Forum:Meta Choices this Format

I wanted to try my hand at an article. Here goes:

Last format, Counter Trap Cards were everything. Without a good Counter Trap (or a Giant Trunade) you practically couldn't afford to attack. Every move would be stymied by a Dimensional Prison, Mirror Force, or other card.

In this new format, Counter Trap Cards have become somewhat displaced. The most popular and powerful ones, the Solemn Counter Trap Cards are considered too risky in many cases - a Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning is enough to mean game. Most decks can drop monsters with 2500+ attack every few turns - Agents have both Master Hyperion and Archlord Kristya as well as Tour Guide From the Underworld combos, while Plant Synchro can Synchro Summon rather quickly, Karakuri can easily get out multiple Synchro Monsters with a proper setup, Six Samurai can drop a large number of monsters with 2100 ATK as well as at least one Synchro Monster, Dark World gets out Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World every turn, and Disaster Dragon can get huge monsters with ease.

A good defense is the only way to win against the current Plant Synchro Deck, a deck considered to be in a Tier of its own, even comparable to Tele-DAD in its power. Karakuri Decks will utterly destroy an undefended opponent with either a lockdown or an OTK, while Agents will bring out a game winning BLS/Hyperion or drop a Kristya, which is basically undefeatable without a backrow.

On the other hand, any deck that relies on unsimplified games can encounter a problem here - MSTs and Heavy Storms will simplify the game and leave you better off not having run Trap Cards.

There are three ways of dealing with this:
 * Don't use Trap Cards, other than the ever-popular Trap Dustshoot
 * Minimize your Trap Card Count
 * Use Starlight Road, Dark Bribe, or Magic Drain to protect large backrows

So, out of these, one option requires Counter Trap Cards, and even then Starlight Road is an option over them.

Magic Drain is a rather unpopular card - it's a one for one negation, where it negates a Spell Card provided your opponent does not choose to discard another Spell Card - from experience, they have rarely done so, and it works quite effectively. However, this isn't secure enough for some decks - a totally secure backrow is necessary for some decks.

Dark Bribe, on the other hand, is a -1: you negate a Spell OR Trap Card but your opponent gets to draw a card. People argue for this card over Magic Drain due to versatility, although in reality a good backrow should negate Trap Cards. It's a more secure negation than Magic Drain, but at the same time, drawing a card can be devastating. It's best to avoid this card except in a few cases: Skill Drain and Macro Decks make many of your opponent's cards dead, so the draw won't matter as much, while Dragunity Decks need their Field Spell Card to function.

There's another barely explored option: Judgment of Anubis. Judgment is a two-step card. It is a -1 alone, with the potential to be a 2 for 2 trade with damage inflicted to your opponent. By discarding a card, you get to negate a card that can destroy Spell Cards you control: this negates Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Icarus Attack, Dark World Lightning, and other such cards. In addition to that, it can destroy one monster your opponent controls afterward. The main problem is the cost. It's useless alone, whereas Magic Drain can be used off an empty hand. The same goes for Dark Bribe. There is a deck that actually can fit this card in: Machina Gadgets. They give you Card Advantage every turn, and once you've started applying the pressure, a good backrow can be really useful - it serves as the perfect tool against MST, Heavy, or even Judgment Dragon, negating their cards and destroying their monster. All in all, a good card, albeit one that's difficult to run.

As for the other Counter Trap Cards:

Solemn Judgment retains its place in every single deck that uses more than just Trap Dustshoot while Solemn Warning has proved extremely effective this format even with BLS back. Seven Tools of the Bandit is sometimes tossed around, even though Mystical Space Typhoon is less situational and doesn't cost Life Points.

I've been vouching for Debunk ever since I saw it: it negates a monster's effect that activates in the hand or Graveyard and Banishes it. Not only does it negate the gamechanging effect of Gorz the Emissary of Darkness. It negates Effect Veiler and D.D. Crow. It negates the rising star known as Maxx "C" which has seen a huge amount of use - it's definitely worth getting at least two if you can afford it, because it's proven amazing time and again. It also negates a host of other cards: Sangan, Reborn Tengu, Spore, Glow-Up Bulb, Plaguespreader Zombie, Mezuki, Necro Gardna, Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor, and similar cards. The main reason it piqued my interest was its use in Dragunities - D.D. Crow is the most common solution to Dragunity Phalanx, and an Effect Veiler or Maxx "C" will badly hurt the deck. This stops them. It saw a lot of use recently, and went from being worthless to being a 10 dollar card.

BF2 Talk  Deck Guides 23:23, November 7, 2011 (UTC)