From: Anteaus44@aol.com [mailto:Anteaus44@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 1:48 AM
To: yugiohcrew@pojo.com
Subject: The New List-Anteaus



Hello everyone, and welcome to yet another edition of Anteaus' [insert cool name here]!

Today, we're going to be talking about the supposed "new" banlist from Konami/Upper Deck (or just Konami, because Upper Deck obviously doesn't have any balls to stand up to Konami):

NEWLY FORBIDDEN CARDS (0 copy per deck):
Chaos Sorcerer
Snatch Steal
Temple of Kings (Not Out Yet)
Thousand-Eyes Restrict
Tsukuyomi

NEWLY LIMITED CARDS (1 copy per deck):
Future Fusion
Gravity Bind
Green Forest Baboon (Not Out Yet)
Magician of Faith
Nobleman of Crossout
Ring of Destruction
Spirit Reaper
Ultimate Offering
Victory Dragon (Not Out Yet)

NEWLY SEMI-LIMITED CARDS (2 copies per deck):
Exiled Force
Giant Trunade
Reckless Greed
Wall of Revealing Light

First off, what the f***? I'm sorry, but Snatch Steal banned? OK, first off, Snatch Steal added a lot of much needed balance to this already over-powerful metagame filled with 3x Cyber Dragon, 2x Zaborg, plus everything else in this friggin game right now. Dumbest thing ever. Tsukuyomi I can understand due to its awesome combo potential with not only Magician of Faith but also mill with Magicial Merchant, Drop Off/Mask of Darkness (however unlikely since all three components are restricted to 1), and many others. Chaos Sorcerer is finally banned, and I don't give a s*** who you are or how you feel about him, he needed to go. He's Chaos, and all Chaos is idiotic. It's what every metagame since October '04 has been. About damn time. Thousand-Eyes Restrict didn't need to be banned, period. Hell, he shouldn't even be restricted, but that's just my personal opinion.

Future Fusion belongs at 1 per deck. Period. Chimeratech Overdragon is too g0dly to f*** with, and if you ban Drop Off/Mask of Darkness, you sure as s*** need to ban this. Gravity Bind at 1 is just plain stupid. Kill off Burn's last defense, as well as cripple Uria decks, hell, even Cannon Soldier/Black Ptera decks (which are so much fun to play). Magician of Faith and Nobleman belong here forever, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sick and tired of Graceful Charity being played against me a bazillion times, and then Nobleman a bazillion times more. It sucks. Now stay there. RING IS BACK!!!!!!! Oh man, I can't believe it, I finally get to dust it off! It's been months since I've played this card...years, even. It's nice to see it back. The way I always saw it, it wasn't even that great, nor gamebreaking. It's balancing, and to restrict Gravity Bind...this is the least they could do. Reaper at 1. F***************** (use your imagination on that one). Kill the very last vestibule of stall in this game. WTF were they f*****g thinking? Ultimate Offering needs to be there, it's too good. Many people don't recognize its potential, but it's there. Victory Dragon, whenever we happen to get it, needs to never see the light of day again. Too f*****g good, in my opinion. Too cheap for me. Cheaper than Yata, by a long shot (oh, the good ol' days...)

Exiled Force is at 2, which is good. We needed another balancing act in this meta. Trunade should still be at 3, though, because defensive traps are going to be tough to break through. But then again, that's good, right? Maybe this is a good thing, after all... The other two are just meh. Who cares, no one runs them, although Exodia gets some semblance of a boost (even though MoF is down to 1).

This list blows. It does nothing to help us whatsoever, and I understand that metagames are different. Fine. Then be fair and deal with every metagame! Personally, I don't a rat's ass about the Japanese metagame because chances are I'll never play against it. What I will play against, however, is the American/Canadian metagame, which is far more aggressive, far less technical and a helluva lot more messed up. This is where Upper Deck needs to step in and say "look, if you're going to mess with Japan's meta, then mess with everyone's meta, starting here. Cyber Dragon is too good. Zaborg. Others. You know? It's frustrating to see Upper Deck just bend over the way they do, and I'm getting tired of it. Granted, they did do some good, like Chaos Sorcerer and Magician of Faith. But still, it doesn't address all the problems that we still have.

Now then, I see some possible decks arising out of the full-on death of Chaos:

Bazoo/Return comes back.
Warrior Toolbox (albeit without D.D. Assailant)
Soul Control
Machine
Exodia (packing 3 of all the flip-draws and others)
Cyber-Stein
Dark World

I dunno, that's just a short list. Now on to what should be on the banlist (cards that can't go in your deck at all):

Cyber Stein
Confiscation
Chimeratech Overdragon
Graceful Charity
Chaos Sorcerer
Future Fusion
Snatch Steal
Victory Dragon

One per deck:

Pot of Greed
Delinquent Duo
Dark Hole
Change of Heart
Ring of Destruction
Magician of Faith
Nobleman of Crossout
Deck Devastation Virus
Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
Skelengel

Two per Deck:

Cyber Dragon
Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
Drop Off
Book of Moon
Scapegoat
Pot of Avarice
Exiled Force
D.D. Assailant

Why none per deck:

Stein's too good. Confiscation/Forceful Sentry in exchange for Delinquent Duo is OK by me. Besides, this way it provides a bit more balance. Chimeratech Overdragon belongs here, end of story. Graceful Charity for Pot of Greed and Dekoichi down to 1 and Skelengel down to 1. I can live with that. Sorcerer belongs here. Chaos belongs here. Forever. Future Fusion, even without Chimeratech Overdragon is too good. Sorry. Snatch Steal for Change of Heart is good because you only get it for the turn. Another good balance card. Victory Dragon is cheap and wrong, like LA prosti...nevermind. Too good. Sorry.

Why one per deck:

Pot of Greed and Delinquent Duo I kind of explained. Dark Hole is some mass destruction that we sorely need in this metagame, even with the list I am proposing. It's nice to kind of, I dunno, start over. Change of Heart, again, I covered. Ring of Destruction isn't that good, come on. Magician of Faith needs to be here, so does Nobleman. Sorry. Deck Devastation Virus also belongs here, because with the new list Dark World is a definite possibility. Dekoichi and Skelengel are trades for Pot of Greed.

Why two per deck:

Cyber Dragon is good, but not good enough. Same with Zaborg. Sure, they're both metagame-defining cards, but with the list I am proposing, it's necessary to have some balance for the over-abundance of control cards. Drop Off is not that good. Even with the Tsukuyomi/Mask of Darkness lock (which is gone anyway), two won't kill us. Book of Moon makes up for the loss of Tsukuyomi, plus it's another balance for Cyber Dragon and others. Scapegoat isn't that good, either, just more stall/burn card that can be coupled with Cannon Soldier. But other than that, you can't morph into Thousand-Eyes Restrict anymore, so who cares? Pot of Avarice is good in two. It's just better, because now you can recycle that one Magician as well as those beatsticks that we keep taking and stopping. Exiled Force calls for the return of Warrior Toolbox if he's at two, but I don't care. He's an even 1-for-1, end of story. So is D.D. Assailant because he has to die to get his effect.

This was long, but necessary. Sorry, but it's true. If you agree, great, let me know. If you don't tell me why. Talk it up on the TCG page. You guys have been doing an awesome job, keep it up. This list is something that we all have to deal with and play by, but we can still bitch about it all we want, right?

Cheers,
Anteaus