Effect               : When you activate this card, you get to inflict damage to your opponent’s Life Points equal to the amount of Monsters they have on their side of the field.  This means a single card can get upwards of 2500 damage, or do zero.  Usually, if you know what you are doing, you can get a solid 1000 out of it.  This is a solid effect in my opinion.

 

Stats                : Just Desserts is a Trap card.  Since your opponent will usually be Summoning Monsters on their turn, it’s almost always worth waiting a turn to get another 500 points of damage.  The ability to chain or respond to other actions often makes burn cards more potent, like waiting for them to use a card that requires their own LP, and then drop it even further.  As such, only a Quick-Play Spell would come close to the versatility.  Watch out for Trap negation.  Thankfully most efficient Trap negation comes from Jinzo (one-per deck Tribute Monster) or Royal Decree (very pricey Trap card).

 

Uses and

Combinations  : Stall/Burn loves this card.  Well, you’d think it would.  I don’t see it that much, but it’s a great card if you know how to use it.  Just Desserts is a great counter to Scapegoat: they probably bought themselves only two turns without any successful attacks going through… but you just hit them for 2000 in burn damage, what you’d expect to accumulate over those turns had they used other defenses.  As mentioned when it was covered February 7^th, 2005, this goes great with Ojama Trio.  Two cards for 1500 burn, cutting your opponent down to two usable Monster Zones, and the potential of another 900 points of burn.  Another useful card to combine it with is Morphing Jar #2: they hit, hopefully having to toss a few good Spells of Traps, and then set as many Monsters as they had (barring them drawing Tributes or the like).  So… they loose momentum, and still have a field full of monsters to feed your burn damage.

 

Stall/Burn may not be quite as popular as it was, but it still seems pretty solid, and can definitely make good use of the card.  In your normal Stall/Burn deck, your opponent is going to be more or less locked down by things like Messenger of Peace and Level Limit-Area B, so they should have quite a few Monsters.  Given that it is a Trap, you actually have an option to get it out quickly: Mask of Darkness plus A Cat of Ill Omen.  Such cards are actually quite useful to a Trap oriented Burner.  Swarm (via Warriors, Zombies, and sometimes Beasts) is an expected site at tournaments, and results in better damage yields.  Just Desserts is a simple, sweet burn card that is unrestricted.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       :1.5/5-Given all the field clearing cards, it seems doubtful you’ll get any real damage out of Just Desserts in this format.

 

Advanced        : 3.5/5-Players have become more cautious with the return of Mirror Force and the addition of Lighting Vortex.  Still, it shouldn’t be too hard to lull someone into filling their field, and they may think that by setting Monsters they are avoiding your Mirror Force, instead of enhancing Just Desserts.

 

Limited            : 4/5-Burn damage is great here: its unexpected most of the time.  Being Monster based is okay; just make sure you’re hitting them for the kill if you let them fill up their Monster Zones on purpose.

 

 

 

Summary

Just Desserts: an oldie but a goodie.  It’s just so deliciously ironic when you defeat your opponent by turning their own formidable attack force against them.  Probably the only Trap that does this better is Ceasefire.

 

If you are curious about how I rated this card the first time, click here.  If that doesn’t work, just go to the CotD Index and check out the Dealer’s Choice day on February 11^th, 2005.  There are a few differences…