Yugioh Dueling Tips- It's A Trap

In the highly competitive world of yugioh it always seems everyone is looking for a way to one up their opponents. There are many ways to accomplish this feat and I will have to be honest here, one of the ways is to have the high dollar decks and cards. Some of the high end cards can cost players up to and over $50.00. If you are like me that just seems a bit outrageous.

Top tier deck builds can run players broke in no time. It is getting to the point where even a slightly competitive deck will run you in the $75.00 price range. I am sure you will be happy to learn there are other ways to stay competitive and not have to rely on spending Granpa's pension to stay in the game. I have found that a mediocre deck can become a rather good one using one simple type of card. What type of cad is that you may ask? Traps!

Most trap cards are cheap, very cheap in fact. I usually find play sets of traps on eBay ranging from one to two dollars on a regular basis. You can also buy common lots and usually pull some great trap cards to use. The real trick is knowing what works for you. I have a friend who actually plays a deck that only has 5 monsters and the rest of the deck is literally various affordable trap cards. His entire deck will run a player at around $15.00 and he has had great success with it.

Traps can give you a great added edge. In yugioh you want to accomplish two major things. The first is obviously protect your life points and the second is eliminate the life points of your opponent. I am going to show you three tactics using traps that will serve you well in your future duels. Those tactics are eliminating enemy monsters, inflicting damage to the enemy using traps, and preventing damage to yourself.

These three tactics will really help you stay afloat. I won't lie, it pays to have a strong offensive strategy as well. This usually means you will have to spend some money acquiring cards that will work for you but at least with a strong trap base you will not have to spend so much because your traps will do the work for you.

If the opponent can't put monsters on the field they can't do a lot to stop you. Yugioh is usually all about getting the field covered in monsters and charging the opponent into oblivion. There are several traps that make that feat nearly impossible. The first of which is a mainstay and what we call a staple. That card is trap hole. Trap hole is a common card and can usually be found for around 20 cents in most stores that sell yugioh cards. What trap hole does is allow you to negate and destroy a monster summoned to the field with 1000 or more attack points. Remember most high profile decks summon simply to either spam the field with more monsters or to go into XYZ or synchro summons so if you eliminate the first monster in that chain of events you actually break their strategy.

The cool part is you can use three trap holes in your deck so there is three monsters that will not be hitting the field.

Another effective card to eliminate summons is black horn of heaven. It negates and destroys a special summoned card. This little beauty is a bit more pricy than trap hole but can still be found for around 3 bucks. In yugioh there is nothing more appeasing than seeing an enemy throw out a huge special summon just to have you blast it with black horn.

Another card that acts in the same way but even better is bottomless trap hole. Anytime a creature is summoned with 1500 or more attack points bottomless lets you banish it. That is right kids it is gone from play. You can only run one of these but it is super effective in a tight situation and can break an opponents summons up real quick. Bottomless can usually run a player in the 2 dollar range but it is worth it and can really back a deck up for a strong counter attack once the front row is bye bye.

There are some specific decks that have there own anti summoning cards. I play watts and they use the watt cancel card to negate summons. This card allows me to send a watt creature to the graveyard and than negate and destroy a special summoned monster.
When talking about clearing the front row one card has to be mentioned. Mirror force! You can only run 2 of these at the moment but it is effective regardless. Mirror force negates the attack of an enemy yugioh monster and destroys all face up attack monsters they control.

Traps that can inflict damage back on the opponent are a vital part of competitive Yugioh decks and can actually be game winners just by themselves. My favorite is Magical Cylinder. It takes the opponent’s attack and turns it right back on themselves. My Watt Power Deck actually uses three of this card and I have won many games just by dropping cylinder at the right time to inflict maximum damage.

The next effective trap for punishing your foe is Nightmare Wheel. The effect is priceless. Target one monster your opponent controls and now it can not change it’s battle position, or attack as long as wheel stays on the field. That is a great effect but it also inflicts 500 damage to your opponent’s life points for every standby phase it remains on the field. I love sticking this card to a Blue Eyes or something of that nature eliminating the opponents strong monster and getting a few nice 500 point shots in for free.

These types of trap cards work very well for getting some damage in under the radar until you can get your heavy hitters out the gate and into the fray.

The last type of trap I want to look at is the ones that prevent damage from reaching you. I prefer three specific cards but will talk about four in this section. The first is Sakaretsu’s Armor. This card basically negates an attack and destroys the attacking monster. My Blue Eyes Deck runs a few of these and they have more than saved my hide in a few close duels. Like I said before the yugioh world is a competitive one and cards like these can make a world of difference in a deck.

Next I like to run Scrap Iron Scarecrow. This card negates an attack. I know that does not sound like much but consider this. Most traps that do that go right to the graveyard after being used. Scarecrow does not. It gets flipped right back to facedown and is ready for next turn. This makes it super effective, especially when competing with a deck that has no spell destruction means like MST.

The third card is Draining Shield. This card negates an attack and allows you to take the amount of damage you would have suffered and add that to your life points instead. Nothing says in your face like an 8000 life point otk reversed and added right into your life points. Draining Shield has not been as used lately as it was in older formats but I expect to see it start to make a return to the yugioh duel fronts soon enough.

The last card I want to tell you about is Dimensional Prison. This bad boy negates an attack and sends the attacking monster to the banished zone. It is a very effective card but I have to say always remember some cards work much better from that part of the playing field and cards like DDR can easily bring them back to the fray.

How you play your traps is a direct result of how you like to game. I like summoning negation cards a little more than I do negation ones simply because if I can destroy the card it can’t make a second or third attack on me. Most of the decks I run do include the 2 Mirror Force max and the 3 Magical Cylinders. This is something that works well for me but may hinder you.

I know cats who play very few traps and than I know some who play burn decks that are almost entirely trap cards. That is one of the greatest aspects of the yugioh card game. Each person has a different perspective and a different standing on what they like. What might work for me may fail for someone else.

I find that a good rounded deck usually will have at the very least a few of the trap staples but as I said some do not. Explore these traps and discover which work best for you as a player. Happy dueling.