Change of Heart is considered legendary in the card game, so it might surprise people that it's not seen that frequently in the anime.

Change of Heart is one of the most iconic cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and after 17 years on the banned list, it has finally returned to the competitive scene. Fans of the game have been foaming at the mouth to place this powerful spell in their decks and start stealing their opponent's monsters with little to no cost like the good ol’ days.

However, while Change of Heart has remained a constant symbol of how broken Dueling Monster staples are, it’s received far less attention in the anime. Although it was prominent in a few classic episodes, Change of Heart has largely fallen by the wayside compared to other notable entries like Pot of Greed or Blue-Eyes White Dragon. With the recent excitement surrounding this card, it seems a better time than any to look back and examine when and who has used it.

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Change of Heart made its first appearance in Episode 12, “Trial by Red-Eyes,” in the anime’s first season, "Duelist Kingdom," which aired on July 4th, 2000 in Japan. However, it took a few years for the card to receive its first official printing, where it debuted in Starter Deck: Yugi in March 2002.

In the anime, Yugi and his gang of close friends are taking a well-deserved break after Joey managed to defeat Rex Raptor and is rewarded with his most powerful card -- Red-Eyes Black Dragon. While sitting around the campfire, they are startled by a rustling in the bushes, only to discover that it’s their school-mate Bakura Ryou.

After settling down, the group decides to show off their favorite cards. While Yugi, Joey, Tristan and Tea pick their most powerful monsters, including classics like Dark Magician and Flame Swordsman, Bakura is the only person to reveal a spell. From the very outset, Change of Heart is indicated to be special and is shrouded in mystery. Viewers are left wondering what magical powers the card holds, as the episode is left on a cliffhanger in which Yami-Bakura reveals himself and attempts to steal Yugi’s puzzle.

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In the following episode, “Evil Spirit of the Ring,” Yami-Bakura and Yami-Yugi are locked in a shadow game, where Yugi and his friends' souls are trapped within their favorite cards. In a sinister twist, the group of friends will lose their lives if these cards are destroyed and sent to the graveyard. As the duel plays out, Yami-Yugi faces a constant battle to keep his companions alive, in which neither his hand nor the field is safe for them to reside.

After countering many of Yami-Bakura’s most powerful cards and strategies, the group is faced with their biggest challenge yet as Change of Heart is revealed. Yami-Bakura announces that he intends to take control of Yugi, who is acting as Dark Magician, in an effort to destroy his friends. Since Change of Heart was Bakura’s favorite card, his soul has been infused with it and appears on the field when it is played.

In a classic Dueling Monsters move, Bakura subverts the card's official text and manages to take control of Yami-Bakura’s own monster so that he can sacrifice himself to protect Yugi and his friends. However, Yami-Yugi manages to use the powers of his millennium puzzle to swap Baukra’s soul with his evil counterpart and send him to the shadow realm with Dark Magician’s dark magic attack.

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Since this encounter, Change of Heart hasn’t been seen as frequently as many fans might expect. In the "Duelist Kingdom" arc, the card is only seen briefly and isn’t even played in a duel. Instead, Change of Heart can only be glimpsed inside Seto Kaiba’s briefcase when he takes out his Duel Disk to face Joey Wheeler (Episode 16, “The Scars of Defeat”) and Maximimillion Pegasus (Episode 26, “Champion vs. Creator, Part 1”).

Within both the "Battle City" and "Virtual World" arcs, the card receives similar treatment and is largely relegated to the background, in which it appears in Yugi’s deck (Episode 85, “Rage of the Egyptian Gods) and a series of flashbacks (Episode 109, “Settling the Score - Part 1" and “Brothers in Arms - Part 3”). Change of Heart is finally seen again in a duel when Noah Kaiba uses it to steal Yugi’s Dark Magician -- 106 episodes after the card’s anime debut.

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Change of Heart made its final appearance in Episode 129, “Clash in the Coliseum - Part 1” during the "Enter the Shadow Realm" arc. In an epic duel against Yugi, Kaiba activates Soul Exchange to enable monsters on both sides of the field to be tributed so that he can summon his powerful god card, Obelisk the Tormentor. However, thanks to Kaiba’s prior activation of Spell Sanctuary, Yugi is able to use Change of Heart on his opponent's turn to take control of Kaiba’s X-Head Cannon. Although this would have prevented the summon of Obelisk, Kaiba is able to chain Enemy Controller and continue to use his monster for the tribute summon.

With Change of Heart re-entering the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! scene, fans will hopefully be treated to more stand-out anime moments with this card. Since Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush! is aiming to bring old-school fans back into the fold with its more simplified gameplay, it seems like a better time than any to show off the card’s immense power once again. However, the current ban-list, like all of those that came before it, is temporary, so it remains to be seen how long Change of Heart will remain in the meta. Hopefully, the card will stick around long enough for Konami to give it the attention it rightly deserves.

CBR Anime Features Writer Gregory Segal has been writing professionally for the last three years. In 2020, he would start his own platform, Mouthing Off Magazine, for aspiring young to gain experience within the world of journalism and have their works published. Today, Gregory works as a freelance writer who's favourite pastime is to read, research, and write about a variety of anime/manga and the themes they convey. You can follow him on LinkedIn or feel free email him at gregorysegal3@gmail.com.