For a certain generation of card game fans, Yu-Gi-Oh! was their gateway experience. It is a competitive card game in the vein of Magic: The Gathering that started as a gimmick in the manga created by Kazuki Takahashi, but exploded in popularity so much that it is still being supported with new expansions to this day. Not only is Yu-Gi-Oh!'s competitive community still thriving, there is genuine nostalgia for the manga and anime adaptations that have spawned it. Now, it has been announced that an iconic spell card, Change of Heart, is no longer on the Forbidden list.
This announcement came from an updated card list on the official Yu-Gi-Oh! website. For those not aware, the Forbidden list contains cards that are completely banned from competitive play. This is usually because the cards in question are so powerful when used in certain combos, players can win effectively uninterrupted. in the case of Change of Heart, playing it allows you to take control of a monster your opponent controls and use it until the End Phase of a turn. There is no cost for this spell effect. Unless it is interrupted by another card effect, you can just take one of your opponent's monsters with this card. Now, according to the updated card list, Change of Heart is Limited. This means you can only have copy of the card in total across your Main Deck, Extra Deck, and Side Deck.
The response to this change in Yu-Gi-Oh! has been nostalgic for many of its older fans. Not only is Change of Heart one of the earliest cards in the game, it has been on the Forbidden list ever since 2005. In addition, Change of Heart featured heavily in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime not just in the dramatic card games played by the main characters but by the main villains as part of the show's dark supernatural storylines. This nostalgia has only increased by the popularity of Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel being streamed by content creators wishing to recapture the magic of the card game's earlier days.
As for what this change will mean for the competitive scene of Yu-Gi-Oh! is difficult to tell right now. While the Forbidden List has helped keep the game engaging in competitive tournaments, feature creep and the ever-increasing speed of high end play might make this card's return just an exercise of nostalgia.
