Saturday, July 7, 2012

The September Banlist - Hopes & Expectations

As we all know, this format is one of the craziest (worst, to some people) ones we have ever had in the game. Virtually every high-tier deck has some kind of OTK spamming potential, or can eliminate an opponent's hand if they don't open with a handtrap. Each of these decks has some kind of element that can be viewed as "unfair". Any deck without this factor is generally lower tier. Now usually I don't do these kinds of things, where I'm going to list what I think should be on the ban list and my explanations for things. This is a mixture of predictions and my "wishful expectations". I can't say I could come up with a "good" list if my life depended on it, but it's clear what the problems are with our current format, and by making the appropriate adjustments, we may have a decent format for at least like the first half of it. Regardless of what the list is, people will always have something to bitch about it. I took inspiration in putting actual thought into making this after watching GreatFailsMontana's video talking about the ban list, and how there basically needs to be a mass ban of all decks to bring some order back into this game.

Note, there may be some unconventional cards/strategies that I overlook when suggesting these changes, as I'm not a card database, which would null and void the particular change. I'm not trying to suggest retarded changes that would break the game, so excuse me if I suggest something that would.

Ban:
BLS - I don't care what anyone says. Regardless of how many Veilers, Bottomless, or Torrential may exist in the game, BLS is BLS. The king of easily-summonable boss monsters. The summoning condition is a joke, and his effects and stats are simply too powerful.
Wind-Up Hunter - Generally decks that can wipe out an opponent's hand don't last long, and this is the one card that makes Wind-Ups over the top.
Card Destruction - While it really only gets played in Dark World, this is the one card that makes the deck unfair in my opinion. Originally designed as a card with a "drawback" (the -1 you take), can easily turn into ridiculous advantage in Dark World. The deck would still be completely playable without it.
Future Fusion - This is the legal version of Painful Choice for Dragons; any form of Painful Choice should not exist in Advanced. If something like Five-Headed was banned instead, I still think Future Fusion is the type of card that can be easily exploited in some kind of deck at some point in time anyway.
Gateway of the Six - Even without this card, Samurai can easily "go off". With this card though, they do so just way too easily. The one card that makes the deck unfair, but still good without it.
Monster Reborn - When you compare this to the other recursion cards we have, this one takes the cake. No drawback, no cost, no setup (compared to Call), no restrictions on whose graveyard. This card outright wins games in a lot of occasions and I think it's time for it to go.
Pot of Avarice - Back in the day, it's restriction on putting back 5 monsters was seen as a bad thing. In decks today, getting to re-use extremely powerful monsters isn't a bad thing at all, with a free +1 on top of it. Too good.

Restricted:
Inzektor Dragonfly - This is the card that makes Inzektors ridiculous. Getting to easily summon 2 monsters from the deck, which are going to net even more card advantage, and potentially for the OTK, is unfair. Leaving this at 1 still makes the deck playable, just not so ridiculous to the point where "topdeck Dragonfly for game" would be a regular occurrence.
REDMD - This is sort of a dual-purpose hit. One, is to settle down Dragons a bit, and the second is "preventative maintenance" for the card that is Gustaph Max. One Red-Eyes is fair I think, especially with banning Future Fusion. If you can get rid of the 1 REDMD, that makes Pulsar much less scary.
Rescue Rabbit/Evolzar Laggia -  I'm not sure which deserves the hit more, but realistically it should be Rabbit. Rabbit is a 1-card Laggia, while other decks like Evols have to "work" for their Laggia. I think Evol is a fair deck, while I don't think the concept of Rabbit into Laggia is. Even Konami admitted that they knew it was powerful before it was even released.
Super Polymerization - Like the REDMD case, this is also preventative maintenance for when Escuridao gets released to us. A lot of Hero players would love to maindeck this card, but the lack of Escuridao makes it a potentially dead card. A card that is unstoppable, and takes your opponent's monster and turn it into a beater of your own, is kinda crazy, regardless of the cost. The purpose of hitting it to 1 is to reduce the probability of it being drawn. Heroes in general aren't broken, but any card that doesn't give the opponent a chance to respond to at all is pretty dang good.
Tour Guide - When you take into consideration Konami's article about how they don't like auto-include splash cards (which is how they explained nerfing the Plant engine), the Tour Guide engine takes the cake. Almost any deck you make these days starts out with 3 Tour Guide 1 Sangan without thought. Konami has made their money off the card in Battle Pack, so I think this would be a realistic hit. Obviously it being a TCG exclusive doesn't even matter, as we saw with Tengu.

Semi-Limited:
Gemini Spark/Miracle Fusion - Neither card is too broken per se, but if people flock to Heroes due to the list, they should have some aspect be hit.
I can't really think of anything more that deserves to be put down to 2 this time around, but a few that can go back up, to 2.
TG Striker - Coupled with the below card.
Agent Earth - Clearly putting both of these cards to 1 basically made them stop being played. Whether it's just TGs, just Agents, or TG Agent, none of those have been making an impact in the meta and I don't think either going to 2 would make either deck over the top.
Formula Synchron - There are basically no 1-star Tuners left to be abused, who knows it could probably go back to 3 with Fishborg, Bulb, and Spore all banned.
Black Whirlwind - Time to give Blackwings something back. Leaving Kalut at 1 makes this card fair in my opinion, and even with BWW at 2 I don't think the deck would see much play. It just makes it so the deck still has a tool after a single MST.
Final Countdown - I think putting this at 2 is enough for the deck to not get played, simply because it lowers the probability so much of drawing it turn 1. It doesn't need to be straight-up banned, but I think it going to 2 would make players more hesitant in running the deck at all.
Scapegoat - Why is this even at 1? There's no Morph, you can't XYZ with tokens, and you can't use them to tribute. Buys you a few turns, you can Synchro with them, cool with Creature Swap, sure, but so what. Goat is actually one of those cards that punishes Swap just as much as it helps it.

Clean-Up:
I don't think these cards going back to 3 would make the game ridiculous. Changes in the list also can warrant these being taken off.
Archlord Kristya - Even when Agents were played, 3 Kristya was never ran anyway. 
Lonefire Blossom - Spore and Bulb are banned. With Avarice banned, what would Lonefire into Lonefire into Lonefire get you? A Tytannial or Dandy? So what. Sure you get some deck-thinning, but no Avarice makes it kinda pointless in my opinion.
Emergency Teleport - For the most part, this card flopped at 2. With Hunter banned, I doubt 3 would be ran in anything anyway.
Magical Stone Excavation - Does any deck exist that runs 2? Would any deck exist that ran 3? Probly not.
Primal Seed - Even with BLS in the format, no one runs this crap. With BLS banned, there's no reason for this to still be.
Swords of Revealing Light - Messenger of Peace and LLAB are much better cards, and I can't recall seeing any deck play 2. It'd probably be the same if it was at 3.
Mind Crush - Not ran at 2, can't see it ran at 3.

4 comments:

  1. Thousand Eyes Restrict : Instant Fusion ;)

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  2. Hmm, yea you're right lol. Banned.

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  3. I think mind crush at 3 would make gadgets totally unplayable against darkworld. And i love your idea of BWW coming back to 2! BW needs to return and deliver justice to the format~

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  4. Now that the banlist has came out I see quite a few of the expectations have been fullfilled. Although it is a bit late I think that you are right in that dino rabbits and inzectors deserve to be hit hard, but I think that with future fusion gone REDMD should be put at 2, because Future Fusion is basically what gets it on the field. The problem with punishing Chaos Dragons too much is that when they are weaker they will just be replaced by another really expensive deck (like wind-ups) and there goes one of the only cheap tourney winners in the game...

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