Synchlink Keeper

[Sleepy]

 

Synchlink Keeper

DARK LINK - 3 [ Beast / Link / Effect ] ATK/ 0

3 monsters, including 1 Synchro and 1 Tuner.

When Link Summoned: You can target any number of Synchro Monsters in your GY; Special Summon as many as possible to monster Zones this card points to in Defense Position. Monsters cannot be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck to a Zone this card points to, except Tuner or Synchro Monsters. Cannot be used as a Link Material the turn it is Summoned.

 

- - - - - - -

 

It requires quite a bit of setup with 3 materials, but if you use something like Formula (or any Synchro Tuner) your other 2 monsters can be whatever.

It can target more than it can revive mostly to dodge GY disruption a la D.D. Crow. You can target 4, get 1 banished by the opponent, and still revive 3 of them.

 

Synchro support. Preferably Accel Synchro but it allows for regular Synchros made by using Synchros.

You can Special Summon whatever you want into its arrows, just not from the Extra Deck (I felt that needed to be pointed out).

 

Art from this DA member.
 

[Darj]

So it's an extension card. Personally, I'm not a fan of it.

First, I'm not a fan of cards designed for extension or laddering because they have the risk of getting nasty or breaking something through clever combos. In this card's case, with enough Synchros in the Gy this pretty much becomes a free Link3 that you can work with to extend your combos, and that's dangerous IMO. I further dislike that with 0 ATK it's practically asking you to use it for a Link ladder instead of leaving it on the field. Although that makes it risky with Veiler, Transience and monster effect negation around.

[Sleepy]

So it's an extension card. Personally, I'm not a fan of it.

First, I'm not a fan of cards designed for extension or laddering because they have the risk of getting nasty or breaking something through clever combos. In this card's case, with enough Synchros in the Gy this pretty much becomes a free Link3 that you can work with to extend your combos, and that's dangerous IMO. I further dislike that with 0 ATK it's practically asking you to use it for a Link ladder instead of leaving it on the field. Although that makes it risky with Veiler, Transience and monster effect negation around.

 

Keep in mind it's a "free Link 3" that is not so free.

A ) You need 3+ revivable Synchro in the GY prior to using it for max output.

B ) Your arrows don't help for anything other than Synchro Summoning, and it reviving Synchros is asking you to run a few different Synchro Levels in your build, a practice that's not as common as back in the Synchro era. Otherwise you won't be using the Synchros to make more Synchros and are stuck with Defense Position monsters.

 

Edited in the line "Cannot be used as a Link Material the turn it is Summoned".

This way you are not laddering off of it, and it still fulfills the rest of only using its markers for Synchros. 

The low stat and anti-Link laddering clause now should make for a sort of incentive to bring out Shooting Star and Red Nova and those sorts of cards that can protect you from getting hit.

[Darj]

Still not sure. With the right deck, pretty sure it's possible to still make Accel Synchros and whatnot, except with this card around, instead of going for Shooting Star, Quasar, etc. you would go first for this, get materials back and proceed with Shooting, Quasar, etc. For instance, I can picture a deck going for an accessible Link 2, then drop Formula + a Synchro, follow up with this, get back the Formula, the other Synchro and whatever other Synchro you had in the GY.

 

On the other hand, the added "cannot be used as Link Material" does lock out potential overpowering plays with a Link4+ but then it's not really adding much besides a dead Link3 with 0 ATK on your board clogging your ED Zone. Now I'm not sure if it would be worth to go for this card at all. And that's an issue I see with these kind of cards, purely designed for extension: I find it difficult to find a sweet spot while avoiding an "overkill", "awesome but impractical", and "oops, it broke something".

 

By the way, it's missing a hard OPT on its first effects Summoning multiples in a single turn may be unlikely, but considering that the first one can Summon materials for a second one, feels like a slippery slope there.

[Sleepy]

Still not sure. With the right deck, pretty sure it's possible to still make Accel Synchros and whatnot, except with this card around, instead of going for Shooting Star, Quasar, etc. you would go first for this, get materials back and proceed with Shooting, Quasar, etc. For instance, I can picture a deck going for an accessible Link 2, then drop Formula + a Synchro, follow up with this, get back the Formula, the other Synchro and whatever other Synchro you had in the GY.

 

On the other hand, the added "cannot be used as Link Material" does lock out potential overpowering plays with a Link4+ but then it's not really adding much besides a dead Link3 with 0 ATK on your board clogging your ED Zone. Now I'm not sure if it would be worth to go for this card at all. And that's an issue I see with these kind of cards, purely designed for extension: I find it difficult to find a sweet spot while avoiding an "overkill", "awesome but impractical", and "oops, it broke something".

 

By the way, it's missing a hard OPT on its first effects Summoning multiples in a single turn may be unlikely, but considering that the first one can Summon materials for a second one, feels like a slippery slope there.

 

If you are using Formula, Formula is already a Tuner and a Synchro, the other 2 materials don't need to be either since Formula already got you the requirement.

I'm legit trying to think of "the right Deck" because your opening plays being strong are gonna be because of Needlefiber combos more often than not.

 

Yes, instead of going for Quasar, Shooting Star, etc. You'd bring this out and THEN do those. It takes Synchros out of the EMZ and gives some flexibility on what comes back and where, and gives more space for Synchros to come out. Ultimaya into Crystal Wing and whatnot too. Pretty Extra Deck taxing stuff. That's like... the point.

 

You can also make fewer but bigger Synchros and then get rid of this card (which would require something like Enemy Controller's Tribute or a destruction via Fire King Island, Dragonic Diagram, a Metalfoes effect, or Sky Iris and the like) and then bring out the bigger Synchros + some of the laddering ones like Formula. That's about the extent of this card's troublesome nature. I don't believe a hard OPT clause is really needed.

[Darj]

You can also make fewer but bigger Synchros and then get rid of this card (which would require something like Enemy Controller's Tribute or a destruction via Fire King Island, Dragonic Diagram, a Metalfoes effect, or Sky Iris and the like) and then bring out the bigger Synchros + some of the laddering ones like Formula. That's about the extent of this card's troublesome nature. I don't believe a hard OPT clause is really needed.

 

At this step, instead of laddering your Synchros, you can bring another copy of this, generating more material for your combos. So there is more than that.

 

Yes, instead of going for Quasar, Shooting Star, etc. You'd bring this out and THEN do those. It takes Synchros out of the EMZ and gives some flexibility on what comes back and where, and gives more space for Synchros to come out. Ultimaya into Crystal Wing and whatnot too. Pretty Extra Deck taxing stuff. That's like... the point.

 

 I missed that bit of taking the Synchro from the ED Zone, good point. I was too fixed on getting a Formula + another Synchro, but it can very well 1 Formula and 2 any monsters to move Formula into an MM Zone.

[Sleepy]

At this step, instead of laddering your Synchros, you can bring another copy of this, generating more material for your combos. So there is more than that.

 

 

 I missed that bit of taking the Synchro from the ED Zone, good point. I was too fixed on getting a Formula + another Synchro, but it can very well 1 Formula and 2 any monsters to move Formula into an MM Zone.

 

Another copy requires the first to get off the field first. You can't use it for a Link (or for Synchro or Xyz due to lack of Level). How exactly would you make another one for any net worth gain? I wanna understand what you mean but I'm just not seeing how making a second copy of it with the materials the first one revived would not be a pointless -1 for the Extra Deck space.... 

 

At best you can aim for preparing your final Synchros and then popping it via something like Scrap Dragon, or a popping field spell, and then getting materials to make a second one at the other EMZ so you can have 2 to 3 more places to bring out Synchros, but it requires so many outside variables that it isn't really something I can picture in a solid quick combo.

[Darj]

It's difficult to picture a combo, yes, but I dare say the potential is there. Once you get the first copy, you can pop it with your suggested Sky Iris, Diagram, also Metalfoes, Zoodiac Barrage, etc. then with the help of the materials you brought up with the first copy, Summon the 2nd copy. It sounds silly at first, but, as you mentioned, if you have generated more materials on the field, or Synchros in the GY, and you Summon the 2nd copy in the other ED Zone if available, you can bring Synchros back now on newly marked MM Zones to further ladder up.

IDK if that's worth the extra ED slots more copies of these would take, though. It all depends on the power of the combos enabled by this card.