So, here we are, on the verge of September 1st. And you know what that means!
No, it's not the fourth anniversary of the day you took your cat Fluffy to be shaved. Ick, blak, ugh, NO.
It's time for another banlist! Isn't that FANTASTIC?!
.....
....your enthusiasm overwhelms me. Really, it does.
Anyhoo, once again, your old pal Outlaw here's going to share some of his thoughts on the new banlist, and, more importantly, why he thinks it's the greatest thing in the world next to sliced bread, 4chan.com and having Playboy bunnies live in my closet.
(checks closet)
DAMMIT. Well, two out of three ain't bad. (eats sandwich and surfs 4chan)
All right, enough of the monkey chatter. Time to see what wonders (or blunders) this banlist brings, shall we?
BANNED CARDSChaos Sorceror: What more can I say other than "YES! DIE YOU FREAK!!"? Although I originally thought that it should have been watered down to one per deck, UD hits this card for six and all out bans it. Why, you may ask? Three words: EASY MONSTER REMOVAL. Every single turn, you would have to watch your step around this guy, because leave anything face-up, and it's off to the Shadow Realm it goes, and if it goes face-down, "JESUS CHRIST ITS A CROSSOUT GET IN THE CAR!!" Having a 2300 ATK monster that acts like a BLS is just annoying, because one, that ATK is just too high for you to simply summon and nuke it, save for GAF, and two, it's a Special Summon, so expect something to come right after it and nail you in the NUTS. On top of that, Swords and this guy is PAIN. Long story short, you'd waste so much trying to kill this guy only to have it Premature'd or Call'd back or a next one run up and strike you in the stones. With the banning of this card, Chaos is officially dead. Well, in Advanced, anyway.
Snatch Steal: I more or less think this was really a ploy to get you to play with newer cards like Brain Control more now, but the more I look at it, the more it makes sense. The 1000 LP your opponent gains is nothing compared to the 2400 he collects from his own Jinzo every turn. Heck, Book of Moon (or Tsukuyomi) and this card is
permanent control, so even the 1000 LP compensation isn't a guarantee. Especially when it ends up tributed and discarded like used toilet paper at Taco Bell. And I mean, THAT FREAKING SUCKS.
Tsukuyomi: A virtual given in this game is that whenever a card is abused to the point of sheer annoyance, expect it to get whacked in some capacity or the other. Tsukuyomi is such a card. And damn, was....it...ABUSED. Aside from creating serious lockdowns while your opponent endlessly hits you with Crossouts and MSTS and Graceful Charities up the piehole, Tsukuyomi also kills several beatdowns in the game, save for a few, or, at least, sets them up for a Crossout. This card was the whole reason Magician of Faith was one of the most feared cards in the freaking game- nobody likes to get hit repeatedly with cards that should have served their purpose and left the game. Nobody.
Thousand Eyes Restrict- A while ago, this card had the dubious honour of being the only Fusion monster to be restricted in the whole game. Now, it's the only Fusion that has the dubious honour of being all out banned in the game. You know, even
with Scapegoat and Metamorphosis restricted to one, people still managed to bring him out. And when they did? THE GAME FROZE. It froze and it froze and it froze until Paco decided that he had enough cards in his hand to do what he wants to you now, so he's going to Tribute Restrict for something worse. Even moreso is the fact that if you happen to have something bigger in the frail chance that you'll stop TER, ho, ho, ho.....he'd just ram you with the monster he had first and TAKE IT. No, no and NO, kill this card.
RESTRICTED CARDSRing of Destruction: Excuse me while I do a completely weird victory dance in my boxers as I'm typing this.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEITSBACKITSBACKITSBACKAND......I'm making a complete jacka** of myself. I humbly apologise.
But, long story short, RoD is back. UD probably saw the need for more monster destruction. Let's face it....Dark World really, REALLY gets my goat with its swarming stupidity, and Monarch coming out are just not a nice thing to happen. And sometimes, Sakuretsu Armor just won't help when Moby Dick destroys your hopes and dreams of winning the championships and meeting Santa Claus. Chain is the name of the game, and brings about an end to matches (as well as rash summoning) quickly. Hup, hup, hail the cheif!
Yes, I am rather biased towards this card.
Spirit Reaper: Well, like you never saw
this coming, am I right? And if you didn't, you need Jesus. I'm not kidding. Why this card has been allowed in 3's for so long, I'd never soon know. The thing's a blocker AND a resource killer, because you will need something other than brute force to wipe it out. Crossout being knocked to one means one less card to use against it face-down before you waste an ATK, so you'd probably use an Exiled Force (which uses a summon) or a Smashing when you discover in disgust that it's a REAPER, DAMN YOU TO HECK, I COULD HAVE WON BEFORE TIME!!! AAAAARRRRGH!!!
Seriously, the thing causes duels to crawl to a halt in multiples, because then two players would study the game to the point of boredom. One studies "How to kill it?" and the other? "How to protect it?" GAWD. One should be good enough, cause hey, we DO need defense against swarming MCs using DW and Last Will, don't cha know.
Magician of Faith: You know, as useful and as much of a Godsend as MoF is, I can't help but get really, really pissed off whenever I run into one of these. I'm not alone in thinking this, though. You can't tell me ONE person that does not dread hitting one of these face-down. Back when Tsukuyomi was still here, and Magician of Faith had her twin sister stay over, this card meant Magical Scientist blues. Traps? MST. Monster? Crossout, or Premature on Exiled Force. Lack of cards? Graceful Charity. In a game where Spells have become more and more advantageous, it becomes almost unfair to have a ready supply of them already in your Graveyard, for a Magician to pluck them out at the duelist's discretion. Hopefully, UD will keep this at one, cause I can see pressure from it in 2's.
Nobleman of Crossout: Like I said before, two of this is trouble. Even more so now that Exiled Force is semi-restricted, Ring of Destruction is back, and Lightning Vortex is out in 3's. Way-HAY too many elimination cards there to let this bad boy stay. NoC can vary. It can be a +2 in the best case scenario, and that's already one point ahead of everything else, which is a 1 for 1.
Ultimate Offering: The thought of additional summoning seems to scare Upperdeck. But, if we hd a superior and more broken summoning tool in the form of Last Will, then why even bother with this card? Would have made more sense to ban Last Will to me.
Gravity Bind- Stalling decks now have to rely on Messenger of Peace (which seems a bit more deserving of restriction that GB) or Level Limit- Area B. Sort of an unnecessary change, really...GB was just fine at two. Guess UD doesn't like this card, or something....
Future Fusion- Just tell yourself that because of this card, Exchange of the Spirits will NEVER be unbanned. EVER. This card allows you to dump Fusion Materials from your deck or hand to Special Summon a Fusion Monster 2 turns later. The card coming with this, Overload Dragon, is the Fusion of Cyber Dragon and any number of Machine type monsters, and gains ATK x 800 = the number of monsters used in the Fusion. See where I'm going with this?
But alas. It seems that with all of the awesome we have been given by UD, some insane upchuck has to come our way too. Example?
SEMI-RESTRICTED CARDSExiled Force- HOLY DONKEY DIARRHEA. You can NOT be serious. Is this trouble waiting to happen? I think so. Dreading Exiled Force became a whole lot more fearsome, because when you think one has come and gone and it's over.....HEEEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY!
Giant Trunade - Could be the fact that it clears the field and people don't seem to mind until they regret not taking this card seriously, but I don't see much of a need to semi-restrict this card so much. People would rather blow away with Heavy Storm than replenish a person's hand.
Reckless Greed- Guess what? People will still
not play this card, even
if that's four new cards you're getting. Chances are, you'd use those cards up in that turn, and then, those two Draw Phases you skipped will come back to haunt you. But wait....WHY would you play this when you have Graceful Charity? WHY?
Wall of Revealing Light - A bit too late seeing as how Last Turn has left the building, wouldn't you say, UD?
FREE TO WREAK HAVOC IN THREES:Drop Off/Emergency Provisions/Reflect Bounder: Meh. Like anyone really cares. I think the banned list said it all when it just dropped these off. With Tsukuyomi gone, you can't really lock with a Drop Off anymore. Emergency Provisions....just doesn't see play. At all. So sorry. As for Reflect, he may be my boy and all, but people just don't care about going all "ALLAH ACKBAR!!" on him.
Lightning Vortex -........what are you? Nuts? Did you suddenly up and decide that people need 3 Raigekis all of a sudden? Wow. Somebody must've slipped a heck of a Mickey in your coffee, pal, cause 3 Lightning Vortex cards are CRAZY.
And, so, there you have it. A basic summary of what happened here can be as follows.
- Chaos is dead.
- Spell Recycling is also dead.
- Monster killing is cranked all the way up.
- Stalling is weakened with the loss of 2 Reapers and 1 Gravity Bind.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a Ring of Destruction to polish. Man, I am SO happy to have that back. SOOOO VEDDY HAPPI. MWAHAAHAHAHAHAAA......
