Post-Banlist Meta Analysis [2018 Oct]

Today, on October 16th, we received notice of the new Forbidden/Limited List and, in less than a week, changes that will heavily affect some of the current top-tier decks will officially be implemented into the game.

Most of these changes were to be expected, Fur Hires and Amazoness have been dominating in PvP for way too long and their presence alone makes it difficult for any new deck to become competitively viable, but others definitely caught a lot of people by surprise; I’m here to discuss the new Forbidden/Limited List and how it will affect the game in the next few months.

Cyber Style has been an extremely popular and versatile Skill, almost on the level of the old Balance, and unfortunately a couple decks heavily depended on it; the Skill was originally intended to be used for Fusion Summons, so, starting from October 19th, Proto-Cyber Dragon, when played with this Skill, will only be usable as Fusion Materials.

It only makes sense to see these changes implemented before any Synchro deck is able to truly take advantage of how easy it is to get one or two Level 3 monsters on the field using Cyber Style, but, while I do believe that, thanks to cards like Dynatherium and The Tricky, U.A. and other similar decks will still be viable after October 19th, it can't be denied that they will be severely hindered.

• The Tricky can be Special Summoned from the hand by discarding another card, it provides Tribute Material for U.A. Rival Rebounder and U.A. Mighty Slugger and, by discarding U.A. Penalty Box, it also allows you to search U.A. Stadium.
• Beatdown! is an obvious choice for this deck, it gives Level 5 or higher monsters additional ATK, which is definitely going to be needed when facing Blue-Eyes.
• Hey, Trunade! is a good substitute for Cosmic Cyclone, it makes it easier to summon U.A. Midfielder without seeing it being destroyed or flipped face-down.
• Paleozoic Canadia is a good answer to Blue-Eyes, it can prevent the opponent from Special Summoning something with Protector with Eyes of Blue or Cosmo Brain and from Synchro Summoning.

Cyber-Stein and Life Cost 0 have always been a great combination and now that cards like Cosmic Cyclone, Solemn Scolding and Gatling Dragon have been added to the game, Cyber Stein OTK decks, while not being always consistent, have become very powerful; the developers have decided that it was time to hit this Skill and thus this type of deck.

I’m afraid there is no future for this deck: putting effort into getting a single Fusion Monster out on the field is a terrible idea. If a Fusion Monster with no summoning restriction is released in the future with a good enough effect, I might have to reconsider this statement, but I don’t see that happening so soon.

I want to start from these two cards because of how impactful the fact that they have been added to the Semi-Limited List truly is: any deck that already features cards that are Semi-Limited will have to sacrifice something if they want to use them and even the ones that have not been touched by the Banlist yet will be able to run only one copy of each or two copies of one.

It’s not the first time a Spell/Trap Card that can fit in pretty much any deck ends up in the Forbidden/Limited List, Enemy Controller has been there for quite a long a time, but now there’s three of them.

It’s not the first time we see “Amazoness” cards in the Forbidden/Limited List, the deck survived after Amazoness Onslaught and Amazoness Baby Tiger were added to the Semi-Limited List and, even though this time it will be a lot more difficult, it could still manage to get through these changes.

In a few days Amazoness Princess will join Baby Tiger and Amazoness Onslaught will become Limited, which means that players will still be able to run both, but it also means Amazoness decks will not be able to run Enemy Controller and Treacherous Trap Hole anymore, unless they want to sacrifice their searcher.

• As I said, the deck can still run both Amoness Princess and Amazoness Onslaught, the only problem is that it’s obviously going to be less consistent; Amazoness will essentially go from running five copies of Amazoness Onslaught to running only two.
• Endless Trap Hell allows you to add to the hand or shuffle back into the Deck Amazoness Onslaught after it has been sent to the Graveyard, even though Cosmic Cyclone and Dragon Spirit of White can prevent this by banishing it.

Wiz, Sage Fur Hire will be joining Donpa, Marksman Fur Hire in the Semi-Limited List, but, since both Hey, Trunade! and Treacherous Trap Hole will be added too, it’s pretty clear this time Fur Hire decks will not be able to make it so easily; we can safely assume that this deck will drop in popularity and from its current position in the Tier List after the new Banlist.

Playing this deck competitively without at least two copies of Beat, Bladesman Fur Hire, the searcher, will not be easy anymore.

Since both Treacherous Trap Hole and Hey, Trunade! are Semi-Limited, the deck will have trouble generating those quick OTKs; I decided to add Wall of Disruption for protection, since it’s very effective against Vampire decks, and Paleozoic Canadia.

Vision HERO - Vyon is undeniably a great card, but it being Limited is not what’s going to bring down this deck, what is really going to be an issue for Masked HEROes will be having to choose between Destiny HERO - Celestial, Hey, Trunade! and Treacherous Trap Hole.

With the advent of the “Blue-Eyes Meta”, Decider will become an even better card, being able to essentially wall high Level monsters alone, so I would suggest running three copies of him.

Cosmic Cyclone is not the perfect substitute for Hey, Trunade!, but it can definitely be a good card against what will be left of Amazoness after the Banlist.

Paleozoic Canadia is a great way to prevent Protector with Eyes of Blue and Cosmo Brain from Special Summoning Dragon Spirit of White or Blue-Eyes White Dragon, it’s very versatile and it can also be useful in the mirror match.

Vampire decks are currently able to run Enemy Controller, Hey, Trunade! and Treacherous Trap Hole, so the new Banlist will still hit them indirectly, forcing them to decide which cards they want to use among these three; additionally Cyber Style will not be a viable option anymore since the Skill doesn’t provide Tribute Material anymore.

• Hey, Trunade! was used to enable quick OTKs, taking advantage of Enemy Controller and the ability to swarm the field of the deck, but, if Amazoness go down in popularity, there is less of a reason to run it.
• Enemy Controller and Treacherous Trap Hole can deal well with Blue-Eyes as long as Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon is not protecting them from targeting; these two cards can be used to prevent the deck from Special Summoning Blue-Eyes White Dragon or Dragon Spirit of White and from Synchro Summoning.

This deck already runs only one copy of Treacherous Trap Hole, it’s not going to be affected by any of these changes; Silent Spellbook deals well with Blue-Eyes, I would go as far as saying it’s the worst matchup for the deck, but the paywall does hinder it a lot.

I honestly believed that Blue-Eyes had a good shot at becoming the next meta deck even before this new Forbidden/Limited List, what these changes are going to do is to simply make its job easier; I expect to see Spellbook, Masked HERO and Vampire decks as the main alternatives to Blue-Eyes, Amazoness will probably hold on for a while, Fur Hire will drastically drop in popularity.

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