TCG Forbidden & Limited List is out

So I was busy preparing a post about the new OCG set when suddenly...

http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/limited/

TCG Forbidden & Limited List is out today and goes in effect from Monday already. Saying that's fast is quite an understatement.

The April 11, 2016 Forbidden & limited list

Listed are only the changes

Forbidden

• Performage Damage Juggler – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Performage Plushfire – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Tellarknight Ptolemaeus- Already hit on the adjusted list
• Chicken Game – Previously Unlimited
• Wavering Eyes – Previously Unlimited

Limited

• Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Performapal Monkeyboard – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Performapal Skullcrobat Joker – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Wisdom-Eye Magician – Previously Unlimited
• Elder Entity Norden – Previously Unlimited
• Thousand-Eyes Restrict – Previously Forbidden
• Ignister Prominence, The Blasting Dracoslayer – Previously Unlimited
• Draco Face-Off – Previously Unlimited
• Reasoning – Previously Unlimited
• Upstart Goblin – Previously Unlimited

Semi-Limited

• Debris Dragon – Previously Limited
• Allure of Darkness – Previously Limited
• Emergency Teleport – Previously Unlimited

Unlimited

• Dark Magician of Chaos – Previously Forbidden
• Tragoedia – Previously Semi-Limited
• Advanced Ritual Art – Previously Semi-Limited
• Crush Card Virus – Previously Limited

First impressions

Well, they confirmed EVERY change on the adjusted list without thinking about it if the hits were right or not.

Next to that, I see cards I kind of predicted (Ignister, Draco Face-off, Reasoning and arguably Wavering Eyes (thought it was going to be limited, but I'm just as happy with it being forbidden tbh).

Also surprised that Konami decided to take (minor) hits towards Kozmo, while officially still supporting them with new cards. This by Semi-limiting E-Teleport (hardly a hit in my eyes) and Reasoning (seen them abuse this). But for some reason I doubt they'll feel very salty about it. Might be that there's going to be another batch of support for them in the next set.

And... did Konami read my article about Monarch/Magical Explosion FTK? Because they made Chicken game forbidden instead of Life Equalizer. And as I said in that post, Monarch FTK deck is dead without Chicken Game.

Other than that, glad with the hits on Norden and Upstart Goblin; glad with the release of Thousand Eyes Restrict and DMoC. But I find it sad that Wisdom-Eye had to go as well. I admit, it's an OP searcher. But as the owner of an Odd-Eyes Magician deck I find it sad that a deck that hasn't topped (much) is being hit INSTEAD OF B.A. or MONARCHS?

 

That's it for now. Kind of figuring out what to do with my Odd-Eyes Magician deck now.

V out.

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.

Afterthoughts on YCS Atlanta and the Emergency Ban

Last weekend was YCS Atlanta and it was also the last weekend PePe was a thing. And who would've guessed... PePe won (piloted by Jose Lagunes) in an obvious PePe mirror match (Here's the link). Commenting any more on the victorious deck isn't really worth it, since unless any other deck would've won, PePe was pre-determined to be the winner. And honestly, with the emergency ban being a thing, most people don't really cares about PePe anymore (no, not even the decks of Billy Brake nor Frazier Smith).

And the player base kind of proved the reason why the deck needed a hit. 29/32 top decks were PePe, with the other three being Kozmo and Monarch. And I think it was a small miracle that one Kozmo Player (Jose Uriel Diaz) actually made top 4 (going against a broken deck and making top 4 is a more amazing feat than piloting said broken deck and having the better draw). Too bad he bricked in his feature match (Here's the link to the Semi-Finals).

A wild Allen C. Pennington appears

Biggest surprise of the YCS was the sudden appearance of Allen C. Pennington. Allen is often considered one of the best Yu-Gi-Oh players of the past decade. But he is also considered one of the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh Bashers (he IS the author of "100 reasons why this game is awful (compared to MTG)"). So seeing him return to Yu-Gi-Oh, let alone see him top a YCS, is quite surprising to say the least.

Allen is one of the 3 non-PePe players who made top 32. And since Monarchs is considered to be (one of) the best decks post PePeBan (and the cheapest tier1 deck ever!), his decklist and explanation is probably the most interesting thing to come out of YCS Atlanta. Go watch it on his youtube channel, you might actually learn something! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYzfK3f29Y8).

Post Emergency Ban: Keep Calm and keep playing Yu-Gi-Oh

Over the past week, many (PePe) players showed their obvious frustrations on the emergency ban. Most of their arguments are just teenage boys raging that their toys just broke.

Though I can understand the frustration of some players when they said: "Where was this kind of emergency list when Dragon Rulers were tier 0? (the period with 3 Super Rejuvenations and baby dragons)", and "What chance do we have when Konami decides to hit the next good deck after a few weeks? Is Monarchs going to get hit next?"

Let me give you my opinion on it:

• A: Not every top deck is a tier0 deck, remember that. It's not because deck X wins the World Championship, that it's automatically tier 0. And Full Power Dragon Rulers being tier 0 or not is something that die-hard fans are still discussing to this day. The die-hards keep saying that "it was close to tier0, but not quite, due to Judgment Prophecy". The only confirmed tier0 decks are and remain Tele-DAD, Airblade turbo and Cookie Cutter Chaos. Most other decks are "close to Tier0, but not entirely due to oter good decks at the same time".
• B: You know that all full-power top decks are mostly handled/finished in the first upcoming F&L list, but until now, that handling could usually vary between a few weeks to a few months, depending on what time the next F&L list comes. TCG Konami has been experimenting on making that list more flexible to better suit the needs of the players, but the timing of the list will never be 100% good for everybody.
• C: Seriously, the fear of decks being hit shortly after its release is unwarranted. While it probably is true that Konami will take a closer look to see if any deck is unhealthily powerful and might hit that before it chokes up the metagame (like now with PePe), those kind of decks only occur once every 2 years or so. Most formats consist of 2-3 major decks (or more), which is more healthier for the game.

And guess what's going to happen now? The meta is going to be devided in Monarchs, Kozmo, Burning Abyss and Mermail (maybe). And the PePe remnants who either will adapt to keep it alive (and fail, unless new support comes out), or go back to Odd-Eyes Magician or Majespecter builds. So three decks or more that are relevant.

Or in short:

Damn' you Konami?

Is it right to blame Konami?

Yes, sure, I won't stop you from doing so. But only aim your spite at the Japanese mother company.

This has been going on for years now. OCG Konami makes the cards, and determines which cards end up in our boosters (yeah, TCG Konami doesn't have much say in it); but they don't playtest the cards enough to prevent the existence of overpowering decks or OTK/FTK decks.

Also, since Yu-Gi-Oh doesn't have set rotation like Magic or the Pokémon card game, it is more likely an old card will suddenly turn a new deck broken (for example: Super Rejuvenation in DRulers), or prove to be a deadly anti-meta card (f.e. Horn of Heaven or Anti-Spell Fragrance).

This power creep and lack of set rotation has frustrated a lot of players and caused many people to quit YGO and do something else; but this is part of our game, which you just have to accept if you want to keep on playing. TCG Konami tries to be a little better about it (with the split F&L list and now this pre-emptive hit), but they're tied to the Japanese mother company. And if you've followed the video game news of the past year, you know how good of a company the Japanese seat of Konami is.

What about the next full F&L list?

The next full F&L list will probably solidify most hits from this emergency ban and if necessary, it will probably bury Burning Abyss completely (don't forget: Konami likes to promote new decks and likes you to forget the oldest viable ones).

Also, the one card i'd love to see get a hit (or become forbidden) is Wavering Eyes. "slightly overpowered" is an understatement for this card. If gentleman agreements need to be made for playing without one specific card, you know something is wrong.

For the rest, maybe finally get rid of Magical Explosion? I hear Monarch have a way to (once again) abuse that old friggin' card...

Until next time, V out.

Emergency ban on PePe

Wow, I didn't think I would update the blog THIS fast after the last post, but 1 night can sometimes be enough to shake the foundation of Yu-Gi-Oh!

It's been since Tele-DAD since this happened, but there has been another Emergency ban on a tier 0 deck. Though just like before, Konami won't officially call it an emergency ban (watch how they carefully measure their words to make sure they don't call this an emergency ban). This is an "Adjusted List".

https://yugiohblog.konami.com/articles/?p=7596

The Changes:

• Performage Plushfire – Forbidden
• Performage Damage Juggler – Forbidden
• Tellarknight Ptolemaeus – Forbidden
• Performapal Skullcrobat Joker – Limited
• Performapal Monkeyboard – Limited
• Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer – Limited

Changes are effective from next Monday, February 8th 2016

The Adjusted List, an emergency ban

Yes, PePe was already a very powerful deck last year. And with every release, it got stronger. Heck, even the Pendulum Structure Deck last december made it much stronger (Skullcrobat Joker). And with the release of BOSH (with Sorcerer, Monkeyboard, Draco face-off, CD Infinity and Raflessia), the deck truly became a tier 0 deck. So it was "Play it, or GTFO".

But this has been the first time since 2009 that Konami took such a drastic action. And in fact, it's the first time it's really in between F&L lists. The Tele-DAD emergency ban was just at the moment the F&L list needed to be updated, so they could mask it as a justified update. But in this case, the next list is still a few months away (probably starting around April 1st or so).

Quick analysis of the hits

Okay, I can understand hits like Damage Juggler and Scrullcrobat Joker. Those cards are just too good. But Plushfire forbidden? And Monkeyboard limited? Seems like overkill to me. Though it shouldn't be surprising that Konami chose Monkeyboard over Sorcerer (BOSH still needs to sell, you know).

But on the other end no hit for Wavering Eyes? Yeah, that card ain't broken for sure... (rolls eyes)

The only negative about this article is the hesitation of where it will be applied: These emergency hits are in effect on YCS's, qualifiers and other top-level events, but not necessarily for locals (only if the judge says so). What's the use in that? Most players use locals to test for high-level events anyway (so they will no longer ignore these hits), and have some assholes ruin locals with an overpowered deck isn't fun either.

So I think most judges will agree with this update and count these extra hits for their local events (it's better to just accept it).

Are these hits a good thing?

Konami mentions in the article that they will be more on the lookout for overpowered decks and won't be hesitant to kill when it notices tier 0 decks.

Personally, I think that this is a good thing. Nobody likes formats where 1 decks rules everything, even if that would be the deck I love most at that moment.

Though, let's be honest here. It would be just better if Konami would actually playtest the damn' cards and edit them before releasing them... *sigh*

Card Errata

Oh, on another note: Konami also admitted they made a mistake on the card text of Pendulum Sorcerer.

Revised version:

If this card is Special Summoned: You can target up to 2 cards you control; destroy them, and if you do, add “Performapal” monsters with different names from your Deck to your hand, except “Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer”, equal to the number of cards destroyed. You can only use this effect of “Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer” once per turn.

Yes, it IS cards; NOT monsters. He's that good. No need to rage. It was supposed to be this way. Konami admitted they were wrong, so get over it.

Curious to see how people will react to this emergency ban.

V out.