Dark Maltos

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Dark Maltos's Dueling Dome
Industrial Speculation
August 17, 2006

In the early hours of the morning a supposed ‘Confirmed’ ban list for Japan appeared today on our very forums. As we all know, our own ban list has been rescheduled to coincide with the release of the OCG one, and last format our list was a direct copy of the OCG one, thanks to Konami’s insistence on a unified Yugioh game on a global scale. Bearing this in mind, it’s highly probable that this list will be our own. If this list does go through and finds its way to our own, we could be in for some hurt. We’re working in hypothetical s here people. These are the differences :

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

Most noticeably is the ban of Chaos sorcerer. Now I’m sure there’s a lot of people jumping up and down on there chairs now that the pesky Sorcerer is out of the way, but lets think about it people, outright banned? Comparatively to his Envoy counter parts, he was nothing. Barely a spec on the radar. Certainly by other cards standards he was very good, a great monster, with a removal engine. But I personally feel that a restriction would have done almost as much as a ban anyway, without the loss of a very cool card. With only one Chaos monster to fuel the deck, there would be less reason to run constant Dark and Lights, and it would give the decks more room to breathe. Still, as it stands, at least now a card will be considered outside of its Light and Dark benefits.

The next noticeable ban is that of Snatch Steal. Actually, a move I quite agree with personally. Snatch Steal had been a great card in its time, but had been balanced by the sheer presence of all the other cards around it. When those kicked the bucket Snatch Steal’s dominance was greatly exemplified. With it you could steal the opponents best monster from them, and there was virtually nothing they could do. Sure there were counters, but I scarcely ever was able to use them. Snatch essentially said remove their last defense and hit for game.

The banning of thousand eyes restrict was neither here nor there. Since it’s initial restriction its play has been severely hindered , and has hardly ever been used effectively since.

Tsukuyomi was one that really surprised me. Sure it’d been used to recycle a few MoF’s ( a point I’ll reiterate on later), and it could nail the Monarchs fairly easily, but that’s part of what made it so good. It defined the meta without breaking it. A card was considered for it being Tsuky- proof, a trait which most cards used up until now were. Asides from this it was the use of a summon to flip a monster over. At restriction, not very powerful at all. This, along with many other moves by Konami in the list, including the banning of Chaos sorcerer , deeply hinder any prospect a spell caster deck had for any competitive success, which really gets me down.

The limitation of Future fusion was an obvious attempt to stop the Chimeratech OTK. Another stab at Konami at fixing a problem by losing the support for the card instead of the problem outright. Future fusion has been considered the best recent attempt at making something unplayable playable. Fusions finally had a chance, but now its been cut short for the sake of Chimeratech. A card that will reconcile this small dent in the OTK destruction by replacing the fallen Future fusions with Magical Merchants, and come out unshaved. This is like shooting the accomplice, and letting the crook off Scott free.

Gravity bind’s restriction is another nail in the coffin for the seldom seen Burn deck, joining its old pal Level limit Area B on the list. Coincidentally, this also kills any competitive Uria deck ideas I’ve ever had, but like you care anyway. Did Gravity bind merit restriction? Well I guess that’s just a matter of opinion, some would say no, and others yes. Frankly, I can see both sides of the argument.

Ultimate offering’s restriction is there for Gadgets in Japan, a problem we’ll soon be facing in the West with the up and coming Machine structure if the rumour are to be believed. Since its never been used here anyway, it won’t phase us much, and is a nice bit o hindsight for what the future may hold, so a smooth move on their part.

Nobleman of Crossout and Magician of Faith have found their way back on the restriction list, and arguably rightly so. These two are almost intertwined with each other now. Both at 2 at the same time, both at 1. Nobleman counters Faith, Faith retrieves Nobleman. Its sweet really. Magician of Faiths departure also hinders the Apprentice Swap / Spell caster decks ready to up rise, which sucks too.

Spirit Reaper has also found his way here, and its about time. Lets face it, he’s been a nuisance for a while now, and it’s about time he hit the hey. Invincible, annoying and takes a crd from your hand on occasion. He’s as good as any other card out there right now, restrict him.

Now , as with all ban lists, we normally get a few cards back for what we lost. In this case this results in one, Ring of Destruction. Everyone loves this card, its sweet, and deadly. Its also the best counter to the next deck type to form a CC status, but I’ll go into that later. Ring deserves to have some play again, although you could argue its frankly too powerful to be back. I understand the reasoning, but WOOT !! Ring’s back !!!

The Semi limiting, as always is less spectacular , but not negligible. For intance, EXILED FORCE AT 2 !! The best news I’ve heard all week. Exiled is a great monster, and didn’ merit restriction. You exchange a summon for there’s. Infinately more fair than any Smashing Ground or the like, where you are then free to pursue with the onslaught. Still, the only problem arises when you see that with Reinforcements still at 2, Exiled and the DD’s could be a massive power search, just like in the old Regressive format days.

Wal of revealing light doesn’t matter in my eyes, nor does Reckless Greed. Giant Trunade is quite interesting though. A great card like this merits restriction easily, but at 2 it hardly puts a dent into the problems it can cause, with most decks never running more than 2 anyway.

So, if indeed this is the list we’ll receive what’s set to change? Well, the most noticeable change will be the advent of the machine subtype. The title of this article acts as a very clever one, with a devious double meaning. On one hand it refers to the rumous coming out of the Konami industry, and Yugioh industry in general. On the other it refers to the way the meta will switch in the upcoming months.

This list does little in the way of stopping the Cyber Stein Revolution, with the only half way decent defense being Ring of Destruction. Even then its cutting it close. Stein will hit us like a bar of steel, in a machine deck uprising that’s inevitable, along with his pal Chimeratech over dragon. This is a note that should be added to my Cotd for today. Chimeratech will rule the format , mark my words. Along with Stein, we’ll be seeing a huge cyber dragon fusion uprising, and there could be little we can do. We’ve already seen their success in this format, let alone in this supposed one.

If you give in to the rumours, the future is perfectly clear. Cyber Dragon is finding its way into a tin soon, Gadgets are hitting the shelves in a starter deck. Cyber End dragon is a promo in a new toy out, and is potentially in a 3rd edition of the Master Collection Series. Reflect bounder is semi limited, and then we have Jinzo again, proving for an all powerful combination of a Machine deck that is near impossible to beat. Bear in mind that the entire OTK combo for Chimeratech comes in one 60 card set, and we’re in for some Dark Ages here people. Slowly, machines have got more and more support in one form of another, and now we’ve got a battle on our hands if these rumours are to be believed, a battle against the cold, hard steel shell of the new wave of CC, as powerful as Chaos, except un restricted. Expect not only Cyber Stein’s value to exponentially exceed any other rare card ever printed, but for duels to last at most 5 turns either way. Oh yeah, and just wait for Magic Cylinder to make it’s triumphant return.

Have a good one guys, if the rumours are to be believed it could be your last few good ones for a while to come…..


Dark__Maltos@msn.com

Have a good one guys