Graceful Charity

Graceful Charity ranks as my #5 banned card that can never come back without an errata, behind Disc Commander, Painful Choice, Magical Scientist, and Sixth Sense in that order. Oddly enough, it is easily the card people tell me most that they wish would come back. And I get it. The art is sexy and takes you back to the old days probably more than any other card. But let’s be real. This spell is super dumb. Even a spell that let you draw 2 and discard 1 would be run in every deck without question. Charity can never come back. Ever.

Advanced: 5/5

Future Potential: 0/5

Day 3 of Classic Week.  Today, Graceful Charity.  It came in the Pegasus Starter Deck, even though he never used it in the original anime.  Most of the cards in that deck were bad (worse than the Joey deck) , so they had to put something in there to get everyone to buy it.  There were plenty of cards Pegasus actually used in the anime which weren't released yet, but that's beside the point.

History: Considering the fact that Pot of Greed was legal at the time and it was an easy +1, Graceful Charity seemed like a more balanced draw option.  You drew 3 cards but you also lost 2 cards plus Graceful itself.  It was a +0, revenue neutral.  But there was a way to +1 on it.  Many players held Graceful in their hand and waited until they drew Sinister Serpent (or searched it out via Sangan), so they can discard a floater instead of a card they needed.

Why It Got Banned: We always knew it was a very powerful card, but during the early stages of the game, we needed it.  There wasn't a lot of draw power nor many quality graveyard dumping cards.  Archetypes didn't have much exclusive draw support.  But as the game progressed, the card pool increased and we needed to make more room for new cards rather than let the old guard stay in power forever.  Graceful was seen as the most balanced member of the card advantage trinity (Pot of Greed and Delinquent Duo were much worse).  But with those gone, Graceful stuck out like a sore thumb.  More graveyard based effects came out (such as Dark Worlds at the time) and more revival options for archetypes came out.  

It was a catch 22.  As the game got faster, Graceful was needed less.  And when the game was slow, it was too overpowered.

Currently: This card is every bit as good as it's ever been.  There's no reason why one wouldn't use the card.  It has no costs or real downsides.  You get to draw before you discard, so you ultimately pick out your best possible hand.  It speeds up your deck, helps fill your graveyard.  I'm not sure, at any point, that there would be a time when people wouldn't want to use this banned staple again.

How to Balance It.  The game could certainly use more balanced draw options, even in vein of Graceful.  Many of the "Graceful" cards released later on have not been good.  There are possible things they could do to fix it.  Put a restriction on the card.  Prevent graveyard abuse (since it was meant in the time when graveyard effects, as well as reviving, weren't as common).  

Advanced: 5/5 (hypothetical)

Traditional: 5/5 (i'd give it a 10/5 if I could)

As for my balanced version, I would make something like this.

Graceful Altruist 

Normal Spell

Pay 1000 life points.  Draw 3 cards.  Then, return 2 cards from your hand to the bottom of your deck in either order.  You can only activate this card during the start of your Main Phase 1, and then you cannot activate any more Spell or Trap Cards for the remainder of the turn.

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Graceful Charity is another one of those cards we've reviewed several times and it never gets old.
 
So simple to use, tremendous gain and combo potential all from one card. What is meant to break even in the end rarely does. Fill up your grave or combo off the effect of Graceful Charity that is meant to even the card out, while thinning your deck and gaining more resources. The word “then” is key, making this card great in decks like Dark World where discarding through effects is needed.
 
Advanced- 5/5 if not banned
Art- 4.5/5
 
Until Next Time,

Draw cards always get banned eventually. Enjoy that Card of Demise and Pot of Desires while you can. Graceful Charity has attempted balance with its own effect. It's a Draw 3 Normal Spell, with the "downside" of discarding 2 cards. Since those discards were by the effect of the Spell, many effects could and did activate. Also, you weren't discarding 2 of the 3 drawn cards. You could discard any 2 cards in your hand. In theory, turn 1 could be 9 cards in hand just with Graceful Charity before deciding 2 to discard. Too powerful then, even more powerful if it ever came back. It would need to cost 3000 Life points to come back. 
 
Score: Banned/5
Art: 5/5
 
-WarlockBlitz

Graceful Charity first debuted in Starter Deck: Pegasus, despite the fact that Pegasus himself never used it! The card’s first appearance in the anime was when a Marik-controlled Bandit Keith used it against Yugi, but I think it’s more well-known use was when the Rare Hunter used multiples of it against Joey to turbo into Exodia.
 
Graceful Charity allows you to draw 3 cards, and then discard 2. Rather fair for its day, in all honesty; you don’t actually net any advantage from this (giving up 2 cards in hand along with Graceful Charity itself to draw 3 cards ends in a +0), and very few cards benefitted from being discarded (the most notable one was Sinister Serpent). So during the early days you actually usually held onto this card until you had cards you could reliably discard, such as the aforementioned Serpent and a high level monster to revive with Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted.
 
So what broke this card? Well, first they made Dark World… and then they made everything. Discarding 2 cards isn’t a notable drawback when a lot of Decks run cards that benefit from being in the Graveyard. Imagine Lightsworn loading their Graveyard with Necro Gardna and Eclipse Wyvern, or Blue-Eyes loading their Graveyard with Dragon Spirit of White or either of the White Stones. Imagine Shaddoll triggering two of their Shaddoll monster effects, or imagine Burning Abyss discarding literally anything.
 
Graceful Charity is definitely a card that has gotten much stronger as time has passed, and in some ways I feel like I would rather have Pot of Greed come back than this (disclaimer: neither of them should, I’m just making a point). While Pot of Greed is overall the better card and can be used in any Deck, Graceful Charity is much stronger in the Decks that can actually make use of it.
 
So yeah, no, this card should stay banned.
 
Rating: 5/5

I don't usually like weeks where we cover banned cards just for nostalgia.  It kinda seems like a way of cheating our loyal readers.  But I found some time and here I am.  The plus to a week like this is these cards may never see play in advanced again.  Also nobody but Grandpa Paladin has looked at these before, so that can be fun for the others.  As for the card today, Graceful Charity had quite a meaningful impact on the game for a long time.  It isn't an instant or automatic advantage like say Pot of Greed.  Many other cards to use and abuse with Graceful are Banned.  You don't gain advantage just by playing this card.  Honestly, I feel Graceful could return for a format without wrecking the game.  I don't see that as likely and we likely aren't going to find out anytime soon, if at all. 

Rating:

Traditional:  4.75/5 Nearly perfect
Advanced:  4/5 if legal
Art:  5/5