Banned, Reserved, and Restricted Lists
One of the greatest aspects of Warlord since its first printing in 2001 to present day is its replayability. A major contribution to that replayability is having a wide variety of decks and strategies to choose from. It is a focus and the responsibility of Kingswood Games and The Guardians player committee to ensure that there are a healthy number of deck options available to players engaged in tournament play regardless of format.
When a card or deck reaches the point where a player’s only option is to use that card or pilot that deck - or build their deck specifically to beat it - then the card or deck may receive a spot in a format’s banned, reserved, or restricted list. By doing this, formats and metagames can avoid stagnation and present players with a variety of viable strategies.
Banned, reserved, and restricted lists only apply to the format they reference, so that a card might be banned in Alliance, but legal in Ancients. Additionally, banned, reserved, and restricted lists do not affect Limited formats (draft & sealed), but do apply to Constructed formats.
Banned Cards
If a card is listed as banned in a specific format, then you may not include that card in deck construction. If you include a banned card in your deck it will no longer be legal for use in any official tournaments for that format.
Furthermore, you may not bring a banned card into play under any circumstance including any in-game effect.
Reserved Cards
Reserved cards may not begin the game in play through starting armies or any in-game effect. Reserved cards are typically level 1 and 2 characters, but any card that may start in play due to a card effect could become reserved.
Restricted Cards
If a card is listed as restricted, then your deck may only include one copy. This restriction only applies during deckbuilding.
* Cards can appear on both the reserved and restricted lists within the same format. In this case a player may only include one copy of that card in their deck -and- may not start with that card in play through any means.
Ancients Banned, Reserved, & Restricted Cards
The following cards are Banned, which means you may not include them in your deck or bring them into play:
A Prophecy Fulfilled
Amber Gargoyle
Apprentice Ramah
Arcane Qor-teth
Baraxton’s Graveyard
Brother Averil
Children of Yscar
Daedelia
Day of the Raven
Duanna
Field of Bones
Gravity Flux
Healer’s Pact
Lilah
Limited Wish
Locked Ring
Malrog’s Lair
Medusan Lord’s Guile
Medusan Lord’s Might
Mirror Magic
Negotiated Surrender
Olivark the Quiet
One Last Time
Orm Al’Ghast
Overwhelm
Phoenix Feather
Rouse
Sakarian Manticore
Shadan Alder
Sword of Chaos
The Restless
Wyvern’s Flames
The following cards are Reserved, which means they may not start the game in play through any means:
Archer Tower
Ardanaalis
Cocoran
Brel
Edwann Ruthard
Makusog Cavalry
Nelwys
Ring of Blasting
Ring of Guile
Ring of Mending
Ring of Piercing
The Biting West Wind
The following cards are Restricted, which means you may only include one copy in your deck:
Archer Tower
Helm of Undying
Improved Invisibility
Incentives
Into the Tunnels
Kapix
Nepheline Gargoyle
Nightmaster Rress
Nodwick
Paradigm Shift
Perfect Self
Phantasm
Rescue
Suicidal Charge
Supply
Toren Yscar
Trade Routes
Winter Warfare
Yeg-Igryll’s Altar
The following Erratum is in place for the Ancients format only:
Halo of Secrets should read: "May not perform actions other than the following: Spend React: After a Deverenian is targeted by an action (not a melee strike): Cancel the action. This action may not cancel Standard Orders."