My 2 cents on traps this format.

Traps have always been one of the most interesting parts of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. What sets them appart from monsters and spells is that they are not as viable under different banlists and in different formats. Monsters gain their constant usefulness because no matter the format there will always be a need for most players to win the duel using attack points. Spells have their own use, being a fast action card that you can play right away. This means that it would be difficult to find a format for these cards to be useless. Traps on the other hand are not intrinsic to most duelists and are not playable the moment you draw the card. Due to the need to set them they can quite easily be seen as too slow.

So, you may ask, why run traps at all? They key is the ability to disrupt an opponents play, possibly gaining field/hand advantage while doing so. Traps are aptly named because you set them and wait for your opponent to fall victim to it. A well played trap card can be a complete game changer, interrupting a massive play or averting it altogether. While some decks rely more heavily on traps than others, almost every deck could take a boost from more traps.

The next thing is really to explain the overall situation with this format and why it has had such an intriguing effect on trap cards. As you know, this format marked an end to the reign of Giant Trunade a the best form of back row removal. In it's place the second most devastating card was returned to duelists, the Heavy Storm. Heavy Storm has the power to annihilate every spell and trap card on the field. (Might make a post script explaining why Storm is better for the game than Trunade) Heavy Storm is the most important change to the banlist in reference to traps, but another notable change in the removal of Mystical Space Typhoon from the banlist.

Mystical Space Typhoon at three may not have had a heavy effect on the maindecks of the better of duelists in terms of running 2 versus running 3 but almost everyone is siding the third copy. This sided third copy is there to use against any back row heavy deck meaning that if you are running a lot of traps this is something to be wary of.

So how did these cards affect players ability to use trap cards? Well surprisingly not as much as most people would have you think. The start of this format was probably the craziest Yu-Gi-Oh! players have ever gotten. Everyone was going crazy over these 3 MSTs and 1 Storm that people could play. Suddenly you were hard pressed to find a deck running more than 1 none chainable card. Things that were previously staples like Mirror Force and the Solemn Trio suddenly disappeared from decks. It was crazy.

The wise player would have observed the format and the top decks to notice no one was running that third MST and so that Heavy was the big problem. 1/40 cards. That's it. So really what was to be noticed is that any deck can afford to run the Solemn Trio or whatever. So that is my short explanation of traps this format. Now for a closer look into specific traps.

The first and most amazing trap this format is Trap Dustshoot. It was great last format and IMO is even better now. Last format there was not much fear in players minds about setting cards. There was no Heavy to cause massive backrow wreckage. So people would deplete their hands fairly fast through setting [too lazy to discuss massive +s from Hyper Lib and Formula]. This format with people maintaining hand size due to a lack of setting and also with the large number of +s players still get, Dustshoot becomes the best trap possible. Draw it first turn and you basically win. Draw it late game and it wont be dead.

Next there is the Solemn Trio. These three cards are still fantastic this format, stopping many big plays before they happen. On the other hand, players may have a tendency to save these for the right time and in doing so they could get hit by an MST or Heavy which would be fairly devastating. Just a thought on this card.

A third trap for consideration would be Torrential Tribute which is a powerful card. This card allows you to destroy an opponents field while netting +s off stuff like Sangan. As always this card is amazing and if you are running traps, run this.

There are two more traps to discuss. This is the debate I have in my mind between Mirror Force and Dimensional Prison. Debate you ask? Mirror Force is better. They key is that Zenmaines is too common this format and having an instant out to that is amazing. This is really just a personal choice though and I am not going to make a definite answer.

Anyway I'm too lazy to continue this so peace.

I somewhat agree with you on your trap choice, but some decks like gem-knights are full as they are and don't need the traps for field disruption. Each card in hand exponentially increases their effectiveness and their summons can disrupt the opponent easily enough. And for dust shoot, it's a great trap, but it's nooby and I think it takes away from the fun of yugioh by pissing off your opponent :/. That's just my opinion.

Not all decks need Traps. Something like LS can effectively maintain control without the use of traps because they make the game just so fast that traps would really only slow them down. There are tons of decks that don't need traps, but for the vast majority of decks, this is relevant.

Dustshoot is nooby? 29 out of the top 32 at YCS Columbus played it. I think it's good.

solemn trio should be in every deck, or atleast solemn judgement

The awkward moment when Dustshoot and Torrential are effectively as staple as SJ, if not more so.

i dont run either in my main deck =P no room and the solemn trio is more useful imo

Most decks run both but picking which of the 5 to run is mostly preference or based on your deck. Dustshoot in WindUps for instance might be silly.

Just main Dustshoot and Solemn trio. After that Torrential is a discussable card, but I never run it. For the rest, don't even try starting about cards that need an opponents attack(M-Force, D.Prison etc), too risky this format.

lol have you even checked YCS results?

I didn't, and I know Torrential is good, to me it's just too slow.

It's one of the most played traps this format, probably above SJ