Yugioh January 2022 Banlist Prediction

Last Updated: January 25, 2022

It’s that time of the year again, banlist season. Just like in Yugioh Master Duel the TCG has a list restricting certain cards from competitive play as there is no set rotation. After a poor final banlist in 2021 let’s discuss what the best cards to add in 2022 could be. You can find the current October 1st Yugioh banlist 2021 here

The Final Yugioh Banlist of 2021

Banning Zoodiac barrage? Really? Eva and Tenki to 1? This format is cool and all but with SwordSoul Tenyi and Floowandereeze climbing the ladder I think it’s time to shake up the current meta with more than one banned card.

The Problems

Bird up

Do you know who has had it too good for too long? Birds. After thoroughly examing Lyralusc Tri-Brigade it’s clear that this deck needs to be dealt with. A Xeno-lock (A locks you into one type of monster), potentially infinite negates with Apex Avian and some extra negates with F0 Utopic Future Dragon in case infinite just wasn’t enough for you. This needs to be hit on the first banlist of 2022.

Drytron

The fairies are also looking quite smug right now. Piggybacking on Drytron and giving them a large amount of extra negates needs to be put to a stop. Drytron themselves are also not free to go. An endlessly resilient deck that needs to be brought down a peg so other decks can shine. Can we leave Benten in 2021, please?

Endless Floodgates

Who thought flood gates were a good idea? Some of us like floods. Artifact Scythe is insane, locking your opponent out of summoning from the extra deck in an era where summoning from the extra deck is half of the game?

And now that you can trigger it with your own Destroyer Pheonix Enforcer and set it from your deck with Dagda. Its accessible to everyone for the low cost of only 4 summons.

Imperial Order is a black pox on this card game that should have never been made, no one card should lock you totally out of a third of the card pool for the cost of 700 life points a turn, really this thing should have been banned years ago. I cannot believe some of these cards made it past the banlists of 2021

A couple of months ago I would have told you that Verte Anaconda is the issue. Now though it’s clear that printing fusion spells that let you summon from the deck with no restrictions are the issue. Letting them summon boss monsters like Red-eyes dragoon or DPE is a problem and while it may limit an innocent archetype in HEROs hitting Verte may not be the resolution to this newest issue in Yugioh.

Invoked

The consistency and easy negates invoked give to fusion decks is a lot. It’s been years and this deck just floats freely. While I don’t think it’s that much of a problem I do think it’s time to make Normal Summon Alister a bit less reliable to make space for some more imaginative deck building.

Not the problem

This may upset some people but hear me out…

Protos

A lot of people compare Protos to the very fun dragon himself True King of all Calamities. Who was finally banned on the March 15th, 2021 banlist. This isn’t the case, Calamities was a quick effect negation on all monster effects from even activating. Protos isn’t quick, so its effect is never viable of turn 1 unless your opponent figures out what deck you are using at a tournament. Now if your friend is using Protos to declare light and lock you out of your Lightsworn deck after you told him what you would be playing then you need to Pro-toss this person into the garbage real quick.

Mystic Mine

We all hate mystic mine, but at this point, if you arent side decking spell removal I cannot help you, a neither can Kazuki Takahashi. Seriously, what’s worse? Playing mine or losing to mine because you didn’t side deck cosmic cyclone. This isn’t a banlist in 2021. We live in 2022 and collectively we need to move past Mystic mine.

Winda

In a format full of massive negate boards and endless spot removal, El Shaddoll Winda isn’t an issue. One special summon per turn? Whatever will you do beyond Summon DPE, play lightning storm, Raigaki if you can’t afford the insane prices these cards demand. Even Kaijus quickly stop Winda with little investment.

Many are suggesting banning Apkallone to limit the ability to search Schism, but this just kills Shaddoll not Invoked Dogmatika. With Shaddoll invoked dogmatika the problem isn’t having Winda, Meckaba or Nadir’s Servant. Its being able to get all 3 consistently, this can be addressed without taking out a reasonable control option with many outs. Don’t kill one of the best control decks in a format consisting of Combo.

The Bans

Artifact Scythe. Locks out a whole summoning mechanic, not fun, basically ends games

Imperial Order. All spell cards are gone, not fun.

Verte Anaconda. As much as this card is cool, it massively limits the design of any future fusion card since Verte can play it from the deck. It has to go.

Simorgh, Bird of Sovreingty. Support for a whole monster type that becomes crazy the second that same type gets a good deck? Block dragon? A very interesting card but it’s either this or limiting Lyralusc in other ways that kill the deck outright. They can still access Utopic Future just not an infinite negation loop.

Eva. Yeah, get outta here you Roswell-looking grey alien. Adding two fairies? Okay cool, oh wait they are both hand traps? Even at 1 this card is just too good in Drytron and I don’t see Mu-beta Fafnir getting banned.

The Limits

Magical meltdown. Invoked are great, but SHID getting easy consistent access to negates in Mekaba needs to end. One means maybe you will pull off the Mekaba Winda lockdown but its interruptable now.

Tri Brigade Fraktal. The guy just does too much for so little. A one card link 2, a full combo into an OTK, easy way to dump for Warblers effect, a full combo into OTK. You understand to keep the rest of the Bird Up deck alive Fraktal needs to take the hit that limiting Tenki couldn’t do.

Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos. You let Tempest off. Free my man.

Orcust harp horror. Orcust are a cool deck that needs a boost, Harp won’t make them meta but it would make them a viable rouge deck

The Semi limits

Nadir Servant. Not a huge fan of the semi-limited list but for Nadir’s servant a limit feels too harsh considering we already limited Magical meltdown. Really this card and Meltdown could be swapped and that would be at the same power level.

The Unlimited

Red-eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. As a once-per-turn effect now there is no reason to keep him limited like this, get him off the banlist.

Emergency Teleport. Virtual World isn’t doing much with two E-tele. It’s also the least you can do for Myutants.

Future potential hits

Pheonix Enforcer is a power house, and currently can be made with any 2 effect monsters thanks to Verte Anaconda. However even if Verte is banned Destiny fusion is still at 3. Unlike Red eyes fusion, Destiny fusion lets you summon other monsters that turn. So you can still do all of your combos and just end by playing destiny fusion, draw 2 from celestial and win next turn. At some point Destiny fusion could be limited to one if DPE doesnt go the way of Dragoon and just fall out of the metagame.

Why not just ban DPE I hear you Yugioh fans cry? Well, Konami tends not to ban new or key product, it took 4 banlists for Firewall dragon to finally only for it to come back in 2021 with an Errata. I doubt DPE will even be limited until mid 2022.

Whilst that’s it for this, we’ve been covering a fair bit of Master Duel content, you can find it all here: