Getting Rid of a Royal Decree on the Field: Negate Activation of Just Effects

[deckmaster]

The text on Royal Decree says "Royal Decree Continuous Trap: As long as this card remains face-up on the field, negate the effects of all Trap Cards except this card on the field." I presume you can activate traps meaninglessly. For example, suppose you have all 5 spell/trap zones filled with traps and you need to play MST to rid the field of Royal Decree. Suppose one of these is Wobaku or some other trap without a trigger. Can you activate it meaninglessly to clear a spot for MST?

On another note, since Imperial Order had costs to maintain and was put on the forbidden list, do people think this card is broken? It's definately a rich player's card!

 

[DaGuyWitBluGlasses]

Yes you may activate Traps, you may activate cards as long as they have the POTENTIAL to do something, (if your opponent used a quick-play spell to remove the Royal Decree in the chain then your Trap would resolve.. the potential is there even thought it would get negated.)

Imperial order's cost is what makes it broken. If it didn't have a cost it would hurt both players just as much, or the controller more since Dust Tornado doesn't destroy ones own card. With the cost the controller can just choose not to pay for it when s/he is ready to activate a bunch of spells for the Win.

 

[anthonyj]

Royal Decree would probably make it to the limited list if it wasn't a $!#@ $100 plus card.  Since the meta when Decree came out was much lighter on traps it hasn't seen much abuse.  The current ban list makes it much easier to run trap heavy and would thus promote more use of this card.  But that would assume you had the money to get this card. I know a duelist that used 2 Royal Decree and 3 MSTs and really pulled some outrageous combos. Imperial Order would have been restricted even without the cost.

 

[AgentMage2012]

You forget about the japanese meta, where royal decree is a structure deck common. The reason it is NOT restricted is because you cant get rid of it at wim, like you ALMOST can with Imperial order (imperial decree).