Hand traps are the newest and most common way to stop your opponent from playing in Yu-Gi-Oh. They are now an important part of the game.
If you want to compete with a current deck, you’ll need to include a few of them.
But hand traps are not a specific type of card like monsters or spells. They are more of a general term for “any card you can use from your hand,” like a quick effect.
This means that your opponent can’t destroy them before you can use them, like they can with magic and traps.
Hand Traps in Competitive Yu-Gi-Oh!
Hand traps are now an important part of competitive play. You love them when they save you, but you hate them when they catch you off guard.
In spite of their names, most of them are monster cards with effects that make it harder for your opponent to make combos.
Many of them can also be used to tune synchro summons, and if you go second, they’re pretty much the only way to stop an opponent’s first-turn combo since you haven’t set up a board yet.
But with dozens of effects that can be turned on by hand, which ones are the best?
So, these cards also have some of the best effects that mess up other effects and calls in the game.
But after all that, what are the best hand traps, and when should you use them?
Let’s find out what we can.
25. Witchcrafter Golem Aruru
If witchcrafters want to join the competitive scene, they need more help, especially in the extra deck. However, any spellcaster deck might want to splash Golem Aruru.
When your spellcaster is the target of an effect or attack, you can call Aruru from your hand and return an opponent’s card or one of your Witchcrafter spells to your hand.
From there, not only has your unit been defended, but you also have a guardian with 2800 ATK. Aruru goes to your opponent’s backup, but that’s not always a bad thing because it lets her use her effect again.
24. Prohibit Snake
Here’s a Cyberse help that doesn’t get enough attention.
Prohibit can throw itself from your hand to bounce a monster your cyberse link monster is fighting against that belongs to your opponent.
Notably, this doesn’t target or destroy anything, so it gets around barriers against threats like the Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon.
Plus, Prohibit has a nice GY effect: when your cyberse monster kills a monster in battle, it sends itself and another card to the GY.
This lets you add a level 4 or lower cyberse from the GY to your hand.
23. Rainbow Kuriboh
When a monster your opponent sends at you, you can give it Rainbow, which stops it from attacking.
It’s likely that your opponent will use their weaker card to link, XYZ, or tribute summon later, but it’s still a nice last-minute defense.
Also, it’s good to have Rainbow in your graveyard because it can special summon itself when you’re directly attacked (and then be destroyed when it leaves the field), stopping another hit.
Because of this, it can also be used as waste and mill feed.
22. Astrograph Sorcerer
Astrograph’s scale effect is also banned as of this writing, but you can use it to destroy itself and either scale or call Stargazer Magician from your deck.
But he’s also a useful monster who can summon himself from your hand when one of your cards is destroyed and then look for a copy of a monster that was destroyed that turn.
Sorceror can also help fusion call Supreme King ZARC, but even decks that don’t use ZARC enjoy his free summon and search, especially since it can set off effects that make the deck destroy itself.
Unlike Max, I could see Astrograph being taken off the list of banned cards, so pendulum teams should pay attention.
21. Maxx “C”
This card probably won’t ever come off the banned list, and for good reason.
Activate it from your hand on either player’s turn to draw whenever your opponent special summons that turn.
Against combo decks, this could let you draw half of your deck, which is a huge edge that doesn’t cost you anything to use.
20. Kuriboh
Ah, the first hand trap, which was used in Yu-Gi-Oh! before hand traps were even a thing.
Kuriboh is a famous card and one of the King of Games’ signature cards. It’s worth mentioning at least because it was the first hand trap in the game.
If Kuriboh is in your hand and you take damage during a fight, you can throw it away to make that damage equal to 0.
This is great if your board is weak and you want to stay living.
But there are better cards to put in your deck than some of the other hand traps on this list.
Still, this is the cutest card on the list, so it gets extra points.
19. Chronograph Sorcerer
Chronograph is the legal version of Astrograph. You can remove it to summon or scale Timegazer Magician from your deck. Or, you can keep him in your hand.
When a card you control is killed, he will call himself and another monster from your hand.
This is a great way to get rid of monsters that are too high level to swing, like the Dark Magician of Chaos or the Mythical Beast Master Cerberus.
Like Astrograph, Chronograph lets you call ZARC by getting rid of its parts from your hand, field, or graveyard.
However, this is just icing on an already great cake.
18. Tragoedia
Tragoedia is an oldie but a goodie.
It calls itself from your hand when you take damage in battle, and each card in your hand gives it 600 ATK/DEF.
More than that, it can send a monster from your hand to the graveyard to take control of an opponent’s monster with the same level as the sent card.
You can also choose a monster in your graveyard to match Tragoedia’s level to its for the rest of the turn.
This is useful for xyz summons.
17. Honest
When GX was around, this card was the epitome of “meta.”
Honest came out in the set Light of Destruction, which was where the Lightsworns were first seen.
One of the first real characters in Yu-Gi-Oh!, or at least one of the first good ones, was the Lightsworn. Sorry Elemental HEROs).
This class was made up of light monsters, as the name suggests.
Lightsworns ruled the metagame back in their day, so getting hit with an Honest was something that happened all the time.
This hand trap is still used, especially in Trickstars or Fairy decks, because it guarantees you’ll win any battle you start with a light monster.
If Honest didn’t only work on light monsters, I would put it in every deck I could. But this rule keeps him on our list, which is a shame.
16. Dimension Shifter
A Macro Cosmos but in the shape of a monster.
This card keeps your opponent from using their graveyard by getting rid of anything that would go there.
Dimension Shifter is a great way to stop your opponent from using cards like Absorouter Dragon or Foolish Burial to build up their combo pieces for later use.
The biggest problem with this card is that it’s only really useful if you’re going second and you draw it in your starting hand.
Why?
Because his ability only works if the graveyard is empty, which doesn’t happen very often on the board.
If you draw this card after two or three turns, it’s likely to be useless.
15. Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
If you take damage and don’t have any cards in your hand, Gorz will come out of your hand and give you a strong 2700 ATK beatstick.
If it was fight damage, he makes a token with the same stats as the damage you took.
If it was effect damage, he just gives your opponent the same amount of damage.
No matter what, don’t think that things are over just because a box is empty.
Also, being a dark fiend makes cards like “Allure of Darkness” work better together.
14. Battle Fader
This card is one of the best ways to keep playing after a board wipe.
When you are directly attacked, you can play Battle Fader from your hand, end the battle phase, and send it to the graveyard.
So not only have you bought yourself a turn to heal, but you also have a monster out that you can use for a link or tribute (or as a blocker on your next turn).
Battle Fader is one of the cheapest cards on the market today, costing just one dollar.
It works well in any deck, especially ones that can stop Exodia or tribute-summon Monarchs.
13. Red Reboot
This is one of only two hand traps on our list that is actually a trap card.
Red Reboot lets you get rid of a trap card your opponent has set, but it also lets them set a trap from their deck.
You can play it right from your hand if you pay half your life points. This means you don’t have to worry about it being killed.
Even though losing half of your life points seems like a lot, some trap cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! are very dangerous. For example, any card that starts with “Solemn” still makes me shiver a little.
Red Reboot can really save your bacon if you use it in the right situation.
12. Effect Veiler
As Yu-Gi-Oh! grows, the effects of monsters get stronger and stronger.
And as they do, having monster effect cancellation becomes more and more important.
Effect Veiler stops the effect of a monster card played by your opponent until the end of the turn.
Even though most monster effects in the current meta game only happen once per turn, there are some powerful monsters that won’t hesitate to trigger 5 times in a turn and ruin your day.
The best time to use Effect Veiler is early in your opponent’s chain, before they get to their big boss monsters, so you can stop them.
11. Artifact Lancea
Artifacts are a very special type of card that blurs the line between monsters and spells, and not in a swinging way.
You can use them like magic cards and get different results from them.
But the most interesting thing here is how Artifact Lancea’s hand works.
You can give it up from your hand to stop either player from getting rid of a card this turn.
Recently, this hand trap has been used a lot, especially against decks with Pot of Desires, a spell card that works like Pot of Greed but requires you to get rid of 10 cards to use it.
Artifact Lancea is also a great way to stop the Eater of Millions plan, which is based on getting rid of almost your whole deck and making you pay for it.
10. Psy-frame Gear Gamma
Now, this card has a better effect than an Effect Veiler.
You can stop a monster’s effect with Psy-frame Gear Gamma, and you can also special summon a Psy-Frame Driver from your hand, deck, or graveyard!
The problem is that you have to run a Psy-Frame Driver in order to call.
And the card is a monster of level 6 that does nothing. It’s bad.
If you draw into it on your first try, it’s like you’re playing with one less card.
I’d say it’s worth the risk though, especially in a deck with a lot of links, where links are the most important thing.
And if all else fails, Psy-Frame Driver is a great card to throw away.
9. Ghost Belle and Haunted Mansion
This scary Victorian ghost puts a stop to any plays that take place in the graveyard.
Ghost Belle stops a card from leaving the graveyard if it was about to.
Great for stopping cards like Monster Reborn or negating the benefits of monsters that come back from the graveyard when they are special summoned.
This can also stop your opponent from calling in Chaos monsters like the Chaos Emperor Dragon or the Dark Magician of Chaos.
Even though these cards are old, they can ruin any current deck if they aren’t dealt with quickly. And that’s exactly what this hand trap does!
8. Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
Yes, I’m adding a card here that doesn’t actually stop a monster effect above one that does.
And that might seem like an odd choice, but hear me out!
Negation is a great way to solve a problem at that turn.
But when it’s your turn again, you have to deal with the same thing.
Even though Ghost Ogre doesn’t destroy, it does let you get rid of annoying face-up cards for good.
So that you can play longer without being stopped.
In the present format, where field spells are everything, Ghost Ogre is also a great card.
Some decks will fall apart if their field spell isn’t active, and that’s when Ghost Ogre can win the game for you.
7. D.D. Crow
D.D. Crow is a hand trap that is very aggressive.
Most of the hand traps on this list require you to wait for your opponent to do something before you can react.
D.D. Crow is always there when you need him.
Simply put, this can get rid of a card that is in the trash.
When your opponent tries to move cards around in their graveyard, that’s the best time to use this. They might be trying to bring back a strong monster or get one of their good spell cards back.
D.D. Crow puts a stop to this right away, no matter what. And unlike Ghost Belle and Haunted Mansion, you don’t have to wait for your opponent to start the game.
6. Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay
Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay is a really cool dragon.
Link decks are very common right now, and this card is the best way to beat them.
Since Rokkets came out, Dragon Link has been in the lead. And it doesn’t look like they’ll stop any time soon.
If your opponent link summons, you can special summon this powerful level 7 monster and draw cards equal to the number of link monsters they have plus one.
Then, you put back the cards you don’t want, giving you the chance to make a hand that will mess up your opponent.
With a good link deck, you can easily have up to five link monsters on the board at once, which gives you a ridiculous amount of draw power.
5. Ghost Reaper and Winter Cherries
I love this card so much.
It’s the most unusual hand trap on this list, and it can give you a lot of deadly power.
You can get a monster from your extra deck by getting rid of Ghost Reaper. Then you can look at the rest of your opponent’s extra deck and get rid of any cards that match the one you showed.
So not only can you get ready for what’s coming, but you can also take away their most important tools.
If you really want to be mean (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t? ), you could show them a card that is important to their whole plan.
Ghost Reaper is just something that came up out of nowhere, and I love it.
Just make sure that your side deck has some common extra deck monsters to get the most out of this card.
4. Droll and Lock Bird
After your opponent adds a card from their deck to their hand, you can send Droll & Lock to your graveyard to stop them (and yourself) from doing that for the rest of the turn.
This makes search-heavy combo decks only be able to use one tutor per turn, which is a very harsh punishment.
Even though Droll isn’t as strong as it used to be because it can’t stop increasingly popular deck summons, it’s still a strong card.
Since it can cast spells at level 1, pendulum decks with the monster power “Magical Abductor” can use it to find it.
3. Infinite Impermanence
It’s time for the other trap card hand trap, which does exist.
The idea of columns was a really cool thing that came with the Link age.
In the old Yu-Gi-Oh, it didn’t really matter where you put your cards as long as they were on the board.
While you have Infinite Impermanence in your hand, it works like an Effect Veiler and lets you cancel a monster’s effect until the end of the turn.
This card is so high on the list because its set ability works like a double deny, letting you also cancel a spell or trap in the same column.
This card has made me nervous about where I put my traps, especially since I play pendulum and have less room for spells and traps to begin with…
2. Nibiru the Primal Being
Never before has one rock been so scary and strong.
This guy is almost as solid as a rock.
Nibiru can beat any and all combination decks.
If you play against a combo deck that keeps summoning cards, Nibiru is the right answer.
When your whole board is gone and you only have one character left, it’s hard to play the game.
To do the most damage with this, use it right at the end of your opponent’s combo string, when they’ve used up all their resources and can’t do anything else.
1. Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
Ash Blossom being the best hand trap here shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Even though this card has been released seven times in the TCG, it would be hard to find one for less than $15.
Duelists like this card so much because it stops the main goal of current Yu-Gi-Oh, which is to get a lot of cards from the deck.
You’d like to run Foolish Burial? Nope.
Do you want to find your field spell? Nope.
Want to bring that key piece from your deck into play as a special summon? Definite nope.
The number of effects that this card can stop is crazy.
Interrupting your opponent’s searches and calls is the best way to stop their combos before they get going.
This is why Ash Blossom could be a mainstay in most decks with 3 copies.
