This is part 2 of the series where we’ll look at the cards in the ban list and the history of those cards. In the last article we looked at some of the well known cards, as two of them prompted an English version of the card. For this one, we look at three cards that are more obscure.
A certain summer
Last time we talked about the “Winter of Nisekoi”, with Kantai Collection also being part of the series, as “Summer of Kancolle”. However, the series that started the “Summer/Winter of xxx” for Weiss Schwarz is actually the Toaru Index/Railgun series. The phrase was since used for any series that have over dominated and saturated the tournament scene to a point that it looks like we are playing Yu-gi-oh! instead of Weiss. “Summer of Toaru” was the first time in Weiss history for a over-representation of decks in meta playing the same series, to a point that the quote, “to beat Toaru, you have to play Toaru” was created.
The deck that started it all had two culprits. First, we have “Heaven Canceler”, a staple of any <ESP> decks. However, the main power from the deck comes from Mikoto and Kuroko, Under One Roof, a finisher that has CIP heal, pump+burn, no cx required, and can be changed into. Having “Heaven Canceler” and “Multiskill” Kiyama as support, the card provided you the firepower you need from level 2 onwards, and will return even if it gets anti-changed, as most anti-change at the time was just to the waiting room. The cost you pay for the finisher also helped with hand fixing, as you can dump any unwanted CX back into the WR before refresh.
As a result, 16 out of 30 participants of the BCF 2011 Finals used the series, and all top 4 players played a similar deck. As such, Kuroko was limited to 2, and “Heaven Canceler” was banned, in August 2011, which weakened the deck a bit. In August 2012, “Heaven” Canceler was moved to the restriction, and became a part of the 4-choose-1 series with “Multiskill” Kiyama, Mikoto in Pajamas, and Kuroko, Tokiwadai’s Lady. With the encore, level assist, change source, and level 1 attacker all rolled into one package, the overwhelming deck was finally curbed, and disappeared from the top spots in tournaments.
On attack, may pay 1 and discard 1. If so, this card gets +2000, and on reversing opposing character, burn 1
As the slow power creep happened over the years, the various cards in restriction eventually came off. The first one was Pajamas in 2013, then the 3-choose-1 in 2015 (in two different ban list change), and finally the limit 2 restriction was lifted in 2016.
By the way, the phrase “Summer of xxx” was actually inspired by Magic the Gathering, where they had their Black Summer, or “Summer of Necro” back in 1996.
Over-sized gone wrong?
Sealed Fist, Action Mask is a simple card. 1/0/7500. So they gave it the demerit of “cannot attack if there are 2 or less cards in clock”. Sounds decent, right? Except for the fact that it also gave two souls. The card thus gave you the flexibility of easily overpowering your opponent’s level 1, or giving you the firepower of attacking for two souls.
The card itself didn’t create a Shin-chan meta like some of the cards we talked about, as there are two factors in check. First, the card is actually a promo from buying Shin-Chan manga, so the card itself is limited in quantity. Also, the card was actually banned before the set released.
The interesting thing to note is that the card was originally shown as only 1-soul, in the original card of the day page. Thus it makes you wonder if the two soul was just a printer-error. Because the card is a promo in limited quantity, Bushiroad never offered to exchange the card, or any errata to fix it. On April 10th, 2014, without even waiting for the release date for the set itself, Bushiroad emergency banned the car in standard/side, and restricted it to 1 copy in neo-standard.
The card that was supposed to bring balance to the force
Remember Rest! from last article, and the card that was created to fix it? Well, it was also eventually banned too. A suitable change (for back-in-the-days standard) by moving from level 2 to level 3, changing the “choose up to any 2 from clock” to the “top 2 from clock” that we are now used to, the card also gave a 3000 power pump while retaining the “send to memory after play” ability.
This card was very compatible with the meta at the time, where Milky Holmes players main played a Book-Loving Elly-centric deck. Just as the healing meta was curbed because Rest! was fully banned, Cordelia’s Garden brought the meta back. The 3000 pump also allowed for board advantage, and having those two modes in one card was a dreamboat to many of the players that time. As such, it was heavily played in both neo-standard and standard at the time.
Cordelia’s Garden was announced 3 days after the Rest! was announced, and was banned 14 months later, in March, 2012 for neo-standard. A full ban that extended to standard/side was issued in August of the same year. As standard/side became less popular, the card was unrestricted in standard in 2016, and was finally changed to limit-1 in the most recent ban list change. As Elly-centric (with a different Elly card) is still the main build for Milky Holmes meta, this card will most likely boost the popularity of Milky Holmes in the upcoming season.
Wait, what happened to…
Last time I hinted I was going to talk about the card that changed 6 times in the ban list. It turns out that it was only 5, and I completely forgotten about which card it was until I’ve finished writing about Cordelia’s Garden, thus I’ll just save it for next time. We’ll also look at another series that’s part of the “Summer of xxx” series, and the first card that was ever banned.
Wild Wild Weiss 