Hey everyone, this is The_SynchroGuy, and here I’m here to go over the brand new TCG Banlist! Well it took a long while, but we finally got it. In just in time for October too. Although, I’m not sure I would call this list the type that would bring big, big changes to the game that some players were hoping for.
While this list did bring some big changes, this list is probably not what players were expecting. Let me just say right now: the format we’re in right now is still going to be the same for the next couple of months, but we expected this to be the case. Whether this list will be good or not, that’s for you to decide. But before you make your final decision, let’s go over everything and see how this affects things moving forward.
Real quick, this list only affects the TCG, which is everywhere but Asia. If you do not live in the TCG, then this list will not affect you in any way.
Remember: Forbidden = 0 copies; Limited = 1 copy; Semi-Limited = up to 2 copies; Unlimited/No Longer On List = up to 3 copies.
Forbidden:
Crystron Halqifibrax
Let’s start with the big one. Crystron Halqifirbrax is finally gone. This card has caused many players annoyance since it was released in the TCG, and even before then. Its existence was the reason why many good Tuner monsters were banned from the game. But even with those good Tuners gone, Halqifibrax still remained as one of the strongest cards in the game. Being able to give any players the ability to go into an Accesscode Talker with 5300 ATK that could close out games was quite strong.
Halqifibrax was supposed to be support for Synchro decks, but ended up becoming a Link climber for some strong Link Monsters. In the end, he had to be dealt with.
Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon
(Oh, this is going to hurt a lot of different decks.) Chaos Ruler was one of the best Synchro Monsters ever created! His ability to not only net you a possible resource, like an extender or a hand trap, and mill some potential good cards was quite good. And then there’s the fact that he could bring himself back, which was extremely helpful. While this guy alone isn’t like a boss monster, nor does he have any negate abilities, why has he been struck by the ban hammer? Good question.
While Chaos Ruler is not something players have complained about, as far as I know, he’s here as an indirect hit to Tearlaments.
Let me explain. You see, one of the engines we currently have in the game right now is the P.U.N.K. engine. Its goal is to simply make it easy to summon Level 8 Synchro Monsters. And their main go to Synchro Monster, more than 99% of the time, is Chaos Ruler. And this engine has been shown to be very splashable in many different decks. Including Tearlaments, which gets the biggest benefit from it.
Since Konami cannot hit Tearlaments directly, since they’ve still just been released to the TCG and need them to sell, they decided to go after Chaos Ruler to keep them off the P.U.N.K. engine. May he return to us soon once we’re out of this format.
Fairy Tail – Snow
And back to banned camp with you! Guess we’re still not ready to have her back yet. Fairy Tail – Snow is one of the strongest cards we have, considering how she is just a book of moon on legs that can summon itself from the GY, more than once, and as a Quick-Effect. There were quite a couple of decks that have recently abused her the most. Decks like, of course, Tearlaments and Branded Despia.
She probably was put on the chopping block before Tearlaments were released, but they just pretty much sealed the deal with Snow. Considering how good Tearlaments are, Konami doesn’t seem to want them to have too much of a high ceiling that they already have on their own.
Some players were actually happy to have this card back and hoped to keep it around for a while longer. But sadly, that’s not happening. We do what must be done sometimes.
Ronintoadin
Not the Frog I was expecting Konami to hit, but I think it gets the job done. Ronintoadin here has recently been abused by the Spright archetype. Given how Sprights love to hang around monsters that are either Level 2, Rank 2, or Link-2, the Frog package just seemed perfect for them. And it was. But now, Sprights might have to focus on one of their other variants.
Ronintoadin was the big reason Sprights chose to play with Frogs since they could easily summon him from the GY and go into Rank 2 or Link-2 plays. Now that he’s gone, I don’t see what else Frogs can do for Spright.
Red Reboot
But… but… What about stuff like Skill Drain? And Anti-Spell? Can’t we just keep Red Reboot for a while longer? Please!? 😢
My guess as to why they hit Red Reboot is to prevent Spright and Tearlaments from using it. Given how these two have been taking an overwhelming majority of the top cuts at multiple events, Konami is probably wanting to give Trap related decks like Eldlich a better chance against them. But this one change isn’t going to change much. Spright and Tearlaments can still do well against Trap decks, with or without Red Reboot.
Limited:
Blackwing – Steam the Cloak & Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion
Now that Crystron Halqifibrax is banned, there’s no reason to keep these two on the banlist. But of course, this is going to be very interesting to see. What I mean is, we now live in a world where Link Monsters are a thing. And while the card that abused them the most is gone, that doesn’t mean they can’t be used to summon other strong Link Monsters.
Of course though, this is me just speculating a possibility in the near future. I don’t expect anything crazy to be invented with any of these two cards. But once some more time has passed, after we’re out of this format, there could be a chance for something at some point.
Cyber Jar
One after another, after another, after another. Konami is just bringing back every old school good card. And it seems to be working so far.
Cyber Jar was a very powerful card back in the day. Its effect just gave its owner either an overwhelming advantage for a turn, or give them a chance to make a possible comeback. However, since it is a Flip monster, chances are it’s a bit too slow in today’s game. Not to mention all of the removal and negations we now have.
Still though, in the right scenario, Cyber Jar can still be quite a strong card. Again, “in the right scenario”.
Substitoad
Here’s a card not many of us expected to come back. Substitoad was banned many years ago. It was used for stuff like Frog Monarchs, and, most notably, the infamous Frog FTK. However, now that Ronintoadin is banned, stuff like the Frog FTK is no longer possible, as far as I know. Plus, Spright can’t really abuse Substitoad since it’s not a Level 2 monster.
I don’t know what this card can do in today’s format, but I’m sure players will find some fun ways to use it. Probably won’t be meta, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Spellbook of Judgment
I guess this was a unanimous decision for all formats. Spellbook of Judgment was one of Spellbook’s most powerful cards back in the olden days of Dragon Ruler format. It was pretty much what gave Spellbooks the power to stand up to those elemental dragons. Which is why it needed to get banned when the time to exit that format came.
Now though, Konami feels comfortable with letting Judgment go back to 1. I don’t anticipate Spellbooks to take the meta by storm overnight. But with this card, Spellbooks can potentially become an anti-meta strategy for other players to use.
Appointer of the Red Lotus
I’ll be honest, I have no clue why Konami decided to hit this card. I have looked at a lot of different lists, but not a lot of them were using this card. I have some players use this card in their deck, but again, I still don’t fully understand this hit. My only guess is what the card does.
Appointer of the Red Lotus is a good way to get full knowledge of your opponent’s hand, while taking a card out of it at the same time. If I had to guess, this hit was probably to keep the top decks from being able to use this card on turn 1 and ensure their opponent doesn’t beat over their board. Again, gaining knowledge of your opponent’s hand is very, very powerful.
Semi-Limited:
No changes were made to this section of the list.
Unlimited:
Cyber Angel Benten
Oh boy, Drytron players are going to have a field day with this.
Benten here is mostly used for its ability to search a Fairy monster when it’s tributed. When you put it in a deck like Drytron that does a lot of tributing, it becomes a perfect fit. Especially since Benten’s effect is not once per turn. So yeah, probably expect Drytron players to make an appearance at your locals once this list goes into effect.
Will this change allow Drtyron to go toe-to-toe with Spright or Tearlaments? I do not know. Probably not, but you shouldn’t underestimate a deck like Drytron. Ever.
Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter
True Draco has not done anything here in the TCG since this card went to 2, and I doubt the deck will do anything with this card now back 3. Especially since their boss monster is still banned. So yeah, True Draco can get this card back.
Shooting Riser Dragon
The Synchro engine hasn’t made an appearance in the metagame for quite some time now. And given the format we’re currently in, I don’t think taking Shooting Riser Dragon completely off the list will change anything. Congrats on getting off the list Shooting Riser!
Fusion Destiny
Ever since Predaplant Verte Anaconda got banned, there has hardly been any decks that have been using this card to get out Destiny HERO – Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer, aside from HERO decks. And that continued to be the case when this card went to 2. Now Konami gave the ok sign to bring the card back up to 3.
Nadir Servant
The Dogmatika engine has not done anything major in the metagame for many, many months now. And I don’t think that will change. But still, be careful against any deck that uses the Dogmatika engine. It can be quite consistent.
Trickstar Light Stage
No one has been using the Trickstar engine for a good couple of years now. Even when this card went to 2 on the last list, that still didn’t encourage players to pick up the engine again. With that data, Konami sees no reason to not bring it back to up to 3.
Wall of Revealing Light
If players want to pay somewhere from 3k to 7k LP to then only get easily removed, then let them. While Wall of Revealing Light was a good card back in the day, that’s not the case in today’s world. There’s too many ways to easily deal with it. And with that, Konami has finally taken Wall off the list completely.
Thoughts
Without a doubt, Spright and Tearlaments are still going to be the top meta decks, which makes sense since they’re still brand new here in the TCG, so Konami couldn’t exactly hit them directly, yet. While they did receive some indirect hits, it won’t be enough to fully stop them. And let’s not forget that they will be getting more support in Darkwing Blast. So yeah, we’re still going to be in Spright and Tearlaments format for a while longer.
While this list did bring some big changes, there are a few cards that many players we’re expecting to see get hit, but didn’t. Like Mystic Mine.
This card has caused a lot of annoyance within the Yu-Gi-Oh! community, and players were pretty much sick of it at this point. But as you can see, it’s nowhere to be found on the list. Lots of players are not happy about this. (At this point, Mystic Mine might just become the TCG equivalent to Maxx “C” in the OCG.)
My guess as to why Konami didn’t hit Mine is because of the format we’re in. Their hope is probably to see other decks be able to use it to beat Spright and Tearlaments, considering how high their ceiling level is. For now, we’re just going to see how this goes.
Now this one surprised me. Considering how good Sprights is, even though they’re not the deck to beat, per say, they are still managing to top and win some events here and there. So we were expecting Toad to get banned like it did in the OCG. But instead, they went for Ronintoadin. I don’t know if this will make Spright players drop the Frog package, but since Toad didn’t get hit, Spright players are sure to find other ways to go into him, if they haven’t already. Or they can just focus on the Runick version.
Overall though, this list is either a hit or miss for some players. It finally brought the hammer down Halqifibrax that the community has been asking for years. Snow is back to being banned, which players are either happy or okay with. And it did bring some hits to both Tearlaments and Spright. However, we’re still going to be in the same format for a while longer, something we expected. But the fact that Mystic Mine didn’t get hit, that’s the big thing that many players are probably gonna take away from this list.
My thoughts: I’m okay with Halqifibrax getting banned. It was definitely a strong card that needed to be dealt with at some point. I had some ideas on how Konami was going to hit Spright and Tearlaments, but not like this. However, it still works. I’m a little salty that they banned Red Reboot though. That card was such a big help against Traps, but I guess I’ll have to learn to live with it. And Mystic Mine, I hold no hatred towards it, but it’s something that will need to be dealt with at some point.
Anyway, those are all my thoughts. Let me know what you guys thought about this list in the comments below! Do you love it? Hate it? Is there anything different you would’ve done? I would love to hear what you think.
I’ll see you guys in the next one! Hope you have/had an awesome day today! 👍
Banlist source: https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/products/booster-pack/
