First off I'd like to wish good luck to all those going to nats. I'll be enjoying myself down in Disney World while you guys duke it out =p. I'll see people at Worlds, though.

Second, I'd like to sound off on the bannings. The word "Yay" isn't enough to express how awesome this is. Order just got a serious power sap. Now people don't have to worry about their Red Lotus's and Oral Dead's being burned by Olcadan's only to be eaten up by looping Spinta's, as well as the rest of their staging area left unprotected to the power of a card like Program Malfunction.

Olcadan's just presented too many what-if scenarios that were unhealthy for the game. While this diminishes the power and usefulness of cards like Blinding Rage and Makai High Noble, I'd like to ask people-How often did you put those cards in your deck just because you needed to protect yourself from Owlface? Aren't people happy now that they can use those valuable deck slots for more important strategic cards. Amazing bannings, and this makes it all the much easier to make space for all the nifty little tricks for my Death deck (Don't ask, i'm not telling you who it is or what it does =P). My Destiny's are safe once more!

Makai, however, I am SO happy to see gone. Goo and I were discussing how Makai and Olcadan's were the two cards that needed to go big time just Saturday night on the way home on the train, but we had agreed that Makai needed to go a lot quicker than Olcadan's. No more stupid Defender loops, as well as free and easy momentum with no cost.

As for Chester's Backing....eh, i'm iffy on that. I fear that some foundations could begin to go unchecked without the card there to stop it. I think we'll get by, though.

HolyDragonCloud said:

How's that? Those Oral Dead and Lotus won't save you. ProMal, China Box, and Psycho Style are all still coming for you =D

Like Experienced Combatant! =D

And yes, to everyone going to Nats - BREAK A LEG!

I say that because now Red Lotus and Oral Dead won't be occupied dealing with Olcadan's. Instead, they will be open to deal with Order commital.

But the whole point of Order committal is to get those Lotus' tapped down so Spinta can get to work.

But less work is good.

I honestly could care less about the bannings, other than to say I'm kind of sad to see Makai go. A commit cost would have been nice...though Air loses a little of its bite (NOT MUCH, HAHAHA).

It certainly changes things a bit, doesn't it?

Makes my plans for Yoshitora much more feasible, since I was only gonna play him off Air to get Makai and Chester's xD

HolyDragonCloud said:

You better take pics. That is one place you will never forget.

MY death deck thank you very much .

Also Order is still very powerful and has 9932 other potential cards to waste your commital effects on.

Shinji, this is like my 7th time going. I love it just as much every time though. High styling and profilin in the Grand Floridian as always =).

Andrew, hush, at least I didn't reveal the hot tech that had a table of people going nuts =p.

makai had to go. the other two not so much. still happy, but why chester's?

trane said:

DEATH TO LIFEGAIN.

Homme Chapeau said:

i still think chester's was a nessasary evil.

Lemme put it this way.

Chester's rewarded you for negating effects.

"Good job, you canceled your opponent's card effect. Not only did you **** over your opponent, you got a positive boost too."

imagine if there was another foundation that said "R commit: cancel stuff, then gain 1 momentum". Or how about "R commit: cancel stuff, then your opponent loses vitality". Or even "R commit: cancel stuff, then get a card from your discard pile to your hand".

Yeah, now chester's seems a bit dumber doesn't it?

Or how about "R Commit: Hack your opponent's control check and draw a card".

If you're going to start with logic like that, then if Chester's was banworthy BRT was too.

ChaosChild said:

BRT IS banworthy

*awaits impending argument that it isn't, along with a list of counters that I apparently didn't know existed to prove their point*

Ah, Shinji.

BRT is banworthy. Although my specific reasoning may not be the same for other people, I think the only reason it's banworthy is because it can hack blocks. I don't care about hacking my turn with it as much as I care for "Here's a 27 damage attack, you have 3 foundations open and so do I, except they're BRT's. Block or die?"

Blood Runs True was my first pick to go. You will have no argument from me. Now that Owlface and Chester's Backing is gone, this card is only going to get better, along with Bitter Rivals. We are very close to locally banning those too. Try pulling off a "combo" enhance with those 2 on the table. Evil symbols on both of them...

MarcoPulleaux said:

When the Banhammer was swinging, BRT ducked and ran for cover under some other cards. I think the banhammer is still lurking waiting to see if BRT is still going to wreck face now that Olcadan's is gone.

BRT must have damage reduction from bludgeon weapons.... Now I took that a little too far. Hope someone knows what I mean.

ChaosChild said:

Hack your opponent's check, maybe, and give them a card too. BRT isn't an auto-fail, in fact it doesn't even zero a check every time.

You sorta glossed over the part about BRT giving the recipient a card, too, though. That's pretty important, compared to Chester's being entirely one-sided.

BRT also doesn't give your deck a 6cc.

It's also possible (and has now been done) to print strong answers and punishers to CC hacking without breaking anything. The last time they printed a powerful answer to negation, the card itself was seriously broken (The Curse Broken).

Tagrineth said:

Destiny is broken.

A card that is dead against 95% of decks is not broken in the least bit. Whoop-dee-do about the R.

It is simply necessary since BRT and Forethought exist. Something needs to check the cards.

Look at the top decks from can nats and you'll see that 5/8 (62.5%) of the top 8 decks in can nats ran brt. In path of the master it was 4/8 (50%) decks ran brt. That's 9 out 16 decks combined in the two top north american tournaments ran brt. Plus you have to account for the people who didn't make top 8 at either one of those tournaments. You will see brt in every tournament you go to, yes there are answers but the card is too good not to run. BTW, I didn't even mention anti k', or forethought which are considered "hack" aswell.

sir_shajir said:

A card being played a lot does not mean a card being broken.

HolyDragonCloud said:

You would think you would understand the Hatman's style by now....

Tagrineth said:

I meant that BRT is not broken, but destiny does have a place in the meta.

Antigoth said:

Somebody has their connections =p

My sentiments exactly. Well, obviously it has Nats, some more reggies, and perhaps one more month before Worlds to determine who's side FFG is on: the logical side, or the DESTINY TOOOOOTALLY MAKES THE CARD NOT BROKEN side.

I will say this much...

If, in Tekken, they release an anti-Hax card, preferably with more than 3 symbols, that not only has amazing and practical anti-Hax abilities, BUT ALSO (key words right there) has an equally amazing and practical secondary effect.

Then maybe, just maybe, BRT miiiiiight be allowed to slide.

And that's an extremely heavy might. Worlds 2007 was overcrowded with *Yun-Seong* despite the fact that he was an auto-lose to Mortal Strike.

Getting it?