[Archetype] I AM SHADOW, THE TRUE SELF [11/11]

[Aix]

The "Kagami" Archetype, based entirely on copying or stealing your opponent's cards. How well you play depends on how well you can take advantage of your opponent and how well you know your opponent's strategies. It was inspired by playing mirror matches, which are quite fun because it greatly adds to player interaction and adjusting your strategy to take advantage of your opponent's cards.
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[spoiler=Monsters]
When your opponent Summons a monster: You can target that card and reveal 1 other “Kagami” card in your hand; Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, this card’s name, Level, Type, Attribute, effect, ATK and DEF become the same as that target’s.


During either player’s turn: You can target 1 face-up monster and reveal 1 “Kagami” card in your hand; while this card is face-up, either that target’s effects are negated OR it cannot attack (you choose), and this card’s name, Attribute, Level, Type, and effect become the same as the target’s.


You can target 1 card your opponent controls and reveal 1 “Kagami” card in your hand; switch control of this card and the target, then this card gains 700 ATK and cannot be destroyed by battle this turn.


You can reveal 1 other “Kagami” monster in your hand; send all face-up cards with the same name as another face-up card to the Graveyard, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster in your opponent’s Graveyard; banish it, and if you do, this card’s name and Level becomes the same as that target.


Once per turn: You can discard up to 2 “Kagami” cards and target the same number of cards in your opponent’s Graveyard as you discarded; add those targets to your hand.


You can target 1 monster you control whose original name includes “Kagami”; Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, this turn, this card’s name, Attribute, Level, Type, effect, ATK and DEF become the same as that target.[/spoiler]
[hr]
[spoiler=Fusions]What's funny is that I actually forgot these cards existed while I was Dueling.

2 monsters whose original names include “Kagami”
You can Special Summon this card (from your Extra Deck) by shuffling the above cards you control into the Deck. You can target 1 face-up card; destroy it, and if you do, this card gains that target’s effects. This effect of “Fury of the Kagami” can only be activated once per turn.


2 monsters whose original names include “Kagami”
You can Special Summon this card (from your Extra Deck) by shuffling the above cards you control into the Deck. Once per turn: You can declare 1 card name; look at your opponent’s Deck, and if there are two cards with that name, add 1 copy to your hand.[/spoiler]
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[spoiler=Spells]
You can reveal 1 “Kagami” card in your hand and declare 1 card name; if that card is in your opponent's hand, add 1 copy of it to your hand and your opponent draws 1 card, otherwise draw 1 card. You can only activate 1 “Kagami Sorcery” per turn.


You can activate cards and effects that would affect a card in your Deck, but it affects a “Kagami” monster in your Deck instead. When your opponent adds a card(s) from their Deck to their hand, except during their Draw Phase: You can add 1 “Kagami” card or “Mirror Force” from your Deck to your hand. You can only activate this effect of “Kagami Light” once per turn.


You can use your opponent’s Extra Deck, Graveyard or banished monsters if you reveal 1 “Kagami” card in your hand. When your opponent Special Summons a monster(s), you can place 1 Kagami Counter on this card. You can remove 3 Kagami Counters on this card; Special Summon 1 “Kagami” monster from your Deck. During your End Phase, if this card has Kagami Counters: Take 1000 damage for each Kagami Counter on this card.[/spoiler]
[hr]Discuss/Review.

[Maeriberii Haan]

oh hey bishies

 

Sage and Serenity's really questionable due to the range of things it can grab. Sage more so that Serenity due to Serenity's inability to steal 1-of cards.

 

The concept of both of the continuous spells are ugly, While thankfully they're not -that- searchable to the point of you can actually dedicate to abusing them, they're still not something I'd call healthy.

 

I'm not seeing that much internal synergy between the cards, but I believe it's intentional on your part so you must use your opponent's resources against them. Still, as a whole, I'm just seeing something that by nature either overwhelm the opposition due to utilizing their resource better, or will hopelessly flail around without doing much, depending on the matchup. Having a deck being that matchup dependent as a concept is not something that I'll call good design call, for obvious reasons.

 

(also, I'm not exactly sure on whether these can even be applied conveniently enough on DP.)

[Aix]

oh hey bishies

yey

Sage and Serenity's really questionable due to the range of things it can grab. Sage more so that Serenity due to Serenity's inability to steal 1-of cards.

Mmk, I'll think of something to change Sage to.

The concept of both of the continuous spells are ugly, While thankfully they're not -that- searchable to the point of you can actually dedicate to abusing them, they're still not something I'd call healthy.

I've been seeing Hope be really powerful on DP because every Deck I've seen search a bajillion, and then when I steal their stuff, I get to search a bajillion more. Might change it to something more tame. If you are referring to the first effect on each of them, I'd rather keep them because they are sort of part of the Deck's whole concept.

I'm not seeing that much internal synergy between the cards, but I believe it's intentional on your part so you must use your opponent's resources against them. Still, as a whole, I'm just seeing something that by nature either overwhelm the opposition due to utilizing their resource better, or will hopelessly flail around without doing much, depending on the matchup. Having a deck being that matchup dependent as a concept is not something that I'll call good design call, for obvious reasons.

Yup, they aren't meant to synergize a ton with each other. Design-wise regarding matchups, I can't really change that, since it's the whole concept. The Fusions are there to mitigate bad matchups, however, and after all, all Decks have bad matchups.

[Maeriberii Haan]

What's different here though is that good/bad matchup IS the deck. You either win hard or lose hard, all depending on what you face. How blatantly matchup dependent the deck is, that's the problem.

 

Also, on Hope, main issue I have with it is that, since many cards (especially in DP) interacts with the deck, it makes the first effect just crazy as you can grab RotA/E-tele like effects from Sage, and get other methods of searching, etc. There's also the fact that generic cards that digs the deck (Let's say, Hidden Armory for Snatch Steal) turns into more ways to tutor the Kagami.

 

And Despair's first effect needs to be reworded. It implies that you can activate things like Breakthrough Skill etc by revealing a card, you immediately gain access and information to your opponent's extra deck by revealing 1 card (this is also an issue with the 1000/2700 fusion), etc. If that is what you're intending to do, then the card's broken despite the last effect's self-burn. if not, make it clear in which occasion you can actually utilize the grave/banish/extra deck.

 

And tbh, I'm not exactly seeing that much drawback from the concept aside from being really reactive. You're effectively playing using both player's resource with impunity, after all. Your opponent gets needlessly pressured whenever they're going to make power plays, since you'll utilize it against them instead for free. Lack of internal synergy and self tutoring means little aside from giving the deck an artificial limiter design-wise.

 

So yeah. Basically, to reiterate my point on matchups, the deck either completely bricks (which is not a good design), steamrolls the opponent due to utilizing their resources along with your own resource (which is not a good design), or become helpless when facing decks whose resource can't easily be controlled (which is not a good design too, decks shouldn't be made to fail this bad against another deck).

[Aix]

What's different here though is that good/bad matchup IS the deck. You either win hard or lose hard, all depending on what you face. How blatantly matchup dependent the deck is, that's the problem.

As far as I can see, bad matchup-wise, almost every Deck has important cards that can be copied by Flash, Frost or Jester. I need to think more on how to not make it overwhelm the opponent, though it doesn't do much in terms of its own resources since all its own resources go towards copying the opponent and it lacks speed. I suppose I could pull back a little with the copying to increase its own power.

I'll fix Despair up as well then.

I guess I'll change Hope to only affect cards that stay on the field to avoid the E-Tele/RoTA thing, although Tenki sorta makes things different, but that's a small exceptiong.

As for the pressure on the opponent, naturally you'd have to change your playstyle to play against this Deck. The "Kagami" player isn't the only one who has to adjust.

[Tinkerer]

Btw, in kagami hope, you put "You can only activate this effect of “Kagami LIGHT” once per turn."