Thousand-Eyes Restrict
Dark, Level 1, [Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect]
ATK: 0, DEF: 0
MC1-EN004, Secret Rare (Master Collection Vol. 1 Variant)

"'Relinquished' + 'Thousand-Eyes Idol'
As long as this card remains face-up on the field, other monsters cannot change their battle positions or attack. Select 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field and equip it to this card (this effect can only be used once per turn and you can only equip 1 monster at a time to this card). The ATK and DEF of this card become the same amounts as the monster equipped to this card. If this card is destroyed as a result of battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead."

Here's a card I've been anxiously waiting to review for almost as long as I anxiously waited to own it. Thousand-Eyes Restrict has been mentioned several times on the Yu-Gi-Oh Corner, but primarily in my review of Relinquished. This card shares most of Relinquished's effects and adds a new and very powerful one of its own -- the ability to freeze all other monsters in place.

Back in the days when TER was only a difficult-to-obtain Secret Rare and even more difficult-to-obtain promo card, its uses were rather limited. Sure, it was possible to be like Pegasus and run a true TER Fusion deck, where you fuse the Ritual Relinquished with the utterly useless Thousand-Eyes Idol (a 0 ATK/0 DEF monster with no effect). This was very slow and unreliable, of course.

In the present day, TER is widespread and extremely dangerous. Two cards have made this happen. The first is Metamorphosis, an extremely powerful Spell Card that can turn any monster on your side of the field into any monster of the same Level from your Fusion Deck. This is ripe for abuse, as TER is a Level 1 monster. As I have mentioned before, Tokens of Level 1 can be sacrificed as tribute for Metamorphosis to bring out TER. This is especially abused in concert with Scapegoat, and since the recent rulings change for Battle Position Changes, "Goat Control" decks using TER have climbed in use. The second card that can bring out TER is Magical Scientist. For 1000 Life Points, you can suck up a creature's monster, possibly attack with TER, and then have the monster go to the opponent's Graveyard when Scientist's effect sends TER back to the Fusion Deck. This can be very useful for getting rid of your opponent's pesky ace monsters, especially a wayward Black Luster Soldier, Dark Magician of Chaos, or Phoenix of Nephthys.

The change to rulings regarding Battle Position Changes I mentioned has made TER even more powerful. Now, you can use Book of Moon to flip TER face-down after it absorbs a monster to get rid of that monster, and then flip TER back up and absorb another of your opponent's monsters (TER's once-per-turn restriction resets if it gets flipped face-down). You're now allowed one normal position change and any number of effect position changes per monster per turn. The former ruling was that if an effect change took place before you used your normal change, you lost the normal change. This rulings reversal has altered the playability of many cards drastically, and often in a positive manner.

Thousand-Eyes Restrict is an absolutely Great card which could be employed in a vast array of decks. Chaos, Magical Scientist, and Goat Control are the three which typically use it to its greatest effect, but don't let this be a discouraging factor -- this card is cool enough to deserve occasional use by all duelists. Now, I want to meet somebody who has the guts to run a traditional TER Fusion deck ;)