Trap cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game can be vital to a duelist’s success in a match. They can completely shut down any plans your opponent has and turn the tides in your favor. While most trap cards need to be played in the trap/spell section, select monster cards can use trap effects in their hands. These are the best of those and the powerful effects they can use to give you an advantage in battle.
Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring is useful for outright stopping your opponent from continuing with any plans they have this turn. The way it works is you discard this card when your opponent uses any card (monster, spell, or trap) that has an effect of adding a card to their hand from the deck, special summon from the deck, or send a card from the deck to the graveyard. If you have multiples of this card, you can continually stop your opponent from pulling off any sly maneuvers to quickly summon a powerful monster or, at the very least, delay them, giving yourself time to retort.
Battle Fader
Battle Fader is an excellent last line of defense if all your monsters have been wiped from the field or your opponent has monsters that can ignore your monsters and attack you directly. With this card in hand, you summon it and immediately end your opponent’s battle phase when trying to take down your life points. That makes this card perfect when you are on the ropes and drastically need something to help you turn the tides or slow your opponent’s momentum.
D.D. Crow
D.D. Crow is a brilliant card for completely taking out a powerful card your opponent has in their graveyard. On either turn, send the crow from your hand to your graveyard and banish anything in your opponent’s graveyard. This is perfect when you take down a powerful monster and want to prevent the opposition from bringing them back into play. What’s even better is the description leaves the choice up to you for what you want to take away. It isn’t relegated to only certain monsters or types, and you can do it anytime you want.
Deep-Eyes White Dragon
The Deep-Eyes White Dragon is beneficial if you have a deck filled with dragons. To start with, you will need a Blue-Eyes White Dragon in play and as many dragons as possible in your graveyard. When your Blue-Eyes White Dragon is destroyed either in battle or by an effect, you summon this card into play. Immediately your opponent loses 600 life points for every dragon card in your graveyard (including the Blue-Eyes), and you choose any dragon in your graveyard and give that attack stat to this card. So you could immediately replace your Blue-Eyes White Dragon with this card at the same attack, or possibly something even more robust. As a bonus, if your opponent defeats this card with an effect, every monster on their side of the field is instantly destroyed.
Effect Veiler
Effect Veiler’s use is simple but quite, shall we say, effective. If your opponent activates a powerful effect on their turn, you discard this card to the graveyard and negate their effect until the end of their turn. This can help stop the opponent from destroying monsters on your side or delay them from getting a particular card they want from the deck.
Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion
Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion is a card similar to Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring in that it allows you to activate it when the opponent uses a card with three specific effects. The difference is that this card can be activated when your opponent tries to take or special summon anything from the graveyard or banish any of your cards from the graveyard (making this the perfect counter for D.D. Crow).
Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit is used primarily for taking out a powerful effect on the field. During either turn, when your opponent activates an effect (either a monster, spell, or trap effect works), take this card out of your hand and send it to the graveyard. Whatever your opponent was trying to use is instantly destroyed as well.
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness is the perfect card to have in hand when all hope seems lost. When your side of the field is entirely void of any cards, and your opponent goes to attack you directly, you special summon Gorz into play without needing to tribute anything. If the damage to your life points was from an effect, your opponent takes the same amount. If the damage was normal battle damage, you summon an Emissary of Darkness Token beside this card that will have attack and defense equal to the life points you lost. Not only does this punish your opponent for putting a big hit on you, but it gets you right back into the fight with a powerful monster of its own accord.
Red-Eyes Retro Dragon
It is good to have Red-Eyes Retro Dragon in your hand if you have multiple Red-Eyes monsters in your graveyard. When your opponent sends any Red-Eyes monster lower than level seven (not Red-Eyes B. Chick) on your side to the graveyard, you instantly can summon this card in defense position. Now you get to summon as many of those monsters that were just sent to the graveyard back into play, and you have the opportunity to normal summon a Red-Eyes Black Dragon into play or tribute this card for something else on your turn. Quite the turn around in monster numbers on the field.
Tragoedia
Tragoedia can be summoned into play at any point you lose life points, and it gains 600 attack and damage for every card in your hand, so try to stack them up if possible. Now with this card in play, you can send a monster from your hand to the graveyard and choose a monster on your opponent’s side with the same level and take control of that monster. This effect makes Tragoedia a potential game-changer if the circumstances are right.
