Well this was somewhat unexpected news today. To the point that I hadn’t even noticed it until after I completed the text work for the Red Card Preview. But yes, we have ourselves finally an update on the Watch List. What is hit, what changes in the format, is the world coming to an end? Let’s find out.

http://www.dbs-cardgame.com/us-en/strategy/series4/bt3-032_and_bt4-045.php

The above is the release Bandai put out stating what is going on and the reasoning. For the very few who are reading this without seeing I’ll state what’s going on.

Heightened Evolution Super Saiyan 3 Son Goku is not only untouched, but will be removed from the Watch List.

The Legendary Flute will be Limited to 1 as of September 21st (the release date of World Tournament).

I’m going to run down each point they mentioned, and how we’ll end up proceeding from here as a community.

HE SS3 Goku

The Card is only Easy to Use and not Powerful on its own

This…is just criminally incorrect to the point I can’t believe they actually had the audacity to say this. If SS3 Goku is not powerful on his own, NO Leader is powerful on its own. Hell, let’s run down exactly what he does “On his own”

Ramps you ahead immediately

Drops you 2 Life for quicker Self-Awaken

Untapping 3 at EoT allows for extremely safe offense and an absolute jungle of a defense for anyone to have to crawl through.

How is any of this “not powerful on its own”? Even a newer player coming in from another TCG could probably build a solid SS3 Goku deck without thinking about it. The card is immensely busted on its own, and only gets more powerful the more players lean into its strengths (which is why cards like Mafuba are seeing play again).

Forced Ejection Masked Saiyan is a sufficient counter.

Uh…no he ain’t. Well…technically he is, in the sense that if the SS3 deck comes in unprepared for him then yes, Masked Saiyan can completely control the game. Playing a Midrange deck, if the Masked Saiyan/UB Vegeta Lock goes down, you’re simply not going to be playing meaningful DBS for the rest of that game and might as well scoop it up. But therein lies that word. “Unprepared”. With Flute’s hit slowing down aggro, that means SS3 decks can now refocus on other potential counters…like Masked Saiyan. Of which we have quite a few ways to nuke it off the board at under 3 Energy, the main one being Son Goten, Family of Justice. One energy and he’s a thing of the past. There are other cards too like Dimensional Banisher Fu and Masked Saiyan the Mysterious Warrior for Over Realm stuff. When properly teched against, FE Masked Saiyan is not an issue for the deck and their defense at 2 Energy is still superb so good luck trying to win the game before the opponent finally gets a chance to get to 4 Energy (and thus even more outs).

Hitting SS3 will only mean Tier 2 Decks rise in its place.

This is the typical fallacy that a lot of players like to throw out as an argument as to why something shouldn’t be hit. “Don’t be a baby, hitting that will mean something just comes in its place!” Now, they’re not technically wrong. There will always be a strongest deck and when one goes down, another takes its place. The goal though is to have the next deck be a completely different deck and not an offshoot of the same one. For example when Mecha-Frieza got hit, nothing really replaced what Mecha-Frieza did pre-errata. Other decks rose to the top, but it wasn’t like we were seeing the same story in a different coat of paint. It was truly a different format and that’s a good thing.

Where the fallacy makes sense is when a deck gets hit, and something nearly similar rises to the top or a replacement card makes it seem like business as usual. In YGO terms, let’s look at the shift from Zoodiac to Spyrals. Zoodiac dominated for a long time with a huge value string of Special Summons that took forever into a board that was hard to break and had disruption out of their ears. When they FINALLY went down…Spyrals got Double Helix and now they were about a ton of Special Summons that took forever with a ton of value with a tough to break board. Nothing really changed except for the coat of paint.

In MTG terms, let’s look at Aetherworks Marvel decks. Initially they banned Emrakul, the Promised End because getting your turn stolen from you on Turn 4 was infuriating and even when not gotten off of Marvel, it wasn’t that hard to hardcast Emrakul. So Marvel died right? Nope, they just put in Ulamogs instead. Far harder to hardcast…but the Turn 4 wins were still intact and thus the deck was just as infuriating to the point nothing really changed other than leaning even harder into spinning the wheel until they finally got rid of the problem in Marvel itself.

Hitting SS3 does not meet either of the two above examples. NOTHING matches SS3’s insane strength in Midrange Decks. The ability to play your bigger stuff sooner, get your draw value sooner, being able to tap out for your big stuff with no worry of crackback, AND can play a bunch of it because with 3 Energy they aren’t dead defense in your hand makes SS3 absolutely uncontested in the land of Midrange. So even if Soul Striker and Iron Vow got some play for Mono-Blue, they still wouldn’t match what SS3 does.

You’re not getting the same deck in a different coat of paint, there’s no one card solution. Nothing can match what SS3 does as a Leader, which is a problem as it does nearly everything.

Them not hitting SS3 Goku was a bad decision. We’ll see if it bites them in the future, though we won’t really find out for sure until early October most likely.

The Legendary Flute

Nearly 100% of Blue Decks run this card.

Yeah, this is absolutely true. You’ll find multiple top cuts where the number of decks with Flute encroach, if not outright hit, 100%.

It’s responsible for speeding up the game due to comboing too well with early Self-Awaken Battle Cards.

Also true. Not as much as with say Bardock, the Progenitor since…you know, he does it himself, Intensifying Power Trunks and Saiyan Cabba with this at the back lead to nasty early turns that let you Awaken while putting on massive pressure and gaining a bunch of card advantage. While I think Unyielding Spirit Trunks also has some blame on his hands for this (and I believe will eventually have to start answering for it), Flute is definitely the core centerpiece that keeps the card advantage flowing and loosens the combo piece requirements.

The Issue is the Number of Copies Used

…Eh…I can see where they’re coming from. I think it has other issues, but one can definitely make the argument that chaining multiple of these is just absolutely infuriating for the opponent. You get a bunch of cards while hitting your opponent in the face a lot with the same Battle Card usually. Only being able to do it once isn’t that terrifying, and now you have to have the one copy in deck on your opening turn. It’s definitely not one of those cards that breaks the game in half by who has 1 vs who has 0 (note this only applies with it being Limited, the game absolutely was decided by who found theirs first beforehand…but mainly because it would usually lead to finding the other copies quickly). On top of that, the decision to use it to gain card advantage vs using it as Pseudo-Removal would be MUCH tougher. It’s a very versatile card but now you only have access to it once, so you have to make it count and make the right decision.

Limiting to 1 will cause more Non-Blue Leaders to show up.

Well yeah…if you can find a reason to not use SS3 Goku first.

Weakening Aggro Decks to allow room for Midrange Decks

Three to Four Weeks ago I would’ve been fine with this assessment. After ARG and Gencon…uh, Midrange Decks already found their room. In force at that. They took up at least half the damn field. But all headed by SS3 Goku of course. Now, if it wasn’t already, Midrange is once again back to the top of the pack. It seems that’s the standard Bandai wants to enforce. Which is fine I guess, but it was refreshing to have to work my ass off to stay alive against strong Aggro Decks.

How does the Format Change?

As I said, Midrange is now King of the Roost again if it wasn’t already. Trunks Lineage doesn’t get affected THAT badly by this, but it was already struggling to maintain leg room. Things should get a bit slower now, though we’ll see if U/R Aggro can continue to find its place in the format if not R/G Aggro with a Blue Leader to make sure the Aggressive 1 Drop count is at 12, to make up for the loss of 3 Flutes. Energy Lock decks will try to find some more play, but I imagine SS3 will be teching against them. Also SS3 may become 100% omnipresent in the format. Hopefully not, maybe I’m overly cynical but it’s gonna be rough.

…I also get to play Myuu over Baby again since I won’t be pressured to have the Revenge Death Ball! …personal victories y’know?

Until Next Time, Keep Fighting Because If You Don’t, Who Will?