The Evolution of Mirror Force

Mirror Force is one of Yu-Gi-Oh's most iconic trap cards and it's received many retrains throughout the last 20 years. Today we're going over the entire history of Mirror Force cards to see how they adapted it over time!
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[@mikawachholz-2249]

Everyone hates the moment, when your oponent activate Mirror Force in 2024 and actually destroy your board.

[@neo84401]

I remember the master saga episode, farfa losing his mind was great.

[@Byrdstar6423-un3me]

That's why you play skill drain

[@BigBuckies]

*laughs in traptrix*

[@mr.e6983]

Real

[@cybzer0560]

On EdoPro, I got destroyed by Quaking Mirror through Transaction Rollback in my opponent's GY. My opponent milled cards earlier and I said "ill just check it when he activates it". Since then, I always check if there's a Transaction Rollback lol.

[@doctorreed_]

the D in Dzeeff stands for Dougumentary

[@Estradamente]

I’m sorry fang of WHOM?

[@diahleoygo4586]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[@jetsrule07748]

Fang of creatine

[@Dzeeff]

How is it actually pronounced? Haha

[@brooklynjackson1984]

@@Dzeeff Crit-e-us, was how it was pronounced in the show

[@cerberos1]

Fang of criatas

[@MiyaoMeow588]

Dark Mirror Force is neat because it's a card that feels designed to counter the way people played around OG Mirror Force - switching their monsters to defense position so that some are spared. Dark Mirror Force punishes that If it also negated the initial attack, it might've actually been okay, but it still lets that attack go through which goes against the idea of battle traps to begin with. Plus it does nothing if your opponent only has 1 monster

[@dbt4869]

Even in old Yu-Gi-Oh it was very bad and almost never see play

[@grugthink]

@@dbt4869 I actually got hit by it once. Had four monsters in defense to play around Mirror Force.

[@ashuraahunter]

Dark Mirror Force, chain Book of Eclipse >:)

[@Icyko]

It'll fuck up superheavy samurais though lol

[@grugthink]

@@Icyko Inferno Tempest hits them even harder

[@jaredg.sternrogers7681]

Genuinely love the way you say "qliphort". Makes me picture a rather abnormally large red dog.

[@christiancastillo1245]

Haha! I thought I was the only one!

[@thesnesgeek]

I think of Qliphort the big red dog.

[@wardw3590]

Thank you for bringing this style of content back. You’re offer the best commentary on cards. I hope you can do more of these like you used to do.

[@stonalisa3729]

Duel Logs is solid too

[@justsightseeing1]

I love doug series but i kinda miss his "new card that changes everything" content

[@marroncito]

👍

[@garfrockbreadtroll]

They gotta do a retrain for mirror force dragon thats actually useable, cause on the playground that card was unstoppable

[@dudebladeX]

And of course, when you take all of the different Mirror Forces, they all make one ball of mirrors. Though, it's fun to see that Mirror Force was so impactful that it spawned all of these other variants.

[@Febivian]

Come on, you can't make a mirror force video without showing how all artworks can be connected

[@clarkside4493]

On Master Duel, I've started toying with a deck using Mirror Force, Manticore of Smashing, and Dark Hole Dragon. I like using Mirror Force Launcher, Snipe Hunter, and Raigeki Break to pitch Manticore of Smashing. It feels really good to Mirror Force your opponent and drop Dark Hole Dragon after that.

[@rainbowdragon168]

Well nowadays Mirror Force can easily be negated or destroyed by card effects but sometimes there can be the slightest chance it doesn’t get negated or destroyed by the opponent

[@commentstealer4460]

Even if it doesn't get negated , the opponent will probably activate an effect from the graveyard that will protect his monsters

[@rainbowdragon168]

@@commentstealer4460 True

[@LordKefka]

Labyrinth

[@rainbowdragon168]

@@LordKefka Labyrinths would end up destroying Mirror Force one way or another

[@hessiankyojin]

Dat Critias pronunciation tho

[@diahleoygo4586]

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed.

[@shapular]

Brought to you by Mr. Lamplacian.

[@aaronarceneaux1564]

I like how youtube provides a translation for your comment lol

[@Hurricayne92]

@@aaronarceneaux1564 I actually think that what ever AI they use for that has started seeing colloqial terms as needing translation

[@bowtwins]

it'd be cool to get a "the evolution of trap hole" video

[@petiteexplication6249]

I feel like the modern trap card to it is imperm their existence alone makes you think way more than normal

[@DeityofDestiny]

radiant mirror force's greatest accomplishment is it managing to trick me for over 17 years into believing that the original mirror force was banned during its time of release

[@LordKefka]

As a Lab player who loves abusing my battle traps like MF, I'll single handedly keep these cards alive if I must.

[@Billy_Wyatt]

The retrains or the so called nee versions of mirror force are actually slower than the original one. In fact, I'd say mirror force sees play in master duel and it's very funny when you see it blowing it up the opponent's field 😂

[@Jacktherippa84]

The edison tryout duels was the last time I put a mirror force into my deck. That shit was at 2, and I couldn't believe it. Only got to resolve it once though... : (

[@timaeus22222]

The last time I used a mirror force was Drowning Mirror Force in Fortune Ladies in Duel Links in like 2019, because I was on Synchro Barrier to empty my board, but take no damage. Six Samurai were still around so that was bait to resolve Drowning against Shi En.

[@ricarlab.967]

Homing Mirror Force - When an opponents monster declares an attack, negate that attack, then target any number of cards your opponent controls and/or in their hand equal to the number of monsters your opponent controls in face up attack position and destroy the targeted cards.

[@mateusrp1994]

Kind of sad they can't make Mirror Force an archetype in a straightforward manner because of the way they're named in the OCG, "adjective" Barrier - "element" Force. OG is Holy Barrier - Mirror Force, Quaking is Sandstorm Barrier - Dust Force, and so on. There's no common uninterrupted word string to become the archetype name, you'd have to reference them in awkward and unintuitive manners.

[@CensoredSister]

The very first deck i made was a combination of lair of darkness structures and old random cards from a friend, it was a trap deck with darkest diabolos and all the fang of critias fusions

[@grugthink]

Jelly Cannon video when?

[@liamholmes9090]

My locals has like 4 people who regularly play mirror force. I've lost a game but not a match to one. Once, one of the guys beat spright with it

[@KevinTangYT]

Make next Mirror Force a Counter Trap like Negate Attack that ends the Battle Phase, or unable to be responded to like Super Poly, but also an alternative trigger condition outside Attack declaration and monsters destroyed this way cannot activate their effects until the end of the opponent's next turn. So basically the same consequence as the original before everything floated and had quick effects. I don't think people are wre actually respecting backrow these days as much as they just brute force it through floating effects.

[@chuckydee2951]

I'm currently playing mirror force in Lair of Darkness, where I can essentially search out any normal trap using Lilith's effect to show my opponent 3 normal traps and set one random one. It also gives you a reason to use Fang of Critias since you're running Crush Card Virus as well, and the Critias dragons have some pretty good effects

[@blahmaster6k]

@Dzeeff The reason Mirror Force Launcher was never going to be able to work with the newer Mirror Force cards is that all of them are "Mirror Force" cards in the same way that "Frog the Jam" was a "Frog" monster. That is to say, in the OCG none of the other mirror force cards actually have "Mirror Force" in the name and there isn't a "Mirror Force" archetype. The mirror force cards' translated Japanese names are: Holy Barrier - Mirror Force Wicked Barrier - Dark Force Flashing Barrier - Shining Force Divine Wind Barrier - Air Force Karma Flame Barrier - Fire Force Sandstorm Barrier - Dust Force Ripple Barrier - Wave Force. If anything, to catch all of the mirror force variants under one archetype it would have to be "Force" trap cards or "Barrier" trap cards, but there may be many other trap cards that include one of those words that makes it impractical. I wish Mirror Force Launcher could work with the newer ones too, but it is what it is.

[@jackblack3718]

There aren't "that" many barrier cards. It could probably work.

[@BLSoldier00]

I remember losing a duel because of a Radiant Mirror Force. That hurts more than the OG Mirror Force.

[@arkadarkartist]

An old school Dzeeff video? On the year of our lord 20 24?! NO WAAAAAAAAAAAAY!! MORE!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@ytmndman]

Mirror Force Launcher was actually a great 'bait' card in my traditional format stall/burn deck. I almost never used the on-field effect.

[@TheMapleTurtle]

I try out Drowning Mirror Force in my Melffy/Beast control deck. Because the melffy return to my hand, i do expect to be attacked directly..but it's also off people's radar. The mirrror force cards could see a resurgence under the tenpai meta too

[@VixYW]

I still use them every now and them, even in Master Duel. Thing is, no one is expecting a battle trap, so more often than not, they don't even bother getting rid of set cards if they can just go for game. They all just assume it's a dead set if they do their combo and you didn't flip it.

[@CodestarProductions]

I doubt it would see play so I don't know why they can't give us a D.D. Mirror Force. When you're attacked, banish all attack position monsters your opponent controls

[@Prismadoll]

smh Doug you forgot Shining Silver Force I can't believe it 😢

[@MrCheeze]

"If mirror force destroys the attacking monster, of course the attack doesn't go through." ...and then there's MST.

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

Battle Traps won't ever see play again, unless they create tonnes of "training wheel" cards like other bad mechanics such as Gemini Monsters. Either that or allow you to activate them from your side deck at Spell Speed 4 which immediately wins the duel and gives you a foot massage.

[@TheLetterJ0]

Konami: "Okay,, Labrynth, you can have an archetypal battle trap and a monster that can search any battle trap for free." Lab: "Ewww. Why would I want that?"

[@MeanderingSlacker]

The problem is that any trading card format was never built around the internet, and buying singles out right. Like the deck isn't supposed to have 3 copies of 1 secret rare and if it does you traded 2 other secret rares for copies 2 and 3. Then it also wasn't built around knowing all the best decks from online information being so prevalent. Realistically, the power level of the game should sit around a prog series/ limited deck or lower, but that's had to do without pissing everyone off.

[@MrSkullMerchant]

Its funny unleashing a battle trap though went your opponent doesnt see it coming because they assumed no one uses them anymore lol

[@itsfort2098]

I'm still getting Drowning Mirror Forced in Duel Links to this day

[@nielsvanbogaert5462]

I think they should print a Fang of "Criatas" now just to mess with you 😂

[@SailorLoonie]

I dont really understand modern Yugioh, but Ive been playing a lot of Worldwide Edition on the GBA lately and Mirror Force is SUPER prevalent in that game loll Cool to know how things moved along!

[@MrSkullMerchant]

Awsome game 👊 i been playing yugioh nightmare troublador on ds

[@MrSkullMerchant]

Mirror force is in every one of my casual decks. Yall always forget the other half of the fanbase who dont do meta

[@drnktxtromeo2416]

I actually was in the middle of making a mirror force deck just to troll a friend. Then I got caught up in stall and made a kuriboh deck

[@MrSkullMerchant]

@@drnktxtromeo2416 awsome 👊

[@EleosAnim]

I've won alot of game because of Magic Cylinder.. It's the biggest NO U

[@shinxen8181]

0:09 so are we gonna talk about the full royal hand???

[@joshdavis6830]

I actually lost a game on Master Duel to Mirror Force recently.

[@TheNewblade1]

But Doug you forget mirror force launchers hidden effect, yugi players don't read. Ive had plenty of people pop it multiple times in md

[@jimsface]

she mirrored on my force till I came in myself

[@RetroTaylor94]

Bless me with your knowledge, Big D.

[@N.G.H.]

Drowning Mirrorforce and Quaking Mirrorforce are great in Ghostricks ❤

[@Merilirem]

This is why my chaos decks played mirage dragon and pitch black warwolf.

[@VoicesOfChaos]

I love both Blazing and Quaking in my Watts deck! But yeah sadly Link monsters ruin Quaking just like they ruin everything else in Yugioh.

[@absolutionveil8632]

Mans said Critias like he was saying creatine

[@cheryltunt6934]

I still run mirror force dragon in master duel for the lolz. Amount of people who don’t read the card or realize it’s not OPT is hilarious. Had someone get their board wiped, rebuilt it only to proct its effect a second time to get board wiped again.

[@justanotherviewer9643]

As someone who uses Apoqliphort towers(Has immunity) I too like when my opponent doesn’t read and loses to my niche.

[@FireSwordOfMagic]

what a nice young man

[@breezeistlime96]

I have blazing in my toons deck. A few weeks ago was in ranked I went first and I totally bricked all I had was blazing mirror force. I set it with literally no hope whatsoever. My oppenent opens full combo Kasthira. He did something that made him lose 6000 life points and had his sunrise direct attack me. I activated it and the world just paused 😂😂😂 all his monsters to the grave I took damage than his boared went up in flames.

[@Ragnarok540]

I have used Drowning Mirror Force in a few gimmick decks in low powered events in MD with great success, but using them in the ladder is pointless, almost every deck is able to deal with battle traps before getting to the battle phase, specially now with S:P in the game.

[@leonheart7]

Personally, we just need a Mirror force that stops cards leaving the field except by battle that turn, Make it useable only if a card that turn has left the field by card effect. Call it Inverted or Dimension Mirror Force. Maybe include the player who activated the trap must attack on next BP or banish all monsters they control facedown. So stall decks cant abuse it.

[@Epsilon514]

RIP to Holy Barrier - Mirror Force that couldn't hold back Obelisk's God Hand Crusher in Battle City

[@tarikkash4282]

Holy Barrier eh? Not so holy now!

[@ObeliskTGS]

Iirc Radiant Mirror Force was also printed because for a short period, Mirror Force was forbidden.

[@profatgamer]

I'm still waiting for a divine mirror force.

[@THEGRUMPTRUCK]

I pulled off a Dark mirror force against a Superheavy Samurai deck and the guy just scooped, left the table, and automatically forfeited both game 2 and potential 3.

[@Duelerama90]

Are we starting to get a corresponding MF for every type now? All the retrains, except Mirage, were attribute based; Dark, light, wind, fire, earth and water, respectively. Every attribute except divine.

[@alex_zetsu]

14:56 And now I bring my rant of good generic link monsters again. At least with Synchros you had to carefully watch your levels and archetypical locked extra deck monsters were not splashable.

[@robertjuarez2187]

I play traptrix and have played storming mirror force a couple times in a couple of my builds. The backrow protection with arachnocampa really makes it easier to keep traps on the field, and having a bunch of summon reactive traps helps keep combos at bay.

[@locodesert2]

Mirror force one of the cards that will never age out.

[@cheryltunt6934]

The OG traps are still so good. Mirror force, Magical cylinder, compulsory evacuation device, always funny when you hit someone with them because they never expect it in modern yugioh

[@IC-23]

​@cheryltunt6934 Hard Disagree all the battle traps suck and you need a really good reason for playing cards like compulse. Labrynth plays compulse as a free way to dodge cards or get rid of a monster and trigger all their effects, Traptrix plays Torriential because all their ED monsters are immune to it etc. You can maybe catch someone out if you had something like Nibiru or Droll so they weren't able to full combo but suddenly they know you're on some garbage and can full combo under your battle traps knowing you weren't threatening with cards like called by/imperm.

[@panterelmateracker2887]

A mirror force that reflected how the opponent got rid of the card would be so cool If the effect doesn't resolve, negate the opponent's board If the card gets destroyed, destroyed the opponent's board If it gets banished, banish the opponent's board If it gets bounced or spun, you can imagine what happens

[@TheRedRobin96]

I haven't played Yu-Gi-Oh in a long time but when I did I never played Mirror Force or Magic Cylinder.

[@TheHorrorking]

I use almost all of the mirror forces in my alien deck the only one I don't have at the moment is dark mirror force.

[@esrohm6460]

i think the idea behind dark mirro rforce was that if

[@daveinthegrave2703]

I got into competitive yugioh in 2014 and I really like the concept of the Watt Monsters so I would use Quaking when it came out

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

I think they could make an Archetypal Mirror Force which can be used from the GY. Kind of like how Volcanic Counter can cause a chilling effect. "If your opponent attacks your Monster, banish this card from you GY; destroy all Monsters your opponent controls."

[@Da_Willuminati21]

I think to make mirror force viable today you would have to make it a hand trap like inperm that could only be used during battle if you have no spell or traps in your spell and trap zone and it would shuffle all attack position monsters into the deck or return them to hand

[@thekingdomjester]

I played a little with mirage mirror force in minor leagues and unfortunately there's no effect on the card that addresses banishment. It's just too weak

[@ryanjohnson3392]

Would some version of mirror force that couldn’t be responded to with monster effects, you think it would be any good?

[@boombandit1362]

You forgot Shining Silver Force while not a Mirror Force card in English it is a Barrier card which is what the forces are in Japanese.

[@MandalorianRaider]

How about "Rapid Mirror Force: destroy all attack position monsters your opponent controls."

[@dragonlord45461]

dark mirror force is anti super heavy samurai since all of them love being in defense

[@kingether4486]

I feel they should give us a divine mirror force that is like Imperm but is Mirror force so having that swiss army utility

[@Arkus]

I'm currently trying Blazing Mirror Force in my Red-Eyes burner deck.

[@YamiNZ]

you forgot Dark Magic Mirror Force

[@pedrohdalla]

The amount of games I won by setting a random spell card and bluffing mirror force is beautiful

[@skiffy8121]

back when master duel only went up to diamond 1...i ran the worst deck of all time and put mirror forces in it

[@vparsa87]

I thought mirror force fell out of popularity because it got power crept my dimensional prison?

[@FloundFahrdienst]

Still waiting on a new mirror force that banishes all monsters facedown

[@benjystrauss2524]

I still use Mirror Force, Launcher, and Storming. Yes, it has a high chance of getting hit, but it has won me some games in Master Duel - and I don't think it's cost me any. (If it got hit, I was probably going to lose regardless). Most people can build a board pretty quick, but it clears out monster effect negates like Apollusa.

[@yuricahere]

a modern mirror force would have to activate from the hand then if it activates on the field, it gets a bonus effect even then it might only see fringe play since most of the time you'd prefer a main phase handtrap instead

[@sineupp]

I play drowning mirror force in a couple of my masterduel decks it's a must-negate that you can set in the battle phase using cards like Trap Tracks or Trap Trick. I usually do that when I have a Witch's Strike set (or in hand + Butler) to punish the negate And my Paleo deck can activate it from GY which is hilarious

[@mujigant]

The Fang of Kriatoss is so cool

[@PolishSasquatch]

Back in middle school, I had Dark Mirror Force, but not the original Mirror Force. The best I could do was chain Zero Gravity to my own Dark Mirror Force to switch my opponent's attackers to defense and then banish them. It's an extra step and an extra unsearchable card for the added perk of banishing your opponent's stuff, but it's what I had. That, and Sakuretsu Armor.

[@mikehawk8984]

I actually run into Storming and Drowning quite a bit on ladder, but the only way that I know that is because I pop them. I play Memento and their field spell gives them an Ancient Gear effect so even if I didn't pop them they'd be totally useless against me 😅

[@TheDAKING549]

I know mirror force launcher has it faults, but considering the reset effect is not once per turn and you set the cards at the same time (meaning you are allowed to shuffle the positions of the set cards) it can actually be REALLY annoying to deal with mirror force launcher if you can deal with set traps well but not losing your whole board. Had an issue with this card and trying not to lose half of my board but kept hitting the launcher instead of the mirror force. Had to wait like 2-3 turns to finally hit the mirror force left the launcher on the field to win.

[@SoFlyKipFloatBy]

I run storming mirror force in every deck

[@ThunderDragonRandy]

13:19 I am just now realizing there is a new monster type...

[@zero1343]

Ever since the elemental mirror forces became a thing I always thought that an archetype based around mirror force would be cool. Like traptrix with the trap hole cards. You could use the extra deck dragon as a basis too with something like dragon rulers in the main deck, basing each off the different mirror forces.

[@imwhatthekidscallcringy3858]

Still waiting onna new mirror force that faces directly Right to complete the whole mirror force circle

[@dankicks]

I’ve always thought Dark Mirror Force should’ve been turn to defence and banish face downs, and then someone got hold of it and said “Well actually 🤓 “

[@Ryoku25]

I still play Storming to this day. No one ever really expects it these days, and it's especially funny when people invest all their resources into 2 or 3 extra deck monsters, only for me to flip Storming.

[@cesaresp101]

I used Drowning Mirror Force in shitty Egyptian God deck

[@almeerok7950]

Doug and mispronunciations. Name a more iconic duo. I'll wait.

[@calumdowse864]

Anyone else used to think it would be cool to get a card which is all the arts combined into a big sphere? Every time one came out I’d think ah yes, this goes here to fill up the picture.

[@BrodorSonOfKnorRelativeOfDador]

what about the evolution of trap holes?

[@chavezruben49]

I use Quaking Mirror Force in my Ancient Gear deck along with Magic Cylinder and they have been very helpful to me