What are the chances that IMPERIAL ORDER will likely leave the BAN LIST????? Is it too CHEAP and will never return? If so, then why are cards similar to it like royal decree not banned.

Well, let's think shall we? Which one is harder to get?
-Royal Decree

Which one do most people not have in their decks?
-Royal Decree

Which one is (or was) a cookie card in the past?
-Imperial Order

Which one did i trade a Skilled Dark Magician for?
-Royal Decree (hahahaha...only kidding, i got an Imperial Order)

Which card is the card that most if not all duelists want?
-Winged Kuriboh (oh, and yes Royal Decree)

Which of the cards is coming out as a super in DB2 and a common in the new warrior structure deck?
-You guessed it! Royal Decree.

So I guess its pretty unanimous why Imperial Order is banned and will stay banned to encourage the use of more magic stopping cards like Horus, Magic Jammer, Cursed Seal, Spell Vanishing etc.

i disagree with most of that seeing as how konami makes the bans and in japan royal decree has been a structure deck common for many years now, so it has nothing to do about want or rarity, it has to do with playability.

For example, most competative decks run an average of 16-20 cards making their deck almost if not half spells, while also most competative decks run very few traps so most of the time Royal Decree wont be doing much. So imperial order can lock one quite easily. Also, imperial order has a cost which makes it better, i kno it sounds odd but it makes sense, because yu can choose when to get it off the field without using another card to get rid of it; as royal decree stays on the field negating traps until one of the players destroys it.

So in other words:
Imperial Order > Royal Decree

This kind of also explains why Jinzo was never ban, even though it is quite easy to get.

I might have missed something but that pretty much sums it up from my point of view. Oh and to answer yur first question, its very doubtful that Imperial Order will be coming back any time soon.

I doubt that Imperial Order will ever again see the light of day. It's just to easy to use and abuse.

Royal Decree isn't limited because of several major reasons.
1) Not many people run it (yeah, it's a TP, but there's other reasons beyond that why).
2) No Standby Phase cost. Now at first that can be seen as a good thing, and in aspects it is, but at the same time that's what made Imerial Order so great. Even though it had a cost of 700 LP per turn, you could simply dump it when you wanted to play your Spells, or keep it when you don't. Royal Decree doesn't have that flexibility, once it's been activated, its there to stay until destroyed or negated by another card.
3) The average Deck runs much more Spells vs. Traps because of Jinzo. Royal will on average stop 5-10 Traps, whereas Imerial Order can stop on average 10-18 Spells.

Overally, it basically boils down to #2 and partially #3. When you play Royal Decree, you're stuck with it, but when you play Imperial Order, you're free to get rid of it when you're ready, and that difference is what makes the one broken and the other a bit situational.

True, but I can name several cards that are even easier to abuse that are still running loose. Honestly, I am so sick of people playing "The Trinity" over and over and over in a single game that I wouldn't mind IO coming back to help counter them. Right now, the only pratical way to counter it is to pray you're the one to draw those cards first. Normally I don't like countering broken cards with brokener (I don't care that that's not a real word) cards, but I'm desperate.

In addition, there are many other watered-down substitutes for Imperial Oreder, Horus lv 8 being the most popular. And in the short time the ban list has been in existence, there have always been subs for cards that are already banned. ANd while the subs are suitable, the more powerful ones stay banned. Imperial Order fits this. The only banned card I feel that may be an exception to my theory is Chaos Emperor Dragon. If you check the thread, "ban BLS" Waldo brought forth some evidence showing that he may make a comeback and BLS may get banned in its place.

I wouldn't say that Imperial Order will never again see the light of play. Isn't that what people used to say about Delinquent Duo and Mirror Force?

Err....Why is Confiscation banned?

The banned list is nothing more than something to mix up the game a little bit - to change the pace of the game. It isn't a definate ban list...it will change every 6 months.

Imperial Order is along the lines, as far as the ban list, of Raigeki, Harpie's Feather Duster, etc.

Cards that will definitely not see play again.

I figured Duo would come back at some point, and it's most likely going right back on the Forbidden list in October....

ok imperial order makes 18 to 20 of your opponents cards useless while royal decree stops 5 to 8.
so imperial sends a deck to $%(( while royal decree is just an annoyance and we all know spells are the backbone of all decks.

CASE CLOSED IMPERIAL OUT, ROYAL DECREE IN!!!!!!!

well if what you say about it comming in the warrior deck is true (Havent checked myself) The Royal decree may become banned soon enough (It will probobly be in alota decks, just as imperial order was.)