A List for the Ages

As I am sure most, if not all of you know by now, the new TCG ban list was released today, and man did it drop some bombs.  Lets first take a look at what actually changed.

Newly Forbidden:

Super Polymerization

Newly Limited:

Artifact Moralltach

Dark Strike Fighter

Snatch Steal

Newly Semi-Limited:

Honest

Goyo Guardian

Dark Hole

Newly Unlimited:

Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind

Mermail Abyssgunde

Reborn Tengu

Reasoning

The Transmigration Prophecy

While the last few of our lists have actually been pretty respectable, in comparison to Konami’s past blunders, this list was an atomic bomb.  Do not get me wrong, I am not here to rant and rave about how terrible this new list is or say that I am about to quit YuGiOh for three months.  None of that bullshit.  There are definitely things that I like about the list, but there are absolutely things I think Konami has dropped the ball on.

Super Polymerization to 0: This probably should have happened the last time, so I can respect them doing it now.  If it were not for the last line of text on the card, it would be fair, however, not being allowed to respond whatsoever to this thing is completely unreasonable.  Especially given that Shaddolls have El Shaddoll Fusion as well now, we definitely do not need to have Super Polymerization still around.

Artifact Moralltach to 1: While I am not sure this is completely warranted, I think that there were people that were tired of seeing Artifacts splashed into decks as an engine.  Moralltach is a great card, but I just see this as Konami’s way of killing splashing Artifacts into something and seeing if it sticks.

Dark Strike Fighter to 1: It is reasonable to have figured this card to return now that the Legendary 5DS Collection has been released and the reprint is officially out in the TCG.  This move does not strike me as particularly unreal, given that they have completely neutered Dark Strike Fighter from its previous self.  Not being able to attack and being only once per turn will obviously prevent Dark Strike Fighter, from releasing its past havoc on the new format.

Snatch Steal to 1: In my mind, this change will have the biggest affect on the new format.  The single game mechanic that is the most “unfair”, in my opinion, is to be able to take your opponent’s creatures and use them against them.  While Snatch Steal can be a pretty skillful card, in that you can have it and choose not to use it until the best opportunity presents itself, rather than just taking whatever becomes available first, it can be a very sacky card in that it can be topdecked for game.  This becomes more apparent when both players have fewer cards, thereby meaning fewer options or outs to your play.  By using Snatch Steal in this type of situation, even just on a beater, you are drastically reducing their chances in winning the game as they now have to either have an out in the few cards that they do have, or draw the out quickly.  Especially given these situations happen later into games, often the opponent is quite low on life points by this time as well.  I can already tell that at the beginning of the format, those who know how to play their Snatch Steal better than others, (holding for an optimal situation where you in turn gain the most advantage or field presence) will have a substantial advantage over their opponents.  This is probably my second least favourite thing about the latest list.

Honest to 2: Without question, this should not have happened.  I have no idea what was for lunch the day Konami decided to make the list, but somebody spiked the punch.  Honest already steals games at one; just imagine how annoying this stupid card is going to be at two.  Honest allows bad players to beat good players by outdrawing their way to the top.  No question, the worst part about this list.

Goyo Guardian to 2: This change will likely not have much of an affect.  The decks that are able to play Goyo, will probably not even think about playing two, due to lack of extra deck space.  The simple fact is that Goyo just is not a problem right now.  Synchros are not nearly as prevalent as they once were and Goyo is just not seeing significant play.

Dark Hole to 2: Again, this change is unlikely to have a drastic affect on the current format.  It sounds crazy to say, but pretty much every time you see Dark Hole or Raigeki being used these days it is barely getting an advantage, and more often losing it.  Pretty much every tier deck gets a plethora of effects every time their monsters are sent to the graveyard, except Qliphorts, and even Qliphorts, still have Saqlifice and are able to reuse the monsters from their extra deck anyways. 

Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind to 3: Blackwings are literally irrelevant in the land of tier two and three decks and while multiple Gales is definitely better than having only one, it is not causing anyone any sleepless nights anymore.

Mermail Abyssgunde to 3: I was really surprised they put Abyssgunde back to three, but really pleased at the same time.  Mermails has been one of my favourite decks out of decks post-ABYR (seems like so long ago now), and with three Abyssgunde it has a legitimate shot at being a real deck once again.  Not saying it will be tier by any stretch of the imagination, but three Gunde absolutely bolsters the deck’s firepower.

Reborn Tengu to 3: Another change that I have wanted to see happen for a while, but has never gotten done.  Reborn Tengu was a great card when it was around back in 2011.  There had never been a card that regenerated itself upon any kind of destruction/tributing/etc.  This meant insane synchro plays and fascinating combos and Pot of Avarice allowed you to do it all over again.  Well now Reborn Tengu is back to three and interestingly, almost all the members of the band are back together for Tenguplants.  The only guy missing is Trishula, maybe Konami is dropping a hint for the next list?

Reasoning to 3: I really doubt that this will have a drastic affect on the format as it stands, and has been limited far too long.

The Transmigration Prophecy to 3: I absolutely love this card.  It is a fantastic way to deal with nifty new graveyard affects that cannot miss timing.  While it may not seem like a lot, having Transmigration Prophecy at three makes it a much more viable side deck option than only having one available, as it is that much more likely that you will draw into it.  Good change.

What does this all mean for the new format and what will the best deck be at the beginning? 

Firstly, it means that there are some pretty drastic changes going into the format.  Artifact Shaddolls are probably not going to exist anymore, sorry Bo Tang. L  As mentioned previously Snatch Steal is a card that always has to be kept in mind if you are summoning powerful monsters and your opponent’s life points are not zero at the end of your turn, you could be in trouble.  Virtually nothing changed amongst the biggest decks, Burning Abyss and Qliphorts, meaning that they are probably still the best decks.  If siding the Transmigration Prophecy becomes a thing, it could have an affect on Burning Abyss decks, but other than that neither of these two decks got remotely touched.  Not only that, but in the latest set, Secrets of Eternity, additional cards to power-up both archetypes are being released.

In short, I believe that Burning Abyss and Qliphorts will be the best decks immediately, however, there are interesting times ahead, given some of the drastic changes to the ban list.  Let us not forget that Nekroz are going to be coming out shortly as well, and will undoubtedly be a virtually instantaneous tier one deck. 

Astral Pack 6

I am too lazy to come up with a creative title today, so you’re going to have to live with that.  Astral Packs have become almost a tradition to wishlist whatever you would like to see in a higher rarity to help make your deck beautiful.  As always, this is a list of what I want to appear in Astral Pack 6 and reasoning as to why I believe it should be there.  Feel free to post your own hopes and dreams for Astral Pack 6 in the comments below.

Ultimates (3)

Abyss Dweller – While this card has long deserved a reprint, and I am personally a little surprised it has not seen one yet, this would look amazing in ultimate.  I am of the opinion this would cure the market for this card as well, as a lot of players would want the ultimate and would then be willing to move their supers, causing a flood of supply.  It would go well with the other commonly played XYZ monsters that have gotten the ultimate treatment as well, Maestroke the Symphony Djinn, Gagaga Cowboy, and at the time Photon Papilloperative.

Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree – While this card does not need a reprint, given the colors on the image, it would look absolutely perfect with the ultimate rare treatment.  Another reason it could actually occur, is that Konami always seems to be a few months behind in foiling cards that actually see play.  Given that Leo has seen play since back during Mermails, it is not farfetched to think that this could happen.

Raigeki – It would look pretty cool if they do a Lightning Vortex esque look to it.  I know Raigeki has been printed in virtually every rarity except for Ultimate and Ghost, but that does not mean it would not look any less cool, and it would go well with your Pot of Duality that just came in the last Astral Pack.

Supers (10)

Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands – Manju has seen a number of reprints through the years after its initial release as a short print common in Invasion of Chaos all the way back in 2005.  Remarkably, all four subsequent printings have been as a common as well.  With the popularity swarming around rituals, because of the pending release of Nekroz; what better time to release it in foil?

Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss – I picked Scarm out of the first three Burning Abyss monsters released (Scarm, Cir, and Graff), as I believe it will be one of those to get foiled first.  I do not have a preference which will occur first, but I believe they will do one in each Astral Pack similar to how Mermails/Geargias had one per pack.

Senju of the Thousand Hands – Senju, like its counterpart Manju, has seen a number of reprints over the years after its initial release long ago in Magic/Spell Ruler.  Again, the popularity of Nekroz gives this card the green light to be foiled.

Shaddoll Hedgehog – I picked Hedgehog, because of it not even being a rare, but insert whichever Shaddoll monster you would like to see foiled here.  It seems pretty highly likely that they would foil something out of the deck.

Swap Frog – Give the people what they want Konami.  They have been begging for this card in super in virtually every Turbo Pack that I can ever remember, and I cannot believe in all honesty that we have gotten to Astral Pack 6 and we still have not seen this thing super.  Remember Gemini Spark in AP01?  Swap Frog has to happen eventually.

Summoner’s Art – It is completely unreasonable to think that after this card has reached such lofty heights as just a rare that is only played in one deck that Konami will not step in and drop the market.  Konami does not gain anything from cards like this being worth money, since they are clearly no longer producing Tactical Evolution.  That all said, I would not be surprised if this card is limited to one shortly before or after its reprint is produced.

The Monarchs Stormforth – The cards with the most unfair mechanics in the game are generally cards that allow you to do things using your opponent’s monsters that you normally would not be able to do.  Cite examples in Change of Heart, Brain Control, Mind Control, Snatch Steal, for a time Soul Exchange and now the Monarchs Stormforth.  The Monarchs Stormforth dwarves Soul Exchange in virtually all aspects of application.  In my mind, the Monarchs Stormforth is well deserving of a spot in at least the super rare lineup of the set.

Fairy Wind – While I find it a little unlikely that Fairy Wind will be in this Astral Pack, just because I do not believe that enough time has passed where it has seen significant play.  That said, it does not deserve the reprint any less.  Its value is currently inflated, it is seeing a lot of play at the moment, everything makes sense for Fairy Box to get reprinted.

Light-Imprisoning Mirror – Both Light-Imprisoning and Shadow-Imprisoning are overdue for foil reprints.  All of the other versions have risen in price, I would not be surprised if Konami came in to control the secondary market slightly and foil a popular card at the same time.

Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror – See the explanation for Light-Imprisoning Mirror.

I will not go through the commons one by one, but just to give you an idea of what commons I’d like to see included, they are, Secret Village of the Spellcasters, Preparation of Rites, Miracle Fusion, Masked HERO Acid, Crusader of Endymion, and Decoy Dragon.

Hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on the upcoming Astral Pack 6 and do not forget to leave your thoughts on the pack below J

The Game Today

I have heard a bit of chatter over the last few days of people hating the current format.  I think there comes a time during many formats, where participants pine for it to come to an end, and for a change in scenery to occur.  This is actually the first format I have enjoyed since the Dragon Ravine Dragon Ruler format, so maybe I am among the minority, but I happen to kind of like the format.  It is not even close to a one-deck format, which is not a plus in my view, as they are widely seen as the most skillful of formats.  Simply put, this is because you know what 75-80% of your matchups will be going into a tournament and you really only prepare for that one matchup, because the “one deck” usually smashes rogue matchups anyways.  I am not entirely certain what it is that I enjoy about the current metagame, but I find it quite interesting.  I think all the decks have flaws and that none are perfect.  Shaddolls or Burning Abyss is probably the best deck, in my opinion, but Qliphorts are clearly still in the race.  The entire format seems like one gigantic game of rock, paper, and scissors.  Qliphorts have a poor matchup versus Burning Abyss, but a good matchup against Shaddolls, Shaddolls have a decent Burning Abyss matchup but a bad Qliphorts matchup, and Burning Abyss has a good matchup against Qliphorts and not as good against Shaddolls.

After playing Qliphorts at YCS Anaheim, I decided to try something different when I came home, and since I had played Shaddolls for most of the previous format, I selected Burning Abyss.  While playing Qliphorts, is quite fun, and you get to kill the opponent quickly a lot, which was great, because I often did not have to worry about time to go eat after the round; it is very linear.  You are playing a game of protect the castle, usually from start to finish (finish being you kill them or they broke your board and kill you).  You simply drop your board, search the correct combo pieces with Scout and make your plays.  After going over my losses while playing Qliphorts, it was often apparent that there was little that I could have done differently, and it came down to draws, etc.  This is probably not what you want if you are about to play through an 11-round event, since the odds will be stacked against you.  The other two top tier decks of the format, allow for many more lines of play and you will often lose because of a poor decision and not because your opponent simply had “the out”.

Some of what I am writing here is evidenced by what happened in both YCS Anaheim and ARG Chicago over the past two weekends.  In YCS Anaheim, there were a total of 11 Burning Abyss in top 32, 10 Qliphorts, 9 Shaddolls, and 2 Satellarknights.  At ARG Chicago, there were 10 Burning Abyss in the top 16, 3 Shaddolls, 2 Qliphorts, and 1 Satellarknight.  Keep in mind of course that YCS Anaheim had roughly 1600 participants and ARG Chicago had just over 200.  Unfortunately for us, we cannot pinpoint the deck that won out the YCS outright, since they draft after top 16, however we can look at the ARG coverage to discover what happened there.  By top 4, only Burning Abyss decks were left in the field.  I am not certain that we can simply deduct that it is the “best” deck from this analysis; after all, ARG Chicago did only have the same amount of players as an average regionals qualifier.  However, it is certainly something to consider.

It is not my opinion that Qliphorts simply lost favor within the community, but that a majority of the “best” players were deciding between Burning Abyss and Shaddolls.  ARG events attract mostly competitive players, making the field consist mostly of tier decks, fewer rogue decks, and a lot of Shaddolls and Burning Abyss if my previous statement rings true.  Qliphorts can simply dominate games against rogue matchups, and if their sideboard is well equipped and the opposing player does not draw quite well, the Qliphort player can often blowout the opponent.  Since there are more casual players at YCS events, this could be a simple explanation for the low amount of Qliphort decks in the top cut of Chicago when comparing it against Anaheim. Allowing a Qliphort player to board a monster and keep it there with a Saqlifice can be quite dangerous, because on the next turn it can be used as a tribute for Disk and will allow combos to occur.  An opposing player can prevent this by getting rid of the monster as fast as they can.  This will prevent the opponent from triggering Saqlifice and getting the search.  If Qliphorts have gone first, and gotten set up, dealing with Saqlifice and the monster are probably the best courses of action.  There are many times when I will hold my Typhoon for their Skill Drain/Emptiness (depends on the deck you are playing) rather than playing it on Qliphort Scout.  This often depends on the type of hand that you have and the type of answers you have for your opponent’s summons.

Personally if you want to have fun this format, I would suggest playing either Shaddolls or Burning Abyss, as there are many more lines of play, whereas with Qliphorts, you either just win or lose based on the answers the opponent has.  All of the mirrors are a bit rough, but it has been a lot worse.  That said the people that despise the format will not have to wait long for a change, because over the next fortnight we should have some form of information on the new ban list from Konami.  As per usual, I will have an article up shortly detailing the latest wishlist of changes.