The new September forbidden list brought a lot of surprises to competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, and will surely change the entire pace of the current format, but there is one returning card that immediately and single-handedly will change the game as we have grown to know it over the past two formats, and that is Heavy Storm.
Heavy Storm is easily the most feared card in Yu-Gi-Oh, beating out even Dark Hole. While many players lamented the banning of Heavy Storm two formats ago, there can be no question that Heavy Storm being banned drastically altered the pace of the game and how it was played. Cards such as Trap Dustshoot and Starlight Road fell completely out of competitive play, replaced instead by cards like Trap Stun and Seven Tools of the Bandit to compensate for the lack of mass spell and trap card removal. Entire decks and archetypes fell out of competition because they were not able to keep pace with decks like Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts who could summon a monster and keep control of the game with 4-5 spells and traps set.
Now, the pendulum has swung completely in the opposite direction; Heavy Storm has returned and deck lists all across the internet have changed to reflect this. Whereas in previous formats decks have tended to be trap heavy, with some builds running up to twenty traps, decks now seemingly rely solely on monsters and spells, with most running a very slim six to ten trap count.
There is something to be said for the power of a card when the game state changes so drastically as a result of its return or banning. Lets take a look at the arguments both for and against the legality of Heavy Storm, and why it may or may not be important in keeping competitive play balanced and fair.
Most arguments that support Heavy Storm revolve around the idea that trap cards slow down the pace of the game and that with the ability to set so many disruptive spells and traps without fear of having them be destroyed, it leads to a less intellectually challenging meta game. Players are able to simply set all of their cards with reckless abandon and matches often boil down to whoever wins the dice roll, because the player who draws first is able to set all of their spell and trap cards first, gaining instant control of the game and forcing their opponent to fight an uphill battle against their disruptive back field. The psychological fear of Heavy Storm forces both players to carefully choose which spells and traps they set and when. Setting the wrong card at the wrong time could easily cost a player the game, and it is for this very reason that there are players who believe that Heavy Storm is a necessary card. Players argue that Heavy Storm's presence adds another layer of skill to the game, because it forces all players to read their opponent and determine whether or not they have Heavy Storm in their hand, similar to Dark Hole, and those players who do not have the skill to play at that high of a level will be punished for being careless with their spells and traps.
It is interesting then that the argument against Heavy Storm being legal revolves around the exact same premise, but on the opposite side of the coin. Heavy Storm's naysayers say that with Heavy Storm being legal, it is far too easy for players to simply drop it at no cost and score an easy +2-3, completely turning the tide of the game. They argue that Heavy Storm, rather than add to the skill required to play competitively, instead detracts from the skill level, because Heavy Storm is a card that takes no skill or any real competitive insight to play. With Heavy Storm in hand, a "bad" player can simply activate it and make a giant push for game, leaving their opponent nearly helpless to disrupt the attack outside of Effect Veiler and other in-hand OTK stoppers like Gorz and Tragoedia.
There is no denying that Heavy Storm is a great card, and it is one that will continue to be controversial for as long as competitive Yu-Gi-Oh is played. I think the arguments both for and against the legality of the card both raise good points, but they are also slightly misguided. There is a very clear reason why Heavy Storm was banned and just as clear of a reason that it returned: balance. While Heavy Storm was legal, creature heavy decks that revolved around effects, particularly ones that destroyed, ruled the format. No one played many traps, and at the time cards like Effect Veiler did not exist, so Heavy Storm was often a game ending card. Some players became cynical as a result, and so Heavy Storm was banned to try and re-balance the game. Subsequently, trap cards reigned supreme for two whole formats, so Heavy Storm was brought back to once again try to re-balance the game.
The simple fact of the matter is that Heavy Storm is a double-edged sword, both breaking and balancing the game in different aspects, and whether or not it is legal, there are always going to be a group of players that are not happy. In a perfect meta game, we could have a mixture of Heavy Storm and heavy trap line ups, but that is just not a reality; the two can never really exist simultaneously. I believe that Konami is experimenting to try and find the best balance between the two, and this newest forbidden list reflects that perfectly. Until they manage to strike that perfect balance, however, we as the player base will just have to enjoy the ride on the shifting meta tides.
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