Counter Traps are some of the most powerful cards in the game. They’re so good that roughly one in every five has an activation cost – they’d be too strong if you could activate them for free. Veteran Duelists might remember that once upon a time years ago, there was an entire Deck that revolved around Bountiful Artemis, a Level 4 Fairy-Type that draws you a card whenever a Counter Trap resolves.

But those activation costs can be pretty high, and Counter Traps are usually difficult to search – having the right answer at the right time can come down to the heart of the cards. Or at least it did in the past! Breakers of Shadow brings a powerful new monster that follows in the footsteps of Bountiful Artemis, working to make Counter Traps easier to search, and easier to play. Check out Guiding Ariadne.

Clocking in at Level 4, Guiding Ariadne’s a Scale 3 Pendulum Monster with 1700 ATK and 800 DEF. That means you can play it as a simple attacker, or activate it as a Pendulum Spell to fill out the low end of your Scale.

Ariadne’s monster effect triggers when it’s destroyed by battle or card effect. It lets you reveal three Counter Traps from your Deck, and your opponent chooses one to add to your hand. The other two go back to your Deck. That means every time you Summon Ariadne and your opponent destroys it, you’ll get a free Counter Trap.

But that effect also triggers when Ariadne’s destroyed in your Pendulum Zone, just like Performage Plushfire. If your opponent tries to disrupt your Pendulum Scale, you might wind up getting a free card in the process. You can even destroy Ariadne with your own card – something like Wavering Eyes or Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer – and search a Counter Trap for your troubles. That makes it really easy to get to the Counter Traps you want most, and since you’ll see more Counter Traps there’s a better chance of having the right one when you need it.

Guiding Ariadne has a killer Pendulum Effect, too: it keeps you from paying Life Points or discarding cards to activate Counter Traps. That means you can activate cards like Solemn Warning and still keep all your LP.

Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell negates the activation of a Spell Card, destroys it, and then forbids your opponent from activating spells with that name for the rest of the Duel. Normally you’d have to discard a Spell Card to play it, but Ariadne eliminates the cost. Judgment of Anubis gets a serious boost, too: you can activate it when your opponent activates a Spell Card that would destroy one or more Spell or Trap Cards on the field – stuff like Mystical Space Typhoon or Wavering Eyes. Judgment negates the Spell Card’s activation, destroys it, and then gives you the option to blow away one of your opponent’s face-up monsters. If you do, you deal damage to your opponent equal to the monster’s ATK. Normally you’d have to discard for Judgment, but Ariadne just turns it into a one-sided blowout.

It’s especially good with the new World Premiere card, Ultimate Providence. When a Spell Card, Trap Card, or monster effect is activated, you discard the same type of card – Monster, Spell, or Trap – to negate the activation and destroy it. Under normal circumstances it’s sort of like Magic Jammer, Divine Wrath, and Seven Tools of the Bandit rolled into one. But with Ariadne in your Pendulum Zone you don’t have to discard. Ultimate Providence will just stop whatever you want, for free.

If you play more than three Counter Traps in your Deck, Guiding Ariadne can search you at least one Counter Trap and then erase all their costs. It combos with Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer to make a complete Pendulum Scale and nab you a free search; that could wind up as the basis for an all-new Counter Fairy revival coupled with Bountiful Artemis. Guiding Ariadne can play very differently in a lot of different strategies, so it’s going to pop up all over the place.

Try it out yourself! You might be surprised at what it could do for Decks you’re already playing. You’ll have your first chance to get it at Breakers of Shadow Sneak Peeks this weekend!