Welcome to Classic Week, where we go over 5 cards which were highly impactful on the game until they were banned.  These cards have not been reviewed on Pojo for at least a decade.  Wow... Time flies.  I remember reading reviews on these cards back in high school.  Now, the shoe is on the other foot.  These cards are very likely to not return (at least without being errata'd) because power creep has not tamed them.  Today, Change of Heart.

History: It was available since the first Starter Decks (Yugi and Kaiba), though it also came out in the 2nd booster set Metal Raiders as an Ultra Rare not too long after.  In the first season of the anime, it's Bakura's favorite card because it represents the duality inside of him.  Shortly before Snatch Steal, and quite a while before the belated Brain Control, it was the only card that let you gain control of the opponent's monster.  And unlike those, it let you take control of set monsters.  Flip Effects were much more common in the early era of Yugioh and this was a way of using the opponent's effect against them.  It was one of the early staples in the game until the card pool really developed.

Why It Was Banned: If we want to be political, we can say that Brain Control would've been obsolete out the gate, but to be fair, that's the legitimate reason.  Mind Control was also released to let the player take control of face-down monsters.  While the other change-control cards had downsides and costs, Change of Heart had no downsides.  It made OTK's very easy to pull off (alongside other powerful Spell Cards like Monster Reborn), and it made tributing easier, especially back when people used to do it.  

Currently: In Traditional Format, right now, it's still a very good card at least relatively, but the issue is that format is very first-turn driven.  Change of Heart is a card that's good on second turn (so perhaps it's side deck material).  You want draw power, searching, major plussing and/or automatic win cards.  This card would be devastating in Advanced, but has crept down a bit in Traditional.  

Advanced: 5/5 (hypothetically)

Traditional: 4/5

Change of Heart

Change of Heart has the best art in the game, in my opinion. It’s just a personal opinion. But you don’t have art like this in Yu-Gi-Oh anymore. It’s simplistic, yet rich. As for the effect? Yeah, it’s still way too powerful. I’ve heard arguments about how most decks today are so specifically geared toward their own theme that this spell could come back and make little impact, but I don’t buy it. Snatch Steal came back for a short time and unleashed unholy wrath. Unlike cards like Raigeki that destroy, Change of Heart allows the player to bypass a lot of monster effects by sending it to the grave via tribute, synchro, or XYZ. The point of the game today is to earn your own plays, which Change of Heart betrays. It should stay banned.

Advanced: 5/5 – I guess? Not sure how to rate banned cards

Future Potential: 0/5 – Stay banned forever.

Change of Heart is one of the original Power Staple Spells from when I started playing the game. It targeted any opponent's monster and gave it to you to do anything until the End Phase when you had to give it back if it was still on the field. For free! It was like playing an extra monster. Other cards try to emulate the power of Change of Heart because the effect could and still does win games single handed. For something as easy and good as this to come off the ban list would take heavy nerfing. And then it wouldn't be the same. For the formats that allow this to be played, I say good luck. 
 
Score: Banned/5
Art: 5/5
 
-WarlockBlitz

I’ve returned from my extended hibernation to review some classic cards for this week. All the cards we’re reviewing are currently Forbidden, and have been for quite some time. So I will be going over what it does, some of the card’s history (if I know about it), and how it would impact today’s meta.
 
Our first card of the week is Change of Heart, famously used in the show during Bakura’s debut. The card is a very powerful one, allowing you to take control of any monster your opponent controls, regardless of position and with no cost, until the end of the turn. Taking control of the opponent’s monsters has always been an incredibly powerful effect, which is why it’s so hard to come by (with the weaker ones, Mind Control, Mark of the Rose, and Enemy Controller, having notable drawbacks, and the stronger ones, Change of Heart, Brain Control, and Snatch Steal, being banned).
 
So how would this impact the game if it got unbanned? Well, let’s put it into perspective. About two years ago, Konami decided to unban Snatch Steal, arguably the weakest of the three banned monster stealers (since it has a drawback of giving the opponent LP and, as an equip card, it’s susceptible to MST and friends). Snatch Steal then proceeded to be the sackiest card of the following format, with games turning around solely because somebody drew it. Snatch Steal was then unceremoniously rebanned on the next list, and nobody missed it (I hope).
 
Now, if the weakest of the three did that, can you imagine what the strongest one would do?
 
So in short, this card is still incredibly broken and should remain banned.
 
Rating: 5/5