Konami Giveth and Konami Taketh Away(!?) Part 2

The limited list for this format is getting a lot of attention. With the loss of Fishborg and Mind Master, 2 key components in a few decks are destroyed. With the loss of Trunade and Oppression, 2 very powerful game winning effects were removed. Usually when this happens, as with every year, a few cards come off the banlist to give players something to experiment with for a few months. In addition to that, cards with strategies that are just too consistent are knocked down to 1 per deck. Though the newly-Limited cards do hit some rather fun cards, I believe we can agree that 90% of this list was necessary.

Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning - Our new fun card for the format. Well, last time I said that, it was to Konami unbanning Monster Reborn. Usually when a card is unbanned for fun, it doesn't stay unbanned for an entire year. I guess time will tell just how dangerous EotB is.

BLS-EotB is a boss monster for chaos decks. A lot of players will put 1 in there deck for anything even remotely Chaotic, such as running Effect Veiler in Blackwings or Junk Synchron with Ryko. I'm not a big fan of splashing EotB into anything that runs a dark and light monster, but the first few months of the format will be plagued with this. In Chaos Plants, Chaos Stun, Salvo Chaos, and all the other more pure builds, EotB is the boss monster they never had(no Chaos Sorc is not a boss monster). What makes it a little too good is its awesome effects on a 3000ATK body. Not only can it banish facedown monsters, it can attack twice if you'd rather attack their monster instead. They even made EotB light so that you can drop Honest if your opponent decides to battle with it. The card is insanely good as a boss monster.

Debris Dragon - Noone knows what to do about Debris Dragon. Its main purpose as of late was to get out plant monsters and card trooper in Plant Synchro decks and synchro for Black Rose, Stardust, Scrap Dragon or Trishula. In other decks like Yubel, it becomes an additional Call of the Haunted or Limit Reverse for your deck. Now, with the rise of XYZ-based decks, Debris Dragon turns into a graveyard-based Tour guide. Normal Summon Debris Dragon and you can special summon Destiny Hero - Defender that was sent with D-Draw, it can special summon Cloudian - Acid Cloud in new Cloudian synchro decks(oh yeah, Fishborg got banned), Gemknight Sapphire, Phantom of Chaos, Super Crashbug, Zero Gardna in Final Countdown and a slew of other Normal type monsters in Rabbit Decks this holiday season. Does that make it limit worthy? Probably. If in fact it was limited only because of its interaction with plants and Card Trooper, I would have thought that limiting Lonefire and Trooper would be enough.

Lonefire Blossom - The best plant support in the game. In pure plants it could summon any monster from your deck. In decks that simply use plants as fuel for their synchro plays, it puts any plant you want on the field or graveyard to synchro with on your next turn. Lonefire was actually a World Premiere card when it was first released, which explains why it is so good. There is no doubt that it should have been limited to 1 a long time ago. But rest assured Pure Plant and Gigavise players, there are still plenty of ways to reuse Lonefire's effect.

Legendary Six Samurai Shi En - Most people will say that this card needed to be limited. I am of the persuasion that just because a card is good, doesn't mean it has to take up more space on the banlist. For all we know, Konami may have a soft maximum amount of cards they are allowed on the list. Not only is having a giant list of Forbidden/Limited cards confusing for new players, but it sort of gives off the wrong impression on Konami's R&D team. There is no doubt that Shi En is a very powerful card, but there is a very distinct strategy to beating it: Attack it. I would have rather seen more of their problem cards added to the list while keeping Shi En at 3. If your opponent is able to summon 3 Shi En on you, that first Shi En was not the ENTIRE reason why they could create more.

T.G. Hyper Librarian - With Shooting Quasar Dragon looming over our heads, something had to be done about Librarian's ability to summon it with no cost. Fishborg Blaster being banned was part of it, but you can still use Glow Up Bulb to summon Shooting Star while drawing 4 cards in the process. Of course, Hyper Librarian is about as necessary for the game as Shi En, so it doesn't deserve a ban. Limiting it is exactly what I had hoped for in this post about Librarian. Halberd Cannon and Blade Blaster need it, a few anti-meta decks actually use it, and my latest project "Wonder Magicians" need it too.

Heavy Storm - Ah, the most thrilling piece of information out of this OCG magazine. There are a couple of thoughts behind Heavy Storm:
A) We need Heavy Storm to punish players that set so many cards to control the game. Decks like Gravekeepers, Hero Beat, and even some Gadget decks will set 3 or more cards in hopes that they will control the entire duel. One Solemn Warning, one Dimensional Prison and one Seven Tools of the Bandit, then end their turn. They even thrive on high spell/trap count decks because their monsters are either so easily searchable or replace themselves. Giving us Heavy Storm back will force them to play a little more conservatively.
B) Bring Heavy Storm back will ruin the game! Combine that with 3 Mystical Space Typhoons(we will talk about this later) will make OTKs more prevalent. Even with Starlight Road set, if they get lucky with MST on the starlight, then follow it up with Heavy Storm, they are free to make any play they like. In Fabled, that could be as easy as 1 tuner and 1 instant fusion to make a 2300 attacker and draw 2 cards. In Chaos, that may put their EotB safely on the field. In Lightsworn, that could be multiple Judgment Dragons. If players can not keep a backrow on the field, then games will be a lot shorter and everyone will have to run in-hand chainable cards like Gorz, Fader, Maxx "C" and Effect Veiler.

I for one am leaning more towards the A side with a touch of B sprinkled in. In many situations, Heavy storm is played as an additional MST. In many instances, especially with talks of main-decking Smashing Grounds, Forbidden Chalice and Compulsory, you may only hit 1 card and force the activation of another. What makes this better than Trunade is that you must use it while you control no spells or traps, otherwise you will gain no real advantage besides the cards currently in your hand. Though games may be slightly more dangerous, players in group B need to rethink their side decks for some of the more dangerous plays they will face.

Pot of Avarice - ALMOST as good as Pot of Greed. In some decks it is even better than Pot of Greed because it refills your deck with powerful monsters. The only difference is that Avarice can be stopped by a lucky D.D. Crow or Crevice into the Different Dimension. Otherwise, Avarice is a "relatively costless +1" and is one of the best topdecks in late-game Yugioh. Having one Avarice cuts down strategies that are just too consistent to be fair in a card game. Many will argue that card games based on luck are stupid, but to each his own.

Primal Seed - Multiple Primal seeds can be abused. With Macro Cosmos flipped after summoning BLS, you can play Seed and add the 2 monsters back to your hand, then Seed is banished. After that, your next Primal Seed can add the 1st Seed to your hand, creating a loop that can put every Banished card back into your hand for no cost.

Shien's Smoke Signal - One of the main cards to hit to decrease the consistency in Six Samurai. Now they can only use Reinforcements of the Army, Shien's Dojo, Asceticism of the Six Samurai, and 1 Smoke Signal to get monsters from their deck. I would say that is pretty fair.

Hindsight There aren't too many other cards that are unlimited right now that could be limited. Most of the necessary hits were done. With Avarice down to 1, 3 Formula Synchron don't seem as problematic as before. Then I suppose if we limited Kizan, Six Samurai will no longer be a threat. Everything else seems rpetty reasonable right now.