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YamiBakuraFan's Little Shop of Horrors
Trap Masters
September 05, 2005

In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga and Anime, deep within the semi final rounds of Battle City which were held atop the Duel Blimp, Rishid, posing as Malik, played a powerful combination of cards to turn the tide of the duel in his favor. These cards were Pharaoh’s Shrine and Holy Beast Selkit. Sometime after Battle Cities conclusion, in the Jump Heroes extra comic, Atem played a great dragon monster called Vandalgion against the man of 100 decks. What do these duels have in common? Both cards are powerful support for a very underrated deck type, the trap deck.

The trap deck, whether it’s based on everyday normal traps, powerful counter traps, or the elusive and powerful trap monsters, plays a large part in the game play mechanics of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official card game. Today I’ll be going over some powerful trap based cards. The first is a very powerful monster called Selkit.


Holy Beast Selkit
Earth main-type
Angel sub-type
Level 6
2500 / 2000
This card is destroyed if there isn’t a face-up [ Pharaoh’s Shrine] on the field.
When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, that monster is removed from the current duel and this monsters attack strength is increased by 500 points.


If at first glance you noticed Selkit is a huge monster was a wonderful effect, you’re most definately very right. First, let’s go over his stats. He’s earth main-type which makes him good in our mostly earth agro metagame. This means he’s a valid target for both Gigantes, and Earth Spirit Technique – Kurogane. He’s an angel sub-type, which is cool because there really aren’t too many angel sub-types in this game.

Level 6 is another pro. 2500 gives him more attack than both Psycho Shocker and Perseus, which are probably the most widely used sacrifice monsters in the game right now. Monsters destroyed by Selkit are removed from the game. This will not only hinder many of your opponents cemetery based combos but will also stop the effects of many monsters, especially searchers like Critter and Killer Tomato.

It doesn’t end there though, Selkit also gains a nice 500 attack point boost for each monster it destroys in battle. So every time it kills it becomes an even greater threat to your opponent. There is one catch to this mighty creature though, a kind of Achilles heel. That is it’s dependability on Pharaoh’s Shrine. This alone is probably what keeps Selkit from being run in many different deck types out there. While Shrine isn’t on the field Selkit is destroyed.

So while your opponent may not be able to destroy Selkit with their monster cards something as simple as a Cyclone or Tempest will tear the mighty creature down. Although this may hinder Selkit’s power, or more contain it from being out of control, Shrine itself is also an incredible card. Together these two make a wonderful and amusing deck type that takes quite a bit of skill to use effectively.



Pharaoh’s Shrine
Magic / Continuous
The controller of this card may activate trap cards on the turn that they are set. Send this card and a face-up [ Holy Beast Selkit ] to the cemetery to special summon a monster from your hand, deck, or Fusion deck.


Not only is this card the power source behind the mighty Selkit, it’s also a power source of another kind for another type of card. Shrine helps a player make full use of trap cards and their great potential in this game. Trap cards are played in every duelists deck, however many players only use from six to seven traps in their decks while they use somewhere around sixteen to eighteen magic cards! Why are traps so unpopular? Mostly because they are more easily negated and destroyed than magic cards.

Trap cards have a main exploitable weakness that makes them nowhere as good as magic cards. They must be set for one turn before being activated, while a player may activate as many magic cards as he or she desires whenever he or she pleases. Traps will most likely be hit with removal before being activated and there are some cards that can greatly hinder the playability of trap cards.

Psycho Shocker and Imperial Decree are large blows to traps. Many players will mainboard or sideboard one or even both of these cards. Decree can even be used in multiples. Other cards like Ice Emperor Mobius and Magic Warrior Breaker can also kill traps before they get a chance to shine.

This is where Shrine comes in. Shrines effect allows a player to activate traps on the first turn that they are set. This removes the period of time between your turn and your opponents in which your traps will most likely be destroyed. Shrine is what makes trap decks playable. With all of the trap cards and trap monsters out there, shrine can make a huge difference in a duel.

The only problem is that Shrine itself falls to the weakness it intends to protect traps from. It can be easily destroyed by the mass amounts of magic and trap removal that are allowed to run rampant in this game. Negation cards like Declaration of God and Magic Drain can help protect it. Counter Traps like these are invaluable to all trap based decks.




Devil King Dragon - Vandalgeon
Dark main-type
Dragon sub-type
Level 8
2800 / 2500
Whenever a card that your opponent activates is negated by a Counter Trap card, you may special summon this card from your hand to the field. When this card is successfully special summoned this way,
one of the following effects are activated depending on the type of the card that was negated.
- Magic: Inflict 1500 points damage to your opponent
- Trap: Destroy a card on your opponent's field.
- Effect Monster: Choose a monster in your cemetery and special summon it to your side of the field.


Vandalgeon is an awesome monster used by Atem in the Jump Heroes special comic in Weekly V-Jump magazine. Unlike many other powerful new monsters, like the structure deck cards, this card is not a nomi monster and can be summoned whenever a player wants, however doing this will not be a great move judging you will have to sacrifice two of your monsters and he won't get the effect. Basically not being a Nomi helps him because he can be special summoned from the Graveyard which most other seemingly powerful monsters cannot these days. This isn't how you want to play Vandalgeon though, his effect deals with negation.
Nowadays players run a lot less counter traps than a long time ago, once again because of mass removal. This is also why Vandalgeon will not get over abused in the current meta. He will be abused in a deck focused around negation with lots of counter traps. Judgement of the Sky as well as Declaration of God are some of the best choices. But let’s go through his many effects one at a time and research this swiss army knife of a card.

Effect #1: Magic

Do 1500 life point damage to your opponent.

While Magic Negation is the easiest to pull off, Magic Drain or Magic Jammer will work perfectly here. It's a nasty little surprise for your opponent because taking 1500 damage out of nowhere is not funny. Not to mention they now have a huge 2800 attack monster breathing down their neck and may have just lost a useful magic card like Jar of Greed or Theft. This effect is better late game where life point counts run low and could just win the game in the end.

Effect #2: Trap

Destroy one card on your opponent's field.

This is one of Vandalgeons better effects. Destroying any card on the field can gain quick and easy advantage. Since it doesn't specify whether the card has to be a trap/magic/monster, or even if it's face up or face down it's very versatile. Not to mention if you just blew up your opponents only defense or soiled their whole strategy, they may just end up in deep doo when Vandalgeon hits the field. Not too mention you'll likely negate stuff like Reactive Armor that can be killed during a battle phase and that will give Vandalgeon the bonus of his attack after summon.

Effect #3: Monster Effect

Select one monster from your cemetery and special summon it to your field.

This one is the most random of Vandalgeon’s three effects but is very fun nonetheless. You can regain a monster and shut down one of your opponents in the process. Getting back a big monster that you lost earlier and getting Vandalgeon out in one shot is just traumatizing.

Overall Vandalgeon is very situational but can be godly on command. You need to choose when to play him wisely so you pull off the best effect for the situation, you also need to pack major negation to make full use of his many powers.

Now it’s time to build a trap deck with a hint of negation to make full use of both Selkit and Vandalgion to there fullest. Selkit will have Cyber Dragon fusions in the fusion deck so you may send it and shrine into the cemetery to bring out a giant game finishing monster. Lots of negation like Declaration of God, and Magic Drain will protect Shrine and be the catalyst for Vandalgions summoning.

The main monsters that can be used as sacrifice food for both Selkit and Vandalgion if you need it will be trap monsters. Since this is an all trap deck and there are very few actual monsters. Trap monsters will be the most reliable monsters to use in battle.

Overall traps are a very effective decktype that are all very reliant on certain situations to pull off some great miracles.

01) Devil King Dragon – Vandalgeon
02) Devil King Dragon – Vandalgeon
03) Holy Beast – Selkit
04) Holy Beast – Selkit
05) Black Cat of Bad Luck
06) Black Cat of Bad Luck
07) Mask of Darkness
08) Mask of Darkness
09) Jetroid
10) Tsukuyomi – Moon Diviner
11) Pharaoh’s Shrine
12) Pharaoh’s Shrine
13) Pharaoh’s Shrine
14) Jar of Greed
15) Cyclone
16) Tempest
17) Scapegoat
18) Theft
19) Confiscate
20) Metal Reflect Slime
21) Metal Reflect Slime
22) Metal Reflect Slime
23) Dead Spirit Zoma
24) Dead Spirit Zoma
25) Dead Spirit Zoma
26) Avatar of Apophis
27) Avatar of Apophis
28) Avatar of Apophis
29) Declaration of God
30) Declaration of God
31) Declaration of God
32) Magic Drain
33) Magic Drain
34) Tidal Wave
35) Reactive Armor
36) Reactive Armor
37) Sand Tornado
38) Sand Tornado
39) Ceasefire Treaty
40) Magic Cylinder

FUSIONS:

01) Cyber Twin Dragon
02) Cyber Twin Dragon
03) Cyber End Dragon
04) Cyber End Dragon

Well that’s all for today! I hope you all enjoyed this article, and I look forward to writing more in the near future.

^.~

-YamiBakuraFan