Sunday, August 8, 2004

   Anything better to do? No, of course not.
Mimmi asked about the ban list in her comment on my last post, and so I decided to do a bit of a review on it. Complete with linked images, because I'm really that bored. >_>

The ban list is designed to make the ever-changing Yu-Gi-Oh playing environment, or "metagame" more difficult. It is a true test of a duelist's skill when they are forced to play without a given number of cards that can turn any game around. Cards that can be used in just about every deck and contain these incredible effects are referred to as "broken" cards.

The ban list at the moment consists of ten cards. I have heard from reliable sources that the list will change, with other cards becoming banned, and having the previously banned cards come back into play. The ten banned cards at the moment are: Imperial Order, Harpie's Feather Duster, Injection Fairy Lily, Yata-Garasu, Raigeki, Change of Heart, Fiber Jar, Cyber Jar, Delinquent Duo, and Painful Choice.

The ban list is only enforced in specific Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments. The provider of the tournament will determine whether or not the ban list is in effect. This year's World Championships incorporated the ban list, meaning that none of the above cards were present, except for trading or perhaps in casual play.

Imperial Order: As long as this card remains face-up on the field, negate the effects of all Magic Cards. Pay 700 Life Points during each of your Standby Phases. If you cannot, this card is destroyed.

Imperial Order is a very good card, in that it can stop Magic cards, which are usually the most powerful cards in the game. If your opponent tries to power up one of their monsters, activate this and the monster loses the extra boost. If they try and bring back a monster from either Graveyard, activate this and they can't. This card can be activated in response to the activation of a Magic Card, meaning that if your opponent plays a card to destroy it while it's facedown, you can activate it and negate the effect of that Magic Card.

And, for the cost of 700 LifePoints at the beginning of every turn, you can keep the effect active for as long as you can provide the LifePoints. If you only want to use it for one turn, don't pay the cost and it will be destroyed.

Several of the cards that have been banned can be stopped by this card. In a pre-ban environment, this card is very helpful.

Harpie's Feather Duster: Destroys all of your opponent's Magic and Trap cards on the field.

The card's effect is pretty simple. Face-up or face-down, all of your opponent's Magic and Trap cards are destroyed. If you're afraid of attacking, because your opponent might have a Trap set for you, use this and all of your worries go away. Now they just have monster to be taken out.

Imperial Order, however, has a higher Spell Speed than this. Being a Spell Speed level 2 allows Imperial Order's effect to activate before Harpie's Feather Duster's does. So instead of wiping out all of their surprises, you've just wasted a card. v_v

Injection Fairy Lily: This card's effect can be activated only during the Damage Step of either player's turn. Pay 2000 Life Points to increase the ATK of this monster by 3000 points only during the Damage Step.

Injection Fairy Lily is a small monster with a puny attack of 400. But, with it's special ability, you can pay 2000 of your LifePoints to increase her attack to a whopping 3400, strong enough to overcome some of the most powerful cards in the game. You've probably heard of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, right? Lily can beat him, if she uses her effect. And if you manage to get a Direct Attack in, you're doing 3400 damage in exchange for 2000 of your own LifePoints. Most players will make that trade.

Yata Garasu: This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner's hand during the End Phase of the turn that it is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or flipped face-up. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points, your opponent skips his/her next Draw Phase.

This card is deadly, regardless of it's puny 200 Attack points and 100 Defense Points. If you can empty your opponent's hand, and attack their LifePoints with this card, you just about win. Yata prevents your opponent from drawing cards as they would normally during their turn. If your opponent has no way to destroy or stop Yata, the pesky little crow can eat away all of your opponent's LifePoints turn by turn. This is what's know as a Yata-Lock. Many a n00b at the game has accomplished this and actually won. -_-'

Change of Heart: Select and control 1 opposing monster (regardless of position) on the field until the end of your turn.

If your opponent has a powerful monster that is bothering you, just snatch it. It's yours for the turn. Attack with it, offer it as a Tribute to bring out your own powerhouse, whatever. Their facedown monster giving you worries? No problem, just nab it. Maybe even use its effect for yourself. Or do they only have one monster on the field? Take it, and use it against them. This card is deadly, particularly with all the power-ups running around. You can take your opponent's last monster on the field, juice it up and wipe out your opponent.

Whee....Imperial Order can stop it. >:D

Fiber Jar: FLIP: Both players unite all their respective cards on the field, in their hands, and in their Graveyards with their respective Decks and shuffle them. Then both players draw 5 cards from their shuffled Decks.

This card pretty much resets the entire duel, except for LifePoints. All of the monsters, magic cards, and trap cards that had already been destroyed or used, they all go back for a second round in the deck. Exodia decks sometimes use this to bring back pieces of the legendary Exodia that may have been unfortunately destroyed.

Using this card will also usually let its owner get a Direct Attack in. A person who attacks Fiber Jar has almost always used up their summon for the turn, so after the cards are reset, they can't play a monster down. Injection Fairy Lily makes for a good Draw after Fiber Jar has been set off.

Cyber Jar: Flip: Destroy all monsters on the field (including this monster). both
players then pick up (not Draw) 5 cards from the top of their respective
Decks and show the cards to each other. Immediately Special Summon any
Monster Cards of Level 4 or lower among them on the field in face-up Attack
Position or face-down Defense Position. The rest of the cards picked up are
placed in the player's hand.

Another card that practically resets the field. Say your opponent has five monsters, big, ugly, and about to tear your LifePoints to shreds. If you play this card down, and it's attacked, the whole field goes BOOM. All the monsters are destroyed, and you get to pick up five cards. Of those five cards, anything Level 4 or lower comes right out onto the field.

In a deck like mine, that uses lots of powerful level 4 monsters, this is an invaluable card to getting field advantage. Not to mention that you get any other cards that you've pulled out added to your hand.

True, this card also gives your opponent the same advantages, but it's not often that my opponent gets out more monsters that I when this guy's effect goes off.

Delinquent Duo: Pay 1000 Life Points. Randomly select and discard 1 card from your
opponent's hand. Your opponent then selects and discards another card from his/her hand.

This card works great with Yata-Garasu. You can thin your opponent's hand out to cut back their options to stop Yata. Or, if they only have two cards in their hand, you have a good set up for a Yata-lock.

Even without Yata, knocking off two of your opponent's cards gives them less options on what they're going to do. Exodia decks fear this card, because it can pick off pieces like fish in a barrel.

Imperial Order, yet again, can stop this card.

And finally, the last of the ten banned cards.

Painful Choice: Select 5 cards from your Deck and show them to your opponent. Your opponent must select 1 card and will be added to your hand. Discard the remaining cards to the Graveyard.

It may not seem like a very good card, as you lose four cards and only gain one. And, your opponent chooses the one card you get. This card is used, believe it or not, for it's discard effect more than getting a required card. You can dump a monster in the Graveyard with it, and then revive it with one of the many recursion cards. You can discard monsters and use them to Special Summon the almighty Chaos monsters, which can only be summoned by removing cards in the Graveyard from play.

Exodia decks can use it to discard pieces of Exodia, and then bring them back via special Magic and Trap cards. Or, if a player has Exodia Necross, they may want all the pieces in the Graveyard, to bring out the uber-powerful Necross. That's what I would do, if I had all of these wickedly awesome and rare cards. >.>

Heh, Imperial Order negates this card. XD

All sorts of combos that I can't even be bothered to explain are available to use with all of these ten cards. Game-winning combos. Tournament-winning combos. Cash/Prize-winning combos. 0.0;

Of these ten cards, I have: Imperial Order, Harpie's Feather Duster, Raigeki, Change of Heart, Cyber Jar.

And you'd better believe that they're all in my newest Deck. =P

So, now that I've thoroughly answered Mimmi's question (hopefully), I'll get to work on Aleia's inquiry about the God Cards. Next time.

Heh, maybe I'll put something about me later on today. :D
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