A Certain Forbidding Card

The Forbidden and Limited Cards Lists start being effective today, March 1st. Quite a convenient day to actually write a new article, the one I've been delaying about Prohibition and Psi-Blocker.

Let's look first at Prohibition:

When you activate this card, declare 1 card name. Cards with that name and their effects cannot be used. Cards on the field before this card was activated are not affected (including face-down cards).

Prohibition's rulings based solely on its text are very simple. You declare a Card name upon activating Prohibition (before either player can respond to its activation), and once it resolves, the declared Card cannot be used. What "cannot be used" implies is a whole different story. Other than that, being a Continuous Spell Card, Prohibition needs to remain face-up to keep prohibiting the declared Card from being used. As for declaring a Card, declaring the full name of the Card is advised, but if you don't remember it completely, you can use further details about the Card (its ATK/DEF, its effects, its picture, etc.).

Much like Necrovalley, Prohibition has a fun ruling history. For years, Prohibition was a very overlooked Card, and without players asking questions, official rulings aren't issued as frequently. This Card had no more than 4 rulings or so through most of its history, and they addressed very individual situations, without explaining how the Card worked in general.

Eventually, Prohibition became extremely popular. At first, no one really knew why, but eventually, people found an apparently better use for Prohibition other than stopping D.D. Scout Plane as its rulings suggested. The general consensus of judges gave some new rulings to Prohibition which no one have ever heard about, making it much more powerful than before. OCG rulings suggested that Prohibition mainly stopped effects and attacks from the declared Card, but these new rulings basically invalidated the Card completely. You weren't able to place it on the Field by any means (not even effects), or use it as a cost. The prohibited Card basically became a brick inside your Deck. People were mainly concerned about Gladiator Beasts at the time, and by prohibiting Gladiator Beast Bestiari with these rulings, you would invalidate their easiest form of S/T removal, the Special Summon of Gladiator Beast Gyzarus,  and some other moves.

While people were enjoying a Card that essentially stopped Gladiator Beast Decks dead in their tracks, this consensus about the definition of "cannot be played" was never official. Things like this happen sometimes, with judges needing answers faster than they are issued. Oh well. Eventually, official rulings and an errata were issued. The errata pretty much changed "cannot be played" with "cannot be used" and made some small clarifications, but the rulings finally gave a detailed explanation of how Prohibition worked. Most importantly, it defined what "cannot be used" means and its extent. The moral of the story being, definitions are extremely important.

So, to finally get into business, Prohibition works like this:

-"Cannot be used" prevents the Card from being manually placed on the Field. So you cannot activate a prohibited Spell Card from your Hand, you cannot set a prohibited Spell or Trap Card in your S/T or Field Card Zone, you cannot Normal Summon or Set a Monster from your Hand, and you cannot initiate an Inherent Special Summon of a monster (Cyber Dragon, Machina Fortress, Gladiator Beast Heraklinos, Synchro Summons, etc.).

-Prohibited Cards can be placed on the Field by Card effects. So you can Special Summon Gladiator Beast Bestiari with Gladiator Beast Laquari's effect. You can also move prohibited Cards from one place to another by Card effects (from the Deck to the Hand, Remove them from Play, etc.).

-Prohibited Monster Cards placed on the Field cannot attack or change their battle position manually.

-A prohibited Fusion Monster cannot be Fusion Summoned. A prohibited monster cannot be used as a Fusion Material.

-A prohibited Synchro Monster cannot be Synchro Summoned. A prohibited monster cannot be used as a Synchro Material.

-A prohibited Ritual Monster cannot be Ritual Summoned. A prohibited monster CAN be tributed for a Ritual Summon.

-Prohibited Cards cannot activate their effects, regardless of where they activate. So you cannot activate the effects of Honest, Zombie Master, Sangan, D.D. Survivor, Serpentine Princess, or Elemental Hero Absolute Zero returning to the Extra Deck. Continuous Effects of the prohibited Card cannot be applied either.

-You can use a prohibited Card as a cost for an effect. You can also tributed a prohibited monster for a Tribute Summon.

And finally, we have the last line of Prohibition, which is very important. Cards that were already on the Field before Prohibition's effect resolves are not affected. This means that if the declared Spell or Trap Card is set on the Field when Prohibition resolves, you can activate it, and if it's face-up, you can activate or apply its effects. Prohibited monsters that were already on the Field when Prohibition resolves don't face any of its restrictions either, and won't be affected either if they are sent to the Graveyard or Removed from Play. Once they return to the Hand, Deck, Extra Deck, or to the Field, they'll be affected by Prohibition's effect.

Let's not forget our other Card for today, Psi-Blocker:

Once per turn, you can declare 1 card name. Cards with that name, and their effects, cannot be used until the End of your opponent’s next turn.

Psi-Blocker has an Ignition Effect. Unlike Prohibition, Psi-Blocker doesn't need to remain face-up in order to apply its effect. It works exactly like Prohibition, but with a bonus. Cards on the Field WILL be affected. This allows you to prohibit Cards that are already on the Field, which will cause the same result as placing them of the Field after Prohibition resolved.

And that's all for today. Enjoy the six months of these Forbidden and Limited Lists. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an e-mail at ness00[at]gmail[dot]com.