cc monthly [Finished]CC Monthly Series [April 2016][JUDGING]

[Northern Sage]

Made a small last-minute adjustment to my entry.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Alright, I haven't gotten to pre-grading them just yet.

 

As for the scoring, if I haven't already mentioned this, I do have finals coming up in a few weeks (along with some final assignment stuff) so I don't post your grades right away, that's why.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Anyway, submission cutoff ended around 3 hours ago but I was busy with other stuff so didn't lock off at exactly that time. 

 

So yeah, be patient while I get through the grading and all. (This contest takes precedence over that other one, since I intended to judge this one from the start; other one was only taken b/c TC got barred from the net due to some unknown factors)

[Northern Sage]

Don't mean to rush, but how's it coming along?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Just have to grade your card and I should have the scores up. (I did remind you all that I had final papers and stuff to write, and obviously exams in a couple days).

[Major's Shadow]

Just have to grade your card and I should have the scores up. (I did remind you all that I had final papers and stuff to write, and obviously exams in a couple days).

I understand you have priorities, and I'm not trying to pressure you, but you did say you only had 1 card left to grade 4 days ago. It'd be awesome if you could shoot us a status update at the least (school is top priority for sure though). 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Hopefully I have your grades up by today or tomorrow. (I don't have another final until tomorrow, but I was going to make an update anyway to tell you that I haven't ditched you guys)

 

As for that other contest (one that Skyward Strike was supposed to grade), I decided to just dump it. I know you and Yuuji entered, so if you want me to grade them privately, let me know.

[Major's Shadow]

Hopefully I have your grades up by today or tomorrow. (I don't have another final until tomorrow, but I was going to make an update anyway to tell you that I haven't ditched you guys)

 

As for that other contest (one that Skyward Strike was supposed to grade), I decided to just dump it. I know you and Yuuji entered, so if you want me to grade them privately, let me know.

I don't think that's necessary, but thank you for the offer. Thanks for putting 110% Sakura, looking forward to the grading!

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I still need to get a quick clarification about Lux's card, but otherwise the scores are thus. (It's 5 pages on Google Docs)

 

If OCG needed to be fixed, I have bolded the places where things needed repair. 

 

[spoiler=Scores]

Standard

Balance: 35

Usability: 30

Creativity: 15

Theme/Realistic: 5

OCG: 8

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 100

 

Archlight Lux

Balance: 33

Usability: 28

Creativity: 14

Theme/Realistic: 5

OCG: 8

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 95

 

I need to double check if this card can truly overrule stuff like Skill/Mind/Soul Drain in terms of effect negation, but otherwise it is a nice counter to Breakthrough Skill and other stuff that likes to negate nowadays (screw you Notice). Granted, it does discourage the opponent from popping this; lest you get a free draw (though Cosmic Cyclone doesn’t care OCG-wise). Although, it does allow them to get guaranteed pops off Gungnir and stuff; costs hand advantage on your end, yes, but lets it bomb the opponent hard.

 

In all honesty, I’d probably consider this card for a slot, as anti-negation is always nice. Hand advantage thing is a bit slow though for my liking, but yeah it does what needs to be done.

 

YugsterMajor

Balance: 30

Usability: 27

Creativity: 13

Theme/Realistic: 4

OCG: 7

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 88

 

This card's effects can only be applied/resolved while all monsters you control are WATER monsters. When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 "Ice Barrier" monster from your Deck to your hand, except "Mystic of the Ice Barrier". You can banish this card from your Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Ice Barrier" monster (from your hand). You can only activate each effect of "Mystic of the Ice Barrier" once per turn.

 

(see bolded spots)

 

Oh hi, Medallion 4-6 or really Stratos (really, another searcher is nice for Strategist discard fodder or something that Prior can revive later on). Or really, search Gantala or something; Synch with this card and then banish + SS. Though, the one thing that I probably don’t like much is the requirement that you need a full field (granted, you’ll probably be able to keep one but they will eventually go into a common generic that isn’t WATER). That, and stats are a bit high for a Level 1 monster, even with the constraint. It is very similar to Prior though in terms of effect (or rather, the inverse); granted, they do need ways of getting Gantala out quicker (since Magic Triangle isn’t cutting it much)

 

Yuuji

Balance: 34

Usability: 25

Creativity: 14

Theme/Realistic: 5

OCG: 8

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 93

 

When this card is Normal or Flip Summoned: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower "Ice Barrier" monster in your Graveyard, except "Progenitor of the Ice Barrier"; Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can add 1 "Ice Barrier" card from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Progenitor of the Ice Barrier" once per turn.

 

(see bolded; card is capitalized if you refer to card Types, but Archetypes are lowercase. You don’t need to put face-up; SSing generally implies face-up anyway, bar for some exceptions that aren’t worth mentioning much)

 

I really don’t get why this card is restricted to Normal/Flip Summoning; already has hard OPT and can’t SS itself. At most, you’ll probably just use this to revive a dead Ice Barrier Tuner (probably Defender) and Synchro into Gungnir or whatever 7/8 you want (or R4). I would’ve been fine with this also triggering on the SS part. It’s still playable though, but I really think you could’ve left the restriction off (though I suppose it’s here because of the Prior + revive something play).

 

Second effect is fine though, and least lets you keep hand advantage by searching more stuff if opponent destroys it or you Synchro with it. Ice Barriers tend to have problems keeping their hands up, since Gungnir and some other stuff spend it to blow up stuff.

 

Gadjiltron

Balance: 31

Usability: 30

Creativity: 14

Theme/Realistic: 5

OCG: 8

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 95

 

If you control an "Ice Barrier" monster: You can Special Summon this card (from your Graveyard). When this card is sent to the Graveyard to activate a WATER monster's effect: Draw 1 card. If this card is in your Graveyard, and an "Ice Barrier" monster you control would be destroyed: You can banish this card from your Graveyard instead. You can only use each effect of "Sage of the Ice Barrier" once per turn.

 

(Locations generally have the parentheses around, but not docking points because it’s really trivial. As for the other part, I didn’t subtract here because Hymn of Light in MP15 has a similar structure, even though I think it should be a “If something happens: You can do this” effect and have the colons. Konami really needs to standardize their OCG writing.)

 

Well, here we go with a Level 7 enabler for them, so insta-Gungnir and whatever. I would say 6, but the Level 3 non-Tuners aren’t great for the Deck and Brio’s still banned otherwise. Then again, this plusses very well with Strategist (2 cards for ditching it) or really Gungnir’s destruction. It’s also a Salvage target, so feel free to recycle if needed. Oh right, and the Raigeki/battle protection thing is a nice touch; especially with the amount of destruction removal that sees play nowadays. 3 effects on a low-Level monster is a bit much IMO, though not sure which one you could cut off.

 

For general usage, would be a nice addition to Defender as the Synchro maker in the Deck. If it were a 4, then you could Xyz with it or something, but as-is, still playable.

 

Soulfire

Balance: 34

Usability: 21

Creativity: 11

Theme/Realistic: 5

OCG: 6.5

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 80.5

 

Once per turn, if you control another face-up "Ice Barrier" monster, you can send 1 "Ice Barrier" monster from your hand to the Graveyard; this turn, this card can attack your opponent directly. This monster gains 200 ATK and DEF for every "Ice Barrier" monster in your Graveyard.

 

(Can/may thing; the latter is correct in standard English but for card grammar, you use “can”. For quantities, “every” is generally used, but I probably did see some cards that use “each” also; if you can find one, do show me and I’ll update your score.)

 

In all honesty, this is pretty much a late-game beater for them. Granted, it would be nice to snipe your opponent (and you can get something into the Graveyard for Prior to revive), but yeah I don’t think this adds a lot of stuff for them. Again, just a late-game beater for the most part; could help if opponent has low enough LP or you need to get around some wall, but that’s about it.

 

Sander

Balance: 34

Usability: 27

Creativity: 14

Theme/Realistic: 5

OCG: 7.5

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 94.5

 

When this card is Normal Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Ice Barrier" monster (from your hand). You can discard 1 WATER monster to target this card and another WATER monster in your Graveyard; banish both cards it and this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 WATER monster from your Deck whose Level equals the combined Levels of those 2 monsters. You can only use this effect of "Conjurer of the Ice Barrier" once per turn.

 

(Effect is understandable, but some things related to wording in PSCT; again, Konami tends to be wildly inconsistent, so if you can find similar wording in more current existing stuff, do let me know and I’ll revise the grade. Iffy about the whole structure on the SSing thing, but not docking points on that; you should probably be fine.)

 

In this case, it’s basically ‘tellarknight Vega for Barriers, except limited to your initial NS. That’s not really a bad thing though. You could make it trigger for SSing too, but you’d have to put a hard OPT on both effects. Looking at the other part, I really don’t know how useful it’ll be in the long run for them; only notable targets are the Generals (6-8) and Royal Knight (5); guess you can banish Prior and this for the latter, Defender/this for Raiho and this/whatever 4 you want.

 

Oh wait, I didn’t see this as a generic WATER support (though looking at it, only things I can generally think of that could use this effect is Mermails for Xyz stuff; not really familiar with how they run or whether/not they want to banish their resources for things, and really only for the Level 7 monsters). In general, Ice Barriers will pretty much have the most use for this.

 

It helps them set up any locks (Defender / Cryomancer) or even Synchro if you have to. While this card does give off the impression that it’s a generic WATER support, I never said that it had to explicitly support Ice Barrier and nothing else. Outside of the Deck, not too many options; here, it’s mostly useful for the Generals and that’s it. (I personally don’t run Royal Knight though; he isn't helpful to the Deck)

 

Dragon Sage

Balance: 32

Usability: 23

Creativity: 15

Theme/Realistic: 5

OCG: 6.75

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 88.75

 

Once per turn, if you do not have a Pendulum Card in your other Pendulum Zone: You can target 1 "Ice Barrier" monster in your Graveyard; place it face-up in a Pendulum Zone you control. It is treated as a Pendulum Card with a Scale equal to its Level. If a face-up "Ice Barrier" monster you control is destroyed by battle or a card effect: You can Special Summon 1 "Ice Barrier" card from your other Pendulum Zone.

 

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monster(s)

When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can target Spell/Trap Cards on the field, up to the number of Synchro Materials used to Special Summon this card; banish them. You can only activate the effect of "Amenonuhoko, Continent of the Ice Barrier" once per turn.  If this card in the Monster Zone is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can place this card in an unoccupied Pendulum Zone on your side of the field your Pendulum Zone.

 

(Capitalization stuff. As for the last part, Nirvana High Paladin basically gave us a wording for placing Pendulum Scales in there w/out blowing up stuff like OERD does. However, as the set has not released in TCG and we don’t know how Konami will word it (probably like how Wikia has it now); not going to deduct points as I know we’ve used your current wording until then. Underlined stuff is somewhat iffy, so points were not deducted)

 

First of all, you at least remembered to name this after a legendary spear from mythology (and Amenonuhoko certainly qualifies), though that rule applies for Dragons (and this is Rock). But in a way, this is essentially a banishing (albeit weaker) version of Junk Destroyer; oh wait, you’re at least guaranteed 2 shots so that works. Yang Zing could have a field day with this though, assuming they have space (by nature, this card’s Scale should enclose all of them if you opt to run this with Zefraxi). In terms of Barriers, I guess Prior + Defender + some Level 4 will do it for 3 card banishes (or whatever they’d use to make Trish); or 2 Level 4 + Veiler (this is how I usually end up making Trish in the Deck nowadays). There’s also Dai-Sojo/Raiho + Defender for a quick 2-card thing if you want to go there; less banishes but less investment for a 3K.

 

I was wondering why this is a Pendulum Monster, considering Ice Barriers don’t have others, but then I read the Pendulum effect and it made sense. Ideally, you’ll want to use something like Prior as the low end of the Scale, so you can P-Summon most things you need. I mean, you could put Gantala in the Scales and free SS him later if your opponent decides to wipe your board, but that isn’t logical for them. Though to be fair, this doesn’t really address the problem with them having bad hand advantage at times (due to some of their members blowing it out). Although, it lets them retain field advantage and you can recycle Scales every turn if the opponent doesn’t opt to destroy this first). However, because this is a Pendulum, Prior can’t revive this unless you Xyz into some Rank 9 or something.

 

Personal preference would be to have it get rid of cards, but that’s pushing it too much, especially given its generic nature. I also feel this could’ve been bumped to Scale 8, so Gantala could be summoned a bit more easily. I understand that because this is generic, any Deck would give to pounce on that opportunity to SS free Level 7s if they needed to.

 

In all, as far as current Barriers go, I can’t really see them making this card too often; least from my general playstyle with the Deck. I will say that it’s easier to make than Trish and carries more firepower on it (albeit later, and lack of revival options with Prior and Gantala). For generic purposes, anything that can make Level 9 Synchros will appreciate having an on-summon Cosmic Cyclone that hits at least 2 targets.

 

If you have any questions about how I graded, let me know ahead of time (and please be civil about it). 

[towitori]

These 2 are different:

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Control

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Possess

[Yuuji Kazami]

Gotta love that moment where c in card is capitalized in the written version of your card, but not the version with the picture. =/

 

I'm confused. If I got 34/35 on balance, wouldn't giving it more power by allowing the first effect to also resolve on SS lower my mark in this category?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I graded on the written text underneath (though it might've been simpler to just c/p whatever you wrote there and you shouldn't have spelling error; unless circumstances do not permit you). The picture card does have the proper capitalization though.

 

Anyway, I'll update the grades (though they're generally minor boosts). 

[Trebuchet MS]

A few things and clarification about OCG.

 

The only time locations have parentheses on them is when they're written in inherent Summons, like Cyber Dragon. My card's first effect is intentionally designed to be a Chain-starting effect that Summons the card, which can be halted by Divine Wrath and the like. The third effect is intended to be a non-Chain-starting replacement effect, akin to how Zenmaines saves itself by detaching its Material, although it will only save 1 monster at a time this way. Because this third effect doesn't really start a Chain, the one-effect-per-turn restriction reads "use" instead of "activate".

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Spell/Trap Cards generally use "activate" for hard OPT things like their own activation; monsters generally are "use" (but again, I didn't dump points off for the parentheses or even the wording; MP15 Hymn of Light does use the same wording you have there).

 

But again, a lot of the OCG things I probably docked are pretty much small nitpicky stuff. (Unless I really can't understand your craft, you should generally do fine in the OCG area)

 

As for the summon thing, I used this one as a reference: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Kris_the_Crack_of_Dawn

 

----

Anyway, I'll leave this open for a day so you guys can ask questions and all.

 

For those of you who intend to enter future CC monthly tournaments, do note that we are no longer linked with 2099. If you enter and place, you only get YCM benefits (and whatever side prizes I decide to give); no pack vouchers or PP like I have given in the past.

[вєgσттєη ιηѕαηιту]

All of the scores were 80+! Talk about a good contest :)

[Yuuji Kazami]

Erm, so what about the 34/35 balance thing. After all, you did suggest to increase its power by allowing the first hard OPT effect to SS a Level 4 or lower Ice Barrier also upon my card's SS. Wouldn't that decrease my mark in balance?

[Sander]

Sander

Balance: 34

Usability: 27

Creativity: 14

Theme/Realistic: 5

OCG: 7

Grammar/Spelling: 7

Total: 94

 

When this card is Normal Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Ice Barrier" monster (from your hand). You can discard 1 WATER monster to target this card and another WATER monster in your Graveyard; banish both cards it and this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 WATER monster from your Deck whose Level equals the combined Levels of those 2 monsters. You can only use this effect of "Conjurer of the Ice Barrier" once per turn.

 

(Effect is understandable, but some things related to wording in PSCT; again, Konami tends to be wildly inconsistent, so if you can find similar wording in more current existing stuff, do let me know and I’ll revise the grade. Iffy about the whole structure on the SSing thing, but not docking points on that; you should probably be fine.)

 

In this case, it’s basically ‘tellarknight Vega for Barriers, except limited to your initial NS. That’s not really a bad thing though. You could make it trigger for SSing too, but you’d have to put a hard OPT on both effects. Looking at the other part, I really don’t know how useful it’ll be in the long run for them; only notable targets are the Generals (6-8) and Royal Knight (5); guess you can banish Prior and this for the latter, Defender/this for Raiho and this/whatever 4 you want.

 

Oh wait, I didn’t see this as a generic WATER support (though looking at it, only things I can generally think of that could use this effect is Mermails for Xyz stuff; not really familiar with how they run or whether/not they want to banish their resources for things, and really only for the Level 7 monsters). In general, Ice Barriers will pretty much have the most use for this.

 

It helps them set up any locks (Defender / Cryomancer) or even Synchro if you have to. While this card does give off the impression that it’s a generic WATER support, I never said that it had to explicitly support Ice Barrier and nothing else. Outside of the Deck, not too many options; here, it’s mostly useful for the Generals and that’s it. (I personally don’t run Royal Knight though; he isn't helpful to the Deck)

 

The only error that i had in the OCG was the "banish both cards and it". Yeah, messed that up but the general gist of the second effect was based on Shiranui Spectralswords second effect:

 

If this card is in your Graveyard, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 non-Tuner Zombie-Type monster in your Graveyard; banish both it and this card, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Zombie-Type Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck whose Level equals the total Levels those 2 monsters had. You can only use this effect of "Shiranui Spectralsword" once per turn.

 

The bold part is what it should have been worded as.

 

Anyways, felt like making the card support Ice Barriers and not be too much out of the archetype, just a tad of genericness.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Hmm, I probably should've looked at other cards that do similar things for wording, but otherwise I understood what you meant. I'll award back half a point for the one about the combined Levels bit. As I already said, card does have generic applications but it's mainly for Barriers since the other viable WATER decks can't really use this much (least for now); I took a while to look at the other stuff.

 

As for Yuuji, the balance thing is based on whether/not it breaks things in half and would warrant a banlist hit if Konami ever printed this. Right now, you're fine. I mean, I did say that given how Barriers are now, you could've probably gotten away with letting this card trigger on SSing too (most they can really do is make Level 7s or R4s; least until they get their own Level 4 Tuner for 8s). That was basically a suggestion [given runs with the Deck] and not related to how your card scored.

 

All of the scores were 80+! Talk about a good contest :)

 

I tend not to be as harsh on grading as some of the other members (even though I am keeping meta stuff in mind). But there were times where I have given scores lower than 70% and generally because the entries weren't great. You technically had the lowest, but still a B- overall is good.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Assuming no one else has any comments/complaints, the scores are final.

 

Gadjiltron and Archlight Lux gets 3 rep + 3k points each. Ah right, Lux, PM me for your member group (you get 30 days free); Gadjiltron already has his old one from pre-modship.

Zanda gets 2 reps + 2k points

Yuuji gets 1 rep + 1k points.

 

So yeah, thanks to all of you who participated (albeit smaller this time, but it's finals season) and congrats to the winners. Now that exams are over, hopefully I actually grade the summer CC monthly tournaments faster (assuming that I don't have to work this summer).