March 1? Part 3

Newly Unlimited
Chaos Sorcerer
Demise, King of Armageddon
Snipe Hunter
Dewloren, Tiger Prince of the Ice Barrier
Gold Sarcophagus
Skill Drain
Ultimate Offering

There isn't much to talk about here. Konami took a look at what cards on the list lost a lot of power and made them unlimited. Some cards are still good, don't forget that. But in comparison to the strategies of top decks, you'll sometimes wonder if using 3 copies is even beneficial to you.

Chaos Sorcerer - Back when Chaos Sorcerer was set to 2 in September, the new rage of the format was Chaos. "I'll put 2 Thunderkings, 1 Gale, 1 Plague, and 2 Chaos Sorcerers in my deck and call it Chaos!" Well, people realized that you can't just splash Chaos Sorc in any deck and call it Chaos. In fact, these type of decks failed so miserably that almost no Chaos Sorcerer was found in the YCS dallas top 32. At 3, expect no different. Everyone will want to build Chaos, they will fail, and it will flop. Chaos isn't a bad deck, but people build it as if it is the old tier-0 deck, where you could easily put 3 darks and 3 lights in the grave and still have a full hand. There's lightsworn variants and Blackwing variants that use Sorc, but noone should really be using 3.

Demise, King of Armageddon - When I talked about the semi-limits in hindsight, I talked about Advanced Ritual Art. Everyone looks at Demise and says the same thing "Full field wipe? Ban it." Demise is hardly that simple. This is how you should properly describe Demise "Ritual? Okay...REQUIRES Eight stars?? Well, I'll ARA it..oh thats limited to 1 and I cant Prep for Demise and ARA? Well what's his effect? Full field wipe? Awesomerrr-wait, it costs 2000 life points? And he only has 2400 ATK? Yeeeaaahh, nevermind." Don't get me wrong, I love Demise. Remember Divine Armageddon? Deck was so full of options it was silly. But a third Demise won't make it that much better. So long as Advanced Ritual Art stays at 1, no ritual should be at 3.

Snipe Hunter - Only fiend decks run this card. It is not splashable, no matter who tells you it is. Dice rolls to destroy cards is cool, but discarding for a dice roll on a 1500 body is not cool.

Dewloren, Tiger Prince of the Ice Barrier - Dewloren was semi-limited because of a loophole you could perform with it. Symbols of Heritage is an equip card that lets you special summon a copy of a monster in your grave, as long as all 3 copies are in there. Dewloren can bounce cards back to your hand. So the idea was, if you could every get all 3 Dewlorens in the grave, and Heritage in your Hand, you will always be able to get it back. Is that gamebreaking? Well, a loophole technically is gamebreaking. Is it powerful? Hardly; maybe if more powerful continuous spells existed like Premature Burial. Is it banworthy? No.

Gold Sarcophagus - Everyone will tell you that Gold Sarc is too slow. "I get to search my deck for ANY card?? I get it in two turns!? WHAT!?" Noone will use all 3 copies in a deck...except me. Unicorn Synchro and Unistorm would love to have 3 Gold Sarcs in it. Desertapir, Avarice, Dark Hole, all searchable. And running 3 sarcs :: 2 Tapir will help me use Tapirs the way they were meant to be used. Hell hath no fury like Unicorn Synchro if Rescue Cat was ever brought back!

Skill Drain - No deck will use 3 except for Skill Drain decks. Skill drain decks are good, but plagued by the same thing that Koakis are, the fact that they have to Normal Summon to create presence. The top decks can easily outspeed Skill Drain with their Special Summons. So Skill Drain decks, although highly disruptive, don't win often enough to make Skill Drain limited. Perhaps with Forbidden Lance, that may change.

Ultimate Offering - Terrible card. Well, I shouldn't say the card is terrible, more the fact that it encourages bad playing. Marauding Captain used to be limited because, in the past, summoning multiple cards from your hand was very very powerful. However, in this day and age, in-hand resources are the name of the game and spending your whole hand on ANYTHING besides a guaranteed OTK is "scoop phase".

In the end, these newly unlimited cards don't change much. The bans and limits do for sure, the semi-limits have a minor impact on the game too.

In other news, Deck #54 is right around the corner! It is the top-deck king! The Combo Sensation! Fudo Yusei Turbo! (not to be confused with Pure Fudo Yusei or Synchron Madness). I can't get into full details about it. All that needs to be said is that I'm 2 maindeck and 4 extra deck cards away from finishing it. And testing has shown it to pull off ridiculous combos. And we aren't talking about summoning a 3100 Junk Warrior and losing it to bottomless. This is pure genius gameplay. Multiple Synchros, multiple card drawns, tokens everywhere. It is nothing short of Ace-in-the-hole Duel Monsters!