The Duelist’s Court
Case 1, the people vs. Chaos Soldier- Messenger of the Beginning

Order. ORDER! Court will now come to session. To further explain what we have here in The Duelist’s Court, allow me to explain. Just like in society, charges can be brought up against a person, and here they will be brought up against cards that people are irritated with. Each time court is called to session I will act as judge, and either prosecutor, or defense attorney. I will select a panel of people that wish to be the jury, and they will use the evidence presented to come up with a verdict of “broken” or “not broken”. The card will be found by myself and burned accordingly, with pictures to boot.

The first session of the Duelist’s Court will come to order. The defendant, Black Luster Soldier-Envoy of the Beginning, AKA Bacon Lettuce Soldier, AKA Bloke Lacking Skill, AKA BLS stands affronted with charges of first degree Broken. The plea of not-broken will be shown on record, and the trial will proceed. I, as the prosecutor, will present my first argument. BLS is charged first and foremost on having no cost to speak of. My point here, would be that his special summon clause is not a hindrance, but a blessing. With such ability, players have been able to swarm the field with warriors, machines, or what have you. The alleged cost of removing one light and one dark is inconsequential, seeing as how all of your affiliates have been in said categories. I propose to the jury, that the so called “costs”, are no more than a guise. One cost that is no more difficult than 1000 life point payment and another that works out more beneficial to the player. The power of this creature far surpasses the need for a cost, and might even be more appropriate if THIS were the ritual and its counterpart were the chaos monster.

My second case is to offer this up. If the sheer attack of this behemoth weren’t enough, the tide turning power of this card is astonishing! I have been at the blunt end of this beat stick far more times than the pointy end, and I’ll tell you that he is a card that makes other cards useless. How so? Look at the cards he has put out of jobs! Flip effect monsters are neigh useless from his “remove from play” ability. Normal monsters in their entirety can do nothing to stop him on their own. Your only methods are removing him from the field by card effect nine times out of ten, and that’s usually at a loss of field/hand advantage to the opposing player. No other card in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! has this much power. No card that remains in the game today shuts down this many cards as he does. Two other cards give BLS a run for his money, as the “immune to removal” CED hid behind priority, and the “spell speed one is useless” Yatagarasu hid in player’s hands, folly only to a lucky Confiscation. If two cards that are subject to easier removal are forbidden from play, why is this monstrosity allowed to continue to reign over decks? Paralyzed behind level limit, he still proceeds to destroy the plans of stall duelists. Simply put, he must be stopped.

Still not enough? Let’s look at it this way. What if Exiled Force didn’t have to tribute itself to destroy a monster? What if, instead, it simply said “Once per turn, during your main phase, destroy one monster on the field"? This card can not be special summoned.” Broke right? Even with the special summoning restriction it gets to cripple it, it’s still searchable by Reinforcements of the Army. This is STILL not as bad as BLS, because of one word a lot of duelists have trouble with: destroy. Its not that you can take a monster on the field from its rightful perch, no, it is because the card is removed from play. This is what brings about the downfall of many decks. Neko Mane King would otherwise have ended a turn, Sangan would search, Pinch Hopper would still fetch an insect from your hand, and most importantly, Sacred Phoenix would return to the field. The difference in destroy versus remove from play makes all the difference between having narrowly beaten the beast, and having your field picked clean at no cost to him. If Tyrant Dragon had the LON spirit text like Luster does, he’d be one of the best dragons in the game. Remove two fire types and summon tyrant? Sign me up!

This would not be a fair trial without the defense’s arguments, so I beseech you, oh Chaos Supporters of Yu-Gi-Oh! Realms, now is your time to shine. If the jury finds BLS broken after your testimony, then he will be burned a sunder. Who will take up the cause and fight for Black Luster Soldier’s right to a fair trial?

BLS EotB is broken. Too many good effects for too little cost.
He is light and benifits from light support cards.
He is warrior and benifits from the mass of warrior suport cards.
He is chaos and just too dam eazy to summon.

Chaos sorcerer has 1/2 the effect of Bacon Lettus Soilder with a respectable 2300 attack and it receives virtualy no play. Bls is just too good. He is broken if you don't have one. He is broken to most who do have him. He is argued to be fair by alot that do have him. I say lock him up for a long time but don't burn him. This isn't Salem you know.

All I gotta say is that I hate the card and it should be banned A.S.A.P. It will take many newbs out of this game.

Of course it's broken lol

A blind man could see that.

Personally, I have a few of 'em now, can't use them though, the balance of Light/Dark isn't there (actually, I have no darks 'cept Jinzo lol), and I'm NOT going to rebuild my Aggro-Control just for Soldier Boy.

So, yeah, B-R-O-K-E-N, anybody that says otherwise is just hiding behind their own fear of losing without him in their deck.

BTW, Mage, don't burn them, send them to me, for my collection :p

*and soon I will be the only person in the world with the mighty Chaos Soldier, and all who wish to win will pay me thousands for the glory of using him.... wait, is this thing on?! Crap.......*

To quote Superman the movie, GUILTY!

BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!!!!!

BURN HIM, BURN HIM, BURN HIM, BURN HIM, BURN HIM, BURN HIM!

Ok I'm fine now.

Actually, Treykura, in offical tournaments BLS and Chaos Emperor Dragon are banned. In local store tournaments, though, it is up to the local judges to decide to keep the ban or to lift it for the sake of the tournament. Where I'm from (Birmingham, AL), they lift it because not many people, at most 2 or 3, use that kind of effect. Weirdly enough, B'ham has a lot of Warrior & Fiend decks, with a little Burn & Spellcaster in there.

Since when is BLS-EotB banned? You'd better double-check the UDE banned/limited list again. =\

im not all supprised you started with BLS Agent :P since our 3 hour long talk of cards lol. But as MUCH as i HATE BLS. i would have to agree it is broken as hell, and over used. But there is a good reason for it, and that reason is becuase it's so damn easy to summon, and it's strength it's just unbelievable. Next to CED, this is prob one of the best cards in the game next to Pot, Yata, or Deliqnent Duo. I do however hope the next banlist will have BLS on it. If UDE wants to keep with there ban list tridition with banning over used cards. This SHOULD be on it. I was supprised to see it wasn't on it this time. Not only that the semi-restricted Vampire Lord is so damn broken it esn't even funny. People had hard enough time killing 1 V-Lord. Dealing with 2 is even worse. What's bad in the current enviroment is, BLS is almost esential in a good competitive deck. Other wise like most people say you'll be in a disadvantage no matter how good your deck is. You will usually choose between BLS, or Phoenix. Which one is more Broken???

That card's as broken as its Attack Points are high. Yes, that card should be drowning in a pool of gasoline with matchsticks as the lifeguards. This would give other decks a window of opportunity to actually be competitive.

So we have 8 votes for broken, no votes for non broken, and none will stand at his side to defend him? Noone will defend the decks in which he is played? Some of you must want to stand up for your dueling choice.

I think instead of putting more things on the ban list, Konami should concoct some more card ideas with stronger type- and attribute-based effects that can compete in the metagame so as to off-set all the broken generic stuff. The ban list is a good idea, no doubt, but Konami should be adding more things that specifically do better for deck-types. I hope the rock-type support in TLM is the start of such a paradigm.

theres no dought that BLS is broken to the extreme Agent you should know this already. People run the Chaos Varients decks becuase it is the best way to win. And if it gives them a better chance to win over the other player, it doesn't matter. It just depends on what type you want to run. there are a bunch of different Chaos Varients out there, from the popular Warrior Chaos, Fiend/Archfiend Chaos, Machine Chaos, to the now Zombie Chaos. Like what others say, what works, works. You can't argue with the results.

In the cases of People V. Raigeki, People V. CED, People V. Yata, legal precedence would lead to BLS being deemed broken and banned from the game.

In it's defense, bringing it out to the field may be easy, but keeping it out long enough to win the game is not. If he attacks, there is an entire arsenal of cards to foil him (Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, Waboku, Enemy Controller, Windstorm of Etqua, Sakuretsu Armor, ect...). Black Luster Soldier's removal effect can be a hinderence. While removing an opponent's monster is good, he does give up a chance to deal ungodly damage to his opponnet. As his opponent, you may have lost a monster, but now BLS is just sitting there with a big target, ready to get it's butt kicked by Tribe, Vortex, Exiled, Smashing Ground, (unlikly if you were arguring aginst him) your own BLS, his weaker counterpart Chaos Sorcerer, Injection Fairy Lily, Snatch Steal, Divne Wrath, ect...

I'm unsure of your ballot Duel with Wings.

Not burn a card deemed to broken to exist? how could I not!