Here’s to 2018! Hello Pojo Readers, Crunch$G here with another article for you guys. 2017 for this game has had its ups and downs, from the wrath of Zoodiac to Link Summoning and everything around it, it has been interesting to say the least and I am going to run down the 2017 Yu-Gi-Oh TCG calendar by Set Releases and Forbidden and Limited Lists now knowing everything around it, so with this introduction out of the way, let’s get started.
Movie Pack: Gold Edition
The first released product to the TCG in 2017 was a reprint of the whole Movie Pack for The Dark Side of Dimensions, and there is only a few notable things from this. Cubics got Duza, which is an important card for them. Players were able to access Magician Girls and Cubics with greater ease, and I am sure they loved that. To be honest though, the most important thing with this was the reprint of Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon. I always believe cards getting more prints into circulation is great to keep their prices down, so Alternative getting this reprint is nice, though I don’t know if it helped too much as I am sure it was as easy to get as it was out of the original Movie Pack. Oh yeah, I almost forgot Gold and Sliver Gadget got another reprint, though I don’t know how dire it was, still nice for them to get the reprint in the first place.
January 2017 Jump Promo
I feel sometimes mentioning the Jump promos is important. The first one of the year was Odd-Eyes Persona Dragon, which is a good scale one for the Odd-Eyes deck and has a pretty good monster effect that negates the effect of an Extra Deck monster. The card is very searchable and is a pretty good Jump Promo. Plus it was $60 at one point I believe, so it would of paid for your subscription.
Pendulum Domination Structure Deck
The deck probably came out much later than it really should of, but it is nice to say we actually got the D/D/D support that makes them viable. Copernicus is a solid card for the deck, and Beowulf is a good Fusion Monster to have on your ending board; however, Siegfried and Lamia shined in this Structure Deck the most. Siegfried gave the deck the ability to have a Spell and Trap out and Lamia just extend the combos of the deck to another level, helping you access the Siegfried or a Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon. Also Allure of Darkness got the reprint in here, yay! Also some good D/D/D reprints because I think there was a rare that was reaching $5 at one point. The deck is good, still good in Link Format in my opinion, and had a nice few weeks of meta play if I remember correctly.
Raging Tempest
Yippie! Tier 0! The first set release of the year gave us a force to be reckoned with, and it dominated over half the year. Zoodiacs were unique as they were literally 1 card XYZs. Also with the poor effect designing, they were able to generate tons of advantage as well as have a great card to out your opponent’s plays in Zoodiac Drident, a great searcher in Zoodiac Broadbull, and the card that made Zoodiac the force to be reckoned with by helping generating tons of advantage, Zoodiac Ratpier. Cards like Viper and Barrage did not help with the problem either. Not only did we get Zoodiac, but Crystal Wing was accessible by one card thanks to the Windwitches. Ice Bell could use her effect to summon Glass Bell, which searched for a Snow Bell that you could immediately summon, then Synchro Summon into a Level 7 using Ice and Glass, then use the Synchro and Snow to summon Crystal Wing, I am sure many decks loved that combo. 60 card decks also became somewhat viable thanks to That Grass Looks Greener, and Spells and Traps got Foolish Burial Goods to send them to the GY. Also there was some nice support for archetypes like Crystrons, Magnet Warriors, Cyber Angels, Ancient Gear, Black Luster Soldier, Ritual Beasts, Skull Servants, SPYRAL, Subterror, Infernoids, and Symphonic Warriors as well as the debut of Shinobird along with the aforementioned Windwitches and Zoodiac. We got the Earth True King, which is probably the best one, especially in Konami’s eyes as we learned later this year. Finally, we got a card Konami might of overhyped in Sea Monster of Theseus. The card had tons of potential, especially without Links, and it is a good card since it is a Tuner that can be summoned with Instant Fusion, just Konami might of overhyped it. Still opened cool plays.
Fusion Enforcers
Now here is a pretty fun set. Fusion Enforcers did what you think it would do, and that is support Fusion archetypes and strategies. In this set, we got support for both the Predaplant and Fluffal archetypes, both of which got some good support, especially Fluffal with Frightfur Kraken. This set also gave us the Invoked archetype, which is basically a Fusion Engine for many decks since the cards are easily accessible from your deck. I imagine Invoked will stand the test of time as long as they remain untouched in the TCG, the concept is very interesting. Also Instant Fusion reprint!
Star Pack Battle Royal
Reprints for Melodious and Superheavy Samurai is cool and all, but this set was really only good for the reprint of Speedroid Terrortop. Not much to say here, Star Packs at least give you opening fuel if you are low on money.
Raging Tempest: Special Edition
Another way to really get cards over to Europe really. This one reprinted Number 22 and Masked HERO Blast. Weird it took this long to get a Number 22 print for Europe, standard time for Masked HERO Blast though. The preview cards had something great. Baobaboon was a great card to get early, but Zoodiac Kataroost was lackluster, don’t think anyone played it in Zoodiac.
Duelist Saga
What was basically our Gold Series this year, Duelist Saga had some nice reprints in the new Ultra Rare technology. M-X-Saber Invoker was a great reprint for the Zoodiac players, also Trishula got another reprint, which is lovely. The set also gave us the erratas for cards like Brain Control, Future Fusion, Imperial Order, Rescue Cat, Brionac, and Goyo Guardian. I feel Rescue Cat, Brionac, and Imperial Order got fair erratas, Future Fusion is ok, but slow, and Goyo and Brain Control just lost all viability. The set also gave us some new cards including some nice HERO support, support for the Sacred Beasts, and Cosmic Blazar Dragon just to name some of the better new cards. Solid set, but not amazing to be honest, especially compared to the Premium Gold the previous year.
March 31st, 2017 Forbidden and Limited List
At this point, it had been 7 or 8 months since the TCG got a new list, and the format was in dire need of one, and we finally got it in March of 2017. On this list, we saw the banning of Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin, The Tyrant Neptune, and Vanity’s Emptiness. Kirin was necessary to get out of the game as it was an out to your opponent’s plays while Kirin itself was difficult to get rid of. The Tyrant Neptune was because of an FTK/OTK with a card to be released in Maximum Crisis, and Vanity’s Emptiness was unfair as you could stop your opponent from doing their plays while you could easily get rid of it and establish a board yourself. In the limited section, we had Brionac, Future Fusion, Imperial Order, Rescue Cat, Brain Control, and Maxx ”C”. Most of these were the erratas from Duelist Saga, which made sense. Goyo was already at three, so that is why the errata didn’t send him to one. The thing that sticks out the most is the limitation of Maxx ”C”. Honestly the card can get a little sacky at one, so I feel it is best if it is either banned or at three. With three Maxx ”C”, you can expect it to happen, which isn’t the case with one. The card is a necessary evil maybe, but there are a lot of other outs, so if Konami doesn’t want to bring it back to three, I guess banning it in the future might be the way to go. The semi limits had Wisdom-Eye Magician, Zoodiac Ratpier, and Interrupted Kaiju Slumber. Wisdom-Eye was to support the upcoming Pendulum Magicians, but it would eventually go to three before that set was released. Ratpier was very sudden, as Raging Tempest wasn’t even that old of a set. I get the intention was to slow down Zoodiac, but this was far from enough. Interrupted Kaiju Slumber to 2 didn’t really do much, as people still played Kaijus in their deck, only difference is now you had only 2 Slumber over 3, the card should of went to 1 and it would of been fine, 2 did nothing. The only card to go back to three is Sangan, who had an errata in late 2016 and the card hasn’t really seen much play. I don’t even think the errata was necessary.
Arc-V Volume 1
The manga is useful for sometimes giving us great cards like Stardust Spark Dragon, Black Rose Moonlight Dragon, and Number S39. The first Manga for Arc-V gave us Odd-Eyes Phantom Dragon. The card is neat for giving Odd-Eyes some extra damage, it can really add up with this card, and it can boost an Odd-Eyes in the scale. The card is ok of Odd-Eyes players, otherwise you could of skipped on this Manga unless you wanted to read it.
OTS Tournament Pack 4
These packs are nice at giving holo prints for popular cards in competitive and some casual decks, as well as common reprints for cards that probably shouldn’t be worth as much as they are at the time. The Ultimate Rares in this set were Number S39: Utopia the Lightning, Instant Fusion, and Solemn Strike. Strike and Lightning needed budget reprints, but they do look good in Ultimate Rare. We had Norden when this pack was released, so Instant Fusion was worthy of Ultimate and the card is always going to see play in some form, so it is nice to have an Ultimate of that as well. Thrasher got a Super Rare reprint, though it did exist in Ultimate already. Some D/D reprints for Armageddon and Swirl Slime even though the deck got power crept by Zoodiac. Ronintoadin got a Super reprint to make the whole Frog engine of Swap, Dupe, and Ronintoadin holo. Volflame got a Super reprint to match Goldriver, Union Hangar was the best Union card so it got the holo it deserved, and Gofu got a Super print for being a great combo card and now being a important part to Link Summoning. Nothing special in the commons though, we got a OCG import of a Fusion we never had, so yeah.
Machine Reactor Structure Deck
A deck released at the same time with a far better one, this deck still had some good stuff to offer. Reactor Dragon was a great new boss monster for Ancient Gear, and they got an amazing searcher with Wyvern. Not to mention Catapult helping you float from the deck, and it can summon Ancient Gear Golem, a great card to combo with Geartown or the brand new Ancient Gear Fortress. Also a very budget Maxx ’’C’’ reprint.
Dinosmasher’s Fury Structure Deck
This is the deck that stole the show from the Machine Reactor deck. First off, we have reprints for popular cards like Twin Twisters and Quaking Mirror Force, but the real selling point was the Dinosaur cards. Souleating Oviraptor is probably one of the best Stratos like cards I have seen since Stratos himself. Babycerasaurus was useful for the first time with the True King Earth monster as well as having a new baby dragon in Petiterandon. We got an outstanding Dinosaur Boss in Ultimate Conductor Tyranno and Miscellaneosaurus got another reprint as a common again, just like in Raging Tempest. We all expected this deck to take over the meta once Zoodiac and True Draco took hits, and we saw this best at Worlds 2017 when Dinosaurs won the whole thing considering OCG slaughtered Zoodiac on their list and True Draco was the only real contender I believe. One of the best Structure Decks of all time.
April 2017 Jump Promo
Another Jump Promo, and this one might seem like more of a fan favorite card. Apprentice Illusion Magician was important for Dark Magician players and I am sure some collectors would of loved of have this card as well. For Dark Magicians, she has easy summoning requirements and gets you to Dark Magician, making it an important piece of the deck. For collectors, Dark Magician Girl is one of the most beloved cards in the game, so I am sure many of those same collectors would of loved to have a retrained version of her. The desire of this card was there, hence the over $100 price tag it had. Good Jump promo for players. The sooner we get Jump Promo cards, the sooner Europe can get them reprinted, better to have it printed in the Jump over it being lost in circulation to be imported over here.
Maximum Crisis
Oh boy, this is a fun set to discuss. I remember with this set when people got cases, they got a ton of repeated Secret Rares like Supreme King Z-ARC and something else, while the money cards like Ash Blossom, Master Peace, and Dragonic Diagram were pains to get. I think that problem was fixed by now. This set helped us get another alternative to Zoodiac with True Draco, though Zoodiacs sometimes played True Dracos as well because Master Peace is that good. We got Chakanine for Zoodiacs, which is one of the better XYZ monsters that is still legal to play. We got the final Subterror and SPYRAL support, or what was supposed to be. Sylvan Princessprite is one of the best Rank 1 XYZs ever. Bujin Hiruko boosts Bujins a fair amount. Tornado Dragon was a great TCG exclusive. However, the main selling point of this set was True Dracos and Ash Blossom. Ash Blossom is one of the best hand traps in the game, stopping your opponent from basically moving something from the deck. True Dracos got Master Peace, one of the most frustrating cards to be against, and Dragonic Diagram, which boosted the consistency of the deck and made Dinosaurs a viable meta contender with the Earth True King. Some of the True Draco monsters that aren’t Master Peace help boost the constancy of the True Draco archetype like Dinomight Knight and Ignis Heat. True King of All Calamities is the best Rank 9 in the game, but there isn’t really much competition there. We got Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio and Darlingtonia Cobra to make Brilliant Fusion searchable. Zefra became more viable as a deck with some great cards. B.E.S. got some of its first support since 2009, making the deck more viable now. Duelist Alliance was a great card for Pendulums and Z-ARC is an outstanding Boss Monster for Pendulum Magicians if you are playing the right cards to summon Z-ARC. Overall great set.
Duelist Pack: Dimensional Guardians
This set reminded me of the old Duelist Packs and how lackluster they were. Only difference is those Duelist Packs of the past have the sedimental value and had some meta relevant cards from time to time. The second Jaden Duelist Pack had Card Trooper, infamous in Troop Dupe Scoop, and the Aster Pack had Malicious and Destiny Draw, and we all know how meta relevant those cards were upon release. This set didn’t really have anything that could of or will have sedimental value nor anything meta relevant. I don’t even think casual players had a true appeal to this set. Cyber Angels got a reprint, but those weren’t expensive. Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend got the reprint, which is ok I guess. Starliege Paladynamo got its first reprint, but that card has somewhat been powercrept. Frightfur got an ok Fusion, but we got Kraken a few months before. The only somewhat good card we got that was new was Spiral Flame Strike, but we needed to wait for the Legendary Dragon Decks to make that more optimal. Not that great of a set to be honest.
Maximum Crisis: Special Edition
Special Editions are always a great way to get a set into circulation more. This gave players more chances to get cards like Ash Blossom, Master Peace, and Dragonic Diagram. The only noteworthy reprint is Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL, as Kachi Kochi Dragon was heavily powercrept. I think we might of overhyped Emerging Emergency Rescue Rescute a bit, but you never know what the future holds.
June 12th, 2017 Forbidden and Limited List
This was revealed 6 weeks after the March 31st List went into effect, but it took until June 12th for this one to go into effect. This is somewhat of an Emergency Banlist if you want to think of it that way, but we don’t know when Konami plan to release lists anyways. Norden finally exited the game after long overstaying his welcome. The card was cool, but somewhat over powered. Terrortop went to 1 to slow Zoo down a bit to make them rely on the Predaplant engine if they wanted Invoker. That Grass Looks Greener went to 1, despite having minimal impact on the meta at this stage, but oh well. To promote Pendulum Evolution, Skullcrobat Joker, Wisdom-Eye Magician, and Pendulum Call all went to three, putting Pendulum Magicians at full power basically.
Pendulum Evolution This set makes me feel somewhat better, but this was a Structure Deck in the OCG. At the very least boxes of this set are cheap in the TCG, being worth about the price of three Structure Decks and you still get everything you should need and extras. I will start off with the great reprint for Qliphort Monolith, that card didn’t deserve the price it had and this reprint took care of that for us. The important thing of this set is Pendulum Magicians, though. After Zoodiac, True Draco, and Dinosaurs took a hit, this deck was the best deck in the game until SPYRAL got their Link Monster. It is still a solid deck overall though, still a meta contender, and when Heavymetalfoes Electurmite comes in Extreme Force, this deck will have another resurgence into the meta.
July 2017 Jump Promo
This card I feel we got a little late. The promo for July 2017 was Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Blade Dragon, which is a great Rank-Up monster that clears the board somewhat and replaces himself upon destruction. Great card, but would of been better when Blue-Eyes was at its prime, not during the middle of the wrath of Zoodiac.
Battle’s of Legend: Light’s Revenge
Here is a set beloved by many this year. One of the greatest reprint sets of all time, up there with last year’s Premium Gold in my opinion. Not much in the new stuff, though. We got some cool Fish Synchro Monsters, some great Gladiator Beast support before Links, and Giant Rex plus Double Evolution Pill for Dinosaurs. Also we got some more Timelords, which they are all awesome… except Sadion. In the reprint side, you had the first reprint of Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn since it was first printed as a prize card. I am not a fan of prize cards being cards like Minerva, but that is a different article for a different time. We got outstanding Synchro reprints for PSY-Framelord Omega and Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon. Trishula and M-X-Saber Invoker got another reprint after Duelist Saga. Denko Sekka, Vanity’s Fiend, Spellbook of Secrets, Spellbook Magician of Prophecy, Into the Void, just too many great reprints to name right now. We got the Witch of the Black Forest errata, which is cool I guess. The one odd thing about this set is that we got Evilswarm Exciton Knight reprinted but it didn’t return off the next Forbidden and Limited List. Weird!
Starter Deck: Link Strike
Every new generation of this game comes with a new summoning mechanic, and this one really changed the game. Similar to how Synchros really changed the game, it is up there when it comes to immediate impact, though that impact was mostly on Extra Deck summoning over what you summoned from the Extra Deck. I won’t go over the new rules, hopefully most of you know them by now. The noteworthy cards in this deck were the Link Monsters, which were the first one in the game. Link Spider was there to help climb the Link Ladder, Honeybot is just for Cyberse monsters, and Decode Talker is probably the go-to Link Monster for opening the Extra Deck right now, especially using Gofu with it.
OTS Tournament Pack 5
Another set to rarity bump some popular cards. This time for the Ultimate Rare slots, we have Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, Zoodiac Whiptail, and Terraforming. Terraforming has had a huge rise in popularity over the years as Field Spells have gotten better, so it is worthy of the reprint in Ultimate. Whiptail was good at the time and was the best Zoodiac most likely not getting hit, so I guess they chose the right Ultimate in that archetype, and Ghost Ogre is one of the better hand traps in the game, so that deserves the Ultimate slot as well. Ultimates are typically very well chosen in OTS Packs and Astral Packs. Dogoran was the next Kaiju to get the rarity bump, but I think there wasn’t one in OTS 6, so sadly it seems all of them will not match. Fairy Tail – Snow should of been holo to begin with. Quik-Fix was a great choice with Double Helix on the way. Ramram is another good Zoodiac holo upgrade, though I don’t know how good it is in the deck now, it was good at the time. Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem got its first reprint since its release in Light of Destruction I believe. Swing of Memories was odd, but oh well. Disciples of the True Dracophoenix was a nice holo upgrade, as well as True Draco Apocalypse, and Lost Wind should of also been holo to begin with. I think the only noteworthy commons in this set were Tin Goldfish and Secret Village of the Spellcasters, the commons don’t typically offer up too much in these sets.
Code of the Duelist
The first set of the Vrains era was surely interesting. This was the first set with Link Monsters and we got some solid ones. We all know of the loops Firewall Dragon can create. Topologic Bomber Dragon has his own FTK. Gaia Saber is a vanilla which was the first really generic Link to be honest, but it was easily power. We got the first Attribute Link monster for Earth, so Zoodiac can be the first to get the boost, and sadly we didn’t get the rest when it would of mattered. The World Chalice archetype as a whole is pretty cool and Gouki has that Infernity potential in my eyes. We got another meta relevant burn deck in Trickstars, which got its own one sided Card Destruction that banishes your opponent’s hand. Twilightsworn became a thing, cool in concept, weak in execution. Also we got a cool backrow removal card in Heavy Storm Duster and a draw card for Spellbooks that turned them into an engine with Spellbook Magician and Secrets. Vendread seems like a cool TCG exclusive archetype, cannot wait to see where they go.
2017 Mega-Tins
Meh, the Mega Tins aren’t as great as when they first came out. With a holo per pack now, cards are much easier to get, so I wonder if these Mega-Tins are necessary, but again that is another article for another time. Both tins came with Pot of Desires and Proxy Dragon as promos, both of which are great cards. The Mega Packs are odd ones though. We got Zoodiac reprints, but the deck got shattered on the September List. We got some Dark Magician reprints, but those were in the Legendary Dragon Decks. Toadally Awesome got a reprint, which is cool I think. Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries is probably the only quality reprint, but that will likely be in Legendary Collection Kaiba with Ghost Ogre. These tins are honestly skippable except for the promos. Reprints are nice, but I don’t know of any of these cards needed them. At least they are there in case any of them become meta relevant.
Arc-V Volume 2
Another Manga, another promo. This one is a pretty cool Synchro for Wind decks, also one of the few Pendulum Synchro mosnters, Clear Wing Fast Dragon. A good card to out Extra Deck Monster Effects and it is easy to summon from the Pendulum Zone if it was destroyed somehow and you are playing Speedroids. Better than the first Manga Promo for Arc-V, really good if you are playing Wind monsters.
2017 YCS Prize Card
As I already said, I am not a fan of YCS Prize Cards being the first print of certain cards in the TCG. At least this one isn’t insanely good like Minerva, Crush Card Virus, or Cyber-Stein. I just feel bad for Number Hunters because this is the 2nd year in a row we got a Number as a prize card and the third time in history, the previous two being Number 106 and 93. Number 89: Diablosis the Mind Hacker is a great Rank 7, but I don’t think it is overpowered enough to steal games. It cleans the opponent’s Extra Deck for you and can eat away at their GY and deck by banishing every card I mentioned face-down. The card can help you get the deck out win, but it isn’t too absurd like some previous prize cards.
Legendary Duelists
The perfect set for casual duelists all around. This set helped give players another way to build Red-Eyes, getting players away from the burn strategy if they wish. Amazoness got some support that made them somewhat of a viable deck now. We got a new Legendary Fisherman and cards to work with Water decks. Cyberdark has become somewhat of a good deck now, with cards that actually synergize with what Cyberdark is meant to do. They gave some help to Vechiroids and Water Dragon, but those strategies still need more support. Overall, this was a pretty good casual player set.
Yugi’s Collector Box
This product is very interesting. More than likely preferred by collectors than players, though. This did give people another chance to get Yugi’s Reloaded Starter Deck as well as more Duelist Pack: Yugi and Kaiba. Also we got a large Dark Magician and a playable version in Ultra Rare. Cool for a Christmas Gift I suppose. Hopefully we see more like this.
September 18th, 2017 Forbidden and Limited List
The third list of the year and no doubt it was the biggest one. For the forbidden section, we got seven cards: Daigusto Emeral, Denglong, Grandsoil the Elemental Lord, the Earth True King, Zoodiac Drident, Zoodiac Broadbull, and Dinomight Knight. I had a feeling they would one day ban Daigusto Emeral, especially considering Pot of Avarice is banned and Emeral is better because you don’t have to draw it, yet this upset me because I enjoy Emeral as a card, but oh well. Denglong, First of the Yang Zing and Lithosagysm, the Disaster were to hit Dinosaurs after they won Words, and they did a good job here even those this isn’t it for that deck. Grandsoil has been involved in FTKs from the beginning really, and Firewall Dragon helped those FTKs even more, so I can see why this card got banned, but I think it already got an errata where it is a hard once per turn, so expect him back soon. The Zoodiac Xyzs were to get the deck out of Tier 0 along with another hit later on. Dinomight Knight damaged the consistency of True Draco, but all they needed to do really was ban Master Peace and Diagram, this could of simply went to one. We also got seven limits: Ignis Heat, Zoodiac Ratpier, Miscellaneousaurus, Dark Hole, Interrupted Kaiju Slumber, Gateway of the Six, and True King’s Return. Return and Ignis getting hit was to really put the nail in the coffin for the consistency of True Dracos, but the deck can still top because Master Peace is that good. Zoodiac Ratpier might of been unnecessary at this stage with the best Xyzs banned, but better safe than sorry here. Kaiju Slumber hit the Kaiju engine as well as got rid of a board wipe, and Dark Hole to one was to balance for the fact that the TCG has Raigeki. Miscellaneosaurus slowed the combos of Dinosaurs down somewhat, and Gateway of the Six was to promote the Six Samurai support. For semi-limits, we got BLS -ETOB, Brionac, T.G. Hyper Librarian, Brain Control, Luster Pendulum, Burial from a Different Dimension, El Shaddoll Fusion, and Preparation of Rites. Brio and Brain Control don’t matter too much with their erratas. We need Construct for El Shaddoll Fusion to really matter. BLS to two is cool, same with Hyper Librarian. Luster Pendulum boosts Pendulum decks a good amount. Burial is perfect for the recent Zombie support, and Preparation of Rites does the same. Finally for what went to three: Debris Dragon, Honest, Rescue Cat, Rescue Rabbit, Summoner Monk, Witch of the Black Forest, Dragon Ravine, Charge of the Light Brigade, and Wavering Eyes. Debris Dragon and Summoner Monk don’t matter too much, but its cool they are at three again. Witch got an errata like Sanga. Honest at three can be scary. Rescue Cat and Rabbit at three makes some combos more consistent. Charge of the Light Brigade promotes Twilightsworn and to an extent Battle’s of Legend. Dragon Ravine at three is well deserved, dang Dragon Rulers. Wavering Eyes at three is scary as well, especially if Pendulums start dominating the meta again. Overall this was an effective list at hitting the best decks and bringing some stuff back that shouldn’t be there anymore.
Code of the Duelist: Special Edition
Some of the best promos for a Special Edition I have personally seen. The big one was Solemn Strike, which is still at three. One of the best Traps in the game right now, staple for many decks, this card alone is good enough of a reason to get these Special Editions, but there is more in the promos. Skull Meister is a great hand trap, plus being from Starstrike Blast means it is going to be very expensive when it is good. We should just reprint Starstrike Blast as a whole at this rate. For the preview cards, Mistar Boy is the only good one, Cyberse Beacon is outclassed by Cynet Backdoor. Also, you get some Code of the Duelist packs to get some Firewall Dragons or Trickstar Reincarnations.
Legendary Dragon Decks
You want to talk about good value guaranteed? This has some great value in here. First off, the big reprint of Apprentice Illusion Magician in the Dark Magician Deck, which also had great cards like Dark Magical Circle, Magician Navigation, Eternal Soul, Timaeus, Critias, Hermos, and their Fusions. For the Cyber Dragon deck, you get a reprint for Infinity as well as Quaking, Storming, and Drowning Mirror Force. The reprints are weakest in the Cyber Dragon deck, but is still pretty solid. The Dimension Dragons deck had the 4 different Dimension Dragons: Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon. Not only those four, but the deck also had Odd-Eyes Persona and Phantom Dragon, but the two copies of Duelist Alliance really steal the show in that deck. The new cards are great as well, Dark Magicians get protection for Spells and Traps in the form of a Fusion, Cyber Dragons get a new Contact Fusion to clear the Extra Monster Zone, and the new Odd-Eyes Pendulum monster turns all Odd-Eyes cards into Floaters. Overall great value in these decks with some great cards.
Circuit Break
The final set of the year is probably the worst, but there is still some great stuff in here. Evenly Matched is probably the big focus, the card is insane when you might be in a bad condition or want to establish a board without having to deal with any certain threats on the field. The debut of some archetypes in this set like Krawlers, Rokkets, and Altergeists. The previous Metaphys cards actually enter an archetype based on banishing. Fire King, Mermail, and Mecha Phantom Beast got some of its first support in years. SPYRALs and Subterrors have one last stand, with SPYRAL becoming Tier 0 with this set, and we just got done with Zoodiac as well. Destrudo opens the door for many different Synchro combos, and we get a Floodgate Rank 4 in Bagooska. Akashic Magician has a great future in abusing Grinder Golem, and Borreload Dragon is the best Link-4 not named Firewall Dragon.
Structure Deck: Cyberse Link
The final Structure Deck of the year and it has some cool stuff in here. Cyberse becomes somewhat of a playable deck now, some great cards in here like Balancer Lord, Dotscaper, Cynet Backdoor, and Encode Talker. We also learn in this deck that we are having a Code Talker archetype, with Decode Talker and Encode Talker in it already and Excode Talker joining them in Extreme Force. Two major reprints of this deck are Cosmic Cyclone and Dimensional Barrier, sadly Solemn Strike got removed to be put into the Special Editions. The card that is probably the most noteworthy is Tri-Gate Wizard, a great Link-3 that can banish cards on the field and negate cards (and banish them) if co-linked with enough monsters. Really cool Structure Deck.
November 6th, 2017 Forbidden and Limited List
This might of seemed like an Emergency List, but if you remember, Konami promised one no sooner than November and we did get one at the very end of October, so it was somewhat on time. This list really only hit 4 cards, but I guess it helped neuter the Tier 0 problem we had. Gofu is the first limit we have, and this is a solid limit, considering it is a one card Decode Talker, which is somewhat insane. If only we hit Grinder Golem on this list already. Two hits to the SPYRAL deck, Quik-Fix and Drone. If they just wanted to slow the deck down and not destroy it, they did their job. Quik-Fix deserved the limit, but I don’t know if hitting Drone to one did anything. There are better cards in the archetype to hit like Master Plan, Resort, Double Helix, etc. I guess the hit to Drone just killed the Machine Duplication issue in the deck. The final limit was Set Rotation, meaning it is now far less consistent to set a dead Field Spell in your opponent’s field and lock them from their own field spells. You could play one Set Rotation and one of the dead Field Spells, but that sounds risky. I guess if you still want to use the card, use it with a Field Spell your deck can use, but doesn’t lose without it. Overall some good hits to address some issues the game had.
Kaiba’s Collector Box
Basically the Yugi one with a few small differences. The Duelist Packs are still the same, 3 Yugi and 3 Kaiba. This time, though, you get a large Blue-Eyes White Dragon and an Ultra Rare promo version. Also the Reloaded deck is Kaiba’s instead of Yugi’s.
Spirit Warriors
The last real new pack of the year, it gave us some pretty good archetypes, one of which is the continuing legacy of an archetype that is a decade old. Magical Musketeers are an archetype that can generate plusses and disrupt the opponent in making their plays all based on using Spells and Traps in the same column as the monsters. Weather Painters are an archetype that controls the game state by having the Spells and Traps give effects to monsters in nearby columns while the monsters get you to the Spells and Traps. Finally the Secret Six Samurai are an archetype focused on banishing with Six Samurai monsters and the Secret Six Samurai monsters give Six Sams some protection after the Secret Six Sam dies. All archetypes are pretty solid and I can see each of them getting some small tops here and there, but none are really meta defining.
November 2017 Jump Promo
The last Jump promo of the year and it is one almost guaranteed to see meta play. Linkuriboh is a very powerful Link monster that gives you good battle protection as well as an easy way to revive himself. Players are likely going to play whatever they can to utilize Linkuriboh. Instant Fusion into Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Scapegoat, even Eater of Millions. I did an article on this card alone and how good it is, go give it a read if you wish. I personally love this card.
OTS Tournament Pack 6
This OTS Pack left more to be desires. The Ultimate Rares are great, though. Brilliant Fusion is part of one of the best engines in the game today, worthy of its Ultimate Rare printing. Decode Talker is a staple Link Monster also worthy of an Ultimate printing. Invocation is one of the best Fusion cards ever, giving life to the Invoked engine and also being worthy of an Ultimate print, but I wouldn’t of complained if this was Aleister instead. The Supers are some of the most questionable parts of this set. Revendread Slayer is worthy of it I guess if they are pushing the archetype. Fairy Tail – Rella is likely to get the Fairy Tail monsters to match in rarity. We got three Paleozoic reprints in Super, Candina being the only one worthy of it. Set Rotation went to 1, so this was sorta late. Black Metal Dragon and Overload Fusion might be to promote the Legendary Duelists set, but Overload Fusion already has an Ultimate print, so players might prefer that. Windwitch – Winter Bell is to make every part of the Windwitch engine holo, and Trickstar Lillybell is likely to make all of the original Trickstars holo. The commons had cards worthy of upgrades. Orphys Scorpio was worthy of a Super print. Gozuki should of got an upgrade to Ultimate, but Konami just won’t upgrade many of the great Zombie monsters for some reason, because Uni-Zombie sadly only exists as common. Seraphinitne and Garnet were good common reprints, because Hidden Arsenal Supers shouldn’t be worth that much to begin with. Also some of the other commons are great to lower prices of cards that didn’t deserve their price tag. They did great in the Ultimates, somewhat good in the Commons, and terrible in the Supers.
Circuit Break: Special Edition
And thus the end is here. The Special Edition of Circuit Break is the last release of the 2017 calendar year and I hope no list goes into effect between now and December 31 so I don’t have to edit this article. It was fun, but it is getting pretty long. More Circuit Break means more Evenly Matched printings. The promos to promote the first set of 2018, Extreme Force, are pretty bad. I don’t think anyone has any plans to play Parallel Port Armor or Lockout Gardna, even in Link spam or Cyberse deck. I see some potential for Parallel Port Armor to be played in the future maybe, but not much. For the reprints, Stardust Chronicle Spark Dragon is good to get over to Europe, but the big reprint is The Winged Dragon of Ra – Sphere Mode. It is a great card to out big boards and thankfully it is budget now.
In Conclusion
I think this was actually an ok year of Yu-Gi-Oh, despite the Tier 0 issue on two occasions. At least Zoodiac made some other decks better, the engine was very powerful and easily one of the best if not the best in the game’s history. The year was outstanding for reprints, especially with Battles of Legend. The introduction of Link Summoning makes the game somewhat interesting for the future. Here is to 2018! It is looking promising already. P.S. I will probably do this for 2018 onwards. 😉
