Top 10 Best Floodgates in Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG

Floodgate is a non-official term for a card with a continuous effect that disables a game mechanic, many times affecting both players. These cards are very popular in casual decks with "anti-game" game plans, but, in competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, they are more popular in side decks, as they tend to be useful only when you're first to play.

In today's article, we'll show you the top 10 best floodgates in Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG!

10 - Gozen Match

Currently limited, Gozen Match has always been very popular against decks that use several monster attributes, or in strategies that summon a monster on your opponent's board to force them to control only that monster attribute.

This card is badly positioned in the meta nowadays because the main deck in the format, Snake-Eye, only has Fire monsters. And, even though it uses an extra deck with several attributes, its main out for floodgates (Knightmare Phoenix) is also a Fire attribute monster.

9 - There Can Be Only One

There Can Be Only One is another limited floodgate, and is quite oppressive against decks that only use one type of monster. There Can Be Only One also isn't as good-positioned into Snake-Eye as you'd think, considering that this deck, the majority of the time, uses Pyro monsters, and can put 2 different monster types on the board if they use Diabellstar the Black Witch or a combination of a handtrap normal-summon + Bonfire accessing Snake-Eyes Poplar.

8 - Rivalry of Warlords

To finish our trio of limited floodgates, we have Rivalry of Warlords, which, just like Gozen Match, was once popular in strategies that summon a monster on your opponent's board to prevent them from playing their combo freely. It tends to be popular in decks with only one monster type to deal with decks with several monster types.

Unlike the others, Rivalry of Warlords is well-positioned against Snake-Eye because, even though it has Pyro monsters in its main deck, there are no Pyro monsters in its extra deck.

7 - Grave of the Super Ancient Organism

Grave of the Super Ancient Organism was incredibly popular in the Kashtira format, and, despite not being that popular anymore, it is still quite useful against decks that use high-level monsters in their main deck. Grave of the Super Ancient Organism can disable the following cards in the current format: Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon, Diabellstar the Black Witch, Skull Guardian, Protector of the Voiceless Voice, Kashtira Monsters, and Branded Fusions.

6 - Necrovalley

Necrovalley is a powerful floodgate that has even gotten an erratum to become less oppressive. If we consider most decks need to use the graveyard to execute their game plan, denying effects that move cards from the graveyard is quite relevant.

The only "downside" to this card is that, even after playing it, we can still activate and resolve effects in the graveyard, as long as the cards that are there aren't moved to another place. And it is because of this that this card isn't higher up in this list.

5 - Dimensional Fissure

Dimensional Fissure is similar to Necrovalley: it deals with decks that depend on the graveyard. If we consider most of these decks need to put monsters in their graveyard, Dimensional Fissure is a lot more efficient, as its effects banishes the monsters that would go to the graveyard.

4 - Deck Lockdown

Deck Lockdown is an incredibly restrictive floodgate that prevents both duelists from adding cards from their decks to their hand and summoning monsters directly from their decks. It works really well if your goal is to make your opponent's turn useless if they don't have an out in their hand. Currently, Deck Lockdown is very popular in Snake-Eye variants, which, even when they can't combo because of their opponent's handtraps, can use Deck Lockdown to deal with their opponent's turn without further issues, as they can remove it from the board with Diabellstar the Black Witch on their next turn.

3 - Skill Drain

Despite not being that popular in this format, Skill Drain is still an extremely strong card, and deserves a ban. Disabling effects from all face up monsters on the board will always be incredibly oppressive. Additionally, the decks that use it tend to have synergy with it to use its monster effects, which make it somewhat unfair.

2 - Summon Limit

Another popular floodgate in the current format is Summon Limit, which basically serves to prevent your opponent from spamming monsters on the board, as it restricts both players to summon only 2 monsters per turn. And, to guarantee this card will be efficient, we can wait until our opponent summons two monsters to then activate Summon Limit, which will prevent them from summoning more monsters.

Due to this surprise factor, your opponent won't be able to use any extra deck out, which is usually a link-2, which makes this card even stronger.

1 - Anti-Spell Fragrance

In our first spot, we have Anti-Spell Fragrance! Its effect changes the mechanics of spell cards, which are then considered trap cards (and need to be played before they're activated). However, they'll be even slower, as they can only be activated on the next turn of the player who played them.

This is such an oppressive effect that most players have at least once thought this card should have been banned years ago, considering that, besides the fact that there are decks that depend on spells to play, Anti-Spell Fragrance also really disrupts players that use boardbreakers. And, considering the current format is transitioning from handtraps to boardbreakers, this card has become more and more relevant.

Do you agree with our list? Do you use any of these cards in your decks? Tell us in the comment section.

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