May 29, 2010
On Monday, PJ advocated finding new ways to play around Starlight Road while keeping powerful cards like Heavy Storm in your Deck. Today, Mike Kohanim is going to offer a different perspective, namely that if you don’t put the cards that destroy 2 or more opposing cards in your Deck, then Starlight Road is useless against you. After you read both sides of the argument, tell us what YOU think at us-ygorules@konami.com. We’ll post some of the best responses next week!
–
Starlight Road can be the easiest card in the game to play around. Since your opponent can only activate it when 2 or more of his cards would be destroyed, you can easily avoid triggering it by not playing any cards that would destroy more than 1 of your opponent’s cards. For a lot of Decks, this is the best way to play around Starlight Road. When you’re falling behind and relying on mass-removal to turn a Duel around, giving your opponent an extra Stardust Dragon can make it impossible for you to win. By keeping cards like Heavy Storm, Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force out of your Deck, you’ll never need to worry about that happening.
Heavy Storm seems like an obvious card to exclude from Decks that can have trouble dealing with an opponent’s Stardust Dragon. Skilled Duelists will rarely Set multiple cards in their Spell and Trap Card Zone without some way to protect them, and Starlight Road is quickly becoming that protection. Against strong opponents, you’ll realize that Heavy Storm is more likely to trigger Starlight Road than destroy several of your opponent’s cards. If you’re too afraid of triggering Starlight Road to use Heavy Storm on 2 or more of your opponent’s cards, why bother playing it in your Deck at all? You can use risk-free cards like Mystical Space Typhoon and Dust Tornado to destroy your opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards and fearlessly tear down his defenses.
Just as most skilled Duelists won’t usually Set more than 1 Spell or Trap Card without some way to protect them from Heavy Storm, most strong Duelists won’t Summon a bunch of monsters and attack with them without some way to protect them all from cards likeTorrential Tribute and Mirror Force. This means Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force will usually take down only one of your opponent’s monsters successfully. This makes Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimensional Prison better in most situations, since they can remove your opponent’s monster from play instead of just destroying it. If your opponent does flood the field with monsters to attack with, there’s a good chance he has Starlight Road face-down and is trying to bait out your Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force.
Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimensional Prison are also much safer to activate thanTorrential Tribute and Mirror Force, since they can almost always be used without triggering your opponent’s Starlight Road. If you let your opponent negate your Torrential Tribute orMirror Force with Starlight Road, you’ll give your opponent a Stardust Dragon when you’re already behind. If you were relying on Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force to take down your opponent’s swarm, letting your opponent Special Summon a free Stardust Dragon may make his swarm of monsters strong enough to take out your remaining Life Points. Even if your opponent can’t beat you on the turn he activates Starlight Road, it’ll be harder to destroy your opponent’s monsters while he has a Stardust Dragon protecting them.
The easiest way to avoid triggering Starlight Road is to not play any cards that are guaranteed to destroy 2 or more opposing cards.
Keeping Heavy Storm, Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force out of your Deck can also make your opponent’s copies of Starlight Road nearly useless. If you don’t trigger his Starlight Road, it will sit in his Spell and Trap Card Zone until he triggers it himself, which can be difficult to do. Don’t forget, even if you’re not using Heavy Storm, Torrential Tribute and Mirror Forcein your Deck, most of your opponents won’t know it and will still play around them.
Many Duelists who have gotten used to simply throwing Heavy Storm, Torrential Tribute andMirror Force into every Deck they build should reconsider their Deck construction process. They should think about the new dangers that can arise from running these cards and think about whether or not they’re ready to handle them.
If you’re planning to not activate Heavy Storm, Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute any time your opponent would be able to counter it with Starlight Road, you’re better off just keeping them out of your Deck. A Duelist who’s being extra aggressive will often have Starlight Roadface-down to protect his cards. Triggering it could be your downfall.
