Ghostrick Frost: Is Book of Moon set back to 4?

A few days ago, I’ve seen Bahamut’s deck for the latest AsiaPlus Singapore team Tournament and one of the tech cards he used was a card from the latest ocg booster set, which caught my eye. It was the following:

“I’m the abominable cute snowman!”

Meet Ghostrick Frost. Its effect?: "Cannot be Normal Summoned, unless you control a "Ghostrick" monster. Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position. When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: Change that monster to face-down Defense Position, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand in face-down Defense Position."

What’s so interesting about this card? Well, if your opponent declares a direct attack, you can put that monster face-down (Book of Moon anyone?) and then special summon this card in face-down defense position.

Basically, this is what happens when Battle Fader eats Book of Moon (let that thought sink in for a while).

Yes, its effect is limited to direct attacks only, but since you can activate it from your hand, it’s harder to get rid of (unlike book of moon). Also, it doesn’t end the battle phase.

So, that makes for an interesting, yet balanced effect which can help you get rid of annoying boss monsters like Stardust (Spark) Dragon (/Assault Mode), Shi En, Dracosack, Wind-up Zenmaines, etc. They can’t stop anything while they’re face-down (lol).

Is this card better than Book of Moon?

No. While this card mimics the effect of Book of Moon, it is not better. Okay, you can use it three times, that does make it kind of better (lol). But all in all, Book of Moon can be used in both players’ turns, in any sort of Phase and on any monster, including your own. This card just puts the opponent’s attacking monster face-down. That’s very limited, but still very annoying for the opponent (that’s what signals a balanced card).

What decks can run this card?

Any deck, basically. But if you want to pick a few decks where this card can flourish, here’s a few:

• Chaos / Chaos Dragons: If you didn’t like Battle Fader’s side-effect of banishing itself, you might consider using this card. It’s Dark and gets send to the grave after it’s gone.
• Dark World: I'm not a fan of Dark Worlds, but this IS a DARK Fiend. That makes it a good defender in Dark World decks to protect them when they have their consistency issues.
• Monarchs: A Book of Moon that works as Tribute Fodder and doesn’t consume backrow? Do I even need to say anything else?
• Dragon Rulers: Yeah, Bahamut played Frost in his Dragon Ruler deck and it worked very well in there. If you need to grind your way to victory, this can become a very useful asset.
• Piper decks: The Piper Eninge (Piper + Kinka-Byo + as many Lv. 1 monsters as possible) requires good Lv. 1 monsters. This is a good Lv. 1 monster. Nuff said.
• Lightsworn: Follow-up Frost with Lightsworn monk Ehren and watch your opponent rage.
• Ghostrick: Duh!

Afterword

Even if the Ghostricks end up being another dud-deck, there are already some interesting cards in the archetype.

• Yukki-Onna is a nice Lv. 2 Spellcaster that works in spellcaster decks that use Apprentice Magician.
• Dullahan is the key card in that awesome Lv. 1 deck I posted a while ago. And he’s now basically the best Rank 1 monster.
• And now Frost is a new, good hand trap.

And seriously, I like that. Konami focuses too much on archetype-specific cards, so I can only applaud it if Konami releases some cards that can work outside of their box (like how Tenki works for all Beast-Warriors).

Let’s just hope Konami doesn’t pimp it to Ultra/Secret rare foil in TCG, because this is now one of the few interesting cards I’m looking for.

Until next time, V out.

The list

Short post, have been busy with work.

But the "Satoshi list" version of the possible Forbidden & Limited list that has been going around is real.

Credits goes to those who deserve it. In this case, Bahamut84:

http://duelingdays.blogspot.be/2012/08/2012-september-list.html

Analysis of the “Banlist of the People”: What pissed you off the most?

In case you’ve missed my post about the “banlist of the people”: check this out.

Second point you’ve probably all wondered about… the sources for this list. Here’s my list.

This list includes many people you’ve probably never heard about (feels like a hipster), but also has a few well-known names, both in terms of bloggers, yugi-tubers and others: I’m talking about names like LFN, GQ, Mike, Bahamut84, K’Yde Ren, Ventus, Underworld6667 & DrakoDMD, Lithium3200, Wilson Tsang, Billy Brake, Vexacus4666, Thekeeko25, Merlin Schumacher,…

Next to each source, there’s a link to the blog post, forum post, article or youtube video I got the banlist wishlist/prediction from. Check the blogs & youtube channels, there are definitely some cool ones amongst them.

A few rules with the list and my analysis:

• Don’t laugh/bash at people for some of the weird choices. Everyone has their own opinion. It does not automatically match yours. It does not mean Konami will follow them (nor you).
• Don’t cry if your list isn’t included in my list. I’ve stopped at 100 lists, since I had to stop at some point. So it’s perfectly possible I didn’t include yours. Also, my list was finished last week, so any updates on lists or new lists ever since have not been included.
• In my analysis, any card not mentioned did either not fit my post or had < 10% requests.

Now, let’s analyse the list a little deeper… What pissed you guys off in the past format?

Inzektors: Squash every bug!

The inzektors bug us, that much is clear. Nearly everyone (96%) voted for at least 1 inzektor card. Most of you want to stop the amount of special summoning (62%), others want to stop the searching (22%) and others just want the destruction to stop (31%). Everything mentioned is possible, since massive search power is just as annoying as massive field spamming and just as annoying as massive destruction.

Chaos Dragons: Turn 1 Future Fusion… Good Game?

I think this one is pretty clear. Future Fusion is the most requested card to be hit. 75% of you want Future Fusion to become forbidden; this card clearly pissed the most people off. The reasoning is obvious: Starting off with Future Fusion gives Chaos Dragon players the win.

The other Chaos Dragon cards that I’ve seen being requested for a hit are Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (69%) and Lightpulsar Dragon (16%). The high rate of requests for REDMD is understandable, since it’s being abused in Hieratic decks (in the OCG) as well and 2 REDMD equals Gustav Max, the rank 10 mechanical phallus.

Rescue Rabbit: The Bunny or the Dragon

The Rabbit decks (Dino Rabbit in TCG, Verz Laggia in OCG) have become infamous in the past months. So it’s no surprise that 73% of you want to see the bunny being chained down to either 2 or 1. Next to that, several of you want to see the flying Solemn Judgment (Evolzar Laggia – 24%) and the flying Dimension Fusion (Leviair – 18%) get caught.

Wind-ups: The hunter being hunted

Although 34% of you want Wind-up Carrier Zenmaighty become more limited and some even Wind-up Rat (10%), the most requests came for Wind-up Hunter (4% limited, 59% says forbidden). In short, most of you can handle the mass special summoning, but the hand destruction has to go.

HERO’s: The HERO Gotham deserves?

HERO: Hero decks have gained popularity due the easy XYZ’ing and OTK with H.C. Excalibur and Blade Armor Ninja. Though the amount of requests in hits are lower than Inzektors, Wind-ups or Chaos Dragons, several of you want to see the HERO stuff get taken down a notch.

27% of you want to see Miracle Fusion get hit; 22% of you want E-Emergency Call get hit, 18% wants Super Polymerization to get hit, 11% want to see E-HERO Stratos banned. And then you of course have Future Fusion, since HERO’s can abuse this card as well.

Crippling the staple cards

Every deck has its staple cards. Sometimes it increases and sometimes it has increased too much to be good. The staple cards you want to see hit are: Black Luster Soldier EOTB (44%), Monster Reborn (58%), Mind Control (24%) and Mystical Space Typhoon (45%). Also requested is Pot of Avarice (16%).

One of the other things people want to see is the death of the Tour Guide engine. 46% of you want to see Tour Guide from the Underworld get some form of limit and 23% of you want to see Sangan gone.

Other archetypes needing a hit?

Hit requests for other archetypes are lower than the previous mentioned ones. But you do see a few cards returning that point out certain hate factors:

• Offering Gadgets: Ultimate Offering, combined with the Search power of Gadgets, create great XYZ monsters. Konami took Offering down to 2 last banlist, but 31% of you want to see it taken down further.
• Dark World: Forget Grapha, Snoww or Gates of Dark World. The card that pisses you off the most is Card Destruction (21%). The card gives unfair advantage, similar to Future Fusion.
• Six Samurai: Though several requests ask the return of Shi En or Smoke Signal, a lot of you still hate Gateway of the Six (17%) and want it gone.
• Final Countdown: Final Countdown decks have seen an increase in play and the deck managed to crawl its way into top events (together with Chain Burn). So it’s no surprise to see 13% of you want to see Final Countdown get hit, while 10% of you want One Day of Peace to take a hit.

Archetypes that need support:

Each time an archetype gets hit too hard, people drop it like it’s hot. But after a while, people want to see some cards return, to make the deck more playable. Prime examples are:

• Blackwings: At its peak, Blackwings got their wings clipped. But now, people want to see a com-back of sorts. 18% of you want to see Gale return to 2, 13% wants Kalut back and 9% wants Black Whirlwind.
• T.G. Agents: Got hit where it hurts last banlist. 19% of you want to see T.G. Striker return to 2 and the same amount wants to see The Agent of Mystery – Earth return to 2.
• Plants: Also butchered in the last F&L list, was the Plants Engine. 40% of you want Spore back, making it the most requested card to return from the forbidden status. Also requested are Reborn Tengu (12%) and Formula Synchron (10%).
• Lightsworn: For a few lists now, we’ve seen a return of hit Lightsworn cards. List after list, they’re getting a few cards back. This time around, 22% ask for the return of: Book of Moon, 15% wants to see Necro Gardna become unlimited, and 16% wants the same to happen to Lumina.

Thoughts in general

More than single archetypes (except Inzektors), it can be noted that you want power cards gone. You don’t want overpowered cards that give unfair advantages, like Card Destruction (in Dark World), Gateway (Six Sam), Future Fusion (Chaos Dragons & HERO), Laggia (Rabbit), BLS (any dark+light deck), Ultimate Offering (Gadgets), Monster Reborn, Pot of Avarice and Mind Control. let’s hope Konami listens to the wishes of the players and creates a more balanced game.

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of people don't care which cards should become unlimited (safe Spore). The current list of semi-limited card apparantly is a list nobody really cares about. In comparison to the current limited cards, where most people state that "it's fine as it is, don't change those cards".

When the official Forbidden and Limited list is confirmed by Konami, I’ll compare it to this list and see how many of you were close and how far off this list is to what we actually wanted.

Until next time

V out.