Graceful Charity
Spell Card
SDP-040, Super Rare

"Draw 3 cards from your Deck, then discard any 2 cards from your hand."

This review marks the beginning of a week of reviews of cards that are currently banned from play in the so-called "Advanced" (I don't care for that name, since there's nothing particularly advanced about it -- I preferred Limited) tournament format. Following my usual policy, I'm only reviewing the cards I actually own that are on the list, which happens to be a nice number, six: Graceful Charity, Harpie's Feather Duster, Monster Reborn, Dark Hole, Sangan, and Witch of the Black Forest.

The ban reviews will include the following information:

• Card Review
• Why the Card is Banned
• Best Replacements
• My Opinion of the Ban
• Probability of Unbanning

Card Review
Obviously, like almost all of the banned cards, Graceful Charity is a staple which receives an automatic 10/10 rating from me. Though it does not provide any hand advantage, which is still very important in the pre-ban format due to the likes of Yata and Chaos Emperor Dragon, it does allow you to refresh your existing hand, thin your deck, and most importantly, dump cards into the Graveyard.

A lot of people want to compare this card to Pot of Greed; I myself have made this error in the past. It is slightly more powerful in terms of drawing cards, but the second half of its effect, discarding, lends an extra dimension to the card. Using Graceful Charity when you need to dump certain cards to the Graveyard is the best way to use it. Chaos found great use for this effect, since the Chaos monsters just happen to require two monsters, one Light and one Dark, to be in the Graveyard.

Why the Card is Banned
This is not immediately obvious to new players. As I hinted above, they tend to only consider the drawing factor, and as far as drawing goes, this card is only marginally more powerful than Pot of Greed. This card is banned for the discarding effect in conjunction with the drawing effect. This was being exploited by more or less every deck type, but mostly by Chaos. There are still cards in the game to draw and cards to discard, but none that can do both at once with no opportunity for interruption and at this level of power.

Best Replacements
There isn't really a direct replacement for Graceful Charity. You should be running Pot of Greed now, though, if you weren't previously. As for discarding, there are many cards that can do this, and one of them is The Cheerful Coffin. It allows you to discard up to 3 Monster Cards from your hand. This is very flexible, and Graceful Charity was used 99 times out of 100 to dump monsters anyways. Give it consideration if you still need a lot of dumping power.

My Opinion of the Ban
I don't like this ban because it cuts down on drawing power, which is already painfully thin in this game. However, I can understand the ban and I think it is warranted, given how this card was being abused. I don't miss this card that much, as it often didn't make my deck lists anyways, but I'd still like to see it come off the list eventually.

Probability of Unbanning
I think this card has a fair chance to come back in the future. With the Chaos archetype getting nailed by the bans, there's one major source of abuse for it disappearing. We definitely need the draw power back, and those cards that combo with Pot of Greed to make it draw an extra card simply don't cut it in terms of playability. I don't think Graceful Charity wins duels very often, but it can definitely save you in a tight spot and give you one extra chance to pull something out of your hat, and that, IMO, can be a very good thing. If there's never any way to come back from behind, then the game will get boring pretty quickly.