Nick's Top Ten Most Underrated Spell/Trap Cards

 

Hey, this is my first top ten listing, so bear with me on this...  Now though, to the countdown on the top ten most underused spell and trap cards...

 

A few honorable mentions:  Solumn Judgement, Torrential Tribute, Card of Safe Return (Zombie Decks), Mirror Wall, Dust Tornado

 

10. Staunch Defender (Normal Trap)

You can only activate this card when your opponent declares an attack.  Select 1 face-up monster on your side of the field.  During the turn this card is activated, your opponent can only attack the monster you selected.  Your opponent must attack the selected monster with all face-up monsters on his/her side of the field.

 

A nasty trap card that can come in so handy in the right situations.  I guess that's why it's not played as much as it should be, it's rather situational.  I've tried this card with a couple of combo's and they've worked pretty well.  Just imagine that i said Staunch Defender with all of these combo's:  Airknight or The Infernal General Guy (opponent loses a card with dmg)+rush recklessly/Axe of Despair/United We Stand or anything to make it beefier.  = decent damage + tons of cards or loss of cards for your opponent.  Dark Ruler Ha Des and this card are great, forcing them to attack and they don't get any effects.  Kycoo+some kind of boost = lots of monsters removed from play and some damage as a bonus.  A great card, but kind of drains hand and is situational. 

 

9. Messenger of Peace (Continuous Spell)

You must pay 100 Life Points at each of your Stanby Phases.  If you cannot pay, this card is destroyed.  All monsters with an ATK of 1500 or more cannot attack.

 

Such an evil magic card that acts like a mini swords of revealing light.  Can help you out when you just have a terrible hand and need a few turns of protection in order to get what you need.  Can also be applied to a variety of deck-types including exodia, weenie, disruption, etc.  Card rulings say that you can throw this card out during any of your standby phases, even if you can play, i'm pretty sure, so that makes it much more playable.

 

8. Book of Moon (Quickplay Spell)

Flip 1 face-up monster on the field into face-down Defense Position.

 

A cool card that is made better because it's quickplay.  Flip that Jinzo face-down, or, for that matter, any high atk monster and just kill it when it's in defense mode, or use nobleman of crossout.  You can also use this in response to Mirror Force, since you shifted your monster to defense position, Mirror Force won't destroy it.  Also, flip something of yours face-down to get the flip effect, or to have your opponent attack a monster with a high defense (since no new monsters have entered the field, if an attack is called then you activate book of moon on the monster getting attacked, the attack still goes through).

 

7. Magic Drain (Counter Trap)

You can activate this card when your opponent activates a Spell Card.  If your opponent cannot immediately discard 1 Spell Card from his/her hand, negate the activation of the Spell Card and destroy it. 

 

Such a fun trap card, too bad 40 card decks are everywhere and Jinzo was created...  Magic Drain is a great magic counter as well as a good way to drain your opponents hand if he/she does discard a spell card.  Overall, a great card, but all of the S/T removal screwed it over and now everything has to be chainable and there's just no more room in decks for anything other than Imperial Order.

 

6. Time Seal (Normal Trap)

Your opponent skips the Draw Phase of his/her next turn.

 

For the most part, this card only applies to disruption decks.  This card is highly underused, i think mainly because it is a common and it has been overlooked since the release of Drop Off.  Time Seal can be better or worse than Drop Off, but it's all in all a great card.  The best part is that it is chainable, just wait until your opponent kills it, then activate it and they lose their next draw.  Or you can wait till you've drained your opponents hand pretty well, then activate it to limit their options.   

 

5. Confiscation (Normal Spell)

Pay 1000 Life Points to look at your opponent's hand.  Select 1 card and discard it to the Graveyard.

 

Often overshadowed by its other disruption cousins, Confiscation is a great card.  1000 life points on top of the 1000 from Deliquent Duo (which is often played more often) can be costly, but it's well worth it.  Most people compare this card to Forceful Sentry, and its true that Forceful Sentry is cost free and placing cards back into the deck can be prefered over the graveyard, but not in all cases.  Cards like Delinquent Duo, Raigeki, Harpie's Feather Duster, Chaos Monsters (which can't be special summoned from the graveyard unless it's summoned the proper way first) are usually less of a threat in the graveyard, since MoF haven't seen a whole lot of play lately.

 

4. Ceasefire (Normal Trap)

Flip all face-down Monster Cards on the field face-up (Flip Effects are not activated).  Inflict 500 points of Direct Damage to your opponent's Life Points for each Effect Monster Card on the field. 

 

One of the greatest burn cards ever, and helps to stop those pesky flip effects (especially the jars).  The monsters that count towards the 500 multiplier must be effect monsters, but in the current meta, pretty much all decks have nothing but effect monsters in them, so it'll be easy to get the right monsters.  As for getting monsters onto the field, try using it after a cyber jar is flipped, or after fiber jar to inflict a little extra damage before the game restarts. 

 

3. Scapegoat (Quickplay Spell)

When this card is activated, you cannot summon any monster in the same turn (including Flip Summon and Special Summon).  Place 4 "Sheep Tokens" (Beast-Type/EARTH/1Star/ATK 0/ DEF 0) in Defense Position on your side of the field.  The tokens cannot be used as a Tribute for a Tribute Summon.

 

A really great card from the Joey Starter, this card has saved my lifepoints countless times.  These guys are great food for cannon soldier, but they're also a great shield when you're starting to topdeck.  I see why this card might not get so much attention though with spear dragons and espeically airknight.  Most of the time though, these little guys come in extremely handy. 

 

2. Mirage of Nightmare (Continuous Spell)

During your opponent's Standby Phase, draw cards until your hand has 4 cards.  During your Standby Phase, randomly discard the same number of cards you drew with this card's effect to the Graveyard.   

 

A really controversial card.  My ranking it is based on the assumption that it can be destroyed by an MST from your hand during the draw phase and Imperial Order can resolve after Mirage, thus killing the discard effect.  Since most decks carry 3 MST's anyways, why not pack this guy?  Potentially the best draw card in the game, although somewhat situational, this card can get you 4 new cards and a draw for a total of 5; a brand new hand.  Most of the time though you'll get 2-3 cards from its effect, but that's still good, its just another pot of greed at that point.

 

1. Nobleman of Crossout (Normal Magic)

Destroy 1 face-down Monster Card and remove it from play.  If the monster destroed has a Flip Effect, both players must remove all Monster Cards of th esame name from their respective Decks and remove them from play.  The Decks are then shuffled.

 

The fissure of face-down monsters, only much much better.  The remove from play part is extremely helpful, good at taking out the jars as well as the more common face downs in chaos decks that have been coming back into play (magician of faith, mystical elf).  True, it's a terrible top deck, but you could be taking out the most efficient game turners (the jars). 

 

 

Well, that's it, feel free to comment on what i've typed up for the top ten spell/trap list at Doughboy465@yahoo.com

 

- Nick