Mr BritishFace's Dev Log

Week 1 Update/Catchup Post (Part 1: Discord Summoning)

oh boy, this is gonna be a long one...

As for the first item on the agenda, we have fully established and tested the rules for Discord Summoning, which are as follows:

- A player can conduct a Discord Summon by sending monsters they control to the graveyard whose levels differ by the level of the Discord Monster they want to summon from the Extra Deck.

- For example, if the player wants to summon a level 5 Discord Monster, they can send a level 3 monster and level 8 monster to the graveyard as Discord Material, since 8-3=5. Likewise, the player could instead send a level 1 and level 6, or level 2 and level 7, etc.

- In addition, players can, if the Discord Monster's summoning requirements allow, also use Xyz or Link Monsters as Discord Material, in which case they are treated as level 0 for a Discord Summon, seeing as they do not possess levels. So in this case, a level 5 Discord Monster can be summoned using a level 5 monster and an Xyz or Link Monster as Discord Material, as 5-0=5.

- Aside from this, Discord Monsters are treated much like Synchro or Fusion Monsters. They are summoned from the Extra Deck, they can be summoned to any Monster Zone, including the Extra Monster Zone, the monsters used as Discord Material are sent from the field to the Graveyard, and the Discord Monsters themselves are sent to the Graveyard when they are destroyed. Plus, since Discord Monsters possess levels, they can be used as Material for Synchro and Xyz Summons.

The focus on using a range of levels as opposed to specific levels as well as the ability to use Xyz and Link Monsters gives Discord Summoning a much wider range of use that can apply to many decks that are already in the game. Discord Monsters can be easily slotted into decks that can spam monsters with the appropriate level ranges, but can also be easily used in Link focused decks, and even Xyz decks that focus on a single Rank. This increased ease with which players can integrate Discord Monsters into their already established decks is exactly what we are aiming for with this mechanic.

Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions regarding Discord Summoning, or even any thoughts for your own monster/deck ideas for Discord Summoning.

Week 1 Update/Catchup Post (Part 2: The Decks)

Here's a list of all the decks I'm working on so far, as well as a brief description of their main gimmick/playstyle, and what version of the deck I'm currently on.

- Wavefarer (currently version 11)

A WATER combo deck with a focus on versatility. The deck prioritises level manipulation to facilitate their access to Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, and Discord Monsters (as well as having Link plays). The level manipulation can also be used to fuel their own offensive and defensive options, while also opening more doors to extend combos or store resources for later use. The deck also benefits from their field spell, which not only improves the decks ease of level manipulation, but also makes all monsters on the field and in the graveyards gain the WATER attribute in addition to their own, which is a great help to some of the Extra Deck monsters that gain protection or other benefits from the presence of more WATER monsters.

- Midknight (currently version 10)

A FIRE Warrior combo/aggro deck that puts it all on the line to secure the win. Midknight cards allow the duelist to use their effects normally, while allowing them to access a much better version of that effect at the cost of a few life points. Add a monster from your graveyard to your hand, or summon that monster instead for 800LP. The Midknight Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Discord Monsters all have distinct playstyles, be it negation, quick removal, utility, or raw power and burn. And regarding those life points you just paid, the deck has a number of ways to get them back, in some cases with interest.

- Delta Wing (currently version 9)

A WIND Machine combo deck that can go for control, aggro, or a combination of the two. Delta Wings can easily bounce between their Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, Link, and Discord Monsters to adapt to the current situation, even using their Rank-Up-Magic spell to switch between defensive tanks, combo extenders, and offensive juggernauts. Their field spell allows them to extend their combos, while also automatically taking their banished resources and recycling them back into the deck, with some cards allowing you to take some of those cards back into your hand right away.

- Ore Beast (currently version 9)

An EARTH power/aggro deck that embodies the old adage of might make right. Their regular Effect Monsters and Pendulum Monsters can be used to go into their Discord Monsters to extend their plays or add protection, but are mainly used to go into their big bad Rank 10 Xyz Monsters, the real MVPs of the deck. These big bois don't just hit hard, but also share some effects; they cannot be targeted or destroyed by the effects of monsters with less ATK than them, and they can attach a monster they destroy as an Xyz Material. And once an Ore Beast has feasted on an opponent's monster, they can be Ranked Up into the deck's boss monster, which is completely unaffected by the effects of weaker monsters. With the added utility of a field spell that caps all monsters ATK to the values printed on their card, the ability to Pendulum Summon one Ore Beast monster from the graveyard during each turn, and continuous monster effects that are active while in the graveyard that give bonuses to the Xyz Monsters or force the opponent into battle, Ore Beasts are the epitome of the aggro playstyle.

- Discord machine (currently version 7)

A DARK Machine combo deck with a heavy focus on cycling monsters between being on the field, in the graveyard, and being banished. Their field spell; Discord Engine, immediately banishes itself upon activation to provide continuous benefits, such as searching or summoning monsters, with those benefits increasing for each additional copy of itself that are banished. Even the monsters benefit from having multiple banished Discord Engines, opening the way for new effects to swarm the field and access their powerful Synchro, Xyz, Link, and Discord Monsters that can banish your opponents' cards or your own, including the other copies of Discord Engine if you see fit. The bigger boss monsters may require multiple banished Discord Engines in order to be summoned, but their lockdown and negation effects are well worth the investment, limiting your opponent's ability to disrupt plays during your turn while being able to disrupt plays during their turn.

- Corvus Legion (currently version 8)

A DARK Warrior deck that, while having access to Xyz and Discord Monsters, is primarily a Synchro deck with a unique twist. The Winged-Beast Tuners can be equipped from the hand or field to the Warrior Non-Tuners to grant that monster protection from certain card types, as well as turn on a shared effect that reflects ATK decreases that would effect your monsters to the opponent's monsters, much like the Mirror Armour ability used by Corviknight from Pokémon. In addition, a duelist can choose to Synchro Summon using a Warrior and the Winged-Beast Tuner it is equipped with as Synchro Material! Not only will this Synchro Summon require you to summon only one of the materials, but the Tuners let you add more cards to your hand when sent to the graveyard, and the Synchro Monster you just summoned will either have an effect that grants bonuses if a Tuner is in the graveyard or will let you equip a Tuner from the graveyard, giving it protection, weakening the opponent's monsters, and opening the option for further Synchro plays.

- Phoenixite (currently version 2)

A FIRE Synchro deck with an emphasis on destruction. Phoenixites love destroying the opponents cards just as much as they love destroying each other. Many of the Phoenixite monsters have effects that require you to destroy another Phoenixite card on your field, in your hand, or even in your deck, to swarm the field or deal with threats, while others can Special Summon themselves after being destroyed. As for the Synchro Monsters, they can be Synchro Summoned traditionally, or, once per turn, be summoned by destroying Phoenixite monsters you control whose levels equal that of the Synchro. This cascading waves of destruction and summoning feed into each other and allow the duelist to set up some crazy fields. And even if the field gets wiped out, due to their low DEF of just 200, Phoenixites have access to some powerful recovery spells to "Rekindle" their chance at victory.

- StarCorp (currently version 8)

A DARK Xyz deck heavily inspired by Stellaris and the desire to conquer the stars. The deck uses the Main Deck Monster "researchers" to fill the field and search resources, including the "Research Project" spell cards, or to go into their naval vessel Xyz Monsters to defend and extend their borders. Then once things are more established, the deck can bring their heavy hitting high rank Xyz dreadnoughts to bear that gain effects when you have less cards in the graveyard than your opponent, as well as their "Megastructure" continuous traps that gain more powerful effects based on the number of cards that you have banished. And seeing as all StarCorp cards are automatically banished when sent to the graveyard, these effects will build up quickly,, giving the opponent little choice but to submit.

- Infiltraitor (currently version 4)

A LIGHT Cyberse control deck (and a pet project between myself and CodeMonkey) that takes inspiration from the classic card "Parasite Paracide". Infiltraitor monsters will, instead of going to the graveyard, place themselves on top of the opponent's deck face-up. If the opponent would draw while an Infiltraitor card is on top, they take damage and are forced to draw the card underneath instead. The next card is also an Infiltraitor? Guess you're taking damage again and are drawing the next card. Infiltraitors focus on turning your opponent's deck into a minefield, while utilizing control effects that intensify with the number of face-up Infiltraitor cards in their deck. As for their Link and Xyz monsters, they can be summoned using Infiltraitor monsters that are face-up in the opponent's deck as material, and can be placed face-up into the opponent's Extra Deck instead of being sent to the graveyard to place the opponent under continuous effects that further restrict their options and facilitate their own sabotage.

- Tarot Teller (currently version 2)

A DARK control deck that asks the question; what if Arcana Force was actually based on their tarot counterpart and was, more importantly, NOT a pile of hot garbage? The Tarot Teller cards are similar to Arcana Force in the sense that each effect includes a coin flip, but that's where the comparison ends. While Arcana Force uses the coin toss to choose between one good effect and one bad effect, Tarot Tellers let the player use the effect regardless, but depending on the coin toss, will also grant an added bonus. If the duelist use an effect to summon a monster, the coin toss will not effect that at all, but may grant your monsters an ATK boost during the Battle Phase as well. Plus, unlike Arcana Force, which has no parallels between the cards and their tarot counterparts the Tarot Teller cards are heavily inspired by the tarot, while also having effects that are founded from a purely gameplay perspective.

- Tungsten Battalion (currently version 3)

A LIGHT deck that focuses on adaptable ways to keep its Synchro monsters on the field. The deck can Synchro Summon traditionally, but can also Synchro summon by banishing Synchro Materials from the graveyard. These banished materials will either return to the deck during the End Phase, or will stay banished and provide continuous effects to bolster your field, such as ATK boosts or protection from destruction. Combine that with Link monsters that add a lockdown element to the deck as well as spells and traps that offer unique ways to disrupt or defend the field, the Tungsten Battalion becomes an easy to use deck that can output some ridiculous damage and be fun while doing it.

- Astral Nebula (currently version 2)

A LIGHT and DARK deck with its own take on Fusion Summoning. While most Fusion decks traditionally use a fusion spell such as Polymerization, the Astral Nebula deck instead decided to let its materials do all the work. The LIGHT Astral Nebula monsters can be used in place of fusion spells while on the field to summon the decks Fusion Monsters, or can be used in the hand if the duelist controls a DARK monster. And as an extra bonus, not only do the materials have effects when sent to the graveyard, but the DARK monsters have continuous effects that they pass on to any Fusion Monsters that use them as Fusion Material. Even the DARK Fusion Monsters have this trait, allowing the duelist to make powerful Fusions with a wide array of useful effects at its disposal as well as its own. Also, many of the Astral Nebula monsters cast a field-wide debuff to monsters depending on the difference between each monster's ATK and DEF. But since each Astral Nebula monster have identical ATK and DEF, they are immune to this, so the opponent will be the only one playing catch-up.

There are several other decks that I am currently working on that haven't yet reached the prototyping stage, but I will post them when progress has been made, and will post updates/reworks to deck if and when they happen.

If anyone has any suggestions for edits to these deck, has their own deck idea that they think would be interesting, or would like more info on any particular deck, you're more than welcome to leave a comment.

Week 2 Update:

- Continued work on Wavefarer version 11, refining the effects of some of the extra deck monsters to either fix issues or make them more attractive choices for the player.

- In the process of progressing Midknight version 10, refining the effects and summoning requirements of some of the extra deck monsters to either fix issues, make them more powerful, or to make them applicable to a wider range of decks aside from just Midknights.

- While on the topic of Midknight version 10, I'm also working on the effects of the main deck monsters. Some felt too samey and too dependant on having as many monsters in your hand as possible to make any decent field presence. As such, I'm working on trying to diversify some of their effects and/or summoning requirements while attempting to retain the deck's unique identity.

- Made a few minor refinements to some of the xyz and discord monsters in Delta Wing version 9, in order to make them more worth going into.

Week 3(ish) Update and Catch-Up

Welp, here's another long one. Let's start with the decks that were updated before we move onto the new ones.

Wavefarer 13.0:

Just made a couple rounds of general refinement to some of the cards in the deck while making some of the cards generic. Thankfully I seem to have found a balance of monsters with generic summoning requirements having effects that would be useful to most decks while benefiting more from additional Wavefarer support in the deck, but keeping the big boy effects to cards that must be summoned in Wavefarers. 

There was another problem I encountered regarding the effect on the field spell that attaches the water attribute to all monsters on both fields and in both graveyards. Since any non-water monsters would technically have 2 attributes at that point, cards like Rivalry of Warlords would prevent opponents from having monsters on the field at all. Combine that with other cards that would make ruling nightmares pop up left and right, I decided to make a change to the effect. Instead of adding the attribute to the one the monsters already have or changing it altogether just like Zombie World, the field spell now simply treats the opponents monsters as Water attribute when they would interact with a Wavefarer card that benefits from the opponent having Water monsters. Haven't found any ruling issues as of yet, but will continue to test.

Seeing how the deck can perform as well as it can through multiple forms of interruption while retaining its' unique and fun playstyle gimmicks, I think this deck is close to the finalized version (provided that the field spell change sticks and no new ruling and/or interaction issues pop up).

Midknight 11.0:

Just like Wavefarers, the Midknights have just been getting general refinement and balancing tweaks. The deck has a number of two card combos that can end in good boards, but also had a couple of powerful one card combos that stretched a little too far, so they had to be reined in a bit. These combos will still work, but just won't extend as far as they used to without devoting more cards in hand to the combo.

Delta Wing 11.0:

Once again, mostly general refinement and balancing. Though I did redo some of the extra deck monsters to make them more viable and attractive options to go into.

Ore Beast 11.0:

Now here's where a lot of changes have happened. In addition to the usual refinement and balancing stuff, I decided to expand on the whole "stealing opponents monsters that were destroyed as Xyz material" schtick. The Ore Beasts now have many more ways to do this, including a Spell that can attach monsters from both graveyards. This gives them interruption options for the graveyard that also fuel their own effects.

Discord Machine 8.0:

Refinements and balancing. You know the drill.

Corvus Legion 9.0:

Some of the cards in the deck weren't being used by the play testers at all, plus it was a little awkward that they could only use each tuner as synchro material while equipped once per turn. So I changed their effects to allow them to be used multiple times a turn, while changing some of the cards that players weren't using to make them more worthwhile.

StarCorp 9.0:

Adjusted the main deck monsters to make them chain their effects together a little more smoothly and overhauled the extra deck monsters to balance the ones that were too good while improving the ones that the play testers never went into.

Infiltraitor 5.0:

Refinements and balancing, mostly to slow down how quickly they enter the opponent's deck, while increasing the rate at which they can generate field presence for you.

Tungsten 4.0:

This deck got an almost complete overhaul. The general gist of the playstyle is the same; discard the tuners to do stuff, then banish materials from the graveyard to synchro summon. But this deck can do this much more smoothly now, plus the synchros have been tweaked to make them much more of a threat and as equally viable as possible for different situations. This results in a deck that can use a 2 card combo that can easily end up with a link 3 and 2 synchros, resulting in monster protection and up to 2 forms of negation. While that sounds impressive enough, the best part is that this 2 card combo is extremely flexible, not necessarily needing 2 specific cards to do the combo, but just needing a tuner that can be sent to the graveyard right away and a non-tuner that can be summoned. While the boards that these 2 card combos alone can make a board that isn't unbreakable by any means, the ease and flexibility by which it can be done means this deck will be a consistent threat.

Astral Nebula 3.0:

Oh boy, this one's a doozy. This deck was waaaaay too powerful. Being able to put out monsters with so many inherited effects that they were impervious to almost anything (except Kaijus). So the inherited effects from the Dark monsters were reined in while tweaking the extra deck monsters to balance their base effects. That being said, it's going to be a long time before this deck's balancing is just right.

And now my keyboard is on fire from all this furious typing. I'll be posting updates on these decks every other week, and I'll post another update on new decks later today. As usual, you got any suggestions, send 'em in.

Week 3 Part 2 (Electric Boogaloo)

Okay, now onto the new decks I've cooked up during our hiatus.

Dragon Knight 1.0:

So this deck was a personal challenge from CodeMonkey; make a deck based around Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste. Y'know, that card on the cover of the Duelist Revolution set that everyone ignored? The one fusion monster Yusei summoned throughout the entirety of 5Ds? Yeah, that one.

As a quick reminder for those who've forgotten what this card does, Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste is a 3200ATK Fusion of a Dragon Synchro and a Warrior. It can banish a Dragon Synchro from your graveyard to gain its effects and name for the turn, plus it can reflect all of your opponent's effect damage back at them as long as it's in attack position.

So to start off, there are some issues with the card that this deck would need to solve. For a start, the banishing effect is not a quick effect, so it can't be used during the opponent's turn. Combine that with the fact that you'll have to supply your graveyard with a constant stream of Dragon Synchros with useful effects just to keep Draco-Equiste at its best, and that makes a tricky problem to solve.

The solution I came up with is to make a synchro that, when used as Fusion Material for Draco-Equiste, turns its effect into a quick effect, which solves the biggest issue. And when this synchro is banished, it's returned to the graveyard at the end of the turn. This means that Draco-Equiste will always have a target for its' effect, and will be able to do so during either players turn. These two changes alone make Draco-Equiste a hell of a lot more versatile.

And we can't make a Draco-Equiste deck without playing into its whole effect damage reflection thing. So there are effects in the deck, such as the effect it will inherit from this synchro, that can, in response to an opponent's card effect, change that opponents effect from whatever it normally does to instead deal damage to you. And if Draco-Equiste is on the field in attack position, that damage will be dealt to the opponent instead.

To finish it all off, I decided to tie some of the Dragon Knight cards to the Stardust archetype. Stardust dragon was meant as the original monster to be used to summon Draco-Equiste, so it works thematically. Plus, the Stardust and Dragon Knight cards can bounce off of one another to help each other reach their respective end goals. The only snag is Stardust Synchron, which locks you into Synchros for the turn after you summon it with its own effect, meaning no Draco-Equiste. But that was easy enough to fix by making the fusion spell a quick-play.

While the deck is only on its first version, to say that the initial testing was promising would be the understatement of the century. The Dragon Knights can put up some scary boards, especially when paired with the Stardust archetype and utilizing generic synchro cards like Tuning and Duelist Genesis. The synchro makes Draco-Equiste a consistent threat with good disruption and burn. Though to prevent shenanigans from Draco-Equiste banishing broken synchros, I've given the deck a heavy focus on level 8 Wind Dragon Synchros. While that pool is admittedly small, the new synchro is good enough to be the main target to go for, with Stardust Dragon and its Accel Synchro retrain serving as good backups in a pinch.

I can see a few things that will need tweaking, but I'm very happy with how the deck is coming along and I'm excited to see where it goes.

Hyper-Venom 1.0:

The Venom archetype from GX always fascinated me. It had a very clear gimmick inspired by its aesthetics, its spell and trap line-up was fantastic for the time, and Vennominaga is certainly a card. I mean, gains 500ATK per reptile in grave, unaffected by and un-targetable by card effects (still the only card in the game with both of these effects btw), can summon itself back from grave by banishing a reptile, AND it has an instant win condition? Yep, it is definitely a card.

But the deck does have some glaring issues. While the whole venom counter thing is an awesome gimmick, it is entirely useless if you don't control the field spell Venom Swamp, and the cards that distribute these counters are painfully slow when compared to the current state of the game. And while Vennominaga is a powerful card, it's a royal pain in the neck to summon. Getting Vennominon on the field, then setting the trap Rise of the Snake Deity (neither of which are searchable btw), then waiting to the next turn and either destroying Vennominon by a card effect or hoping your opponent will do it for you? That's an awful lot of hoops to jump through.

So both of the issues with venom counters can be solved at the same time. First off, I decided to call this archetype Hyper-Venom, so they can still use the older Venom support cards. Second, instead of the venom counters getting their effects from a field spell would always need to be up, whenever a Hyper-Venom card places a venom counter on a monster, it also grants that monster an effect that decreases its own ATK by 500 for each counter and destroys it if its ATK reaches 0. And since this effect would be coming from the opponents monster itself, even if the Hyper-Venom player would suffer a field wipe, the venom counters will still be doing their thing. Combine that with a number of quick effects from cards across the archetype that can distribute counters at any point during either players turn, and I'd say the issue with venom counters is resolved, or at least close to it.

As for the difficulties in summoning Vennominaga, I decided to make the Snake Deity cards into a sub-archetype, making them searchable. Adding a new Link 2 that is treated as Vennominon while on the field and in the graveyard makes Vennominaga a much easier card to summon.

Throw in some mild control and burn effects fuelled by venom counters being present on the field, and that's Hyper-Venom 1.0. The deck has some glaring issues, the biggest being that it reeeeeaaaally doesn't like going first, but it is already a league above the OG Venom deck while staying faithful to the overall playstyle of the original.

Thunder Storm 1.0:

This little pet project of mine is an answer to a question no one asked; what if Giant Trunade and Heavy Storm were monsters? And so Thunder Storm was born. A deck that summons Synchros based on Spell/Trap removal spells throughout duelling history that we all know and love. Each of these synchros have effects inspired by their spell counterparts. Plus the deck has a lovely habit of using its own continuous spells and traps to clog the opponents spell and trap zones. Plus each of these cards change their names to one of those same classic spells while in the graveyard, so when adding them back to hand, you can choose between the Thunder Storm counterpart or the original article.

The first version of the deck performed decently, but was a little slow for my liking. The deck struggled to get more than one synchro out at a time, but was quick to get a bunch of their spells and traps to swarm both sides of the field. In the first duel, the opponent was only left with one spell and trap zone to work with. The deck is promising, but still needs work in the monster department.

And these are the brand new decks that I've started working on in the meantime. While they still need work (some more than others), they're all promising and fun as hell. With a little more work, I'm sure they'll live up to their full potential. That is, if they don't give me a headache first.

Any suggestions on these or other decks are more than welcome.