Forbidden

In the OCG and the TCG Advanced Format, Forbidden (禁止 Kinshi) cards, often unofficially called banned, are cards that players are not allowed to use in their Main Deck, Side Deck, or Extra Deck. There are no Forbidden cards in the Traditional Format; by default, all Forbidden cards are Limited in the Traditional Format.

These cards are Forbidden as of April 1, 2017 for the OCG, and March 31, 2017 for the TCG Advanced Format.

World Championship
During World Championship tournaments, all cards are automatically set to their lowest allowed status in any region. (For example, a card that is on the Semi-Limited list in one region but the Limited list in another will be Limited on the World Championship banlist, and a card that is Forbidden in one region but Unlimited in another will be Forbidden.)

However, in addition to any cards that are Forbidden on either the OCG or TCG lists, several other cards are also made Forbidden:
 * Any cards that are not legal in any region, including:
 * Any TCG exclusive or OCG exclusive cards
 * Any cards that have only been released through a region-restricted distribution, such as certain promotional cards (for a complete list, see the not legal article)
 * Any cards that in a given region are only available as tournament prize cards, due to their extremely restricted availability:
 * These currently include the following four Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series prize cards: "Blood Mefist", "Ascension Sky Dragon", "Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn", and "Number 93: Utopia Kaiser"
 * A select few "Special Rule" cards: "Emergency Provisions", "Mystik Wok", "Rainbow Life", "Tri-And-Guess", and "Self-Destruct Button"
 * These cards have an undesirable potential to abuse the "sudden death" and time limit rules in official tournaments. The first four cards allow a player in "sudden death" to instantly win by quickly gaining a large number of Life Points during the opponent's turn with a now-irrelevant cost, while the last card allows a player to legally stall by forcing DRAWs until the time limit runs out (see the Tips page of that card for details).

Anime and manga
During the Battle City arc it is mentioned that cards that directly damage the player, such as "Hinotama", "Meteor of Destruction", and "Raigeki", are Forbidden.

A handful of other cards are noted by characters as "Forbidden" in the anime, including "Golden Castle of Stromberg" in Yu-Gi-Oh!, "Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End" and "Infernalvania" in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, "Gate Blocker" and "Gate Blocker 2" in official Turbo Duels in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and "Binding Swords of Impact" in "Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V".