OCG/PSCT Tutorial: Learn How To Write Your Cards Properly!

[Atypical-Abbie]

Just wanted to post this here, some minor changes happened to older cards that used Monster Zone and adjacent, now they say Main Monster Zone where relevant and adjacent (horizontal) to indicate that it cannot be the Extra Monster Zone. These cards are not known to be released yet, and they didn't even update them to proper PSCT, just those changes, but as it is on the official card database, they are probably going to appear later on.

 

https://ygorganization.com/tcg-text-updates-link-era/

[Atypical-Abbie]

So this is an odd bit of news, Extra Link is used on two Match Winners, Sanctity of Dragon and Iron Knight of Revolution, and a card seems to be able to be considered Extra Linked as well. Strange, but there you go.

 

"If this Extra Linked card attacks your opponent directly and reduces their LP to 0, you win the Match."

[Ulti-Hawk]

How would "During either player’s turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard:" effects (an example being Metalfoes Counter) be worded with the new PSCT? I was thinking it would be something like this:

"Except the turn this card was sent to the GY (Quick Effect):"

[xlArisenRoselx]

Ulti-Hawk, that sounds just about right. Of course Quick Effect would not be necessary if it wasn't a quick effect card, but yeah. You pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one...

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

How would "During either player’s turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard:" effects (an example being Metalfoes Counter) be worded with the new PSCT? I was thinking it would be something like this:

"Except the turn this card was sent to the GY (Quick Effect):"

 

You should be fine with this wording, though will need to check if Konami reprinted anything that does this with new PSCT. Though, assuming that (Quick Effect) replaces that "during either player's turn" string, it probably will go before it. 

 

Again, need to check.

 

====

If it's easier, you can continue to use ARC-V grammar. No one here is going to chew you out for it, or rather they should not be, 

[Atypical-Abbie]

How would "During either player’s turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard:" effects (an example being Metalfoes Counter) be worded with the new PSCT? I was thinking it would be something like this:

"Except the turn this card was sent to the GY (Quick Effect):"

As far as I am aware, there isn't a card with that kind of text yet, so I can't say. Do what you find appropriate.

[Atypical-Abbie]

Hey everyone, update after looking at the errata of cards in Legendary Dragon Decks, seems like they want to eliminate the use of "1 or more" in favor of "1+" instead. At first we saw it on Link Monsters, then Synchro Monsters, now Fusion Monsters like Chimeratech Fortress Dragon and cards like Dark Magic Expanded also have changed it to say that instead never mind on that one, I didn't see that it was like that before (I assume Xyz Monsters follow suit, but don't think there is one that has the change yet). Do keep in mind that you wouldn't use this when saying something like "If you control 2 or more monsters", as seen with Cyber Repair Plant not using the plus.

 

As another note, I think I can definitively confirm how the Spell/Trap Card is suppose to be used, it's when talking about activations. For example, negating an activation, or when a Spell Card is activated, as seen on Spell Counter based cards are cases when you want to add the "Card" as well, but for other uses, such as negating already face-up Spells or targeting them, or adding them to your hand, you do not use it. I believe the reasoning behind this is that there may be confusion if you say "When a Spell/Trap is activated", some may think that means you can still respond to already face-up cards that activate their effects, though that should be worded as "When a Spell/Trap Card or effect is activated".

[Azuriena]

Dark Magic Expanded also have changed it to say that instead.

 

It's always used 1+, 2+ and 3+. It's not the only example of it before Series 10 either.

[Atypical-Abbie]

It's always used 1+, 2+ and 3+. It's not the only example of it before Series 10 either.

Oh, well either way, I expect them to update to that for other similar cards regardless, since that card is rather new as well.

[Atypical-Abbie]

Updates from Circuit Break:

 

The term "Link Material" and "Link Rating" has been added to the "Word List, Explanations and Usage List".

 

A weird thing I noticed, Fuse Line says "While this card is Set: Target 1 card on the field in this card's column; destroy it." which confuses me, since other Traps never say the first line. Maybe has something to do with the column aspect, as Broken Line also says this, but I don't know.

 

I also noticed that cards that say "its effects are negated" or similar say "it has its effects negated" instead. Why they do this I'm not completely sure about though.

 

Also, X-Krawler Qualiark is another monster that use the +2 term, and Lyrilusc - Recital Starling is an Xyz Monster that uses the term as well, which I figured was going to happen anyway.

[Azuriena]

A weird thing I noticed, Fuse Line says "While this card is Set: Target 1 card on the field in this card's column; destroy it." which confuses me, since other Traps never say the first line. Maybe has something to do with the column aspect, as Broken Line also says this, but I don't know.

It means it has to be on the field, and not, for instance, in your hand.

 

I also noticed that cards that say "its effects are negated" or similar say "it has its effects negated" instead. Why they do this I'm not completely sure about though.

 

This was introduced with Rise of the True Dragons—over a year ago.

 

It likely exists to help differentiate between effects that negate the activated effect of a monster even if that monster activates that effect by removing itself from the field, from effects that negate a monster's effects while that monster is face-up on the field.

[Atypical-Abbie]

It means it has to be on the field, and not, for instance, in your hand. It also matters for Trap Cards that apply the effects of Trap Cards in the Graveyard.

 

 

This was introduced with Rise of the True Dragons—over a year ago.

 

It likely exists to help differentiate between effects that negate the activated effect of a monster even if that monster activates that effect by removing itself from the field, from effects that negate a monster's effects while that monster is face-up on the field.

Set thing: Hm, I suppose that makes sense, since you could not activate it from your hand since it isn't in a column at that point. Niche, but important I suppose.

 

Negate thing: Which is why I wish people told me about changes, I didn't pay much attention to the changes for long since they rarely made any, though I now check all new sets due to amount of changes they are introducing lately.

[Gh8stree]

What do we do if we aren't sure if we did the PSCT exactly right, but we are sure that most of it is right.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

What do we do if we aren't sure if we did the PSCT exactly right, but we are sure that most of it is right.

 

You should be fine if there are some minor mistakes. If there are any, someone will likely correct it for you. 

 

But for the most part, most of us tend not to correct it unless the wording is off or it impedes the way card is supposed to work. As long as members understand what you're trying to do, it's fine. (They're prohibited from giving solely OCG fixes without reviewing your stuff properly.)

[Atypical-Abbie]

What do we do if we aren't sure if we did the PSCT exactly right, but we are sure that most of it is right.

You should always ask if you have a problem, status updates preferably, as I don't want this to be spammed, though if you have a single problem, I would be glad to help you here.

[Atypical-Abbie]

Very tiny news from Structure Deck: Cyberse Link:

 

The term "Link-#" has been added to the "Word List, Explanations and Usage List", the number sign being the Link Rating of a Link Monster.

 

Interestingly, Code Talker is capitalized instead of code Talker, like lswarm is for Evilswarm. May be because of the actual card called Code Talker, maybe it's a change in general though? Not sure yet.

 

Also, Jester Confit puts the "You can only control 1" clause at the start of the text, which I don't believe other cards normally do, especially not when they have a (from your hand) Special Summoning effect.

[Atypical-Abbie]

Spirit Warriors: So something kind of odd, The Weather Painter Spell/Traps have the (Quick Effect) line before the semi-colon, instead of at the start of the effect. This was only done for colons, if this is a new thing, I'm not sure, could have to do with them being Spells/Traps, could have to do with it being after a bullet hole, so they may not like it looking like that, unsure at this time.

[Guest Lightning777]

I have a question about the PSCT of a card I am making for my archetype.  The text is shown below:

 

Once per turn: You can target 1 monster on the field; change its battle position. This effect can be activated during either player's turn if you control another monster.

The idea for this archetype is that a soft OPT becomes a quick effect when you control another monster. 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I have a question about the PSCT of a card I am making for my archetype PC-Knight.  The text is shown below:

 

Once per turn: You can target 1 monster on the field; change its battle position. This effect can be activated during either player's turn if you control another "PC-Knight" monster.

The idea for this archetype is that a soft OPT becomes a quick effect when you control another monster.

 

Do you want it written in series 10 OCG, or just to check if it is proper grammar regardless?

 

As it is right now, the effect is fine (and assuming you did borrow from the Super Quantal Xyz, because they're worded the same; sans the obvious Xyz requirement). It's series 9, but it's fine.

 

Though, since "during either player's turn" got changed to (Quick Effect) in series 10 wording, I think you can use "This effect becomes a Quick Effect, if you control another "PC-Knight" monster." or "If you control another "PC-Knight" monster, this is a Quick Effect." for the second part. First part is already fine as-is. 

 

If Super Quantals do get a reprint with this wording, you can use it as a baseline for series 10, as we currently don't have a precedent for this right now [afaik]. Otherwise, if you do use series 10 wording, you can just retain the current version you have now and just write the rest of the effect out accordingly. 

[Atypical-Abbie]

Some things from Wave of Light, Sacred Arch-Airknight Parshath has a word salad of an effect, it's a bit complicated to explain, but I'll try my best to my understanding, do correct me if I'm wrong:

 

Okay, so if I understand this correctly, this means that it did not need to be in the hand when you activate it, so if you somehow added it to your hand before the Counter Trap Card or negation, you could still Special Summon it, however if it was sent to the GY after the Counter Trap Card or negation occurred, you cannot. I assume the reasoning for this being that it is public knowledge in the GY, and therefore it isn't already assumed that one could be in the hand, even if you did add it to the hand, though in the GY it must always be there to confirm that condition check. This is odd, but if I understand it correctly, makes sense with how the game works.

 

The Sanctum of Parshath says "a total of", while it seems it was used on Empowerment before, I have only noticed it now. It is basically indicating you don't NEED to use 3 Fairy monsters or 3 Counter Traps, but you can mix and match them.

[Atypical-Abbie]

PSCT news from Extreme Force. I will update the OP with this stuff later, as it takes a while to do with so much new stuff.

 

Striping Partner says "Must be Special Summoned by the following effect" instead of "Must be Special Summoned by its own effect" as Special Summon only monsters that work through an activated effect normally say. Probably reasoning behind this is the last effect, which could also Special Summon itself, though this card directly does not allow that, so the other way of wording it would be messy. Linkbelt Wall Dragon does not say this though, so it's likely this is only for specific cases similar to this.

 

Speaking of Linkbelt Wall Dragon, its wording is interesting, it says "When you Link Summon: You can..." rather than "When you Link Summon a monster", as other cards with this condition normally use, such as Illusory Snatcher and Yellow-Bellied Oni. Additionally, it mentions its counters as "these counters" various times, referring to its non-specific counters, seems like some cards may have done this similarly before, though I haven't noticed it.

 

Tindangle Intruder mentions that its last effect is not optional, a rare thing normally only seem on maintenance costs, not mandatory effects, so worth mentioning since they may do similar things to other mandatory effects in the future.

 

Mekk-Knight Purple Nightfall, something I hadn't really noticed them doing before, but this puts the "until the next Standby Phase" in parentheses, which makes it easier to determine that is only means that specific part of the effect. Battle for the World Legacy and Cracking Dragon also use this in a similar matter.

 

Ghost Bird of Bewitchment, so this card is one of the most unique cards in the set for PSCT reasons, as it mentions what the zones are called, in the sense of the turn player's view of the field. It mentions Leftmost, Rightmost, Center and Others, the last one may bre named differently later should they decide to make a card that supports the zone below the Extra Monster Zone. For now, use these when you want to talk about specific Main Monster Zones (and I suppose Spell & Trap Zones as well).

 

Inspector Boarder is interesting, as it mentions monster card types, while we had ones for Extra Deck monster card types, this one also has Ritual, Pendulum and Links. It also has some other information regarding what it counts towards its effect. The card is strange in general really.

 

Vector Scare Archfiend, it has a strange choice at the end of the effect, I am not sure if there is any specific reasoning behind this, because it seems redundant to me, feel free to give your ideas. "When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the GY: You can Tribute 1 monster that this card points to; Special Summon that destroyed monster to any zone this card points to. If you Special Summon to your opponent's field to your opponent's field by this effect, this card can make a second attack during this Battle Phase (although your opponent gains control of that Special Summoned monster)."

 

There Can Be Only One has an interesting wording, which differs from Gozen Match and Rivalry of Warlords, though I believe it works the same regardless "Each player can only control 1 monster of each Type. If a player controls 2 or more monsters of the same Type, they must send some to the GY so they control no more than 1 monster of that Type."

 

Dai Dance has some interesting text regarding zones and using them. It seems like it will stop applying should the zone become unusable, with Excode Talker or Zany Zebra etc. and it also has some other interesting wording, as it says "you can only apply the effect of "Dai Dancer" once per Duel." Rank-Up-Magic - The Seventh One also says this though, so yeah, odd. "Choose 1 opponent's unused Main Monster Zones; if your opponent would Normal Summon/Set or Special Summon a monster to their Main Monster Zone, and the chosen zone can be used, they must use that zone. (They cannot Summon multiple monsters to their Main Monster Zones while this effect is applied.) This effect is applies until the zone is occupied or becomes unusable. You can only apply the effect of "Dai Dance" once per Duel."

 

F.A. Motorhome Transport is the first card that mentions Level 13 in its text. While monsters can normally go over this, no card has effects that rely on it, though I thought it would be worth mentioning here since people may want to take advantage of the possibilities this allows.

[Azuriena]

Mekk-Knight Purple Nightfall, something I hadn't really noticed them doing before, but this puts the "until the next Standby Phase" in parentheses, which makes it easier to determine that is only means that specific part of the effect. Battle for the World Legacy and Cracking Dragon also use this in a similar matter.

 

It's to clarify you don't have to "wait" until you return it (or until the stat change stops being applied) to proceed beyond "and if you do" (or "then").

 

For ATK/DEF changes, they used to resolve this by putting the duration at the end of the effect (or not caring at all for "and if you do"). Since the Zarc Magicians, they have put them where they would normally be but in parentheses.

 

Inspector Boarder is interesting, as it mentions monster card types, while we had ones for Extra Deck monster card types, this one also has Ritual, Pendulum and Links. It also has some other information regarding what it counts towards its effect. The card is strange in general really.

 

Dimensional Barrier.

[Atypical-Abbie]

The first post has been updated with the new stuff (also forgot about Dimensional Barrier, oops)

[Atypical-Abbie]

Ancient Millennium PSCT news:

 

Heavy Metal Raiders has an interesting text, saying that a monster only gains the ATK while it remains face-up, which is kind of like the opposite of cards that say they keep the ATK gain, even if the card leaves the field. This is a Continuous Effect as well, which I am sure is why they felt the need to clarify it, as giving a monster a gain like this as a Continuous Effect isn't as common as ones that just apply as soon as the card is on the field, like most Field Spells do. I don't really know any other cards that are similar and would need an update, feel free to post some, as this is interesting. Anyway, the text: "The first time each DARK Machine monster you control would be destroyed by battle each turn, it is not destroyed, and if you took battle damage from that battle, it gains that much ATK after damage calculation, and keeps that ATK gain as long as this card is on the field."

 

Thought I would mention Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon, which uses the word Duel in a different way than normal, in that it mentions the cards must have been Special Summoned this Duel, though it doesn't have to be the exact card you used, since it can banish them from the hand as well, where their Special Summon state would not be noticed, so play around with that, could make for some interesting cards. "Must first be Special Summoned "from your Extra Deck during a Duel you Special Summoned both the above cards, by banishing the above cards from your hand, field and/or GY. (You do not use "Polymerization".)"

 

VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon has something a bit odd regarding Flip Effects, as they were changed to say "(Flip monsters' effects are not activated at this time.)" though this says "(Flip Effects are not activated.). There does seem to have been a few examples of this happening before, with Shadow of Eyes and Evil HERO Dark Gaia, though both were released with PSCT was still mostly experimental.  If there is a reason other than them forgetting that they normally use the other text, feel free to tell me.

 

They seem to continue the trend of them using the "(this is not optional)" for mandatory effects in the GY and what we saw with Sacred Arch-Airknight Parshath having that word salad effect, which Illusionist Faceless Magician also has.

 

EDIT:
Just saw that the Org has posted a new article about some cards that have had their database entries update to reflect the new Crystal and Armed Dragon cards. I was going to mention that Rainbow Dragon was updated, though that isn't really anything special, but I do suggest checking out the article, as I didn't know they had updated other cards:

 

https://ygorganization.com/tcg-database-updates/

[Atypical-Abbie]

So a few things I hadn't noticed, while looking through the new Kaiba Pack, but they actually have done for a bit is have cards that mention card types now instead say "type of card". Noticed this with Vampire Lord, though other cards have had this before, like Ultimate Providence. Additionally, instead of Tuner monster, they say just say Tuner, like with Cards of Consonance, which White Moray already did.