Alright, this is Duelist of the Dragoon with an interesting question which i'm surprised nobody has raised: what happened to Solemn Judgment?
As the "chaos"/disruption metagame develops, Solemn Judgment becomes more and more versatile, and i am pressed to say that solemn judgment may give magical scientist a run for its money for the title of "Most versatile card."
Ok, let me tell you a story, it happened today, which happens to be 4/21/04. I went to a gaming store and immediatley found someone willing to play me, guess what? Chaos, Chaos, Chaos. But this person had a 50 card chaos deck, so i kicked his ass in a match. But then, a real player came along.
Duel 1, i win  using a combo of Guardian Angel Joan (who i am playtesting) and a number of noblemans.
Duel 2, God dammit! Chaos Emperor Dragon attacks spirit reaper in atk and activates after 2 simultaneous cyber jar flips and does 6000 to me, game.
Duel 3, I was soo close, he was at 100 LP, but Black Luster Soldier's Double attack kills me, he wins the duel 100-0.
Now, i go and buy 3 cards, airknight, and 2 solemn judgments.
I play him in one more duel, since that's all i have time for:
Final Duel: I have hand advantages 4 cards to 2, and field disadvantage 1 to 2. he summons Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Start, and i SOLEMN JUDGMENT, bringing me down to 2900. After that, i crush him with gorillas until its 1000 (me) to 1300 (him). He draws pot of greed with no cards in his hand and draws two cards, one of them being CED. He summons it, with just enough life to activate its effect and win, guess what? SOLEMN JUDGMENT. Its negated and i lose 500. he forfeits.
do you see what i am getting at?
now, with all of the chaos monsters, with black magician of chaos being unrestricted and with yata and hand disruption flying around, solemn judgment is a much much much more versatile card than any other, being able to negate ANYTHING, mainly, the chaos monsters.
But, i have done some thinking and i think i can tell you what happened to this precious, precious, insanely powerful counter trap:
The Disappearance of Solemn Judgment:
It was a good time, when beatdown ran rampant and we were bashing cards like blue eyes toon dragon, and wondering why serpent knight dragon was secret rare, it was... the magic ruler days. The Beatdown days. And Solemn Judgment wasn't even being played then, because it wasn't needed and its cost was "too high" Since burners were a fairly decent archtype back then, people weren't too anxious to lose half their LP, and in those days, Solemn Judgment wasn't a good card, since there wasn't a variety of threats to negate.
Jinzo came out, and anybody who was even using Solemn Judgment just stopped, because Solemn Judgment just wasn't needed anymore, due to jinzo, imperial order, and even magic drain. Labyrinth came out, and people just forgot about it.
But, now is its time. There has never been such a threat of monsters such as today. The Chaos Monsters are truly to be feared. And people are flocking for cards that will stop them, kycoo got the most attention, as both its effects counter the chaos.
But, by then, solemn judgment was merely a distant shadow, and almost all of the tournament players forgot about it.
Chaos Emperor Dragon, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Start, 3 Chaos Black Magicians, Vampire lord, Jinzo, Imperial Order, Injection Fairy Lily, Yata, Delinquent Duo, Even Airknight, the List is Endless, Solemn Judgment can negate them all.
In the days of PSV, Solemn Jugdment was simply a card with too big a cost, however, NOW when utterly ridiculously overpowered cards rule the metagame, it is priceless and will be the difference between a loss and victory, with the advent of chaos.
Its Playing Value:
Use Solemn Judgment only in times of desperate need, which occur about 4 times during every duel. Don't use it for a raigeki if you have 2 monsters, don't use it for a mirror force if you only have 2/3 monsters. Use it for the game ending threats: yata-scientist, CED, BLS, Black Magician of Chaos.
The only problem with Solemn Judgment is that, its a trap. If they use a MST on it, it sucks. But that's it, because, when people summon the chaos monsters, they know that if you activate torrential tribute, they can activate the effects of their chaos monsters, but solemn judgment shatters that sense of security and NEGATES the summon, what priority?
Hope this helped, and i hope that all the chaos is countered with the advent of solemn judgment.
Email me at Pkspiral7@aol.com
Dragoon out.