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Dr. Strangelist, or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Ban--Part 2

From: "chaosmech@juno.com" <chaosmech@juno.com>
Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 19:39:40 GMT


Hey folks, Chaosmech back again with the second part of my article on the banlist. This is on the new banlist, effective April 1st.

WARNING! This is a very long article.

Banned:
Butterfly Dagger—Elma
Change of Heart
Chaos Emperor Dragon—Envoy of the End
Confiscation
Dark Hole
Fiber Jar
Harpie’s Feather Duster
Imperial Order
Magical Scientist
Makyura the Destructor
Mirage of Nightmare
Monster Reborn
Painful Choice
Raigeki
The Forceful Sentry
Witch of the Black Forest
Yata-Garasu

Limited to 1:
Black Luster Soldier—Envoy of the Beginning Breaker the Magical Warrior Call of the Haunted Card Destruction Ceasefire Cyber Jar D. D. Warrior Lady Dark Magician of Chaos Deck Devastation Virus Delinquent Duo Exiled Force Exodia the Forbidden One Graceful Charity Heavy Storm Injection Fairy Lily Jinzo Left Arm of the Forbidden One Left Leg of the Forbidden One Lightning Vortex Mage Power Magic Cylinder Mirror Force Morphing Jar Pot of Greed Premature Burial Protector of the Sanctuary Reckless Greed Reflect Bounder Right Arm of the Forbidden One Right Leg of the Forbidden One Ring of Destruction Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys Sangan Sinister Serpent Snatch Steal Swords of Revealing Light Torrential Tribute Tribe-Infecting Virus Twin-Headed Behemoth United We Stand

Semi-Limited (2 copies)
Abyss Soldier
Creature Swap
Dark Scorpion—Chick the Yellow
Emergency Provisions
Good Goblin Housekeeping
Gravity Bind
Last Turn
Level Limit—Area B
Manticore of Darkness
Marauding Captain
Night Assailant
Nobleman of Crossout
Reinforcement of the Army
Upstart Goblin
Vampire Lord

The cards that weren’t on the lists before are:
Banned: Elma, Scientist, Change of Heart, Confiscation, Forceful Sentry, Fiber Jar, Makyura, Mirage of Nightmare, Painful Choice
Limited: DDWL, DDV, Delinquent Duo, Graceful Charity, Lightning Vortex, Mirror Force, Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, Sangan, and United We stand
Semi-Limited: Abyss Soldier, Dark Scorpion—Chick the Yellow, Emergency Provisions, Good Goblin Housekeeping, Gravity Bind, Level Limit- Area B, Night Assailant, Upstart Goblin, Vampire Lord

Now, for an in-depth look at these newly added cards.
1. Butterfly Dagger—Elma
Did it need to be banned? Yes
Why? It involves a Spell Counter combination with Gearfried the Iron Knight. Equip it to Gearfried, it’s destroyed, but it adds a spell counter to Magical Marionette or Royal Magical Library. Because it’s destroyed, it returns to your hand, allowing you to play it again. Because MM has no limit for Spell counters and gains 200 ATK for every counter, you can easily get it up to infinite attack. Play Megaton Magical Cannon, remove 10 of those infinite counters, and clear your opponent’s field for the direct attack. Game over. Royal Magical Library allows you to draw your whole deck, giving Exodia the instant win.
2. Magical Scientist
Did it need to be banned? Yes
Why? First of all, it’s a common, meaning everyone can have it. Second, it’s part of a combo involving Catapault Turtle. Because the Fusions you summon can’t attack directly, your next best option is to kill your opponent on the first turn by making sure they don’t have LP over 8350. get Catapault Turtle on the field, preferably with something like Reasoning. But the best combo I’ve come up with is special summon Gilasaurus from your hand, tribute it for Catapault Turtle, then play Last Will and SS your Scientist. Boom. Pay 1000 LP for a Fusion with 2200 ATK, then tribute it with Turtle. Repeat six more times. Your opponent is down to 7700 LP while you are down 7000. Tribute Scientist with Turtle’s effect, then use its effect on itself. GG, people. Other applications involved summoning Ryu Senshi, Dark Balter the Terrible, Fiend Skull Dragon, Thousand Eyes Restrict, or something similar.
3. Change of Heart
Did it need to be banned? Maybe
Why? Well, it was a free control with no stipulations as to face-up or face-down. It was only for one turn, but unlike its partner Mind Control, it was free and the monster could attack and be tributed. Often it was used to just get the monster out of the way for a direct attack. Snatch Steal provides a semi-viable replacement.
4. Confiscation
Did it need to be banned? Not really
Why? Well, first let’s ask Upper deck why they gave Delinquent Duo back. It has the same cost as Confiscation, but takes away two cards, not one. Granted, you don’t get to look at your opponent’s hand, but a 2-for-1 card advantage is not something to be scoffed at. Delinquent Duo belongs on the banlist more than this does.
5. The Forceful Sentry
Did it need to be banned? Maybe
Why? It’s free, for one thing. For another, you get to look at your opponent’s hand. Once you look, you can send a card back to their deck and shuffle it. Not as potent as Delinquent Duo or Confiscation, but being free, it’s a 1-for-1 and a free look at your opponent’s hand. D. D. Designator, anyone?
6. Fiber jar
Did it need to be banned? Probably yes
Why? It is easily the most powerful of the Jar series. You get to reset the game pretty much except for cards removed from play and the LP. Many times, it was used to clear the field for a direct attack on your opponent. Plus, if your opponent summons a monster, they can’t summon once Fiber Jar is flipped and the game is reset. They have only Magic and Trap cards to defend themselves. Additionally, with a new ruling, Fiber Jar was shuffled back into the deck, allowing for two or three Fiber cycles per duel. It will probably stay on the banlist for a while yet.
7. Makyura the Destructor
Did it need to be banned? Most definitely Why? Well, if you look at its effect, you get to play traps from your hand if it’s sent to the graveyard. This involves a combo like Graceful Charity plus Chick the Yellow and Call of the Haunted. Play Graceful, dump Makyura and Chick. Play Call from your hand after clearing the field, special summoning Chick from the Graveyard. Attack. Return Call to your hand, destroying Chick. Play Call again. Special Summon Chick again. Attack again. Repeat until your opponent’s LP are zero. GG, man. The other combo involves Reversal of Worlds, which hasn’t come out in America yet. Dump Makyura via Graceful or something else, then play Reversal of Worlds. Both players’ graveyards are swapped with their decks. Your opponent has no cards in his/her graveyard, so they can’t draw on their turn. They lose. You win. A most overbalanced card.
8. Mirage of Nightmare
Did it need to be banned? Yes
Why? Looking at Mirage’s effect, we see that it allows the player to draw cards until their hand is four during their opponent’s standby phase. Then, during the controller’s standby phase, they randomly discard the same number that they drew. At first, this seems like even advantage. I mean, you just hope you dump the crappy cards, right? But a small quick-play Magic card changed all that. Emergency Provisions, which has been moved to the Semi-Limited list, got rid of Mirage during your opponent’s turn, giving you LP and letting you keep the cards you drew. But with Mirage banned, does Provisions really need to be banned, too?
9. Painful Choice
Did it need to be banned? You’d better believe it.
Why? Well, it is the perfect way to get Chaos fuel in the Graveyard. Choose 3 Lights and 2 Darks, or 3 Darks and 2 Lights, and no matter what your opponent gives you, you have monsters in the graveyard to Special Summon BLS-EotB. The perfect Chaos support card.

I’ll save the Limited and Semi-Limited cards for next time. Until then, keep it cool!
Chaosmech