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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Waboku
Common

Any damage inflicted by an opponent's monster is decreased to 0 during the turn this card is activated.

Type - Normal Trap
Card Number
- SDY-040,SDP-044,SDJ-046

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being 
the worst.  3 ... average.  5 is the highest rating

Date Reviewed - 2.27.04

ExMinion OfDarkness Friday:  Waboku

Here we have the most abused Normal Trap in Yu-Gi-Oh. In the Top 8 of the Butler, PA Regionals, there were 15 Wabokus Main-decked out of a possible 24. Guess what? Both finalists were using 3 each.

Basically, this card should read "You get one free turn". Because once this card is activated, unless your opponent is playing Scientist FTK, you're not going to lose this turn. This card is used for a variety of reasons:

*Punish your opponent for playing a Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm, Harpie's Feather Duster, or Breaker's counter.
*Set alongside a Mirage of Nightmare and bluff your opponent into thinking the MST is set, using HFD or Heavy Storm just to get it out of the way, and end up giving you free cards in the process.
*Chain to a Monster Reborn, Call of the Haunted, or Premature Burial that target a Jinzo.
*Use when your opponent attempts to kamikaze (have a monster attack one of your monsters whom both have the same Attack) to have their monster die and yours stay on the field.
*Save your Vampire Lord from Goblin Attack Force.

If major tournaments teach us anything it is that chainability > power in nearly all aspects. Ring of Destruction is favored over Magic Cylinder, even though you take the damage as well, simply because you can chain it. Torrential Tributes are being side-decked more than main-decked, even with their great field-clear power, because this card is more reliability. Reliability wins card games, plain and simple. A player of any game would rather have a surefire effect that helps moderately than a great effect that only works about half the time or less.

This card has a place in all Decks. Normal Beatdowns can use it to stave off one incoming attack. Exodia decks can get that extra turn they need to possibly gain the last piece. Magical Scientist decks can save their Life Points while setting up their one turn kill combo (which, coincidentally, can't be stopped by this card).

For future note, the Yata + Chaos Emperor Dragon combo will be widely used. But if Waboku is activated in chain to his effect, Yata can't lock you that turn -- and the player will get one more draw to save themselves and potentially cause that CED to have lost the Duel for its user.
All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive make your time.
This card gets a 5/5. As much as someone may argue against this, it is STAPLE. 
Gambit Waboku

An old classic that is finding its way back into more decks again, and deservedly so. What can I say about this card that hasn't been said? This card is more versatile than just a defensive aid; its use offensively is also helpful. In today's game, with so many people playing the same cards in every deck, the odds of you running into a situation where you and your opponent both have monsters with the same attack on the field are pretty good. Attack their Archfiend Soldier with your Archfiend Soldier and activate Waboku. Keep yours while theirs goes to the graveyard.

The trigger happy nature of most players with an MST or a Breaker make this card that much more useful -- you can bet that they will destroy your Waboku at the first given opportunity, and you can chain this, leaving your opponent wishing they had their card or token back. Also, is anything more fun than the look on your opponent's face when you attack their Lily (or their Lily attacks you) and you chain with Waboku, leaving them with damage either way?
One more use for this card is stalling. Jinzo aside, this card will buy you another turn more often than not. This can help in Exodia, Final Countdown, etc.

If you run Last Turn, this card can help you get an almost certain draw, and in the right combination, a win. If you have a Wall of Illusio, Man Eater Bug, or something similar, activate Last Turn, then chain Waboku. Their monster dies or goes back to their hand, while your monster stays. Only an experienced opponent will even have a chance to beat this strategy.

5.0/5.0 The best at what it does. Played wisely, this is a surprisingly devastating card. 
Omega Just a short note before I write today’s card of the day.

For anyone who’s read my latest Deck review of an Exodia deck might notice that the cards in the deck add up to only 39 cards. Now several people e-mailed me and brought this to my attention and I looked over the deck a second time and realized I make a typo on the traps section. I had listed the number of Traps in the deck as 6, when in reality there were 7 traps in the deck making it perfectly legal. Thanks for anyone who picked up on it.


Ok Waboku. I’m going to keep this brief because this is the 3rd time Waboku has been reviewed on Pojo.

So this week I will be comparing Waboku to a very similar card, Negate Attack. Each card generally does the same thing, blocks your opponent’s monster attacks from getting to your life points. However each has subtle differences that make them good in their own way.

Waboku

+ Waboku has its chain-ability, which makes it a likely candidate for most decks. Being able to activate when your face down cards are nuked by say Harpies Feather Duster is sometimes a godsend.

- Only makes the attack 0. While this isn’t really a downside it does have 1 bad side to it. Say you set a flip effect monster that you need to actually flip summon yourself (Guardian Sphinx for example). Waboku does not help you in this situation.

Negate Attack

+ Negates the attack, and immediately ends your opponents battle phase. This means that if you have that Guardian Sphinx on the field you can use Negate Attack to protect it, so you may flip summon it on your next turn.

- Has to be activated in response to an attack. Now that is a downside because unlike Waboku that can be chained to the activation to a Spell/Trap destroying card, Negate Attack relies on your opponent actually attacking first which is a definite drawback.

Now you have to ask yourself something. What is it you want in an Attack Negation card. Chain-ability, or Full out Negation. Most players will go for the chain-ability, and I can’t say I blame them. But do not fully disregard Negate Attack; it can be useful in the right situation.

Waboku: 4/5
Negate Attack: 3.5/5  
Quickshot Too much to say in a review, so I'll save for an article later. =) 
Otaku

Stats: Waboku is a normal Trap, and that is what it needs to be.  It wouldn’t make sense as a Quick-Play Spell card or the like.  Also, as a Trap card, it’s les likely to be negated (unless you don’t see a Jinzo coming).

Card Text (Effects): Simply put, Waboku prevents battle damage for one turn.  What does that mean?  For a detailed explanation, go to: http://www.stormpages.com/edhrzic/Yugis06.htm.  A very brief summary is that when a monster attacks or is attacked, it inflicts battle damage equal to the appropriate stat for its position: ATK for attack position and DEF or defense position.  Yes, both monsters inflict battle damage, however barring certain cards that may not even be out in English yet, if the battle damage is less than a monster’s appropriate stat, it doesn’t really matter.  If it is as much as or more than the appropriate stat, then you go back to your instruction booklets and work the damage step.  If a monster is in ATK position and is attacked by or attacks a monster with a higher ATK, then your monster is destroyed and the spill over battle damage is applied to your Life Points.  If that monster was in defense mode, then your attacker doesn’t die but your LP still gets hit for the spill over damage.  Since Waboku negates battle damage, your monster can’t be destroyed, and any spill-over is negated.  The wording is a bit ambiguous-it applies for all of your opponent’s monsters.

Uses/Combinations: This is the ultimate insurance in most cases.  As long as it can set for a turn, you can chain it to anything of Spell Speed 1 or 2. This also makes it excellent S/T Removal bait-if you opponent tries destroying it after it has been set long enough to activate, then you can chain it and activate it anyway.  It’s great fun to watch someone remove Breaker’s Spell Counter to use his effect, only to find he can’t do any good by attacking anyway.  It is also rare that an opponent will pay to negate a Waboku if they have the ability to do so, unless it would win them the game.  Some people ask me why I run Waboku.  They point out that, assuming I am over 40 with it, by dropping it I’d just get the card I need sooner.  After all, it only blocks for a turn.  This is true.  But this card allows you to be more reckless with assaults, and gives time for combos to set up.  Decks with tribute monsters like it because this let’s you keep a Sinister Serpent alive long enough to tribute. ;)  Decks that use Injection Fairy Lily like it because they can just switch Lily to DEF mode on their next turn, and opponents can’t try to hose them by ramming 3 Mystic Tomatoes into Lily to drain your LP.  It is also nice for Spear Dragon and Slate Warrior.  Spear Dragon gets a second shot most games if this is there to back it.  While most people won’t want to waste time setting Slate Warrior, for those odd occasions where you would want to, this makes it so that monster removal is your only concern.

Ratings

Casual: 4.5/5-This card makes it a lot easier to keep monsters alive, thus making a lot of decks more playable.

Tournament: 4/5-Like I said, this is the ultimate insurance policy for YGO.  A set one of these practically guarantees most basic beatdown and control decks can’t finish you off next turn.

Limited: 4.5/5-Keep those peon monsters alive long enough to get any high level, high attack fatties onto the field.

Summary

Waboku is a very versatile card.  I tried running less than three in my decks, and could only get away with it in decks that had something else that could be sued similarly and in large quantities to pick up the slack (like a Gravity Bind deck).  In my Suicide Beatdown deck, it does wonders, letting me go berserk while still having a solid defense for the next turn.  In addition to buying you an extra turn, it buys a monster (or monsters) on the field an extra turn, allowing you to set-up a great strike.

-Otaku

 

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