Forbidden/Limited List & Skill Balance

Chilah

I am happy that they nuked Lapis as i feel like its very cancerous to have an FTK deck in Duel Links. I feel like they shouldn't have hit swordswoman as they now totally killed a deck that is irrelevant anyways.

I like the nerf to diamond core as right now it was more of a splashable engine in many decks. Now regular koa'ki meiru will return, but i feel the meta has advanced so much that it's much easier to deal with.

I feel like konami did enough to nerf the masked tribute skill, as i really enjoy using it. So i like that they didnt completly nuke it.

I'm happy that they killed that parasite skill as it was just annoying.

They should have 100% nerfed sealed tombs to make it a 1k lp requirement.

RaW

A bit disappointed about the new list. Loading... still at 2. A single card that can decide duels. Diamond Core to 2 and Iron Core back to 3 gives me the option to play with Urknight again.

The nerf of Masked Tribute is ok. Too strong with Subterror. I personally think that's the only thing Konami did right in the banlist. Nevertheless it’s still playable with subterror. We may seen subterror in future for focus on Stygokraken and maybe cards like Loading...

Snyffus

Let's address Swordswoman and Parasite Infestation which didn't do shit lately. And Koaki is using 1 Iron Core, 1 TTH, that's not ok. Let's ignore Blue-Eyes. Let's ignore Neos Fusion. Let's ignore Six Samurai. Let's ignore TTH in any other deck.

At least they hit Subterrors, that deck is probably dead now.

The new Sartorious skill was easily abusable so I'm happy they killed that.

Tenma

Konami gave us another very small banlist after the hit on Dojo back in April which is mildly surprising and the same time disappointing. Most of the top tier decks were untouched and cards like Loading... and Loading... are still accessible by all the tier 1 and 2 decks (apart from samurais); these 2 cards in particular have proven to be problematic and the community was hoping for some further restrictions or even ban that unfortunately didn't come.

Swordswoman addition to the semilimit list is long overdue but it came at time in which amazoness were completely out of the meta. Decent hit nonetheless.

Koa'kis are essentially the only losers from this ban list - among the top tier decks - however the semilimit on diamond core won't kill the deck entirely - even though it means that treacherous can't be played anymore - but it'll surely be less consistent and it will require some time to find an optimized build.

Masked Tribute was the main reason subterrors were unfair. The nerf was definitely necessary because even other decks were abusing it or could have abused it in the future. This skill should have never existed in his first formulation. In his second formulation, subterrors might still be using it but it makes the deck definitely fairer.

Parasite Infestation is finally extremely restricted in its application. It was an extremely splashable skill that needed some further nerfing - after the first one in 2017.

Snyffus

Koaki Neos was already on its way out of the meta anyway. Now with only 2 Diamond it’ll see less play than ever before. Konami loves to shoot decks while they’re already down we’ve seen this before with CA. Amazon was virtually non existent in tournys and on the ladder, so Swordswoman was another’s pointless hit. They could have done a lot more with this list if they wanted like prevent the top decks from using Econ and Treach by semi-ing Red Eyes or Final Battle like they usually do. The purpose of this list seems to be destroy whatever decks a F2P player might have left.

I dislike the Masked Tribute change a lot because an entire top deck depended on the skill. Subterror will be a shadow of its former self now and it hasn’t been enough time for those who invested in it. If they wanted to destroy Subterror without completely killing it semi limiting Final would have been less harsh. I don’t see Subterror retaining its Tier 1 or 2 status after this change unless people are really unprepared for it and Labyrinth Builder becomes the new skill of choice.

CPerozo05

They were accurate. Looking for a healthy (non cancerous) Worlds. Killing FTK was good too. Koaki is a bit less consistent. Blue-Eyes and Six Sams Best decks right now (lets see how New box impacts the meta) . I have to say Treacherous, DNA and Power of the Guardians are missing there.

I love thee Skill changes. Now subterror lose the powerful turn1 they had and we wont see cáncer for a while.

WILDMAN

I think this banlist is a bad because there were no restrictions on Six Samurai. Koaki should not have been hit as hard as they were.

The Loading... hit is the most restrictive because now you can not make an Amazoness deck.

There were many people in Japan who bought a lot of Loading... to get Prismatics. These people will get angry.

It may be said that the Subterror is dead. However, there is a chance by using Trap Monsters.

Parasite Infestation will be completely unused

I expect the next Tier List to be focuesd on Six Samurai and Spellbooks as they can both play with consistent opening hands.

Rambition

Loading... now being limited to 2 is a great way to combat cheesy weevil decks. Also, with Loading... limited to 2 already and it being a popular card, it forces players running Weevil cheese decks to choose. Attacking with a monster with an effect that will make your opponent take all the battle damage is too powerful. Especially having a Loading... on your opponents field that already does damage then attacking it with Amazoness Swords Woman. Thus, having this card limited to 2 seems like a great move.

Limiting Loading... to 1 prevents your opponent from summoning multiple copies in one turn then getting OTK'd as a result. In other words, having more than one copy of this card on the field made it way too easy to empty out your opponents life points. I think that limiting this card to 1 is a good move and helps deal with cheese plays (despite Gem-Knights not being "top tier").

With Loading... now limited to 2, it reduces the likelihood of opening with crazy good hands and lots of OTK plays. Along with being able to search for any Koa'ki Meiru card in your deck, it's also able to be banished from the grave to protect your Koa'ki Meiru monsters from being destroyed by battle and card effects (such as Treacherous Trap Hole). If you want to run any sort of Koa'ki Meiru deck after this card is limited, you will need to use 2 Diamond Core's, which means you cannot use Loading... any more because it is limited to 2 as well. I think that this was necessary to stop a lot of OTK plays, however, I believe that this hurts every deck out there significantly that contains any sort of Koa'ki Meiru cards.

With Loading... now unlimited and off the list once again, this allows Koa'ki decks to gain some sort of traction. From now on, Koa'ki decks will probably contain 3 copies of Iron Core to help compensate for having Loading... now limited to 2. This means that there will be a lot more of discarding Iron Core to help keep Koa'ki monsters on the field (rather than just holding one for Maximus). While limiting Diamond Core to 2 hurts the deck, Iron Core now back to unlimited will help bring some traction to the deck.

The changes to the Masked Tribute skill are necessary to help reduce the level of impact it has on setting up your field. For example, Subterror users love to put Loading... onto the field then play Masked Tribute to put another monster on the field. However, with this update, Nemesis Warrior cannot use its skill to summon a behemoth until the end of their opponents turn if they used Masked Tribute. This update also helps recognize what the skill was intended to be used for, and that is to help bring out Masked Beast Des Gardius.

The new update on the skill Parasite Infestation helps counteract cheesy decks that contain Lava Golem, Amazoness Swords Woman, etc. With this update, players are forced to have 4 or more Insect-Type monsters with different names in the deck or the skill will not activate. I believe that this is a great way to help deal with these types of decks and balance out the skill.

As soon as the new skill Three Lord Pillars was announced, people we're planning on stacking their decks with 3 copies of each Loading... and {The Sky Lord]. By doing this, all 6 of those cards would be starting at the bottom of people's decks. Essentially, players would be running a 14 card deck since the bottom 6 cards are just filler cards that give the player a higher likelihood of drawing exactly what they need at the beginning of the duel. By removing the part that places the other cards at the bottom of the deck, it allows for the skill to be used as intended.

Autumn Leaf

Koa’ki Meiru has been a powerhouse in the meta ever since the introduction of Diamond Core. A semi-limit to 2 not only prevents Koa’ki Mieru from using Treacherous Traphole, but greatly hurts it’s consistency both as the core search engine as well as the ability to keep your Koa’ki Mieru monsters on the field. I would expect the post ban-list deck to to play heavy monsters – centred around Urnight and Iron core. The upcoming tournaments will tell whether no or not Koa’ki Mieru will remain on the tier list.

Amazon was has fallen out of the meta for weeks but has always remained a King if Games worthy deck since the release of Loading... . I do not expect this deck to have any success post ban-list since 2 Loading... and 3 Loading... was the core of the deck. The nerf to Parasite Infestation will affect the effectiveness of Loading... and Loading... – both widely played in pre ban-list Amazoness.

The hit to Loading... was inevitable but is expected to remain usable in Subterror if heavy back row is played to protect Nemesis Warrior for an additional turn. Labyrinth Builder will be an alternative post ban-list though it is very likely that Subterror will be demoted from Tier 1.

Suhnrysanti

Gemknight: FTKs are no fun at all, reducing its chances to happen is the right way to do it, without actually killing the Deck itself ( refering to the new support being released lately ).

Koaki Meiru: Hard to say. Imo it lost its Most important card for consistency, so You couldnt Play Koaki with TTH, unless You want to hurt the consistency even more. Iron core back to 3 may look decent ( it kinda is), but I prefer a generic archtype searcher over a keycard, which has to be in the Hand with another card. With Diamond Core You could easily search the right card, but with 2 Iron Core in Hand instead of 2 Diamond Core You wont do as much as with the second one.

Amazoness: Yeah ok, it decrease the RE builds teching in Loading... as well as their use in actual amazoness decks. Its a nice Change in general, but a bit late because amazoness didnt see much Play lately and RE didnt use swordswoman that often.

General Thoughts: Banlist itself didnt affect the meta as much as i wanted it to do. Yeah Koa'ki Neos in its current Version got hit and Gem-Knight FTKs are gone, but i dont think the banlist will have a huge impact ( if it even has any tbh ).

Three Lord Pillars - I dont like the skill and didnt test it. But I dont think it was or will be competitive.

Parasite Infestation - Same as swordswoman: nice Change, but little bit late because Weevil is rarelly played these days. At least it fits the character Design better ( in terms of the anime/ Manga, which is nice for the fanbase/ less competitive Player).

Masked Tribute : it changes a lot. Subterror lost its best opening + Loading... cant abuse the skill either. Without losing ressources and easily Access to every usefull subterror Monster was probably way too oppresive. Without the right answers You were dead the next turn or did lose many options just to survive. A nice skill-change here.

General Thoughts: with Subterror being heavily hit we may see more of the new box (Mermails and Aliens would have had much trouble with Subterror ).