For anyone unaware Konami released Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel a couple of months back and it has been taking the Yu-Gi-Oh community by storm! The game is incredibly polished and well made, but the format is a bit different as the ranked ladder is all best-of-ones rather than best-of-threes with a side deck like the paper game. This in addition to the cards available being a year or so behind the paper version leads to a slightly different ban list and meta-game.

A big problem with the best-of-one format for the ranked ladder is that decks that would overwhelm the first game of a best-of-three, but lose after side boarding are dominating the ranked ladder. In addition, a large number of cards that are banned in the paper version are still legal in Master Duel and generally ruin games from either being broken or just dragging the game on forever.

Small additions to the ban lists have been coming out once every month or so since Master Duel’s release, but each one has largely been pathetic, underwhelming, and generally fails to actually answer some of the problem cards the game has. One of those finally got answered in the ban list that was announced on Friday.

The ban list that will go live on September 30th will finally include Crystron Halqifibrax, a card that starts long combo chains that end with some absurdly strong board states. The ban is sorely needed, as the card is almost included in any deck. The rest of the ban list is largely meaningless except for a strange limit to Water Enchantress of the Temple that lowers the Adventure engine's consistency but not by much. The largest disappointment once again is the lack of a ban on Maxx C.

The sheer degree to how much Maxx C ruins the Master Duel format is ridiculous. In a game with 40 card decks, having to make 3 of those cards Maxx C, and then 3 Ash Blossoms to counter the Maxx C, and then 2 Called by the Grave to counter Maxx C or Ash Blossom is absurd and ridiculous. It all ends up with everyone playing somewhat inefficient decks with at least 8 slots solely reserved for Maxx C and cards to counter it or ensure it resolves. In other words, yes I’m glad Konami finally banned Crystron Halqifibrax, but I just really wish they ban Maxx C sometime soon.

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel is available on mobile devices, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 4 and 5.