OCG April 2017 Forbidden & Limited List: Discussion

I went to sleep, woke up and found Zoos dead

Photo Credits: BeyondTheDuel

Forbidden

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• The Tyrant Neptune's hit is nothing to be surpised about. Konami has always maintained a fierce stance about FTK loops or one-shot OTKs. Life Equalizer got the treatment for the very same reason. While The Tyrant Neptune is nothing like a OTK or FTK, when paired with Lyrical Luscinia – Independent Nightingale, it becomes a devasting time bomb which has limited outs to it. What's more - both cards have its respective searchers.I won't elaborate much of its terror, but if you are interested, you can find out more here. 
• Zoodiac Drident and Zoodiac Barrage - What can I say? Didn't we all see this coming? Zoodiac Barrage is a continous spell, meaning it can be reused again and again each turn. What's more, when it is destroyed by its own effect, it can still be reattached as an Xyz Material. It is too absurd in my opinion. Zoodiac Drident puts all floodgates to shame. Floodgates exists as continuous traps and spells, which falls victim to Zoodiac Drident's destruction quick-effect. I feel that Zoodiac Drident is a terrible card to let it go untouched, since it really makes plenty of cards obsolete. It is also easily accessible to all Rank4 decks given the nature of the Zoodiac archtype. 

As a Yosenju player, it hurts to see both Zoodiac Barrage and Zoodiac Drident go, as I initially expected and hope for them to be limited instead. However, I can't say I miss the days when I find myself helplessly staring down at two Dridents on the opponent's field. Hell, even one is scary enough.

Limited

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• Witch of the Black Forrest - Long overdue. Following the same path as Sangan.
• Blackwing - Gofu the Vague Shadow - Taking into consideration that tokens can now be used for Link Summons, it effectively creates three tribute-able monsters onto the field at no cost. It had to go, with the best reason being: It is just too much advantage for a single card to have.
• Zoodiac Ratpeir - HAHAHAHAHAH. About time. Instant one card into double Rank 4, a free search and a free draw. Giving a +1 to the hand and setting up the field at the same time, need I say more?
• Interupted Kaiju Slumber - The card that skyrocketed in popularity since Zoodiacs arrived. It is basically a Dark Hole with free summons and even has additional utility when sent to the graveyard. I believe a justification for its hit is a 'too much advantage' factor.

Semi-Limited

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• Elemental HERO Stratos - Stratos can finally search itself! Probably to promote the HERO archetype since Vision HERO Vyon recently arrived.
• Armegeddon Knight - Hmmm, no comments. I always felt that it got hit in an attempt to promote the use of Mathematician. It did got hit around the time the Level 3 got printed in the OCG. I feel that if Mathematician can exist at 3, so can he.
• Fairy Tail - Snow - I really feel that this card should be hit more harshly, to a Limitation instead. It is another absrud card. Quick-effect, not Once-Per-Turn, Book-Of-Moon upon summon, and a wide range of areas to banish cards as cost. But I suppose none of the Lawnmowing decks managed to make a dent in the game since Zoodiacs were around.  
• Goyo Guardian, Brionic, Dragon of the Ice Barrier - No harm done with slowly releasing them after the nerf.
• Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer - The Pendulum mechanics got nerfed, in addition to Luster Pendulum, the Dragonslayer being limited, I say this is a fair move.
• Fire Formation - Tenki - The harsh damage inflicted to the Zoodiacs also now means that Tenki has some allowance to return, and might slowly make its way back to an unlimited status. 
• Brain Control - Same as Goyo Guardian, Brionic, Dragon of the Ice Barrier - No harm.

Released

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• Artifact Moraltach - One good thing Ghost Ash & Beautiful Spring achieved was probably the powercreep of the Artifact engine, as it perfect answers Artifact Sanctum. Galaxy Cyclone wasn't present before either. While Moraltach is still a threat to beware of, there are more answers to it than before, making it less dangerous and broken.
• D/D Lamia - Frankly, its return to three doesnt really push combos for D/D/D. D/D Swirl Slime is the combo starter; if you havent notice by now, most D/D/D combos starts off with Fusion Summon and D/D Swirl Slime consumes only two cards instead of the usual three (spells & materials). 
• Magician of Faith - Too slow for the current pace of the game. Even after Links.

Conclusion

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Well, guess the zookeepers finally came and decided to clean the mess.

I didn't do a prediction list this time round as I felt it was self explanatory. Zoodiac deserves every bit of wrath Konami had, and in my article about Gofu, which has to be editted now, I even wrote that it will likely deserve scrunity under the eyes of the banlist.

With the hits on the Zoodiac archetype, it looks like it will be the last we see of them as a deck. That being said, I am fairly confident that they will find their ways into decks as an engine.

A joined article by
Ken Sir, GeoTheBacon, DAM SON
Didn't know it was possible, since GeoTheBacon's presence on the blog is fading from existence.