck we were bound to get next year, but I guess the TCG doesn’t want to deal with this anymore.
Red Reboot
From Limited to Forbidden
Now this is a ban I can 100% get behind honestly. It does feel kind of out of left field to ban this now, but Red Reboot was way too strong for its own good. Being able to be used from the hand at the cost of paying half your LP, and return you basically shut down Trap Decks entirely for a whole turn was way too unfair. Putting the card to 1 back when they did just turned the card into a sacky 1-of as well, which was even worse since you didn’t really know when the opponent could have the Red Reboot and it becoming more unreliable to try and play around a 1-of. I would of never justified this card ever coming back to 3, so I’m glad we went with the approach of banning the card instead.
Blackwing – Steam the Cloak
From Forbidden to Limited
Now with Halq gone, we will begin to see the Tuners re-enter the game. For Blackwing – Steam the Cloak, it’s honestly perfect timing. Blackwing support is on the horizon in Darkwing Blast, so having one of their better Tuners back is nice for the archetype. Steam’s ability to summon a Token that you could tribute to revive itself from grave just to summon another Token once you sent Steam back to the graveyard was fairly strong with Halq around. Now, I’m sure you can still do some strong things with this, it’s just nothing broken now that its most powerful enabler is out of the game. Will be fun to see Blackwings be able to play with this once again.
Cyber Jar
From Forbidden to Limited
In another instance of Konami bringing back classic cards from the past, Cyber Jar is finally free to be played in Decks once again. Now, on one hand this does improve the power of Empty Jar some more, but on the other hand that’s all it really does. Setting a single monster is not viable in 2022, except maybe in Empty Jar, and that Deck has proven to do nothing with all it got back with the Morphing Jars. I don’t think Cyber Jar will be a tipping point for the Deck, this card is honestly pretty outdated. I think it’s a fair card to return to the game, I just hope this doesn’t mean Konami starts to feel like they could bring Fiber Jar back as well at a later date. Good to see Konami willing to bring stuff back to the TCG before they do in the OCG once again.
Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion
From Forbidden to Limited
Basically, you could copy and paste most of what I said about Steam the Cloak and put it here. Only difference is that we aren’t expecting any Mecha Phantom Beast support any time soon, and with Auroradon gone as well, it’s good to see this archetype get something back at the very least. O-Lion was one of the best cards in pure Mecha Phantom Beasts, so them getting the card back without anything to abuse the card generically anymore is a plus. Again, good to see some of the Tuners that Halq got banned to begin with start to come back into the game. Now we could just use some support for this archetype to make up for the fact that we likely aren’t ever getting Auroradon back without any sort of errata.
Substitoad
From Forbidden to Limited
Well here’s a sight to see. I 100% remember believing that Substitoad could never come back, though most of that had to do with the fact that Ronintoadin existed. Now with that card banned, I get why Konami would want to try and put Substitoad back into the game. I still think this could end up poorly for Konami, as we have to remember that Subsititoad still doesn’t have a hard once per turn, or any once per turn for that matter, on the card. It’s also still fairly tutorable, being a Level 1 and a WATER monster. Hopefully Substitoad does nothing broken again like what we saw with the Frog FTK back 12 years ago… still feels insane it’s been that long since this card was in the game.
Spellbook of Judgment
From Forbidden to Limited
Like I said previously, the OCG recently brought the card back, so we all felt the TCG would follow up with the same thing the next time we got a list. Now, on paper the card is still insanely strong. The ability to search for a ton of cards and summoning almost any Spellcaster from the Deck is pretty good. We just have to remember that most of the Spellbooks aren’t that strong in this modern era. Spellbook of Fate is their only real disruption and Spellbook of Wisdom isn’t the strongest protection in the world for the Jowgen the Spellbook player would likely summon. It also takes a ton of Spells to use with Spellbook Star Hall to make sure the Jowgen doesn’t get ran over by anything that isn’t a small breeze. Judgment back is the best boost you could give to Spellbooks barring any support they could of released, I just don’t forsee this being the problem it was in 2013.
Appointer of the Red Lotus
From Unlimited to Limited
For the final limit of the list, and the only one this list to actually be some sort of hit instead of a boost, we got Appointer of the Red Lotus going to 1. This card has been a fairly popular Trap, mainly in Side Decks, to take a power card out of the opponent’s hand at the cost of some LP and that card returning to the opponent’s hand at a later turn. We’ve seen in the past with cards like Confiscation, Delinquent Duo, The Forceful Sentry, Trap Dustshoot, and Smoke Grenade of the Thief that Konami doesn’t like it when players can look at their opponent’s hand and take a card out of it. Appointer isn’t on the level of the previously mentioned cards, so I get why it’s limited instead of outright banned, and honestly I don’t really know if Konami will ever actually ban this card.
Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter
From Semi-Limited to Unlimited
Well if two copies wasn’t going to do anything, I’m doubtful that three will make a big difference. Dinomight Knight does what many players would of expected when it went to two on a previous list, and it is now back to 3 for the first time since 2017. Honestly, this isn’t the boost that will make True Draco one of the best Decks again, but it’s a good boost for the Deck to have. As long as we keep Master Peace banned and Dragonic Diagram at 1, I don’t think True Draco is going to do anything of note, especially now that some of the best floodgates like Vanity’s Emptiness and Imperial Order are both banned. Dinomight is fine at 3.
Cyber Angel Benten
From Semi-Limited to Unlimited
Well the ban to Eva really seemed to slow Drytron down by a ton seeing as Konami feels fine to bring Cyber Angel Benten back to three. Honestly, it’s another case of where if the card isn’t doing much at 2, it won’t do much at 3. Now 3 Benten is still fairly strong, but it was already highly searchable, so if it was a real problem, it probably would of been banned by now. Maybe something pops up once again that makes Benten an issue, but for now I’m glad to see the card at 3 to boost the rogue strategies that liked to run Benten to begin with. I guess it’s perfect to go alongside the fact that the Lost Art of this card was released not long ago, so I guess players need 3 of those now.
Shooting Riser Dragon
From Limited to Unlimited
In an instance where I have zero clue why Konami limited the card to begin with, as this was something you 100% only ever seen ran as a 1-of, Shooting Riser Dragon is back at 3 just a single format later. With no Halqifibrax in the game to cheat it from the Extra Deck and no Fairy Tail – Snow to dump off this card, there’s really no broken use for Shooting Riser Dragon anymore to begin with. Now, it’s still a good Synchro Tuner with a good effect to get whatever you might need into the graveyard, but the limitation made no sense whatsoever as it does nothing to affect the card. If it was banned, I would of understood it as it would of been a hit that did something, but now it doesn’t even warrant a spot on the list to begin with.
Fusion Destiny
From Semi-Limited to Unlimited
The banning of Verte really made Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer fall off the face of the planet almost in terms of use, so I guess it’s fair for Fusion Destiny to go from 2 to 3. Now I don’t think this is a major enough difference to see players start running a Fusion Destiny package in everything again, cause the bricks of Dasher and Celestial will still be a factor even if you’re seeing Fusion Destiny more often, and you don’t have the consistent access that Verte gave you to your Fusion Destiny if you don’t hard draw it. So with all that in mind, Fusion Destiny at 3 shouldn’t make a big difference except for HERO players finally having the card at 3 again and some people maybe trying a DPE package in their Deck now that they could more consistenty see Fusion Destiny.
Nadir Servant
From Semi-Limited to Unlimited
We honestly are past the point of the best Decks in the format running Dogmatika now, and I don’t think Dogmatika Invoked Shaddoll will make a major comeback just cause they got 1 extra copy of Nadir Servant back. Honestly, at the time this was semi-limited, the Dogmatika archetype was falling out of favor in the meta to begin with from what I remember, so the card never really needed a hit that badly. Now that we are far past Dogmatika being one of the best engines in the game, there’s really no reason to keep Nadir Servant at 2. Plus, I don’t expect Konami to make future Dogmatika support as generic as the stuff we saw in Rise of the Duelist. And if this was a hit to Albaz, we were rarely ever using this to search Albaz to begin with.
Trickstar Light Stage
From Semi-Limited to Unlimited
I mean, we no longer have Verte Anaconda in the game and we no longer have everything running Orcust anymore cause of how easy it was to make Knightmare Mermaid due to the fact that Mermaid is gone now. With all that, there’s really no more really broken Link-2s to make with a Trickstar engine anymore. Sure you could easily go into something like a Knightmare Phoenix/Cerberus still, or you could make an I:P Masquerena, but we already had a ton of ways to make those with a single card that I doubt the Trickstar package is so broken that we can’t let it in the game. Trickstars can now be at full power again now that they can’t make the really broken Links on their own anymore.
Wall of Revealing Light
From Semi-Limited to Unlimited
Now, to end things off, we get to probably one of the most overdue things that deserved to happen with the list to begin with, and that’s Wall of Revealing Light returning to 3 finally. The ability to shut down attacks with this card didn’t matter as much as the fact that it drained your LP very quickly to abuse certain cards, but now there’s not really any Deck abusing the fact you need low LP to begin with outside of Dinomorphia, and that Deck does fine enough on its own at draining your own LP. Nothing that’s draining LP right now to begin with is even remotely broken, so it’s time to have Wall of Revealing Light at three and if it does become a problem again, it’ll likely be due to Life Equalizer, which is a card that probably should be gone to begin with.
In Conclusion
So with all these changes to the format, there’s really honestly just one thing left to say… where is Mystic Mine on this list?
