The secret rares from Phantom Darkness are getting a ton of attention right now, but what really makes the set so cool is that there are great cards at every rarity level. If you open some packs, you’re virtually guaranteed to get at least a few cards you could use in a tournament-level deck, and I love that. I turn into an impulsive pack-buying monster any time I hit a Target or Wal-Mart, let alone my local hobby store, so getting something good every time is pretty appealing.

With that said, a lot of good cards aren’t seeing much discussion—there’s so much playable material to go around that some of it is bound to get lost in the shuffle. In my opinion, one of the best cards in this set is also a perfect fit for the current metagame in North America, and yet it’s not getting the attention I think it deserves. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Drastic Drop Off . . .

You can activate Drastic Drop Off any time your opponent adds a card from that player’s deck to his or her hand—you activate it in response to the act of drawing, and it can’t interrupt a chain. That means it works against regular draws during the draw phase just like the original Drop Off, but it also works in response to card effects that search the deck to put something in your hand. And that means . . .

A lot of topnotch cards in the current format are topnotch because they search out other useful stuff. Reinforcement of the Army is integral to Macro Cosmos because it lets that deck search out D.D. Survivor. Elemental Hero Stratos is the lynchpin of Perfect Circle Monarchs and Destiny Hero Light and Darkness Dragon, getting Disk Commander, Malicious, Plasma, or Fear Monger as needed. Gadgets search out other Gadgets, and that hot new Goblin Zombie isn’t so awesome when he’s just sending Zombie Master to the graveyard. You can even discard a Volcanic Monarchs’ Blaze Cannon or Volcanic Shell.

Without D.D. Survivor Macro Cosmos decks don’t tend to last very long. Stratos kicking Plasma or Fear Monger to your graveyard is pretty useless, and even if you search out a card destined for the graveyard like Disk Commander or Malicious, discarding it keeps the opponent from having free fodder for Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Snipe Hunter. Cutting off a string of Gadgets at the source speaks for itself too, though in that case you’re taking a strategic loss for tactical reasons.

A few of you are probably scoffing at the idea of using Drastic Drop Off to discard Malicious, Disk Commander, or Volcanic Shell, but add Banisher of the Radiance to the equation and suddenly those plays become viciously viable options. If you control Banisher and a set back-row card, a player who’s aware of your potential trap is going to have to eliminate Banisher before trying to search for any of those cards, limiting his or her play choices and potentially stealing tempo control. If the opponent doesn’t know about the risk you’re presenting? Well, then that player will probably fall for it, and wind up with his or her Destiny Hero monster or Volcanic Shell stranded in the removed-from-play pile.

This card offers strong tech options against four or five of the top decks in this format—basically everything but Burn takes a very specific beating when it tries to use at least one particular key card. Teching the stuff that makes for powerful plays is one major asset this card has going for it, but that’s really just the beginning. Drastic Drop Off also makes big use of a core piece of game theory that everyone should be familiar with.

A complicated game state is one that involves many cards, both on the field and in each duelist’s hand. In a situation like that, the game becomes unpredictable because each player has lots of options, but so long as both exhibit relatively even field presence, it’s difficult for significant damage to be dealt.

A simplified game state is the opposite: it’s a situation where each duelist controls very few cards, and the game is predictable beyond the randomness of each turn’s draw phase.

In general, a complicated game state is more secure for both players, since it’s usually difficult to deal significant amounts of damage through direct attacks. On the other hand, a simplified game state can be good or bad for a single player, depending on a number of factors. If you have control of the field with a single big monster, then a simplified game state is going to let you make more direct attacks and thus achieve a win. If your deck works better in topdecking situations than your opponent, a simplified game will also be favorable. For example, if one player is running a deck with no tribute monsters, while the other is playing six tribute monsters, the player without high-level monsters is going to draw more useable cards in a simplified situation. Thus, that player will usually want to simplify the duel whenever he or she can.

While nixing an opponent’s card without giving up one of your own is always ideal, making card-for-card trades is the next best thing if you’re looking to simplify the game: you don’t need to have more cards than your opponent as long as the cards you do have are simply more useful. Forcing simplification works well for a number of strategies (namely Gadgets in the current format), and that’s a big reason why Gadgets play so many cards like Smashing Ground and Bottomless Trap Hole. Each can remove a card from both sides of the field really quickly, and soon the flood of Gadgets will overwhelm your opponent.

The same was true for combo decks like the original Return from the Different Dimension build created by Team Scoop a couple of years ago. That deck sought to aggressively simplify a duel in order to ensure that the opponent would be vulnerable to a big push with Return. Years later, the same strategy could work in Dark decks banking on Return and Dimension Fusion.

The thing that all these decks have in common, though, is a general reliance on monster destruction for simplification. Zombies can simplify through Dust Tornado, but they’re a rarity, and in order to achieve that simplification you still need your opponent to do something specific. If he or she doesn’t play a monster or set a spell or trap, you might be able to deal some damage, but the duel will remain complicated and unpredictable.

That’s where Drastic Drop Off comes in. Since your opponent doesn’t get to choose whether or not he or she draws a card in the draw phase, and since the opponent would almost always do so even if he or she had the choice, you’re guaranteed a card’s worth of simplification any time you have Drastic Drop Off set. As long as it isn’t destroyed or negated in the short time between your setting it and activating it in the following turn, it’s going to tear down one more set of complications that could keep you from winning.

Maybe that’s why there’s a Gadget on the card art?

As good as this card can be in Gadgets or certain Dark decks, it also makes a great addition to anything running Van’Dalgyon, Dark Dragon Lord. Van’Dalgyon’s sheer size means he’s great in a simplified game state. At the same time, he’s a popular pick for newer builds of Macro Cosmos, which will in turn combo Drastic Drop Off with Banisher and Cosmos to remove cards like Malicious and Treeborn Frog when they’re discarded. Harsh.

Of course, if we’re going to bring Van’Dalgyon into the picture, then we really need to discuss the one head-turning thing about this card on a technical level: for some reason, it’s a counter trap. Generally the counter trap designation is reserved for a card that must be activated in response to the activation of another effect, but in the proud (and downright confusing) tradition of Negate Attack, Drastic Drop Off is different. Instead of being chained to the activation of an effect, it needs to be played in response to a game action, and despite that fact, it’s a counter trap. Good thing, too.

Since Drastic Drop Off is a counter trap, it operates at spell speed 3. That means it can’t be chained to with Royal Decree, Call of the Haunted for Jinzo, or any similar trick. That also means it can be used in the damage step, which is where things get really interesting.

The ability to play Drastic Drop Off in the damage step means that it can be used in response to the effects of Sangan, Goblin Zombie, and Card Trooper when any of those cards are destroyed in battle. Heck, you can even use it stop the almighty threats of Gokipon and Birdface. I’m sure we all stay up late nights worrying about how we can beat Insects and Harpies.

All kidding aside, shutting down Sangan means stopping a card that darn near every duelist runs, or at least reducing the pulls for the fuzzy little critter to a choice between Treeborn Frog and Disk Commander. Snipe Hunter, Armageddon Knight, Card Trooper, Prometheus, King of Shadows, and other strategically important cards are cut out of the picture. A Zombie player will be one more step removed from his or her all-important Zombie Master too, keeping the special summon craziness in check for at least a little while.

Being a counter trap also means that Drastic Drop Off works with the support specifically designed for those cards, and it has an instant three-of slot in Counter Fairy builds. They become downright vicious with the addition of this card. Previously that deck was at the mercy of its opponent’s actions: it wouldn’t get to draw any extra cards with Bountiful Artemis or gain any life points with Meltiel, Sage of the Sky if the opponent didn’t do enough things to let the Fairy player activate counter traps. However, since the opponent always has to draw at the beginning of his or her turn, you’ll always get at least one counter trap resolved if you have Drastic Drop Off.

Activating Drastic Drop Off when you control Artemis is nuts. You force your opponent to discard a card while drawing one yourself, depriving the opponent of an option that may have threatened Artemis while giving you even more stuff to do. It’s easy to see how this could create a snowball effect wherein one copy of Drastic leads to another, or at least leads to a defensive counter trap that keeps Artemis on the field while letting you draw another card. Opening with Artemis face up, a set Drastic Drop Off, and any other set spell or trap is brutal, and it’s the kind of play Counter Fairies needed to become a serious threat in premier events.

Once you use Drastic Drop Off, you can always play Harvest Angel of Wisdom to get it back and play it again, encouraging the use of this potent beatstick in Counter Fairy strategies. In fact, this combo works just as well in virtually any battle-oriented deck that has space for it. The effect is just amplified when you get to draw a free card for every counter trap you activate.

Like Macro Cosmos, Counter Fairies are obviously going to run Van’Dalgyon, and the simplification Drastic Drop Off creates means good things here just as it did for nouveau builds of Cosmos (just remember that Van’Dalgyon can’t be special summoned from Drastic). In a combo-oriented format like the one we may be headed for, Counter Fairies could make a huge impact. If they do, Drastic Drop Off is sure to play a starring role.

This card provides a deadly counter to key components of at least four and arguably six of the top decks in this format. It offers guaranteed simplification for Gadgets and combo-oriented strategies, allows twisted openings and sick mid-game moves for Counter Fairies, and makes Macro Cosmos even better (something that seems to be a running theme nowadays). The secondary market is essentially ignoring this card right now, so if you can’t pull a playset out of your Phantom Darkness packs, go ahead and pick up a few extra copies while they’re still going for less than two dollars. I don’t think that situation’s going to last very long.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer