Why do we have a banlist?

After picking up Yugioh for the first time, you might run into some cards that you wish you could play, but Konami is telling you you can't. As a new player, it might be a bit frustrating if you paid good money for those cards and then find out this list has almost half of the cards you were playing with. Konami printed the card, so why are they not letting them be played? Well, here is an article by Kevin Tewart, pretty much the head administrator for the TCG, explaining the banlist itself and why they made the changes they did this format:

Part 1:
[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

Part 2:
[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

If you don't wish to read the whole thing, here are the reasons Konami gave for having a list:

• To prevent a situation where you feel “locked in” – where you HAVE to play with certain cards, or a certain Deck.
  
• To keep it so there are choices for what Deck you play. Avoid having 1 dominant Deck.
  
• To restrict “solitaire” play Decks. These are usually first-turn-combo Decks where one Duelist plays by themselves for 15 minutes, shuffling and summoning cards while their opponent twiddles his thumbs.
  
• To eliminate cards that are confusing, cause games to stall out, create infinite loops, or can otherwise interfere with tournaments and make them unpleasant.

If you understand these base rules Konami uses to decide the format, it kind of justifies them keeping BLS in the game or other ridiculous broken cards that need to go (Rescue Rabbit and Wind-Up Hunter just off the top of my head). The list in their eyes is to 1.) make profit the best they can and 2.) keep the game healthy. Even though BLS or Rabbit are broken cards that do a lot for nothing, They are fun cards to run and don't cause any sort of loops or bending of the rules. Their effects are not confusing or completely one-player based and they don't completely dominate the meta as a whole. It would be different if they brought Chaos Emperor Dragon to 1 because EVERY DECK would run that card and every time it went off, the game would be changed forever in the player who summoned it's favor. The card is unhealthy for the game and would be every deck's win condition, as seen when it first was released in 2005(?). Same would go for Raigeki or even Graceful Charity at this point in the game.

Now these reasons may have been true in past formats, but the article doesn't exactly do justice to the March 1st, 2012 banlist. I'll leave it to MegaCapitalG to explain:
[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

In short, MegaCapitalG points out that Konami didn't really seem to follow by this set of reasons as to why we have a list, but rather had an objective to push Synchros out of the game and XYZs in. Trishula was unrightfully banned, Staple cards were completely ignored this format (Monster Reborn, Dark Hole, Heavy Storm, Solemns, etc.), Dominating cards in the meta were left untouched (I believe it was because the top tier decks abuse XYZs so much), and cards like Exodia, Final Countdown, and cards that create painful game state changes and loops were completely ignored as well. They even failed to explain reason as to why they ignored such cards in the 2nd part of the article, so it's safe to say this format Konami was just greedier than ever.

Now part 2 I found pretty interesting. The cards they discussed are almost a bit of foreshadow of what we could see on the next list, and at the end of the article they discussed Inzektors and Rabbit a little. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of Inzektors next format as well.

Wind-Up Hunter was mentioned to have been a card worth banning. If they were discussing it back in March, I'm going to guarantee you now that it is on the list for September. They agreed that it's an annoying card that can do some crazy hand destruction, but it just wasn't winning in Asia enough. Now, though, there has been many top Wind-Up decks and Our NA Nationals winner was a Wind-Up player. After that point, it was easy to say that Wind-Ups were gonna be hit with SOMETHING, and after seeing this article I can say with confidence it'll be Hunter.

It was surprising to me to see discussion on Gladiator Beasts honestly because they dominated for so long and were literally just Tier 0 of their format. They won so much and weren't affected by anything for the longest time, yet they ended up just fading out like having Bestiari at 1 was piercing the deck in the heart. Although it was discussed, I don't see Glads coming back next format, but since they've obviously some love for the archetype, we might be seeing some new support coming for them later on.

Rescue Rabbit was a card mentioned and I feel like it will definitely see some pain. Maybe not the card itself, but Laggia will most likely be hit after the domination with Dino Rabbits.

From Konami's response to Inzektors not winning, it makes me think that maybe they'll make it under the radar once again this next format. I was thinking Dragonfly might be put on the limited list, but they're like Lightsworns in the old format: very popular, but not growing or causing a threat. Lightsworns weren't hit at all until the Chaos builds came in, so maybe Inzektors will get the same treatment until a new variation that starts topping shows its face.

Lastly, I noticed no mention of Chaos Dragons in the article whatsoever. Remember, Kevin Tewart is part of the TCG, so even though Chaos Dragons isn't popular in the OCG, he should still have heard wind of it. It's also likely they might not hit Future Fusion or REDMD/Lightpulsar solely on the reason that Konami usually doesn't care much for hitting TCG combos/decks. Reborn Tengu and Allure of Darkness were the first TCG exclusive cards to make the list for as long as I can remember.

Your thoughts on the list? Is it fair to base the list off of the reasons Konami listed? Should Konami pay more attention to the TCG than they have been?

A quick note on Dragons. Hieratics are big in the OCG. Guess what's big in Hieratics? That's right, REDMD + REDMD into Gustaph Max. An REDMD limit is widely predicted.

EDIT: which is terrible for me, because I play chaos dragons :\

i doubt redmd will be limited, i think that would cripple disaster dragon which is easily tier 2 and shouldnt be hurt as a result of other decks being too good. i bet heiratic convocation and su will be limited. if anything at all for hieratics.

REDMD almost definitely wouldn't be limited, because it's used in many decks, but really only works with dragon formats, meaning that it doesn't really bend any rules. besides, i think a TEN STAR monster deserves to be just a little bit OP, right? i think if anything, stuff like tour guide would be semi-limited (although it IS an expensive card), or possibly they'll do some listing on spells and traps this year. Xyzs hit their high point, but now people are starting to stretch back out into the old formats, so Konami might hit the Xyzs next.

EDIT: I'm glad to finally see somebody using the articles section though ^.^

vaktaeru wrote:REDMD almost definitely wouldn't be limited, because it's used in many decks,

I think that's not a reason to keep a card untouched. Examples - Monster Reborn. Dark Hole. Trunade. Magician of Faith. Premature Burial. Goyo. The list goes on. Splashability is an important factor in determining the power of a card.

REDMD is list-worthy in my opinion BECAUSE of its splashability across dragon decks. I just don't see it happening though, even though Hieratics may be big in OCG, they just aren't that good lol. Its possible, but I just kind of doubt it.