Yu-gi-oh World :: March 1, 2012 Banlist

Almost all tournaments follows the Advanced format, which has many forbidden and limited cards. Forbidden cards are not allowed anywhere near your deck. Limited cards are those that you can only have one of in your deck and Semi-Limited are those that you can only have two of in your deck, instead of the usual three.

Cards are banned in order to keep the game interesting. Without these lists, tournament matches will just be a game of luck: whoever draws the super powerful card first will win. In some cases, if both players get a strong starting hand, it might even be whoever goes first wins. This is no fun for players and observers. Instead, the banlist forces players to be creative and to strategize while playing, which keeps the game interesting in the long run.

There is also the Traditional format of Duel Monsters, which has no forbidden cards. Those that are forbidden are considered to be limited instead under the Traditional format. If you are playing with your friends, be sure that you all agree on which ruleset you are following in order to prevent arguments later on!

The banlist is constantly updated and changed. Some cards that are forbidden now may become limited in the future and vice versa. Yu-Gi-Oh! World will be sure to keep you updated on these changes!

• Cards that are "Forbidden" cannot be used in your Main Deck, Extra Deck, or Side Deck.
• You can only have 1 copy maximum of a "Limited" card in your Main Deck, Extra Deck, and Side Deck combined.
• You can only have 2 copies maximum of a "Semi-limited" card in your Main Deck, Extra Deck, and Side Deck combined.

The previous list will remain in effect until March 1, 2012.

Download a PDF version of the Limited & Forbidden card lists here!

Why are they banned?

Many of the cards on the ban list are repeats from previous ban lists. Here’s a summary of some of the more powerful cards:

Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning: the ability to attack again once after it destroys a monster or remove a monster on the field from play is way too powerful for the game. That ability along with the same Attack and Defence as Black Luster Soldier makes it a game-breaker.

Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End: This card, along with Yata-Garasu and Painful Choice can effectively lock-down the opponent's deck. In this combination, it is possible to send all monsters in both players' hands to the graveyard, make your opponent skip their draw turn, and just continue to attack because your opponent has no monster cards to play.

Dark Magician of Chaos: Infinite looping with free spell recursion makes this card "broken".

Goyo Guardian: Synchro Summon and Exceed Summon with a relatively high attacking power, not to mention the fact that its powers doesn’t come at a cost makes a lot of players feel like this card is over-powered and needs to be balanced.

Thousand-Eyes Restrict: This card can take control of a strong monster on the opponent's side. The ability to restrict the opponent's abilities also makes this card too strong.

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