Forbidden

In the OCG and the TCG Advanced Format, Forbidden (禁止 Kinshi) cards, often unofficially called banned, are cards that players are not allowed to use in their Main Deck, Side Deck, or Extra Deck. There are no Forbidden cards in the Traditional Format; by default, all Forbidden cards are Limited in the Traditional Format.

The following cards are Forbidden as of October 1, 2020 for the OCG, and April 14, 2021 for the TCG Advanced Format.

Monster Cards[]

Spell Cards[]

Trap Cards[]

Changes[]

OCG[]

Moved into the list[]

Moved out of the list[]

TCG[]

Moved into the list[]

Moved out of the list[]

World Championship[]

During World Championship tournaments, all cards are automatically set to their lowest allowed status in any region. (For example, a card that is on the Semi-Limited list in one region but the Limited list in another will be Limited on the World Championship banlist, and a card that is Forbidden in one region but Unlimited in another will be Forbidden.)

However, in addition to any cards that are Forbidden on either the OCG or TCG lists, several other cards are also made Forbidden:

• Any cards that are not legal in any region, including:
  • Any TCG exclusive or OCG exclusive cards
  • Any cards that had only been released in the TCG as Shonen Jump or manga promotional cards (for a complete list, see the not legal article)
    • Cards that are exclusive to one TCG region but have been released by other methods (such as "Shiba-Warrior Taro" and cards exclusive to McDonald's Promotional Cards 2) are not Forbidden
  • From 2015 onward, any cards that have only been released in any region as preview cards (such as preview cards for the next main set included in Special Editions)
• Any cards that are only available as tournament prize cards in any region, due to their extremely restricted availability:
  • These currently include the following four Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series prize cards: "Blood Mefist", "Ascension Sky Dragon", and "Number 93: Utopia Kaiser"
  • In 2015 and 2016, the previous year's tournament prize card was Limited instead of Forbidden
• A select few "Special Rule" cards: "Emergency Provisions", "Mystik Wok", "Rainbow Life", "Tri-And-Guess", and "Self-Destruct Button"
  • These cards have an undesirable potential to abuse the "sudden death" and time limit rules in official tournaments. The first four cards allow a player in "sudden death" to instantly win by quickly gaining a large number of Life Points during the opponent's turn with a now-irrelevant cost, while the last card allows a player to legally stall by forcing DRAWs until the time limit runs out (see the Tips page of that card for details).

Anime and manga[]

During the Battle City arc it is mentioned that cards that directly damage the player, such as "Hinotama", "Meteor of Destruction", and "Raigeki", are Forbidden.^[1]

When taken to the Virtual World, the Egyptian God cards were excluded from the virtual card database, since Lector noted they are forbidden cards.^[2]

A handful of other cards are noted by characters as "Forbidden" in the anime, including "Golden Castle of Stromberg" in Yu-Gi-Oh!,^[3] "Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End"^[4] and "Infernalvania" in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX,^[5] "Gate Blocker" and "Gate Blocker 2" in official Turbo Duels in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's,^[6][7] and "Restraining Sword of Impact" in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.^[8]

In addition, though not stated, the anime appears to follow real life ban lists. For example, Jaden Yuki stopped using Mirage of Nightmare after it was banned in real life, Yuya Sakaki stopped using Monster Reborn (and started using it again when it was unbanned), Pot of Greed stopped being used (with most characters using it until it was banned), and most famously Yusaku Fujiki stopped using his Signature card Firewall Dragon after it was banned.

References[]