The newest Forbidden & Limited for the OCG dropped a while ago, and this is one of those slaughter lists this time. With the new year coming up, OCG Konami decided to do some house cleaning and start the year anew. If you have been paying attention to the OCG meta, you will know that these changes were desperately needed. Hopefully, Konami has taken some good notes from this experience for future archetypes.
This list will, without a doubt, make room for other decks to come back into the meta spotlight. And possibly some new ones with the Cyberstorm Access booster set right around the corner for the OCG. Anyway, let us go over the list and discuss what changes were made to it.
Keep, in mind, that this list only affects the OCG, which is all of Asia. If you do not live in that area, then this list will not affect you in any way.
Note: Forbidden = 0 copies; Limited = 1 copy; Semi-Limited = up to 2 copies; Unlimited/No Longer On List = up to 3 copies.
Forbidden:
Tearlaments Kitkallos
And we start with a banger. Kitkallos is no more in the OCG. This was a big blow to the deck. Kitkallos was one of the cards that helped the deck set up the board they needed. Not only can she net you a card, but she can also combo you into milling eight cards, which almost makes it impossible to not hit a Tearlaments card, or anything GY-related.
Not only that, but another reason why this is big is that she is one of the requirements needed to Fusion Summon into Tearlaments Rulkallos. Does this mean Tearlaments can no longer play Rulkallos too? Not quite. They can still go into Rulkallos thanks to King of the Swamp, which they have experimented with before, so they just need to change up their strategy and card ratio.
Back to the main topic, Kitkallos has been such an important piece to the archetype, hence why some OCG players teched in Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries when they were faced against them. That’s how important Kitkallos was to Tearlaments.
However, I would not say this means Tearlaments are out of the picture. Tearlaments can still Fusion Summon like crazy. They will need to change up their strategy, however, at this point.
Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds
Guess Konami was taking notes on Master Duel’s banlist too. Stormwinds was a key card to use in many different decks during the past year or two. But the ones that are currently abusing it the most are Floowandereeze. While this deck has not been meta during this format, having this card helped them deal with Tearlaments since that deck does not have any WIND monsters. But now that they are getting knocked a couple of begs, Konami wants to ensure other decks have a chance to do well and does not want Floowandereeze to come in and take over with this card.
This card has had it coming for the past year, potentially. It was just a matter of whether Konami deemed it necessary to hit, and it seems they have. Floowandereeze is still a strong deck by itself, but it will have to include other floodgate cards moving forward to help in their adventures moving forward.
Limited:
Ancient Fairy Dragon
Luna and 5Ds fans, rejoice that Ancient Fairy Dragon has returned! And I am not just saying that for the OCG. You see, the reason Ancient Fairy is returning to the game is that she received an errata.
I know, I know, not everyone is a fan of errata. But this errata is needed with how the game has evolved. Plus, it is Konami, and we have no control over them. Anyway, here is the errata:
“You can only use the (1)st and (2)nd effects of this card’s name each once per turn.
(1) You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your hand, but you cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect.
(2) You can destroy as many Field Spells on the field as possible, and if you do, gain 1000 LP, then you can add 1 Field Spell from your Deck to your hand with a different name than that of the destroyed card(s).”
If you cannot spot the differences, let me break them down for you. First, and most importantly, her soft once per turn effects are now hard once per turn effects. That means players are no longer able to spam out multiple copies of Ancient Fairy to keep using her effect over and over.
The second change is that her Field Spell pop effect can now only search Field Spells that have a different name from the Field Spells she destroyed. This is important because it was this effect that got her banned in the first place. Players would use her in decks, let us say SPYRAL, for example, with Field Spells that could search a card upon being activated. By using Ancient Fairy, they could get another copy of the same Field Spell and another free card. So you are essentially going +1.
Now you can still technically use the Field Spell pop effect since the search part is optional. But if you want to gain some advantage, you will need to either include more than one Field Spell in your deck or use her to pop effect on an opponent’s Field Spell to get your own (provided it’s not a mirror match).
Overall, I’m glad to see Ancient Fairy Dragon will be coming back to the game. And this means we can now, at some point, get some cards to give Luna a more focused deck/archetype, potentially. (Hopefully, we’ll see this same change come to the TCG soon.)
Blackwing - Steam the Cloak
It took them a while to finally do this. This card was originally banned due to being abused by Crystron Halqifirbrax. But now that that card is banned, Steam can return to the game. The only deck that can use him, from what I can see so far, is Blackwings themselves, but we will see how things unfold.
Bystial Magnamhut
It makes sense why he got hit out of all the other Bystial monsters. Being able to search and add any Dragon monster from your Deck or GY during the End Phase can be very good, Especially if you activated that effect during the opponent’s turn. And now that Tearlaments got nerfed, keeping this card at unlimited might be too good when used against other decks. Regardless of all that, this card will still see some play. He is too good of a card to pass up.
Kashtira Fenrir & Unicorn
It Looks like Teralaments were not the only ones Konami targeted for this list. While Kashtira was not overwhelming like Tearlaments, they still managed to somewhat go toe-to-toe with them. But more importantly, this also stops the little Fenrir engine players have been using, which is easy to use since it can freely Special Summon itself, remove a card, and search itself! Yeah, that needed to be taken care of at some point.
Unicorn is similar, except that it only searches Kashtira Spells. However, he can banish a card from your opponent’s Extra Deck, which can be good under the right matchup.
Even so, though, Fenrir could still see play since it is a 2.0 version of Pankratops.
Tearlaments Scheiren & Reinoheart
The hits to Tearlaments keep on rolling. Hitting Scheiren and Reinoheart helps make it harder for Tearlaments to mill one of these cards and be able to Fusion Summon like crazy (at least for Scheiren’s case). More importantly, these cards are also known to be able to send a Tearlaments card straight to the GY, so you are guaranteed to trigger a Tearlemnts effect.
Now, these hits do not mean that it is going to be harder for Tearlments to start comboing off. They can still get access to these cards with ease, whether it’s from milling or searching. All this does is make it somewhat harder for Tearlament players to see these cards in their opening hands.
Tellarknight Ptolemaeus
It makes sense since the TCG just brought back this card as well. With Ptolemaeus back, players can, once again, go into cards like Cyber Dragon Infinity or Stellarknight Constellar Diamond in any deck that can summon Rank 4 monsters. That last one might be a good one to go for, given that a lot of the good stuff is DARK monsters.
I do not expect Ptolemaeus to cause much trouble in the game now, but we will have to wait and see
Branded Fusion
While Branded decks have not done much in the current format, I guess just like with Floowandereeze, Konami wants to make sure other decks, including some of the new upcoming decks, have a chance to shine in the metagame. It is a reasonable hit given how strong Branded Fusion is.
While this card was semi-limited, putting it down to one sounds like a good sense of security. Plus, it can still be searched out. At the very least, this will make it harder for other decks to use this card unless they are willing to play a bit more of a Branded engine of some kind.
Change of Heart
I was wondering how long this was going to take them. Change of Heart is a classic old-school card that was released around when this game first started. Being able to take control of an opponent’s monster for free was super powerful. Hence why it was banned, and it was a good idea at that time, considering where this game went.
Now though, it looks like OCG is okay with letting this card off the list. If things go well, this card can probably stay at one from this point on. I mean, here in the TCG land, we have had the card at one for a while now, and it has hardly popped up in the metagame. That is not to say this card is not good. It is, but the current format is not the right time for this card to come up.
Even so, this will be a good Side Deck card for the OCG, at least. Especially in mirror matches.
Prime Planet Paraisos
This hit not only serves as a hit to Kashtira but to Tearlaments. That is because, first of all, Tearlaments used the Fenrir engine, so being able to search it out straight away and use it before committing to your actual play is quite good. I would be shocked if we did not see this happen when this card gets released in the TCG.
The other reason this is a hit to Tearlaments is that they have a card called Tearlaments Kashtira, which helps support both Tearlaments and Kashtira. And yes, it does mill, so how could Tearlaments not play this card?
Even with this card being put down to one, this will not stop either Kashtria or Tearlaments from playing this card. It just makes it harder to see the card in their opening hand.
Semi-Limited:
Orcust has not done anything in the OCG for years now. Even with Galatea to 2, I do not see Orcust staging a comeback anytime soon.
Sky Striker also has not done anything in the OCG, even with the newest support it has been getting. And since it is getting another piece of support (this new one is quite good) bringing Kagari to two can help increase the deck’s popularity. But still, I do not think we will see them do anything to top the current metagame over there.
Since Toadally Awesome got banned in the OCG, there does not seem to be any harm in bringing from one to two copies. They can probably still make some Rank 2 Xyz plays, but since none of those plays is Toad, OCG Konami does not seem to be too worried about it.
This card has not done a thing since it came off the list. It could practically go to three at this point and still do nothing. Yata is not much of a threat these days.
Interesting. From my research, I believe this is another hit to Tearlaments, given how they have Spells/Traps that also have effects that trigger when sent to the GY. But I guess with so many Spells/Traps getting GY effects these days, it might be a good idea to put this card in check a little bit. Well, it is what it is.
Infernity has not done jack in so, so long. Bringing this card up to two will not change that.
Yet another curious hit. Putting Raigeki down from three to two. Again, I believe this because of Tearlaments since they would mostly use it against Kashtria to deal with their Kashtira Shangri-Ira, thus giving them back access to their zones. Plus, Raigeki is just a crazy board wipe card in general. Besides Tearlaments, I do not see any other reason Konami would hit this card.
Now, this is something to pay attention to; at least, that would be the case if Gryphon was still legal. Wandering Gryphon Rider got banned in the OCG on the previous banlist. With it now gone, the Adventurer engine is not all there now. I mean, Gryphon was the main thing to go for with the engine. Now though, this is mostly just exclusive to the Adventurer deck itself. And with that, there is no harm in bringing this card up to two, for now. (Won’t be surprised if this card goes to three on the next list.)
Trickstar, both the engine and the deck, has not caused any big splashes in the OCG metagame for a long while, so OCG Konami feels okay with putting this card back at two copies. But still, the Trickstar engine can be good, so tread carefully, OCG players.
Unlimited:
The ABC deck has not done anything in the OCG for so long, even before this card was put down to one back in 2020. Bringing it off the list will not change that as we move forward.
Pendulum Magician has not done anything in the OCG metagame for years now. Even when this card went to two, they still have not done anything. And how could they? Anyway, taking Double Iris off the list will not cause any problems.
Phantom Knights have not done anything for some time now. Plus, now that the Adventurer engine is no longer a thing, Adventurer PK will not become a thing in the OCG again, so it’s okay to take Torn Scales off the list.
The same case with Rite of Aramesir, without Gryphon, there is hardly a reason to keep a card like Enchantress on the list. Be cool to see if the Adventurer archetype gets a new piece of support at some point to help celebrate this.
Eldlich has not done much in the OCG lately. Despite how strong they can be, there are stronger decks that keep it from being a big problem. That might change as the OCG enters its new format, but everything will be fine. Maybe.
Thoughts
This list was out to destroy Tearlaments. Given how the deck continued to dominate the format in the OCG for months, something needed to be done to help make way for the new stuff. It went after Kashtira too, but only because of the techs they gave to other decks. Including Tearlaments. How is this new format for the OCG going to look moving forward?
With these massive hits to Tearlaments, this gave other decks a chance to try and take the top spot. Archetypes that came to mind upon seeing this list, that might take the top spots, were: Runick, Spright, Dracoslayer, Dragon Link, and Despia.
At least, those were my first thoughts. But after some time had passed, that changed. A couple of 3rd party tournaments were held in the OCG that used this new list, and wow is everything all over the place.
Right now, the decks to beat seem to be Runick (the stun version) and Tri-Brigade (the Spright version). We also see some other contenders like, surprisingly, Gishki (then again, they are able to use the Spright engine as well). Granted, this is just the first wave of a new format, so it was bound to be a messy start. As more time passes, we will start to see what everyone is focusing on. And we will still have to see if anything from the Cyberstorm Access set will change that. But for the time being, it’s going to be a Tri-Brigade and Runick format.
In the end, this list did its job. Of course though, this is not to say Tearlaments are completely out of the game. The deck can still make some strong plays, so they will make some appearances in the metagame, but it won’t be as much as before.
Finally, let us ask the question: Are we going to see any of these changes in the TCG? The Ancient Fairy Dragon change is guaranteed, we just do not know when it will be. I can see Kitkalos getting banned if Tearlaments continue to remain dominant. By that, I mean for after we get our next banlist. Not saying they are not going to try to hit Tearlaments on our next banlist, but they still need to sell cards, you know?
I can for sure see that they limit Kashtira Fenrir. He is both powerful and splashable, so he is going to need to be dealt with sooner or later. Same for Bystial Magnamhut since he nets you a resource. The last one I would say we might see happen in the future is the banning of Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds. Right now, he is mostly here to give other decks, that being Floowandereeze, a chance to compete with Tearlaments. Once the time to kick Tearlaments off the meta ladder comes, they are going to be taking that statue with them, maybe.
Everything else is either; irrelevant, given how different the TCG & OCG banlists are, or a possibility. Like Branded Fusion. I agree it is strong, but I do not know if TCG Konami will agree to hit it yet. However, I cannot rule out the possibility of it getting hit to make room for the new wave of cards/archetypes. Also, if they end up hitting it, there is a chance it will be banned; keep that in mind.
Overall though, we will not always be able to predict what Konami is going to do for the next banlist. All we can do is make our guesses and prepare for any possibilities. Anyway, let me know in the comments what you guys thought of this list and if there is anything on it that you would like to see in a future TCG banlist.
I’ll see you guys in the next one! Hope you have/had an awesome day today! 👍
Banlist source: https://www.yugioh-card.com/hk/event/rules_guides/forbidden_cardlist.php?list=202301&lang=en
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