True Magicians - Banish Cards and Flip Them Face-Down for Effect [WIP]

[Kanoko 0]

True Magicians - WIP

"It's like a worse Lightsworn until it isn't. It's also more consistent, somehow." - anon friend 1, December 2018

"Stop." - anon friend 2, February 2019

"You designed this in a vacuum, didn't you?" - anon friend 3, February 2019

"Why is Rin f***ing broken?" - anon friend 4, April 2019

"Isn't this just triggers and damage?" - anon friend 5, May 2019

 

Preface

This is mainly how I came up with the general idea of the deck, as well as the driving premise.

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The idea for True Magicians came from two main wants I had: I wanted to play hot Spellcasters, and I wanted to "burn a meaningful resource." I wanted to be able to use resources like mana in Magic: The Gathering or damage in Cardfight!! Vanguard, but still working within the confines of currently existing mechanics. The idea here was not to "create a deck that is meta" but to "create a deck that must manage its resource." I eventually came to the idea of flipping your own banished cards face-down when I was playing cards with my friends in a Subway shop - one table on Vanguard, the other on Yu-Gi-Oh!. I was watching both when anon friend 1 mentioned Lightsworn while anon friend 3 counterblasted 2 damage at the same time.

For those unfamiliar, in Vanguard, the damage you take is represented by cards. Certain "monsters" in Vanguard can use that damage to activate an effect of theirs, which is called a counterblast. I casually mentioned that it'd be cool if in Yu-Gi-Oh! we could CB monsters in the GY, which was shot down incredibly quickly. However, there WAS a mechanic that existed for face-up and face-down cards, that wasn't the field, and wasn't the Deck.

The Banished Zone. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

Overall Archetype Intentions: Strengths & Weakness

This is how I intended for the archetype to be played, as well as the intended strengths and weaknesses. I admit to not having fully kept up with card releases, and that these cards were mostly designed in a vacuum.

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Intended Overarching Gameplay: First, banish cards from the top of the Deck. This would be a cost for minor support effects or be the effect itself. Second, monsters on the field would target face-up banished cards of the same archetype, then flip them face-down. This would be a cost for more powerful effects, and they would get more powerful the more cards you need to flip face-down. Finally, there would be recovery mechanics to retrieve cards from the banished zone - face-down or otherwise - and either shuffle them into the Deck or place them at the bottom of the Deck. During all of this, certain cards will have "if this card is banished by this archetype, gain effect."

Intended Strengths: Powerful individual card effects, with a myriad of answers to a variety of situations. Can either take it slow or use certain cards to greatly accelerate the game pace. Chains galore, as many cards contain "if this card is banished by this archetype, gain effect."

Intended Weaknesses: Stall, Deck Out, and being forced into the GY. The monsters intentionally have very little - if any - built-in protection. This is mainly because the archetype has retrieval mechanics, but also to make sure the monsters providing retrieval can be appropriately and easily dealt with. The Field Spell of the archetype has forced protection, that would banish cards from the top of the player's Deck. With nearly everything requiring banishing cards from the top of the Deck, the player should very quickly find themselves running out of cards by activating too many effects without calming down and using the retrieval mechanics, which are vulnerable to destruction.

 

The Actual Cards

Here's hoping I format correctly.

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Main Deck Monsters

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True Magician Aoko | Level 4 | LIGHT | Spellcaster / Effect | ATK 1800 / DEF 1500

If this card is Normal Summoned: You can add 1 "True Magician" card from your Deck to your hand. Once per turn, you can banish 3 cards from the top of your Deck; Special Summon 1 "True Magician" monster from your hand.

The Stratos, the Candina, the starter. Her effect is getting things into the banished, as well as search.

 

True Magician Rin | Level 4 | LIGHT | Spellcaster / Tuner / Effect | ATK 1500 / DEF 1500

If this card is Special Summoned: You can add 1 "True Magician" card from your GY to your hand. Once per turn, you can target 5 of your face-up banished "True Magician" cards and flip them face-down; Special Summon 1 "True Magician Token" (Fiend-Type/ DARK / Level 1 / ATK 0 / DEF 0). You can only use this effect of "True Magician Rin" once per turn. This card cannot be be used as material for the summon of an Extra Deck monster that does not have "True Magician" in its name. While this card is face-up on the field, it cannot be targeted by the effects of your cards that would negate it.

Your first GY retrieve. Cherish her, because that won't happen often in the archetype. I don't plan to make good Link support for this Deck - just functional - so I think the one card Link-2 is fine, though second opinions are appreciated - I mean, that's what I'm here for after all. I took great caution (at least I hope I did) to make sure she wasn't a one-card Rank level 8 Synchro (token is lv 1) and not a one-card Xyz (it's a token). I made it unable to be targeted by your negates (not your opponent's) to stop cheese of negating her effect to Link-2, or going out of her archetype.

 

True Magician Cagliostro | Level 4 | LIGHT | Spellcaster / Effect | ATK 1100 / DEF 2000

If this card is banished by the effect of a "True Magician" card: you can draw 1 card. You can gain only one of the following effects of "True Magician Cagliostro" per turn, and only once that turn:
• Banish 3 cards from the top of your Deck (Quick Effect); target 1 face-up card on the field and negate it. Banish the target at the end of the turn.
• Target 5 of your banished face-up "True Magician" cards and flip them face-down; target up to 5 of your banished face-up cards and shuffle them into your Deck.

Our first "Trigger", as it were. Now that I'm actually here, I feel like her stats need nerfing... Ah, well. I figure I'd give her a banish and a flip face-down, mostly to prevent bricking if you don't have Aoko+Rin. You can only use of them a turn. I also see the part in the image where I forget the "and flip them face-down" part of the second cost; I'll correct it in a bit.

 

True Magician Marisa | Level 5 | LIGHT | Spellcaster / Effect | ATK 2200 / DEF 2000

If this card is banished face-up by the effect of a "True Magician" card: you can Special Summon this card. You can gain only one of the following effects of "True Magician Marisa" per turn, and only once that turn:
• Banish 3 cards from the top of your Deck (Quick Effect); destory 1 card on the field.
• Target 5 of your face-up banished "True Magician" cards and flip them face-down; banish up to 2 cards on either players' field, hand, or GY.

The other "Trigger"... and level 5! What Wulf should've been, in my opnion. If the going gets rough, you can Tribute Summon her. 

 

The Spells [WIP]

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True Magician's Jewelcraft | Continuous Spell

You cannot activate this card unless you control a "True Magician" monster. When this card is activated: You can banish 3 cards from the top of your Deck; target 1 face-up card on each side of the field and negate them. Once per turn, you can target 5 of your face-up banished "True Magician" cards and flip them face-down; add up to 2 face-up banished "True Magician" cards to your hand.

Ahh, the first spell you're seeing, and it's a deviation from the norm of this archetype's spells. The banish 3 may not be good but it's not really meant to be; I wanted it to banish every turn. 

 

True Magician's Peaceful Song | Quick-Play Spell

If you control a "True Magician" monster: You can banish 3 cards from the top of your Deck; target 1 monster on the field and gain LP equal to that target's current ATK, and if you do, that monster also cannot be targeted or destroyed for the rest of the turn. If this card is banished from your Deck by the effect of a "True Magician" monster: you can target up to 5 of your face-down banished cards and flip them face-up, and if you do, shuffle them into the Deck, except "True Magician's Peaceful Song" or "True Magician Cagliostro".

Your other piece of retrieval, other than Cagliostro herself - and that's assuming you get lucky and banish this card... that is also protection if you just activate it normally. The only protection you have so far, and probably the only one outside of the field spell and the Synchro Monster.

 

True Magician's Singularity Star | Quick-Play Spell

If you control a "True Magician" monster: You can banish 3 cards from the top of your Deck; then add 1 "True Magician" monster from your Deck to your hand. If this card is banished from your Deck by the effect of a "True Magician" monster: you can target 5 of your face-down banished cards and shuffle them into the Deck, then banish the top 5 cards of your Deck face-down.

Surely text isn't that big on real cards ... In any case, this is less retrieval and more recycle. I'm honestly a bit torn on this one - should this banish the top 5 of your Deck, or just be straight retrieval like Peaceful Song?

 

True Magician's Dark Spark | Quick-Play Spell

If you control a "True Magician" monster: You can banish 3 cards from the top of your Deck; destroy 1 card on the field. If this card is banished from your Deck by the effect of a "True Magician" monster: you can destroy 1 card on the field, and if you do, banish it.

Standard destruction spell. It's actually underwhelming as far as I can see it right not, but again, second opinions are appreciated.

 

Alright, here's hoping I can edit posts for more cards and I didn't screw up formatting. Also hoping I'm posting to the right place as well ...

Any thought on the cards so far would be very appreciated! ^.^ 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Kanoko_Tohsaka
Corrected Cagliostro's text in image.