The Hand Trap Dilemma
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#1
OP
River
• 4 years ago
Hi I’m River Marshall.
I have been playing this game competitively for just under 10 years. My experiences with the game has taught me a few things that I would love to share with you. So here’s my first article.
Ever since Yu-Gi-Oh’s early years hand traps have existed* and over the years their effects have changed from a simple attack blocker in kuriboh to card effects that deal with a multitude of game play advancement.
An example of a card that represents this change would be droll and lock bird
https://i.imgur.com/Rr4GDIh.jpgp" />
When Droll was released not many competitive players even thought of this card as viable due to the slow nature of the game on release.
This mentality changed as Droll shifted into relevance during 2013 as a counter to the spellbooks insane card advantage at being able to grab almost anything they wanted from the deck and end with 6 cards in hand, a few sets and a Jowgen on field.
A simple activation of droll on the secrets or blue boy summon could end their turn with a much more manageable board.
It went in and out of meta relevance as a side deck option and was not fully recognised in the maindeck until trickstars infamous 3 card combo where the opponent would be left with 0 cards in hand at the start of their turn due to drolls effect.
In comparison to droll let’s take a look at Infinite Impermanence
https://i.imgur.com/KODWhnA.jpg" />
Imperm on its release into the TCG was considered viable due to its generic effect matching the likes of Effect veiler, its utility in being a trap card instead of just being a monster allows players to navigate around called by the grave and be a hand trap that control decks could use as an option for trying to set up into a board or as a defensive option once set up.
However since it’s release it’s playability in the top decks has been up and down and in my opinion it will become less relevant as time goes on where as droll will continue to have a more consistent shift in playability dependent on what the most represented decks strategy is.
I will categorise the two mentioned hand traps into seperate category’s
The first being like droll, Hand traps whose use is only good during certain times but become staple defensive cards that you will either main deck or side deck due to necessity.
I will coin this type to be called the specific hand trap.
Nibiru, Lancea and dimension shifter come to mind as great examples of the types of hand traps that fulfil this role.
The second being effects similar to imperm, hand traps whose use is consistent but has a much less of a payoff from activating their effects. As in using them stops something but doesn’t just end a players turn on its resolution due to its power.
I will coin this type to be called the average hand trap
Things like the ghost girls, veiler and D.D crow fall into this category.
Eventually yugioh will move past hand traps being the selected cards of choice as a defensive card in the lists we create.
I personally believe that this started as recently as 2019 with Jesse Kottons combo thunder list from the Australian YCS which he went to finals with. There may have been prominent decks that did this prior but I believe it was this list that started the trend of hand traps starting to not be necessary within the main deck of modern yugioh.
https://i.imgur.com/C0bLwjb.jpg" />
After this there were changes in the lists that followed for this type of deck and it became titled as combo thunder with players taking the premise of ending on a big board as consistently as possible. To reach these huge boards players recognised that hand traps were basically ineffective in the mirror and more often then not, resulted in bad hands.
Have you ever played a game against a certain deck and felt like your 1-3 hand traps you used were basically useless because when you used it your opponent had another extender, or because the matchup you played against the hand traps just didn’t do anything against?
Of course you have, because this is one of the fundamental problems of hand traps in general. Because you have decided to add 3 cards into your main deck because you expect to verse X deck, Y deck becomes harder to deal with. Basically you are adding more factors into your list and preventing you from playing the best list you possibly can.
Over long events you want to maximise consistency to prevent luck from dominating you over the event.
Now if those 3 cards in hand were more generic cards that had almost the same effect it would be a little different.
Let’s take for example Abyss dweller vs a graveyard (GY) reliant deck.
https://i.imgur.com/naZnOdj.jpg" />
Against GY reliant decks making this card on top of any ok boards makes that board hard to break and that’s because you have your resources limited.
Now although this is a very specific interaction, abyss dweller being a generic rank 4 means that any deck that can put 2 level 4s on field can make it especially if one of the most represented decks is reliant on the GY.
If the opponent is attempting to summon abyss dweller in their opening play against the opponent the GY player has to either stop that with a hand trap that stops the summon/ deals with the dweller or on their turn have a way to deal with it before its effect activates.
This is where a hand traps limitations come in, because you have to rely on opening it more then your opponent being able to summon dweller AND that specific hand trap has to be generic enough to be able to be used against more then just the deck that makes dweller.
So in this case it would be better to main deck a card like Forbidden chalice.
https://i.imgur.com/L3QIYGd.jpg" />
This card has more applications then imperm.
Where imperm has the benefits of being a trap that can be used on the opponents turn it cannot activate unless you control no cards. So in the abyss dweller example you have to activate imperm when your opponent activates dwellers effect, which they shouldn’t unless you commit a card to the field in order to play around imperm.
But not only that imperm cannot be activated in the damage step, which allows for certain specific situations to be difficult.
So in my opinion with a GY related deck it would be better to play chalice as a defensive card then imperm if dweller is a considerable threat in the meta.
The point of this article is to not tell you that hand traps are unnecessary, infact I believe at this current point hand traps are a necessary evil against certain decks.
The point is to get you the reader to think more openly when building your deck and make hand traps have roles in your deck building and to see if there is not a better card to take that role.
Thank you.
(Please let me know if your thoughts or if you enjoyed)
Notes (anything with * attached to the end)
*Kuriboh came out for the TCG in 2002
Sources
Droll and lock bird (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=droll+and+lock&client=safari&hl=en-au&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidvKzkipvpAhUezjgGHQdwD4QQ_AUoAXoECA8QAQ&biw=414&bih=719&dpr=2#imgrc=RJ7b34U96ZPy7M
Infinite imperminance (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=infinite+impermanence&client=safari&hl=en-au&prmd=sinv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwod6ylJvpAhXRgeYKHWkaDKAQ_AUoAnoECA4QAg&biw=414&bih=719#imgrc=5Ysopu7Ims24KM
Jesses listhttps://m.facebook.com/ReadyForDuel/posts/1966841253413011
Abyss dweller (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=abyss+dweller&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari#imgrc=nSRRRij-1kkz1M
Forbidden chalice (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=forbidden+chalice&client=safari&hl=en-au&prmd=isnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiuud3yqZ3pAhVFbn0KHUK1BKgQ_AUoAXoECA4QAQ&biw=414&bih=719#imgrc=4e-slUE1P6Yy6M
Special thanks to Cailan Newton
I have been playing this game competitively for just under 10 years. My experiences with the game has taught me a few things that I would love to share with you. So here’s my first article.
Ever since Yu-Gi-Oh’s early years hand traps have existed* and over the years their effects have changed from a simple attack blocker in kuriboh to card effects that deal with a multitude of game play advancement.
An example of a card that represents this change would be droll and lock bird
When Droll was released not many competitive players even thought of this card as viable due to the slow nature of the game on release.
This mentality changed as Droll shifted into relevance during 2013 as a counter to the spellbooks insane card advantage at being able to grab almost anything they wanted from the deck and end with 6 cards in hand, a few sets and a Jowgen on field.
A simple activation of droll on the secrets or blue boy summon could end their turn with a much more manageable board.
It went in and out of meta relevance as a side deck option and was not fully recognised in the maindeck until trickstars infamous 3 card combo where the opponent would be left with 0 cards in hand at the start of their turn due to drolls effect.
In comparison to droll let’s take a look at Infinite Impermanence
Imperm on its release into the TCG was considered viable due to its generic effect matching the likes of Effect veiler, its utility in being a trap card instead of just being a monster allows players to navigate around called by the grave and be a hand trap that control decks could use as an option for trying to set up into a board or as a defensive option once set up.
However since it’s release it’s playability in the top decks has been up and down and in my opinion it will become less relevant as time goes on where as droll will continue to have a more consistent shift in playability dependent on what the most represented decks strategy is.
I will categorise the two mentioned hand traps into seperate category’s
The first being like droll, Hand traps whose use is only good during certain times but become staple defensive cards that you will either main deck or side deck due to necessity.
I will coin this type to be called the specific hand trap.
Nibiru, Lancea and dimension shifter come to mind as great examples of the types of hand traps that fulfil this role.
The second being effects similar to imperm, hand traps whose use is consistent but has a much less of a payoff from activating their effects. As in using them stops something but doesn’t just end a players turn on its resolution due to its power.
I will coin this type to be called the average hand trap
Things like the ghost girls, veiler and D.D crow fall into this category.
Eventually yugioh will move past hand traps being the selected cards of choice as a defensive card in the lists we create.
I personally believe that this started as recently as 2019 with Jesse Kottons combo thunder list from the Australian YCS which he went to finals with. There may have been prominent decks that did this prior but I believe it was this list that started the trend of hand traps starting to not be necessary within the main deck of modern yugioh.
After this there were changes in the lists that followed for this type of deck and it became titled as combo thunder with players taking the premise of ending on a big board as consistently as possible. To reach these huge boards players recognised that hand traps were basically ineffective in the mirror and more often then not, resulted in bad hands.
Have you ever played a game against a certain deck and felt like your 1-3 hand traps you used were basically useless because when you used it your opponent had another extender, or because the matchup you played against the hand traps just didn’t do anything against?
Of course you have, because this is one of the fundamental problems of hand traps in general. Because you have decided to add 3 cards into your main deck because you expect to verse X deck, Y deck becomes harder to deal with. Basically you are adding more factors into your list and preventing you from playing the best list you possibly can.
Over long events you want to maximise consistency to prevent luck from dominating you over the event.
Now if those 3 cards in hand were more generic cards that had almost the same effect it would be a little different.
Let’s take for example Abyss dweller vs a graveyard (GY) reliant deck.
Against GY reliant decks making this card on top of any ok boards makes that board hard to break and that’s because you have your resources limited.
Now although this is a very specific interaction, abyss dweller being a generic rank 4 means that any deck that can put 2 level 4s on field can make it especially if one of the most represented decks is reliant on the GY.
If the opponent is attempting to summon abyss dweller in their opening play against the opponent the GY player has to either stop that with a hand trap that stops the summon/ deals with the dweller or on their turn have a way to deal with it before its effect activates.
This is where a hand traps limitations come in, because you have to rely on opening it more then your opponent being able to summon dweller AND that specific hand trap has to be generic enough to be able to be used against more then just the deck that makes dweller.
So in this case it would be better to main deck a card like Forbidden chalice.
This card has more applications then imperm.
Where imperm has the benefits of being a trap that can be used on the opponents turn it cannot activate unless you control no cards. So in the abyss dweller example you have to activate imperm when your opponent activates dwellers effect, which they shouldn’t unless you commit a card to the field in order to play around imperm.
But not only that imperm cannot be activated in the damage step, which allows for certain specific situations to be difficult.
So in my opinion with a GY related deck it would be better to play chalice as a defensive card then imperm if dweller is a considerable threat in the meta.
The point of this article is to not tell you that hand traps are unnecessary, infact I believe at this current point hand traps are a necessary evil against certain decks.
The point is to get you the reader to think more openly when building your deck and make hand traps have roles in your deck building and to see if there is not a better card to take that role.
Thank you.
(Please let me know if your thoughts or if you enjoyed)
Notes (anything with * attached to the end)
*Kuriboh came out for the TCG in 2002
Sources
Droll and lock bird (
Infinite imperminance (
Jesses list
Abyss dweller (
Forbidden chalice (
Special thanks to Cailan Newton