Total Pageviews

Average Search

Thursday, February 21, 2013

March 2013 or "How Konami Screwed the Players to Push Product"

It's been quite a while, but if there's anything that can get me back on the yugiwebs, it's ban list season. I'm sure you all know the list we'll be playing with for the next six months, and I'm sure a lot of you are just as unhappy about it as I am. The list doesn't affect my deck, but it affects me as a player. First, lets take a look at the changes.


Banned
Limited
Semi-Limited
Unlimited

So at first glance, it looks like Wind-Ups are dead and Blackwings, Lightsworns, and Six Samurai are back. Wind-Ups can still pull out some combos with M-X-Saber Invoker. Blackwings are still where they were during this current format. The third Kalut adds some power, but Black Whirlwind and Blackwing - Gale the Hurricane staying limited hurts their speed. Lightsworns are almost back at their full potential, if only Honest weren't still limited. Six Samurai do gain a lot of consistency with the third Smoke Signal, and with Warning at 1, it will be harder for the opponent to stop a Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En.

The list does address some issues. While last format was relatively diverse, the dominating decks were Wind-Up, Macro Rabbit, and Merlantean. Zenmaighty getting banned and Magician limited is a big hit to Wind-Ups, while banning Sangan hurts the consistency of Rabbit. Merlanteans remain completely untouched, which brings us to the title of this article.

The reason Merlanteans went untouched, despite how many ridiculous plays the deck has, is because Abyss Rising is still on the market. Two more problematic decks are going to arise with the release of Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy, which are Brotherhood of the Fire Fist and Prophecy. These are already two of the most expensive decks currently in the game, and with some new cards from LTGY, they will be dominating along with Merlanteans (and possibly Harpies).

So, in conclusion, the reason for this ban list wasn't to balance the game, but to push the sales of Abyss Rising, Cosmo Blazer, and Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy. You could argue that getting rid of Wind-Ups was for the players, but realistically, it's because Order of Chaos is out of print.

No comments:

Post a Comment