Secrets of Teching Part III - Solemn Judgment

Solemn Judgment. Hearing the name of the card makes people flinch, at times. This was a god among Counter Traps. Why? It stopped nearly everything. Solemn, although pricey, was guaranteed to solve almost all of your problems, be they a Spell Card, a Trap card, or even a problematic monster summon.

Solemn Judgment
Counter Trap Card
Pay half your Life Points. Negate the activation of a Spell Card/Trap Card/Normal Summon/Flip Summon/Special Summon and destroy the Spell Card, Trap Card, or Summoned monster.

Half your life points was a large price, but the outcome was worth it. You can shut down an enemy JD or DAD drop, because even though their effects have priority over a card like Bottomless Trap Hole, Solemn negates the Summon altogether and prevents a potentially problematic destruction of a card. It was the ultimate control card, commonly ran in threes in many things, from STUN to Hopeless to Gladiator Beasts.

And even though this massive counter card remained untouched by the banlists for years, in the September '09 lists, Konami decided to do something about it. Suddenly Solemn was down to 1, and GBs (along with others) lost their ability to cope with the top decks (LS and Blackwings) because they no longer had as much control over the flow of the game.

Our quest today is to try to find the best replacement for Solemn Judgment. No card will ever come close to the epicness that was Solemn, but some come pretty darn close. I'll be listing my choices in descending order.

5th Place: Magic Drain
Counter Trap Card
Negate the activation of an opponent's Spell Card, and destroy it. Your opponent can discard 1 Spell Card to negate this card's effect.

Magic Drain is nice now because it can negate any spell card, not just ones that destroy something. Say your opponent is running out of cards and plays an all-or-nothing Allure. You Drain it, and they have no more options because you've deprived them of their hand advantage. Indeed, some of the most powerful Spell Cards can change the outcome of a Duel completely, from Brain Control to Lightning Vortex. Magic Drain also gives the opponent the option of discarding a Spell Card to save their first Spell, but regardless, Magic Drain is, and will always be, a 1-for-1. It also has the immediately appealing aspect of not having to pay a cost; it can be activated in response to any spell. However, having the ability to negate only Spells is dreadfully limited, and so Magic Drain only makes it to spot 5 on our list.

4th Place: Destruction Jammer
Counter Trap Card
Discard one card. Negate the activation of a Spell Card, Trap Card, or Effect Monster's effect that destroys a monster(s) on the field, and destroy that card.

When we think of problematic cards, we think Judgment Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, Mirror Force, or Torrential Tribute. For the cost of one card in your hand, Destruction jammer will answer that problem, and will even go so far as to destroy the source of said problem. In a metagame where field advantage is huge, whether you're aggro or control, saving the potential destruction of a monster, or even monsters, is important. Destruction Jammer comes with a price, though; you have to discard a card from your hand. Indeed, this isn't too bad, and even helps in some cases (Lightsworns, Zombies), but hand advantage is also important, regardless of the deck you run. Destruction Jammer is also not without its flaws; Spells and Traps are just as important as monsters in the metagame and Destruction Jammer will not answer an opposing Heavy Storm or Breaker the Magical Warrior. Thus, it is an option to consider but doesn't make it too far up our list.

3rd Place: My Body as a Shield
Quick-Play Spell Card
When your opponent activates a card that has an effect which destroys 1 or more monster(s) on the field, pay 1500 Life Points to negate that activation of that card and destroy it.

MBaaS is the Spell version of Destruction Jammer, and has all of its merits and drawbacks, with a few very interesting differences. One is its cost; 1500 Life Points is generally a more acceptable cost than one card from your hand, especially in a pinch. This cost may be a problem to pay late-game, but in general, it's better to pay 1500 LP than to lose a valued card in the hand. In addition, MBaaS is a Spell Card, meaning that it works great in a Magical Citadel deck, Secret Village deck, or Royal Decree deck. Note that the bonus of being a Spell card also allows you to chain it on your own turn, even if it hasn't been set. Say you summon a monster; they flip Torrential. You can play MBaaS from your hand to negate Torrential, according to rulings on Quick-Play Spell cards. But with the issue of being a Quick-Play Spell card, there's also the issue of Spell Speed, and MBaaS's fatal flaw is its inability to negate the effects of Counter Traps. All in all, though, MBaaS is a great option to consider.

2nd Place: Divine Wrath
Counter Trap Card
Discard 1 card from your hand. Negate the activation of an Effect Monster's effect, and destroy that Effect Monster.

This also provides the versatility that Magic Drain does, being able to choose between what you want to negate, not just something that destroys a card. Divine Wrath will not only negate Judgment Dragon and Dark Armed Dragon, but will also cause serious damage to Gladiator Beasts, Gale, and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. In addition, Divine Wrath also negates effects that activate in the Hand or the Graveyard, like Plaguespreader Zombie or Blackwing - Bora the Spear. Again, its cost (1 card from your hand) can be hard to pay at times, but Divine Wrath will generally pay off far more than cards like Destruction Jammer will. But Divine Wrath comes in second place, not first, and that's because of one card:

1st Place: Dark Bribe
Counter Trap Card
Negate the activation and effect of an opponent's Spell or Trap Card, and destroy it. Your opponent draws 1 card.

I'm sure you all saw this coming. Even before Solemn was banned, decks like STUN and Hopeless were packing 3 Solemn and 3 Bribes very commonly. Bribe is one of the most versatile Counter Traps this format, being able to shut down any Spell or Trap, regardless of its function. Enemy Solemns, Allures, Torrentials, RotAs, etc become small fry. The most appealing thing of Dark Bribe is that it has no cost. The only downside of Bribe is that your opponent gets to draw one card, but first of all, this can be great against enemy decks like Lightsworn, forcing them to perhaps draw into a Necro Gardna or a Wulf. But in a much more useful sense, you can abuse the hand advantage that you give them with either A, a Virus card, that allows you to see and possibly kill what they just drew, or B, the much more common choice, comboing Bribe with Trap Dustshoot. Dark Bribe+Trap Dustshoot is possibly one of the greatest control combos this format, shooting an opponent up to match the requirement for Dustshoot, looking at their hand, then disrupting their entire strategy. In addition, the fact that Dustshoot deprives them of a monster means it deprives them of a chance to find a card that gets around Bribe, as Bribe cannot negate Monster effects. This is minor, however, as decks will still commonly pack 1 Solemn to deal with the big problems like monster summons. Dark Bribe is also amazing in Gladiator Beasts, where Bribe here negates S/Ts and War Chariot negates monster effects.

So although no card will ever truly replace Solemn Judgment, Konami has provided us with some pretty good options. Pick the right card for the right situation, and a level of control will be provided that, although it might not match Solemn's, comes pretty close.

Next week, I'll probably be talking about Treacherous Trap Hole, one of my favorite Trap techs. Feel free to leave comments and constructive criticism.

See ya.