I was thinking the same thing! Not only is it the card that created the shorthand "infernity barrier" to refer to any in-archetype Omni negate trap, but it's not even a OPT, much less a HOPT. If you have three copies, you can activate all three copies lol
I was literally thinking the same, Forbidden Spell has had its moments sure, but Barrier was a menace when the deck was at full power. A testament to why we still have not moved Launcher off the limited list
You forgot to mention Cryme's other effect, which is that it's somehow always in every Tearlaments player's opening hand even though most play it at 1.
Dont underestimate curse seal. Been putting that in some gimmick decks and it NEVER fails. Banning pots or lightning storms called by forbidden and noble etc. just a lot of advantage of locking your opponents draw and negates. I like it tbh. Its slept on.
I clearly remember older Yugioh days with slower tempo - where blind -4000 LP Solemn Judgment by an opponent could easily net you a win by, around 2~3 attacks. Pretty sure that it's just that duelists from earlier era couldn't time it right for the most part. This specific card was extremely powerful even back then.
It was just too steep a cost and made games far too inconsistent on top of the power level of spells back then sure you pay 4k to stop Pot of greed but they just Dilinquent Duo you or drop Graceful if you happen to have a second one a single Beserk Gorilla will kill you assuming you haven't taken any damage prior and you have. They *were* great during late game when you and your opponent are around 2-3 cards, but earlier than that and Judgment was basically a brick.
i remember people debating on the pros and cons of solemn. so when i cracked my copy i jammed it in my deck and opened it, set 3 backrow summon marauding captain & command knight. my opponent plays heavy storm. 4000 life points seemed CHEEP to me when i flipped that card and won the game because i trap holed their summon and set up my captain lock the following turn. the card only got better in my eyes from there. it was 'the ultimate protector' i called it. then i got multiples and realized it was never a bad set because the second one guarantees the first one resolves at a CHEEPER cost. it was slow to catch on, but it caught my heart from game one.
That spell card discard is *rough,* most of your playmakers are monsters in most decks. It was used with things like Mine Burn or other dumb stall decks, but thats about it. Against something like Branded Fusion is very good though, but not enough decks can reliably play Cursed Seal.
In general even Magic Jammer wasn't used in higher competitive scenes back then, because essentially it is a 2v1 trade: you lose magic jammer and the card you discard while your opponent only loses one card, putting them at a potential advantage. Cursed Seal has a discard cost too but that discard cost is also much more restrictive. You rarely ever have the choice what to discard and you can't even use it that well with revival shenanigans. So you already have magic jammer with a harsher cost, but on top of that if the spell you negate isn't one your opponent runs multiples of, chances are the lock effect won't ever apply, and even then it's not even guaranteed your opponent draws multiples of the card that are now useless. If your opponent runs a card 3 times and also happens to draw all 3 of them in a single duel (like for example Jaden in the anime) then cursed seal is a 2v3 trade, but that is just very unlikely and most of the time it can end up as a bad magic jammer instead. When a deck appears that is totally focused on a single spell card, bases its entire strategy on it and runs an entire deck filled with searchers for it, THEN cursed seal can become a really powerful card, but outside of that it usually just isn't, and those decks only came up in the last few years, mostly stuff like branded.
I'd put Tachyon Transmigration up on that list since it has the ability to negate an entire chain, so imagine a chain link 6 in a Tear deck going off that all gets negated and shuffled back into the deck long as you control a Galaxy-Eyes monster, not even a once per turn either. It's only held back by it not being searchable.
@@Backslashed My point is that Galaxy Eyes is not a good archetype. It can be a powerful card but if it's in a weak deck it doesn't mean much. Like w nebula meteorite being stuck in worms or that ursarctic card that draws you 7 lol. It fails at being in a good archetype and at being searchable. Lots of galaxy eyes players don't even play it cuz they're bricky enough, which says a lot.
@@draylanwashington6343 I love Rebirth of Parshath too, but the only issue with it is the fact you have to have a counter trap in your hand to reveal it to fulfill the cost of using it. Counter traps have no value in the hand except for Red Reboot, and since its banned, Rebirth of Parshath isn't as good as it was. And unfortunately Guiding Ariadne only makes you not pay cost and discard, but you still have to reveal. Now, a few Parshath cards do have some solid effects, but they don't have upon summon effects. Not as valuable to summon on your opponent's turn in my opinion.
Saw number 1 coming as soon as I saw the title. Its only applicable vs certain decks, but the card literally reads "I win" vs those decks and has basically no counterplay.
And cursed seal is also a good tech to play in Sky Striker decks. Not only because the deck makes use of a ton of spells but because you also benefit for paying the cost. And that trap is devastating in the mirror match.
I remember using Cursed Seal a lot in Spellbook Striker back when Runick Stun was a huge menace in Master Duel. Resolve Spellbook of Judgement and you'll get more fodder than you need to chuck for that, you can also probably run Divine Wrath but I never felt the need to. Also great for shutting off Lightning Storm if you choose to set a bunch of backrow but it doesn't work on Evenly Matched so I still wouldn't recommend getting greedy with sets.
I think a Top 10 video on archetypal engine consistency would be interesting. Not consistency in the sense of "would Blue Eyes consistently beat Blackwings?" But rather "can the Blue Eyes engine set up a strong board state more consistently than the Blackwings engine? Can the Blue Eyes engine more consistently handle responses that try to stop its setup?" I think examining the engine agnostic from direct strength would enable some interesting adjacent video topics like: "Top 10 engines that bring out a big beat stick," "Top 10 engines that use ritual monsters", "Top 10 engines that make the game unfun to play," etc.
I played a ton of them in my Mystic Mine at home deck. it was a deck that locked my oponents zones with ojamas and stuff... and i aslo had skill drain and such and then burned him mostly with cauldron of the old man cuz he coudlnt do anything just like mystic mine. but konami limited rivalry of warlords, gozen match and skill drain and now since a month or so its no longer playable. :(
Hot take: normal traps should be of higher speed than quick effects. What's the value in normal traps when most quick effect can either dodge or negate it, if on top of that you NEED to set it and hope it can resolve next turn, or worse, wait until your next turn. The only truly useful normal traps are worth using them BECAUSE you can realistically use then from your hand. If normal traps are less prone to be negated by quick effects, then the game would rely less on monster and spell negation and normal and counter traps would also see more play. On that note, continuous effects should remain as quick effects.
How would the spell speeds work in this case? Normal monster effects/Most Spell cards-1 Quick effects/Quick-play Spells/Continuous traps-2 Normal Traps-3 Counter Traps-4
If Normal Traps outsped Quick Play spells/monster effects you would have the inverse problem, one of the intended strengths of Quick Plays is that you can use them in response to Traps and other set Quick Plays, suddenly a ton of Quick Plays lose purpose, like Mystical Space Typhoon or a bunch of Monster mounted Negates Traps are, on average, Much Stronger effects than Quick Play spells, there's been periods where this was less true, both new and old, but as a generalization of their role over the history of the game, Traps have traditionally had very strong blowout effects, Mirror Force seated a deeply rooted behavior pattern in older players and has a legacy of successors both weaker and stronger, Magic Cylinder to this day continues to steal out wins, and many others have existed to be "OP Normal Spell but slower with clauses" like Call of the Haunted
There's a reason why Counter Traps are Spell Speed 3 because they counter specific activation. If Normal Traps are given Spell Speed 3 status, they're essentially Counter Traps with unregulated effects that reduces player interaction. A better solution is to create Runick Fountain-like archetypal cards that can activate Normal Traps in the hand.
Cursed Seal is so good. I'm surprised not many people play it, especially for its lingering effect. Cost wise, in certain decks that can afford the discard, it's very effective: let's say your opponent is running a deck that heavily relies on a certain spell (most decks will have that one spell that's crucial for plays. Maybe not entirely dependent, but crucial). By negating it once, you minus two, but you essentially give them three dead draws, or ruin their strategy all together. This versus having to run three negates and or disruptions to counter the same three cards your opponent plays
Spells tend to be only used once, rarely they use things multiple times and if they do, it's probably not important. It is also only negate spell, in the format where monster effects are the most common play, counter trap that only negate spell that probably only used once to extend isn't very good when you can run something else that is more versatile and universal on what they negate. It was a funny option in MD runick format though.
Genuinely after watching this I am strongly considering siding 3 copies in for a locals I go to that sees HEAVY branded play, since stopping Branded Fusion is so dang strong.
@@CrnaStrela Yeah, everything you said is true. I was more curious why it doesn't see more competitive play, as worst case, it's a one time negate. I play Dogmatikas with Secret Village of Spellcasters, and locking players out of spells seems quite powerful, so I imagine locking them from one key spell would play a big role. I understand most decks are monster heavy, though spells do make up a majority of that other portion, I imagine. Just an observation
There has been no amount of joy I have experienced in Yu-Gi-Oh quite like going to a regional and using Cursed Seal on an Engage. The sheer "What the fuck" look on Striker player'a faces as they read that card was the stuff of legend.
@@fabianbeteta5795 It was awesome. The dude even called a judge over to verify that it was a real card. Best part? I was playing Noble Knights, so I just discarded one of their equip cards xD
Ah. No wonder Infernity Barrier did not make it. The other Archtype-Counter Traps were better and easier to get and had better benefits for the archtype than just a negate. (Yang-Zing) Omni-negate bounce with Denglong Search that can also combo into Herald of Arc Light, another Omni-negate. (Orcust) Omni-negate that also acts as a searcher for your Deck. (Roar) Omni-Negate that recurs itself.
Top 10 Link-1 Monsters Top 15 Rank 4 Xyz Monsters or Top 10 Rank 4 Xyz Monsters That Were Never Banned Top 10 Synchro Tuners Top 10 Cards That Can Set/Activate Spells or Traps Directly From The Deck Top 10 Best/Worst Continuous Spell Cards Top 10 Emergency Teleport Targets Top 10 MTG Effects That Couldn't Exist in Yugioh
I fondly remember Bastion from the GX anime using Cursed Seal to lock out Jaden from using Poly but then loses to plot armor bullshit. Red Reboot was very unnecessary IMO, trap decks already struggled against backrow hate and side deck picks like Decree.
I would have definitely put Infernity Barrier there. Non-Once per turn, searchable omni in infernity, which is an archetype that resurged in a similar way as spyrals did and with limitations to this day, deserves an inclusion.
Not only that, theres a reason archetypal omnis are calle barrier today, because it pioneerd a sub class of cards in archetypes (like crescendo or nine pillars that are on tje list for example)
I love counter traps for different reasons. Mainly that people forget Counter Traps are spell spped 3. Which only another counter trap stops another counter trap. People forget this and wrongly asse you can negate a counter trap with monster effects and other cards. Which you cant cause thats not how rulings work.
Tearlaments Cryme can kiss my whole ass. It makes me sad that you can't really use any of the other Solemn cards besides Judgement in Dinomorphia because they require a specific fixed life point cost. Unless the other ones would be the very first traps you activate in a turn, you're going to be at or below the 2000 or 1500 life point requirement in a turn if things are going optimally. Speaking of Dinomorphia, if there's ever a Top 10 Worst Counter Traps, then Dinomorphia Shell has to be on it. A Counter Trap that can only be activated during the Battle Phase and just gives you a token that draws in attacks is not worth it.
Just some info: When activating the Counter Trap effect (for example: Crescendo from the GY) It does not count as Spell Speed 3, so it can be chained by, say Ash Blossom. The Spell Speed 3 is only when activating the card.
What's that? EVEN More counterplay to Mine? Bring back Mine. Semi it if you have to. oH No i cAn'T loCK mY oPPOnEnT, tHEY LoCKeD mE fIRSt. Boo hoo hoo.
It's Black Magician of Chaos,at least that's the original official Japanese name on the TCG cards,just because USA can't cope with the word black doesn't mean the rest of the world should avoid saying it .
cynet conflict and tachyon transmigration should've been in this list,even though the solemn cards are more ''generic'' these ones are alot more powerfull effect-wise.
Very very early Yu Gi Oh was a super slow game. I knew people who played Solemn Judgement and if they weren't stopping a Mirror Force or a board wipe it was usually risky since games lasted 20 turns or so. Even if you stopped one of their other cards like a Pot of Greed, if they drew 2 vanilla beaters it wasn't going to amount to as much. Nowadays and with people playing the game differently with so many effect monsters, it's much different. When you can lose on your next turn paying half your life points means nothing when you can always play it. However back in the day before even Jinzo was legal there weren't as many crazy ways to swarm the field and monsters (aside from Sangan and Witch) weren't as potent. The spells were OP as heck though. Mind you I'm talking about the Summon Skull beatdown era. So long ago. People using Nimble Momonga was considered a big brain strategy then. Good times.
I've never really played the game all that seriously, but when I look at old cards that look strong but I don't hear about, Bubonic Vermin seems like it would have been a really good defense/source of tribute fodder. Did people run that back in the day?
I don't get why tear exists... cryme seems op asf I wish i never knew about this card. all tear cards and runick cards need to get banned and made illegal.
I’m surprised Tachyon Transmigration didnt make the list since it negates ALL of the opponents activated effects that went off before Tachyon in the chain which is really strong shut down move in galaxy eyes decks. I’m not aware of another card that can nullify an entire chain like that
I’d like to give an honor mention to Vampire Domination. It’s a straight up Omni negate that’s super searchable with Vampire Retriever. And it’s only activation requirement is already done by summoning retriever to search it and always an after thought to any zombie deck with vampire sucker. Not to mention that if you use domination on any monster, you gain that monsters attack in LP. You could easily go over 10,000 lp early on
Idea for a fusion focused counter trap: _The Hydra Problem_ Counter trap _If a fusion monster(s) you control would be removed from the field by an opponents card (by battle or card effect): You can tribute 1 card of a matching type (monster/spell/trap) from your hand or field instead, then special summon 1 monster from your hand, deck or GY that is listed as that fusion monster(s) materials. If this set card is activated: You can special summon 2 listed materials instead, and also from your extra deck, and after this effect resolves, flip this card facedown instead of sending it to the GY._
@@ButFirstHeLitItOnFire You would uhh, give it some kind of condition to be activated from the hand, the problem is that you literally have no way for the bonus condition to not be active
I love that a salamangreat card made the list I’m especially looking forward to the new support the deck is getting eventually even if it’s not in the box that it’s in Japan I do know it’ll eventually get into English and I will be collecting them
WATER/Spellcaster Counter Trap idea: _Oceanic Counterspell_ Counter Trap _If an opponent declares an attack, or activates a card or effect, while you control a face-up WATER Spellcaster; Negate that attack or card/effect activation._ I based it off the MTG “Counterspell” card, and I specified WATER because the MTG card was Blue.
Attack is an interesting addition, but far less valuable than negating a summon Also I imagine the picture being Aqua Madoor, a classic WATER Spellcaster
@@syrelian Well this card is more about saving your own bacon then stopping your opponent from playing (even if it DOES lend itself well to the later.) Plus a lot of summons require a card or effect to be activated anyway, which this card can negate, which in itself limits your opponent’s summoning options to where they can’t “activate” a card or effect to get it through… So most Xyz’s Synchro’s and Link’s should be fine, but non-contact Fusion summoning would be a prime target, and Ritual summoning would be a total no-go.
@@ButFirstHeLitItOnFire It also doesn't negate inherent Special Summons, eg stuff like Spright still goes ham because most of the Sprights have an inherent SS for there being another Lv2 on the board
@@syrelian Besides, the only requirement to proc the card is just controlling a face-up WATER/Spellcaster. Pretty specific, but generally something you’d might want out anyway, and not as costly as tributing/shuffling/banishing or whatever X cards. It’s simple and effective for what it does, and it asks for 1 minor caveat. It’d likely see a good chunk of play in WATER decks.
@@syrelian Ok, let me try THIS then: _Oceanic Counterspell_ Counter Trap _If an opponent declares an attack, or activates a card or effect, while you control a face-up WATER Spellcaster; Negate that attack or card/effect activation. _*_If “Umi” is on the field, you can shuffle this card into the deck, then target 1 WATER Spellcaster monster you control: It gains the following effect while on the field (You can only activate this effect of “Oceanic Counterspell” once per duel):_* ⚪️Once per turn (Quick Effect), if your opponent would declare an attack, activate a card or effect, or special summon a monster: You can negate that Declared attack, special summon, or activated Card/Effect. THERE, for a little more work in getting an “Umi” out (which again is something you generally want to do anyway), you can discard the card instead to just _give_ the WATER/Spellcaster it’s own “Counterspell” while it’s on the field. And it’s on a hard OPD, so you can’t get to crazy or spammy with it.
I like Dinomorphia’s new counter trap. A searchable Solemn Strike, with Judgment’s cost, that also prevents them from losing by battle for the rest of the turn.
I may be biased but imo Dark World Punishment is a fantastic counter trap for that deck. It’s easily searchable off Snoww, it negates a summon, it discards a fiend from the user’s hand which means they can gain some advantage off it, AND it can be banished from the GY to protect a Dark World monster from destruction. Something else that‘s cool is that it’s in that weird gray area of kinda but not really being archetype specific (kinda like Macro Cosmos) where the protection effect is archetypal but the first effect is actually pretty generic
It's been outdated for many years, but gladiator beast war chariot was easily searchable and recyclable at a time where stopping and destroying one monster effect was often enough to end the opponent's turn. Of course, GBs were also one of the first decks to max out Judgments, making for a very annoying match.
Can Solemn Scolding negate the activated effects of spell or trap cards? I'm asking because for spell and trap cards it matters whether you negate their activation as a card or whether you negate the activation of effects that were used while they were already on the field (as is the case with permanent ones).
@@TwoToneShoes Activations of monster effects and summons of monsters, yes, that's written on the card. But the card text doesn't explicitly list the activation of spell/trap _effects_ among the things it negates, which is something that other cards do (such as Crystal Clear Wing Synchro Dragon). It's the difference between negating the activation of Primeval Planet Perlereino and negating its effect to destroy a card if a Tearlament monster is shuffled into the deck/extra deck from your graveyard.
Honorable mention to Floowandereeze and the Scary Sea because it can basically turn skip your opponent, easily searchable, and the activation requirement is negligible in the deck. It's just over shadowed by Dreaming Town being the proactive of the two traps and you can't use it stop most fusion summons. Still a great card.
Aw man Cynet Conflict didn’t make it to this list. Love how its negate lingers until the end of the next turn on top of banishing the card. So you wouldn’t have to worry about the same card when your turn rolls around.
tachyon transmigration!!! Recall, seven tools of the bandit,dark bride, wiretap,divine wrath,ultimate providence. i play counter traps. fun fact for ygo players. Duelists r sleeping on counter traps. Best card n the game.
Please bow your head and say this prayer now 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 "Carry our prayers up to Gods throne, that the mercy of the Lord may quickly come and lay hold of the beast, the serpent of old, Satan and his demons, casting him in chains into the abyss, so that he can no longer seduce the nations. Thank you for everything CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, LORD GOD. Amen." If you can't look and remember the words, just read and pray them while you have your head bowed and your hands in front of your face 🙏☺
I'm not surprised Tachyon Transmigration didn't make this list, I kinda expected it. But that still bothers me. If it were searchable, it would nearly top this list.
Personally between cursed seal, magic jammer and magic drain I prefer magic drain. Opponent activates harpies, play drain and if they want the feather duster to work they need to discard their last spell in their hand, raigeki. Me laughs in Garfield
It’s not just about players being scared of the lp cost or being too dumb to realize solemn judgment’s power In old formats like goat it’s still, to this day, nowhere near an auto-include, so someone’s not telling the truth here
Kinda made me sad that you didn't include one of my "signature" cards in this list in spell vanishing I've been playing that card since my senior year of grade school always love discarding my dark magician with it for combo shenanigans
Searchable Counter Traps are nuts, especially if you can pair them with a board wipe. 2 set Counter Traps are arguably nastier than a full negate board of monsters specifically because of how hard they are to interact with.
Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell is 18 years old. So a first generation spell negate is still relevant after two decades. Magic players, eat your hearts out.
Fire King stuff IS Yubel Stuff, XD Kluger is a fine card, bummer that the Yubel is tethered to Jaden, and something like the Sacred Beast supports would be a step in the right direction.
Nine pillars did see play in endymion decks. Because some played the zefea engien for electrumite and as a bonus the engien could add a nine pillars While keeping one yang zing pendulum in the field
