Konami has announced a shake-up to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game (OCG) format will be happening soon. On July 1st, a new update to the ban list will come into effect, and this is a fairly big one. In total, Konami is tweaking the legality of 14 cards, so players will have to do a lot of experimentation in the near future.
To Be Unlimited:
We’ll start off with the generic clean-up. With the exception of Zoodiac Drident, all of the cards in this section were already sitting at Semi-Limited status.
Older cards like Cyber Jar are just a casualty of Yu-Gi-Oh’s advancement in mechanics and complexity.
Even Fusion Destiny, which facilitated the ease of summoning of Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer, is no longer as format-defining as it once was.
Other cards like Nightmare Throne, Big Welcome Labrynth, or Rescue-ACE Air Lifter might give a player access to better consistency for their archetype, but none of them are making waves anymore.
Speedroid Terrortop, a card that can easily be slotted into most decks without issue, is already showing consistent usage at two copies. Having access to a third copy will more than likely do little to change the state of the game.
The only card that would make an eyebrow raise would be Zoodiac Drident. Back in their prime, the Zoodiac archetype was a force to be reckoned with.
The lack of a hard once-per-turn allowed Zoodiac players to consistently get board disruptions and card advantage once they got their engine going.
Zoodiac’s more powerful consistency tools (Broadbull and Ratpier) are still under heavy restriction, though. It is doubtful that Drident’s release from Limited status will rekindle the archetype’s old level of threat.
Not with the likes of Yummy, K9, or Dragon Tail already running around and solidifying their capabilities in tournaments.
To be Semi-Limited:
Spright Jet and Mask Change II (two) feel like they’re at that weird stopgap before being officially released to unlimited status, as they’re both coming from Limited.
While some members of Spright in the OCG are still suffering from some restrictions, their counterparts in the Trading Card Game (TCG) and Master Duel (MD) are enjoying a lot more freedom.
It’s probably only a matter of time before Spright Jet ascends to unlimited status.
As for Mask Change II, it’s more stable access for anyone wanting to run Masked HERO Dark Law as a tech option. Other than that, it’s just another card that won’t invoke much change to the competitive scene.
To Be Limited:
This section goes both ways. Wandering Gryphon Rider and Knightmare Goblin are both coming off the Forbidden section.
This most likely means that Konami is starting to believe that they may not be the same problem cards they used to be.
Anti-Spell Fragrance, though, is the opposite of cards like Cyber Jar. Instead of slowly being powercrept, modern cards have found ways like Diabellstar the Black Witch to abuse these kinds of tools.
Thankfully, Konami has finally seen fit to hit Anti-Spell fragrance across all formats now.
To be Forbidden:
The juiciest part of this list, and a probable look into the TCG’s and MD’s own future updates.
First, Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess was a long time coming for the OCG. Now, MD is her last holdout.
Apollousa represents the kind of oppressive card design that is very unhealthy for Yu-Gi-Oh! An easy-to-summon monster negate which shuts down a majority of hand traps.
Monster hand traps are almost essential for players going second to have a fighting chance, so allowing Appolousa’s existence continues to hurt the overall enjoyment of the game.
As for Number 67: Pair-a-Dice Smasher, this hit is more or less caused by the K9 archetype.
The K9’s focus on easy-to-summon Level 5 bodies just made Pair-a-Dice Smasher ripe for abuse.
Even if the opponent had access to hand traps to stop Pair-a-Dice Smasher from activating, it would have to be a non-monster card like one of the Dominus traps (Purge or Impulse).
The modern competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! deck doesn’t usually run a lot of trap cards in the deck unless the archetype actually calls for it (e.g. Odion).
With the more powerful negations commonly found in monster cards like Effect Veiler, the opponent would just be playing into the hands of the K9 units.
That said, Justice Hunters -and with it, the K9 archetype- is on the horizon for its release in the TCG. If anything, this update to the OCG ban list may be a premonition for what’s to come in the other formats of Yu-Gi-Oh!
Konami Confirms Major 16 Card Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Forbidden List Update