The Yu-gi-oh! trading card game has a wildly successful and popular competitive scene. Tournaments have pushed people to create the most powerful decks with the most powerful cards. Konami has, of course, fed the desire for new, stronger cards with each card set they’ve released, but this supply also created the need for a ruleset that balances and limits the use of cards deemed too powerful. This is why there has been a ban list for the official tournament scene for almost the entire existence of the competitive formats.
Many Monster Cards, Spell Cards, and Trap Cards have needed to be banned. The Trap Cards do not usually need to be banned as often as Spell or Monster cards, but the extremely powerful ones do typically require moderation.
10 Crush Card Virus
Crush Card Virus was initially a powerful trap card that was also incredibly rare. Having a complete set of the card could easily cost a player hundreds of dollars, but the rewards it offered made the price worth it. Combined with other powerful cards of its era, using just one was enough to win almost any game.
Crush Card Virus is no longer on the ban list, but that is only due to Konami’s rewriting of the card’s effect to balance it. Originally, the card did not prevent the opponent from taking damage after its effect resolved, and it also forced them to, for the following three turns, discard any new monsters they drew with 1500 or more attack points.
9 Solemn Judgement
Solemn Judgement is another card that is no longer banned. Much of its removal from the ban list can be attributed to how the game has become faster and how there are now new cards that make Solemn Judgement less useful. But during its peak of use, it was an essential card for almost every deck.
In a format where gameplay is slow and control of the field is critical, Solemn Judgement offers a one-in-all chance to counter any attempt an opponent can make to gain an advantage. The cost to activate it may seem high at first, but when used at the right time, the card can almost guarantee victory.
8 Trap Dustshoot
Trap Dustshoot is a card that seems simple and a bit odd at first, but it can offer a player a huge advantage in a game for no activation cost. And if it used in combination with certain cards that require you to know what is in your opponent’s hand, it can create inescapable situations for them.
The card allows a player to reduce the opponent’s card count by one, and then it also allows them to see every card the opponent could be planning to use, ruining any hopes of launching a surprise strategy. Forcing the opponent to return the card to the deck instead of discarding it is also a benefit, as summoning monsters from the graveyard is often the goal of many decks.
7 Return From The Different Dimension
Return from the Different Dimension is a card that can end a game in an instant. With the same activation cost as Solemn Judgement, this card can be used at any point in a game. A player can instantly fill their field with powerful monsters to overwhelm their opponent, either in battles or by using the monsters to summon other monsters that can control the field.
When this card was first released, it was barely used because monsters were rarely banished from play. But as the game evolved, more cards and strategies began to revolve around banishing monsters. This meant Return from the Different Dimension was no longer a last-ditch effort, and it could be used in a variety of ways to create an unfair advantage.
6 Ring of Destruction
Ring of Destruction was another card that, like Crush Card Virus, needed to be re-written to balance it. For its original effect, Ring of Destruction was must less situational and restrictive and allowed for many aggressive tactics to obtain quick victories. It could also serve as a failsafe against losing a game by forcing a tie.
The new version of the card makes the effect a more balanced and situational tool. With the player only being allowed to activate it the opponent’s turn, and by only being allowed to destroy monsters the opponent controls, Ring of Destruction now serves as a surprise tool to interrupt an opponent’s strategy while also inflicting some effect damage.
5 Imperial Order
It is limited to one copy per deck now, but Imperial Order was banned for an extended period of time. It is one card that can, for the meager cost of 700 life points per turn, render a large portion of an opponent’s deck useless. Spell cards are essential for almost every deck, so the chance to leave one card on the field to block the activation of all Spell cards is a valuable asset.
The main reason Imperial Order is no longer banned is that it is simply outdated. Compared to when this card first released, there are now many methods and options for destroying troublesome cards. It is still strong enough to make it necessary to restrict it, but many other cards would need to be banned before Imperial Order ever returned to the forbidden list.
4 Royal Oppression
Royal Oppression is a card that needed to be banned for the newest cards and strategies in Yu-gi-oh! to function the way that Konami and the competitive scene wanted them to. It is a continuous Trap Card with a small cost of activation that allows both players to cripple each other’s ability to special summon monsters.
This card was a staple in many control-oriented and anti-meta decks. But as the game advanced with cards and decks focused entirely on special summoning swarms of monsters, there was little chance that this card would be allowed to continue interfering with the new meta standards.
3 Time Seal
Time Seal, though not being a complex or actively destructive card, was far too powerful to remain in competitive play. Its effect can be devastating for an opponent, but what makes it truly oppressive is its versatility. It can be used at any time for no cost, which allows the card to easily integrate into many strong strategies.
Many decks can make good use of Time Seal: It can be used with other cards to empty an opponent’s hand, stall until a game-winning effect (such as Exodia’s) is completed, restrict access to the resources needed to overcome a full field of monsters, and much more. It was a card that could be thrown into almost any deck to generate easy victories.
2 Vanity’s Emptiness
The anti-meta strategies that many players use focus on limiting the opponent’s options. This is usually done by restricting their ability to summon monsters, which is often the goal of almost all competitive decks. Vanity’s Emptiness performed like a more powerful version of Royal Oppression that had a focus on outright prohibiting all special summons automatically.
The downside to this card is that it is instantly destroyed whenever another card is sent from the deck or your field to the graveyard. This means that decks that want to aggressively control the opponent cannot make much use of it. Its best use was with decks that wanted to slow the gameplay to a crawl.
1 Exchange Of The Spirit
Exchange of the Spirit was another card that needed to be re-written for it to ever see the competitive play again. Originally, Exchange of the Spirit did not require that the opponent have any particular number of cards in their graveyard. This meant that decks could be built around the strategy of playing Exchange of the Spirit quickly to leave the opponent with an almost empty deck.
The new version of the effect requires that both players have at least 15 cards in their graveyards. This makes Exchange of the Spirit much more balanced and severely limits the advantage that any deck could claim from using the card.
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