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GeneralZorpa on Yugioh
Comments on the Banlist
 February 18, 2010

WTH??????!!!!!!!
 
For those of you, last night it was revealed and confirmed that this is the OCG banlist. It is on the forum, but here it is just in case you have not seen it.
 
Restricted
Chaos Sorcerer
Tragoedia
Necro Guardna
Necroface
Mezuki
Lightlord Summoner - Lumina
Burial from a Different Dimension
Foolish Burial
Destiny Draw
Charge of the Light Brigade
Allure of Darkness
Mind Crush
Magical Explosion

Semi Restricted
Honest
Cyber Dragon
Demise - King of Armageddon
Dandelion
Treeborn Frog
Black Whirlwind
United We Stand
Royal Decree
Royal Oppression
Skill Drain

Unrestricted
Mask of Darkness
Smashing Ground
 
Pretty cool huh? The utter complexity of the changes is what makes me so confused. There were a lot of changes made that only make sense in the OCG, and not here. Skill Drain, Decree, Explosion and Mind Crush are big over there, but you will be hard pressed to find a TCG player that will play these cards at a main event.
 
The big thing that we see is that the Lightsworn deck has finally been caught up with the rest of the game. Charge, Necro, Lumina and Honest are the real backbone of the deck, and now Lightsworn players are looking for new means to send cards from their deck to the graveyard.
 
WE also see that Black Whirlwind has been sent to 2, which helps to control the massive amounts of support that the deck will get with the release of The Shining Darkness. Allure also hurts the deck, but it willnow be mor ebalanced as players try to make up for lost speed.
 
Zombie decks are all but dead, with their two trump cards, Burial and Mezuki all but out of the picture.
 
Gladiators were for once not touched, and that means that players will FINALLY take a look at them and see what they have been missing out on. The deck doesn't need to be fast now, and it is resilient in the face of anything we can throw at them.
 
Chaos Sorceror
 
I honestly thought that this card could have stayed at 2, but the reasoning must be that cards that can go into many decks must be controlled. I do think that we have not seen the last of our Sorceror friend, but he will certainly be less of a force in the new format.
 
Tragoedia
 
Actually a ridiculously overpowered card, even though people didn't really run more than a pair, it was far too powerful to leave out there. Gorz was at 1 and was not quite as good as Tragoedia, so it only seems fair that they share the restricted list.
 
Necro Gardna
 
This was one of the big hits to Lightsworn. Without this card, the deck is unable to keep up with field presence as they are decimated by attacks and effects. COmbined with Lumina and Charge, the current Lightsworn deck is all but dead. It has been forced into more of an explosive aggro deck rather than an all out blitz for the finish.
 
Lightsworn players might want to try out a little trick from the common pile, Lightsworn Barrier. It is a continuous trap that allows you to send two cards form the top of your deck to the graveyard to negate an attack. Well, that solves a lot of problems for the deck, as it helps with Necro Gardna's loss by blocking and mills cards almost like Charge. Awesome.
 
Necroface
 
This is another one o those weird OCG bans that appears to have no apparent value. It allowed an odd breed of Zombie deck to pull out some rather amazing wins, but it was very inconsistent when compared with the main build. Honestly, I feel this was a bad call. Mezuki and Burial have been dealt with, so this card does not really NEED to be here, it is just Konami hammering the point home.
 
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
 
Well, we all should have seen this coming. This card is rather overpowered, even considering it's small size. Summoner cards often allow a deck to pull out victories when there is nothing left, and Lightsworn could also set up amazingly well with this card and Garoth. With this card at one, the deck loses a lot of redundancy, and I expect that Beckoning Light and Monster Reincarnation will see far more play because of her absence.
 
Burial From a Different Dimension
 
This was actually a smart choice. This allowed abuse of many different cards, chiefly Mezki, Plaguspreader Zombie and Necro Gardna. I think that putting it at 1 actually makes it completely useless, except as maybe a tech card in an Absolute Zero build that happens to have a free slot. This is the final nail in the coffin for Zombies.
 
Foolish Burial
 
This card was actually fine at 2 I should think. Most of the main decks that would use it were already wrecked, and it allowed a few more cool decks like the Neo Spacien deck to see some table time. I do hope that it will come back, as I have some very cool ideas for it in the future...
 
Destiny Draw
 
Well, we had to see it sometime, this is where this card should be, finally putting those pushy D-Heroes back into the shadows. It allowed for some rather amazing things to happen over the years, and I for one am glad to see it where it can make no more trouble for us all.
 
Charge of the Light Brigade
 
This is another example fo Konami's "Make it Cheap So Everybody Buys It and Then Ban It" policy that allows them to make lots more money (CCV and Honest ar ethe other two). It was a very overpowered card, an example of Konami desperately wanting Lightsworn to be good. Well, this was the enabler for the deck. Milling without consequence was always good, and this card allowed you to search out the perfect sollution to a problem that you might have.
 
The card also allowed certain decks to be able to combine Lightsworn and off beat strategies for the acceleration and graveyard growth. This is one selection that i whole-heartedly aggree with.
 
Allure of Darkness
 
This is one of those cards like Breaker that likes to flirt with the banlist. I do not think that at 2 it was bad, it just allowed DARK decks to be able to be faster than the average Joe. This is actually a theme with this banlist, as DARK and LIGHT are made slower and less powerful, while other strategies are promoted. This card is actually a great one, and I hate to see it on the limited list but I can see how it would go there. Nevertheless I hope it comes back to two so we can get SOME draw power in the game.
 
Mind Crush
 
This card was actually very overpowered, simply when combined with Trap Dustshoot. Against Blackwings it allowed control of Black Whirlwind, but I guess that was taken care of. I can see why it happened, I just dont know the instigation for it, but there ya go.
 
Magical Explosion
 
This is one fo those overpowered cards that actually should have been here a long time ago. The clever Japanese have made a deck that will win a great majority of the time with this card in it, even thoguh they have taken away cards that made it good, it keeps on popping up, and nobody likes a turn 2 win pretty much without fail.
 
Honest
 
This is one selection that I do NOT agree with. This card is a boon to ALL LIGHT decks, not just Lightsworn. It was kind of a broken card though, as defense should come from spell and trap cards and not from the hand.
 
Of course this hits Lightsworn very hard, as they lose their ability to stop attacks with both Honest and Necro Gardna. This leaves them far more open to attack and in general defeatable. Even though I am loathe to admit it, there is some logic behind the choice, but it doesn't mean that I have to like it.
 
Cyber Dragon
 
FINALLY!!! It should be at 3 and that is all I have to say about that.
 
Demise, King of Armageddon
 
OMG, they gave me my favorite toy back!. Combine this with the new Ritual dude from ABPF and Dark Master Zorc as well as the Ritual Support and Djinns, and we have one hell of a deck to play. I can totally see a Ritual Comeback, especially as Trade-In is still available for abuse.
 
This is the perfect example of a balanced card. Powerful, but the deck needs to be built around it to be successful and you are punished in card advantage if you bring the card out too early or in the wrong situation.
 
Dandylion
 
This is one card that I do not know why they let up on. It is incredibly good, and when combined with Monarchs can mean some SERIOUS trouble. It is good in SYnchro decks as well, making Gigovise have yet another nod from Konami. In general a good card that should have stayed at one, and I think will go back there.
 
Treeborn Frog
 
Again, very similar to Dandylion, making Monarchs that much better, in theory. Treeborn does not work if another Treeborn is on the field, so playing more than one just allows you to have more discard options and more resilient to D.D. Crow. Honestly, he should be at 3, as most people will only run one. However, Aariku will be happy, he gets his frogs back.
 
Black Whirlwind
 
This is a card that I did not expect to see here as it is SO vital to the success of the Blackwing deck that it COULD majorly hurt it in the long run. I can see why they did it though, as more support for the deck comes out, people will be playing the deck more and more. It was already VERY popular, and this just makes sure that people do not go overboard with their dedication to this particular deck.
 
United We Stand
 
This card is one of th ebest Equip Spells. I happen to use it in Gravekeepers, which coincidentally got VERY good with ths list, and I may decide to run another copy as a 1600 ATK boost on a Spy is nothing to be sneezed at. I approve of this decision.
 
Royal Decree
 
I am just going to put this in the WTF column, but I can sorta see a reason. It kills Gladiator decks, which I guess Konami doesn't want? Trap Stun even does it's job better. Eh, maybe Jinzo will see more play becaus eof this, but we will have to see...
 
Skill Drain
 
This is another WTF change, but there must be something on the horizon that make sthis card better. I do not see it though, but it means that Skill Drain decks just got punched in teh face, even though they were not exactly the best out there...
 
Mask of Darkness 
 
This is a card that I expect to see more play, as reusing Mirror Force is a VERY good idea and you can really abus ethis little guy. I approve of this.
 
Smashing Ground
 
This card is actually very good, and it gives a lot of power to anti-meta ddecks, as they can sit behind a blocker like Thunderking and then smash away their worries. This actually makes Fissure obsolete again, which is not really a bad thing. Maybe Gadgets make a comeback...?
 
That is the end of this article, I will be coming up with Lightsworn V 2 with my next article as we explore less explosive wins for the deck. If you need advice or have a question, please email me at raptor1k@hotmail.com and put YGO in the title so I don't throw it out.
 
Thanx for Reading!
GZ