[Finished][Leaderboard] Rrrtttyyyuuuiii vs. Aqua Hina (Aqua Wins)

[Excalibur the Divine]

Decided to try another leaderboard;first one for this season.
Rules

• All Leaderboard rules apply.
• First to 3 votes or most votes by the deadline wins.
• The winner gets a rep from the loser.
• Voters are to explain their reasoning. Better-explained thought processes will receive reps.
• Written cards are allowed. (Must be in written format, cards with blank pictures are not acceptable)
• Remove any evidence of the card being made by you to ensure anonymity.
• In case a downtime happens, the deadlines may be extended.

Deadlines

• PM your cards within 48 hours after I accept the challenge.
• Voters have 72 hours to vote once the cards are posted up.

Requirements

• Just a simple one:Create a generic warrior-type monster.

Card A:

When this card is Normal Summoned, if you control no other cards: You can tribute this card to target 1 monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target. If you would take damage while this card is in the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; reduce that damage to 0, and if you do, draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of "Templar Chevalier" once per duel.
Card B:

You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) during your Main Phase 1 by tributing 1 Warrior-type monster. During your Main Phase 2 after this card was Summoned: Return it to the hand. If this card was returned to the hand this way: You can pay 500 Life Points to target one card on the field; destroy it.

[-Noel-]

I'm challenging you

[Excalibur the Divine]

Accepted.
This will be tough for me to win :P

[Excalibur the Divine]

Cards are up!

[Trebuchet MS]

Card A

First effect allows it to swap itself for a monster in your Graveyard, provided you control no other monsters, effectively turning it into a watered down Monster Reborn that consumes your Normal Summon. That makes it a rather good turnabout card, fetching whatever critical combo piece you need to resume setting up your board state or just to grab back a big beater that your opponent went out of their way to get off your field. Fortunately, it's tempered by the fact that quite a number of combo pieces require that Normal Summon, restricting the number of wumbo combos this card alone can explode into. But wait, there's more! After you've placed it in the Graveyard, it lets you survive one instance of damage and nets you a bonus draw, hopefully to help you turn things around.

 

You know, doing this review has made me realize two categories of "bad" cards: "winmoar" cards that only contribute when you've the advantage are bad, yet "turnabout" cars that only contribute when you're losing are also bad. So what would separate Templar Chevalier from either pool? The fact that the first effect is optional. You can still Normal Summon it as a pseudo-vanilla 1600/1200 beater in the early turns, and it won't mind getting destroyed as it can contribute as a backup safety net for later turns.

 

Card B

Being a Tribute-Special Summon akin to Turret Warrior does open up quite a bit of combo potential. Junk Synchron to bring back a small Warrior, Tribute the Small Warrior to bring out Warrior of the Sun, sync for 2-material LV9 monster. But I suppose this is why this card is LV6, since LV8 is a magical number for Synchro Summons.

 

The bounce effect is questionable though. If it said "During the End Phase" I won't have any issues since you can't take any actions with your priority, but because this says "During the Main Phase 2" it brings up the question of whether you have control over when it bounces itself, and if you can take any actions before the self-bounce triggers. Perhaps you meant "At the start of the Main Phase 2"? You can just avoid the entire self-bounce by not entering your Battle Phase and keeping the monster, but if you do let it bounce it lets you pay 500 LP to destroy something, effectively letting you break even in card advantage if this hasn't destroyed anything in battle, and plussing a bit if it did.

 

Verdict

Hmm, difficult stuff. While the requirement said "generic", implying minimal specificity on how it can interact, I find Card A's Tribute-for-free-revive incredibly potent. It wouldn't harm to impose a Level restriction on what it can revive, while still falling nicely in the region of generic. Card B, on the other hand, gets slightly picky over what can be Tributed to Special Summon it (although you still can Tribute Summon it, but why?), making it fall slightly short of the "generic" definition. My vote goes to Card A by a tiny margin.

[Excalibur the Divine]

1-0 Card A

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Card A can tribute itself to revive another monster [assuming you Normal Summon + have nothing else]. However, it's an optional effect so you can still keep this around as a 1600 ATK monster if there aren't any monsters that you'd like to revive. Even if it dies, you still have the second effect to look forward to.

 

It also has a Necro Gardna-esque effect that allows you to draw, but you can't spam multiple copies of it in a Duel because of its limitation effect.

 

Card B SS itself by tributing another Warrior, then bounces itself to the hand during Main Phase 2; allowing you to pay 500 LP and destroy something on the field. As Gadj already mentioned, capitalize on another monster reviving something that can be tributed to SS this card; then Synchro (or Xyz if permitting).

 

The bouncing effect is somewhat iffy, since this could cause loops with monsters that can continuously revive each turn (which in turn, can pay this card's SS during Main Phase 1). You can alternatively just set backrow in MP1 and not even battle, thus not triggering the mandatory bounce. But repeated bouncing/destruction generally amounts to you gaining more advantage if it does pull it off.

 

 

With that said, card A gets it.

[Excalibur the Divine]

2-0 Card A

[-Noel-]

Bump

[-Dom-]

Card A: very nice card, could even be considered a new staple for a lot of decks; it sets up combos as others said but with a suitable cost of your ns, stopping anything too ridiculous, and it isn't completely helpless if it gets negated. The second effect is just another bonus (though it does render that much-loved card Defense Draw obsolete), again balanced by the once-per-duel, which I don't usually like in cards.

 

Card B: has a Turret Warrior-esque summon that can easily create Synchro shenanigans as Gadjiltron mentioned. However, it can also be a good back-up card from the hand if your original plan fails for whatever reason (eg Shadow Mist's effect being negated on its summon), acting as a 2200 beater in the early turns that kills any 1 problem card for 500, which is a nice idea that's not too over or under-powered. However, what makes it questionable is the Mp2 timing, as it isn't that specific and (as the others said) you can skip your mp2 and keep this for a synchro next turn. Returning it in the End Phase would be much neater and probably more balanced (you can probably use the return in some way in a mp, 1 or 2).

 

So, presumably finishing the contest, my vote goes to Card A.

(though both are good, original and well designed)

[Excalibur the Divine]

Aqua I'm sure you have no problems with the votes but I'm asking anyway

[-Noel-]

Aqua I'm sure you have no problems with the votes but I'm asking anyway

All good, will you announce the result by yourself?

[Excalibur the Divine]

Sure
Aqua wins 3-0