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After weeks of waiting, we have finally been graced with an update to the Forbidden/Limited List, this time effective immediately. In April I waited a week to review the list so I would have more time to digest everything and form a better opinion of it.

This time around I chose not to wait because the list actually made very minimal changes. That’s a bit disappointing, considering the extra two weeks we had to wait in comparison to previous lists, and how Konami seemed to imply that they wanted to wait longer to make sure the list was perfect. It seems that all that extra time went to waste with how little actually changed.

But rather than looking at the quantity of changes, let’s look at the quality.

A “QUICK” RECAP OF THE FORMAT:

Again, I shall attempt to summarize the April format; after about a week I once again got bored of it and also got assaulted with constant schoolwork. As such, I sat out of the format for a third time in a row.

The April format admittedly did shake some things up in the metagame, but rather than introduce any new Decks, it instead slightly shifted things around among the five or so Decks that were already there. Nekroz remained at the top and, with Qliphort receiving large hits, looked to dominate the game more than they already had. Burning Abyss was slightly weakened by the loss of two Tour Guides, and Shaddoll rose back into the metagame thanks to its hardest matchup being nerfed, initially taking the perceived #2 spot behind Nekroz.

Crossed Souls proved to shake things up again, however. Most notably, Qliphort gained access to Lose 1 Turn, effectively replacing the two Skill Drains they lost and once again allowing them to have a strong presence in the format. Burning Abyss gained support through Barbar and Fiend Griefing, the former of which allowed them to burn the opponent for game and the latter letting them disrupt Graveyard plays while also accelerating their own game. Shaddoll gained access to their WATER Fusion, El Shaddoll Anoyatyllis, whose effect allowed them to completely shut down Nekroz; however, lack of a reliable WATER Fusion Material (outside of Shaddoll Core and the occasionally sided Ice Hand) as well as the card being susceptible to the same things that outed the Djinn lock resulted it in it not having as large of an impact as anticipated.

Reflecting these changes, Nekroz once again had the greatest showing at the 150^th YCS with 20 in the Top 32, but it was followed by 6 Burning Abyss and 4 Qliphort, a surprising number for both Decks. This showed that while Nekroz still maintained its position at the top, its domination over the game was slipping, and it wasn’t the Tier 0 threat everyone had initially anticipated. Meanwhile, Shaddoll failed to take any of the Top 32 spots, likely due to the rise of both BA and Qli.

In the weeks following, Burning Abyss continued to increase in popularity. The North American WCQ once again proved to be a surprise; of the 35 Nekroz Decks in the Top 64, none of them managed to make it to the finals, which consisted of a Burning Abyss mirror, cementing it as the 2^nd best Deck of the format. The WCQ also had a surprise showing of Ritual Beast, with one of them making it into the Top 4, and another build piloted by Jarel Winston making it to Top 8. This allowed to Ritual Beast to carve itself as the sixth Deck of the format (behind Nekroz, Burning Abyss, Qliphort, Shaddoll, and Satellarknight). Additionally, the release of Wavering Eyes gave rise to the Towers Turbo build of Qliphort, which (true to its name) aimed to get Apoqliphort Towers out as quickly as possible.

So in the end, Nekroz did have a large impact on the game, but it wasn’t infallible; several Decks proved themselves able to compete with it.

Now, let’s analyze the changes to the list this time around:

NEWLY FORBIDDEN:

Djinn Releaser of Rituals: This card was the single most centralizing card of the format (yes, even more than Trishula). If your opponent got the Djinn lock on you and you didn’t have the answer the game was lost. It was very similar to Vanity’s Emptiness of previous formats, though because its effect applied itself as a condition to a Ritual monster, Nekroz had a much easier time protecting it. The Djinn lock was so centralizing to the format that people Main Decked several outs to it just to get rid of it; the problem was that most of these outs weren’t that useful in any other situation. This is a very warm welcome to the Forbidden List, and it honestly baffled me just how many people defended the Djinn; even if Nekroz was the first Deck to make it a real problem, that doesn’t mean no other Ritual Deck in the future wouldn’t break it either.

Lavalval Chain: This change is a bit more controversial, though I’ve noticed a bit of a pattern over who thinks it’s a problem and who doesn’t; most top players, from what I’ve gathered, agree that Lavalval Chain is a banworthy card, while most forum-goers and redditors seem to believe that the card was a scapegoat hit. Looking at Lavalval Chain’s history of use, however, it was overall a highly abused card. Mermail Decks used it to easily search out Tidal, which was probably the tamest utilization of this card. Infernity Decks used two copies of this card to quickly flood the board and get easy access to Infernity Archfiend and Stygian Street Patrol. Most notably, however, Nekroz Decks used it to get to Djinn Releaser of Rituals. This all may seem trivial, though; Tidal and Djinn have both been banned as well and Infernity requiring two of them means they could have gotten away with just Limiting it. However, there was abuse in the future of Lavalval Chain as well; Clash of Rebellions is going to give rise to the Clownblade combo, which would have allowed Lavalval Chain to easily set up constant Rank 4 plays from the first turn. Realistically, anything relevant that was going to make use of this card was going to abuse it, and anything not relevant was, quite frankly, not relevant. This change was overall probably a good one.

NEWLY LIMITED:

Shurit, Strategist of the Nekroz: This wasn’t a hit to Nekroz that I was expecting, but after thinking it over I think it was still a significant one. Shurit not only provided the Deck with consistency by adding a Nekroz monster to your hand, but he also provided a way to easily get their Ritual Monsters out by covering the entire Tribute needed to fulfill a Ritual Summon. With only one Shurit, players will have to be more mindful as to how they use him; cards like Reinforcement of the Army may need to be reconsidered to get to him early, while cards that recover him from the Graveyard (such as Salvage, and The Warrior Returning Alive) may also need to be considered. Keep in mind however that Unicore can get him back as well. Banishing him with Nekroz Mirror is a bad idea unless you’re willing to run Dance Princess. Only time will tell if this hit was enough to rein Nekroz in (I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s not), but players will have to think a little bit harder about things now.

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier: This was my second favorite change to the list. Trishula really has no business being Forbidden as long as the Nekroz version of her (which, while weaker, is much easier to summon) is legal. The days of Synchro spam being relevant are long gone, and while some Decks presently and in the future can make use of her, it’s not likely that she’ll be the menace she was in the past.

NEWLY SEMI-LIMITED:

Atlantean Dragoons: I am a huge Mermail fan, so naturally this is my favorite change. Atlantean Dragoons gives a large buff to Mermail Decks, allowing them to maintain their hand advantage for the larger Mermails and giving Genex Undine the usefulness that it lost in the banning of Tidal. Unfortunately, an extra Dragoons alone is probably not enough to turn Mermail into a threat again; with Deep Sea Diva still Limited, the Deck lacks reliable 1-card plays, and the power creep that has happened in the two years since Dragoons was at 3 means Mermail isn’t going to be quite as powerful as it once was. However, the upcoming release of Elder Entity Norden, along with the extra Dragoons, may be enough for the Deck to carve itself into this metagame. We’ll just have to see what happens.

Dragon Ravine: This honestly could have gone to three. The Dragon Rulers probably won’t be coming back for a while and Dragunity is nowhere near a threat.

NEWLY UNLIMITED:

Glow-Up Bulb, Sinister Serpent, Dark Strike Fighter, Sacred Sword of Seven Stars, Temple of the Kings, and Exchange of the Spirit: All six of these cards are irrelevant changes.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THE META?

By the end of the April format, we had six Decks that were good enough to top major events: Nekroz, Burning Abyss, Qliphort, Shaddoll, Satellarknight, and Ritual Beast. BA, Qli, Satellar, and Ritual Beast are overall unchanged by this list, so we’ll look at Nekroz and Shaddoll:

Nekroz: The loss of Djinn Releaser of Rituals means that they can’t autowin nearly as much anymore, and the loss of Lavalval Chain means that they can’t reliably dump Shurit for easy recovery. Shurit being Limited means that the Deck needs to be even more careful about how they utilize their resources. Despite all of this, Nekroz is still very much a threat; they still have a lot of searching power, and they still have Trishula at their disposal. Whether or not they’ll still be the best Deck has yet to be seen, but you can count on them still being around.

Shaddoll: This Deck once again got away without any hits, though it did receive an incredibly minor buff; out of the six meta Decks, Shaddoll is the one that’s most likely to be able to make use out of Synchro Trishula. It remains to be seen if they’ll be able to easily utilize her, but it’s a notable addition. The future for Shaddoll looks bright as well, with Clash of Rebellions giving them access to the Clownblade engine, and the Mega Tins giving access to Elder Entity Norden (though this also serves as a boost to every Deck not named Burning Abyss). We’ll have to see how Shaddoll fares now, but it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere.

CONCLUSION:

This banlist did very little to change the current metagame, but the little it did do were positive changes. Overall, however, you can expect the same Decks to be around until Konami decides to update the list again, so if you weren’t a fan of the current metagame you may want to sit out for another format. There are some upcoming releases that may prove to shake things up, but we’ll have to see how it all turns out.

~Riko