Yugioh: September '09 Ban List

Every six months, we receive a new ban list from Konami that ultimately decides what decks will be played in Yugioh!  It’s PMS time for the Yugioh! community once again.  On September 1st, the day before I was brought into this world, the list will be implemented.  And damn, am I excited!

For the past six months, Blackwings have been the deck to beat, taking first in the World Championships and, generally, dominating most local and regional competitions.  In the past few months, the TCG saw Cat Synchro, but with the late release of X-Saber Airbellum, the deck did not become as popular as it was in the OCG (though it came into first place at U.S. Nationals).  The other two Tier 1 decks, Gladiator Beasts and Lightsworn, received many top place finishes, but neither ended up winning at the same scale as Blackwings or Cat Synchro.

As with all ban lists, the new list hits the top decks to make them more “equal” and “fair” to play against.  Without further ado, here are the newly affected cards.

Forbidden Cards:
Dark Strike Fighter
Card of Safe Return
Monster Reborn
Crush Card Virus

 

Restricted Cards:
Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind
Mind Master
Rescue Cat
Summoner Monk
Black Rose Dragon
Demise, King of Armageddon
Cold Wave
Mind Control
One for One
Call of the Haunted
Solemn Judgement

 

Semi-Restricted Cards:
Chaos Sorcerer
Lonefire Blossom
Mezuki
Bottomless Trap Hole

 

No Longer On List:
Breaker the Magical Warrior
D.D. Warrior Lady
Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest
Raiza the Storm Monarch
Destiny Draw
Fissure

Many of the card choices were not surprises; many Synchro Cat elements were restricted and, with the banning of Dark Strike Fighter, both Synchro Cat and Blackwings were hurt to the extent of being dubbed “unplayable.”  Konami has always been against One Turn Kill decks, and both of these decks could consistently drop them onto the field with as little as 3 cards.

Half of the Tier 1 decks were hurt by this banlist, but the other half was largely left untouched.  Gladiator Beast decks may suffer from the lack of Solemn Judgements and a Rescue Cat, but will more than likely include new strategies to take advantage of their Tool Box strategy.  On the other hand, Lightsworn was left completely untouched.  While many players are capitalizing and italicizing their text online, I don’t believe the deck needed to be touched.  In general, Lightsworn places high, but rarely wins competitions due to its luck-of-the-draw nature.  The deck is relatively easy to side against and why punish a deck that isn’t winning?

Many cards that were restricted, or not restricted, came as a surprise, whether pleasant or unpleasant.  One of the surprises came as the unrestricting of Raiza.  This card defined many formats and years of gameplay, and finally was restricted to one.  After only recently coming back to two, which was still extremely powerful and deadly, the card jumped back up to three.  The unrestriction of Raiza, along with many other choices on the list (Destiny Draw, Bottomless Trap Hole, etc.), will allow Monarch variants to, once again, become a tournament viable choice.

Some other surprises were the unrestricting of Breaker the Magical Warrior, D.D. Warrior Lady, and Fissure.  Fissure was restricted due to Konami’s general restriction on most one-for-one cards and Breaker and Warrior Lady have been generally restricted to one since their release.  Though Fissure was never thought of as a “broken” card, at three it is quite powerful, and Breaker and Warrior Lady at three, which are both thought of as “broken” cards at one, will likely define the way many decks are built this format.  With the ease these unrestrictions allow an opponent to destroy and remove many of your options, players will be more hesitant when they play their cards.

I could literally go on and on about this new list, but I’d prefer playing it instead, as should you.  Although I believe the new slew of Tier 1 decks will include Gladiator Beast, Lightsworn, Monarchs and Graveyard Blackwings, I could also be completely wrong.  The only way to really see what happens is to wait for September 1st and see what becomes of the meta.