OCG July 2016 Banlist Predictions

It is the time of the year again...

First off, let's break down the meta by the most-used decks, and then speculating which of the key cards in those decks will be hit by the banhammer.

1) Blue-Eyes 

Blue-Eyes takes the lead in being the most used deck in recent months. Here in Singapore, for the Asia Championship Qualifiers, the finals was a mirror match between both Blue-Eyes deck.

Blue-Eyes deck relies on their newly-released White Stone - The White Stone of Ancients - for their swarming capabilities. It also provides a recovery option when in the graveyard. All of this contributes to the consistency of the deck, in gaining resources and calling upon their iconic monster straight from the deck. This card, I believe, is deserving of a hit. A semi-limitation seems likely.

• White Stone of Ancients 3 > 2

In addition, The Melody of Awakening Dragon also provides an unreasonable advantage for the deck, being capable of searching the big dragons of their arsenal. The most common play to go for would be to search out an Blue-Eyes Alternate Dragon and the vanilla Blue-Eyes White Dragon. This way, the player can summon out Alternate Blue-Eyes, having the required conditions in hand. In short, a single card-searching spell such as Melody equals to having Alternate being summoned upon onto the field. With it being at three seems to provide too much of an unfair advantage to a Blue-Eyes deck, especially with its attack being sky-high at 3000.

• The Melody of Awakening Dragon. 3 > 1

Speaking of which, Alternate Dragon also feels as a worthy candidate for being strike upon by the banhammer, I reckon it will be limited to a single copy, if so. It is the main force of the deck, providing a destruction effect to get rid of threats and at the same time, being easily special-summoned.

• Blue-Eyes Alternate Dragon 3 > 1

Sage of the Blue Eyes being limited is also the talk of the town, as it is not only capable of summoning Blue-Eyes from the deck, but also searching out Level 1 Spellcasters, such as the effective hand-trap Effect Veiler, to shut out most decks and disrupt the opponent's play during their main phase.


The final card I would like to touch on is Gospel of Revival, namely Return of the Dragon lords. Out of the other revival options available for a Blue-Eyes deck, be it Soul Charge, Monster Reborn or Silver's Cry, Gospel is argubly the best, with an additional protection ability to offer, and that gravyard protection effect doesn't start a chain. Hence it cannot be negated by Cursed Seal of the Forbidden or Abyss Dweller. One can only thank the heavens that it isn't a quick-play.
Seeing the recent reprint of Silver's Cry, I believe that Gospel will be affected by the banlist. I am going to speculate a limitation

•  Gospel of Revival 3 > 1

Finally, while we are on the topic of Dragons, I do see Dragon Ravine being released from its limited status, similar to how Kuribandit in the previous list, now that Dragon Rulers are no longer relevant. This will serve as good news to dragonuity players, and a redeeming factor for players to continue playing Blue-Eyes, after many of their support cards are crippled.

• Dragon Ravine 1 > 3

2) Metalfoe

Metalfoe emerges as the new favourite choice for a pendulum archetype for players after the demise of DracoPals, after the previous list. Metalfoe focuses on self-destruction effects to gain more field advanatge. They have since added the Majespector archetype to their deck, as a consistent engine for an attack force. The Majespector cannot be targeted nor destroyed by opponent's card effects, making them a reliable option to be used for attacks.

I believe that the deck would not go unscathed, and the Majespector monsters will be the main victims of the list.

• Majespector Racoon 3 > 1
• Majespector Unicorn 3 > 2

3) D/D/D

Fewer players opt to run this rogue deck, yet it possesses strong capabilities to either put a lockdown on their first turn, or execute an OTK on the second. The D/D/D deck has vast resources - most of their cards either have effects, or are able to serve purposes such a being used as fusion material monsters, be it in the hand, field or grave.

D/D Lamia is the main culprit in the synchro-oreinted deck in the OCG meta. This level one tuner is constantly being revived via the effect of D/D/D Flame King Genghis and D/D/D Gust King Alexander, allowing the player to perform synchro summons after synchro summons, slowing building up their field to call forth monsters such as Crystal Wing Dragon, Psyframe Omega and D/D/D Hexblood King Siegfried.

• D/D Lamia 3 > 1

The swarming usually starts with D/D Swirl Slime, using its ability to summon Flame King. After being used for a fusion summon, D/D Swirl Slime can also immediately use its graveyard effect to help players to extent their plays and even trigger Flame King's effect. Its counterpart, D/D Necro Slime is also the main target for milling or discarding purposes, for players to get it to the graveyard for this card to serve its purpose - Fusion Summon. But seeing that it only has a single effect, I don't believe it should be the focus if Konami decides to weaken D/D/D. D/D Swirl Slime definitely warrants a hit more than Necro Slime does

• D/D Swirl Slime 3 > 1

4) Phantom Knights Burning Abyss

First off, unlike many others, I do not think that Beatrice,The Eternal Lady will be hit. Instead, I think that Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss is the main problem for the deck. Cir is responsible for reviving Dante, Traveller of the Burning Abyss to summon the multiple copies of Beatrice. Moreover, it is also one of the main reason a Beatrice poses a threat during your opponent's turn, by milling Cir to reuse Farfa or Scarm's effects.

• Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss 3 > 1

 In addition, I think that the Phantom Knights engine is worthy of a hit. Silent Boots is the main turbo of the engine, with its search function and the special-summon clause, the latter effect contributing to an easy xyz summon. Fogblade makes Fiendish Chain almost obsolete in any deck, but is only truly abused by the existence of The Phantom Knights of Break Sword 's effect, when it is used to destroy both Fogblade and Fogblade's target. I think that if the Phantom Knights engine were to be hit, it would be the following two:

• The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots 3 > 2
• Phantom Knights' Fog Blade 3 > 2

Considering that this isn't that much a popular and common choice(at least in Singapore), I don't think the hits on this deck will be that significant such that it makes the deck unplayable, which is why I am putting my money on a semi-limitation. Hitting the Phantom Knights is unlikely, but definitely not impossible, seeing that there are upcoming support soon in the next booster - INOV.

5) Others

Psyframe Omega seems to gain a lot of popularity, in both D/D/D and Zombie-Synchro. There is even a DARK Synchro deck, where the deck comprises of DARK monsters such as Blackwing - Gofu the Ghostly Shadow and Armageddon Knight are abused. It is also capable of bringing out THREE Psyframe Omega in a turn.

Very few staple synchro monsters gets limited, but as innocent as the Psyframe archetype might be, I will not be surprised if Konami just decides to put an end to this.

• Psyframe Omega 3 > 1

Staples are also a vulnerable target by the banlist, in my humble opinion. Similar to how the staples in the Solemn series were affected, I believe that Solemn Strike's time is up, and just like Solemn Warning, it will be semi-limited and eventually limited. A timely reprint for Solemn Strike may also follow at the end of the year.
Twin Twister may also be limited, just to mirror the history that its predecessor, Mystical Space Typhoon went through. A semi-limitation wouldn't feel right, or do much impact, since Twin Twister is usually run at two copies anyway.

• Solemn Strike 3 > 2
• Twin Twister 3 > 1

Card of Demise is also the talk of the town, as it provides an unfair card advantage option for trap-heavy decks to refill their resources. A semi-limitation would slow the engine down, while a limitation would probably put a nail in the coffin for this card's usage. Personally, I think a semi-limitation would suffice, as it is a healthy card that provides the much-needed assist to tier 2 decks.

• Card of Demise 3 > 2

6) Let's try something new.

#FreeMyNiggaStratos

Konami is bound to try something new, seeing that they have to opportunity to do so, as the meta is quite diverse now. Back then in the days of Pepe/EMEm, Konami just wanted to end the streak of the entire meta being dominated by a single deck, and thus the short list of changes, by banning three different cards.
Similar to April's list, I am expecting a long list of changes. Currently, many stand to contest for a slot in the [List of Cards to received an erratum and be unbanned]

• Brionic, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
• Likely to follow in the footsteps of Dark Strike Fighter where it may no longer be usable.
• D-Hero Disc Commander
• With a upcoming D-Hero booster pack, I can see the likeliness.
• Goyo Guardian.
• Long overdue in my opinion. The number of Mirror Force traps, and variety, can justify its return even without an erratum, seeing that cards like Number 11: Big Eye exists.
• Witch of the Black Forest
• Just like Sangan. Nuff said.

• Magician of Faith
• Too slow for the current meta. And long overdue. It can go back to three for all I care, and I don't think it will even make a scratch, let alone a dent, in the meta

7) Time to come home~

As for the release/return of cards that were previously hit, Qli and Nekroz seems to stand a chance, with cards like Saqlifice and Nekroz of Brionic making a return to being at two copies each, as there is now allowance to do so, seeing that neither of these decks are too overpowered at the moment.

• Saqlifice 1 > 2
• Nekroz of Brionic 1 > 2

8) Last but not least...

Thousand-Eyes Restrict seems to be safe for an 'Unlimited' status, seeing that it didn't wreck havoc even when at 1; this chance is further supported by its recent reprint.
The same can be said with Sangan, despite the lack of a reprint. The nerfed effect and a definite once-per-turn clause makes it undesirable for anyone to run it at 3.

• Sangan 1 > 3
  
• Thousand-Eyes Restrict 1 > 3

I would like to debunk the hopes/speculation that Super-Polymerisation may make a return at two, as Metalfoe's existence would probably make Konami regret this move, despite how much of a push this card may give to Shaddolls and HEROes.

On the topic of Shaddolls, if Konami sheds pity upon the archetype, Construct may finally be released. After all, unlike its counterparts Nekroz and Qli, archetypes released around the same timing and era, Shaddolls seem to have completely fade out of existence. A help given to Shaddolls might justify a hit on Burning Abyss, as we might eventually see the two archetypes being merged.

On an ending note, I don't think any cards deserves an outright ban. If I have to point a finger though, I would nominate The Melody of Awakening Dragon to take the fall.

Below is the summary of the suggested changes, or rather, speculated changes.

Banned:

Limited:

• The Melody of Awakening Dragon
• Blue-Eyes Alternate Dragon
• Sage of Blue Eyes 
• Gospel of Revival 
• Majespector Racoon
• Swirl Slime
• Lamia
• Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
• Psyframe Omega
• Twin Twister
• Brionic, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
• D-Hero Disc Commander 
• Goyo Guardian
• Witch of the Black Forest 

Semi-Limited

• White Stone of Ancients
• Majespector Unicorn
• Phantom Knights' Fog Blade
• The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots 
• Solemn Strike
• Card of Demise 
• Saqlifice
• Nekroz of Brionic

Released:

• Dragon Ravine 
• Magician of Faith 
• Thousand-Eyes Restrict 
• Sangan

That's all I have to say for now. A personal wishlist of mine is a Vanity's Emptiness to at least two. Seems unlikely, but one can always hope.