Summary
Mirror Force is one of the most iconic battle Traps in theYu-Gi-Oh! TCG. This card has had an impacting presence in the anime while also pulling its fair share of weight in the card game. The concept behind Mirror Force is simple: if your opponent attacks you, Mirror Force bounces that attack right back for the specified consequence.
There have been plenty of incarnations of Mirror Force over the years with each one doing something different. Sometimes this can be as simple as destroying your opponent’s monsters, while other times, it can lock them down in their zones. So which is the best incarnation of the card?
10Radiant Mirror Force
An Unlucky Retrain
Radiant Mirror Force is one of the worstretrains of an original card. It doesn’t add any new effects to make it worth using, all it does is add conditions to the card in an attempt to balance it. This kind of retrain is useful while a certain card is banned, but you still want to use the effect.
The condition of your opponent having three monsters on the field before you can set it off isn’t as useful as the original card. Without any added effects, even the archetype-specific Mirror Force cards are more usable.
9Mirror Force Dragon
Mirror Force As A Monster
Mirror Force Dragon is essentially a Mirror Force Trap card on legs. Though unlike its Trap counterpart, it needs to be Summoned first before it can do anything. This requires having the Fang of Critias Spell in your hand as well as a Mirror Force in your hand or field.
It’s a bit cumbersome to Summon, but it can destroy not only your opponent’s monsters, but their Spells and Traps as well. First though, your opponent needs to attack Mirror Force Dragon. This effect can also be triggered when this monster is targeted.
8Dark Mirror Force
Good, But Only When The Conditions Come Up
Dark Mirror Force is literally the inverse of the original Mirror Force. Even the artwork is a negative version. If your opponent attacks and you trigger this Trap, Dark Mirror Force can banish all their defense position monsters.
Unfortunately, this effect is a bit too specific and relies entirely on your opponent only attacking with one monster. There’s also no guarantee that the turn they decide to attack, they won’t just try to hit you with all their monsters, thus leaving no defense position monsters to even banish.
7Dark Magic Mirror Force
A Conditional Trap
Dark Magic Mirror Force has some neat effects, but it is far from flexible. This incarnation of Mirror Force is tied down to cards that mention Shining Sarcophagus andthe Dark Magician archetype. It also needs some of these names on the field before it can go live.
Luckily, it’s a Trap that can also be triggered by monster effects that could potentially destroy a monster on your side of the field. It gives all of these Shining Sarcophagus monsters lingering protection after decimating your opponent’s field.
6Mirage Mirror Force
The Rise Of Illusions
Illusion monsters contain some pretty interesting retrains for some of Yugi’s classic monsters. This type also includes a retrain of Mirror Force in the form of Mirage Mirror Force. This card is locked to the Illusion-type, but can help you recycle resources.
Instead of destroying monsters, it instead bounces one back while allowing you to Special Summon an Illusion from your hand or graveyard. It also has a graveyard effect that lets you replace an Illusion monster removed from the field by your opponent.
5Blazing Mirror Force
Burn Baby, Burn!
Blazing Mirror Force can kill you if you don’t pay attention to your own life points. This is because it not only destroys your opponent’s monsters, but calculates their attack into burn damage.
You only take half the sum of all your opponent’s destroyed monster’s attacks. However, when your opponent has a total sum of 8000 attack on the field, you’re dealing with 4000 inburn damageto yourself. If you survive it though, your opponent also takes the same damage, which can be quite useful.
4Drowning Mirror Force
Playing Chicken With Direct Attacks
Drowning Mirror Force loses a few points for requiring you to have an empty field to activate. After all, your opponent needs to attack directly for this to kick off. In return, you get to shuffle all their attack position monsters back into the deck.
Despite the requirements to trigger being a bit risky, shuffling cards back to the deck is great compared to destroying them. It avoids those on-destruction effects as well as letting those monsters hit the graveyard as resources.
3Storming Mirror Force
Bounce Back To The Hand
Storming Mirror Force has a similar effect as Drowning Mirror Force, but instead of shuffling to the deck, it shuffles monsters back to the hand. In exchange for not being able to shuffle back to the deck, this card can instead be activated even when your opponent isn’t attacking directly.
This makes it more useful than its counterpart, but can result in some unwanted side effects. This includes your opponent being able to reuse an effect the next turn. On the bright side, it can give you a chance to make a comeback on a mostly cleared field.
2Quaking Mirror Force
A Permanent Book Of Moon
Quaking Mirror Force can be an absolute menace of a Trap if pulled off. This is because it can flip all your opponent’s monsters face-down permanently instead of destroying them. This can cause your opponent’s field to get clogged with unusable Monster Zones.
The lingering effect of Quaking Mirror Force prevents the monsters affected from flipping back up. While face-down, they can’t be used as Link, Synchro, or XYZ material either, which leaves them sitting there unless they get tributes or used for a Fusion Summon.
1Mirror Force
A Staple In The Early Days
Mirror Force is one of the earliest staple Traps in Yu-Gi-Oh!. You need to attack to win, and the earliest strategies revolved around swarming the field with monsters. However, if you weren’t careful, one wrong attack could see your entire monster army wiped out.
Mirror Force made players think before Summoning too many monsters to the field. Of course, as the era of battle Traps faded, so did Mirror Force’s reliability. As the card that kicked off the entire archetype, it’s a pretty legendary card.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game
The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) allows kids, teenagers, and adults of all ages to relive the exciting Duels that take place in the animated Yu-Gi-Oh! series. In the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, players use the cards they’ve collected to construct Decks consisting of 40 to 60 cards. Then, they use their Decks to face off against opponents in a game of strategy, luck, and skill.
