custom-card How to make balanced custom cards

[Lone mouse]

After the new banlist tearlaments are the best deck right?

[WhiteThunder777]

11 hours ago, Lone mouse said:

After the new banlist tearlaments are the best deck right?

Yeah.  

[WhiteThunder777]

Don't make your custom archetype be the new Spright, as that tends to be no fun at all in terms of design.  

 

[Lone mouse]

If you make a lock only lock yourself not the opponent no one likes floodgates.

[WhiteThunder777]

4 hours ago, Lone mouse said:

If you make a lock only lock yourself not the opponent no one likes floodgates.

That is so true.  Floodgates take the fun out of yugioh, as yugioh itself should be treated as a 2P game.

[WhiteThunder777]

Balanced archetypes are those that your opponent can play against.  

[WhiteThunder777]

Let's face it - yugioh is a fun game, but it is very flawed.  One of the biggest flaws in the game is that cards are designed  so the the other player cannot play yugioh.  As custom card designers, we have to make sure that we design cards so that the other player can play yugioh.  

Despite these flaws, yugioh has left something for us to work with - how to make an archetype with inventive mechanics.  

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

Alternate win condition for a custom archetype should NOT be easy to achieve.  For example, Exodia, you'd need the 5 pieces of Exodia in your hand to win. Another example would be Hocatie, which requires you to Tribute 3 Egyptian God monsters to summon it in order to win.  Destiny Board requires you to play specific cards to achieve a win condition.  Ghostrick Angel requires you to have 10 materials attached to the card to achieve an alternate win.  

 

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

Negates should be very limited when making customs, even in custom archetypes because those constitute to your end board.  Keep them to 0 or 1, as the more of them you have, the less likely your opponent will want to play against your archetype.

[WhiteThunder777]

If one creates an end board with their custom archetype on DuelingBook and it ends up with 5+ negates, it's best to surrender and find another player to duel.  

 

[WhiteThunder777]

The ease of summon and the effect of the monster in a custom archetype are the key to determining balance.  If a monster ain't easy to summon, it's not very good. 

If an easy to summon monster has a nuking effect, it's probably unbalanced and requires attention.

Knowing how the various mechanics of yugioh is important in custom card design. 

[WhiteThunder777]

Some custom archetypes can be easy, medium, or hard depending on how they are designed.

[WhiteThunder777]

No matter how you make your cards, you must find a way to contain the power of your cards before it becomes a leaking can of evil in which it becomes unbalanced. If your cards are too generic, chances are, other people can take your cards and do unwanted interactions you may not expect, allowing the leaking can of evil to spread like wildfire.

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

In ANY custom archetype, not every card should be ran at 3 copies.  Here's why if you are wondering, keeping in mind that yugioh is about resource management. 

Searchers are like the stuff that gets the resource(s) you need to get your custom archetype going.  There are usually 1 or 2 searchers in the archetype, so those have to be ran at 3 copies.  In simpler terms, searchers are maxed out at 3 copies when deck building because you want these cards in your hand.  

There are other stuff in said custom archetype that may not be ran at 3 copies (3 depending on how the other stuff helps/contributes with your archetype).  Extenders are those that contribute to your archetype, and in some cases, play around pesky hand traps like Ash Blossom or Imperm, hence you may want to run 2-3 copies of those at best.  

The other effects besides searchers and extenders could be very niche, and you'd want to run 1 or 2 copies at best.

Even if it had an Extra Deck, the same thing applies because not every extra deck monster in said archetype is good. The Extra Deck encourages variety of cards, because at that point, you already have the searchers to do what you need. 

[WhiteThunder777]

Let's look at how existing cards in the TCG interact with your custom archetype.

• Cyberse is complicated.  The best 1 that can be put into any Cyberse based custom archetype is Cynet Mining as that can help set up the GY and also search a Level 4 Cyberse of your archetype.  You may want to play Cynet Optimization, but that is only iff you are playing Code Talkers which is rare.  Cynet Backdoor is only if you want to make Cyberse that use the banished cards as a resource or to proc off banish based effects.  
• Warriors have Reinforcement of the Army and the Link 2 Isolde. 
• Forbidden Droplets is a good one, since not only is it a negate, it also helps set up the GY by throwing a monster of your archetype into the GY which helps set up plays for your custom archetype.  
• Twin Twisters discards 1 card of your archetype to the GY to not only destroy up to 2 back row, but also enables stuff that uses the GY.  

 

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

Your custom archetype can fall into 1 of the three types (Combo, Control, or Midrange).  In a nutshell, here are the following.  

Combo strategy relies on small cards that work together to set up a massive end board can can be hard to deal with in the end.  Very prone to hand traps like ash and effect veiler.   

Control strategy tries to control the opponent via disruption and out resource them in the long run.  A possible grind game could be achieved in some situation.  

Midrange strategies have going 1st and going 2nd cards.  Keep in mind, a going 1st card can be a disruption (it does NOT always have to be a negate).   A going 2nd card can be something that gives your monsters massive attack (e.g. Mage Power, United we Stand) and stuff that breaks an opponent's board (e.g. Kaijus, Lava Golem, Ra - Sphere Mode), back row removal (e.g. Lightning Storm, Harpie's feather duster), or turns it off (e.g. Dark Ruler no More).    Their end boards aren't as strong as a combo deck's is, nor is their control as good as a pure control based strategy.

In ALL cases, keep negates on your custom cards to a minimum of 0 to 1 when making your custom archetype due to its endboard.  Negates are stuff that make the opponent want to quit.  The more negates you have, the more likely your opponent does not want to play with you.

Sometimes you might encounter a case where a custom card of your archetype is best kept in the Side Deck.  For example, something like Trap Eater is very useful against decks that rely on Cont. Trap Cards.  Or if you made one but for Set Spells/Traps, that's only good against decks that prefer to set back row and pass (e.g. Labyrinth) or decks that utilize Set Spell/Traps (which rarely is the case).  

 

[WhiteThunder777]

Examples of going 2nd stuff would be MST, Twin Twisters, Lightning Storm, Raigeki, and stuff that gives massive boosts (e.g. United we stand, Mage Power).  Turning off your opponent's board temporarily is a tactic for going 2nd (e.g. Forbidden Droplet, Dark Ruler no More)

Sometimes a Quick Effect on a monster may be used going 2nd as opposed to going 1st if it has a MST like effect.  

 

 

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

AS of right now, you'd want to avoid your custom archetype being the next Tear 0.  Try to make something that has been lost to ages and give new light to them.  

Examples would include Morphtronics.  

[WhiteThunder777]

Also as to wrap up everything here that was said before, as this session comes to an end.  

A going 1st board should end on a reasonable power so that the opponent can play their deck going 2nd.  5+ negates on an endboard is going to make your custom archetype feel like solitaire and stale old bread causing a lot of people on DuelingBook to quit against you.  For negates, limit them to 0 or 1.  A going 2nd deck breaks an existing going 1st end board with removal and then finding the perfect opening to perform an OTK.  A midrange Deck does not care about going 1st or 2nd, as they have the tools necessary to play through the opponent's hand traps and possible disruptions or possibly make an attempt to wreck the opponent's board.

A going 1st strategy requires setup and investment.  For example, decks that utilize Trap cards (Paleos, Labyrinth, and Altergeist) require setup.  A going 2nd strategy breaks the opponent's board (e.g. Crusadia Kaiju) and has lots of removal.  

I hope that whatever was written before gives you the chance to make your own custom archetype.  Have fun!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

There's an idea of risk vs. reward when it comes to custom archetypes (and customs in general).  If a card plusses in terms of card advantage without any risks, the card can be considered broken.  For example, Pot of Desires is for decks that do not care about their Main Deck, though you have to banish a quarter of your Deck to do it (that is, if a 40 card Deck is to be assumed) and you go +2.  Pot of Extravagance is for Decks that do NOT rely on the Extra Deck at all, such as Dogmatika, Monarch, and Gren Maju Di Eiza based strategies, though the risk is that you'd have to banish 3 or 6 cards in your Extra Deck face-down.  

Even in the face of generic cards, you have to be careful, as it could be splashed into other decks without you knowing, which can cause problems.  If it can be put into any Deck, it should have a lower power level to compensate, otherwise you'd want to make it as part of an archetype.  

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

The banlist for the TCG changes regularly.  So keep this in mind.

 

[WhiteThunder777]

Okay, so people talk card advantage - it is the # of cards in the hand and field.  The thing is, card advantage alone is NOT enough to determine whether a card a broken or not.  1f 1 card results in a combo that combo may have to be checked to see if said card is balanced or not.  Card advantage is how Yugioh is run, and hence are resources in yugioh. 

You may say Pot of Avarice like effect for an archetype is broken, but the thing is Avarice requires GY setup to activate.  Even if you drew 2 cards, it is hard to tell whether that effect is broken.  

If 1 card causes the game state to shift in an unusual direction, that card along with its combo pieces will have to be looked at.

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

Say if you had a Link monster whose Link Rating is X, then the total card advantage is -X + 1, where X is the Link Rating of the monster.  However, if you had some way of cheating a Link Monster of a higher rating, that card will have to be looked at, along with the Link monster itself for ANY unbalanced interactions.  

People say that balancing customs is hard work, but the truth is, if you are careful with your effects and Summoning conditions, you should be fine.  

If the TCG wouldn't do X when making cards, you probably shouldn't do X when making your customs. 

Is is also inadvisable to copy the meta when making custom cards.  Look at Tearalements/Spright and how it affects the TCG as of right now - it is like stale bread that would rather be used in bread pudding.  Instead, try to look at ideas that were lost to history and put your spin on them, if possible. Be interactive and creative!!

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

Do NOT think of excavation as a bad thing when designing customs.  Here's why - excavation runs the risk of NOT getting the resources you need for your archetype.  Plus excavation is random.  Take for example (Let X be the archetype name, and Y be the monster name)

• Excavate the top card of your Deck, equip 1 excavated "X" Equip Spell to an "X" monster you control.  Otherwise, put that card at the bottom of your deck.  You can only use the effect of "Y" once per turn.

If we look at this, there is a chance that Y will resolve and a chance that Y will not resolve, causing the card to be put in the bottom of the Deck.  

Excavation can be a very useful tactic to set up the GY. In the example above, the monster may be equipped or it may not be equipped with an equip spell.  So it's a risk/reward situation.  

Be very careful, in some cases excavation can be used for an archetype that uses the GY to do stuff, as in, cards with GY based effects.  

 

 

 

 

 

[WhiteThunder777]

As an example of balance, look at the following normal Spell card and its effect:

• Add 1 Level 4 or lower Warrior Union monster from your Deck to your hand.  You can only activate 1 "X" per turn.  

In the DuelingBook Database, there are ONLY 3 Warrior Union monsters that are viable targets for this card and they aren't that good.  Six Samurai used to be a meta threat but now it isn't so this card shouldn't be a problem.  Armor Breaker and Squeaknight are in the same boat.  This spell card only becomes a problem in customs if people make multiple Union Warrior based archetypes which is hardly the case, plus people rarely play unions.  

It is a +0 in card advantage because the spell is sent to the GY, and -1 at best if Ash negates it.

The card itself isn't that good because it is a downplayed version of Reinforcement of the Army.  

Stratos is the term used for a searcher when referring to custom archetypes.