Droll & Lock Bird, and the dilemma of your opponent's hand
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Droll & Lock Bird Level 1 WIND Spellcaster If a card(s) is added from the Main Deck to your opponent's hand, except during the Draw Phase (Quick Effect): You can send this card from your hand to the GY; for the rest of this turn, cards cannot be added from either player's Main Deck to the hand. ATK 0 | DEF 0 |
Droll & Lock Bird is frustratingly annoying for us, as having it activated after resolving Ponix or Ulcanix usually guarantees we can't continue our usual combos.
The biggest pain point is that we cannot resolve Fire King Island afterwards - as such, if we suspect that our opponent runs Droll, we might have to opt for different plays than usual.
Let's take this randomly-generated hand for example:
- Sacred Fire King Garunix
- Fire King Avatar Rangbali
- Infinite Impermanence
- Fire King Island
- Legendary Fire King Ponix
Going for any Ponix + FIRE combo would be the best play here normally, but what if you know your opponent runs Droll? How do you play around it?
Let's see one possible solution.
- Normal Summon Fire King Avatar Rangbali.
- Activate Fire King Island.
- Activate Island's effect to destroy Ponix and add Fire King High Avatar Kirin from Deck to hand.
- A Chain forms here:
- CL1: You activate Sacred Fire King Garunix's effect to Special Summon itself from hand.
- CL2: Opponent chains Droll & Lock Bird since you added Kirin from Deck to hand.
- Activate Sacred Garunix's effect to destroy Fire King Courtier Ulcanix from Deck.
- Activate Ulcanix's effect to Special Summon Fire King High Avatar Garunix from Deck.
- You have 3 bodies on the field now, and a Kirin in hand to do as you wish.
The unfortunate part is that this play means you aren't getting Fire King Sanctuary off Ponix, which weakens your endboard (as Island is vulnerable to getting destroyed, and you cannot summon Garunix Eternity, Hyang of the Fire Kings during your opponent's turn).
Proactively limiting your plays like this can cause you to miss out on opportunities where performing the regular combos would have gotten you the full endboard, because your opponent didn't have anything in their hand.
That said, playing into your opponent's handtraps can hurt immensely too, so there is a careful act of balancing that needs to be done here.
Should you be greedy and go for the strongest play possible? Or play conservatively and ensure you can survive? Probably a blend of your personal preferences plus your ability to read your opponent's actions is the best way to go here.
Figuring out how to gather information from your opponent is a genuine skill that can (and should!) be developed - do your opponent's actions mean they're waiting to interrupt you, or are they just waiting for you to finish your turn?