------>TCG<----- BAN LIST SEPT 2013 - DEC 31 2013

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----------->OCG<------------- September 2013 Banlist

 

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VB16 Promos

VB16-JP001

Dragoascension, Supreme Dragon of the Heavens

Level 10/LIGHT

Dragon/Synchro/Effect

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-tuner monsters

?/3000

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Judgment of the Light - World Premieres and OCG Imports

Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Rooster
JOTL-EN094

This should be a card all of you are familiar with, especially since one of our own, Neodasus, wrote an article on the deck this card completes. Let's break him down a bit.
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Vulcan the Divine

http://shonenjump.viz.com/node/1667

Vulcan the Divine is the 66th JUMP promo.

[Beast-Warrior/Synchro/Effect]
2000/1600, FIRE, Level 6
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters 

When this card is Synchro Summoned: Target 1 face-up card you control and 1 face-up card your opponent controls; return those targets to the hand. This turn, you cannot activate cards, or the effects of cards, with the same name as those returned to the hand by this effect. You can only use the effect of "Vulcan the Divine" once per turn.

I was worried for a minute.

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Plants have a new toy

Definitely a great card. Lonefire just needs that bump to 2 and Glow-up needs to come back so I can live in the past.
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My face when Vulcan the Divine loses the Shonen Jump Poll

pls vote for Volcan VulCAN

pls not VulCAN'T

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V Jump Edition 9

VE09-JP001 

Chaos Soldier - Envoy of Twilight 「カオス・ソルジャー －宵闇の使者－」

DARK/Warrior - Effect/8/3000/2500

This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except if you control the same number of LIGHT and DARK Monster in your Graveyard, by removing from play all Monsters in your Graveyard of 1 of those Attributes. This card's Attribute is also treated as LIGHT. When this card is successfully Special Summoned, you can activate the following effect according to the Attribute of the Monster(s) you removed for the Special Summon of this card. During the turn you activated this effect, you cannot perform your Battle Phase: ● LIGHT: Select and remove from play 1 Monster on the field. ● DARK: Select 1 random card in your opponent's hand and remove it from play face-down until your opponent's End Phase.

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806 - Shadow Specters

Shadow Specters info.

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Evilswarm Castor Versus Effect Negation

UPDATE: For the people who have read this article so far, the old ruling on this effect has been overruled as of 15 May 2013. The source of that ruling is here:
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=4956

I'll leave the rest of the article up for anybody who is interested in what the ruling used to be and why.

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French Tachyon Kit

This video confirms rarities of more cards in the set. I will provide a list below the video.

Madolche Hootcake - Super
Noble Arms of Destiny - Super
Geargia-Gear - Super
Mystic Ghost Elfobia - Super
Fire Formation - Gyokkou - Super
Hysteric Party - Super
Torrential Rebirth - Secret
Totem Bird - Secret
Pinpoint Guard - Secret
Shark Fortress - Common

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That's Not Foil!

GG March 2013 format, GG.

Secret Cardinal, Super Seven Star Sword, Super Kery/Sombre nothing too unexpected

GUYS, JUDGMENT IS SECRET! WE DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING DID WE? I am surprised the World Premiere Spellbook is common.

Armstrong is the hero we need in these dark times.

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Cool Stuff Floating Around

 Don't worry guys, dragons will rule the budget format as well it seems.

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Set Reveal (Prophecy and Dragon format is happening)

Picture taken from a Spanish Yugioh site.

TCG Exclusives:

Noble Knight Gwalchavad
Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Coyote
Mermail Abyssbaleen
Trifortressops
Mystic Ghost Elfobia
Totem Bird
Noble Arms of Destiny
Spellbook of Miracles
Mecha Phantom Beast Turtleracer
Explosion of the Five Brothers

OCG Import
Sonic Warrior
Constellar Omega
Number 69: Coat of Arms
Constellar Sombres
Evilswarm Kerykerion
Duck Fighter
Stream, Lightning, Burner, and Reactan

I don't need to tell you why this is a good set, just look at the exclusives and imports alone and see. Not much else is known for any of the other exclusive cards, but we'll update as soon as we can.

Trifortressops

During either player’s turn, if your opponent Summoned 3 or more monsters this turn: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is Special Summoned this way, it is unaffected by other card effects, but loses 500 DEF during each player’s Standby Phase.

Mecha Phantom Beast Turtletracer

This card's Level is increased by the total Levels of all "Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens" you control. While you control a Token, this card cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects. Each turn, the first "Mecha Phantom Beast Token" you control that would be destroyed by battle is not destroyed.

Totem Bird

2 Level 3 WIND monsters
During either player's turn, when a Spell/Trap Card is activated: You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. This card loses 300 ATK while it has no Xyz Materials.

Noble Knight Gwalchavad

This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field. While equipped with a "Noble Arms" Equip Spell Card, this card becomes an Effect Monster with this effect.
● You can target 1 "Noble Knight" monster in your Graveyard; add it to your hand, and if you do, destroy 1 "Noble Arms" Equip Spell Card you control. You can only use this effect of "Noble Knight Gwalchavad" once per turn.

Noble Arms of Destiny

You can only control 1 face-up "Noble Arms of Destiny". Equip only to a Warrior-Type monster. Once per turn, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. If this face-up card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Warrior-Type "Noble Knight" monster you control; equip this card to that target. You can only use this effect of "Noble Arms of Destiny" once per turn.

Mermail Abyssbalaen

This dude is near awful unless there's some super secret combo with him. But Whales with hammers are fucking awesome so who cares, I want a shirt with this dude on it.

Spellbook of Miracles

Target 2 Spellbook in your banished zone, attach them to an Xyz Spellcaster like Big Eye in your grave and special summon him. It's pretty meh.

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World Premiere: Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Coyote

Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Coyote
Level 5/Beast-Warrior/FIRE
Atk 2000/Def 500

If you control a “Fire Formation” Spell/Trap Card, and no monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand).

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VJump Subscription Promos

Galaxy Dragun/Dragoon
Level 4 / Light / Dragon / Effect
This card cannot attack unless its attack target is a Dragon-type monster.  If this card battles a Dragon-type monster, negate that card's effects, and this card gains 1000 ATK during the Damage Step only.

Hell Centipede
Level 7 / Dark / Insect / Effect
If your opponent controls a monster and you do not, you can Normal Summon this card without Tribute.  If you do, this card's ATK becomes 1300.

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Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy Sneak Peek Promo

TCG Sneak Peek Poster for Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy.  

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JOTL Prerelease Spoilers

JOTL OCG sneek peek pictures, lifted from Twitter/Facebook.

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Structure Deck 25 - Blue-Eyed Dragon's Roaring Descent

-Has 41 cards, 2 UR, 2 SR.
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You don't even need to play them! ™ (Fisting in a E-Drag metagame and why you should consider playing them)

 Gone are the days of 9/1/12 when you could simply out-advantage your way to an easy victory. The limitation of Wind-Up Magician has drastically affected the viability of so many decks. Look around: so many top decks rely on a linear path to victory (Monster effects via E-Drags and spells for Prophecy, so on and so forth). The sheer stopping power which comes from Shockmaster + Solem would have resulted in a very different metagame had Zenmaity and Magician not been hit as hard. With so many linear decks being released in LTGY and JOTL, it is no surprise that they had to kill the Shocklock. Right now we're playing the game the way Konami intended for us to play, and we're all aware of it. Now because Wind-Ups are out of the picture and are no longer shaping the metagame: Fire Fists have been pushed out of Tier 1

You're probably sitting here bouncing off the walls thinking, "Neo has lost it, how can a deck that is SO broken be OUT of Tier 1?" It's quite simply really. The strength of Fire Fist comes from its ability to hit the opponent's sources of card advantage while bolstering your own. However, this ability was greatly exaggerated because of how softly everything in the 9/1/12 metagame could plus. Yes, there is such a thing as a soft and hard plus. We've gotten to this point in Yu-Gi-Oh where sometimes a +1 just isn't enough. Now is this alone the reason why Fire Fist isn't as good as it used to be? No, not at all. Even if your opponent could out-advantage you, you could always rebound and whether the storm and eventually claim a win in explosive fashion -- whittling down whatever your opponent had to stop you. No, this is more than just simple arithmetic that is weighing this deck down. It's more than that, absolutely more than card advantage. You see, the ability of other decks to match and surpass Fire Fist's ability to plus is just a contributing factor as to why this deck has had to change in the manner that it has. 

Like I said earlier, if it was strictly on card advantage alone -- Fire Fist could outlast the opponent and explode. However, decks in the 3/1 metagame can match and surpass Fire Fist's ability to plus AND they have the added ability to rebound just as hard as they can if not better (See: Spellbook of Life, Fate, and an E-Dragon graveyard). Even with access to this neat little card, Rekindling, the deck still takes the path for all other Rekindling decks before it. A degenerate card in every sense of the word, but the deck which uses it is inferior to the current metagame. This is the golden rule for Rekindling and Konami has masterfully played to this golden rule.

                     Why Fire Fist should still be played in 3/1

I first found this image several days ago via HighLevelGaming. It somewhat perfectly describes the state of our pre-JOTL metagame in TCG/OCG (Dueling Network meta). Elemental Dragons of course take up the bulk of decks being played out there, with Prophecy a close 2nd. Both of which have a solid win-rate against the other depending on the coin flip and the inherent ability to lock each-other out (Jorgan via Judgement Day to put Dragons in a soft-lock combined with Fate to stop the babies and EEV via Big Eye.). Verz of course is the natural enemy of these two decks (Although a favorable matchup vs Prophecy and E-Drags, it is not an instant win.), and is seeing more play as we continue through the format. In fact, Verz players are making a heavy showing at multiple ACQs right now, with one taking it all in Malaysia. Expect Verz to take it all in Taiwan on the 30th as well. Now with all this Verz hype in the metagame right now: Fire Fist, which thanks to this neat little chart we have here, being a natural counter to Verz can easily take advantage of the matchup thanks to cards like Blaster, Bear and Tensen. 3axis keeps Verz in check, it's what is keeping this meta together right now and is the main reason why Verz isn't across the board at the moment. 3axis Fire Fist was overhyped at conception and ended up losing a majority of matchups to E-Dragons in Singapore mainly because they were maindecking cards such as EEV, 2 Gyokkou, 3 MST (not that you shouldn't be using 3) and some even using Night Beam of all things! All of which are DEAD facing E-Dragons. It has taken a while for 3axis builds to adjust to the E-Dragon matchup, but I am confident that even though the matchup is unfavorable is it very possible to win even when facing LaDD.

Long story short, when Verz succeeds you will succeed

Analysis of 3-axis pre-ACQ Singapore and post-ACQ Singapore

Our friends over at HighLevelGaming were kind enough to supply the dueling world with their builds for ACQ Singapore. Thankfully their deck choices were diverse with Prophecy, Verz and 3-axis all used for ACQ.  Now the first thing I want you all to notice is the inclusion of a maindecked EEV and the inclusion of TT, along with Night Beam and Gyokkou at 2. Now coming into ACQ Singapore, they were expecting 3-axis and Prophecy to make the biggest showing. Despite this, the Prophecy showing was equal to E-Dragons within the top 16 -- with 3-axis only topping ONCE and losing in the first round to E-Dragons. This was that build. Notice how nearly 30% of his deck is dead for the E-Dragon matchup. 

Now I want you to see my own build, a post-ACQ Singapore build which focuses less on s/t removal and more so on effect negation. I'm not claiming to have the best build, I'm merely giving an example on a 3-axis deck which has been shaped according to the metagame. Notice the exclusion of the 2nd Gyokkou, the removal of nearly all forms of traditional stun  (TT) and the removal of Dark Hole. Now Dark Hole has been seeing less and less play due to the metagame right now. DragoSack makes Dark Hole relatively useless, and Verz/Prophecy can simply chain their tutorable "Forbidden Lance". Fire Fist can merely rebound from Dark Hole via Spirit so the card is more or less mediocre in the current meta. What makes this deck inherently capable of taking on E-Dragons is the inclusion of 2 Fiendish Chain, Book of Moon and Maxx C. Of course, all of which you would have to draw into, but more or less makes the matchup easier if not more favorable. Now I'm sure you're asking yourself, "Is Maxx C viable for this meta? Should it be used at all?" Look at the E-Dragon decks that are topping right now, a vast majority of which are using 2 Maxx C. In this matchup in particular you want to draw into your LaDD counters in Book of Moon and Fiendish Chain, at the very least they decide to stop summoning after you chain to one of the effects which special summon and Maxx becomes a +0 -- OR they decide to go full retard and allow you to go +3 or more. This card is also good for everything else in the current metagame aside from Verz -- though it is not particularly useful vs Prophecy and should be sided out. In this particular deck, where you don't even have to draw your cards to play them™, drawing is winning. Draw into Rekindling? Game. Draw into Fiendish Chain? Game. Draw into Book of Moon? Blaster? Game. LaDD out? No problem. Now again, you're probably asking why Fiendish Chain is so good in this deck at 2. No problem, that's a legitimate question and I'm here to give you a legitimate answer. Our top scientists have been working day and night to explain as to why Fiendish Chain is so good in this deck and the answer is simple:

                                         

Based God Vulcan (via Wikia)

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monstersWhen this card is Synchro Summoned: Target 1 face-up card on each side of the field; return those targets to the hand, but you cannot activate the effects of those cards or cards with the same name for the rest of this turn. You can only use the effect of "Beastlord Volcan" once per turn.

This guy is the MVP of the E-Dragon matchup. Play Fiendish Chain, use Volcan to Bounce whatever was the target of Chain (ie Dragosack) and Chain itself -- rinse and repeat. After two turns of this, you'll be able to put them in a form of soft lock which can only be remedied by removal such as Blaster and MST(Which is rarely maindecked and often sided at only 2!!). Sooner or later you will be able to use basic plays on 1-card fields such as a lone Big-Eye or Dragosack via Chicken into Bear into Tensu Hawk OTK and so on and so forth. Normally Dragosack would prevent such a thing from happening, but gladly Based God Vulcan and his Pimp Chains will   prevent this almost entirely. This combo is the bread and butter of what one should do in the matchup vs E-Dragons, expect to see it WAY more often than you need to. 

Thanks for reading my quaint little article, I hope this sheds some light on Fire Fist's role in the current metagame or affirms some thoughts you may have had about the archetype. Here is the final bit, the sideboard analysis.

Sideboard analysis and formulas

Matchup: Prophecy

Formula: -2 Blaster as removal is not imperative to this matchup and you should cut Blaster as Hunter fills its niche for grave setup along with single-handedly controlling the field. Can be used to combo with EEV. Can be used vs Elemental Dragons but I would advise only doing so when Blaster has been expended and they ss a monster that is less than 2400 (Tempest) -- but I would not advise this if you are going to be using Gozen Match and depending on circumstances can easily die to removal or a baby effect summoning an XYZ. So be wary not to summon this unless you need the grave setup or you can protect it with Fiendish Chain.

Matchup: E-Dragons, Mermail, Madolche, Gustos/Psychics any other rogue matchup such as Hieratics

Formula: Use personal discretion -- remove all s/t removal in the Dragon matchup

Matchup: Mirror match, Six Samurai, Dragunity, Alive HEROs, Infernities, Karakuri, Hieratics and mostly rogue matchups

Formula: Use personal discretion

Matchup: Prophecy (primarily)

Formula: -2 Maxx C

Matchup: Verz, HEROs, Prophecy, E-Dragon, Counterside vs Macro decks

Formula: Use personal discretion

Matchup: Prophecy (primarily)

Formula: -1 Book of Moon -1 Hawk

Matchup: E-Dragons (primarily)

Formula: Remove all s/t removal. I prefer to use this over Mind Drain as 2nd turn this is not as useful, and will at the least cause them to spend resources putting dragons on the board.

Remember to remove all s/t removal FIRST when siding for E-Dragons and Prophecy, the rest is ultimately up to your discretion.

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More JOTL stuff

Not sure what magazine these are from.
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V-Jump Subscription Promos

Promos for ordering a 1-year subscription to V-Jump between March and July of 2012.

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May 2013 V-Jump Spoilers

New spoilers for Judgment of the Light and several promotional cards.  Includes the new Bujin archetype, Archfiend support, and more CNumbers.

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Random DN Duels #1

This is fucking soul crushing. Why is this even possible first turn. All I want is avatars, I never asked for this.

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PR03 Promos

PR03-JP011
Burner, the Fire-Incarnate Dragon 「炎征竜－バーナー」
FIRE/Dragon - Effect/3/1000/200
Activate this effect by discarding this card and either 1 Dragon-Type or FIRE Monster. Special Summon 1 "Blaster, the Blaze-Incarnate Dragon" from your Deck. The Monster Special Summoned by this effect cannot attack during this turn. The effect of "Burner, the Fire-Incarnate Dragon" can only be used once per turn.

PR03-JP012 
Lightning, the Wind-Incarnate Dragon 「風征竜－ライトニング」
WIND/Dragon - Effect/3/500/1800
Activate this effect by discarding this card and either 1 Dragon-Type or WIND Monster. Special Summon 1 "Tempest, the Storm-Incarnate Dragon" from your Deck. The Monster Special Summoned by this effect cannot attack during this turn. The effect of "Lightning, the Wind-Incarnate Dragon" can only be used once per turn.

PR03-JP013

Madolche Piyocholate 《マドルチェ・ピョコレート》

EARTH/Beast - Effect/3/800/1500
When this card in your possession is destroyed by your opponent's card (either by battle or by effect) and sent to your Graveyard: Shuffle this card into the Deck. Once per turn, when a "Madolche" monster you control changes its battle position: Target 1 monster on the field; change it to face-up Defense Position, then, if that monster was not a "Madolche" monster, that monster cannot attack and its effect(s) are negated.
ATK/800 DEF/1500

PR03-JP014 
Vivid Knight 「ビビット騎士」
LIGHT/Beast-Warrior - Effect/4/1700/800
You can activate this effect when a LIGHT Beast-Warrior-Type Monster you control becomes the target of an opponent's card effect or monster attack. Remove from play your targeted monster from play until your next Standby Phase, and Special Summon this card from your hand.

PR03-JP015 
Token (Mizuki Kotori) 「トークン(観月小鳥)」
You can use this card as any Token.
Kotori: "I'm all flared up-bingu!"

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Degenerate Dragons, a Big Eye Company™

Your first thought with these dragons was that they were awful wasn't it? You'd be surprised at how wrong you are. The Elemental/Xiaolong/Supressor/Incarnate dragons are a group of 4 large dragons of Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire elements, along with their corresponding baby forms. Redox (Earth) pairs with Reactan, Blaster (Fire) with Burner, Tempest (Wind) with Lightning, and Tidal (Water) with Stream. Now again, you're thinking of how bad the babies are, are you not? "They can't even attack and make you go minus." That's where it gets crazy, you literally need NO HAND if you've got dragons in the grave. They generate cards on their own, and work completely off field advantage. Reminiscent of Infernities, no? Each of them share a few things, if they get banished they add 1 dragon monster of corresponding attribute to your hand, and can banish 2 dragons AND/OR monsters of the same attribute to special summon themselves from the grave or hand, AND they have a specific effect in the hand that allows you to send one of them and one monster of the same attribute to do an effect. WOW you're thinking, why am I not abusing the shit out of these? Then it hits you, the last line on the card. "You can only use one of these effects ONCE PER TURN."

Welp.

Remind you of someone?

Onto the effects.
Each dragon can add a dragon from the deck to the hand of the same attribute when banished. This includes by other dragons, WOW, what synergy! Popular targets are the smaller dragons, or in Tempest's case, Debris or Koa'ki Meiru Drago. Debris goes with Lightning, the smaller Tempest, to make level 7 synchros. Level 7, you'll see that again soon. Each also has an effect in the hand. Blaster can send himself and a Fire monster to destroy any one card on the field. Redox can send himself plus an Earth to revive a monster in your grave. Tempest can send himself and a Wind to add any one dragon monster to your hand from your deck. And finally, Tidal can send himself plus a Water to send a monster from your deck to the grave. Blaster's is obviously one of the best, as it can hit cards like Bottomless (I know what you're thinking, "I want them banished" We'll cover this later), Skill Drain, or Ophion; popular counters to the dragons.

Some fun cards to run in Degenerate dragons:

 Different Dimension Reincarnation to dump
 a dragon and get one you've previously
banished.

 Hidden Armory to dump a card for a DDR,
you don't need your normal summon anyway.

Gold Sarcophagus for instant searches,
then get the dragon 2 turns later.

 Treasured Sword of the Seven Stars,
banish a dragon draw 2 and search.

Now, what could a field of dragons that can't attack and can only use one of their effects a turn do? Then you think back to what made Tour Guide and Rescue Rabbit good cards, and notice the levels of the big dragons. 7, glorious 7. Now do you see why recurring level 7s are cool? That's right, the one, the only....

NAMBAH JYUUICHI: BIKU EYE

Now, I don't have to tell you why Big Eye is a good card, at least I hope I don't. Stealing any monster, regardless of Battle position, is a fabulous effect. The fun part comes next. This deck runs 3 of our depth-challenged friend, and you'll use them all most of the time. Steal their shit and smack them with it. Dragon mirrors usually end up being a Big Eye trading game. You can even run sooper sekrit tek in Eradicator Epidemic Virus, call spells and watch half of the decks this format shit themselves. huehuehue tenki. "But I'll run out of Big eye eventually," then stop using him every time you get dragons out. Instead, use this.

Dragons are cool, planes are cool,
what's not to like?

Mecha Phantom Beast Dragossack, my personal favorite rank 7. Detach 1 to summon 2 tokens and become unable to be destroyed by battle and card effects? I think so. A great offensive and defensive card, he can summon his own invincibility, and even utilize them offensively. By tributing 1 Mecha Phantom Beast monster, you can target any one card on the field and destroy it. Tokens are Mechas, and he can tribute himself too, which lets you make use of Cossacks in mirrors and such, or if you need to clear field. Another interesting, albeit harder to summon, option is Mermail Abyssgaios. Completely shuts down a few decks, and works wonders in the mirror. The only thing you have to make him is Tidal, and the once per turn clause hurts here. So you're wondering how to get 2 out in a turn? Let me show you.

Babbies

That's right, the baby forms. You send one of the babies, plus a monster of the same attribute OR a dragon to summon the bigger form from the deck. Now, you're thinking that all they do is make you go minus, and while that's true, who cares? Like I said earlier, this deck CAN function like pseudo-Infernity. They do not need the hand with proper grave set-up, making the babies extremely useful to tutor out a dragon from the deck. After summoning, the little ones become food for later summons and can even help set up the grave with other Dragons. For example, let's say you have a Blaster in the grave, with a Stream and Redox in hand. You could banish both for Blaster, OR dump both with Stream for a Tidal, then banish with Blaster to have 2 level 7s AND you get a dragon from Redox. Ez-Pz.


Now, even though these dudes can work really well, they are not without weakness. Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos stop the babies from being in the grave to summon stuff later, and the big ones from using hand effects. Bottomless can stop your onslaught by banishing a dragon after you use its effect to summon and you don't get the search. Skill Drain negates Cossack and Big Eye, making them vulnerable to big beaters. Soul Drain stops them from coming back from the grave, and stops the search from being banished. Imperial Iron Wall stops Banishing completely. Debunk stops all of their effects.

Don't forget, you can splash the Dragons in deck that run their attribute for interesting plays.

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