Forbidden/Limited List & Skill Balance
The Forbidden/Limited List will be updated on January 24 with multiple new cards:
- Spellbook of Fate and Silent Sword Slash will be added to the Semi-Limited List.
- Amazoness Baby Tiger will be removed from the Semi-Limited list.
The changes to skills will be made along with the update to version 3.3.0 of the game, expected to release between January 15-18. However, the skill text will only be updated to reflect the changes by January 24.
The following skills all had their life point activation cost reduced from their current value to 1000.
- Zombie Draw
- Bring it!
- KaibaCorp Bling
- Flight of the Harpies
- Buzz On
- Check Out My Ride!
- Gravekeeper’s Lot
- Cosmic Enlightenment
- Dinos Find a Way
- Sorcery Conduit
- Cyberdark Style
Harpies’ Last Will has been changed to “Can be used if you have 4 or more ‘Harpie’ cards from your Graveyard. Add 1 ‘Harpie’s Feather Duster’ to your hand from outside of your Deck. This Skill can only be used once per Duel.”
Miracle Fusion Time! has been changed to “Can be used if your Life Points are at 2000 or below. Instead of doing a normal draw, ‘Miracle Fusion’ is added to your hand from outside of your Deck. This Skill can only be used once per Duel.”
I am very disappointed with this banlist. Very strong meta cards such as Paleozoic Canadia and Masked HERO Anki were not addressed which felt necessary to maintain an interesting and healthy meta.
Mostly the draw skills are buffed by being activatable after only a 1000LP decrease, which makes it usable after a Cosmic Cyclone. In general I think those draw skills will be to slow for the current meta and there’re still skills which are activatable from turn 1 like Sealed Tombs or are passive like What Grows in the Graveyard and Balance. When using a draw skill you mostly want to get one of your core cards that gets your engine rolling or a very powerful card. Most draw skills give you a random card of that given type out of your deck. So by playing only 1 card with that skill specific type you can guarantee getting that card with the skill. From that perspective we have to look at the skill changes.
Spellbook of Fate
Spellbook of Fate being semi-limited doesn’t hurt the Spellbook engine on itself, but prevents Spellbooks from playing other semi-limited cards in the deck. One of the most used semi-limited cards in Spellbooks is Treacherous Trap Hole, although it has fallen out of favor because of Koa’ki Meiru with their Koa’ki Meiru Sandman trap negation and Diamond Core of Koa’ki Meiru protection.
Spellbook of Fate to 2 hurts spellbooks a lot more than some people think. Without Treacherous Trap Hole, the deck lacks a reliable way to survive Sealed Tombs.
Silent Sword Slash
Silent Sword Slash being semi-limited is understandable with the upcoming Silent Swordsman structure deck. The card is very versatile being able to use it in the damage step, activation and effect non-negateable and making your Silent Swordsman immune against the opponent’s card effects. On top of that you also have a GY effect to get another Silent Swordsman monster.
Silent Sword Slash to 2 is understandable given that we know a structure deck with Silent Swordsman is going to be released, so a preemptive hit is an acceptable hit to prevent an uninteractive OTK strategy fom being too dominant.
Amazoness Baby Tiger
Amazoness Baby Tiger not being limited doesn’t improve the core of the Amazoness deck. At the moment it’s still very fragile and inconsistent to being a full deck on it’s own.
Amazoness Baby Tiger to 3 is interesting because now that amazoness isn’t oppressing the meta with Amazoneess Onslaught, this card is fine back at 3 and may see some sort of experimentation since a free body that can be brought back ever turn opens up some doors as a possible engine that can play better defense.
Zombie Draw
No real potential to be seen here. Vampires play only zombie monsters in their core, getting a random draw isn’t useful.
Bring It!
Can get you Vision HERO Witch Raider (but so does Reinforcements), Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Evening Twilight and Destiny Hero Plasma (may be useful in a Venus deck).
KaibaCorp Bling
Has the most potential out of all the draw skills but you would have to be lucky with your glossy/prismatics and also have all the other card in the deck you play non-gloss/prismatic. Potentially used with Diamond Core of Koa’ki Meiru, Silent Magician/Swordsman, U.A. Midfielder, Obelisk The Tormentor, Mask Change, Econ and Hey! Trunade.
Kaiba Corp Bling is the only updated skill that has meta potential. Now that the life point threshold is 1000 instead of 1800, we can now make a deck search any card as long as it runs Cosmic Cyclone.
Flight of the Harpies
Would give you a random draw in a harpie deck. Not useful as far as I know.
Buzz On
Not useful
Check Out My Ride!
It’s cool that you can choose a Roid monster of your choice, but unfortunately there aren’t any good Roid monsters to draw.
Gravekeeper’s Lot
You can maybe play this in a deck where you want to draw Gravekeeper’s Recruiter.
Cosmic Enlightenment
Draw sense Jinzo. Maybe this could be something in a Vampire deck when we would go back to a slower trap heavy meta.
Dinos Find a Way
Would give you a random draw in a Dino deck. Not useful a far as I know.
Sorcery Conduit
Not useful a far as I know.
Cyberdark Style
Not useful a far as I know.
Harpies’Last Will
Still hard to pull off. Too slow for current meta and meta isn’t backrow heavy.
Miracle Fusion Time!
Redundant with Miracle Fusion being in the game. I would rather use another skill.
Tell us your thoughts on the new Forbidden/Limited List and skill changes in the comments below!
