Koakis Pt. 3 Traps

The Koaki trap line-up is a fair size. For the most part, they all have outstanding effects, but we already know that not every card can be used in the same deck. You are forced to choose between certain ones or else the deck will be too theme-heavy and many draws will become dead. This is of course speculation, but my testing pretty much says this is the case. There really is a learning curve to the deck though, so perhaps I should test a themed-trap-heavy deck today.

Koa'ki Meiru Shield - Many archetypes now have themed mirror forces. Most of them involve having the themed monster on the field and it will destroy all attacking monsters your opponent controls. Shield goes a different route, instead of penalizing your opponent, it rewards you for having 2 cores in your graveyard by destroying your opponent's attack monsters. Is this good? Well, yes and no. There's lots of ways to dump cores. The main way would probably be dropping them for your reveals. The second way would be running TWO TO THREE immediate disposals in the deck. Mirror Force is still far superior, Shield takes at least 1 turn to set-up before you can actually use it. Running it in twos would probably be ideal, but then you would almost have to run immediate disposal, which means 1 or less CTU, which means no instant cores...

Nega-Ton Corepanel - My favorite of the themed traps, though I don't use it. One of the top decks now, Glad Beasts, have a similar card to this, though most would consider it superior. Corepanel, just like shield, rewards you for putting a core in the grave, but then it also requires you to have a monster on the field. In many cases this would be a very easy card to run. Just play 3 and you'll most like use it at LEAST once. The problem we run into though is having a monster on the field. If we play one of our 1900 attackers, your opponent will PROBABLY use a S/T card on it. If we play Boulder, then it may get attacked before the opponent activates an effect. Gladiator Beast War Chariot is a very powerful anti-effect card and it's surprising that Negaton can't be as effective. Either way, I believe Negaton would be more effective in a build with a s/t lineup like glads. Cards that ensure your opponent will try to fire off an effect.

Reckoned Power - Currently running this in 3's. If you get Reckoned and a Core in your first hand and go first, your opponent will be severely hurt unless they draw a card to destroy it. It destroys all the opponent's face-down spells and traps, and would have been SUPERB if it destroyed all of them. Still, at its worse its a "1 for 1", at its best your opponent will probably lose the match. Running the card at 1 makes it a rare draw like Heavy Storm. By then your opponent may have used most of his most powerful trap cards so Reckoned isn't as great of a draw. Running in 2's is a little better. Running in 3's makes it a lot easier to get 1 in the opening hand, and that is the best time to draw it.

Iron Core Luster - Themed Dark Bribe. Reveal a core and stop any spell or trap. So why am I not running this one? Well, it should be said that most people run Luster at least once in the time they have their KM deck. Usually in the beginning. Triple no-drawback dark bribes is very painful to anyone you might be facing. We just run into that issue with deck space again. Running it in 1 sounds like a complete waste. Two may be ideal since 3 kills the rest of your deck space, but I can't say that for sure. After enough practice, anyone should be able to use Luster. The worst timing for the card(not including not having a core at all) is when you force yourself to discard the core, then all you're left with is a useless trap card. This might be the time to accept the hit you're going to take from your opponent and wait out that 1 turn to get a reveal for the monster in your hand. I've personally had Luster set and summoned a monster without a reveal. Discard core, opponent's turn, they kill the monster and set a trap then pass. My turn comes around and I draw into a useful monster, maybe even with a reveal in my hand; summon it and your opponent uses his trap. It sucks, but that doesn't make luster a sucky card, it just makes the plays you make more important. I'll try running 2-3 again soon, but not until I get more practice in with Reckoned.