Konami Giveth and Konami Taketh Away(!?)

It is that time of the year already? Holy geez. We just got through Worlds so that really only leaves a couple of months left in August. During our last couple of weeks of freedom we get a new set, Generation Force. There are also the exciting new tins on the 30th. For those who don't remember what the tins include:
No. 17 Leviathan Dragon
-Pot of Duality
-Dark Simorgh
-Beast King Barbaros
-Stygian Street Patrol

Wind up Zenmaister
-Pot of Duality
-Neo-Parshath the Sky Paladin
-Archlord Krystia
-Elemental HERO Gaia

Rounding out the great releases, there is also the new Hidden Arsenal Special Edition that was released not too long ago. For those who need Emmersblade for Xsabers, you now have a reprinted one and a chance to get great synchro monsters. So many back to back releases often shy our attention away from the banlist. Though rapidly approaching, these subsequent releases of awesomeness overshadow the fact that you may not even get to play the cards on September 1st! You guys know how Konami is. YOU REMEMBER SUPER RESCUE CAT. NEVER FORGET 9/1/2010.

Now, this list I am about to show you is about 95% confirmed. The magazine that prints this is almost 100% reliable if not only for that fact that it is an OCG list. It has yet to be different in the TCG, but you can never know what may happen for us and our World Premiere cards. As a forewarning, some viewers may find the card spoiler as slightly disturbing. Some viewers may find the list so good that they want to jump for joy. How do I feel about it? You'll have to wait until the end to find out.



Newly Forbidden
Fishborg Blaster
Mind Master
Giant Trunade
Royal Oppression

Newly Limited
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
Debris Dragon
Lonefire Blossom
Formula Synchron
Legendary Six Samurai Shi En
T.G. Hyper Librarian
Heavy Storm
Pot of Avarice
Primal Seed
Shien's Smoke Signal

Newly Semi-Limited
Necro Gardna
Summoner Monk
Tragoedia
Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier
Destiny Draw
Swords of Revealing Light
Call of the Haunted
Mind Crush

Newly Unlimited
Judgement Dragon
Spirit Reaper
Megamorph
Mystical Space Typhoon
Overload Fusion
Gravity Bind
Icarus Attack

STAR plays!
-Twilight, Lightsworn and Chaos in general is BACK. Two Trags, what?? JDs up the whazoo. BLS! Your cards on the field will never be safe again...Unless you Starlight Road them!
-Summoner Monk to two no way! Wonder Magicians get a huge boost from that.
-Fishborg Banned HAH so much for Turbo Pack 6 Fishborgs. Wait how is this good, Fishborg looked good as a Super Rare...
-Icarus Attack to 3 gives us a reason to fear Winged beasts all over again.

Balls dropped
-Banned Mind Master and didn't bump Emergency Teleport up to 2?
-Call of the Haunted to 2? I understand it is very balanced revival and with no Trunade and triple MST it is much more fair. It just seems like that is a huge hit to the themed revival getting released lately.
-Royal Oppression banned is so painful. Yes it is not fair to lock a deck out of playing the game, but with triple MST if they hate it that much makes it balanced. There are other ways to defend yourself from the special summon explosions of many decks, though.

This has been my 2nd banlist since creating this blog, and I must say this one is the most exciting. As with every list, we do hope that the TCG has some minor differences, such as with Tour Guide, but this list is about as close to reasonable as we can get. Some may say that Twilight is far too strong with 2 monks, 3 JD, 2 Trag and BLS, but time will tell as Lightsworn decks are not the most consistent decks on the planet. Plus they have to compete against the anti graveyard tactics of Gravekeepers, the Negate and Destroy of Heralds in Agents/Fairies, the return of side decked Starlight Road thanks to Heavy Storm and Judgment Dragon, and a few other technically choices against the deck. The banlist also neuters a few decks without giving them something to feel happy about. As much as Mind Master is unbalanced, it was one of the few ways for the new Psychic Deck to actually make plays. They do have several other tricks up their sleeve, and they all require a setup. Mind Master required no setup outside of having another psychic to tribute.

Talking about decks is only half of the story, the actual chosen cards can give us a lot of information too. To conclude this blog post, I want to touch up on the banned cards.

Fishborg Blaster - Fishborg is the main cause of many FTK, OTK, and loop setups in the OCG and TCG. It is not a once per turn effect and the synchros that you make for it usually outweigh the discard cost of the monster. There are multiple ways to get Fishborg into your grave on turn 1, whether it be setting Mother Grizzly, Normal Summoning Genex Undine, or using One for One. Fishborg on its own was great sea-life support, but unfortunately it was not used for sea decks. Perhaps if it had another condition, such as synchroing for water monsters, or only being able to activate the effect if your graveyard only has water monsters in it, then it could exist in our game. It had a great run though. I do feel sorry about it getting the rare treatment in Turbo Pack 6. I will say that this is why Spore is a super rare in GENF Special Edition.

Mind Master - As I said earlier, Mind Master is simply a poorly designed card. It is excellent support for the archetype and it cannot be splashed into other decks. Usually that is the definition of balanced, but there are still some strategies that are just too good to leave unchecked, even if the deck isn't winning tournaments. The effect of killing yourself to make any type of field you can imagine is not enough to balance the card out either. If you are successful at paying 6400 lifepoints to make your field, you can easily put a Thought Ruler Archfiend, Psychic Lifetrancer, or even Magical Android onto the field and suddenly have more lifepoints than your opponent. The card had to go. The sad thing is that most competitive players will never try Psychics without Mind Master. The new Psychic Deck has a lot of plays outside of paying lifepoints for Mind Master. They also have a Mind Master in the form of a floater called Serene Psychic Witch. Witch can also search out one of ANY psychic with 2000 or less attack from your deck by achieving the trigger of Destruction Via Anything. This is your new set-up for psychic decks. During your standby phase summon the tuner from your deck, you then normal summon any of the new Banish Psychics and are free to synchro with them. If you opponent stops the synchro, you can get Witch back because most of the nontuner Banish Psychics will put Witch back onto the field once they leave. I know losing Mind Master and not getting another Emergency Teleport sucks, but test the deck out a little before calling it unplayable.

Giant Trunade - Trunade has been out for a long time and a lot of players, myself included, have only just begun to hate it. Having gone through a format with no Heavy Storm, Trunade has been the insurance that you will probably win the game. In most decks, your only out to trunade is Solemn Judgment, paying half your life just to stop your opponents insured win. If you do that, they can still push for game while having LESS lifepoints to get over. The other option that a few players have gone with is Dark Bribe. Bribe can stop Trunade, Monster Reborn, or Solemns at the cost of granting your opponent a card draw. In most cases, that extra draw was worth your life and you just hope that they didn't draw another powerful card from it. But now, Trunade is gone and Heavy is back alongside three Mystical Space Typhoons. MST is balanced 1 for 1 removal and Heavy can be countered by Starlight Road, in turn delicately hitting a few other decks(Debris Plants, Gladiator Beasts, Lightsworns). For most of us, having Trunade gone and Heavy back in the game is a key part of making the game better for everyone.

Royal Oppression - This one I did not see coming. There are multiple trains of thought about how Royal Oppression affects our game:
1) It punishes players for having only 1 win condition, Special Summons. i.e. Fabled.
2) It creates a line where overextension on either side of the field will be punished. i.e. Blackwings.
3) It locks the opponent out of a win condition after you create a great set up. i.e. Xsabers.
4) It locks the opponent out of the duel while not affecting how you play. i.e. Hero Beat.
I like to believe that Konami banned it for reasons 3 and 4, abuse in decks that use the card as part of their win condition. Many would argue that Skill Drain does the same thing and is used in decks where the Skill Drain player gains an advantage for not having effects. The difference here is that Skill Drain themed decks are still a bit inconsistent. Though they can use 3 now, a field of 1900 attackers with some D.Prisons set is no different than any other deck. It is Especially worse when their hand consists of Gadjiltron, Dark Bribes, or other low threat cards(while in the hand). Royal Oppression in certain decks do not compromise their build. If they don't draw Oppression, the deck will play out as normal, but if they do then their power increases 10-fold. I think I will always believe that 1 Oppression is fair, but we will see what happens in a format where Oppression does not exist. (Good thing we have all those side deck choices from this Hyper post.)

In Hindsight
As with every year, there are cards we wish were put onto the list that Konami did not do. So here were my hopes that were effectively slashed in this OCG list:
-Banned One for One.
-Banned Card Destruction.
-Banned Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier