Awesome 2 days into my planned schedule and some breaking news is already out to make me break it. Fun

For those who don’t know a new banlist has been leaked from a source that people find reliable.

The new additions to this list include:

Ur-Watar to 1

Sanctuary Guard Dragon to 1

Nightrunner to 1

Nightrunner banned as SV

Conroe Unbanned

As of now these changes feel…insubstantial. Obviously we’ll need to see these changes in effect but on its face all these changes feel like stopgap measures that minorly inconvenience their respective decks rather than stop them.

First things first let us address another hit to everyone’s favorite clan Gear Chronicle. I’m not sure how much Ur-watar to 1 affects the deck. It’s not convenient, there is a chance you can damage check him, but overall he’s 1 card out of 49. On average there will be maybe 1 to 3 damage checks within first stride not the biggest chances to lose him. As long as the Gears player gets to his first stride with Ur-Watar in deck/hand then they likely have their combo turn no problem.

Realistically melem is a bigger problem here. As long as Gears have consistent access to her any problem G0 will be available to the deck cause she can search them for free. However I think with the mechanic of time leap being the way it hitting Melem to 1 in place of Ur-Watar doesn’t always help either. The Melem-Tick tock-Upstream combo has never been that popular in America and Japan had it shot down already so the problem of Time Leaping your only copy isn’t all that relevant. If Melem were at 1 and Ur-Watar at 4 the problem would be flipped where easy access to Ur-Watar means you have an easy time leap target to bring out Melem. As long as the 2 cards interact easily with each other I think both need to be at 1.

Perhaps there could be a compromise like this restriction only applies if both are in the deck or this restriction only applies to Chronojet, so Fang can still use it but its comparatively more fair. But as is I think what we got won’t inconvenience the deck enough to slow it down.

Next up we have what I find to be the most baffling decision in this list Sanc Guard to 1. This is arguably the most insubstantial change we have gotten in this list. Many topping lists in Japan already only play the 4 Sanc guards, at most this will minorly change the deck to 4 Arcs 1 OG. Arc having the same effect on stride means that 50% of the time, when the Sanc Guard player strides first, literally nothing changes. The other 50% of the time I don’t think the deck cares enough because many GB locked decks don’t respond to early rush well. The Sanc Guard player can either grade stall Sebreeze be damned or ride Arc and not feel too bad since they’re likely ahead anyways. As long as the deck has access to the blaster engine it has a ridiculously powerful G2 game with a powerful first stride to take advantage of it. This reduces the odds of getting an easy draw at G3 or continuing the blaster attacks if they don’t stride first but again this doesn’t feel substantial enough to knock the deck down any pegs. Frankly it just encourages gradestall and reliance on pre gb rush which Bushi probably doesn’t want.

Finally as far as bannings go we have Nightrunner to 1 and can’t be starting vanguard. In a trend with all these bans this minorly inconveniences the deck but with access to Evil Shade, Chappie, and Performing Zombie getting nightrunner into drop isn’t that hard. And it doesn’t stop the fact that Nightspinel and Slash Shade can still be used at G1, giving the deck the ability to rush hard and fast. This won’t stop G1 rush from existing or even this particular deck. Bushi is giving us ways to stride alternatively against grade stall but the game overall needs a new catch-all solution rather than pointed answers only a few decks can access. This one I think is a step in the right direction compared to the other 2 but its only a half measure. They need to either address the deck being able to use Slash Shade and Nightspinel, or give us a catch all solution to grade locking.

Also Conroe is free. Good for Kagero I guess.

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment if you agree/disagree.