Not only are they new, but they’re also pretty darn useful. Let’s take a look at one of them and investigate how it can be used.

Creative duelists have long awaited the Treasure Map card. It’s a normal trap card, and it lets you accelerate through your deck. Here’s its effect:

“You can only activate this card in response to the activation of an effect that would return this card from the field to your hand. Draw 2 cards from your Deck and discard 1 card from your hand.”

The math involved with Treasure Map is a little tricky. First, you have to activate the card to get its effect, which means that it’ll be sent to the graveyard instead of being bounced back to your hand. Also, its last effect will make you discard a card, so even though you’re drawing two cards, you’re going to lose two in the process—the Map and the card you discard.

What do you get in return? Treasure Map will let you see two more cards in your deck than normal, which is valuable for two big reasons. First, if you’re just looking for an answer to your opponent’s last couple of moves, Treasure Map’s effect will increase your options. You go from having access to one additional card per turn (your normal draw during the draw phase) to having access to three, and that’s pretty great when you need to find just the right card to pull out a win.

Second, Treasure Map is going to make any combo deck more reliable, because it lets you see more cards faster. If you’re looking for, say, three cards in order to set up your win, Treasure Map will help you get to them. Playing a combo deck is all about speed, and that’s exactly what Treasure Map provides for you.

The tricky thing about Treasure Map is that there are very few cards that can trigger its effect. If your opponent is playing Lady Ninja Yae, you’ve lucked out, but the odds of that happening are pretty slim. You’ll probably want your own options for bouncing the Treasure Map, which means you’ll likely want to use one of three cards: Byser Shock, Abyss Soldier, or Giant Trunade.

Byser Shock is neat because of its flexibility. You’ll be able to trigger its bounce effect no matter how it was summoned, so you can pull off a lot of tricky moves. Whether you’re using Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted as makeshift Giant Trunades, or even removing Byser Shock from the game to pay for Chaos Sorcerer or Dark Necrofear, and summoning it back to the field with Return from the Different Dimension, you’ll be able to chain Treasure Map’s effect and give those plays even more power.

Abyss Soldier is especially cool if the monster you’re discarding is Treeborn Frog. You’ll get to summon the Frog on the following turn, so you won’t lose any cards to trigger your Map, and it gives the Soldier something to do if the opponent isn’t setting anything. This combo can help Water decks cycle towards cards like A Legendary Ocean and Des Frog, while discarding copies of T.A.D.P.O.L.E. and loading the graveyard with Fenrir fodder.

Giant Trunade’s interaction with Treasure Map is interesting, because it has both drawbacks and advantages. On one hand, if you use Giant Trunade to trigger the Map, you’re going to lose a card to do so. The Map represents a trade of two cards for two more, but the Trunade will be lost to the graveyard and there’s no way to stop that. However, Giant Trunade also clears the entire field, meaning that if you’re playing a combo deck, it will often give you the perfect opportunity to lash out and claim victory. So while you’ll lose a card in strict mathematical terms, you’ll probably be winning the duel in the process.

For those of you keeping track, we’ve got two pieces of information so far that work nicely together. First, Treasure Map is good for combo decks, giving them speed. Second, it naturally wants to be used with Giant Trunade. These facts will determine where we’ll want to use Treasure Map in order to get the most out of its effect. The most obvious deck that can benefit from it is Cyber-Stein One-Turn KO.

The typical Cyber-Stein deck needs three cards to ensure victory. The first is, of course, Cyber-Stein, which will usually summon Cyber End Dragon or Cyber Twin Dragon. Then, it needs either Megamorph or Limiter Removal to increase the ATK of Cyber End Dragon, or Big Bang Shot to let Cyber Twin Dragon dish out piercing damage. From there, its only big concern is Sakuretsu Armor or Bottomless Trap Hole, so the entire combo usually starts off with Giant Trunade.

Because of that last point, Treasure Map is a great fit. If you’ve got Trunade and either Cyber-Stein or the proper spell card, you’ll often be able to use Treasure Map to draw into the third card you need. Even if you’re drawing poorly, you can just burn an in-hand Trunade and a set Treasure Map in order to give yourself some more options and regain control of the game. Cyber-Stein duelists are definitely going to want to give this card some attention.

On the other hand, though, Treasure Map is also an amazing card for Dark World decks. On the anime series, Treasure Map doesn’t force its controller to discard a card at the end of its effect. That was added to the real-world version of the card, in order to keep it balanced. But if you think about it, this supposed drawback is a boon to the right cards. It can get Treeborn Frog into the graveyard so it can be summoned on the following turn, and it can discard copies of cards that gain effects when other copies are in the graveyard, like Disciple of the Forbidden Spell and Chain Thrasher. But also, that discard can trigger the special summoning of monsters like Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World. Not only does it negate the Map’s discard, evening out the use of Giant Trunade, but it also gives you one huge beatstick for clubbing your opponent.

Dark World is all about rushing the opponent with a sudden swarm of monsters, so many Dark World decks are already using Giant Trunade anyway. It clears the field, and ensures that your big baddies don’t get hosed by Sakuretsu Armor or Widespread Ruin. Also, because you can get to more cards in your deck, Treasure Map can either allow you to play fewer copies of Goldd and Sillva, or at least give you more ways to special summon them if you want to keep your count high. For maximum cycling power, combo Treasure Map’s discard effect with the effect of Broww, Huntsman of Dark World. Broww will allow you to draw yet another card, adding even more speed to the Trunade and Map combo!

With the April 1 Advanced format changes approaching fast, duelists are already starting to explore alternate deck ideas, and Dark World has been one of them. Treasure Map gives it yet another nasty trick, adding to an arsenal of twisted surprise plays and unpredictable options. If you’ve had a combo deck sitting on the shelf for a while that just didn’t quite have the staying power it needed, dust it off! Ancient Lamp and Treasure Map both help these kinds of decks, and together they make some pretty crazy ideas viable. Check back soon for a look at the other two promo cards in the Duelist Pack Special Edition boxes!