Forbidden

In the OCG and the TCG Advanced Format, Forbidden (禁止 Kinshi) cards 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 January 1, 2016 for the OCG, and February 8, 2016 for the TCG Advanced Format.

Moved out of the list
There are no changes from the October 2015 Lists.

Moved out of the List
There are no changes from the November 2015 Lists.

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 five Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series prize cards: "Blood Mefist", "Digvorzhak, King of Heavy Industry", "Number 106: Giant Hand", "Ascension Sky Dragon", and "Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn"
 * 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/Manga
During the Battle City arc it is mentioned that "directly damage the player", such as "Hinotama" and "Meteor of Destruction", are Forbidden.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX it is mentioned that "Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End" is Forbidden.

A handful of other cards are noted by characters as "Forbidden" in the anime, including "Golden Castle of Stromberg" in the original series and "Infernalvania" in''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX''.