Notes & Combos

I played Trap Lab for Season 20 with a few distinctions, most noticeable being the lack of dedicated removal traps. The deck performed really well in Diamond as that part of the climb went by relatively quickly and I felt it was pretty good in Master (I didn't have to repeat any ranks / didn't drop too much in a given rank). For more information on the deck choices please read below:

FAQ

Why play Trap Lab, isn't Furniture Lab better?

While Furniture Lab is still very good, I believe Trap Lab is in a really favorable spot right now which is why I went for it. Some of the biggest threats to it (EEV, Evenly, Reboot, etc) have been on the decline in comparison to when Lady & Big released last season, as they're often not that great against the much more popular Furniture version, and outside of Evenly, are still lackluster in payoff against the top of the meta. Floodgates are still very strong to no one's surprise and Lady's ability to consistently tutor them on both turns is quite powerful on ladder at the moment given the lack of checks for it which further cemented it as the choice to go with.

Why play Labrynth Set-Up?

While previously viewed as a "bad" Lab card, Labrynth Set-Up is an option that's come on recently - seeing a good amount of top-cut success in the OCG for Labs that are on it. The card is very powerful on res given your options off it and the lines you can create (particularly the double flood line, and the set 4 line that's reminiscent of R-ACE's Turbulence) and it also acts as an in-engine way to mitigate and recover from wipes like HFD, LS, etc. Set-Up is really nice into Tear as you can hard punish them when they mill you in a way that can easily lead to game (DDG + Barrier cycle and loop) and it's generally good against any other control deck - especially the mirror as you're essentially playing with 5 Big Welcomes and can out gas them.

Why no board breakers, where are the removal traps?

As far as removal traps are concerned, Big Welcome is really all you need and playing more high-impact traps that will meaningfully stop the opponent (like floods) in the slots those would have taken up was much better value in motion. On the topic of breakers, I felt that HTs are just more profitable in the current meta as stoping a board from forming in the first place is better than trying to dismantle it after the opponent has already secured follow-up and gained a bunch of CA off their opening turn.

Notes

• In patches on ladder where I was seeing more rogue, I played Veiler over Belle.

• Field Spell was rather clunky in play which is why it was excluded. I didn't miss it during the climb.