History GameBreaker / YuGiOhCardGameBannedAndNerfedCards

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Summon_Sorceress Summon Sorceress]] allows you to summon one monster from your deck of the same Type as another monster that it points to once per turn. And even if you have no monster remaining on field after you summon it? Summon Sorceress will let you put ''another'' monster out (albeit on your opponent's field) right when its summoned, meaning its effect will almost always be live. As the cherry on top of all of this, Summon Sorceress is a mostly generic Link 3, while Isolde and Halqifibrax are Link 2's. This means that if you make Summon Sorceress out of one of the other two monsters, you're getting the setup it created on top of the setup that they made, netting you a massive advantage from what was likely just one or two cards. This resulted in Summon Sorceress getting banned in the OCG, with many TCG players calling for Konami to follow suit on the TCG list. Those cries for it to be banned in the TCG were finally answered as of April 2019's banlist.

* Starting in 2011 for the OCG and 2012 for the TCG, '''ALL''' of the cards with Ignition effects, due to Konami officially changing the ruling of '''priority''', so that the opponent could activate a card in response to a successful summon before opponent could use the summoned monster's Ignition effect. A perfect example would be the formerly banned [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Black_Luster_Soldier_-_Envoy_of_the_Beginning Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning]]. Before the rule change, you could immediately banish 1 monster for free before your opponent's trap card like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Bottomless_Trap_Hole Bottomless Trap Hole]] could be activated to destroy it. After the change, monsters no longer had the opportunity to activate their Ignition effects if a removal card like Bottomless Trap Hole responded to their summon.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Predaplant_Verte_Anaconda Predaplant Verte Anaconda]] can be summoned using any two Effect Monsters, and its effect allows it to copy any Polymerization or Fusion spell card with the only caveat being that you can't special summon any other monsters after you use it. Being so generic and easy to use meant that virtually every deck that could run Links and was willing to carry a few bricks could go into certain FTK strategies or simply sit on horribly powerful Fusion Monsters that were meant to be balanced by being chained to mediocre archetypes, such as the notorious [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Red-Eyes_Dark_Dragoon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO_-_Destroyer_Phoenix_Enforcer Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer]]. What's worse is that Verte Anaconda was not very useful in its ''home archetype'' because their best play starter [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Predapractice Predapractice]] locked its user out of Summoning non-Fusion Monsters from the Extra Deck. Out-of-archetype combos involving Verte Anaconda led to Dragoon being banned briefly in the TCG and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Fusion_Destiny Fusion Destiny]] was briefly Forbidden in the OCG. Konami finally got the message after its two-year reign, and Verte was banned in the March 2022 OCG banlist and the May 2022 TCG banlist, which allowed Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon to come off the TCG banlist, albeit heavily crippled despite being unlimited [[note]]the same cannot be said for the OCG version of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon which is still banned to this day[[/note]].

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Predaplant_Verte_Anaconda Predaplant Verte Anaconda]] can be summoned using any two Effect Monsters, and its effect allows it to copy any Polymerization or Fusion spell card with the only caveat being that you can't special summon any other monsters after you use it. Being so generic and easy to use meant that virtually every deck that could run Links and was willing to carry a few bricks could go into certain FTK strategies or simply sit on horribly powerful Fusion Monsters that were meant to be balanced by being chained to mediocre archetypes, such as the notorious [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Red-Eyes_Dark_Dragoon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO_-_Destroyer_Phoenix_Enforcer Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer]]. What's worse is that Verte Anaconda was not very useful in its ''home archetype'' because their best play starter [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Predapractice Predapractice]] locked its user out of Summoning non-Fusion Monsters from the Extra Deck. Out-of-archetype combos involving Verte Anaconda led to Dragoon being banned and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Fusion_Destiny Fusion Destiny]] was briefly Forbidden in the OCG. Konami finally got the message after its two-year reign, and Verte was banned in the March 2022 OCG banlist and the May 2022 TCG banlist.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/M-X-Saber_Invoker M-X-Saber Invoker]]. At the time of its release, it saw little play due to being a niche card at best. But then power creep kicked in, and it was a key card in two of the game's more notoriously overpowered archetypes, those being Zoodiacs and Gouki. Its abuse in the latter as a crucial combo piece proved the card's demise.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Knightmare_Mermaid Knightmare Mermaid]] is the second banned Knightmare Link Monster. By discarding one card you special summon one Knightmare monster from the deck, allowing you to get [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Knightmare_Corruptor_Iblee an Anti-Special Summoning floodgate]], or, what eventually got the card banned; [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Orcust_Knightmare start the Orcust engine]]. Its materials? ''Any two monsters with different names'' - that can be used to make [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Knightmare_Phoenix Knightmare Phoenix]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Knightmare_Cerberus Knightmare Cerberus]], which in turn can be used as the material for Mermaid. This allows ''any'' deck in the game to splash the Orcust engine for a [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Orcust_Crescendo free omni-negate]] or [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dingirsu,_the_Orcust_of_the_Evening_Star a non-targeting send, recover and destruction protection]]. As such, Mermaid was banned in both TCG and OCG in mid-2019.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Union_Carrier Union Carrier]] was intended to be a tool aiding Union-based decks into equipping their hard-to-reach materials from deck, while also having a restriction to prevent potential abuse. However, it happens that some cards are not meant to be readily equippable, and have devastating consequences when they are. The most potent of these is [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dragon_Buster_Destruction_Sword Dragon Buster Destruction Sword]], which locks your opponent out of the Extra deck when equipped, and can be equipped to any DARK or Dragon-Type monster you control (which happen to be among the most popular Attributes and Types respectively) thanks to Union Carrier, not helped by its piss-easy summoning condition. This specific interaction led to Dragon Buster Destruction Sword being banned in the TCG on the December 2020 banlist update. Union Carrier also assisted in the Dragon Link FTK by allowing [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Earthbound_Immortal_Aslla_piscu Earthbound Immortal Aslla piscu]] to be equipped. Due to the sheer amount of shenanigans it enabled, Union Carrier was banned in the TCG in March 2021; in return, Dragon Buster Destruction Sword was allowed to leave the banlist. It would take the October 2022 banlist for the OCG to also ban Union Carrier as well.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Predaplant_Verte_Anaconda Predaplant Verte Anaconda]]'s effect allows it to copy any Polymerization or Fusion spell card with the only caveat being that you can't special summon any other monsters after you use it, requiring only two effect monsters as its materials. Being so generic and easy to use meant that virtually every deck that could run Links and was willing to carry a few bricks could go into certain FTK strategies or simply sit on horribly powerful Fusion Monsters that were meant to be balanced by being chained to mediocre archetypes, such as the notorious [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Red-Eyes_Dark_Dragoon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destiny_HERO_-_Destroyer_Phoenix_Enforcer Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer]]. Verte Anaconda granting access to the former led to Dragoon being banned, while interactions with the latter got [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Fusion_Destiny Fusion Destiny]] briefly becoming forbidden in the OCG before the Predaplant's demise. Konami finally got the message in 2022, leading to this card's ban in the March 2022 OCG banlist and the May 2022 TCG banlist.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Crystron_Halqifibrax Crystron Halqifibrax]], when Link Summoned, Special Summons a Level 3 or lower Tuner to a zone it points to. Many of the most common hand traps in the game happen to fall under this category, giving decks that run them even more value. Other common targets include Tuners that can Special Summon themselves from the Graveyard, such as Spore, Glow-Up Bulb, and Jet Synchron. This effectively makes Halqifibrax a free Link 4 unless it gets interrupted. It's rather telling that [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Glow-Up_Bulb the]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Destrudo_the_Lost_Dragon%27s_Frisson three]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Steam_the_Cloak best]] generic tuners (one of which being the aforementioned Glow-Up Bulb) were all banned in one fell swoop the month after its release in the TCG. The fact that it took until '''nearly the end of the VRAINS era (March 2020)''' for this card to be imported to the TCG should tell you just how good of a combo starter it is. The strength of the plays Halqifibrax enabled eventually led to both [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Jet_Synchron Jet Synchron]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Mecha_Phantom_Beast_O-Lion Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion]] getting banned in the September 2020 TCG list, with the restriction on Jet Synchron only being lifted in May 2022, once the aforementioned Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon (Halq's main parter in crime and combo enabler) was Forbidden. Halqifibrax itself would be banned in the OCG in July 2022, and the TCG followed suit in October 2022; Blackwing - Steam the Cloak and Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion were both subsequently allowed back at 1 as Halqifibrax (and, in O-Lion's case, Auroradon) was no longer around to facilitate easy toolboxing of those cards.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Heavy_Storm Heavy Storm]] is similar to Harpie's Feather Duster, except it also affects the user's own cards. So, while it can be problematic late game if you play a backrow heavy deck, it’s still just as effective as Harpie’s Feather Duster going second for any deck. When this card was legal, it pretty much mandated playing [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Starlight_Road Starlight Road]] if you ran a backrow heavy deck, lest you lose it all to Heavy Storm. The most notable reasons this card is still banned in comparison to Harpie's Feather Duster? There are spells and traps that have graveyard effects and/or floating effects that make great mileage off this (the Phantom Knights are the most notable examples of this) and this also works well for scaled Pendulum Monsters which go to the Extra Deck and trigger their effects after destruction.

* Banned monster stealing cards [[labelnote: explanation]]Allows for easy stealing and usage of an opponent's monster.[[/labelnote]]:
** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Snatch_Steal Snatch Steal]] is an Equip Spell, meaning it can steal an opponent's monster permanently as long as it's equipped. Its only downsides are that it gives the opponent 1000 LP during each of their Standby Phases (which means very little if you use it to OTK or just get rid of the monster in any way) and the inherent equip spell downsides of being unable to target facedown monsters and losing to spell and trap destruction. It was banned for 8 years before Konami decided to bring it back in the January 2015 banlist... where it proved to be nothing more than a cheap topdeck card that can be searched or reused with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Hidden_Armory Hidden Armory]] (which prevents Normal Summons during the turn it's activated, but that's irrelevant in decks that don't need to do so) resulting in it being immediately re-banned in the following format.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Orcust_Harp_Horror Orcust Harp Horror]] was a very nasty centerpiece of the Orcust deck. By banishing itself from the graveyard, it can special summon an Orcust monster from the deck and many of ''those'' monsters have effects that can special summon cards when banished, or send Orcust monsters from the Deck to the graveyard, which can then be banished to special summon more Orcust monsters. Combined with its boss monster [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dingirsu,_the_Orcust_of_the_Evening_Star Dingirsu]] to protect its cards, an Orcust deck could create formidable boards just by getting Harp Horror to the graveyard. The TCG banned it in January 2020.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ib_the_World_Chalice_Justiciar Ib the World Chalice Justiciar]] is the Denglong of the late 2010s. Not only is it generic, it also immediately rewards you upon summon and ''floats'' on top of everything, massively aiding combo-based decks. ''Any'' deck that can Synchro and splash in a few World Chalice cards can gain a powerful tool for setting up multi-summon power plays. With [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Crystron_Halqifibrax Halqifibrax]] approaching the TCG, this resulted in Ib becoming one of the few examples of a preemptive ban in the game's history, being banned in the January 2020 TCG Lists. The OCG soon followed suit three months later before the Master Rules April 1st 2020 Revision came into effect.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Branded_Expulsion Branded Expulsion]] is a Trap Card that allows you to Tribute a Fusion Monster to Special Summon two non-Fusion monsters from your Graveyard, one to each side of the field. The issue with this is gets used on monsters that prevent their controllers from Summoning as a downside, like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ido_the_Supreme_Magical_Force Ido the Supreme Magical Force]], [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Gimmick_Puppet_Nightmare Gimmick Puppet Nightmare]], and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ra%27s_Disciple Ra's Disciple]]. Because these monsters are easy Fusion Material for Branded Fusion monsters, and the Branded Spells and Traps are really easy to search, Expulsion can be easily slipped into the usual Branded play lines to set up the combo to put those [[PoisonMushroom detrimental monsters]] on the opponent's field, locking them out of most plays unless they have the means to get those monsters off the field. Expulsion was banned in the June 2023 list to stop Branded players from teching cheesy floodgate tools.

** "[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Chaos_Ruler,_the_Chaotic_Magical_Dragon Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon]]" is a great card for almost any Graveyard-heavy deck; on Synchro Summon, it allows you to excavate 5 cards, add a LIGHT or DARK monster to your hand, then mills the rest, giving you a way to dig for key combo pieces while dumping cards for future use. It also has a great statline for a Level 8 Synchro at 3000 ATK and can be revived once by banishing a LIGHT and DARK monster from your Graveyard. Its favorite deck was Dragon Link for its ability to massively extend thanks to Graveyard setup shenanigans and was ultimately banned in the October 2022 TCG list (exactly a year later for the OCG) for being just a little ''too'' good and generic.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_86:_Heroic_Champion_-_Rhongomyniad Number 86: Heroic Champion Rhongomyniad]] is a pure beast of a card. While it had some use in the Tellarknight, Igknight, and Clownblade decks of the Arc-V era, this card truly came into its own when combined [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_75:_Bamboozling_Gossip_Shadow Number 75: Bamboozling Gossip Shadow]]. The combo was to summon a Link with multiple arrows (often Summon Sorceress or Isolde), Summon Rhongomyniad with two materials, then summon Number 75 in the same way and use its effect to transfer itself and its materials to Rhongomyniad, giving you access to the field nuke and locking your opponent out of summoning anything for two turns while you have free reign over the field. Dark Warrior decks often combined this strategy with Topologic Gumblar Dragon, depleting the opponent's hand ''and'' preventing them from summoning anything to protect themselves from attacks, leading to a literally unavoidable defeat. The card was thus banned in the January 2019 TCG List.

** "[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Chaos_Ruler,_the_Chaotic_Magical_Dragon Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon]]" is a great card for almost any Graveyard-heavy deck; on Synchro Summon, it allows you to excavate 5 cards, add a LIGHT or DARK monster to your hand, then mills the rest, giving you a way to dig for key combo pieces while dumping cards for future use. It also has a great statline for a Level 8 Synchro at 3000 ATK and can be revived once by banishing a LIGHT and DARK monster from your Graveyard. Its favorite deck was Dragon Link for its ability to massively extend thanks to Graveyard setup shenanigans and was ultimately banned in the October 2022 list for being just a little ''too'' good and generic.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Denglong,_First_of_the_Yang_Zing Denglong, First of the Yang Zing]]. A ridiculous setup tool, it's a generic Level 5 that can search out [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Nine_Pillars_of_Yang_Zing an omni-negate Counter trap]] when Summoned, that can also mill any Wyrm monster from your deck, ''and'' by leaving the field in any way (such as by Link summoning), you can Special Summon 1 "Yang Zing" monster from your Deck, allowing for more combos. Dinosaur Decks abused this, sometimes pairing it with True King of All Calamities. It got banned in the TCG in September 2017.

** As of Feb 2018, [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Maxx_%22C%22 Maxx "C"]] joins these ranks. At the time of introduction, it was the most balanced anti-special summoning card of its kind, preventing spam decks from dominating the meta, while being a dead draw against a deck that doesn't need to special summon. However, due to PowerCreep, it's increasingly the case that decks that need to do multiple special summons are more common than not, and the introduction of handtraps like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ash_Blossom_%26_Joyous_Spring Ash Blossom]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Nibiru,_the_Primal_Being Nibiru]] meant that the opponent's next draw could [[SpannerInTheWorks interrupt your plays when you least expect it]]. Now, Maxx "C" can leave an opponent in a [[MortonsFork Catch 22]]: Continue their plays at the risk of getting punished by the cards the opponent is drawing, or awkwardly end the turn with a less-than-ideal board state to deny their hand advantage. This led to its ban.[[labelnote:Trivia]]This marks the major difference between the TCG and OCG banlists, where it is banned in the former and is an '''''all-time staple''''' in the latter. This leads to some major differences between the two metas, though players do note that the card is overcentralizing -- ''every'' Deck at minimum would require 3 Maxx "C", alongside 3 Ash Blossom and as many [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Called_by_the_Grave Called by the Grave]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Crossout_Designator Crossout Designator]] as is legal. That's easily a quarter of your Deck dedicated to countering Maxx "C" before getting to what you ''want'' to play! For environments where it's legal, you also have the "Maxx C Challenge": Special Summon as much as you can to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard force your opponent to draw out their whole deck.]][[/labelnote]]

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Block_Dragon Block Dragon]] is known as "The Dragon Ruler of Rocks" for a reason. Not only does it have a piss-easy summoning condition, it has a ridiculous floating effect that activates when it's sent from the field to the GY in any way: it can add ''three'' Rock monsters from your deck to your hand, whose levels equal 8. It was held back, however, by the fact that Rock-Type monsters were pretty bad in general. Then came the [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Adamancipator Adamanciapators]], who were not only a good deck by themselves, but [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Adamancipator_Analyzer had]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Adamancipator_Researcher three]] [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Adamancipator_Seeker monsters]] that were the perfect levels to be searched out by Block Dragon, could special summon themselves from the hand, could special summon other Rock-Type monsters from the deck, and were Tuners to boot. Moreover, it can be summoned multiple times from the Graveyard as long as you have enough fodder to banish, ''and'' it protects all your Rock monsters from effect-based destruction. So, even if you got rid of their board, the Adamancipator player could just start their board up again, thanks to Block Dragon. It ultimately got banned in the September 2020 TCG list.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Appointer_of_the_Red_Lotus Appointer of the Red Lotus]] was a trap card similar to the above Trap Dustshoot that had many costs that seem to offset its hand rip effect: 2000 Lifepoint cost to activate, you reveal your own hand, and the banished card can return to your opponent's hand on the next end phase. Back when the card is introduced in 2009, the speed of the game is still slow enough that these costs kept the card from use, being seen as a much worse Confiscation. By the ''VRAINS'' and ''Series 11'' eras, the game is so explosive that even temporarily denying a vital card can win the game. Kashtira players can make this a permanent removal because of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Kashtira_Arise-Heart Arise-Heart]]. As such, Appointer hits the June 2023 banlist.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Appointer_of_the_Red_Lotus Appointer of the Red Lotus]] was a trap card similar to the above Trap Dustshoot that had many costs that seem to offset its hand rip effect: 2000 Lifepoint cost to activate, you reveal your own hand, and the banished card can return to your opponent's hand on the next end phase. Back when the card is introduced in 2009, the speed of the game is still slow enough that these costs kept the card from use, being seen as a much worse Confiscation. By the ''VRAINS'' and ''Series 11'' eras, the game is so explosive that even temporarily denying a vital card can win the game. As such, Appointer hits the June 2023 banlist.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Number_89:_Diablosis_the_Mind_Hacker Number 89: Diablosis the Mind Hacker]] is a Rank 7 DARK Psychic Xyz Monster that has the ability to banish a monster in your opponent's Extra Deck face-down by detaching 1 Xyz Material, can banish a card your opponent controls face-down at the end of the Battle Phase if it destroyed an opponent's monster by battle, and can banish cards from the top of your opponent's deck face-down equal to the number of cards banished face-down if a card your opponent owns is banished face-down. This card was completely innocuous until the release of the Kashtira archetype, which ''also'' happen to be Level/Rank 7 DARK Psychic monsters that revolve around banishing cards face-down. Naturally, Diablosis was a perfect fit for the Kashtira deck and was able to create horribly oppressive game states, sniping cards out of the opponent's Extra Deck to trigger the effect of [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Kashtira_Shangri-Ira Kashtira Shangri-Ira]] to lock out the opponent's zones and/or get [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Kashtira_Arise-Heart Kashtira Arise-Heart]] out which is effectively Macro Cosmos on legs. Diablosis was axed in the June 2023 list as a result, neutering the ceiling of Kashtira endboards.
** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai_Scarecrow Superheavy Samurai Scarecrow]] is a Link 1 that extends plays by letting you discard cards to Special Summon Superheavy Samurai monsters from your GY. It also can't be used as Link Material, so you definitely cannot abuse it for Link climbing. Scarecrow's best combo was to trigger [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai_Soulpiercer Soulpiercer's]] non-once-per-turn search ability multiple times to search for various Superheavy Samurai options, and it was made most potent when [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Superheavy_Samurai_Prodigy_Wakaushi Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi]] was introduced in Cyberstorm Access, allowing the Superheavy Samurai to create enormous end boards with generic boss monsters (not even the Superheavy Synchro bosses!) off just two cards. Rather than hit the new playmakers, Scarecrow was banned to nerf the Superheavy combo.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Self-Destruct_Button Self-Destruct Button]] can only be activated if the player using it has 7000 less life points than the opponent and causes the game to become a tie. It may look pretty worthless at first glance from a competitive standpoint, and for once, that's actually pretty accurate. For the typical duelist, it's far too situational to ever be of any use. The problem with the card is that, due to poor design, it became the most obnoxious {{Main/Troll}} card ever made. Just build a deck around giving your opponent an absurd amount of life points, activate Self-Destruct Button once possible, and repeat ad nauseam. While it's bad enough to encounter in a tournament, where you'll almost certainly go into time against such a player, it's even worse in online games, where the opponent can do this infinitely until you RageQuit. This led it its ban in the TCG.[[note]]Interestingly, Self-Destruct Button is not banned, per se, in the OCG, but it falls under special consideration, where you will be barred from a tournament if it is clear that your intent with playing the card is to deliberately cause ties in tandem with other cards.[[/note]]

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Appointer_of_the_Red_Lotus Appointer of the Red Lotus]] was a trap card similar to the above Trap Dustshoot that had many costs that seem to offset its hand rip effect: 2000 Lifepoint cost to activate, you reveal your own hand, and the banished card can return to your opponent's hand on the next end phase. Back when the card is introduced in 2009, the speed of the game is still slow enough that these costs kept the card from use, being seen as a much worse Confiscation. By the ''VRAINS'' and ''Series 11'' eras? The speed is fast enough that one card can make or break a deck and the costs are trivial to see plenty of competitive use. As such, Appointer hits the June 2023 banlist.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Branded_Expulsion Branded Expulsion]] is a Trap Card that allows you to Tribute a Fusion Monster to Special Summon two non-Fusion monsters from your Graveyard, one to each side of the field. The issue with this is that there are some pretty nasty monsters that floodgate their controller from Summoning, like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ido_the_Supreme_Magical_Force Ido the Supreme Magical Force]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ra%27s_Disciple Ra's Disciple]], so a Branded player can use Branded Fusion to dump Fallen of Albaz and one of the above monsters to go into a Fusion Monster, go into whatever endboard that has Branded Expulsion on it, then at the start of the next turn flip up Expulsion and put Ido or Disciple on the opponent's board. If the opponent doesn't open exactly a way to remove a monster they control they're effectively stunlocked and forced to pass turn, at which point the Branded player can just go for the OTK. Expulsion was banned in the June 2023 list to stop Branded players from teching cheesy floodgate tools.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Appointer_of_the_Red_Lotus Appointer of the Red Lotus]] was a trap card similar to the above Trap Dustshoot that had many costs that seem to offset its hand rip effect: 2000 Lifepoint cost to activate, you reveal your own hand, and the banished card can return to your opponent's hand on the next end phase. Back when the card is introduced in 2009, the speed of the game is still slow enough that these costs kept the card from use, being seen as a much worse Confiscation. By Series 11 and 12? The speed is fast enough that one card can make or break a deck and the costs are trivial to see plenty of competitive use. As such, Appointer hits the May 2023 Banlist.

** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Appointer_of_the_Red_Lodus Appointer of the Red Lodus]] was a trap card similar to the above Trap Dustshoot that had many costs that seem to offset its hand rip effect: 2000 Lifepoint cost to activate, you reveal your own hand, and the banished card can return to your opponent's hand on the next end phase. Back when the card is introduced in 2009, the speed of the game is still slow enough that these costs kept the card from use, being seen as a much worse Confiscation. By Series 11 and 12? The speed is fast enough that one card can make or break a deck and the costs are trivial to see plenty of competitive use. As such, Appointer hits the May 2023 Banlist.

* [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Branded_Expulsion Branded Expulsion]] is a Trap Card that allows you to Tribute a Fusion Monster to Special Summon two non-Fusion monsters from your Graveyard, one to each side of the field. The issue with this is that there are some pretty nasty monsters that floodgate their controller from Summoning, like [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ido_the_Supreme_Magical_Force Ido the Supreme Magical Force]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Ra%27s_Disciple Ra's Disciple]], so a Branded player can use Branded Fusion to dump Fallen of Albaz and one of the above monsters to go into a Fusion Monster, go into whatever endboard that has Branded Expulsion on it, then at the start of the next turn flip up Expulsion and put Ido or Disciple on the opponent's board. If the opponent doesn't open exactly a way to remove a monster they control they're effectively stunlocked and forced to pass turn, at which point the Branded player can just go for the OTK. Expulsion was banned in the June 2023 list to stop Branded players from teching cheesy floodgate tools.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Master_Peace,_the_True_Dracoslaying_King Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King]]. Can be tributed by sending Continuous Spells and Traps to the graveyard, has a ''quick'' free pop, and easily searchable with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dragonic_Diagram Dragonic Diagram]] (itself a Game Breaker due to its interactions with other cards in the archetype and even ''outside'' of it - leading to several powerful hybrid builds like True Draco/King Dinosaur Yang Zing before Diagram itself was banned in the OCG). All of the Spell and Trap cards in the archetype also destroy things when sent to the graveyard from the field, worsening the impact of a successful Master Peace summon. The best you can do is act on its one weakness (if you have the available cards to exploit it), or tribute it for a Kaiju...but then, the True Draco player can easily either shore up against spells with Imperial Order, or shuffle him back into the deck with one of the Continuous Spells, where Dragonic Diagram can fetch him again. Adding insult to injury, the Continuous Trap [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/True_King%27s_Return True King's Return]] can let a player bust him out on their opponent's turn, disrupting plays by suddenly destroying key monsters, and forcing the opponent to reckon with an easily recurred Master Peace. It also doesn't help that you can use many oppressive floodgates to summon Master Piece and that blanket card protection makes him immune to the floodgates in play, it's "the" Floodgate Boss Monster who can live and breathe under the miasma of floodgates with little problems to the player. The card was so oppressive that it was banned in the OCG in October 2017, with the TCG following suit in May 2018.

** [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Master_Peace,_the_True_Dracoslaying_King Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King]]. Can be tributed by sending Continuous Spells and Traps to the graveyard, has a ''quick'' free pop, and easily searchable with [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dragonic_Diagram Dragonic Diagram]] (itself a Game Breaker due to its interactions with other cards in the archetype and even ''outside'' of it - leading to several powerful hybrid builds like True Draco/King Dinosaur Yang Zing before Diagram itself was banned in the OCG). All of the Spell and Trap cards in the archetype also destroy things when sent to the graveyard from the field, worsening the impact of a successful Master Peace summon. The best you can do is act on its one weakness (if you have the available cards to exploit it), or tribute it for a Kaiju...but then, the True Draco player can easily either shore up against spells with Imperial Order, or shuffle him back into the deck with one of the Continuous Spells, where Dragonic Diagram can fetch him again. Adding insult to injury, the Continuous Trap [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/True_King%27s_Return True King's Return]] can let a player bust him out on their opponent's turn, disrupting plays by suddenly destroying key monsters, and forcing the opponent to reckon with an easily recurred Master Peace. The card was so oppressive that it was banned in the OCG in October 2017, with the TCG following suit in May 2018.