February 2008

 

My Thoughts on the new format

 

Hi, my “name” is Kazzak. And before anyone says “Hey! That’s the name of the WOW boss!” I have to say I don’t play WOW and never have. My brother made it up and I thought it was kind of cool so I stuck with it. Anyway, for my first article I decided to write about the new format starting on March 1^st – the banlist and cards and decks which will become important in the new format.

 

The Banlist

 

Now without further ado, here’s the new banlist:

 

Advanced Format - Limited and Forbidden Lists (effective March 1)
The Advanced Format will be used at premier events, and the World Championship

I. Forbidden Cards

NEW! - Breaker the Magical Warrior, Call of the Haunted, Magician of Faith

 

Breaker the Magical Warrior – Good choice to be banned, he is good for s/t removal and can be a 1600/1900 beatstick. Also he is dark, which would help slightly with the new Dark decks. I am sad to see him go again after his triumphant return last year.

 

Magician of Faith – Spell recursion is brilliant and it works very well with apprentice magician. Also even more broken spells are being released so it will just get better.

 

Call of the Haunted – I’m slightly clueless as to this one. I suppose as a trap it’s useful for blocking attacks and obviously reviving a monster is a good thing but when you see the newly Limited…well just scroll down and see for yourself.

II. Limited Cards
NEW! - Advanced Ritual Art, Monster Reborn, Nobleman of Crossout, Ojama Trio, Raiza the Storm Monarch

 

Monster Reborn – WTF. I have no idea as to why this was brought back and Call was banned. Go figure.

 

Advanced Ritual Art – Demise is getting better as an OTK and combos well with DAD as Hugo Adame showed in SJC Houston (At the time of writing Day 1 has just finished and the top 16 decklists are not up yet).

 

Nobleman of Crossout – Well it is quite a powerful spell and now with Shield Crush out and at 3, I think it’s time to give f/ds a better chance.

 

Ojama Trio – I suppose it’s quite good in some burn decks, especially Baburn and it is quite annoying.

 

Raiza the Storm Monarch – A spinning 2400 beatstick is broken. ‘nuff said.

III. Semi-Limited Cards

NEW! - Book of Moon, Cyber Dragon, Foolish Burial, Light and Darkness Dragon, Mage Power, Magical Stone Excavation, Necroface

 

Book of Moon – Good card, though without Magician of Faith, its favourite target, it isn’t as good as it was.

 

Cyber Dragon – ‘bit late now, as most people only run 2 anyway. This doesn’t really hurt Cyber Dragon fusion decks much.

 

Foolish Burial – It makes sense with the extremely powerful dark cards out, but most people only really ran 1 and Armageddon Knight is better for Dark decks.

 

Light and Darkness Dragon – ‘bout time. It was rated here as #1 card of 2007. ‘nuff said.

 

Mage Power – No idea.

 

Magical Stone Excavation – This will give DDT decks the boost combined with cyber valley they need to make it to the top again. With magician of faith gone, it is probably safe to bring it back.

 

Necroface – the OTK decks with this and the RFG milling effects are quite broken so this one got hit with the semi-restrict hammer.

NEW! - The following cards are no longer Limited: Apprentice Magician, Creature Swap, Green Gadget, Jinzo, Pot of Avarice, Reckless Greed, Red Gadget, Yellow Gadget

 

Apprentice Magician – With Magician of Faith gone, this doesn’t really make much difference.

 

Creature Swap – A decent card but not that broken and not used that much either so…

 

The Gadget Crew – W00t Gadgets are back in town! Say hello to the return of the fifth Gadget deck again. After them taking over SJC Orlando, expect them to be a regular Day 2 contender.

 

Jinzo – See Mage Power

 

Pot of Avarice – Hardly anybody even ran 2 anyway, it’s not that good.

 

Reckless Greed – See Jinzo

 

The Kings of the next Format - Cards

DMoC – Firstly it’s dark. Secondly now with escape from the dark dimension back it’s easy to get back. It is now one of the only decent spell recursion cards now that MoF is gone. There are infinite loops possible in DDT and to cap it all, it’s a 2800 beatstick.

 

Drastic Drop Off – This hurts almost every major deck – Reinforcement for PC, DAD and Macro Cosmos, hurts Stratos for PC, some DAD decks and DDT, hurts Gadgets etc.

 

Hero’s Rule 2 – This is a sweet card. It can defeat the much-loved and hated D.D Crow, as well as all monster revival cards and pretty much anything else in the Graveyard you’d care to think of.

 

DAD – 2800 beatstick, field-controlling effect. ‘nuff said(I love saying that)

 

The Dark Creator – Easy to summon, brings back Dark monsters such as Jinzo, a dumped DMoC and Disk Commander to name but a few. ‘nuff said. (see what I mean?)

 

The Gadgets – At 2, they were ruling SJC Orlando. At 3, who knows what will happen.

 

D.D Crow – Now annoys Dark decks as well as PC decks.

 

Deck Tiers for the next Format – A Prediction

 

Tier 1

DAD/ Dark Creator – This deck deserves the hype it got and is ruling so SJC Houston so far (If you have a crap memory, let me remind you now that at the time of writing this Day 1 has just finished).

 

DDT – The infinite loops now available with Cyber valley, dimension fusion, spell economics and DMoC as well as Magical Explosion could make this deck a top contender.

 

Macro Cosmos – Can now torment DDT and DAD as well as PC. YAY for Cosmos. With Van Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord and Cyber Valley, this deck has just got even better.

 

Gadgets – See The Gadgets (above)

 

Tier 1.5

PCM/ PC LADD – I’m not sure where to put this so I put it here. It’s still a powerful deck but DAD may overshadow it.

 

Gladiator Beasts – are coming back! Evan Vargas, Alex Cheruvelil and Jake McNeely have all got brilliant builds for Gladiator Beasts which are working brilliantly so far.

I would put in Tier 2, but I’m too tired from Jet lag so bye for now!

If you want to, you can send me any decks you need fixing to me at esmec86@hotmail.com. Please put in what you think is wrong with the deck and some info on what matchups it doesn’t fare well against. If your deck doesn’t appear, be patient and wait as I may have some trouble playtesting it.