Well, the banned list had hit and most players are in one of 2 camps. You could be elated by the news of Ojiro II getting nerfed back down to the power level of a 15 year-old fledgling hero with a great tool box, somewhere near a Sato I or Sero II. You could be upset by decision not to throw more decks and problematic cards on the banned list, as decks like Jiro and Chaos came away generally unscathed. Let’s review some of the points from both schools of thought.

“Ojiro was the only problem deck so far in the format”

Ojiro was being run at an insane rate; more than doubling the number of entries of the 2nd place deck. It’s success in the Top 16 of the Oceana RLE was a clear sign that it was a notch better and more consistent than the rest of the field. He needed the legs cut out from under him and they were.

On the other hand, of the 22 Top-16 spots not occupied by Ojiro 2, only Momo I, Jiro, and Fourth Kind have claimed more than one Top finish and each of them only have 2 so far this season. We still await the first non-Ojiro mirror match anywhere in Top cuts and no other character has received more than 7% of the entries to an event. Even with Tokoyami and Midnight combining for almost 10% of the field so far this season, they have only claimed 1 Top spot and 0 Top cut wins for the Chaos symbol.

The point? This is what balance looks like! Decks at Kissimmee were able to slow the pace and largely control the aggression of Chaos, Air, and Earth. 22 different characters have reached Day 2 and more seem ready to stake their claim in the coming months.

“Why not touch Jiro?”

Jiro is not the most fun deck to play against. When she slams Double Jab Pummel, you literally have the thought “I’m not allowed to block this.” Beating Jiro comes down to hoping you can break her before she breaks you, or play a character that can play a mountain of defense. So why not touch Jiro? Well, I think the story on Jiro has already been told. She’s largely been the Boogeyman of several formats, but she has yet to claim dominance in an open tournament. We talk about how she should be the best deck time and time again, but someone else always seems to steal her thunder. Will this time be different? We’ll have to wait and see. I don’t see why it would be.

“CHAOS IS A PROBLEM!”

Chaos is probably the most dangerous symbol for my money. I admit it’s scary to see Midnight flip over and think of all the attacks that can kill you instantly or the strings that can put you in bad positions. Every set seems to give one of it’s BEST cards to Chaos, from Ice Storm to Double Jab Pummel to Twisting Azure Inferno to League of Villains and Decoy Duplicate. You have the Ranged and Charge attack packages, broken Foundations like Release, One with Nature, and Chivalrous Competitor, and synergy throughout. So why not touch Chaos? Honestly, it might just be as simple as the symbol hasn’t won yet this format. With ALL that support, it simply isn’t overperforming the way decks that get chopped down usually do.

I can completely understand this sentiment. The list is short. 2 cards and the Ojiro changes were called by anyone with a pulse. So why not more? Well, Jasco says they don’t want to touch any more cards than they have to. Personally, I’m torn on the matter. I like the idea that people can invent and iterate on the format as it is. We have NOWHERE NEAR SOLVED THIS FORMAT! The deck lists continue to change and move toward precision. Changing the lay of the land while the landscape is still in flux seems needless. Let’s see what plays out over the next couple months. I think players just made the biggest case in Orlando for letting player innovation correct the format instead of artificial manipulation.

“We need a standard Ban Update Schedule!”

Ok, to be honest I’m the one saying this. It’s true. We really need to know when we can expect updates to the banned / errata list and they should come at a similar time each year. Of course Jasco should emergency ban as needed, but the format should have been sculpted after worlds and before we started preparing for this format. There’s a lot of players out there learning new deck this week because they picked Ojiro 2 as their main and not feel the need to abandon ship to be successful.

That being said, I am a fan of the changes and I hope we see players continue to innovate and show off cool new ideas in the coming months and beyond. Thanks for reading and until next time, I’ll see you on the tables.