Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: November 2022 Emergency Banlist Analysis

Ever since the release of the Magnificent Mavens - Collector's Edition in the beginning of November, the Ishizu greatly upgraded the Tearlaments' deck strategy.

This union resulted in one more Tier 0 format in Yu-Gi-Oh and, the Ishizu Tearlaments deck has already conquered 2 YCS in the last few weeks, besides being, by far, the most popular deck in those tournaments' highest level tables.

Like so, on November 21th 2022, Konami updated once more the forbidden and limited card lists for Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. The new banlist will be active from December 1st 2022 onward.

Check out all the new changes for the next format!

Curious, the Lightsworn Dominion

The Tearlaments deck abused the use of Curious ever since this deck arrived to this TCG, once its effect of sending any card in the deck to the graveyard was perfect for its strategy and also, when leaving the board, it recovered one graveyard card to your hand.

However, this was the reality of the past format and Curious should have been banned in September's banlist when it was relevant. Today, after Ishizu's release, Curious is no longer played in this deck, actually. After everything, a card as generic and problematic as Curious is always welcomed in the banlist.

Mystic Mine

As the saying goes: "Better late than never". Though it is a card that should've been banned in the September banlist, it is impossible not to celebrate Mystic Mine's ban. Yes, it finally happened!

Herald of Orange Light

Herald of Orange Light was being used in Ishizu Tearlaments as a very unbalanced interaction, because not only it denied the activation of a monster's effect and destroy it, its cost of sending a Fairy monster to the graveyard made your deck start your plays through Ishizu's effect.

Though it was moved to the side deck on most lists because of the reduction of Ishizu cards, limiting such a strong interaction is very welcome.

Lyrilusc - Recital Starling

Lyrilusc - Recital Starling was limited when the Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc was in the meta, once the first one connected Lyrilusc's engine to the Tri-Brigade's engine, besides being used twice in the combo after becoming Xyz Material in the summoning of Number F0: Utopic Draco Future.

The truth is that the semi-limitation of this card is the same as removing it from the banlist, once it is only necessary to use 2 copies of it. This way, the Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc comes up again in the meta game and is a good option for the new format.

Tellarknight Ptolemaeus

The return of Tellarknight Ptolemaeus to the game isn't as relevant straight away, but it sure will strengthen decks that do Rank 4 spams, which will be able to Summon it and use its effect to rank-up to the Cyber Dragon Nova and right afterwards to the Cyber Dragon Infinity.

However, though it doesn't cause as much impact straight away, it can cause some problems in the future formats.

Dimensional Fissure

For a long time Dimensional Fissure was limited and by the looks of it, it was released to 3 copies to compensate for the Mystic Mine ban. Though it was a very annoying card as it banned the monsters which were sent to the graveyard, it shouldn't cause too much damage to the format, as it can be destroyed easier than Mystic Mine.

It is sure that decks such as Kashtira, Floowandereeze and Exosister can do well with the release of this floodgate.

Fire Formation - Tenki

This is one more card that was moved around in the Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc format and, with its release to 3 copies it helps keep consistency in the promising "Bird-up".

Macro Cosmos

Just like Dimensional Fissure, Macro Cosmos was limited and was released to compensate for the loss of Mystic Mine. Therefore, its impact must be the same, but in a slower version as it is a Trap Card.

Metaverse

In a format without Mystic Mine, activating a Field Spell directly from your deck or adding it from the deck to your hand with a Trap Card seems very slow. A Metaverse resolving will only be relevant in decks that use Necrovalley.

Though there were bans to problematic cards such as Curious, the Lightsworn Dominion and mostly Mystic Mine, once more the banlist left much to wish for as though it had good hits, it executed them in a terrible timing.

Another point that caught my attention is that this emergency banlist to hit the Tier 0 deck, affected it very little. The limitation of Herald of Orange Light, though good, becomes a bit strange when we see that from the Pasadena YCS to the Dortmund YCS, the same was moved from the Main Deck to the Side Deck in most well-performing decks.

Though it didn't ban cards from Ishizu Tearlaments, floodgates were released that are good against it, and besides that, the Tri-Brigade Lyrilusc should return to the meta and promises to be a potential deck to prey on the current meta.

Therefore, I believe the format that begins December 1st 2022 will start with the Ishizu Tearlaments still as a Tier 0 deck, as even after the release of floodgates and a new deck coming up to face it, there are ways to go around this, even more so when you have the best deck and 100% of the engine still available in the game.

I believe the most popular deck for the next format will be practically the same used by Vincenzo O. at the Dortmund YCS, except for the inclusion of Chaos Hunter to the original deck, as the same can annul Ishizu and Bystial cards and the floodgates Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos.

But what about you, what did you think of the banlist? Leave your opinion down below in the comments.

To get more information about the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, keep up with our other articles. Cards Realm thanks you for your collaboration!