Ceti Eel and Memory Wipe are Banned in OTF

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

1st July 2019

Effective immediately, the cards Ceti Eel and Memory Wipe are added to the OTF Ban List. This action removes these cards from the available card pool in this format only. Other formats, such as Open, are not affected by this action. These bans will remove the cards from consideration by players at the upcoming German National, American National, and World Championships.

The dangers of Ceti Eel have been hinted at in the past, but came to the forefront after Rules Master Jon Carter (pfti) played with an won with a deck using the card in a recent online regional. The deck led to two concessions and more discussion about its power, with Jon writing in his tournament report that "Khan is way good. There are ways around it (ship battle) and killing Khan, but it is not a pleasant experience..."

This led Errata Team Leader Matthew Zinno (commdecker) to add the card to the watch list on Saturday, June 22nd. After further discussion with his team, it was decided there was insufficient time to act on Ceti Eel that would lead to a satisfactory play environment. In the interests of giving players at the World Championship as much time as possible, the decision was made to ban the card.

The Cage introduced a new card, Obsession, which allows events that play on ships to play for free. This led to renewed concerns about Memory Wipe - a card that has previously been on the ban list for similar reasons. In particular, European players at the recent European Continental Championship were concerned about the ability of Obsession to put a Memory Wipe on each opponent's ship, locking the opponent out of space missions. While it's entirely possible the problem ultimately lies with Obsession, removing Memory Wipe removes this interaction without giving Obsession time to breathe in the meta.

Typically, errata and changes to the OTF Ban List will happen on the first Monday of each month. While the Department of First Edition reserves the right to issue emergency errata or make emergency bans, it is our goal to always announce such changes on the monthly schedule.

Discuss this article in this thread.