VCR_CAT

I've been wanting to make a control deck theme like this for some time. Of course one that's machine-- this is something that just needs to be gotten out of my system and I absolutely do not apologize for it. The idea is that I really want an archetype of military machines. Tanks and guns. I wanted it to be easily splashed into a wide variety of decks, and something you can run differently if you want it to be an engine piece or if you want to run the deck in more of a pure sense. Honestly I wanted to make Machine Shaddolls and can you blame me? For the "control" aspect I focused on a couple factors. The first was a focus on the maindeck monsters to be supporting engine pieces and fusion materials first and foremost with a minimal focus on monster spamming. There is, of course, high potential for the cards to be involved in combos. I've intentionally worked with the characteristics of the maindeck monsters to make them very easily supported and worked with a lot of other goodstuff generic strategies and a variety of decks, but the cards by themselves won't easily make large field-building combos by themselves, nor will they be very strong as battle pieces on their own. Then we get to the fusions, with the other two focuses on control being: a minimal use of negation effects, a high focus on disruption, and the act of battling being very secondary to more indirect ways to dealing damage and removing targets. The idea of the deck is rooted in its RTS inspiration: accumulate resources and fortify your position. So let's get to it.

I think I agree that the stat increase effects are a bit too underwhelming, and adjusted accordingly. Otherwise, banishing the discards sounds brazy and interesting for how the card works for sure and I'll go ahead with that. Not sure about the banished Exodia pieces effect, or if they're up or down, then the card kinda really steers itself into FTK territory.

Exodia support, but not what you think. I took an approach to support The Legendary Exodia Incarnate and Exodia Necross, as well as indirectly Exodius as well, as the primary boss monsters of this deck. Of course the alternate win condition is always present, but I took measures to allow these cards to support the extra parts of the Exodia theme without supporting the FTK portion. Of course supporting those parts of Exodia means supporting the alt win condition, but I think Incarnate and Exodius are much healthier applications of the mechanic than a stall-and-win style. My inspiration for the play style is entirely derived from Exodius, Legendary Incarnate, and Necross and the sort of intended play-styles those cards carry: locking down the field with singular big bosses that slowly work towards a guaranteed win condition, putting that sort of constant pressure with the looming alt-win-con combined with a powerful boss monster. To facilitate this, I focused on using the Exodia cards as equip cards for a series of monsters called "-of the Forbidden Guardian", which I flavored as an Exodia-focused cult bent on utilizing its power by any means necessary, including siphoning power from its remains. In addition, I made 5 "new pieces" of Exodia: normal spells. This series of cards are meant to work with strengthening the Exodia bosses without directly fueling FTK strategies, so I made them as direct support for the Forbidden Guardian monsters as well as the bosses. Lore-wise, the names of these "new pieces" are based on Ancient Egyptian beliefs regarding a being's soul, or essence, in short making them pieces of Exodia's spirit rather than just Exodia's body. What inspired the deck? I made a DARK Machine monster inspired by Exodius which was meant more as like a meta tool, and that got me thinking about Exodia decks in general, as well as the extended lore and themes around the cards. I really like the designs of the extra boss monsters, I just wish they were more viable and that Exodia as a theme overall could do more than just stall or FTK. So, without further adue, let's dive into it.

I do realize that the banishing effect is one that really makes it situational in which deck it's being used with. However, knowing that there are a number of well used cards (such as Desires or Snow) that set it up by itself make it pretty easy to get out onto the field. But, beyond that, its function would make it a very strong sideboard piece as against something like Runick you now have a single card that your opponent's entire gameplan is setting up or making stronger. As for the stat balancing, I had a lot of trouble with it admittedly. It's a hard balance to strike because you have cards like Desires or any of the various new Pot-of-cards that involve mass card banishing that could possibly bust this card wide open, though there is the avenue of adding in a clause for reducing or eliminating battle damage your opponent takes it's already a bit of a soupy card as it is. Overall, I have to admit I had a few too many ideas for this card. I wanted to make something a little Exodius-like but with a different spin, but the more I worked on it the more complex it got. It cultivated an archetype I designed later that I'm about to post, though, and I did have fun making it, but you're right in saying that this is more like 2 or 3 cards in one and being more focused in what it does would make it a more solid design.

Icon of One Forbidden DARK - Level 10 Machine/Effect Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned by shuffling all your banished cards (min. 5) into your Deck. You can only Special Summon 1 “Icon of One Forbidden” per turn. Cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects. This card gains 400 ATK/DEF for each of your face-down banished cards, and 200 ATK/DEF for each face-up banished card. Once per turn: You can discard up to 4 cards and banish them face-down; Banish a total number of cards equal to the number of cards discarded for this effect, up to 1 each from either GY and/or either field. During each End Phase, you can banish 1 “Forbidden One” monster from your hand, Deck, or GY face-down. You can tribute this card: add 5 face-down cards banished by this card’s effect to your hand. ATK ? | DEF ? I acknowledge how risky it is to make a card like this, but I also think it would be a very interesting tool to use, not just for Forbidden One decks but decks or side-boards in general.

Machina Logisticolonel EARTH - Level 2 Machine/Effect If you Normal Summon a Machine monster: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. You can only use 1 of the following effects of “Machine Logisticolonel” per turn, and only once that turn. ● Target 2 “Machina” monsters in your GY: banish them, and if you do, add 1 “Machina” card from your Deck to your hand. ● Shuffle 2 “Machina” cards in your hand to your Deck, and if you do, draw 2 cards. ATK 900 | DEF 0 Machina Overwatch EARTH - Level 7 Machine/Effect You can discard 1 other "Machina" monster; Special Summon this card from your hand or GY. If this card is Summoned from the GY by its own effect, banish it when it leaves the field. During your opponent’s turn, when a card or effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can target 1 Machine monster you control; Destroy that target and negate the effect. You can only use this effect of “Machina Overwatch” once per turn. ATK 1600 | DEF 2500 Machina Supportrol EARTH - Level 10 Machine/Union/Effect If this card is sent to the GY by a “Machina” card: You can Special Summon this card from your GY, but you can only Special Summon Machine monsters for the rest of the turn and banish this card when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of “Machina Supportrol” once per turn. Once per turn, you can either: Target 1 monster you control; equip this card to that target OR: Unequip this card and Special Summon it. A monster equipped with this card gains 700 ATK/DEF, also if the equipped monster would be destroyed by battle or card effect, destroy this card instead. ATK 1400 | DEF 2100 Machina Gearquarters Field Spell If you would discard exactly 1 “Machina” monster to activate a “Machina” monster’s effect, you can send 1 “Machina” card from your Deck to your GY instead. You can only gain this effect of “Machina Gearquarters” once per turn. Once per turn: You can target 1 Machine monster you control; equip 1 appropriate “Machina” union monster from your hand or GY to that target. Machina Emergency Deployment Continuous Trap Card When this card is activated: You can Special Summon 1 “Machina” monster from your Deck whose Level is equal to or less than the number of monsters your opponent controls x2. “Machina” monsters you control gain 500 ATK/DEF. If a “Machina” monster you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card from your GY instead. You can only activate 1 “Machina Emergency Deployment” per turn.

But heed this warning! WARNING. desires are never fulfilled. Nor quenched! you will fail. Fail! FAIL. Fail. fail. like the rest of them. Like the rest of them! like the rest of them. Welcome to Digi-COM, the first unique archetype I've designed in years. This theme came out as one of the larger ones I've designed, as it required a number of cards in order to fully flesh out the concept that I had in mind for how this theme would function, but in a gameplay perspective this would also make it a theme where you are running a greater number of different cards at 1 or 2 apiece. Digi-COM is a DARK Machine Xyz theme, centered around rank 5 and 11. The theme is comprised of several components with their own sub-archetype name: Digi-COM, the "motherboard" cards, Digi-DRIVE, which are the components, Digi-WARE, which are the programs that are run, and Digi-FRAME, which are the final Xyz monsters that you compose. Gameplay is centered around using a Digi-COM card, typically with Digi-DRIVE monsters equipped to it, in order to perform an Xyz Summon of a Digi-FRAME (this Xyz Summon using the equipped cards as well). Your base Digi-FRAME monster, Peerless Cavalry, has no active effects of his own and, if summoned from the grave with no materials, could not do anything but simply be killed. However, through the COM, DRIVE, and WARE cards, when attached as materials, grant these Xyz monsters a wide variety of different bonuses and effects that can create some dangerous monsters. Your end game? Muster the sheer computing power necessary to create the Evolutionary Alkahest and begin analyzing, de-compiling, and destroying your opponent's deck from the inside out.

Who didn't see this coming? Manic Minotaur Modalohr Level 4 - EARTH Machine/Effect During your Main Phase or when your opponent’s monster declares an attack (Quick Effect); You can send 1 Spell/Trap on your field to the GY, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can target 2 EARTH Machine monsters you control with the same Level; Immediately after this effect resolves, Xyz Summon 1 Machine Xyz Monster using those targets. You can only use each effect of “Manic Minotaur Modalohr” once per turn. ATK 1800 | DEF 1000 Based off the Modalohr railway system. While I wouldn't choose this card if I had to choose one to become real, I know deep down that this card has some really crazy possibilities, especially with Revolving Switchyard. The self-summon, however, I feel would give actual usability to the sent-to-grave effects that the Schedule cards possess. Tenacious Track Trailblazer Level 10 - EARTH Machine/Effect Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) while you control no monsters, but its original ATK/DEF become halved. You can send this card from your field to the GY; Special Summon 1 Level 4 EARTH Machine monster with 1800 or more ATK from your Deck, but you can only Special Summon Machine monsters for the rest of the turn. You can only use this effect of “Tenacious Track Trailblazer” once per turn. ATK 3600 | DEF 2000 Based off of a Jordan Spreader, a type of train used to build track banks. This is the card where if I could only choose one of my customs to be real, it would be this card. The biggest weakness of Railway, and EARTH Machine for that matter, is an incredible reliance on their Normal Summon. Between Infinitrack Harvester, how Derricrane and Bullet Express rely on a previously established field, Machina Metalcruncher-- every single one of the cards that all 3 themes need to properly start a combo or play NEED a card that's Normal Summoned first, and in a gamestate where negation and disruption are rampant and easily played for cheap, having something that can allow you to start a play without completely screwing over all prospects in your turn are in high demand. Functionally, Trailblazer is a 1-card Rank 10 that does not use your Normal Summon and this makes the card incredibly strong. I understand this. I feel, however, that a good trade-off is that said Rank 10 you make lacks Bullet Express or Derricrane-- two cards that turn Number 81 from an average wall to a strong card. It's powerful, for sure, but the only cards it overshadows and renders obsolete are Night Express and Rainbow-- which, to be quite frank, are not difficult cards to render obsolete and kind of deserve it. The flavour of this card is supposed to depict it literally building the track for the Level 4 monster it summons. Prudent Schedule Quickplay Spell Special Summon 1 Level 10 EARTH Machine monster from your hand, and if you do, draw 1 card. If this set card is sent from the field to the GY: You can send 1 EARTH Machine monster from your Deck to the GY. You can only use each effect of “Punctual Schedule” once per turn. Another card in my set is additional support for the "Schedule" spells, and I felt having a third option really rounds them out. Again, another card that helps with starting plays and some versatility, though I wouldn't really say it's necessarily as strong as Urgent. Adamant Chopper Shunter Earth - BOTTOM LEFT Machine/Link/Effect If this card is Special Summoned: You can set 1 “Revolving Switchyard” or 1 “Schedule” Spell from your Deck or GY to your field. If a Machine Xyz Monster is Special Summoned to your field while this card is on the field or in the GY: You can target that monster; attach this card to that monster from your field or GY as material. You can only use each effect of “Adamant Chopper Shunter” once per turn. A Machine Xyz Monster with this card attached as material gains 300 ATK/DEF. ATK 750 | LINK-1 Like Double Header, Chopper Shunter is based off of a Chopper Coupling and a Shunter Train. I feel like the set mechanic makes Special Schedule a bit better compared to these other two, though while I would run the other 2 closer to 3 each I would still only run 1-2 of Special. I like the material effect because it makes 81 a nice round 3500 don't worry about Gustav while also preventing the issue of "I use 81's effect now it's immune AND has even beefier stats" because this card's effect doesn't grant the effect, it's just a normal passive. Dreadnought Dreadguard Rank 4 - FIRE Machine/Xyz/Effect 2 Level 4 Machine monsters When your opponent activates a monster’s effect (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card; destroy that monster, and if you do, negate its activated effect. You can only use this effect of “Dreadnought Dreadguard” once per turn. At the end of a turn that this card destroyed an opponent’s monster with its effect: You can Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 Rank 10 or higher Machine Xyz Monster by using this face-up card you control as material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon. Transfer its materials to the Summoned monster.) ATK 1000 | DEF 2200 I knew if I was adding more Level 4 support that I needed to better validate the use of Level 4's in a Trains deck. I waffled on the design a lot until I settled on looking at Dreadnought Dreadnoid and decided to... validate some of its weirdness compared to everything else that supports R10 Machines. Dreadguard is the more defensive option, while also helping fill in that niche of disruption-style protection that the Trains lack. Having the destruction occur BEFORE negation was intentional-- I feel it's a small change that adds quite a bit of nuance to an otherwise mundane function on cards, and also reduces its potency enough to warrant being a 2-material R4, even if it requires machine materials. For some quick ruling-- for monster effects that activate in the hand or deck but do NOT have sending itself from those locations to the GY/banishment as a cost, this would work. But this effect will not work on effects that activate when banished/in the grave, or effects that would send the card to those locations as cost. Like handtraps. Superdreadnaught Rail Cannon Suppressor Seigfried Rank 10 - EARTH Machine/Xyz/Effect 2 Level 10 monsters Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can detach 1 material from this card and choose 1 zone on the field; turn any face-up card in that zone face-down (Monsters are changed to Defense Position), and until the end of the next turn, cards cannot be activated or Summoned in that zone. Face-down cards in that zone cannot be activated in response to this effect's activation. ATK 2800 | DEF 2000 Based off of another early-20th-century Krupp railway-based artillery platform the 38cm Seifried K. Again, EARTH Machine and Railway decks specifically lack hard in disruptive effects, but I wanted something that operated... differently. The flavour I worked with before refining my idea was an artillery shot that would literally destroy a Card Zone-- not necessarily the card IN the zone, but the zone itself. Forcing what is established there to go into hiding until the smoke clears. In the end, I was quite happy with the outcome of this card, and knowing the deck and how it operates even with my support a player couldn't deploy more than 2 of these on a field, tops. While the zone lock-out wouldn't matter as much as shutting down the cards in that zone already, it's worth noting that this card DOES work on field zones. Do with that information what you will.

Updated! Added 3 additional cards and made Giga Platform a 3-material monster.

I've been playing a lot of Master Duel lately, and of course (to nobody's surprise I'm sure) my deck of choice has been EARTH Machine. As my ADHD hyper-focus on this game has returned, so, too, has a strong desire to see vacant niches within this archetype filled that I cannot ignore. Without further ado, these are 5 cards that I feel would really flesh out Infinitracks and boost them to be a properly competitive theme. The intention of these designs is to help make the deck into something that can, honestly, compete with higher tier power levels in the current modern game. At least, in terms of a Master Duel sense. I really only say that because I haven't played the full up-to-date formats in a couple years. Another intention is help improve the deck so that more built varieties can be made. At the moment, a pure Infinitrack Deck feels neither viable nor practical to make, and the only proper iterations are always combined with other themes and archetypes. Not that combining is necessarily a bad thing, but I think that having the ability to create a more pure build of the deck and adding more options to how a theme is built and played is never a bad thing.

I haven’t been able to really afford the full price game yet but I plan on getting it!! I did watch Wayne Radio TV play through though and I thought the pirate level had a lot of really good mechanics going on.