[Archetype] Darzorc - "Dark Master - Zorc" support

[Darj]

Introduction:
To put it simply, "Darzorc" is a faction, guild, etc. whose goal is to released/revive their master, Zorc, and begin a new era of darkness and destruction.
 
Playstyle:
The archetype can be summed up as Fire Kings with the aid of Hanzo + Ninjitsu Art of Super-Transformation:
- Like Fire Kings, they have a 2700-ATK boss with a destruction effect, "Dark Master - Zorc" who can be called straight from the Deck with an Spell Card, in this case a new Ritual Spell; also they have a "Wolfbark" for "1-card Rank4s" or Ritual Summoning Zorc from the grave if desired.
- Like Ninjas, they have a Trap Card that take monsters from both sides of the field to Summon a bigger monster from the Deck, except that it Rituals Summons Zorc from the Deck. Also a Warrior-Type monster, and thus searchable by ROTA, who searches for either "Zorc" Ritual Spells or the aforementioned Trap Card when it is Normal Summoned
 
 
Spell & Traps:

[spoiler=Revival of the Dark Master]

This card is used to Ritual Summon "Dark Master - Zorc" from your hand or Deck. You must also Tribute DARK monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels and/or Ranks equal 8 or more. If it was Ritual Summoned from the Deck, its original effect cannot be activated this turn.You can banish this card from your Graveyard; for the rest of this turn, "zorc" monsters you control cannot be destroyed.

Ruling: The "original effect" refers to the effect printed on Zorc's card, so the restriction shouldn't stop effects gained through Ritual Djinns or other cards.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Madness Circle of the Dark Master]

Each time a DARK monster battles a monster: Their owner rolls 1 six-sided die; that monster gains ATK equal to the result x 100 during damage calculation only. Once per turn, when the effect of a DARK monster you control that requires a die roll resolves, you can negate the effect, then re-roll. Also, you cannot use this effect of "Madness Circle of the Dark Master" until the end of your next turn. If this card on the field is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower DARK monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Concealed Circle of the Dark Master]

When your opponent Normal or Special Summons a monster(s): Target 1 of those monsters and 1 face-up "zorc" monster you control whose total Levels are equal 8 or more; send them to the Graveyard, then Ritual Summon 1 "Dark Master - Zorc" from your hand or Deck. Its effect cannot be activated this turn, and when this card leaves the field, destroy that monster.[/spoiler]
 
Monsters: Darzorc (Dark + Zorc; to give them an identity as if they were members of an organization/guild/etc.)
So far they are all Level 4 and share the following effect:
If you Ritual Summon "Dark Master - Zorc", this card can be used, from your hand, field or Graveyard, as the entire Tribute.

Ruling: The effect mentions the Graveyard to make it clear that is compatible with the second effect of the new Ritual in that you can banish a single Zorc support monster for the Special Summon of Zorc.
 
[spoiler=Doomknight of Darzorc]

When this card is Normal Summoned: You can add 1 "Dark Master" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand. If you Ritual Summon "Dark Master - Zorc", this card can be used, from your hand, field or Graveyard, as the entire Tribute.[/spoiler]
 
[spoiler=Abysswalker of Darzorc]

If this card is sent from the hand or field to the Graveyard: Add 1 "Zorc" monster from your Deck to your hand, except "Abysswalker of Darzorc". If you Ritual Summon "Dark Master - Zorc", this card can be used, from your hand, field or Graveyard, as the entire Tribute.[/spoiler]
 
[spoiler=Necromancer of Darzorc]

If you Ritual Summon "Dark Master - Zorc", this card can be used, from your hand, field or Graveyard, as the entire Tribute. When this card is Normal Summoned: You can activate 1 of the these effects. You can only use the effect of "Necromancer of Darzorc" once per turn.
• Target 1 "Darzorc" monster in your Graveyard, except "Necromancer of Darzorc"; Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position.
• Tribute monsters whose total Levels and Ranks equal 8 or more from your hand or field, except this card; Ritual Summon 1 "Dark Master - Zorc" from your Graveyard.[/spoiler]
 
[spoiler=Druid of Darzorc]

You can reveal up to 2 "zorc" cards in your hand; draw 1 card for each card revealed, and if you do, shuffle the revealed cards into the Deck. You can only use this effect of "Druid of Darzorc" once per turn. You can discard this card to the Graveyard; add 1 "Madness Circle of the Dark Master" from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand. If you Ritual Summon "Dark Master - Zorc", this card can be used, from your hand, field or Graveyard, as the entire Tribute.[/spoiler]
 

EDIT:
01/05/14:
- Concealed Circle now destroys Zorc instead of banishing it.
- Druid can now retrieve the Field Spell from the grave.
 
30/12/04:
- The effect of "Necromancer of Darzorc" now activates when it is Normal Summoned.
- Druid now draws cards before returning "Zorc" cards to th Deck.
 
01/02/15:
- Abysswalker no longer grants an OPT protection vs. destruction from monster effects to Zorc when used as Tribute for its Ritual Summon.
- Doomknight no longer protects monsters vs. destruction from monster effects
- The Ritual Spell now protects "zorc" monsters from destruction for a turn instead of reviving Zorc as a vanilla beater.
- The Field Spell now allows you to negate a roll effect of a DARK monster and re-roll, instead of fixing dice results to 3~5.
- Concealed Circle now requires a "zorc" monster from your sidea instead of a DARK monster.

 

01/05/15:

- Added a "Dark Renewal" clause to Concealed Circle.

- Necromancer cannot revive a copy of itself with its first effect.

 

01/06/15:

- Added hard OPT clause on Druid's hand-fix effect.

[Valkyrus]

okay

Doomknight-
So at NS it's a +1 searcher that searches a number of spell/traps including a ritual spell that can ritual summon from the deck- compare to Manju- this>Manju

Card can be used as the entire tribute for a ritual summon of zorc, yet you don't plus from that- compare to Shrit- this<Shrit

It also has monster effect protection- compare to Dance princess of the Necloth- Princess > this.

Sure, it's outclassed by 3 cards as a whole, but this is a single card.
In a ritual archetype deck (which is notably more consistent than any other type of deck) (see Gishki/Necloth), it just simply does too much for a single card, even though at first, you wouldn't think it gives you that much advantage.

And to top it all off with a 1800 ATK body...

 

the other monsters follow the same pattern...
This is just too consistent/flexible to be fair. Ritual archetypes are some of the hardest to create, as Konami made 2 and still didn't manage to balance them enough to not need to ban/limit some of the cards to avoid loops and unfair advantages so I don't think it'd be easy to balance this either.

 

long story short- you give each card too many effects and too much ATK that don't balance each other out: each one here has 3 different effects whereas T1 decks (BA/Shaddoll) have mostly about 2 each. This gives your deck an advantage in flexibility. Not to mention they all share an effect as well (a powerful one) which is basically always ready to be used.

 

that's for the monsters.

The ritual spell  summons from the Deck AND Graveyard, and even with all those restrictions it is still a searchable Ritual Spell that can summon a 2700 ATK body (which is a DAD/Hyperion that requires no resources to activate its effect and has a ~17% chance of self destruction and the same chance for a raigeki).

 

I suggest, instead of nerfing your cards so much to just give them up to 2 effects each and a little more fitting ATK/DEF (more powerful eff- less ATK, less powerful- more ATK). So, you can just make more monsters and divide these effects among them. Also, the (can be treated as the entire tribute) eff to be on just one or two of the cards instead of all.

[Darj]

The "entire Tribute" clause only allows you to go 1-for-1 with the Ritual Tributes, really. In the end, using Revival to bring Zorc from the deck nets you a -1, and surprise!, it's the same as the standard 2-material Synchro/Xyz. Granted, Zorc has more ATK than the average Rank4 or 2-material Synchro, but the deck has to reward you for playing it somehow, right? After that, it becomes, as you said, an Hyperion/Priestess who, while it has the chance of dropping a nuke, it can also backfire, but more often than not will pop a single card like the aforementioned bosses; also it cannot touch backrow.

 

The monster protection is underwhelming and just there to protect Zorc from nuking your own monsters after an unlucky 6-roll. But from my duels, I have rarely benefited from such protection effect, because non-destruction removal is rampant, plus it won't protect from Spell/Traps; I think it has only successfully protected me once or twice.

 

The only one with questionable ATK is Doomknight, who has about the same ATK as other archetype searchers such as Gearframe and the now forbidden Stratos. Druid got beater ATK but you rarely want to Summon it except for fixing hands clogged with Zorcs.

 

3 effects is the limit for any card in my opinion. And I wouldn't call the "entire Tribute" effect an actual effect: it doesn't generate any advantage or affects the board in any way.

 

I like to compare Zorc + Revival with Garunix + Onslaught: both call for a 2700 ATK beater with a potential nuke effect, and can be later revived; except that Revival only brings Zorc back once, and as a vanilla beater. Yes, it is a power play, but definitely not as crazy as Onslaught/Garunix.

 

The only problem card here is Concealed Circle in my opinion: A Super-Transformation searchable by Doomknigght, who is searchable by ROTA (just like Hanzo; I took the idea from him, actually). But again, every deck kind of needs their power plays or otherwise they can't keep up and are simply run over.

 

In retrospect, it looks like I'm being stubborn instead of taking advice. Your suggestion does makes sense because, for instance, I never liked how Abysswalker works so well when used as a Tribute. I could easily scrap the last effect with no issues. The same goes to Doomknight, whose protection effect is not as effective anyways.

So, thanks for the tips and I will try to come up with good fixes.

[Love of Ghibli]

Yeah I don't have any problems besides flavor and these random djinn esque effects these some of these things give.

Like I said before, one must start with the concept and see if that is balanced. Here the concept is "Let's help this underpowered ritual monster" and in short it was done nicely. Dark Master-Zorc initially is a gambling -2 (or more) that is vulnerable to everything. Even with all of this support..it becomes an inherent -1 (just like syncs and xyz) that doesn't gain any new effects and is still vulnerable to almost everything. All in all they simply make summoning Zorc easier and more consistent. That's pretty much it. 

And since it is only supporting 1 ritual monster I don't see any real problem.

The problem card is the field spell. It basically says pop something then give some kind of power bonus. It takes away the flavor of Dark Master Zorc so it can be a guaranteed +1.

 

Flavor wise Dark Master-Zorc comes from the manga where Yugi and the crew were tricked into playing Dungeons and Dragons. To make this archetype seems to not stick to that backstory.

[Darj]

Alright, I will post the the changes I'm considering making , but I would to get feedback, if possible, before I proceed to edit the cards:

 

Doomknight: Remove the protection effect

Abysswalker: Remove the effect given to Zorc

 

Ritual Spell: The free beater revival replaced by a "Diamond Core"-like effect of protecting Zorc monsters from destruction for the turn.

Field Spell: Fixed dice result becomes a 2nd roll. Basically it will become a Continuous "Dice Re-Roll" for DARK monsters. Possibly further nerf it by adding a 1-turn lock after use.

[Darj]

Flavor wise Dark Master-Zorc comes from the manga where Yugi and the crew were tricked into playing Dungeons and Dragons. To make this archetype seems to not stick to that backstory.

 

Double post because I missed to comment on this.

I really don't know about the manga but I saw a couple of episodes of that Yugioh anime about the past and origins of the game, where Zorc was released and threatened to destroy the world and whatnot. According to the wikia, "Dark Master - Zorc" is possibly an incarnation of Zorc. So, flavor-wise, "Darzorc" is more of a faction, evil guild, etc. whose goal is to revive their master (hence the name of the Ritual Spell) and begin an era of darkness, destruction, etc.

 

I will edit to the OP to add the above as an introduction, update the cards with the above fixes, plus a fix on Concealed Circle so it requires a "Darzorc" you control instead of any DARK.

[VampireofDarkness]

Double post because I missed to comment on this.
I really don't know about the manga but I saw a couple of episodes of that Yugioh anime about the past and origins of the game, where Zorc was released and threatened to destroy the world and whatnot. According to the wikia, "Dark Master - Zorc" is possibly an incarnation of Zorc. So, flavor-wise, "Darzorc" is more of a faction, evil guild, etc. whose goal is to revive their master (hence the name of the Ritual Spell) and begin an era of darkness, destruction, etc.

I will edit to the OP to add the above as an introduction, update the cards with the above fixes, plus a fix on Concealed Circle so it requires a "Darzorc" you control instead of any DARK.

It's actually part of Season 0. In fact, the Zorc effect is based on the combat system of the game. A 99 was considered a Fumble, and a 1 was considered to be a Super Critical!

Anyway, outside of not being quite as true to Zorc's true leagues, I find this to be a solid, yet quite balanced archetype. It's going to have some either by default good or by default bad matchups by the nature of the archetype heavily relying on quick popping and at times using your opponent's monsters for Ritual Summons. However, Zorc isn't anything super amazing like his bro Demise, so it becomes a challenge to make it worthwhile, and I think this archetype does it. Zorc is protected from its own card effect by the Ritual Spell, it's more than easy to set him up, and establishing a field isn't the hardest thing in the world. It's certainly no Nekroz or Gishki, but then again, they created Tier 0 formats in the OCG and degerate loops respectively. Having played against the archetype, it seems really fun. It (most likely unintentionally) feels like an RPG, where you have the boss(es) you have to continually fight, and you have the other monsters slowly coming onto the board, but still posing a various amount of a threat. Even the play style of Zorc and the ability to affix the roll is quite like Fire Emblem where you know your chances of a critical and a miss, and you gotta be smart about them! Overall, just a solid, balanced, well functioned archetype.

[Darj]

Thanks for your comments. I had not thought about it as an RPG-ish archetype, but it does make sense. I guess that since I have not played against it I didn't feel it that way.

 

To add to this archetype's perks, I noticed that one of its greatest strengths, at least in the now-shaping DP metagame, is that it doesn't heavily rely on grave or banished effects, and thus can comfortably side in floodgates such as "Soul Drain", which was devastating vs. a couple of decks in the last tournament. Also, since Zorc is a 2500+ ATK monster, the deck can also side EEV in to hard-counter decks that rely on single Spells.

 

By the way, I just replaced the dice-fix effect of the Field Spell with a second roll, to add more flavor to Zorc's dice mechanics and make it more luck-reliant and interesting/fun for both players.

[VampireofDarkness]

Thanks for your comments. I had not thought about it as an RPG-ish archetype, but it does make sense. I guess that since I have not played against it I didn't feel it that way.

To add to this archetype's perks, I noticed that one of its greatest strengths, at least in the now-shaping DP metagame, is that it doesn't heavily rely on grave or banished effects, and thus can comfortably side in floodgates such as "Soul Drain", which was devastating vs. a couple of decks in the last tournament. Also, since Zorc is a 2500+ ATK monster, the deck can also side EEV in to hard-counter decks that rely on single Spells.

By the way, I just replaced the dice-fix effect of the Field Spell with a second roll, to add more flavor to Zorc's dice mechanics and make it more luck-reliant and interesting/fun for both players.

Actually, even better. You could run extra copies of the Ritual Spell and tech in Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell. There probably would be a few "You win the game" situations on that alone AND you get the effect of the Ritual Spell. EEV though, ugh. I forgot about that card existing. I may just side it in myself along with DDV since that would also be useful here as well, since Book of Eclipse is becoming less and less useful.