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RikotheFoxKid on Yu-Gi-Oh!
November 2015 Forbidden/Limited List Review I sat in
my lecture, aimlessly browsing Reddit on my phone (because
for whatever reason I can never pay attention in class; it’s
a surprise that I do as well in school as I do). I stumbled
across an amusing post on r/yugioh, asking why Burning Abyss
Decks didn’t run Dark Core over “slower” cards like Karma
Cut and Raigeki Break. I shared this post with my best
friend, who also got a kick out of it. A few
minutes passed, and I got another message from him: “Banlist” “Holy ****
this list” “We did
the right thing selling Shaddoll” I’m
surprised. I wasn’t expecting the list today, but from the
sounds of it, something big happened. I decided to check it
out. … “Wtf…” “I don’t
even…” “What?” “I’m so…
surprised…” “Nothing
is real.”
“EVERYTHING IS DEAD” After over
three months of waiting, Konami finally graced us with an
update to the Forbidden/Limited List, effective on November
9th (after YCS San Jose), and to say that it was
a shock is a massive
understatement. Many changes were made. Decks were hit hard.
Those who clung to their meta Decks of the past year were
met with the unpleasant reality that they’ll have to build
something else to keep up. Those who were tired of the same
Decks dominating since August of last year were ecstatic to
see how much things will change. Because
this list changes everything. The game is not going to be
the same. Normally,
I break down the list by section (newly Forbidden, newly
Limited, etc.), and explain each change individually. I
don’t think that’s appropriate this time around; the changes
are vast, and no one change affects a Deck by itself like in
the past; a good number of the relevant Decks suffered
multiple hits
this time around. Therefore, I think it’s much more
appropriate to show the full list of changes and then
analyze how each meta Deck is affected. Prepare
yourself:
NEWLY FORBIDDEN:
NEWLY LIMITED:
NEWLY SEMI-LIMITED:
NEWLY UNLIMITED: Taking a
first glance at this, you can already tell that this is
huge. Think of a meta Deck; it probably didn’t get away
without something happening to it.
Generic Changes:
Evilswarm Exciton Knight to
0 This came
as a big surprise to me; of all the cards that I thought
could get hit, Exciton was not one of them. When I think
about it though, I can see why. Exciton stole games; a field
nuke is very hard to recover from, and Exciton could do it
on a whim due to the sheer versatility of the Rank 4 engine.
Not doing damage for the turn is a small trade-off for the
advantage you get off of it. I won many games solely because
of Exciton, and when testing post-list I found myself
missing it a lot as a result. Exciton
was also a strong answer to Pendulum Decks; with several of
those on the horizon, that may well have been another factor
in its banning.
The four Unlimits None of
these cards are relevant anymore, so this doesn’t really
change much. The one that I think has the most potential is
Spellbook of Fate, simply because (in my opinion) Spellbook
wasn’t powercreeped as hard as other Decks from the
2013-2014 era. It’s still subpar compared to other options,
though.
Nekroz:
Changes: Shurit to 0,
Brionac to 1, Unicore to 1 After
having a dominating grip over the game since its release
back in February, and only suffering minor hits, Nekroz
finally got knocked down a lot. I expected Unicore to go to
1, and was not surprised by Brionac either; both of these
would do an effective job of curbing the Deck. But the
banning of Shurit caught me completely offguard. That
straight up removes any chance of the Deck having viability
in the future metagame. Shurit did so much for the Deck that
not being able to run him at all is going to be a much
larger blow to the Deck than Brionac and Unicore being
Limited. I think it’s safe to say that Nekroz’s reign is
finally over.
Burning Abyss:
Changes: Graff to 1, Cir to
2 Hitting
two of the three main Burning Abyss monsters does a number
to the Deck’s ability to grind effectively. Burning Abyss
excelled in the grind game, which allowed it to quite easily
cover for its low ceiling. The engine is potent enough that
it might still be able to do something, but with one third
of its primary grind cards gone, along with poor matchups
against future Decks, it looks like Burning Abyss is going
to sink into the abyss.
Shaddoll:
Changes: Construct to 0,
Mathematician to 1, El Shaddoll Fusion to 1 Shaddoll
might have been able to survive with a Limit on El Shaddoll
Fusion. It would have survived a Limit on Mathematician. It
would have survived a Limit on Construct. But
banning Construct? It can’t survive that. Construct was the
heart and soul of Shaddoll; she gave the Deck an incredibly
powerful boss monster that also furthered its gamestate.
Without her, the Deck can only play a control game with
Shekhinaga as its best option, but this is much weaker. The
OCG suffered similar hits a few lists ago, and the only
variant of Shaddoll that was able to see regular play
afterwards was Train Shaddoll; unfortunately, we don’t have
a lot of the necessary cards for that build in the TCG.
Until we get them, Shaddoll will probably lie dormant. It’s a
shame, because Shaddoll spent every format after
The New Challengers
being outclassed by something else; the Deck was good, but
Burning Abyss, Qliphort, and Nekroz were just
better. To see it
get shafted so hard when it struggled to hold on for most of
its lifespan is heartbreaking. But at the same time, had the
Deck gotten away, it would have remained a top contender,
especially with other Decks falling to the banlist. A strong
Kozmo matchup would have solidified this, so it’s not too
surprising it got as many hits as it did.
Qliphort:
Changes: Towers to 0, Scout
to 1 Banning
Towers eliminates Towers Turbo as a Deck, and Limiting Scout
means Qliphort can’t reliably sit on floodgates as it gains
more and more searches per turn. Good
riddance. This Deck was cancer, and even if it wasn’t
dominant, it sure as hell wasn’t healthy for the game.
Satellarknight:
Changes: RotA to 1 After
winning Worlds, people expected Satellarknight to be hit
hard because of the “World’s Curse”. This wasn’t the case,
and they got away with nothing more than a Limit on RotA.
This is still significant, in my opinion, because it lowers
the number of ways they can get to Deneb in both the early
game and the late game. RotA is also a very powerful generic
card, so I can understand why they decided to Limit it once
more. Satellarknight probably isn’t dead, but it was already
less relevant than other Decks, and with less ways to open
Deneb, it may have to rely on the Star Seraph engine in
order to keep up with what’s coming out.
Ritual Beast:
Changes: Ulti-Cannahawk to 1 I don’t
get this. Ritual Beast has never been a dominant Deck, and
it barely had a
place in the metagame. I really don’t know how they
justified hitting this card when there were no results at
all suggesting that the Deck warranted such a hit. Ritual
Beast is still playable with a single Ulti-Cannahawk, but
you’ll have to take much more care in keeping it alive as a
result, and the Deck already had issues with consistency, so
it won’t be making an impact.
Unaffected Decks: Infernoid
and Kozmo both got away with no hits. Infernoid just won YCS
Dallas, but its inherent consistency issues mean it’s not
likely to be a major threat going forward, especially with
what lies ahead. Kozmo getting away comes as no surprise, as
it’s about to receive a large amount of support in
Dimension of Chaos.
You can expect Kozmo to be the primary Deck of the format at
least until the
Master of Pendulum Structure Deck, at which point it
will have competition in the form of Magicians. 2016 will
bring other Decks into the fray as well in the form of the
Monarchs and everything coming out in
Breakers of Shadow. One Deck
that also got away unscathed was Clownblade, which has been
largely written off due to the banning of Lavalal Chain;
despite this, it had two Top 32 showings (one of which made
it to Top 16) at YCS Dallas, showing the Deck can in fact
compete. The only loss the Deck suffered was Exciton Knight,
and if the Deck follows the same path it did in the OCG, it
will continue to evolve into a stronger Deck as more sets
come out. With most of the metagame getting weakened, this
may give Clownblade a chance to make a name for itself in
the TCG.
Conclusion: This is
the largest meta shift caused by a banlist since the end of
the Dragon Ruler formats. The metagame that has been around
since Duelist
Alliance has finally ended; Nekroz, Burning Abyss,
Shaddoll, and Qliphort have all been hit to the point that
they likely will not be able to compete in the future.
Satellarknight will likely struggle to keep up with future
Decks. We’re looking at a metagame that will likely be
dominated by Kozmo for at least one month, at which point
things will shake up again as better Pendulum Decks are
released. Early 2016 is going to shake things up as well
with Breakers of
Shadow bringing a lot of powerful cards into the TCG. An era of
Yu-Gi-Oh! has ended, and a new one has begun. Everything is
going to be different. And I look
forward to it. ~Riko
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