The Unfixable Problem

While any number of people can tell you that what they believe the ban list should take care of is the right solution to the woes of a particular format, the bottom line is that no matter what actually happens, we as duelists will always be unsatisfied with the outcome.  There will always be some kind of issue or problem that someone has with the ban list, no matter what happens.  In the past few days, I have read over a number of different lists that would vastly change the game if they came to fruition.  While I think the process is rather trivial and will have absolutely no impact on what Konami decides to actually do, it is fun seeing what opinions people within the game have on the topic, and what kind of insight they can offer to the topic.  In my mind, it can show the difference between people who are actually mindful of what is going on in the format, and consequently, the people who are not mindful of what is happening.

I have shared my list on a few different places, including locally amongst friends, and on Duelistgroundz prior to this.  Until now, I had not really given any serious reasons as to what I had on the list, but below I will go into a bit further detail.

Newly Forbidden:

Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning – While I understand that this card had not been seeing much play prior to the release of Shaddolls, I can also recognize that this card is extremely degenerate and bad for the game of YuGiOh in the long run.  Not only being able to steal games, Black Luster Soldier, can single-handedly swing a game’s outcome from a sure-loss to a win.  Black Luster Soldier is not good for the future of the game, because it limits card design in the sense that, decks that have the ability to play good dark/light monsters have the ability to splash Black Luster Soldier at no additional cost to the deck’s consistency or synergy.

Honest – With very similar reasons to Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, Honest has the ability to absolutely steal games from the opponent that have no business being won.  Additionally, any deck that can play light monsters is given a significant boost, as they are able to splash this card, again for little to no cost to the deck’s consistency.

Mind Control – Simply put, one of the most broken mechanics in YuGiOh, and one of the hardest to play around, is the potential of having your monsters taken by your opponent by cards, such as; Mind Control, Change of Heart, Snatch Steal or Brain Control.  What do three of four of these cards all have in common?  Oh yes, that’s right.  Three of them are banned.  Mind Control should be no exception to this.  It has the ability to heavily impact a game immediately upon activation, many times to the point where the opponent cannot recover.

Spellbook of Fate – In my opinion, this card is very poorly designed.  The ability to banish cards without having to target is absurd.  The ability to recycle the card and use it over and over again is even more absurd.  The limitation of this card to one did very little as many expected, because of the recursion the deck sports with both the Grand Spellbook Tower and Spellbook of Eternity.  Spellbooks become a fair deck in my mind without Spellbook of Fate.

Newly Limited:

Judgment Dragon – Judgment Dragon is one of those cards that whenever I play against Lightsworns I always seem to wonder to myself how the hell this card is still unlimited.  The ability to drop multiple Judgment Dragons and search multiple Judgment Dragons has never been easier with the advent of Eclipse Wyvern a couple years ago.  Of course the loss of player priority on ignition effects had a negative impact on Judgment Dragon, but the card is still extremely overpowered.

Lavalval Chain – Lavalval Chain is one of the best rank four XYZ monsters that exist in the game.  While I do not have a problem with Lavalval Chain in most decks, it makes Infernity very real.  Infernity have been a degenerate deck for a long time, but the ability to dump multiple Stygian Street Patrols and constantly summon Infernity Archfiends from hand is obnoxious.  While I do not want to completely destroy the use of Lavalval Chain all together, I firmly believe that Infernity would still be a deck even with it at one, it would simply limit its options for breakout plays.

Reinforcement of the Army – Hilariously, as soon as this card gets semi-limited, Konami creates a deck full of Warriors with great effects that can create a loop of “endless-Stratos”.  For those who are unaware, that deck is Satellarknights.  The additional Reinforcement of the Army adds another element of consistency to the deck, as their goal is to open Satellarknight Deneb and multiple trap cards each game.  Thus, by playing two copies of Reinforcement of the Army, it is literally a Swiss-Army knife for virtually any monster in your deck.

Super-Polymerization – This card would probably be almost “fair” if you could respond to it.  However, due to the fact that you are unable to respond to it, and the fact that it extremely limits the card design of Fusion monsters, Super-Polymerization has little place but to be limited or forbidden.  Put simply, Super-Polymerization is even more punishing after your opponent makes a big play, as you can essentially spot removal almost anything, and then summon something big of your own.

Newly Semi-Limited:

Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind – The reasons this card was limited are age-old and not really relevant any longer.  If it gives a tier three deck in Blackwings a slight jolt into the stardom of tier two, it is not disappointing anyone.

Coach Soldier Wolfbark – A better version of this card in Satellarknight Altair exists at three, not that this is a good reason for Wolfbark to exist at two.  Since the limitation of Wolfbark, Fire Fist has seen little to no play and could use some revitalization.  There is little reason this card cannot be at two at the moment and in the coming format.

Thunder King Rai-Oh – I absolutely love Thunder King, so I am a little biased in wanting it at two.  Thunder King is a card that is incredibly frustrating when summoned against you on the first turn backed by multiple back row cards.  However, there are more ways than ever to get over Thunder King, and I hate to say it, but Thunder King has actually lost a step or two in that sense.  It coming back to two and potentially even three is not out of the realm of possibility.

Book of Moon – In my opinion, Book of Moon is one of the best and balanced cards ever printed in the game of YuGiOh.  I wish I could put it to three, but seeing as how Konami rarely takes cards from being at one straight to three, I’ve put it to two for the time being.  Book of Moon is not actually detrimental to any gamestate, but can consistently be heralded as a fabulous card to play, usually due to its versatility.

No Longer on List:

Magician of Faith – While a great card, Magician of Faith has a few flaws at the moment.  The first being I cannot actually think of a card outside of Mind Control that I would actually want to retrieve to re-use with Magician of Faith.  The second being that given the tempo of the format and the game today, Magician of Faith is not overpowered at all at three right now.  Sure, back in Goat Format with cards such as Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Delinquent Duo, Snatch Steal, and Premature Burial, Magician of Faith was one hell of a good card, but the fact is that the game has increased in speed tenfold since then.  Sad to say, but Magician of Faith plus one is a thing of the past.

In short, this fairly short list of changes that I believe would be for the greater good of the game (at least until Qliphorts drop).  While I do not believe, that any of the changes would drastically impact the game, I believe the small changes made would take away some of the degenerative cards/plays that the game has suffered from over the past few formats.