Gold Series: Haunted Mine takes both new cards and old classics, and combines them to make up this year’s Gold Series booster set! In this set, there are a whole group of Trap Cards that become Monster Cards once they’ve been activated. What exactly are these Trap Monsters, and how exactly do they work? Read on to find out!

Trap Monsters are a special type of Continuous Trap Card that get Special Summoned to a Monster Card Zone once they’ve been activated. The card text of the Trap Monster will tell you how powerful the monster you summon will be. For example, Embodiment of Apophis will become a Reptile-type EARTH monster, with 1600 ATK and 1800 DEF after it has been activated. Also, Trap Monsters are still treated as Trap Cards after they’ve been activated, and there a few things to keep in mind regarding this:

• While active, a Trap Monster is treated as BOTH a Monster Card and a Trap Card.
• A Trap Monster uses BOTH a Monster Card Zone and a Spell/Trap Card Zone at the same time.
• While active, a Trap Monster can be destroyed by effects that affect Monsters and/or Spells/Traps. (You can use either Dark Hole or Heavy Storm to destroy them.)

They may seem to have a lot of limitations, but Trap Monsters can be really powerful in the right situation. Here are some of the ways you can use Trap Monsters to your advantage.

The Trap Card Imperial Custom goes hand in hand with Trap Monsters. While it’s active, Continuous Trap Cards cannot be destroyed (except for Imperial Custom). This means that your Trap Monsters are invincible while it’s active! This card works really well with Tiki Curse, which destroys the opponent’s monster after damage calculation whenever another of your Trap Monsters battles. If Imperial Custom is on the field, your Trap Monster won’t be destroyed, allowing you to defeat any monster by attacking it! If you don’t have Imperial Custom active, Tiki Soul can work just as well, by allowing you to Set your Trap Monsters face-down if they were to be destroyed. By protecting your Trap Monsters from destruction, you can create combinations and locks that can sometimes be too much for your opponent to break through.

Most Trap Monsters don’t have much ATK, capping out at 1800 ATK with Tiki Curse and Zoma the Spirit. But since Trap Monsters are treated as Monster Cards while active, they can be used as Xyz Material in a Xyz Summon! It’s quite easy to pull off with Trap Monsters, too. Embodiment of Apophis, the Tikis, Zoma the Spirit, and Machine King – 3000 B.C. are all Level 4, so if you need a strong monster in a pinch, you can pull out Number 39: Utopia or Gem-Knight Pearl. Another cool Trap Monster you can use for any Rank from 1 to 4 would be Copy Knight. Whenever you Normal Summon a Level 4 or lower Warrior monster, you can activate this Trap, and create a duplicate of the monster! Since it’ll have the same Level as your other monster, you can Xyz Summon whatever you need right away. While some popular current Decks revolve around the Extra Deck, some Decks only use Xyz Monsters when they need to, and a Trap Monster Deck is an ideal example of that.

Speaking about high ATK power, there’s one more monster that fits right at home in a Deck based around Continuous Trap Cards, and it’s so powerful that you need to sacrifice 3 face-up Traps you control to Summon it! Uria, Lord of Searing Flames is the ultimate monster you can combine with your Trap Monsters, and it gets 1000 ATK for every Trap in your Graveyard. That gives it at least 3000 ATK from the cards you sacrifice to Summon it, plus even more from whatever else is in your Graveyard. On top of that, Uria can destroy a Set Spell or Trap your opponent controls once per turn, and they can’t activate any of them to stop you. You can summon this monster out of nowhere, and if your opponent isn’t ready for it, then it could cost them the Duel!

Trap Monsters are an interesting group of cards, with tricky combos and lots of cool support. By utilizing both protective and destructive tactics, along with the ability to Xyz Summon, Trap Monsters are capable of standing as a solid Deck type. There are a whole bunch of awesome Trap Monsters in Gold Series: Haunted Mine, and there’ll be more to come in the future, so make sure to get clued up on them before they end up trapping you!