Continuous Spell Cards the Negate Card Effects
Jeremy enjoys dueling in between working as a chemical analyst and campus building manager.
How to Negate Effects in Yu-Gi-Oh
When dueling, in addition to bolstering your own combos, you need to keep an eye on your opponent's cards—especially their quick-play effects and traps that can disrupt you during your own turn. To counter fielded cards, you'll use removals to blast them off the field, but for one-time effects, the best way to fight them is to reject their abilities with chained card negations.
Negating a card essentially prevents it from occurring, but negations come in a surprising number of shapes and sizes. Many cards can only negate monsters, spells, or traps, making those that can obstruct all a rare and valued set. Note that negating a card may or may not also destroy it, further increasing their diversity. But with hundreds of negation variations throughout dueling, which invalidations reign supreme? These are the 10 best effect negations in Yu-Gi-Oh!
Chevalier de Fleur
10. Chevalier de Fleur
Type: Monster
To special summon Chevalier, you'll need the level-two tuner Fleur Synchron, who you can combine with any nontuner monsters to equal a total level of eight. Fortunately, Synchron's a decent unit and Chevalier arrives with a fierce 2700 ATK. Not only that, with his power, you can negate and destroy an opposing spell/trap card every turn!
This provides an awesome counter for several reasons. First, there's no cost to using it, and you won't lose any cards from your hand or field. Second, it can disable two types of cards, and it also destroys the negated unit. And last, you choose when to activate it, so if your opponent baits you with a weaker spell or trap, you can simply ignore it and reserve your negation for their big guns.
9. Magician's Left Hand/Magician's Right Hand
Type: Spell
These terrific continuous spells fit perfectly into any spellcaster-themed deck. As long as you control a spellcaster type monster, Magician's Left Hand negates and destroys the first trap your opponent activates each turn while Right Hand does the same with spells.
True, unlike Chevalier, your opponent can bait the ability with weaker cards since Master and Crazy Hand here must activate when possible, but they're so darn easy to play that it's hard to fault them. No tricky extra deck summoning needed, and with the abundance of popular spellcaster archetypes (Dark Magician, Majespecter, Shaddoll, and so on), you've got several great deck-building options to mix them into.
Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon
8. Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon
Type: Monster
Accepting any Odd-Eyes monster and any pendulum creature as material, Vortex Dragon wields a solid 2500 ATK and awesome 3000 DEF! Plus, when special summoned, you can bounce an opponent's attack position unit back to their hand (a great link monster removal).
But most importantly for our purposes, on either player's turn, Vortex can shuffle a pendulum monster from your extra deck into your main deck to negate and destroy the activation of a spell/trap activation or monster effect. This offers ongoing counters against all card types, and returning monsters to the deck can actually help search them again and prevent deck-outs against mill decks.
Finally, note that you can easily summon Vortex even in non-Odd-Eyes builds. To do so, use Odd-Eyes Fusion, one of the best fusion cards in the game, as it accesses materials in your extra deck if your opponent controls at least two monsters while you control none. Just nestle cards like Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon and Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon in your extra deck, and you can cram Vortex into any (preferably pendulum) theme!
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Mythical Beast Jackal King
7. Mythical Beast Jackal King
Type: Monster
Mythical Beast functions spectacularly even outside its archetype. With the dark attribute and spellcaster type, he combos well with Dark Magician decks, although his pendulum scale is undesirably set to four and isn't terribly useful outside of Mythical Beast structures.
That's okay—we're after Jackal King's monster effect. Not only does he wield a hearty 2400 ATK, King accumulates two spell counters whenever either player activates a spell card (including pendulum scales). Then, once per round on either player's turn, King can remove two spell counters from anywhere on your field to negate and destroy an activating monster. Even if it only counters one card type, monsters are typically the most prominent forces you'll face, and it's ridiculously easy to amass counters and repeatedly throttle enemy combatants with this easily-summoned sorcerer.
Solemn Judgment
6. Solemn Judgment
Type: Trap
Limited as of this writing, you're only allowed to include one copy of Solemn Judgment in your build. Thankfully, it gives offers a powerful single-use negation for any deck. When your opponent summons one or more monsters or uses a spell/trap, you can activate Judgment by paying half your life points to negate and destroy the card(s).
Sure, you're forfeiting some health here, but since you can use Judgment on basically anything, you're primed to shut down your opponent's most crucial combos, regardless of what card type they possess. Judgment is particularly deadly against pendulum summons, as it'll impact all entering monsters—and negated pendulum monsters head to their graveyard (rather than the extra deck where they could later be re-summoned).
Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
5. Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
Type: Monster
Ash Blossom (and her cousin Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit) both function as superb hand traps, countering different effects while concealed in your hand. This not only makes them hard to predict, but safeguards them again field removals. Not only that, they're tuners, helping you synchro summon if you decide to actually field them.
Ash Blossom may cancel effects that search a card/special summon from the deck, or ones that send a card from the deck to the graveyard. Sure, she's a one-use negate, but her accessibility and versatility have long played a prominent role in the meta.
Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot
4. Imperion Magnum the Superconductive Battlebot
Type: Monster
Imperion requires two specific material monsters ("Valkyrion the Magna Warrior" alongside "Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior"), and can only be fusion summoned, but arrives with a fantastic 4000 ATK and DEF, making it one of the strongest Yu-Gi-Oh monsters. More than that, it can (once per turn) negate and destroy an opposing spell, trap, or monster effect, so your opponent will need at least two removals in the same turn to defeat it.
As if that weren't enough, if it leaves the field from an opponent's card effect, Magnum lets you special summon both its materials—ignoring their summoning conditions—from your hand or graveyard. Thus, it'll repeatedly dampen your adversary's cards, and even if they manage to beat it, they'll still have to face its two components (who are formidable in their own right).
3. Cyber Dragon Infinity
Type: Monster
Infinity can be xyz summoned using three level-six light-attributed machine-type monsters, but it thankfully bears a much easier summoning condition that lets you instead use xyz monster Cyber Dragon Nova (and its units) as material. As you can see in the above thumbnail, casting Nova only requires two level-five machines of any attribute, making this a far superior summoning method.
Infinity's ATK seems lukewarm at 2100, but it gains 200 more for every material attached to it, typically starting at a stellar 2700. Plus, Infinity can (once per turn on your moves) attach an opposing attack position monster as material, simultaneously removing the foe and increasing its strength. And once per round on either player's turn, Infinity can detach a material to negate and destroy an activated card—even your own. In essence, Infinity's surprisingly easy to summon and counters all card types while eliminating enemies and adding to its own stockpile.
Master Peace, the True Dracoslayer
2. Master Peace, the True Dracoslayer
Type: Monster
This mighty dragon can't be normal summoned or set, and can only be special summoned by tributing a Dracoverlord and a Dracoslayer monster. However, he arrives with a daunting 2950 ATK/DEF, and unlike Vortex Dragon or Cyber Infinity, he won't take up your scarce extra deck zones.
Once per turn, Master Peace can simply negate and destroy an activated card, drastically hindering your opponent's plays, and he'll be tough to overcome in battle. But even if your adversary manages to conquer Master Peace, if he falls in combat or through an opposing card effect, you can special summon a Dracoverlord and a Dracoslayer monster from your deck, replacing your original tributed units and guarding you against direct attacks.
Mist Valley Apex Avian
1. Mist Valley Apex Avian
Type: Monster
Unsurprisingly, Apex Avian functions especially well in Mist Valley themes, but performs superbly even independently of its kin. It's a level-seven winged beast with 2700 ATK, granting it sturdy battle prowess but requiring two tributes if normal summoned. However, Apex Avian can (on either turn) negate and destroy an opposing effect by returning one Mist Valley card you control to your hand—including itself!
Additionally, unlike many effects, if you have multiple Apex Avians out, you're welcome to use their abilities (once each) in the same turn. To quickly re-summon your bounced birds, use pendulum cards with a scale of 8 or higher to field them without tributes, once again ready to counter whatever your opponent throws your way.
In my eyes, this is one of the best cards ever printed that has aged surprisingly well and fits into both my pendulum and Mist Valley blends. Thankfully, you can often buy it for less than three dollars, a fantastically low price for such a versatile and competitive warrior.
Shutting Down Opposing Cards
Negations remain a powerful strategy that can really seal an opponent's fate—how can they win if they can't even play? Still, rather than chaining negations in response to effect activations, you can also entirely block the usage of certain card types with these awesome lockdown tactics perfect for ensnaring your foe. With these, you won't even have to both countering—your opponent won't be able to attempt their play in the first place.
Crafting a perfect deck list that balances your own synergies with checks on opponents is a daunting but fun task that you'll master with time. But for now, as we eagerly await Konami's next batch of negating cards, vote for your favorite unit and I'll see you at our next Yu-Gi-Oh countdown!
Questions & Answers
Question: Does "once per turn" mean once on my turn and once on my opponent's when playing Yu-Gi-Oh?
Answer: Not usually; by itself, "once per turn" means you can use an effect during either of your main phases (on your turn only). However, some cards will say things like "once per turn, on either player's turn", which lets you perform an action even on your opponent's move. These are called quick effects, and you can also use them in phases other than the main phase.
© 2018 Jeremy Gill
Jeremy Gill (author) from Louisiana on September 19, 2018:
@Baker
I agree! In fact, it's in my notes if I ever make a follow-up. For those who don't know, Naturia Beast is a synchro monster who provides almost unlimited spell negation by milling the top cards of your deck to counter any magic you wish.
Baker on September 19, 2018:
Nat beast is a good one too.
Source: https://hobbylark.com/card-games/Best-Yugioh-Negate-Cards