My thoughts on the OCG Forbidden and limited list

Wow, i'm late with this one. Yeah, it's been a busy few weeks at work, so I got a bit of delay on this post. #priorities

In the March edition of V-Jump, the newest Forbidden and Limited list (aka, the banlist) for the OCG (not the TCG!) has been published. This one will go into effect from April 1st (no joke).

The Changes

Listed are only the changes compared to previous OCG list:

Forbidden:

• Performapal Monkeyboard
• Lavalval Chain
• Life Equalizer

Newly Limited:

• Sangan
• Thousand-Eyes Restrict
• Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
• Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
• Performapal Skullcrobat Joker
• Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer
• Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer
• Draco Face-Off
• Wavering Eyes
• Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer
• Mask Change Second
• Tour Guide from the Underworld
• Emergency Teleport
• Domain of the True Monarchs
• Pantheism of the Monarchs
• Pendulum Call
• Reasoning
• Monster Gate

Newly Semi-Limited:

Super Rejuvenation

Unlimited:

• Glow-Up Bulb
• Kuribandit
• Destiny Hero – Malicious
• Mermail Abyssteus
• Mind Control
• Book of Moon
• Gold Sarcophagus
• Allure of Darkness
• Dragon Shrine
• Crush Card Virus

Analysis

A quick run-through of the list sees a slaughtering pattern in the top decks of ritual B.A., Monarchs and DracoPals.

The OCG hits PePe as well as the TCG did last month. Although in this case, the focus is on the DracoPals variant instead of the Performage variant. Now if only people would stop calling DracoPals PePe, that would seriously stop a lot of confusion (where's the "Pe" in Dracoslayers? For real!)

Draco Face-Off is limited (card is broken), just like Luster Pendulum and Ignister (wow). Monkeyboard is forbidden (wow), together with the limit of Skullcrobat Joker and Sorcerer. And finally to take its head of completely, Wavering Eyes has been limited. That's one top-deck completely eliminated.

Also, surprisingly, OCG Konami paid attention to the new Magical Explosion FTK by making Life Equalizer forbidden!

But most surprising is the pre-emptive hit of the OCG towards Kozmo! Both Reasoning and Emergency teleport have become limited before even one Kozmo card hits the OCG. Wow, that's harsh.

On another note: What is with the returned cards? I'm sure many people are pleased with the return of three Books of Moon, as well as the Dragon Shrines and Malicious. But why three Allure of Darkness? Why three Mind Control? And Thousand-eyes restrict legal again? I'm not sure if I like those changes.

And while we're talking about returns...

Sangan is back from prison!

"Free at last!"

Yes, Sangan's been released from prison in the OCG, after his "Mistaken Arrest" and "Mistaken accusation"(lol). The only thing needed was a "few tweaks" in his card text. So here's the updated text (changes are in bold).

The effect of “Sangan” can only be used once per turn. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: Add 1 monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck to your hand. If you add a monster to your hand with this effect, you cannot activate the effects of monsters with the same name during that turn.

So it's no longer useful to keep reviving Sangan during the same turn, due to the once-per-turn effect.

Sangan's story will now need a continuation now. So I expect an "Early parole" card to be released somewhere in the future, with artwork of Sangan being freed with a few "parole rules" in place (lol).

Where's the TCG list?

Ever since the OCG and TCG banlist split apart, it's harder to predict what OCG changes will be adopted intp the TCG F&L list. But the ones I think will be adapted into TCG are:

• Life Equalizer Forbidden
• Monkeyboard Forbidden (instead of limited)
• Draco Face-Off & Ignister Limited
• Wavering Eyes Limited
• Emergency Teleport Limited
• Reasoning & Monster Gate Limited
• Dante limited

So as to the question: "Why hasn't Konami posted the new list yet?", the previously listed cards have a few pointers, right?
A lot of these cards have been reprinted in the latest Gold Series (and in the OTS pack). Konami can't really hit the cards they're trying to sell right now, right?

This is why I expect the TCG list to not be revealed until (at least) half of April, to be in effect from May 1st (just before the new booster is released).

Effect on current meta in OCG?

YGOrganization has posted a few OCG tournament results from places that have adapted the new list already. the results aren't really surprising. With all top decks gone, pepole are now just throwing working engines together to try and see what "sticks" around. The speedroid engine, Phantom Knight engine, Quantum engine, Magician engine etc. So that's why there's suddenly weird decks like Speedroid Abyss Monarchs or Artifact Abyss Madolche (lol).

Other older decks are also profiting from this massive top-tier slaughter. Suddenly decks like Satellar, Evilswarm and even an updated version of the classic anti-meta deck are topping again.

Afterword

Anyway, the road is now open again for Konami to give the OCG a new expansion with brand new power cards and archetypes. And it's needed, because the Shiranui, Dinomist and Amorphage archetypes haven't really done anything (yet).

Until next time, V out.