[Archetype] Mechanicas

[VCR_CAT]

I made this archetype a while back, and just recently I went back and redid them. Now they're better than ever with updated card art and effects! The core gameplay mechanic is still the same, but this time the archetype is far more optimized. I'm posting them here before throwing them up on DP just to see if people can get a feel for balance in written form; see if there's anything I need to change before I playtest them. So let's have it!
 
[spoiler= Maindeck Brigade]
 

 

When this card is Normal Summoned, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves, Normal Summon 1 Machine-Type monster from your hand, except "Mechanica Sentinal". You cannot Special Summon any monsters except Machine-type monsters.

 

 

 

If this card is in the Graveyard during the End Phase of the turn that it was sent from your hand or deck to the Graveyard; add 1 Machine-Type monster whose level is less than or equal to the number of Machine-Type monsters in your Graveyard from your deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Mechanica Hammerhead" once per turn.

 

 

 

If you control another face-up monster, this card cannot declare attacks. This card cannot be Normal Set. If this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, target 1 Level 4 or lower Machine-Type monster in your Graveyard (Except "Mechanica Wasp III"): Special Summon that target in face-up Attack Position.

 

 

 

Once per turn, you can shuffle 2 EARTH Machine-Type monsters from your Graveyard into your Deck to draw 1 card. If this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can draw 1 card.

 

 

 

If you control 2 or more EARTH Machine-Type monsters with levels, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. This card cannot attack the turn it is summoned. Once per turn, you can target 1 Machine-Type monster you control: That target's Level becomes 7. You can only Special Summon 1 "Mechanica Maveric" per turn.

 

 

 

If this card is sent from your hand to the Graveyard for the Special Summon of a Machine-Type monster; Special Summon it in face-up Defense Position. You can only use this effect of "Mechanica Cypher" once per turn. Once per turn, you can send 1 EARTH Machine-Type monster from your deck to the Graveyard. You can only Special Summon Machine-Type monsters.

 

 

 

You can discard 1 Machine-Type monster to Special Summon this card from your hand. When a Machine-Type monster is sent from your hand or deck to the Graveyard: Draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of "Mechanica Outrider" once per turn.

 

[/spoiler]
 
[spoiler= Spells and Traps]
 

 

You can discard 1 card and target 1 Level 4 or lower Machine-Type monster in your Graveyard: Add that target your hand. You can only activate this effect of "Mechanica Ground Control Station" once per turn.

 

 

 

When a Machine-Type monster is sent from the hand or Deck to the Graveyard, you can activate this effect: Send 1 "Mechanica" monster from your deck to the Graveyard. You can only activate this effect of "Mechanica War Zone" once per turn.

 

 

 

When a card's effect targets a face-up "Mechanica" monster you control: Banish 1 EARTH Machine-Type monster from your Graveyard; negate the effect's activation, and if you do, destroy that card. During your opponent's turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard; when an opponent's card effect is activated that would destroy exactly 1 face-up "Mechanica" monster you control, you can banish this card from your Graveyard: Negate the effect.

 

 

[/spoiler]
 
[spoiler= The Extra Deck]
 

 

2 Level 4 Machine-Type monsters

Once per turn; you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card and discard 1 EARTH Machine-Type monster from your hand: Add 1 Machine-Type monster from your deck to your hand whose level is greater than or equal to the number of Machine-Type monsters in your Graveyard.

 

 

 

2 Level 4 Machine-Type monsters
You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Increase the ATK of all face-up Machine-Type monsters currently on your side of the field by 100 for each Machine-Type monster in your Graveyard until the end of this turn, and any battle damage your opponent takes is halved for the rest of the turn. You can only activate this effect of "Mechanica Warrior MQ-1C" once per turn.

 

 

2 Level 5 Machine-Type monsters

You can also Xyz Summon this card by sending 1 EARTH Machine-Type from your hand to Graveyard and using 1 Rank 4 "Mechanica" Xyz Monster you control as the Material. (Xyz Material attached to that monster also become Xyz Materials on this card.) You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card and target 1 card your opponent controls: Destroy it. You can only use this effect of "Mechanica Guardian CL-327" once per turn.

 

 

 

2 Level 7 Machine-Type monsters

You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Target 1 "Mechanica" monster in your Graveyard and Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position. This card cannot attack the turn you use this effect. You can only use this effect of "Mechanica Predator RQ-1" once per turn. If this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard; target 1 face-up card on the field: Destroy it.

 

 
3 Level 7 Machine-Type monsters
Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Negate the effects of all face-up monsters your opponent controls until the end of this turn. If this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard while it has Xyz Material: Banish 1 Xyz monster in your Graveyard to Special Summon this card in face-up Attack Position, then target 1 "Mechanica" Spell or Trap Card in your Graveyard and attach it to this card as Xyz Material (banish that card if it leaves this card as Xyz Material.) You can only activate this effect of "Mechanica Vindicator CU-162" once per turn.
 

 

 

4 Level 8 Machine-Type monsters

You can also Xyz Summon "Mechanica Condor TD-3C" once per turn during your Main Phase 2 by using a Rank 7 "Mechanica" Xyz Monster you control as Xyz Material while you have 7 or more Machine-Type monsters in your Graveyard (Xyz Materials attached to that monster also become Xyz Materials on this card.) This card's ATK and DEF are equal to the number of Machine-Type monsters in your Graveyard x400. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card and banish 2 Machine-Type monsters from your Graveyard: This card is unaffected by other card effects until the end of this turn.

 

[/spoiler]

[CocoaGalaxy]

Sentinal seems bad for being a -1. Is it really worth it

Outrider, Cypher, Maveric, Hammerhead, Wasp, Lancaster aren't broken either

Ground Station is pretty good. Maybe even too good

Warzone is ok

Vindicator, Predator, Warrior, Quail are acceptable as well

And that appears to be all though, the Deck does seem to lack a bit of punching power from my perspective, but otherwise it's ok

[VCR_CAT]

Hmmm would it be better for Sentinal to summon from the deck with the discard-1, or just let him Special Summon from the hand? Oh shoot, I need to add a "Until the rest of the turn" clause for Warrior; otherwise that could be huge gains every turn.

[VCR_CAT]

Made some changes to the deck, most notably to Setinal who now summons from the deck, but the summoned monster's effects are negated. I took a look through the list of Synchros to see if there was anything that would break this card (not worried about the Xyz monsters), and so far it looks like Karakuris would REALLY like Sentinal; so I might end up having to put in a clause saying he can't be used for Synchro material; but I might not have to. Let me know what you think.

Other changes include:
- Ground Control gained a slight nerf. It was tooled to go with the archetype's theme of adding to the hand to promote more smart plays, and the stat boost only applies to ATK now.
- War Zone earned the barest of boosts. You can now send a machine from the deck to the grave if it's destroyed by your opponent.
- Fixed a typo on Wasp
- Added in the "Until the end of this turn" clause to Warrior's boost effect.

[VCR_CAT]

Big balance changes made:
- Sentinal no longer summons from the deck and no longer has a discard cost. Sentinal's stats were also reduced to 1000/1000.
- Hammerhead no longer has his double-attack effect and only searches during the end-phase

- Only 1 Maveric can be summoned in a turn and he cannot attack the turn he is summoned. He also requires the machine monsters to have levels, so Xyz monsters no longer count.

- Cypher received one of the biggest changes. His discard effect requires that it be for the summon of a machine monster, you cannot use him for Xyz/Synchro plays unless it's for a machine, and you can only summon one per turn. Cypher's defense was also reduced to 1000.

- Outrider just got a better OPT clause on his draw effect. That's all.

- Ground Control Station no longer offers ATK boosts and only adds level 4 or lower monsters.

- War Zone lost its on-destruction effect.

- Predator now only summons Mechanica monsters, and now he only summons them in Defense Position, and now he can't attack when he uses this effect. He also lost his add-to-hand effect, replaced with popping 1 face-up card when he's destroyed by battle.

 

[b]Edit:[/b]
Additional changes, yo! Still a little too good!
- Sentinal requires a normal summon
- Wasp received a slight buff and a slight nerf. Down to 0 defense, needs to be destroyed, and only summons level 4 or lower machines.
- Ground Control Station requires a discard

- You cannot Normal Summon the turn you use Outrider's summon effect.

[VCR_CAT]

Another update. Here go the changes:
- Hammerhead's wording was changed to flow better. Barest of change.
- Lancaster was made a little more useful

- Outrider lost its Normal Summon restriction

- Vindicator's effect now includes Trap Cards and spell/traps that he gains as Xyz Material are banished when they would go to the grave.

- Added Overload and Condor. Felt like the archetype needed something in the trap department, and Vindicator didn't feel too much like a REAL boss for the deck so Condor has come along. Neither of these cards will be added until they get some review.

[BtanH]

Vindicator and Condor are terrifying. 
I think testing is important though, because they might not be as terrifying as I am worried.

[VCR_CAT]

Condor has not received any testing, but don't worry about Vindicator. He's a good Xyz, but definitely hasn't terrified anyone too much yet XD

[VampireofDarkness]

Condor looks frightening as all hell, but I feel it is a trap in that it is somewhat hard to pull off. It's basically Rainbow Dragon for the Deck with a Quasar effect. It would definitely need some testing, especially testing on how difficult it is to pull off. If it becomes too much, my first recommendation would be to limit it to Spells an Traps for the negation or make it banish 2, but from what I can tell it takes some time.

Vindicator is terrifying when it debuts, but after you destroy once, it isn't that bad. It's glorified Tiger King really, and even Tiger King is more frightening than Vindicator in its own Deck

Overload is basically archetypal Dark Illusion. Not quite sure the cost was needed, but hey, it still is pretty solid. I think it's fine.

[VCR_CAT]

Alright, I'll put Condor and Overload up then. I'm pretty hesitant with effect-negation stuff, so I put the cost in there to give the card a bit of a double-edged sword feel and make using it more of a strategical dilemma instead of a blind play. But yeah, Condor will need play-testing to see how it works out exactly.

[VampireofDarkness]

Alright, I'll put Condor and Overload up then. I'm pretty hesitant with effect-negation stuff, so I put the cost in there to give the card a bit of a double-edged sword feel and make using it more of a strategical dilemma instead of a blind play. But yeah, Condor will need play-testing to see how it works out exactly.

The cost definitely makes me feel more comfortable with it, I will say that much. It is somewhat hard to play around, but you can bait it to the point where a Rank 4 could take it out stat wise. Also take note that Ragnazero would be the detriment to it as well, which is rather interesting

[VCR_CAT]

Yeah, so far on paper Condor looks fairly balanced. Like a real beatstick for sure, but not unstoppable and not a huge problem like Cyber Dragon Infinity. We'll have to see how it plays out, though.

[VCR_CAT]

Condor's been nerfed as he was 2-stronk. Now he only gains 400 for each monster, his effect requires 2 banishes, and the effect itself is Number 81 on itself instead of Quasar (to better promote player-interaction). Don't trust the artwork because I'm too lazy to change it yet.

[VCR_CAT]

Slightest of updates made in light of the tournament. Condor's summoning conditions require the Second Mainphase, as I noticed that you can use a Predator's effect and then midigate the loss of the attack by summoning Condor on it.

[VCR_CAT]

Last few changes I think, and then this archetype is "Gold".

- Ground Control Station was made to a Field Spell with its effect reworded to reflect that.

- War Zone was made into a quick-play spell that triggers when a machine is sent from the hand or deck to the grave. It can only mill Mechanicas.
- Quail is no longer a Foolish Burial, but functions more-or-less the same.

[Wolter19]

I really dig the art of the cards. I'm not a machine-type man, but they seem somewhat consistent

[VCR_CAT]

Note to Sakura: This thread is for an archetype in the tournament pool, and while I acknowledge that necro-bumping is bad, I would appreciate it if you did not lock this thread for the sake of review of balance challenges. Thank you.

 

Made some more changes. For once, the archetype was feeling a tad weak in some areas, and a little too strong in at least one.

 

1. Sentinal was given a buff by switching from a Tin Goldfish effect to a Yosenju effect. This was done to improve its effect in light of its restrictions and to differentiate it from other options (read: Tin Goldfish) to cement itself as a viable choice in light of other options that were clearly better.

 

2. Wasp III was given a nerf by preventing him from being Normal Set and by limiting his float effect to Battle Destruction only; his float effect also summons in ATK position. Wasp was made as the maindeck beatstick with easy summon-ability, and the float effect was given to strengthen his role as a viable not-Extradeck option for battle. Of course, for a 2K beatstick having an all-destruction float felt way too strong, and in the late game could prove to be very annoying. Not to mention, summoning a monster in DEF position prevented up to 2 attacks with no damage. Forcing attack position on both ends keeps in line with Wasp's intended role as primarily offensive while also removing a lot of the late-game stall factor.

 

3. Mechanica Overload was given a graveyard effect that, during your opponent's turn, you can banish it to negate an effect that would destroy exactly 1 Mechanica. This negation does not destroy the card. Overload felt like a fairly bad card in all honesty, and to give it more use as a defensive option it needed a little boost.

 

4. Guardian CL-327 was added to the pool as a Rank 5 option. Guardian has a self-Xyz-evolution effect by discarding 1 EARTH Machine and overlaying on a Rank 4 Mechanica. Guardian fills a glaring void in the Mechanica line-up of having no kind of non-battle removal in the Rank 4 pool that's easy to obtain. Guardian's effect is simple, but fills a blank spot in the Mechanica lineup that really needed filling. Artwork is not final.

 

5. Predator's summon effect does not force Defense Position any longer. This was done as a sort of boost to help Predator's utility beyond chaining material summons.