Card Effect Lockdown

A Card Effect Lockdown strategy chiefly involves completely nullifying the opponent's card effects, thus making them rely solely on Monster presence, which can be done away with through attacking. You can approach this situation with a few cards.

The cards below are listed in tier in their respective categories, from highest effectiveness to lowest in a Deck themed around lockdown.

Please note that Card Effect Lockdown Decks employ virtually unstoppable Beatdown after the appropriate cards are on the field, meaning no further cards are then needed.

Recommended cards that negate Spell Cards

 * Silent Swordsman LV7 (Negates Spells altogether. Can be somehow easy to Summon. Perfectly fits the description of negating Spell Cards.)
 * Secret Village of the Spellcasters (Your opponent cannot activate Spell Cards while you control a face-up Spellcaster and they don't. Comparing it to Horus, there are more Trap Cards and Monster Effects that can destroy Monsters, while there are fewer that destroy Spells and Traps. Placed highest for similar reasons to Horus LV8 (below), but has possibly more potential by itself.)
 * Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 (Doesn't negate Spells already on the field but still allows you to use Spell cards. Opponent will generally have a monster for attacking, making it somehow easy to summon.)
 * Naturia Bamboo Shoot (Negates the Activation of Spells in addition to Traps in general, although the effect only works if you Tribute a "Naturia Monster.
 * Imperial Order Limit: Traditional Only (Possibly the best Spell-negating card in the game, since you can easily chain it to an opposing Spell Card, then get rid of it when you need to use Spells.)
 * Naturia Beast (Negates Spell Cards by sending the 2 top cards of your Deck to Graveyard. Easiest Spell-negating monster to Summon. Has synergy with the Trap-negating Naturia Barkion.)
 * Spell Canceller (Weaker version of Silent Swordsman LV7, although easier to Summon.)
 * Dark Paladin (Negates Spells by discarding cards, which creates a problem when you have no cards in your hand.)
 * Dark Balter the Terrible (Although it only negates Normal Spell Cards by paying 1000 Life Points, it also negates Effects of Effect Monsters that it destroys by battle.)
 * Sky Scourge Invicil (Negates either Spells or Traps depending on the Tributed monster for its Tribute Summon)

Recommended cards that negate Trap Cards

 * Royal Decree (No cost. Easiest to use, but is vulnerable to other Trap-negating cards. Requires using almost no Trap Cards for maximum effectiveness.)
 * Jinzo (Easy to Summon. Boasts average ATK for its Level.)
 * Naturia Bamboo Shoot (Negates the Activation of Traps in addition to Spells in general, although the effect only works if you Tribute a "Naturia" Monster.)
 * Naturia Barkion (Easy to Summon. Negates Trap Cards by removing from play 2 cards in your Graveyard. Has synergy with the Spell-negating Naturia Beast.)
 * Sorcerer of Dark Magic (High Summon cost. Doesn't negate Trap Cards already on the field or Counter Traps, but allows you to still use Traps. It also makes synergy with Secret Village of the Spellcasters)
 * Ryu Senshi (Negates Normal Trap Cards by paying 1000 Life Points and cannot be targeted by Spell Cards as a bonus. Although it's fairly hard to summon, you may try some stuff to bring it out.)
 * Sky Scourge Invicil (Negates either Spells or Traps depending on the Tributed monster for its Tribute Summon)
 * Tyrant Dragon Negates Trap Cards that target this card. easy to use if you only have this card on the field

Recommended cards that negate Monster Effects

 * Destiny Hero - Plasma (Negates only the opponent's Monsters on the field. Can be made easy to summon with Stray Lambs with Fiend's Sanctuary, etc. Blocks yet Quick Effects, crippling all Monsters your opponent possesses.)
 * Angel 07 (Is capable of negating any of the Effect Monsters, except for Continuous Effects. It is perhaps superior to Plasma (described above), since compared to him, there's many effects that do not resolve on the field, such as Honest)
 * Dark Ruler Ha Des (Only negates cards after they have been destroyed by Fiends in battle.)
 * Revived King Ha Des (Only negates cards after they have been destroyed by Zombies in battle.)
 * Skill Drain Limit: 2 per Deck (Is a Trap Card and therefore can be negated by Royal Decree or a Jinzo already out.)
 * Wicked-Breaking Flamberge - Baou (The monster equipped with this card negates effects of monsters it destroys in battle)

Recommended cards that lock down the Graveyard

 * The End of Anubis (Total Graveyard lockdown, except for card removal from Graveyard.)
 * Necrovalley (Blocks effects targeting the graveyard and card removal from Graveyard.)

Misc. Lockdowns and Supportive Cards

 * Archlord Kristya (Can be easily Summoned, Completely locks down Special Summons, can return itself when destroyed, allowing further uses and is pretty powerful on its own.)
 * Cyber Blader (Negates any of your opponent's effects on the field. Main problem is your opponent must have exactly 3 monsters for Cyber Blader's negation effect to work. Effective with Ojama Trio.)
 * Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode (Can negate any effect once per turn, and can re-summon Stardust Dragon when destroyed.)
 * Stardust Dragon (Negates destruction effects.)
 * Invader of Darkness (Negates Quick-Play Spell Cards and boasts a fairly high ATK score, being able to destroy monsters such as "Goyo Guardian" and "Archlord Kristya" without any boosts.)
 * Royal Oppression (Negates Special Summons by paying 800 Life Points.)
 * Royal Command (Negates Flip Monster Effects.)
 * The Emperor's Holiday (Negates Equip Spell Cards.)
 * Light and Darkness Dragon (Negates all effects activated after it is Summoned, but has a limit to the number it can negate.)
 * Prime Material Dragon (Negates monster's destruction effects by discard 1 card. Turns all Burn damage to Life Point gain.)
 * Prime Material Falcon (Negates Spell/Trap destruction by monster's effects by discarding 1 card.)
 * Dupe Frog (Having two on the field keeps your opponent from attacking any of your monsters)
 * Marauding Captain (Having two on the field stops your opponent from declaring an attack on Warrior-Type monsters.)
 * Magician's Valkyria (Having two on the field stops your opponent from declaring an attack on Spellcaster-Type monsters.)
 * Solar Flare Dragon (Having two on the field stops your opponent from attacking either Solar Flare Dragon, plus your opponent takes 1000 damage per turn.)
 * Command Knight (Having two on the field stops your opponent from attacking either Command Knight, and boosts both their ATK to 2000 each.)
 * Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower (Having two on the field stops your opponent from attacking either Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower, plus your opponent is Milled by 4 cards each time a Zombie is Special Summoned.)
 * Imperial Iron Wall (Negates Remove from play effects.)
 * G.B. Hunter (Mainly used to counter Gladiator Beasts and bouncing effects like Raiza the Storm Monarch/Legendary Jujitsu Master.)
 * Protector of the Sanctuary (Negates Drawing effects.)
 * Dimension Fortress Weapon (Negate cards sent from the Deck to the Graveyard. Counters Mill and Lightsworn Decks.)
 * Raregold Armor with Marshmallon (Blocks all of your opponent's attacks)
 * Metalsilver Armor with King Dragun (Blocks your opponent from targeting)
 * Jowgen the Spiritualist and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo (Destroys all Special Summoned monsters and keeps your opponent from Special Summoning any more monsters.)
 * Spirit Barrier and Astral Barrier (As long as you have a monster on the field, your opponent can not attack monsters and cannot inflict any damage.)
 * Des Wombat (Negates Effect Damage. Mainly used to counter Burn Decks.)
 * Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos/Dimension Fortress Weapon and Gravekeeper's Servant (Prevents your opponent from attacking as long as Gravekeeper's Servant and one of the first 3 Cards are face up on the field together.)
 * Patrician of Darkness and Spirit Reaper/Marshmallon (By forcing the opponent to attack the latter ones, you may block all of your opponent's attacks.)
 * Swords of Concealing Light and Kaiser Colosseum (If you've got both of these cards, your opponent can only control face-down monsters. If you don't want to lose your Swords of Concealing Light, add a Gravity Axe - Grarl and Zero Gravity instead.)
 * Zombie World (Prevents either player from Tribute Summoning non-Zombie type monsters.)
 * Mask of Restrict/Fog King (Prevents either player from Tributing.)
 * Tualatin (Negates a monster Attribute. Useful against single-attribute Decks such as Dark Decks)

Supportive cards

 * Splendid Venus (Prevents your own cards from being negated. Allows Royal Decree and Royal Oppression to co-exist while the controller can still activate Spells and Traps. Works greatly well at Fairy Decks)
 * 2 Ojama Kings (or 1 Ojama King and 1 Ojama Knight) (After destroying your opponents monsters on the field, summon these to completely lock down your opponents field, preventing them from summoning any monsters.) If you don't have enough room for two Ojama Fusions, try Ground Collapse instead.
 * Doomcaliber Knight (This monster helps you negate monster effects if cards like Skill Drain cannot be salvaged. Although his effect is obligatory, it counters even effects activated outside the field, like Gorz the Emissary of Darkness.)

Recommended Deck types

 * Dragon: With Future Fusion for Five-Headed Dragon alongside Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, you can effectively control the opponent with your best lockdown dragons coming out each turn, assuming you used them as materials from your Deck or they are in the Graveyard. High potential, and if you manage to get Future Fusion, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and a monster to tribute for its effect on the first turn, your opponent is near-hopeless. Light and Darkness Dragon is also a great addition


 * Spellcaster: Many monsters with destructive or controlling effects to choose from. Very easy to lock down the opponent with the right amount of search effects, plus you can more easily get Spell Cards back. Spell Counter cards are especially powerful.


 * Psychic: The monsters have lots of effects that protect themselves as well as destruction, can be mixed with other strategies and are overall reliable. The Silent Swordsman set is the best candidate for this Deck because of the usability of Shining Angel, and can also use Chaos cards. Because of the potential to swarm monsters, Destiny Hero - Plasma is an ideal card. However, this Deck type is overall slow compared to dragons, and Spell Counter cards have more reliability.


 * Machine: This Deck relies heavily on anti-effect Machines, such as Spell Canceller and Jinzo, although both have synergy to negate your opponent's effects. You may easily swarm the field with Machine Duplication, and yet use Cyber Valley to protect your field and draw a card in exchange. You may also use the previous combo to Special Summon Destiny Hero - Plasma and negate the opponent's effects