DM7FGD's Look Into the Future
 

Ok, it’s time for my 5th article. This time, we’ll be taking a look at 3 interesting Trap cards of the current Japanese game and the English game’s future. We begin this article with the Trap card Explosive Sacrificial Embrace, which was released in the Japanese 305 - Threat of the Demon World set as a Secret rare, and will be released in English in the set after Magician’s Force.

*All Translations in this article courtesy of Edo’s Yu-Gi-Oh Page http://www.stormpages.com/edhrzic/Yugioh.htm *

Here we have a Trap card with quite an interesting Effect. Well, let’s just get right to it..

Explosive Sacrificial Embrace (From now on referred to as “ESE”) is like a (weaker) Mirror Force and a Ring of Destruction mixed into one. The bad thing is it can only be used on an opponent’s Monster that was Sacrifice (Tribute) Summoned.

Right off the bat, you may be thinking “Whoa.. That card’s great with Lava Golem.” Well, sorry, but Lava Golem technically isn’t Sacrifice Summoned to the opponent’s Field. It’s Special Summoned, and a Tribute Summon is a Normal Summon, so ESE can not be used with Lava Golem. If it could, though, that’d certainly be a great combo to pull off.

Most people only run 1-2, sometimes 3 Tribute Monsters in their decks, so most of the time it’ll be hard to get anything out of ESE. It can be good against stuff like Gaazetto, Summoned Skull and things of that sort, though. ESE just won’t come in handy too often. But if and when it does, it’ll be pretty Effective and most likely do some hefty damage to your opponent, both with the Monster destruction and the LP damage.

I’d give ESE an all-around 6 / 10. Not really a Trap card I’d recommend for any one type of deck, but it’d be a fun card to try out in a Fun Deck.

For the second Trap card of this article, we have a very powerful Trap card: Reversal of Worlds. It was released as a Japanese Weekly Jump Ultra rare promo card. There’s no telling when it will be released in English.

Right away, you may see the deck-out possibilities with this card. If you play a Reversal of Worlds deck, using cards that help get cards into your Graveyard (Painful Choice, etc.) and cards that let you activate Trap cards from your hand or during the same turn you set them (Executioner Makyura, Royal Shrine, etc. If you want to know those 2 cards‘ Effects, just send me an e-mail), you can deck-out your opponent on the first turn of the duel, and win. Just fill up your Graveyard to 15 cards, then get Executioner Makyura or Royal Shrine into the mix somehow (Or simply just set the Reversal of Worlds for use during your opponent’s or your next turn), along with your Reversal of Worlds, and then when your opponent goes to draw during their Draw Phase, they’ll have no cards left to draw (Unless they too had cards in their own Graveyard), and they’ll deck-out and lose.

Reversal of Worlds can be a very powerful card even without that deck-out combo. And because of that is why it is Restricted to 1. It’s a very fun card to play as well. Nice to surprise your opponent in the middle of a duel, and just flip over your Reversal of Worlds, making each player switch their Decks with their Graveyards.

When using Reversal of Worlds, it’d be nice to use some cards that can either benefit you from being in the Graveyard, or cards that will benefit you when they come out of he Graveyard. You’ll usually want to be sure to have a few Monsters in your Graveyard before playing RoW, if you‘re not going for the deck-out tactic. The 1000 LP cost is really nothing for such an Effect, unless it’s really late into the game and your LP is getting low.

RoW makes Thunder Dragon a useful card to use. (Which could also be pretty useful in some Chaos Decks)

I’d give Reversal of Worlds an all-around 7.5 / 10. If it weren’t restricted, it’d be much more powerful in certain decks, even though it already almost has the ability to be one of the most powerful Trap cards in the game.

For the third and final Trap card of this article, we’ll be taking a look at the other Secret rare card from the Japanese 305 - Threat of the Demon World set: Judgment of Anubis.

Judgment of Anubis (JoA) is another quite intriguing Trap card. It’s like a Magic Jammer and Ring of Destruction mixed into one.

There are a few downsides to JoA. For one, it can only be activated when your opponent plays a Magic card that has the ability to Destroy Magic/Trap cards on the Field. Here’s a little list for what it can and can’t be used on:

Mystical Space Typhoon - Yes, JoA can be used on it.

Harpie’s Feather Duster - Yes.

Heavy Storm - Yes.

Giant Trunade - No. Doesn’t “Destroy” Magic/Trap cards.

Dust Tornado - No

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One more downside, of course, is the discard requirement. Unless you have Sinister Serpent in hand, the discard won’t be so nice, but it’d probably be worth it a slim majority of the time.

Another downside is the fact that, based on experience playing this card, about 70-75% of the time, you won’t get to use the Monster destruction Effect of JoA (Due to the opponent not having an active Monster on the Field to destroy), so you’re basically just discarding a card for a weaker version of Magic Jammer to protect your other Magic/Trap cards on the Field most of the time. If you do get the Monster destruction Effect of JoA, though, it’d all be worth it, and only at a very slim price of a discard. You’d retain your Magic/Trap cards, keeping them safe, get rid of an opponent’s Monster, and do some (what could be) heavy damage to your opponent.

A question you may be thinking: “Does the opponent have to have a face up Monster at the time of activating JoA to get the destruction Effect, or could it be used at any time after activation of JoA, destroying an opponent’s Monster and doing damage to them equal to that Monster’s ATK strength?”

Well, the answer to that is that the opponent must have a face up Monster present on their Field at the time of activating JoA to get the Monster destruction Effect. If they have no face up Monster, you won’t be getting the Monster destruction Effect at all.

JoA’s good for protecting Field and Permanent Magic or Trap cards as well. If you were to run more than 1 in a deck, you’d certainly have a better chance at pulling off the Monster Destruction Effect, but as I said before, it’s really not as likely to happen as it may seem. Although, it’s another one of those cards that’s really fun to just try out and experiment with. I give Judgment of Anubis an all-around 7.3 / 10.

E-mail me with any questions and/or comments at dm7fgd32@hotmail.com

Until next time..