Wow okay, I didn't realize how many people think this card needs to be a counter trap to respond to Solemns. Witch's Strike is used on the chain after a card is negated, not in response to a negation card. You're free to use it on a new chain after a counter trap resolves.
A really good casual use for this card is in decks that play on your opponents turn, flip decks like krawlers and tindangle and artifacts don't make many plays during their turn they use them during the opponents next turn so witch's strike is actually active when you need it
Back when I was getting in to Yu-Gi-Oh these "Why Nobady Plays" videos really did help me view cards through an alternate lens. Not only did I start understanding what makes a card good but also how different cards interact with each other. I hope you realese more of these videos in the future.
It's insane how at my friend's locals someone cheesed free wins because he activated witch's strike in response to ash blossom and blew his opponents out of the water. And it's not just one game or match. He did this several matches and ended up top the tournament. And judges there just didn't notice that it's not how it works.
@@GrandMasterNutBusterYoda Ash blossom doesn't technically negate the special summon itself, it negates the effect of a card whose effect is to special summon something. Additionally ash blossom negates the effect itself, not its initial activation. So that's why Witch's Strike isn't triggered by it. For a game whose player's are notorious for not reading, some of the cards could be a reading comprehension test in and of themselves.
Reminds me of when Stardust Dragon came out and people tried to use it to negate bounce effects or bottomless trap hole. YuGiOh players are in dire need of reading comprehension classes!
You aren't the only one. I forgot that it said activation too. I appreciate dzeeff pointing that out. Not happy about it (since it means that the card is not as good as I thought it was), nut I appreciate it. :D
@@Nerobyrnewhich is ironic because the Bismarck did exactly what it was supposed to do, and did so greatly, but because it got caught without an escort and sunk everyone keeps using it like the worst analogy ever.
@@Melphisto_ No. By that point, I had already wiped out most of my opponent's resources, minimalizing their counterstrike. I had a Seyfert in the grave that helped me recover, and I eventually finished my opponent off in two or three turns.
@@vm141789 the main reason that it's not good is likely that most modern decks can recover even from having their entire hand and field sent to the grave. It would be okay if it was hard to get off, but could shut down your opponent entirely. Like, if it took your opponent's graveyard and banished it face-down after sending all their cards there. But this won't hurt most decks the way it is now too much. Hell, if your opponent is playing dinos, you might actually put them in a better position.
Man, Yugioh has a lot of game mechanics that casually sound like the same thing but aren't. Negate effect vs negate activation, destroy vs move to graveyard, targeting a card vs applying an effect to it... I guess it's a result of the game being so centered around countering other cards.
The others I get but the effect and activation are basically doing the same exact thing so to me it just sounds like lazy translation of card text and shouldn't be a thing. Its not even problem solving a card.
@@Mr.Hashimi30 The activation and the effect are two separate things. The activation happens when you flip the card up, which is where your opponent can respond to it. It's only once the card finishes resolving that it's effect actually takes place. That's why you can chain MST to Imperial Order. Imperial Order negates spells, but since your MST will resolve first Imperial Order will be destroyed since it's been activated, but it's effect hasn't yet taken place. Same thing happens with Jinzo vs Solemn Judgment. Jinzo negates traps, so you can't chain Bottomless or other cards once it hits the field, but a card like Solemn Judgment negates the summon, so it's effect doesn't activate.
No, it's a result of shit game design without proper thought before releasing cards. Konami was like "oh lol our cardtexts can be interpreted in different ways, let's just make it different mechanics then"
Hey Dzeeff, just wanted to thank you. You helped me keep interest in YuGiOh. I am not a competitive player because frankly I suck at building decks and find it hard to keep up with the new content (Xyz, synchros ect.) however I still enjoy playing casually online as there are no shops within 100s of kilometers that sell yugioh cards and online plus shipping costs are too much (seeming as how my country's currency is about 1 17th as strong as the US dollar and I am a high school freshman). Anyway, I'm rambling , I appreciate you and the effort you put into these videos . I aspire to be as educated as you in regards to duel monsters.
There is a good yu-gi-oh channel that talks about top 10 yu-gi-oh cards and explains very well why they are at the certain spots. I would highly recommend you to go and check him out. Name on youtube: TheDuelLogs
I got over excited when I first saw this card and splashed it into a bunch of decks, then it became a dead draw when I needed a better card. I found out quickly if it isn't in your opening hand then it's usually a pretty bad draw I've also no joke resolved Waking The Dragon more times than this, cause at least when you set 4 and pass they wanna get rid of some of that
At least Waking The Dragon is great backrow removal bait and can be used fairly often. Especially against say, Lightning Storm or the recently unbanned HFD. You cannot say that about Witch's Strike, though...
I still really like the design of this card. Yeah, it's unplayable, but it's one of those cards you keep a playset of just because it does something specific very well. Maybe someday the planets will align and it will be good!
What this card needed to see play, in my opinion, was an extra line saying "If you have not activated any other Traps this Duel, you may activate this card from your hand."
Witch's Strike actually looks like its a powerful counter, but its downside, as far as I can tell, is the fact that it destroys the cards. A lot of effects can get triggered by destruction. It's funny that it also destroys in the hand. Hello, Fire Kings!
Oh man, what a coincidence, I discovered Witch's Strike a week ago. I was like, "huh, why haven't I seen more people play this?" Than I ran it in a couple of duels, and was like, "ohhhh, yeah, I see..." and stopped using it. It also didn't help that I was running into very few Solemn players. It did help somewhat against a zombie deck running Doomking, but it really just prevented him from activating its negate effect because he knew it was there and therefore not a surprise (and I lost anyway). Maybe not a bad card to side, I dunno, but at times it almost started to feel too situational oddly enough? Seeing as how I don't know if I ever got to use it even once.
Hey I really enjoy this series, i haven't played since some old school yugioh and moved onto magic competitively. Your channel has been very helpful on me understanding cards that i have just never even heard of. Keep up the good work!
Your timing couldn't have been better, Dzeeff. I finished building a deck that includes Witch's Strike within the past week, and I found myself wondering, "If I decide to get rid of some cards in the future, how can I decide which ones to get rid of?" All of the cards I got seemed so awesome to me that I would have difficulty deciding which ones to get rid of on my own. Thanks to this information, Witch's Strike is now the first choice on that list.
This was a a really interesting video that answered a question I've had since the Constellar support video. Constellar Belt stops Light monsters' effect activations from being negated, which apparently doesn't work against most hand traps as you just mentioned. Its a real bummer that Called By the Grave is at one copy because Triple Tactics Talents is surprisingly unreliable in comparison and can be easily played around with a lot of effects
Why don't they give this card Spellspeed 4 ? It would be awesome. The story behind this artwork is "the once condemned maiden took revenge on her old master after she became powerful like him" so I think it would be appropriate to give the card properties of Solemn Judgment, no ?
I wish it was less situational, I play Darklords for the most part and this is a really big flavor win card for it. Sadly as it stands while lacking the ability to set it quickly it’s not that good, maybe trap trick? I don’t know off the top of my head though if that works as it’s not a trap hole, also that’s a difficult investment.
I used to play Witch's Strike in my Darkest Diabolos deck but took it out because I only had a single copy. It was useful against my friend who ran Solemn Strike and Warning, so I knew it could pop off. I only ever got the effect off once out of about 30 duels
The best way I found to use Witch's Strike without relying on the surprise factor is to side it in a Lair of Darkness control deck to face other control decks in a grind game, so it can be searched and recycled by Lilith and Malice to serve as a big roadblock, forcing the oponent to first out it, then get back at trying to control the board, and that in a grind game really hurts. But yeah, if it's best use outside of surprise factor is an inconsistent as hell tier 3 deck, that says something about how viable the card actually is :v
This is probably the best way to exploit it, and now it's easier than ever to play this card effortlessly with Labrynth being able to get away with a single copy. Sure your opponent can see you have it if you're searching it, but even knowing your opponent will be under pressure knowing he can't just negate your activations/summons or risk losing it all while you're using other powerful effects.
Here's the difference between negate the activation vs. Negate the effect. Negate the activation is like saying naw that didn't happen. Negate the effect is like say okay that happened, but I'm going to ignore it.
It works on Baronne de Fleur which makes it a lot more reliable in Master Duel.. A lot of Swordsoul players do the same opening combo and just have that one negate.
I had this work on Master Duel with what I am guessing was luck because it is quite situational. I Summon Number 97 and they use Solemn Judgment. I activate Witch's strike and was also lucky there were no graveyard effects (didn't think so based on their deck) It was still my turn so I was going to use Golden Castle that was still in play along with monster reborn to bring back what I needed because the battle phase. (They gave up because that) That entire thing was situational and luck with just the right cards.
@@luckysevens6852 no it would have the same issues, except that it works against boards of negates. the issue of going first or second with this card has nothing to do with ur opponent having a board of negates, so as a counter trap it wouldn't be much better
@@YanVidz well I guess we'll never know but I feel if it's a counter trap it not only works against a board of negates but is also tougher to stop. I haven't put much thought into this card mind you so if you think it wouldn't matter that's ok with me.
I think its useful in my nurseburn deck. There you have a few factors that make it useful: 1) You always go first 2) you don't attempt to build any board with negates, you want to just try and OTK 3) there are only 9 useful win condition cards, ie, to burn them and only so many draw cards useful in an engine for this deck, so you always have like 5 cards spare to put in op shiz 4) each of these cards you put in (which realistically you hope you don't draw) basically needs to have the potential to do something epic, otherwise the fact that the card bricked your hand just makes you lose. For me, the decision is whether to have a Witch's strike, an ashe blossom, CotG, or a kaiju.. and I think Witch's is probably the best.
Honestly i can see now why its not good against certian ones But its still super satisfying as a "gotcha! Moment" and the times i have had it in my hand and set down ive actually been able to use it so im still gonna keep it in my roster until i fond it failing
Its not really that stupid when you have the context behind it. Either you're going first, and your goal is to stop your opponent from clearing your board and OTKing you (which Witch's Strike doesn't help with) or you're going second and your goal is to break your opponent's board and OTK them (which again, witch's strike doesn't help with). Yes, often you might find both you and your opponent unable to budge, and find yourselves in a grind game that lasts a number of turns, which witch's strike WILL help resolve in your favor, but even for that its too situational and gets in the way in the first two situations.
I learned of this card when a friend showed me the story of Solemn and used this against my anti meta gravekeepers. My deck has 5 solemns. I was horrified that it went off. I still won. . It's a cool effect that's stuck in my head, but if I ever go head to head against another control deck, i'd rather side in any other backrow removal staple.
Dzeeff mentioned that while Witch's Strike is a very poor choice as a trap card that it would be broken as a quick play spell and naturally this got me thinking about what kind of restrictions/drawbacks would a quick play spell with this effect have to have to be balanced. Would something like immediately ending your turn and negating the activation of all of your monster effects until your next end phase or making you banish your entire extra deck face down even be enough to make a quick play spell version of Witch's Strike have a similar level of viability as something like Evenly Matched? Or would that just make it an incredibly broken card that only a small number of decks could utilize? I don't think I know the game well enough to say one way or another but its super interesting to think about.
I took Witch's Strike out of my deck literally yesterday. I think that means I was officially the last person playing it. It's not useful, it only goes off one time in a hundred when you try it. But god DAMN is it hilarious when it does.
@@shirayukinobunaga9424 It's tempting, but I don't think it would work out. It's the trigger condition that hampers it; being able to use it from your hand still puts you in the troubling state where you need to wait for an active negation, but that it can then be shut down by another negation. Also, Dzeeff didn't mention it, but there's some weird interactions that never work out in its favor. Like how technically it's a great counter for Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, since he's only got one negate per turn, but REDD himself is immune to the Witch's Strike wipeout.
basically its a spell speed 1 while most counter traps or effect monsters are spell speed 2 or 3. (counter are spell speed 3) so yeah you cant activate it in most instances.
I just want the next card in the forbidden/condemned series, in which the Dr Light look alike just Solemn Slaps the witch, or even better, a Second Solemn Strike, and just shows him striking down Condemned Darklord.
I love it with my Endymion deck because if they negate my boss monster which banishes there cards on summon I pull out my witches strike and commit genocide
If it were a Quick-Play Spell it'd be a decent punisher against negation spam, but it would need that AND negation immunity to be good these days. Since neither of those apply, well... you get the idea.
Hi i'm new to the game . I have question /video idea .. will aqua neos and rainbow neos see competitve play after dragoon and smoke get banned… i got this idea because rainbow neos is not good going first but aqua neos is good going first so i thought of main deck wich one help your deck and side deck the other one… on top of that there is some decks using aqua dolphin already with connector so if you don't see connector you still can go aqua neos and taking one card out of their hand… i know it destroy the card don't send it but i think it worth the risk… love your videos hopefully this will make a good one
Witches strike “if your opponent negates the normal and special summon” ash blossom “you can discard this card; negate that effect •special summon” so how does it now work on ash???
Oddly enough as a Eldlich duelist, this card is a nice surprise when people get to "negate happy" when targeting my back row cards that are activating into a monster card and then BOOM! Once it happens once, the second duel around they move slowly BUT I also run Evenly Matched LOL. I run one Witches Strick for a "just in case" moment. I don't draw it often but when I have it worked for me 🤷🏾♂️.
Considering Dzeeff had to pin a comment addressing people who thought Witch's Strike had to be used in the same chain as a Solemn card instead of as part of a new chain, maybe he will have to make the video.
Tl:dr the card is balanced by being a trap, and it would be better to side in any other removal instead (evenly matched, lightning storm, even feather duster). . Modern yugioh has sped up to the point where if solemns are going to be used, they'll be used ASAP for board control. By the time this is used, there's a chance you can recover and prevent destruction.
Pot of Division: Physically rip up half of your deck, at random. Then, draw 2 cards. If one or moreof the cards ripped up was a "Pot of Division", you may draw 1 additional card at the cost of half of your life points
aka: draw 2 cards, then get disqualified from the tournament for deck size. If they ruled it that you could keep playing with a 20 card deck, I suspect someone would find some way to loop this card so you rip up your entire deck apart from the 5 pieces of exodia. It might be inconsistent, but after pulling that off once, you're winning every other game in the tournament.
witches strike won’t help you win tough games, it will only help you win immediate or impossible games. This card rarely works, but I find it best to normal summon a monster (like condemned witch) that can special summon another monster on opponent’s turn with witch’s strike in backrow. This might help to aid explanation as to why its rarely used, (I only keep one or two copies of both in my darklord brandon fusion deck) because while there are many monsters w/ quick effects in game, not every deck has named support or access to cards that would give you right type of leverage to want to use Witch’s strike for; instead of thinking about this card as a retaliation for having your big bungus negated and destroyed on quick effect summon, think about it also as a “surprise battering ram” that works best after your opponent decides to go 1 for 1 with you; finding the right monster to warrant a negate + destroy from your opponent is key to activating this properly, because you are trying to feign a brick and make your opponent overconfident. This is also why it’s hard to activate, because any hand that doesn’t include this card is better off 80% of the time.
Thanks for this video. I just started playing Master Duel and was confused my this card didn't trigger sometimes in my traptrix deck. Time to replace it with something else
So here's my thing I like it when people have built their decks to play around certain things and then I just play my deck doing whatever I was doing before cause I don't really care about when everybody else is playing and I do OK not stopping a man to the ground and there not stopping me into the ground but it's more like a even back-and-forth cave man Yu gi oh man
I’m surprised so many players in the comments are saying it’s useless lol. I just won with it 1st time-1st try with it in Masterduel vs a Centur-rion deck. I play Branded x Chimera and my opponent had a loaded board with Cosmic Blazar Dragon.. baited him to negate my summon with it so it was off the field and BOOM. Nuked his hand and field 😂 Proceeded to win turn 3. Lovely card, had to put 3 in my deck.
I had high hopes for Witch Strike at it's initial release but I am not ashamed to admit that it was far from as good as I hoped it would be. In retrospect, many cards I thought would be good were bad and vice verse. But nobody is as persistent as the one guy in another comment section that tried to explain to me that Magic Drain had a niche use in todays meta. He really tries to argue that it's better than Imperial Order, the Solemn Brigade or Ash Blossom
To be fair witch's strike after bating the hareld negate halfway through a combo literally wins. To be fairer so do most other good traps that stop them from even getting there.
Traptrick into Witches Strike is a fun thing to do, but still not very good since you are basically playing 2 garnet trap cards for a gimmicky payoff. Still, very fun when it works.
I swear most of yugioh ruling is just based off weird and confusing walls of text. Ironically it works against my subterror fiendess in master duel when i tried to pull it against some guy ( Can't remember the deck name, meta is all the same to me ) that " Negated the effect of a monster " with a fusion. Guess i now know why it's a normal card. Too good to be true
I remember when i saw the why nobody plays Earthbound immortal video, i looked through many decks, that could both synchro summon and not use their normal summon... Now when i think about it, adamancipators might be able to fulfill the requirement
Also try Tenyis and Incans. They can both Synchro Summon easily without using up the Normal Summon. There are also great options for a few of the individual Eartbound Immortals. Floowandereeze: Humming Bird and Condor [Needs Eglen, Unexplored Winds and Magnificient Map] Labrynth: Giant [Needs Labyrnth Labyrinth and Archfiend's Glitch] Giant Ballpark: Spider [Needs Giant Ballpark, Basic Insect, N29:Mannequin Cat and Kumongous/Gandarla/Radian Kaijus] But good luck with the Monkey, Lizard and Orca...
Not as massive as you see, most of time the backrow is getting rid, cannot be used against multi omni-negate board and you have 33% chance to draw it during first turn assuming you play 3 copies It is best against board that can negate once per turn such as Magical Musket, Subterror, Altergeist (except they managed to get Hextia)
This is a good card his opinion aside if you combine it with nibiru especially if your opponent plays to stop a possible nibiru you can just out right destroy him turn 1
@@youngdoodle right then he setups nibiru what's your point? As i said in other comments this card works great but its a win con so you have to make a deck this world as a main center piece
A lot of people have said if it was a counter trap, then it would work against solemns, but that's not true. It works against solemns anyway. However, if it was a counter trap, your opponent couldn't respond to it with there monsters that negate it. It would basically be a slower dark ruler no more that also clears the field and hand. Which would make it borderline broken, and honestly, I kind of feel like Konami should actually do that. They've done crazier erratas before. (*cough* goyo gaurdian *cough*) making witches strike into a counter trap isn't entire out the realm of what we could expect from Konami.
So if my opponent negates my card that says "you can only activate 1 (enter card name) per turn", can I activate another one of the same card if the activation was negated or can I not because activation was attempted??
It’s the Six Sam lock as an example Shi En makes it so your opponent can only activate 1 backrow and legendary ShiEn negates the activation Therefore if you negate a backrow with legendary, while having both on field, your opponent CAN activate another one
@@frankwest5388 Yes, and Dzeeff even did a "Commenters Don't Understand" video on that very topic. He said roughly the same thing you did, so good job on the refresher. 👍😎👍
Wow okay, I didn't realize how many people think this card needs to be a counter trap to respond to Solemns. Witch's Strike is used on the chain after a card is negated, not in response to a negation card. You're free to use it on a new chain after a counter trap resolves.
it would be great if it could be activated in response to a negation card, but the way the card works now is just very disappointing
"Commenters dont understand Witch's Strike"
Heh I guess it's cuz the art is part of the forbidden and solemn saga lol
A really good casual use for this card is in decks that play on your opponents turn, flip decks like krawlers and tindangle and artifacts don't make many plays during their turn they use them during the opponents next turn so witch's strike is actually active when you need it
I never knew this and is also why i never bothered trying to figure out how.
Back when I was getting in to Yu-Gi-Oh these "Why Nobady Plays" videos really did help me view cards through an alternate lens. Not only did I start understanding what makes a card good but also how different cards interact with each other. I hope you realese more of these videos in the future.
It's insane how at my friend's locals someone cheesed free wins because he activated witch's strike in response to ash blossom and blew his opponents out of the water. And it's not just one game or match. He did this several matches and ended up top the tournament. And judges there just didn't notice that it's not how it works.
Did anyone tell him how it works by now
Does it not work against ash blossom if they negate your special summon?
@@GrandMasterNutBusterYoda Ash blossom doesn't technically negate the special summon itself, it negates the effect of a card whose effect is to special summon something. Additionally ash blossom negates the effect itself, not its initial activation. So that's why Witch's Strike isn't triggered by it.
For a game whose player's are notorious for not reading, some of the cards could be a reading comprehension test in and of themselves.
Reminds me of when Stardust Dragon came out and people tried to use it to negate bounce effects or bottomless trap hole.
YuGiOh players are in dire need of reading comprehension classes!
@@leviathan5207 Wdym Startdust can be used vs. Bottomless
This makes so much sense lol, haven’t read it for awhile and forgot it said activation
This really is the Bismark of yugioh cards.
Looks amazing on paper, but in practise it just doesn't perform the way people expected.
You aren't the only one. I forgot that it said activation too. I appreciate dzeeff pointing that out. Not happy about it (since it means that the card is not as good as I thought it was), nut I appreciate it. :D
@@Nerobyrnewhich is ironic because the Bismarck did exactly what it was supposed to do, and did so greatly, but because it got caught without an escort and sunk everyone keeps using it like the worst analogy ever.
I've only had Witch's Strike used against me once.
I still won.
Were you playing a Zombie variant??
@@Melphisto_ No. By that point, I had already wiped out most of my opponent's resources, minimalizing their counterstrike. I had a Seyfert in the grave that helped me recover, and I eventually finished my opponent off in two or three turns.
@@vm141789 the main reason that it's not good is likely that most modern decks can recover even from having their entire hand and field sent to the grave.
It would be okay if it was hard to get off, but could shut down your opponent entirely. Like, if it took your opponent's graveyard and banished it face-down after sending all their cards there. But this won't hurt most decks the way it is now too much. Hell, if your opponent is playing dinos, you might actually put them in a better position.
2059: Why Nobody Plays Yu-Gi-Oh!
Halq was not banned in 2054
I get so much card advantage by simply not playing lmao
@@kotzpenner ikr? All the cards you bought in booster packs go to your hand
@@williamhuynh869 Buying a booster pack immediately gives a +10 in card advantage lol
@pepega clapper now I can summon 2 Aleister the Invokets
Man, Yugioh has a lot of game mechanics that casually sound like the same thing but aren't. Negate effect vs negate activation, destroy vs move to graveyard, targeting a card vs applying an effect to it... I guess it's a result of the game being so centered around countering other cards.
The others I get but the effect and activation are basically doing the same exact thing so to me it just sounds like lazy translation of card text and shouldn't be a thing. Its not even problem solving a card.
Sounds like Yugioh has always been a horrible mess of a game and should have been reboot years ago.
@@Mr.Hashimi30 The activation and the effect are two separate things. The activation happens when you flip the card up, which is where your opponent can respond to it. It's only once the card finishes resolving that it's effect actually takes place. That's why you can chain MST to Imperial Order. Imperial Order negates spells, but since your MST will resolve first Imperial Order will be destroyed since it's been activated, but it's effect hasn't yet taken place. Same thing happens with Jinzo vs Solemn Judgment. Jinzo negates traps, so you can't chain Bottomless or other cards once it hits the field, but a card like Solemn Judgment negates the summon, so it's effect doesn't activate.
No, it's a result of shit game design without proper thought before releasing cards. Konami was like "oh lol our cardtexts can be interpreted in different ways, let's just make it different mechanics then"
Witch: "You fell into my trap!"
God (calm posture): "it's not a counter trap, child."
I miss this series. It really helped me become a better player and I really love your analysis of the cards
Hey Dzeeff, just wanted to thank you. You helped me keep interest in YuGiOh. I am not a competitive player because frankly I suck at building decks and find it hard to keep up with the new content (Xyz, synchros ect.) however I still enjoy playing casually online as there are no shops within 100s of kilometers that sell yugioh cards and online plus shipping costs are too much (seeming as how my country's currency is about 1 17th as strong as the US dollar and I am a high school freshman). Anyway, I'm rambling , I appreciate you and the effort you put into these videos . I aspire to be as educated as you in regards to duel monsters.
Yeah, same here. I wish I could have some locals, card shops or even people interested in a 150km radius
@@ChadKakashi South Africa
Yeah, same here. This is why I prefer YGOPro
There is a good yu-gi-oh channel that talks about top 10 yu-gi-oh cards and explains very well why they are at the certain spots. I would highly recommend you to go and check him out. Name on youtube: TheDuelLogs
@ My 5th favourite Yu-Gi-Oh channel lol. Did you know that only 34.7% of people that watch his videos are subscribed to his channel?
I got over excited when I first saw this card and splashed it into a bunch of decks, then it became a dead draw when I needed a better card. I found out quickly if it isn't in your opening hand then it's usually a pretty bad draw
I've also no joke resolved Waking The Dragon more times than this, cause at least when you set 4 and pass they wanna get rid of some of that
At least Waking The Dragon is great backrow removal bait and can be used fairly often. Especially against say, Lightning Storm or the recently unbanned HFD.
You cannot say that about Witch's Strike, though...
I still really like the design of this card. Yeah, it's unplayable, but it's one of those cards you keep a playset of just because it does something specific very well. Maybe someday the planets will align and it will be good!
What this card needed to see play, in my opinion, was an extra line saying "If you have not activated any other Traps this Duel, you may activate this card from your hand."
so...a quick-play spell?
@@YeahTheDuckweed Sort of, depending on whose turn it is. Quick-play Spells can't be activated from the hand during the opponent's turn.
@@BmanTheChamp i suppose
@@BmanTheChamp Laugh in Magical Musket monsters that enable their spells to be activated from hand 😂
and/or the effect that nothing can be chained to it.
TheDuelLogs' number one choice for powerful cards that rarely see play.
So different people different opinions
I thought that was Silver Sentinel
I like the duel logs but he is the watch mojo of ygo sometimes
Big brain play: negate the negation that is gonna negate your Witch's strike
Exactly
Hyped for the release of "Commentors don't understand Witch's Strike" next week.
Damn I’ve been watching you for more than 2 years. Definitely doesn’t feel that long. Thanks for the content bro
Witch's Strike actually looks like its a powerful counter, but its downside, as far as I can tell, is the fact that it destroys the cards. A lot of effects can get triggered by destruction. It's funny that it also destroys in the hand. Hello, Fire Kings!
I feel like that witch's strike was made for darklord
Oh man, what a coincidence, I discovered Witch's Strike a week ago. I was like, "huh, why haven't I seen more people play this?" Than I ran it in a couple of duels, and was like, "ohhhh, yeah, I see..." and stopped using it. It also didn't help that I was running into very few Solemn players. It did help somewhat against a zombie deck running Doomking, but it really just prevented him from activating its negate effect because he knew it was there and therefore not a surprise (and I lost anyway). Maybe not a bad card to side, I dunno, but at times it almost started to feel too situational oddly enough? Seeing as how I don't know if I ever got to use it even once.
Hey I really enjoy this series, i haven't played since some old school yugioh and moved onto magic competitively. Your channel has been very helpful on me understanding cards that i have just never even heard of. Keep up the good work!
Your timing couldn't have been better, Dzeeff. I finished building a deck that includes Witch's Strike within the past week, and I found myself wondering, "If I decide to get rid of some cards in the future, how can I decide which ones to get rid of?" All of the cards I got seemed so awesome to me that I would have difficulty deciding which ones to get rid of on my own. Thanks to this information, Witch's Strike is now the first choice on that list.
This was a a really interesting video that answered a question I've had since the Constellar support video. Constellar Belt stops Light monsters' effect activations from being negated, which apparently doesn't work against most hand traps as you just mentioned. Its a real bummer that Called By the Grave is at one copy because Triple Tactics Talents is surprisingly unreliable in comparison and can be easily played around with a lot of effects
I like my images of Chaos max dragon consistantly appearing in "why nobody plays"-Videos ♡
Why don't they give this card Spellspeed 4 ? It would be awesome.
The story behind this artwork is "the once condemned maiden took revenge on her old master after she became powerful like him" so I think it would be appropriate to give the card properties of Solemn Judgment, no ?
no asf. itd be far to broken
I wish it was less situational, I play Darklords for the most part and this is a really big flavor win card for it. Sadly as it stands while lacking the ability to set it quickly it’s not that good, maybe trap trick? I don’t know off the top of my head though if that works as it’s not a trap hole, also that’s a difficult investment.
I used to play Witch's Strike in my Darkest Diabolos deck but took it out because I only had a single copy. It was useful against my friend who ran Solemn Strike and Warning, so I knew it could pop off. I only ever got the effect off once out of about 30 duels
The best way I found to use Witch's Strike without relying on the surprise factor is to side it in a Lair of Darkness control deck to face other control decks in a grind game, so it can be searched and recycled by Lilith and Malice to serve as a big roadblock, forcing the oponent to first out it, then get back at trying to control the board, and that in a grind game really hurts.
But yeah, if it's best use outside of surprise factor is an inconsistent as hell tier 3 deck, that says something about how viable the card actually is :v
This is probably the best way to exploit it, and now it's easier than ever to play this card effortlessly with Labrynth being able to get away with a single copy. Sure your opponent can see you have it if you're searching it, but even knowing your opponent will be under pressure knowing he can't just negate your activations/summons or risk losing it all while you're using other powerful effects.
Here's the difference between negate the activation vs. Negate the effect. Negate the activation is like saying naw that didn't happen. Negate the effect is like say okay that happened, but I'm going to ignore it.
This is a really insightful. Hope you do more of these!
2021: "why nobody plays cryston halqifibrax"
Also 2021: it's banned.
@@luckysevens6852 bcause every tuner is banned
@@momazosmonspeet1583 lol yeah, that will happen first at the rate we're going.
@@momazosmonspeet1583 unban all tuners. ban all synchros *big brain*
Linkross needa go to. Although it's the greatest feeling in the world token collecting them when they summon ross or aurodan
It works on Baronne de Fleur which makes it a lot more reliable in Master Duel.. A lot of Swordsoul players do the same opening combo and just have that one negate.
I had this work on Master Duel with what I am guessing was luck because it is quite situational. I Summon Number 97 and they use Solemn Judgment. I activate Witch's strike and was also lucky there were no graveyard effects (didn't think so based on their deck) It was still my turn so I was going to use Golden Castle that was still in play along with monster reborn to bring back what I needed because the battle phase. (They gave up because that) That entire thing was situational and luck with just the right cards.
I ordered 3 copies a month ago. Tried using them once. Couldn’t use them. Put them away. Wish I had seen this first
the more important question is why the hell is it not a counter trap
Cuz then it'd be playable.
@@luckysevens6852 no it would have the same issues, except that it works against boards of negates. the issue of going first or second with this card has nothing to do with ur opponent having a board of negates, so as a counter trap it wouldn't be much better
Because it really doesn’t need to be and has better utility with being able to got off of trap trick
@@YanVidz well I guess we'll never know but I feel if it's a counter trap it not only works against a board of negates but is also tougher to stop. I haven't put much thought into this card mind you so if you think it wouldn't matter that's ok with me.
Because it doesn't happen in response to a negation card, it happens after the chain resolves where something was negated lol
I think its useful in my nurseburn deck. There you have a few factors that make it useful: 1) You always go first 2) you don't attempt to build any board with negates, you want to just try and OTK 3) there are only 9 useful win condition cards, ie, to burn them and only so many draw cards useful in an engine for this deck, so you always have like 5 cards spare to put in op shiz 4) each of these cards you put in (which realistically you hope you don't draw) basically needs to have the potential to do something epic, otherwise the fact that the card bricked your hand just makes you lose. For me, the decision is whether to have a Witch's strike, an ashe blossom, CotG, or a kaiju.. and I think Witch's is probably the best.
"now in this example let's say you're going second because that's pretty common in modern Yu-Gi-Oh!" - Dzeeff, Nov 9, 2020.
Honestly i can see now why its not good against certian ones
But its still super satisfying as a "gotcha! Moment" and the times i have had it in my hand and set down ive actually been able to use it so im still gonna keep it in my roster until i fond it failing
This is so stupid if you think about it.
„Card that can singlehandedly win you the game isn’t played, bc waiting a single turn is too weak.“
Its not really that stupid when you have the context behind it. Either you're going first, and your goal is to stop your opponent from clearing your board and OTKing you (which Witch's Strike doesn't help with) or you're going second and your goal is to break your opponent's board and OTK them (which again, witch's strike doesn't help with).
Yes, often you might find both you and your opponent unable to budge, and find yourselves in a grind game that lasts a number of turns, which witch's strike WILL help resolve in your favor, but even for that its too situational and gets in the way in the first two situations.
I looked this up while playing master duel and actually activated and resolved it during the watch. It's awesome
I learned of this card when a friend showed me the story of Solemn and used this against my anti meta gravekeepers. My deck has 5 solemns. I was horrified that it went off. I still won.
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It's a cool effect that's stuck in my head, but if I ever go head to head against another control deck, i'd rather side in any other backrow removal staple.
So basically this card equals to dark bribing opponents upstart
Trans
Witch Strike is the bane of my casual existence.
It does seem like a solid side deck card
Man, even the artwork shows Witch’s Strike failing to do anything to its intended target.
HAHAHHAHAH Made my day
lol no it doesn't ? It's about to hit the judge
@@UranoSteam I see that guy completely sure he won't be even damaged. I'd say she didn't even hit him.
@@Gaiou0331 Idk you can tell no emotion whatsoever
Dzeeff mentioned that while Witch's Strike is a very poor choice as a trap card that it would be broken as a quick play spell and naturally this got me thinking about what kind of restrictions/drawbacks would a quick play spell with this effect have to have to be balanced. Would something like immediately ending your turn and negating the activation of all of your monster effects until your next end phase or making you banish your entire extra deck face down even be enough to make a quick play spell version of Witch's Strike have a similar level of viability as something like Evenly Matched? Or would that just make it an incredibly broken card that only a small number of decks could utilize? I don't think I know the game well enough to say one way or another but its super interesting to think about.
I took Witch's Strike out of my deck literally yesterday. I think that means I was officially the last person playing it.
It's not useful, it only goes off one time in a hundred when you try it. But god DAMN is it hilarious when it does.
Have you tried using it with Makyura
@@shirayukinobunaga9424 It's tempting, but I don't think it would work out. It's the trigger condition that hampers it; being able to use it from your hand still puts you in the troubling state where you need to wait for an active negation, but that it can then be shut down by another negation.
Also, Dzeeff didn't mention it, but there's some weird interactions that never work out in its favor. Like how technically it's a great counter for Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, since he's only got one negate per turn, but REDD himself is immune to the Witch's Strike wipeout.
basically its a spell speed 1 while most counter traps or effect monsters are spell speed 2 or 3. (counter are spell speed 3) so yeah you cant activate it in most instances.
It activates on a new chain. It can be used against counter trap cards.
I just want the next card in the forbidden/condemned series, in which the Dr Light look alike just Solemn Slaps the witch, or even better, a Second Solemn Strike, and just shows him striking down Condemned Darklord.
I love it with my Endymion deck because if they negate my boss monster which banishes there cards on summon I pull out my witches strike and commit genocide
Nothing beats a good solemn judgement honestly.
What if it were a Normal Spell that has to be played the same turn your opponent negated your activation, and/or it had negation immunity itself?
If it were a Quick-Play Spell it'd be a decent punisher against negation spam, but it would need that AND negation immunity to be good these days.
Since neither of those apply, well... you get the idea.
Hi i'm new to the game . I have question /video idea .. will aqua neos and rainbow neos see competitve play after dragoon and smoke get banned… i got this idea because rainbow neos is not good going first but aqua neos is good going first so i thought of main deck wich one help your deck and side deck the other one… on top of that there is some decks using aqua dolphin already with connector so if you don't see connector you still can go aqua neos and taking one card out of their hand… i know it destroy the card don't send it but i think it worth the risk… love your videos hopefully this will make a good one
Witches strike “if your opponent negates the normal and special summon” ash blossom “you can discard this card; negate that effect •special summon” so how does it now work on ash???
Ash blossom negates an EFFECT that would special summon, not the special summon itself.
Oddly enough as a Eldlich duelist, this card is a nice surprise when people get to "negate happy" when targeting my back row cards that are activating into a monster card and then BOOM! Once it happens once, the second duel around they move slowly BUT I also run Evenly Matched LOL. I run one Witches Strick for a "just in case" moment. I don't draw it often but when I have it worked for me 🤷🏾♂️.
Next video:"Commenters don't understand Witch's Strike"
not meme enough
Considering Dzeeff had to pin a comment addressing people who thought Witch's Strike had to be used in the same chain as a Solemn card instead of as part of a new chain, maybe he will have to make the video.
Tl:dr the card is balanced by being a trap, and it would be better to side in any other removal instead (evenly matched, lightning storm, even feather duster).
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Modern yugioh has sped up to the point where if solemns are going to be used, they'll be used ASAP for board control. By the time this is used, there's a chance you can recover and prevent destruction.
What about making it a quick play trap? It doesn't need to be a spell.
To be fair ash does say negate the special summon from deck. So if someone uses it for that purpose then you can activate witch's strike
no, ash says it negates the effect of a card that would special summon from deck. That's not the same as negating a special summon from deck.
Pot of Division:
Physically rip up half of your deck, at random. Then, draw 2 cards. If one or moreof the cards ripped up was a "Pot of Division", you may draw 1 additional card at the cost of half of your life points
aka: draw 2 cards, then get disqualified from the tournament for deck size.
If they ruled it that you could keep playing with a 20 card deck, I suspect someone would find some way to loop this card so you rip up your entire deck apart from the 5 pieces of exodia.
It might be inconsistent, but after pulling that off once, you're winning every other game in the tournament.
Knew there had to be something wrong with it. It just sounded too broken for me to have *never* heard of or seen it before.
witches strike won’t help you win tough games, it will only help you win immediate or impossible games.
This card rarely works, but I find it best to normal summon a monster (like condemned witch) that can special summon another monster on opponent’s turn with witch’s strike in backrow.
This might help to aid explanation as to why its rarely used, (I only keep one or two copies of both in my darklord brandon fusion deck) because while there are many monsters w/ quick effects in game, not every deck has named support or access to cards that would give you right type of leverage to want to use Witch’s strike for;
instead of thinking about this card as a retaliation for having your big bungus negated and destroyed on quick effect summon, think about it also as a “surprise battering ram” that works best after your opponent decides to go 1 for 1 with you;
finding the right monster to warrant a negate + destroy from your opponent is key to activating this properly, because you are trying to feign a brick and make your opponent overconfident. This is also why it’s hard to activate, because any hand that doesn’t include this card is better off 80% of the time.
You should make a why people play said card series
I use witch’s strike in altergeist all the time. Underrated and very useful.
But the artwork is amazing!!!
Dzeef: "nobody plays witch's strike"
TheDuelLogs: "Ghu he he he ghe"
The traitor witch rebelling against god is a really cool story
Why no one players Crystal beasts
I played them in Duel Links,
Tho I don't think having 2 to 4 of each is still a viable strategy.
i didn't know this was a question that people were asking
Apparently they got pendulum support now,
But they don't seem to be named Crystal Beast,
So I doubt it's any good.
They don't have good effects and do nothing while they are continuous spells
@@williamdrum9899 yeah,
They were okay in early Duel Links,
Because of the low life points
And lack of proper removal.
Thanks for this video. I just started playing Master Duel and was confused my this card didn't trigger sometimes in my traptrix deck. Time to replace it with something else
So here's my thing I like it when people have built their decks to play around certain things and then I just play my deck doing whatever I was doing before cause I don't really care about when everybody else is playing and I do OK not stopping a man to the ground and there not stopping me into the ground but it's more like a even back-and-forth cave man Yu gi oh man
Lightning storm, and harpies are why us back row players tech in waking the dragon lmfaooo
I’m surprised so many players in the comments are saying it’s useless lol.
I just won with it 1st time-1st try with it in Masterduel vs a Centur-rion deck.
I play Branded x Chimera and my opponent had a loaded board with Cosmic Blazar Dragon.. baited him to negate my summon with it so it was off the field and BOOM. Nuked his hand and field 😂 Proceeded to win turn 3.
Lovely card, had to put 3 in my deck.
Actually putting it in some deck when your opponenet is not aware is the most fun thing to do
I had high hopes for Witch Strike at it's initial release but I am not ashamed to admit that it was far from as good as I hoped it would be. In retrospect, many cards I thought would be good were bad and vice verse. But nobody is as persistent as the one guy in another comment section that tried to explain to me that Magic Drain had a niche use in todays meta. He really tries to argue that it's better than Imperial Order, the Solemn Brigade or Ash Blossom
Have you ever considered doing a "Why everybody plays" series?
Yup! I made a few of those in the past, but they never got a lot of views. I talked about Twin Twisters, Upstart Goblin, and Infinite Impermanence :)
Best video that explains this card. Thanks for sharing
So the difference to activate the card is the enemy negate card need to said "negate the activation" instead "negate the effect"?
Correct
To be fair witch's strike after bating the hareld negate halfway through a combo literally wins. To be fairer so do most other good traps that stop them from even getting there.
Ngl i forgot this card even existed
would it become better than other options if you had cards to set it and activate the same turn ?
Traptrick into Witches Strike is a fun thing to do, but still not very good since you are basically playing 2 garnet trap cards for a gimmicky payoff. Still, very fun when it works.
2 years later this thing becomes a maindeck in Labrynth lol
Simple answer, read the card *EXTREMELY* carefully
Witch's syrike wirh trap tricks or new ur one as a insurance,
Also dinomorphia it works good with
I swear most of yugioh ruling is just based off weird and confusing walls of text. Ironically it works against my subterror fiendess in master duel when i tried to pull it against some guy ( Can't remember the deck name, meta is all the same to me ) that " Negated the effect of a monster " with a fusion. Guess i now know why it's a normal card. Too good to be true
If the trap activation couldn't be responded to, this card would be near the level of Forbidden Droplet.
What about if you main phantazmay and your low on time, and your opponent uses gamma on you to negate?
I remember when i saw the why nobody plays Earthbound immortal video, i looked through many decks, that could both synchro summon and not use their normal summon... Now when i think about it, adamancipators might be able to fulfill the requirement
But doesnt adamancipator need the ns
Also try Tenyis and Incans. They can both Synchro Summon easily without using up the Normal Summon.
There are also great options for a few of the individual Eartbound Immortals.
Floowandereeze: Humming Bird and Condor [Needs Eglen, Unexplored Winds and Magnificient Map]
Labrynth: Giant [Needs Labyrnth Labyrinth and Archfiend's Glitch]
Giant Ballpark: Spider [Needs Giant Ballpark, Basic Insect, N29:Mannequin Cat and Kumongous/Gandarla/Radian Kaijus]
But good luck with the Monkey, Lizard and Orca...
Such a cool concept and massive payoff, just too situational though.
Not as massive as you see, most of time the backrow is getting rid, cannot be used against multi omni-negate board and you have 33% chance to draw it during first turn assuming you play 3 copies
It is best against board that can negate once per turn such as Magical Musket, Subterror, Altergeist (except they managed to get Hextia)
This is a good card his opinion aside if you combine it with nibiru especially if your opponent plays to stop a possible nibiru you can just out right destroy him turn 1
@@bobbym1799 what if your opponent negates nibiru with a card that doesnt negate the activation?
@@youngdoodle right then he setups nibiru what's your point? As i said in other comments this card works great but its a win con so you have to make a deck this world as a main center piece
I use witch's strike, it doesn't work often, but when it does 👌
A lot of people have said if it was a counter trap, then it would work against solemns, but that's not true. It works against solemns anyway.
However, if it was a counter trap, your opponent couldn't respond to it with there monsters that negate it. It would basically be a slower dark ruler no more that also clears the field and hand.
Which would make it borderline broken, and honestly, I kind of feel like Konami should actually do that. They've done crazier erratas before. (*cough* goyo gaurdian *cough*) making witches strike into a counter trap isn't entire out the realm of what we could expect from Konami.
So if my opponent negates my card that says "you can only activate 1 (enter card name) per turn", can I activate another one of the same card if the activation was negated or can I not because activation was attempted??
It’s the Six Sam lock as an example
Shi En makes it so your opponent can only activate 1 backrow and legendary ShiEn negates the activation
Therefore if you negate a backrow with legendary, while having both on field, your opponent CAN activate another one
@@frankwest5388 I appreciate that explanation 🙏 thank you
@@frankwest5388 Yes, and Dzeeff even did a "Commenters Don't Understand" video on that very topic. He said roughly the same thing you did, so good job on the refresher. 👍😎👍
I really really hate it when ever a player tries to chain to a counter trap
Can I still activate Witch's Strike immediately after my opponent uses Torrential Tribute? Thanks.
No, because Torrential Tribute doesn't negate anything.
I play witches strike in my altergeist as a gimmick and it can be useless alot of times but game ending against many decks
Could we see a “why nobody plays “ on yang zings next ?
Counter point: it's a cool card. Inconsistency is fun. Competitive play sucks
3:14 but obelisk says it cannot be targeted how is obelisk affected by cards that target
Because being "targetted" and being "affected" are two different things.
The prodigal son returns 0.o
*
I just lost while my witch's strike didn't do anything as my monsters got negated. Rip 90 common crafting points...
I love how people falsely believe they can use this after getting Ashed. That shit is the best 😂