After the most recent Forbidden & Limited list, the TCGs meta has been weakened just a bit. Monarchs lost the most taking hits to their power cards Ehther the Heavenly Monarch, Pantheism of the Monarchs, and The Monarchs Stormforth. Burning Abyss variants lost their ability to generate extreme amounts of advantage and disruption in the form of 2 copies of Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal as well as the limitation of Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss. Pendulum decks of course lost 2 copies of Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin and Pendulum Call, which are a hits to consistency and power plays. Although Kirin’s effect is a hard once per turn, having 2 or 3 Kirin on board meant that your opponent’s potential Kaiju or some other sort of non-targeting/non-destruction out was a lot less potent. Kirin is also at risk of being crushed by summon negation now since you can only have 1 copy in circulation and Majespecter Supercell isn’t a card that can be feasibly run without a larger Majespecter engine. Any variants fielding Performapals also lost Performapal Monkeyboard, which is a relatively big consistency hit. Kozmo variants lost 2 copies of Kozmo Dark Destroyer and of course had Emergency Teleport cut to 1 copy, again hurting consistency. Everybody lost 1 copy of Maxx “C” which definitely sucks.

I could drone on and on about what the decks lost, but it’s probably more useful to consider what decks have gained. The general theme of the losses was salient hits to consistency and underlying hits to power.

Allure of Darkness

The first card I’m interested in looking at is Allure of Darkness, which was returned to unlimited status. Allure already had a place in many of the pre-list meta decks so it’s only logical that it would get better being able to play a third copy. It also has a place in the upcoming Darklords deck! In general Allure is great in decks that like to dig for their other techs and floodgates, but should almost always be used after searching if possible. For example in Burning Abyss/Phantom Knights, if you manage to open Speedroid Terrortop and Allure of Darkness you should definitely get your Speedroid Taketomborg out of the deck lest you use value by drawing into it. You’ve also increased your chances of drawing into your other power cards like Anti-Spell Fragrance, Solemn Strike, and your other summoning engines or Burning Abyss names. In Fire King Kozmo, you definitely want to activate your Fire King Island combo if you have it in hand before activating Allure. In Demise Kozmo, you can activate Allure on sight. There has also been chatter of trying to replace some of the consistency lost in Monarch decks with Allure and running a larger DARK engine including Blackwing - Gofu the Hazy Shadow. Speaking of Gofu, it’s the next card I’d like to consider.

Blackwing - Gofu the Hazy Shadow

Gofu is a strong monster because of its versatility. Not only is it a target for Allure of Darkness, but it’s also a tuner that can special summon itself through it’s own effect. In decks like Fire King Kozmo, Metalfoes, and Extra Deck Monarchs, Gofu provides access to various rank 5 monsters as well as Ultimaya Tzolkin. Tzolkin can provide further access for power cards like Void Ogre Dragon, Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer, and Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon. Specifically in Fire King Kozmo, Gofu also provides direct access to Ancient Fairy Dragon, which both facilitates and extends your first turn combos. In Metalfoes as I’ve mentioned before, Gofu can be used to make Black Rose Dragon or Scrap Dragon, monsters useful for outing floodgates.

Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries

Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss still lives the unlimited life so this monster stays relevant and will gain more relevance as decks look to counter the upcoming powerhouse, ABC-Dragon Buster. If you don’t see Ghost Reaper early enough for it to snipe extra deck monsters, you can use it as a tuner for synchro options like Metaphys Horus in pendulum decks and the level 7 synchros mentioned before.

Gold Sarcophagus

Now that this card is unlimited, Kozmo decks have a nice toy to play with. Gold Sarcophagus has very obvious interactions with Kozmotown and Kozmo Strawman. You can either tutor a necessary monster to your hand with Kozmotown or set up Strawman + Kozmo Dark Destroyer for floating plays, Kozmo Dark Eclipser for guaranteeing an end phase search, and Kozmo Sliprider/Kozmo Delta Shuttle for Cyber Dragon Infinity plays. Gold Sarc also extends FKI combos in ways that deserve their own article. There are also nifty plays one can do with Kozmo Dark Planet should one be fielding it which increases the chance of seeing Dark Planet in the early game, when it matters.

Last Words

There are tons more techs I hope to cover eventually, but I hope this read was helpful in some way or possibly sparked an idea for your deck building! The Forbidden & Limited list is always a fun time in the game. There are new things to try and explore while waiting for the next meta to settle in. I’m hoping you find new success in the new competitive season!