Another day, another ban list....

[New Era Outlaw]

Well, boys and girls, April 1st is almost here, and you know what THAT means.


Er....no. I mean -besides- it being April Fool's Day, you silly pumpernickels.

It's the day when Upperdeck decides the dreaded Banned List needs to kick things up a notch, and us, the players, have to adjust our strategies. And, here to b!tch about it, is your friendly neighbourhood outlaw, who always has something to say about it (whether you like it or not ).

Now, I pretty much think the last Banned List we had was probably the best iteration we've seen to date. BLS FINALLY met its maker (take THAT, Chaos Cookie Cutters!), the gay draw combos crashed to a screeching halt (at the cost of Pot of Greed and two MoF) and the free discards were blown to kingdom come (sorry, snakey, no returning from the graveyard for YOU.)

So, it leaves one to wonder.....what more can Upperdeck do to this game that wasn't fixed with the last list?
Even more so, will this next list shake up the game for better or worse? Just recently, Japan got served with a brand new list of Restricted cards, which most likely will apply to us, with a few tweaks here and there. Let's take a look at what those wacky Japs got served with this time:

NEWLY BANNED CARDS:

Cyber Jar:Wow. Monster destruction go bye-bye. I personally see no point to this now that Dark Hole is also banned (see below), and it was a decent way to eliminate that horde of Cyber Dragons or Jinzo that has been giving you nightmares. Not to mention that it gives a player on the brink a good way to come back from oblivion. Lest we forget, Upperdeck FROWNS on cards that can turn an entire duel around, and Cyber Jar is the epoch of that (next to BLS and Monster Reborn). Find some other way to deal with those pesky bullies, kids, cause your friendly neighbourhood Cyber Jar had flown the coop.

Dark Hole:Really now. Did you expect this to stay unbanned for long? As I said once before, the thing's still a Raigeki when your opponent has diddly squat on the field. But it's not really the reason that it's been banned a second time- it's banned because another field clearer made a comeback-Mirror Force, which most people will come prepared for. Just pray we get Marshmallow around this time, because the two main threats to this card's effectiveness (and subsequent gayness) are now gone. All hail defensiveness!

Time Seal:Part of the infamous 'Tsuki-Lock', Time Seal went from 3 to dead zero because of it's ability to instantly Yata a person, whether he liked it or not. Turns are crucial to this game,-especially- in a topdecking situation, which is why this card had to go.

Last Turn:Another OTK bites the dust. This, Wall of Illusion and Jowgen is just too cheesy a combo to let live any longer, because unless you have a Book of Moon to put that Jowgen to sleep, forget it. you're TOAST.

Exchange of the Spirits:Not really so big down here, but apparently huge enough in Japan to warrant it being banzorred. This card holds the dubious record of dumping the most cards in a player's Graveyard at any one time, and, since you virtually have control over what cards go back in your new deck and when, it was an unbalanced card, in a way.

And, on a completely different note, Makyura the Destructor and Ring of Destruction are still banned. WHY?!!!

NEWLY RESTRICTED TO ONE:

Treeborn Frog: Hardy har HAR. As IF Upperdeck would let you get away with a Special Summon two or three times over every time you topdeck. One should be fair enough, because topdecking a Phoenix with two or three of these in your Graveyard is just a screwjob waiting to happen (for your opponent, that is.) In case you don't know what this does, you can Special Summon is to your side of the field if it's in your Graveyard and there are no Spells and Traps on your side of the field. Sinister Serpent blues again.

Last Will: Let's face it. Those OTK Rescue Cat combo decks were getting BEYOND annoying with this in threes. To a lesser extent, getting an extra monster on your side to add to an already existing advantage (for example, if you offered a monster as a Tribute) is just too good to pass up.

Mirror Force: With Dark Hole and Cyber Jar gone, Upperdeck brought back a more situational card to eliminate monsters. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop Jinzo. Dear LORD, Upperdeck..what have you done?

NEWLY RESTRICTED TO TWO:[/u]

Magician of Faith: Doesn't make a lick of sense to me, really. Even though Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity are gone, does NOT mean that people have stopped being gay with this card. Repeated abuse of this and Tsukuyomi can still get you back a Heavy Storm, a Nobleman of Crossout, or even a Pot of Avarice. Why did Upperdeck give us back two? Because one simply wasn't gay ENOUGH, it seems....

Reflect Bounder: About time. People just didn't respect this card when it was out by its lonesome, and maybe now they'll pay it a little more now that there's two of them, which = 3400 damage a player can take in a duel.

Deck Devastation Virus:Konami has officially lost ye freaking MINDS. Three turns of shedding crucial cards like Exiled Force and D.D. Warrior Lady were bad enough, but the risk of SIX TURNS? Damn. That's not RIGHT at all.


Well, so far, from what I'm seeing, OTK decks have gone the way of the dinosaur, and defensive gameplay is going to take a upsurge thanks to the loss of Dark Hole and Cyber Jar. Very interesting so far, but I'm not really too fond of it because Konami made a couple of VERY insane decisions. Well, let's wait and see what Upperdeck has in store for us, because our game's bound to take something different compared to this....

[Chaotic]

why would someone be so stupid as to band dark hole and cyber jar at the same time and bring back mirror force as the only field clean up card( apart from  shitty vortex) when royal decree is so common in the game.
Hence, fill up your field with monsters and set royal decree. Particularly monsters than cannot switch control, so brain, snatch and swap would also stick in your opponents hand and you're one step closer to victory.

[New Era Outlaw]

...that, or you could be a seriously defensive MC and really jam your opponent, now that the mass field clearers are gone. I'm sorta glad that we don't have Marshmallow as yet, because we would see some serious strategies of all varieties of queerness. I suspect one of the factors in Dark Hole's banishment was Phoenix's resurrection game.

And yes, we should start seeing some serious Royal Decrees being played now. The era of traps could be at its end.

But, that's if this Banned List applied to us. We could get something different altogether, because our western strategies differ from our wappy-jappy counterparts. We probably abuse cards worse than they do, because we lost Pot of Greed and TIV sooner than they did (they just recently had it banned.) Yes, Chaotic.....more or less, I would say that's a pretty good outlook on the future of the metagame.

[The Kajun]

those goons that came up with this banlist have lost their damned minds... it'll be alot harder to run my deck without cyber jar especially and no dark hole to ensure saftey... but thats just the way it is yes. Once again we'll have to rise to the challenge

[New Era Outlaw]

Well, after catching an eyeful of our official Banned List, I have come to the following conclusion:

THE STAFF AT KONAMI AND UPPERDECK HAVE ALL LOST THEIR MINDS.

But hey....it's not like that's the first time I've said that, right?
Now, from one thing I've observed from the get-go, Konami seems to have completely obliterated two concepts in the game with this new listing:

1) Mass Monster Destruction;
2) The dreaded OTK deck.


While I'm all for curbing over-cheesyness with certain cards and plays, let's look at the facts here.
Dark Hole AND Cyber Jar? And NO Cyber Dragon on the list?
Just WHAT in the sweet cream in an ice cream sammich were you THINKING, Upperdeck?!
People are just going to whore those cards like nobody's business, and woe be onto you if you are suffering a beatdown from several monsters, because now, there's just no way to put balance back in THAT particular game. Don't even get me started if that lineup contains Jinzo, because you know for a fact that your Mirror force/Sakuretsu Armor strategy is going to sink like the Titanic if that guy's around.

Simply put, there are WAY too little resources for monster removal and way too much to be taken advantage of if both Dark Hole and Cyber Jar are banned. And yes, defensive whoring is smiling alllll the way to the bank on this one.


So, did anything change with our Banned List compared to the one we snuck a look at?
Mmm.....not much, really. No new cards were banned on our side. However, some very....interesting cards did sink down to one (not surprisingly):

D.D. Assailant:This shouldn't come as a surprise to you. If it did, you need to be beaten upside the head with a greased up rubber chicken. With D.D. Warrior Lady cropped to 1, people looked for the next available card that could do the trick- and D.D. was his name-o. And frankly, it was getting a bit annoying to keep mowing Assailant upon Assailant and have your monsters nuked from the game. It was D.D. Warrior Lady woes all over again. Thank you, Upperdeck. Thank you so VERY much for this. I would have said "From this point on, Upperdeck has restored my faith in humanity! Let us dance!", but then you go and do something like THIS:

Graceful Charity: You mad, mad sons-of-b!tches. what were you THINKING when you made this card fly off the Banned List? Sure, it's a -3, but those two discarded cards have SO much combo potential that it's an act of sheer INSANITY to let this one off the hook without making a few changes. Dark World, I'm looking at you.


Level Limit-Area B: Annoying card? Yes. Yey verily. I hate having my cards bend down. Just...HATE it.

As for those that came down (or up) to two:

Apprentice Magician- Big whoop. People probably only run two anyway, and I suppose the only reason this was Semi-Limited at all was because of Magician of Faith (who suddenly got a surge upwards by this list) But saying this would even affect the game and the way it's played is like saying a fly had a chance of toppling over the Empire State Building. Meh.

Nobleman of Crossout- I suppose this was brought back because of a few factors. We don't have Dark Hole or Cyber Jar anymore, Magician of Faith and Graceful Charity came back, and stark differences between the Traditional and Advanced lists exist. Yes, so I guess this is necessary. I guess.

Abyss Soldier and Book of Taiyou are completely off the list, to boot, but saying that would do diddly squat from the way I see it is like speeding up global warming with a hair dryer.

So, what do I think of this Banned List?
It sucks. Not as badly as when BLS got off easy the first time around, but yeah, it sucks.
It's giving way to a new kind of cookie-cutter deck that EVERYBODY's going to try to play and win with (and, if you've been paying attention, you'd know from the get-go what deck that is), with very little resources to counter it. It just goes to show you.....sometimes, Upperdeck/Konami just don't think the way we do, because we, as players, are ALWAYS going to find some new strategy to whore to death.

Well, I know for a fact what type of deck I'm going to see for the next 6 months. Yaaaah, boy.

[The Kajun]

screw you ryan i know u were watching my kindom :-D... The force of te Dark world  shouldnt be altered just because one card come back
Hard luck to all those who think dark worlds gettin a huge boost but i honestly think that dark world decks are weak.
It takes extreme talent to build one well and even more talent to run it well. I Dont think the 2 D.D. viruses are a big threat. Thats 2 2000 attacking dark types to be tributed i dont mind let ppl feel free. Especially since Jinzo and royal Decree are Rampant. Jinzo is actually runnin things without dark hole and cyber jar present.
As for Treeborn frog i don't see the sense of restricting it. Read the Effect  you can only special summon one frog on your turn regardless of how many in the grave.
The other cards Banned or restricted have been done so to eliminate OTK decks. But if that was the case cyber Stein shouldve taken a leave too. But i dont mind him much ... Paying 5000 lp seems like enough of a cost.
I dont think they thought out this ban list seeing that cyber Dragon now comes by the sixes and power bond is running free, with no REAL mass monster removal cards.

Dont even think about mentioning lightning Vortex!!!

[einstien101]

This banlist supposedly requires skill...skill my ass. This list isnt bad due to graceful or force, DW isnt broken due to graceful either(a true DW user knows this) but due to CoSR. Time Seal wasn't banned due to tsuku seal locks either, it was to stop the soul control decks that would have abused it with treeborn(set it then make ur opp waster s/t removal on it or on your turn play it in standby phase get treeborn back play a monarch, i mean come on thats just wrong). Dark Hole was honestly the worst though, swarm and no truly advantageous form of removal? MF is not by any means a decent replacement, not when  decree and DWL pwns it. DDV in a DW deck is absolute madness, but if you think about it, if a lot of ppl start playing DW it wont be too bad. FFC and MPT/MPC can go rot now though. Tewart had it good last list, why not just limit cyber llimit dd and bring back pot, ban DH yes, kill OTK's? Never. Tewart destroyed the one archtype that remains the unknown variable against every deck, OTK, also the most rewarding as far as im concerned(killed my awesome RML OTK deck that the world will now never see, save SPK).

[SPK]

lol @ seeing the OTK deck, it was a sweet idea to say the least, but *sigh*....

[Chaotic]

Are you all frickin crazy. DW is now completely frickin broken and has a complete advantage over one of the currently most run decks in the game Zombies. Come on, Pot of Averis and Charity in a DW Deck. Just when you find a way to get rid of that swarm of Dark World Monsters after card destruction, without dark hole or Cyber Jar (f***in unbelievable c***s), you have to worry bout them swarming again cause averis puts them back into the damn deck. Not to mention that a Dark world deck can hold 2 d.d. viruses now. Can you say f***ing hand destruction. i stress again, cards like D.D virus aren't mainly for the discarding and destroying effect, it's mainly used to see what cards your opponent has and fix a strategy to counter the cards.
Let's be real seeing your opponents entire hand and destroying most of his monsters isn't enough, they had to make it so it can be done more than once that easy, f*** man. Ohhh yeah, and as for Mirror Force, a good Dark World Deck with Royal decree will almost gaurantee a win. DW have a freakin quick play monster reborn damn it, sserious swarm ability with royal decree to back it up, and serious deck replenishing abilities with tsukyomi, 2 faiths, and pot of averis. F*** this ****. DW is now officially bloody broken.

[New Era Outlaw]

Whoa. Talk about some serious F-bombs.
Please be more careful about your language in the future, Chaotic.

[einstien101]

dw can still be countered in many ways, all you have to do is think it through. first off what idiot will run a decree trap build with ddv even in DW chances are you either gonna end up dead drawing ddv or u play ddv and ur opp gets to use his own counters to it due to no decree to dealwith.as always u can just use the common counters such as banisher of the light or anti gv like end of anubis, kycoo whatnot. Or just play the mill-burn otk deck*whistles as he turns and walks away*

[Chaotic]

Uuuum eistein, at the last tournament i ran DDV with royal decree in my deck and if you don't remember i destroyed you. You didn't win a round against me. I also won all 5 games in the first round. the only person who beat me was kajun, so thas what kinda idiot runs DDV with decree. It's never what you have in your deck (thas for amateurs) it's how you use it. besides, you can pull your ddv with jinzo on the field and end up in the same situation. It's all about deck balance man.
And also man, only amateurs and nobodies build decks to counter decks, I won't put banisher in my side deck to counter kajun when banisher has nothing to do with zombies. Great duelists adapt and use their cards in different ways to gain the advantage desired over different decks.
Listen, IT'S NEVER WHAT YOU USE OR HAVE IN YOUR DECK ONCE YOU BILL A PROPER DECK, IT'S HOW YOU USE WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND THAT DECIDES WHO WINS THE DUEL.
I can bet money that you'll admit that darkworld will be broken when the new band list arrives.

[The Kajun]

As i said DW won't be broken with the new ban list... the theme Darkworld is actually weak, its power is similar to that of gravkeepers... the only thing that make's you all think that its a threat is that i was running it. lol any deck i run will be considered "broken" under any format lol. So ppl dont sweat it all u need to do to beat darkworld is not fear it( though that may be hard to do).

[New Era Outlaw]

Actually, einstein, quite a few people have run Royal Decree with a DDV trap build in their decks, and have been successful with it, to boot. The key here is execution- especially with Royal Decree, which most people will look to run with the return of Mirror Force. Smart players know when to spring and -not- to spring this card, so when they do draw DDV, what they've done will determine whether it's a dead draw or not. But, typically, DDV requires a strong monster builds, the most common of which using this card are Zombies and Dark World. Even if DDV is useless, there is still another strategy that can hamper your opponent.


By the way, I'm hearing 'DW can be countered in so many ways' and 'DW is actually weak' all over this thread, and yet, nobody's even backed up that claim in the case of the first and evidence suggests otherwise in the case of the latter. People, when it boils right down to it:


5 Dark World Monsters + Card Destruction - Dark Hole which can reall save your behind = OMGWTFPWNED.

After all, just what are you going to use to make the field level again in that instance?
Mirror Force? Perhaps.
Sakuretsu? Sure.
...and then, suddenly:


OMGWTFHECALLED BACK A JINZO!!111

....you never know. Thank God DW monsters don't come with effect negation, or we'd all be totally screwed.

[einstien101]

They do with dark ruler man

chaotic-but consider the strike deck i ran, i could have sided it into a freed deck to compensate for banisher use, i have no royal oppressions though, so i hadda make due, but macrocosmos will do a batter job of that when we get it.THAT you could make a deck round. And u honestly cannot tell me that running a deck with multiple decrees and more than 2 or 3 other traps gonna be as effective as either a decree build or maybe lone decree build, with a few more traps. Jinzo btw isnt the same, just cus of all d 1 4 1s, u know that. I personally prefer the double decree call tt lineup with mult. ECs. This is all just from my exp. with the card though, so that may be one of the reasons we disagree. respect though.

[New Era Outlaw]

Umm.....Dark Ruler Ha Des isn't a Dark World card. True, he's a fiend, but he's not Dark World. Heck of a lot of difference there.

[einstien101]

i just mean that if u want decent negation u could do dat das all

[The Kajun]

* looks at N.E.O. and Laughs Manically*

[Chaotic]

scene, but i see no point to running 1 decree. for me is 2 or none, and with the two decrees comes, torrential, call, waboku and d.d.v.
You should've been there yesterday to see what kajun's darkworld deck did again, and charity ain't even back yet, and he not running decree YET, and dark hole ain't even band YET.

[Solan]

I agree with Chaotic, running one decree is pointless, two is optimum. DW sheesh I'm scared going into this banlist and I ain't even duel with it yet. Oh yeah, Kajun, you an evil bastard and after seeing you run DW on Sunday I'd say that's the next cookiecutter deck or a variant of it. I mean Kajun's win had nothing to do with skill, it was just the deck and luck(wait this is Kajun I talking about  yep pure luck). Doh worry this Chaos Legeon win streak going and end soon, South reassembling the forces(been chillin' and smoking weed for de past couple of months) and this time we going allout to dominate this game been pussyfooting to much in de past. I think its about time this war started eh Chaotic.LOL.