(Soon winning won't be as easy as drawing a Brain Control. Soon our ban list will reflect what it always has when it came to costless monster grabbing. Soon a great friend to luck sacking will fall. Soon I hope.)With the new ban list looming closer and closer, it makes sense to start analyzing certain cards and asking whether such cards should be banned.
Rather than start with the cards that are obvious, I thought it would be best to look at a card that isn't on most people's radars.
Here we'll make the case for Brain control and decide if it should or should not be banned.
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Card TextBefore getting too deep in the article, it wouldn't hurt to blow up the card text:
Pay 800 Life Points. Select 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. Take control of it until the End Phase.~~~~~~~~~~~~
Popular Tactics- 1) Synch with your opponents monster.
- 2) Tribute it for a higher starred monster.
- 3) Move opponents monster out of the way - To attack for game
- 4) Use opponents monster to help you attack for game.
As you can see from the above, your opponent always looses a card and you never play brain control without gaining some advantage out of it.
So it's a minus for your opponent and a 1 for 1 for you, that sets up big plays or gives you game.
The 800 life point cost is laughable by itself; just calling it a cost.
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Banned Colleagues
A good question to ask when thinking of banning a card is always wondering if other cards
like it are currently banned.
Brain Control has two well known friends as such:
- 1) Change of Heart
- 2) Snatch Steal
So what separates Brain control from it's two friends? Well change of heart can target face downs and has no life point cost.
Yet and surprisingly, Snatch steal is also banned but it can't target face downs and it's cost is far worse than Brain Controls.
So why is Snatch steal banned? It being an equip might make it a bit easier to fetch but can that really be the only reason it's banned? Probably not.
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Luck SackingAs mentioned above in the tactics section, Brain control allows huge shifts in games.
When you're in the middle of one or nearing the end, a single brain control is really all you need to get game or just barely miss it.
This starts a phenomenon known as Luck sacking, which I'll define as: "luckily drawing a powerful card that puts you in an advantageous situation that on most other occasions would not normally occur."
The key between luck sacking and sacking any other card is
how advantageous the card you draw really is.
So why is Brain controlled widely considered a luck sack card? Nearing the end of games or towards the middle people have fewer and fewer life points. A simple brain control takes advantage of that by stealing opponents monsters and swinging for large amounts that normally the opponent is hard pressed to defend against.
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Situation AIt's nearing the end of a game and you have 2 cards in hand with 2 on the field, luckily because you conserved your resources.
You have 2000 life points left with a bottomless trap hole set and a 2400 monarch.
You've bested him most of the game and he's down to about 1500 life points.
Your opponent draws his 3rd card, with nothing else on the field.
He summons his monster, to which you bottomless.
Thinking you have won, with only 2 cards left and a summon used, you sigh a breath of relief.
Then he brain controls your monarch and attacks for game; brain control is what he drew.
How is that fair? How many different instances of the above have happened to you?
How many times did you completely control the game but lost because of 1 Brain control?
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Situation BYou're playing lightsworn and have a Judgment Dragon on the field, 2 cards in hand, 2 set traps and your opponent is at a mere 1200 life points.
You on the other hand have a strong 3000 and with only 3 cards in his hand, drawing a fourth, and nothing on the field, you think you are close to victory.
Not only that, you also have a solemn set with a bottomless. What else can a player ask for near the end of the game?
Your opponent draws his 4th card and then plays smashing ground.
You think of everything your opponent might play next and know with a bottomless set you are fairly comfortable of weathering the storm.
Therefore you decide to protect your Judgment dragon and Solemn his smashing ground.
Immediately he then plays Brain Control, and right then and there you know he has game.
In almost any other situation you would have had him with your bottomless and Solemn. Yet the power of Brain Control was too much to handle. How is that fair? Did he work hard for the win? Did he deserve it? Obviously not.
After long minutes of play, you find that he wins merely as a result of luck and find the whole game a waste. This happens regardless of the fact that you played well and that he misplayed a lot.
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Situation CYou have 1 card in hand, a set bottomless, and 2 monsters on the field. You have 1500 life points he has 1000.
You feel with your Colossal Fighter on the field and with your Zombie Master, that you're pretty safe; not to mention your bottomless.
Your opponent has 1 set monster and 1 card in hand. He draws his next card.
He brain controls your colossal, sacks it for a 2400 attacking Caius, to which you bottomless.
Yet Caius still gets it's mandatory trigger effect and it gets to remove your zombie master.
He flip summons his monster and attacks for game.
Even in the very best situation where he didn't attack for game because his monster was too weak, just look at how much of your field he destroyed and with such little effort.
You lost 3 cards and he lost 2, plussing him 1 and giving him control of the field; EVEN though you had a Colossal that in most other situations would have been able to come back and even though you had a set bottomless. Now you're left with 1 card in hand and 1 draw, IF you survived the initial flip summon's attack.
Again, how is that fair? How can so much work be done with such little effort? Why are such large swings allowed in Yugioh with such little investment?
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Final ThoughtsThe situations I presented above were only some of the most popular.
Other non-lethal situations that lead to Synchro summoning or powerful tribute monsters are just as deadly.
They pave the paths for easy wins by people who do not in their right mind deserve it.
Besides the fact that Brain can change the game so quickly and besides the fact that it can be luck sacked, you have to remember that Snatch steal isn't very different from it and yet it remains banned.
It's friends remain banned for good reason and you'd be hard pressed to find
anyone who would think those cards would be unbanned this September.
So if most people think change of heart and snatch steal are too powerful for play, then why does Brain control get the exception?
If taking a monster for virtually no cost is balanced and fair in our meta, then why do so many games end by this very act?
The yugioh community has unfairly lost enough games to the staple that calls itself Brain Control.
It has been played for far too long now and ruined too many games to honestly stay and compete past the September 2009 ban list.
If luck sacking should come to an end, how can Brain Control survive?
(Absolute Powerforce unleashes this nearly impossible to summon beast. If you can get it out though, you'll only have one turn to use it's power. Don't worry, that's all you'll need)
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