Welcome to Ban Week!  Opening the week with a card that's found itself Banned at present, is Apoqliphort Towers.  This is a brute of a card, being Level 10, with 3000 attack (and 2600 defense) and an Earth attributed Machine.  So immediately you notice this card can't be Special Summoned and requires three Qli Monsters to be Normal Summoned.  So you're giving up considerable investments to bring this card to the Field.  But he pays off pretty well.  He's immune to Magic and Trap effects as well as activated Monster effects who have a Level OR Rank (so yes he includes XYZ Monsters in that effect) lower than this card. Straight up, you aren't going to be facing many Level/Rank 10 Monsters, so Towers stands tall.  Or stood I suppose.  All Special Summoned Monsters (yes yours too) lose 500 attack and defense, and once a turn, you can have your opponent choose a Monster from their Hand or Field to their Graveayrd.  Phenomenal card...powerful, difficult to destroy sure, but worthy of being Banned?  Apparently somebody thought so

Rating: 4.25/5 (if legal)

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Apoqliphort Towers I've been waiting to be dealt with for a while now. How a boss of all boss monsters wasn't addressed until now is hard to believe.
 
Towers took three of its archetype “Qli” monsters to Special Summon itself, but that wasn't hard at all with its archetype's Pendulum Summoning throughout the deck, as well as Saqlifice making a “Qli” two monsters instead of one. Once out it was almost impossible to beat. Spell/Trap cards powerless against it, and effect monsters useless against it unless you could get over the Level 10 of Towers. Not only that, but each turn the controller of Towers could make the opponent lose a monster from their hand or field. Not “destroying” the monster prevents several popular monsters effect from triggering, stopping your opponent from breaking even off of the loss of their monster. 3000ATK is tough to get over if a Special Summoned monster is losing 500ATK due to Towers, and a regular monster has an even tougher time.
 
There were ways around Towers out there, but the point of it being banned was because those ways weren't always around, or even dependable at times. Towers was downright unfair to play against, and if your opponent got it first turn it could leave you at a terrible disadvantage for the rest of the game.
 
Advanced-4.5/5
Art-4.5/5
 
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Losing Apoqliphort Towers doesn't kill all aspects of Qliphort, just Turbo Towers. It was way too easy to search and summon this card. It's natural immunities made it nearly impossible to get off the field. It also weakened every Special Summoned monster the opponent tried to summon by 500 Atk and Def. Finally, this card generated non targeting removal, not destruction, from either the hand or field. Getting a 3500 Atk monster on the field is not easy, but that was one of the only ways to get this thing off the field and hope to crash both monsters to the grave. Or you could pray for the mighty Banhammer to swing. Justice!
 
Score: Banned/5
Art: 4/5 Definitely intimidating. 
 
-WarlockBlitz

When it comes to examples of cancerous card design, there really aren’t many better examples than Apoqliphort Towers. In theory, the card was hard to pull out, and in any instance where you could you were probably in a winning position anyway. Wavering Eyes is what threw this theory out the window as Qliphort was suddenly able to drop Towers turn 1. Wavering Eyes is an entirely different can of worms, and that card is easily banworthy itself, so that begs the question: was it correct to hit Towers?

In my opinion, yes; like I said, the card is an example of cancerous design. Being immune to any Spell/Trap or monster with a lower Level than it (i.e. damn near all of them), while also boasting 3000 ATK and dropping the ATK of all Special Summoned monsters (i.e. the ones with stats even close to being able to match it) by 500, while also ripping a monster out of your opponent’s hand or field, made this thing a massive nuisance. The fact that cards like Diamond Crab King became near staples solely to deal with this card really says something; when cards are being played specifically to deal with one threat, there’s a problem (e.g. Djinn Releaser of Rituals).

Was Towers only relevant because of Wavering Eyes, another broken card that should be banned as well? Yes. But should Towers itself remain legal? Hell no. That card can rot on the Forbidden List for eternity with how poorly designed it was.

Advanced: BANNED (4/5 when legal)

Like Nekroz, the “Qli” theme is both pleasing to the eye and a real pain in the tush for opponents. At first glance, the Towers look difficult to summon, but that's when you overlook the fact that most of these Qli guys are Pendulumn Monsters. All you'd need to get this thing on the field is to have two high-level Pendulumns, and just like that you've got three tribute baits (theoretically speaking). Its summoning is a big “Screw You” to all Spell, Trap, and Monster effects that would negate it- only Monsters of Level or Rank of 9 or 10 would negate its summoning, and really what are the odds of those showing up? 

Once it* hits the field (*not genderizing it because it's clearly sexless), it powers down all Special Summoned Monsters by 500 ATK and DEF. Doesn't sound like much, but this thing's packing 3000/2600 stats, so it's likely it'll hit something, and hard. You could also force your opponent into sacrificing either a card in hand or one on the field once per turn. Yikes, isn't that overkill? You better pray that face down Mirror Force isn't on the chopping block. 

I've seen this card in action in the past, and truth be told I'm glad it's no longer in competitive play. Not to say Qlis aren't a threat anymore, but at least the rest of us have a chance to win now. 

Final Score: 5/5 (Qli only)