Currently, Konami’s Yu-Gi-Oh! is experiencing a revival with “MASTER DUEL”. However, a previously banned card already known from the original anime is also celebrating its return to game play.
Whether manga, anime, card or dice game – Yu-Gi-Oh! has many facets. The franchise is currently experiencing a revival with the digital title “MASTER DUEL”. At the end of April, Konami announced that the game had been downloaded 30 million times across all available platforms within three months.
To make the virtual and physical competition with the monsters tamed in cards fair, there is a list of forbidden and limited cards. This list contains items that could lead to unfair advantages through combinations with current monsters, spells, traps or rules.
Balancing in focus
Similar to Magic: The Gathering or other comparable trading card games, this list is regularly adjusted to reflect the zeitgeist of the game. In the course of the last update, one of the most famous spells from the anime series returned from banishment: “Defector”, known as “Change of Heart” in English, is no longer among the banned cards.
Konami did not explain why the card may be used again in official competitions and also in “MASTER DUEL” after 17 years. Why “Defector” originally ended up on the list of banned cards is explained by its mechanics: When played, the spell allows the player to gain control of an opponent’s monster until the end of their turn.
Cleverly used, this can be a game-changing move. For example, by sacrificing one of your own and your opponent’s taken monster for a particularly strong card that can then attack the unprotected opponent directly.
Ban gives way to Limitation
The players’ reactions were correspondingly mixed. While fans of the anime were happy about the return of the classic, other gamers doubted its meaningfulness and criticised its proportionality to other cards.
Whether “Defector” is still such a strong card that it decisively changes the gameplay remains to be seen. After all, there are now numerous new cards and ways to cancel or counter the spell.
Konami, however, seems to assume that it is still one of the most relevant items in the game. In order not to make excessive use of it, the Japanese developer limited the number allowed in decks to a single card.
