One of the easiest ways to win Duels is to keep your opponent’s key monsters off the field.  Up until now, the best way to do that was Vanity’s Emptiness – a Continuous Trap Card that keeps both Duelists from Special Summoning as long as it’s face-up.  Playing a bunch of big monsters yourself and then keeping your opponent from Summoning their own has been a winning strategy for nearly a decade now, dating back to when Royal Oppression was still legal.

But once Invasion: Vengeance arrives, a new card will give Emptiness a run for its money.  Dimensional Barrier technically isn’t as powerful since it’s a Normal Trap and lasts for only one turn no matter what, but in an era where all you need is one clean turn to win, Dimensional Barrier can steal games and demolish the biggest Decks going.

When you resolve Dimensional Barrier you declare a Monster Card type: Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, or Pendulum Monster.  Neither player can Special Summon monsters of the declared type, and you negate the effects of all monsters of that type, through to the end of the turn.

That’s awesome because every big Deck relies on at least one of those categories of monster: Blue-Eyes White Dragon Duelists mostly rely on Synchros; Burning Abyss and Phantom Knights are nothing without Xyz; Herald of Perfection players won’t get very far without their precious Rituals; Hero Decks rely on Fusion Summons; and Pendulums just aren’t Pendulums without Pendulum Monsters.

You can’t shut down every Special Summon your opponent might make and you might get blindsided if a Deck can use many different kinds of monsters equally well, but you’ll usually cripple them enough that they won’t be able to attack you… or defend themselves on the following turn.  And while Dimensional Barrier only buys you one turn of freedom since it’s not a Continuous Trap, it has one big advantage over Vanity’s Emptiness…

There’s one problem with stuff like Vanity’s Emptiness, Skill Dain, Anti-Spell Fragrance and other Continuous Trap Cards: they don’t work if your opponent destroys them.   Since popular removal cards like Mystical Space Typhoon, Twin Twisters, and Cosmic Cyclone are all Quick-Play Spells, your opponent can even wait for you to flip Vanity’s Emptiness at a key moment, then Chain their removal to cut you off at the pass.  Continuous Traps need to remain on the field for their effects to work, and your opponent can blow them away with Typhoon, Twisters, or Cyclone when you least suspect it.

But Dimensional Barrier’s not Continuous, so unless your opponent manages to use their removal on your turn when you just Set your Barrier, they can’t really stop you.  If you flip Barrier and they want to destroy it on the Chain, that won’t do anything to stop Barrier from resolving.  And if your opponent uses their removal to target Barrier before you activate it, when it’s still face-down, you can just chain it yourself and watch your opponent waste their card.

Combined with its one turn Skill Drain type effect, Dimensional Barrier’s a flexible card that slows the game down just long enough for you to win it.  The biggest, most competitive Decks all rely on monsters you can stop with Dimensional Barrier, and that means it could make an immediate impression on tournaments.

Your first chance to get yours is at the Invasion: Vengeance Sneak Previews on October 29^th/30^th.