#emergency banlist

[zwoelffarben]

As someone who's broke ass owns none of the cards affected by the commander banlist update, and welcomes every ban wit open arms, I think players should get more than a days notice that a card's gonna get banned if it's worth more than fifty quid.

Like, Rules Committee, wotc-hasbro prints cards on a two year time, and I think maybe it'd make sense to ban cards on that same sort of timeline just, as a general rule.

Emergency bans for when wotc-hasbro prints mistakes like nadu and lutri would be fine, but like, if you're gonna ban a card first printed in, checks notes, 1994, maybe giving players a two-year warning to adjust their collections accordingly wouldn't be a bad shout.

Mixing my examples cause I'd never play wit mana crypt, but:

I wouldn't pay $100 for a jeweled lotus, but I might pay $50 with the understand that it would be banned in two years and I could get two years of play out of it, or maybe even a year and half of play out of it before maybe selling it to someone who would pay $25 dollars to play with it for six months.

It gives the value collectors a wider window time to liquidate their expensive cards that are gonna plumpett in price and give budget players any window at all to play wit piece that were previously outside their budget before theyr gone forever.

Just a thought.

[wavering-eyes]

Open the Floodgates - December 2023 Banlist

Any Josh viewers in chat? There clearly are at Konami.

It's been a really long time since a banlist and the format's developed a lot in different ways that would be difficult to summarize. In lieu of writing all of that, here's a banlist wishlist I banged out a couple of weeks ago out of sheer boredom and I'll use that to talk about the issues last format had which this banlist would presumably have fixed.

Again, NOT THE ACTUAL BANLIST, that comes later. I had:

Banned: Agido the Ancient Sentinel Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard

Agido and Kelbek have had it too good for too long. Tear is not a healthy deck in its current incarnation, it basically exists for gambling addicts. I would be okay with most of the tear names coming back to more than 1 if they banned these. Honestly the shufflers are more toxic but I think this hit does enough to mostly remove them from the format too, aside from tech options in Labrynth etc. I'd like them gone but I think they're less likely.

Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin

I'm biased: I kind of like Isolde. That card being banned would not make me sad but I think Infernoble would be in a healthy place with just Aqua Dolphin banned since Connector turns 3-negate hands into 3-negate double handrip hands and that's fun for literally nobody.

Sillva, Warlord of Dark World

Similarly, Dark World hand loop does not deserve to exist. Ken and Gen were a mistake.

Baronne de Fleur

Baronne is miles better than almost every other Synchro released in years. I think the only deck where it's actually healthy is Swordsoul, and it would be a shame for that deck to lose this, but it's way too strong. This is also a wide hit, it hurts the combo variants of R-ACE and every version of Mannadium and Infernoble.

Hot RDA King Calamity

King Calamity lock should not be a thing, I don't really care how good/bad Centur-Ion is.

Limited: Kashtira Fenrir

Unless you're playing R-ACE or a deck that can't play it, Fenrir is generally better than seeing an engine card.

Rescue-ACE Air Lifter

I thought long and hard about what hit would be best for R-ACE and it's either this, EMERGENCY!, or both. This is the deck's best starter by far since just Hydrant doesn't really get you anywhere.

Unchained Soul of Sharvara

Sharvara to 1 both stops the deck from playing through hand traps as easily and making High Caesar, the only problematic part of that end board. If there's any hit I really wanted it was this. Unchained was the most represented deck last format in terms of YCS wins, for good reason; it's decent into everything at worst and plays very well around sacky blowouts like Shifter.

S:P Little Knight

S:P is the best Link in the game and both R-ACE and Infernoble play two. I honestly think the game would benefit if it was banned but Konami will never do that and putting it to 1 actually does something in this case, so why not.

Pot of Prosperity

I finally got a set from Rarity Collection box tournaments and... this card feels like cheating in much the same way Talent does. Seeing this card feels like you've unlocked the ability to mulligan your hand.

I hope you get the picture: Unchained and R-ACE were roughly the best decks and the combo decks below it were various kinds of unhealthy. I get that a banlist prediction isn't the best way to communicate this since it's also adjusted to stuff Konami probably won't hit since it's new (Sinful Spoils etc.), but the bulk of the analysis here is on the banned cards anyways.

One other concern before we go into the list is Labrynth: Lab is seeing a lot of play right now thanks to a very good R-ACE matchup, and it's seeing a lot of speculation because Transaction Rollback has been confirmed for a TCG release. I don't think it deserves a pre-emptive hit but Eradicator Epidemic Virus or Skill Drain going would be good for the game.

Anyways, the actual banlist:

Banned: Agido Kelbek

Ishizu millers are gone, so Tear is now much less likely to sack you, and that's just about all it's got left at this point.

Mathmech Circular

I have no animosity towards this card in particular (as has been shown!) but it's very emblematic of modern power creep. Circular was a 1-card do EVERYTHING. Mathmech played Small World to search this when it was at 3. Cyberse piles played it too.

With that said, this ban is a huge surprise. Mathmech has been virtually irrelevant since Bystials came out, and I think totally irrelevant since Circular was limited. I have legitimately no idea what inspired this.

Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights

So we're taking the low road. It's hard to overstate how much this card did for Infernoble, but it saw play in Mikanko as well: you could mill Arabesque to summon out Renaud and add it back, which starts your entire engine, or mill Mayowashidori and have that setup prepared for later. That deck also played enough equips to summon out Ha-Re or Ken/Gen if necessary.

Modern builds of Infernoble played 2 Infernoble Arms names alongside Phoenix Blade, D.D.R., and Angelica's Angelic Ring as targets to mill off of this, and it hardly ever mattered even if you drew two. Angelica's Ring is of interest here since Charles can equip it from GY thus adding another negate to the board--one which works against Super Polymerization and Dark Ruler No More.

I think the core idea of the design--you have to play bricks to get a summon from deck--is fine. But warriors are way too good and this card has been living on borrowed time for five years.

Future Infernoble builds will probably have to go all-in on Angelica or something, but I don't see how you play the deck competitively without this.

Limited Unchained Soul of Sharvara Rescue-ACE Air Lifter

Nice call, me!

Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders

All of these cards could come to 1, or maybe even 3, and they would be fine. The hand effects still go -1 and they are not better cards to mill off of Ravine than Absorouter or Bystial Lubellion, so who cares.

Orcust Harp Horror

This card could have been unbanned years ago. It's a shame we only got it back after Bystials came out, but something tells me that Normal Summon Girsu is gonna be a fine play anyways... (Read on.)

Gozen Match Rivalry of Warlords There Can Be Only One

It's a holiday miracle. Floodgate bozos BTFO. As you can see above, I didn't expect this to ever happen but it's genuinely pretty great for the game.

Skill Drain next please!

Sunavalon Dryas Sunavalon Healer

Rikka Sunavalon is, on paper at least, an insane combo deck. This deck can put up multiple interruptions off of literally just Unexpected Dai and has plenty of space for non-engine--not to mention how much work the Rikka cards put in thanks to Konkon and Sheet adding S/T based disruption, Princess insulating you from monster effects, and the Xyz monsters adding more traditional monster-based disruption. On paper it has answers to virtually anything and you could build your board in ways to play around a large variety of cards.

Note that--on paper. This deck is not good into handtraps, and last format was definitely a handtrap format. Rikka Sunavalon saw a bit of success a few months ago, mostly in Europe and the fringes of the NAWCQ, but overall was fairly well balanced by the steep difficulty of the deck and its fragility going second.

I think the most likely hit to this deck--which I didn't feel was necessary--would have been Jasmine to 1, since that card is not once per turn, and the deck regularly used Healer to trigger both copies at once. But this hit is pretty staggering--the extra is now short 3 cards.

Ib the World Chalice Justiciar

Denglong came back a list or two ago and saw no success whatsoever. Now we have Justi back and it's... interesting.

I will go on record saying that this is, short of any currently-unprinted legacy support, a better card than Denglong. Its targets are overall much better and it plays better with most decks. Denglong bricks were generally very bad to see and relatively weak unless you were going all in on it.

With that said, Denglong also had obvious decks to slot into--Swordsoul, Adventurer decks playing Tenyi cards, etc. I don't know what currently existing deck would want to play this since it would virtually demand a rebuild around it. I'm gonna throw a dart at the wall and mention Runick Generaider which could play Sinful Spoils for Jet Synchron or something, since that enables both Baronne and this, and Monstrosity is just about the sackiest play in that deck. There's also World Legacy Orcust, whatever you want to call the upcoming cope variant, since your backup for getting Harp Horror stopped after opening Girsu could be a Justiciar combo of some sort. But I don't expect much regardless. I guess there's also maybe some Runick Synchro deck (entirely separate from Runick Bystial, it would be P.U.N.K. or Synchron or something) that could possibly exist but I don't have super high hopes for it.

For anyone thinking about it, this card's best "obvious" targets are World Legacy Monstrosity, World Legacy Guardragon, and World Legacy's Succession. If you're trying to play Mekk-Knights, all of their backrow that negates cards on a column basis are World Legacy cards, and Girsu makes this card by himself.

Update: around 12 hours later. I've done some testing and I think Dragon Link is the only real deck for this card. In practice you need a bunch of setup for the Girsu to make this going first for your various Monstrosity decks, so your best option is actually Draconnet and that's kinda garbage. World Chalice isn't going to be stealing tops anytime soon either, and it was basically proto-Dragon Link anyways. Dragon Link can make this off of like BMD + Quick Launch and that combo is okay, ending on something like Spheres + S:P and Regained with 4 cards in hand. I don't think any of the bricks are going to see play though.

Snatch Steal

Change of Heart is back at 1 and this is actually less searchable thanks to Triple Tactics Thrust. Surprisingly, this card should actually be fine. Though there are a concerning amount of monster-stealing effects in the game, going second is currently not strong enough of an option to support a strategy built around it. (Read on.)

Semi-Limited Purrely Sleepy Memory

With Delicious limited, this is the best Memory card left, at least going first: either cat using this as material summons out Epurrely Noir which sets Purrelyeap from deck if you have another spell. Next standby you can draw a card for every Sleepy Memory underneath Noir, then activate Yeap to turn it into Expurrely Noir--and since it's now a different card, draw the same number of cards off of Sleepy, up to potentially six if you had all three. Now it's 4 at max.

This also slightly disrupts the usual line off of My Friend Purrely, which prior to this would usually reveal three copies of Sleepy Memory going first. Now it's probably going to be both remaining copies and Delicious, which is what you'd do if you already drew one.

I don't think Purrely was a particularly fun deck to play against and this hit was definitely deserved. With that said, once the Goblin archetype comes out next set, I would not expect to see much more from Purrely, even if this card was at 3.

Dinowrestler Pankratops

Last seen at 3 in Eternal format, where its statline and Quick Effect forced two-for-ones against (interrupted) Orcust, Salamangreat, and Sky Striker boards alike, Pankratops has consistently seen play since being Limited and I do not expect that to change going forward. While he has some competition with Kashtira Fenrir around, make no mistake--Pankratops is usually the better card going second and Fenrir is favored due to its utility going first. That aside, there's not enough anti-synergy to prevent you from playing both.

Speedroid Terrortop

Last seen summoning M-X Saber Invoker off of 1 card in Zoodiac format. Rank 3 monsters are still plenty strong. I would not count this card out in the slightest, doubly so if it comes to 3 later. With that said, as I recall, the OCG last played this to make Miragestallio, and Salamangreat--surprisingly--has better things to be doing than that*.

*I'd love to elaborate but it's kind of an insider secret for now.

Unlimited

Grouping these together based on relevance.

Infernity Archfiend Spellbook of Judgment

Unhits to decks that should have stayed in 2014. Launcher is still at 1 and Infernity is still going to be bad as long as handtraps exist. Judgment saw no play after its unban because Spellbooks are way too slow to compete and Jowgen control is not real.

Kashtira Unicorn Spright Starter

Housekeeping. Undoing semi-limits delivered as a slap on the wrist to decks that are largely irrelevant after Konami banned their best ED monster.

Mind Control

You can go through my old posts for proof: I was always a believer in Mind Control. I called it when it first went back to 3 and enjoyed my victory lap once it was hit again.

The game's changed a lot since: most notably, Change of Heart was unbanned (and now Snatch Steal, too...), and Triple Tactics Talent and Thrust were printed. This card is worse than all of those, so the question is no longer "Would you want to take your opponent's monsters?" and is now "Would you play this alongside the much better options that now exist?" and I think the answer is "no" for most decks. If this sees play, it will be in budget lists or in lists already maxed out on all of the above cards.

Upstart Goblin

Let's get this out of the way. Uninformed scrubs like to mythologize Hoban playing triple Upstart in every deck back in 2014 as proof that this card stayed on the list due to the power of 37-card decks, but it's been ten years and this is no longer HAT format. Most decks play hand traps and seeing Upstart going second when it could have been a hand trap is bad. This card is also unbelievably bad into Droll & Lock Bird which has seen near-constant Side Deck play since 2019, so that doesn't help either. The only reason you'd play this is for synergy or deck-thinning in decks that simply don't play going-second cards, so I would expect this to see play in Dark World (the illusion of free choice: you will still lose to Droll), Endymion decks (since those cards no longer see play in Pendulum piles) and Sky Striker (mega-cope) and very little else.

So. Not useless but I would not expect to see it in anything good.

Pot of Desires

The discussion of the relative strength of the Pot cards is very complex and well out of the scope of this post. I have been asking for a Desires ban for years and accept that I'll probably never get it, but the fact that Prosperity's drawback is so low that even ED combo decks like Mannadium can play it is not a great look for this card since you can't play both.

That said--you should literally never count this card out. It being moved to 3 is an attempt to shape the game and not a statement of this card's power level.

END

Unchained now has to choose between setting a trap off of Sharvara or making High Caesar, and they'll probably always choose the trap. The card not being at 3 also means you are much less likely to be able to hold one in hand to have your Tour Guide dodge Impermanence, or to pop your own cards on your opponent's turn unless you add it back off of Soul of Rage. This deck was mostly fair but this helps smooth out the excessively strong parts. Maybe there's a world where the deck starts playing double Shyama for Caesar but that just sounds awful.

R-ACE lost 2 copies of their best starter. I expect the deck to still perform, though this is a serious hit.

Infernoble is virtually dead in the water.

Mikanko lost universal access to Ken/Gen and will have to totally rebuild, but still has some things going for it--mostly Hu-Li.

Tear is pretty trash now. I don't think it's even in cope territory without millers, there's just no way you can expect to sack with just Scream and Tearlaments Kashtira milling 5.

Labrynth is looking very nice. Fire Kings are looking alright too. Most every FIRE deck can expect a boost once Promethean Princess comes out, including R-ACE.

Mannadium is untouched. Droll is the only thing holding this deck back--it can play through literally everything else.

Until next time.

[the-laziest-dragon]

DUEL LINKS AGAIN!! THE NEW BOX GAVE ME HOPE TO GET OUT OF MY TWO META DECKS!!

I'm super happy that new practically F2P decks are out and they're super fun and cheap!

And I got 85% of the two special decks in this box... while I was trying to get Firewall Dragon...

Now, to balance the RNG of my luck for real, here are my two main decks, a.k.a Ol' Faithful.

Express train deck, affectionately nicknamed 'TREM BÃO'. I reached Gold Rank, demolished the PvP event, and almost nothing stands against a beatdown deck.

Harpy Deck, also nicknamed 'Pompous Chickens' or 'The Chicken Attacks'. Harpia took a lot of beating for banlist and skills nerf. When I first got Silver Rank with a Harpy setup, the skill was nerfed and everything that supported it was capped.

Outside the decks that had emerged were powerful and even had anti-harpy measures (Heraldry Patriarch).

But now with Magic Musketeers and Kozmo taking over the ranks, I got a breather from annoying decks.

And the best part is seeing people forcing annoying decks on the new archetypes and failing miserably.

I just got a Magic Musketeer + Neos in PvP... If it wasn't for Neos I would have lost.

[arkadiaasks]

Much to say on the Emergency Banlist? Seems to have booted away and out the big Brake Slammer that we had...

I'm not sure it's an emergency list?

My eternal refrain is that the TCG should give back Maxx "C", as I'm pretty sure the OCG, who are the real designers, base the entire game around it.

But uh, they took away Mine and gave back Fissure and Macro to dick kick Tearlaments, but it's otherwise a "Buy Tearlaments" list with probably some negotations for some upcoming product.

Ptolemaeus especially strikes me as something for I dunno, Cyberstorm Access or something dumb within the next year and they wanted to get it out of the way.

But the TCG just generally doesn't like stall play, because the key paying demographics are dudebros who want no disruptions at the tournament they effectively paid 250 to 1000 dollars to enter that's their one vacation a year to see their friends.

[washipink]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCIvAr7Uk_8) Hey, guys! I made a video!

[vexingvixens]

@magicmuses @thathermitwiththehairpin

As I’m cleaning out my asks, I’m find all the rants I had with the both of you regarding Link Summoning and how it would affect Yugioh. I’m laughing at how I thought friggin’ Senet Switch is becoming Meta relevant. Oh the memories~

[cyberdragoninfinity]

i am actually genuinely interested and invested in duel link’s Meta History (i.e. the history of how the actual game has been played over its lifespan) because it’s just as crazy as it’s lore implications. Cards that didn’t do shit in the actual physical tcg end up causing massive Duel Links Mayhem for months until konami has to swoop in and shoot it out of the sky with an emergency banlist. I love seeing the ways people adapt and make zany decks based on the restrictions of the gameplay engine <3

[kyosmusedepository]

“God help us all if there isn’t an emergency banlist because of Ishizu Tears...”

[wanderingrustus]

...yeah, no thanks. I'm out.

Been a good 21 year run, but since Magic has officially jumped the Sharktocrab, I'm no longer interested in the story. I had a distinct feeling Kamigawa was going to poison pill the story for me, and goddamn I hate being right sometimes.

I might keep a few decks, but it's going back burner until further notice.

In the meantime, I'm going back to Yugioh full time. Hell a banlist just dropped today. It can't be all that...

...

As someone who played since day 1 (and off and on during my MtG focused days) we now live in a world where Dark Hole, Raigeki, Sangan, and Witch of the Black Forest are all legal at 3 copies. (In Sangan and Witch's defense, they had to get functional errata to be allowed off the banlist. But still...)

Emergency Teleport was a piece of the infamous TeleDAD deck, a notorious One Turn Kill that is one of few Tier 0 decks in Yugioh's history. Seeing that at 3 scares an old part of me.

And seeing Skill Drain at 3... gives me evil ideas.

Ooohhh that got ranty.

Off to brew.

Stay safe, horns up \m/ and Shine On!

[jqlgirl]

A Personal Message to the cEDH Community

Bona fides: I’m a Level 3 Magic judge and have been judging since 2009. I’ve judged tournaments of all formats and all levels from FNM to the Pro Tour. I understand how decks, formats, and metagames work and can absorb such information quickly. I’ve also been playing EDH since before it was called Commander and have been a member of the Commander Advisory Group since its inception last year.

So, let’s talk about cEDH and Flash in particular. While there have been calls to ban this card due to its cEDH implications since Protean Hulk’s unbanning in 2017, the furore has reached something of a desperate and fevered pitch in the weeks since Thassa’s Oracle was revealed. This anger redoubled this past monday when the Commander Rules Committee announced no changes to the Commander banlist in its quarterly update.

I understand the effect that Thassa’s Orcale will have on cEDH’s metagame when combined with Flash/Hulk combos. From everything I’ve heard, it puts the format in something of a solved state and reduces viable deck diversity down to a single combo that is virtually immune to interaction outside of Stifle and its ilk. It seems to me that the only matter that isn’t yet settled is if it’s better to use it with a Consultation package or a Cephalid Breakfast package. The correct answer is probably just to run both to ensure maximum flexibility.

At any rate, these FishHulk decks are going to make the format stale and no fun whatsoever. In any other format, this is beyond the pale of what would lead to a banning for competitive balance. However, Commander isn’t like other formats in that its banlist exists for a completely separate reason to that of competitive balance. Rather, the Commander banlist exists to attempt to set a baseline expectation of what is and isn’t acceptable in the format and to remove elements from the format that players at an average power level would be able to abuse to the detriment of those they play with.

Many RC and CAG members, myself included, sympathize with the concerns of the cEDH community in regards to Flash, Oracle, and its metagame issues in general. We have heard your concerns and have been in conversation with luminaries of the cEDH community almost continuously in the past few months. We understand the nature of the problem, but we have our own concerns about how making a ban solely for the benefit of cEDH players would be perceived by the broader community and if it would actually serve to “fix” that end of the format. We worry that it would just be a bandaid over a deeper wound and that we would all end up in the same position again in six months or a year. 

Additionally, while Flash may not see much casual play, there is nothing to say that recent printing of cards such as Arena Rector or Nyxbloom Ancient won’t lead to it seeing wider adoption in the community. While I’m personally of the opinion that Flash should be banned, that opinion isn’t universal among the RC and CAG, and many wish to be more cautious about making such a change. What if the next card to break cEDH is something like Sol Ring or Cyclonic Rift? Should such broadly played cards be banned for the sake of the competitive edge of the format? These are the questions we have been considering.

The one thing that is absolutely set in stone for the RC is that the banlist will never serve the purpose of attempting to regulate the format for tournament play. That isn’t what the format is meant to do and is antithetical to its goals. Magic is full of lots of other formats that revolve around tournaments and Commander is meant to be a haven away from the unfriendly elements of those events. (While many players enjoy these elements of the game, many others don’t and come to commander to get a break from them.)  In light of this, a ban for competitive balance isn’t likely to be allowed. Even if such bans did happen, they would reshape commander into a format unrecognizable to those who love it for the strange quasi-broken mess that it is right now.

As far as I’m concerned, there’s no clear answer to the problems that exist in cEDH right now. While a Flash ban would make this better for now, I feel like some other best strategy would emerge and lead to similar problems soon enough. I also don’t think that cEDH should split off from the rest of the Commander community to become its own format, as that isn’t something that the cEDH community wants.

To everyone in the cEDH community who is upset with the RC and CAG for seemingly not addressing these issues, I feel your pain and understand your anger. You fear the loss of something that you love and there seems to be nothing you can do about it. I would ask that you give us a modicum of your trust and understanding, however. Your voices aren’t being ignored and we have been doing nothing but considering these problems since before the announcement on Monday. The RC moves slowly, perhaps slower than it should, but achieving workable change takes time. I can promise you that I personally will do my utmost to continue listening to the cEDH community and sharing those concerns with the rest of the CAG and RC. I want to find a solution to this issue that will work for all of the EDH community, both casual and competitive.

If anyone wants to talk to me about this issues, you can reach me here on tumblr, on twitter (@jqlgirl) or on discord (JqlGirl#9431). Thank you for your time.

-- Charlotte Sable

[maddmuses]

IC Dueling on-blog

So to my understanding IC Dueling isn’t especially huge in the YGORPC, and that’s valid. But I deeply enjoy all the things about Yugioh, game included, and have a muse for who Duel Monsters is a significant chunk of his character. I’m skeptical that Judai would ever stop dueling, even if it killed him (something plot-wise I might explore later) and I’m sure there are other RPers who enjoy the cardgame too, or want it to feature into their plots. 

So in this post I’m going to discuss how I will be choosing to address IC duels in my roleplays, and any other YGO RPers are free to use it as well.

Scripted Dueling

Essentially what it sounds like, a duel that in which the result and plays are scripted, discussed and plotted ahead of time, usually taking character lore into account for how the duel would go. Of course, this requires some being an adult on both party’s part. I RP Judai, who in the anime had his fair share of losses, and in the manga lost a couple of times, but by the end of the manga was facing off against the current world champ. For my part, I’ll be keeping that in mind, as well as what stage in Judai’s life it’s at, when he duels.

Fade To Resolution

Essentially Scripted Dueling, but without actually roleplaying most of the duel. Like Fade To Black, but with the ending of a duel.

Dueling Engine (Casual)

Probably my favorite, building the character’s decks in a Dueling Engine and resolving it as a single game or match. Using the saves we then roleplay out the actual game. Shortening of long combos (like instead of drawing E-Emergency Call, Judai might just draw the hero he searched) and less hardcore decks are a given. Of course, we should probably agree on each other’s decks going in, so as to avoid something boring or terribly one-sided (unless that’s what we want). Also featuring potential ban lists. If a partner repeatedly drops threads (for no apparent reason) in which they lost know that I’ll probably default to Scripted Dueling going forwards, or possibly not thread with you. (Probably gonna ignore Master Rule 5 for these until April) Preferred Engine is YGOPro

Dueling Engine (More Competitive)

Essentially a more competitive version of the previous one. All this means is I’ll probably use a more hardcore version of Judai’s deck, instead of something fun. Otherwise, it’s the same as Dueling Engine (Casual). Again, if we agree on a banlist, we agree on a banlist.

[bugfragged]

Afterwards, the Burst company had to release an emergency banlist to nerf whatever the f*** Kado just did.

FALLING HOUSE - Let's Play 「 Lie of Caelum (Fall 2022 Demo) 」 - 4

[baeddel]

teaanddreaming

Even so, I think that there is synergy outside of the designed archetypes. For example, burning abyss was hit by the banlist with graff, cir, and beatrice limited, but now there is a modern version called sekka BA. It's just a big monster mash deck, and they play stuff like orbital hydralander, which requires no monsters with the same name in the graveyard because their main playmakers are limited, and they can banish multiples with snow.

Yeah right, thats definitely true. Until abt likee, 2015? Chaos Dragons was still a really big deck, and it didnt have any explicit support or anything. Chaos decks in general are very strong. And yeah I saw Burning Abyss win a UK tournament!

I used to play this crazy deck that utilized an emergent synergy between Saffira, Queen of Dragons (which does something if a Light-based card was sent from your hand or deck to the graveyard that turn, one of which is returning a Light-based card from your GY to your hand), and Honest (which you send from the hand to the GY when a Light monster you control battles to give it +ATK equal to the ATK of the monster its battling). So it goes like, you get Saffira out, if they try to attack it you can discard Honest and kill their monster, then Saffira bounces it back at the end of the turn.

The only way to get rid of her is hard removal, but the premium hard removal in that meta was typically monster effects, like Gauntlet Launcher & whatever, & those effects would be negated by Effect Veiler... which is also a Light monster that you send to your graveyard from your hand, which you can bounce back with Saffira at end of turn. So it was a very difficult card to get rid of, and if they do get rid of it (by, for example, attacking with more creatures or using more removal effects than you have Honests or Effect Veilers - or even just doing both and depleting your resources over a few turns), you can get it back quite easily because you’re running a bunch of Manjus and Djinn and so on that search out your ritual materials and Tourguide from the Underworld (hi there!) to search out your searchers & yada yada and you’re typically able to get a Saffira out next turn.

So it was really fun because your opponent had to find some other way to win the game than just summon their big guys, blow up my board and attack. They had to wear me out on attrition. And forcing an OTK deck to play a war of attrition, when my deck is all about attrition, puts me at an advantage. So it was a really cool deck! And not something that was ever explicitly authored. It also worked well with the chaos package - you could very easily get out a Chaos Sorcerer to wear down their board, or play a Thunder King Rai-Oh to stop them developing threats, and Black Luster Soldier is kind of your win condition. So it’s a very fun deck.

I don’t really know why it wasn’t more competitive, but it was always a weird fringe deck. I feel like its probably only gotten better lately, with Honest at 3, BLS at 3, and getting a new cycleable card in the form of Ghost Ogre, to blow up their backrow. And Monster Reborn at 1! And no Shaddols to worry about, so you can get your key pieces more reliably. 

[arkadiaasks]

How come barely any of the duelists in the series arrange duels so that there is some sort of presiding judge to make sure that play is actually fair(other than the hackable duel disks)? A judge would have been incredibly useful in making sure to prevent shadow game-esque shenanigans via disqualification or to enforce an emergency banlist in case one or more cards prove to be too unfair for dueling, as is often the case in the anime. Most duelists want fair play anyway, so why not have judges?

The companies or conspirators involved don't want them, and often want Shadow Games.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

I regret to inform everyone that there will not be Playoffs this week as one member of the crew is busy. However, that will not mean a loss of Yu-Gi-Oh! content!

Something that I noticed from our pack pulls for Phantom Darkness and Light of Destruction is that progression wasn't going to really show what made these packs insane. Dark Crusader OTK or Batterymen, while good in prog, didn't represent the meta at all.

These two formats were dominated by two different decks: DAD Return and Gladiator Beasts. DAD Return was so powerful it needed an emergency banlist in May 2008 to reduce its power, while Gladiator Beasts went unchecked until the release of Duelist Genesis and TeleDAD.

These were basically Tier 0.5 decks, decks that were clearly better than anything else in the format, had favorable match-ups against every other deck, but weren't truly Tier 0 in representation. Just very close.

Since many people are unaware of how powerful Dark Armed Dragon and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus (with special mention of Cyber Valley here) were, and since our progression isn't going to show that off...

@salamangreatsunlightwolf and myself are going to be playing mirror matches of these iconic decks for today's stream! These decks were so overwhelmingly powerful that you were typically playing many mirror matches over the course of an event, and that's really what separated good players out.

So come today, 4:30 PM EST, to watch Memedoka and myself duke it out for...for the marbles I guess? Do we have marbles????

Also graphic design is my passion. If I wasn't making this suitably edgy and dramatic it wouldn't fit.

[theeinhoernchen]

Here we see everything wrong that lead to the (first?) emergency banlist:

-Gimmicky effects focused around swarming usually inspired by the anime

-no (hard) once per turn clauses