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Article #75:The day Undead cannot teleport...or actually die

As usual, every about 2 weeks before the 1st of March and September, the whole world of Yu-Gi-Oh players would just get scared...and excited. It is the twice annual "big event": the day that the ban/restriction list would be release. No, I don't work for R&D department, but as usual, I will just give my 2 cents on the ban/restriction list...and my own prediction of the meta for the next few months (not counting on new cards). Of course, I would look at a little bit concerning the ruling changes on 2 cards: Green Baboon and Dol Dora.

Anyway...

Banished:
None. Is this a big surprise? Well, it depends on who you ask. Some people may argue that experiment like [Monster Reborn] should be just over. Some people may just want some cards in the now restricted list to be outright banned. To me, really, is there like cards that is SO broken that should go up here? Probably...yes, the Synchros should belong here since I don't see how restriction do anything. But really, nothing is a good thing, at least not much crazy experiment.

Restricted:
Chaos Sorceror - This card WAS the format for a while. The "4th Chaos" of the Chaos Trio finally see some light and come back down after long time being in the jail. The question is that is this card still broken? Yes...but not to a level where it need to be ban. Restriction is fine...and really, the only impact I can see this card does is if people just start playing with Chaos Synchro...not saying it's not an option....
Gladial Beast Beastorii - No, this card itself is not super broken. The purpose of the restriction have to more or less do with slowing down the bringing out of [Gladial Beast Kaiseris] than this card. This restriction does...ehh...I mean, Gladial Beasts does still searches each other!
Goyou Guardian/Ice Barrier Dragon Brionac - Because...this 2 are the best Synchros. How easy it is to bring them out? Not hard...Rescue Cat = 1 of them, the Undead way easily, Teleport a Psychic then Sync easily...etc. Well, this 2 still lives in Extra Deck, so I doubt restriction does much. However, we will see...maybe Konami just do not want to outright banned them.
Zombie Carrier - Nobody tells him that he can come back all day, every day, whenever you need a Synchro...easily searchable, special summonable...
Dark Armed Dragon - Need explaination? Really, do I?
Mezuki - This card's effect activated at Graveyard. Need I explain again, like what I said in my card review, why this card is just simply elegant and can be broken? No hand, no field, no problem...boom, a huge Undead monster...or boom, Zombie Carrier is back for another Synchro. This card just can turn games around easily, in no time. This card makes Undead type just too fast, too furious.
Emergency Teleport - Tele-DAD deck, period. I mean, this card SPECIAL SUMMON the monster from DECK, for god sake...Krebons and Psycho Commander just LOVE this card too much.
Card of Safe Return - This single card makes Konami so careful to limit the amount of special summon of a monster with those type of effect per turn, limit that monster cannot special summon the same name monster...this card can make opponent cry because you have 20 cards in your hand...it used to be nothing special, but now with special summon SO common...it's not surprise that this card is now down to 1. Well...also just to tell Undead to go die for the next 6 months...if anything.
Calling Reinforcement - Warriors are nothing special, [Diabolicguy] is. To make sure that ONE card is now even harder to find...or just to kill Hero engine...down to 1, again. My view? Don't know if it is necessary, especially now that almost everything have a search card on its own...and I mean, this card is no Teleport, at least it don't special summon the monster!

Semi-Restrict:
Goblin Zombie - The victim of Undead cleansing. This card can search [Zombie Carrier] and [Mezuki], but so can Pyramid Turtle...one thing is, I don't know who use more than 2 copies of this card in a deck anyway.
Destiny Hero Diabolicguy - Too good at 3, 2 is balanced, 1 = 0.
Wind Monarch Raizer - When is the last time someone play a Monarch deck?
Forest Guard Green Baboon - After ruling change, this card not even half of how good it COULD be.
Destiny Draw - No idea, again, making sure that Diabolicguy engine would just die, I guess.
Golden Sealing Crest - Nobody used this card anymore. It was restricted because it can easily search cards and Necroface. But Crest is way too slow for the game now, and Necroface? Nobody use this card anymore...but maybe now people will?
Allure of Darkness - Why Dark can have the draw and others don't? Unfair advantage. Hey, this card was once semi when it was first brought to US, so why not put it back to 2?
Compensation of Blood - Ehh...maybe just not much use. It was restricted because of Gadget and MCV deck. Now both are pretty much dead...so what now? Black Feather, maybe?
Mind Crush - Victim of overuse with Trap Dustshoot. This card is not that good...so gradually it will come down from 1 to 2 to maybe 3.

Off:
Manticore of Darkness - With [Card of Safe Return] at 1, not so easy to pull off the infinite loop anymore.
Dol Dora - With ruling change, a restriction is no longer needed.
Phantom of Chaos - Semi-Restricted just because of pre-emptive reason.
Book of Moon/Apostle of Obliteration - God knows why this 2 cards were restricted/semi-restricted from the beginning? Book of Moon maybe for the OTKs, but there is the Total Solar Eclipse which does 100 times better than Book of Moon for OTK purpose. Apostle? One is who used Flip effect monster anymore and two...ehh......

Overall comment?
1. For once, they finally get back on track and kill the necessary evil. If Undead-Synchro or Tele-DAD-Synchro are rampant, KILL them...and this list does exactly that.
2. There are more cards that could have been come down from the restricted list...I DO mean [Power of Teamwork]...who cares if that card makes Deformer actually decent?
3. Some surprise by people? [Imperial Oppression] (weird ruling + annoyance + cheap negation), [Honest] not touched (but by then it did not appear much), Cat Synchro not really affected

Now, the metagame, I would not even attempt to say I will know what's coming...here is my 2 cents.

Tier 1:
Lightlord
Black Feather Synchro (?)
Rescue Cat Synchro

Tier 1.5:
DAD variant (who say this deck does not work even DAD is down to 1?)
Anti-Meta (who knows what now they would anti?)

Tier 2:
Gladial Beast?

Tier 6: Baroncaster - just because I now get Sorceror does not mean SC is good...
Tier 100: Elemental Hero - just because Konami says this: screw you Heroes, we are in 5Ds and Synchro age!

Green Baboon and Dol Dora:

Well, the ruling changes are not really complicated...

Green Baboon - This card's effect cannot be activated during Damage Step
Dol Dora - No matter how much copies you have, this card's effect can only happen ONCE per duel, but NOT on per card basis.

The first ruling is not really a surprise. I mean, [Rope of Soul] was ruled the same way, so I do not know why Green Baboon is not. This change would of course curb the usability of Green Baboon by a lot, but not really a lot. Seriously, there are still alternative ways to destroy Beast, i.e. Rescue Cat.

As for Dol Dora, really, the effect makes this card just too complicated and hard to keep track of. What about now? I don't know, it's not like people use more than one copy of this card anyway.

Are there other cards that can be considered this? Maybe...but I mean, one errata would make some cards not half as good. For example, [Butterfly Daggar - Elma], if only 1 can be activate per turn...it would make the combo just die. Synchros concept...if you can do it only if you did not special summon during the turn, it would make 90% of this list irrelevant. A lot of just add in "once per turn" or "twice per turn" can make a card not so broken...from Ice Barrier Dragon (put a limit) to Snipestalker.

That's all...next article? I don't know...maybe Ancient Phophecy? It's not like it's THAT far from now!

- Baron, 2/17/2009