Hello Pojo Fans,
 
The man who is forever banned: E-HERO Stratos. Maybe next ban list? Probably not.
 
Elemental HERO Stratos has been banned for a very long time. In that time we've seen cards get errata'd and brought back, stronger cards get banned and come back, and cards that are like Stratos come back, but never Stratos.
 
Good ATK, searchable with E-HERO support and RoTA, Stratos may still be banned because his effects aren't limited to once per turn, and they can happen whenever he is summoned. A free E-HERO, D-HERO, OR Evil HERO search of any level or S/T destruction equal to HERO monsters on the field (minus Stratos) are pretty good effects to have. There are ways to get both effects off in the same turn and it isn't hard to do this. Regardless, HEROS aren't being played in the top tier, and putting Stratos at 1 wouldn't make a gigantic splash in the meta. He's WIND so it doesn't gel with Allure or Chaos support. He has weak DEF, almost anything can run over 200 DEF. Sure, you could A Hero Lives Stratos, get the search, Special Summon something from the Extra Deck, then Special Summon Stratos back to get another search or S/T destruction if you have another HERO out, but you are still comitting cards. If they would errata Stratos to be “once per turn” I think not only would he be off the list, but he'd be either semi or unlimited.
 
Stratos has always been a great card. The more you commit to him, the better he can be, but I don't think he's game-changing or devastating to your opponent. He's just a good card.
 
Advanced-3.5/5
Art-4/5
 
Until Next Time

I had the honor of picking the cards this week and I picked some banned cards for a little fun. To kick the week off, I decided to pick the running joke of the Forbidden and Limited List, Elemental HERO Stratos.
 
Stratos gets his effect when Normal or Special Summoned and has two different effects you can choose from.
 
1. You can destroy Spells/Traps up to the number of HERO monsters you control, excluding the Stratos you summoned.
 
2. You can add a HERO from your deck to your hand.
 
For the first effect, having an ability to destroy any opposing disruption plays is handy for the HERO deck, they also have R - Righteous Justice for this, but Stratos is just better cause of the second effect you can use.
 
Every deck now a days gets a searcher, but Stratos was one of the first to do something like this. This allowed to extent plays for a Destiny HERO engine back in the day along with Destiny Draw, it helped with Fusion HEROes later on with all the Attribute Specific Fusions, and it would be nice to have a good Wind HERO for the Wind Masked HEROes since everyone loves Dark Law Turbo already.
 
If you play against a HERO deck when Stratos is legal, you will likely see Stratos pop up a few times in the game, especially since it can be searched off Reinforcements of the Army and E - Emergency Call. Stratos is just that good for the HERO deck, which is why Konami might of wanted to ban it, but it didn't really need a ban to be honest, especially considering this card was banned at the time Spellbooks and Dragon Rulers were dominating the meta and the only deck that could really compete was Evilswarm due to their great matchup against Dragon Rules. Yeah, Stratos can come back, especially considering OCG has 2 of them, but I won't complain too much personally if it didn't.
 
Advanced Rating: 4.5/5

Elemental HERO Stratos
 
Starting off a week of banned cards is Elemental HERO Stratos, a level 4 Wind Warrior with 1800 attack and 300 defence. Stratos is also the one of the requested cards to return from the ban list.

Stratos comes with a pair of effects, but only one of them can be activated when he's normal or special summoned. The first of the two lets him act as spell/trap destruction, allowing you to destroy a number of spells upto the amount of other HERO monsters you control. This is a great effect as you decide what's destroyed at resolution and it doesn't target.

Stratos' second effect lets you add any HERO monster from your deck to your hand. And again, it's a really good effect, allowing you to search out whatever HERO you need for the situation.

Stratos is just a really good monster for a now under-used archetype. HEROs in recent years have been relegated to being a small engine with only Shadow Mist and Bubbleman seeing the light of day. Stratos is solid support for HEROs, and does a worse job than more recent searcher monsters for more recent archetypes.

Advanced 5/5 Even coming back at 1 will revitalise HERO decks, giving them a new lease on life.

I picked a good time to come back, as we look at some Banned cards this week.  So in addition to reviewing the card, it seems necessary, to at least throw out an opinion as to whether the card in question should/could be welcome back.  Elemental Hero Stratos kicks off the week.  Stratos is serious power for the Hero player.  See, back when Stratos came out, they didn't have half the support they did now.  He would obviously be in the builds of about all, I would think, he's just that good.  He's a great attacker as well (at 1800).  He gets to activate his effect (of your choosing) when Normal OR Special Summoned.  Sometimes, a card is just too good.  He can stay Banned
 
Rating:
 
4/5 (if legal)
 
Art:  4.5/5

The longstanding ban on this card a prime example of tradition based thinking instead of nonbiased thinking.  For its time, it was am archetypal +1 (well ahead of the rest) but today its only 1 of dozens.  The DHERO engine was somewhat of a problem perhaps but it did get hitm. Without Disk, Stratos isnt very broken.  At this point Konami should just never unban it to affirm its meme status.