Konami has unbanned a powerful Yu-Gi-Oh card after 17 years of it being banned from competitive play.
In general, competitive trading card games have to ban certain cards once it becomes clear certain cards are too powerful. It’s just the way things go, and normally it stays that way.
Recently, Konami has decided to unban the Yu-Gi-Oh card Change of Heart, after 17 years of the card being banned outside of casual play (thanks, Polygon).
For those who might not have played Yu-Gi-Oh since they were kids, you might actually recognise this particular card. The description of the card is this: “Target 1 monster your opponent controls; take control of it until the End Phase.”
For all intents and purposes, that means you could take your opponent’s strongest card for a spin, and massively turn the tables.
what’s the actual change for the yu-gi-oh card?
So unsurprisingly, as noted on Yugipedia, the card was banned in 2005. While in 2005 it was placed in the “forbidden” category, it’s now been moved to the “limited” category. That means that players can have exactly one copy of the card in their main deck, extra deck, and side deck combined.

Yu-Gi-Oh has certainly made a bit of a comeback, in no small part thanks to the recent release of Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel. We reviewed the digital version of the card game back in January, giving the game a 7/10.
At the time, we said that this new title “made us very hopeful” about the future of Yu-Gi-Oh, though at the time it did need some patches and more quality of life features.
What do you think about the Change of Heart card being unbanned in Yu-Gi-Oh after 17 years? Let us know on our social media channels.

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Featured Image Credit: Konami