Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Solemn Warning

I'm surprised i actually didn't review this card yet. Since its release in Duelist Revolution, its one of those 'run this or lose' cards. While i'm not saying that not running it means you suck, because i personally don't have one. But if you have it, it really does come in handy.

Its time for Solemn warning, folks.

God says "Nah"

This Counter Trap card has a simple effect. Pay 2000 life points and negate a summon (Including in the damage step).

This card does not ask for a specific attack requirement, like Bottomless. It does not ask for the summon to be the last thing to occur, like Thunder King Rai-Oh or Black horn of heaven. And it does not ask for half your life points everytime, Like its bigger brother, Solemn Judgment. All it asks is for your opponent to summon something.

This card truly is powerful. If you run it, you will instantly notice the satisfying feeling of negating Caius/Shi en with it. And you will feel immense rage when your opponent does it back. Back in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh (I did play back in the early days, but i sucked. I thought Vampire Genesis was broken!), the idea of paying life points to negate something defeated the point of using it. Back then, having more life points than your opponent meant you were winning, regardless of field or hand presence.

However, the game has evolved since then. Now, victory is dictated by advantage. You can have 100 Life points but 5 monsters on the field while your opponent has 8000 and an empty field, and you are winning. that's why, the Painful sacrifice of at least 1/4 of your life points can mean the difference between winning and losing.

This card has some downsides unlike solemn judgment as well as other cards. Sometimes you cannot pay 2000 life points, but you can always pay half your life points for Judgment's effect. Warning cannot negate spells or traps either, but thats what other negation cards in your deck are for.

With Cold wave banned tomorrow, as well as book of moon at 1, traps are going to be dominating the meta. This means Warning is feeling right at home, along with its friends Bottomless and Judgment chilling out on either side of it in your backrow. But a trap heavy format is an easy target for cards like Trap stun and Royal Decree. while those two cards cannot negate Solemn Warning (It's just too damn fast!), they can be activated at the end of your turn, or the beginning of theirs, so warning cannot be activated. And i now know personally how miniscule the cost for a versatile card like Seven Tools of the Bandit is nowadays. Trust me, it's Solemn Warning's arch nemesis, and since 2000 life points is a cost, they have to pay it even if its negated.

The cost for this card, since the announcing of the banlist, is just getting rediculous. Its reaching heights of $60 (around £35 for us UK duelists). I can understand Pot of duality. It's a secret rare, its draw power, its a spell card. But this card is far from broken, and its at 2 now.

I don't know, maybe thats just my biased opinion because im a cheapskate on the grand scale of buying cards these days. However, if i stumbled upon one, i would run it immediately. You won't regret it.