[Finished]AGM Archetype Design Contest #1! (Boss Phase)

[Tinkerer]

[spoiler=Round 1 Grades]Reptilious
Literacy: 23/25 - You followed the prompt fairly strictly, nothing that appeared super out of sorts except possibly the level 7. Unless that's some kind of "miniboss" monster, I can't help think that it isn't what was asked for for this phase.

Creativity: 20.5/25 - Battle based archetype with members whose ATK is less than 1000? Interesting. The effects themselves are fairly basic though. It does leave me wondering how the +300 LP is gonna play out though.

Balance: 18/20 - Based on the ones you have now, each of them are fine individually. The one that discards things is clearly the best, but is balanced through the fact that it's not particularly easy to loop enough to be entirely detrimental. The others are par, and don't have any things that look overly concerning by themselves.

Interactivity: 17/20 - The outside AGM cards is where Buccaneae gets pretty dangerous. WATER is really easily searchable and Insects quite a bit of a boost from the pseudo-generic AGM Archetypes of Hive Harvester and Moth Princess, which can both really stack on the damage and pull out multiple attacks (and thus multiple discards) for Buccaneae.

OCG: 9/10 - Easily readable and understandable with only a few tiny mistakes. Remember to put "monster" after the archetype name. Also, Buccaneae should say "monster you control attacks". Again, only tiny things.


«CØgni§»
Literacy: 25/25 - The prompt and round guidelines were followed perfectly. Good job!

Creativity: 17/25 - Very much on the bland side. You hit the nail on the head with the prompt and all of them have a common discard effect, but there really isn't anything that makes them really "pop". They don't have any means of utilizing the discard or anything to make them anything more than what it says on the tin.

Balance: 19/20 - The worrisome bit might have been the direct attack (with their values standing at over 1000), but needing another member out with no in-archetype means of spamming thus far balances 'em out. The only other possibly dangerous card is the one that steals stuff from the opponent's hand, but again, without an in-archetype means of triggering it more than once it balances itself out.

Interactivity: 16/20 - The AGM has a plethora of things that could end up making these pretty troublesome, the least of which is the ability to get multiples of these out very easily without even looking at Type/Attribute specific support. Also, while they might not be able to take advantage of the discards on their own, making the discards +0s gives the opportunity for other cards to trigger meaning these could be very easily used as standalone techs that could break other archetypes such as Millennium, Underworld Cyborg, and Wilonka to name a few.

OCG: 10/10 - All the effects make sense, and there doesn't appear to be anything overtly wrong with the wording. For Bolas, though, instead of "pick 1 card", you could probably get away with "target" instead, though there really isn't much of a precedent for it except for old cards (which use “select”).


Aman Indra
Literacy: 22/25 - You followed the prompt very well. The only issue was including the boss monster; it was not asked for for this phase.

Creativity: 17/25 - The cards, despite the number of effects on each of them, are fairly straightforward with a summon effect for consistency, the prompt-based effects, and a destruction based float. Though not exactly anything new, they all have their own niches and none of them really overlap which is nice.

Balance: 17.5/20 - All the hard OPTs balance out the effects from triggering over and over which is a real plus. However, the real issue is the composite of their effects. Every turn you could get out 2-3 direct attackers at a time (hitting 2000+ damage), and their floats prevent them from being easily removed en mass. Even if they are removed, their floats put enough cards back in your hand to do it all over again next turn. It kinda reminds me of a more aggressive version of BA. However, as the floats are only triggered off destruction, I cannot penalize them too hard.

Interactivity: 19.5/20 - The cards work with a good portion of the WATER and Insect support without being broken thanks to their hard OPTs. Even their restriction on needing monsters with different names to declare direct attacks allows them to not break certain cards. At the same time, they can be used as a decently-sized engine for removal which is nice. Having a tuner with the option to go into the generic Synch-6 pool on top of the Rank 3 pool is also really helpful. Can’t give it a perfect score though because these are a pretty delicate balance. There are a few cards in the AGM pool that encourage self-destruction which these can use just to plus needlessly.

OCG: 5/10 - Sakura the mod uses the numeral system of effects, so even though that threw me off for a bit, it is legitimate and cannot be counted against your cards. However, a lot of the card text was confusing either due to redundancy or just awkward card grammar.
[spoiler A few pointers]
- If you have a hard OPT, you don’t need “and only once that turn” (it’s redundant).
- “hand” and “face-up” are never capitalized while “Set” is always capitalized.
- Make a habit of separating costs from effects using a semicolon; for example, targeting a card is usually a cost where taking the action on said card is usually part of the effect, so they are separated by the semicolon.
- If a card specifies a type of card, you have to list out the types just in case (see the card “Vampire Lord” for an example).
- Neither types nor attributes need any further specification (you don’t need to say Dragon-type, just Dragon. Attributes like FIRE, WATER, etc. also don’t need distinctions. Just say WATER monster).
- Unless a card specifies that it is destroyed by an opponent’s card, you don’t need to specify that the float effect triggers off battle and effects.
- Finally, if a card is destroyed, it will leave the field, so you don’t have to specify “and leaves the field”.
Overall, it was difficult for me specifically to get to the meat of the effects because I was distracted by the OCG errors, hence the score.


.Belle
Literacy: 25/25 - You really took the prompt and ran with it. It has both main things required and did so in a unique way which brings us to…

Creativity: 24/25 - Very creative, from the use of both level 3 and 6 monsters, to your interpretation of “direct attack” being an equivalent amount of burn damage as their attack, to the use of combined ATK/DEF values to equal a set amount. The effects may not have a unifying factor except the banishing, but they certainly do not overlap and they really assist each other.

Balance: 20/20 - The archetype already seems fairly self-contained. It does not have a single play that looks like too much. Even though it could be problematic that you could remove 2-3 cards from the opponent’s hand, it isn’t permanent and it isn’t something that can be done consistently every turn. They aren’t woeful either. They have in-built consistency and a means to inflict significant burn damage which could keep them in the game.

Interactivity: 16/20 - As nice as the cards are when working with each other, they seem to really only benefit from the very minimum number of outside cards. They could use the searchers, Insect-boosting support and some ED monsters, but overall most of their effects are highly archetype-restricted. It does wonders for balancing them, but makes them fairly “meh” when working with other cards/archetypes. I cannot see a lot of other cards/decks benefitting from these unless they need a way to do something specific (ie. burn, hand destruction, recovering banished stuff, etc.)

OCG: 10/10 - Very clear. The only thing that I could see as being odd is “Normal Set” under Azure Recluse. There really isn’t a precedent for an effect like it, but I think you would just say “Set” in that case.


Octosquid (-2 for lateness)
Literacy: 23/25 - Despite having all their effects triggered off direct attacks, it really isn’t easily seen how they can get that off without the opponent choosing to let you attack directly off Weaver’s effect. Aside from that though, the rest of the prompt seems to be followed through and since you did have the inclusion of effects that trigger off direct attacks, I can’t dock you too much.

Creativity: 23/25 - The cards combine direct attacks, LP recovery, and a battle-based give-and-take resource game seamlessly into something truly unique. It even has a means of giving your opponent resources that it can then slightly benefit from by turning them into LP. The addition of pendulums is a nice touch too.

Balance: 20/20 - Nothing stands out as being immediately broken and there isn’t anything that screams “go-to play”. The ability for all the cards to have their own niche and help aid the grindy resource removal game without being really abusable makes them very well balanced.

Interactivity: 19/20 - Surprisingly, only the Pendulums are archetype specific (and that is only when they move to the Pendulum Zone). All of them can both be used fairly well in other decks (given the ability to buff their ATK/make them attack directly), and can play nice with other cards that are teched into their own. The LP gaining effects also give them niche plays in other AGM Archetypes and AGM-approved archetypes (Aroma). The only issue would probably be mass-spamming cards. Since their OPTs are soft, if many can get direct attacks off at once, they can actually trigger several times. There are a few outside cards that enable these things, but not enough to really make them overly concerning.

OCG: 9/10 - The only one that I don’t exactly get is Weaver (which is kinda the playmaker, so it’s important). Is the effect quick? Does your opponent activate the effect, and if they do, why does it say that their monsters gain direct attacks? It needs some rewording. Other than that, all the rest are understandable, even if the mechanics don’t have a precedent.

 

 

Good job everyone!

[Draconus297]

Sum totals, then:

 

Reptilious: 135.5/200 (67.75% - D+)

Cognis: 157/200 (78.5% - C+)

Aman Indra: 163/200 (81.5% - B-)

.Belle: 185/200 (92.5% - A-)

Octosquid: 176/200 (88% - B+)

 

I am quite apparently the Simon Cowell of card judging, at least in this competition.

[Aman Indra]

[spoiler=Arachne Pirate Spells]Arachne Pirate Loot
Normal Spell Card
Add 1 "Arachne Pirate" Spell/Trap card from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand, except "Arachne Pirate Loot". During your opponent's turn, you can banish this card from your Graveyard; target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; negate its effects until the end of the turn. You can only use each effect of "Arachne Pirate Loot" once per turn.


Arachne Pirate Treacherous Seas
Field Spell Card
You can only use each of the following effects of "Arachne Pirate Treacherous Seas" once per turn.
(1) When this card is activated: Add 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster from your Deck to your hand.
(2) You can discard 1 "Arachne Pirate" card from your hand; Send 1 card your opponent controls to the Graveyard.
(3) During each of your End Phases, if you Special Summoned 3 or more "Arachne Pirate" monsters this turn with different names: Look at your opponent's Extra Deck or Hand and banish 1 monster from it, then you take damage equal to half of the banished monster's ATK.
(4) When this card gets destroyed by a card effect: Special Summon 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster from your Graveyard.
You can only activate 1 "Arachne Pirate Treacherous Seas" per turn.


Arachne Pirate Heist
Quick-play Spell Card
Target 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster you control; it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect(s) until the end of the turn. During either player's turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard, you can banish this card from your Graveyard; target and destroy 1 Spell/Trap card your opponent controls.


Arachne Pirate Bounty
Continuous Spell Card
This card gains these effects, based on the number of "Arachne Pirate" monsters on your field.
(1) 2 or more: All "Arachne Pirate" monsters you control gain 200 ATK.
(2) 3 or more: Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster from your hand or Graveyard in Defense Position.
(3) 4 or more: Destroy this card: Declare 1 card type (Monster, Spell or Trap); that type of card (if Spell or Trap) cannot be activated, or (if Monster) cannot activate its effects, until the end of your opponent's next turn.
You can only control 1 face-up "Arachne Pirate Bounty".

 

[👀 REP 👀]

[spoiler=lots and lots of spells!]

Arachne's Delight

Field Spell Card

When you activate this card: Add 1 "Arachne Pirate" from your Deck to your hand. Every time a face-up "Arachne Pirate" monster you control attacks your opponent directly: Place 1 Loot Counter on this card. You can remove 5 Loot Counters from this card: Draw 1 card. If this card would be destroyed: You can banish 2 "Arachne" cards from your Graveyard instead.

 

Arachne Cannon

Continuos Spell Card

When an "Arachne Pirate" you control attacks your opponent directly: You can destroy 1 card on the field. During the Battle Phase, you can banish this card from your Graveyard while you control a face-up "Arachne Pirate" monster: Destroy 1 card on the field.

 

Arachne Pillaging

Normal Spell Card

Target 1 face-up "Arachne Pirate" monster you control: It can make a second attack in a row this turn. During your Battle Phase, you can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 face-up "Arachne Pirate" you control: It can make a second attack in a row this turn.

 

Arachne Savaging

Normal Spell Card

Shuffle 3 "Arachne" cards from your Graveyard into your Deck, then draw 1 card. You can only activate 1 "Arachne Scavenging" per turn.

 

Arachne Boarding

Normal Spell Card

Target 1 face-up Level 4 or lower "Arachne Pirate" you control: Special Summon a monster with the same name from your hand or Deck in face-up Attack Position.

 

Arachne Ambush

Quick-play Spell Card

You can only activate this card during the Battle Phase. Special Summon 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster from your Deck, but shuffle it into your Deck at the end of the Battle Phase.

 

 

[Octosquid]

[spoiler=Spells Entry]Vulnerable Shipping Routes
Normal Spell Card
Return 1 card from your hand to the top or bottom of your Deck, and your opponent returns up to 2 cards (their choice, min 1) from their hand to the top or bottom of their Deck (their choice), then, both players draw the same amount of cards they returned by this effect. You can only activate “Vulnerable Shipping Routes” once per turn.

Three Pieces of Eight
Equip Spell Card
Equip only to a WATER monster. When activated, place 3 “Spider Leg” counters on this card. A monster equipped with this card can attack directly while it has 1900 or less ATK and this card has “Spider Leg” counters. If it attacks directly and inflicts battle damage: remove 1 “Spider Leg” counter from this card, and if you do, send the top card of your opponent’s deck to the GY. Any battle damage the equipped monster inflicts to your opponent is halved.

Widow’s Black Market
Field Spell Card
Activate only while you control an “Arachne Pirate” monster. If you would gain LP while your opponent has taken battle damage this turn, gain half the amount of LP in addition. Once per turn, if either player would gain 1800 LP or greater, they draw 1 card instead, also, they cannot gain LP until the end of the next turn. If this card is destroyed by your opponent’s card effect: both players draw 1 card.

Edit: I think both of you mentioned that my archetype's main playmaker is worded really confusingly, so I tried to fix it to clarify some things. I intended it to be a trigger effect that activates at the earliest opportunity outside of a chain, not a quick effect. Also I wanted the opponent to only have one chance per turn to choose not to discard. Hopefully this is a little better. Thanks for the feedback btw.
[spoiler=Tetragnath Errata]Tetragnath, Weaver of the Arachne Pirates
Level 3 ~ WATER ~ Insect/Effect
1000/0
Once per turn, except during the Draw Phase, if your opponent adds a card(s) to their hand, or adds a card(s) to their hand during the resolution of a chain: You can activate this effect; Your opponent must discard that card(s). Your opponent can choose not to discard that card(s), but if they do not discard, until the end of your next turn, WATER monsters you control with 1900 or less ATK can attack directly. Your opponent can only choose not to discard cards by the effect of this card’s name once per turn.

Edit2: On the Equip Spell, Slightly changed "If it declares a direct attack..." to "If it attacks directly and inflicts battle damage:" to fit in with flavor and be counterable if you don't take damage. Also "put" -> "place"

[Draconus297]

I'm aware of what Tetra was supposed to do, but its original effect text gave your opponent the ability to direct-attack, due to the way it was worded. When you give your opponent an effect, it is taken from their point of view, eg. Silent Wobby gives your opponent a draw and heals you, instead of the other way around.

 

That said, Cognis has until the end of the day to submit a Phase 2 bit.

[Aman Indra]

are we all dead up off in here ?

[Draconus297]

Just like last time, grades will be dropped on Friday to give Tinkerer and I time to judge. In the meantime, Phase 3 is Traps- one to four of them.

[Draconus297]

.Belle

Literacy (25 points): 25 points. Yay, the capacity to read is strong with you. Spells are primarily used to help the monsters accomplish their goals in an archetype, and your Spell lineup is decent for the purpose.

Creativity (25 points): 18 points. Okay, while I get where you were going, a lot of it seems to be familiar ground. While I'll give credit where credit is due on the card-text-checking effect, on the whole I just wasn't . . . surprised. I mean . . . the Zone-dodging is neat?

Balance (20 points): 15 points. Again, the issue isn't how they function, they're just really slow. This new support definitely makes the archetype more consistent, but it doesn't fix their biggest real problem.

Interactivity (20 points): 18 points. Paging the Shivergami archetype. The fact that two of your new support cards have really simple discard costs, and that they generically support low-ATK WATER monsters, means that not only do you have a support core that works really well at giving your Pirates a chance to actually live, but you can also run a few Shivergami monsters for some cheap and easy Synchros. Definitely interesting.

OCG (10 points): 7 points

That's not how the old or new Quick Effect text works -1

"One of your unused Monster Zone" -1

Redundant "during" -1

 

Aman Indra

Literacy (25 points): 25 points. Again, you answered what we actually wanted from the prompt. Nothing more to really say.

Creativity (25 points): 20 points. I mean, it's fine, but no real showstoppers that make me think that you got a stroke of inspiration in the Spell support. Maybe you'll do better with the Traps . . .

Balance (20 points): 20 points. Everything has HOPTs that need it, and the Deck already has some combos that you required a consistency boost to achieve.

Interactivity (20 points): 18 points. We're starting to edge into territory where the archetype doesn't really play nice with too many tech cards, because everything is Arachne restricted. This means that I can't in good conscience knock you too far, but try not to go the route of Raidraptors, where everything needs to be archetypal with maybe 1 or 2 techs.

OCG (10 points): 7

There's "hand" being capitalized again -1

"Card effects" doesn't require a contingency parenthetical s -1

Holy semicolon cancer, Batman! -1

 

Reptilious

Literacy (25 points): 22 points. There's that resource drain I was waiting for, as well as an actual win condition beyond poking your opponent until they're mildly annoyed.

Creativity (25 points): 15 points. Several of these cards do the same thing when you banish them as they did when you activated them the first time, so I really don't get the point.

Balance (20 points): 20 points. It's serviceable, and the speed and aggro boost you've given the archetype means that, if you open up well, you might get a chance to actually make a few decent plays.

Interactivity (20 points): 20 points. Everything does what it needs to, and now you can spam out 3 monsters with relative ease if you play your cards right.

OCG (10 points): 6 points.

1 "Arachne Pirate" . . . what? -2

Card name doesn't mesh with its own HOPT limitation -2

 

 

Octosquid

Literacy (25 points): 15 points. Um . . . Why are you giving your opponent resources? That's my biggest concern. That's literally the opposite of what was asked for. I get trying to make Tetra's effect trigger, but most archetypes do a bunch of searching and extra draws anyway.

Creativity (25 points): 25 points. The cards are neat and the flavor is there . . . I can't fault your creativity.

Balance (20 points): 17 points. I understand the point, but giving your opponent a free Magical Mallet or a draw isn't the way you want to go about things. Also, why the actual hell does "Three Pieces of Eight" axe your damage output in half?

Interactivity (20 points): 20 points. Well, now Victorian's awful instant wincon (having less cards in hand, less cards on board, less LP, and less cards remaining in the Deck simultaneously) has an enabler . . . Can't dock you, because technically this doesn't break anything or prevent you from teching cards, but I'm honestly kinda upset that your rather interesting setup core was made worse by the Spells.

OCG (10 points): 7 points.

"Gain half the LP in addition" -1

That's not how Counters look in text -2

(I wanted to dock you harder because Counters are my favorite gameplay mechanic, but I suppose that wouldn't be fair.)

[Tinkerer]

[spoiler=Round 2 Grades].Belle
Literacy: 24/25 – You continued the theme in the prompt loosely, but a lot of these don’t feel like they follow the trends that you’d displayed in the first round. The biggest thing about the prompt that seemed to be followed up on here seemed to be the “not that powerful” aspect, as several of them are specifically about having monsters with under 1500 ATK. Other than that, the monsters themselves did a bit of a better job of fully expressing the theme. I can’t be too harsh though as all of them did hit on the theme in some way.

Creativity: 23/25 – All the spells have their own unique feel and, as I noted, they pulled pretty far away from the theme. However, they really aren’t the most interesting things. The entirety of the lineup can be pretty easily summed up as “swarm and protect”. However, I do have to give you props for 2 reasons: making the Spells generally defensive as that’s usually reserved for traps, and utilizing some odd mechanics and defenses (zone switching, using archetype’s name in text, anti-tributing, etc.).

Balance: 18/20 – All the continuous spells are fairly useful in their own right (when looking at them generically), but since they also specifically boost up Arachne Pirates particularly, the stuff delivers quite a few 2-3 card combos. As I believe I’d mentioned before, I thought these would be fairly balanced due to a lack of a consistent way to kill off the hand. Now, even though the hard OPTs do keep the above from happening, the overall defensiveness of the spells, coupled with one of the best archetypal searchers, linked up with the hand killing, makes these a real pain. However, I do have to admit, on their own, there aren’t any thoroughly broken loops (the biggest combo would be something like Field Spell + Searcher + NSable monster => 2-3 Arachnes + -2 cards for opponent + 1 draw).

Interactivity: 17/20 – It is the inclusion of other cards where these things get… iffy. Giving a blanket attack helper to weak WATERs or a defensive boost to Insects as a whole isn’t what I’d call good design, especially when these things can overlap and give you a selective “Lose 1 Turn”-type effect. Fortunately, this type/attribute combination is rare (nonexistent?) in the AGM, so as powerful as it could be to get these blanket effects, it would be impossible outside Arachne Pirates. That being said, use of outside cards inside this archetype can make it dangerous. A spell-searching field spell (that, incidentally, can protect continuous spells by banishing the top card of your deck face-down) alongside the generic WATER monster searcher(s) makes the aforementioned combos absolutely easy to tutor out. Despite that, I cannot penalize them too much since even their best combos only put you ahead by a very little bit.

OCG: 10/10 – I was pretty sure I had an issue with something, but looking through the cards again, I cannot find it so… *shrug* It wasn’t too big anyway. Nice job!


Aman Indra
Literacy: 25/25 – Despite the fact that the direct attack part of the theme was not present in the Spells, the robbing part more than compensated for it (Also, the monsters themselves got the former part covered anyway).

Creativity: 20/25 – These… really aren’t the most creative things I’ve ever seen. True, they do things besides strictly helping the theme, but they are pretty bland and unsurprising (except Bounty’s 4 monster effect. That was interesting). I do have to give credit that you did all different spell types though. I wasn’t expecting that and it made the whole bunch a bit more interesting.

Balance: 15/20 – So, uh. 3 out of the 4 are pretty blatantly crazy. The searcher can, once, straight negate anything, and would be obviously run at three because searcher. The field spell has 4 effects, all of which can build off each other and searches the monsters which already have tons of effects. The continuous spell starts out underpowered, but the 3 or more effect straight up lets you tutor out another monster making the awesome fourth effect live (and, being a continuous spell, it lets the monsters attack directly, even if you couldn’t swarm). The quick-play is, amusingly, the least useful (though still pretty good), but having a free MST in the GY doesn’t hurt. Simply put, this archetype is much too powerful and does much too much even on its own.

Interactivity: 15/20 – Well, coupled with the monsters, these spells give the Arachne Pirates some real usability in other decks. The search card by itself would be really nice to use just for its grave effect, but, fortunately, you didn’t make any of the spells generic. All of them are contained, yet because of all the search power the deck possesses, a large engine is pretty much unneeded. Realistically, you could make an engine completely based around whatever your deck needs (Wisdom for field presence, non-destruction removal and spell recursion, Fear for destruction and its tuner status, etc.). Ultimately, that wouldn’t be so bad. However, its self-contained power, alongside the WATER, Insect, and generic power cards we have completely breaks these things wide open. Search power out the wazoo, the ability to easily shut down your opponent’s plays with the easily playable/triggerable normal and continuous spell, on top of the monsters being able to attack directly for huge damage pushes down the interactivity score.

OCG: 7.5/10 – You got much better with these.
[spoiler A few concerns remain though]
Loot’s hard-OPT is worded weirdly as it would (unless you were compensating for “Library of Sanctuary”) be unable to activate both of its effects on the same turn anyway. Maybe consult Draco on how it could be fixed since I’m kinda drawing a blank and he’s better at card grammar than I am.
This is more preference, but the field spell probably doesn’t need the “activate only 1 per turn” clause since you have the HOPT on there. If you wanna keep it, that’s fine; it isn’t wrong.
Heist doesn’t need the parenthesis around the “s” in “card effects”. Also, I believe it’s more accurate to put “until the End Phase, that target cannot be… etc. etc.”.
For Bounty, replace “on your field” with “you control”. The whole “4 or more” effect probably needs rewording too, but I wouldn’t know how.

Overall, much smaller concerns. Good job!


Reptilious
Literacy: 23/25 – The first three cards all hit the theme and kinda continued what you seemed to be going with in your monster lineup. The latter three seemed exclusively for consistency, which, I suppose is what spells are usually for, but I suppose I wished to see them fully encapsulate trends that were previously shown or ones that take advantage of what your monsters did to trigger themselves. Nothing wrong, just less thematic flavor than expected.

Creativity: 20/25 – They certainly help the monsters you have, but… the cards themselves are honestly really boring. As I’d mentioned before, they followed the theme, but didn’t explore anything else that the cards had going for them. Did you take advantage of their low ATK? Their LP gain effects? The fact that they banish stuff? There could have been some really interesting directions that you could have taken this, but the only main thing I see is spam which… isn’t super interesting. I will give credit to the fact that you incorporated Counters, and you made a slight nod to the fact that everything in the deck works during the Battle Phase, but they didn’t go as far as I’d have expected.

Balance: 19.5/20 – That monster of yours Buccaneae, is still the most dangerous card in the set; with the backup of these spells, it can become a true threat, killing off 2-3 cards in the opponent’s hand. However, aside from that, the spells are fairly tame. Ambush being able to summon out the level 7 so you could do loop plays with it is cheeky. Boarding requiring a level Four or lower Arachne Pirate is odd considering your monster lineup, but it’s fine for being able to bring out multiple stuff and going into R3s. Cannon supplements their damage, but doesn’t do anything by itself, pretty much balancing it out (despite the fact that you can have multiples blowing stuff up at the same time which, coupled with the swarming, can clear the field pretty quickly). Ultimately, the spells really depended on the monster qualities you had. Without having OP monsters, the spells would remain pretty tame making this fairly strongly balanced. Not perfect because of the slippery slope that is Buccaneae, but very good nonetheless.

Interactivity: 18/20 – As positive as I was about their balance, I cannot see the cards being used in their own deck. The monsters are too few and their usefulness niche enough to be used exclusively to their own benefit. However, I can see them being useful in other decks. The field spell’s increased consistency followed up with “Savaging” (I just noticed its name and effect. That’s… oddly amusing. They buff themselves by tormenting others) would let either of the level 3s shine in other decks, maybe banish focused ones. At the same time, their interactivity is limited simply because all the spells are Arachne Pirate-locked. I’d mention the fact that Buccaneae is likely to be in some kind of degenerate hand-kill deck with its easy searchability, but I think I’ve kicked that dead horse enough.

OCG: 9.5/10 – You did not put what the field spell searches (monsters, spells, traps, cards). I know that only the monsters have “Arachne Pirate”, but it is something that cannot be forgotten. Other than that, I don’t think there was anything else that stood out to me. ~Thumbs up~


Octosquid
Literacy: 23/25 – Heh, that’s clever. Really trying to get into the theme of getting the direct attacks going and triggering your resource killing effects. The last card doesn’t fit with that, but that’s what “creativity” is for, huh? I think the only real issue is that without prior setup, Shipping Routes can do the exact opposite of what you want for it to do: namely, if you don’t have Weaver, it just lets your opponent mulligan their hand for free (pulling possibly better stuff) at a -1 to you.

Creativity: 24.5/25 – The stuff is unique in how they operate. Even though the effects may not be things that blow you away, getting Weaver’s effect activated is important and using your LP gains to dig into your deck is a concept that’s only been explored through direct LP payments. The way these work is just a bit off-kilter, much like the pirates they represent. Not a full score though because of the equip spell’s fairly basic nature and its introduction of Counters which then are left unused. Also, off the record, “Three Pieces of Eight” is straight up one of the most clever names I’ve seen.

Balance: 16/20 – The cards, though not archetype exclusive in effect, are pretty closely bound to the Arachne Pirates. Unfortunately, looking at them in a vacuum and among their own archetype… they’re closer to the “do literally nothing without help” end of the spectrum than the “break the game” end. The first card, as stated in the Literacy portion, can quite easily give your opponent a great advantage. Plus, considering how niche the effect is, it is overly balanced by having a needless OPT slapped on its activation. The third card is, interesting definitely, but… well, firstly, I’m not even entirely sure what the card does. Is it basically saying you gain half the total amount of battle damage you inflict? Or is it saying that you gain 1.5x the amount of LP you would gain from an effect (800 LP becomes 1200)? Either way, it has a needless archetype restriction on activation. Finally, Three Pieces of Eight’s restriction on battle damage is pretty much pointless when it already is limited to 1900 ATK or less monsters. However, the equip actually saves it as it is both generically useful and extremely helpful in getting your monster effects off.

Interactivity: 16/20 – In terms of outside usage, yeah, the cards can be, but really they don’t add much of anything to most AGM decks I can think of (well, maybe the LP gain decks like Cookie Kingdom, Yuki Ona, and Konami’s accepted Aroma archetypes could’ve used the field, but it is archetype locked). Even this deck, when taking outside cards and putting them in the deck itself, still is highly structured on the monsters with these coming into play as unique power plays (think “Mass Hypnosis” for Aliens). Fortunately, the monsters are already searchable due to the Yuki Ona Xyzs and the Mermaid card, so getting to Weaver shouldn’t be that much of a problem and thus making the first card live. Equips are hilariously searchable in the AGM, so it isn’t much of a problem and could replace Weaver if you need it to.

OCG: 9.5/10 – Not too many things. For Shipping Routes, you can probably replace the “, then,” with a colon. Also, (only because I notice you’re using the GY shorthand), if you do have a hard-OPT, you should replace the actual card’s name with “this card’s name”, as that’s how it seems to be worded now. Also, you should probably see if there’s a better way to reword the field spell so it’s clearer (thanks for errata-ing Weaver, btw. It makes a lot more sense now.). However, the only real issue I’d seen in terms of OCG was how you wrote up your Counters on the Pieces of Eight. It looks like it was slightly mixed up with tokens. Keep up the good work!

 

 

Nice work, everybody!  Can't wait to see what you come up with next!

[.Belle]

[spoiler=le Traps]

Scourge of the Seven Seas

Normal Trap

If you control an "Arachne Pirate" monster: Discard 1 card; send 1 "Arachne" Spell/Trap Card from your hand or Deck to the GY, and if you do, draw 2 cards. During the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 "Arachne Scourge Token" (Insect/WATER/Level 3/ATK 1300/DEF 0). When it is attacked, negate the attack unless your opponent banish 1 card from their hand until the end of next turn. You can only use each effect of "Scourge of the Seven Seas" once per turn.

 

Arachne Arms - Toxic Cutlass

Normal Trap

Target 1 card your opponent controls; send 1 card from your opponent's Banished Zone to the GY, and if you do, destroy that target, then inflict 100 damage to your opponent for each card in their Banished Zone. If you control an "Arachne Pirate" monster, you can also activate this card from your hand or GY, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only activate "Arachne Arms - Toxic Cutlass" once per turn.

 

Arachne Tactic - False Flag

Normal Trap

Discard 1 card; Special Summon 1 WATER monster with 1500 ATK or less from your hand or Deck. It cannot be targeted for an attack or by your opponent's card effects until the end of the next turn. If a monster you control is destroyed: You can banish this card from your hand or GY: Special Summon 2 "Arachne Pirate" monsters from your hand or GY. You can only use each effect of "Arachne Tactic - False Flag" once per turn. Each time a monster Special Summoned by this card's effect attacks, immediately draw 1 card, then discard 1 card.

 

Arachne Skill - Espionage

Normal Trap

Discard 1 card, then target 1 Spell/Trap Card in either GY; add it to your hand. When a card effect is activated while you control an "Arachne Pirate" monster: You can banish this card from your hand or GY; negate that effect. You can only use each effect of "Arachne Skill - Espionage" once per turn.

 

 

[Tinkerer]

Bump to remind everyone to get their traps in today.

[Aman Indra]

[spoiler=Arachne Pirate Traps]Arachne Pirate Venom
Counter Trap Card
When a Spell/Trap Card, or monster effect, is activated while you control an "Arachne Pirate" monster: Negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card. If you control 3 or more "Arachne Pirate" monsters, you can activate this card from your hand.


Arachne Pirate Assault
Normal Trap Card
Target 1 Special Summoned monster your opponent controls; Change it to face-down Defense Position and the monster changed to face-down Defense Position by this effect cannot change it's battle position. If you control 3 or more "Arachne Pirate" monsters at the time of this card's activation: You can return this card to your hand instead of sending it to the Graveyard after the effect resolves.


Arachne Pirate Cursed Relic
Continuous Trap Card
Activate this card by targeting 1 face-up "Arachne Pirate" monster you control; that monster cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects, or be destroyed by battle. When this card leaves the field, destroy that monster. When that monster leaves the field, destroy this card. If you control 3 or more "Arachne Pirate" monsters at the time of this card's activation: You can target upto 2 "Arachne Pirate" monsters you control with this card's effect instead.


Arachne Pirate Annual Gathering
Normal Trap Card
Target 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster in your Graveyard or Banished Zone: Special Summon it in face-up Defense Position. If you control 3 or more "Arachne Pirate" monsters, you can Special Summon an "Arachne Pirate" monster from your Deck instead. During either player's turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard, you can banish this card from your Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster from your Graveyard. You can only use each effect of "Arachne Pirate Annual Gathering" once per turn.

 

[Octosquid]

Thanks for the feedback, I tried to not make the spells too powerful, but I think I ended up nerfing them into the ground (or the bottom of the ocean in this case). I also figured out the counters thing, sorry about that, Draconus.

 

Here's my entry:

 

[spoiler=Traps]Treasure Map Trap

Counter Trap Card

While a chain includes a card(s) or effect(s) that would make you gain LP: During that resolution(s), your opponent gains LP you would have gained instead, and you can send cards from the top of their deck to the GY up to the number of WATER Monster Cards anywhere on the field. Once this turn, after that chain resolves, while your opponent’s LP is equal to or lower than their LP at this card’s activation, they must immediately discard 1 card at random (even before effects fully resolve). You can only use “Treasure Map Trap” once per turn.

 

Descent Into Maelstrom

Normal Trap Card

When a card or effect on the field is activated: Target 1 WATER monster you control; Negate the activation of the activated card or effect, then set it and that Target in their current zones, then, if that Target had 1900 or less original ATK at this card’s activation, change it to face-up ATK position, and it can attack again this turn.

 

Calypso’s Medallion

Continuous Trap Card

Send 3 cards from the top of your opponent’s Deck to the GY, then you can return any number of those cards to the bottom of the Deck. Once per turn: You can remove 1 Spider Leg Counter from your field; return up to 3 cards in your opponent’s GY to the bottom of the deck. If a monster equipped with “Three Pieces of Eight” is Targeted by a card or effect: You can banish this card from your hand, field, or GY; negate the activation, and if you do, return it to the bottom of the deck.

 

 

 

Edit: Oh yeah, almost forgot to clarify my field spell in the previous entry. "Widow's Black Market" was meant to increase the amount of LP you would've gained by half, effectively making you gain 1.5x the amount instead. This meant that as long as it was on the field, the first time each turn you destroyed or banished a Level/Rank 6 or higher monster with either Theraphos's (Tarantula) or Latrodek's (Black Widow) effect, you would draw 1 card.

[👀 REP 👀]

[spoiler=a lot less traps]
Arachne Webshot

Normal Trap Card

You can only activate this card during either player's Battle Phase by revealing an "Arachne Pirate" monster from your hand. Target 1 face-up monster on the field; change that target to face-down Defense Position, then Special Summon the revealed "Arachne Pirate" monster from your hand, but return it to your hand during the end of the Battle Phase.

 

Arachne Ship Scuttling

Normal Trap Card

You can only active this card during your opponent's Battle Phase while you control a face-up "Arachne's Delight" and at least 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster: Remove all Loot Counters from it, then send all cards on the field to the Graveyard.

 

Arachne Venom Strike

Counter Trap Card

Activate this card when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card by revealing an "Arachne Pirate" monster from your hand; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. You can only activate 1 "Arachne Venom Strike" once per turn.

 

 

 

[xlArisenRoselx]

Would love to join the next one if possible...

[Tinkerer]

Would love to join the next one if possible...

 

Of course!  I'll PM you whenever we plan to do another of these to see if you'd still be interested.

 

[spoiler=Round 3 Grades]Octosquid

Literacy: 25/25 – Very focused on what the archetype’s purpose is. Wish there was a bit more on the direct attack front, but I cannot fault it since the cards did stick to other portions of the prompt.

 

Creativity: 25/25 – Real interesting to be sure. Admittedly, I would have probably switched around the Normal and Counter traps since Counters are usually responsive over passive (and it would be pretty awesome to see the opponent pay 1500-2000 to Solemn something just to have it reset). All the secondary effects are also quite unique and really opens unusual mean for the cards to do what they do best… hit the opponent’s resources.

 

Balance: 16.5/20 – All the traps have a generic aspect, but the best parts of the effects are locked behind conditions easily fulfilled in the archetype, making them fairly well-balanced. However, in context of the deck, all the unusual effects really pull the deck in ways that prevent it from doing any one task well. The whole deck really seems to embody the phrase “Jack of all trades; master of none.” The thing it seems MOST capable of doing is gaining LP, but just doing that won’t win you a game.

 

Interactivity: 19/20 – This appears to be the deck’s strong suit, especially now with the traps. The use of LP gain to drain opponent resources and a means to mill your opponent’s Deck by 3 cards seem especially intriguing with the former having uses in Yuki Ona and Cookie Kingdom (though mostly for the hand-discard in the latter’s case) while the second is a unique generic that… admittedly doesn’t have a home I can think of, but has potential. Maelstrom’s flip face-up effect also has future potential, but the negate and reset is still really nice in any WATER deck. Looking back toward the deck itself, the deck’s playstyle from the initial batch of monster seems to have been relatively stable. All outside cards that I would’ve added from the monster section remained pretty much the best outside techs for the deck (maybe with more equip-happy cards since Three Pieces of Eight is still pretty much one of the best cards for the deck to get going).

 

OCG: 7.5/10 – Your use of punctuation and such seem to have improved, but in trying to create unique effects, you’ve inadvertently dug yourself deep in what I’d call “oddball wording” and some misused capitalization. Some that jump out include your capitalizing “Target”, your not capitalizing “set”, and… well, pretty much the whole wording of Treasure Map Trap.

 

Reptilious

Literacy: 25/25 – All of these effects fit in with the theme very well from name to effect.

 

Creativity: 23/25 – The strong battle focus is present in these cards and their effects are nice as “power cards”. Though fairly simplistic, the effects do give a nice horizontal dimension to the deck’s overall playstyle and gives them a real buff in defense, something that I thought the deck lacked as it seemed the best build would be hand kill turbo. However, the effects aren’t super unique even if they do give the deck something it didn’t have.

 

Balance: 20/20 – The traps being restricted to being archetype specific helps keep them fair, and since they legitimately help the deck without feeding into hand kill loops makes these extremely well-balanced.

 

Interactivity: 16.5/20 – …However, being as archetype specific as they are, it’s difficult for the traps to be utilized in any way outside the archetype. At the same time, these cards may not hinder other stuff from being brought in to the archetype, but the main problem of the deck hasn’t been solved: there’s too few monsters and the Deck’s too battle reliant for anything to trigger satisfactorily. Even bringing in the WATER search card, Terraforming, and other outside consistency boosters, the fact that most of your cards require a monster to get started or expect you to get multiples of your limited monster pool also hurts the deck’s overall functionality. As is, because the traps’ lack of outside usability, pretty much all my comments from Round 2 apply here.

 

OCG: 9/10 – A couple small things. You put “active” instead of “activate” in Scuttling. Also, you should probably mention that you need to remove the counters from “Arachne’s Delight”, because as it reads now, it feels like you remove the counters from the Arachne Pirate.

 

.Belle

Literacy: 25/25 – All the traps do an interesting job of being a fair bit more offensive than their spell counterparts. They’re also quite a bit more active in following the initial prompt by utilizing a bunch of ways to keep your opponent out of touch with their resources as well as bringing back burn.

 

Creativity: 24/25 – I’m so used to seeing traps as defensive. The fact that these not only act offensively but also add a good deal of consistency and has a focus on banishing themselves for a boost. With all the discarding going on in the deck, it’s good to see these able to take advantage of that. I would say that the only nitpick with these is that none of them are really “out there”. All of them purely fall under consistency or some kind of removal.

 

Balance: 18.5/20 – Once again, I believe the focus of the deck has more or less shifted. With the added consistency of the traps, the tone fields more like it can actually concentrate on burning the opponent to death rather than harassing and annoying them without any bite. Coupled with the unique defenses the spells provide, it makes it seem like a very solid, though not overpowering, control deck. All of this is balanced out by the fact that, despite everything, if you don’t control any Pirates, the deck pretty much folds. The only thing is their banish effects might be a bit too potent. For example, comboing off Cerulean House to deliver constant burn while having an endless supply of protection seems too good, even if it isn’t the easiest thing to set up.

 

Interactivity: 20/20 – It seems these traps are optimized, though not overbearingly so, to be utilized within other decks. Toxic Cutlass in particular is a costless Raigeki Break for decks that can banish opponent stuff like Sivergami and Vigilizards. Espionage at worst lets you recover things (which we only have at a limited means). False Flag is really cool; not only does it buff WATER decks, but it enables an easy way to summon AGM Successor Melon (hooray for ego-stroking!) which lets you draw 2 cards per draw phase and can act as early tribute fodder otherwise. Not only that, but Flag’s banish effect is not Archetype-triggered, allowing other cards that self-destruct to enable it easily. The traps really help the monsters’ niche nature in other decks while positively strengthening the pure deck and giving you different ways to build.

 

OCG: 9.5/10 – I think the only issue I saw was that you don’t need “Quick Effect” for Scourge’s GY effect since being a trap automatically gives it quick effect status (Phantom Knight Fog Blade as an example).

 

Aman Indra

Literacy: 19/25 – Not much in the way of keeping with the initial theme at all. Only the first 2 actually involve dealing with opponent cards at all (which, considering how the monsters get the direct attack shtick covered, was kinda what I’d been expecting).

 

Creativity: 22.5/25 – It seems like you settled on a theme for your monsters. I can dig the swarm playstyle. Assault is pretty cool for going the Ghostrick route and its means of being utilized over and over. Cursed Relic is actually really interesting. Not only does it enable your direct attacks, but it also gives a means to ensure multiple float effects by chaining to removal. Though the cards are fairly simplistic, it is actually quite refreshing from the other archetype cards. I cannot say they’re super unique, but the interactions between the archetypal cards themselves are creative.

 

Balance: 20/20 – I like ‘em! None of them are overpowering in effect and, considering the ease at which you can search them out, perfectly capable at acting as a means to support your monsters. Cursed relic might be the lower end while the costless Venom might be on the higher end, but overall there wasn’t anything in this group that screamed broken on its own or even in conjunction with your previous cards.

 

Interactivity: 17/20 – Aside from Assault, the other cards are pretty much archetype-locked. I suppose that wouldn’t be so bad, but it really hurts their usability in other decks. Gathering could possibly used as part of some kind of “infinite defense” looping engine alongside Wisdom, and Assault being an easy Loot target seems like the most practical interactivity use for other decks. The bigger value still lies in teching other cards into this deck rather than the other way around, but even so the added traps do little to change the deck’s turbo-loving playstyle and choice of techs.

 

OCG: 9/10 – Mostly punctuation. Certain phrases you used a comma when a colon would have been more appropriate. Also a tiny error where you mixed up “it’s” and “its”.

 

 

 

All your archetypes seem to be fleshing out quite nicely.  Good going!

[Draconus297]

Given that I have very little time for grading (hooray for multiple failure of just about all my backup methods), I'll just agree with Tinkerer for this week.

 

Final week challenge: Bosses. 2 or less, and you can go for whatever flavor suits your fancy- Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, or even a Main Deck big boy like Towers, Plasma, or Master Peace! No Links, though- the AGM said no to them.

 

Highest score wins a place in the AGM, second place gets 2/3 the pot, third place gets the remainder of the Points (although 1st can give up their prize to 2nd, if they do desire).

[Draconus297]

Here's the current scores, tabulated! It looks like it's still anyone's race! Also, everyone (bar Cognis, who disappeared after Phase 1) has improved by some measure over the course of the competition!

 

Reptilious: 495.5/600 (~82.58%, B-)

Cognis: 157/600 (~26.16%, F)

Aman Indra: 510.5/600 (~85.08%, B)

.Belle: 554/600 (~92.3%, A-)

Octosquid: 535/600 (~89.2%, B+)

[.Belle]

[spoiler=Submitting an entry like a boss]

Arachne Pirate - Abyssal Tsuchigumo

WATER - Insect/Effect - Level 9 - 2000/1900

Cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck or GY. Face-up Spell/Trap Cards you control are unaffected by your opponent's card effects. When this card is Summoned: Banish 1 random card from your opponent's hand until the end of the next turn and inflict 400 damage to your opponent for each card in their Banished Zone. If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 3 other "Arachne" cards in your GY and/or Banished Zone; banish this card from your GY, and if you do, shuffle those targets into the Deck. Then, if this card was sent there from the field, draw 1 card. During your Main Phase: You can return 1 card from each Banished Zone to the GY, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your Banished Zone. You can only use each effect of "Arachne Pirate - Abyssal Tsuchigumo" once per turn.

 

Arachne Pirate - Neptunian Jorougumo

WATER - Insect/Fusion/Effect - Level 9 - 1700/2200

3 "Arachne Pirate" monsters with 1500 or less ATK

You can also Fusion Summon this card (from your Extra Deck) by sending the above cards you control and/or from your hand to the GY. (You do not use "Polymerization".) While you control an "Arachne Pirate" monster, except "Arachne Pirate - Neptunian Jorougumo", this Fusion Summoned card is unaffected by your opponent's card effects. When this card is Fusion Summoned, or during your Standby Phase: You can send 2 "Arachne" Spell/Trap Cards with the different names from your hand or Deck to the GY, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Arachne Pirate" monster from your hand or GY. This card cannot attack during the turn you activate this effect. When an "Arachne Pirate" monster you control attacks: You can return 1 card from either Banished Zone to the GY, then inflict 1700 damage to your opponent. You can only use each effect of "Arachne Pirate - Neptunian Jorougumo" once per turn.

 

 

[Eshai]

I would totally do this (if I knew all of what this was). I would also like a PM when the next one comes.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I would totally do this (if I knew all of what this was). I would also like a PM when the next one comes.

 

This is basically one of the ways you can earn membership in the AGM and contribute to our projects actively. As you probably know, membership is locked to the current members for activity purposes (and I guess some flavor thing with the Numerix). If you want in, either win in this or do a Deck challenge. 

 

Just keep tabs on this section when it comes up.

 

===

Oh right, and for those of you interested, I technically wrote the prompt for Arachne Pirates (though not the name). Thus far, you guys did a good job in making stuff that fits.

[Eshai]

This is basically one of the ways you can earn membership in the AGM and contribute to our projects actively. As you probably know, membership is locked to the current members for activity purposes (and I guess some flavor thing with the Numerix). If you want in, either win in this or do a Deck challenge. 

 

Just keep tabs on this section when it comes up.

 

===

Oh right, and for those of you interested, I technically wrote the prompt for Arachne Pirates (though not the name). Thus far, you guys did a good job in making stuff that fits.

 

Alright. Game on. I will do the next one and the deck challenge. 

[Draconus297]

Well, if you want to do the Deck Challenge, this month's expires with July itself. So you could either bust butt to get a working EARTH-Attribute AGM-approved Deck done in 8 days, or wait for August for actual time to work with.

 

On Friday, this challenge will be over, and the 2nd challenge will open its doors- with a signup restriction of that Tuesday.

 

Also, it's either/or. You only need to get one right to get in, although doing both really increases your chances at membership.

[Eshai]

 although doing both really increases your chances at membership.

 

I mean I have a month to do it. Wish I could've done the EARTH one. I had an idea for an archetype, but since I couldn't I just posted it instead.