It is apparently one of those times in Yugioh history where things in the competitive scene are on fire and people are complaining loudly on the internet because cards designed for creative mode (OCG) are being toxic in survival (TCG), so Konami put out a big ol’ banlist this last weekend. That also impacts my little custom card fun corner over here to some extent, because I like to design stuff so it plays with the generic tools available, and build my decks under the TCG banlist to maintain some tether to reality.
Now, for how big the list was (34 bans + 8 limits + a semi-limit they tacked on last minute after a bad Sky Striker game in the office), the impact is relatively unremarkable – not nearly as much of a headache as the banning of Isolde that universally screwed with my plans for Matoran and Toa a while back.
There are, however, three particular hits that call for some deck changes.
The most relevant one is Aerial Eater, which the currently in-development Rahkshi deck used to pivot into its engine from generic Fiend Fusion combos. Having learnt from my past mistakes, I made sure to also have an in-archetype way to dump stuff into the GY ( Lerahk ), but it’s not quite a substitute since that one can’t be made unless you’ve found a Kraata already. However, this probably isn’t too much of an issue, since the engine is going to double in size anyway when it gets its next round of support. Maybe I’ll include something to bridge into DARK Fiends in general there, to keep that combination working smoothly.
Of lesser importance are the now banned Wave High King Caesar, which the Fiendsmith variant of Avohkii used as the payoff of that sub-engine, and Triple Tactics Talent, which was part of the Gen/Ken package also in Avohkii decks. Neither is a big deal; for the former, I can just make a different Rank 6 (oh my god I love Lars) and accept not being Nibiru-proof anymore, and for the latter, the package still makes sense to play for its actual purpose of getting to Naming Day via Thrust. Of course, without the added utility of that extra power card up their sleeve, Genneth and Kenneth are now even more likely to be first on the chopping block once the story of the Mask of Light enters its next chapter.
There are also some minor nuisances like having to take Called by the Grave out of everything, but that doesn’t exactly make much a difference in how the decks function. It is kind of annoying to have one less Maxx “C” counter when testing against AIs that still include that card because they don’t care about banlists, but whatever, just counterbalances their lack of thinking skills.