[BenTheGreat1210@aol.com]
Ban-list and a Look at Zombie Decks
 
I decided to write a little rant on the Ban List since, appearantly, many of the kids who come to my Toys R Us tournament this saturday were shocked to find out that some
of their favorite cards were about to go the way of the dodo. Besides, I ran a Lava Golem deck this week and, while it did well (loosing only to one chaos deck) none of the
matches were of particular interest. However, this kid, the one w/ the chaos deck who was able to hand it to me twice, was quite upset to learn that a large portion of his
deck would have to be scrapped (although he was happy to learn that both types of tourneys still plan on being held). Anyway, I digress. Now, i know that a good deal
of writers and duelists better than i have written in-depth pieces on the subject, but i want to share my opinions on the matter as well.
So here is the list, as i have read anyway, andwhat i think about it, especially in regards to the tournaments at my store.
 
YATA- Pretty much the most powerful card in the game. Strong enough, ironically for such a weak bird, to provide an expirienced duelist with a ridiculously high chance of
winning, and often gives poor duelists a fair number of victories as well. Obviously, in a card game where cards are played, then discarded, the 'power' to replenish your
hand is critical. Cards like yata that can stop this permanently bother me. Drawing in this game, IMO, should not be a power, but more of a fact, something that WILL
almost always happen, regardless of the circumstance. Yata messes this all up. I am fine w/ cards like drop off and time seal, b/c at most, they will only stop you 3 times,
 6 if you are running the max # of each (and in that case you are probably not going to win anyway.) But yata can stop you from drawing for an entire match. A very cool
card in its own right, but just scary powerful to be allowed. (for the same reason i think that its stupid Yugi is allowed to, and chooses to play w/ the God cards in the
anime and movie).While it, like all cards IS counterable, history has proven that it often isnt. the CED lock can pretty much not be blocked unless you play Solem
Judgement or something b/c of the multi-trigger effect. anyway, this is a lot on yata and there are a bunch of cards left.
 
INJECTION FAIRY LILY- Personally, i have no idea why this card is on the list (for now anyway). A few people (girls not suprisingly), play this cute little card, and have
moderate success. MODERATE. A very good card, but 2000 lp is a LOT of lp. couple that with the fact that if you play her against me, i will magic cylinder you, and it will
hurt. Not sure why shes here, i only hope that she's freed soon.
 
CYBER JAR- The banning of this makes me sad, especially since i just recently acquired it and its one of my favorite flips. I guess i can see why though, helps with field
controll, fills your hand, ect. However, its a flip, and its already restricted, and its not a sure bet thanks to Nobleman of xout, sauske and the bunch. i frankly just like it
for its drawing power, and i guess that alone is a decent enough reason to ban it. we have a good amount of drawing cards already. and in a game about speed, i dont
know how many more we need. (again, i personally would like the game to be a little slower, more like building an army rather than sending in commando units).
 
FIBER JAR- I have never played this card and have rarely had it played against me. I think the power to reset a duel is awesome, and frankly i dont mind it too much. The
problem comes in when people reset the duel like a million times. IMO this could be fixed if they just changed the ruling  to something like once the card is flipped, and the
duels reset, its removed from play or whatnot. I like it, i wish it wasnt here. moving on...
 
HARPIES FEATHER DUSTER- Like i said, i prefer a slower gameplay, one that usually involves traps. HFD is too good. one of the # of cards on this list w/o any sort of
draw back or balance.Now, while i tend to run a decent amount of S/T protection (usually an amount comprable to my S/T removal- not sure why
judgement of anubis isnt  played more often), many decks do not. HFD is too unbalanced really to be allowed any more, especially given the amount of S/T removal at our
disposal. Losing this card, i feel can only help the game. If anything openning a spot.
 
RAGEKI- The monster HFD. pretty much, i dont like this card for the same reasons. No draw backs. When we have a good amount of monster removal/ feild advantage
cards in our decks (or binders) already (dark core, rageki break, DD Warrior Lady, Tribe). A brief sidenote: I personally think more monster removal cards should take the
form of Monsters, like DD Warrior Lady and Tribe. I just like the idea that a monster is removing a monster. While it gives us the problem of adding 'monster staples' to our
decks, i think that there could be equivelant cards made that would work w/in other deck archtypes. Thats my thoughts on it anyway.
 
CHANGE OF HEART- Another card, pretty much the best at what it does, changing control of a monster. Another one of those 'no drawbacks' card, unless you count that
its a spell speed 1. It doesnt really annoy me that its on the list. In the current game, monsters are on the field for a very short amount of time, and being left defensless,
even for a turn, is a crushing blow (granted maybe you should have packed a waboku :-p) In my prefered game mode, a bit slower, more like limited, where 2 monsters
on the field at a time would be more standard, Change of heart wouldnt have to be banned. But again, we have other viable options (enemy controller, creature swap), which
work just as well. So heart can stay here i guess.
 
IMPERIAL ORDER- Cheap cheap cheap cheap cheap. i know i said i liked s/t protection, but i dont like this card. I dont like Jinzo, I dont like anything that stops an aspect
of the game near indefinatly (yata). I mean, yeh i know the can be countered, its a trap, blah blah blah. I just dont like it. i especially dont like that you dont have to pay.
700lp~ thats not that much. pay it! grrrrr
 
PAINFUL CHIOCE- I like this card a lot. I think banning it will hurt some really 'original' deck types. Exodia Necross, Gate Gaurdian, ect. While Card destruction is a viable
replacement. I really like Painful Choice. It adds some strategy on the part of both you and your opponent. A mind games sort of scenerio. Perhaps if it was choose 4
discard 3 or something a little less strong, it wouldnt have found a home w/ the forbidden.
 
DELINQUENT DUO- Yeeeeeeeh, its pretty strong. 1000lp for ditching 2 of your opponents cards? Personally, as i play a Zombie deck, i like seeing this card played against
me. They think they're all bad stealing 2 of my cards...oops? Despair from the Dark? they find out that there are much badder baddies than their two little imp-ish type
spell creatures. I like the idea of hand destruction decks, this card is the crux of many of those decks. Therefore, Im not all that happy seeing it here.
 
Well, thats all that I have read is on the list. And if they're not, or if i forgot some ect, at anyrate this was a pretty decent look at some of the games more played cards.
Now, onto a deck type that is growing increasingly popular, and i believe will be even stronger after the ban....Zombies!
 
Lets start with some general characteristics...
 
Offensively- these cards typically are not all that strong. I mean it took untill AST to get even a 1800 beatstick-ish monster. Thankfully, its common. Zombie Tributes, too,
are in general not all that tough in terms of attack (ones that are playable that is). Patrician and V.Lord (two of my favorite cards) are only 2000. Ryu Kokki at least is
2400, good, but not great. And Despair is 2800, great, but harder to play than the others. I personally like to use a Mystic Plasma Zone, since most the playable zombies
are dark anyway. Gives them a boost (Field cards are so underrated), and distracts your opponents MST's.
 
Defensively- i feel that this is one of the strongest deck types around. Spirit Reaper, Reaper on the Nightmare, Patrician-Lock with them both. If you can protect 2 monsters
on your field for an # of turns like this, the match is looking up. If anything, at least you're annoying your opponent. V.Lord keeps comming back. Despair, his brother Fear
and Regenerating Mummy are the ultimate protection against Hand Destruction and can help block the old CED combo. Now a lot of people say defensive, like lp gain,
is a losing strategy in Yugi. However, the Pistons were able to take a defensivly-minded team and crush the offense-only west coast Lakers. And besides, a good
defense leads to excellent field advantage for the most part. And who doesnt love field advantage :)
 
Effects- This ties into the above section. Zombie effects, unless you are playing a Zombie desruction deck, often lead to field advantage. With out cards like Rageki CoH
and Cyber Jar to weaken that advantage, a Zombie player is sitting pretty until he/she draws what they need to move on.
 
Speed- Speed, one of the most crucial aspects in Yugi, is a double-edged sword for the Zombie duelist. 3 new searchers in pyramid turtle, Call of the mummy, and 3
copies of the best recursion card in the game (outside of Reborn) helps add a swarm-esque attribute to the Zombie deck. Pyramid turtle is basically a Zombie's Tomato.
True, not as good as Witch or Sangan b/c it has to be involved in battle, but still quite potent. Call of the Mummy is critical in alleviating the stress of carrying 4-6 tribute
monsters (as i believe a Zombie deck has to). Not as able bodied swarmers as warriors possibly, but good. Now the bad part. Like i mentioned with Call of the Mummy,
Zombie decks are very tribute heavy, a result of having pretty bad 4 stars, and a lot of potent upper level monsters. Thankfully, Pyramid Turtle helps too. Both thinning the
deck, so you can get those support cards you need  to mantain your field advantage, and easilly getting a level 5 or up monster onto the field. Book of Life is AMAZING.
Better than Reborn IMO, that is if you are playing a Zombie deck. You can have 3 of them, remove a monster from your opponents graveyard, and Special summon that
V.Lord who just happened to get beat up. Its often nice too, because i find myself slamming a Ryu Kokki into a BLS Envoy. 600 damage, but no more BLS, revive Kokki,
remove BLS. True you lose the hand management game and 600lp. But 600lp is negligible, and i think its a fair price to destroy what is often the backbone of many decks.
Des Lacooda, helps your drawing power as well, letting you use some offerings to the doomed w/o setting yourself up for a yata lock.
 
Yes Zombie decks are tribute heavy, may not promote the best hand management, and are not strong enough to win you the duel in 1 turn. But they are very resilliant,
and increasingly well supported.They can disrupt the hand, robbin zombie, soul abosorbing bone tower, V.Lord, V.Lady, etc, adding versitility to their list of characteristics.
Since Chaos decks seem to rely on weaker monsters in general, i dont find the atk weaknesses of a lot of Zombies to be a huge disadvantage. While many of the decks
seen at this years world championships were chaos (and by many i mean all), i think that soon Zombies will begin to give them a run for their money, being a more
streamlined unit.
 
Sample Zombie Deck in Post-Ban Environment
 
Monsters =18
1x Vampire Lord (One of the best cards, let alone Zombies, in the game)
1x Ryu Kokki (Strongest 1 tribute Zombie, can deal w/ BLS Envoy)
2x Patrician of Darkness (Patrician-Lock, Attack Spirit Reaper)
1x Despair from the Dark (Protects against Hand Control)
3x Regenerating Mummy (Best 4 Star zombie Protects like Despair)
2x Spirit Reaper (A wall, one of the best stall cards in the game)
3x Pyramid Turtle (Special Summon high level zombies, deck thinner)
1x Sinister Serpant ('monster staple')
2x Double Caston (Help's get out Despair, 1700 atack)
2x Des Lacooda (Draw power during Patrician Locks)
 
Magic= 18
3x Book of Life (Recursion)
1x Monster Reborn (More Recursion)
1x Creature Swap (New CoH)
2x Call of the Mummy (Special Summon high level Zombies)
1x Pot of Greed (Draw)
1x Graceful Chairity (Draw again)
1x Mirage of Nightmare (Draw once more)
1x Darkhole (Field Advantage)
3x Mystical Space Typhoon (S/T Removal)
1x Heavy Storm (More S/T removal)
1x Mystic Plasma Zone (Bump up those low Attack Stats)
2x Offerings to the Doomed (Field Advantage)
 
Traps= 6
1x Ring of Destruction (More Monster Removal)
1x Call of the Haunted (Recursion again)
1x Raigeki Break (a card i Really find versitle)
1x Magic Drain (Just to mess with their hand a bit)
1x Waboku (Field advantage for one more turn)
1x Mirror Force (Field advantage again)
 
Total= 42 (I like the idea of a 42 card deck, w/ all the special summoning going on anyway)
 
Side Deck = 15
2x Metamorphasis (Reaper on the Nightmare, Thousand Eyes Restirct, Dark Baltar...get em out w/o problem)
1x Swords of Revealing Light (Stall...like spirit reaper)
2x Soul Absorbing Bone Tower (If you want to play hand control)
2x Vampire Lady (If you want to play hand control)
1x Card Destruction (Hand control AND a means to dump High level Zombies to be reborn)
1x Scapegoat (Solid card)
1x Tribe Infecting Virus (Would have put it in the main deck. but if it is reborned against you, you have some problems)
1x DD Warrior Lady (Great card, not a Zombie)
1x Robbin' Zombie (Hand Control deck)
1x Spell Shield Type 8 (S/T protection)
1x Judgement of Anubis (Look above)
1x Waboku (an extra Waboku)
 
This is pretty much the deck i play, except i prefer to go the Metamorphasis route, b/c people dont really expect me to Thousand Eyes Restrict their Tyrant Dragon. Anyway, there are multiple varitations on this deck type, and there will be in the future. anyway...
 
Comments? Questions? Love? Hate? I love mail so hit me up at
Benthegreat@aol.com