The New September 2010 Ban List: How Well Did Konami Do? Part 2

Continuing on from part one, we have the limited list

Limited:

Infernity Launcher
Black Whirlwind
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole
Royal Oppression

I personally think these additions to the limited list are reasonable. This list reflects the recent outburst of anti-meta and blackwing decks that were at the world championship last week.

Black whirlwind being limited was probably not necessary at all. blackwings have not been a threat at all as of late. It seemed fine at 2 as there was no way to add it to your hand except by drawing it.

Infernity Launcher was a well needed limiting. Its effect was so outright broken and gave the user instant advantage. Its effect also meant that you could bring out 3 to 4 high level synchro monsters in one turn. That alone is reason enough to have limited it.

Monster reborn coming off the forbidden list has been done before. Since the game has gone a certain direction over time since the beginning, Monster revival seems to be a little less important than other game mechanics that are abused by some decks today. Call of the haunted was limited (from forbidden) a couple of formats ago and players rarely play it. Monster reborn is a little more splashable than Call of the haunted, but it does not fit into every deck believe it or not.

Dark hole becoming limited was a real shock in my opinion. Its effect is basically a raigeki since players are often clearing eachothers field every turn. Its effect has no cost and as long as you destroy more than one of your opponents monsters, you have generated advantage for yourself. With Heavy storm out of the picture this format, players are becoming more trap heavy and have no good reason to run starlight road anymore. this means that dark hole has nearly zero resistance when played. The only possible card being used these days to negate monster destruction would be My Body as a Shield.

Lastly, Royal Oppression limited hurt many decks and was not needed. there are not many cards that can prevent special summons like Oppression does (reliably and usable many times), so it left a gap in the game for decks to abuse. With Oppression at one, players know now that if it is in their opponents grave, they are pretty sure they can special summon with a little less resistance. I'm glad they decided to limit this card over something like Bottomless Trap Hole though. That would have been a HUGE mistake.

The semi limiting and unlimiting of the other cards on the list were pretty self explanatory, but i would have liked to have seen stardust dragon on the list somewhere, as well as XX-Saber Darksoul (Which would not happen for a long time since the OCG does not have it yet).

Now, back to the card reviews!

The New September 2010 Ban List: How Well Did Konami Do? Part 1

The new ban list for the TCG has just been announced, and will be in effect on september 1st, 2010. There has been some major changes, mostly in the staple area. While also there were some long coming additions to the forbidden list, as well as some "what the hell..." additions to the list in general. Lets take a look at the list shall we?

Here is a list of the cards that have been MOVED since the last ban list:

Banned:

Substitoad
Rescue Cat
Heavy Storm
Brain Control

Limited:

Infernity Launcher
Black Whirlwind
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole
Royal Oppression

Semi-Limited:

Chaos Sorcerer
Snipe Hinter
Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier
Mystical Space Typhoon
Ojama Trio
Magic Cylinder

No Longer on List:

Goblin Zombie
Cyber Dragon
Black Rose Dragon
Treeborn Frog
United We Stand
Royal Decree


There are some cards on this list that are not worth talking about (treeborn frog, for example), but most of them will recieve my two cents.

Now lets start from the forbidden. Each card here deserves to be banned.
Rescue cat was defining the meta, and should have been banned a long time ago. It made X-Sabers too powerful, and with konami releasing the TCG exclusive XX-Saber Darksoul, it could be tuned with X-Saber Airbellum for a level 6 (prefably XX-Saber Hyunlei). but inherently, rescue cat's ability to summon 2 monsters from your deck is clearly unbalanced and hurts the game. it also limited what beast types konami could release in future booster sets.

The next card is Substitoad. This card was the best card to ban to stop the frog FTK decks running rampant in every tournament. With this card gone, the deck no longer has an efficient and consistent way to dump frogs into the graveyard. I feel like this card was the best choice to ban, rather than Mass driver and Ronintoadin (the other 2 key parts to frog FTK).

The other two newly forbidden cards are Heavy Storm and Brain Control. Heavy storm was the only way to keep stall decks and burn decks at bay. But with it banned, players are no longer punished for overextending their backrow on the first turn. I think that konami made a huge mistake here, and they tried to compensate by semi-limiting Mystical Space Typhoon, which does not replace it by a long shot.

Brain control being banned was a long time coming. This card requires no skill to play, and the 800 life point payment is almost always payable. There is not much else to say here, but dont expect this card to come off the list. EVER.


Coming up in part 2: The limited list.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Pot of Duality

With a new set of cards, comes a bunch of fun new reviews!

The duelist revolution is the latest set, and by far the most hyped and discussed card in the set is the Pot of Duality

Pot of Greed and Pot of Generosity in one card!

Its effect is simple, balanced and generally quite useful regardless of what deck you play. You reveal the top 3 cards from your deck to you and your opponent, then you select one and add it to your hand. Then send the other 2 back into your deck and shuffle it.

Now on the outside, it seems like a fair 1-for-1 (you trade in this card for another), but it goes much deeper than that. Being able to dig 3 cards deep in your deck means that pot of duality becomes a card that you want right this second from your deck, and not 1,2 or 3 turns later.

That alone is why its so good. It takes some of the luck out of the deck, makes it more consistent (meaning you pull off the same combos more often) and there is no discard cost or a life point cost either!

BUT, all powerful cards needs a drawback, and to some decks, its a very harsh one. the turn you activate Pot of Duality, you cannot special summon OR activate another pot of duality. that drawback means it might not fit in EVERY deck, like Infernities which special summon many times within a couple of turns.

So there you have it. This card is a perfect example of balanced draw power, and its guaranteed to make your deck better!

Right now Pot of Duality is worth about £60 ($100) so if you want a playset for your deck, be prepared to fish out at least £150 ($250) for them.