There’s nothing more frustrating than having your own monster’s attack turned against you. Cards like Magic Cylinder and Dimension Wall can eat up huge chunks of life points in seconds, leaving your opponent angry, bewildered, and out for blood. You’ll notice that this is the direct opposite of "not likely to attack again anytime soon for fear of getting wrecked further." This is because forced pacifism is the job of today’s Phantom Darkness preview card, Volcanic Counter.

Volcanic Counter
Pyro / Effect
Fire / Level 3
300 ATK / 1300 DEF
When you are dealt battle damage while this card is in your graveyard, remove it from the game. Then, if there’s a Fire monster other than "Volcanic Counter" in your Graveyard, deal damage to your opponent equal to the amount of battle damage you took.

The thing about Magic Cylinder and Dimension Wall is that you can’t see them coming, and as a result, players who have been burned by the card once will be less fearful of attacking since there is now a lower chance of their attack being repelled. Aggressive play when the field permits is necessary for most decks to win in a burn matchup, which is what makes Cylinder and Wall so effective in the first place. The problem is, what happens when you haven’t got anything set to block the attack, and you don’t have a stall card out to prevent the blow? It’s not like those monsters are just going to stop coming after you. With Volcanic Counter, your opponents will know what’s about to hit them and likely won’t have any method of stopping it . . . unless they simply don’t attack. It’s a burn card that also doubles as a stall card, and it’s an absolute terror to play against.

Volcanic Counter is also the card that Volcanic decks have been waiting for to replace that rather lackluster Firewall for attack "negation." With Volcanic decks, you’re often looking for ways to deal damage even when you can’t attack due to the effects of cards like Blaze Accelerator (which Volcanic Counter can be discarded for). With Volcanic Counter, you’re still going to take the damage from an opposing attack . . . but so is the opponent. With all the other Volcanic burn-based effects you’re packing and activating every turn, he or she is going to take more damage overall than you—especially when you spring Volcanic Counter on your opponent again and again.

You see, there are two important things you should know about Volcanic Counter before you start simply tossing it into decks that have a few other Fire monsters and some Foolish Burial cards in them. First off, Volcanic Counter is a mandatory effect that occurs whenever you take damage. You take the damage and you remove the card from play, then the effect looks to see if you have any other Fire monsters. if you do, the effect of Volcanic Counter then deals the same amount of effect damage as you took in battle damage. If you don’t have any other Fire monsters or the only one you have gets removed from play by D.D. Crow, you’re out of luck. Fortunately, if you’re playing this card in a Volcanic deck, you’ll likely have at least a Volcanic Shell and possibly some Volcanic Scattershot cards sitting there waiting to be shuffled back into the deck by Pot of Avarice or Royal Firestorm Guards, making this something of a non-issue. The mandatory nature of the effect is a bit of a hassle, allowing players to play around it by using their removal to clear out your monsters so that Treeborn Frog can attack directly and trigger the Counters. But you can turn this strategic drawback into a vicious trap with a little forethought . . . and the much maligned Duelist Pack Jaden 2 ultra rare, Burial from the Different Dimension.

Imagine that you have all three Volcanic Counter cards in your graveyard with another Fire monster, and your field just got wiped out by Lightning Vortex. Your opponent has around 5000 life points to your 3000 or so. The opponent summons Herald of Creation and uses his or her effect, intending to summon Light and Darkness Dragon next turn to finish you off. The opponent attacks with Treeborn Frog to trigger your Counters, and then attacks again with Herald. You activate Burial from the Different Dimension to pull back all three Volcanic Counter cards and win the game.

The only safe move there for the opponent was to not attack, but he or she didn’t know that because no one expects Burial from the Different Dimension. Though, now that Volcanic Counter exists, people will have to consider the quick-play spell before they attack against a Volcanic deck (or any burn deck for that matter). After all, Volcanic Counter can’t be negated by Skill Drain or Destiny Hero - Plasma, and Light and Darkness Dragon and Divine Wrath can only chain to one Volcanic Counter, even if three of them are activated at the same time. The inevitability of the burn damage from Volcanic Counter makes it as mentally damaging as it is physically damaging to an opposing player.

With all the pain it can cause for an unsuspecting (or even a suspecting) opponent, Volcanic Counter is sure to see play in the coming months. Actually, Volcanic Counter isn’t the only card from Phantom Darkness that’s going to be hitting the tables come Shonen Jump Championship Houston