Nephthys's Firestorm Wingbeat

[Sleepy 211]

Nephthys's Firestorm Wingbeat
[Trap]
You can activate this card from your hand by revealing a WIND monster. If a monster(s) is Summoned: Destroy all monsters on the field, and if you do, gain LP equal to the total ATK of FIRE monsters destroyed this way, and halve all battle damage to your LP this turn. Also, if this card was activated from your hand, destroy 1 WIND monster in your hand. If another "Nephthys" card(s) in your GY would be banished, you can banish this card from your GY instead.

- - - - - - -

Nephtys have low stats and slow revivals, so heal and damage stall is what I can think of to be able to make use of their self-revival effect gimmick.
All of them are WIND chumps and FIRE bosses so it should be live often enough. It is searchable and can hinder an opponent's setup board on your turn 0 while your WIND piece gets back to you on your Standby Phase. Plus, Torrential Tribute is a good effect for the deck, but the card itself is not quite enough and can be unreliable (surprisingly coming from a near field nuke).

The last effect is just an anti "Called by the Grave" since the theme can't setup a ton of things on its own and depends too heavily on that one GY play you'll be doing that turn. Wish I could have found a way to incorporate Dark Nephthys too but one can't win them all xD

It doesn't have a hard OPT clause because I don't think you can really resolve the hand effect twice without losing all your hand anyways, and the other effects exist in non-restricted cards out there and are not really doing anything... should be ok hopefully.

Edited December 28, 2019 by Sleepy

[Summer Darj 292]

The card name seems a bit too convoluted or exaggerated to me, and doesn't follow the name pattern of the other Nephthys Spell/Trap support, which is "[Something] of Nephthys". Why not just call it "Firestorm of Nephthys"? Or you could use the word Wingstorm too xD
It has bits of different things that don't seem to go together, IMO. The on-field effect is comparable to an archetype TT that is search by Chronicler and Discipler, and doesn't actually require Nephthys card to be played so you can splash it as extra copies of TT in other decks. Then the GY effect is welcomed for sure, but I don't see how it relates to the card's name or first effect. That's not a problem though, since there are other Spells with continuous protection effects that don't relate to their on-field effect either, "Return of the Dragon Lords" and "Zefra Providence" coming to mind. Regardless, looks like a solid card to me, even if it can played as extra copies of TT.

I'm puzzled at the activate-from-hand clause though. Not that the intent isn't clear, but how it would work mechanic-wise, since it's an unique case of a card with a from-hand activation clause that resembles an effect rather than a condition or cost. Then the "if you do" implies it starts a chain, but the activation of the card itself inherently starts a chain too so it kind of tries to start 2 chains at once? or what's going on? I get how it's intended to work, but IDK how to write it properly or in a more PSCT-friendly way.

[Sleepy 211]

2 hours ago, Darj said:

The card name seems a bit too convoluted or exaggerated to me, and doesn't follow the name pattern of the other Nephthys Spell/Trap support, which is "[Something] of Nephthys". Why not just call it "Firestorm of Nephthys"? Or you could use the word Wingstorm too xD
It has bits of different things that don't seem to go together, IMO. The on-field effect is comparable to an archetype TT that is search by Chronicler and Discipler, and doesn't actually require Nephthys card to be played so you can splash it as extra copies of TT in other decks. Then the GY effect is welcomed for sure, but I don't see how it relates to the card's name or first effect. That's not a problem though, since there are other Spells with continuous protection effects that don't relate to their on-field effect either, "Return of the Dragon Lords" and "Zefra Providence" coming to mind. Regardless, looks like a solid card to me, even if it can played as extra copies of TT.

I'm puzzled at the activate-from-hand clause though. Not that the intent isn't clear, but how it would work mechanic-wise, since it's an unique case of a card with a from-hand activation clause that resembles an effect rather than a condition or cost. Then the "if you do" implies it starts a chain, but the activation of the card itself inherently starts a chain too so it kind of tries to start 2 chains at once? or what's going on? I get how it's intended to work, but IDK how to write it properly or in a more PSCT-friendly way.

The intent is to provide the hand trap clause but under the condition that when the actual effect does happen, you gotta be able to destroy a WIND in hand. It's meant to be an addendum to the TT effect, not a different chain, or I would have written it in the colon/semi-colon format of clauses that start their own chains. It's not unheard of for a card to be able to start 2 chains on its own but it's not what happens here. It'd be more convoluted but I guess the change would be along the lines of:
You can activate this card from your hand, but if you do, you must also destroy 1 WIND monster in your hand with its effect.
another potential edit could be forcing a reveal of the WIND in hand for the hand trap clause, and then finding a way to incorporate the WIND destruction from hand into the resolution of the effect, but that sounds more wordy and potentially tricky. Though the intent is that you can't use the hand trap clause if you don't have a WIND to destroy, but once used, it should go on even if something in the chain causes you to stop having the WIND afterwards.

It's not an extra TT if it is better than TT xD
TT would be the secondary option because this card always has a small chance of gaining you LP, on top of always being a TT effect (at worst). The game has enough nukes like Needle Ceiling so I figured it is time to update the power of Traps (Torrential could afford to get a retrain version that did that effect but with an extra clause or two related to WATER as well IMO). 

 

[Summer Darj 292]

Still not sure about how to write the from-hand clause. My first thoughts was "You can destroy 1 WIND monster in your hand to activate this card from your hand", but then that reads more like a cost than an effect, and I figure you want it to destroy by effect to trigger the floating effects of the WIND Nephthys monsters. Another approach that comes to mind is first giving it a conditional-like from-hand clause that doesn't involve interacting with other cards, and then a separate effect on the likes of "If this card is/was activated from the hand: Destroy 1 WIND monster in your hand". The reveal condition sounds like a good direction:
You can activate this card from your hand by revealing a WIND monster. If a monster(s) is Summoned: Destroy all monsters on the field, and if you do, gain LP equal to the total ATK of FIRE monsters destroyed this way, and halve all battle damage to your LP this turn. Also, if this card was activated from your hand, destroy 1 WIND monster in your hand. If another "Nephthys" card(s) in your GY would be banished, you can banish this card from your GY instead.

And I see now that it's indeed a better TT. I misread as halving the damage the opponent takes as a sort of balance factor, thinking of how Fog Blade also differs from Fiendish Chain with the "cannot be attacked" effect on top of the floating and archetype support, although that can used to your advantage too so it's not exactly a weakening factor, but actually it halves the damage you take. And that's in addition to archetype support. But still, not a problem to make a better TT for an archetype IMO. Besides, to fully benefit from the support, you would have to run Nephthys cards, possibly as an engine, but dedicating an engine to grab a TT, or whatever other toys Nephthys have and get, albeit in a delayed way since Chronicler and Disciple search in the SP... I don't see it working well in top tier levels of the game.

[Sleepy 211]

36 minutes ago, Darj said:

Still not sure about how to write the from-hand clause. My first thoughts was "You can destroy 1 WIND monster in your hand to activate this card from your hand", but then that reads more like a cost than an effect, and I figure you want it to destroy by effect to trigger the floating effects of the WIND Nephthys monsters. Another approach that comes to mind is first giving it a conditional-like from-hand clause that doesn't involve interacting with other cards, and then a separate effect on the likes of "If this card is/was activated from the hand: Destroy 1 WIND monster in your hand". The reveal condition sounds like a good direction:
You can activate this card from your hand by revealing a WIND monster. If a monster(s) is Summoned: Destroy all monsters on the field, and if you do, gain LP equal to the total ATK of FIRE monsters destroyed this way, and halve all battle damage to your LP this turn. Also, if this card was activated from your hand, destroy 1 WIND monster in your hand. If another "Nephthys" card(s) in your GY would be banished, you can banish this card from your GY instead.

And I see now that it's indeed a better TT. I misread as halving the damage the opponent takes as a sort of balance factor, thinking of how Fog Blade also differs from Fiendish Chain with the "cannot be attacked" effect on top of the floating and archetype support, although that can used to your advantage too so it's not exactly a weakening factor, but actually it halves the damage you take. And that's in addition to archetype support. But still, not a problem to make a better TT for an archetype IMO. Besides, to fully benefit from the support, you would have to run Nephthys cards, possibly as an engine, but dedicating an engine to grab a TT, or whatever other toys Nephthys have and get, albeit in a delayed way since Chronicler and Disciple search in the SP... I don't see it working well in top tier levels of the game.

Chronicler has 2 "add from GY to hand" effects. The SP effect is a floating effect, but it does have a MP effect that is not delayed.
Same with Disciple. She has an immediate search effect during MP, and a second effect that says she revives when destroyed by effect.
They all have a first effect that destroys something from hand to get a card from somewhere (immediately), and a different effect that floats when destroyed by effects. Only the latter is for the SP.

As for the other parts, I very much like the way the fix reads xD

[Summer Darj 292]

I see. Goes to show I just glanced at the archetype, relying more on my memories on the cards when they were first revealed. A Nephthys engine to grab a TT with the chance ot opening with a 1st turn nuke when going second ought to be good and give the archetype a sort of reward or incentive to play it.