by in
Hello readers. This time, we gonna have an overview on the newly announced February 2026 Banlist, it’s impact, and what to expect.
February 2026 was a massive banlist that killed some genuinely toxic cards and hit some decks in a good way, many problematic and unfun cards got adressed, some decks got notable consistency hits, while some decks gained back some cards to make up to those hits.
With that being Said, the List Update
Forbidden:
Herald of The Arc Light
Maliss <Q> White Binder
Barrier Statue of the Torrents
Harpie’s Feather Storm
Now, we gonna discuss the banned cards:
Herald of the Arc LIGHT – The Problem card that only gets worse later
To be fair, Herald of the Arc Light is the most anticipated and desired ban of the list, and it’s no surprise to anyone this card got banned this list.
As a Synchro Monster, Herald does way too much on a single card, being a Mini Macro Cosmos when it sticks on board, an Omni-Negate by tributing self, and a ritual searcher if it hits the grave.
and then Herald of the Arc Light got it’s fate sealed by Yummy Mitsurugi, when Yummy used this as an extremely powerful endboard card, and bridging to Mitsurugi combo for literally free by searching Ame No Habakiri No Mitsurugi, then recycle it with Shamisen Samsara Sorrowcat to summon it again, then using the Mitsurugi cards to make it’s board insanely layered.
To make it nastier, we got Fidraulis Harmonia coming next in Blazing Dominion, who is a handtrap tuner monster that can special summon itself by revealing 5 synchros in your extra deck, dump one of the revealed synchros, and pop a monster on opponent board, and this is a target for it that enables Turn 0 engine searches on top of a handtrap and a free body
This ban was genuinely deserved, and it’s no wonder that everyone asked for it.
Harpie’s Feather Storm – The evil floodgate tied to a horrible deck in-name
One of the most toxic floodgates ever printed, Harpie’s Feather Storm is a lingering floodgate that negates all opponent activated monster effects for the turn, and it only needs a WIND Winged beast on your board for activation.
As a Floodgate, being a catch-all turn skip is already unhealthy, but when you take the fact that it can be accessed as long as you summon a rank 1 or rank 4 (Castel and Kikinagashi Fucho come to mind), this makes it more accessible than you think
And also, Ryzeal Onomat can actively search it with Primathmech Alembertian, though banning this does not mean you cannot access toxic turn skips, since Anti-Spell Fragrance and Different Dimension Ground still exist
Also, this card is the reason why Harpie Lady does not get much support despite being an Iconic anime deck, all because of this one floodgate that turn skips for no effort (And worst of all, if you control a Harpie monster, this becomes a turnskip usable straight from hand)
To be fair, this card was a good riddance, since it opens more design freedom with WIND Winged beasts on top of being an extremely toxic turnskip.
Maliss <Q> White Binder – The Ban that ended an infinite grind loop
This card was genuinely a do-everything card that was built in 1 deck. Banishing 3 from either graveyard lets you hijack your opponent graveyard, or even better, Banishing your own Maliss cards
Since you banish up to 3, and that Maliss cards recur themselves on Banishment, you get basically either a Soul Charge, a powerful graveyard disruption, or some of both.
Also, since this card can set a Maliss trap from your deck or GY, it can get even more resource loops, as you can pick Maliss <C> GWC-06 to revive back this card on opponent turn (or extend your combos on your own turn), or Maliss <C> MTP-07 to search a Maliss monster And a Quick banish on opponent turn (Speaking of that, you can search Maliss <P> March Hare on the opponent turn to banish White Binder if you don’t have Hare in rotation)
The real kicker though is the 3rd effect, she can special summon herself when she gets banished by paying 900 Life points, then draws you 1. When paired with the other 2 effects, this card generates extremely powerful grind loops and card advantage.
Banning this card genuinely destroyed Maliss hard, as Maliss without this is just an average combo deck with no real defining traits, though i’m glad Maliss died, because i hated playing against that deck.
Barrier Statue of the Torrent – More stun hits are appreciated!
Just like the rest of the Barrier Statue crew, this one locks every special summon besides it’s attribute, this time it’s WATER. And it’s the 4th Barrier Statue on the death list
This card was Searchable (and protectable) by a Mitsu combo, as you can make Divine Golden Shadow Dragon Dragluxion, searching Seventh Tachyon and Making Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy with it, then use Seventh Tachyon to search this guy, and Normal it at the end of combo, while Harbinger offers attack and spell protection
It’s not just Mitsu that can do this heinous combo, Mermail can very well summon this in-combo and handloop your opponent with Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord just because they can.
Also, this is a hit that does hinder stun.dek, which is cool for everyone who hates it.
Good that we do not have to deal with this anymore.
as the Banned section is done, let’s discuss the Limited Section:
Limited Section – What got limited and what does it mean?
Limited
K9-66a Jokul
Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue
Dracotail Mululu
Ame No Habakiri No Mitsurugi
Yummy * Snatchy
“A Case for K9”
Ketu Dracotail
The limited section is actually really good, as many decks (outside Yummy) got hits that lessen consistency without killing the decks themselves, While Yummy’s hit really hurts their grind and makes you more suspectible to grave control effects, and also hurts a lot of combos due to many summoning at least 2 Snatchy in 1 combo.
Now, let’s discuss the limits:
The Dracotail Hits: Ketu does matter but you are not hindered at all
Dracotail got 2 hits: Ketu and Mululu to 1
Ketu Dracotail is the real big hit, and while it does kind of hurt going 2nd as Ketu is an insane engine card going 2nd, and does hurt some consistency and grind, you’re far from crippled, because you can access the 1-of easily thanks to your set from deck effects, and your traps can recycle Ketu(and even if not, Ketu and your traps can be recycled by the new fusion, Dracotail Shaulas, who functions as extra grind, recursion, and more backrow recycling.
And while Dracotail Mululu getting limited is a bit annoying since Mululu is a very safe Normal Summon into handtraps that guarantees value and has a powerful board-breaking effect when used as Material, it’s not a crippling hit either since you can still access it off Branded Fusion dumping it from deck or even with your fusion spells.
Speaking of that, you can use consistency replacements like Aluber+Opening to make up for the losses, or even increase the density of Dracotail Pan/Urgula to make up, or best of all: The new Branded support and Magistus cards coming in Burst Protocol
Dracotail is far from even hindered with these hits, even though they’re a hit in the right direction.
K9 Hits: Trade-offs that give the Hit decks their identity back
We got 2 K9 hits and 1 Vanquish Soul hit this list (But also, 2 Vanquish Soul and 1 Crystron unhit too)
Limiting K9-66a Jokul does genuinely hurt some K9 combo lines badly, though some alternatives exist, like there are people who run a 2nd K9-66b Lantern for Noroi lines (though you run 1 extra brick, you still get a tradeoff for the combo, or sometimes get a backup Lantern for grind games), and with “A Case for K9” getting limited, you get less overall K9 consistency on the K9 part of K9 decks.
However, you can replace the missing Jokuls and Cases with 3 copies of Chaotic Elements, which function as replacement for the missing cards, in addition to K9-04 Noroi being still legal at 3, you have 8 K9 starters on the supplementary engine.
Vanquish Soul also got Vanquish Soul Hollie Sue limited, which might sound harsh, but is a good thing since you will see less degenerate turn 0 engine enabling that spawn Pops while enabling full engine on turn 0.
In exchange the good K9 decks got some of their non-K9 identity back, which we will get to later, and you still can bridge to K9 with any 2 level 5s.
Habakiri limited – Mitsu consistency hit that lessens the amount of starters without removing the engine capabilities:
Limiting Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi does not completely destroy the Mitsurugi engine, but it reduces it’s overall consistency, especially when paired with the banning of Herald of the Arc Light and King of the Feral Imps, as you have 3 Mitsurugi Prayers, 3 Pre-Preparation of Rites, in addition to the 1 of Habakiri, which does give pure Mitsurugi more consistency issues as you want to run some more searchers and have only 10 starters assuming you run 3 Mitsurugi no Mikoto, Aramasa.
While limiting Habakiri does not completely remove Mitsu’s splashability or power ceiling (in fact, Mitsurugi’s power ceiling is still insanely good), it makes it less consistent in the terms of starter-to-brick ratios since you have 7 starters to 4 bricks), thus making it a less desirable engine.
Yummy * Snatchy – hits yummy (in a good way)
Yummy*Snatchy is the most vital card to Yummy’s strategy, and limiting it does a lot to the deck, since most lines use up 2 Snatchy from the extra deck in 1 combo, and when you pair that with the banning of Herald of the Arc Light, you got a deck that got really hit hard by the list.
However, there’s still some ideas to be had with Yummy, as you can play a Solfachord engine to bridge to the Yummy cards, and gain more endboard cards such as GranSolfachord Coolia with Solfachord Solfegia in your pendulum scale, or you can try lines to make Zaren the Shackled Dragon when Burst Protocol comes out.
However, since a lot of lines get infinitely worse with 1 Snatchy, as you want another one in rotation on your field and one in your graveyard on top of losing Arc Light, Yummy got quite a good nerf, but not completely dead.
now, we finished covering the limited section, let’s talk about the one Semi-Limit!!
Semi-Limits – What Droll at 2 really means?
Semi-Limited
Droll and Lock Bird
As a 2 of, Droll remains a really powerful card as a handtrap, but you have less odds of seeing it in your hand.
At 2, in a 40 card deck, you have a 23.72% chance to see Droll in your opening hand, compared to the old 33.76% chance that you had when Droll was at 3.
Droll does do good and bad for the game at once, while it does keep hyper-combo decks in check, there’s combo decks that do not even lose to it such as Maliss when it was a thing or decks that just laugh at it in general such as Dracotail, which gives people more incentive to play the decks that do not lose to Droll over the ones that do
While there’s still the risk of losing to Droll if you are on, let’s say, Mitsurugi, The fact that there’s less chance to see it does give you more breathing room.
However Droll is a neccessary evil by itself, because it keeps the broken combo decks in check despite checking them too hard.
The Unhits – Some real gains to K9 focused decks that restore identity
Unlimited:
Vanquish Soul Razen
Stake Your Soul
Crystron Inclusion
Dark Grepher
Black Dragon Collapserpent/White Dragon Wyverburster
Snatch Steal
Change of Heart
Zoodiac Drident
To be fair, most of the cards that got unbanned do not really matter anymore, except for The Vanquish Soul and Crystron unhits. Dark Grepher is just whatever since Armageddon Knight is at 3, Baby Chaos Dragons are just whatever since Dragon Link is way past it’s prime and even though Dragon Link is getting new support they are not gonna play 3 Babies at all, Drident is nothing because Zoodiac is nothing right now, and Snatch Steal/Change of Heart are just…not that good anymore
However, what matters is: Vanquish Soul Razen being free gives Vanquish Soul the FIREs they lost off the banlist, making your FIRE Count 9 again without having to run stuff like Rescue-ACE Impulse or Kurikara Divincarnate, gives you back your best normal summon, and it gets even better that you have 3 Stake Your Soul back, which is a starter that lets you grab a Vanquish Soul monster straight from deck to field by just having a matching attribute from hand.
The good thing is that you do not really need to piggyback off K9 as much as you used to when Stake and Razen were at 1, as you can just play a supplementary K9 package and perserve the feeling of playing Vanquish Soul rather than full on K9 combo slop with Vanquish Soul as a supplement to K9.
Crystron Inclusion to 3 is also a really good win for Crystron, as you still get the Crystron consistency part intact while the K9 part supplements rather than focusing heavily on K9 to bridge, and you still can do some lines that involve stuff like Crystron Thystvern to bridge the Crystron part with K9.
Overall thoughts on the list
To be fair, this banlist is a really good one. Maliss dying was good, Yummy got real meaningful hits, Dracotail got reasonable hits yet is still very strong especially with the upcoming cards, and the K9 hits were the best handled ones as K9 focused decks like Crystron and Vanquish Soul get to focus more on their Primary supplements to K9 rather than K9 and have K9 as a supplementary engine rather than the full focus.
And that should cover the banlist upcoming, have a good read.
