The Moonlit Masquerade [WRITTEN] (Christmas Event)

[Tinkerer]

On the night of the winter solstice, the ancient cardinal dragons gather together in the court of the Dragon Monarch.  Sloughing off their dragonic forms, they put on costumes of man and lose all sense of self.  Time, space, their own existence is lost in the magic of the night.  All difference is cut away and all become one.

When the night is over and consciousness is regained, who will preside as the new Dragon Monarch for the new year?

@Rayfield Lumina

 

In more straightforward talk: I was inspired by the previous "Nameless" card I'd posted to make a masquerade archetype themed around card names.  The gimmick involves a kind of "lacking identity" and I wanted to use that to hurt lots of other decks.  The strategy ended up turning into a kind of "goodstuff/stun" deck (think Lightsworn meets Ice Barriers), but with a lot of Extra Deck hate.

Anyways, enough about jabbering.  Onto the cards!

 

Monsters

Quote

The Masked Monarch
WATER 8*
Dragon/Effect
This card's name becomes "Maskeraider" while in your hand, field, or GY.  You can Special Summon this card (from your hand or GY) by tributing 2 monsters you control with the same name.  Players cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck unless they have a monster(s) in the GY with the same name.  During the End Phase: Both players must banish 2 monsters from their Extra Deck.  If a player cannot, they must send the top 2 cards from their Deck to the GY instead.  You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.
2800/1000

Maskeraider
WATER 6*
Wyrm/Effect
This card's name becomes "The Masked Monarch" while on the field.  You can Tribute 1 "Maskeraider"; Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, you can Set 1 "Solstice Cotillion" from your Deck or GY.  You can Tribute this card; Send 2 cards with "Maskeraider" in its effect from your Deck to the GY.  You can only use each of these effects of this card's name once per turn.
2400/1000

Thane of the North - Mr. E
WATER ****
Dragon/Effect
This card's name becomes "Maskeraider" while in your hand, field, or GY.  Once per turn: You can discard 1 card; Special Summon 1 "Maskeraider" from your GY, then, return 1 "Maskeraider" you control to the hand.
1900/1000

Duke of the East - Rev. Erie
WATER ****
Dragon/Effect
This card's name becomes "Maskeraider" while in your hand, field, or GY.  Players cannot activate the effects of monsters they control unless they have a monster(s) in the GY with the same name.  You can Tribute this card and target 1 monster your opponent controls; your opponent must send all copies of that monster from their hand, Deck, and Extra Deck to the GY.  You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.
1100/1700

Dutchess of the East - Ms. Erie
WATER ****
Dragon/Effect
This card's name becomes "Maskeraider" while in your hand, field, or GY.  If a monster activates its effect, the player must send 1 other monster with the same name as that monster from their hand, field, or Deck to the GY, otherwise the effect is negated.  Once per turn: You can target 1 monster on the field and declare a monster name; that target's name becomes the declared name until the End Phase of the next turn.  You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.
1600/1400

Countess of the West - Ms. T
WATER ***
Dragon/Tuner/Effect
This card's name becomes "Maskeraider" while in your hand, field, or GY.  You can return 1 monster you control whose name is different from its original name to your hand, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand, then, if the returned monster was "Maskeraider", you can flip 1 face-up card on the field face-down.  You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.
600/1400

Baroness of the South - Miss Fortune
WATER ***
Dragon/Tuner/Effect
This card's name becomes "Maskeraider" while in your hand, field, or GY.  You can return 1 monster you control whose name is different from its original name to your hand, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand, then, if the returned monster was "Maskeraider", you can destroy 1 Set card on the field.  You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.
1400/300

The Masked Vassal
WATER *
Wyrm/Effect
This card's name becomes "Maskeraider" while in your hand, field, or GY.  If this card is added to your hand by a card effect: You can reveal this card; Special Summon 1 "Maskeraider" from your hand.  During the Standby Phase: The turn player must declare 1 monster name.  Neither player can Special Summon a monster(s) from the Extra Deck unless the declared monster is on the field.  Negate this effect if you control a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck.
800/1000

 

Spells/Traps

Quote

Solstice Cotillion
Field Spell
Activate only while you control a monster(s) whose name is not its original name.  Monsters whose names are different from their original name gain 300 ATK/DEF.  While you control a monster(s) whose name is not its original name, players can only control monsters with the same name.  If a player controls more than 1 monster(s) with different names, send all other face-up monsters they control to the GY until they control 1 monster.  Twice per turn, the turn player can target 1 monster they control and declare a monster name; that target's name becomes the declared name until the End Phase of the next turn.

Winter's Solum
Continuous Trap
If your opponent controls more monsters than you: Special Summon a number of "Maskeraider" from your GY with different ATK/DEF up to the difference.  "Maskeraider(s)" you control have their effects negated, but they gain 500 ATK/DEF.  If this card is in the GY: You can send 1 "Solstice Cotillion" you control to the GY; Set this card, but banish it when it leaves the field.  You can only activate 1 "Winter's Solum" per turn.

Masking Up
Quick-Play Spell
Target 1 monster on the field and send 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your Deck to the GY; the target's name becomes the sent monster's name until the End Phase. You cannot activate the effects of Level 4 or lower monsters in your GY the turn you activate this effect.  You can only activate 1 "Masking Up" per turn.

Quick Change
Quick-Play Spell
Target 1 monster you control; Send it to the GY, then, Special Summon 1 monster from your GY with the same name as the target on the field.  If you control "Maskeraider": You can banish this card from your GY; return 1 "Maskeraider" you control to the hand, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Maskeraider" from your hand or GY. You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.

Entrancing Entrance
Spell
Special Summon 1 "Maskeraider" from your hand.  Monsters with more ATK than the Summoned monster cannot activate their effects while you control that monster.  You can banish this card from your GY and target 1 "Maskeraider" in your GY; add it to your hand.  You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.

Since "lacking identity" is a theme for this archetype, bonus points if you can figure out which archetypes some of the cards are meant to support/draw inspiration from.  I imagine most are pretty obvious, but one of them might be a bit tricky!

Cheers!

 

P.S.

@Draconus297 Interestingly, this "cardinal dragon" design was something that I used in another of my AGM creations.  Aspects of the designs don't match up, but I think I'd like to submit these to the AGM as part of the lore for that previous design.

[Rayfield Lumina]

OMG, this is absolutely crazy, I love it!!

Some of the effects seem terribly dangerous, starting from da bossu, the Masked Monarch, which pretty much spells doom on lots of Decks if they don't have a solid group of repeated Extra Deck mons. Then there's "Duke of the East - Rev. Erie", no activations of mon effects if you don't have a copy in the GY... I believe that if any of these are summoned and catch your opponent in the first turn, it's game set. One would wish Dutchess of the East - Ms. Erie was there to take advantage of the send to the GY effect, but, nao nao, you can't activate effects, you're screwed xD. I don't have qualms about the rest of the mons in the archetype, since they're mostly combo-enablers... welp, Vassal is also scary... everything is SCARYYY xD

Then there's Cotillion's "Players can only control monsters with the same name". Wut? Lemme contact Konami, this card must be banned right away :v  And Entrancing Entrance + Summon Countess of the West - Ms. T = almost everything gets negated lol. The rest of the Spells look quite balance, even this last since the effect only applies while you control the monster, but I'll just run away as hard and fast as I can from Cotillion.

Masked HEROs, I imagine? There's monarch and vassal, but I don't think that's really a good answer. OMG, you ask someone who's dumb and has not much knowledge of the meta and its archetypes xD. On my defense, I'm feeling hella tired and I want to reply and edit stuff at the development thread. I'll just mention I like the puns for Mystery, Reverie, Misery and Misty xD Perhaps the hint is in the fact that there are two Easts and South doesn't follow the other's style, but right now IDK.

Ty, adding your points n.n

[Tinkerer]

Took some suggestions and nerfed a couple of the cards.

1. Cotillion's floodgate effect now only works as long as you control a monster whose name is different from its original name. A monster negation/removal should allow players to get out from under the floodgate.

The inspiration for this card was more/less an archetype-locked version of "Kaiser Colosseum" (that was a stretch though, so I dunno if anyone would have gotten that).

2. Lowered Reverie's ATK by 400 (but buffed it's DEF by 100). Even with the boost from the field spell, a player should be able to Summon a monster and run over Reverie to turn off its floodgate effect.

I decided to keep Entrancing Entrance the same. It was designed as a strong going-second option to bait out/shut down opponent's negates/quick effects. However, the restriction can very easily hurt you if you aren't careful since you cannot activate monster effects either. Couple that with the fact that you're unlikely to have/use a ton of Extra Deck monsters (because of Field Spell/Boss Monster/Vassal), and you can easily make your own situation much harder.

For now, I'll keep Monarch as-is. It's powerful & can recur, but its self-summon condition is not the easiest thing for the deck to pull off and the monster itself is fragile (no protection, only 2800 ATK w/o the field spell). I will keep it in mind though.

 

HERO/Masked HERO is the heaviest inspiration. "Masking Up" is literally a generic "Hero Mask" and "Quick Change" is a Quick-Play "Change" card (Shadow Mist can search it/benefit from it). Monarchs have some representation as well based on names and statlines. Vassal was meant to act as Monarch Support (self-summon effect, anti-extra deck condition). The tuners were based on Genex Ally Birdman.

The last inspiration was the field spell = Kaiser Colosseum. It influenced the designs of a lot of the monsters which is why the deck has difficulty having more than 1 monster on the field at a time (Maskeraider Tributes, Thane returns 1 to hand, the tuners bounce, etc.). Even though Kaiser Colosseum is banned, the deck works as though you're running it.