The newest banlist update for theYu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Gamesees nearly 20 cards moved up and down the banlist, including several hits to the game’s Tier 0 deck. The massively popular trading card game from Konami regularly sees updates to its “Forbidden and Limited List”, looking to balance the game and curb the power of the strongest decks. Each update to thebanlist typically sees a handful of cardsbanned or limited with others often being freed from the banlist. Now, Konami has released a massive update to address one particularly powerful deck.Throughout the end of 2022 and into early 2023,Yu-Gi-Oh’s competitive meta has been dominated by one deck, the recently released “Tearlaments” archetype. Debuting in August’s Power of the Elements, the deck features a powerful strategy using its Monsters to Fusion Summon by placing themselves back into the deck when they hit the Graveyard. Tearlaments has seen even greater success since the release of Magnificent Mavens in November, with the new Ishizu cards boosting the deck to a Tier 0 strategy. Now, several of Tearlaments' most powerful cards are being hit.RELATED:New Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel Battle Pass Features Classic Anime Monster as MateKonami officially revealed the next update toYu-Gi-Oh’s banlist on Monday with an effective date set for February 13th. The newYu-Gi-Ohbanlist update sees a total offour cards set as Forbidden, completely removing them from the game. Tearlaments decks in particular saw notable hits with two central combo pieces banned in “Tearlaments Kitkallos” and “Spright Elf.” Two other cards saw bans after being popular targets from theYu-Gi-Ohcommunity for much of the past year, with “Artifact Scythe” and “Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds” set to zero copies.
While the bans hit some of the Tearlaments strategy’s main combo pieces, the Limited section saw major restrictions placed against the deck. Each of the strategy’s Fusion Summoning Monsters will be limited to one copy with Havnis, Merrli, and Scheiren seeing their ratios cut significantly. The Ishizu cards also saw new restrictions with all four of the archetype’s Monsters being restricted to one copy alongside the Tearlaments cards. While bans and limitations were the primary focus, several cards also saw returns to the game includingclassic card “Yata-Garasu” returning to three copies.
The changes toYu-Gi-Oh’s banlist comes as the popular card game is gearing up for another potentially meta-shifting release. The game’s newest set, Photon Hypernova, debuting later this week brings with it the “Kashtira” strategy, expected to make a major impact on the card game’s meta. Konami has also been pushingYu-Gi-Oh Master Duelas a competitive platform for the card game,introducing theMaster DuelChallenger Cup. After months of dominating the card game, Tearlaments' position atop theYu-Gi-Ohmeta will look to be challenged throughout the coming weeks.
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