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I’d Let You Use Cat Butler at 4 

Saikyo does not believe in limiting cards, and he’ll tell you why.

There are a lot of problem cards out there, although the answer as to which ones are problems varies from person to person depending on incompetency and/or general saltiness at the game. And from it come a lot of calls to have certain cards either limited or banned.

I don’t, personally. Largely because the entire exercise is incredibly futile. If Bushiroad ever gave two shits about us then they’d have errata’d Swordmy to require a Jewel Knight Vanguard by now, but since I know that they are not our friends and to be frank probably never will be, the best we can do is simply to exploit whatever bullshit they give us out of spite to newcomers.

But if, hypothetically, Bushiroad decided to expand their limitation library beyond Barcgal and Conroe for the English metagame, how would it affect the pros?

Theoretically, it would curb the desire to only run the most exploitable combos and therefore invite people to run what they think is their favourite for a more diverse scene. Thing is, I’d pretty much call the existing meta of today pretty versatile already, if only because Vanguard seems to basically thrive on whatever seems to have grabbed the attention of the masses currently, with some experts such as I sticking to what they trust works. Along with a few people who believe “anything can win”, bless their stupid hearts. But I digress.

I will agree that there are, or possibly will be, cards that deserve to be given a pretty swift errata or a ban. Anything that can be easily set up and can end a game or come damn well close to it should be addressed for a healthier time for all. But limiting how often that combo can go off is not the answer.

In Vanguard, I don’t believe in limiting any card, at all. For me it has to either be allowed at 4 copies or simply banned from all decks altogether. The problem is once you’ve limited a card and then the adjustments have been made to the meta accordingly, the deck would not suffer any if they don’t encounter it, and then it would just explode in a plethora of exploitable bullshit if the 1-2 copy card was ever drawn. It would make that particular deck incredibly sacky, and as the most salty player ought to know, robbing a player off a win because of chance is not cool.

For that matter, the limitations on the cards that were banned in Japan didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, apart from like 1. Examining the first one which restricted the End and Majesty Lord Blaster to 2 copies and effectively castrating the Tsukuyomi deck, I agree that the End and MLB are totally bullshit and had to be hit. Except lol no over half of it didn’t make sense. Wingal Brave was still allowed provided only 1 copy of MLB was run and so save for Kagero using Gatling Claw it was still useable. And Full Moon Tsukuyomi itself didn’t need hitting when she wasn’t the one doing the main work of stacking the deck (THAT was CEO Amaterasu).

Similar problems arose with the next restricting. Descendant being at 2 didn’t matter as long as people ran Strike Dagger Dragon effectively turning it into 3 copies, and MLB stayed at 2 while everything else got off again. Pfft, MLB’s age ended when Descendant appeared, man. Nothing stays relevant forever.

So, examining what’s currently restricted in Japan at the time of writing this (1 Commander Laurel max and 2 Cat Butlers max) would trying to implement the same restriction be healthy? Eh, I dunno whether it would be HEALTHY (for the reasons described above) but at the same time I doubt it would change anything, really. People were already using a pretty diverse plethora of decks without it, and anyone trying to exploit this for selfish reasons seems to be few and far between.

But suppose everyone suddenly gets hit with space radiation or some shit and decides to simultaneously run Butler Raizers and any form of guard-restricting Dimension Police, to a point where English Bushiroad OUGHT to step in, I guess it would boil down to them and whatever would be the natural counter strategy. In this case, anything that works to take cards away from the opponent such as Kagero and Narukami, or just to fuck with the whole concept as a whole, Machining Megacolony. I could see anything that can use Zahm with ease and Brawlers being especially popular. I mean yeah, sure, it would totally boil down to only those types of decks being the most feasible and that would be bullshit, but this is assuming equal skill and every single person competing to be rational.

Basically, what would spoil the chances of us getting a restriction or ban is other people. I’d be hard pressed to find anyone who had a deck and skill that I was totally happy with, but that’s only because my standards are really fucking high. When you combine the fact that people tend to run or make terrible choices which aren’t always for the best reasons with the basic underrepresentation of the cards that could cause problems in Japan, and I reckon it wouldn’t change a lot.

I am not joking when I say that it’s other people. The reason Konami have to regularly restrict cards for Yu-Gi-Oh is because pro players value consistency and the exploitation of bullshit to win, and when they’re hit they just move on to either the next set of broken cards or failing that, whatever happened to be the next best thing. The line between what’s feasible and what isn’t in Vanguard is more blurred, largely because each deck only seems to have like 2 end goals but also because the way they go about it tends to be very similar, and when decks are homogenised it just boils down to whoever sacks first, so they have a more level playing field. So either through unacceptance that optimal stuff exists or through sheer ignorance, the deck pool remains pretty diverse despite everything.

Just let it lie, if only for the benefit of yourself. Just use the broken bullshit for yourself or run what was the dominant strategy from the very beginning. After all, if I’m driving a car and I see a cyclist on the road, I’d appreciate them, since I’m thankful they aren’t in a car themselves, contributing to the traffic jam in front of me.

Tell me your locals is Link Joker and it has to die (LOL) at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com