[MW] Ancient Cards Return to a Modern Metagame

Join our Discord to discuss this article with fellow Duelists

Become a Patron to support us for 12 years of all-volunteer work

Creation, Destruction, And Prohibition!?

Blazing Dominion was officially released over this past week, and the TCG finally received a brand new Forbidden & Limited list. The game has changed for the best in the short amount of time we’ve had Blazing Dominion, and now that fan-favorite Forbidden cards were finally released off the list, they can be used to help Fairy Tail, Artmage, DoomZ, and Elfnote. Three of these are making a new impact on the game with their new Power Patron Pendulum Monsters being added to the game. Along with this, many other cards have been seeing sales as a dynamic shift starts to happen. So let’s dive into this week and see what is going on with the market.

The Ban List Returns Iconic Cards to The Format

As of this past Monday, a new Forbidden & Limited list was released, and it hit plenty of cards. That said, three cards have returned from being Forbidden to now being newly Limited, and the first one was one everyone saw coming a mile away, being Metamorphosis. This card came off the OCG Forbidden section at the start of this year on their January 1st regulation update, and as of their April 1st regulation update, it is now Semi-Limited and has shown no signs of being used. This was once a powerhouse of a threat that lasted till September 1st, 2007, as players would Summon cards like Thousand-Eyes Restrict during GOAT format and even in the Perfect Circle format from SJC Indianapolis of August 2007 with King Dragun, Reaper on the Nightmare, Dark Balter the Terrible, and many more iconic classic Fusion Monsters. Even though today, players are currently thinking of running the one copy of this card in Mitsurugi, as you can Special Summon either a copy of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon or Blaze Fenix, the Burning Bombardment Bird, simply by Tributing a Mitsurugi Ritual Monster, but this is a tech that won’t have much merit as the format has heavily changed since this was extremely devastating to the opponent.

The next card on the list that came back was Premature Burial. This card was originally Forbidden on the September 1st, 2008, Forbidden & Limited list, lasting almost 18 years of being Forbidden to use in competition. Like Metamorphosis, Premature Burial was a staple card that many ran in their lists from its release in Pharaoh’s Servant in 2002 till its banning years later. But now in the modern era of the game, the card happens to be an extremely weak card to use with the amount of GY disruption this game has, from D.D. Crow to the Bystial monsters and even Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion. By paying 800 LP, you can target and Special Summon a monster from your GY, and that can be helpful in Decks like DoomZ, Infernoble Knight, or Mikanko, but nowadays, most Decks have a way to Special Summon a monster from their own GY in-archetype. Even then, Monster Reborn was released off the list in 2018, and up until today, not many players use it due to power creep or Decks not needing it. So maybe on a future list, this card will return to 3 copies per Deck and become a niche tech for Decks needing more Equip Spells with different names to run for the Power Tool Dragon cards.

Finally, the card many players cheered for or raged at when they saw it going from Forbidden to Limited, and that happens to be Fairy Tail – Snow. She happens to be one of the few cards that have been banned twice in the history of the TCG, and this time, it has a great reason why it came back, and that reason happens to be the new Fairy Tail support in Blazing Dominion. While this card is in your GY, you can banish 7 cards from your hand, field, and/or GY to Special Summon it, and if it is Normal or Special Summoned, this card can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls and flip it in face-down Defense Position. Neither of these effects is once per turn, so it can play around D.D. Crow, the Bystial monsters, and Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion, provided you have enough cards to banish.

Maybe all three of these cards will return to 3 off the Forbidden & Limited list in the future, but only time will tell with these three titans of their own relic formats.

The Powers of Eternity Know No Bounds

With the new wave of Blazing Dominion Decks arriving, many cards are seeing their prices rise up quickly over the past week. With change coming, this has caused a card like Nerva the Power Patron of Creation to rise in price. You are able to Fusion Summon it with 3 Artmage monsters or simply Special Summon it from your Extra Deck by Tributing 3 monsters with different types. This card allows your Field Spells to not be destroyed by card effects. Once per turn, when you activate an Artmage monster’s effect, you can quickly change that activated effect to the following: “Destroy all cards your opponent controls.” Seeing play in the Power Patron Artmage strategy and even mass play in Clown Crew, this is the perfect monster for the Decks to trigger any effect that needs a Tribute for Summons or for activating their effect.

Following Nerva, Jupiter the Power Patron of Destruction has also rocketed up in price, as DoomZ is going to be a Deck many will be preparing for the upcoming YCS in Columbus, Ohio. This card lets you also Xyz Summon it by using 1 monster you control equipped with 3 or more Equip Cards as material, and its materials are transferred. If it is Xyz Summoned, you can equip any number of appropriate Equip Spells from your GY to this card, and it gains 3000 ATK while this card has an Xyz Monster as material. Even though Jupiter isn’t as powerful as Nerva, it can still detach 1 material to Special Summon 1 DoomZ monster from your GY, which then allows you to destroy 1 card on the field, which is perfect for single types of removal to assist your board for ending the game. Sadly for Junora, she won’t be mentioned because Konami only made her a Super Rare instead of an Ultra Rare or Secret Rare.

Into the world of tech cards in this format, players are once again going after Prohibition. This card always pops up at the start and end of the formats, as you declare 1 card name, and if it is a monster, cards with the same original name as that monster cannot be Normal Summoned/Set, Flip Summoned, Special Summoned, nor can it attack, change their battle position, be placed on the field, or activate or apply their effects. Also, it cannot be used as Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Material, nor can it be attached to an Xyz Monster. If you declare a Spell/Trap Card Name, cards with the same original name as that Spell/Trap cannot be activated, Set, attached to an Xyz Monster, or even be placed on the field, and in addition, their effects cannot be activated nor can they be applied. However, all these effects are not applied to cards that were already on the field before the application of the effect of this card. They can still be discarded, Tributed, or sent to the GY, but a majority of options that you would be able to normally do, you wouldn’t be able to, as it shuts down the specific declared card and its copies until it is removed from the field.

Another powerful option that saw a spike happened to be Forbidden Crown, the next possible star of this upcoming format. By choosing 1 face-up monster on the field, you apply the following effects to that monster on the field. They are as follows: its effects are negated; it cannot attack or be destroyed by battle or card effects, except its own; and it cannot be Tributed or be used as a material for a Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Summon. Also, neither player can activate monster effects in response to Crown’s activation. All this makes the card hard for the opponent to play around or use specific monsters, especially if they are on Kewl Tune, as the monster you use Crown on cannot be Synchro’d away, and they have to find a different way to get another Tuner on the board, either through the additional Normal Summons through JJ Kewl Tune or Kewl Tune Rotary or through a Special Summon from the now Limited Synchro Overtake.

On the Dragon side of things, we have players picking up copies of Red-Eyes Black Meteor Dragon, which can support the new Dark Time Wizard (YGOrganization Translation) strategy releasing in the new Beyond the Brave core set. Along with this, this card hasn’t seen much play recently, but being able to send a copy of Red-Eyes Black Dragon from the Deck to the GY can be extremely important for the new Red-Eyes Black Dragon Exceed (YGOrganization Translation) if you can Special Summon it to the field. Outside of this, players are also trying it out in the current version of Dragon Link as a free extender, as it can send PSY-Frame Driver from their hand or Deck to the GY to remove a brick stuck in the hand/Deck.

This format will be full of new trends and constant shifts in the market. Currently, Kewl Tune is projected to be the best Deck in the format, followed by Mitsurugi Sky Striker, Branded, DoomZ, and many more. There will also be plenty of Regionals, State Championships, and National events going on this weekend for players to qualify for the European, North American, Central American, and South American World Championship Qualifiers in June and July.

Edited and co-written by Angryjon