Before there were Solemn Warnings there was Solemn Judgment. Known as the Solemn Brigade, these trap cards are some of the most powerful traps in the game. Known as the “God Card”, Solemn Judgment is the most powerful trap card in the game. With the ability to say no to the summon of a monster or the activation of a spell or trap card, Solemn Judgment can stop almost anything your opponent can through at you.
 
The only things that Solemn Judgment can not stop are effects that start a chain. If you activate the effect of a monster, spell, or trap card then those effects can not be Judged, pun intended. Cards like Gorz, Fusion Gate, and Royal Oppression  escape judgment. Even though you have to pay half of your life points, if it stops your opponent’s big plays or only play then the advantage you gain is well worth it.
 
Traditional: 5/5
Advanced: 5/5

We're looking at a staple trap card that is in every deck.....every....deck. Solemn Judgment. This swiss army knife of negation stops pretty much anything short of monster effects. By paying half of your life points, you can negate the summon of a monster, or the activation of a spell/trap and destroy it. With a 3 MST, 1 Storm format, this card is a must for protecting your multiple spells/traps from being destroyed, or losing some kind of field control by the summoning of a monster. Judgment is best used during the middle or end of a duel, no one likes paying 4000 in their first turn or two, but it can be worth saving your Spell and Traps, or that Dark Hole from destroying your monsters. Overall, you have Solemn Judgment, you are using it and knows how good of a card it is.
 
Traditional: 4 *More Spell/Trap destruction here*
Advanced: 5
Tomorrow: Mirror, Mirror....who is the fairest HERO of them all.

Solemn Judgment

“When a monster would be Summoned OR a Spell/Trap Card is activated: Pay half your Life Points; negate the Summon OR activation, and if you do, destroy that card.”

Let me start off by saying is that half of your life points is quite a hefty price early off in the game. This card is limited to one for a reason, it is a major “back off” card that can either make or break the game. The biggest misconception about this card this card is that people try to negate effects that special summon, which you cannot do with Solemn Judgment. You cannot negate Gorz, Battle Fader, etc. because their effects are special summoning them.

This card is considered a staple card in almost every single deck. Having a little bit of control in a deck is always nice in this fast paced meta.

Overall, this card is great in its entirety. Depending what stage of the game early/mid/late this card can be game breaking. Then again, with 3 Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm, Ryko, Lyla, etc. it is all a matter of baiting out the destruction.

Pros: Negates practically everything.

Cons: It doesn’t negate monster effects.

Advanced: 4/5
Traditional: 4/5

My articles on D.D. Survivor and Judgment Dragon should be up. Sorry, this has been a stupid-crazy month.

Ten years ago, Otaku was famed for his excessive use of this Trap when it was used mostly only in defensive decks, before Judgment got Limited.

As the game continued to evolve and grew more and more aggressive as it is right now, Judgment became a definite staple card. Before it was Limited, it found itself being abused in offensive decks such as TeleDAD (combining Psychics with Dark Armed Dragon) because of its ability to serve as a general safety net for just about anything. As Otaku would say, when using an offensive deck, your own LP are meant to be used as a weapon, and if LP don't matter, Judgment is a powerfully solid 1-for-1 negation card. This is most prelevant in an endgame situation when it looks like it could be just about anyone's game, and you negate a game-breaking card for a pittance of a cost.

You can negate ANYTHING. The DinoRabbit Deck is feared by how simply it can summon Evolzar Laggia, a monster that packs a one-time use of negating any card your opponent plays. When Laggia is out on your field, the opponent is forced to play very carefully and probably has to give up a powerful card in order to trick the Laggia into negating an unimportant card so that the Laggia can finally be defeated, or at least trick the Laggia into negating a not-as-important card (in chess, this would be called zugzwang, a German phrase that means you're forced to go with a decision, even if it's a bad decision).

It really goes without saying the power of this card. It is usually set on the field as soon as it is drawn, because the power to wipe out something like an Evolzar Laggia or Mind Control once they pop up is invaluable, even for 4000 LP. Oh yeah, and BTW, remember how I mentioned yesterday Extra Deck monsters are "Semi-Nomi" and how that means you can only Monster Reborn them if they got destroyed on the field? Well the best part about Solemn Judgment is that it destroys monsters in limbo (that is, the monster already left the hand or deck but didn't touch the field), so you are NOT allowed to Monster Reborn a Semi-Nomi that got Judgment'd (or Warning'd, for that matter, because the summon was "negated").

As I've just explained, Judgment is a great Trap Card that offensive decks use. Stall decks may sometimes prefer Starlight Road, but I have Final Countdown and I use Judgment anyway for the pure versatility. Conversely, because I concentrate so much on defence, my opponent rarely ever gets a chance to use Judgment and if they do, it rarely matters to me (and IF they do, usually it's with the full cost of 4000, which is a good deal for me if I decide to lash out with a surprise attack).

You can also use Judgment against your own cards. I've never seen it done before, but I guess it does come in handy...in certain crazy situations.

Ruling Clarification: Judgment can only negate an actual card, not the effect of a card. For example, if I use Polymerization, you can only use Judgment/Warning on the actual Polymerization and not on the monster that comes out. I have another example. If Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon uses its effect to summon another Dragon, you CANNOT use Judgment because the new Dragon is a product of REDMD's effect. Solemn Warning, however, says that it has the power to negate effects, so in this situation, Warning would destroy REDMD. I know, it's crazy.

Trad: 4/5 (negating stuff is good but quite frankly, it isn't that great a draw if you're opponent is going first and is just about to win)
Adv: 4.9/5 (minus .5 for potentially hefty cost, minus .25 for funny rulings on what it can't negate, and minus .25 for being Limited)
Aesthetics: 4.5/5 Apparently, half your LP is all the payment you need for the power of GOD SAYS NOOOOOOOOO!!!

Tomorrow's Card: Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, turn the tables on this brawl.

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Solemn Judgment

Welcome again to the CotD. Blackmarketyugioh back for some more. Today, we are looking at the all powerful, true god card, Solemn Judgment. This is the trap of all traps. It is a counter trap, which can stop anything, including other counter traps, and with a hefty cost of half your life points, you will stop whatever you want, be it a summon, or another spell or trap. Being limited to 1 is kinda crappy, as I remember the days of playing 3 of this all powerful card. This is a staple for almost all decks, and is playable no matter what you play. Not very many decks play no traps, with the exception of Chaos Dragons, and Hieratics. And they handle perfectly fine without SJ, or traps as said.

Advanced: 4/5 Would be a 5, but not all decks havethe need for this card

Traditional: 4/5 Same as above

Artwork: 4/5 This card looks totally wicked as a ghost/gold. The card just screams "I command you, NO!!!"