My September 2012 Banlist

This format has been, how do I put this lightly? Garbage. This format involves a seris of one card combos that once you play that one card you win.  Cards are combos by themselves and many of the decks this format rely on just one card to get the ball rolling with no prior investment. Ex. Dragonfly, Rabbit, Tourguide, future fusion, you get the point. I for the most part made this list with what I want to see happen rather than what I think konami will actually do, but at the end of each card choice description(detailing why I did what I did to the card) I will talk about how likely the card is actually going to be hit by konami(that part is in red for your connivence).

Things I am Trying to accomplish by making this list:

• I am trying to slow the game down and have no otk's whatsoever
• I am trying to eliminate 1 card setups/combos(Rescue rabbit, inzektor dragonfly, tourguide)
• I am trying to get rid of all loops of any kind
• I am trying to get rid of decks that have no interaction with the other player and act like you are playing a game of solitaire
• I am trying to do away with badly designed cards even if those cards see little or no play
• I am trying to get rid of cards that break game mechanics
• I am trying to get rid of cards that you can just draw off the top of the deck and win

Things I want to male clear

1. This is not a prediction list though I do have a a certain hint of prediction at the end of every card choice but please take those with a grain of salt as I  have no idea what konmai is going to do in the end.
2. This list is strictly my opinion and what I would do if I were making the banlist

Banned:
BLS: This card should have never came back. Its summoning requirement is a joke, it wins games by itself, and it removes face up or face down monsters, broken much? I think that there is a reasonably good chance that this card is going to get banned by konami, since it has seen quite a bit of play in chaos drgaons. I would put BLS at a 50/50 chance to be banned.


Wind up hunter: I was thinking how I would hit wind-ups,  making sure I didn't outright kill the deck but I did want to hinder it. Imo hunter's only purpose in the deck is to facilitate the wind up loop. I have watched many videos, read many articles, and talked to many wind up players and I always see/read/hear the same comment. The only reason i run hunter is to be able to loop the hand. A card that's purpose is to facilitate a loop(of any kind) should not exist Loops are not healthy for the game plain and simple. I believe hunter has a good chnace of being banned by konami. It doesn't really hurt their profits(as its only ran as 1 of) but the banning of this card successfully hits wind ups. Its a win win situation.


Morphing jar: Simply put this is a reset button. It is a psuedo cyber/fiber jar. Morphing jar takes any advantage you might have and says" lets start over!" reset buttons shouldn't exist. I would extremely surprised if konami hit this card. It doesn't see alot of play(hardly any really) its just one of those badly designed cards that shouldn't exist and konami has never really hit anything that is in that category. 


Gaia Dragon the thunder charger: This card really only sees play in hiertaics but it still breaks the exceed mechanic. The whole point of an XYZ is to overlay for them and once their materials are used up then a XYZ is just a glorified beater. Gaia Dragon however allows you to disregard that "hinderance" and instead allows you to summon another XYZ with piercing(gaia) for the sacrifice of a dead XYZ. This card will probably never get banned plain and simple as konami has no problem printing cards that break game mechanics.

Future Fusion: Some have said hit 5 head dragon instead, I disagree because I am hitting this card not just to hit chaos dragons but because the card design on this card is just bad. With so many graveyard effects running around there is always bound to be some loop or otk affiliated with this card. To add insult to injury it is a auto win when played in chaos dragons. Broken much? I strongly feel that either this or 5 head dragon is going to be hit by konami, but I am leaning towards them banning this card over 5 head because that would kind of be foolish to ban a normal monster. I think futuire fusion has about a 70% chance of being banned with 5 head having a 30% chance(for all of you non math whizzes out there.)


Monster Reborn: I have been asking for this for a very long time. I hate cards where you just say "oh look I drew this, now I win!" This card should not have came back. Plus it is not skillful in the slightest, you just draw and play. Its time for this card to be retired for the next six months. I do think that konmai will ban monster reborn because it has been proven that konami has no problem banning this card then a few formats later limiting yet again.


Mind Control: Imo opinion this card has become no different than brain control. The metagame has proven time and time again that taking advantage from your opponent and giving it to yourself is just to good. I honestly do not think this card has a good chance at being hit. Yes it does see play in all decks, but I just do not see this card as being on konami's radar. I say it has about a 20% chance of being banned.


Limiter Removal: I may sound like a broken record here, but seriously what purpose does this card serve outside of facilitating otks's? A card that exists solely for the purpose of otking or looping simply should not exist. See morphing jar.


Gateway of the six: If you draw this turn 1 in samurai's you win. That is not healthy for the game. Samurai's need to find other ways to win games. See morphing jar/limiter removal.


Card Destruction: I have expressed how I feel about this card many times before. If you draw this in dark worlds you win 9 times out of 10, its basically future fusion but for dark worlds. Since Dark worlds havent done much this format I highly doubt that konmai will hit this card. If and/or when dark worlds do something relevant to the metagame is when this card will get hit.


Final Countdown: I thought about banning one day of piece instead of this, but in all honesty I would just be ignoring the problem. The reason I hate this deck so much is because it doesn't really matter who you are playing against, whenever you play this deck it is like you are playing a game of solitaire. There are no interactions with your opponent, nothing. Just you passing turns playing fader or any other battle phase trick then passing then repeat. This deck shouldn't exist, it requires no interaction with the game at all. Now technically this goes against the solitaire rule that Kevin Tewart posted on the konami blog, but since he was talking out of his ass when he posted those articles I don't see konami actually identifying that this deck should be hit. 


Royal Tribute: Even though gravekeepers don't see much play having all the monsters in your hand wiped out is still to good. Gravekeepers have not done anything relevant in the meta so konami will not hit them.


Limited:

Rescue Rabbit: I know by hitting this down to one that it effectively kills the dino rabbit deck. I don't see where the problem is in that. Dino rabbit has dominated the TCG metagame for two formats. The deck has had its time in the spotlight and yes some of you may not like my reasoning, but for one single card to completely reinvent the metagame as we knew it and make normal monsters relevant again and to dominate for 2 straight formats, I believe it is a justified hit. Honestly at some point in the game it will probably join its feline counterpart by being banned, right now that is to harsh but we have yet to see what konami is planning to print. On top of all this it is a one card engine, you just play it and your field is set up. I see konami limiting laggia and semi limiting rabbit more than I see them doing what I have done. In essence they would be taking the same approach in hitting rabbit as they did samurai which wouldn't be entirely bad but not entirely good either.


Inzektor Dragonfly: By summoning this card and having one card in the grave(hornet) you can nuke your opponents field and XYZ up so you can otk. Need I explain more? This card is basically the epitome of what this format is. It is a one card set up there is no actual prior set up(besides hornet) and this card by itself can do all the work of summoning out the other inzektors. No skill high reward. I actually truly beleive that konami will hit dragonfly when they go after inzektors, logically it makes the most sense, it functions as the otk enabler, the one that effectively starts the combo, and the one that starts the nuking of the field, but when has konami used logic to make their banlists?



Grapha dragon lord of dark world: This card is quite possibly the best floater this game has ever seen. It has 2700 atk(sometimes 3000), it comes out for free from the graveyard and when it is sent from the graveyard to the hand it pops a card. One of this card is bad enough to deal with but when you have 3 to deal with it becomes ridiculous. Imo the worst part about this card is that backrow is not a viable answer to it as it usually pops the bacrow when it is discarded, this leaves very few outs besides running macro cosmos which doesn't work in most decks or running dd crow which is not as versatile a veiler. Its a recurring floating boss monster and something that we should have only one to deal with. I honestly don't think will  do this. Konami has shown that they only hit decks that see a ton of play and consistently top YCS's. Dark world has not done this to the extent where I think they are on konami's radar.


Goyo Guardian: Yes I am on the bandwagon that thinks Goyo should come back. Konami has tried to make us believe that synchros don't exist and to a extent they have succeeded. When I was contemplating bringing back this card i thought what decks could utilize Goyo to its full extent. I couldn't think of any. Blackwings were the only deck capable of consistently brining out Goyo and they have fallen of the face of the earth. Yes it is one more boss monster to bring back into the game but no deck in this format can truly utilize it. Taking a XYZ with goyo really only serves the purpose for bringing a beatstick to your side of the field as the XYZ loses its materials. Konami is trying to push XYZ's and make us forget that synchros exist. Bringing back a good sycnhro would go against this products pushing policy so unfortunately I do not see goyo make a triumphant return any time soon.


Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon: The summoning requirement is a joke, it summons massive beatsticks with huge atk that enable otk's and it is at the heart of the hieratic otk and is the engine behind chaos dragons. Redmd was already bad enough within those sacky dragon decks of the days of old but when we got really good dragon support Redmd became busted. It enables otk's and that is one thing that I am trying to punish on this list. I say redmd has about a 50% chance of being limited. Gustaph Max is coming to the tcg soon via shoenen jump promo and hieraticts will be a good selling point for konami in the tcg, on the other hand to build a chaos dragon deck you really only need 3 structure decks and a set of reprinted tour guides and you have a tier one deck that is relatively cheap and doesn't make konami much money so it is still up in the air whether or not redmd will get hit.

Judgment Dragon: Lightsworn are pretty dead but that doesn't  make this card any less broken. You just rip it off the top of the deck and most of the time you can play it. Lightsworn is already a sacky deck and judgment dragon only adds insult to injury. Konami has been returning cards to lighsworn rather than taking them away so this looks like a pipe dream.

Rekindling: I was playing against lavals on Dn and this card in conjunction with lavals was able to summon up shooting quasar, once shooting quasar hist the field you lose. Any card that allows you to summon any number of monsters from anywhere is just bad yugioh it factiliates swarming and otking even if rekindling in this case is not use for a otk it is still used as a complete lockdown which is just as bad. Since lavals have not yet seen the limelight here in the tcg I doubt that konmai will hit it, but on the other end of the spectrum konmai still hit blackwings because of the ocg even though they werent doing anything in the tcg. I would give rekindling about a 45% chance at being limited.

E emergency call/shiens smoke signal/hiertaic seal of convocation: No theme should have 3 rotas and even having 2 rotas still is to much searching and makes it way to easy to get to your combo pieces. Konmai might hit miracle fusion over e call but konmai likes to hit the consistency of decks so e call has about a 50% chance of being limited. Konmai will most likely want to keep giving support back to six sams since they have done nothing this format so I think smoke signal has about a 0%(lol) chance at being limited. I think konmai will most likely hit redmd over convocation but if konami doesn't hit redmd I think convocation has about a 80% at being limited as konami likes to hit the consistency of a deck.

Mystical Space Typhoon: This game has to many ways to otk. If you need to otk you need to get rid of backrow. To get rid of backrow you need backrow hate and yugioh has to much of that as well. Part of the reason that otks are running so rampant these days is because of the wide variety of options you have to pop backrow. With mystical space typhoon at 3 it makes all other forms of one of backrow hate irrelevant. Yes mst is a simple one for one but having 3 mst and one heavy storm makes destroying backrow and otking your opponent too easy. I am on the fence of whether konami will limit mst or not. Yes they want to push night beam down our throats but at the same time with less backrow hate means slower games which konami is not a fan of. I give mst about a 40% chance of being limited.


Ultimate Offering: This card is a otk enabler. It rewards you for dumping your entire hand and swarming the field. That kind of play is not only bad for the game but it should not be rewarded whatsoever. Leaving this card at 3 is just asking for abuse. Konami has a ton of machine support coming out in the next few sets and ultimate offering staying at 3 will only help push that. Add that on top of the fact that ultimate offering has seen no play and you have a a very slim chance at konami even hitting ultimate offering.


Royal Oppression: This is definitely the contreversial choice of my list. Simply put I believe that oppression is a necessary evil for the game. On one hand oppression  prevents any kind of comeback for the player that is losing. On the other hand it curbs the extreme special summoning that is running rampant. There is no doubt in my mind that if this card came back everyone would run it, but that would make for a slower format. With the 1 mst you have you might want to save it for this card or give up spots to dedicate to night beam or dust tornado. All in all at 1 I think oppression deserves to come back, yes it makes it near impossible to make a comeback but most likely if you were that far behind you couldn't have made a comeback anyway. Oppression is a very controversial card and konami does like brining back controversial cards, but imo having this card brought back to 1 is a pipe dream for me, konami has proven time and time gain that they want fast formats and oppression facilitates slower formats. I think oppression has a 5% chance at coming back for the sole reason that it is controversial.


Semi Limited:

Tourguide of the underworld: A card is only as overpowered as the stuff it summons, and in tourguides case that is very overpowered. It is one of if not the most versatile cards that yugioh has ever seen. If you limit tourguide to 2 then you pretty much have to summon the other or risk drawing into a dead tourguide later in the game. yes you could just add in tour bus, but that card is sub par and would be dead if you drew it. In essence by only having 2 tourguide it would make the card more awkward to play and a little less powerful. Konami has shown in the past that they are not afarid to hit tcg exclusives. If thats the case then tour guide should have no problem getting hit but I have my doubts about konami actually hitting this card so i think it has a 50/50 chance at being hit.


TG Striker: Striker was unjustly hit. Death by association, just because it was in the tier 1 agent decklists doesn't really mean that TG's were the problem. The real culprit were of course the agents. TG were a pretty balanced deck and since earth was limited the real problem has been dealt with. TG's imo were dealt with because of the unbanning of heavy storm and the semi limiting of tengu and rest easy Kevin Tewart just because they won YCS Atlanta doesn't mena TG's are going to take over the world lol. Again this pushes a slower more sycnhro oriented game which konmai wants no part of.

Wind up carrier zenmighty: If you look at this card as a standalone entity you see that zenmighty is perhaps the best theme support card that a theme could ever hope for, let alone the fact that being able to pull a monster from the deck to mitigate the -1 that you took from making zenmighty. banning hunter stops the wind up loop but I still feel the deck can otk very easily and that is just not acceptable in my book. I could see konami either limiting zenmighty or banning hunter but not what i have just done so don't think that zenmighty will be semi'd, if anything it will be limited.


Black Whirlwind: Black Whirlwind is no where near as broken as gateway and has good restrictions(rightfully so!). Blackwings have been dead for a while now and maybe it is just a certain affinity I have for the deck but I want to see them to be able to at least compete with the other decks out there. Make them at least semi competitive because right now if you run blackwings you are asking to lose. I tried to make blackwings at least somewhat completive but to no avail. The deck can still be played but not successfully. Putting black whirlwind at 2 would make the deck tier 1 but it would help it out immensely and make it worth playing again. I don't like the idea of battle tricks from the hand(honest, kalut) so I didn't want to put kalut back at 2 for that reason. Konami seems to be done with their killing blackwings ways so it seems likely that whirlwind kalut or gale will come back to 2.

Mirror Force: Torrential at 2 was one of the best things konami has done in recent memory. Putting mirror force to 2 would be the second best thing. Like torrential, mirror force punishes overextension and bad players. Mirror force sees relatively low play right now due to the fact that it is a slow card and this is a fast format, with that reasoning konami could put it up to 2, it did put torrential to 2 even though it saw play. I say that mirror force has a 60% chance of being semi limited.


Unlimited:

Spore: Plants need a comeback and as long a glow up bulb stays banned the deck won't be broken. Konami wants to get rid of synchro monsters so bringing this back will go against that policy, so the chance for spore to come back is slim to none.




Destiny Draw: The only decent target for this card is malicious which is dead unless you have this card. Plus with all the broken card effects now days malicious is a good card not overpowered just good. I can see konami bring back d draw because they seem to be pretty good at brining back theme support that has been dead for a while. I say d draw has a 60% chance at being unlimited.





And that is the list! I have been working on this post for quite a while(hence the length and the recent lull in post). Please discuss in the comments and tell me what you agree and disagree(all you Royal oppression haters out there lol). Thanks for reading!

-Cameron