by Overview
It’s time to shine in this Archetype Spotlight for a Duelist Kingdom monster who can (literally) steal the show: Relinquished! In the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga, Pegasus capitalized on Relinquished’s effect of stealing monsters to absorb Yugi’s Curse of Dragon! He even used Thousand-Eyes Restrict against Mai Valentine. There are few things worse than your opponent using your own monsters against you. However, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing here! Adorn your Millenium Eye and embrace your inner villain as we take a peek at the cards that make up this magical archetype!
Throughout this article, I will refer to this archetype as the “Relinquished” archetype, though it is often also called the “Eyes Restrict” archetype due to the naming conventions of Relinquished support released over the years. Many of the cards in this archetype have “Eyes Restrict” in their name, not “Relinquished.”
Relinquished
Relinquished is a level 1DARK Spellcaster Ritual Monster, and is, not surprisingly, at the core of the archetype. The archetype is made up of mostly other Lv. 1 DARK Spellcasters, and they all center around one common theme: stealing your opponent’s monsters! Each of the cards in this archetype accomplish this in different ways. Let’s take a look!
First, Relinquished itself. This card was first released back in 2000 in Japan and worldwide by 2004, and was featured in a Pegasus Structure Deck as well. Relinquished‘s effect is: “You can Ritual Summon this card with ‘Black Illusion Ritual’. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; equip that target to this card (max. 1). This card’s ATK/DEF become equal to that equipped monster’s. If this card would be destroyed by battle, destroy that equipped monster instead. While equipped with that monster, any battle damage you take from battles involving this card inflicts equal effect damage to your opponent.”
Summon Relinquished, equip one of your opponent’s monsters to it, and use it as a shield against attacks! This card can wreak havoc on your opponent’s board and strategy, taking away your opponent’s monsters so they can’t use them. Even though Relinquished has some protection in battle, it is still vulnerable to other forms for board removal, like Raigeki, Mirror Force, or Compulsory Evacuation Device. For this reason, Relinquished has fallen out of favor in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! Modern Yu-Gi-Oh! plays much differently than Yu-Gi-Oh! in the early 2000s. Even so, the archetype has obtained support over the years in an attempt to revive this creepy-eyed monstrosity.
Support
The earliest archetypal support came in the shape of a Fusion Monster: Thousand-Eyes Restrict! This Fusion Monster, released in tandem with Relinquished is the combination of Relinquished and Thousand-Eyes Idol. [Fun fact: Thousand-Eyes Restrict was the very first Fusion Monster to have an effect!] This card functions just like Relinquished, but with the added effect of disallowing other monsters the opportunity to attack or change battle positions, effectively locking your opponent out of the Battle Phase!
In 2018, the TCG (2017 OCG) would welcome another round of Relinquished support: A new Fusion Monster! Millennium-Eyes Restrict. This Fusion requires Relinquished plus any other Effect Monster. Like its predecessors, this monster can steal your opponent’s monsters, but this one can do it as a quick effect when your opponent activates a monster effect, and it can steal monsters from your opponent’s graveyard! As a bonus, monsters your opponent controls that have the same name as the monster you stole cannot attack or deactivate their effects! Millennium-Eyes Restrict is like an updated version of Thousand-Eyes Restrict.
Other support for Relinquished includes: Golden-Eyes Idol, Millennium-Eyes Illusionist, Illusionist Faceless Magician, Relinquished Fusion, and Relinquished Anima. Golden-Eyes Idol is a retrain of Thousand-Eyes Idol and allows you to not only look at your opponent’s hand (wink wink, Millennium Eye!) but also allows you to steal an opponent’s monster just like Relinquished and attach it to one of your “Eyes Restrict” monsters or Relinquished, but the Idol must be banished or sent to the GY by card effect to do this. Millennium-Eyes Illusionist, a retrain of Dark-Eyes Illusionist, also allows you to equip one of your opponent’s monsters to your “Eyes Restrict” monsters or Relinquished. Illusionist Faceless Magician, a retrain of Illusionist Faceless Mage, is a recycling monster that allows you to Special Summon your Relinquished or “Eyes Restrict” Fusion Monsters from the GY. Relinquished Fusion allows you easier access to the Eyes Restrict Fusion monsters. This Spell Card also lets you steal an opponent’s monsters. See the pattern? And lastly, Relinquished Anima is a Link monster version of Relinquished that can steal an opponent’s monster that it points to. It requires a little more set-up than its Ritual counterpart, but it can be very useful in its own right. All of these support cards lend themselves to making the deck more reliable and consistent.
MOdern Support
In October of 2025, Relinquished received more support in the form of yet another Fusion Monster: Nightmare-Eyes Restrict. This time, Relinquished gained an Illusion-type monster. This card, like its predecessors, can steal your opponent’s monsters, but it does so if it is summoned, or during the end of the Battle Phase if it battled. As an Illusion monster, if this card battles, neither battling monster is destroyed as a result of that battle. This gives Nightmare-Eyes extra battle protection, and allows it to use its effect multiple times while on the Field. At the time of this article’s publication, Nightmare-Eyes Restrict is only available in the OCG. However, Dueling Nexus has added this card to its collection, and players can test out this card in their decks. If you don’t already have a Dueling Nexus account, create one here: Register for Dueling Nexus. It’s free and easy, and gives you instant access to online Yu-Gi-Oh! decks, deckbuilding, online dueling with other players, and much more!
Honorable Mention
Dark-Eyes Illusionist could technically be called a part of the Relinquished archetype, though it has little in common with the other cards, aside from its name and card art. Though, like Thousand-Eyes Restrict and Millennium-Eyes Restrict, it can paralyze one of your opponent’s monsters. Pegasus used this card against Yugi before tributing it to summon Relinquished.
Cards NOT part of the Relinquished archetype:
Relinquished is an old card, but it keeps peeking its strange eye into the affairs of the ever-changing game of Yu-Gi-Oh! So, if you’re looking for a unique way to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, set your sights on this eye-catching archetype and try something different!
