Substitoad was released in 2008 as a part of Light of Destruction. However, this card wasn’t banned until it became a part of an FTK in 2010. However, this brings up the question “Why is Substitoad Banned?”
What does Substitoad do?
Substitoad is surprising really good, and veteran players know this. Substitoad is a level 1 aqua-type effect monster. However, the stats of this card are not important beyond the fact that it is a part of the “Frog” archetype. The effect of Substitoad is that you can tribute a monster in order to special summon a frog monster from your deck. Except for Frog the Jam. Frogs can also not be destroyed by battle while this card is on the field. Except for Frog the Jam.
The good thing about Substitoad is that the effect can be used as much as possible. This means you can cycle through a whole deck of frogs in order to create a huge graveyard.
The Frog FTK
Frog FTK is a combo that was actually easy to pull off. First, you needed to summon Substitoad and send as many frogs as possible to your graveyard. Then you need to get Ronintoadin on the field with a Mass Driver in play. Then you can return Ronintoadin to the field every time you tribute him by banishing one frog. However, you need to have 20 frogs in your graveyard in order to do 8000 life points.
This combo was able to snag someone the title of Yugioh World Champion in 2010. However, the fun didn’t last long as Substitoad and Mass Driver were both banned soon after.
Can Substitoad come back?
Maybe? I don’t know to be honest. Frog FTK is an iconic deck that was a menace to the game while it was around. However, I think that card isn’t as broken as it was at it’s peak. Swap Frog which was another card in the Frog FTK got an errata that make the deck way worse. Another factor is that Mass Driver is also banned.
Despite this, I think the card is just ripe for exploitation. It generates so many cards in the graveyard, and I can just imagine it being a problem at some point in the future if it were to be unbanned.
If you are interested in learning about the cards that were banned because of being a key player in an FTK then may I suggest this article on Dimension Fusion.