Chapter 120. Traptrix System Explained! An In-Depth Look at the "Grim" Bug Girls!
After watching that final HERO counterattack video, duelists across the worlds were still in shock, unable to recover for a long time.
Slifer the Sky Dragon? Who on earth would have thought!
The invincible, resistance-stacked Blackwing Full Armor Master!
In the end, it wasn't defeated by Kuriboh, nor taken down by HERO—
It was finished off by the God Card, Slifer the Sky Dragon!
What they hadn't expected even more was this:
In that last, fateful turn that would decide victory or defeat,
The HERO player actually calculated all the way to that outcome at the critical moment.
He calculated that the God Card was the final piece of the victory equation.
They would never have guessed it.
Who would have thought the win condition would be like that!
At that very moment,
Every veteran finally realized there were far too many duel-winning opportunities in that match that you would never have anticipated.
Duel Monsters world.
Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba exchanged a glance.
From each other's eyes, both saw the same astonishment and shock at that final calculation.
They prided themselves on being able to use the resources on hand to mount a last-ditch counterattack (talking, printing cards on the fly),
But they hadn't expected this either.
The victory piece—Slifer the Sky Dragon—had been planted from the very beginning.
"The higher world's duel thinking really is different!"
"Truly unbelievable!"
"Finding a breakthrough computation in such a short time!"
"So cool! So good!"
Even Maximillion Pegasus couldn't help but start praising it.
To him,
The most shocking thing was that lightning-fast mental calculation.
Or rather,
The moment he saw his teammate had left him the Trap Card The Revived Sky God, he was able to think of using those plays to secure the win.
That's really not easy.
5D's world.
Crow Hogan could only swallow his frustrations in silence.
That said,
He really did learn a lot of useful Blackwing combo logic,
Including finally teching in other engines to assist Synchro plays and make even stronger Blackwing ace end boards.
Yet even so,
Crow still found it hard to believe that, with victory seemingly in hand for Blackwing and Traptrix,
They actually lost in the end.
You have to know, after that Blackwing Armor Master sequence,
Hope was on the Blackwing side.
"All you can say is, Dueling is always full of unknowns."
"And that's the charm of Dueling, isn't it?"
"Live and learn."
"I finally get that line."
Beside him, Yusei Fudo slowly exhaled.
It sounded like he was talking to himself, but in truth he was speaking for Crow to hear.
Indeed.
The charm of Dueling is finding the most crucial breakthrough at the brink,
And using that breakthrough to take an almost impossible victory.
VRAINS world.
Even the new-era Link duelists couldn't help but show astonished expressions after watching these board states.
The chatter around them grew lively at once.
"Sheesh! That was insane! I didn't know you could end it like that!"
"I thought this HERO deck would just explode into combos and win via the Extra Deck! I didn't expect it to be the God Card in the end!"
"So from the start, his plan was to draw enough cards to maximize Slifer's advantage?"
"Ohhh! That explains why he chained interruptions into the Traptrix disruption. So that's what was going on!"
As the surrounding discussion ramped up,
Yusaku Fujiki, Takeru Homura, Akira Zaizen, and the others all realized the last HERO sequence carried even more chilling duel logic and lines of play on closer thought.
No wonder he played like he couldn't extend despite having so many resources, acting like his hand was bricked.
It was also to lull the opponent into letting down their guard.
Main world.
Even though Sei Yuki had already seen this video before, watching it again, he couldn't help feeling sentimental.
This is the charm of modern Yu-Gi-Oh! Dueling,
And also the wacky, delightful combos and fun that casual players bring.
At the very least, a deck built around Kuriboh—
You really don't see that often.
If you don't believe it, try to remember the last time you ran into a Kuriboh-centric deck.
"Whew, that's about enough on Blackwings."
"Next, let's casually and lightly take a look at a short video on Traptrix."
"I figure there are quite a few waifu-card players who like this Traptrix deck."
"Of course, it isn't short on 'grim' players either."
While Sei Yuki muttered to himself, the corner of his eye glanced at the app's chat popup.
From time to time, messages popped up discussing Traptrix duelists' decks—
In other words, news about Traptrix.
Weevil Underwood: "A-hem! So what kind of deck is Traptrix anyway? After watching, why do I suddenly feel like my Insect Queen isn't as hot anymore?"
Syrus Truesdale: "No idea, but I feel like lots of the girls in there are even prettier than Dark Magician Girl? I'm done! I think I need to redefine my goddess card!"
Bronk Stone: "Er, how do I put it? I think it's pretty good. I'm a straight guy, but I'm still really interested in this Traptrix archetype!"
Aoi Zaizen: "Tch. My take is they're no match for my Trickstar! Traptrix? Step aside!"
Looking at these cross-world chat logs,
Sei Yuki could only wave his hand helplessly.
He could only go find them a Traptrix-related video first,
To help them better understand the Traptrix deck.
And so,
After a round of searching,
The target was set, and the title popped up along with it:
"Glory of the Traptrix Girls! Three Minutes to Dive Deep into the Combo Between Traptrix and 'Trap Hole'!"
Those duelists who had been discussing the HERO player
Perked up the moment they saw the title.
Setting everything else aside,
The Traptrix engine shown in the short really had caught their attention,
Especially the synergy between Trap Cards and the Traptrix core.
If not for that one brutal hit from Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS – Sky Thunder,
It's hard to say how it might have ended.
Inside the short.
The Traptrix player started explaining freely and confidently.
Traptrix player: "Hello~! Thanks for clicking into my video, fellow duelists!"
Traptrix player: "Today this big-eyed cutie is bringing you a Traptrix deck tutorial!"
Traptrix player: "I'll take you from every angle—north, south, east, and west—to dive deep into the combo relationship between Traptrix and 'Trap Hole'!"
"First, we need to understand the characteristics of the Traptrix archetype!"
"Point 1: The core focuses on disruption and a mid-to-slow pace of play."
"Point 2: You need to run lots of backrow. The raw power isn't high, but it's plenty of fun!"
"Point 3: 'Hole' or 'Trap Hole' Normal Traps are the key Trap wording, and basically the core monsters are unaffected by those Traps."
"Once you know these points, let's look at the overall Traptrix builds!"
As soon as the words fell,
The short displayed multiple Traptrix deckbuilding approaches.
At first glance—wow, there really were a lot of backrow!
Things like Bottomless Trap Hole, Traptrix Holeutea, Terrifying Trap Hole Nightmare—piled on in droves,
Plus various generic Trap staples.
But unlike Eldlich,
Here the monsters and Traps together take up three-quarters of the deck,
With the remaining quarter for Spells.
Eldlich, by contrast, is three-quarters Traps, and one-quarter monsters and Spells.
That made quite a few duelists tense up.
Traptrix is "grim," no wonder it could make HERO stumble.
Traptrix player: "After looking at the overall list, next is understanding the key cards!"
Traptrix player: "First are the must-includes!"
"Card 1! Traptrix Myrmeleo ×3!"
"Unaffected by 'Hole' Normal Traps. When Special Summoned, it pops the opponent's Spell/Trap. On Normal Summon, it searches a 'Hole' or 'Trap Hole' Normal Trap."
"Card 2! Traptrix Dionaea ×2–3!"
"On Normal Summon, revive a Traptrix from the Graveyard. On Special Summon, recover a 'Hole' or 'Trap Hole' Normal Trap from the Graveyard."
"Card 3! Traptrix Mantis ×3!"
"On Normal Summon, search a Traptrix monster. As a Quick Effect, bounce your Set Spell/Trap, then you can Set a card from hand—this refreshes and protects your backrow, and can reset Dionaea's self-banish timing on the returned Trap."
"Card 4! Traptrix Pudica ×3!"
"On Normal Summon, add the Field Spell Traptrip Garden. On Special Summon, temporarily banish an opponent's Special Summoned monster until their next Standby Phase."
"Card 5! Traptrix Arachnocampa ×1–2!"
"A self-Special Level 4 extender for Xyz lines, and it gives your backrow one layer of effect-destruction protection."
"These are basically the mainline Traptrix monsters!"
...
Just from those low-level monsters alone,
Duelists from every world were already pulling some funny faces.
These waifu cards are definitely cute,
But their power ceiling didn't look reassuring.
At least, just from this sample,
Everyone could tell the lower-level lineup was still a bit lacking.
In short, they link together to fight by leveraging 'Hole' backrow against the opponent.
Looked at this way,
The emphasis for the Traptrix girls is still in the Extra Deck.
Judging by the lower-level monsters alone, the power isn't quite there.
Not enough raw ATK.
Not enough chances to explode into big extensions.
Traptrix player: "Next up is the Extra Deck!"
Traptrix player: "Heads-up: the Traptrix Links are unaffected by Trap effects, and the Xyz Traptrix get even stronger resistances!"
Traptrix player: "For example, the Link-1 Traptrix Sera!"
"Unaffected by Trap effects. When a Trap is activated, you can Special Summon a Traptrix from the Deck. When a Traptrix effect activates, you can Set a 'Hole' or 'Trap Hole' Normal Trap straight from the Deck."
"This card is the deck's strongest starter and a key resource engine."
"Triple copies, no debate."
"Whether you can cover your opponent's turn with proper disruptions often comes down to Sera."
"Then the Link-2 Traptrix Cularia!"
"After you activate a 'Hole'/'Trap Hole' Normal Trap, you Set it instead of sending it to the Graveyard, and in the End Phase you revive a Traptrix from your Graveyard."
"Run 1–2. It's great for recursion and resource cycling."
"Next is the Link-3 Traptrix Atypus!"
"This is the main damage pusher. While you've got a Normal Trap in the Graveyard, your Traptrix gain 1000 ATK."
"The key is the last effect."
"Once per turn, you can target face-up cards your opponent controls up to the number of Insect/Plant monsters you control; negate them until the end of the turn."
"Then you can banish 1 Normal Trap from your Graveyard to destroy 1 of those targets."
"Loads of negates plus removal to break boards."
"This is the Traptrix finisher of last resort."
"Beyond that, we have the Xyz Traptrix!"
"First is Traptrix Allomerus, Rank 4, 2200/600."
"While it has material, it's unaffected by Trap effects. Detach 2 to revive a Level 4 Insect/Plant from the Graveyard."
"The third effect lets you detach 1 material to Special Summon an opponent's monster that left the field by your card effect and went to the Graveyard or was banished."
"Second is Traptrix Pinguicula."
"While it has material, it's unaffected by Trap effects and the activated effects of other monsters with the same Type as its material."
"It can also detach 1 to search a Traptrix monster."
"The third effect is similar to Allomerus."
"Then the third Xyz, Traptrix Rafflesia."
"It grants your other Traptrix protection from battle/effect destruction and targeting."
"As a Quick Effect, you can detach to send a 'Hole' Normal Trap that meets its activation conditions from your Deck to the Graveyard, and this effect becomes that Trap's effect."
"This one's pretty important."
"Going first, most lines consider making this."
"Because that flexible Quick Effect copy catches people off guard."
"But I think everyone's noticed one key point."
"Traptrix boards live or die on how hard your Traps hit."
"Other decks are about how many 'negates' they stick."
"So Traptrix disruptions sometimes just can't reach the outcome you want."
"I believe a lot of Traptrix players have felt that."
After a quick pass through the core Extra Deck cards,
Many veterans across the worlds grew thoughtful.
Indeed.
Even though the Extra Deck Traptrix are packed with 'unaffected by Trap effects' resistances,
There's still a problem.
They're still mid-sized Extra Deck monsters,
So their ATK isn't high.
That means this archetype can't blow the opponent out with a single OTK.
It's the exact opposite of Numeron-style decks.
In the group chat, just these cards and a simple outline had already sparked plenty of debate.
Weevil Underwood: "Huh? Looked at this way, Insect Queen's still better! At least she hits harder!"
Syrus Truesdale: "You can't say that! These Traptrix being unaffected by 'Hole' Traps could be clutch into a lot of grim stuff!"
Yuma Tsukumo: "How to put it… at least those Xyz look solid! It's just the sad ATK! Cute is cute, but they can't make me win, sigh!"
Jack Atlas: "Heh heh heh. If you want to be the world's number one, waifu cards just get in the way. Heed a senior's advice—don't play waifu decks! Instead of waifu decks, why not play the invincible Dragon decks?"
Jack's line immediately made the whole chat go silent.
"Dead-air Jack" realized he'd said something that felt awfully familiar.
Without another word, he dove underwater and stayed quiet.
The chat soon returned to all sorts of Traptrix talk.
The more they discussed, the more the veterans understood one thing.
There's always a counter for every strategy.
Traptrix might work wonders into certain grim decks,
But they can't handle Jinzo or Cyber Dragon.
With this many Set backrow,
If Jinzo hits the field, aren't you just finished?
And Cyber Dragon is even nastier—
Its Fusion boss, Chimeratech Rampage Dragon, can blow up backrow based on its materials.
Against those two,
Or anytime you run into decks packing Harpie's Feather Duster,
What's Traptrix supposed to do?
Surrender at "Speed 5"?
And the Traptrix core combo line
Is extremely simple.
If you've got Traps, just set them and you're good.
Then you make boards like Traptrix Pinguicula plus Traptrix Sera.
If you've got extenders you can make more, and if you don't, it's more or less the same.
In other words,
Pure Traptrix still has to include other engines to find a path forward.
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