READ BEFORE POSTING: Ten Ways To Be A Good Pop Culture Card Maker (With Examples From SGY)

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

The following post is a set of rules for creating good pop culture cards. This will outline some of the most common mistakes, and prevent your card from being "typical." Note that these problems are found almost exclusively in Pop Culture, though they do arise elsewhere.

 

Rule I.) No fake types.

Sometimes it can be hard to use one of the existing twenty-one types to describe your pop culture card. Tough luck, chief. Almost every fake PC card uses fake types ("Sith", "Elite", "Hedgehog", etc.) on YCM, and all the good card makers hate them. If you must create your own subtype, then go ahead, but as types have no inherent modifier, there's no excuse for making new ones. Consider the following.

[spoiler=Bad:]

 

[spoiler=Good:]

 

As you can see, the Good example is far more plausible, and therefore good, than the bad. And the Bad example is no exaggeration; it's not uncommon for people to actually list three or four fake types in a row for no reason.

 

Rule II.) No Normal Monsters.

It seems tempting, I suppose, to make Normal Monsters for pop culture cards because they tell the character's backstory. In case you didn't get the message, though, Vanillas are for losers. They're even worse on YCM, because they show no creativity at all, and creativity is arguably more important than OCG. To prove my point, consider the following.

[spoiler=Bad:]

 

[spoiler=Good:]

 

If you think the Bad example is better, get off the Internet.

 

Rule IIa.) If you must make Normal Monsters, don't give them painfully long descriptions.

Don't go into detail; use one or two sentences tops. I'll show you:

[spoiler=Bad:]

 

[spoiler=Worse:]

 

If you think Worse is better than Bad, go see a psychologist, and fast.

 

Rule IIb.) If you must make Normal Monsters, keep the ATK lower than 3000.

Blue-Eyes White Dragon is the strongest Normal Monster in the game, and it's gonna stay that way. I don't think I need examples here.

Rule IIb1.) If you must make Normal Monsters, if you're creating a Level 6 or lower monster, keep the ATK lower than 2500.

Summoned Skull is the strongest Lv6≤ monster in the game, and it's gonna stay that way. I don't think I need examples here.

 

Rule III.) Don't make your monsters ridiculously high level for no reason.

Too often do I find a thread in pop culture that holds cards exclusively of Level 7 and higher, with stats to match. This should not be so. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Lv6+ Goombas and Keese are commonplace among the n00bs of YCM. Considering you know how to play YGO (if you don't, learn before making cards), consider the following.

[spoiler=Bad:]

 

[spoiler=Good:]

 

So you see, you don't really go wrong with lower levels (think the Bad is better than the Good, and you're officially an idiot).

 

Rule IV.) Don't arrange the power of your cards basesd on how much you like the characters portrayed.

Try and break the game with every card. If you don't like a being, don't make a card of them. I've seen people make Yoshis with 6500 ATK and, in the same set, Marios with 0. Honestly, get over your stupid biases and just make cards. I doubt examples are needed here.

 

Rule V.) When making a hero and a villain, don't give either one the effect that the hero wins in battle.

Okay, seriously, we know the hero always wins. That doesn't have to be portrayed in every card in the world. If you put that effect, all it shows is unoriginality and laziness. Come up with a good effect instead of just forcing the hero to come out on top; after all, your opponent can still Sakuretsu (or worse, D-Prison) you.

[spoiler=Bad]

 

[spoiler=Good]

 

My sarcasm is nonexistent. Check out how much better the second Mario is than the first. And if you thought the first one was worth making, don't even get me started on Bowser.

 

Rule VI.) Base your effects on the character you're making.

One effect I saw for a Bowser a while back was, to give it the correct OCG "When this card is Summoned successfully, you gain 1000 Life Points." I mean, what the hell? Since when did Bowser have anything to do with healing? If you're going to make a card of someone, have the effect actually have something to do with the person. The fact that I have to even say this is really sad. To use the example above, I based the second Bowser on Super Smash Bros. Eclipse, in which he was a feral, snarling beast who took on Ganondorf and TP Link simultaneously.

[spoiler=Bad]

 

[spoiler=Good]

 

There, see? The first one makes no sense, but the second one clearly references Snake's many weapons, and his uncanny espionage ability (he can see traps coming and dismantle them before they activate).

 

Rule VII.) If you're making ships, don't make them purely synergistic.

Oh, boy. Fanships. The base of fanfiction, and one hell of a lot of cards. Now that the Avatar ship wars are raging, you can expect a lot of shipped cards. But if you're going to make cards ship like the characters do, make it subtle. Honestly, most ship'd cards just use ATK increases to symbolize synergy. That's really pathetic, and really unoriginal. Try making it subtle. If you do, it showcases creativity and originality, proving you're not some lazy-ass who's just promoting their favorite ship.

[spoiler=Bad]

 

[spoiler=Good]

 

Notice how plain and worthless the first two cards are. The second two support each other, too, but less blatantly. You can Special Summon Sonic with his own effect to inflict 500 damage, and when you draw, all your opponent gains is 100 LP. However, you can also use this effect with Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World, to do 400 damage, as well as getting a free monster, and one card (if using Sonic's effect).

 

Rule VIII.) Don't make Level 10 or higher monsters.

Okay, we get it. You're making a powerful monster. Still, there is no playable card in the world with 10 or more stars (with the exception of Obelisk the Tormentor), and all card makers must make playable cards. If the monster has a good Summon effect à la Cydra, or an easy one à la DAD, it's Lv5-9, guaranteed. There are no good Lv10+ monsters, so why try and break that rule?

Similarly, the ATK of your cards should never breach 3500.

[spoiler=Bad]

 

[spoiler=Good]

 

This one is kind of hard to tell, but good YCMers will know the difference.

 

Rule IX.) Don't use official art.

This one doesn't need much explaining. Using screenshots and official art for card pics only shows off that you're too lazy to find a good image. Under some circumstances (*cough*DarthVader*cough), it's necessary and therefore acceptable, but in most cases, it's a showcase of laziness. Of course, if the official art has a background, is clearly not a shot from in-game or in-movie, has a high resolution, and is vaguely square, go ahead, but otherwise... I doubt examples are needed here.

 

Rule X.) Learn to YGO before you learn to YCM.

When people look at your card, they expect to see one that they can run in their Decks. They want a card they can use, something at least a little splashable would be nice, maybe something limitworthy, banworthy on a good list like Gyzarus and friends... In other words, they want a good card. You can't go in thinking Blue-Eyes White Dragon is splashable and come out with a good card. You also have to know what's crossing the line; you don't want another Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End, even Konami knows the card is broken. So, yeah, learn the metagame before you start YCMing. You might even get brownie points for anti-meta. No examples, but I can recommend metagame.com (and not the VS section), and our TCG section (although I wouldn't post there if I were you).

[ElAlo 1237]

Great advice. Thanks for the info.

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

Je vous en prie. Glad to know I helped someone.

[╬「Selatcia」╬]

I've seen many fake types, especially in this thread. Hopefully, people reading this will help them get better.

 

(This should be Stickied if you ask me.)

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

XD @ first sentence. To fight n00bs, one must think like a n00b... I think. O,x

 

Glad you like the guide.

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

Bump

[Wyhe]

bravo for such an elaborate guide to Pop Culture Cards

Kudos to you.

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

Glad it's getting such a good reception. Added a new rule.

[Doom™]

Great guide. Hopefully some noobs will read it >.>

[yugiohrox]

this helped a lot! thanx :D

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

You're very welcome.

 

If anyone has suggestions for rules, I'm all ears.

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

Bump

[?someone?]

wow,good job!

[GHawk]

WOW!! man that is really going to help me. THANKS.

[Davok]

That is absolutely awesome. It will definitely help me when I boot up my old PC card making again. Thanks for the SSE reference, by the way. Fantastic guide.

[Guest Supreme Gamesmaster]

@someone: You're very welcome.

 

@GHawk: Glad to know I've helped someone.

 

@Davok: You're welcome. SSBE was too good to pass up, though.

[Einhander]

i agree with you luckly im cautious about these rules one problem is i cant keep up with original card effects

[Ultimate Ryan]

great guide (I think my kirby cards actually passed this even though they were made b4 I saw this!)

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

Bump.

[Larxene]

An excellent guide ^_^

Like DeMeNTeD said, I think this should be stickied

[Mahtar]

I don't agree with rule 2 (not any of the sub rules for this just rule 2).

 

Some charectors don't have a good effect to fit to them or it is hard to think of 1 that has not been used too exreme overuse, so a normal monster would fit well here. Also it is far easier to overpower cards with effects than normal monsters.

 

I've made normal cards before where i think they fit and i find they add more variety to your card sets. I can understand that it should probably be kept to a minimum for card sets tho but just to outright put No normal monsters is not right to me.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

The rest of the rules are good and i think this is a good thread for new and some older card makers.

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

Normal Monsters are not permissible IMO. It breaks the #1 rule of card making (Make the card playable), AND shows that you were too lazy to come up with an effect. Many have said that sometimes it's too hard to come up with an effect, but I have yet to see a single effect-less card subject.

[Mahtar]

Normal Monsters are not permissible IMO. It breaks the #1 rule of card making (Make the card playable)' date=' AND shows that you were too lazy to come up with an effect. Many have said that sometimes it's too hard to come up with an effect, but I have yet to see a single effect-less card subject.

[/quote']

 

I'm not sure what u mean by not permissible.

 

But making a normal monster is not necaseraly being lazy some monsters just seem to fit as a normal monster rather than effect or atleast thats how i see it. It seems pointless to me to make an effect for a monster just because people preffer effect monsters. If a card fits better as a normal monster then making an effect just makes it worse or atleast i think it does.

 

Also as iv stated before some effects that fit a certain card well have been vastly overused making the card effect seem very un-origonal (the person who used the effect may or may not have known this but it still makes it seem less origonal) so if a completly new effect can't be created by the person then it may fit to make a normal monster with supporting magic or trap cards insted of an effect.

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

Normal Monsters are not permissible IMO. It breaks the #1 rule of card making (Make the card playable)' date=' AND shows that you were too lazy to come up with an effect. Many have said that sometimes it's too hard to come up with an effect, but I have yet to see a single effect-less card subject.

[/quote']

 

I'm not sure what u mean by not permissible.

 

But making a normal monster is not necaseraly being lazy some monsters just seem to fit as a normal monster rather than effect or atleast thats how i see it. It seems pointless to me to make an effect for a monster just because people preffer effect monsters. If a card fits better as a normal monster then making an effect just makes it worse or atleast i think it does.

 

Also as iv stated before some effects that fit a certain card well have been vastly overused making the card effect seem very un-origonal (the person who used the effect may or may not have known this but it still makes it seem less origonal) so if a completly new effect can't be created by the person then it may fit to make a normal monster with supporting magic or trap cards insted of an effect.

 

As I've said before, I have yet to see a card subject that can't have an original effect. Give me one, and I'll revise my topic.

 

New rule added.

[K.B. strategist]

Just so you know there is a 6 star normal monster with higher attack than Summoned Skull. Frostosaurus, 2600 ATK. Anyway, really useful guide I am currently trying to think of a feasible type for a series of "Refraction" monsters I am creating.