Trap week it is.  Let's look back years ago.  Spells were always the most powerful cards.  Monsters were just generic beaters and there were only a handful of good traps.  Now, with monsters more dominant, traps allow you handle monsters immediately rather than waiting a turn.  And today we're looking at one of the best traps in the format.

Vanity's Emptiness

Kaiser Colloseum is probably the better option for the "average" deck that wants to keep swarm under control.  But Vanity's Emptiness is overall a better card that works really well for certain decks.  Two examples would be Sylvan decks stacking into this card first turn and Infernities/Blackwings that can summon Number 66: Master Key Bettle for a combo.

Decks that rely on Special Summoning to get their key plays in are dead.  This includes Evilswarms, Fire Kings, Madolche, Geargia and lots of others.  HAT players won't have a ton to fear because they're more defensive, but it still shuts down their Artifact engine for a little while.  I can totally see this card as a side deck option, if you don't decide to main it.  So long as you aren't using a graveyard-oriented deck.

If Vanity's Emptiness ever sees more use than a niche for more skilled players, people will run 3 MST, Dark Hole and other 1-for-1 removal to force-pop it.  But I think, for now, VE is best used to surprise the opponent and choke them out as they have no way to break out of it.

Assessments

Power – 5/5 ; This is a floodgate.  Floodgates can shape the entire duel.  Even if this card only works for a turn before it has to be destroyed, disabling the opponent for a turn is all that it takes to gain a significant lead on them.  Oftentimes, this card wins you the duel.

Versatility – 3/5 ; This is a card you want to draw first turn, in conjunction with a really otherwise good opening hand.  Later in the game, its not quite as golden, but it still can be used to support an offensive push or stall.  Its not unlikely to stall the opponent for 2-3 turns with this card.

Dependability – 3/5 ; This card has no cost of activation, however it does require a strong setup to use.  Its still more dependable than the other Vanity cards (Vanity's Fiend and Vanity's Ruler).  I wouldn't use one tribute, much less two, for something I can activate for free.

Card Advantage – 4/5 ; Depends entirely on how you use it.  At worst, it can be a -1.  At its best, it can win you the duel.  It doesn't give you card advantage in the direct sense, but making the opponent's cards useless helps your card economy nonetheless.

Speed – 4/5 ; Not sure if this is a card can really be measured in terms of speed, but you can activate it on the opponent's Draw Phase.  What else could you want from a continuous trap?

Ratings

Traditional – 3/5 ; Easier to destroy, but overall can prevent lots of combos here.

Advanced – 4/5 ; It's a borderline case for lots of decks, but for decks that can manage its strengths and weaknesses, its Muhammad Ali.

Mechanic Design – 4/5 ; Quite fair.  Strong with a clear weakness.  Its a skill card.  It takes restraint no to activate Normal Spell/Trap cards in order to keep alive.

Artwork – 2/5 ; Gets the job done.

Verdict

Vulnerable but super-powerful floodgate grants skilled players victories.

Vanity's Emptiness has an insanely powerful effect which at the same time has a very fragile limitation. The ability to special summon however you please, and then when it comes time for your opponent to summon, just flip the light switch so to speak, is quite uncanny. Most decks in this meta rely on special summoning monsters, and if they are unable to, they may simply not have any plays at all. 

If any card so much as touches your grave, then this card is destroyed. This effect can usually help you if you plan ahead and want to be able to special summon again yourself, just activate something and destroy Vanity's Emptiness. There will be several times, however, when this is not possible and activating the card will turn the duel into a stalemate until something can be destroyed on your field, so think accordingly.

Number 66: Master Key Beetle combos very nicely with this card. Use its effect to protect Vanity's Emptiness and it creates a lock so powerful many decks such as Lightsworn's, Pure Geargia's, Sylvan's, Dragons, etc will struggle to make any plays after it.

Vanity's Emptiness is an absolutely forceful card that can lock the opponent out of plays entirely, and it's no secret as to why this has been a $15+ common card and rising.

Ratings

Traditional – 3.0/5 ; Really good if you can make it so your opponent can't make their plays after making your own

Advanced – 4.25/5 ; Absolutely punishing effect that although fragile, completely stops the opponent from playing

Mechanic Design – 4/5 ; Potent effect which comes at a price of ample timing 

Artwork – 4/5 ; Really creepy look and appeal

Vanity’s Emptiness

Here we have one of the more hated Continuous Trap cards currently in circulation, and here’s some examples as to why.

You set-up your field with Vanity’s Emptiness and the best Xyz monsters for the current situation at hand to protect not only you but also to hurt your opponents plays, then as Xyz monsters materials don’t count as being on the field, when any of them go to the Graveyard, Vanity’s Emptiness remains and prevents your opponent from being able to Special Summon themselves out of the situation at hand.

Master Key Beetle being the best Xyz to protect it in most cases.

Also, Macro Cosmos, Banisher of the Radiance and potentially even Dimensional Fissure may also be able to create a similar sort of “Lock” as well.

Even Imperial Custom could be used to make it last longer on the field as well.

While the above may in some instances be able to form examples of more ideal situations in which your opponent may well not actually be able to destroy Vanity’s Emptiness, in more realistic game situations, locking your opponent out from being able to Special Summon for even 1 or even 2 turns should for most decks be enough for you to land that game ending blow.

Certainly this card does have some fragility, but that fragility can be used to good effect, after all you can control when you want this card to die, and as such you may well be able to be able to Special Summon again with ease during your next turn.

Because of this fact, even Special Summon heavy decks can Main Deck this card without slowing them down or effecting themselves in the mere slightest.

Traditional: 2.5. While not Royal Oppression you could use a single copy of this along side of it to add an extra way to hurt your opponents Special Summoning shenanigans.

Advanced: 4. Used correctly and well, this card can essentially force opponents to scoop, able to create game loss situations, and able to be played around by it’s owner with ease makes for an extremely powerful card. Both Main Deck and Side Deck worthy in almost anything.

Vanity's Emptiness

Continuing our Trap Week, today we look at Vanity's Emptiness, a card that was first introduced in Starstrike Blast.

Vanity’s Emptiness has a simple but extremely powerful effect; Neither Player can Special Summon. Unsurprisingly this is a very powerful and annoying card in this day and age where special summoning is very important for most decks and all the new game mechanics and major archetypes revolve around Special Summoning.

Of course there are three major flaws with this card. First off it prevents you from Special Summoning, but if you are using this in your deck you have already thought of that. The second problem is that it has a self-destruct effect, which activates when a card goes from the Deck or field to your graveyard. What’s more it doesn’t have to be your side of the field it could a monster your opponent took and tributed. No matter what a card with a self-destruct is never a good thing, especially with one where it could blow up just by you playing a spell/trap card. The final flaw is that it is a Continuous Trap, so it has all the inherited weakness of a Continuous Trap.

Overall a powerful effect but it is let down by a hair trigger self-destruct. It is useful as a one turn prevention against your opponent but don’t expect this to stay on the field for long.

Traditional: 1.5/5
Advanced: 3/5

Hello Pojo Fans,

Another Trap, another Side Deck option in Vanity's Emptiness. If you don't Special Summon, or if you Special Summon less than your opponent, this card may be for you. There are several ways to combo this card to keep it on the field for several turns. As long as a card doesn't go from your deck or field to the graveyard, Vanity's Emptiness will stay put. If running removal cards like Banisher of the Radiance or Macro Cosmos, it may be some time before Emptiness leaves. Xyz Materials detached don't count against this card, so you are free to Xyz before activating Emptiness. This card slows down so many decks, even if for one turn it is unbelievable. If you need to Special Summon, activate a spell/trap and get rid of Emptiness that way.

Vanity's Emptiness doesn't have any inherited protection for itself, so it is left unguarded most of the time against monster effects and Mystical Space Typhoon. There are cards to help protect it, and if playing Magic Planter you can break even off of it while at the same time allowing yourself to Special Summon. Combo this with Master Key Beetle for one of the easiest ways of protecting it.

Side Deck for most, main deck for a few.

Traditional-3/5
Advanced-3.5/5
Art-3/5

Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

You see this sandwich? No you don't. I'm eating it. It is devoured. It is gone. I remain. I always remain. Do you feel my deepness? I am so deep and impactful. I am a soul like none else. I am your guide.

Good morrow, dearies. Welcome to another review. Who's on the chopping block this time? Our vain friend, Vanity's Emptiness. This feels like a card I've reviewed before, so I went back to check... nope, I've never reviewed it. I do recall bringing it up a bunch, but it seems it has never been formally reviewed. Funny when that happens. Anyway, I feel like before I start talking about Vanity's Emptiness' viability, I should talk some history.

Vanity's Emptiness, around early- 2012 and all time before, was an oft-overlooked card seen as trash. Then along came Order of Chaos and a neat little TCG-exclusive card: White Dragon Ninja. At the time, I was a Ninja player leading my own little band of players who also enjoyed the Ninja archetype. When WDN was revealed, someone brought up Vanity's Emptiness as a card that would have a very potent bite for the decks with big Xyz monsters that Ninjas had no hope of standing up to for long. If you don't know what WDN does, it prevents traps from being destroyed, so you could activate this and then your opponent and its own effect would never be able to get rid of it without getting over your 2700 ATK monster. It was quite the potent combo, and for a time, it was all Vanity's really had to its name.

Then came 2013 and Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy. More specifically, the Dragon Rulers. More more specifically, Dragon Ruler mirrors. That's when people truly realized how good this card was and it started cropping up in Side deck after Side Deck, and many main decks as well. To cut the story short, the ability to flip this on your opponent's turn, shut them down, then get rid of it on your own turn and crush your opponent is quite deadly. It's a powerful card, brochacho. Use it.

Advanced: 3.5/5
Traditional: 1/5

Vanity's Emptiness

Hey look, quite possibly the most requested to be reprinted cards EVER(personally I see it getting one in LC5Ds..how awesome will it look as a foil?). While face-up, Emptiness prevents either player from special summoning monsters. Being chainable, you can force your opponent to waste resources before using it(ie chaining to the pitch effect of redox, or even when a ruler banishes to summon). It has its downside in the fact when a card you control goes to the graveyard from field or deck, it destroys itself, but decks like Bujin's easily get around it as you never send from the deck for Yamato's effect and you aren't under necessity to special summon. You still see it in side decks from time to time but the Dragon Ruler format was definitely the hey-day of Vanity's Emptiness and will continue to be one of the priciest commons of all time in YGO.

Traditional - 4/5 - shuts down most of the OTK decks(Scientist, Frog, Last Turn, etc)
Advanced - 4/5 Still a very powerful card and special summon decks are still quite rampant. This will continue to see on/off play for the foreseeable future.

Starstrike Blast is another set with an interesting history behind it; not only is it the only set to never have an Unlimited Edition run (thereby making every card in the set more valuable than normal), it, much like Cyberdark Impact, has had several cards suddenly increase in popularity long after the set came out.

One such card is Vanity’s Emptiness, which first saw major play towards the end of the March 2013 format, when Dragon Ruler and Spellbook Decks dominated, and has become a popular choice in many Decks since then, such as Bujin, Sylvan, Infernity, and even the upcoming Shaddolls. And it’s easy to see why; the card is very similar to the currently Forbidden Royal Oppression in its ability to lock down on summons. When used properly, Vanity’s Emptiness can completely lock the opponent out of the game after you have already established a board. Plays like this can shut down any chance your opponent had of mounting a comeback.

The card’s drawback makes it a little trickier to use than its banned brother, however. The fact that it self-destructs when a card goes from the field or Deck to your Graveyard means that you can’t commit anything to the board that runs the risk of easily being destroyed, nor can you activate any Spell or Trap Cards that would go to the Graveyard after their use. Additionally, the card isn’t very effective if you haven’t established a board first.

All of these factors create a card that requires some thought to play, but when used correctly, is an incredibly powerful floodgate.

Traditional: 2/5 (you have Royal Oppression here)

Advanced: 4/5

There's a lot for a card that has Empty in its name. Vanity's Emptiness is a double edged sword/continuous trap card that will not allow any player to special summon monsters, and is destroyed when a card is sent from your field or deck to your graveyard. This is best played during your opponent's turn, stopping whatever nonsense they might be up to. But since it is a continuous trap, Emptiness becomes a instant target as your opponent will do whatever to get rid of it as soon as they can. A great side-deck card, balanced out enough to not make it too overpowered, and good enough to throw your opponent off their game if they can't destroy it right away.

Traditional: 2 (Way too much Spell/Trap removal here)
Advanced: 3