NEW WCQ BANLIST! WHAT HAPPENED TO AGENTS? ROKKET? WAS YOUR MOST HATED DECK DESTROYED? FIND OUT!

Hello my name is Sean Matrai, I am a Duel Links/Master Duel Content Creator. I started playing Yu-Gi-Oh! in 2003 when I was going through some tough hardships in my life. I ended up suffering through depression and growing up with minor Autism. Yu-Gi-Oh! was my escape and it became a really fun and learning experience for me. When I started going to college, I quit buying the cards themselves in order to pay for my major in Meteorology(the study of weather and the atmosphere). I can tell you what days it will rain and what days it will be sunny and why the sky is blue. My main goal as a meteorologist is to expand the tornado warnings so families have more time to get to safety. What I also want to do is to go to ravaged areas struck by natural disasters and help out anyway I can for community service, this includes helping rebuild homes, get families to medical care if needed. It takes only one person to change the world and I want to be part of that.

[@crimsonreaper5293]

After doing my banlist reaction video, I have to say that this June 2024 banlist was pretty good. The short version of it is that Konami basically took the initiative to hit all the floodgates as well as the FTK enablers because they didn't want Duel Links heading in the direction of Master Duel Lite, which was where the game was headed. Unfortunately, the game's power level during the World Championship Qualifiers was so insanely high that you had decks like Agents building oppressively powerful endboards and not giving the opponent any chance to fight back, especially in your case when you wanted to topcut with Shaddoll but had to keep staring down a Sky Scourge Invicil (Imperial Order) every game. Now that Agents have been reigned in and are basically unplayable, the meta should be in a much healthier spot. This banlist was excellent and I would rate it a 9 out of 10 myself, taking off only one point because I also don't think that Infernoble Knight Captain Roland deserved to be hit to limit one just because Agents were abusing him. Agents are already obliterated to the darkest depths of the Shadow Realm and I don't think it's fair removing Reinforcement of the Army from a fair deck like Infernoble Knights.
Also, Sean I want to point out the exact way that Tuning in the Sky got nerfed because I know you kind of sped through it because you were more-so excited to see what cards they were hitting on the banlist and because you sped through the skill hits, you missed some important stuff on Tuning in the Sky's change.
Tuning in the Sky (post June 2024 banlist):
1. Your Extra Deck has been given a Highlander restriction (so you can't run double Pluto anymore)
2. You can only summon Agents, Hyperions, Synchro monsters, and Normal monsters (This was put into place to indirectly remove the Man-Thro' Tro' FTK without hitting Man-Thro' Tro' himself)
3. You can only Foolish Burial one Agent monster instead of two
4. You can only shuffle back one Hyperion monster to search The Agent of Creation Venus (This makes The Agent of Life Neptune unsearchable and it also makes Mystical Shine Ball an innate brick since the skill can't shuffle it back to the deck anymore)
5. You can only treat one monster on your field as a Tuner instead of two
6. Tuning in the Sky does NOT add The Sanctuary in the Sky to your deck anymore (You have to maindeck it, essentially forcing you to run a bad card like the Sanctuary in the Sky to therefore reduce the high consistency of the deck and force you to run more innate bricks in your deck)
7. Finally, Tuning in the Sky no longer shuffles any of your monsters from your Graveyard to your deck anymore (This in turn kills your grind game and your ability to recycle your Mystical Shine Balls once they're used up)
Also, in terms of Heat Wave, I've also been discussing the Heat Wave issue with you in the Discord and I was correct in saying both in Discord and in my streams that Heat Wave needs to be banned and I guess the Konami intern must have seen both of our streams and listened because Heat Wave is a degenerate one-of blowout card in Blue-Eyes White Dragon Battle Chronicle decks, so I'm really glad they banned it. Heat Wave is annoying and impossible to counter so the best course of action was to just ban it.
All the other hits were pretty fine in my opinion since, in a nutshell, they just hit all the floodgates and FTK enablers but as I said, I am really hoping that Infernoble Knight Captain Roland comes off limit one soon because he didn't deserve it. Infernobles shouldn't be punished due to Agents using Captain Roland, it's not fair stripping Reinforcement of the Army from them. I also want to point out that I'm not keen on Into the Void being limited to limit 3 because that also punishes Sky Strikers since they like to run Ice Dragon's Prison and Mind Control. Hitting Into the Void to limit 3 in turn slows down Sky Strikers' innate ability to dump x3 Spells in the graveyard, which makes the deck much slower than it already is, but I get it. Into the Void is currently being used for degenerate FTK's so I guess that's why Konami saw fit to limit three it.
Black Luster Soldier, Crusadia, Tenyi, Mekk-Knights, and Earth Machines getting buffs with their core cards being completely off the banlist is a good step for them too since in the current metagame, those decks aren't really doing anything. Me personally, I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of miss Mekk-Knights and I'm excited to try out post banlist, buffed Mekk-Knights again to experiment to see if they're still any good. Mekk-Knights are basically back to full power again, minus Purple Nightfall still being limited to limit three, but that really doesn't matter since Mekk-Knights don't use much limit 3 staples anyway.
Overall, great banlist reaction Sean! I had a lot of fun watching your take on it and I also agree with you that Shaddoll is going to be a top tier deck once the banlist is implemented because there's not many floodgates stopping you now. Plus, many decks have difficulty outing the Shaddoll stuff and playing through the various Flip effects, making the deck that much better after Agents are nerfed and the floodgates keeping Shaddoll down are gone. I'm hyped to learn Shaddolls from you, the best player on the deck, and see what you do and improve my own gameplay on Shaddoll if I play it. You know me, I'm the number one Altergeist player, and since Shaddolls play similarly to Altergeists, I can learn a thing or two from you. Best of luck in your next season King of Games run after the new banlist is out! Hopefully the meta is in a much healthier place now that the floodgates and Agents are gone.

[@DuelingUnlocked]

I'm liking this banlist unlimits i can play bls in live twins again :) and citadel off limit 3 lets go 8.5/10 banlist for me

[@smatrai]

Also make sure you go watch the banlist takes of
@DuelingUnlocked and
@Stevenfreshy1211

[@Luchi_HTX]

Shaddoll gaming 👌

[@faeedis]

I CAN FINALLY PLAY DARKFLUID AND USE MY SPELLS YAYY

[@A2-wh5fr]

Tachyon pretty much free, rokkets, and blue-eyes means Konami is prepping for buster blader (best deck a baby!)