Hello Yugioh Community! When I attend locals I usually enter every tournament I can to max out on practice, but this past weekend I had the unique opportunity of not playing and had the chance to observe a lot of other duelists’ games. While I was watching everyone play I started thinking to myself about what I would do in their situations and I began to notice a common trend; Everyone seemed to be using Mystical Space Typhoon in a way I would not and in most scenarios it would end badly for the player I was watching. This little incident is what led me to decide what I am writing about today, it is a strong possibility that Mystical Space Typhoon is the most misplayed card in the game.
Question of the Article: Do you think you use 
effectively?
Don’t forget to answer the question of the article in the comments down below!
-Mystical Space Typhoon- What is it all about?
This quick-play magic card has been around almost since the start, being released in Magic Ruler as an ultra rare. This card was restricted to 1 for quite some time, but is now back at three. This is one of very few cards that have almost always seen play no matter what format or what deck duelists were using. Keeping the length of time this has been around and the amount of times it has been reprinted to allow for very easy access, I think it is safe to assume it has almost seen as much if not more play than any other card in the game. One would think that by now everyone would know exactly how to use it to its maximum potential, but one would be wrong in most cases. I am going to go over a couple of my favorite ways to play this card and some myths that people believe is a way to use Mystical Space Typhoon.
-The Blind MST-
Sadly, I have heard this phrase more times than any other associated with Mystical Space Typhoon. This term is referring to a situation where your opponent has more than one back row (that were all set at the same time)and you activate MST, roll a dice, and just randomly pick one to go to the graveyard. This particular scenario is the main myths that exist in association with Mystical. This is not a correct way to play this card; sure you could get lucky and hit something good, but odds are against you. The most amounts of cards you can hit with MST is 1 and no matter which one you hit, you will still have to deal with all of his other sets. This is not a way to play this card and it ignores the one major rule I have come to follow when playing: Assess the Situation.
-Mystical Space Typhoon -
I wish I could change the text on the next printing of Mystical Space Typhoon and just add a line to the beginning of its text.
Mystical Space Typhoon - Billy Brake Errata
Quick-Play Spell Card
Assess the Situation. Destroy 1 Spell or Trap Card on the Field.
Taking note of what the game state is like and what you want it to be are very important factors when it comes to using this card correctly. There is not just one way of going about using this card and if used properly it can do much more than just destroy 1 card, you can clear for game, bait your opponent, and in worst case scenarios make one last stand.
A Common Situation – My Opponent has Two Backrows – Flaws from Both Sides of the Game -
It is common for an opponent to start of their turn with two set cards to their back row. The most familiar mistake I see is a player opens his hand, activates an MST on one of the backrows, hits a 
Traphole so he thinks he did a good job. He then summons a monster that their opponent can more than likely deal with next turn, gets a little bit of damage in, sets a backrow in an attempt to protect their monster, but gets end phase’d MST. Now the opponent can run over the monster and is still up his natural plus one advantage with no back row to stop him ending in player one’s favor. I am sure many of you have seen this common scenario played out time and time again, but what if I told you they both made potential mistakes.
-Player one Standpoint -
First let’s talk about the player who went first, player one. He set a Mystical Space Typhoon and a Bottomless Trap Hole turn one, he probably did this because he wanted to have monster removal and he set the MST because he didn’t want to just get MST’d and run over. While his thinking is sound it is flawed in my opinion. First off it completely opens him up to Heavy Storm for the early plus one, although it would probably just lead to player one complaining about how his opponent got lucky and opened Heavy, despite it being his own fault due to poor decision making. Holding MST in your hand when you are going first is almost always the correct play and if you have a really good turn one player that might require your opponent to have little back row, setting nothing at all and holding the MST can almost always insure this, Starlight Road and Solemn Judgment being exceptions. You want to keep the game state under your own control and not leave so much to chance.
-Player two Standpoint-
Anytime an opposing duelist sets two cards on their first turn, in a lot of scenarios it’s safe to assume they set a good trap alongside an MST in an attempt to Mystical Space Typhoon you during the end phase. Luckily at this point, being the top level player that you are, you can attempt to see what they are trying to do and foil it, the best part is even if the other card isn’t Mystical Space Typhoon you will still take care of whatever tricks they have up their sleeve. Anytime I see this scenario and I have my own copy of Mystical Space Typhoon in my hand I always move to bait them out, you want to make your opponent activate one of his back rows, then you can blow out his other leaving you enough to set-up for their turn. Make sure you summon something they will want to deal with immediately forcing them to activate their Solemn Warning, Bottomless Traphole, Dimensional Prison, etc. This now leaves you free to MST their other backrow if you want to set some protection or leave it alone until you’re ready to deal with it. In this case you were able to use one of your own monsters as an MST in a sense and then deal with whatever else with an actually Mystical, but the game is now been set at your own pace.
The end result as far as advantage is concerned is the same, but in both cases, the player who played it correctly will have control of the game and playing it at their own tempo, which in my opinion, can be quite crucial.
Conclusion: Using Mystical Space Typhoon can be a lot more complex than most duelists would think. Despite this card seeing more play than any other card, I still see and feel that is being misplayed all the time. This theory of blind MST is one I can just not agree with in most cases and I feel it wastes a very powerful card this format. Mystical can be used in ways that it helps players control the game state and make sure the situation they want to be in is what will play out throughout the game. This card should not be thrown around as a one for one, but saved and used to capitalize on the opponent. In my personal opinion, this is one of the strongest cards when use correctly currently and can really be instrumental in determining the outcome of the duel.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, suggestions, concerns, or simply want to just answer the question of the article, you can do so in the comments down below!
-Billy Brake
-YCS Toronto and YCS Columbus Champion
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