[Which is better?] Fairy-Type Tuners

[Aix]

Say you were judging these in a contest. How would you judge them?
 
[spoiler=Cheerful Fairy]
You can return 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard to the Deck; Special Summon this card from your hand and this card's Level becomes the Level/Rank of the returned monster. You cannot Special Summon other monsters from your hand the turn you use this effect.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Angelic Emissary]
When this card is Normal Summoned: You can draw 1 card and reveal it, and if it was a LIGHT Fairy-Type monster, you gain 1000 Life Points. You cannot Special Summon the turn you activate this effect.
[spoiler=Angelic Emissary (what it was originally before I realized something about it, so ignore this)]
When this card is Normal Summoned: Draw 1 card and reveal it, and if it was a LIGHT Fairy-Type monster, you gain 1000 Life Points. You cannot Special Summon the turn you activate this effect.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

[Sleepy]

As of right now, I'd go for card 1 all the way.

Card 2 has a very deal breaking issue. It's Summon effect is mandatory, and therefore so is the no Special Summon clause. Defeating it's purpose of being used for another monster despite it's favorable Level and Tuner Status with decent stats.

 

Meanwhile Cheerful Fairy has a virtually unstoppable Grave disruption option (because it's a cost and all), a more than solid Defense that stalls out hands, and it's drawback is easy to work around. It can even make an easy Chidori if you happen to draw into a second copy and don't know what to do with them.

[Aix]

As of right now, I'd go for card 1 all the way.
Card 2 has a very deal breaking issue. It's Summon effect is mandatory, and therefore so is the no Special Summon clause. Defeating it's purpose of being used for another monster despite it's favorable Level and Tuner Status with decent stats.

I only just noticed that. This is an old card I just pulled out. What if it was optional, how would you feel then?

[The Warden]

Actually, even without the optionality Emissary makes for surprisingly powerful draw material. Combine it with the likes of Duality, Bountiful Artemis and Cards from the Sky and suddenly not being able to SS becomes an incredibly moot point. She's be a fairly useful tool in Counter Fairies, her being a Tuner is simply just a bonus really.

[Ren✧]

Well comparatively, Card A, or rather Cheerful Fairy, is more useful and better in terms of competitive design, in my opinion. A lot of top tier(maybe that's not the right term) decks are reliant on key cards being in the grave or at least benefit greatly from it. This card not only stops that kind of pesky tactic, but also gains you some field advantage. It does have the notable restriction of stoppering any further special summoning from the hand, but since you can still normal summon and synchro summon, the key strategies involved are very much still at work. So while slightly cumbersome, the restriction is definitely maneuverable and creates a balanced effect and avoids creating an abusable card.

 

Angelic Emissary's effect, while decent because drawing cards is always a good thing, is a bit more problematic because of its total restriction on special summoning. After all, the effect only activates upon being normal summoned and the added benefit of 1000 Life Points only happens upon chance(unless you are running some incredibly strange all LIGHT Fairy-Type monster deck). 

 

Now, because I think I know what you want, I'll provide a bit of a rubric for the cards themselves and why I would judge them on those specific characteristics.

 

 

Flavor(?/5): This portion of the rubric would be in regards to the correlation between the card's name, attribute, level, typing, effect, intended usage, picture, and stats. Grouping it like this skips over the need to grade a card based solely on the image used, seeing as many card makers prefer written cards anyway. If that is the case, the picture portion can simply be omitted.  Because these are custom cards, I would like to believe that forethought, planning, and a story surrounds every create card and archetype, giving reason for flavor to weigh so heavily in the total outcome. 

Balance/Usability(?/3): Here you would taken into whether or not the card is underpowered, balanced, or overpowered. Of course, to judge such a thing, you would have to determine where it would most likely be played and how it relates to other cards. For that reason, balance and usability(or playability if you so prefer) are grouped together because they are so co-dependent. 

Originality/Creativity(?/2): This portion is incredibly self-explanatory. Is the card a carbon copy of an existing card? Perhaps of a created one you saw last week? If yes, then give it a 0(possibly a 1 here). 

Bonus Points(?/1-3): Sometimes you just run across cards that, for some reason, you really like. This is usually for personally reasons, whether that be it supports your favorite archetype or because the picture used is really nice. Personal opinion almost always plays a part in judging and it is ridiculous to try and get rid of it. So, instead, create an easily manipulated sector that fits your need. If it is a highly competitive contest you are judging, probably set the max bonus points for 1, that way the score can't be too drastically influenced. But if it is a casual tournament, then maybe setting it at 2, or even 3, may add to the fun of the experience.

 

Hopefully I gave you what you were looking for. I designed the rubric thinking that you may be looking for a way to implement a universal way to judge cards for both reviewing purposes in RC and in the Contest sections. If that wasn't the case, well then this probably seems really quite pretentious and was ultimately a waste of time

[Sleepy]

I only just noticed that. This is an old card I just pulled out. What if it was optional, how would you feel then?

 

Well, my personal preference still says Cheerful Fairy.

Has a Special Summon effect (although the Levels an opponent might have make it's Level inconsistent in that case for Xyz Summoning) and only restricts Special Summons from the hand so it still can be wonderful in Synchro decks.

 

Though Angelic Emissary is now better depending on the theme. No matter what the draw is, you get to keep that draw, and that is a solid play if you can take a stance without depending on the Extra Deck. Although I'd love to Normal Summon, draw, and then Xyz for Cheer Girl and draw again, I understand why you'd have one over the other depending on the situation. I quite like that and feel it's the right amount of power for the game, personally.

The option of a vanilla Tuner might be a tad underwhelming but it's still fair game.

[Aix]

So anyway, would this seem like a sound exam for contest hosts to have to take before hosting a contest?

I intend that they give reasoning like you guys did. I think I might put this up as the exam for now and then change cards every now and then.

[The Warden]

Show them a bunch of custom cards, and ask them to find ways to break them. If they can, then they understand the game enough to know what's good for the game, and what's bad for the game.

 

Since Cheerful Fairy... no one seems to have noticed that many of the upper tier decks could NOT give less of a crap for whatever monster you recycled. Only Hands in the grave? You just gave a charge for them. Artifacts? They're useless in the grave anyways and it just gives them another Ignition target. HEROs? They have 50 million RotAs. Shaddolls? You just give them another use for their effects. Satellars? You juts gave them the opportunity to continue their grind game since whatever you just shuffled back into the deck can be grabbed back by Deneb.

 

The only things Cheerful even remotely hurts are decks that aren't even tier, and those decks usually have a way to compensate for their loss anyways. All Cheerful really gets you is a free summon from the hand that might screw up your Synchro/Xyz plan since it's completely dependent on your opponent's deck. I'd rather stick with a card that gives me a guaranteed profit that can be comboed with other draw power cards. You usually won't be Special Summon spamming turn 1, so she makes for a good starting play as her summon is a +0.

[Sleepy]

Show them a bunch of custom cards, and ask them to find ways to break them. If they can, then they understand the game enough to know what's good for the game, and what's bad for the game.

 

Since Cheerful Fairy... no one seems to have noticed that many of the upper tier decks could NOT give less of a crap for whatever monster you recycled. Only Hands in the grave? You just gave a charge for them. Artifacts? They're useless in the grave anyways and it just gives them another Ignition target. HEROs? They have 50 million RotAs. Shaddolls? You just give them another use for their effects. Satellars? You juts gave them the opportunity to continue their grind game since whatever you just shuffled back into the deck can be grabbed back by Deneb.

 

The only things Cheerful even remotely hurts are decks that aren't even tier, an those decks usually have a way to compensate for their loss anyways. All Cheerful really gets you is a free summon from the hand that might screw up your Synchro/Xyz plan since it's completely dependent on your opponent's deck.

I have to agree on that one.... *shrugs*
I was more or less thinking about how since formats sometimes make certain techs more useful or outclassed depending on the style, if the chance for a D.D. Crow-like card could come, and it is a self Special Summoning Tuner, that'd be pretty neat. Then again, it's not a quick effect so it's not completely sound reasoning from me.

So anyway, would this seem like a sound exam for contest hosts to have to take before hosting a contest?

I intend that they give reasoning like you guys did. I think I might put this up as the exam for now and then change cards every now and then.

That sounds fair enough. The contest creator can't be free of judging here.

Thinking about it makes me remember that one contest that Mugen participated in, I think hosted by Coolspy. That one where the contestants were given half an hour to complete each round and ended up deciding a winner without any reasoning explained whatsoever.

Proving the competence of the hosting user is important.

 

Besides, this is what custom card threads should be like generally IMO.

[Not-so-Radiant Arin]

Whoever thinks draw power is better than a free Special Summon into a R4 or Level 5-8 is a mong.