Konami’s October 2026 Forbidden & Limited List was revealed in five parts during YCS Houston and took effect on October 19, 2026. With 43 changes (34 cards to Forbidden, 8 to Limited, 1 to Semi-Limited), it’s the biggest TCG list in well over a decade. Two weekends of regionals have now been played on it. Here is what it took away, who came out fine, and what the first results show.
You can check any card’s status on our ban list page. If you’re new to ban lists, the ban list, explained covers what each status means.
The short version
- Going first got harder. Called by the Grave, Triple Tactics Talent and Crossout Designator are all Forbidden, and Droll & Lock Bird is down to one copy.
- The generic Extra Deck lost a lot. Trishula, Caesar, Varudras, Crystal Wing, Bagooska, Dugares, Cross-Sheep and Saryuja Skull Dread are all gone.
- A few decks were hit directly: Branded, Dark Magician, Elfnote, Mitsurugi, Yummy, Toon and Sky Striker all lost something.
- Angelechy lost nothing. No Angelechy card is on the list, and so far it has the most top 8 finishes of any deck.
- The format opened up. Thirteen regionals and opens with 90+ players had ten different winning decks.
The general hits
The going-first toolbox
Three of the most common going-first Spells moved from Limited to Forbidden:
| Card | What it did | Was | Now |
|---|---|---|---|
 Called by the Grave |
Banishes a monster in the opponent’s GY and negates that name’s effects until the end of the next turn | Limited | Forbidden |
 Triple Tactics Talent |
After the opponent activates a monster effect in your Main Phase: draw 2, take a monster, or look at their hand and shuffle a card in | Limited | Forbidden |
 Crossout Designator |
Banishes a copy of a declared card from your Deck and negates that name for the turn | Limited | Forbidden |
 Droll & Lock Bird |
Stops both players adding cards from the Main Deck after the opponent searches | Semi-Limited | Limited |
Called by the Grave and Crossout Designator were the cleanest ways to stop a hand trap like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring before it ever touched your combo. Triple Tactics Talent punished the opponent for using one. Without them, a starting hand that runs into an interruption has fewer ways to keep going.
The Extra Deck
A long list of generic Extra Deck monsters is now Forbidden: Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, D/D/D Wave High King Caesar, Varudras, the Final Bringer of the End Times, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir, Number 60: Dugares the Timeless, Cross-Sheep, Saryuja Skull Dread, Charmer Quartet in Bloom, Aerial Eater, Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons, Naturia Beast and XX-Saber Gottoms. Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max went to Limited.
These were the “end of combo” cards many decks shared: a negate, a Rank 4 that stops the opponent’s turn, a disruptive Synchro. Combo decks now have to finish on more of their own cards.
Floodgates
Secret Village of the Spellcasters, Spell Canceller, Anti-Spell Fragrance, Gozen Match, Rivalry of Warlords and There Can Be Only One are all Forbidden. Spell Canceller alone stopped every Spell Card from being activated, so the cards that lock the opponent out of a whole card type are mostly gone.
Who lost the most
These are our read of the card text and the results so far.
Dark Magician. Magicians’ Souls, Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, Secret Village of the Spellcasters, Azamina Ilia Silvia and Cupsy★Yummy Way are all Forbidden. Magicians’ Souls was the draw engine and Dragoon was the boss monster, so this is the deck that lost the most cards it relied on. Dark Magician hasn’t shown up as its own deck in the first post-list top 8s.
Branded. Albion the Branded Dragon is Forbidden, and Branded in High Spirits and Branded Opening are both Limited. Even so, Branded has made five top 8s since the list, including a runner-up finish at Richmond. It’s weaker, not gone.
Elfnote. Elfnote Tinia, already Limited in September, is now Forbidden. Elfnote is still everywhere: 14 top 8s and a win at Lansing, mostly paired with Ars Magna.
Mitsurugi, Yummy, Toon and Sky Striker. Ame no Habakiri no Mitsurugi and Cupsy★Yummy Way are Forbidden. Toon lost a copy each of Toon Bookmark and Toon Table of Contents. Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage! went to Semi-Limited, but Sky Striker still took second at both the German Open and Lansing.
Who walked away untouched
Angelechy has no cards on the list. It’s the most consistent deck of the new format so far: 20 top 8s and 9 top 4s across the 13 events, more than any other deck. It hasn’t won any of them yet.
Radiant Typhoon has the most wins (3), including the 311-player German Open. Its cards are built around Mystical Space Typhoon and Quick-Play Spells, which gives it a natural answer to Spell-heavy decks.
Artmage and Power Patron, often running Ars Magna, won three events between them.
What players are saying
We read the most-liked comments under four of the biggest ban list videos on YouTube, from the reveal-day reactions to a post-list tier list. A few themes kept coming up.
- Most people wanted a list this big. The single most-liked comment we found asked for lists like this to become the norm, so formats don’t slide back to where they were. Plenty of others agreed the game needed a reset.
- Dark Magician players took it hardest. Losing both Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon and Magicians’ Souls came up more than any other hit in the comments we read. Some argued Dragoon was the right card to take, since the deck can still pivot into its other Fusions. Others pointed out that Dark Magician took several hits while Blue-Eyes walked away untouched. Gate Guardian players lost Souls too.
- Losing Called by the Grave is mixed. Some players miss it as a favourite card. Others worry that with Called by and Crossout gone, hand traps now land with nothing to stop them, and a few were annoyed that Droll & Lock Bird was only cut to one copy.
- Rogue decks are a worry. One of the most-liked comments asked how off-meta decks will compete now that so many of the generic cards they leaned on are gone.
- Players are already re-ranking decks. Under the post-list tier list, players argued DoomZ is stronger than it was ranked, Elfnote still has most of its tools despite losing Tinia, and Blitzclique lines up well against Angelechy.
The first two weekends in numbers
Thirteen TCG events with 90 or more players were played between October 24 and November 1. Deck names below are the archetype each top 8 list was tagged with. Hybrid decks are counted under their main archetype, and 10 of the 104 top 8 slots had no deck listed.
| Deck | Wins | Top 4s | Top 8s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angelechy | 0 | 9 | 20 |
| Elfnote | 1 | 3 | 14 |
| Radiant Typhoon | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| Artmage | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| Light and Darkness Ritual | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Branded | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Power Patron | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Invoked | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Fairy Tail, DoomZ, Sacred Beasts, Mermail and Phantom Knights each won one event. For comparison, the top 8 at YCS Houston, played on the old list the weekend before, was split between Light and Darkness Ritual, Elfnote and Angelechy.
How games play now
With Called by the Grave and Crossout Designator gone, a hand trap on turn one is harder to play around than it was in September. Going second and breaking a board is a more realistic plan than it used to be, and ten different winners from 13 events suggest no single deck has taken over yet.
Genesys isn’t affected: it uses its own points list, not the Forbidden & Limited List.