Tricking with traps

We're back! And just like we promised, we're going to talk about some Traps that fit any deck.

It seems that traps these days aren't that surprising anymore, unless you're not playing against a regular Meta Deck. They just don't surprise you like they used to, as people are more aware of which Traps usually are or are not (if any) in each deck. The face-down cards aren't visualized anymore as "does he/she has something troublesome there?". Instead, they're often seen as "I don't care what he/she is going to do, I'm pretty much aware of what these Traps are, so I'm gonna get rid of those". And turns out that they can: we live in a time where Mystical Space Typhoon is unlimited, Heavy Storm is not forbidden and cards like Lyla and Gemini Spark are more popular than ever.

The most tricky face-down cards in the game are now just a game of odds, as they almost never changes from deck to deck, and since we got many ways to destroy them, most often people are forced to do fake sets. That's why we're offering a suggestion to act like Safe Zone does: Some underestimated Traps that do the trick whenever you want and annoys your opponent like hell:

Although is a weaker counterpart of Dust Tornado, it has an extra effect that makes it worth: Think how frustrating is to get a Mystical Space Typhoon on your own MST in the End Phase of the turn that you've just set. Some people think that this is better than hit a card different than that Quick-Play, but wouldn't be better if you could have a ratio better than 1:1? That's exactly what this card does. Just like Safe Zone can make a MST literally destroy his/her own monster just by chaining and targeting, this card doesn't even has to be chained.

The bad part is that it's that the effects of this Trap always involves face-up cards. Quite a nuisance being the only player with face-up cards after a Heavy Storm hitting Wild Tornado. But, like we've said before, there's a lot of monsters in these days that destroys spell and traps. Worth mentions are: Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress; Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh; Wind-Up Zenmaines (most likely will destroy your traps if you try and not succeed destroying it); Grapha, Dragon Lord of the Dark World (although the field might be empty when it destroys a card) and many others.

Now for the second Trap, it might make you or your opponent a little uncomfortable:

So, anyone remember this card? It used to be bad-ass since in the old days Spell Cards were the most fearsome. Nowadays, in most decks they just assist your moves, rather than develop your game (considering you're in a neutral situation), which don't actually make the point of focusing the 1st effect of this card as a safeguard. What is really interesting is that this Trap is a combo of safeguarding, locking and chaining- destruction.

Let's take an example: If you're playing Inzektors and you're in one situation that it doesn't helps or you simply can't do the annoying combo that empties your deck and fills your field, like when you're facing Skill Drain, or Macro Cosmos, you can make a great use of this card. Let's say that you have a Inzektor Dragonfly equipped with Inzektor Giga-Mantis, which makes it's original attack 2400 and you have Pole Position activated, making your Dragonfly unaffected by Giga-Mantis. If you opponent tries to summon a monster with an attack between 1000 and 2400, an infinite loop would happen because of this Trap effect and the rulings makes this impossible to occur, so your opponent would be unable to summon any monster of that attack range!

This, however, does affect you, so unless you can maintain 2 or monsters with same attack that can benefit equally from a Spell Card (like the most commonly used Gravekeepers and Necrovalley) or the spell card only benefits one monster or even if the attack of 1 or more monster are in a range between the other's original and boosted attack (Dark Worlds are pretty much safe from this), the loop prevents you the same way that it does for your opponent. So, in the above situation, you can't summon Centipede, but you can summon Ladybug. However, you couldn't use it's effect and equip Hornet on Ladybug, since it would make it's attack 1000 and a similar loop would occur, so this Trap rulings prevents this as well.

It's understandable that Pole Position first effect isn't one that fits in any deck, but what about the second one? The same way that this card ensures in a way that the strongest monster on the field will be unstoppable, it ensures that the monster will have the same destiny as this card. Whoever though of using Safe Zone's for simultaneous protection and dooming could have already though of this card, as it doesn't makes an ever lasting bond to the graveyard.

Even though these Traps are more tricky to use than the most of them, they can be used to annoy your opponent and disturb their play. Anyone who has dueled against Wind-Ups, Inzektors and stuns knows that their definition of duel isn't having to deal with the opponent's strategy, but rather construct yours while your opponent is losing cards and can't do jack in his/her next turn. Even though Wind-Ups are missing, the others still makes you reconsider your gameplay, making these Traps exceptionally useful.

See'ya next time. And remember: Play with your brain, not with your money.