Hey guys today we are going to be doing Eradicator Epidemic Virus. A very good card even at it's current limitation at one. Being able to hit your opponents spells are traps on the board and hand can be devastating especially when used on an open hand! Now here's where the card gets worse. For the next three turn every time your opponent draws they have to reveal it to you (Even outside the draw phase) if it's a spell or trap (depending on what you called) it's destroyed!

Now let's good to the really broken side of it's effect. Being able to see your opponents back row, and hand for the next three turns can be devastating. I mean you know every move they can make from this one card. Summoning a dark monster with 2500+ atk too hard you say? Meet two Xyz monsters from the most playable ranks Number 11: Big Eye (7) & Number 85: Crazy Box (4)! This card is too good to pass up and is only bad against a few decks.

Trad: 4/5 (too good here)
Adv: 3.5/5

We continue this week with a card I am very happy got Limited. This card is Eradicator Epidemic Virus:

Normal Trap Card

Tribute 1 DARK monster with 2500 or more ATK, and choose Spell Cards or Trap Cards; check your opponent's hand, all Spell/Trap Cards they control, and all cards they draw until the end of their 3rd turn after this card's activation, and destroy all cards of the chosen type.

I’m just going to say it right now; I believe that, ideally, all three of the Virus Trap Cards are banworthy. They create an insane amount of advantage for three turns, and likewise also grant you knowledge to your opponent’s hand.

Deck Devastation Virus saw some time on the Limited List if my memory serves correctly, but only Crush Card has actually been banned. Eradicator remained off the radar simply because its activation requirement was too difficult to pull off outside of Dark World.

This changed with the release of Number Hunters and the card Number 85: Crazy Box. This card is a 3000 ATK DARK generic Rank 4 monster, meaning any Deck that can toolbox Rank 4s (a list of Decks that has been increasing a LOT recently) now has access to EEV.

While EEV was particularly popular last format for being able to utterly destroy Spellbook Decks, the loss of either Spell or Trap Cards for 3 turns is devastating to almost any Deck. With how easy it is for several monsters to summon a 3000 ATK DARK monster now, I think this was definitely a step in the right direction. I certainly didn’t want to have to deal with this often.

Traditional: 5/5 (It’s probably even easier to use here)

Advanced: 5/5

Art: 3/5 (It’s the least awesome looking of the Viruses, unfortunately)

Tomorrow: When you fall into one of these, you die of starvation.

Eradicator Epidemic Virus is old enough for me to remember trying to use it.  It is a Normal Trap that requires you Tribute a Dark Attribute Monster with 2500 (or more) ATK as a cost: that means you won’t get that Monster back if Eradicator Epidemic Virus is negated.  For that somewhat steep price, you are allowed to select Spell or Trap cards, and your opponent must destroy all of the selected class that they control (in hand or on the field); this includes revealing facedown S/Ts and the hand to verify that all required cards were destroyed.  You also get to see any card your opponent draws (for any reason) and if it is the class selected, again you destroy them (sending them to the graveyard) until the end of your opponent’s third turn after the Activation of Eradicator Epidemic Virus.

In a format where the previous, longstanding powerhouses to clear out S/Ts are now banned, this card becomes more appealing.  This game also keeps making it easier and easier to spare the Monster required for the cost between power creep (more qualified targets) and increased Special Summon options (giving up a Monster isn’t the cost it once was).  Finally there is still more than enough Monster removal to use the classic trick of simply chaining Eradicator Epidemic Virus to said removal: whether you view it as avoiding the cost for Eradicator Epidemic Virus or (when applicable) hitting an extra card with the effect (the presumably wasted Monster removal) you’re already one extra card ahead.  I find it especially nice if it is the opposite of the card class you’re calling.  This card can completely whiff if you use it blindly, but odds are very good you’ll hit at least two Spell or Trap cards with the effect over the span of three turns.

As such, it makes total sense that this card was hit by the Forbidden & Limited List.  I don’t think it is officially recognized by the game, but the Virus family of Traps lost its most potent member (Crush Card Virus) and has now had another option restricted to one.  While I enjoy this series of cards, but the Virus cards just seem to get better and better, and have always been powerful; I can see why this was hit.

Ratings

Traditional: 4/5

Advanced: 4.25/5