Shattered Axe
is a Continuous Trap. Simply put, this means it
needs a stellar effect to justify it since not
only will it have to survive being
Set long enough to be
legal to Activate, but since it remains in play
it will then be vulnerable to S/T removal.
The actual effect of Shattered Axe is
interesting, but ultimately trivial. When you
Activate it, you
select a Monster, and during each Stand By phase
that both the Monster and this card remain on
the field, you reduce said Monster’s ATK by 500
points. When the Monster is destroyed, so is
this card. There are no rulings as to whether
or not the ATK reduction remains after
Shattered Axe is destroyed, and I would
hazard a guess that it doesn’t. As such, one
wonders why you would use this over something
like Shadow Spell. It too is a
Continuous Trap, and while it only decreases the
targeted Monster’s ATK once, it is by a full 700
points. Realistically, how long will the
Monster and the Trap last? Additionally,
Shadow Spell prevents them from changing
position or attacking with the Monster it
targets. You could also go for a more dramatic
decrease with Shrink, should that ever
become readily available, but one would expect
you to just work with a Monster destroying Spell
or Trap instead.
Now, the concept behind Shattered Axe
isn’t entirely bad. As you know, I feel
Monster, Spell, and Trap removal are both too
abundant and to easy to use in this game. Even
reducing it, though, Shadow Spell still
is a better card: a single 700 ATK reduction
should drop most Monsters into a killable range,
and if not it keeps any big, nasty Monster from
attacking. Also, a bit of a slip up on the
theme of Shattered Axe: first, not every
Monster will have a weapon (let alone an axe),
and second, why would a broken weapon (unless
it’s built in like claws result in a continual
drop in ATK points? This card might have worked
as a Quick-Play Spell since then it wouldn’t be
as vulnerable and could be used without
Setting it.
Ratings
Traditional:
1/5 – We have plenty of removal here, and much
of it in broken forms.
Advanced:
1/5 – I can’t think of any combo that would make
this card more useful than the seldom used
Shadow Spell.
