Stall Stall cards are ones that prevent your opponent from damaging you OR ones which focus on Negating your opponent ' s cards . Decks usually include stall cards as part of a larger strategy , such as a Burn or a " Forbidden One " Deck . They are also used to buy time for a player if their opponent gains an advantage over them . This is different than a player stalling for time by taking too long to lay down cards or declare actions . Playing style . A Stall Deck is designed to slow your opponent down and make it difficult to inflict damage or even to attack . Stalling is not a way to win by itself ; it is usually used as a means to an end . Although it is most commonly used in the " Forbidden One " Deck , it is also considered the only way to successfully play a Burn Deck . However , there are plenty of decks that can benefit from this strategy . Usually , someone doesn ' t walk into building a deck and say " I want to build a stall Deck . " They start with the question " I want to play X deck , how can I support it ? " But that is not always the case . Considering that most decks will use Level 4 or higher monsters , one could start the deck with Gravity Bind and Level Limit - Area B , then throw in Swords and Wall of Revealing Light , and then use only Level 3 or lower monsters to attack , e . g . Drill Barnacle , Gyaku - Gire Panda , Mataza the Zapper etc . and combine them with powerful Equip Cards , e . g . United We Stand , Mage Power , Metalmorph , Kunai with Chain etc . What style / method of stall you wish you use will depend on what kind of Deck you wish to play : The traditional stall . When someone asks if you are playing a Stall Deck , then chances are you are using this method . A stall deck is used to either have the opponent lose via card effects such as Final Countdown and Exxod , Master of The Guard , or simply run out of cards . Over time , Konami has released dozens of great cards to protect yourself from both attacks and damage . These cards range from stopping attacks for a single turn , to locking your opponent down as long as they are on the field . The only downside to this method is that — as a player — you must commit a lot to the field in order to stay safe . With this , comes a whole new problem : keeping it there . Unlike simply running an engine in your Deck ( which is just a handful of cards ) when you run a Stall deck , half to two thirds of your deck is devoted to your protection . This means that you have to play cards to protect yourself , and then cards to protect your protection . This tends to cause the consistency of your Deck to decrease . Because there are so many generic stall cards to choose from , listed below are what most players consider the core " Staples " in any stall deck . There are numerous stall cards that have closely related effects ( such as " Marshmallon " and " Spirit Reaper " ) , so just because one of them isn ' t listed here , doesn ' t mean it ' s not an effective stall card — it simply means it ' s not considered a staple . Sometimes more obscure stall cards such as " Gellenduo " work better because of the kind of deck you have decided to play . Anti - effect final stall . This kind of Deck is based on locking down your opponent while finishing the Duel via " Final Countdown " . The main strategy of this Deck is keeping your foe from attacking , as well as using negation effects against the opponent . Many of those cards involve : Marshmallon , Spirit Reaper , Gellenduo , Decoyroid plus Heart of Clear Water , as well as Ground Collapse times three . A Skill Drain might also help by negating Effect Monsters ( beware not to use Monster Effects along with that ) . The combo King Dragun and Metalsilver Armor blocks targeting effects your opponent uses , hence you ' ll be safe against most effects . An effective stalling combo would be Temple of the Kings and Scrap - Iron Scarecrow , that keeps your opponent from attacking . Combined with negation effects such as Skill Drain or Jinzo plus Amplifier in order to negate most effects upon using this Stall . However , there is a weakness in this strategy . Spiritualism is able to take down the Stall as it cannot be negated and might return Ground Collapse / Royal Decree and thus have a free path for breaking the lock . Angel O7 negates the effect of Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 , thus leaving their Spells intact . The only way your opponent may get through the Stall to win is by having the 5 parts of Exodia . Due to the easy handling of combining such effects , you are able to finish the Duel easily via " Final Countdown " or " Wave - Motion Cannon " . Wall Deck . A wall deck focuses almost exclusively on stalling . These decks usually have significantly more than 40 cards and win by forcing your opponent to deck out simply by drawing cards during their draw phases . Unlike a mill deck , wall decks do not include cards to mill out the opponent ' s deck . Hand trap wall . A hand trap wall deck focuses mostly on hard traps , this makes it very difficult for your opponent to negate or counter them , since they don ' t need to be placed on the field in advance , making them highly resistant to cards like Twin Twisters , which might be able to shut down other stall decks . This type of deck can be surprisingly effective , and can often win even against aggressive swarming decks such as Blue - Eyes . However , these type of wall decks are easily countered by most burn decks , as well as mill decks . Some cards that might be used in a hand trap wall include : Note . Since both Stall Decks and Lockdown Decks rely heavily on blocking effects , and require elaborate tactics , there ' s a gradation between the two , and it may be difficult to classify a deck as one or the other .