Cards that negate Summons have become increasingly popular over the past few months.Solemn Warning¸ which was recently Semi-Limited by the March 1^st, 2011 Forbidden & Limited List, is now being played in pairs in just about every competitive Deck. Solemn Judgment, which was first released in Metal Raiders, has been floating around the tournament scene even longer. That’s why if you’re planning to enter a tournament, you should know how to stop these cards from negating your Summons.

The obvious solution to getting around Solemn Warning and Solemn Judgment before they can negate your monster’s Summon is to activate Trap Stun or Royal Decree before Summoning your monster. Since Solemn Warning and Solemn Judgment are Counter Trap Cards, you can’t Chain Trap Stun or Royal Decree to negate them. But if you activate Trap Stun or Royal Decree before attempting to Summon your monster, you can be confident that your monster will safely make it to the field.

There are other cards you can also use to get around the Summon negation of Traps likeSolemn Warning. Spell and Trap Cards like Mystical Space Typhoon, Nobleman of Extermination, and Dust Tornado, for example, can take down Solemn Warning before it’s activated. Breaker the Magical Warrior can force your opponent to negate its Summon or risk losing Solemn Warning to Breaker’s effect.

Sometimes, you can play around Solemn Warning without even drawing any cards that negate or destroy it. Instead, you can lead your opponent to activate Solemn Warning when you Summon your weaker monsters. When your opponent is low on Life Points, he’ll usually be inclined to activate Solemn Warning as soon as he can. If he allows a Summon to go through and starts taking attacks, he knows that he’ll quickly dip below 2000 Life Points, and then won’t be able to use Solemn Warning anymore.

For example, suppose your opponent has 4000 Life Points and a Solemn Warning face-down with no other cards on his side of the field. You have Elemental Hero Neos Alius (1900 ATK) in your hand, along with Miracle Fusion. You can use that Miracle Fusion to Summon Elemental Hero The Shining (2600 ATK) by removing 2 monsters from your Graveyard. Do you Summon Alius or activate Miracle Fusion first?

If you activate Miracle Fusion first, there’s no doubt that your opponent will negate it with his face-down Solemn Warning. He’ll pay 2000 Life Points and drop down to 2000 Life Points. He knows that if he doesn’t activate Solemn Warning, The Shining will attack him directly and he’ll lose even more than 2000 Life Points, and then be unable to activate Solemn Warning later in the Duel. After your opponent negates the Miracle Fusion, the best move you’ll be able to make involves Summoning Neos Alius and attacking, dropping your opponent down to 100 Life Points and giving him a turn to retaliate.

But what if you Summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius before activating Miracle Fusion? If you Summon Neos Alius first, your opponent may activate Solemn Warning to negate its Summon, fearing that he won’t be able to get it off of the field before it drops him below 2000 Life Points. Then, you can activate Miracle Fusion and end the Duel with The Shining! If your opponent suspects that you have Miracle Fusion, and as a result, chooses not to activateSolemn Warning to negate Neos Alius’s Summon, activating Miracle Fusion second and letting your opponent negate it puts you in the exact situation as the previous scenario, with Alius on the field and your opponent at 100 Life Points at the end of your turn.

By attempting to Summon your weaker monsters first, you can often bait out Solemn Warningso that your strongest monsters will make it to the field and finish your opponent off.

Another way to play around Solemn Warning is by quickly damaging your opponent so that he drops below 2000 Life Points and is unable to activate Solemn Warning. The 2000 Life Point cost attached to Solemn Warning’s activation is pretty hefty, and if your opponent can’t afford the Life Point payment, Solemn Warning will be of no use to him. Aggressively Summoning monsters with high ATK and using them to inflict Battle Damage to your opponent is usually the best way to drop him below 2000 Life Points before he gets the chance to Set Solemn Warning.

Trap Cards that can negate the Summons of monsters are powerful, but if you can negate them, destroy them, or play around them, they won’t cause you nearly as much trouble as they otherwise could. Practice Dueling against these cards, and you’ll quickly learn the best ways to deal with Summon negation.