Hello once again duelists! After the article contest I took a short break from writing. Finals were finishing up in school, and I was putting the game on the back burner to say the least. But now I'm back, and hoping to produce some more articles to get people talking or thoughts going at least. This time, we examine the ever so popular MARCH 2012 LIMITED/FORBIDDEN LIST, and some of the changes that took place. Let's take a look at the list first (for those who have been away from the computer for a while):
FORBIDDEN:
Glow Up Bulb: This has A LITTLE more justification than Spore does, but still is not right. Plant's are by far, the weakest deck in Japan and in the OCG right now. Why they would ban either Spore or this would be beyond me. They killed a deck that was already past it's peak.
Spore: Same as above, but even less deserving. At least with Bulb you can synchro twice for free most of the time. With Spore you need to run it in an actual Plant/Synchro based deck. Makes no since to me at all.
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier: This card is powerful, but it's no where near broken. It can win games at times, but that's rare now with Skill Drain, Effect Veiler, and Fiendish Chain seeing ungodly amounts of play, this card is hard pressed to get off it's effect after it hits the field (or if it does, if the opponent doesn't have Solemn Warning or another nagator).
Trap Dustshoot: This card drove many duelists insane for the past format. Whoever opened with this and went first usually won the game. Probably one of the most justified cards being Banned, if not the only one.
Limited:
T.G. Striker: Okay Konami, I get it, you're having problems with T.G./Agents right now, but is Striker that much of a threat? I would foresee T.G. Warwolf being more of a threat than this would. It's a good tuner and it's a floater, but it's not THAT powerful to deserve a limiting.
The Agent of Mystery Earth: I suppose to Konami this makes since, just because of the popularity of Agents over there. But hitting this gives a viable deck for next format other than the standard OTK/FTK decks (Rabbit, Wind Ups, and Inzecktors) a huge hit. Agents will be very seldom seen next format
Semi - Limited:
Lumina Lightsworn Summoner: This card is actually decent coming to two. It's not overpowered like people think, it won't revive lightsworns in a big way. It may help, but it's no Charge of the Light Brigade.
Marshmellon: I'm meh about this card actually. It seems Konami wants to bring the Burn population back into this game more or less. With the semi limitation of this card and one other card.
Reborn Tengu: A just limitation. Obviously it being at three for the last format and a half about, this card is over powered beyond people's beliefs. If asserted into the right deck, it can be a game changer.
Emergency Teleport: This card needed a semi limitation for a while now. My only hopes were that Destiny Draw would come off the list a well, reviving Tele Dad A little, although it would still be a comprehensibly slow deck compared to most.
Level Limit Area B: This was the other card besides Marshmellon I was talking about. Although it's use will be lack luster because of the three Mystical Space Typhoons running around along with Heavy Storm and Dust Tornado occasionally.
Shien's Smoke Signal: This is an iffy card for me. This is just like Konami saying (to me at least) "Hey guys, let's make more aggro decks popular than they already are," although this change is pretty small for now.
Torrential Tribute: My favorite card coming off the list to two. This is soooooo needed beyond everyone's beliefs right now. Up to three mass destruction traps and one mass destruction spell (two Torrential Tribute, Mirror Force and Dark Hole), will hopefully help stem the tides of aggression.
Unlimited:
Call of the Haunted: Also fair choice. It was rarely used at 2 for the most part besides a few YCS and big events I can think of.
Now what does all of this mean? All of my comments on these cards? Well to put bluntly, Konami did a HORRENDOUS job with the list. They stifled and limited the options of nearly every control deck that could still see play, while boosting the playability of over aggressive decks with almost no draw backs on the list for them (except Torrential at two). I don't want to say Konami doesn't know what they're doing all of the time, in fact, if people examine some formats a lot of choices make since later on in the format. But this list is god awful. Why wouldn't Royal Oppression come back to one or two? It's not needed to be banned with three Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm out. Monster Reborn and Black Luster Solider are also problem cards. Monster Reborn is obviously over powered in any and every deck. It creates more outs for Wind Ups to loop your hand, more plays for Inzecktors to destroy your whole board and OTK, more plays for Rabbit to XYZ summon more. In every other deck at the very least it's a free summon of the most powerful monster in either players graveyard at the very least. Konami wasn't quite done selling their XYZ's yet, which is the main reason for a lot of things IMO. Tour Guide has yet to be reprinted, but will in a matter of a week or two. Not that it justifies any of the list choices except a few. Konami's plan from the get go was pretty simple, limit the options of all the decks that don't RELY on XYZ summoning and are still even slightly competitive, which will boost power to all the other decks.
Oh and I did say in the title what you'd expect next list. Here's the short and not so sweet list of decks that will see popular play out the gate:
Rescue Rabbit
Inzecktors
Wind - Ups
Note those will be the popular choices, however there are more. I could see Chaos decks breaking through again as the control deck of the format to start with. T.G.'s may have taken a few hits, but they are still quite playable, as the main thing that makes them run is Skill Drain and Horn of the Phantom Beast.
Well all and all that's my analysis of the entire thing. After seeing what a couple different decks may look like this list, I can already tell it's more of last format. More hand traps for the win, more swarm first turn by many aggressive special summoning decks, and more coin flipping as well unfortunately.
I hope everyone enjoyed this article! Until next time!
~Adam "Crazee" Block
Latest posts by Adam Block (see all)
- Crazee Adam’s thoughts on the March 2012 Limited/Forbidden, what should we expect? - February 29, 2012
- How To Side Deck Effectively - December 27, 2011
- What Makes A Good Player…Well A Good Player? - December 23, 2011
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