WE INTERUPT YOUR FORUM WITH THIS URGENT BULITEN!

FLASH! Greetings duelists, and welcome to this exiting Realms news break. I'm Agent Battlemage, and here's your news update.

*turns to camera two*

Original duelists have been seen celebrating in the streets recently over an update in the Forbidden List by Konami. Though met with mixed reviews and skepticism, it has finally heralded what, we here at the Villa De AgentMage have turned into a second coming of a holiday once lost. As many of you know, one year ago today the game finally bid Black Luster Solder- Envoy of the Beginning (A.K.A. Bacon Lettuce Soldier, A.K.A. Burnt Luster Soldier (holds up his still incinerated BLS)) a fond, and overdue farewell. The October list of 2005 began what seemed to be a wonderful time of innovation and originality, with only a minor menace of warriors to deal with. The previous ( and as of this report, still active) Forbidden list sought to stop the only menace the game entailed, but the Cookie Cutters among us would not have their insatiable lust for removing monsters from play satisfied with a simple two measly DD monsters, and thusly turned to their last bastion of soothing the beast within: Chaos Sorcerer.

Initially scoffed upon by his older, more powerful siblings; Chaos Sorcerer gained quick popularity by being able to be ran in threes. Every part of this once forgotten monster were abused in ways not thought of (or perhapses not needed) in the cases of the Envoy monsters. The "Envoy of Darkness" as it has been called turned into a perpetual advantage machine for the newly revitalized Chaos Decks, and the only wasted part was that it didn't have "Archfiend", "Toon", or "-Roid" in its name to allow even its nomenclature to become an advantage. We were subjugated to 5 months of Sorcerer feeding mercilessly off its new found friends in Zaborg and Cyber Dragon, but now no more! Witness on September 1st as Chaos vanishes from existence!

*coughs, as he seems to regain composure
Turns back to camera 1*

In addition, the fusion world has been taken by storm, as what has usually been dubbed as the "First usable fusion" to exist has also been placed on the banned list. This, of course, due to the creation of a card that Konami REALLY wanted to make, but couldn't without having another broken card on their hands. The card? A normal magic card to be released in CDIP which allows you to pay 1000 life points (sounds familiar) to special summon from your fusion deck (!) one level five or lower (!!) fusion monster (!!!!). The monster, however, can't attack at ALL and is destroyed at the end of the turn. Previously, this would have meant playing it, summoning TER, absorbing, and then sac-ing it for X Monarch, then removing it from play for Chaos Sorc. Now NONE of that is possible. Its previous partner in crime, Tsukuyomi; who was known for the goat scandal of '05, has been banned and is to be sentenced, along with the previous two mentioned monsters on account of "Broken in main decks" and two accounts of "Abusing its repeatable effect". No word yet on the length of its sentence.

This just in: Stealing is bad! Konami has also, in the "we should have seen it coming" side of the news, announced that Snatch Steal, a card abused with (or countering) ALL of the above monsters in one way or another has been forbidden. Its reign, being from Magic/Spell Ruler, has been long overdue to a cut in power. We'll be back after a word from our sponsor Ban List! Got a card that is too cheep to exist? Cookie Cutters abusing the "new tech" in their ill gotten decks? BAN IT!


I. Forbidden Cards
You cannot use these cards in your Deck, Fusion Deck or Side Deck.

BLACK LUSTER SOLDIER - ENVOY OF THE BEGINNING
BUTTERFLY DAGGER - ELMA
CHANGE OF HEART
CHAOS EMPEROR DRAGON - ENVOY OF THE END
CHAOS SORCERER
CYBER JAR
DARK HOLE
DELINQUENT DUO
EXCHANGE OF THE SPIRIT
FIBER JAR
HARPIE'S FEATHER DUSTER
IMPERIAL ORDER
LAST TURN
MAGICAL SCIENTIST
MAKYURA THE DESTRUCTOR
MIRAGE OF NIGHTMARE
MONSTER REBORN
PAINFUL CHOICE
POT OF GREED
RAIGEKI
SINISTER SERPENT
SNATCH STEAL
THE FORCEFUL SENTRY
THOUSAND-EYES RESTRICT
TIME SEAL
TRIBE-INFECTING VIRUS
TSUKUYOMI
WITCH OF THE BLACK FOREST
YATA-GARASU
NEW! - Chaos Sorcerer, Snatch Steal, Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Tsukuyomi


Welcome back. Limited cards, the original end of power to a card before the '03 bannings began have been the place where most duelists look for their decks FIRST. This time around, we've been seeing a lot of repeat offenders as several laws have been passed to restrict the usage of several problematic cards. Konami, declining to comment, has legalized several previously unusable cards (one of which is not available here in America, as Dragons appear to be a Japanese thing.... I'm looking at you Victory Dragon). The one we see? Ring of Destruction, known to end games in a single stroke, has been legalized for duelist use. Its notability to end games as previously mentioned and for simply being "free" monster removal landed it illegal previously, but this move appears to be to curb the rampant appearances of the monster Cyber Stein, who seems to be the only card able to end games any quicker. Also in the realm of "Ending games quickly", Konami has put a serious halt on the "Jurassic Blood Cannon" by putting a restriction (to 1) on Ultimate Offering. Being one of the first censored cards to reach the American shores (known as Compensation of Blood in Japan), its use has dwindled until the release of its OTK in the form of Black Ptera, a dino from Power of the Duelist with a nasty re-occurring effect. Lastly on Konami's "OTK's are NOT OK" position, Future Fusion, the card found guilty of shortening games drastically, has been restricted as well.

The world seems lighter today, as Konami also showed its position on stall decks yet again. Gravity bind, previously the savior of Stall decks of all kinds, has been restricted as well. This move, as well as Level Limit's continued restriction seems to stem from the power of Clock Tower Prison, the "new tech" for stall, who has also lost Spirit Reaper. The notable Reaper, who many duelists claim was restricted before (and largely after) its time. Many Stall duelists have been seen eying the edge of buildings, as without many of their many previous shields to hide behind, they've been left vulnerable.

Lastly on the restriction front, an equilibrium seems to have taken hold on the sightings of the Nobleman of Cross out and the Magician of Faith. Their restrictions, to keep their numbers in check in fear of extinction, have been set till one until the summer months, when its likely that Konami will once again throw the "restriction dart" and hit "send to two". Company Policy of course.

Still no word on the legalization of Pot of greed.

We'll be back with the local news after this short commercial break.

II. Limited Cards
You can ONLY use one of the following cards in the Deck, Fusion Deck & Side Deck combined.

BOOK OF MOON
BREAKER THE MAGICAL WARRIOR
CALL OF THE HAUNTED
CARD DESTRUCTION
CEASEFIRE
CONFISCATION
D. D. WARRIOR LADY
D. D. ASSAILANT
DARK MAGICIAN OF CHAOS
EXODIA THE FORBIDDEN ONE
FUTURE FUSION
GRACEFUL CHARITY
GRAVITY BIND
HEAVY STORM
INJECTION FAIRY LILY
JINZO
LAST WILL
LEFT ARM OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE
LEFT LEG OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE
LEVEL LIMIT - AREA B
LIMITER REMOVAL
MAGE POWER
MAGIC CYLINDER
MAGICIAN OF FAITH
MASK OF DARKNESS
METAMORPHOSIS
MIRROR FORCE
MORPHING JAR
MYSTICAL SPACE TYPHOON
NIGHT ASSAILANT
NOBLEMAN OF CROSSOUT
POT OF AVARICE
PREMATURE BURIAL
PROTECTOR OF THE SANCTUARY
RIGHT ARM OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE
RIGHT LEG OF THE FORBIDDEN ONE
RING OF DESTRUCTION
SACRED PHOENIX OF NEPHTHYS
SANGAN
SCAPEGOAT
SPIRIT REAPER
SWORDS OF REVEALING LIGHT
TORRENTIAL TRIBUTE
TREEBORN FROG
TWIN-HEADED BEHEMOTH
ULTIMATE OFFERING
UNITED WE STAND
NEW! - Future Fusion, Gravity Bind, Magician of Faith, Nobleman of Cross out, Ring of Destruction, Spirit Reaper, Ultimate Offering

Welcome back, duelists. The Semi-limited list, known for being largely forgotten by nearly everyone, still exists. This in itself might be news to some.

Some of the cards you didn't even know were restricted to two still are: Apprentice Magician, Creature Swap, Good Goblin House Keeping, Manticore of Darkness. Now, Konami has seemed to put some cards a lot of people might actually take notice to. Previously, with the reception of Creature Swap, duelists never wanted to use more than two copies of a semi-limited card in the first place, but with this recent update you might want to take notice. Despite its name, Exiled Force has been "Un-Exiled" from the multiple use catagory. Several interviewed duelists of the age to remember LOD remember the days of three, and this was indeed a shock to them.

"This is going to hurt," replied Keljar, the duelist with the Skill Drain deck upon eying his Big Shields and Gear Golem the Moving Fortress's.

Seeming to be in response to the force known as Hurricane Stein ravaging the game, Konami has limited the blustery Giant Trunade to two, putting a minuscule, barely even noticeable wrinkle in the warpath of Stein. Like a cardboard shelter in an earthquake, the limitation is expected to have little effect. Speaking of OTK's the Life Equalizer OTK has received a similar wrinkle. In typical passive aggressive fashion, Konami has limited the use of WALL OF REVEALING LIGHT to two. The repeated policy of "Ban the accomplice, not the criminal" taking precedent here again, many stall duelists have felt the collateral damage to their decks.


III. Semi-Limited Cards
You can ONLY use two of the following cards in the Deck, Fusion Deck & Side Deck combined.

APPRENTICE MAGICIAN
CREATURE SWAP
DECK DEVASTATION VIRUS
EXILED FORCE
GIANT TRUNADE
GOOD GOBLIN HOUSEKEEPING
MANTICORE OF DARKNESS
RECKLESS GREED
REINFORCEMENT OF THE ARMY
UPSTART GOBLIN
WALL OF REVEALING LIGHT
NEW! - Exiled Force, Giant Trunade, Reckless Greed, Wall of Revealing Light


Before we depart from our regular broadcast, the last of the restrictions, or rather un-restrictions has given us back a lot of previously used cards. Their "fall from grace" is unknown in some cases, such as Drop Off and Emergency Provisions, yet Reflect Bounder seems to have their reasons. Without Chaos anymore, it was only a matter of time before Bounder bounded back to three.

Back to the weather for a moment; it seems that the base of the Destiny Heros, a recent family of monster cards introduced in Enemy of Justice, has been experiencing some odd weather formations. When asked for comment, Capitan Tenacious had this to say: Diamond Dude has gone nuts man... His whole laboratory has been shooting electricity for the past fifteen hours. He never used to be able to work this well with the spell Lightning Vortex, but it seems Konami has lifted its restriction. He blew his last five pay checks on a player's set." Lightning Vortex, the latest victim in Konami's "Dartboard of Restrictions" throwing contest, seems to have hit the bullseye and won its complete freedom.

(Lightning Vortex unlimited, Exiled Force semi limited, Giant Trunade getting some spotlight, Royal Decree so popular... Doesn't seem like Konami needs to sell its extra 50,000 copies of the warrior structure does it?)

NEW! - The following cards are no longer Limited: Drop Off, Emergency Provisions, Lightning Vortex, Reflect Bounder


In all honesty (and away from my news spiel), the new list is a dream come true. Gone are the days when my opponent can get a completely unbalanced monster out for free. Chaos is finally dead, and boy am I happy. The party can't be as loud and obnoxious as the Death of Luster day, counting back one year ago though. The continued existence of Cyber Stein sitting on the throne where so few monsters sat before him (and all banned save one: Jinzo) puts a damper on parties all around. While its true that his presence can be sided for, so can be said about the opponent. The slight falter in Cyber Stein's stride will barely be noticed by most, who will continue to find ways around the single Trunade loss and the threat of Ring again. By the way, I realized I missed the opportunity for a "Smeagol was unavailable for comment" joke about Ring's return, but I guess I just made up for it didn't I?

Two cards, I felt, that would have made this list even better (beyond Stein) would have been the banning of two MORE cards.

Firstly, I am not a fool. As much as the hatred of chaos burns within me, I know he wasn't ALL of the problem. SOME of the fault need be laid on the Thunder Monarch Zaborg, and blame WILL need to be placed on his brethren Mobius and Thestalos. Reaper's limitation partly satiated my feud with them, but the one card I felt that would have stood in their way was the banning of Treeborn Frog. To me, reaper's restriction will only fuel Treeborn's appearance in main decks. To the very least, the monarch's use in Macro Cosmos decks has been severely limited to one (well, one plus DD Survivors).

Secondly, though I may incur the wrath of my stall friends for saying this... Last Will. Want to help curb OTK decks? Ban Last Will. Its revised effect, to me, warranted such attention especially considering its used to summon the likes of Cyber Stein, Black Ptera, and previously Scientist and Turtle (still in traditional). Its speed hadn't gone unnoticed in the current format by Chaos decks, who had used its power to make Treeborn's Monarch sacrifice more profitable. With it also allowing duelists to make a last striving attack after your opponent was finally able to Mirror Force your armada of monsters.

Perhaps I'm being a bit hasty though. My articles, as always, have been for the purpose of creating discussion and giving information. This time, though, I would like to focus our discussions to a finer point. I would like responses to be focused on specifically WHAT decks you think can fill the void and WHY. There's always chaos (ironically) after a new list is asserted, but if I can help clear the path for you, my readers by allowing you all to realize what will dominate, then I can all the quicker make a deck against it. What, can't I be a little self serving?

Great article Agent. I too am glad chaos is dead. I was just sick of playing it. Lately, I have been playing a Cyber Dragon deck. I have been using Power Bond, Stein (only one), Phoenix, all that good stuff. I have gone 3-1 with it in my local for the last three weeks, so it must be doing something right. Anyway, as to what I think will be the next deck, I will have to say machines or macro cosmos.

Cosmos for a few reasons:

1. With D.D. Survivor every turn, it essentially becomes a free summon every turn.

2. Monarch abuse.

3. Very useable with rftdd.

Machines:

1. Lot of support lately. Hard not to play those guys.

2. Stein. 'nuff said.

3. Chimeratech Overdragon. Even with future fusion down to one, Overload Fusion becomes a great topdeck late game. Sure, OTK attempts go way down, but I still think that machines are the "wave of the future." (no pin intended.)

i don't think cosmos will take off quite like ppl are hyping it, due to several rulings that came out. tho bans have made several of the scenarios less likely. it only takes one Creature Swap and i'll have your DD every turn too.

i think the new chaos will be Future Fusion, instead of players waiting for the opportune time to summon chaos sorcerer and flip return it'll now be patience for the right time to Overload for Chimera. like chaos it can have different variants but not stray too far from the theme. i build up by removing from play with Strike Ninja or Bazoo and when the moments right Overload then Return/Dimension Fusion (its not like your bringing back reapa's, or heck anything cuz chaos is gone, so u'll be chilling with your water deck like wha? rfp is supposed to be dead). Merchant also makes it happen that much quicker.

Soul control is a very close second place. with the restriction of Nobleman and banning of Tsuku (rip tsuky), you monarchs are harder to kill and easier to tribute floaters for, expect good ol GK spy to make a comeback, oh and Sand Moth too, as facedown hate will have to take a monster approach due to the lack of Shield Down/Crash in america (or anywhere but japan) so break out the MsLv2.

expect the meta to start out slow with things like warriors, recruiter swap and soul control taking the jumps at first, the teams are a bit innovative so maybe we'll see prototypes of the new Overload cc we can expect. in the end a hybrid between the 2 (soul and overload rfp) will prolly close the meta.

but hey what do i know?


really i wish i had a team and the money to be the guy who leads the new deck into the meta, but i'm lucky if i can get some practice, let alone a tourn, damn philly and its lack of meta.

Good article Agent. I was originally thinking of doing a ban list artilce, now I am glad I didn't

Well I still see decks running alot of light and dark monsters since they are still one of the best attributes in the game. However now they have room to use other tricks to their disposal.

I suspect Earth decks to rise somewhat. I want to see Dinos to reach Top Tier for goodness sake.

Yes I believe Soul Control will make a good comeback also.

Nice. But Magician of Faith? No!!

And anyway, what OTK stands for?

OTK= One Turn Kill

Anyway, i think that Monarch Control will rise, as well as Machine decks. Warriors may even have a chance, and Soul Control will get big i'm sure but other than those, i'm not sure.

Good Article

soul control has the best chance of coming back now that chaos is dead.

I'm very glad with the new ban list. Hope this format might have some diversity (not just for a while, but overall) since I was getting tired of people knowing what the other's move might be, since they would know the other's strategy...

things like:

"don't have a light for sorcerer?" or like

"hope that's not a reaper" then they attack

Yes, soul control will get into the game, arrior toolbox (dusty from all these months) and many other thmes might have a chance (finnally)

The time has come to build the ultimate deck.
FROGGIES!!!!!!!

The next dominate deck? Easy.

Monarch/Warrior Toolbox hybrid.

It's the deck that can best ultilize the new restrictions. Not to mention you can SS Cydra and then summon Don like you used to with reaper. Add on to that the huge searchability of the deck with 2 Reinforcement of the Army and Last Will to complement Exiled Force, I don't see anything else standing up to it. Heck you can even throw in a couple of tomato's and some Creature swaps.

I'm also going to have to add that I believe Sand Moth is going to be a great tech card next format. If you can't figure out why go read up on it's effect. Heck I can even see My Body As A Shield being used to stop 2x Exiled Force, xX Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, 1x Mirror Force, 1x Torrential Tribiute and 1x Ring of Destruction and so forth.

i can see horus control becoming a top contender, without chaos sorcerer you can use my body to protect LV 8 from most things. backed up with solem judgment.

either that or horus LV 6 will be a nice tech with 3 lightning vortex around

Great article Agent. I honestly see Monarch variants on the rise once the new list is in effect. Most CC players won't have to pick up a new deck or spend time relearning a completely different deck style since they are already use to the Zaborg and Mobius mechanic. Plus with the threat of Tsukuyomi gone, it'll be a bit more difficult to get rid of the 2400 ATK monsters without sacrificing more spell/trap slots to deal with them. I expect to see Treeborn and recruiters rise even more then now and fuel the monarchs. I also expect to see more Hydrogeddons be an alternative to the searchers and a even more aggressive metagame.

And even with the bans/restrictions of cards Cyberstein users will still be lurking around and will probably grow depending on how the metagame faces to meet them in the month following the new ban.

I'm happy about Chaos Sorcerer's banning, but there will still be people playing CC without the Chaos. Ah well, at least now it's more even.

I've been testing out a Soul Sphinx/Megarock-return deck. Works pretty nicely, although it probably won't be a top-8 deck.

Personally I think that the Metagame is wide open at this point. Admitteddly the odds of a ALO deck hitting top eight are still low, but other decks might. Hopefully something completely new. If an E-Hero deck top eights, I will cheer for sooo long. I'll leave panthersgba to the E-Hero's though, and Mr. Chaos to the D-Hero's. I'll take on the Ancient Gears... along with Horus etc. If we try everything, we're bound to succeed eventually. This game will see originality if I have to shove it down it's throat!