Notre Dame Archetype

[Ultimagamer]

This was an archetype I thought of based around the movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, focusing around gaining advantage through banishing, with monsters special summoning themselves from the banished cards, and getting effects when banished. 

 

I'll be updating based on feedback, so if you have any thoughts, please leave them below :D 

 

[spoiler=The Main Deck Monsters]

The Goats of Notre Dame

Level 1 / Earth / Beast / Effect

500 attack / 500 defense

 

If this card is in your hand: you can banish this card; Special Summon 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand, GY, or banished cards, except “The Goats of Notre Dame”. If this card is banished: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your Deck. You can only use each effect of “The Goats of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Sheep of Notre Dame

Level 1 / Earth / Beast / Effect

500 attack / 500 defense

 

If this card is in your hand: you can banish this card; Special Summon 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand, GY, or banished cards, except “The Sheep of Notre Dame”. If this card is banished: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand; draw 1 card. You can only use each effect of “The Sheep of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Peasants of Notre Dame

Level 2 / Earth / Warrior / Effect

750 attack / 750 defense

 

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: you can add 1 of your banished “Notre Dame” cards to your hand. If this card is banished: you can add 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of “The Peasants of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Jesters of Notre Dame

Level 2 / Earth / Warrior / Effect

750 attack / 750 defense

 

If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your Deck. If this card is banished: you can add 1 “Notre Dame” Spell/Trap card from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of “The Jesters of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Bakermen of Notre Dame

Level 3 / Earth / Warrior / Effect

1000 attack / 1000 defense

 

You can shuffle 1 of your banished “Notre Dame” Monsters into your Deck to Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is banished: you can Special Summon 1 “Notre Dame” Monster your hand. You can only use each effect of “The Bakermen of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Fishermen of Notre Dame

Level 3 / Earth / Warrior / Effect

1000 attack / 1000 defense

 

You can shuffle 1 of your banished “Notre Dame” Monsters into your Deck to Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is banished: you can target 1 of your banished non-Fusion and non-Link “Notre Dame” Monsters, except “The Fisherman of Notre Dame”; Special Summon that Monster. You can only use each effect of “The Fishermen of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Knights of Notre Dame

Level 4 / Earth / Warrior / Effect

1500 attack / 1500 defense

 

You can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand to Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is banished: you cannot Special Summon Monsters for the rest of this turn, except “Notre Dame” Monsters, also target 1 card your opponent controls; negate that card’s effects until the end of the turn. You can only use each effect of “The Knights of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Low Ranking Officers of Notre Dame

Level 4 / Earth / Warrior / Effect

1500 attack / 1500 defense

 

You can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand to Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is banished: you cannot Special Summon Monsters for the rest of this turn, except “Notre Dame” Monsters, also Special Summon 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your Deck, except “The Low Ranking Officers of Notre Dame”. You can only use each effect of “The Low Ranking Officers of Notre Dame” once per turn.

[spoiler=The Spells and Traps]

The Holy Church of Notre Dame

Spell - Field

 

While you control a “Notre Dame” Fusion or Link Monster, you take no effect damage, also all battle damage you take is halved. All “Notre Dame” Monsters you control gain 300 ATK. During your Main Phase, if you control no Monsters: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your Deck. You can only use this effect of “The Holy Church of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Wealth of Notre Dame

Spell - Normal

 

Banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand or face-up from your field; draw 2 cards, then banish 1 card from your hand. You can only activate 1 “The Wealth of Notre Dame” per turn.

 

The Positions of Notre Dame

Spell - Quickplay

 

( This card is always treated as a “Fusion” Spell card ).

Fusion Summon 1 “Notre Dame” Fusion Monster by banishing the required Fusion Materials from your hand, field, or GY. If this card in your GY is banished: add this card to your hand.

 

The Humility of Notre Dame

Trap - Continuous

 

Once per turn, you can apply one of the following effects.

• If your opponent adds exactly 1 card to their hand: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand, field, or GY; banish that card, then your opponent draws 1 card.

• When your Monster battles an opponent’s Monster: you can make the attack of your opponent’s Monster become equal to the attack of your Monster -500.

You can only apply each effect of “The Humility of Notre Dame” once per turn.

 

The Authority of Notre Dame

Trap - Continuous

 

Activate only while you control “The Holy Church of Notre Dame” and at least 1 “Notre Dame” Fusion or Link Monster. Any Monster sent to either player GY is banished instead. If a “Notre Dame” Fusion or Link Monster you control would be destroyed, you can banish this card you control instead.

 

Great Hellfire From Notre Dame

Trap - Counter

 

If a Spell/Trap card is activated: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster you control; negate the activation, and if you do, banish that card.

[spoiler=The Extra Deck]

The Deacons of Notre Dame

Link 2 / Dark / Warrior / Link / Effect

Link Markers: Bottom, Left

Link Materials: 2 “Notre Dame” Monsters

1250 attack

 

Cannot be destroyed by battle. If this card is banished: Special Summon this card. You can only Special Summon “The Deacons of Notre Dame” once per turn this way. Once per turn: you can target 1 of your banished “Notre Dame” cards; add that card to your hand. If this card you control would be destroyed, you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” card from your GY instead.

 

The Priests of Notre Dame

Link 3 / Dark / Warrior / Link / Effect

Link Markers: Right, Bottom, Left

2500 attack

 

Cannot be destroyed by battle. If this card is banished: Special Summon this card. You can only Special Summon “The Priests of Notre Dame” once per turn this way. If this card is Link Summoned: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” card from your GY; Special Summon 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your banished cards with a different name than the card banished to activate this effect. If this card you control would be destroyed, you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” card from your GY instead.

 

The Archdeacons of Notre Dame

Level 8 / Dark / Warrior / Fusion / Effect

2800 attack / 0 defense

2 “Notre Dame” Monsters

 

Must first be Fusion Summoned. If this card is in your banished cards: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand or face-up from your field; Special Summon this card from your banished cards. You can only Special Summon “The Archdeacons of Notre Dame” once per turn this way. Once per turn, during either players turn, if your opponent activates a Monster effect: you can negate that effect, then if you control “The Holy Church of Notre Dame”, banish that Monster.

 

The Cardinals of Notre Dame

Level 9 / Dark / Warrior / Fusion / Effect

3000 attack / 0 defense

2 “Notre Dame” Monsters + 1 “Notre Dame” Fusion or Link Monster

 

Must first be Fusion Summoned. If this card is in your banished cards: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand or face-up from your field; Special Summon this card from your banished cards. You can only Special Summon “The Cardinals of Notre Dame” once per turn this way. Once per turn: you can target 1 of your banished “Notre Dame” cards and 1 card your opponent controls; shuffle both targets into the Deck. You can only use this effect of “The Cardinals of Notre Dame” once per turn. If you control “The Holy Church of Notre Dame” your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to this effect.

 

The Archbishops of Notre Dame

Level 10 / Dark / Warrior / Fusion / Effect

3200 attack / 0 defense

1 “Notre Dame” Monster + 2 “Notre Dame” Fusion or Link Monsters

 

Must first be Fusion Summoned. If this card is in your banished cards: you can banish 1 “Notre Dame” Monster from your hand or face-up from your field; Special Summon this card from your banished cards. You can only Special Summon “The Archbishops of Notre Dame” once per turn this way. Once per turn, during either players turn, if your opponent would Summon a Monster(s): you can banish an equal number of “Notre Dame” Monsters from your hand, field, or GY; negate that Summon, then destroy those Monsters. If you control “The Holy Church of Notre Dame”, place those destroyed Monsters on the bottom of their owner’s Deck.

[Dova]

Shame I haven't seen the movie recently, as yet again I seem unable to comment on thematic flavour XD

However, what I can say is that the main deck monsters are a bit boring. You have all your basic support there for Summoning, searching, and drawing, but unfortunately that makes both for dull reading and dull plays; the lack of player interaction and anything that stands out means that playing against it just leads to solitaire hour long combos. This is more subjective than anything else, as I believe A) you and your opponent doing things in response to one another and having to constantly thing rather than just "afk" leads to more enjoyable plays and B) written cards should stand out a lot more than picture cards, as they don't have the added draw of a picture to keep things fresh. However, your Spells, Traps and Extra Deck monsters do have their own draws, so are pretty nifty.

Onto the actual mechanics of the set, due to the monsters being so similar, there's not really anything lacking, and its actually pretty well-rounded. There's not too much resource consumption, as none of the monsters care if they're used as resources, there aren't choke points, as banishing any of them is enough to start the ball rolling again not to mention the fact that simple banishing is very easy, AND they aren't too crazy, with said ball slowly grinding to a halt with that hard once per turn on the monsters. Even the potential for crazy late-game plays with the Summoning whenever you like from the banished zone is balance by the fact that you have to banish them again after you Summon them. Very nice...if only they weren't so basic, otherwise I could comment on them individually.

Holy Church is a really good card, not just in power but in design. The only change I might suggest is lowering the boost to 300, due to other bonuses the card grants, but the effect damage prevention is helpful AND it stands out, while the battle damage one doesn't lock out your opponent from a wincon while still being similarly helpful, and last of all, you have an extremely powerful play-enabler with a balanced hard once per turn. While Wealth is simultaneously pretty meh and really good, a nice balance, Positions is perhaps too strong again; while banishing may seem like a restriction when it comes to most Fusion Spells, in this archetype it could not be better for them, so while I'd allow it to maybe banish from the GY, so they don't have to run Soul Release, I'd suggest it shuffles from everywhere else, with everywhere being probably only 1 other location, just to be in the safe side.

Humility is weird. Where is this face-down defense position mechanic coming from? None of the bosses benefit from it, indeed, they like their ATK and are rather offensive (lets not forget our Link monster), so the ATK lowering helps, but I don't understand the rest of it. (OCG time! Remember the differences between your attack/defense grammar variations: "If this card declares an attack..." "...change that monster to Attack Position." "...it gains 600 ATK." Good for consistency and readability!") Hellfire, like Wealth, is pretty well-balanced, but Authority definitely needs some way of it destroying itself, a la The Monarchs Erupt; far too powerful an enabler at the moment.

Against my better judgement, I like the Fusions and Link monsters. A lot more variety, they work well with the Field Spell, and a cute little gimmick that really does seem like an upgrade of the main deck monsters. Two key points here though: A) You don't have a searcher for the Field Spell. We can't rely on Terraforming all the time, and you'd think with this interactibility there'd at least be some other way of searching it...perhaps reworking one of the main deck line-up? Secondly, while the SSing gimmick is fun, it clashes with another aspect of the cards; protection by banishing. Your opponent basically has no way of dealing with these cards. They can Kaiju them, send them to the GY and shuffle them into the Deck, but little beyond that. The main issue is the lack of being able to destroy them by battle; you banish them, they come back, you destroy them, they not only survive but bring back another boss from the GY. It's very powerful when the two effects combine, so I'd suggest some massive nerfs in that department.

While the monsters are boring, the rest of the set certainly is not. More strong than not, it's nothing amazingly obvious but some expansions of the potential plays of this set that would put it on the banlist. Unfortunately, it's also consistently strong, which does not bode well in terms of potential changes. Back to the "boring" bit; you do tend to make a lot of sets that have cookie-cutter/basic effects, yet parts of these archetypes do really shine, so I know you have the potential to make much more engaging sets. Try to branch out into realistically interesting combinations; might net you some more readers :P

[Ultimagamer]

While the monsters are boring, the rest of the set certainly is not. More strong than not, it's nothing amazingly obvious but some expansions of the potential plays of this set that would put it on the banlist. Unfortunately, it's also consistently strong, which does not bode well in terms of potential changes. Back to the "boring" bit; you do tend to make a lot of sets that have cookie-cutter/basic effects, yet parts of these archetypes do really shine, so I know you have the potential to make much more engaging sets. Try to branch out into realistically interesting combinations; might net you some more readers :P

 

Hm . . . . . You definitely are not wrong with that, that's something I've started to fall into the habit of doing. Filling out the roster of archetypes I design with copy-pastes of the effects with minor changes ( This feels most blatant to me on my cheetahmen archetype, given that the Monsters are mostly the same with minor changes, and the equips are mostly the same with minor changes ). 

 

Let's see if I can revitalize this archetype. It wouldn't be the first time I've made drastic changes to an archetype. If you've seen my Phoenix Wright cards originally, they looked completely different than they do now ( they were originally levels 8-12 divine monsters, but now they are levels 4-8 light monsters ). 

 

It will take some time, and a good deal of hard thinking, but I think I can change this archetype for the better. 

 

Changes 

1. Removed this line of text from all of the main deck monsters 

 

"If this card is in your banished cards: you can banish 1 "Notre Dame" Monster from your hand or face-up from your field; Special Summon this card from your banished cards." 

 

Such summoning conditions feel to powerful on main deck monsters ( also it's quite strong for main deck monsters ). I've moved them over to the Fusion Monsters instead

 

2. Removed half of the fusion monsters 

 

I might add in more later, but for now I want to see if I can balance them a bit ( hopefully this helps tune the fusion spell card as well ) 

 

3. Change Humility 

 

The card wasn't really designed to match the playstyle of this deck. I mostly made it because 1) the fusion monsters all have low defense 2) ultimate conductor tyranno. Looking back on it, it's not really good design for this archetype.