If there’s one thing that all Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG players have in common, it’s that everyone is looking for the newest advantage. Sometimes that simply means testing every new card to see which can work and which are no good. Plenty of players thought that Darklord Zerato would never make it out of the shoebox, while other players like myself were expecting it to have a much larger impact than it did. There’s no doubt that the Top 8 of the most recent Shonen Jump Championship in Houston consisted primarily of players who were using the best of the new cards. Looking a bit further ahead from there, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus and Cyber Valley are two good examples of newer cards that allowed players to revamp their unsuccessful decks into top-tier builds.

Sometimes you have to look backward to find the best cards. Jae Kim has been one of the best players at doing this, and it was his dedication to finding strong cards no one played that brought Mind Crush and Trap Dustshoot into competitive play. Theeresak Poonsombat made us all take another look at Metamorphosis and dig through our common piles for copies of Steam Gyroid. Paul Levitin gained the upper hand over many of his opponents (including yours truly) with Robbin’ Goblin, and the release of Cyber-Stein caused the once-unknown Last Will to find a place on the Forbidden list.

But, in this writer’s opinion, one of the most advantageous cards in the game is something that’s never really left competitive play, and yet hasn’t made the impact it’s capable of. The card I’m referring to is, of course, Morphing Jar. Just think for a moment about what this card does. Both players discard their hands and draw a whopping five new cards. Considering that players can have up to six cards in their hand each—seven for the turn player—we’re talking about a potential discard of thirteen cards and draw of ten cards. No other card can have such a drastic impact on the game so quickly and easily.

Right now, I would say that Morphing Jar is something like a secret weapon. Its effect is big and instantaneous, and it all comes in the disguise of a face-down monster. Considering that the way to prepare for Morphing Jar is to set all your cards on the field—a risky and usually poor play—players aren’t going to have their stuff ready when you flip it. You, on the other hand, can feel free to set all your cards because you know there’s a Morphing Jar about to be flipped.

If you’re able to use Morphing Jar properly, you should finish with a huge advantage over your opponent. Since you can have up to seven cards in your hand, it’s possible for Morphing Jar to single-handedly put you in a scenario where you have seven more cards than the opposition. It’s pretty easy to win a game with that kind of distance, and even taking a few unfavorable trades will still leave you with twice as many cards as the opponent.

The best way to use your Morphing Jar is to flip it with as few cards in your hand and as many cards in your opponent’s hand as possible. Sounds obvious, but achieving it can be tricky. If you set all your cards on the field, your opponent’s going to know you’ve got Morphing Jar down. In addition, the opponent won’t be afraid of Heavy Storm or Torrential Tribute because you’ve invested as many cards as he or she has to the field. The opponent will just follow suit, and your Morphing Jar will have turned both players’ five cards into ten. There may be a time when you want this to happen—say if you’re playing Baboon Burn—but most of the time, you’ll want to be a little more subtle.

The best strategy is to use the face-down status of Morphing Jar to your advantage. Protect it while it’s face down for one turn without setting anything on the field, and then, when you’re ready to flip the Jar, set everything so you don’t lose it. Doing this eliminates the opponent’s ability to confidently set everything he or she has. You haven’t made the same commitment, so Heavy Storm or Torrential Tribute are going to be a lot more devastating, and the opponent can’t be sure you’ve got Morphing Jar because all you did was stop an attack on a face-down monster.

Deciding how to protect the Jar is the next decision you have to make. Setting a pair of spells or traps will often tip your opponent off. It says, "I want to protect this monster really badly without investing too much, but am willing to take the Heavy Storm risk." Why would you be willing to risk Heavy Storm unless you were going to lose the cards anyway to Morphing Jar? This is the thought process that leads good players to read a Morphing Jar.

So what you’ll want to do is set just one spell or trap card. Ideally, it will be something that triggers no alarms for your opponent. Bottomless Trap Hole and Pulling the Rug are two of the best cards at doing this because they have specific activations. Your opponent will be thinking, "(s)he’s just using this now because (s)he’s afraid it will be unusable in the future." Furthermore, these cards usually stop your opponent’s normal summon and remove the monster from the field, leaving your Morphing Jar safe from attacks that turn. Your opponent will likely just set a spell or trap card and end. You draw, set your hand, and flip Morphing Jar. Your opponent has a total of six cards to your five in hand, six set cards, and a face-up Morphing Jar. Things are looking good.

Of course, you still have to remain discrete. Playing Enemy Controller to turn an Elemental Hero Stratos to defense mode is going to raise some eyebrows, and your opponent might make a play he or she would not have made otherwise in order to prevent your Morphing Jar from working properly.

There are so many other tricks with Morphing Jar that I can’t possibly cover them all in one article. Be sure to catch the next installment for a continuation!

—Matt Peddle