TKk

I've always been a huge fan of the first YGO series. There's something that's so distinct about Kazuki Takahashi's style, even today (despite how censored the anime is, even in the Japanese version). So I thought it would be fun to take some of the weird, and often completely situational, anime-only cards and imagine what they might need to do to stand a chance in the incredibly fast-paced modern game. This time the theme of choice is Joey's Landstar monsters that only appear 1 time in the filler arc during his battle against Siegfried von Schroeder and his Valkyries.

This whole deck starts with the real life card Swordsman of Landstar, or the much more relevant retrain, Comrade Swordsman of Landstar. To me this means that the Landstar archetype should be one that supports either Warriors, EARTH monsters, or just the idea of maintaining board presence the entire Duel. The fact that it is a Tuner offers some support, but I wasn't about to spend time trying to draw a Level 6 Landstar Synchro monster because I suck at drawing.
https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Comrade_Swordsman_of_Landstar

 Rifleman of Landstar

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1. This card can attack directly.

2. When a "Landstar" monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.

3. If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can activate 1 of these effects; ● Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower "Landstar" monster from your Deck, except "Rifleman of Landstar". ● Add 1 "Landstar" Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand.

Rifleman is the first to attack. It makes sense that as the marksman of the group, he makes his move, and that signals his fellow warriors to battle. Thus he can attack directly and freely, in order to guarantee his effect will go off at least one time. He cannot summon copies of himself, his attack points are low enough that they're only significant if allowed to continue for multiple turns, and because he needs to attack, any further advantage needs to wait for Main Phase 2. All of these strengths and weakness put together, I think, make for interesting card design that encourages strategy and interaction.

 Grappler of Landstar:

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1. You take no battle damage from battles involving this card.

2. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card battled a monster: That monster's ATK/DEF become 0.

3. If this card destroys a monster by battle: You can take 1 Level 3 or lower "Landstar" monster in your GY, except "Grappler of Landstar", and either add it to your hand or Special Summon it.

When I see Grappler and how he's dressed, its very clear he's designed after the US Army Special Forces (aka the "Green Berets"). That makes me think he needs to know how to hurt monsters and not get hurt back. Each of his abilities gives him a good mix of offensive and defense, and combined with the next card "Knight of Landstar", allows him to keep picking off monsters 1 after another (or at least removing them as a threat when attacking).

 Knight of Landstar:

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1. While another "Landstar" monster is on the field, your opponent's monsters cannot target "Landstar" monsters for attacks, also your opponent cannot target "Landstar" monsters on the field with card effects.

2. If a "Landstar" monster(s) you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can discard this card instead.

3. During the End Phase, if this effect was activated this turn (and was not negated): You can Special Summon this card from your GY.

Knight needs to be able to protect his fellow Landstarians. In order to do that in a competitive sense, he needs to be flexible enough to adapt to the situation. While on the field, he blocks attacks on the typically weak monsters, while also preventing them from being picked off by efficient spot removal effects that would kill this strategy instantly. While in the hand, he provides an opportunity for surprise and gives a window for Grappler to safely take down a big threat that might otherwise also have been protected by effects that target. Lastly, being able to Special Summon himself is invaluable, as he otherwise has no use once he's discarded and there are no other means use this effect again.
I wish I could've made his text smaller, but when looking for cards as reference, I really only saw that first effect written as is on newer cards, and I do believe all of the effects are necessary.

 Landstar Forces:

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1. Special Summon as many Level 3 or lower "Landstar" monsters with different names as possible from your hand or GY. For the rest of this turn after this card resolves, you cannot declare attacks, except with "Landstar" monsters, also you cannot Special Summon monsters, except EARTH Warrior monsters.

2. You can only activate 1 "Landstar Forces" per turn.

This is a hard card to balance. In the anime, it pretty much has the same effect but with no restrictions. Even with only Fusion monsters in the Extra Deck, that is still a pretty powerful effect when you consider Tribute Summons. That being said, even with the work I've done here, this archetype is not that powerful and needs a card like this to help them maintain board presence. I think just keeping it to EARTH Warriors is fair enough. There are not very many good Level 6 Synchro monsters that qualify, M-X-Saber Invoker is banned, and relevant Link monsters are pretty much limited to Gouki. It's possible that this card would still be underpowered if they could attack too, but its probably best to keep the card future-proof from power creeps.

 Landstar Shot:

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1. Equip only to a "Landstar" monster. It gains 600 ATK/DEF.

2. Once per turn, the equipped monster cannot be destroyed by battle.

3. When this card is sent from the field to the GY: Destroy the monster your opponent controls with the highest ATK (your choice, if tied).

Probably the weirdest of the Landstar cards, this one could originally only be equipped to Rifleman. That sucked so I changed it . Now it can be equipped to any Landstar monster, gives the DEF boost too (because why not?) and accomplishes the goal of protecting other cards that need to attack (like Grappler) while still making Rifleman more of a problem (1500 per turn is starting to become painful, even in a meta where LP don't matter very much). The last effect is to give it some utility in cases where it is destroyed immediately (or a similar situation where it can't be used). You just cannot run cards like this without some back up effect, and honestly nothing else felt right when I designed it. A little arbitrary, but I think its forgivable.

At first I thought this looked too strong (and if it was real, would probably get limited to 1), but this is nothing worse than something like Soul Charge (which didn't get forbidden for a long time). It needs the text "(min. 1)". I've never seen a card like this that doesn't have that clause.

If it's Muka Muka, wouldn't you want it to be from your hand? And give it an effect that helps you maintain your hand size, even when equipping this card? It definitely needs at least 1 effect that helps you keep that stat boost relevant (although let's be honest: 2019 YGO? stats hardly matter).

This card also might be interesting as a continuous spell card that could produce tokens of any attribute when you summon a LIGHT or DARK monster with 1500 ATK and 1200 DEF (I know The Stern Mystic, Gravekeeper's Descendant, and Infinity Dark all fall into this group too, but they don't matter... lol)

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2 Insect and/or Plant monsters, including at least 1 "Naturia" monster
Cannot be destroyed by battle with a non-EARTH monster. During your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon 1 Insect or Plant monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.) If the original ATK of a "Naturia" monster you control is lower than this card's ATK, your opponent cannot target it for attacks or with card effects.

Hi all. This is my first post on the new forum!!

I love coming up with (mostly) competitive legacy support for decks I enjoyed playing many years ago. Although most of these archetypes are less than ideal, they still often have fun mechanics that Konami sadly forgot about (or they wait a good 5-10 years). That's the core concept behind this card. It may appear OP at first, but really its just a reliable way to give Naturias SOME chance of doing what they do without making it a generic spam deck that throws away flavor and fun for thoughtless power.

Hopefully everyone here will enjoy this idea as much as I enjoyed designing it (and attempting artwork ).