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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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If you haven’t read last week’s column yet, I suggest that you go do so now. Otherwise, you’ll probably be confused, and you’ll have missed out on the game’s first year or so. Back? Excellent. Let’s move on.
 Pharaonic Guardian was one of the most hotly anticipated sets in the game’s history. Internet users who managed to grab spoiler lists of the cards in the Japanese sets that make up our Pharaonic Guardian were foaming at the mouth for Don Zaloog and, to a lesser extent, Guardian Sphinx. What nobody expected, however, was that this set would introduce the mighty Ring of Destruction, a single card that has probably accounted for more game wins than Mirror Force and Magic Cylinder combined. Many players even thought that Ring of Destruction was strictly better than Magic Cylinder for the purpose of blocking an opponent’s attack, because unlike the Cylinder, the Ring removed the monster from the field. Regardless of whether or not this belief was accurate, the Ring’s power was easy to see, so the trap was summarily limited to one copy per deck.
Also on the Limited list from Pharaonic Guardian was a relatively unknown rare card, Reckless Greed. Reckless Greed lets you draw two cards in return for skipping two draw phases, which is an effect that doesn’t warrant restriction in and of itself. The problem was that if you chained together multiple copies of the trap, you ended up drawing up to six cards while skipping only two draw phases.
The last new addition to the list was the aforementioned Guardian Sphinx, which was semi-limited to two copies per deck. A good player could easily abuse the Sphinx, but it was difficult to get the card out reliably with all of the hand disruption that was flying around. Therefore, the Sphinx was given a probationary slot on the Semi-Limited list, most likely with the intent of limiting it to one copy in the future if it became a problem. As you might already know, the Sphinx never made the leap.
The last thing to note is that it was around the era of Pharaonic Guardian that the “powers that be” decided to strengthen Exodia and Machine decks, so Limiter Removal and Backup Soldier were removed from the lists entirely.
 Pharaonic Guardian was followed by Magician’s Force, which introduced three cards that are currently found in nearly every tournament-winning deck in the pre-April environment. By a startling coincidence—and I know this might be hard to believe—these cards just happen to be the three from Magician’s Force that were limited. I’ll start with the rarest of the three, the ultra-rare Breaker the Magical Warrior (The monster is more Magical than it is Warrior, so don’t try grabbing it with Reinforcement of the Army). Many players saw Breaker as the ultimate combination of strength and utility. With a counter on it, the Spellcaster is a 1900 ATK monster. If you remove the counter, Breaker’s ATK value is reduced by 300 points, but you get to destroy a spell or trap card. It wasn’t too surprising that this level 4 Spellcaster was limited.
In fact, there aren’t any valid objections that can be made to any of the limited cards from Magician’s Force. Tribe-Infecting Virus is a reasonably strong level 4 monster that has the potential to wipe out an opponent’s entire field at the cost of a single discard. Insanely strong effect? Check. Under-costed? Probably. Increases the degree of luck involved in the game? You bet.
The third limited card from Magician’s Force was Magical Scientist, which is now forbidden in the new Advanced format. Not only is the Scientist connected to a nasty first-turn kill combo, but the card is also the Yu-Gi-Oh! equivalent of a soldier of fortune. For a price, Magical Scientist can do anything from killing Jinzo, to negating Fiber Jar, to providing monsters for tribute summons.
Dark Crisis gave followers of Internet spoilers another unexpected surprise, because one of the set’s secret rare cards was the hotly anticipated Vampire Lord. This one card put Zombies on the map as a viable deck archetype. Considering all the mass-removal effects that Vampire Lord can circumvent, the Limited list was the natural place for the Lord to land. Also limited from this set was Reflect Bounder, a card that was made popular by its brief appearance on the Yu-Gi-Oh! television show. The Machine had to be limited because it added a body with good stats to the effect of Magic Cylinder, a trap that was already on the Limited list.
Another card that was limited at the time was Butterfly Dagger – Elma. While limiting the Dagger hurt the poor Guardian decks that were struggling to get off the ground, it was necessary to restrict the card—the Dagger’s interaction with Gearfried the Iron Knight and your choice of Royal Magical Library or Magical Marionette was just too powerful.
The rest of Dark Crisis was safe from the wrath of the Limited list until now, but I’ll talk about that a bit later. Before we move on, it’s worth noting that it was around the time of Dark Crisis when Guardian Sphinx proved that it couldn’t be abused enough to warrant any type of limitation, so it was removed from the Semi-Limited list.
Then the bomb dropped. Initially, there were only two cards from Invasion of Chaos on the Limited list, but man were they nasty. Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning were the most broken cards since Yata-Garasu—in fact, both Envoys worked nicely alongside the little bird. Obviously, the Envoys were limited, but many players felt that restricting them to one copy per deck wasn’t enough to curb their overpowering effect on the metagame.
 It turns out that these players were correct. If you look at the coverage from Nationals and Worlds right after Invasion of Chaos was released, you’ll see that the Envoys and Yata-Garasu were in most (if not all) of the top decks. The “powers that be” tried to soften the blow by removing the one-per-deck limit on Morphing Jar and putting the card on the Semi-Limited list instead. Given the rarity of Morphing Jar in the U.S., it’s difficult to judge whether this change helped at all, as the majority of players didn’t have access to the card. Finally, Manticore of Darkness was also semi-limited, to curb its ability to fuel an infinite-draw combo with Card of Safe Return.
Moving on, we come to Ancient Sanctuary, a set that many players claim has had the least influence on the game. When the set was released, these players were correct. Ancient Sanctuary was a step in the right direction as far as power levels are concerned. The set released many good cards, but none of them were what we’d call “broken.” In fact, the only card from this set that was limited was the relatively unknown Protector of the Sanctuary, and it was restricted only because of its interactions with older cards like Morphing Jar. It was also around that time when the broken combos with multiple copies of Dark Magician of Chaos were discovered, and the Magician was limited as well.
Nationals and Worlds came and went that year, leaving everyone with the bitter taste of Chaos in their mouths. The number of complaints was at an all-time high, because players were sick of games that came down to which player could draw Chaos Emperor Dragon first. Ten of the most powerful cards had previously been placed on the formerly-empty Forbidden list in Japan. American players wanted the Forbidden list to be active in the States as well, to bring skill, deckbuilding ability, and originality back to the game, and their wish was granted on October 1.
When the American Forbidden list was activated, thirteen cards were placed on it. The forbidden cards at that time were Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End, Dark Hole, Delinquent Duo, Graceful Charity, Harpie’s Feather Duster, Imperial Order, Mirror Force, Monster Reborn, Raigeki, Sangan, Witch of the Black Forest, United We Stand, and Yata-Garasu.
Along with the Forbidden list came changes to the Limited and Semi-Limited lists. Morphing Jar was switched back to one copy per deck, Torrential Tribute took a dive to the Limited list, and Mystical Space Typhoon, which was usually run in threes in serious decks, found itself limited to one.
The new format has been widely hailed as the salvation of the game. Players who had quit due to the dominance of Chaos flocked back to the game to take part in the new, healthier environment. The increased emphasis on power balancing was also evident in Soul of the Duelist and Rise of Destiny, because no cards from either set had to be limited.
That brings us to the current Forbidden/Limited list. You can check it out here. Many of the changes are necessary because Flaming Eternity introduced cards that combo a bit too well with older cards. For example, Good Goblin Housekeeping’s interaction with Emergency Provisions is good enough to require that both cards be semi-limited. Other changes to the list are meant to prevent Burn/Stall decks from becoming too dominant in an environment that lacks spell and trap removal.
Flaming Eternity introduced the start of what I hope is a trend to release less-broken versions of restricted cards such as Lightning Vortex. The set also released potentially deadly yet reasonably balanced cards like Deck Devastation Virus.
No one knows what the net effect of the new list will be, but I know that in my case at least, finding out is half the fun. I hope that everyone will continue to play and support this game as it grows and develops. Now, go out there and make history!
Next week, if you think that regular inflation is bad, just wait until I tell you about power inflation. It’s scarier than Alan Greenspan at four in the morning! Until then, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
Jerome McHale
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
jcmchale@adrew.cmu.edu |
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