“Hallelujah!!! A new Ban List! Finally a format that rewards skill!” as I have often said this past two weeks. Indeed the new format does reward skill and your priorities in the game have also switched from card advantage to field advantage. The field is doubly important as it was in the last format. This makes Magician of Faith practically useless...Yes I went there; Magician of Faith is no longer AS useful as it was last format for two reasons: 

1)      Lack of solid targets – You have Dark Hole, Confiscation, and Pot of Greed as your “power” targets for the card. Magician of Faith was primarily used for major card advantage combos like double Pot, Graceful, and Delinquent Duo right? Well now you have double Confiscation (2000 LP for two cards? Right…), double Dark Hole (don’t know if that’s possible since Magician will be wiped from the board once you do resolve the spell), and double Pot of Greed which is the ONLY card you’ll want to recycle anyway besides the random situations where you MIGHT need Smashing Ground, Scapegoat, or Nobleman again. Book of Moon is restricted…nuff said. In reality, you’ll only be running Magician of Faith to recycle Pot of Greed; which is like running White Hole simply to counter Dark Hole. It’s very situational.  

2)      Your priorities have switched - Keep in mind that this emerging format is primarily focused on how you MAINTAIN your card advantage and NOT how you GAIN card advantage over your opponent. Magician of Faith will do NOTHING to remedy your depressing field situation unless you HAPPEN to have Dark Hole in the grave and HAPPEN to draw it from your deck (1 out of 40 seems pretty dismal to me). As my good friend Xiaoyu once said “Magician of Faith is only as good as what’s in your graveyard”. With a lack of supremely solid Spell targets, Magician of Faith is more likely a tech card than a MUST HAVE card in your deck.  

One more thing, my “hold the Pot of Greed in your hand” strategy did not apply to the last format, but the format before that. Since your hand isn’t THAT important anyway nowadays, you CAN hold the Pot of Greed now! Wasting a card that gives you options when you don’t need it is laughable. I do it all the time and it works. Maybe I’ll hold the Pot on one of you… 

The Hand is no longer the Battlefield 

As I mentioned briefly, this new format is about how you maintain your card advantage over your opponent. Maintaining that card advantage will refer to field presence and the number of cards on the field instead of how you will draw 9 cards in one turn. Cards like D.D. Assailant, D.D. Warrior Lady, Newdoria, Exiled Force, and various “skilled” 1 for 1s will be extremely important tools for dealing with threats and keeping your field advantage. You could call this new format the “Age of 1 for 1s”.  

New cards like Cyber Dragon, Steamroid, and Drillroid are excellent cards to use in this format. Drillroid will eliminate face-down threats like DDA, DDWL, Tomato, Pyramid Turtle, Newdoria, and Apprentice Magician. The predicted decrease in Flip-Effect abuse will warrant the services of this card. Steamroid will be your answer to the new wave of Zombie decks abusing three Vampire Lord. His 2300 ATK will beat down anything short of Goblin Attack Force and Chaos Sorcerer; he’s also invaluable against enemy Cyber Dragons. Speaking of invaluable cards, Cyber Dragon will most likely spearhead to the new format with its broken Special Summoning and Zombyra the Dark strength that rips through nearly any 4-star monster. You can even use him to Tribute-Summon for any monster in your hand. Allow me to list some of his most basic uses: 

1)      Special Summon then Tribute – Very easy to do. Zombie and Tribute Monster decks will LOVE this card. Just Special Summon Cyber Dragon then Tribute for the desired monster. Jinzo anyone?

2)      Special Summon to clear threats – Another useful tactic. Is that DDA in your way? Special Summon Cyber and deal with him. Then Normal Summon a new monster for your turn or set your flip-effect. Very good.

3)      Special Summon to rush – The most basic use: Special Summon your Cyber and another monster to rush your opponent for massive amounts of damage depending what monster you pair him up with. Perhaps…Cyber Dragon + Injection Fairy Lily?

4)      Phoenix fodder – Yes, Sacred Phoenix will be EVEN more broken than he already is. Try this: Special Summon your Cyber Dragon the Normal Summon your Hand of Nephthys. Most of the time you spend 2 cards getting the Phoenix out, so this is no different. Speed is the important factor in Phoenix decks. Remember, hand size is dismal in importance to field presence.  

A New Format Calls for New Decks 

This is the part you’ve been waiting for right? Here we go. 

Zombies 

Zombies will definitely be a favorite at major tournaments. With near broken search, near-free revival, and overwhelming field presence I think Zombies will see the play they’ve deserved for so long. Just because we have three V-Lords in the format doesn’t mean that Zombies are suddenly “broken”. JAELOVE stated this during the last format rotation when V-Lord was semi-restricted. Three V-Lords is nice, but it’s not necessary. I believe Konami is just trying to ridicule mass ignorance by making it obvious that Zombies have been Tier 1 since V-Lord was released. Well done Konami. 

Warriors 

Warriors have always been a high-level favorite. Not only do they form their own “Swiss Army Knife” deck, but they are easily the most splash-able monster type IN THE GAME! There are Warriors is nearly EVERY deck. Why? It’s because they’re so darn useful. I’ve expressed my thoughts on Warriors many times before. Check back to my earlier writings. Nothing has changed.  

Aggro 

The dreaded Aggro, Goat Control’s most feared enemy. Aggro will see the play it most rightfully deserves due to the increase of importance on the field. Some players I know call this the “Age of Aggro”. I find it hard to disagree most of the time. For one, you can expect Bottomless Trap Hole to see more play as well as the various “you die with me” monsters like Yomi Ship, Newdoria, DDA, and others. The sheer speed and aggressive nature of Aggro will be highlighted by Cyber Dragon and possibly Marauding Captain for those who are smart enough to play him at all.  

Strike Ninja 

Oh yes. Strike Ninja is another personal favorite of mine. Being able to dodge ANYTHING is definitely worth playing. Strike Ninja decreased in strength due to the loss of Painful Choice and thus many players decided to put him back in their trade binders. How ignorant those individuals must be! When Goat Control became the popular choice, many players STILL disregarded Strike Ninja as a viable deck type. Why? Let’s think about the last format for a second and let’s examine what tools were available for countering Goat Control shall we? 

1)      Airknight Parshath – HELLO!!! Airknight is the #1 when it comes to card advantage gain and damage due to sheep tokens. How easy is it to Tribute for an Airknight in a Strike Ninja deck? Do I even have to answer?

2)      Zaborg the Thunder Monarch – Another “DUH!” choice for that format. It wipes out face down Magicians, DDAs, Morphing Jars, Cyber Jars, and even Thousand Eyes Restrict. Hmm…why didn’t anyone think of that?

3)      Strike Ninja – Yes the man himself. Strike Ninja is the absolute in terms of immunity. He’s Tsukuyomi proof and Thousand Eyes can’t touch him. Simply chain to the activation of TER’s effect and emerge in their end phase with 1-2 D.D. Scout Planes by your side; then you can Tribute for that Zaborg if you like.

4)      D.D. Scout Plane – With the overwhelming amount of Flip-Effect abuse in the last format, Nobleman of Crossout was played on basically anything that was face-down. Scout Plane is perfect bait for this. They remove him with Crossout, they just got a 1 for 0. Amazing…*Evan Vargas “Thinker” pose* just like Big Shield.  

Perhaps I give too little credit for those of you who really do think creatively. Maybe it could be the lack of skill that causes the low amount of play for extremely useful cards. The next format doesn’t have any room for mindless drones anymore people. If you want to win, you need to use that brain of yours. There will ALWAYS be a net-deck, but there will be SO many decks that the average net-decker won’t have time to copy them all. Plus, there will be SO many variations of the same deck that it will be nearly impossible for the SAME build to win every major tournament. Shifts in metagames and trends will prevent this in a level playing field. More players are concerned with winning than learning and honing their skills.  

Tomato Control 

Tomato Control hasn’t seen play since the 2003 World Championships, but you can bet that it’s a threat. Just last night I played a friend of mine, Gentris from OB, on YVD with my Zombie Aggro vs. his Tomato Control. The field presence that these little Dark monsters have is amazing and caught me by surprise. I found myself not wanting to attack the Newdoria in defense mode simply out of fear of losing my Turtle or Giant Rat. With Creature Swap being near unstoppable, there’s no doubt that combined with battle searchers it will define this format. Tomato Control loves Creature Swap. What better way for Don Zaloog, Spirit Reaper, or Cliff the Royal Decree Remover to get some hits? Messenger of Peace is perfect for this deck. Messenger will finally see play in decks other than Burn/Stall and Mill in the American metagame. Rush Recklessly will be a popular favorite in this deck until we get Shrink. Thank you for showing me this deck type Gentris. 

Phoenix 

Smashing Ground seeing more play in the format will make self-revival monsters like Phoenix and V-Lord deadlier than they already are. Dark Hole rotating back in gives any player more reason to play Phoenix in nearly any deck. A continuous Heavy Storm is always good in my book. As I’ve stated before, Cyber Dragon will make things easier for you Phoenix players.  

Skill Drain 

Yes you read right. Skill Drain decks can and will see more play. Skill Drain is an immensely powerful card and deserves to be played. For those of you who are unaware, Battle searchers like Pyramid Turtle can still activate their effects when Skill Drain is active since their effects activate in the Graveyard and NOT on the field. Same goes for Vampire Lord and Phoenix. Why not try Newdoria as well? Even better, new beat-sticks like Cyber Dragon, Indomitable Fighter Lei Lei, and Goblin Elite Attack Force boost the raw power of Skill Drain decks.  

I Could Go On for Days… 

Fact is; there are SO many effective deck types and tech cards that will emerge with these new Bans that I wouldn’t be able to list them all. There are deck types that will gain more strength as a result of the New Bans and even Chaos is still relatively effective with Chaos Sorcerer. The New Bans have brought about equality and a sense of relief for those of us who begged of a more diverse playing field. I have a firm belief that the days when an unskilled player who devotes 90% less time to the game than will beat you by playing 3 cards are over. A player who devotes 90% less time to the game than you will more than likely lose 99% of the time due to inexperience. That’s a fact. If you want to be skilled at something, you have to devote time to it. It’s called: Building and refining your skills.  

The point of strategy based games is to use your head and devise plans. The more time you devote to enhancing your skills in any strategy game the higher the likelihood of your success. The time you spend on the game will aid you in building new strategies and losing due to inexperience will be more valuable than winning a World Championship. It’s never a guarantee that you will win at anything, but it is a guarantee that anyone who takes the time to further their learning and hone their skills will be rewarded for doing so. With new cards and new hope, I dub this new format: The Age of Revolution. 

Until next time remember to be patient, think about your moves, and most importantly…have fun!