Thoughts on the March Banlist

First of all, I'm not going to do any complaining or ranting today. I see a lot of people going off in anger about how it's all about money and the format is ruined and all that. Instead, I'm just going to look at the effects the list will have and share some of my thoughts.

First off, seeing the Plant Synchro deck get hit was no surprise. However, I had no idea they were going to bring out the weed whacker on it and kill it completely. I'm all for bringing down decks if they are too OP, but at least keep them to the point where they can still be functional for casual games. That's why I still run Blackwings, I got no problem with the deck being nerfed but still being able to function well. That said, the Plant deck was the hardest hit in this list (losing 2 main tuners and one Tengu). More on Tengu for another day, since a curious note merits an article on it's own.

Trishula getting banned was really no surprise, since it was a problem solver for Agents and any other deck that could summon it quickly. And yes, it has a lot of counters, but it's still a pretty powerful card. So I understand why they took it down. Same thing when it came to Trap Dustshoot, it was pretty much a problem solver early game and it determined the winner way too quickly at times. Sure, Dustshoot could sometimes not work as well as you wanted to, but that's not the point. Despite both cards having many weaknesses or counters, they still had a heavy influence on determining the outcome of a duel.

The limits were less than expected, to be honest. Seeing Earth limited is no surprise, since it's both a tuner and a searcher. Same thing with TG Striker, but this one did strike me as a surprise. However, since TG Agents were going berserk, they decided to axe the tuners.

Now that I think about it, this list has been quite the massacre for tuners in general. Bulb, Spore, Striker, and Earth all either limited or banned. Someone really wants to push Xyz monsters and watch Synchro monsters become the new Fusions. There are other ways to go about this. But again, I see what their purpose is quite clearly at this point.

Play Xyz, don't play Synchros. I should have seen this coming back when Goyo got the axe, but I didn't know it was going to be this strong. Anyways, moving on...

Lumina, Emergency Teleport, and Smoke Signal going back to 2 gives a helpful boost to their respective decks. Psychics and Psychic Hybrids will be a bit more viable now, as well as LS /Twilight due to an essential card going back up. So we will see how this impacts the current metagame. And no, I'm not leaving Samurai behind. I know they can put up a good fight too.

And then there's Torrential Tribute going up to 2 as well. This is quite fun, seeing as how it shows more punishment for overextension and helps protect you against massive swarms. So now there will be 2 of these, along with 2 of Warning/Bottomless and 2 Compulsory to have some good field control. Not bad.

However, the list didn't address any of the newer decks (Rabbit, Wind-Up, Inzektor) and it's no surprise people are complaining. No doubt that it will truly be a very expensive metagame, as well as a very insane one. I understand why people are saying it's going to be dominated by those three alone, but it's too early to tell. Who knows? Perhaps another deck rises to the occasion? That hasn't stopped players before. And yet, the format makes me happy that I've been playing just casually for almost a year now. To be honest, I wouldn't last half a round at a tourney in this format. And that's alright with me. I know that competitive play is no longer for me (besides, there's also MTG).

So take the list for what it is. Don't complain, but rather prepare. But I gotta admit, I fear where the game might head if it keeps going this way. It's reasons like the banlist that remind me why I stick to casual decks, because sometimes it's better to just invest less in decks you will enjoy using with friends rather than to spend a fortune and lose it a few months after.

I think that covers tonight's article on the banlist. Hope you enjoyed this article.