Yu-Gi-Oh! April 2014 banlist predictions/ hopes

Alright so we're closing in on the date long awaited in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG community: the day that the banlist gets leaked. Not even confirmed, just leaked. Why? Because it gives us more time to be made that Trishula didn't come back to being Limited (I'm never selling mine, I know it's coming back...it's why I held onto Magician of Faith, too).

Sometimes, the banlist "leaks" aren't true, actually, most of the time they are a little wrong. There are a few people who can predict things and get it close, but, then Konami of America just does the wierdest things, like destroy three decks in one swoop by banning their main cards. Whoops.

So, since I'm posting this kind of before anyone leaks the banlist or anyone has detailed and reasonable speculation, I am just drawing on my own thoughts and opinions on what should and should not come off the list, or what needs to be moved around on it. If it sounds stupid, just keep that in mind. If you think I'm crazy, also just keep that in mind.

Without further ado, let's look at what I think we should see different on the April 2014 banlist:

Forbidden (cannot play outside Traditional Format):

-Nothing.

Yup. I don't think anything is going to get banned this time around. With such a short period of time between formats now, since we get three a year, I didn't think there was too long of an adjustment period for a card to become so broken that it becomes unplayable. Some people hate Bujingi Crane but I don't think it needs to be banned. Could you really consider it on the same level as something like Glow-Up Bulb or Cyber Jar? No, of course no! It's a designated Honest. So, I don't think anything was big enough to really impact the game in such a way that something needs to be banned.

Does that mean nothing will be limited? Haha, NO way man!

Limited (one card per deck):
-Cyber Stein
-Elemental Hero Stratos
-Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
-Thousand Eyes Restrict
-Gateway of the Six Samurai
-Dragon Ravine
-Fire-Formation Tenki
-Hysteric Party
-Mermail Abyssteus/Abyssmegalo

Yup. I took five cards off of the forbidden list and threw them into Limited to see play again. I even considered adding in Dark Strike Fighter given its recent errata. But I think that'll come in our next banlist, in the summer, when Pendulum Summoning takes full...swing...

Oh God help me.

Anyway, let me explain before I am killed via Cyber Stein hate. Remember how when Cyber Stein was cool it was cool because you could bring out like Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and make your opponent eat 5000+ damage, similar to the amount you used to summon the beast? Well that was before cards like Effect Veiler came into play. Now, if you Veiler a Cyber Stein, your opponent has essentially just paid 5000 Life Points to summon a monster with less than 1000 Attack Points. I make it sound like the card could be at three, except, no, because Machine Duplication is a think and cards like Cyber Twin Dragon and Limiter Removal would make Cyber Stein stupid. But really, the problem with Cyber Stein is that is good if your opponent doesn't have an Effect Veiler, Compulsory Evacuation Device, Torrential Tribute, Bottomless Trap Hole or Solemn Warning...oh wait everyone runs those cards. Cyber Stein would be good to test out at one, and if need be, keep it. I wouldn't want it to go to two, but, then again, what deck would use it? Cyber Dragons? They're already crammed for space. Geargia-Karakuri? Why waste a normal summon on another card when you could be making huge combo plays?

Stratos is the obvious one. Now that the TCG and OCG have different banlists, correct me if I'm wrong, then the broken plays Stratos apparently makes over in the OCG are irrelevant over here. And, now that Bubbleman is at one overseas, you don't have the logic that the OCG has him back. The OCG has Trishula and Cyber Stein back. Stratos coming back wouldn't make Heroes any better, really, but would make me happy because Heroes are a fun casual deck.

Trishula is just a card, really, that I want to be able to be able to play in my Nordic deck to make it really good, because Trishula is far better than Mist Wurm is, in my opinion. But, again, I don't think Trishula would be too much of a deal. Mermail would abuse the living heck out of it, but, then again, for how long? It's effect can only be used once, and, that's it. Other than that you're just sitting on a 2700 beater, which, while stronger than most monsters Mermail runs, is a bit of a roadblock. Usually they spam the field to make their Xyz plays, so, wouldn't Trishula get in the way?

Thousand Eyes Restrict is a card I kind of thought would be super strong, until I saw a video by the Yugituber Alintheayoh, who made valid points as to why Restrict could return. It's a similar reason to Cyber-Stein: hand traps now exist and what deck is going to waste a resource on the card? Sure, there are still some extremely rogue people who play a Relinquished deck, but, outside of them, who is actually going to main a copy of this? The only way to bring it out with Relinquished and Thousand-Eyes Idol is through Instant Fusion, which is only seen in a handful of decks, like Rank 4 spam and Geargia-Karakuri to get to their plays faster. There is little reason, then, to play Thousand Eyes Restrict, so not much harm can come of it being unbanned.

Okay, Six-Samurai was an irrelevant deck when Xyz hit the field. Sure, they were annoying as heck, but, what competitive events were they topping, I ask you? None. Then, they lost their strongest card. Fantastic. I suppose you could argue that since Shien's Smoke Signal went to three it gave reason for the banning of Gateway, but, I still don't see why. So what if Six-Sams have Gateway? It isn't like the Dragon Rulers are coming back. Blackwings got three Black Whirlwind and three Kalut and they've done nothing, so, why not give back Gateway? It adds more playability to a classic deck.

Dragon Ravine is a card that I could also argue could stay banned. It gave Dragon Rulers power, indeed, by casting them into the Graveyard for a player to then use and abuse. Great. But, that was when two copies were run and when a heck of a lot of other cards were at three. Now, those cards are either banned or limited, such as Super Rejuvenation and Sacred Sword of Seven Stars. Plus, Dragon Ravine was not made for Dragon Rulers, it was created for Dragunitys. OH right. Yes, that is right. Dragon Ravine getting banned lopped the head off of Dragunitys and made them nearly unplayable. Luckily, Heratics became a thing for them, but, it couldn't nearly make up for the loss of three Dragon Ravine. I think that this card will be like Tsukyomi: slowly creep up to three. As long as the Dragon Rulers and their babies stay at one.

I think Fire-Formation Tenki is an obvious pick to get limited. Before the current format, the card was semi-limited, and Fire-Fist took a bit of a blow, but nothing too serious. Now, they're just plain stupid, with nothing to stop them and with everything to stop. Not only that, but Tenki also cripples another really annoying deck that everyone wants to get hit but that I think gets hurt real bad with this limiting: Bujins. I mean, without anyway of getting to Yamato, the deck is stuck in a rut. What is there to use Crane on if there is no Yamato? Tenki provides way too easy a route to both Fire-Fist and Bujins of getting to their centerpiece cards, as well as powering them up by 100 Attack points. And, in the case of Fire-Fist, Bear and Rooster get to use their effects and start blowing stuff up. At least with Bujins it just searches the darn card and then just sits there.

Okay, let's imagine that a card exists that, for only one card, you can special summon potentially five monsters and make huge plays and pushes that can maybe give you game. No Life Points required. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, it is, and it has a name: Hysteric Party. I mean my God is this card annoying. You'd think you have everything figured out and before you know it your opponent has gone from a bunch of Harpie Ladys to like Draccosacks or something stupid like that. But it's the cost that blows me away. Discarding just one card to get potentially five out of your Graveyard. I'm sorry, but, that's just ridiculously unbalanced. At least with Return from the Different Dimension we had to give up half of our Life Points.

Finally, we have Mermail Abyssteus/ Abyssmegalo. Oddly enough, I didn't come across many Mermail players this format. Probably because they faded in light of Bujins but rose once Patrick Hoban made his little Reckless Greed-Upstart Goblin trend that I found extremely lifeless and that Dark World had been running long before any thought of putting that formula into a deck. Anyway, that wasn't what made Mermail good, it was their stupid level sevens. And since I didn't really come across either Teus or Megalo much, I can't recall with is better. Though from the videos I have seen, Teus is the better card, thus, shuts the deck down better. If something can slow down this deck, it would be limiting that, though some people cry out for Abyss-Sphere to be limited, which I can understand.

Semi-Limited (two cards per deck):

-Gladiator Beast Bestiari
-Magician of Faith
-Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
-Bujingi Crane
-Upstart Goblin
-Reckless Greed
-Abyss Sphere
-Bottomless Trap Hole/ Solemn Warning
-Hysteric Sign

Alright so let's be honest with ourselves here: who still plays Gladiator Beasts? The people on YGOPro/ Devpro, that's who, but, that's interesting. These are the same people who recognize this, too: Gladiator Beasts have had no life for the longest time, longer than Six-Sams, and that they are getting support in Primal Origin. Hey, smart business move advice: if you want to sell the card, you have to sell the deck, too. And keeping a card that wouldn't really make much of a different limited isn't too smart an idea. I highly doubt that Gladiator Beasts are going to make much of a difference with this card back, and even if so, there is the power to limit it once more.

Magician of Faith has done squat at one, but at two? There's potential. When I heard it was getting limited I thought Prophecy/ Spellbooks was going to abuse it, but no, they just died along with Spellbook of Fate. Yet, with two Magician of Faiths, things could get interesting. It's already a level 2 monster with low attack, giving it some similarities to Blue Boy, but this card gets back your Spellbooks from the Graveyard, almost like recycling them. Why I think this card can come to two is that: it will not be in the Main Deck and that it has a Flip Effect. I could see Spellbooks siding this card in case they find that their Maxx "C"s aren't working very effectively in the matchup or something. And with the Flip Effect, well, it's a bit slow. Nowadays cards are destroyed without having to flip them up, so, Magician of Faith is quite slow. I'm not sure if it could go to three potentially, given the possibilities with Prophecy, like I said.

Honestly, this is just player-preference. I understand that it could breathe some more life into a powerful Dragon deck (Dragon Rulers), but, let's thing of the little guys here: Dragunitys and Chaos Dragons. They sorely lack a way of getting stuff done anymore. Chaos Dragons lost Future Fusion (stay banned Future Fusion...just stay banned) which almost killed them, and at the same time lost REDMD. That sucked. Dragunitys don't have much of a way to get on the field anymore obviously with Ravine gone, so, at least some consolation would be with REDMD. But like I said, I liked playing two REDMD (when the card wasn't limited, that's the number I ran because I'm a budget player) as it added far more speed and relevance to the deck. It worked much better with Lightpulsar Dragon than it does now at just one. I just think that if it came back it could bring Chaos Dragons back into an interesting position in an upcoming meta.

Honest is limited because it affects all Light monsters. Some want Crane to be limited because it gives too much power to the Bujins. To that I say: shush. Why? Because it only affects Bujin Beast-Warriors. And, by my knowledge, most Bujin Decks only play, in game, like eight Bujin Beast-Warriors. Given that they already have access to Honest, they have four ways of boosting that monster's attack points. I think, though, that limiting the card would be a little overkill. Maybe it isn't, maybe it should be limited, we'll just have to see, but, I think that with just two cranes, Bujins would be a much less annoying deck to stop.

Upstart Goblin and Reckless Greed I'll take about in the same paragraph because that is how they shall be put in decks until August, assuredly. Both let you draw cards for different costs but those costs are essentially irrelevant at the pluses you gain. They add speed to decks that are too quick anyway. But most of all they just make for stupid advantage that I find annoying. If you activate three Reckless Greeds you are getting six cards to add to the probable four or five you already have in hand, meaning you have an entire fourth of your deck in your hand. If don't have win-condition combo pieces in your hand at that point, then, the card is now at fault. These cards, together then, let you thin your deck way too quickly. Cards like Mistake are incapable of stopping this since you can't stop them from drawing, and there isn't a Maxx "C" version of when your opponent draws. I just think these cards let you get too into your deck too quickly, but, being semi-limited shouldn't hurt the dying-Hobaning style too much.

Because I apparently like killing Decks today, Abyss Sphere makes the list. Why? Because it is the Fire-Formation Tenki of Mermails, except, when used properly, it can lead to massive problems, especially in the Abyssgunde combos it has that I constantly fall prey too. Gosh I hate those. Abyss Sphere, if my memory serves correctly, was at one point Semi-Limited. I could be wrong and that may have been a fake list, but, still, I think it would have been wise to keep it there. With the Atlantean monsters, Mermails are pretty quick, and with Tidal they are even quicker. So, putting Abyss Sphere to 2 wouldn't be too big of a deal, in my opinion, but would slow down the deck a little more so that you can't activate three Abyss Spheres and suddenly spring three Megalos on your opponent. That's cruelty.

Regarding Bottomless Trap Hole and Solemn Warning, I put them as interchangeable because I felt that the impact they make if they return to being at 2 would be relatively the same. Sure, Traptrix could use Bottomless moreso than Warning, but, ultimately, their purpose is to stop the summoning of a monster. Bottomless is actually a lesser card because it does not negate the summoning, and destroys it. So, for example, if your opponent summons something like Stardust Dragon, Stardust can negate Bottomless but since it's summon is negated by Solemn Warning, Stardust would find itself in the Graveyard. Similarly, you cannot use Forbidden Lance on a monster that has had Solemn Warning used on it. However, the downside to two Solemn Warnings is that if you are running 2, by using them, you've already given up half of your total life points. So, you see, they kind of cancel out, so I wouldn't be shocked to see either return. I just don't believe that they would return together, that would be a bit much.

Think Hysteric Party was bad? Ha, you've not seen anything yet. Not only is this card a Spell, but, it also is stupid MST and Night Beam bait that gets your opponent any three Harpies they want from their deck, all that has to happen is Hysteric Sign has to be destroyed. Golly that is ridiculous. As unbalanced? No, not really. Mostly because you aren't Special Summoning the monsters directly to the field and that the card has to be baited out. It may never get destroyed, blind-MSTing works that way. Still, though, to get three cards for the price of one is a but much, thus it should be at least semi-limited.

Unlimited (three copies per deck):

-Left Arm of the Forbidden One
-Right Arm of the Forbidden One
-Left Leg of the Forbidden One
-Right Leg of the Forbidden One
-Exodia, the Forbidden One

No, just kidding. I would quit this game :-)

Really, though, I don't think we're going to see anything get unlimited this time around. Again, nothing has stood out to me that says that it should come off the list. This time around, things are moving around on the inside. Maybe in the summer when we get our next banlist we might see something like Magician of Faith or Bestiari come off, but for now, I don't see anything that didn't come off last time that should be taken off this time. I think we're still adjusting to this new style, and with Pendulum Summoning on its way, I think we'll see our fair share of random bannings and released restrictions fairly soon.

See you next time!