critiques are welcome Idea for a “Five-Headed Dragon” retrain of my home-brewed “Unbound” monster type that I wish to have peer-reviewed at 3AM in the morning.

[But First He Lit It On Fire]

So idea with this is that, since the OG Five-Headed Dragon is fairly “lackluster” in the modern day and age of the game (aside from being a solid Super Poly target to use against Dragon heavy decks), I would make a new version that would lend itself more into the “Five” attributes/elements angle it has going:

 

(Card Text for players that cannot see the above card easily enough:)

“Five Disasters Dragon“ (DARK)

️️️️️️️️️️️️
First Effect Box

_You can Banish 1 monster from your hand, Field or GY  (Quick Effect); Apply 1 of the following effects based on its Attribute(s): LIGHT; Double or Halve the ATK/DEF of 1 monster on the field. DARK; Negate the effects 1 card on the field. FIRE; Destroy 1 card on the field. WATER; Gain LP 5000. EARTH; Place 1 Field Spell from your hand or Deck face-up in your Field Zone. WIND; Shuffle 1 card into the Deck/Extra Deck that’s outside of them._

Dragon / Fusion / Unbound / Effect

_5 Dragon and/or Wyrm monsters with Different Original Attributes
Must be Fusion Summoned. This card’s Original Attribute becomes the Attributes of its Fusion Materials. Cannot be Destroyed by battle by, and unaffected by the effects of, monsters with the same Attributes as this card. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent. If this card would be Banished or in the GY; Shuffle into in the Extra Deck instead._

ATK/5000 DEF/5000

 

Anyway, the idea is that this would be one of my “Unbound” monsters (monsters that would have a second effect box on top of their normal one, WITHOUT necessarily also being a Pendulum monster... Unbound Pendulum monsters would have the effects of both their text boxes always be active, regardless of where the card is at the moment BTW. This one ISN’T a Pendulum monster, so I would LOVE to get rid of the Pendulum Scales entirely if this website had the option to.)

The top box is for a suite of Attribute/Element themed effects, with appropriate effects based on the Attribute(s) of the monsters that are Banished for this (Quick- Effect) (The “(s)” in that prior “Attribute(s)” is important for Multi-Attribute monsters like Light and Darkness Dragon or Invoked Elysium, as this would (as intended at least) allow for multiple options of this effect to be applied at once.) The DARK effect Negates, the FIRE effect destroys a card, the WIND effect shuffles a card into the Deck/Extra Deck, the EARTH effect terraforms the field by placing a Field Spell onto it (letting you use Field Spells like New World - Amritara or The Seal of Orichalcos that have activation restrictions on them), the WATER effect gives you an even 5000 LP (I was thinking of the “Bounty of The Sea” and all that while making this card, and was running low on card space as is), and the LIGHT effect lets you Double or Halve the ATK/DEF of 1 monster on the field, which is mean to be a bit of irony considering the OG 5 headed was always bested by Battle with a LIGHT monster that had its ATK boosted in the anime.

 

The second box of Effects are for, on top of the usual essentials, the cards more “Physical” characteristics (Attribute-based immunities to Battle Destruction and Card Effects against monsters with the same attribute(s) as this card, piercing battle damage, etc…). Its summoning condition is both easier and harder to pull off than the OG, requiring 5 different attributes BUT also letting you use Wyrm monsters alongside your Dragons. And for any questions regarding why Wyrm monsters are involved… Besides them existing specifically to keep the Dragon type from being (even more) overly-bloated, just LOOK at the pic below of True King of All Calamities, a Wyrm monster, and tell me if THAT doesn’t look “Dragon” enough;

AHEM… Moving on…

The Attribute requirement for the Fusion Summon ties directly into the aformnentioned protections this card has, allowing it to retain its classic “durable against 5 of the 7 attributes” thing Five-Headed always had, but in a less wordy and more flexible way. Said protections are squarly between Five-Headed Dragon’s and Five-Headed Link Dragon’s, being stronger than the former but not as potent as the later’s, but also less costly than Link’s. (This card’s hypothetical heads of each attribute would be based off of the Dragons/Wyrms that were this cards Fusion Materials. So imagine this card with the heads of the DARK/FIRE/WATER/EARTH/WIND “True King” Wyrm monsters as an example, or Extra Heads of relevant attributes if you use Multi-Attribute materials like Light and Darkness Dragon.)

it also has one last effect that, if the card would be Banished or Sent to the GY (even if it’s not on the field), it would be shuffled into your extra deck instead. This is to keep it from being abused by certain GY/Banishment related shenanigans, and also as an additional layer of protections. It’s difficult enough to summon without the chance of your Opponent trying to preemptively snipe it out of your Extra Deck, so now your opponent mostly likely CAN’T do so unless they can somehow negate or otherwise bypass that last line of text. It can only be Fusion Summoned anyway, so GY/Banishment revival cards aren’t much useful with it, and it always being redirected back into your Extra Deck from those places give you the chance to Fusion Summon it again (again, this ISN’T a Pendulum monster. Pendulum monsters are just the closest thing format-wise to my Unbound monster idea we have on the site, so I’ll have to improvise until that changes.)

If I had more time, I’d probably have brainstormed 7 individual monsters, one of each attribute, that would be the separate “official” heads of this card, and would have supported Dragons/Wyrms and their Attribute.

Edited December 28, 2024 by But First He Lit It On Fire
Typo corrections

[LazerSwordKirbo]

I love the card, and how it's protection effect works, but it folds immediately to any spell or trap card that can destroy a monster. As intimidating as it is, a single raigeki removes it from the field.

[But First He Lit It On Fire]

Keep in mind, the Orignal “Five-Headed Dragon” has the same problems with Spells/Traps, while the Link version that has more potent protections is more costly to keep around. The idea was to meet somewhere between the 2, while also emphasizing the Elemental aspect of them. Beyond that, any decks that would seriously use this card would probably have other cards prepared to help protect Five-Disaters from those loose ends, and it would be poor form to make this TOO immune anyway.

Besides, the top boxes (Quick Effects) should give the card SOME options to help deal with that Spell/Trap vulnerability (like using the EARTH banish to get a “Mound of the Bound Creator” out to protect it from targeting and/or destroying Spells/Traps, using the DARK banish to negate the card if it was on the field when activated, or the FIRE one to destroy it, etc...)

Edited January 20 by But First He Lit It On Fire