Yu-Gi-Oh! Trap Cards Are DEAD. Here's How I'd Fix Them. 

This is how BA can still compete

The funniest part of this is that homebrew cards coming from an insane player are better than anything Konami's been launching lately

“Soul charge was legal like for 2 years” My brother in Christ, Soul charge was legal for 5 years! I think that the concept of trap cards having a “counter” measure if you get rid of them preemptively it’s really nice, it would help a lot and might not fix the problem, but it will give the game more room for variety

A problem I’ve noticed with trap cards that somehow almost never comes up when discussing the subject is that trap cards always put you in a utility disadvantage compared to monster effects. If a monster is an omni negate, even if you negate its effects, your opponent still has a tool to directly deal damage to you and get closer to their win condition, in contrast, a trap card, regardless on how good it is, once it’s used (even if it succeeds or not), it is sent to the graveyard, and it’s not like trap card effects are so busted in comparison to current monsters that that balance is necessary. Because of that, monster decks have an inherent advantage at getting closer to their win condition exclusively because their effects they want to push forward also allow them to deal damage, compared to trap decks that require a more finite balance between trap cards to slow the opponent and utility/offensive monster threats to actually win the game. By having to juggle those two concepts, it affects how fast you can actually reach your win condition.

The first card on the list could have just said “destroy 1 card your opponent controls” and it would have powercrept basically all the single target removal traps, even if it targeted. That’s how bad konami has been making trap cards: compulsory evacuation device is the next best thing to that card.

Honestly I might play Writhing Rot generically in the side in any deck. Recurring Nightmare is a terrifying concept. Soul Charge also cost your BP though so I’d like to see an additional restriction. Maybe you cannot set any cards on your next turn

I don't like cards that cannot be responded to, because it's not interactive so it's less fun. But I do agree that cards should have protections like for example "this card effects cannot be negated", so it still gives the chance to your opponent to respond, and thus making the card more skill based

As a Traptrix player, i really like the idea of "Tripwire" for another reason. You can play mindgame with your opponent but with traps, like "oh, you wanna destroy this card ?... Are you sure ? Could be bait... Or not..." And even if he knows which one it is on the field, he still have to be careful depending on the duel.

If you think about it, The tearlaments trap cards are very similiar to the trap card ideas in this video (except being generic), they have an extra effect when theyre sent to GY by effect (doesnt have to be the opponent's, but whatever) so it has uses beyond the first turn/going first. Goes to show how crazy tearlament cards are.

Let's fix Yu-gi-oh for the 69th time!

I like the idea of Writhing Rot, or at least the part where it can set itself. Maybe more traps that can set themselves from hand if opponent has performed X action

I would change Phantom mirror force to be a direct attack in order to be activated, at least from hand

These are so interesting! Some criticism for encouraging further discussions: 1. As many people would agree/have ptsd, cards that don't allow any response like super poly is inherently unhealthy (outside of God cards), even for a simple effect like this. I do thin, however, that not allowing monster responses only allows for more interesting deck building, as combo decks can change to play cards that will set up backrow or add quick plays to hand 2. Writing Rot is probably the coolest. I'd honestly want to see an archetype of traps that reveal traps to set themselves early. Allows for a more interactive trap engine, recursion, and changing the "set and wait" playstyle 3. Soul charge for traps is 100% fine, especially since the condition for setting from deck is so specific in this example 4. Phantom Mirror Force is an inspiring retrain. Hopefully Konami does something similar with a more anime-feel to bridge gaps between competitiveness and nostalgia 4. It's unfortunate that Konami has consistently boosted trap decks by giving floodgates and similar types of traps to keep up with faster decks as opposed to something like this. The few times I've seen trap decks play without them make them so cool. With new cards like these, the floodgates of the past could soon be no more 5. Trap Pendulum, hurry up Konami :)

Trapp "C" Lv2 monster insect dark You can discard this card; this turn, Whenever your opponent activates a monster effect, reveal 3 normal traps in your deck, you randomly set one of them. You cannot reveal more than one trap with the same name this way per turn. You can banish this card from your graveyard to activate a trap that was set this turn.

Traptrix holetea is a good design trap card since you can choose to immediately use it by discarding a trap or you can wait in order to use it also it has a very strong graveyard effect so even if it gets popped you still get some value

I think it would be cool to have expand on the "Waking the Dragon" like effects, making the conditions more varied: Have a bunch of cards that trigger simply on being destroyed, with weaker effects that will always go off, then having stronger cards with conditions like being destroyed by a monster or a spell, being targeted or being banished, making it so that it plays off the mind games of trap cards, with the oppoment not being sure what to use to destroy them, and if they get it wrong they get a harsher punishment.

The problem with trying to address the vulnerability of traps like this becomes "Okay so how am I supposed to play around this?" If you design a boardwipe that can't be responded to and if you try to clear it just wipes your board even harder, what are you supposed to do against it?

These are some interesting card designs. I honestly think more normal traps just need secondary grave effects that can be activated after they get popped the same turn/ if discarded. They don't need to have the same effect twice just something impactful to not get stomped on the next turn.

I like how you listed harpie's feather duster as a weakness of traps then made all of ur traps weak to turn 2 feather duster.

There are several mechanics that already exist (either with trap cards, or with monster/spell cards) which can be very helpful. 1. A lot of decks have searchable continuous traps. Instead of adding the continuous traps to hand, they can place the continuous traps into the S/T zones face up so that the player has direct access to their effects, e.g. Lubellion. 2. Flip monsters are very similar to trap cards. Some of the effects Farfa mentioned are effects very similar to flip monster effects like in Shaddoll: they float when destroyed while being face-down. 3. We can go one step further, have monsters/spells that can trigger traps the turn they are set. In this sense, Subterror and Labyrinth are very similar. 4. Hand traps that allow monsters/traps to interrupt your opponent's play from your hand. Imperm is the most popular one, but we can have more. 5. In modern yugioh, monsters get put in the S/T zones, and S/T put in the monster zones. Eldlich and Paleozoic both do this. A trap can be used as a trap once, and then recycled once more to plus one. 6. We can do to traps what Runick fountain did for quick spells. In other words, a better version of Magical Musket. 7. GY effects when milled. Lightsworn and Tearlaments have those, we could have more.

This feels like asking Wreck it Ralph to fix things.

I like when trap cards have some kind of gy effect or floating effects. That way even if the opponent just negate your activation and/or destroy them you still do something out of it.

The whole reason trap cards, continuous spells, etc. fell out of popularity is because any time anything relevant happened with them, pro players and whiny players would stamp their feet saying their not playing the game how they want to because iTs nOt iNtErAcTiVe so Konami just kept printing continuously more broken monster cards instead.

Some of these are pretty cool. Balancing may need a little help. But overall I’d say these are pretty good attempts at improving traps.

Soul charge for trap cards convinced me that this man is indeed cooking.

Alright, Sorry for the length but Ive thought about this before and I need to get it off my chest, What I would do is make another extra deck monster. These cards would be dark red to make them stand out but also show they're connection to trap cards. The way these monsters work is as follows. Imagine a fusion monster whose materials are trap cards. Example Materials - 2 Normal trap cards or 1 normal trap cards + 1 Continuous trap cards , You get the idea. where this gets interesting is that you do not use a fusion spell cards to summon them, It be more like contact fusions used to be and the materials can be used from the Hand, Field Or Graveyard ( If used from graveyard the trap card is banished face down ) these monsters would also only be summon-enable to the extra monster zone. Now for the effects of these monsters. They would have the ability to use trap card effects as they're own effects, This can be from the cards used to summon them or trap cards you tribute or banish or what ever it can vary from monster to monster. They can also gain immunity from trap effects from the type of trap card used in they're summoning. I think this would give trap decks powerful monsters that they can get quick access to and be able to reuse they re key trap card effects if they get hit with a Feather duster or Lightning vortex, It would also give us red monster cards witch I think would look fantastic. Thank you for reading

I really like the approach of secondary effects and effects that punish blind destruction of backrow

I love the concept and creativity behind these cards. I think my favorite custom here is writhing rot. Very cool design

Notes/Fixes (i'll update this post as i continue through the video): Tripwire is stupidly busted. There's no activation window to make up for its protection from negates (so there's no counter play around it), and its destruction effect is just powercrept torrential (and since most negates stop monster effects, this means that it will go off a lot). While i think you have the right idea with this card, this requires some reworking. Personally, i'd recommend that the first effect can only go live once your opponent has summoned 5 or more times if you set it on turn 1 (like Nibiru), and I think that its second effect should spin 1 card on the field and 1 random card from the hand when its destroyed or sent to the GY by an opponent's card or effect. That way your opponent has to at least respect it, and it creates a situation similar to something like Morphing Jar back in the day where people may be hesitant to hit it. Lightning Capacitor is pretty balanced, and i like how it incorporates dice without being a garbage card. I do want to specify though that i dont think this would see play in most decks, just ones that run a good amount of traps. Its not a staple. I have zero complaints towards Writhing Rot, other than that it should banish itself the next time it leaves the field like Lost Wind. This would be a staple in Labrynth though, along with Dinomorphia and other trap based archetypes. Phantom Mirror Force is okay. No comment really, this would only be sided to stop OTKs. Its pretty niche, but thats to be expected from a Mirror Force card. No comment on Recurring Nightmares, its appropriately busted.

Konami could add a rule saying players are allowed to set any spells/traps they want from their opening hand before the duel begins and traps would still be bad. The problem is monster effects are just way too powerful and the extra deck is 15 extra cards - of your choice - in your opening hand. Well that and power creep in general has made slower effects unplayable.

I've written this in the comments of the Heart of the Cast episode too, but an idea that came to mind listening to you and Josh was an archetype with cards that have effects depending on if the turn count is Odd or Even! It's a duality that's clear to build anything around it, complex and interactive for both players and even gives "Pyro Clock of Destiny" and other cards with turn skipping effects interesting applications. For example, imagine cards with names that include the numbers of the Fibonacci sequence. And I think trap cards fit that theme perfectly, more than any other card type

Lord of the heavenly prison is also an interesting card that tackles with the removal problem, while giving a body and searching. I think that could also be a solution towards solving traps issues.

It's interesting that trap cards are much harder to recover and protect yet there's so many convenient removal options like Cosmic, TT, etc. Meanwhile monsters are easier to recover, often has protection, and yet there are no convenient quick removal options like cosmic, TT, etc. Often such fast monster removal is tied to archetypes.

If there is some kind of conditional for a trap to be activated from the hand like inperm I think it is fine. It could even be more limiting of needing to be your turn to activate, so you can still play it going second, but can't play it on your opponents first turn.

I like these new types of videos and the improved quality for these discussions. Hopefully these are successful.

Love the ideas! I hope Konami listens to you and makes traps great again. I’d also like to see more Dust Tornado-style replacement effects in newer traps, like “After this card is activated, you can set a normal trap from the hand/deck/gy/banished.”

But s/t removal is usually done before you commit to the board, with stuff like Storm, so I don't think tripwire will do anything on most cases

I've designed custom cards for quite a few years, so here are some things I've done with trap cards. In one deck, the traps can be banished from gy to add cards. That deck also has a boss monster that can be summoned by using your archetype traps for material and for a cost can allow you to activate an archetype trap you've set that turn. In addition it also has a hand trap that can allow you to target bounce, provided you control no cards and hard minus 1 by banishing another card in hand to activate it. In another trap focused deck, which were trap monsters, I focused on finding conditions to cheat traps turn 1, provided you controlled a specific card on field. About half of the continuous trap monsters on this deck can be activated directly from hand if you have another continous trap on board. A few allowed you to activate the turn its set if you controlled no monsters, and one could be activated the same turn provided you had a continuous trap in gy. Additionally, the deck has a boss where by destroying one of your traps, you can force the activation of another trap you control, similar to bait doll. By doing these changes, I managed to turn a trap monster deck into a combo style deck. With other archetypes I've made one or two traps in them, and focused on making them playable by either having a useful gy eff or having a specific condition to activate it turn 1. In one deck I made I had a continous trap that provided basic targeting protection to monsters and can once per turn send one of your cards to gy to add another archetype card from deck to hand. This card, meant for a control oriented strategy, was also able to be activated from hand if you had a specific boss monster already on field. This in turn made an otherwise mediocre trap become a centerpiece for an archetype strategy because of how easily it can be activated. In my experience, for a trap to be playable in modern meta, it has to either be so strong that it shuts down a key combo or game entirely (solemn cards, floodgates) or have a condition that's relatively easy to activate, bypassing the slowness of traps (imperm, evenly). There is a third category of useful traps that I find best, although it is not that prevalent in Konami modern design; that being traps that have secondary or tertiary effects that do not rely on it being on the field to activate. Examples of this include the eldlich cards, paleozoic cards, and even the tearlament traps. I enjoy these designs the best, and finding a way to balance this with a fair condition that "cheats" activation is maybe the most effective method to make traps playable in a modern setting.

Me as a converted duel links altergeist player: Yes please

An trap archetype where every trap in the archetype sets another member of that same archetype whenever they leave the field. maybe These traps can than be activated the turn that trap was set but don't know if that's to op(maybe if the members of that archetype are really weak) . Or maybe an tower like trap monster that canot be in defense positon and has an 1500 state line to hopefully prevent an otk.

I think having an additional, punishing, effect on trap cards makes a lot of sense. It makes them feel more like actual traps and would more viable.

I want Konami to start printing sequels to Jar of Greed that just have you draw more cards. Jar of Greed 2 would draw 2 cards and it would escalate from there. I want to see when the average player (not running Labrynth) would start playing traps like this

This is a really interesting topic Honestly, my favorite one was the third one. The idea of a trap slowly creeping up on the opponent is rather smart and even if they don't play into it, just having it set and ready to go on your turn can help you play through some of your opponents disruption I'd love to see them try an idea like this

I really like the idea of writhing rot, it feels like an old school style trap with a new school strenth and speed of effect

In so happy to see more theorizing with card design that would do things if removed. I remember years ago I made this custom card that when destroyed, activated a prohibition from the deck.

I think phantom mirror force needs the stipulation of the total attack to be from attack-position monsters your opponent controls, not just total attack of ever monster regardless of their position. The point of the card seems to be dissuading OTK’ing, but the way it reads now would punish your opponent even if they were just trying to get damage in and not OTK

As a mtg player, i think itd be interesting to see a trap that does "banish target monster, monster effects cannot be activated in reaponse. If this card is destroyed by an opponent's card effect, your opponent may special summon a monster banished by this card. If this set card is destroyed by an opponents card effect, banish target monster, monster effects cannot be activated in response." There are a lot of temporary removal effects like that in mtg. Could be interesting. Or another could be something like "banish target monster. The controller of the monster gains LP equal to the monsters attack."

In regards to 4:40 tripwire, would changing the 2nd effect to "leaving the field by an opponent's card effect" make it too strong? you mentioned before about making s:p and banishing your backrow, and cosmic is usually the go-to for backrow removal, I think that would help.

Never been a fan of “spell speed 4” effects like super poly and don’t think that is good direction for card design but I really do like the concept of writhing rot as a new unique type of trap interaction as well the phantom mirror force (no monster effect is fine because it can still be responded to by s/t or substitute effects)

How fix trap cards is pretty simple. Step 1: Print/Re-print all quickplay spells pink Step 2: Make trap cards as whole work like QP spells used too

I remember when I got into the game, every deck played a copy of all the limited powerful trap cards: Torrential, Compulse, Bottomless and Solemn Warning. I remember how learning to play around them was so crucial, I miss that

Something like this would definitely be nice. My eldlich deck has survived and won against many lightning storms and feather dusters just because their traps having graveyard effects but my traptrix deck has always just instaloss most of the times due to backrow removal.

Holy shit! that mirror force trap sounds cool as hell

I agree with your card designs. Booboo game is one of my favorite traps because it actually functions as a Trap for the opponent and punishes them for popping backrow. Tripwire still loses to Duster/Lightning Storm but it looks like a great going second card.

Phantom Mirror Force is literally the Vegeta 'over 8000' quote. Missed opportunity on the artwork, smh.

Phantom mirror force is insane. You can do nothing and pass, wait for your opponent to assemble lethal, then clear their entire field risk free for the cost of 1 card.

I agree with the main picture here. Trap cards moving forward should have either a way to activate/set itself quickly in response to your opponent’s actions, or have an additional effect that has your opponent weigh the consequences of blindly popping your set traps. Sure, it might powercreep older cards, but the game already is facing copious amounts of powercreep already, and traps realistically need to adapt too or just get left in the dust for being too slow to have much impact.

I like the principles behind this. Make traps a lot more meaningful than they are now, by punishing anyone destroying them blindly, as well as giving them some protection from monster negates.

The issue with the first few's destruction effects is if you blind harpies/lightning storm they won't do anything as the opponent has nothing to destroy/banish, though there's definitely cool things they could do in that scenario - reset themself and be able to be activated that turn is pretty cool, the player destroying them still gets knowledge out of that that benefits them yet the trap player doesn't just get rolled from there, searching something could work for more archetypal ones. My favourite trap card is dragonmaid tidying, being useful on the field and providing follow up/first turn uses in the grave, as well as having great synergy with the archetype (including the technically non-archetypal cards they play in spheres and bystials) makes it probably one of the best examples of a well balanced trap card to me (even if the archetype it's in isn't the best), more traps with grave utility would be really nice, especially if it gives them the versitility of a card like tidying.

I feel like Lab was the blueprint for how to make traps competitive in the modern day. They need secondary effects, recursion, and the ability to serch or set directly from deck with consistency. It showed how powerful cards like IDP, Punishment, and D Barrier (Trolldespair) are if you can drag them out of deck, potentially active them on the same turn they were set, and loop them every turn with Lady.

I've been a huge fan of the concept of being able to activate battle phase "when a monster your opponent controls declares an attack" from the hand instead. It gives me the old vibes of Future Card Buddyfight with its shields and Digimon with its recent ACE cards.

Easy update for traps. Master Rule 6: trap cards may be activated the turn they are set if and only if it's in response to an opponent's card or effect activation (so must be chain link 2 or higher)

I like the idea of giving cards a second waking the dragon effect to punish removal

....I really wish along with synchro stuff, the speed counter stuff is realized as an instant activator for spell/trap cards. Just think how crazy activating raigeki as a quick spell for 3 speed counter.

I think another good anti-vulnerability effect would be something like letting it Set another Trap directly from the deck if it's destroyed/banished/bounced and let you activate it that turn.

Lab has some good ideas for trap mechanics, where all traps are searchable from deck and recyclable from grave. It makes powerful generic traps like dimension barrier and the viruses more powerful techs that can be switched out each format. Lord of heavenly prison providing protection, a big body, and a search is helpful. I think the arias/cooclock concept goes against the trap mechanic.

He really hit us with the Hardleg jumpscare at the end.

There are some balance problems with the cards, mostly the "not being able to be responded to", But the ideia is great! The punish from waking the dragon on other traps works as a new modern definition for the "Trap" in trap cards. I think you can add the "you can activate it from your hand" to more traps, but more on the style of imperm: you have a response in hand, but its a weaker version of the effect. Either way, nice one Farfa

I am a big fan of generic, non-archetype trap cards. I love what you did in that video and I hope konami implements the one or other idea. While the cards may or may not be balanced, that's not the point of the video. My question is, how do we (if we would get these cards) put them into our deck, when the current state of yugioh is either combo- or handtrap heavy. In my opinion you either go hard on one mechanic or you get mediocre results if you try to mix them together (like for example 24 engine, 6 non-engine, 5 HT, 5 Trap)

I feel like monsters have kind of taken over the trap card design space. Like, nowadays, it's so easy to poop out a boss monster with better interruption than any trap card you could be playing, and that's just so much more efficient than a trap that has to be drawn into and just goes to grave after resolving. Like, yeah, you could play your hypothetical Tripwire and hope you draw into it, or you could just go into Baronne, the :Ps, or whatever archetypal boss your deck has.

Writhing Rot seems amazing because it is playable and strong but also promotes counterplay rather than solitaire.

basically every monster has some sort of tutoring, cheating out, or recursion, so traps deserve similar treatment. I like the "alternate eff if destroyed" ideas and also wanna see more traps that have secondary grave effects. That trap soul charge is definitely getting banned someday but we need more stuff like that

I am so glad your channel isnt just master duel clips anymore

Dude, I've been making custom Traps doing something like this. I literally made a Counter Trap Mirror Force that negates the attack before blowing up the board (gotta negate something if you wanna be a Counter Trap), and also activated itself if it got popped while Set.

Trap cards that have minor effects when activated from hand, and major effects when activated while Set. alternatively, Counter Traps that can be activated from the hand but they're treated as Normal Traps if you do so.

if you want some old examples of just "traps that work from the hand, but do more on the field", Z-one had a few for his timelord fight. Empress's Crown You can activate this card from your hand when a Synchro Monster is Special Summoned to your opponent's side of the field. Draw 2 cards for each face-up Synchro Monster your opponent controls. you could turn the last qualifier to "draw 1 card for each extra deck monster your opponent controls." and leave the first so you could possibly get it off during turn to to "pseduo-maxx c" without actually doing Maxx c's natively unfair +15 in the current age. a strong hand increase is going to draw ash and negates, but it's ether the opponent does that or you plus up to handle a mega board. Empress's Staff Negate a monster's attack, end the Battle Phase, and inflict 500 damage to the player whose monster's attack was negated. If you control no monsters, you can activate this card from your hand. it's good enough like this, print it and let it rip. it's battle fader with a 500 burn just for the salt. Foolish Decision You can activate this card from your hand during your turn. Activate only if you would take Battle Damage. You take no Battle Damage. obviously this needs to clarify how much damage it stops, because a from hand card that literally stops all battle damage for the game would be insane, and it's not how it worked in the show. I'd make it stop any damage, and maybe we give it two additional effects for the power creep. the first being if it activates on field draw a card, and then a set from grave but banish it after condition of some kind. Magician's Adage During this turn, if cards on the field are returned to the hand, inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each card returned. You can activate this card from your hand during your turn. it's basically just a trap that can activate like a spell like evenly matched. for this one we could just make a whole line of traps that you can just use on your turn from the hand, on the opponent's you have to set it.

I think its wild that Yugioh (at least to my knowledge) doesnt have a generic "Target one card on the field, destroy it" without a downside, as either a spell or trap.

I think a good punish or interaction instead of none responsing would be to add text that punish if this card first effect is negated or the card is destroyed by opponent... so say for example based off the first card... shuffle a card on the field back to the deck. if this effect is negated you take half damage from battle this turn. If this card is destroyed by an opponent card effect you can draw one card, then you can set a trap card and activate this turn. You can use each effect once per turn.... so essentally you give the chance for interaction but also punish... lots of negates also destroy so if the first effect is negated and destroyed now you get some bonus effects that the opposing player can still respond to if they want but it starts to compound as you start to get a lot of value from them interacting with the card.

I think this is a really neat idea. Having some sort of punishment for blindly blowing up backrow is definitely an interesting way to take traps. As you said, balance is a different matter, but as for the idea, I hope to see Konami experiment with something like this, i.e. having a card with an okay trap effect but then a better effect that is used to punish your opponent

These are some really good ideas for trap cards. Especially these "waking the dragon"-like advantages, if the opponent tries to get rid of them. I think, Konami should just create all of them (or some very similar ones) and maybe even some more, such that a trap deck consisting of these would be viable.

I think a temple of the kings retrain would probably be good. Continuous spell. On hard once per turn you can activate a trap set from your hand this turn and if you do you can draw a card

These cards are honestly really good ideas for normal trap cards. It would be interesting to hear you and Joshua Schmidt discuss these ideas on your podcast, as a followup to the trap card episode. Writhing Rot being a trap card that can potentially be played on turn 0 without being identical to any other handtrap (like Imperm) is great. Similarly, Phantom Mirror Force being a way to survive past turn 2 is actually quite reasonable. Far too often, if you aren't playing floodgates, a game against a trap-focused deck will end in a swift OTK. Something to note about Tripwire is that it is non-targeting. Trap cards are sorely lacking in non-destruction, non-targeting removal, making a card like Dragoon near-impossible to out (especially since it can negate something that actually threatens it). You're absolutely right that floodgates should be banned, but I think you should also consider whether backrow wipes like Harpie's Feather Duster, Lightning Storm, and Evenly Matched deserve the same treatment (assuming the floodgates are banned too). It is really hard to balance trap cards without removing those cards from the game. Unfortunately, some of the floating effects you suggest don't really help resolve the issue. For Tripwire, if your opponent is going second and activates Lightning Storm, they have no other cards on the field to be destroyed by the board wipe effect. My other issue with some of these cards is them being unrespondable. We can probably agree that interaction is what makes the game interesting, but cards like Super Polymerization are clearly not interactive. There is definitely a middle ground somewhere though. For instance, with Phantom Mirror Force, it could say "Your opponent's Attack Position monsters cannot activate their effects in response to this card's activation."

jokes on you, i will play these cards along side trap trick in my combo deck too😈

I love all of these cards and ideas. I'm a Traptrix and Labyrinth player and if we get more normal trap cards like these would make my live so much easier and let's me play the game going second.

Farfa was cooking, but I unironically think that the phantom mirror force is cracked and can be used in every deck as a way to surely survive your first turn

You are right that, since traps are so much slower and more fragile than other card types, they should realistically have the best effects. If you manage to get a trap off, it should probably plus you in some way or another. You had to jump through a bunch of hoops, you should be rewarded. Maybe a trap that negates the whole board a la dark ruler, or one that can steal a card your opponent searches like a better ash. I do wanna note that the traps you suggested are kinda weak to anything but targeted removal. If your opponent opens feather duster, Tripwire, Lightning Capacitor, and Recurring Nightmare do nothing. I think we also need a few traps that disincentivize mindlessly clearing them before you go about your turn, like waking the dragon. I have two ideas for types of traps that can do that: Ones that trigger right there, and ones that have a weaker effect in grave. The first type of card might have an effect like a confiscation, or it can replace itself, while the second would be something like taking the board negate I mentioned earlier and turning it into a targeted negate, while another trap that banishes face down might just become a targeted pop. If they sound too strong, maybe saying "If this card was sent to the GY this turn by an opponent's card, you can banish it to..."

I always think about how the Abyss Script spell cards all have massively punishing effects when the opponent destroys them, but they are 1-Not trap cards, most of them don't threaten the opponent enough to force a response and 2-Tied to a pure Pendulum archetype where you need to play a critical mass of Pendulum monsters to have plays, so playing actual traps like the Solemn brigade alongside them is not a good idea, you don't have the space (whether it's deck space or field space since MR4). I'd be interested to see an actual trap-focused deck reusing the concept of the Abyss Scripts with decent effects at activation (so that the opponent cannot just ignore them) and broken effects if they're removed. I also have to say, I think Eldlich and Paleozoic are super neat ideas, turning trap activations into bodies on field solves another issue of trap cards - which is that you don't get close to winning if all you do is slow down the opponent, you do need monsters alongside your traps.

I'm making a custom deck around this trap concept now lol

honestly all Paleozoics need to be a rogue or tiered deck is a level 2 holetea. so discard 1 paleo/trap card for cost to activate itself on turn 1 and then summon itself. since its discard for cost the paleo you discarded comes back from the gy and you would be able to summon opabinia or toad

My only thing is the fact that they're normal traps but some of them still have "can't be responded to" I think if you're going to put that clause in there, they might as well be counter traps

Im actually gonna put tripwire in my decks, my deck is heavy on set cards so a little surprise for anyone who destroys them is nice

I like the concepts! For phantom Mirror Force, I think it should be worded in a way that you can "dodge" it if you can remove some monsters. E.g. You have 8k on board and swing, activate phantom mirror force, activate another care to pop your own card to get under 8k. If the card is good, it adds some way to play around it if your board is big without auto-losing you the game; it also lets some decks inherently play around it, like VS which can quick effect swap in. Lightning Capacitor seems bad. It relies on the opponent having a big negate board, so is only a consideration in some decks/metas. More importantly, it doesn't seem to work? Like, going first with a decently sized board, the more your opponent summons from the ED, the more likely you are to have your own field popped. Going second, it doesn't actually help you deal with what's already on board. I love writing rot. It's actually pretty funny as a non-once per turn--the more they keep playing into the rot, the worse it is for them. I'd consider making it only return from GY once per turn, but the other effects not once per turn. So if you didn't deal with the rot, it's much more harmful, which plays into the theme. As a not OPT, it also helps with the issue that traps tend to trade 1 for 1. Rot, in that case, trades better the more your opponent extends. That all said, I think most of these cards still don't deal with the huge issue, where the traps are generally really weak going second. I think there are a few ways to deal with it: if they are working on making trap decks better, then having more cards like Arias or holutea help. Arias is somewhat generic, luckily. They could also make more trap decks better playing second, forcing the opponent into a grind game they can win--although that may end up being floodgate-y. Alternatively, if you're going for generic trap cards, I think more of them need to be able to do something when you're going second. Like having really strong effects turn 3, or be set turn 1, or activated if they meet a condition on turn 2.

Could we get a trap combo deck/archetype with trap cards that are just purple monsters for all intents and purposes? Link monsters that specify them as material, can be activated immediately and do something to go plus. And the main deck traps themselves wouldn't be entirely focused on disrupting the opponent. They could actually be starter cards.

I would love something like this. As you say, it's not only that trap cards are slower, their power level is also a lot less than what some monster effects do; Punishment is a really good card but it only makes you go +1. Snake-Eyes Ash makes you go +7.

I love the concept of traps getting an overhaul, as they really need that to bring them into the competitive space, & while Lightning Capacitor is whack, every other one of these is very very good, Writhing Rot is especially powerful, yet, Phantom Mirror Force is delightfully nostalgic with a kick, awesome content, Ramadan Kareem!

I think that the problem hand traps have always had was they weren’t trap cards, they should have never been monster cards. The theme of trap cards wasn’t that they had to be set first, but that they were in response to something.

Infinite Impermanence is the best representative for Trap Cards in the modern meta game. There's an option to keep it in your hand to conditionally activate it, but it greatly incentivizes a player when they do Set it first, which is what Trap Cards "should be doing".

Thinking LABRYNTH. You could also run with a traps akin to BIG WELCOME. On field activation Does the thing On grave Banish and does another.

Tripwire: Won't see any play, effect is too fair, board wipes are played before committing to the board, so the field wipe won't do anything and the end phase removal often does not destroy but plenty of times shuffles or banishes. Lightning Capacitor: Too random to rely on Writhing Rot: Love this one, would be good for trap decks and not be a staple. Phantom Mirror Force: Can be removed before being used unless opponent goes for 8000 in a turn. Usually better to interrupt before the full board is built, but it's not awful. Recurring Nightmares: Very strong, it says "up to", where even settings 1 or 2 would be worthwhile. It doesn't fix the problem of complete wipes like Lightning Storm or Evenly Matched, but it will win games that trap decks normally would run out of steam which is nice.

I like the idea of putting on a "if removed, do this punish" to cover the vulnerability issue. Not so sure of putting a line of "cannot respond" to cover their general power level since that's the whole point of counter traps. Heck, with how they're making new monster types every once in a while, maybe Konami can make a new spell speed 3 trap type so that you don't need to put any of them at ss4 and to avoid text bloat.