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Forbidden Discussions
Kelly Locke
7/18/2012 10:00:00 AM  I want to start off with a short preface here: Each year, shortly following the World Championship Qualifiers around the world, players begin to focus their attention on the September updates to the Forbidden and Limited List. With no major public tournament on the horizon for quite some time, many players find themselves bored with the current format and ready to begin another. It's a feeling I'm certainly familiar with, but it does tend to cause an oversaturation of Forbidden List discussion. You'll be seeing quite a few blogs and articles on this subject over the next two months, and even more in September after the list has been revealed. I hate to be a part of that and contribute to the problem, and yet here I am. That said, I'm staying away from prediction or ‘want' lists for that reason. I have a personal prediction list that I'm keeping to myself (because hey, it's fun) but I don't look too much into it and it's better to avoid acting like I have some deeper knowledge of Konami R&D. Anyways, we should get on subject.Let's Talk: The Forbidden List I want to focus this article specifically on the monster cards that are currently Forbidden from the Advanced Format. The Forbidden portion of the list is very interesting to look at, and tends to get overlooked beyond a few borderline cards. What makes this section of the list so interesting is that it can completely remove a certain card from the game. Any strategies that revolved around that card become totally unplayable, rather than simply less consistent if that same card were Limited. It's a Last Resort to be sure, but one that Konami has shown it has no problems using when the time is right. Generally, Forbidden cards fall into two categories: those that are poorly designed and those that are detrimental to the playability of the game. A poorly designed card is one that either makes others obsolete or is too overpowered. In either case, these cards prevent others from being played and threaten deck diversity. You can clearly see this trait in many of the currently Forbidden cards. Why run Mystical Space Typhoon when you can run Harpie's Feather Duster? Why use Dark Hole when you can use Raigeki? Without a Forbidden list we would find ourselves drowning in staples. Cookie Cutter Chaos would be back in style, and that's assuming we wouldn't all jump on the Exodia FTK bandwagon. At any rate, minimalizing the power creep is one of the big goals of the list, which it accomplishes with Limits and Forbiddings. This keeps both decks and individual card choices varied. Cards that are detrimental to the playability of the game come in many forms and are decided based on some sort of idea that Konami has for this game. Burn effects, OTKs, FTKs, and alternative win conditions usually fall into this category. Last Turn, Makyura the Destructor, and Yata-Garasu are bad for the game not because they're overpowered or staples. Instead, they create scenarios where players can win Duels without really interacting with the opponent. These decks are not fun to play against as there's usually very little the opponent can do to defend themselves. I have no issues with either group of cards being on the list. In fact, there are a few currently legal cards that fit into either category that I would like to see gone in September. However, I'm not going to bring that up and start pointing fingers. Instead, I'll focus on cards that don't fit into either group, yet find themselves Forbidden anyways. Let's start with a few monster cards that could be legalized, and discuss the impact (or lack thereof) they would have on the average TCG metagame. Magician of Faith What separates Magician of Faith from most other cards currently Forbidden is that it is extremely dependent on the Limited list to work well. As of right now, setting a monster is a passive play that most Duelists try to avoid. If you're making a set, it better be for a good reason. Getting Monster Reborn, Dark Hole, or Heavy Storm back to your hand are great ways to use Magician, but in this format you're still unlikely to get that effect off. Inzektor, Dark World, and Dino Rabbit will punish such a passive play and often destroy your set monster before its flip effect activates. Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter is about the only flip effect that players are willing to run in this format, and even then it's just as often used as food for Solar Recharge or Chaos Monsters. I have a lot of faith that we'll be seeing this card on the Limited list in the future, but it'll more likely be in a format where some of the more powerful staple spells are Forbidden.
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Tsukuyomi Quite the mouthful if you're not used to saying its name, Tuskuyomi is another card that's worth only what it can target. When this card was at its peak, there were very, very good reasons to want to flip-flop your own monsters. Goat Control is probably the best example of Tuskuyomi's potential, and it was certainly abused then. As of right now, does it deserve its Forbidden status? There's only a short list of flip effects that are worth using twice in a turn, and as I mentioned before, setting cards is a terrible play in the current format. So what about using Tsukuyomi aggressively? Well, it's not very usable there, either. Tsukuyomi lacks the versatility of Book of Moon even if it isn't a minus (which Book is in a vacuum). Even worse, Summoning it means losing your Normal Summon—a steep price to pay. Again, it's all about targets. As a general utility monster it serves a role similar to Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind or Neo Spacian Grand Mole, two cards currently limited. Would it be so bad to see Tsukuyomi alongside them? Spore A more recent hit, Spore was nailed with the banhammer after every other attempt to stop Plant Synchro failed. When limiting Lonefire Blossom, T.G. Hyper Librarian, Pot of Avarice, Debris Dragon, and Dandylion didn't prevent the deck from topping YCS events, the combined Forbidding of Trishula, Spore, and Glow-Up Bulb was necessary to finally put the nail in the coffin. Still, I can't help but feel that forbidding Spore was overkill. As it stands, Plant Synchro would still be largely unplayable even if Spore was legal. Does Spore deserve its spot on the Forbidden list? It's worth noting that Spore, Fishborg Blaster, and Glow-Up are the only three Tuner monsters in the game that are currently Forbidden. One is used to fuel many OTKs, another is perhaps the best splashable tuner in the game, and the other works only with a type that almost nobody is playing. I'll let you guess which one of those is Spore. Dark Magician of Chaos Take away Monster Reborn, and DMOC becomes no more abusable than your average Monarch. 2800 ATK is amazing right now, and Dark/Spellcaster typing gives it great synergy. However, you're still using up two monsters to put it on the field. Very, very few of the top level decks are Tribute Summoning right now. I'm still hesitant on this card as long as Frogs (or Sea Lancer in this case) can provide a stable way to get it out with no issue. Even more problematic is the new Spellcaster support in Return of the Duelist. Regardless, I doubt Dark Magician of Chaos would be any more absurd than Black Luster Soldier is now. Still, much like Magician of Faith, I would not want to see it in a format with so many staple spells running around. Goyo Guardian A generic Level 6 Synchro Monster with 2800 ATK would probably be enough to get you very interested. Add an awesome, often game-winning effect on top of that and you'd expect to see it on the Forbidden list. Rightfully so, Goyo Guardian was the first Synchro Monster to find itself on the Forbidden and Limited list. Between this, Trishula, and Dark Strike Fighter, Goyo seems the most likely to Return. Sure, Six Samurai can abuse it to a large degree, but it's lost much of its effectiveness in recent formats. Xyz Monsters that might be attacked by Goyo are stolen without materials attached. Running over Evolsaur Dolkka leaves you with a beatstick and little else. Additionally, most Xyz Monsters are able to protect themselves from being attacked. Wind-Up Zenmaines; Number 39: Utopia; Evolzar Laggia; and Steelswarm Roach simply don't care about Goyo. Anything that can be attacked over easily is usually going to be worthless after you take control of it. Goyo Guardian isn't the easiest card to see coming back to the Limited list, but it's very capable of doing so (much more so than Trishula and Dark Strike Fighter anyways).
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Thousand Eyes Restrict Goat Control has been non-existent for years. Bringing back TER, even with Tuskuyomi legal, would not suddenly revive the deck. The issue now is that Instant Fusion lets you summon Thousand Eyes, take an opposing monster off the field, and then act as tribute fodder for a Monarch. Still, that's a once-per-Duel trick if you're not using Pot of Avarice or The Transmigration Prophecy. The play itself is decent, but it won't win you the game by any means. You'll lose your battle phase, 1000 Life Points, and any other copies of Instant Fusion will become much less useful. I can't see this move alone being enough to keep TER banned, especially given the sheer power of so many other plays in this game (I'm looking mostly at Inzektors). From Forbidden to Limited: What it Takes At this point, you're probably noticing a pattern in my Reasoning for unbanning a given card. Either that card is much less effective than it was when it was Forbidden, or other Forbiddings could make that card playable again. Spore would see very little play if it wasn't Forbidden ,and if you take away Monster Reborn, then Dark Magician of Chaos is suddenly less absurd. You can apply this to more than just the monsters on the list. Premature Burial could be an effective replacement for Reborn, especially given that it's susceptible to Mystical Space Typhoon. What keeps it Forbidden is the existence of Hidden Armory, which could be easily corrected by Forbidding it. On the other hand, that might not be fair to Forbid a general-use card so that another can see play. It's a trade-off that you see quite often when looking back through lists, but in some cases it's just impossible to make. Take Rescue Cat for example. To bring it back to the Limited list you would have to severely weaken X-Sabers and The Fabled. If not, both of those decks would run wild with a new ‘draw this and win' card, much like Chaos Dragons and Future Fusion. While Rescue Cat is fun to play, it would require too many hits on other cards to balance its Return. Looking at previous lists, it's interesting to note the number of cards that have gone from Forbidden all the way to Unlimited in recent years. Breaker the Magical Warrior, Chaos Sorcerer, and Call Of The Haunted all fit that description. What this means is that a Forbidding is not necessarily permanent, though there are many cards that will probably never come off the list. No matter how much players might want it back, Chaos Emperor Dragon and other friends from the Cookie Cutter Chaos era are going to stay Forbidden for the life of the game. Because of this, it's often easy to sometimes think that once a card is Forbidden it should remain that way. Hopefully you don't think as such, at least not anymore. Again, I hope I did well to stay away from making this article a Forbidden List prediction piece, or just a want list. I don't necessarily want these cards back; I'm pointing out that they could come back and not cause any damage. We'll see what happens in September! Until next time, then. -Kelly Locke 
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this card!
