Stats: Waboku is a normal Trap, and that is what it needs to be.  It wouldn’t make sense as a Quick-Play Spell card or the like.  Also, as a Trap card, it’s les likely to be negated (unless you don’t see a Jinzo coming).

Card Text (Effects): Simply put, Waboku prevents battle damage for one turn.  What does that mean?  For a detailed explanation, go to: http://www.stormpages.com/edhrzic/Yugis06.htm.  A very brief summary is that when a monster attacks or is attacked, it inflicts battle damage equal to the appropriate stat for its position: ATK for attack position and DEF or defense position.  Yes, both monsters inflict battle damage, however barring certain cards that may not even be out in English yet, if the battle damage is less than a monster’s appropriate stat, it doesn’t really matter.  If it is as much as or more than the appropriate stat, then you go back to your instruction booklets and work the damage step.  If a monster is in ATK position and is attacked by or attacks a monster with a higher ATK, then your monster is destroyed and the spill over battle damage is applied to your Life Points.  If that monster was in defense mode, then your attacker doesn’t die but your LP still gets hit for the spill over damage.  Since Waboku negates battle damage, your monster can’t be destroyed, and any spill-over is negated.  The wording is a bit ambiguous-it applies for all of your opponent’s monsters.

Uses/Combinations: This is the ultimate insurance in most cases.  As long as it can set for a turn, you can chain it to anything of Spell Speed 1 or 2. This also makes it excellent S/T Removal bait-if you opponent tries destroying it after it has been set long enough to activate, then you can chain it and activate it anyway.  It’s great fun to watch someone remove Breaker’s Spell Counter to use his effect, only to find he can’t do any good by attacking anyway.  It is also rare that an opponent will pay to negate a Waboku if they have the ability to do so, unless it would win them the game.  Some people ask me why I run Waboku.  They point out that, assuming I am over 40 with it, by dropping it I’d just get the card I need sooner.  After all, it only blocks for a turn.  This is true.  But this card allows you to be more reckless with assaults, and gives time for combos to set up.  Decks with tribute monsters like it because this let’s you keep a Sinister Serpent alive long enough to tribute. ;)  Decks that use Injection Fairy Lily like it because they can just switch Lily to DEF mode on their next turn, and opponents can’t try to hose them by ramming 3 Mystic Tomatoes into Lily to drain your LP.  It is also nice for Spear Dragon and Slate Warrior.  Spear Dragon gets a second shot most games if this is there to back it.  While most people won’t want to waste time setting Slate Warrior, for those odd occasions where you would want to, this makes it so that monster removal is your only concern.

Ratings

Casual: 4.5/5-This card makes it a lot easier to keep monsters alive, thus making a lot of decks more playable.

Tournament: 4/5-Like I said, this is the ultimate insurance policy for YGO.  A set one of these practically guarantees most basic beatdown and control decks can’t finish you off next turn.

Limited: 4.5/5-Keep those peon monsters alive long enough to get any high level, high attack fatties onto the field.

Summary

Waboku is a very versatile card.  I tried running less than three in my decks, and could only get away with it in decks that had something else that could be sued similarly and in large quantities to pick up the slack (like a Gravity Bind deck).  In my Suicide Beatdown deck, it does wonders, letting me go berserk while still having a solid defense for the next turn.  In addition to buying you an extra turn, it buys a monster (or monsters) on the field an extra turn, allowing you to set-up a great strike.

-Otaku