Article #81:Darkness for Light, and Light for nobody

As I mentioned from my article on first look of TSHD, I am currently pretty behind in my usual schedule writing articles for the site. In order to catch up for a bit, I decided to write the 3/1/2010 list article AND my 3-months late "end of the year" review article together.

Since this will be a pretty long article, I will stop the introduction right here...

3/1/2010 Ban/Restriction List Changes

Banished:
None. In a not so surprising move, Konami decided not to do anything with the banned card list. There are no cards that is worth to be banned in my viewpoint anyway. Of course, there could be cards that were on the banned list that can be unbanned, but the thing is that they ARE on the list for some reason, and unbanning any of them may shift the dynamic of the game too much.

Restricted:
Tragoedia - This card, as I mentioned in my card review, is really powerful. It just a matter of time that this card will be restricted. The counterpart of this card, Gorz, had been restricted for a while, so it is not a big surprise either that this powerful card is restricted.
Necro Guardna - This card has two purposes, one is used in Lightlord decks, and the other is used in a stall "time limit"/stall-burn deck. The main reason this card is restricted is because of the first. Combining this card with [Burial of D.D.] (which is also restricted) makes this card powerful...plus Konami wants to curb Lightlord.
Lightlord Summoner Luminas - Lightlord nerf #2. This card is "the" main card in a Lightlord deck in successfully pulling off tricks and combos need for cards like [Judgment Dragon].
Mezuki - This card was too good at 2. Comboing this card with [Burial from D.D.] make it ridiculous. Plus, this card was borderlined semi-restriction powerful last list anyway.
Chaos Sorceror - Never mind about Chaos being the "was" card. This card, after being semi-restricted, was used quite a bit in deck like Zombielord.
Necroface - First is [Burial], second is [Shutendoji]. Both cards make this card pretty good...maybe too good to be at two.
Burial of Different Dimension - The number one "unsurprised restriction". This card is comboed with [Mezuki], [Necroface], and [Necro Guardna], to name a few, to do some ridiculous stuff. It is just that removed from game/Graveyard interaction is more powerful than ever that make this card restricted.
Destiny Draw- I have no idea, maybe there are fear of abuse with [Diabolicguy]? There is Dark Attribute Synchro deck but...ehh....maybe just fast draw now are too powerful even if almost all themes are getting their own sooner or later...
Charge of Light Brigade - This card makes the speed of Lightlord from fast to VERY fast. It is not surprising to see this card restricted, actually.
Foolish Burial - Didn't Kaiba said this card is stupid? Well, I love using this card, I'm sure a lot of other people also. This card enables a lot of combo in different decks, which in another word this card screams "way too powerful".
Allure of Darkness - Konami curbbing draw cards here with Black Feather loving this card....
Magical Explosion - The last of the few remaining "One card OTK" is now also gone. I did think I read that they are going to expand the main deck (I could remember wrong)
Mind Crush - A lot of abuse with the "replay" rule, and this card is still popular hand destruction in Metabeat after all.

Semi-Restrict:
Honest - 3 to 2 again, no need for another "Lightlord curb" explanation, right?
Dandelion- This card was powerful, but now a little bit slow? I don't know why they would semi-restricted this card since this card does help Synchro and stuff. However, [Foolish Burial] IS restricted, which does slows down this card a little bit.
Yomigaeru - [Foolish Burial] restricted, so this card can be back at two. This plus the semi restriction of Dandelion still helps Monarch, Ritual, etc.
Cyber Dragon - This card "was" the card to put in a deck. Now with more powerful cards and more powerful beater, this card is not as good, although still good, as before. As for all the Cyber Dragon OTK, they don't really existed or is hard to pull off now-a-days with all the restrictions.
King of the End - Demise - It just does not make sense to restricted this card in the first place. Yes, there is Demise-Dozer OTK, but then, there is also [Judgment Dragoon] semi-restricted when a harder to summon version (Ritual) restricted. Plus, this card does have "competition" (cough cough Gargadorph)
Black Hurricane- What took them so long? Although I do not see much effect on BF deck with semi-restriction of this card, with other changes it does curb the power of Black Feather quite a bit.
Power of Teamwork - My dream finally comes true. Yes, this card is still one of the best equipment, but with the power of Equipment Magic, overall, is not that powerful, the best of the almost worst is still not as good as it used to be.
Royal Decree/Imperial Oppression/Skill Drain - The powerful continuous Traps are now semi-restricted. Not that it does a lot, it does make the player unable to just stack 3 of them in a deck anymore.

Off:
Mask of Darkness - Trap card is a rare thing today. With the restriction of [Magical Explosion], there is really less need for this card.
Earth Crush - I was kind of skeptical when this card was first restricted. But was the deck, Gadget, that used this card annoying as heck? Well, yes. Now, is this card still pretty powerful? I would say, yes to certain point. However, since every theme and every deck are packed with removals anyway, what's the point of restricting a one-for-one removal?

Overall comment?
1. Lightlord finally getting shafted, long time waiting?
2. A lot of continue curbing of current popular decks, with BF, Zombie Synchro, Lightlord all hitted hard, plus old meta-beat cards getting some axe.
3. As for cards not getting touched/should get touched...I mean, my biggest disappointment is on Lightlord: although limiting Judgment Dragoon does not killed the deck, it does more damage itself than restricting the million other cards.

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

Tier 1:
Demonic Roar God
Other Synchro...one will eventually emerged as better than others
Gladial Beast/X-Saber (?)

Tier 1.5:
Infernity (XD...only because there are some freaking powerful combo)
Plant
Black Feather...kind of

Tier 2:
Gadget
Ritual
Some kind of Metabeat...but they always exist

Tier 2.5:
Fish
Dragon Type

Tier 8: Baroncaster - it still sucks...

YEAR IN REVIEW

I would not write a long introduction. If one word summarize the year, it is "Synchro". Everything now have to do with Synchro, from set releases to ban/restriction lists. As usual, I will follow my year in review format.

Sets/Related product
Like last year, this year have 4 "big" booster sets (TSHD does not count even if I reviewed the set before I write this year in review, with now 2 Structures, with 1 Duelist Pack, 1 Extra Pack, and Duel Terminals and other promos. Again, I give scores based on the card designed, the impact on metagame, and what-not. And for the other things: like the Structure Deck (based on how good they're built and how good are the new cards), reprints, promos overall.

Raging Battle: 7.5/10 - This set is one of the most themed set this last year. Black Feather, Deformer, Core Chimail, Plants, plus the Earthbound God from 5Ds anime. Overall, this set gave boost to Black Feather deck, but the other theme introduced, Core Chimail, is very disappointing. OK, one good card: [One for One].

Ancient Prophecy: 7.9/10 - This set marks the first set that include cards that related to themes introduced in Duel Terminal. The power level of this set, again, is not too overpowerful or bad. This set continued, really, the themes introduced in previous sets plus Ruka's cards, which are not the most powerful thing or useful things. Hey, there is also [Ancient Holy Wyvern]...

Stardust Overdrive: 8.5/10 - To change the theme, this set introduce more themes from the Dark Signers (Spiders, Reptiless, more FLs). In addition, it give boost for a theme that had not been touched before this set for a while: rituals. Although there is not one single "crazy" card (which is not always a bad thing), there are a lot of new things that are now playable.

Absolute Powerforce: 6.9/10 - I will not change my view of this set, it is still powerless and boring. Not all carsd suck...but just nothing stands out outside of if you want to build a Inti/Quilla deck.

Duelist Pack - Yusei vol. 2: 6.9/10 - I'm still not a fan of Duelist Pack, but whatever they are now released once per year. The power level of the new cards are actually decent...in a Synchron/Warrior deck, of course.

Extra Pack 2: 8.2/10 - As like the other Extra Packs, there are some really good cards included in this one. The negative thing is of course the good cards are more rare than the "non-good" ones. Outside of my SC bias, this also has the single best LL support card [Reinforcement of Light], etc. Of course, overall there are still a lot to catch up...

Duel Terminal - 10/10 - One thing is that the amount of Duel Terminals released last year create the high score. Although there are the lack of Magic/Trap support cards for the themes, some themes first from DT are just good. Demonic Roar God, Natural, the AOJ Synchro, the Ice Barrier Synchros, Dragunity....

Promo: 8.1/10 - God cards, Sin monster, the Angels/Demons...no "super powerful" promo, but not a bad year for it still.
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Structure Deck:
Warrior's Strike - 6.2/10 - The deck forced 2 previously unrelated theme together: Equipment and Dual. Of course, the result of the deck is a little bit disappointing, and the mixture of cards make the deck unplayable out of box. The cover card continue to be bad...but it is nice to see some Dual support reprinted, since the theme was kind of forgotten.
Machiners' Commando - 7.8/10 - The deck focus on some forgotten promo. Well, the result is not too bad. Again, it's not news anymore that Structure cannot be play out of box...but at least this deck has a focus although it still have the "forced to make a deck" written all over it.
Starter Deck 2009 - 9.2/10 - I don't know, the deck is just better and more playable than the Structures to me. There is finally coherency in the deck. Plus, it still does a good job introducing every concepts. Road Warrior is not too shabby either.
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The ban/restriction list!

3/1 banlist: 6.8/10 - I would say this list created the environment for the next 6 months from the start. This list try to destroyed Synchro deck, especially TeleDAD and Undead Synchro, which WERE the decks. The list, however, did not resolved the upcoming dominance of Lightlord, Cat Synchro, Black Feather...of course, a little extra after FINALLY changing the rulings on two cards.
9/1 banlist: 7.3/10 - A lot of OTK hate on this one, which may not be bad. DDB, CoSR, and DDVD are 3 cards that deserved to be ban for a while. Otherwise, it's all about curbbing deck and creation of others....
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The good, the bad, and the ugly
I just love this section...

Good: The game is still going, I guess? Plus, series 7 is coming out, cannot believed how much the game had evolved from Blue Eyes White Dragon to now
Bad: Whatever happens to Psychic experiment; Too much Synchro...Also, 5Ds is good and all, but 35 out of 80 cards in a set based from the anime sometimes make sets looks boring.
Ugly: My little passion left on the game, the forever long ban/restriction list (OK, 3/1/2010 one is not in 2009, but 135 cards is just little bit ridiculous)

Hopes:
- Again, parallel release, it's good for the game
- Series 7 better be good and different, although from the look at the first few cards it is not too exciting
- The game surviving....

That's it for this article. I will now start writing new card reviews when I finally have time.

- Baron, 3/12/2010

 

         

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