Final Countdown is a Normal Spell card.  Its effect puts a lasting condition on the field, and it’s hard to imagine it really benefiting from being a Quick-Play, Trap card, etc.  Said condition is that after activating this card, you need to keep track of the turn count.  When the 20^th turn (after the activation of this card) ends, you win!  You do count the turn you activate this card.  Now, this isn’t the greatest win condition: in my experience, when you have competent duelists with solidly constructed decks, games end before this threshold quite often.  Without outside help, one would expect at least half of all duels to last less than 20 turns.  Not only do you need them to go at least that long, but you have to factor in drawing and successfully using Final Countdown.  Now, there is one last consideration for the basic mechanics of this card: you must pay 2000 LP when you activate the card.  Ouch.  That’s like getting ht directly by a Berserk Gorilla.  Then again, it is akin to paying 100 LP per turn of the count, so it’s not quite as bad as it sounds.

 

So how should this card be used?  I myself view it as an “insurance” policy.  While it doesn’t happen that often, there are still enough games that hit 20 or more turns that make something to conceivably use.  Still, most decks would be better served with another card to end “tie breakers” or turn around “losing” games.  There are two exceptions I can think of though: stall/burn decks and decks specifically built around using Final Countdown.  Stall/burn decks can both make use of this card (good incase your opponent takes anti-burn measures), and it can also be used to attempt to counter them (when coupled with other anti-Burn options, it can work).  To use Final Countdown in its own deck mainly revolves around getting it out and then finding ways to speed up the turn count.  How does that work?  Well, to get it out you have cards like Painful Choice (coupled with Magician of Faith and/or an upcoming card from Flaming Eternity that lets you discard a card from hand to topdeck a card from your Graveyard.  Pyro Clock of Destiny is a normal Trap that moves the turn count ahead by one.  As such, A Cat of Ill Omen and Mask of Darkness would be useful as well.

 

Anyway, I like this card and use it in my Chaos Necromancer deck as that deck tends to win or lose slowly.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional: 1.5/5-Usually, you’ll only succeed in speeding up the game… as your opponent now needs to do 2000 LP less.

 

Advanced: 2.5/5-A little more useful here, as it can be used to slightly augment a strong existing deck.

 

Limited: 3/5-The LP cost will hit you harder here, but games do tend go a bit slower without the power combos to speed things up.

 

Summary

This card is just a little too long term to be practical.  Most games will end before the effect will culminate, even with support.  10 turns, even had the LP cost been half your LP (4000 would be too hard to use) would have been juuuuuuuust right.