Restriction List Predictions [06/04/2025]

Given the upcoming restriction list update closer to the end of the month, I’ve been thinking about what may be added onto the already cumbersome list. Keep in mind that this list is made in mind based upon the rumours I’ve seen online and my own personal experiences.

First up on the list is that of Love Live! Hasunosora, otherwise, shortened to HasuLive!. Traditionally, one demerit of standby was that the cards it spawned would not have any on-play from hand abilities, the timing of abilities for most cards in the game. But, this was broken by HasuLive! as the 3/2 Megumi above gave the player an active heal ability whenever she was spawned by any standby effect or from her own level zero spawner. Megumi was very consistent at getting herself on field and rewarded you for doing so. Keep in mind, she would grant you the heal with any standby trigger. On top of this, she also carried a finishing ability to close out the game, making her a consistent threat on the board at all times. The other card to mention is that of 2/2 Megumi, one of the primary standby targets for the most played deck. On its own, Megumi isn’t anything special to talk about as a large beater with hand encore, the typical 2/2 large standby target. However, her last ability is the most problematic. At the cost of literally giving yourself stock advantage by sacking her to your stock, you could freely bounce one of your opponent’s cards, making her equally frustrating to play against.

I do expect some kind of restriction to these two cards. Outside of a full banning, 3/2 Megumi may be limited to a single copy while the 2/2 Megumi will be part of some choice list.

Re:Zero, surprisingly, is also a potential target considering the power of the new Rem finisher. On its own, 3/2 Rem is quite powerful in her own right. She deals a large amount of damage, but she also carries a heavy cost. Also, to cater to her finisher, you are recommended to play a relatively high number of level zeros, reducing your overall power on the board in general. 3/2 Rem’s damage potential is very strong; thus, limiting her will reduce the overall power of the endgame of this deck.

Returning from Bunny Girl, the stock charger profile that combines with a level zero vanilla is back in the form of 1/0 Emilia and her counterpart. Now, as I mentioned before, Rem’s finisher is quite expensive, and in order to pay for these costs consistently, there needs to be a way to continually generate stock in the deck. Emilia fulfills this exact role, even if it’s a bit of an awkward combination (Rem wants level zeros to remain in the deck). Emilia makes Rem overly consistent by essentially heavily reducing her stock costs.

One last card to mention, 3/2 Stock Shuffler Rem, is a problematic design. This card is modular in its ability to either freefresh yourself or to stock shuffle your opponent. In addition to this, you can discard a card to forcibly mill your opponent as well. Rem is a strange case which can single-handedly swing games in your favour. Of course, this to be taken with a grain of salt. Stock shuffle is random, even more random than that of stock flush. The mill can essentially put your opponent in a dire spot considering the mill is eight cards, potentially dooming many of your opponent’s cancel opportunities. Keep in mind that you can select either of these abilities and stack them in any order to best benefit your situation. Rem, by design, is an unfun card to play against. Would these two card effects be on separate cards, Rem may be slightly more fair, but the general play pattern here is overall just degenerate.

What do I suppose will happen? I do think 3/2 Rem may be best limited to two copies like many powerful finishers of its kind. This will reduce its overall consistency as a whole. 1/0 Emilia and her vanilla counterpart may be on a choice list with Rem. Lastly, the Stock Shuffle profile may be banned entirely or limited to a single copy.

NIKKE presents a different issue from the two aforementioned series. The endgame for the most played deck isn’t exactly the key issue. In fact, compared to the previous two series, NIKKE’s finishing power is much weaker. What NIKKE does have is some rather powerful mid-game engines and powerful designs. Beginning with 1/0 Modernia and 0/0 Rapi, these two cards work very well together in the standby/door shell by looking to secure you additional stock while retaining you hand and giving you space to play any triggered standby target. 0/0 Rapi’s ability to give a card the ability to manipulate their trigger gives you a plethora of plays to consider, adding versatility to the deck. 3/2 Alice is an incredible annoyance to many decks in the format. Aside from being a large early play healer, she has the added text of kicking her reversed opponents to the top of your opponent’s deck, securing damage for any additional swings and negating any sent to waiting room triggers.

In order to defend Alice and make sure that she has the power to reverse her opponents both during your turn and your opponent’s, Sin above grants her that much needed global power. Sin is interesting because Sin is essentially a dead card to the deck since she cannot be played from hand, but by cheating her out through standby or 3/2 Modernia, that condition can be ignored. She also acts as a secondary finisher to the deck with her tapping ability, dealing damage and potentially knocking out one of your opponent’s swings. Given the deck’s lack of any heavy stock costs, Sin is a payoff for 1/0 Modernia. 3/2 Modernia Counter is another defensive tool for the deck, giving you essentially a free rest counter on board if you supposedly have 3/2 Modernia on stage.

On a minor note, Noir presents a lesser played deck, but an interaction that creates additional problems for the set. 2/1 Noir gives any climax the shot ability if you have a bar climax in play. Now, this is a problem for a number of reasons. Firstly, Noir combos essentially with any bar climax. She gives any climax an additional shot trigger. This isn’t limited to one copy on the field either, so with multiple copies, each climax trigger will have multiple shot triggers attached. By not being limited to bar climaxes, there have been many decks spawned that run some combination of bars and shots, looking to abuse this card and creating unfun game patterns. Even though this is not part of the most commonly played deck, I wanted to highlight concern for this card as the bar deck will likely take the place of the door/standby list should it be hit.

As for my expectations, I expect Sin, Modernia Counter, and Alice to be on a choice list. Modernia and Rapi may be on choice list of their own as well. If there is consideration to be made on the bar deck, 2/1 Noir may be limited to a single copy or have additional restrictions made in deck building to prevent stacking of several shot triggers.

I’ll be very real here, I don’t know too much about the new Bang Dream! set, but I see some common talk about this card. Temoris here provides you both stock and hand as a Chiyuri profile. Supposing you mill a copy of herself through her own effect, you’ll get both a hand and a stock for the price of a single card. Likely, Temoris creates too much value for the series, acting as an enabler, milling your deck, fixing your hand, and also giving you potential stock as a bonus.

There may be a limitation of the number of copies you may have or they will put her on some choice list with other cards of the same set.

Sakura from Yuru Camp was a very cool design; she gave an alarm ability that gave all your characters the ability to rearrange your top two triggers on swing. Now, Sakura was essentially made to work with her sister, Nadeshiko, who very much cares about checking her triggers. You can learn about the deck right here.

The key problem with Sakura’s design is a common complaint I’ve been having for years. Sakura is too generic and checks for generic triggers, making her an auto-fill into every deck that has slots for her. The ability to check your triggers on swing without having to commit any cards on field or perform any costed ability is wonderful. Sakura is essentially costless free advantage. While her native home by design is likely with her sister, there are many other cards that just make use of the free trigger check such as that of 1/0 Chiaki. Sakura is also quite consistent to get off since you have cards like 1/0 Mei to ensure it is at the top of your clock.

I can foresee Sakura being likely limited to one or two copies. Realistically, I would like her to be fully playable in the Nadeshiko deck, but given how restrictions rarely limit cards into specific play patterns (the one exception being four 3/2 Marikas in a Marika waifu deck), Sakura may be treated more so like that of the Hina Logic Sensei.

These are just the restrictions that I foresee for the upcoming ban list based on recent series. There are also likely changes where some cards may be removed from the ban list or shifted around; however, I am not accounting for them here. Perhaps, I will also attach a list about certain cards or designs I wish they would also consider on the restriction list later down the road.

Following the upcoming ban list changes on June 18th, we’ll just have to see the state of the game then. With sets like Overlord and Gakum@s recently coming out, there are many contenders that are looking to find their place in the metagame, not to mention the upcoming set announcements on that same day.