John looked at the field with satisfaction. His opponent, Ian, had no monsters in play and only one face-down card in his spell/trap zone, while John had two copies of D.D. Warrior Lady swinging away for 1500 points of damage each. At first, John was worried about Ian’s face-down card, but he decided it was a bluff when Ian took 3000 points of damage on the last turn. After John drew Marauding Captain, he summoned the monster and used its effect to summon Goblin Attack Force from his hand for the kill. John was so busy tallying his combined attack strength that he almost didn’t hear Ian announce, “I activate Torrential Tribute when your Goblin Attack Force hits the field!” Dazed and confused, John ended his turn and could barely watch as Ian played Mechanicalchaser and three copies of Limiter Removal.

It took one card to turn the tide and sweep John into the depths of defeat.

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, trap cards can quickly and surprisingly change the outcome of a duel. Because traps are so fast (some even have spell speed 3!), they can be used on an opponent’s turn; some of the nastier traps can only be activated on an opponent’s turn, usually when he or she attacks. Duelists have fewer options for spell and trap removal in the Advanced Format, so carefully choosing and combining traps in your deck can give you a big advantage.

Let’s start by taking a quick look at some of the most popular traps.

The Big 3: Call of the Haunted, Ring of Destruction, and Torrential Tribute

These traps have proven their worth over and over again, as any experienced duelist will tell you. Call of the Haunted grew in importance after Monster Reborn was banned, because the continuous trap lets you grab a monster (such as Tribe-Infecting Virus, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, or Magical Scientist) from the graveyard. Call of the Haunted is a vital tool in a monster-recursion strategy; the card can turn the tide in your favor, and bringing a powerful monster back from the dead is always bad for an opponent’s morale.

Ring of Destruction is a powerful weapon in any duelist’s arsenal. The Ring hurts your opponent in two ways: it destroys one of your opponent’s monsters and decreases your opponent’s life points by the ATK of the destroyed monster. While Ring of Destruction will reduce your life points by the same amount, it’s usually worth taking the damage in exchange for board control. You can decide when it’s best to play Ring of Destruction, because the card doesn’t have a specific activation trigger.

Since the Advanced Format removed a lot of mass monster-removal cards (such as Raigeki, Dark Hole, and Mirror Force), Torrential Tribute is unmatched in its ability to destroy large numbers of monsters. Torrential Tribute only works when a monster is summoned, but the pay-off when you wipe out the entire field more than makes up for the card’s activation trigger. Some duelists will wait until their opponents have filled up their monster zones and then activate Torrential Tribute, a devious trick that its victims don’t soon forget.

Waboku

Some duelists hate Waboku because they think it promotes a defeatist strategy. As one Waboku-hating UDE employee said, “Instead of drawing Waboku, you could have drawn another trap card that would help you get back on the offensive.” Other duelists live by Waboku because it fits well in the chain, it’s flexible to activate, and it protects your life points and monsters from battle damage. Keeping a strong field presence is always helpful, and Waboku will make it so your monsters won’t be destroyed as a result of battle. Since Monster Reborn isn’t in the Advanced Format card pool, it is important that you prevent your monsters from going to the graveyard when you can.

Magic Cylinder

With the loss of Harpie’s Feather Duster and the restriction of Mystical Space Typhoon, Magic Cylinder returned in all its direct-damage glory to the decks of competitive duelists. Although Magic Cylinder has a specific activation trigger and does nothing in terms of getting field control, it negates an oncoming attack and can possibly reduce your opponent’s life points by a large amount. Magic Cylinder is an excellent set-up card, especially when you have a face-down Fiber Jar or Cyber Jar that you want to flip on your turn. As the Advanced Format continues, we’ll see whether Magic Cylinder stays in most duelists’ decks or returns to the trade binders.

Sakuretsu Armor

While Sakuretsu Armor used to be called the poor man’s Mirror Force, duelists have started giving the Armor another look in the Advanced Format. Sakuretsu Armor can destroy an opponent’s monster while keeping your own monsters (and life points) safe. Some duelists prefer this common card over Magic Cylinder because Sakuretsu Armor can help you get control of the field with its blind-siding, monster-killing effect.

Bottomless Trap Hole

Sometimes it isn’t a great idea to destroy an opponent’s monster because it can haunt you from the graveyard. With Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning running around, the graveyard is something duelists have to pay attention to. Bottomless Trap Hole gets around this problem because it doesn’t just destroy an opponent’s monster—it removes an opponent’s monster from the game. Your opponent will be hamstrung if he or she is playing a deck built around Black Luster Solider or Chaos Sorcerer, because the necessary monsters for special summoning them will be missing. That being said, there are lots of useful monsters that have less than 1500 ATK, such as Magical Scientist, Mystic Tomato, and Shining Angel. We’ll have to wait and see if Bottomless Trap Hole will still be played in the future.

Divine Wrath

When I was competing at the Shonen Jump Championship at Gen Con So Cal, I had a copy of Divine Wrath in my deck. I didn’t regret it. Since most competitive duelists play a horde of effect monsters, this card can deal with most monsters on the field, such as Breaker the Magical Warrior, Tribe-Infecting Virus, Magical Scientist, Mobius the Frost Monarch, D.D. Warrior Lady, and Fiber Jar. For the cost of discarding one card (a perfect job for Sinister Serpent), you can destroy an opponent’s effect monster while negating its effect. Since Divine Wrath is a counter trap, it is almost impossible to chain to (considering the cards in the current environment). However, don’t get cocky if you use this card; Jinzo can wipe that smile right off your face.

That’s my quick overview of the most useful traps currently in play. Let us know if I didn’t talk about one of your favorite traps, and I’m sure we can spotlight it in a future article. Until then, keep checking back at Metagame.com, and thank you very much for reading!