Hidden Potential: Widespread Dud

Welcome to the beginning of a new series of my articles: Hidden Potential. In this series, I’ll be taking a look at some often overlooked cards and how you can unleash their hidden potential. Now, if you’re like most competitive players, you only pay attention to the best cards of a set – that is – the most competitive and/or the most expensive. “What’s wrong with that?” you may ask. “I play mostly to win, so I don’t need to bother with bad, cheap cards that I can’t use in my meta deck or trade with.” Well, the answer is two-fold. First off, a good player won’t pay attention to many of the cards I’ll be talking about in these articles. That’s true enough. However, a great player will.

The cards I plan on talking about in “Hidden Potential” are cards that, in the right hands, can be very effective. By “the right hands”, I mean the hands of skilled players playing rogue decks, or teching the cards in everyday decks. Great players, while they may not run these cards, will certainly be prepared for them, especially at a time like this, where rogue decks are literally all over the place (seriously, even Final Countdown decks are topping events right now). So, if you want to be prepared for those players, then get reading, because the first step to defeating these cards is to know how they work.

Absolute Powerforce is a set with many useful cards that many people overlook. While most people focus on the powerhouses and high value cards like the Sun Dragon Inti, Battle Fader and XX-Saber Emmersblade, they pay little attention to cards that can be surprisingly effective, such as this card, which, in my opinion, is one of the better overlooked cards in the set. Take a read:

Tread lightly...

Widespread Dud
Continuous Trap Card
Select 2 face-up Attack Position monsters on the field. When any of the selected monsters are removed from the field, destroy this card. When this card is destroyed, destroy the selected monster(s).

Right off that bat, this card's chainability springs to mind. You can activate it in response to anything, from an attack to your opponent's piece of removal, to just about anything else short of a Damage Step card effect. Now what's interesting about this card is one simple fact - it gets around Stardust Dragon and other destruction negation cards. This is because it's destruction effect isn't triggered upon activation.

In a worst case scenario, you can activate this in response to your opponent's monster attacking your own Attack Position monster. In this situation, after your monster is destroyed in battle, Dud destroys the attacking monster. Advantage-wise, it’s still a -1 for you, except that it puts you in a better position than you would have been normally. Now what’s great about this situation is when you have a recruiter monster (one that summons a monster from your deck when destroyed by battle) that’s being attacked, you end up still getting your monster, since the recruiter’s effect triggers in the Graveyard after Widespread Dud’s destruction effect goes off, meaning your opponent’s monster is destroyed, and you still get your desired monster from that Mystic Tomato, or XX-Saber Emmersblade. The end result is an even 2 for 2 in terms of card advantage, but with you in the better position to start your next turn.

Now, let’s talk about a slightly more ideal situation. Let’s say your opponent uses a Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon or Breaker the Magical Warrior to destroy this set card. The result here is obvious, especially if your opponent has two Attack Position monsters on the field (a more likely situation if Breaker is used). You can chain the Dud to destroy two of their monsters. In this situation, this card nets you some serious advantage, being a 3 for 1 in the case of a Heavy Storm or Mystical Space Typhoon and a 2 for 1 in Breaker’s case. In a Blackwing match-up, this card can even net you a decent amount of advantage in response to an Icarus Attack. In this case, the opponent will be losing a maximum of 4 cards in exchange for a maximum of your three. However, skilful playing here can easily turn that into a 4 for 2, which isn’t that uncommon, seeing as many good players will try to maintain as few cards on their field as possible when they suspect a facedown Icarus Attack. In fact, Widespread Dud can be the perfect bait on the Blackwing player itching to set off their Icarus Attack and deal some damage. With Blackwings a favourite-to-win in this format, this card acts as a nice piece of tech against the fearsome swarm deck. Lastly, as an added trick, you can even use this card to deter Synchro Summons in some cases. Simply select the Tuner monster and one of your opponent’s stronger monsters when activating Widespread Dud. If your opponent tries to Synchro Summon, their other monster will be destroyed, netting them a -2, which turns into a 2 for 1 trade in your favour.

The last type of situation I’d like to talk about is one where you have a monster out that can replace itself when destroyed. Cards like Sangan instantly come to mind. However, while a combo with Sangan is good and all, I’d like to talk about another card – a personal favourite of mine – Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. In a format that’s aiming to be very slow (at least for a few months), this card, in it’s own deck (preferably one that can effectively run an Apprentice Magician engine to get out Hand of Nephthys easily), can be devastating. To better understand how this card works with Widespread Dud, you need to read it’s effect first:

 It's Heavy Storm on legs...er...wings...

Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
Winged Beast/Fire/Level 8
2400/1600
If this card is destroyed by a card effect, Special Summon this card from the Graveyard during your next Standby Phase. If you Special Summon this card in this way, destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field.

If you tend to be a duelist full of ideas like I am, Nephthys and Widepsread Dud scream synergy. Not only can you use the Dud’s effect to destroy two of your opponent’s monsters when Nephthys is revived, but you can also use it to destroy Nephthys and an opponent’s monster, then bring her back in your next Standby Phase and wipe the opponent’s back row. In addition to that, a deck that runs Nephthys can also run cards like Mobius the Frost Monarch to further trigger Widespread Dud for even more havoc.

Now, you may have noticed that I’ve been talking about situations a lot. There’s a reason for that – Widespread Dud is a situational card. It’s best used at specific times in a duel, so it takes some skill to make the most of.  While it is situational, the number of situations where it can be useful is far greater than it seems.

I’ll cover a decklist that utilizes the cards I mentioned earlier in an upcoming article, but until then, give Widespread Dud a try yourself. I’ll assure you, it’s anything but a dud.