Droll & Lock Bird, and the dillemma of your opponent's hand

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 hand for example:

• Sacred Fire King Garunix
• Fire King Avatar Rangbali
• Droll & Lock Bird (gotta love irony)
• Fire King Island
• Legendary Fire King Ponix

Going for the 1.5-card Ponix 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 you kept Kirin in hand.

The unfortunate part is that this play causes you to miss out on getting Fire King Sanctuary off Ponix, which leads your endboard to be so much weaker (as Island is vulnerable to getting destroyed, and you cannot summon Garunix Eternity, Hyang of the Fire Kings during your opponent's turn).

It's also not ideal to proactively limit your plays, as you'll miss out on opportunities where summoning Ponix 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. 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 be developed - does your opponent's actions mean they're waiting to interrupt you, or are they just waiting for you to finish your turn?