Today's card got limited in the Sept. 1 list change and got knocked down to one. A level 10 DARK/Dragon type with 2800 ATK and 2400 DEF, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon is the Dragon among Dragons. When it was first released, it breathed much needed new life into Dragons, and here's why.

You can special summon this card from your hand by banishing a Dragon-type monster you control. Once per turn: You can special summon one Dragon-Type monster from your hand or graveyard except Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

Red Eyes gave something Dragons needed. A big monster that can actually do something than just sit there and be big. Red Eyes's stats are enough to run over almost every monster in the game and its special summoning requirement is easy to meet, and great with an opening hand with about 3-4 Dragons. This card teamed with Future Fusion meant a swarm of huge dragons, especially if you have more than one Red Eyes in your hand, you can banish one Red Eyes for another after you use his effect and get you another dragon, preferably dragons that can keep them around like Prime Material Dragon. Even at one and no Future Fusion, this card is still a threat and can get out a huge monster to overwhelm you or your opponent. To anyone who turned their back on Dragons because this card got limited to 1, I hope you change your mind. This has been and always will be a great card.

Traditional: 3
Advanced: 5 In a Dragon deck
Tomorrow: Winding up on the high seas.

Wednesday:

Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
Lv. 10/DARK/Dragon/2800A/2400D
"You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by banishing 1 face-up Dragon-Type monster you control. Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 Dragon-Type monster from your hand or Graveyard, except "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon"."

Sigh... I love this card (we're going to have an autumn wedding) and am both sad and not surprised to see him finally hit the restricted list.

There's a few very good reasons that this guy has become fully restricted to one per deck and it's all thanks to the Dragons Collide structure deck. Chaos has always been a game-winning archetype because of it's speed and power, and ol' Red-Eyes amped the deck up to rediculous speed. It was easy to search him out with Eclipse Wyvern, then get him into hand by removing EW from the graveyard to Special Summon Solar Flare Dragon, Darkflare Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer or Black Luster Solder - Envoy of the Beginning. Once this guy hits the field, you're getting a dragon-only Monster Reborn for free every turn, which allows for massive swarming of the field. Running a Chaos Dragon deck myself, I can confirm the overwhealming power of this card in the deck, so it's restricting comes as sad, but unsurprising news.

Sadly, ALL dragon-themed decks suffer from his restriction now, including Blue-Eyes White Dragon decks. This guy made Blue-Eyes playable as more than a mere fun-theme deck. With Red-Eyes at one per deck, Blue-Eyes has gone back to a lower-level fun deck and isn't the powerhouse it could be.

Because Chaos reins supreme, it's unlikely that this card will ever be unrestricted fully. Perhaps we'll someday see it at two, but it's more likely to become a banned card, something I feel would be very sad as it's one of my favorite cards to use. :(

Traditional: 4
Advanced: 4

We are reviewing one of the most powerful cards in all of duel monsters today. OK, well maybe not the strongest but a boss monster none the less. Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon got a big boost from the Dragon’s Collide Structure Deck, which put it in the top tier. Lightpulsar Dragon and Eclipse Wyvern made Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon into a monster to be feared. When Wyvern is sent to the graveyard, it searches out Re-Eyes and then you remove Wyvern and a dark monster to bring out Lightpulsar and get Red-Eyes to your hand. The ease of summoning Red-Eyes is also a key factor in its power as with the simple banishment of a Dragon type monster, you can special summon Red-Eyes and use it’s effect to special summon another Dragon, preferably Lightpulsar as having both on the field gave you a sort of lock. If Lightpulsar was destroyed, you can bring it back with Red-Eyes and if Red-Eyes was destroyed you can bring it back with Lightpulsar. If both are destroyed, you still get the Red-Eyes which could then get Lightpulsar. And the beat goes on.
 
Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon along with the cards from Dragon’s Collide and Future Fusion made for one powerful deck when combined with Chaos. But that is not the only reason Red-Eyes Darkness was limited to one. On November 6th, a monster from the Shonen Jump Digital magazine with a very long name called Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max will be playable. This boss monster that can also burn you for 2000 life points is a rank 10 Xyz monsters. All you need is two Red-Eyes on the field to summon it. Hieratic decks are very good at doing this. Summon Hieratic Dragon of Eset, special summon Su, use its effect to tribute an Hieratic from your hand and then Xyz into Hieratic Dragon King of Atum to special summon Red-Eyes and use Red-Eyes to special summon the Xyz material you just sent to the graveyard to special summon another Atum and use its effect to get another Red-Eyes and then special summon the Xyz material that was sent to the grave. Then overlay the Atums for Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger’s and the Red-Eyes for the Gustav Max, thus giving you 2600+2600+3000+2000+ and burn for 2000.
 
That is how a good card became a great card and had to be limited. Often times it is not how good a card is that forces it to the restricted list but how good a card becomes because of other cards.
 
Traditional: 4/5
Advanced: 5/5