Burst Protocol is a set that introduced many meta relevant cards, including Fallen of the White Dragon, Ecclesia and the Dark Dragon, and Shiina, Twin Tempests of Celestial Thunder. One that Duelists seem to be the most excited about is Forbidden Crown, a card that can be added to many strategies and is useful when either going first or second! 

Forbidden Crown is a Quick-Play Spell card that affects a single face-up monster on the field. The selected monster has its effect negated; it cannot attack or be destroyed; it is unaffected by activated card effects, other than its own; it can’t be Tributed; and it can’t be used as material for a Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Summon. That’s a lot of different things, but it essentially boils down to the monster being stuck on the field without an effect! Another key aspect of the card is that neither player can activate monster effects in response to its activation; while your opponent can still use cards like Dragon’s Mind or Solemn Judgment to try and negate Forbidden Crown, they likely won’t have a chance to respond if they haven’t already established a board.

Forbidden Crown is an extremely versatile card that can be useful either going first or second. When going first, Crown can be Set to the backrow to be used as an interruption on the opponent’s turn. However, against the Dracotail strategy, opponents will often use the effect of Dracotail Faimena to Fusion Summon Dracotail Arthalion on the opponent’s turn. Crown gives Duelists a way to try and negate the effect of Arthalion right away, preventing your opponent from adding key resources back to the hand with Arthalion’s effect! Similarly, when playing against Radiant Typhoon, Radiant Typhoon Krosea is a key card that can be Special Summoned from the hand whenever a Quick-Play Spell is activated; this means that if you play Quick-Play Spell Cards in your Deck, your opponent may be able to Special Summon Krosea in order to try and use its effect! However, Crown puts a stop to this, and can help prevent them from generating early advantage. 

Speaking of Radiant Typhoon, Forbidden Crown is an amazing card to use in the Radiant Typhoon Deck itself! As a Quick-Play Spell, you can shuffle it back into the Deck with the effect of Radiant Typhoon Mandate, recycling a valuable disruption while Mandate allows you to draw a card. Furthermore, if you use Crown to disrupt your opponent, this could allow you to Special Summon your own copy of Krosea; you could then search for Mystical Space Typhoon and another Radiant Typhoon card, additional resources that can help to push through an opponent’s board.

Finally, Forbidden Crown is a card that can actually be used defensively, as well! Since Crown can affect a monster on either side of the field, you could choose to apply Crown’s effects to a monster that you control. If your opponent has built up a large field of monsters, using Crown on your own monster means that your monster cannot be destroyed by battle, which could go a long way to protecting your Life Points and allowing you to make a follow-up play next turn! Crown’s effect even make it so that common ways to get rid of problematic monsters, such as Super Polymerization or Gameciel the Sea Turtle Kaiju, aren’t able to get rid of a monster affected by Forbidden Crown. 

These are just a few of the applications of Forbidden Crown in the upcoming format!