History GameBreaker / YuGiOhCardGameBannedAndNerfedCards

** Meet [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Thunder_Dragon_Colossus Thunder Dragon Colossus]]. Extremely easy to summon, and while on the field, it acts as a one-sided [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mistake Mistake]], shutting down your opponent's searches and consistency cards. What's worse, it has inherent protection against battle ''and'' effect destruction. Combining it with high ATK beatsticks such as [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ultimate_Conductor_Tyranno Ultimate Conductor Tyranno]] (easily summoned by [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Double_Evolution_Pill Double Evolution Pill]] which fits right in an archetype that wants their cards banished) or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Thunder_Dragon_Titan Thunder Dragon Titan]] (Summoned by banishing the aforementioned Colossus and one Thunder monster in your hand) grants an oppressive board of locking down the opponent's searches and a field filled with indestructible monsters. The introduction of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Nemesis_Corridor Nemesis Corridor]] made it even easier to summon in other decks besides Thunder Dragons, being essentially a one card Colossus while recovering a banished monster as a cherry on top. This ultimately prompted the Fusion monster getting Limited in the OCG's January 2020 ban list and flat out banned in the TCG the same month.

** The duo of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Borreload_Savage_Dragon Borreload Savage Dragon]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Baronne_de_Fleur Baronne de Fleur]] were banned at the exact same time in the TCG (April 2024), and for the exact same reason: Both are completely generic Extra Deck monsters with massive bodies that offer a Quick Effect omni-negate at no cost. Both monsters were constant fixtures in Extra Decks & represented a toxic design philosophy for Extra Deck monsters that had been plaguing both the game and the community for years. On the gameplay side, high tier decks that either had random Tuners or could find incidental Tuner synergies constantly ran them to insulate their boards, while any weaker archetype that made Synchro plays had to constantly ask if its in-archetype Extra Deck payoffs, if it even had any, were more valuable than a 3000 Attack body that could just stop a play dead, and in almost every case they weren't. On the community side, the pair were often held up as the posterchildren (alongside Appolousa) for the game's negative reputation of being a "Go first & spam a million negates or lose" combofest, as well as contributing to years of unhealthy power creep. The final nail for these two was the Snake Eyes engine, whose ability to make use of Level 1 FIRE monsters led to another round of abuse for poor Jet Synchron.

** The duo of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Borreload_Savage_Dragon Borreload Savage Dragon]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Baronne_de_Fleur Baronne de Fleur]] were banned at the exact same time in the TCG (April 2024), and for the exact same reason: Both are completely generic Extra Deck monsters with massive bodies that offer a Quick Effect omni-negate at no cost. Both monsters were nearly permanent fixtures in decks that either wanted to spam Extra Deck plays or could find incidental Tuner synergies & represented a toxic design philosophy for Extra Deck monsters that had been plaguing both the game and the community for years. On the gameplay side, any archetype that made Synchro plays had to constantly ask if its in-archetype Extra Deck payoffs, if it even had any, were more valuable than a 3000 Attack body that could just stop a play dead, and in almost every case they weren't. On the community side, the pair were often held up as the posterchildren (alongside Appolousa) for the game's negative reputation of being a "Go first & spam a million negates or lose" combofest, as well as contributing to years of unhealthy power creep.

** The duo of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Borreload_Savage_Dragon Borreload Savage Dragon]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Baronne_de_Fleur Baronne de Fleur]] were banned at the exact same time in the TCG (April 2024), and for the exact same reason: Both are completely generic Extra Deck monsters with massive bodies that offer a Quick Effect omni-negate at no cost. Both momsters represented a toxic design philosophy for Extra Deck monsters that had been plaguing both the game and the community for years. On the gameplay side, any archetype that made Synchro plays had to constantly ask if its in-archetype Extra Deck payoffs, if it even had any, were more valuable than a 3000 Attack body that could just stop a play dead, and in almost every case they weren't. On the community side, the pair were often held up as the posterchildren (alongside Appolousa) for the game's negative reputation of being a "Go first, spam a million negates, or lose" combofest, as well as contributing to years of unhealthy power creep.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Linkuriboh Linkuriboh]] is a LINK-1 Link Monster that can send itself from the field to the Graveyard when an opponent's monster declares an attack to change that attacking monster's ATK to 0 and has a Quick Effect to Tribute a Level 1 monster on the field to Special Summon itself. While consistently useful in many decks that have access to Level 1 monsters, the presence of the Snake-Eye archetype finally pushed Linkuriboh over the edge; it functions as an enabler for [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Snake-Eyes_Poplar Snake-Eyes Poplar]], allowing Poplar to put itself in the Graveyard to use its effect to put itself in the backrow, can be used for Link climbing plays, makes boards frustrating for your opponent to punch over, and you can use Linkuriboh's Grave effect to tag out and dodge targeted negates and/or removal, making Snake-Eye combos that much more difficult to interrupt. Linkuriboh was banned in the TCG April 2024 list to weaken the potency of Snake-Eye decks.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Baronne_de_Fleur Baronne de Fleur]] is a generic Level 10 Synchro Monster that has an omninegate (once while on the field), a once-per-turn pop, and can send itself back to the Extra Deck during the Standby Phase to Special Summon a Level 9 or lower monster from your Graveyard. All of these effects are more or less standard on a typical boss monster, but the problematic part about it was how easy it is to just slap on an endboard; it could be played in virtually any deck that has consistent Tuner access and a way to put either a 4 + 6, 8 + 2 or 7 + 3 on the field, which is extremely common with modern decks, and when paired together with other endboard pieces feels incredibly oppressive to try to break boards against. It was banned on the TCG's April 2024 list to weaken the endboards of decks that primarily use their Extra Deck as a generic boss monster toolbox.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Borreload_Savage_Dragon Borreload Savage Dragon]] is a generic Level 8 Synchro that can be slotted in any deck that plays both Tuners and Link Monsters (so functionally a large percentage of modern decks) and when summoned, equips a Link Monster from the Graveyard and gains half of its ATK plus Borrel Counters equal to the equipped monster's Link Rating, with the ability to once-per-turn use a Borrel Counter to negate a card or effect. Similar to the above Baronne de Fleur, it is extremely easy to make and very splashable in many decks, is arguably even easier to set up due to a much easier Level condition, and pairing it with other good endboard pieces makes going first endboards that much harder to beat. It was banned in the TCG's April 2024 list to weaken endboards further and make going second less punishing.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Majespecter_Unicorn_-_Kirin Majespecter Unicorn - Kirin]] is one of the most powerful and feared Pendulum monsters ever made. Its home Majespecter archetype ironically had difficulty making good use of it. Other Pendulum decks with wider scales however can simply bring it out time and time again with ease, and use its effect to bounce any of your opponent's monsters. It also synergizes with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Performapal_Skullcrobat_Joker Skullcrobat Joker]] and other Pendulum Monsters with effects that activate on summon. Add the inherent destruction and targeting immunities of the Majespecters and you have a very difficult to kill, recurring removal card. Both the OCG and TCG ended up Limiting (and later banning) the card after it became clear that ''every'' Pendulum deck would run it; Kirin was just that good.