Post 200

If you couldn't guess by the title, this is my 200th post. It also coincidentally happens to be exactly one year after my first post.

Well, the game has changed a lot in a year. Lightsworn decks lost a bunch of cards, Black Whirlwind finally got Limited, and X-Sabers ended up being the new Lightsworn (for a while, anyway).

The TCG also got a really nice format in the time between the March 2010 ban list and the release of The Shining Darkness. Infernities, then X-Sabers, then Frogs, controlled the rest of that format.

But, the first few weeks of the new format have been awesome. X-Sabers were weakened to the point of being like Hopeless Dragon in terms of swarming power, except that they swarm with weaker Monsters and have more of a control element to them. Other former top tier decks are still around, like Blackwings, Gladiator Beasts, and Infernities, but they're nowhere near good enough to dominate the meta.

Huge, game-changing cards have been pushed aside (for now...). Heavy Storm is Forbidden and Royal Oppression is Limited. But, new cards have taken their place. Trap Stun provides players with more Cold Waves, and Solemn Warning is much more versatile than Royal Oppression.

What's more is that Starstrike Blast has no inherently broken cards, at least in the core set. There are nice cards, like Scrap Twin Dragon and Glow-Up Bulb, but there's nothing that would change the meta drastically. Hopefully there won't be any crazy TCG-exclusives this time.

There is some apprehension over the new cards in Storm of Ragnarok, but we'll have to see what happens with those.