Trap
CounterAnnihilate Retroglight
View:
809
When your opponent activates a monster effect on the field, except monsters that were Summoned this turn: Negate that activation, then you can banish (face-down) all face-up monsters your opponent controls, except monsters Summoned this turn. If this Set card in its owner's control is destroyed by an opponent's card effect: You can Set 1 Trap from your Deck.
Annihilate Retroglight — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 66 ± 7 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 68 · Deck: 65 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Removal / Negation · Secondary: Board breaker, Recovery/Recursion
Why it scores here
Annihilate Retroglight scores on what it converts a single Set Trap into: a negation of a monster effect followed by an optional mass banish of every face-up monster the opponent controls, excluding monsters Summoned this turn. Its second clause returns a Trap from the Deck if it is destroyed by an opponent's card effect while Set, which gives it a modest recovery line. The 115-deck spread (45 archetypes, about 2.4 copies per deck) confirms it is a practical, portable tech and not a forgotten pick; that breadth is accessibility evidence, not a reason to raise the score. Its high-impact interaction is what earns the points, and the lack of combo data keeps combo conversion low.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 68 | 115 of 115 sampled decks run it (avg 2.43 copies, 3 copies in 75 decks), so it is reliably drawn, but it must be Set before it can act and no searcher route is evidenced (observed; Set-timing from text, inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 40 | No recorded boards exist, so conversion rests on text: a reactive negate plus mass banish with no proactive board build (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 65 | One Trap card trades for negation plus banishing every eligible opposing monster, a strong 1-for-many swing, and the second clause adds a partial Trap recovery when destroyed (verified text; inferred value). |
| Effect & Interaction | 80 | Negates monster effect activations and banishes the opponent's board, with the summoned-this-turn exemption as the main limit; this is the card's core strength (verified text). |
| Material Utility | 0 | A Trap card is never a monster, so it cannot serve as Summon material (verified card type). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 50 | A Set card can be destroyed by the opponent before it acts, though the second clause provides a fallback Trap recovery (verified text; inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 80 | No banlist token or garnet restriction is supplied, the card is spread across many archetypes, and it runs at 2 to 3 copies, so it is cheap to include (verified deck spread; assumed 3-copy limit). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Removal/Negation + 0.3 Board breaker (blended per rubric Step 4). Intrinsic ≈ 68, Deck ≈ 65, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Negates a monster effect activation and can banish every eligible face-up opposing monster in one activation
- Fresh monsters Summoned this turn are exempt from both the negation and the banish, so the card still functions alongside the player's own turn plays
- Broadly played across 45 archetypes, so it is portable across decks
- Second clause recovers a Trap if the Set card is destroyed by an opponent's card effect
Weaknesses
- Must be Set in advance, so it is a slow, reactive answer rather than an immediate one
- Only responds to monster effect activations; it does nothing against Spells, Traps, or non-effect plays
- Excludes monsters Summoned this turn, so it cannot clear the newest threats
- No combo or searcher evidence was supplied, so its contribution to a line cannot be confirmed from recorded boards
Counters / choke points
- Destroying the Set card with an opponent card effect before it activates
- Opponent plays that avoid monster effect activations or happen in a turn when the card's targets were all Summoned this turn
Best use
Set Trap negation and mass-banish tech, held for the opponent's monster effect activation. Decks: Dark Magician, Labrynth, Branded, Black Luster Soldier.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Text: when an opponent activates a monster effect (except monsters Summoned this turn), negate it, then optionally banish all face-up opposing monsters (except those Summoned this turn); Text: if this Set card is destroyed by an opponent's card effect, you can Set 1 Trap from your Deck; Card type: Trap Card, so it is never a monster and cannot be Summon material; Deck sample: in 115 of 115 decks, avg 2.43 copies, 45 distinct archetypes
- Observed: Top partners are generic staples (Maxx "C" in 73% of decks, Ash Blossom in 52%), which suggests a generic tech slot rather than a specific engine; Copy distribution: 75 decks run 3 copies, 14 run 2, 26 run 1
- Inferred: Set-then-respond timing means the card is a reactive answer that must be prepared a turn in advance; Mass banish gives a board-clearing swing for one Trap, so resource economy is strong despite no direct draw or search; The Summoned-this-turn exemption is the main limit on its reach, since fresh threats escape it
- Data gaps: No combos supplied, so combo conversion is text-only inference No guides supplied No banlist token, so 3 copies is assumed No usage statistics (StatisticsCard), so archetype inclusion is inferred from the deck sample only No searcher or Set-Trap recovery evidence beyond the card text itself