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GeneralZorpa on Yugioh
Banlist Madness
February 18, 2009

Everything's Changing....
 
Well it finally happened, the OCG banlist has been announced. This does NOT mean that this will be the list for the TCG, but it pretty much is solidified that this will be the list that we play by until the whole UDE VS Konami thing is sirted out. Here is the list if you haven't visited the boards yet.
 
I. Forbidden Cards

BLACK LUSTER SOLDIER - ENVOY OF THE BEGINNING
BUTTERFLY DAGGER - ELMA
CALL OF THE HAUNTED
CHANGE OF HEART
CHAOS EMPEROR DRAGON - ENVOY OF THE END
CONFISCATION
CYBER JAR
CYBER-STEIN
DARK HOLE
DARK MAGICIAN OF CHAOS
DELINQUENT DUO
DESTINY HERO - DISK COMMANDER
DIMENSION FUSION
EXCHANGE OF THE SPIRIT
FIBER JAR
GRACEFUL CHARITY
HARPIE'S FEATHER DUSTER
IMPERIAL ORDER
LAST TURN
LAST WILL
MAGICAL SCIENTIST
MAGICIAN OF FAITH
MAKYURA THE DESTRUCTOR
METAMORPHOSIS
MIRAGE OF NIGHTMARE
PAINFUL CHOICE
POT OF GREED
PREMATURE BURIAL
RAIGEKI
RING OF DESTRUCTION
SINISTER SERPENT
SNATCH STEAL
THE FORCEFUL SENTRY
THOUSAND-EYES RESTRICT
TIME SEAL
TRIBE-INFECTING VIRUS
TSUKUYOMI
VICTORY DRAGON
WITCH OF THE BLACK FOREST
YATA-GARASU

NEW! - (nothing)

II. Limited Cards

ADVANCED RITUAL ART
BRAIN CONTROL
BREAKER THE MAGICAL WARRIOR
BRIONAC, DRAGON OF THE ICE BOUNDARY
CARD DESTRUCTION
CARD OF SAFE RETURN
CARD TROOPER
CEASEFIRE
CHAOS SORCERER
CRUSH CARD VIRUS
CYBER DRAGON
D.D. WARRIOR LADY
DANDYLION
DARK ARMED DRAGON
ELEMENTAL HERO STRATOS
EMERGENCY TELEPORT
EXODIA THE FORBIDDEN ONE
FISSURE
FUTURE FUSION
GIANT TRUNADE
GLADIATOR BEAST BESTIARI
GORZ THE EMISSARY OF DARKNESS
GOYO GUARDIAN
GRAVITY BIND
HEAVY STORM
LEFT ARM OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE
LEFT LEG OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE
LEVEL LIMIT - AREA B
MAGIC CYLINDER
MARSHMALLON
MEGAMORPH
MEZUKI
MIRROR FORCE
MONSTER REBORN
MYSTICAL SPACE TYPHOON
NEO-SPACIAN GRAND MOLE
NIGHT ASSAILANT
OJAMA TRIO
OVERLOAD FUSION
PLAGUESPREADER ZOMBIE
REASONING
REINFORCEMENT OF THE ARMY
RETURN FROM THE DIFFERENT DIMENSION
RIGHT ARM OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE
RIGHT LEG OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE
SANGAN
SCAPEGOAT
SMASHING GROUND
SNIPE HUNTER
SPIRIT REAPER
SWORDS OF REVEALING LIGHT
THE TRANSMIGRATION PROPHECY
TORRENTIAL TRIBUTE
TRAP DUSTSHOOT
TREEBORN FROG
UNITED WE STAND
WALL OF REVEALING LIGHT

NEW! - Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary, Card of Safe Return, Chaos Sorcerer, Dark Armed Dragon, Emergency Teleport, Gladiator Beast Bestiari, Goyo Guardian, Mezuki, Plaguespreader Zombie, Reinforcement of the Army

III. Semi-Limited Cards
You can ONLY use two of the following cards in the Deck, Extra Deck & Side Deck combined.

ALLURE OF DARKNESS
CHAIN STRIKE
DESTINY DRAW
DESTINY HERO - MALICIOUS
GOBLIN ZOMBIE
GOLD SARCOPHAGUS
GREEN BABOON, DEFENDER OF THE FOREST
FOOLISH BURIAL
JUDGMENT DRAGON
MAGICAL STONE EXCAVATION
MASK OF DARKNESS
MIND CRUSH
NECROFACE
RAIZA THE STORM MONARCH
RESCUE CAT
ULTIMATE OFFERING

NEW! - Allure of Darkness, Destiny Draw, Destiny Hero - Malicious, Goblin Zombie, Gold Sarcophagus, Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest, Mind Crush, Raiza the Storm Monarch, Ultimate Offering

NEW! - The following cards are no longer Limited: Book of Moon, Manticore of Darkness, Nobleman of Crossout, Phantom of Chaos, Twin-Headed Behemoth
 
Long Live the King
 
Well, Tele-DAD/Synchro DAD is officially DEAD. They lost the Teleport, DAD and the easy way to make Synchros as well as 2/3's of their draw engine. IT's ABOUT TIME! Tele-DAD was the most dominant deck since Chaos and abused a lot of cards that were never meant to be used together. The common player could not compete with this deck at all, both due to price as well as the complexity of the deck.
 
The restriction of Malicious to 2 is what is key about the banlist, as it makes it so that people have to actually invest cards in their Synchro monsters instead of just spitting them out like a baby that refuses a bottle. Malicious should never have been brought to 3 from the last time. Free cards should be curbed and theme specific, and Malicious was a little too versatile for his own good.
 
Emergency Teleport I do not agree with. It is a solid theme-specific card that allowed a dedicated Psychic deck to emerge after Tele-DAD died. However, this was necessary to destroy the eventual fallback that players would make after these other changes. It does limit Synchro summoning to pretty much 1 or 2 per turn and not the 3 or so that Zombies and Tele-DAD could produce. I do not agree with it, but I can see why I did it and applaud Konami for going out on a limb for this one.
 
Allure of Darkness at 2 is great. Essentially non-theme specific draw power has been severely curbed here, as Allure of Darkness could pretty much be played anywhere. It should not have been brought back from 2 in the first place, and this card is one of the major reasons why Tele-DAD was so successful. It allowed players to throw out non-useful cards and replace them with better ones. As the deck was completely based on random cards thrown together, this made it far more consistent than was necessary.
 
Destiny Draw at 2 is pretty much the same as Allure of Darkness. It allowed the deck an easy way to get Malicious into the graveyard as well as sift cards. Now, it allows for theme-specific drawing as well as setting up for cool forgotten cards like Destiny Hero Dasher that could bring them back to the limelight.
 
Goyo Guardian at one is a nice touch, as 2800 beaters every turn was nasty, and add to the fact that it stole monsters and you have a beast that is really hard to beat. This will also create room for the lesser level 6 Synchros like Iron Chain Dragon, Tempest Magician and Queen of Thorns to be played in it's stead.
 
Dark Armed Dragon at one is where it should have been since it was released. One of the most powerful cards ever printed, it allowed a player to overextend with Synchros, forcing an opponent to play their own "Boss" monsters to kill them and then you swoop in with DAD for the kill. I can see why they wanted to let us down easy with the limiting of this card as it was very expensive for so many people, but this is actually the best for the game.
 
Reinforcements of the Army is another that I don't agree with, but I could see why they did it. Warriors are easily the best monsters in the game, and they can get pretty out of hand if you can toolbox whichever one you want. This will severely limit creative options with Warriors, and I feel a restriction of 2 would have been better, allowing people to still play dedicated Warrior decks and curbing Tele-DAD.
 
Zombies Rise No More
 
The zombie deck was never the powerhouse here that it was in Japan, due to our lack of Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary. Thus we never really had to experience the horror of a first turn kill that literally took 10 minutes to perform and you could really do nothing to prevent.
 
Plaguespreader Zombie at one is a very good idea. A Tuner that could Special Summon itself was just asking for trouble, and making it a Zombie was an even worse idea. Though this will limit Zombie decks in the short term, they are a very resilient deck type, so we can expect powerhouses like Pyramid Turtle, Zombie Master, Ryu Kokki and Book of Life to take off after Mezuki and PSZ have been replaced.
 
Mezuki at one is perfect, allowing Zombie decks to still play stuff that will help them win without it getting too out of hand. Mezuki is always a +1, and comboed with Card of Safe Return it is a +2 with probably a Synchro Summon. I personally think that this is one of the better decisions that they have made recently.
 
Card of Safe Return at one is actually kind of a meh for me. It was always a little inconsistent, but it is really meant to curb the explosiveness of Zombies, which is good. It also has little effect on other decks, except for an obscure Lightsworn variant and still gives decks access to it without making it super-powerful.
 
Goblin Zombie at 2 is also a great idea, making it so that ZOmbies still have ways to search out their key cards without having the +1 plays be ridiculous. As he is being reprinted, this was a good move, allowing him to still be popular as well as have the card be toned down a little. It is very much hurt by the other Zombie restrictions, but it is really never without a target, so it balances out.
 
Beasts, Bested and Better
 
Beasts took a big leap forward in the game. Baboon and Manticore are two of their key cards, and allowing them to be released from their cages allows them to be unleashed upon your opponent's.
 
Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest at 2 is excellent. it was always a good card, but it could never live up to it's potential at only one copy. 2 allows for you to continually provide an offensive wall with the Beast deck. His cost also adds to the fact that is is not necessarily "free". I think that we have yet to see how this will affect the game, but we could be seeing a lot of Beastdown in the coming months.
 
Manticore of Darkness at 3 is one of my favorites, but will hurt the game almost as much as Malicious did. His effect allows Beasts to really have almost as much resilience as Zombies, and that is a cool thing. He was originally limited as he was part of an OTK with himself and Card of Safe Return. As COSR is limited to one, this is no longer viable, meaning that Manticore of Darkness is now the new Destiny Hero Malicious. A level of six and a continuous revival effect when "sent to the graveyard" allows multiple Synchro Summons in one turn, which is something that I thought Konami would want to stop. In many ways, he is far more balanced than Malicious, but Manticore can be comboed with so many things it is not even funny. As with Baboon, we will have to wait and see what this does, but I have a bad feeling in my stomach.
 
Gladiator Beast Bestiari at 1 makes me sad. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, as Gyzarus is far and away too powerful. I do think that limiting Gyzarus would be better, but I can see why they did it. However, Gladiator players wil simply replace Bestiari with Gladiator Beast Samnite. It really does nothing to cub the deck, but makes massive swings in advatage harder for a Gladiator player to do. This basically limits Prisma to one or two per deck, as Laquari is kind of better on the field than in the graveyard, and Prisma becomes less useful when it is not dumping Bestiari to the graveyard.
 
What is With All This Random Stuff?
 
Gold Sarcophogas at 2 is a  mistake. This will replace Reinforcements of the Army as a search card. This will allow Crush Card Virus to pretty much hit every game, which will devastate decks that cannot cope with it. You do have to wait two turns, but that is a small price to play for searching out any card you need at no cost. This will have little effect on the TCG, as Gold Sarc is not mass released, but players that can play 2 WILL play two in every deck they build.
 
Raiza the Storm Monarch at two is a meh choice. As it can really lock down games quickly, it is an ideal candidate for slower gameplay, whcih is why they unlimited it. I do not think he will be the beast he was at 3, but he will probably be played alongside Caius in a newer incarnation of Soul Control.
 
Ultimate Offering at two is yet another odd choice. It allows Gadgets to make a comeback as well as maybe make something of the horrible Gemini theme. It is a pretty balanced card, but I do think that too many copies can get out of control very quickly. I think that  Gadget Synchro deck is on the horizon, and this card will allow you to make something of that.
 
Mind Crush at 2 is yet another meh choice. It will allow for greater hand control, but comboed with some other cards it can become deadly. Any card that allows you to see your opponent's hand will let you play this card easily. I do think that hand control is now a viable option for some decks, but we will have to see what effect this has on the game.
 
 Free! Free At Last!
 
These cards I believe all deserved their freedom from whatever restriction they had on them. Many of them are no simply underpowered or do not have the cadrs needed to make them as powerful as they once were.
 
Book of Moon no longer has the cards needed to make it a combo card, so it goes on my hurray I get to play 3 list. It is a solid defensive as well as offensive card and can also play a minor role in many comboes. This is the primary way that Gladiators get around Stardust Dragon, so having additional answers to that card is a really great idea. It has always been one of my more favorite cards, and it is good to have it back at 3 again.
 
Nobleman of Crossout has not been powerful for ages. The ability to destroy opposing defenders is always nice. Especially against odd decks, this could actually be a boon. Especially if a Burn deck rears it's ugly head this format. This card also allows you to destroy almost any monster when comboed with Book of Moon, which is nice. I think that it will have littleimpact on the game, but we will have to see if it becomes a useful tool again. 
 
Phantom of Chaos at 3 is good news for people who love Lightsworn as well as Norleras/Ritual decks. This card is actually one of the most powerful in the game, able to copy any monster effect just by removing it from play. I think that other OTK decks will thrive with this card being unlimited, but it can be used elsewhere as well. It is a little slow, but you can actually do some massive damage with it.
 
Twin Headed Behemoth at 3 is a joke. It will allow for some decent Synchro stuff, but they only limited it because you couldn't tell which ones ahd already been activated. Evidently they have solved this problem with some new ruling or another, we will just have to see what it is. This will be a good offensive option early in the format, allowing you to plow through the tide of Sakuretsu Armor cards that litter the start of a format. I think that at 3 this card could see some play, but again, we will have to see.
 
Chaos Sorceror is free at last! This card is far inferior to DAD and Judgment Dragon, so I actually have advocated it's unlimitedness for a while now. He can be splashed almost anywhere, but will not win you the game on his own. I expect this to go into almost every deck at first, but at 1 he is far from being dominant, so I think that people will turn elsewhere for their removal eventually.
 
What Does It All Mean?
 
Well, to sum it up, Tele-DAD is dead. If, true to form, people switch to Lightsworn, they will be the dominant deck in the game. But this also frees up a lot of rogue decks to make LIghtsworn's days difficult, as they are relatively easily countered now.
 
I do think that Lightsworn will be trading blows with several rogue decks like Beasts, Gadgets and Gladiator Beasts in order to solidify it's place at the top, but I do think that eventually Lightsworn will reign supreme. They can splash Chaos Sorceror as well as abuse him, they have an unleashed menace in Judgment Dragon, recursion aplenty, beatsticks as well as the best one-tribute themed monster in the game.
 
However, their weaknesses are many and many decks will be developed to exploit that. Skill Drain Beasts should be a popular choice now, and that can really mess with Lightsworn. Gagdets now can really take off, able to counter many of the plays that Lightsworn make. Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos decks will also have a run, as there are less aggro cards to run them over.
 
As I say at the beginning of every format, we will have to wait and see what happens, but at least anything is better than dominance by Tele-DAD.
 
As always you can contact me at raptor1k@hotmail.com if you have any questions or concerns about YGO. Be sure to put Yu-Gi-Oh in the subject, or you will be dismissed as trash.
 
Thanks for reading!
GZ