Use the best Trap cards from Yu-Gi-Oh!’s Photon Hypernova to surprise your opponent.
Photon Hypernova added 100 new cards to Yu-Gi-Oh!, many of which made old archetypes usable in the new game. New boss monsters like Kashtira Arise-Heart, Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon, and Tri-Brigade Arms Bucephalus II give you exciting new ways to wipe out your enemies, but even powerful monsters like these need help.
More than a quarter of the new cards in Photon Hypernova are Spell and Trap Cards, which is good news. Some of the new Trap Cards are amazing, either because they are easy to use or because they can change the game. Some are very specific and only work for certain kinds of people at certain times. Any way you look at it, knowing the best and worst cards gives you the edge you need to deal with any new Traps Cards you come across.
Photon Timestop
At first, Photon Timestop seems like a good card, but it doesn’t work out because the cards it chains with aren’t very good. As of the release of Photon Hypernova, there are only two Continuous Spell/Trap Cards for Photon and Galaxy cards, and both are at best mid-tier.
Photon Timestop’s only good feature is that if it is destroyed while it is set, the turn goes straight to the End Phase. However, this only works if you control a Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon or Xyz Monster that is using it as a material. This works even if the card is killed during your opponent’s turn, which is good, but it is still not very useful.
Apophis The Swamp Deity
Apophis the Swamp Deity is a Continuous Trap Card that, when triggered, changes into a Level 6 monster. As a monster, it has a good 2,000 attack and 2,200 defense, making it a Normal Monster.
Apophis also lets you cancel the effects of your opponent’s face-up cards for every Continous Trap Card you control. This includes Apophis himself, since it is still a trap. It’s a good effect, but it only lasts until the end of the turn Apophis was triggered on. It’s a good card for Reptile-themed decks, but it’s not very useful otherwise.
Trivikarma
Trivikarma is not very useful because it is based on Visas Starfrost, a Level 6 Light Tuner Monster. Trivikarma is a Trap Card version of Visas’s Special Effect. It lets you cancel one of your opponent’s monsters’ Special Effects and then give Visas half of that monster’s attack or defense.
Visas is a Tuner Monster, which makes it hard for Trivikarma to work with him in this way. Visas should only stay on the field long enough for Trivikarma to be useful if you can’t Synchro Summon because of something. Most of the time, Trivikarma’s impact won’t be enough to change the course of the duel. This makes it the least interesting Trap Card in Photon Hypernova.
Gigantic Thundercross
Gigantic Thundercross is a good Trap Card for decks that focus on getting rid of cards. However, it only works on monsters and lets your opponent Special Summon a monster from their deck.
Also, the effect of Thundercross rests on the difference between how many cards you and your opponent have banished. If there isn’t a big difference, you’ll get less out of it. Even though the idea behind Gigantic Thundercross is good, the way it is put together is not.
Branded Befallen
Branded Befallen is a sort of okay card to have in a Bystial/Chaos deck. It lets you pick a Light or Dark monster from either graveyard and send it to the other side of the field. It also cancels cards and effects that target your Bystial monster or try to stop its effect. Branded Befallen can only be used if a card or effect you control targets one of the Bystial monsters you control.
This makes Branded Befallen useless against cards that affect more than one of your Bystial monsters. Negating your opponent’s cards when you use a Bystial Special Effect is cool, but it only works if you get rid of a Light or Dark monster from their graveyard. This works fine in a Chaos/Bystial deck, but there aren’t many Bystial cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!, so this card isn’t worth using.
Gold Pride – Start Your Engines!
Gold Pride – Start Your Engines! is the only Trap Card that came with the first set of Gold Pride. works well with other cards of the same type. When your opponent Normal Summons or Special Summons a monster, this card lets you not only destroy one of the monsters, but also force them to Special Summon one of three Gold Pride monsters you choose from your deck.
This works perfectly with Gold Pride – Leon, since Leon can quickly Special Summon Gold Pride – Star Leon if your opponent summons a card during their Main Phase. It’s a great way to start the loop of re-summoning Star Leon every turn. Gold Pride – Start Your Engines! would be a lot better if it didn’t just work with Gold Pride cards. One of the best Trap Cards in Photon Hypernova, for sure.
Big Welcome Labrynth
Big Welcome Labrynth is a new card that fits into the Labrynth archetype. It makes it easy to play Lady Labrynth of the Silver Castle or Lovely Labrynth of the Silver Castle. When playing a Labrynth deck, it’s important to get either of these two boss cards on the field as soon as possible. Lovely’s ability to stop your opponent from using monster effects in answer to your Trap Cards makes this even more important.
The second ability of Big Welcome also works better if you summon Lady or Lovely. It lets you pick a monster your opponent controls and send it back to their hand. This means you have to get rid of Big Welcome, which is a hard choice because Lovely’s Special Effect lets you keep using Big Welcome over and over again.
Overall, Big Welcome Labrynth is a great card for Labrynth decks, but it isn’t one of the best Trap Cards in the new set because it only works in Labrynth decks.
Sour Scheduling – Red Vinegar Vamoose
Sour Scheduling – Red Vinegar Vamoose is a Continuous Trap Card that looks weird but is both good and bad. Sour Scheduling is a great way to limit your opponent’s options because it can fully block off a column of the field. Sour Scheduling also blocks your Monster Zone in that column, so you’re in the same boat.
If you use it with Kashtira Shangri-Ira, you can shut down your opponent’s side of the field entirely. If you play multiple Sour Scheduling Trap Cards and use Shangri-Ira’s special ability to block off zones on the field, your opponent will have to give up unless they have a Special Effect Monster that can save them. Just make sure you don’t accidentally hurt yourself by getting in your own way.
Kashtira Big Bang
The Kashtira archetype gets a lot of help from the Kashtira Big Bang card. There are only two Xyz Kashtira monsters, so it’s clear that Big Bang was meant to be used with Kashtira Shangri-Ira to end battles in the most unusual way.
Forcing both Snake Game players to remove all monsters they control face-down means that if both players have five monsters in play, you can block eight of the zones on your opponent’s side of the field, making it nearly impossible for them to do anything.
Chaos Phantasm
Chaos Phantasm is a Trap Card that gets right to the point. It lets you get back a banished Light Tuner Monster and a Level 8 or lower Dark monster and put them in your graveyard before you can call a Light or Dark Synchro Monster.
Because so many cards in Chaos decks are taken out of play, being able to bring some of them back is a big deal. It keeps you from running out of cards, since almost every Chaos card is about getting rid of cards. If your opponent stopped your plays, this could leave you with no cards to play. The thing that makes this Trap Card stand out, though, is that it is not limited to a certain style. You can put it in any deck that has both Light and Dark monsters.
Intimidating Ore – Summonite
Intimidating Ore – Summonite looks like a card that would have come with one of the first Yu-Gi-Oh! sets. Intimidating Ore is a Trap Card, but it doesn’t matter how it looks. It gives your opponent a hard choice: let you Special Summon one monster, or let you possibly Special Summon two monsters.
In a fight, it’s devastating to be able to Special Summon a lost boss monster or monsters that can summon a new boss monster. It’s even worse that the card forces your opponent to choose. In the right situation, Intimidating Ore forces your opponent to choose how they want to lose. Since the card doesn’t have a specific archetype, it is one of the most powerful Trap Cards in Photon Hypernova.
Weighbridge
Weighbridge is a nightmare for players who like to have a lot of monsters on the field. It’s a simple card with a single-sentence effect that says your opponent shouldn’t have had so many monsters.
Imagine if your opponent had just finished a Special Summon combo that brought out their best cards and was about to kill you in one turn, but then you activated Weighbridge and wiped out their side of the field. Even if your opponent can get back on their feet, not knowing if you’ve set up another Weighbridge will make them play more carefully, giving you more time to get your own monsters ready for a win.