Future Visions: The Geargia Archetype

Hello once again for round 2 of Future visions. There are lots of archetypes coming out and if we do not keep on top of them, then we suck at this game.

But we don't because we read this blog. :)

Anyway, the next archetype up for discussion is the Geargias which come out in Return of the Duelist. They focus mainly on being machines and doing machine things. They already have a monster out called Geargiano from Generation Force, but since it negated the summoned monster's effect, it was pretty useless, so I won't bother talking about him.

Before we start. Keep in mind all the Machine support that already exists and I'm talking about Monsters too. This archetype works fine with the Machinas and the Gadgets so there's no need to worry about their lack of monsters or spell and trap support.

Geargiano MK-II

"When this card is Normal of Flip summoned: special summon one "Geargia" monster from your hand or graveyard in face-up defence position"

With it being level 3, it has access to a lot of cool xyz monsters, provided you special summon another copy of this or another level 3, for which there is only one other level 3 (the original Geargiano). It's 1000 attack isn't too bad either. It can go toe-to-toe with Tour guide and take out many little problems. They made sure this card was centered around xyz summoning so there is not much else to say about this card until more cards come out. At least you can summon any Geargia monster incase you don't want to xyz and just want shenanigans.

Geargiaccel

"If you control a Geargia monster, you can special summon this card from your hand in face-up defence position. When this card is sent from the field to the graveyard: you can add one Geargia monster from your graveyard to your hand, except Geargiaccel"

Now this is an interesting card. It's got an inbuilt summoning ability which is always welcomed regardless of not being able to choose it's position. It's mainly useful to summon their boss monster which we will talk about later. It's second effect is nice if your field gets torrential'd or dark hole'd but since it's a When and not an If effect, it will miss it's timing if it's sent to the graveyard by Tribute summon, synchro summon or something like enemy controller, so be careful.

Geargiarsenal

"This card gains 200 ATK for each Geargia monster you control. You can tribute this card: special summon one Geargia monster from your deck in face-up defense position, except Geargiarsenal"

So this card hits the field at at least 1700 attack. If you special summon Geargiaccel then this card is now 1900, which is pretty neat in a pinch. A cool combo to do is to summon Geargiano MK II, special summon Geargiarsenal and tribute it to summon another MK II, allowing for a rank 3 summon from 1 card. It's almost like using tour guide except not as stupid. There are many other things you can do with this card, but that's one of the best combos I can think of. Probably the best Geargia monster right now due to it's versatility.

Geargiarmor

"Once a turn, you can flip this card into face-down defence position. When this card is flipped face-up: add one Geargia monster from your deck to your hand, except Geargiamor"

Wow what a tasty card we have right here. It's a solid 1900 wall, stopping thunder king and sabersaurus right in their tracks. And each turn you keep it alive, you get to add a Geargia to your hand!

Think about it. If you set this, then on your opponent's turn they smash into this and you add a card to your hand. If they do not deal with it right there, you can flip it down on your turn and flip it back up again, therefore adding another monster to your hand. At that point you have a nice big hand full of monsters to use. With Geargiano MK II you can keep bringing this back and putting it face-down. This is the consistency for the archetype right here. The other cards are good and work find on their own, but this card is the one that brings it all together. While it's not good offensively, the more turns you keep it alive, the more  xyz you can pump out! And it's a freaking level 4!

Now for the Xyz monster!

Introducing.....

Geargiganto X

"2 Level 4 Machine-Type monsters.

Once per turn you can detach a material from this card: Add 1 level 4 or lower Machine type from your deck or graveyard to your hand. When this card leaves the field: You can special summon 1 level 3 or lower Geargia monster from your graveyard"

Now there's a few noteworthy parts to this card. First off, you can add any level 4 or lower MACHINE type from your deck or graveyard to your hand. This allows for use with Gadgets, Machina (gearframe) and Karakuris. It also requires 2 machines to make it, so even outside the archetype it's completely usable, which is what makes it a fantastic card. Secondly, you can special summon a Geargianto MK II when this card leaves the field. There will be more level 3s in the future for this card to summon, but not as of when it comes out. The Geargianto does not get it's effect though, so it only serves as a wall and a way to get Geargiaccel on the field without wasting your normal summon.

Lastly, if you didn't notice, it's not actually a Geargia monster. It's missing the A after the I. What this means is that if its the only monster you control, you cannot special summon Geargiaccel. It also does not contribute 200 attack to Geargiarsenal while that's on the field. So in reality, it's helping the deck but it's helping it just as much as any other machine deck, which is not how Konami does archetypes.

Oh and it looks a bit like a gadget with the Cog on it's back, therefore insulting the archetype by blatantly ripping off another. But who's complaining?

That's it for another insight into the future. Until next time: TheTCGLover out!

YCS Long Beach Analysis

Hello readers. Now that the largest tournament on record is over, we can now say congratulations to the winner, Michael Balan. He piloted Dark world all the way to victory. Its causing a big stir and is making players wonder: "When will a tier 1 deck win an American YCS?". There are many reasons why none of the 3 have won yet, but that's for another post.

Now to analyse the top tables, Starting with the top 16. The cut was actually the top 64 due to the high number of players, but I noticed how bad some of the top 64 decks were. They all had expensive cards like Maxx "C" and Fiendish chains which helped then get that far. But to get anywhere past the top 32, you have to be a skilled player and that will always triumph over buying your way through the tournament.

Top 16:
7x Dino Rabbit
3x Wind-up (2 of them being the wind-up beast variant)
2x Skill Drain Heroes
1x Piper Chaos
1x Dark World
1x Inzektors
1x Chain Burn

A total of 8 different decks in the top 16. That's actually the complete opposite to what most of the playerbase were expecting to see.  In such a large event, there are going to be a lot of different decks and because of that, there are going to be more in the top tables. nearly all of the dino rabbit decks were placed against eachother, reducing their numbers by half no matter what. Was this deliberate? I don't know.

There's only 1 Inzektors, once again showing their weakness when playing the other top decks. I guess when it comes to general play, the deck is pro and annoyingly good. But when its pitted against skilled and professional players with the best decks of the format, it falls short.

At this point i was rooting for Piper Chaos to win. I saw the build before the YCS and I couldn't wait to see how it fared. It's by far the sleeper deck at the moment and it's inherent ability to generate massive advantage with Mystic piper allows it to recover from a Wind-up loop easier than most decks.

Now for the Top 8:
3x Dino Rabbit
1x Wind-Up (Beast Variant)
1x Piper Chaos
1x Skill Drain Heroes
1x Dark world
1x Inzektors

Due to the dino rabbits playing eachother in the top 16, the diversity of the top 8 is kept high. 2 Wind-up decks were knocked out and it reduced their chance of winning to just 12.5%, ignoring other extra factors. Inzektors managed to hang in there, which keeps them at their tier 1 status. Dark world at this point, was starting to raise some eyebrows due to their poor showing in previous YCSs. Of course we know how it did, but at this point, all eyes were on the other rogue decks.

Finally, the top 4:
1x Dino Rabbit
1x Dark world
1x Piper chaos
1x Skill Drain Heroes

4 completely different decks, all with extremely skilled duelists piloting them. The person playing Skill Drain heroes has a Yugitube channel called YGOTRADER101. He just posted a video of his build and goes in depth on his deck. And guess what, it's got no Bubbleman in it!

Anyway, Dino rabbit's numbers had been cut down to just 1 left, which was piloted by Simon He; a European duelist. He is well known for his good yugiohs and at this point, was the favourite to win. I was still rooting for Piper Chaos: the underdog deck. At this point though, all decks had an equal chance of winning and it all came down to their luck.

Skill drain heroes and Piper chaos were both knocked out, leaving Simon He and Michael Balan to duke it out in the final. Due to graphas ability to keep coming back and rabbits relying on the Evolzars for their power, it's not a good matchup for the latter deck. The deck would have to rely on it's solemn warnings to keep it off the field long enough to get 8000 damage through. Unfortunately, Dark world did win and you can see how it went Here.

So yeah, that's enough analysis from me. A surprisingly diverse tournament consisting of a whopping 16 rounds in total for the final 2 players. Until next time!

Tournament Report: 23/3/12

Yesterday (Friday) I decided to enter my locals with my Evol Deck. With Solda now joining the crew of Broken dragons, I felt like I had a shot.

It was looking a bit bleak at first, with many people not being bothered to enter. Also with money issues, I don't have any Dolkkas or Zenmaines incase the situation came up to use them. Because of that, I opted into using Solda instead, to deal with the Inzektor Matchup.

Match 1: Infernity

Game 1: I lost the Dice Roll. He uses wave motion inferno to dump his hand, but not before setting an infernity guardian. I have absolutely no way to get rid of it in my deck so I was just hoping my Skill drains in the side deck would be able to take care of it. Due to his stalling, he eventually chipped away at my life points and managed to attack over my Westlo with a Stygian Sergeants.
Game 2: I sided into my D.D. Crows and my skill drains hoping that they would stop the wall he made last game. I did not draw into them but since i went first i managed to stop a crucial play on turn 2 which left him with just 1 face down on his field and no cards in hand (wave motion inferno). I began poking away with a Diplo and he couldn't really recover.
For some reason, he had to go and couldn't play game 3 so I won the match.

1-0

Match 2: Dimensional Eatos Stun something.

Game 1: I had no idea what i was up against. He threw down a Guardian eatos and activated Dimensional fissure. Fortunately i went first so he attacked my westlo and i got a diplo out, which destroyed his fissure. At that point i was forced to torrential, which put monsters in his graveyard. He slowly tried to get more field presence by summoning Koaki meiru stuff (Sandman, Wall, Guardian) but with Westlo's perfect defence, there was no way for him to really make an impact. At one point he was summoning D.D. Survivors and trying to get over all my stuff and everytime i killed them with Cerato, they kept coming back for another round, which meant more evoltiles for me. I eventually resorted to summoning 2 laggias in one turn, and with 2 cards left in hand he had no way to stop them.
Game 2: Same thing as game 1, but much quicker. He almost had game if he attacked but got greedy and summoned a second Beast King Barbaros, which allowed me to torrential the field and get back advantage. A sort of mistake that a good player wouldn't make in a 2 torrential format.

2-0

Match 3: Inzektors
This was against a friend of mine who helps me film pack openings on my channel and other things. He was filling in for a guy who quit after losing the second round. I told him i was on 2-0 and he let me take the win right there, provided I give him a pack from whatever I win. I couldn't argue with that. We decided to play anyway, just for funsies.

Game 1: He went first and tried to start the loop going. Many solemn warnings were used but I eventually ran out of steam and he dropped DAD. Derp.
Game 2: I messed him up big time. I managed to get the Zenmaister Loop going and summoned laggia after laggia. With 2 of them out at once, he couldn't do anything.
Game 3: He removed the only hornet in his grave and a Veiler to summon BLS. I managed to get it off the field with a torrential and tried to get some presence back. We eventually came really close and he was at 1700 life points. I topdecked a Diplo and knew i couldnt take him out so i held onto it. I had 3 Cerato in my deck at that point from Avarice so i was about 1/5 chance of drawing it. He topdecked monster reborn and got back BLS. I couldn't do anything at that point.

If I had sided, then It would have played out much differently. I probably would have be able to stop most of his plays without having to waste my hand.

3-0

Match 4: Evols
When I realised who I was playing against, I knew this was going to be a fun match. His deck is slightly different with Guaibas instead of Elias and a few other cards like Xyz reborn. But his extra deck was blinged out completely so he had a good advantage over me in terms of choices and plays.

Game 1: He managed to Evo force and summoned 2 Cerato to attack over my 2 Cerato that i had normal summoned, netting him some +4 and bringing my morale down a bit. He decided to xyz into laggia with them and I set a westlo and a couple of backrows. He knew what it was so for some reason didnt attack. I flipped up westlo and he tried to negate it. I had to clarify that Laggia cannot negate flip summons. Then i summoned a Diplo and he tried to laggia again. I had to clarify that It can only negate inherent special summons (such as BLS or DAD). He was skeptical but the invigilator said I was correct. After that kerfuffle, I managed to get out a second evolsaur with Evo force and Najasho and he negated evo force which is what I was hoping he would do. At this point I could tell that my knowledge of the deck and overall comprehension of the rules of the game is what will lead me to win. I eventually finished the game with 2 loaded laggias.
Game 2: I sided into Mirror of Oaths. Incase you do not know, when a monster(s) is summoned from the deck, you can destroy the summoned monster(s) and draw a card. It was the perfect card to hit whatever is summoned by Westlo. I had to go second and i drew into it as my 6th card of my opening hand. He had set westlo and nothing else so the stage was set. He flip summoned and summoned a diplo, targeting my Mirror of Oaths, which I activated. He spent about 2 minutes reading the card and swearing under his breath. I managed to get that effect off again later that game too. I finished the game with a Zenmaister, a westlo, 2 laggias and a Solda on my field with about 4 cards in hand. He had nothing and I felt kind of bad that I completely pillaged everything he had. After the game, he promptly traded all his Evol stuff off for some Inzektor stuff.

So i ended up going 4-0 and another guy did as well, otherwise I would have got double the packs for winning. He offered to do a winner takes all but I had already opened my packs. I got a turbo pack and 4 packs for winning, which i pulled an Inzektor Hornet and an xyz reborn. Not bad for £5 entry! It's also been a year and a half since I beat my locals. Half the players there were Wind-up players but for some reason I managed to dodge them all.

So here's my current decklist. Once GAOV comes out, it will change.

Monsters - 18
3x Evoltile Westlo
3x Evoltile Najasho
3x Evolsaur Cerato
2x Evolsaur Vulcano
2x Evolsaur Diplo
2x Evolsaur Elias
2x Effect Veiler
1x Gorz, the emissary of darkness

Spells - 15
3x Evo Force
3x Enemy Controller
1x Monster reborn
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm
1x Book of moon
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Pot of duality
1x Pot of Avarice

Traps - 7
2x Solemn Warning
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror force

 Extra Deck - 9 (Yes, just the cards I know I might use)
2x Evolzar Laggia
1x Evolzar Solda
1x Wind-Up Zenmaister
1x Giga-Brilliant
1x Leviathan Dragon
1x Stardust dragon
1x Armory arm
1x Ally of Justice Catastor

My Side deck is currently on my channel.

Future Visions: The Heroic Archetype

Now here's something a bit more interesting to read. I'm going to start doing a segment discussing the archetypes of the future. With more archetypes being pumped out and old ones becoming redundant in just a couple of sets, it's hard to keep up with them.

However, here's where I lend a hand. You can thank me later. Infact you can help me now by hovering your mouse on an advertisement on this blog and clicking it, but that's going off topic.

So I will use my current TCG superior knowledge to delve into the archetypes of the future and discuss their impact in the current TCG, the first being the Heroic archetype which debuts in Return of the Duelist.

Now there is currently only a few out with more debuting in the set after (the name of that set has not been announced yet). They mainly focus on helping eachother out and being overall quite cheap. They also have this annoying ability to boost their attack to stupid heights, allowing for OTKs and things like that.

Heroic Challenger Spartas

"Once per turn, when an opponent's monster declares an attack: you can target another heroic monster you control. During this battle phase, this card gains attack equal to the targeted monster's attack"

So yeah, off the bat it's already at 1600 and it can only go up. At long as you have 2 of these on the field, your opponent will have to summon something with 3200 attack to get over one of these. That's pretty stupid. And with 3 of them on the field, you're opponent will have to rely on removal to get these off the field. Add something like Safe zone on it and you've got something really nasty.

Heroic Challenger Warhammer

"When this card destroys a monster in battle: you can target the destroyed monster and equip it to this card (Only one monster can be equipped to this card at one time). This card gains attack equal to the monster equipped to this card by this effect."

So if you destroy something with 2000 attack, this card becomes 4100 attack. That's not too bad. It would be awesome if you could send the equip card to negate Warhammer's destruction. To be honest, it's not worth the effort unless you're playing a pure version. I'd rather summon something like caius with the tribute but at least Warhammer has the benefit with working with the other heroic cards.

Heroic Challenger Sword Shield

"During either player's turn, if you control a face-up Heroic monster: you can send this card from your hand to the graveyard; this turn, you take no battle damage and Heroic monsters you control cannot be destroyed in battle"

Now this can be compared to something like Blackwing - Jetstream the Blue Sky or Shien's squire, but it's better. Even if you don't have a heroic to protect, it's 2000 defence is makes for a good wall. It can help keep your monsters on the field so you have them for an Xyz summon next turn. I think that's probably why it was made. Not much else to say about this card. I wouldn't run it personally since there are better more meta cards that do a better job. Why protect your heroics with this when you can just mirror force your opponent's away?

Heroic Challenger Double Lance

"When this card is normal summoned: you can special summon 1 Heroic Challenger Double Lancer from your hand or graveyard. This card cannot be used for a synchro summon. This card cannot be used for an xyz material, except for the xyz summon of a warrior type monster"

I'm so glad they changed the effect. In the anime, it could be treated as two monsters, therefore you can Xyz summon with just this card! When i watched it happening, I couldn't believe how broken that was. At least now it's not absolutely ridiculous. So with 1700 attack and the ability to summon another from the hand of graveyard, you can smack your opponent for 3400 with 1 card, which isn't too bad is it?

For a heroic player, this is most likely worth playing in 3s with it's ability to xyz, just by summoning itself. Currently you can summon either their Heroic xyz or Number 39: Utopia, which is nice.

Now for the Support cards

Heroic Chance

"Double the ATK of one heroic monster you control. That monster cannot attack your opponent directly. You can only activate one Heroic chance per turn"

So with this, you can boost any heroic you control to a pretty high number. It's good that they took away being able to attack directly, otherwise it would be a little stupid. That being said, with that, it becomes quite situational since your need to have a heroic on your field, a monster in attack mode on theirs, and the agreement that your monster can no longer attack directly with it's now large attack. And by the way, that's permanent until the monster dies, not just till the end of the turn. At least it allows most of the heroics to get over most problems.

Heroic Revenge Sword

"Target 1 Heroic monster you control and equip this card to that target. After damage calculation, if you recieved battle damage involving the equipped monster: Inflict the battle damage you recieved to your opponent and destroy the opponent's monster that battled."

Ok this card is pretty terrible. It assumes that your monster is going to have to die to get this effect off. That alone is what makes it bad. You have to wait for one of your opponent's monsters to attack over yours before this card becomes useful. Even then, inflicting that little bit of damage back to your opponent is not worth it. Sure, their monster dies but do you know what would have saved your monster? Any half decent playable trap card currently in the game.

Now for the main card of the archetype. The card you have all been waiting for...

 Heroic Champion Excalibur

"Once per turn: you can detach 2 xyz materials from this card; until the opponent's next end phase, this card's original attack is doubled."

Here we are, the big beater of the archetype. It's also the cover card of the Return of the Duelist set. I don't really know why though. So it's attack doubles to 4000 with it's effect, making it 99 times out of 100, the biggest monster on the field. It's not difficult to summon either and since it requires 2 level 4 warrior types to summon it, it's not specific to it's own archetype either. Bubbleman Beat is currently using Blade Armor Ninja but this card can also be used to dish out some nice damage. It also keeps its boost until your next turn, so it's not an easy card to run over after you've attacked with it. In the archetype itself, you can just use Double lance to get the necessary materials on the field. You could also use something like Goblinbergh to get the first double lance out then summon this card. Then next turn you can summon another double lance and do it again. the artwork looks nice too.

So yeah that's the Heroic Archetype so far. They currently need some outside help to make them work but so far they have some potential. They wont cost too much to make either and there's always hope for some broken TCG Exclusive to push them over the edge.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Maestroke the Symphony Djinn

Hello readers. It's been 2 weeks but instead of dwelling on the banlist, it's time for some card reviews. Everyone likes card reviews, right?

Following on from my latest video on my channel, we have the Djinn archetype debuting in the Xyz Symphony starter deck, which is coming out half way through april.

Now, there are 4 Djinn xyz monsters that come in the starter deck. But instead of going on about each one, I'm just going to flat out state that Maestroke the Symphony Djinn is the only one talking about.

 The TCG picture is not clear enough on the Wikia, so this will have to do.

 Its a Rank 4, requires 2 level 4s and has 1800 attack and 2300 defence.

"Once a turn, you can detach a material to select one of your opponent's face-up attack position monsters; switch it to face-down defence position"

Starting with that part of the effect first. You get to use this effect up to 2 times which is not too bad. It can flip your opponent's monsters into a weaker position. Simply put, this card can get over anything with less than 1800 defence (That's a lot of monsters). You can flip a Zenmaines down and blow it up with a dark hole since it cannot activate it's effect and therefore dies right there. It's got a lot of uses and that's not even the end of the effect.

"When a Djinn Xyz monster you control would be destroyed, you can detach one of it's materials instead"

Now if we take a look back at the debut of zenmaines and gachi gachi, we know that being able to stick around is a really beneficial effect. If your opponent has a monster above 2300 attack, then you can use a material to keep it alive, then on your turn you can flip their monster down with the second material and attack over it. It's a really nice way to get out of a sticky situation.

How does it fare when used competitively? Well it can survive a Laggia attack and then kill it next turn. It can outright survive a dolkka with it's defence unlike something like Wind-Up Zenmaines. It can survive an Inzektor assault (unless of course they have a monster reborn or something). It's an all round decent wall and can help you gather resources for a few turns while your opponent is using theirs to get over it. Oh and it cannot be killed by a Catastor or need to use its materials.

 Best of all, it's generic.

There is no need to discuss the other djinns. They are decent but nothing like this guy, which is a shame. Until next time, duelists!

March 2012 Banlist Discussion Part 3: The Semi-Limited List

Now for the longest discussion out of the four parts. Only one card was taken off the list this time around so that makes my life easier. But I would have like to have seen more cards come off the list purely because Emergency Teleport and other cards are not worth bothering about anymore. Konami is just trying to play safe and it stifles our creativity because of that.

Now, for the discussion. A total of 8 cards have come onto the Semi-limited list. A few surprises but overall they make me shrug. We all know what Semi-Limits would have really helped this format run smoother, but talking about them will just make this a rant rather than a discussion.





Marshmallon
In all honesty, this card was limited so long ago that it's place was not justified anymore. Even at 2, it's not really that hard to break through. Sitting behind this can be a really nice wall against dino rabbits, but spirit reaper's ability to rip cards from your opponent's hand makes it the overall better choice. The burn damage is actually very respectable and at 2 gives it a tiny boost to an already trollish deck called chain burn. Setting this and then setting 5 chainable traps is just painful. But in terms of general play, it's not that great and should be at 3. I mean, when was the last time you attacked into a Marshmallon?

Exactly.







Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
Now this is a semi-limit I agree with. Konami was nice to look at an old archetype and give it a little more consistency. They are slowly bringing cards back for the deck and while this card was always good, sadly it's still not enough.

As much as I love playing the deck, the overall archetype lacks the kind of power that can contend with the decks currently destroying the game right now. Call me crazy but if Konami actually brought Lumina off the list, and brought Charge of the Light Brigade back to 3, the deck might stand a chance. However, with Charge at 3, it becomes splashable as a mill engine for decks like Infernity, so it will never go up from limited and the deck will never be as powerful for as long as the game exists.

It's depressing in it's own way. All I can suggest is to avoid Lightsworns for the rest of your dueling days. Don't see this card going up on the list as a big boost and hoarding Lightsworn cards will only leave you will a stack that you won't be able to trade off for a very long time. At least the Ultra Rare version of the card is awesome.

 

Reborn Tengu
What's this? A TCG Exclusive getting hit before the OCG get their hands on it? Unspeakable!

But yes, it happened. Tengu is a stupid card. It replaces itself and combined with librarian allowed you to draw cards while filling the field with loads of synchros. It can also be used in Monarchs as tribute fodder. It really is a great card.

However, the banlist hit it a little too late in my opinion. This format is promoting Xyz and it's "Play them or lose" mentality has brushed tengu aside. In case you do not know, it does not get it's effect when it's detached as an xyz material, therefore making it incompatible with xyz monsters and making it a good card to steal off your opponent to xyz with. All of those points combined makes putting it to 2 a bit pointless. All it does is blatantly promote xyz and puts Konami in a worser light than they already are, wouldn't you agree?








Emergency Teleport
Not much to say about this one. It was brought down to 1 to slow down Tele-DAD during it's reign. It's pivotal place in the deck's success is why it was called Tele-DAD. It can bring out a level 3 or lower psychic from your hand or deck (Prefably the latter). It was used to combine with Destiny HERO Malicious to synchro into level 8s, which back then was broken if you could do it with no disadvantage to your hand size.

The deck is dead, psychics are not really played aside from the ones that came out in Extreme Victory and it promotes xyz by being able to make rank 2s and 3s. All valid reasons to come back.








Shien's Smoke Signal
It was brought down to 1 in September 2011, which almost knocked the Legendary Six Samurai completely off the radar. They managed to take 1st place in YCS Mexico a couple of months ago so it was still capable of good things even with this card at 1.

But in OCGland the deck was not being played at all. Most banlist decisions are made by the OCGs meta, which explains why T.G. Agents were hit so badly.

Anyway, with it at 2, the deck's a little more consistent than last format but with only 1 Shien to synchro into, the deck still gets itself into problems when it hits the graveyard.







Level Limit Area B
I don't really know why this card was on the list in the first place. It somewhat promotes Xyz due to having Ranks which means they are unaffected by this card. It was not being played AT ALL for the last few years and should have come off the list a LONG time ago.

There is really not much else to say. It could go to 90 for all I care.











Torrential Tribute
Well this is a surprise. Most players are going to replace the Trap Dustshoot they lost for a second copy of this. It's ability to wipe the field upon summon allows it to be used offensively and defensively, which makes it a versatile card. You can just sit back and wait for your opponent to fill their field before activating it, making it capable of producing immense amounts of advantage. And now it's at 2?

I think this might be my favourite change to the banlist. I honestly feel that this card being at 2 is a good thing. It forces Solemn judgments and is usually more effective than bottomless at the moment.

Cool call Konami. Good call indeed.







Ultimate Offering
With Rank 4s getting better now, it's about time that Gadget offering was brought under control before they become a big problem. Cards like Daigusto Emeral and Shock Ruler allowed you to recycle and shut down a card type respectively, while only costing you 1 card.

But really, putting this card at 2 is not really good enough. The deck is still viable since all you have to do is get offering into your hand and there is so many ways to do it. The only way to truly kill the deck off is to ban this card, which probably wont happen.










Phew, that's the largest part discussed. There is a trend in the cards that have been hit this time around and it's quite clear what that trend is.

Just for the people who still can't see it: they are all pointless hits.