It’s finally been released to the public. After nearly a year of waiting, the coveted Shrink—formerly a Shonen Jump Championship winner’s promo—has been re-printed and re-distributed to players everywhere. Shrink has now been out for about a month thanks to the special edition packs of Strike of Neos, and its impact can be very clearly seen on the tournament scene.

Shrink is very simply designed, but it has a lot of impact on how the battle phase is carried out. As a quick-play spell card, it is among the most versatile spells that can be played in the game right now. It’s actually even more versatile than cards like Enemy Controller, since Shrink’s modification of the ATK value allows it to be played during the damage step, when the only cards that can be activated are stat modifiers and counter traps. As such, Shrink is also one of the hardest tricks to stop when activated, because there are only a few cards that could deal with an activated Shrink during the damage step. This is all on top of the fact that Shrink can be played like your standard quick-play spell, where you can treat it like a trap card to activate at any point during your opponent’s turn, or you can keep it in your hand to activate at any point during your turn. Its chainable status also gives the spell some sort of impact even if it is targeted for destruction, such as by the effect of Mobius the Frost Monarch.

However, its power comes from more than just versatility. Realistically, it is not an easy effect to deal with. Being able to play Shrink on an opponent’s attacking monster during the damage step can be outright brutal, as it will significantly reduce the attacking monster’s ATK, and often destroy the monster to boot. Your opponent not only suffers some life point damage, but loses the same amount of momentum and tempo that he or she would have lost if the attacking monster was destroyed by Sakuretsu Armor. However, Shrink can also be used as an offensive trick, making it a better draw for certain decks. Gadgets, in particular, can utilize three copies of both Sakuretsu Armor and Shrink as dominators of the opponent’s battle phase, but Shrink can often allow a Gadget player to crash through an opponent’s larger monster should the opponent choose not to attack.

Gadgets aren’t the only monsters that love to play with Shrink, however. Monsters with effects that trigger off of destroying monsters or inflicting battle damage to the opponent are also incredibly good with Shrink. The first major monster to consider is Hydrogeddon, which is known for swarming the field fast, and is not only one of the best ways to accelerate your field presence and gain a lot of ground on the opponent, but can also deal effectively with the Gadget monsters if you can ensure that your attack goes through. Hydrogeddon works incredibly well with Shrink, since the quick-play spell lets Hydrogeddon crash through monsters much larger than itself. The spell card also makes crushing Gadget monsters even easier for Hydrogeddon, since your Shrink makes a very viable counter to the opponent’s Shrink.

Don Zaloog is another card that works very well with Shrink. It can ensure that Don Zaloog inflicts his necessary battle damage to the opponent’s life points by reducing most monster’s original ATK to 1200 or less. The hand-hating Warrior also demonstrates how Shrink can punish Gadget players relying on the quick-play spell as their removal card during the battle phase. Since Don Zaloog is larger than two of the three Gadgets, you can attack with your Warrior into either Red Gadget or Yellow Gadget to clear a monster off of the Gadget player’s field and possibly discard part of the opponent’s Gadget chain from hand. If the opponent plays a Shrink on Don Zaloog, then you can play Shrink on the Gadget you are attacking to keep it from getting a larger ATK than your Warrior. This causes the opponent to lose three cards to your one card, including a monster he or she summoned. Card-presence swings such as this can win you games on the spot, and the newly mass-released quick-play spell greatly enables monsters like Don Zaloog to help.

You can also expect to see many more Shrinks in the format, but not because it is now available to more players. Shrink, to be blunt, can be a very difficult card to deal with. Its ability to be played during the damage step is devastating. Because of this, a monster with less ATK attacking into your Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch warrants the question, “Does this person actually have Shrink?” Most of the time, you will be forced to use Sakuretsu Armor just because you do not want to lose your 2400 ATK Monarch to the expected Shrink. This can be painful if the opponent still has a way to summon another monster to the field, since he or she can still represent Shrink during your turn with a card set in his or her spell and trap zone. It gets old pretty quickly, and it would help if you have a method to deal with it. Because of Shrink’s ability to be played during the damage step, one of the best ways to deal with the card is to also play cards that can modify a monster’s stats during the damage step. What better card to play than . . . well, Shrink?

One of the defining weaknesses of this versatile quick-play spell is that it only reduces the original ATK of the monster it targets, meaning that extra Shrinks won’t do anything on the same monster. Opponents will have to destroy the monster that shrunk down to size or have more cards available to modify stats, or else their quick-play spell will be wasted. Playing your own Shrink on the opponent’s battling monster will nullify the bonuses provided by running Shrink with monsters like the Gadgets and Don Zaloog if you have a stronger monster such as Hydrogeddon involved in the battle. Unless the opponent has a Solemn Judgment or Rush Recklessly to deal with your Shrink, he or she will not only lose a battle trick, but a monster as well! This can allow for some ridiculous tempo swings with Hydrogeddon, or can at least allow you to maintain field presence with something larger (like a Monarch).

Of course, this puts Gadget decks and smaller monsters at risk when running Shrink. Rush Recklessly, however, can act as a good supplemental stat modifier along with Shrink, in case the opponent has a trick of his or her own during the damage step. Rush Recklessly can typically boost your ATK value over that of a monster that has been shrunk down to size, allowing you to make an even trade in cards while still maintaining field presence and keeping your battling monster alive. Rush Recklessly is just an ATK modification too (it doesn’t effect original ATK), so your opponent won’t play another Shrink to counteract your Rush Recklessly—it won’t really do anything.

The best way to avoid the destructiveness of Shrink, however, is to run powerful monsters that modify their own ATK from an incredibly low printed ATK. Card Trooper is a good example, as a Shrink will only reduce its ATK by 200. This isn’t even enough to allow a Hydrogeddon to overcome the Machine. Injection Fairy Lily is also quite annoying to deal with for Shrink, since the little Spellcaster will only lose 200 ATK as well!

Since its mass release in Strike of Neos Special Edition, Shrink has made a significant impact on the Advanced format. Its existence changes the way the battle phase is carried out, to the point that players will be activating Sakuretsu Armor to destroy a Yellow Gadget attacking into a Cyber Dragon! It is important that players know how powerful this card is, and understand the impact it can have on their duels if they choose to ignore the powerful swings in tempo and field presence it can create. Hydrogeddon, above all other monsters, is the one I fear the most when used in conjunction with Shrink. While it is annoying to lose a monster to Sakuretsu Armor, players can still attack into the trap card knowing that as long as they have a monster to set, they will be able to maintain some form of field presence. This is not the case with Shrink and Hydrogeddon, since one bad attack can leave you losing the duel a turn later.

Thanks to monsters like Hydrogeddon and the incredible strength of Shrink, the battle phase has never been more important than it is in this Advanced format.