Man! If there’s anything I love more than Traps is Fiends.

I love Traps. They mess with your opponent’s psyche. Puts them under your thumb.

And this week, I’d like to talk about holes! Yes, you read correctly. HOLES! There are hole EVERYWHERE in this game and nothing hurts an opponent more than when a hole opens up and BAM!!! Their strategy goes right out the window.

Since the days of yore, we older players have feared ONE hole over all of them. One hole to rule them all. Nothing hurt more than having your opponent on the ropes, hitting them left and right with than 7 Colored Fish, Harpies Brother or La Jinn and after a LOT of punching and kicking, you FINALLY draw what you were waiting for.

“I’ll tribute my insert 1800 beatstick here to summon my all powerful Summoned Skull!!!!”

But something was wrong. Instead of shaking in fear like they SHOULD be, your opponent is snickering at something. Something evil. Something sinister….NO! It COULD’NT be! Noooooo….

“TRAP HOLE!!!!”

Ouch! UGH! Just LOOK at this card:

Trap Hole
Normal Trap
When your opponent Normal Summons or Flip Summons a monster with an ATK of 1000 points or more, destroy the monster.

At 1000ATK minimum, nearly EVERY monster played can be Trap Holed. And oh man, WERE they! Every monster that we played in those days (except the “Gravity Bind + Messenger + Direct Attacking Wienies” decks) fell victim to the Trap Hole.

Keep in mind that when your opponent has no monsters on their side of the field and they summon a monster and it gets trap Holed, they’ve just wasted their normal summon for the turn. During your turn, you have either one less or no monsters to deal with at all.

The card saw less and less play as more and more S/T removal emerged and during the age of 3 MSTs per deck, Trap Hole became extinct. Monster destruction became more Spell oriented than Trap oriented and classical “3 per deck” traps like Trap Hole became a thing of the past.

Crowding your field with monsters didn’t help much either. Because after a few turns of struggling, came Raigeki’s little brother, another hole by the name of:

Dark Hole
Normal Spell Card
Destroy all monsters on the field.


Dark Hole is a “let’s start all over again” kind of card. Except and that most of the time, it was only the person who activated Dark Hole who wanted to start all over. At one per deck, this hole was NOTHING to laugh at. Magic Jammers took up a lot of our deck space to counter the 2 mammoth monster removal spell cards.

The thing with Dark Hole is that the player who activated it usually summoned a monster in attack mode and slammed you for that one big hit. And with Monster Reborn, Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial on the scene, you could easily put 2-3 monsters on your side of the field in a pinch. And when THAT happened, it usually meant game over.

I was in shock when the NEXT hole came out. It introduced us to a new level of game play as well as inform us that there was an additional area in our game that we hadn’t become quite accustomed to yet. The Removed From Play pile.

Dimensionhole
Normal Spell Card
Select 1 monster on your side of the field and remove it from play until your next Standby Phase. While the monster is removed from play, the Monster Card Zone of the selected monster cannot be used.

This strange disturbance in the Space-Time Continuum allowed monsters on your side of the field to travel forward in time 1 turn. Not TOO much use for it back then but nowadays:

1) You can use it to free monsters from the effects of cards that Special summoned them (Premature Burial is destroyed and they remain on the field, Call of the Haunted has no effect, Magical Scientist lets you keep the Level 6 or lower fusion and it CAN attack directly, Rescue Cat lets you keep the 2 level 3 or lower Beasts, Summoner of Illusions lets you summon ANY fusion monster and keep it)

2) From their own suicidal or self hurting tendencies (Karate Man will remain on the field, Spirit Monsters will not return themselves to the hand, Mirage Knight won’t remove itself from play, etc)

3) Or from hurting or being hurt BY, other monsters on your side of the field (your Dark Hole won’t kill them, Tribe won’t get to them, remove The Last Warrior From Another Planet summon a new monster and bring him back without destroying all monsters on your side of the field, etc)


Probably the most used Hole in this game is the most brutal and most effective one:

Bottomless Trap Hole
Normal Trap Card
When your opponent Normal Summons, Flip Summons, or Special Summons a monster(s) with an ATK of 1500 or more, the monster(s) is destroyed and removed from play.


OK, first of all, this Hole is nasty because it not only takes out the big hitters, but it TAKES OUT big hitters. Not destroyed, removed from the game, most likely never to be seen again.

Destroying monsters wasn’t such a big deal when Bottomless came out. Monsters destroyed were most likely used for other means or just revived. But Bottomless removed the threat for good. Gone forever. However, Bottomless also became a favorite when it’s ability to destroy multiple monsters all at once. Tired of attacking Cyber Jar, players started decking these and holding off their attack on the pod and waited until the jar finished resolving, look at the opponent’s field and use Bottomless Trap Hole to remove all of their 1500ATK+ big guys.

Ouch!!!!

Bottomless Trap Hole can also be activated after a Special Summon, soothing that regular Trap Hole can’t do.


To make players who set their monster more to fear than just 2 Crossouts in a deck, Konami released another hole.


Acid Trap Hole
Normal Trap Card
Flip 1 face-down Defense Position monster face-up. If the monster's DEF is 2000 points or less, the monster is destroyed. If the DEF is more than 2000 points, return the monster to its face-down Defense Position.

This card saw Offensive plays as well as Defensive plays.

Of course, offensively this hole was able to flip face-down monsters face-up and most likely destroy them, giving you a wide open shot if it destroyed their only monster.

Defensively, you can use it to flip your OWN face-down monsters face-up and allow you to activate to your own Flip effect monsters on the same turn you set them.

Acid Trap Hole is one of only 3 Traps that can destroy Jinzo (the other 2 are Solemn Judgment and Horn of Heaven). Of course, Jinzo has to be face-down in order to do so, but in today’s Tsukuyomi and Book of Moon days, anything is possible)

And keeping with their Fiend-bashing, Konami gave us a NEW whole in MFC. This one, although it shows the blatant abuse that we fiends must endure to stay up top, is probably one of my favorite Holes:

Adhesion Trap Hole
Normal Trap Card
You can only activate this card when your opponent successfully Normal Summons, Flip Summons, or Special Summons a monster(s). As long as the monster(s) remains on the field, the original ATK of the monster(s) is halved.


Much like Bottomless Trap Hole, Adhesion can target multiple monsters simultaneously. If Mirror Wall has taught us anything is that even the MIGHTIEST of the MIGHTIEST (Blue Eyes White Dragon 3000ATK) can fall at the hands of your average monster (La Jinn 1800ATK) when its attack is cut in half (1500ATK vs. 1800ATK).

Adhesion Trap Hole is one of those cards that you can’t respect until you face it.

It doesn’t target and it cuts the ATK of the monster(s) summoned by half until they are removed from the field (not one turn), giving you a much better chance of taking that monster out next turn.

It also makes certain monsters easier to hit with Fissure (another Hole card)


But the 1-for-1 Monster removing Spell cards is something we’ll have to chat about later.

For now, take a hole for a test drive today. I guarantee you won’t regret it.

Feel free to discuss your favorite Hole Card (any card with a hole as the center of attention) and let us know your story with Hole cards.




Waldo10032 – The Fiendish Duelist says:
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"Everything I know, I learned from Novastar, VenomLord, Magicien_Noir, KrazyKillRoy, Pyrofire14, Nataku, Jeff_Mop, Tamahome, mortals, KenjiBlade, Agentmage2012 and Tyloki. So praise me for learning so well when I'm right and blame THEM for screwing up when I'm wrong. (More people will be added to this list as needed) "

This doesn't fit in my Sig --> http://www.yugiohrealms.com/forum/sh....php?p=3510793

I miss the days of Dark Hole, clearing the field and allowing you to use that Sangan and WotbF effect. But Rottomless Trap Hole is my big bruiser of the playing field. Another nice article!

can bottomless really remove more than one monster??

Yes indeed, from Netrep:

Bottomless Trap Hole:

Rulings

1. This card can remove from play multiple monsters at once, if they are Summoned simultaneously. Since this card can affect multiple monsters, it does not target.

Nice Waldo, I think I'll take a moment to mourn the lost days of 3 Trap Holes... To be fair, I think Jinzo had as much a hand in killing them as MST did...

I liked the Dimensionhole bit, makes me want to think up some nice Hole Abusion strategies :p

Bottomless Trap Hole is one of My Favorite Trap Cards, (Right up there with Waboku) when It First Came Out I saw It's Potential, When the Ambiguously Gay Duo (BLS-E & CED-E) came out, I saw it had even more uses along with Compulsory, then when feather duster was gone and MST was restricted, they both became 4 of my trap cards that I kept in my main deck, while others ran Sakuretsu Armor. These Holes Served me best when my opponent had to topdeck aside from the annoying V Lord that kept coming back, or that is would have comeback. I set 1 Compulsory evacuation Device and a Bottomless, My opponent Topdecks his BLS, then his V Lord got bounced back into his hand. So with nothing left, he summoned BLS in Defense Mode, thinking nothing would happen to it when suddenly, he throws an outrageous little crybaby fit when I removed his Bls from play. What A site it was, After that moment, I began Using Bottomless Trap Holes in every deck I built.

Let's not forget the new one: D.D. Trap Hole.

For those who don't know it, you can only activate it when your opponent sets a monster. It removes that monster and one of your own monsters from the game (D.D. Survivor, anyone?).

Finally! Someone who appreciates Adhesion Trap Hole! Since the day I first read the effect, I knew I'd use one. Sure, it's no Torrential Tribute, but that's why I like it. I duel to have fun, not to win. So I don't want to load my deck with staples. I'd rather be like someone in the show, with my own set of favorite cards I know how to use well. Keep the opponent off guard.

P.S. I should read card effects more closely. I never considered the multiple target thing.

Isn't D.D. Trap Hole supposed to come out in Cybernetic Revolution? I can already tell this card is going to a pain in my a** if people remove my Cyber Jar From play, It'd almost kill my deckout deck.

I never thought about running Acid Trap Hole or Dimensionhole.. :ermm:


They would do good in my current deck...Thank you.



And nice article. :)

Yes it would kill those deckout decks even if ur opponent side decks some. But since they have remove a monster as well, that'll be a big loss for chaos. And u could always side deck anti-anit- ur deck.

adhesive trap hole is similar to gayness on steroids.... i remember 2 weeks ago, they had lightning vortex'ed my phoenix... next turn he was SS'ed and he cut its atk in half not he was just a stupid little 1200 atk birds that could get run over by nearly any beatstick.... >_>

I almost forgot the days of trap hole I remember running a dragon deck back when yugioh came out and having 2 Blue eyes, flute, and Lord of dragons in my hand. Summoned Lord and guess what it got trap holed, that left defenceless for the rest of the duel. Now-a-days I personally like and fear bottomless the most. Summon BLS and bam its removed.

~ Davis

Way back when, Acid Trap Hole couldn't do anything good, in my opinion, except take out a road block, which usually would be taken out for me by my opponent anyway for a tribute monster, which I'd Trap Hole (good ol' Trap Hole). It wasn't that big. But I see now that the game has procgressed, with Books of Moon and Tsukyomi being used often, I see it's return at least in new deck of mine, destroying TERs left and right with a quickness. If only I hadn't given it away a long time ago... But yeah, Acid Trap Hole is definitely a new sidedeck card.
rating: 6/10

The one thing I wish was that Dimensionhole was a quickplay. That would do wonders. But as it is, it's pretty much as good as Dark Core. I'd prefer IMT or DD Gate.
rating: 2/10

Excellent article Waldo. That description of Trap Hole was great! It takes me back to the days of Summoned Skull, La Jinn, Man-eating Treasure Chest and all those effectless starter deck fiends.

A lot of those hole cards you mentioned are my favorites, Bottomless especialy. It's a card I both love amd hate. While removing BLS and all those other annoying chaos is fun, it can go both ways, since pretty much everyone runs at least two copis of Trap Hole's older brother. Don't you just hate when you go through all the trouble of removing those fiends for Necrofear and it falls down an endless hole? Or when Hades is ready to negate just about any monster and it gets Bottomlessed? Stupid Bottomless!

Very true. Yet, although 3 MSTs do not remain, Jinzo still does. Are we condemned to have our traps suppressed for all eternity by this tyrant?

Anyway, back on topic, nothing is more satisfying than activating Mirror Wall against a Shinato when you control an Archfiend Soldier...
So, why not create a sense of forboding for your opponent who knows that their creature will die very soon? I like surprises...

Waldo, every time that you write something, I am forced to raid common bins region wide, and frankly, I can't fit all the cards you endorse into my deck. Rush's have been used, Adhesion was used (and later dubbed for Mirror Wall, which has a better chance of annoyance and can kill a creature in the Battle Phase) and Acid was/is/will be again used in my Tsukuyomi-based Fiend deck (Dark Jeroids, Night Assailants, and Slate Warriors, oh my!).

Another thought provoking article, excellent work.