The March 2011 format is just around the corner, and a lot of talk and speculation has been floating around the internet about the shape of the format to come. This ban list brings with it a lot of unexpected and game changing limits/unlimits, and I'd like to jot down a few words about what I expect to see in the next six months.
The March 2011 ban list is bringing a lot of changes to the game, but these I feel are the most important and are what I'm going to spend the majority of this article talking about:
- Goyo Guardian: Banned
- Cold Wave: Banned
- Blackwing: Kalut the Moon Shadow: Limited
- Honest: Limited
- Dandylion: Limited
- Book of Moon: Limited
- Gateway of the Six: Limited
- Card Trooper: Semi-Limited
- Spirit Reaper: Semi-Limited
- Icarus Attack: Semi-Limited
- Chaos Sorcerer: Unlimited
That's a lot of things to cover! Like I said, the landscape of the current meta-game is about to change dramatically, and the changes I listed above are going to be solely responsible for that.
Goyo Guardian and Cold Wave:
I don't really think anyone saw the banning of Goyo Guardian coming; it definitely took me by surprise. However, the more I think about it, the more it starts to make sense. Goyo is a 6-star, 2800 attacker that can steal a monster if it destroys it by battle. If it were a higher level monster, or even had lower attack for it's level, it would be balanced; but because Goyo is so easy to make and gets over so many powerful creatures, I can see the logic behind it. Not to mention the fact that Exceed monsters are right around the corner; I think Konami wanted to limit the number of effective 6-star monsters to encourage players to use Exceed monsters when they're released, and to also keep Exceed monsters from being run over too easily and stolen by Goyo.
So, what does the banning of Goyo mean for the upcoming meta-game? Brionac, and LOTS of it. Without the default six star option of Goyo, players are going to be resorting to Brionac plays a lot more frequently, simply because they don't have a better choice. Coupled with the amount of heavy trap hate that's sure to take place this format (Trap Stun, namely, though Seven Tools of the Bandit will be seeing a lot of play as well), Brionac is going to be a pretty common sight. As a result of both of these, I also expect to see Effect Veiler make a huge comeback, with at least one main decked in practically every deck.
Cold Wave may have been banned, and while I'm sure most of the dueling public couldn't be happier, I wouldn't count your blessings just yet. With the limiting of Book of Moon, traps are going to be the new name of the game, and thus Trap Stun, Seven Tools and Royal Decree are going to be huge this format as well. It's up to the player and their deck's play style to decide which route they want to go, but all three of these cards are going to be everywhere. The days of Cold Wave into a Black Rose or Judgment Dragon nuke may be over, but rest assured that players will find other ways to safely make these huge plays.
Kalut and Honest:
Let's be honest here (no pun intended!) -- both of these limits have needed to happen for a while. I admit that I was surprised to see Kalut go to one, but just like with Goyo, the more I thought about it the more I saw the logic behind it. Being able to drop either of these from your hand when attacking or attacked (or, in Kalut's case, when you're attacking directly, potentially for game), is some pretty broken stuff.
For Kalut and Blackwings, this is going to pose a serious problem for the deck moving forward. While Kalut plays were never the focus of the deck, having that support to help Blackwings' relatively low attack monsters get over the biggest boss monsters in the game was a huge advantage for the deck. Blackwing players are going to have to be much more cautious with their single Kalut now, and will be forced to find cards to replace it. The general consensus seems to be a pair of Smashing Ground, which I expect to become staple in the deck as it does a decent job of removing huge monsters, similar to Kalut's purpose, and also helps push through for advantage with direct attacks from Spirit Reaper. Of all the limits on the new list, I think this hurt more than anything else and may have effectively knocked Blackwings down to tier 2 all by itself.
Limiting Honest, however, is not nearly as much of a devastating blow to the decks that use it as Kalut was for Blackwings, particularly in pure Lightsworn decks which can easily re-use and abuse that one Honest via Beckoning Light and Pot of Avarice.
Dandylion:
This is a limit I don't think anyone was surprised to see. With the advent of the Synchro mechanic and the abuse that allows via Fluff tokens and Debris Dragon (a whole deck was made around it, for God's sakes), it was a limit that really needed to happen. With this limit, the semi-limit of Debris Dragon and the unlimiting of Chaos Sorcerer, I expect current Debris-Plant decks to switch over to a more Chaos oriented build. Debris-Plant decks are the most poised to easily abuse Chaos Sorcerer, and I think in order to remain competitive they'll have to do just that. Debris-Plants have been tier one for this entire format, and I wholeheartedly expect Chaos Plants to carry that torch in the new format.
Book of Moon and Gateway of the Six:
This is the single most game changing limit on the entire list, and anyone who disagrees clearly hasn't been playing this game long enough to know any better. When I first started playing Yu-Gi-Oh competitively, Book of Moon was limited. When it came to three, it singlehandedly defined that entire format and has continued to be a staple at three in almost every deck. Before Synchros existed it wasn't as useful, but being able to stop a synchro play, re-use flip effects, stop direct attacks and all kinds of other things, ultimately led to Book of Moon reclaiming its place on the Limited list, and I wasn't at all surprised. I actually predicted that this would happen back on September's ban list.
The single best defensive spell in the game is now down to one, and there really are no replacements. Enemy Controller is the next best thing, and I'm sure plenty of people will be trying that out in Book of Moon's place. Forbidden Lance may also see some play to try and fill the hole. Being such a universal card, this has a huge impact on a lot of decks, but the primary concern here is Blackwings. Without Book of Moon AND Kalut, the deck has really taken a huge defensive hit, one that it may not be able to recover from in the new format.
Synchro plays are going to be a lot more successful in Book of Moon's absence, however. The effects this is going to have on the game are really too far-reaching to completely predict, but I can guarantee by the time we reach the end of this format, everyone is going to be lamenting their lost Book of Moons.
Gateway is one of the most broken support cards we've seen in a really long time. I wasn't surprised to see it hit by the new ban list, but I WAS surprised to see it limited. Most of us expected Gateway to go to two so that Samurai's would still be overpowered and thus make all kinds of money for Konami. Apparently Konami had other ideas! Gateway being at one definitely makes a huge dent in Six Samurai, but it's not even close to being the proverbial nail in the coffin. I fully expect this deck to stay firmly seated in the realm of tier one decks, especially after Shien's Dojo releases in Extreme Victory, which will likely break the deck all over again. Hold on to your Kinetic Soliders and Puppet Plants; Samurais aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Card Trooper, Spirit Reaper and Icarus Attack:
Continuing the trend of changes no one saw coming, Card Trooper and Spirit Reaper are both back to two. It's hard to really predict the impact these two cards are going to have on the meta-game, but I can safely say that both are going to be seeing heavy play this format, most likely in Chaos Plants! Spirit Reaper is an excellent stall card with a devastating discard effect; coupled with its Dark attribute, the card is instantly splashable in a lot of decks. I predict that 2 copies will become staple in Blackwing builds moving forward, as well as in Chaos Plants. The meta-game may have also just found its MVP side card of the format in Spirit Reaper as well!
Card Trooper is a bit murkier at this point. Outside of Chaos/Debris-Plants and Lightsworn/Twilight, I don't see it having much use at two, but I'm sure that some ingenious player will find some way to abuse it in a way that none of us could have predicted. I think this might be the dark horse card of the new ban list; we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Icarus Attack is yet another hit to Blackwings. Clearly Blackwings were hit hardest on this banlist, and when combined with the other limits the deck recieved (Kalut and Book of Moon going to one), Icarus Attack at two may just be the end of Blackwings' tier one reign of terror. The amount of players using Blackwings is obviously going to plummet; the deck will be no where near as ubiquitous as it was before, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it fall safely into a tier 1.5/tier 2 position as a deck that still does its job of keeping the broken tier one decks in check.
Chaos Sorcerer:
I'm going to be upfront about this from the very start -- I think Chaos Sorcerer being at three is going to define this format. I think that, a format or two from now, people are going to look back at March 2011 as being the "Chaos Sorcerer format". I think decks are going to be made and tailored specifically so that they can play Chaos Sorcerer at three. Chaos Plants are just the first, most obvious option, but I think Twilight is going to see a resurgence in play as well, with the focus of the deck being on spamming and reusing Chaos Sorcerer.
It's anyone's guess what other crazy Chaos decks we see spring up as a result of this, but again, I have no hesitation in saying that Chaos Sorcerer is going to be THE card of the March 2011 format.
So, now that we've waded through all of that, let's talk about the new tiers and how they're going to shakedown!
Tier 1:
- Chaos Plants
- Six Samurai
- X-Sabers
- Gravekeepers
Tier 1.5:
- Gladiator Beasts
- Frog/Formula Monarchs
- Light Hero Beatdown/E-Hero (Post- The Shining release)
Tier 2:
- Blackwings
- Lightsworn/Twilight
- Machina
- Disaster Dragon (Dragon Ravine is about to give this deck the boost it needed to really be competitive)
- Scraps
Gladiator Beasts always see a resurgence at the start of every format, and I don't expect this format to be any different. Keeping in that vein, I also expect this format to follow the pattern of GB's falling off the tier list a month or two into the format when it's had time to define itself.
Gravekeeper's will keep their top tier position due to their amazingly favorable match-up against Plants and all of their variants and the fact that the deck really has no inherently unfavorable matches.
X-Sabers received almost no limits on the new list outside of the universal hits in Cold Wave and Book of Moon, the latter of which benefits the deck more than hindering it. With Trap Stuns flying everywhere and traps in general sure to be huge this format, Hyunlei is going to be that much deadlier.
Six Samurai are still a strong, very competitive deck post-March. Though they lost two Gateway, I know the deck will find a way to rain on everyone else's parade. I do expect the sheer volume of the deck being played will decrease pretty substantially, but the deck isn't going anywhere. It may see a dip in play until Extreme Victory releases, bringing Shien's Dojo along with it, but rest assured Samurais are here to stay.
Everything else in the tier lists is pretty self-explanatory. If there's one thing I'd like to say about the tiers for this coming format, it's that the lines between tiers 1, 1.5 and 2 are pretty blurry; any of these decks could easily top a YCS or regional, holding its own against the rest of the meta-decks. In my opinion, that's a good thing! Variety in a game like this is never bad.
So, there you have it! Better get your decks primed and ready, because next week the new ban list takes effect and we're all in for a whole new landscape of dueling!
