I've been waiting for someone to make a post where I can actually have a say in.
Disclaimer: Most my posts are very long if you don't wish to actually engage in a discussion about this topic, don't bother to read this.
1: Lightsworns were "good" back in the tele-DAD era. When e-tele, malicious, d-draw, and DAD were all hit in the same banlist, Lightsworns were supposed to be the "big" deck. They had triple CotLB, triple lumina, triple necro gardna, etc. They were "top tier".
List below at the time.
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/March_2009_Lists2: Just because a deck is not top tier doesn't mean it isn't good.
Paul Cooper plays Hieratics all day every day. It's a good deck. Very all-in-ish. Good. Not top tier. He still tops.
Jeff Jones created Psoil. Good deck. Top 2'd early in the format before prophecy/dragon ruler/mermails. Wasn't top tier.
Billy Brake, 17-1 while testing out Constellars, great deck. you could argue it's top tier but. meh.
Then again top tier doesn't mean it's that good. i.e. Lightsworns March 2009, Mermail @NAWCQ, Madolche's in OCG.
3:
I was a competitive duelist IRL at the time and started to play cat synchro after e-tele hit one. I still have four copies of emergency teleport in my binder right now but psoil is just not that great right now. ANYWAYS. tangent. back to the main point.
Lightsworns never were able to pull it off.
One, consistency. SURE they had CotLB @3, but what? solar recharge was great yea, but so what? lumina was @3, but where is the domination? where is the consistency? out the window. Why? Wulf is a bad card. Necro gardna was a dead card in hand. JD too early was a waste. Chance to mill power cards. Only one decent tuner for the deck, psz. They never had an ability to access all the card in the deck, even with milling.
Two, boss monster. JD. That's it. their grind game? garoth 1850. jain only when attacking. rely on honest to protect until JD. JD gone? hard to win the game. Celestia? uhuh. tribute summoning without a frog engine really isn't that viable. Wulf, in hand is dead, you have to mill it. You see those monster reincarnations you're running with that beckoning light? That's how they tried to fix it back then too. Because they were so reliant.
Three, speed. They were slow. usually just one normal summon/set. relying on ryko first turn set unless they were able to mill a wulf. and even then, not many options. get hit by a cold wave? nop, no more draw/search, that wulf will be in your hand, whatever. other decks outplayed them like crazy.
Sure they were able to top a few times but they could never finish it out because they were so inconsistent, slow, and boss monster reliant. Sort of like the old prophecy without judgment and still running high priestess.
And why they aren't going to be viable in the near future?
1, even more inconsistent. CotLB@1, rota@1, honest@1, plague@1. running triple necro gardna or more than one wulf? get those in hand? you're probably going to lose. If you open broke as hell? good for you. Your opponent can open broke too. And in more games. There's no way of using all your cards to full potential.
2, reliable boss monsters. Okay okay I understand now you have xyz's. But what swarm potential do you have? Lumina? Solar recharge and hope you mill wulf's? That's it. Lightrays? Only work after a certain point in the game. Useless until that point (and underwhelming). You XYZ's consist of, maybe a rank 3 cuz of lumina, mainly rank 4, and that's about it. JD is the closest thing to an "amazing card" in a lightsworn deck. Have more than one in hand early? What do? Mill them? What now? Have one and you think it's perfect? Effect veiler is a card. Breakthrough skill is a card. warning/judgment, soo many ways of stopping it. And then you're left with nothing.
3, speed. inb4 mermails/constellars/psoil/madolche barely/don't get touched by the ban list. You have to run so many monsters in your deck and a must have spell line up you barely have any room to side/run backrow. Mermails will pop and otk, constellars will drop a huge f-bomb with pleiades set 4 or other shenanigans. psoil will do a better job at milling and controlling the grave and swarm the field with synchros. madolche will do what madolches do and litter the field with better rank 4's and 3's than you. and all these decks are more consistent. Karakuri's will still be in the picture and will overwhelm you with their insane field presence. One ophion and you're probably dead without a honest. you get the picture. You mention stalling. That is, if you mill necro. and you only have necro. maybe an honest.
4, necro is not a good enough card. you have to mill it. it cant be in your hand. there are better cards that net you a better advantage. battle fader in anti-meta monarchs/swift scarecrow to counter otk.
5, first turn plays. Need card trooper/cotlb/solar recharge with good mills in order to do something significant. otherwise, set ryko and it's over. proceed to get overwhelmed turn 2.
6, advantage. you got barely any plus's. lyla is +1, lumina can be a +1, solar recharge can be a +1/+2 but very rarely, ryko can be a 0/+1/+2 but very rarely because if you set your opponent knows it's a ryko, JD is obviously a + if you get it out. garoth can +, celestia is a hard to do +1.
7, Side deck. You HAVE to run your set of monsters. 3 lumina, a other lightsworns. You have to run your "engine" of recharge/cotlb to try and make your deck consistent. either run backrow or backrow removal or you get stomped. most likely you need JD. where are you going to side? and what? siding in hand traps is just going to reduce the times you get key cards in hand. siding in backrow means you cant play grind game with a few monsters and less "good mills". Opponents can just side hard on you. All they need is light-imprisoning mirror. macro cosmos/dimensional fissure will KILL you.
Lightsworns have always been this deck that, oh hell yea, if i can get this and this, this game is all set, but in reality, it's slow and inconsistent. relying on mills instead of relying on toolboxing your deck is just plain stupid. ask tenystheia who used to play lightsworns irl.
Unless lightsworns get a dedicated xyz/jowgen level bullshit/search engine like judgment/some major cards that generate advantage, they'll always be mediocre at best. Open decent, have a chance to win. Open terrible, scoop it up in a minute.
My suggestion to you if you do really want to play lightsworns is to play a lightsworn engine with solar recharge and cotlb with a deck that can manipulate the graveyard. nothing says "i need cards in my hand and the right cards in my hand" than lightsworns (well 6sams but w.e)
Despite all the things I said about lightsworns so far, I do agree that their playstyle is unique and awesome, just not something that is very geared toward "consistency". In this day and age, if you're not opening broke at least 75-100% of the time, you're behind the rest.
IMO the banlist will obviously hit spellbook in some way, dragon rulers in some way.
Tier list after the banlist? (leaving out the two^ depends on how hard they get hit)
T1: Constellar/Mermails or some new deck in the new packs.
T2: Psoil/Madolche/Evilswarms
IF I offended anyone anywhere in this post, feel free to leave a response below to tell me. I know I've had issues in the past with people in this academy who take offense of the way I explain myself and I would gladly take my time to issue a sincere apology.
I'll leave it to all of you who read my post whether or not to agree with what I've said (tier list aside because of all the controversy that brings to the table all the time) and formulate an opinion for yourselves. If you need any thing else just ask me!
And of course, respect the OP's and my opinion at all times
thanks! (and also disregard any typos made in this post. I'm lying down in a hotel in Venice late at night hehehe xD)