Greetings duelists! The new banlist was just posted up on yugioh-card.com a few days ago, so I am here to give my opinion on it, and give insight on what decks should be the winners and losers of the format. I am fairly happy on what they all did for the most part. As always, there are moves that none of us will ever figure out. Cards getting touched like Bottomless Trap Hole and Solemn Judgment, is something I will never be able to figure out. Solemn is one of the most skilled cards of all time, and they limit it? Solemn certainly is powerful, but if someone plays it at the wrong time, they lose because of it in most cases. I do not like any one for one removal being touched at all. Cards like Bottomless Trap Hole, Fissure, and Smashing ground should be at 3 per deck, no questions asked. They brought Fissure back finally, but messed the other two mentioned cards up/didn‘t do anything.

     D.D warrior Lady back to 3 per deck is nice to see, and shouldn’t have been limited to begin with, so that was a good fix. This alone may allow Chaos to be playable. Breaker and Destiny Draw to 3 per deck was solid fixes in my eyes. Breaker is not broken, and can be dealt with easily, and Destiny Draw puts Destiny Hero oriented decks back into the mix for competition. Monster Reborn, Dark Strike Fighter, and Crush Card Virus certainly needed the ban hammer, so I am happy to see that was done. All three of those cards are way too powerful for the game, and can be abused too easily. Card of Safe Return got banned, so they could help the zombie deck out on being playable but not overpowered. Safe was also touched to allow Mezuki to come back, I am sure we all remember how stupid zombies were with Card Of Safe Return, right?

     They certainly destroyed the Rescue Cat deck, putting both Rescue Cat and Summoner Monk at 1 per deck, but I am not crazy about this move. I think the best move would have been just to ban Rescue Cat, and put Summoner Monk to 3 per deck. Cat is too broken to stick around, and Summoner Monk is essentially the Reinforcement of The Armyish card for any deck that I have long been waiting for. Black Rose Dragon being put to one per deck is really dumb to me. Black Rose Dragon allows you to punish your opponent for overextending., and I feel the same about Torrential Tribute. So having either of those lower than 3 per deck just doesn’t make sense to me.

     Cold Wave and Mind Control being put to one per deck was a sign of relief no doubt. Cold Wave locks your opponent down for 2 turns actually, so no way in hell should a card like that remain untouched. Mind Control is ridiculous in power, since the game introduced Tuners and Synchros into the game. It should not be that easy to Synchro summon, that is just bad for the game.

     Enough of talking about single cards, I will now  begin discussion on what decks should see play this upcoming format. It is rather hard to say exactly what will win, so these are only assumptions. I will list every semi playable deck as well, and explain how I think it will far in the format.

Perfect Circle
     This deck is now playable again because of the moves that were done with the new banned list. They slowed the game down, put Destiny Draw back to 3 per deck, as well as lifting the past restriction on the amount of Raiza’s that you can use. These reasons alone make this deck a powerhouse. I can tell you now, people are gonna complain about all of the spin cards that this deck uses. 3 copies of Raiza the Storm Monarch, 3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, and even a few copies of Legendary Jujitsu Master. It will be very hard to stop the deck once it get’s going. Because of this deck, Pulling the Rug and Thought Ruler will see wayyy more play.

Gladiator Beasts
     So, until they ban Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, this archetype will always be a contender. This is the new age toolbox deck, so being able to dig for a card to help you out in basically any situation is too hard too pass up. They have War Chariot, and that card alone may be the reason why the deck will see play and be successful. No other playable deck has their own Divine Wrath like card, and nobody can loop a card like this deck can as well. My quess would be that all the Gladiator builds will use 2 copies of Elemental Hero Prisma, and 2 copies of Gladiator Beast Darius. The deck will now be based around Gyzarus, and they will main deck copies of My Body As A Shield to help them pave the way to victory. The only question that people have been asking me about this deck would be, “Is Solemn at 1 per deck going to cripple this deck type?” The deck is not crippled, but it now has to play differently. You now cannot set a bunch of cards, but I don’t see this switch of play style stopping the deck

Lightsworn
     It is really hard for me to explain this deck to be honest. With all of the powerhouse cards that this deck can use, how hasn’t it won a Shonen Jump yet? Lightsworn was the only deck not affected by the banlist, so is it finally time for this deck to shine? I still say no to that. The deck is certainly powerful, but is too luck based to win with. Sure, if you mill wulfs and Necro Gardnas every game, you will win. What happens when you draw the two mentioned cards though? Yeah, you lose. With the plethora of cards that it can use, I will guess that somebody will make a more control-based build of the deck, and then it may have a chance to win.

Zombies
     Are Zombies going to make an impact on the game again? My answer is…..no. The game being slowed down, and Mezuki going back to 2 per deck will certainly help, but I don’t see them having enough to get over the hump. In the past, cards like Il Blud and Ryu Kokki used to be powerhouses, but now they just get laughed at by all of the advancements in the game(Synchros/Gale/etc). Card of Safe Return getting banned was certainly needed, but that did make Zombies less playable obviously. If Cosr was still around, the deck could spam like crazy and make mass synchros, but they now cannot go for +1’s constantly. The Zombie deck in my opinion won’t be a threat, but taking parts of the deck and splashing it in other decks may be good. Teching 2 Mezuki, 2 Goblin Zombie, Spirit Reaper, PlagueSpreader Zombie and maybe a tech Zombie Master or Pyramid Turtle will certainly be good in the Perfect circle, since it will give you free tribute fodder, and allow you to gain advantage. But who knows, this is Yugioh afterall.

Blackwings
     Can they win next format, that is the million dollar question. They will be okay, but I doubt you will see them win a Shonen Jump. Gale was their bread and butter card, so that getting hit really hurt their chances. A lot of people that I talk with say that just replacing the two copies of Gale that you lose, with two Vayu solves the problem. WRONG. No card will replace Gale power wise. Speaking of Blackwings, Vayu is very overrated. The turbo deck is decent, but not amazing anymore. Dark Strike Fighter isn’t around anymore, and any synchros you bring out will get spun or destroyed. This also will fall under the “who knows” area though. Somebody could make a solid build

Six Samurais
     Yes, I just went there haha. We all know what the deck used to be able to do, and I think it can win in this format. Sure ROTA, Reasoning, and Monster Gate going to one per deck hurt the archetype, but being able to mass summon and using cards like Six Samurai United will get you thinking. Being able to mass summon and having The Warrior Returning Alive may be enough to make the deck playable. Nobody will enjoy seeing a constant 2100 beater on the board, followed up by the toolbox like stuff in the deck.

     So there you have it ladies and gents. All of the should be top decks, and decks that people are talking about. It is hard to say what deck will be ontop, we usually find this out after 2-3 Shonen Jumps. In my eyes, a lot of decks have the potential to be good, we just need to give it some time and see how the format shapes up. Hope you all enjoyed my ranting.