My thoughts on the Sept. '11 format

It's been some time since we know of the new ban list now, and compared to other bloggers I certainly am late posting about it, but on the other hand: it's called the September list, and it's still the start of that fresh new month and format. I have a lot to say about it.

Banned:

Fishborg Blaster

Mental Master

Giant Trunade

Royal Oppression

Restricted to 1:

Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

Debris Dragon

Lonefire Blossom

Legendary Six Samurai Shi En

TG Hyper Librarian

Formula Synchron

Heavy Storm

Primal Seed

Shien Smoke Signal

Pot of Avarice

Restricted to 2:

Summoner Monk

Tragoedia

Necro Gardna

Dewloren

Destiny Draw

Swords of Revealing Light

Mind Crush

Call of Haunted

Unlimited:

Judgment Dragon

Spirit Reaper

Overload Fusion

MST

Megamorph

Gravity Bind

Icarus Attack

The general changes

 Heavy Storm at one is what affects this format the most. Over a year ago I wrote an article about his leave. Now he's back, and I'm not happy with it. The card is a good attempt to punish overextending, but there are two major problems with it. The first one is that instead of every spell or trap needing to be dealt with separately (one for one cards, which is mostly a balanced mechanic), there is now one card that deals with them all completely by itself (thus creating advantage too easily).

The second problem is that setting even 2 spell or traps on an empty field is now considered overextending. Yu-gi-oh! is simply not the kind of game where you can expect setting 1 trap to be enough. With countless boss monsters available for about every deck now, especially in Chaos and Dark World, there will certainly be a follow-up to your lone Bottomless Trap Hole.

Mystical Space Typhoon only adds to the above: two traps is too many, but one is not enough. Traps are still essential as they are the most efficient way of dealing with field presence, but players are now forced to find other outs. There's cards that fizzle from the hand, like D.D. Crow, Effect Veiler and, played a lot as of late, Herald of Orange Light. We'll also have to rely more on cards like Dark Hole and Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, which take care of field presence after damage has been done (both literally and figuratively).


The Bans

 I have two interpretations on the ban of Fishborg Blaster. The obvious one is to weaken the Frog Monarch deck. A notable thing about that deck is that it ran close to no traps, and if it did, they were chainable. Perhaps Konami didn't want to discourage the use of the newly limited Heavy Storm and unlimited Mystical Space Typhoon.

Since Elemental HERO Escuridão was released, there was more abuse of Future Fusion. It was discovered that that card could create an FTK completely by itself (with any other 5 cards in the hand). It seems that this specific FTK was dealt with with the semi-limit of Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier, but Fishborg Blaster does have the ability to create an OTK or at least a devastating play with some other card. They wanted to keep Future Fusion in the game, so Fishborg Blaster had to go.

Royal Oppression was very precious to many, but let's admit it: the way it negates a summon makes it better than the average trap, which only deals with it after a successful summon, and in addition to that, it keeps the field clean from any Special Summons, losing you no advantage at all in the process. The only problem with its ban is that we have a format where something like this is needed, but it's still broken.

Mental Master was an obvious choice: the only thing it was good for, was OTKs. Konami took note of this earlier, but for some reason decided to limit it. They did the right thing this time. Giant Trunade in addition to the current anti-trap lineup would really make traps unplayable. All in all, the ban choices were quite the right ones.


Boss Monsters

 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning being unbanned seems like the winner of changes in this format. I'm glad it can see play. It's a strong card, unbalanced even, but we have more unbalanced things around, like Master Hyperion. As long as we don't have a balanced list, the use of broken cards is not a step in the wrong direction, but a nice addition.

Tragoedia at two is interesting. Gadgets may tech it in again. The card is weaker than it used to be, though, with all the different levels and Xyz monsters around, but it's still a good beatstick.

Judgment Dragon at 3 is a bad thing. Some people say Lightsworns don't mill enough anymore with Charge and Lumina limited, but when you see the deck in action, you'll realize that 4 Lightsworns in the Graveyard isn't much of a requirement at all. Does it clutter the hand? A little. But even Master Hyperion clutters now and then. The thing about Judgment Dragon is that when you can play one of them, you can play them all.


Samurai

 Six Samurai are Tier 2 now. Having a toolbox card hit is very painful. They are still a consistent deck, but consider this: the Synchro Summon of Shi-En is a -1. This was worth it because it most of the outs to it were spells or traps, which returned you the advantage. Now, pretty much every deck has multiple Monster outs (Master Hyperion, Trishula, Chaos Sorcerer, Judgment Dragon, Grapha, etc.). Especially with Double-Edged Sword Technique no longer offering the second or third Shi-En without advantage loss, it's not worth it.


Plants

 It's still a powerful engine, but with the limit of Lonefire Blossom, it has become the kind of engine that has strong plays, but not many cards to pull it of. This is the kind of engine that Psychics are since the limit of Emergency Controller, and that Lightsworns are since the limit of Charge of the Light Brigade. This is the kind of engine that will hardly see play.


Other nice hits

 Pot of Avarice is a card we've grown used to. It was hardly playable for years, thus didn't see play, slowly became one of the easiest +1s available, thus saw lots of play, but we haven't reconsidered it since. It is broken. Just like T.G. Hyper Librarian, it nets too much hand advantage. Both deserve a ban, but I'm glad to see them limited in the first place.

There was another hit that came unexpectedly, but was definitely worth it. Refer to my article on why Primal Seed got limited. All in all, I like this list. Agent Angel is anticipated to be the deck to beat, but it doesn't really seem like an undoable task and I do think the format will be varied.