I’m sure that all of you are counting down the days until the weekend of November 20–21, 2004. After all, that’s the weekend of the Rise of Destiny Sneak Preview, and it’s a great opportunity for you to get your hands on those new cards that will give your deck a new vitality and competitive edge. Today, I’d like to put the spotlight on a seemingly harmless trap card that will make its first appearance in Rise of Destiny.

RDS-EN060

Trap Card

When one of your monsters is attacked, add the ATK of another of your monsters to this one.

I don’t want to spoil the entire surprise, so please note that I haven’t included the entire text or the name of the card—but we have to call it something. For the purposes of this article, I will refer to this trap card as “Number 60,” since it’s the sixtieth card in this set.

At first glance, it seems that Number 60 is your standard, run-of-the-mill, spell speed 2 trap card. However, a wise man once said that first impressions are usually false, and that is certainly true here—this trap card has a huge amount of untapped potential in terms of strategies and combos.

One cool thing that immediately caught my eye was that this normal trap card may be used during the damage step of an attack. You can usually activate quick-play spells and traps on the damage step only if they modify the ATK or DEF of a monster. Since Number 60 increases the ATK of a monster, it earns a coveted spot in the “I can be activated in the damage step” Hall of Fame, which includes the adorable Injection Fairy Lily and the Machine-loving Limiter Removal. Most players in most situations will feel that their declared attack is safe upon entering the damage step. However, Number 60 may bring them out of that safe mindset as it pulls the rug out from underneath them. In any case, they’ll be in for the proverbial rude awakening.

Please envision the following scenario. You and your friend are playing a friendly game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Your friend looks very depressed, as you’ve just summoned Magical Scientist, used its ability to bring out Dark Balter the Terrible, and used it to attack the Nimble Momonga that he was desperately counting on to gain back some life. To add insult to injury, since his field was open, you’ve declared a direct attack with your Twin-Headed Behemoth and hit him for 1500 damage. Your friend draws a card on his turn and a look of undisguised cunning crosses his face as he looks at the card he has just drawn.

He’s very smug as he summons his Reflect Bounder and declares an attack with it against your Magical Scientist. However, his expression turns to one of shock as you tell him that his Reflect Bounder is now destroyed and he’s taking 100 points of damage. He demands an explanation and you gladly give him one, showing him the trap card that allowed you to take the 1500 ATK of your Twin-Headed Behemoth and add those points on to your Magical Scientist, giving it 1800 ATK. Your friend asks you where you got that card, and you say that you got it at the Rise of Destiny Sneak Preview.

Yes, that’s a shameless plug, but what can I say? The Sneak Preview is going to be a lot of fun, and I really think you should go.

As highlighted in the above scenario, Number 60 is a great way to increase the ATK of some of your weaker monsters in order to prevent them from getting destroyed and possibly establishing control of the field by taking out one of your opponent’s monsters in the process. I don’t know about you, but I can’t count the number of times that I’ve wished I just had just a little bit more ATK power on a monster. Not a lot of ATK—just a little bit. Number 60 excels at giving that tiny extra boost of ATK power, usually to the dismay of the opponent.

Of course, just like any card, Number 60 does have its limitations. In order to use it effectively, you should have another monster with a decent ATK stat. In order to give your monster a worthwhile boost of power, the other monster should have an ATK in the 1400 or higher range. Luckily, since the majority of sanctioned tournaments are using the Advanced format, it is now easier to have two or even three monsters out at the same time, due to the lack of mass monster removal in the format. Therefore, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem having at least two monsters on the field.

Another drawback of “Number 60” is its very specific activation trigger. You can only play this card when one of your monsters is being attacked. If your opponent plays Heavy Storm or Mystical Space Typhoon, then you’re out of luck. Also, please note that the ATK boost is only for that damage step. The boost is not permanent, and it’s very similar to how Injection Fairy Lily works. If your opponent decides to attack with another monster, you will need another copy of “Number 60” that was set in order to boost your monster again. Furthermore, the monster you get the ATK boost from must be face-up on the field. Finally, since we are listing the card’s weaknesses, there is always Jinzo, the bane of all trap cards. If Jinzo is out, it’s obvious that none of your traps will help, and “Number 60” is no exception.

Its limitations notwithstanding, this card possesses a lot of utility that duelists should take advantage of when building their decks. For those that use decks centered on Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4, Number 60 is a great way to boost the ATK of your Horus Dragons. Your opponent won’t see it coming, but suddenly, his or her big monster, such as Berserk Gorilla, Spear Dragon, or Giant Orc, will wind up in his or her graveyard, and you’ll get to bring out the next leveled-up incarnation of Horus at the end of your opponent’s turn. You can also use a similar tactic if you’re running an Armed Dragon deck.

For those running Warrior decks, Number 60 is a great way for you to keep your Marauding Captain and D. D. Warrior Lady alive in the face of stronger monsters. If you have one of each on the field, your opponent can’t attack your D. D. Warrior Lady, so he or she will swing into your Marauding Captain instead, not knowing that you’ll boost its ATK to 2700 during the damage step. If you like running Machines, watch what happens when your opponent attacks one of your Cannon Soldiers and you boost its ATK by using the other Cannon Soldier’s ATK. That’s 2800 ATK points of pain for your opponent.

Speaking of Machines, this card can be downright evil when paired up with Limiter Removal. Let’s say you have two monsters, Gear Golem the Moving Fortress and X-Head Cannon. It’s your opponent’s turn and she has her Berserk Gorilla attack your Gear Golem. Both of you enter the damage step, and you first activate your set Limiter Removal and then your Number 60. As the chain resolves backwards, your Gear Golem gains an additional 1800 ATK from your X-Head Cannon, and then you double all of your Machines’ ATK values. Your Gear Golem is now at 5200 ATK (800 plus 1800 equals 2600, then times two equals 5200), and your opponent will take 3200 points of damage because of that attack. As I said, this is a very evil combination.

When you’re participating in the Draft and Sealed events at the Sneak Preview (you are going, aren’t you?), and you come across this card in one of your packs, take a good long look at it and seriously consider its potential. In trying to get all of you psyched up for the Sneak Preview events, my next article will focus on another card in the upcoming Rise of Destiny set. I’ll give you a little hint on what card I’ll discuss—silence is golden.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, may all your packs be lucky ones.