[DPR] Monster Trap (no not a Trap Monster) with Negation and Protection.

[Eshai]

Spying Through the Cracks

DARK - Level 4 - Warrior/Effect - 0 ATK/0 DEF

When a Monster effect is activated while this card is in face-up Attack Position or face-down Defense Position (Quick Effect): You can change this card to face-up Defense Position; negate the activation. This card cannot be destroyed by battle the turn you activate this effect. You can only use this effect of “Spying Through the Cracks” once per turn.

 

Big Shield Gardna and Amaterasu can both flip themselves face-up when a thing happens. I'm thinking this can be utilized further to create MONSTER TRAPS, so if anyone in the DPR thinks they can do something cool with the mechanic I suggest you do it.

 

As for the effect, it encourages your opponent to invest less in the Battle Phase and go off in the Main Phase 2. The typing and stats are very resourceful in the real game, but since we aren't using real cards at the moment this should be fine if not disappointing. The card is like a couple others I've made to reduce the amount of damage you may take in a given turn by scaring your opponent into plays that don't screw them over if you have something but can be played around if they go into the MP2 to do your things. This has all but any defenses unless your opponent actually does something, so it's essentially a breakthrough skill that can be destroyed by battle and can make your opponent afraid of your Set monsters.

 

Also fun in Flip oriented Decks where they might not want to attack your monsters. 

 

The original idea was it actually had a lot more DEF, but I figured that would be dumb so I just gave it a way to protect itself from battle. The lore is that it's a ninja wait for the right moment to reveal itself and strike, although that's a reach so that might not matter until I make card art (if I ever)

 

Hoping to hear your thoughts, since I want to make it so there are more decisions in the Main Phase 1 for how you create your board since in many games these days you just Summon everything, empty your hand, and go for it since Battle Traps haven't been effective enough. Might make it so it can be destroyed by battle but that it can destroy the monster it negates, which would be cool but whatever.

[Eshai]

Bumppidy

[TheTrueSaiyan]

I didn't know that was a mechanic, now I really want to make some cards with this myself, so neat.

 

This card is nice, but it uses up your normal summon so a single negate. Yes, there are several ways to SS in face-down defense position but most have a clause say "Flip monster" which doesn't work with this.

 

Special summoning it in attack is just begging to run over, yes they lose their battle phase but they were going to anyways if this effect goes off as it can't be destroyed by battle. 

 

Although it has 1 surprisingly good use: it serves as a good counter to handtraps. It is always pain to get your negates online before your opponents activates their hand traps, and gamma just isn't there when you need it, but just by setting this guy he's online, and if he doesn't activate he's still good next turn.

[Eshai]

Yeah there's only 2 monsters with this kind of effect in the game so I'm not surprised. 

 

Burst Reverse is a option but either way Normal Setting the monster is the only way it can be a surprise (although I might change that soon). Burst Reverse is a option though.

 

I might give it ATK, possibly 1400 just so there's a reason you'd let your opponent know you have the card.

 

Forgot this could activate the turn it was Set, but yeah that also works. 

 

Thanks for the review.

[Exiro]

A bit of a bump. I really like the idea of making new trap monsters. I'm testing Big Shield Gardna in goat format these days, and it made me think about this card again and what it'd be like in a balanced format. When I saw it last week, I was impressed, but already felt like it was just a bit over the top. I can articulate my view now.

I'm not generally inclined to call defensive cards unbalanced, but I feel like this card can do too much at too little cost. You mentioned Big Shield Gardna, which is a perfect example of good card design. I want to compare that card in the context where it is being used: goat format.



BSG mainly does two things: counter Nobleman of Crossout, and provide a decent defense. NoC is so prominent in goat format (most people main two) that maining a dedicated counter is worthwhile. But it had a pretty specific goal. People want to set Magician of Faith / Magical Merchant / Dekoichi, but if the opponent reads it, they can NoC it and then all your copies of the card are gone. So what you can do is set another monster you don't mind losing to bait out NoC, and then set your flip monster later on.

So, technically speaking, the use of BSG isn't even to counter NoC banishing your flip monsters; I just explained how do that with any other LV4 or lower monster. The point of BSG is that when you bluff a MoF, instead of sacrificing another monster to NoC, you get to keep a monster, netting you card advantage. What you'll be left with is the other component I mentioned: decent defense. And even that it doesn't do perfectly. It has remarkable DEF, but the second attacker will kill BSG because it gets switched to ATK mode. A monster with 2000 DEF that stays in def mode would often be a better defense.

So it doesn't sound too impressive, yet it's still a worthwhile pick. Simply getting a +1 when your opponent uses a card they main two copies of is valuable enough.

Now compare this to Spying Through the Cracks. It doesn't counter any one specific card, but the activation of any monster effect (including hand traps, as was pointed out). This is roughly a third of the cards that would be played. This shifts the design from a passive defense to an active interruption of the opponent's game flow. That can get irritating. I hoped to see a monster trap that's triggered by something specific your opponent does, not that's activated almost entirely at will. That's why I feel like this card, despite using the same mechanism as BSG, is more comparable to trap cards that negate monster effects. And that kind of takes something away from the concept: why is it a monster in the first place, if it behaves like a regular trap card?

There are two well-designed trap cards in specific I want to compare it with: Breakthrough Skill and Grand Horn of Heaven.

 

 

(The latter doesn't negate effects, but it's similar in that it also negates a very widespread game mechanism, namely Special Summons.)

These cards have something in common: they're both -1s in most cases. BS doesn't destroy the monster (but you do lose that trap), and GHoH destroys the monster, but the opponent gets to draw a card as compensation. This is a fair way of balancing out cards that can negate something so common. What does STtC do after being triggered? It stays on the field, remains there as a barrier for that turn, and you can reuse it if you can protect it. You don't lose anything and your opponent doesn't get compensated. GHoH is especially similar in that it also slows the opponent down by ending the Main Phase, but that happens once only, there's no reuse.

I admit that, in terms of what you're left with after triggering, it's actually not that unbalanced. It's mostly its interrupting behaviour that disappoints me. And I also have a hunch why it is that way. Modern yugioh features so many monster effects, oftentimes broken, that one'd want to slow it all down with universal monster negation. In that sense, this card feels like a reaction to an unbalanced meta in an attempt to make it less extreme. But a skillful format comes not from countering unbalanced cards with other unbalanced cards, but rather from not having unbalanced cards in the pool in the first place. I feel like, in a truly balanced format, a card like this wouldn't be necessary and we'd be content with having our trap monsters be more passive forces.

But props for the idea of reviving trap monsters, it's something I might give a try myself. Also, I hope I'm not coming off as too negative here. I actually think the card has much better design than most others I see. It's just that I have rather high standards. There's also the issue of not knowing in what kind of format the card would be played. DPR is a nice effort to solve that, but I haven't checked most of the other cards. I'm comparing it to something of the same level as Goat format.

[Eshai]

I admit that, in terms of what you're left with after triggering, it's actually not that unbalanced. It's mostly its interrupting behaviour that disappoints me. And I also have a hunch why it is that way. Modern yugioh features so many monster effects, oftentimes broken, that one'd want to slow it all down with universal monster negation. In that sense, this card feels like a reaction to an unbalanced meta in an attempt to make it less extreme. But a skillful format comes not from countering unbalanced cards with other unbalanced cards, but rather from not having unbalanced cards in the pool in the first place. I feel like, in a truly balanced format, a card like this wouldn't be necessary and we'd be content with having our trap monsters be more passive forces.

 

Well, you noticed. There was 2 reasons I made the card the way I did

1. I'm not in complete control of the DPR. It's not a guarantee I can make the DPR perfectly balanced (albeit that's a ambitious claim) but I want it to be tactiful in a way that the original game hasn't been. I've been trying to make several defensive cards that could discourage doing too much in the MP1, which means it'd be safer to do stuff in the MP2 where you can't attack with the monsters you Summon. This overall would increase the counterplay and influence how players do things in the format vs the TCG/OCG where you run in knowing no one runs Mirror Force. The card can negate an effect and possibly lock them out of the Battle Phase. Having these kinds of generics that can screw people in the Battle Phase without restricting the card to the Battle Phase can cap the amount of pressure a player can give in a single turn, and for now that's what I've been focusing on: Scaring and encouraging people into playing a way that would usually be consequential. These cards could control the flow of the games without me monitoring every single card that comes into the DPR, which makes working on it a bit easier and gives me more versatility in the power of archetypes when making them later on.

 

2. I do weird stuff for the sake of weird stuff (and to also make players think more)

There is no particular reason this is a Monster other than that it was cooler this way. It's a card that looks great on paper and could be seen as something to watch out for. If you get them to remember your card, that's already half the battle. Besides making cards like this is way more fun than making cards that would never see play. Unfortunately, I'm probably going to have to make Normal support soon (I'll be making 0 ATK/2400 DEF Normal Generics along with some other shenanigans)

 

But props for the idea of reviving trap monsters, it's something I might give a try myself. Also, I hope I'm not coming off as too negative here. I actually think the card has much better design than most others I see. It's just that I have rather high standards. There's also the issue of not knowing in what kind of format the card would be played. DPR is a nice effort to solve that, but I haven't checked most of the other cards. I'm comparing it to something of the same level as Goat format.

 

Thank you for your higher standards and constructive feedback (I appreciate that a lot more than compliments since you probably took longer than a bit of time to make that post). Hope to hear your thoughts on some of my other cards, since there's definitely a couple I could see being improved.

[Exiro]

Well, you noticed. There was 2 reasons I made the card the way I did

1. I'm not in complete control of the DPR. It's not a guarantee I can make the DPR perfectly balanced (albeit that's a ambitious claim) but I want it to be tactiful in a way that the original game hasn't been. I've been trying to make several defensive cards that could discourage doing too much in the MP1, which means it'd be safer to do stuff in the MP2 where you can't attack with the monsters you Summon. This overall would increase the counterplay and influence how players do things in the format vs the TCG/OCG where you run in knowing no one runs Mirror Force. The card can negate an effect and possibly lock them out of the Battle Phase. Having these kinds of generics that can screw people in the Battle Phase without restricting the card to the Battle Phase can cap the amount of pressure a player can give in a single turn, and for now that's what I've been focusing on: Scaring and encouraging people into playing a way that would usually be consequential. These cards could control the flow of the games without me monitoring every single card that comes into the DPR, which makes working on it a bit easier and gives me more versatility in the power of archetypes when making them later on.

 

2. I do weird stuff for the sake of weird stuff (and to also make players think more)

There is no particular reason this is a Monster other than that it was cooler this way. It's a card that looks great on paper and could be seen as something to watch out for. If you get them to remember your card, that's already half the battle. Besides making cards like this is way more fun than making cards that would never see play. Unfortunately, I'm probably going to have to make Normal support soon (I'll be making 0 ATK/2400 DEF Normal Generics along with some other shenanigans)

 

 

Thank you for your higher standards and constructive feedback (I appreciate that a lot more than compliments since you probably took longer than a bit of time to make that post). Hope to hear your thoughts on some of my other cards, since there's definitely a couple I could see being improved.

 

Not knowing the full context of the format within which a card is to be played, is of course a problem unto itself. It's nice that at least this card has such a context in the first place, but then there's the issue of information overload. I've looked at some of the other cards in the format, though. It looks nice and balanced. But even in its context, this card seemed over-the-top to me.

 

So perhaps my hunch was wrong and you made this card the way it is for the sake of experimentation. This is a difference in taste. I, for one, do not like too much of the artificial blurring between card types, and feel like something like this should just be a trap card (or do something else). Current yugioh demonstrates what happens when you take this blurring too far, with True Dracoslayers that can be tribute summoned by tributing continuous spells and traps. The game sacrifices elegance and alienates older players that way. I feel like the card is a step in that direction (though admittedly not that extreme).

 

I'm glad you like my review. I'm definitely looking out for more of your cards. One thing I like about them in general is that they're straightforward with little card text, yet showing and promoting creativity. I don't post here often, but I might review more of your cards.

[Sleepy]

The face-up Attack to face-up Defense might be a bit too flexible, rather than keeping it with the face-down to face-up trigger (which for sure would be able to eventually get enough triggers to work), but that depends on how the rest of this pool develops.

 

I gotta say, I think this card is pretty interesting. It only works with monster effects and only gets protection once it burns its effect, although the "if it is in attack position" interaction might lend itself for you burning up the effect yourself with your own monsters so you can get a turn's protection. I wonder how strong such a play would actually be on the other hand.

 

It would also be fun to see a card working the opposite way, a different mandatory OPT effect, in a monster that is protected from battle destruction until its effect is used up for the turn, encouraging baiting it. I'll try to do something with that concept if I still remember it once I go through the entire catalog xD