Latest Weiss Schwarz Forbidden/Limited List (Active on August 25th, 2012)
With a new season, comes a new banlist for their card games. This is probably the craziest list I’ve seen in a while yet for Weiss Schwarz. Alongside this list, game lengths have been extended to 30 minutes. Their main justification for this list is to choke the constant healing loops that endlessly drag a game on for a indefinite amount of time, and in the hopes of encouraging play of decks that attempt to beat your opponent to level 4 rather than attrition your way until he bites the dust.
Without further ado, check them out. It’s not going to be pretty. To clear up confusion, “Forbidden” means no copies of this card are allowed in a deck, “Limited” means only 2 copies are allowed in a deck, “Choice of X” cards mean you are only allowed to include one of them amongst the three in your deck; they cannot co-exist.
Neo-Standard and Title Cup Forbidden/Limited List
Little Busters
Forbidden
Rest Time! – 3/1 blue event.
It’s kinda obvious this card will never be making its way off the lists, especially when it’s the most broken healing event in existence.
Zero No Tsukaima
Choice of 3
From left to right:
– Saving the Hostages, 2/1 red event
– Duty of a Noble Louise, 3/2 yellow character.
– Unconscious Power Louise, 2/1 red character.
The event is awesomely powerful, and pretty much gives you a chance for a +1 hand if it succeeds. And as for the characters, it seems that Bushiroad wants to slow down Zero no Tsukaima F’s insanely strong early down field by forcing the player to choose between either one. For the uninformed, the 2/1 Louise changes to an extremely powerful 3/2 beatstick with a Gate climax synergy.
The player now has to choose between giving up the powerful salvage for the red 3/2 Louise minus the Change, or give it up and run the yellow Louise alongside the now unchangeable 3/2 red Louise, or lastly, giving up both the early down 3/2 Louise and event and choose to stick strictly to the Change combo. In any case, they don’t seem to have been shortchanged that much.
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu
Forbidden
Colourless World – 2/1 red event.
Refer to Rest Time!. It’s probably stuck here for good.
Choice of 3
From left to right:
Summer Festival Nagato, 3/2 blue character.
Dress-Up Nagato, 3/2 blue character.
Trouble Girl Haruhi, 3/2 red character.
Nothing much to say here, because they just had it coming. The most powerful Haruhi decks run a nearly unbeatable combination of these cards, packed with lots of healing, burst power, backrow hate and burn, and now our dear Haruhi players must now restructure their decks to incorporate either one of these three. On the bright side, we can actually see proper SOS-Dan or Danchou decks in the making now.
Toaru Majutsu no Index/Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
Limited
Under one Roof Mikoto & Kuroko, 3/2 red character.
Could be completely banhammered if Bushiroad wanted to, but kept to Limited so that Railgun players don’t get too short-changed. It’s a solid card that pretty much defined Railgun meta, so they can’t completely shut it out of play.
Choice of 4
From left to right:
Tokiwadai’s Princess, Kuroko, 1/1 red character.
Pajamas Mikoto, 2/1 red character.
Multi-Skill Kiyama, 2/1 green character.
Heaven Canceller, 0/0 blue character. (No longer Forbidden)
Railgun got hit really hard with this list. All four cards listed here are all meta-defining cards for them, and having only one to choose amongst them really cripples their play and slows them down extensively. Let’s start with Kuroko. With a random Mikoto around, she goes up to a frightening 1/1 7.5k. And no matter if she crumbles, she can be pulled out from the Waiting Room by her dear friend Mikoto! It’s a very powerful card, and able to hold it’s own for quite some time before someone beats her face in.
Next, we have Misaka. The card that changes to the fearsome 3/2 Mikoto-Kuroko we all love and hate depending on which side of the spectrum you stand on. Hence, she can be considered as Railgun’s most powerful changer card; but depending on your build, you may or may not need to put her out early, considering there’s a certain Uiharu that fulfills the same role.
And what do you know, we have the infamous Kiyama-sensei, the only global-range Esper LEVEL BUFFER, to date. Without a doubt, she is notoriously powerful, being able to buff up whole field of L3 Espers and make them fearsome beatsticks, and being an Esper herself, Kiyamas can effectively buff each other and be more on their guard against a lot of backrow hate. Personally, I feel she’s the best choice amongst the four, and there’s little reason to do otherwise.
Lastly, it’s good to have you back, Heaven Canceller. Though the ban on him is now lifted, you will have to pick between the four of them now. For those who loved his hand-encore grant back then, you can choose to welcome him back to your Deck, in the expense of Kiyama and 1/1 Kuroko, and instead play a build that gives you more hand to keep your Espers sticking around your Stage terrorizing your foes for little longer.
Persona
Forbidden
Kamiki Akinari, 1/1 yellow character.
Completely banned irregardless of format now. Isn’t it sad, Akinari? There were probably ways to abuse his hand burn, and Bushiroad probably felt such an effect is too powerful to keep around, so off he goes.
Shining Force
Forbidden
Changing Cyrille, 1/0 blue character.
Her effect is a free defense +1k buff when your guys get attacked, and on top of that, should your opponent cancels the damage your characters do, you can heal 1 damage! Once again, true to their word of getting of healing combos and attrition decks, this went into the forbidden zone as well.
Disgaea
Limited
Ultimate Demon Lord Laharl, 3/2 red character.
It’s quite odd; Little Busters’ Maid Mio was unmolested while this guy got slapped with a Limitation. But considering the difference in the stuff they can pull from the Deck/Waiting Room, this is kinda justified in a way. And once again, true to their world of stopping loops, they had to stop this guy from going too crazy. However, it’s a key Disgaea card that they can’t afford to outright ban, so it has to stay.
The Idolmaster
Choice of 3
From left to right:
Always Straightforward Haruka, 1/0 red character.
An Idiot At Directions Azusa, 0/0 blue character.
Showdown with Jupiter!, 3/1 blue event.
Now this was just totally uncalled for. Though I wouldn’t say Idolmaster players are hit too hard with this list; in fact, it’s perfectly fine for us to just pick one of these, or even forgo them outright. In fact, by breaking these cards up, they give us a good opportunity to explore more options rather than running the best level 0 and 1s in the set for a strong early game combo and stock farmer over and over. The level 3 event is subjective; given the amount of healing Idolmaster has available, the card is pretty moot to say the least. But that’s what they are going for; a lockdown on heal cards.
Always Straightforward Haruka is easily the best 1/0 character for Idolmaster as a series; it has a salvage + beatdown ability as a synergy, and it’s disturbingly hard to get rid of if your opponent is ill-prepared. It’s pretty much a key card for Idolmaster red decks, but not crippling to do without. Idiot at Directions Azusa is decently huge, allows you to check your top deck for free (as much as it’s a demerit, make full use of it), and very annoyingly hard to chase down unless your opponent commits his full field early.
Lastly, Showdown with Jupiter. A really powerful healing and buff card when played together with a certain 3/2 Makoto, who isn’t amongst the list. Whoops? Though red-blue Haruka Chihaya decks can no longer run this card, there are more than enough options to fill that void with now.
Tantei Opera Milky Holmes
Forbidden
Cordelia’s Garden, 3/2 blue event.
Same reason as Rest Time!; such a strong heal event, with a power boost slapped on it; there’s really no reason to keep it sticking around in this current season.
That’s all for now; Standard and Side lists will be up another time, though you can already check them on the site here.
