Love it or lump it, the new Limited list is upon us, and it will come into effect on April 1. If you haven’t yet gotten a chance to check it out, head on over to see the new changes on Upper Deck’s official website.

While the list has proven controversial thus far, it will usher in some really interesting changes to the metagame. Let’s look at those changes on a deck-by-deck level.

First up, the big deck that benefits from the changes is Zombies. Zombie decks have been clinging to tier two status and have only seen minimal play in the past while, but with a few key changes to the Limited and Forbidden ranks, their stock has gone way up. The obvious improvement is the semi-limiting of Vampire Lord, which means that you can now run two copies of what is arguably the strongest Zombie available. While one Vampire Lord in play is difficult to deal with, two are just ridiculous. With the Zombie Madness Structure Deck containing so many staple Zombie cards (including V-Lord himself), the coming months will be a great time for patrons of the undead persuasion.

Vampire Lord isn’t all that Zombies have going for them. D. D. Warrior Lady was once a big answer to the bulk of a Zombie deck’s tricks, stymieing Spirit Reaper, Vampire Lord, Patrician of Darkness, and Pyramid Turtle all at once. It literally made Zombies unplayable in highly competitive metagames. Now that barricade is gone, and Zombies have become much more difficult to combat.

Decks relying partly on Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning take a double hit. The new list removes Painful Choice, eliminating the best way to get Light and Darkness monsters into the graveyard. On top of that, the no-brainer use of three copies of D. D. Warrior Lady to fill the need for Light fodder to tribute is gone too. Thunder Dragon can take D. D.’s place, but not without sacrificing D. D.’s astounding utility on the field. Many were surprised that D. D. Warrior Lady was not outrightly Forbidden, but in making it more difficult to play, the card is now more balanced. Whether or not it’s balanced enough is something that remains to be seen. Warrior decks take a bit of a hit, but all in all, they’ll likely roll with it pretty well: D. D. Assailant is a highly useful card, so it is more likely that Warrior decks will evolve than lose power outright.

Machine decks will take a nose dive. Without Fiber Jar to give them a chance at clean shots to an opponent and resiliency after over-extensions, they’re substantially weakened, and the loss of Painful Choice hurts them quite badly. They miss Magical Scientist as well, losing the Limiter Removal/Metal Dragon combo and the ability to clear out defenders at will. Mirage of Nightmare’s newly-Forbidden status hurts Machines as well, robbing them of their best way to dig for Limiter Removal.

Makyura combo decks are gone, killed right out of the gates. It seems that one of the strong initiatives behind the new list was to eliminate OTKO decks from the environment, and I doubt many will miss them. The loss of Scientist FTKO and Makyura combo decks removes a certain amount of luck from tournaments, though both Magical Scientist and Makyura the Destructor will be missed in decks where they were used as originally planned.

Earth Beatdown decks, AKA Beastdown, are virtually unaffected, and as such the archetype will likely see some more play in the near future due to its stability in an unstable time.

Metamorphosis will see more play, as duelists look to preserve their ability to utilize some of the game’s more powerful Fusion monsters. While a level 6 monster is difficult to come by to bring out Dark Balter the Terrible, it’s still almost as easy as before to bring out Thousand-Eyes Restrict.

Lockdown Burn will likely not experience any problems with the semi-limiting of Gravity Bind and Level Limit – Area B. Most Lockdown engines were only including a pair of each anyways, so these decks will probably stay consistent with their current builds.

Exodia decks will be more playable now than ever, with Sangan re-released into the environment. The critter will make it easier for straight Control decks to exist again, will take the place of the other two D. D. Warrior Lady many decks were running as a strong opener, and will bring a bit more stability to the environment in general. Warriors were so popular in the past few months of the Advanced format arguably due to the fact that they have monster-search capabilities. Sangan gives a taste of that to virtually all decks. Watch for it to be played in anything, but watch for Exodia in particular. Since it no longer has to fear D. D. Warrior Lady as it once did, The Forbidden One is ready to slip back into action.

The reintroduction of Mirror Force will also have a big impact on competitive metagames. With the threat of massive card disadvantage looming over the aggressive, expect experienced play to become more reserved than it has been in the past few months. Despite debates about Force’s superiority or lack thereof to other defensive traps, it’s undeniable that the MRD monster-masher is a huge threat in any environment it exists in.

The new Limited list is an intricate beast, set on dealing with key cards while balancing the environment as a whole and eliminating OTKO decks. As a duelist, it’s difficult to tell whether each individual change will positively impact the game—only time will tell. But for now, all duelists can prepare themselves, tweak their decks (or take up new ones), and begin adjusting for another exciting shift in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!

-Jason Grabher-Meyer