Short or Long Card Effects?

[J-Max]

Simple really. To be honest I am feeling conflicted at the moment in wether to persue Long and Innovative or Short but easily playble effects. Sorry if this seems a little one sided to myself bt I need your advice. It mould s me as a Card Maker,

[Phantom M.C.]

long and innovative if you wanna impress the newbies

short but playable if you wanna impress the pros

[Icy]

I got 2 words for you...

Card Flow. You of all people should know what I mean by this. And in that you'll find your answer.

[Saturn of Elemia]

Several factors decide this for me:

* Level of monster
* Image (Yes, this makes a difference for me)
* Theme (Archtype, type of effect, type of monster, attribute, etc)

As for other people's cards - it doesn't really matter. I kinda share JoshIcy's sentiments.

[Daft Innovation]

I prefer medium.

aka. 6 lines appearing on the card. It looks the neatest too.

But in reality, that's not too important.

[Womi]

Catchy and with a point behind it.

Yeah, but most importantly Card Flow, as Icy said.

[Big Empoleon]

Short for small monster ,long for tough looking monster.

[Bahamut - Envoy of the End]

How long's a piece of string?

Seriously though; a lot of people (noobs) on here say cards are boring if they don't have 5 effects. That's stupid. Some of the most powerful cards in the game have an effect that's only 1 sentence long (ok I am refering to half the banned list here but still). As long as the card's effect all fit together and are playable it's a good card. Punching in random effects together with no connection is sloppy.

I have a list of different type of effects which I look through for ideas: I try to put no more than 3 types of effect in any 1 card. Here are some examples:

[spoiler=Example 1 - Heavy Mech Alpha Tank]
[img]http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/7412/258150i.jpg[/img]

Lore: This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card can only be Tribute Summoned if it would become the only monster card on your side of the field as a result. While this card is on the field, you cannot summon monsters (except 'Probe Tokens'). When this card is summoned successfully, Special Summon 'Alpha Probe A' and 'Alpha Probe B' Tokens (FIRE, Machine, 1 Star, ATK 0, DEF 1500) in Defence Position. If this card is removed from the field, destroy these Tokens. While 'Alpha Probe A' is on the field, this card gains 500 ATK. While 'Alpha Probe B' is on the field, this card is unaffected by Spell cards. If there are no Probe Tokens on the field, you can activate the following effect:- Destroy this card to destroy all Spell and Trap cards on your opponents side of the field.

The longest effect I've written, but can be easily broken down into 3 parts: Summoning Restrictions, Tokens (which the way I see it, have effects of their own), and S/T Destruction. Had to go into detail about Token stats and the summoning restictions.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Example 2 - Blazing Death Horseman]
[img]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/2804/258150.jpg[/img]

Lore: The Attribute of this card is also treated as DARK. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points, your opponent picks up cards from their Deck until they draw a Monster Card with 1000 or less ATK. Send that card to the Graveyard (all other cards drawn by this effect are returned to the Deck in the same order). When this card is destroyed in battle and sent to the Graveyard, roll a six-sided dice. If the result is 6, destroy all Monsters on the field.

Effect 1) Dual Attribute 2) Deck Destruction 3) Gamble. All based around the theme of the pic.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Example 3 - High Risk Hydra Mech]
[img]http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/5520/258150vi.jpg[/img]

Lore :2 'Roulette Dragon' Tuners + 2 or more non-Tuner Monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned, flip a coin. If the result is Heads, summon this card as a Normal Monster in Attack Position with 0 ATK. During each of your End Phases, you can flip a coin. If the result is Heads, Special Summon this monster with an additional 1500 ATK and the corresponding effect. 1 - The effects of an Effect Monster destroyed by this card are negated. 2 - If the ATK of this attacking card is higher than the DEF of a Defence Position card, inflict the difference as Battle Damage. 3 - During each of your End Phases, you can search your Deck for 1 DRAGON type monster and add it to your hand. If the result of a coin flip is Tails, destroy this card, and recieve damage equal to 1000 x coin flips.

Yes it's long, but it flows (kinda). What I went for here is with every successful gamble, the monster would grow another head - and another effect. Admit I ran out of ideas for the third.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Example 4 - Regenartor Complex]
[img]http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/4929/258150o.jpg[/img]

Lore: During each of your Standby Phases, you can Special Summon 1 monster from your Graveyard. This monster cannot declare an attack or be used as a tribute for a Tribute Summon, and is sent to the Graveyard during the End Phase. During each End Phase, pay 500 Life Points. If you do not, this card is destroyed.

Straightforward effect made up of 4 sentences, most of which detail drawbacks. But still very powerful, probably overly so, I still have balancing issues sometimes [/spoiler]

[spoiler=Example 5 - Path of the Faithful]
[img]http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/7058/258150x.jpg[/img]

I got slated for this one because it's bland. But it is what it is - simple, yet good in a crisis (ok so it's a bit situational).[/spoiler]

I know what I want from my card, and I just try to portray it as clearly as I can. Just try to focus on what you want your card to do, and make sure it does it effectively with no excessive waste. As long as it all makes sense and there's nothing you think 'Why does it do that?' about, you'll be good.

Hope this helps people, I could be spouting utter rubbish but this makes sense to me

[Spoon]

I prefer long effects, across the Board. Short effects look so... short My cards tend to get either useless, unbalanced or unplayable when I do it, but since I don't care for that one bit, long effects are my prefered weapons of confusion and imagination

I'd lie if I'd now say "Card Flow" (mainly because I can only imagine what that means), but I guess Icy and the rest have a point there, that it's not the length that makes a good effect. Short can be as innovative as long, and long can be as playable as short, if you know the drill... yeah, that's about it.

[Βyakuya]

Depends on what effect it does. But, I prefer longer effects if you want more things going on or you like reading.

[Ghost Ryder]

Simplicity. You need flow in your cards, if card effects are too long, then people won't bother to read all of it. But make sure it's not too simple, got to make sure it is a new idea and is original.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

It basically depends on what type of effect you're going for.
But I'd try to keep it as short as possible.

[Shrekstasy]

Whatever fits the card..or whatever you want to do really.

[Nɇvɇrmorɇ]

I've always been more impressed by long effects. I may not be good at it, but I think it tends to show a little more imagination.

[Catterjune]

[quote name='Phantom M.C.' timestamp='1286407699' post='4684610']
long and innovative if you wanna impress the newbies

short but playable if you wanna impress the pros
[/quote]

But most who go the "long and innovative" route typically only do the first half. Their "innovative" typically is something like: "Once per turn you can activate one of these effects: [a list of just about every effect you could think of, accompanied with a 'suitable' drawback]. That does not equal innovative IMO.

In my opinion, I prefer short, innovative and playable. And by innovative, I mean something clever and original, not MST+Breaker+SpiritReaper's effect.

[DARKPLANT RISING]

I don't care as long as it's original.

[Raelen]

Whenever there are so many words on a card that it changes the size of the print, there are too many characters. You should be able to read the description without getting out your reading glasses or squinting.