This week, we are going on board the nostalgia train with an iconic ace monster from an iconic villain in the original Duel Monsters anime!
Used by Maximillion Pegasus in the Duel Monsters anime as introduced above, Thousand-Eyes Restrict was featured in the epic final match between him and Yugi Mutou in the Duelist Kingdom saga. This creepy-looking monster with a terrifying effect truly pushed Yugi Mutou and his dark counterpart to a corner before the two could eventually defeat it using the Magician of Dark Chaos.
In the real-life game, when this boss monster was first released, it made a very, very huge impact on the game. Together with cards like Metamorphosis, Tsukuyomi as well as Scapegoat released nearly the same time, these cards shaped the infamous Goat Format of the game.
Essentially Goat Format decks work by using Metamorphosis on a Goat Token Special Summoned by Scapegoat, allowing the summon of this beast from the Fusion Deck, therefore bypassing the entire process of having to Ritual Summon Relinquished first, followed by gathering Polymerization and Thousand-Eyes Idol into the hand. With this card’s first two effects, one can easily equip one monster on the opponent’s Field while locking down his/her attacks. The use of Tsukuyomi only made things worse, as its effect allows Thousand-Eyes Restrict to be flipped face-down thereby destroying any of its equipped cards, before being flipped face-up once more to steal another monster.
The whole combo was so efficient and easily done, Goat Control decks practically ran the format during that era. And it was then that Konami decided to put an end to these decks. In the September 2006 banlists, these decks became essentially dead when the 2 key cards of the deck, Tsukuyomi and this card, were banned, and while the former had returned to being Limited in 2012, this card didn’t.
However, I personally believe that this card could still make a comeback and it would not make as much of a impact to the meta than it did years ago. First of all, with Metamorphosis still banned, the two easiest ways to summon this are: Instant Fusion and the normal Fusion method only. Instant Fusion is still Limited in the game, and the normal way costs too many cards to be efficient. Secondly, this card does not protect itself from effect destruction. Many commonly used cards in the game now have effects that not only focus on destruction, but also other field-removal methods like banishing or returning to hand. Thousand-Eyes Restrict doesn’t really defend itself from all those, and compared to many other overpowered monsters in the game, it doesn’t shine that much as it once was.
Personally, I wish for this card to be unbanned soon. As a part of the nostalgia-craving community in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom, it would be a pleasure to see this iconic boss monster being played in the game like it once was.
Stardust Junction 