Hello everyone! Now that we finally got our Limited list for the next three months, I figured that I would share my thoughts on the changes.

As you can see, the January list is structured in a way completely analogous to that of October:

• A few changes (October 13 cards, January 12 cards).
• A very low number of new banned (October 0, January 1).
• No actual attack on the core of the main decks of Meta.
• The return of two cards from oblivion one of very old date that only the oldest among us may have known (Raigeki and Snatch Steal)
• The return of two cards from oblivion from more recent times (Bulb and Dark Strike Fighter).

It is easy to imagine that this will be the standard for the next editions of the Limited List; this means that a new deck to officialy enters in the meta has to be just “stronger” than the current top tier decks and it can not count on any help from Konami weakening the existing landscape.

Now we will take a look at the individual changes. I want to start from the last and go to the first in reverse order. This is because I’m a “Z guy” and I have always sympathized with those for those who find themselves “the last of a list”.

NEW UNLIMITED
The Transmigration Prophecy
ATTENTION: This card is almost unplayable in Europe because of the different mechanic, thus this change only affects American and Dueling Network players.

This card is one of the cards that players are very fond of; played for several years, being exclusively a Side Deck card, make it Unlimited can not have any real impact in the meta. I honestly have not ever appreciated it a lot but remains an “ok” card for those who you play it.

Reasoning
It reminds the old times where he was really strong. It is a card with good potential and that the mere presence in the deck will define its appearance (You cannot play stupid monsters if you have Reasoning in the deck). Due to this big limit,it was impossible that it can be used when it was Limited or Semi-Limited, so maybe now u can build a “rRasoning” deck. I heard that Infernroid can make amazing things with it so this isn’t a card to forget.

Reborn Tengu
I could bet that when a lot of people saw this change have exclaimed with a happy face, “Plant is back.” The reality is cruel because Tengu belongs to an old mechanic and that they have nothing in common with the current meta (XYZ and Tengu are not good friends). Therefore, it is highly likely this will be a 0% impact in meta.

Mermail Abyssgunde
Putting Gunde to 3 has only one purpose: to waste an afternoon on Dueling Network with the hope of seeing Mermail as strong as before. However, Qliphort will win super easy thanks to all his/her Skill Drain/Vanity’s Emptiness and now Reqliphot (is a Skill drain searchable that will be released in set of January), El-Shaddoll Winda will do a lot of harm and the fact that you can not play monsters by using extra is too restrictive, Burning is simply too strong, and in February Nekroz of Trishula will send your Mermail to the moon and make you cry.

Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind
Cancer.

NEW SEMI-LIMITED
Dark Hole
It is obviously a good card but absolutely doesn’t hurt, in any way, the current Top Decks. Even the similar and stronger Raigeki is not played as much. Because of this, there is no reason to keep this card Limited. Legit change that can probably take a place in lot of Side Decks.

Goyo Guardian
Evolution made the Synchro engine inferior to Xyz engine, Evolution also made “Destroy monster in battle effects” inferior to “Main Phase Effects”. Now, in December 2014, this card is extremely bad and even the only deck which plays Synchro (Shaddoll) doesn’t play it. Bringing Goyo to the Semi-Limited List is just the last step to make this card totally free; 0% impact in the meta.

Honest
I really like this change; being limited, this card has a too casual use, now, it has gained much more consistency. Currently there are no real mono light competitive decks (except Satella which usually does not use Honest). The first use that comes to mind is in combo with Denko Sekka. Denko means “Free Otk” but has the problem that if you do not reach your goal for that turn, will die for a simple attack of opponent monsters because even you can’t set traps to protect it. Once Denko dies, you have not reached any kind of advantage (Denko Sekka does not destroy cards but does not allow the opponent to activate them) therefore Honest is the perfect card to protect it and give you an extra turn to finish the job that you had started the turn before. I’m not sure Shaddoll will still be a top tier deck after the new set. The lock Denko + Honest can definitely help it to find an important place in the meta.

NEW LIMITED
Snatch Steal
This card means a pure robbery, very much like the Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning of this format. It can suddenly break the balance of a game set in a certain way and give to those who activate those card an undeserved advantage. Frankly, I find that these cards are a real cancer of the game because they are unexpected and skill-less. Like I will write for Superpoly, I would prefer these kinds of cards to be either unlimited or Forbidden, not in between. Of the main decks of this meta what suffers definitely more Snatch Steal is Qliphort: Qli drains his life very quickly and considering how he finished his standard first turn with Qliphort Scout + Qliphort Carrier/Helix+Saqlifice, Snatch Steal could prove literally fatal for the poor Qliphort user.

An interesting card that can works good with Snatch Steal is Hidden Armory, considering that you can recycle it also from grave is exactly like running 4 copies of Snatch Steal. Hidden requests your normal summon of the turn which is a truly remarkable cost that only few decks can afford, but keep an eye on this card and we’ll see if in the future someone will be able to exploit it in the best way.

Dark Strike Fighter
With the new errata text, this card lost all his weird burn power and became so useless and there is no reason to occupy a row of the F/L list.

Artifact Moralltach
Finally! I always considered this engine so boring, skill-less and dishonest because there is too much difference between drawing Spells/Traps Artifacts and monsters Artifact. Obviously this type of engine is not fun for the game and I’m really happy of this change even if I don’t think it was so necessary because Artifact effect doesn’t hurt so much this meta (It was just a casual miracle that they are LIGHT monsters and they found a use in Shaddoll in the last 3 months).

NEW FORBIDDEN
Super Polymerization
Another change that I’m really happy about! This is both an aggressive and a defensive card, an unstoppable Spell Speed 4 that can literally absorb monsters of opponent (now both Shaddoll and Hero has a fusion for basically all Attribute so it can really absorb every monster) to transform them into a strong monster for you, also sometimes it can do true miracles. What more can you ask more from a card? I always thought that if in any meta there is a card strong as Superpoly best thing for the game is letting it to 3 or to 0. If you know that a deck can run 3 copies of that you can play accordingly and thus can avoid suffer maximum damage that would deal. Superpoly is just an “ok” card if u suspect that your opponent has it in hand or set. Limiting it just makes the game more casual and is much more difficult to read and play around Superpoly, so it gains a lot more power than before and makes you cry when opponent drops it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Federico Zoppini is a Energy Engineering Student from Padova, Italy. Federico has been a member of United Gosus since 2014 and is currently serving as part of the Player roster. For more information about Federico, check out his member profile.