The March 2021 banlist has dropped and it targeted a few problematic cards in today’s game. Only 3 cards got banned but they needed to go as they were instrumental in preventing the actual playing of the game of yugioh by either directly locking out your opponents from playing the game or facilitating combos that lead to your opponent’s not being able to play yugioh.
We are going to look at a couple of the forbidden cards and one of the surprise unlimited cards on this list.
True King of All Calamities
First up was True King of All Calamities. Players have been shoehorning this particular card into every deck imaginable to gain access to its game controlling abilities.
Once per turn, during EITHER PLAYER’S TURN: you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card and declare one attribute (light, dark, ect); this turn, ALL face-up monsters on the field become that attribute, also all monsters in your opponent’s possession with that attribute CANNOT ACTIVATE THEIR EFFECTS OR ATTACK.
We can see why, after reading this effect, this card got slammed by ban hammer. It can activate its ability on either
player’s turn which is busted. It manipulates the ENTIRE monster zone board state through the changing of attributes and the cutting off of your opponent’s ability to activate abilities or even attack.
Very little can be done to counter this particular powerhouse once it has hit the field and you are looking at a minimum of 2 turns of complete disruption for your opponent, which in today’s metagame is literally the difference between a win or a loss.
Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL
The next problematic card that got a swing from the ban hammer is Number S0: Utopic Zexal. Used with a Numeron Engine this card has been the ULTIMATE in game stalling for months now.
Using the Numeron engine to facilitate it’s summoning can be a bit hefty on main and extra deck real estate given the sheer ammount of numeron cards needed to make the combos work (7 main deck, 5 extra deck), but the trade off is that this combo/engine can be shoehorned into almost every single deck profile if desired.
This particular hit really comes as no suprise.
Utopic ZEXAL’s ability is as follows:
- This card’s Xyz Summon CANNOT BE NEGATED. When Xyz summoned, your opponent’s cards and effects CANNOT be activated (this completely locks out EVERY SINGLE ability to respond to this card hitting the field making it pretty much unstoppable).
- Gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each Xyz material attached to it.
- Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can detach one Xyz Material from this card; your opponent’s cards and effects cannot be activated this turn.
With three available materials after summoning this pretty much LOCKS OUT your opponent from being able to play the game for up to three turns. Many players set up their extra decks to be able to summon this monster multiple times in a single duel, completely locking out their opponent from playing the game at all. This card HAD to go. It was a broken and TOXIC card that was WAY TOO POWERFUL once numerons were released into the game.
Firewall Dragon
Now for a card that was removed from the Forbidden/Limited list: Firewall Dragon. This card was so abusive that Konami had no choice but to flat out ban it from gameplay after a very brief stint DOMINATING the competitive scene.
People were packing their extra decks with three of these critters and running 10-15 minute long combo plays to get all three out on the field to obliterate their opponents.
In an effort to keep this card Konami attempted to ban other pieces of the combo (didn’t work) and limit Firewall Dragon to 1 copy (still too broken).
Eventually Konami had no choice but to remove this creature from the available playlist.
Now Konami has decided to bring this card back with a minor adjustment (errata) to its abilities.
Firewall Dragon’s last ability was changed from: “If a monster this card points to is destroyed by battle or sent to the GY: You can special summon 1 monster from your hand.” This ability was HUGE and not limited to once per turn which made it BROKEN. To: “If a monster this card points to is destroyed by battle or sent to the GY: You can special summon 1 CYBERSE monster from your hand.
So Konami’s new errata to the Firewall Dragon makes it less of a threat by forcing it to stick to the Cyberse archetype. This means that Salamangreats and generic Cyberse decks MAY be able to make a comeback into the current meta. Time will tell on this. They may only return as a rogue strategy, or not at all. We will have to wait and see how things play out once we get access to the new and improved Firewall Dragon and start testing it out. Keep in mind the changes to Firewall Dragon will NOT take effect until April 14th 2021.
Visit here to see the FULL current forbidden/limited list.
As always, stay safe. Keep brewing and theory crafting.
