#raigeki

Raigeki

Anti Raigeki ———————————————— When your opponent activates "Raigeki", all of your opponent's monsters are destroyed in place of your own. ———————————————— Can Be Found In: Tournament Pack: 3rd Season (TP3-002)

The majority of Trap Cards are designed to counter the opponent actions, often negating effects or responding against attacks. While players will prefer Trap Cards with as many liberties as possible, there are some of them that are extremely specific about the conditions of their activation. Some can only be played under certain scenarios, while others are only effective against very particular effects or Decks. While these cards often aren't the main pick for most players, in return their outcomes will become more devastating that the popular choices.

"Anti Raigeki" belongs to a group of Trap Cards aiming against some of the most powerful cards back in the first years of the card game, usually redirecting their effects to the opponent. This case in particular is pretty obvious that its objective is dealing with the powerful "Raigeki", and responding against the Spell Card will make its effect go against our opponent and destroy their monsters instead of ours. Is undoubtly a powerful countermeasure against one of the biggest threats in the game, and although "Raigeki" was banned for several years making "Anti Raigeki" useless, the return of the Spell Card (In the TCG) gives the Trap Card a new opportunity to do its only purpose.

As a Trap Card completely focused on dealing with a very specific Spell Card, there's no much thought about how to play "Anti Raigeki". "Raigeki" is still a solid choice for many builds, so all we have to do is to Set "Anti Raigeki" and wait for the opponent to play the Spell Card. The more monsters the opponent has on the board and trying to clear a path for them with "Raigeki" the most devastating the effect of "Anti Raigeki" will cause to their board. However, be careful that there are archetypes like Fire Kings or Meklords as well Graveyard effects that benefit from being destroyed by an effect, making "Anti Raigeki" not that effective against them despite the big loss the opponent will receive.

Is obvious that "Anti Raigeki" has a massive number of flaws to become a reliable card even back on its debut. With its only purpose being against "Raigeki", in many scenarios "Anti Raigeki" easily becomes a dead card as waits for the Spell Card to show up during the Duel, specially since players can only use one copy of "Raigeki". That's even counting that "Raigeki" was used before "Anti Raigeki" was Set on the board, or even if the opponent carries the Spell Card in their Deck. In addition of many other ways such as "Starlight Road" or "Solemn Scolding" to counter not only "Raigeki" but several other destructive sources, "Anti Raigeki" has good intentions yet easily becomes an extremely situational card due its sole purpose during a Duel.

Personal Rating: D

+ Redirects the effect of "Raigeki" to the opponent