Nerf " Nerf " is a term used to describe the altering of a card ' s effect or ruling , or of its Forbidden / Limited status , to make that card or a certain deck that revolves around that card far less powerful or more situational than it was previously . For instance , " Hyper Synchron " in the anime was given the effect of allowing a Synchro Monster to gain 800 ATK and the immunity from being destroyed by battle when it was used as a Synchro Material Monster . When it was printed as a real - life card in " Crimson Crisis " , that effect was changed to giving an 800 point attack boost to a Dragon - Type Synchro Monster when it was used as a Synchro Material Monster , although the Synchro Monster would be Banish ed during the End Phase . Since the card was so drastically changed in effect to make it far less powerful and therefore less desirable , a player may see fit to call it " nerfed " . Another example is " Major Riot " ; originally , its effect would activate whenever a monster was returned to its controller ' s hand , regardless of how it was returned . Recent rulings , however , changed it so that the monster must be returned by the opponent ' s effect before " Major Riot " can activate . Since the change in ruling severely reduced the amount of combos that could be used with it , it can be considered " nerfed " . A third example is " Berserk Dragon " ; originally the card said " . . can only be Special Summoned by the effect of " A Deal with Dark Ruler " . " , making it a Semi - Nomi monster when first released . It was later changed to " . . . except by . . . " , changing the card to a Nomi monster . " Chaos Sorcerer " also says " . . . can only be Special Summoned by . . . " , however , this was never changed to " Nomi " . Both of the cards had the same text for Special Summon ing except one was changed to Nomi . A fourth example is " Earthbound Immortal Wiraqocha Rasca " . In the show it has 1 ATK and DEF points and you can skip your Battle Phase to make your opponent ' s life points 1 . When it became a real card it had 100 ATK and DEF points and when it is Normal Summoned you can return up to 3 cards you control to your Deck , except for Rasca , and discard the same number of cards from your opponent ' s hand at random . It would also gain 1000 ATK for each card discarded by this effect . A fifth example would " The Winged Dragon of Ra " . In the anime it had many special abilities , most notably when it was Special Summoned it was able to destroy and remove from play every monster the opponent had on the field and then attack the opponent directly ; all of this while not being affected by card effects . When it was made into a legal card its ability to be Special Summoned was taken away altogether , as well as its immunity to card effects and some other abilities that made Ra practically unstoppable in the anime . It also became extremely weak - its base attack and defense were 0 instead of having an attack and defense equal to the sum of that of its tributed monsters . A final example would be a change to the Forbidden / Limited List to limit " Thousand - Eyes Restrict " , " Metamorphosis " , and " Scapegoat " at the same time to curb the use of Goat Control Deck s . Many players did not see the reason for limiting all three cards and this was further compounded when , in a later List , " Thousand - Eyes Restrict " was switched from Limited to Forbidden without altering the status of the other two cards . Therefore , the very Deck that these limits were supposed to curb was considered " nerfed " as the one major strategy of the Deck was greatly weakened and later nullified completely , undermining the entire point to the Deck . Even in Traditional Format , this Deck is still greatly weakened since there are very few cards to search for Quick - Play Spells .