With the format being swarmed by Zombies, Perfect Circle, and burn decks, competitive duelists are focusing on how to put together a good side deck. Between all the combo strategies, burn, and perennial threats like Dimensional Fissure and Six Samurai, many players find themselves hard pressed to reduce their side deck choices to just fifteen cards.

With the recent surge in popularity of burn archetypes and the introduction of Dark Bribe to the format, every player should be ready for a burn deck at any round of the tournament. There aren’t very many ways to confidently handle burn these days. A burn player’s Skill Drain and Dark Bribe can shut down almost all cards, and Solemn Judgment can cover up any remaining gaps. Players are looking for solid ways to beat these top decks, and today’s preview card is one of the choices available to them:

Energy-Absorbing Monolith

Trap

Chain this card to an opponent’s card effect that would deal damage to you. Negate that damage, and gain Life Points equal to the amount you would have taken.

Two cards I tend to play when side decking heavily for burn decks are Mystik Wok and Emergency Provisions. Most players tend to dislike them because “life point gain” cards really aren’t playable outside of a burn matchup. More general cards are usually chosen, but the flexibility of the burn deck of today can’t be taken lightly. Direct counter-burn cards are going to have to move into the side deck, and Energy-Absorbing Monolith is a great place to start.

The path to victory in Yu-Gi-Oh! usually lies on the road your opponent never wants you to take. Against OTK decks like Diamond Dude Turbo and Demise, this means not using your game-saving cards like Torrential Tribute or Enemy Controller until they can prevent the OTK. Perfect Circle is best countered by removing key monsters from the graveyard, and Zombies really struggle against spin effects like those of Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Raiza the Storm Monarch.

The path burn players would hate for you to take is the one that leads to increasing your own life points. Since their decks are built entirely around reducing your life points to zero outside of battle, you don’t have to worry about the loss of cards resulting in extra damage through battle. Instead, you’re delaying the burn player’s victory by several turns while increasing your chances of drawing game-breaking cards or allowing you to make extra attacks.

Energy-Absorbing Monolith does just that, only better. Though you need to time it properly, the card negates opposing damage while allowing you to gain life points. Imagine being able to stop a crucial Ceasefire, Dimension Wall, or Wave-Motion Cannon and gaining the life points instead. Since burn decks will want to dish out as much damage per card as possible, packing a couple of Monolith cards could mean a life point gain of anywhere from 2000 to 5000 points per card.

One of the best things about it is that it can be brought in confidently, regardless of whether or not you’re worried about the burn deck siding into Monarchs. Since the deck can’t really make a complete change into Monarchs, the most powerful burn cards will likely stay. Energy-Absorbing Monolith will likely get its effect off, resulting in a simple card-for-card trade with extra life points for you. Should your opponent stay in burn mode, the Monolith will be just the weapon you need to take the next game.

Just one resolved copy of the card can really ruin the opponent’s chances for victory, and thus less side-deck space needs to be devoted to the burn matchup. A trio each of Mei-Kou, Master of Barriers and Energy-Absorbing Monolith could be all that’s necessary to deal with the burn threat. This means you can save space for the other big decks in the format, which translates into greater tournament success.