A Realistic Look at Unrealistic Ban Wishes

It's banlist season in Yugioh again, and everybody knows what that means. Complaints about cards that should be banned. Complaints about cards that should be unbanned. Thousand-Eyes Restrict is so hard to summon. Yata Garasu's ATK is so low. Pot of Greed isn't the only +1 in Yugioh. What's the worst that could happen? That's a good question, actually. What really is the worst that could happen? How do these cards compare to other power cards in Yugioh's Advanced Format? Let's start off looking at something simple.

Pot of Greed [Spell Card]

Draw 2 cards.

That's simple, right? Pot of Greed can be completely described in eight words. There are no complex card interactions to account for, which makes breaking down Pot of Greed's potential impact on the meta very easy. Pot of Greed:

- Has no costs

- Has no conditions

- Has no built-in drawbacks

- Is difficult to disrupt

- Creates an immediate advantage in any game state.

The first two points are clearly written on the card, and the third point is easy to see because nothing else is written on the card. Looking at the third and fourth point together, are there any situations that could cause Pot of Greed to have any drawbacks at all? What punishes players who have large hands, or who draw cards? Does anything disrupt drawing cards? Rai-Oh doesn't stop anyone from drawing. Trap Dustshoot punishes players for having large hands, but that's Forbidden. Moulinglacia hurts players who have cards in-hand, but Moulinglacia would have been summoned anyways for 2800 free attack. Dragged Down into the Grave punishes players who have any hand at all, not just a large hand. Secret Barrel punishes players for having cards anywhere, so whether your +1s are to the hand or field doesn't really matter.

Players' hands are seen as a sort of haven recently, and cards or decks that become too good at interfering with hands tend to be hurt in some way. Even against deck-out and milling decks, having more cards in hand means you are more likely to have cards to stop them. Unless you are facing some sort of eerily specific, it is very safe to say that you will not be punished for having a large hand, and that Pot of Greed has no drawbacks if it resolves. What happens if Pot of Greed doesn't resolve? Your opponent has spent a precious spell negation on Pot of Greed instead of something like Dark Hole or Monster Reborn. And that's the fifth point that I mentioned earlier. Pot of Greed always creates advantage. Either your opponent loses a valuable negation effect, or you draw two cards. Unless there is only a single card left in your deck, Pot of Greed is always live. Unless you are playing Infernity, adding two cards to your hand for free is always good.

What would this mean for the meta? Pot of Greed would be everywhere. There is exactly one deck in Yugioh that doesn't benefit from having more cards in its hand and, because of those five points I've been talking about, Pot of Greed can be activated at any time. In case that isn't evidence enough that Pot of Greed should stay banned, let's look at some of the most powerful cards in the September 2012 Advanced Format, and evaulate them in the same way we did Pot of Greed.

Monster Reborn [Spell Card]

Target 1 monster in either player's Graveyard; Special Summon it.

- Monster Reborn has no cost as far as card advantage.

- Monster Reborn needs for their to be a monster in either player's Graveyard. That's not had to do, but it's not likely to be immediately live on turn 1 like Pot of Greed is.

- Monster Reborn has no built-in drawbacks.

- Monster Reborn is disrupted by a fairly large number of cards, because disrupting Summons is important in this meta; Bottomless Trap Hole, Torrential Tribute, Compulsory Evacuation Device, Solemn Warning, etc.

- Monster Reborn does not create immediate advantage in every possible game state. It's pretty obvious that Monster Reborn isn't doing anybody any good if the graveyards are empty, or if Necrovalley is up. Even if there are monsters in the graveyard, they might not be anything worth reviving.

Monster Reborn has a very obvious and direct effect on the game state, but it isn't a live card 100% of the time like Pot of Greed.

Dark Hole [Spell Card]

Destroy all monsters on the field.

- Dark Hole has no cost.

- Dark Hole has a condition of requiring monsters on the field, preferably on your opponent's side of the field.

- Dark Hole has the drawback of destroying both sides of the field, which admittedly can be ignored in certain game states. Some game states can even benefit from it.

- Dark Hole is not too difficult to disrupt, through cards like Starlight Road, Stardust Dragon, Forbidden Lance, and quite a few others.

- Dark Hole does not create an immediate advantage in any game state. Maybe your opponent hasn't been drawing well, and they have nothing on the field. Maybe you have your own monster on the field, so Dark Hole is a net 0 or even a minus.

Just like Monster Reborn, Dark Hole has an obvious and direct effect on the game state, but there are right and wrong times to use it.

Heavy Storm [Spell Card]

Destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field.

- Heavy Storm does not have a cost.

- Heavy Storm has the condition of requiring other Spell and Trap cards to be on the field. Taking this a step further, Heavy Storm requires your opponent to not only play a deck which commits Spells and Traps to the field, but also for them to have Spell and Trap cards.

- Heavy Storm has the drawback of also destroying your own Spell and Trap cards, which again is something can be ignored or create an overall positive in certain game states.

- Heavy Storm shares several of the same counters that Dark Hole does; Starlight Road, Stardust Dragon, etc.

- Heavy Storm does not create immediate advantage in all game states. Maybe you have your own S/T down, or maybe your opponent is playing trapless. Have fun using Heavy against Gallis.

Just like Dark Hole, as powerful as Heavy Storm can be there are right and wrong times to use it. Heavy Storm is even more situational than Dark Hole, because not all decks rely on Spell and Trap cards for protection. Incidentally, Giant Trunade has no drawbacks and is difficult to disrupt which is one of the reasons why Trunade is banned but Heavy is not.

Mystical Space Typhoon [Spell Card <Quickplay>]

Target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy that target.

- Mystical Space Typhoon has no cost.

- Mystical Space Typhoon has a condition of requiring other Spell and Trap cards to be on the field. Just like Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon is mainly to deal with your opponent's Spells and Traps.

- Mystical Space Typhoon has no internal drawbacks. It does have external drawbacks which will be addressed later.

- Mystical Space Typhoon is difficult to disrupt.

- Mystical Space Typhoon does not create immediate advantage in all game states. Most of the time Mystical Space Typhoon will do its job of simplifying the game state, but you run the risk of targeting a chainable card and wasting your Space Typhoon. There is also the possibility of your opponent not having any Spells or Traps to destroy.

Mystical Space Typhoon is much more generous than the previous 3 cards in that any time you can use it against your opponent you probably should, but it can still be punished. Mystical Space Typhoon also doesn't have nearly the same level of power as the previous 3 cards.

Pot of Avarice [Spell Card]

Select 5 Monster Cards in your Graveyard. Shuffle those cards into the Deck, then draw 2 cards.

- Pot of Avarice has no cost.

- Pot of Avarice has a condition of requiring 5 or more monsters in your Graveyard. Some decks can do this very easily, and others have trouble with it. Some decks would rather have their monsters in the grave than their deck anyways.

- Pot of Avarice can be disrupted. The cards that do so aren't popular, but they exist: D.D. Crow, Transmigration Prophecy, Crevice into a Different Dimension to name a few.

- Pot of Avarice has the potential drawback of removing monsters from your graveyard which you would rather have in there. It's not a drawback for every deck, but it's there.

- Pot of Avarice does not create immediate advantage in any game state. This is as simple as not having enough monsters in your grave that you are willing to shuffle back into your deck, or enough monsters in your grave at all.

Most of the time that Pot of Avarice is live is a good time to use it, but Pot of Avarice is not always live. Unlike the previous four cards, not every deck can benefit from Pot of Avarice.

So there it is. Four of the most powerful cards in Yugioh, and a fifth powerful card which is frequently compared to Pot of Greed. Each of those five cards have right and wrong times to use them, as well as times where they aren't able to be used at all. Even powerful, one-sided cards like Raigeki, Harpie's Feather Duster, Confiscation, Delinquent Duo, have the slightest possibility of not meeting their conditions to activate. From a practical standpoint, there are no wrong times to activate Pot of Greed and there are no times where Pot of Greed can't be activated. Pot of Greed is not the only +1 in Yugioh, and it probably isn't even be the strongest +1 in Yugioh. What Pot of Greed is, however, is the most easily accessible +1 in Yugioh. With the possible exception of Infernity, every deck can use Pot of Greed. Every game state benefits from its activation, and that is why Pot of Greed is banned.