All right, after a week off, we return to looking at cards that had their status changed via the new Ban List, and next week, we will be back to Return of the Duelist.  Opening Ban List week 2, we have Spore.  Look, it's a different colored Watapon! Spore, is a Wind attributed Tuner, who is Level 1, and a Plant type monster, with 400 attack and 800 defense. Now, let's start with some good. When this card is in the Graveyard, you can Special Summon it by removing a Plant-type monster from your Graveyard.

If you Special Summon Spore in that manner, this card has its Level increased by the Level of the monster you removed from play. Each player can use the effect of Spore once per Duel. I like this Tuner a lot, and Plants were quite a formidable Deck for a while.  They have a hard time keeping up with some of the other turbo Deck engines out there, but a Plant Deck can certainly be not fun to play against.   

Spore is now Restricted, and I think this should have happened a while ago, when Plants were more of a problem.  People still play Plants, but this just seemed to be something that really hinders a legitimate Deck, when it really didn't have the power to exactly be Tier 1.  It certainly hurts the Plant engine overall, but if you're playing Plants, I'd most definitely be using the one Spore you're allowed to.
Ratings:

Traditional:  2.75/5
Advanced:   3.75/5
Art:  4/5

Welcome to another week of broken cards that have been hit by the Banned/Restricted list. Spore is next on the hit list and is a recent addition to our Restricted list. My guess is that they figured the plant engine was hit so hard that it could never recover, so like many themes that have been destroyed by the list, they bring back parts of it slowly. In a Meta of Xyz monsters, like most people, I am not sure why plants got hit so hard in the first place. It was probably just to make sure that Synchro monsters would go by the way side to make room for Xyz monsters.
 
Spore gives decks that play plants in them a lot of options. One, it is a tuner so it can make some pretty powerful Synchro monsters. As a level one monster, it can turn your Gorz token into a Stardust Dragon or Scrap Dragon, or your level four monster into a Cataster or Hyper Librarian. It can also be special summoned with One-For-One and combos well with Dandylion to make Formula Synchron and then it can be special summoned as a level 4 to Synchro a level 5 monster.
 
The second advantage that Spore gives you is that it can special summon itself from the graveyard. When played with cards like Mystic Tomato, Dandylion, and Lonefire Blossem, you will be summoning Spore as a level 4 or 5 monster which you can Synchro or Xyz with. That gives you a lot of options to get the right monster for the right situation. Now, if we could only get Glow-Up Bulb back!
 
Thus far getting Spore back has not made a huge impact on the current Meta. It does, however give us some more possibilities in making decks. Shooting Quasar and Synchron decks get a little more help, as does Plant decks. It also opens up some possibilities with other decks like Elemental Hero’s as Spore is a Wind and Lonefire Blossem is a Fire so using it with Miracle Fusion is a possibility.
 
Spore is still a very powerful card as evidenced by it being restricted to one. I am not sure why you would even want to restrict it as you can only use the effect of Spore once, but at least it is back and it gives us more options.
 
Traditional: 3/5
Advanced: 4/5

Before anything, this week marks a full year I've been writing for for the COTD team, yay! Today we're hugging the cutest little fluff ball, Spore. A level 1 WIND/Plant-Type Tuner monster, with 400 ATK and 800 DEF. 
 
If this card is in your graveyard: You can Banish 1 other Plant-Type monster from your graveyard ; Special Summon this card from your graveyard and increase its level by the level of that banished monster. Each player can only activate the effect of Spore once per duel. 
 
Spore was a very important part of the whole Plant/Synchro, or Plant Engine madness some time ago. You put Spore in the grave and just wait till something like Lonefire Blossom or Dandylion got in the grave to banished it to get it on the field and increase Spore's level by whatever Plant monster's level you used to special summon it. Then you Synchro into whatever you need. Spore is a nice card that allows plants to get out synchros, and now Xyzs, out even faster. Now that it is back on the limited list, there could be a minor swing back to Plants. Even if it doesn't happen, it's good to have Spore back.
 
 
Traditional: 2
Advanced: 3.5
Fact: Im allergic to flowers.