Welcome to the 14th Featured Card!

I have recently posted the article 'Facing the Meta: Elemental Dragons' which talked about the strategies against them. Well, because it seems we all hate those guys the featured card will be one of the best side cards against them.

Imperial Iron Wall is a Continuous trap card that stops cards from being removed from play: very simple yet brilliant. With the rise of the Elemental Dragons, this card has quickly become one of the staple sides for most decks.

Card itself is quite simple right? It can be sided against a variety of decks, and I’ll just name the main ones: Elemental Dragons, Chaos Dragons, Dark World (to some extent), Malefic, Lancer Frogs and even everyone’s favorite: Rescue Rabbit. Not only that, but this card will render the opponent’s Dimensional Prison/Bottomless or any traps/spells that remove cards from play useless: which is a nice little trick. Card itself is amazing but the problem is the amount of back-row hate the Meta has: Heavy Storm, 3 MST among the countless other removal cards people use.

So does this mean we shouldn't use it? I have seen a few decks main decking it which is ironic compared to the rise of the Macro decks last format. Main Deck material: not quite there yet but it is one of the first cards you should be adding to your Side Deck. You can also use it against your opponent’s sides: for example if you are using Mermail and expect your opponent to side in Macro Cosmos, this card will counter balance that.

If your deck isn’t affected badly by IIW: make sure you use it. If they are hurt badly, make sure you have cards to destroy this as there is a high chance you’ll be facing it.


Rulings (all credit to Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia)

• Caius the Shadow Monarch: If "Imperial Iron Wall" is active, "Caius the Shadow Monarch"'s effect activates and you target a card, but you do not remove the card from play.
  
  
• Allure of Darkness: If "Imperial Iron Wall" is active, then you cannot activate "Allure of Darkness". If "Imperial Iron Wall" is chained to "Allure of Darkness" and you have no DARK monsters in your hand, then you send your hand to the Graveyard. If you have a DARK monster in your hand, you cannot remove it from play, so you only show it to your opponent.
  
  
• D.D. Crow: You cannot choose to activate cards/effects like "D.D. Crow", "Dark Core", "Dimensional Prison", etc. while "Imperial Iron Wall" is active. If "Imperial Iron Wall" is chained to such an effect/card, then no card is removed from play.
  
  
• Necroface: "Imperial Iron Wall" will prevent cards from being removed from play by "Necroface"'s second effect.

Trivia (all credit to Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia)

• This card seems to be the fortress in "Royal Decree", "Royal Surrender", and "Rock Bombardment".
  
  
• The king overlooking his fortress is like the one featured in "Conscription".
  
  
• The king (and the castle) featured in "Royal Decree" is always retraced in a Trap Card, or a Trap Card that has something to do with other Trap Cards, like "Royal Decree" and "Royal Surrender". Similarly, the king featured on "Imperial Order" and "Spell-Stopping Statute" is retraced in a Trap Card that has something to do with Spell Cards.

I'm pretty sure most people are siding this card: so do you side 2? 3? Or maybe the heavy back-row hate has actually persuaded you to move away from this? Let the discussion begin!

Yeah definetly a MUST card for side decks ( most of them ). I Personally use 2x in side , yet i never drew it.. stops many decks / saves ur mermails etc.

Very nice article decato-boi

I like chaos hunter a little more only because its a monster and will be much harder to get rid of. E dragons will only have blaster or dark hole to get rid of it compared to the 3 typhoons or royal decree and heavy that can get rid of IIW. a plus with chaos hunter is that it wont affect you so you can remove all you want especially in a mirror match. the best time to summon chaos hunter is when your opponent summons with a baby dragon that way your hunter cant be run over by the dragon that was summoned due to the babies effect

Thing to remember with Chaos Hunter (as this happened with my duel with Pyro): Big Eye

I always have that card in side deck expect when I am using elemental Draonvs e.e but for some reason every time I side 2 iron walls in I always get them both in my opening hand T.T

i didnt read everything but i dont really need, i already know this card is best anti meta in ocg format atm also vs evilswarms.
because they cant use there remove cards and spellbooks also cant remove cards ^^"

Yep as loop said - this card is pretty good vs prophecy. Stops their main utility card (Fate) and prevents high priestess from activating the destruction effect.


All in all - a very good side card.

This is a card which seems to be a nice Side Deck choice, especially since Elemental Dragons are out. Not only could use this against Elementals and Spellbooks, but you can also use it to stop cards such as Bottomless Traphole and Dimensional Prison.

Prohibition anyone? chose big eye and or that plane. two prohibition would be nice.

Nice article Decato, and overall a relatively good card, and a great side card.
If nothing else, I agree that this card is not yet a main-deckable card yet; while most decks have an assorted amount of tricks that depend on banishing, not all good decks require being able to banish.

Kinda like how MST is a good card against any deck, except Chaos Dragons (since most ones rarely use much, if anything, in terms of traps)

Eheroduelist wrote:

Nice article Decato, and overall a relatively good card, and a great side card.
If nothing else, I agree that this card is not yet a main-deckable card yet; while most decks have an assorted amount of tricks that depend on banishing, not all good decks require being able to banish.

Kinda like how MST is a good card against any deck, except Chaos Dragons (since most ones rarely use much, if anything, in terms of traps)

wrong.
mst is not good vs any deck i dont see myself runing mst vs lucksworn,mash deck,spellbooks(maybe only vs fate) or elemental dragon deck.

He was saying it's good against most decks just with some exceptions. I still think maining 3 MST over 2 is fine this format for Mermails, Fire Fist, random DW's, and even Evilswarms and similar backrow heavy decks. Just side all of them out against Elementals and above mentioned trapless decks.

But the topic is Iron Wall... which I love, since it's a card for siding and counter siding, and stops more than just mained cards that banish but also the staple trap line ups you'll encounter like Bottomless and Prison, not to mention this golden card won me games against Elemental Heroes when I do run into them. I prefer this over MST or Dust just because Banisher is getting popular in IRL Fire Fist, and even seen Heroes and Evilswarms playing it. So Iron Wall just covers so much.

loop wrote:

Eheroduelist wrote:

Nice article Decato, and overall a relatively good card, and a great side card.
If nothing else, I agree that this card is not yet a main-deckable card yet; while most decks have an assorted amount of tricks that depend on banishing, not all good decks require being able to banish.

Kinda like how MST is a good card against any deck, except Chaos Dragons (since most ones rarely use much, if anything, in terms of traps)

wrong.
mst is not good vs any deck i dont see myself runing mst vs lucksworn,mash deck,spellbooks(maybe only vs fate) or elemental dragon deck.

Agreeing to disagree.

I personally have never used Imperial Iron Wall, but I might have to sooner or later considering how the game seems to be shifting towards using all aspects of the playing field instead of just one particular portion (Example: Heroes searching with Stratos, recyling with monsters in the graveyard with Miracle Fusion and abusing the banished zone with the Shining).