Few cards can impact a Duel like Dark Hole and Raigeki can. Destroying all of your opponent’s monsters is a very powerful effect, especially if your opponent used up their hand to Summon those monsters. With the release of Circuit Break, Duelists will have an additional option if they’re in the market for cards that will get rid of their opponent’s field: the brand-new Trap Card Evenly Matched!

Evenly Matched is a Trap Card with an effect that is potentially more powerful than Dark Hole and Raigeki. At the end of the Battle Phase, if your opponent controls more cards than you do: You can make your opponent banish cards from their field face-down so they control the same number of cards as you do! Banishing cards is much better than destroying them because you can prevent any Graveyard effects from activating. Not only that, but specifically banishing monsters face-down prevents them from being used for most effects that could otherwise make use of them. So after your opponent thinks they have you on the ropes, you can blast them with Evenly Matched to level the playing field! Evenly Matched also deals with your opponent’s Spells and Traps as well, making it much more flexible than Raigeki or Dark Hole.

What makes Evenly Matched so unique is even though it is a Trap Card, it doesn’t always play like one. The second effect of Evenly Matched allows you to activate it from your hand if you control no cards! Not only does this make potentially big swings even harder to play around for your opponent because they won’t see Evenly Matched coming, it makes it so you can even use Evenly Matched right from your hand the same turn you draw it. If your opponent went first and had a great turn because they didn’t have to fight through any Trap Cards, you can just move to your Battle Phase and blast them with Evenly Matched to turn the tables back in your favor! Your opponent will get to keep one card because you still control Evenly Matched while the effect resolves, but banishing almost all of your opponent’s cards means you can definitely fight back in a Duel you might’ve otherwise lost!

You can check out Evenly Matched and other powerful new cards from Circuit Break when it hits shelves October 20th!