[Archetype] 優婉な魔相会 [19/19 Complete]

[Cirrus]

Note that this is a direct transplant of a Duel Portal thread, since I'd like some feedback. As such it's probably not as good as what is in the vogue in the current TCG / OCG - but not too much worse either, I'd imagine.
 
[spoiler=Monsters][spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Elegant Magiciar, Cecilia
Level 4 - WIND - Spellcaster/Effect - 1700 ATK/700 DEF
If you control a face-up Spell Card and 1 or fewer monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). During the End Phase, if you activated 3 or more Spell Cards this turn: You can add 1 "Magiciar" monster from your Deck to your hand, except "Elegant Magiciar, Cecilia".

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Courageous Magiciar, Serena
Level 4 - FIRE - Spellcaster/Effect - 1900 ATK/1100 DEF
Each time a Spell Card is activated, gain 400 LP. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: You can pay 1000 LP; Special Summon 1 "Magiciar" monster with 1800 or less ATK from your Deck, but it cannot attack or activate its effects this turn.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Graceful Magiciar, Charlotte
Level 4 - WATER - Spellcaster/Effect - 1200 ATK/1400 DEF
If this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: You can add 1 "Magiciar" Spell Card from your Deck to your hand. If this card is sent from the hand or Deck to the Graveyard: You can place 1 "Magiciar" Spell Card from your Graveyard on top of your Deck.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Noble Magiciar, Thalia
Level 4 - LIGHT - Spellcaster/Effect - 1300 ATK/1000 DEF
During either player's turn: You can Tribute this card to target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; negate its effect(s) until the end of this turn, then Special Summon 1 "Light Token" (Level 4/LIGHT/Spellcaster-Type/1300 ATK/1000 DEF).

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Alluring Magiciar, Beatrice
Level 4 - DARK - Spellcaster/Effect - 1500 ATK/1700 DEF
When this card is Normal Summoned: You can send the top 3 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard, then this card gains 200 ATK for each Spell Card sent this way. When this card destroys a monster by battle: You can shuffle 1 Spell Card from your banished zone or Graveyard into your Deck, and if you do, draw 1 card.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Devoted Magiciar, Liane
Level 4 - EARTH - Spellcaster/Effect - 1400 ATK/2000 DEF
The first time each turn a Spellcaster-Type monster(s) on the field would be destroyed by a card effect, it is not destroyed. Your opponent cannot target face-up Spellcaster-Type monsters for attacks, except this one.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Mysterious Magiciar, Isadore
Level 4 - DARK - Spellcaster/Tuner/Effect - 1000 ATK/1800 DEF
If this card is Summoned or sent to the Graveyard: You can increase or decrease the count of Spells you've activated this turn by 1. (No Spell Cards are activated at this time.) You can only use the effect of "Mysterious Magiciar, Isadore" once per turn.[/spoiler][divider1]
[spoiler=Extra Deck][spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Splendid Magiciar, Arista
Level 8 - LIGHT - Spellcaster/Synchro/Effect - 2700 ATK/2400 DEF
1 Tuner monster + 1 or more Spellcaster-Type non-Tuner monsters
This card is unaffected by your opponent's Spell effects. You can banish 1 Spell Card from your Graveyard to target 1 Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls; destroy it. You can shuffle 1 of your banished Spell Cards into your Deck to target 1 monster on the field; return it to the hand. You can only use one effect of "Splendid Magiciar, Arista" per turn, and only once that turn.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Artful Magiciar, Pleione
Rank 4 - WATER - Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect - 2300 ATK/1800 DEF
2 Level 4 monsters
During your Main Phase 1: You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card; activate 1 of the following effects, based on the number of Spell Cards you activated this turn: • 1: Shuffle up to 3 Spell Cards from your Graveyard into your Deck, then draw 1 card. • 2: Negate the effect(s) of up to 2 face-up cards on the field, until the end of this turn. • 3+: Destroy 1 card your opponent controls.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Delusive Magiciar, Sofia
Rank 4 - DARK - Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect - 2600 ATK/2000 DEF
3 Level 4 Spellcaster-Type monsters
When this card is Xyz Summoned: You can excavate the top 5 cards of your Deck, then Set 1 excavated Spell Card into your Spell & Trap Card Zone, also place the rest on the bottom of your Deck in any order. You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; inflict 300 damage to your opponent, then you can increase or decrease the count of Spells you've activated this turn by 1. If this card is destroyed (by battle or by effect) and sent to the Graveyard: You can place 1 of your banished Spell Cards on top of your Deck.[/spoiler][divider1]
[spoiler=Spells][spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Magiciar Art - Mana Recycle
Normal Spell
Activate only if you have activated 1 or fewer Spell Cards this turn. Return 1 "Magiciar" card from your Graveyard to your hand, except for "Magiciar Art - Mana Recycle", and if you returned a Normal Spell Card this way, you can immediately activate it after this card resolves, ignoring timing and conditions.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Magiciar Art - Cleansing Blast
Normal Spell
Activate only if you have activated 1 or fewer Spell Cards this turn and you control a face-up Spellcaster-Type monster. Target 1 Set card your opponent controls; reveal that target, and if you do, you can banish 1 Spell Card from your Graveyard to destroy it.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Magiciar Art - Mystic Analysis
Normal Spell
Activate only if you have activated 1 or fewer Spell Cards this turn. Activate one of the following effects, based on the number of face-up Spellcaster-Type monsters you control:
• 0: Send 1 Spell Card from your hand to the Graveyard, and if you do, draw 1 card.
• 1+: Draw 1 card.
• 2+: Draw 2 cards, then send 1 card from your hand or that you control to the Graveyard.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Magiciar Art - Enigmatic Resurgence
Continuous Spell
Activate only if you have activated 1 or fewer Spell Cards this turn. When this card is activated: You can reveal 1 "Magiciar" card in your hand and banish 1 Spell Card in your Graveyard; Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Spellcaster-Type monster from your Graveyard. During your opponent's End Phase: You can discard 1 "Magiciar" Spell Card; return this card to the hand.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Magiciar Art - Arcane Storm
Normal Spell
Activate only if you have activated 2 or more Spell Cards this turn. Target up to 3 cards your opponent controls; send up to 2 Spellcaster-Type monsters from your hand or that you control to the Graveyard, and if you do, destroy a number of those targets equal to the number of monsters sent +1. Until the end of this turn, any card effects that activate in the Graveyard cannot be activated.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Magiciar Art - Radiant Purge
Normal Spell
Activate only if you have activated 2 or more Spell Cards this turn. Negate the effect(s) of 1 face-up card your opponent controls until the end of this turn, or if its effect(s) is already negated, banish it instead.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Magiciar Art - Delphic Command
Normal Spell
Activate only as your third Spell Card in a turn. Shuffle any number of Spell Cards from your Graveyard into your Deck, then you can choose and activate one of the following effects based on the number of cards shuffled:
• 3+: Add 1 "Magiciar" Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.
• 5+: Special Summon up to 2 Level 4 or lower Spellcaster-Type monsters from your Graveyard, but their effects are negated and they cannot attack.
• 7+: Activate any or all of the following of effects, then resolve in sequence: • Add 1 of your banished Spell Cards to your hand. • Return 1 Spellcaster-Type monster in your Graveyard to your hand. • Draw 1 card.

[spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Grancia, Court of the Magiciar
Field Spell
Once per turn, during your opponent's End Phase: You can excavate the top 2 cards of your Deck, then send any excavated Spell Cards to the Graveyard, also place the other cards on the top or bottom of your Deck in any order. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your Deck or Graveyard whose Level is less than or equal to the number of Spell Cards with different names in your Graveyard.[/spoiler][divider1]
[spoiler=Traps][spoiler=" "][/spoiler]Magiciar Meditation
Normal Trap
Discard your entire hand, then for each card you discarded to the Graveyard by this effect, add 1 "Magiciar" Spell Card from your Graveyard to your hand.[/spoiler][divider1]
You may access the entire collection of card images at the imgur album here (alt art for Cleansing Blast included). Spell-slinging archetype. Conceptual similarity to Prophecy/Spellbooks (in that the Spell Cards alone can serve as an engine for a Spellcaster deck) but you can't run them both because one will screw up the other. Decent synergy with Spells in general unlike Spellbooks - although it's not overt. Monsters are alright too I guess.

Pretty much done and ready for playtesting. I have a slew of potential changes should any be necessary.
 
For posterity:

[spoiler="Rulings & Clarifications"]Cecilia
This card does not have to have been face-up for the 3 activations of Spell Cards for its effect to activate. It looks at the number of Spells activated during the turn, as is usual for other cards worded as such (e.g. Justice).
 
Isadore
This card functions similarly to Pyro Clock of Destiny in that it only changes an abstract number.

Pleione
The mode selected upon activation is mandatory depending on the number of Spells activated this turn.

Sofia
Detach effect same as Isadore's; activated any number of times per turn.
 
Mana Recycle
The costs of the card activated as a result of this card must still be paid, and the activated card increments the number of Spells activated this turn as normal. Conditions ignored generally include # of spells activated this turn and requirement of controlling a face-up Spellcaster.
 
Cleansing Blast
The destruction is optional and thus it cannot be negated by cards that require a destruction to occur (e.g. Stardust Dragon).
 
Arcane Storm
Targeting occurs at activation but the player does not have to pay to destroy all targets - instead they may choose which targets to destroy after the "cost" is paid. However, a minimum of 1 card must be sent for Arcane Storm to destroy anything at all.
 
Radiant Purge
Intentionally does not target.
 
Grancia
Counts itself (... maybe it shouldn't?). Excavation is optional but sending excavated Spell Cards is mandatory. Has decent synergy but not absurdly so with Delphic Command's 7+ effect (since 7 cards are shuffled back at minimum).
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Changelog]03/24/2015
- Added archetype.
- Added changelog and rulings.

03/25/2015
- Added Pleione and Sofia because I had more art lying around.
 
03/26/2015
- Charlotte has had her effect revised to be no longer game-breakingly OP.

03/30/2015
- Reworked last effect of Delphic Command. This is probably a buff.
[/spoiler]

[Cirrus]

Bump because feedback.

[VCR_CAT]

*stretches fingers* Alright, let's do this. (Just kidding I'm not going to rip into this XD)

 

The maindeck monsters look fine, to be honest. Charlotte's effect seems a little strong for her stats (comparing her to another famous spell-searcher; Spellbook Prophecy of Blue Boy), but overall none of them are incredibly OP in the last bit, so that aspect seems fine.

Now for the Extra Deck. Pleione's 3+ effect is fairly underwhelming to her 2 effect, which I would personally say is much better. I would consider either switching those around, or giving a boost to Pleione's 3+ effect along with a slight nerf to her 2 effect (perhaps keeping it to negating 1 card?). Besides that, the rest look pretty alright.

 

For the spells. Arcane Storm's wording is a little off. Personally I think it would work better if it were worded like this:

Send up to 2 Spellcaster-Type monsters from your hand or your side of the field to the Graveyard, then target cards your opponent controls up to the number of monsters sent +1: destroy those targets.

 

Of course, I am by no means an expert on OCG, but this way sending the monsters is the cost of the card which helps balance its effect. Preventing card activation from the grave seems a little much for an already pretty good card effect. Whether or not you change that; I think that wording works a little better for the ruling and knowing how many cards are destroyed out of the cards targeted.

Radiant Purge's banish effect is way too good, especially considering how many negation effects this deck has access to. I would consider balancing this card a little better; at the very least change it to destruction instead of banishment. Especially when you consider that this card does not target, it suddenly becomes way better than most other effect-negation cards (Veiler, BTS, etc.) so I would consider rebalancing this card.

Delphic Command's effect is incredibly busted. Knowing how easy it is to search out spells, activate spells, and get them in your grave, that's just too much. You're wiping the playing field (SENDING, not DESTROYING, SENDING) and giving yourself an advantage in the top-deck game. This card essentially becomes Chaos Emperor Dragon in spell form, and not in a very good way. I would STRONGLY consider nerfing this effect considerably; if at the least changing it to destruction and restriction it to the field alone and leaving out the draw effect. Changing this into an Exciton over a CED is a lot more favorable. You should also consider its effect of shuffling spell cards back into the deck restricted to cards within it archetype; the generic shuffling will include cards like Spellbooks where filling your grave with 7 spell cards is incredibly easy, and it breaks this card to the point of prime ban-list material.

 

Court's effect I would consider changing to adding the spell-caster to your hand instead. Having its effect say that it is sent to the graveyard means that in these rulings, all you would need to do is place another field spell to gain virtually any Spellcaster that can be easily Special Summoned. If you want to keep this card at Special Summoning the monster, you really should change its effect to only happening when your opponent destroys it with a card effect. Either way, the wording needs to change to it being destroyed over it being sent, and adding the Spellcaster to your hand is a lot more balanced than Special Summoning it.
 

Considering how stupidly good it is to splash Spellbooks in this deck, I would overall consider making your stronger effects limited to your archetype-specific spells. But from what I can see, these are the most obvious things that need to be changed.

 

Finally, make sure you double-check the effects that you've stated rulings on. If you've found the need to specify rulings for them, there may be a problem in how the card's grammar is worded or in the effect itself; so I would consider looking back at those cards and double-checking.

[Cirrus]

Thank you for reading and reviewing my archetype! Let's address all of these points and see if we can work out some kind of understanding.

Pleione's 3+ effect is supposed to be mediocre (just "ok" - but I don't think it's bad). You have to take into account the number of Spells you play in a turn and when you want to drop / activate your Pleione, and this is why modality is mandatory instead of optional.

Arcane Storm might seem peculiarly worded, but it's worded as such to prevent the player from getting blown out by any or all of its targets being removed as well as to mandate sending at least 1 card. If it were worded per your suggestion, I am almost certain it can be played as a 141 - which is not the original intent. The last effect is simply to prevent Shaddolls from abusing the fact it sends cards from hand to Grave as an effect. I'll keep in mind rewording it though.

Re: Radiant Purge's commentary, I have but one thing to mention. It has the 2+ Spell requirement, which requires 2 or more Spells to be activated before it for it to be even usable. This is what is commonly known as a difficult restriction to bypass, and modally you need to do something to even trigger it in the first place! It's just an acceptable card. In the dream usage case it is great but it is basically terrible the rest of the time, so I wouldn't run / would only splash 1 and Mana Recycle it. Plus it's a Normal Spell! Why would I want to play a Normal Spell that situationally trades 141 even if it's one of the best cases of 141 removal? Wouldn't having a different card be better in most other cases?

Note that Delphic Command's 7+ effect will essentially pass the turn to your opponent, as the remainder of the development you do during your turn is useless. It also must be played as the 3rd Spell (and not the 4th or the 2nd or any other number) to be played at all (except when played with Mana Recycle I suppose). Yes, indeed it turns into a topdeck war with you having an edge - but your opponent has the temporal advantage as well as access to the resources in their Graveyard. You probably won't, given your deck composition. This card's first and second modes will be much more useful in practical play. If it killed only cards on the board, then it would probably actually be stronger - having an on-demand nuke is not a good thing. I'll do some consultation and keep this in mind also though, I s'pose.

Court's first effect is just "ok". Of course its second effect will be good. The hypothesis that it will get any Spellcaster easily Special Summoned is entirely untrue, however, since it looks to the number of unique Spell Cards in the Graveyard. Think about the last time you played a deck. How many unique Spell Cards did that deck have anyway? I'd wager not too many, and certainly not even usually 8. Usually this effect will just get a Level 4. It should also be noted that add to hand would be stronger with Delphic Command, hence the SS; otherwise you can just add Charlotte and go to town.

You can't splash Spellbooks. Think about how many cards a Spellbook engine takes and how many cards this engine takes, then think about what adding Spellbooks accomplishes; it's not bad but I don't actually think it adds any synergy or provides any benefit whatsoever. If you wanted to fill your Graveyard with Spell Cards, you can just play a set of Upstart Goblin and if you really wanted to, Toon Table of Contents as well (but I don't believe that it's a good play to even run Upstart).

Finally, most of the things in the Rulings section are Clarifications ... that's, eh, why it's called R&C instead of just R. I think the only card that would want (?) Rulings are Mana Recycle and /maybe/ Arcane Storm (the former is a little interesting and the latter is a little fuzzy.)

[Number IV]

This looks very, very cool. The overall synergy is excellent and I like the fact that it doesn't rely on one monster to make a win, or at the very least, it has other options. The art is excellent as well.

 

1) Arista: The return of a banished monster to return 1 to the hand doesn't seem to be much of a cost.

2) Have you thought about another Level 8 Synchro, as sort of an antithesis for Arista and something that offers more options.

[Cirrus]

Arista's second effect requires a banished Spell! So you'd need it to be banished from Cleansing Blast or, more commonly, just from using its first effect. If it were return a banished monster that'd be bad!

The original proposition didn't have Arista originally, because the Level 8 Synchro toolbox is already very good! I wasn't sure it warranted another option given you can just go into great picks like Jeweled Red Dragon Archfiend, Beelze, and Crimson Blader; and you can also just Xyz too. The "antithesis" to Arista is Sofia, but Pleione offers more options with the same board :v

Thank you for commenting.

[VCR_CAT]

Even with alleged difficulty of use, Command is still a Chaos Emperor Dragon and its 7+ effect is still way to busted; it completely breaks the game. Especially when there are monsters that increase the number of spells you used in a turn without activating a spell, I would still say nerf that effect. Sending ALL cards instead of destruction and including the hands is VERY unbalanced.

 

EDIT: I should also mention for Court, you've designed your deck to run a lot of unique spell cards while still remaining consistent. You also need to read your card effects not as how you intend them to be used, but how others may intend to abuse; and Court is easy to abuse because of it only needing to be sent to the grave and not depending on your opponent's effect.

[Cirrus]

Is Geartown broken just because you can play another Geartown over it? I wouldn't think so. Court is exactly the same thing. Court is easy to "abuse", but the maximum level of practical abuse is the intended function of the card. If you get 8+ differently-named Spells in the Graveyard, fine; summon your level 8 Spellcaster. But it takes a respectable amount of work to get there and it usually won't do that. (Alternatively I'd like to see a deck that abuses this to the fullest; what monster would it tutor? That'd be kind of cool.)

Command is CED, but when is a pure CED effect good? Consider that for a moment. Why would you want to play a CED effect even in an even game? Is it worth leaving stuff up to the luck of the draw? Was it worth having a dead card in your hand for several turns just to get to a losing gamestate in which CED would be useful? A lot of the power of old Chaos Emperor Dragon is inherent in the game-finishing power. This card doesn't have that. ... Why would it matter if there are monsters that increase/decrease number of Spells in a turn given that using those effects is on par with if not harder than just outright slinging Spells?

(However, I'm not sure if the CED effect is necessarily good speaking from a design perspective; not because of power level but because of its unpredictability and extraneousness. So as I said, I'll think about it.)

Take a look at a sample "going ham" build. (Note that Faith Guardian is a card similar to Black Salvo - it's a DP original. The list also follows the DP banlist.) Think about, say, splashing a high-level Spellcaster as well as the gamestate in which Court would be able to summon said high-level Spellcaster. Do you think it would be likely to happen? Also think about Delphic Command. How would it be used in the typical game?
 

19
1 Elegant Magiciar, Cecilia
3 Graceful Magiciar, Charlotte
3 Alluring Magiciar, Beatrice
1 Noble Magiciar, Thalia
1 Mysterious Magiciar, Isadore
3 Summoner Monk
3 Faith Guardian
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Chaos Sorcerer
2 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

20
3 Magiciar Art - Mystic Analysis
3 Magiciar Art - Mana Recycle
2 Magiciar Art - Cleansing Blast
1 Magiciar Art - Enigmatic Resurgence
1 Magiciar Art - Arcane Storm
2 Magiciar Art - Delphic Command
2 Grancia, Court of the Magiciar
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Heavy Storm
1 Book of Moon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Mind Control

1
1 Treacherous Trap Hole

[VCR_CAT]

The issue here is that not only is CED really good, he was good enough to banned for years until some major erratums were made that made the card kind of dumb to use. What your card does is it instantly simplifies the game down to the top-deck system, and because the cards are sent over destruction there are very few monsters that are actually immune to the effect or get to use beneficial effects. Comboing its effect with the fact it lets you draw 1 card and has no restrictions on whether you can summon/activate other effects on the turn you use that effect along with the field spell that triggers after being sent; not only are you reducing the game down to your opponent having virtually nothing, you're instantly placing yourself in the seat of power by having potentially two monsters on the field and a free battlephase. Regardless of how many generic spells you need in the grave regardless of what names the spells have; the effect is Way too powerful with no restrictions and completely tosses the game out the window regardless of what kind of position your opponent is. There are also very few cards that can stop or even protect against that effect since it says "Send" over "Destroy". Considering this card's effect, how many spells you run and how many effects cycle through them, and the monsters that can work how many spells you've activated in a turn and how it removes the gamestate and places you in the advantage; it's too abuse-able and practically a win-button. You either need to completely nerf that effect, or remove it entirely.

 

Another thing with your comparison; Gear Town WAS stupidly good for being able to replace for a free 3K beatstick from your deck. Of course, it's a lot more balanced now because the card specifies that it needs to be DESTROYED instead of SENT, and the ruling is now that Field Spells are SENT to the grave when they are replaced with a new one; not destroyed. By the way, in case you're wondering of what would be abused with its current effect especially with Command's effect, is Dark Magician of Chaos. ESPECIALLY considering how DMoC works and how he's probably coming back, it's just way too good. These two cards a big problem with the deck because they are way too easy to abuse and break the game; I STRONGLY recommend you change this card's effect to be restricted to destruction. If you wish to keep the Special Summoning effect, then restrict to being destroyed by your opponent's card like Grand Spellbook Tower. If you're keeping it to destroyed by your own effects as well, I would encourage to change its effect to searching over summoning.

Heck, say you sacked with your plays and used Command to wipe the gamestate; used Court to summon DMoC and drew into Summoner Monk or even used DMoC to get back a powerful card like Monster Reborn. Your opponent has nothing and you just gained two boss-level monsters that your opponent has no hope of beating over in the topdeck game you've forced them into. Command as a card does not encourage smart player-interaction and both Command and Court need serious balance revisions. And seriously keep in mind that you made Court essentially Spellbook Tower but better for summoning effect.

[Cirrus]

... Excuse me?

Spellbook Tower's primary effect is drawing 1 extra every turn. Court's primary effect is summoning something on death. Of course there's going to be a power disparity. You're comparing apples to oranges. Your opponent should remove Tower, but they do not need to do anything of the sort with Court, since it doesn't actually plus you at any point before it dies (it just sometimes mills Spells; average 1/turn, and the mill is mandatory regardless of how many/what Spells you reveal).

I'm pretty sure CED was banned because (1) it fueled Yata-Lock and (2) it actually won the game. Do you understand how much burn damage CED does just out of nowhere? It's instantaneous! The nerf hit this pretty hard by making the burn count your opponent's cards only as well as making it so you can't activate any other effects this turn, so it's just a 3k attack Chaos beater with finishing power. It's still easier to access for the majority of decks.

Geartown was never at any point "good". A deck with Geartown was pretty terrible most days of the week because free beaters, although nice, aren't very good because they're not really "free" (they cost you deck slots and consistency). Geartown is an okay card, but it's just in the realm of "ok". Court is a good card, so it's better than Geartown; and it can't get free 3k beaters most days of the week. If I wanted to tutor a free beater like DMoC and plus off it I would play Dark Renewal, which is far more reliable.

For your argument with DMoC to stand, Delphic Command must be activated, shuffle 7 back, and additionally I must have 6 other Spells with different names in my Graveyard (since Delphic Command counts as 1 and Court counts as 1). That is 15 Spell Cards in my deck having been played. Do you understand how unrealistic this scenario is? I thought about DMoC when I designed the card as well as the interaction between Court and Delphic Command. Even if you were to summon a Level 4 (which is much more realistic and practical), you would still need 9 other Spells in your Graveyard to pull it off.

Think about what this deck does for a second. You can't chain through your Spell Cards like it's Christmas. You can only activate 2 of the lower-level Spells per turn and 1 big Spell per turn. What does this mean for our intrepid player? It takes 2-3 turns if you're burning every resource you get to get so many Spells into your Graveyard, and that's if you're lucky (keep in mind also that multiple copies of Mystic Analysis and Mana Recycle, which are your best Spells, do not count towards Court's effect; and that Mana Recycle increments your Spell count counter by 2). More realistically, the top 20 cards of your Deck is only going to be half Spells in the extreme case. When you're durdling around trying to get Spells into your Graveyard, your opponent is actually doing something more productive with their time. And what's the payoff? A topdeck war with a slight advantage (since you only had 11 Spells, you get a Level 4)? Why even play this deck if you're going to do that?

[VCR_CAT]

The Grand Spellbook Tower's second effect:

"When this card in your possession is destroyed by your opponent's card and sent to your Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your hand or Deck whose Level is less than or equal to the number of "Spellbook" Spell Cards in your Graveyard."

 

Yes, these two cards are quite comparable since it's a very similar concept for its second effect. And besides with the difficulty of that ultra-lucky setup (also keep in mind that it sends cards from your hand too, so not all of those spells need to be in the graveyard when you activate Command), I would still shy heavily away from an effect of that magnitude, and I'm sure others would agree with me a lot. And the thing with Command is that however productive the things your opponent are doing with are time are completely irrelevant so long as A: they aren't killing you and B: they don't run anything that can negate generic spells (not many people do run anything that can do that). Because by the time you drop that command, whatever your opponent has on the field doesn't matter anymore if they can't stop it; you've turned the game entirely around to your advantage.

 

Geartown was exceptionally good in its time, though. There were actually quite a few decks that profited off of its combos involving Magical Hats and Harpies even. Now that the rulings have changed, though, its effectiveness has declined a lot; especially now that it's not sent to the grave when your opponent activates their own Field Spell.

 

I would also recommend you look up the plethora of combos that worked with CED, because the Yatalock and FTK weren't the only things that made that card stupidly busted. I've said quite a few times and I'll say it again: the ability to completely remove the gamestate regardless of where it's at and place yourself is in a position of advantage is way too good and not healthy for player interaction. At best, I would change its effect to destroying all cards on the field instead of wiping everything away. Even if it's one card, a one-card advantage is a huge place to be in during the top-deck game. Even looking at the example decklist you posted, there are a LOT of cards for a player to sack into with that one draw that would place you in a very advantageous position.

[Cirrus]

But so could the enemy. It's a diceroll.

I don't think it's way too good (on the contrary, I think it's pretty much never the actual right play except maybe 1/10 games). I don't think it's as uninteractive as you make it sound, either (there's huge shoot-yourself-in-the-foot potential against decks that can actually employ Graveyard resources). It cannot be interacted with against decks that cannot take advantage of the Graveyard, but that's rare. (And in fact, all the meta decks of today will destroy any attempt at resolving this card. ... except for Nekroz who will just kill you before you resolve it so that doesn't matter.) A 1-card advantage is not insurmountable in the topdeck game, but it is very good.

But it's a diceroll, which is why I don't like it a lot either. Every deck is going to have good topdecks though, you can't just say "oh there are a lot of cards in the decklist you posted that would be good topdecks". Obviously there would be. But there are also a lot of terrible topdecks. That argument is not convincing.

You can compare Spellbook Tower's second effect and this card's second effect, but you cannot compare their power level solely by comparing their second effects. Hence, apples to oranges. Why don't you try reading Tower's first effect? What does that effect do? Oh, right, it draws an extra card every turn. Great. I'd certainly love to have that effect. You certainly can have Spell Cards in your hand, but that does not change the number of cards in your Deck you need to get through before you can achieve such a setup. With the DMoC setup, you'd need to get through roughly 30 cards in your Deck.
 

A: they aren't killing you

And there's the problem. Your opponent isn't killing you for some extremely intelligent reason while you have no backrow and very few hand traps because your plan has been to mill through your deck instead just so you can reset the gamestate. Why? When would this happen? Why would your opponent -not- try to kill you? That makes no sense.

I stated the primary reason for CED's power. It is a combo all by itself. It kills people out of nowhere often with 3k+ damage. Delphic Command combos poorly outside of its own deck because of its hefty requirements.

(Also, Geartown was just decent. It was never "exceptionally good". It never managed to win anything and the only decks that ran it that also made top 32 were Machina Geartown and Gravekeeper Geartown; and those were very isolated instances. It was occasionally playable and that was about it.)

[VCR_CAT]

I'm pretty sure I made it explicit that I was only comparing the second effects, not the entirety of the cards themselves. If I didn't make that clear enough, though, I apologize for that. My point still stands as using it as an example, though. It's a way of minimizing the possibilities of it being abused while still making it a useful card; it makes your opponent think twice about getting rid of it when you need it (I use a similar trick with Malefection_Cloud).

Also if you think those were the only two decks to run Geartown, then you've never heard of/faced Malefic Geartown, and Harpies could tech it in as well believe it or not. It was sacky as all get-out and super annoying, but it worked.

 

Also, I'm currently wondering why you wouldn't just tech a few of the Magiciar Arts in a Spellbook deck, since they're generic enough that Spellbooks could probably make a much more effective use out of them.

 

And finally, the fact that it sends instead of destroys does make it very difficult to interact with. The decks that benefit off of a send effect are limited to Shaddolls, Tellarknights, and Burning Abyss. Anything that triggers upon destruction (Hands, Yang Zings, etc.) do not trigger off of being sent, and this kills a lot more decks than you think.

[Cirrus]

The Field Spell is not a card that your opponent should /want/ to get rid of. Its first effect is only acceptable (does nothing by itself but occasionally helps to set up plays), and its second effect is in fact its "main" effect. In order for them to see play, Field Spells should actively fuel something - see Gate of Dark World, Grand Spellbook Tower, and Dragon Ravine; and even lesser examples like Harpie's Hunting Ground and Scrap Factory. This Spell Card's purpose is to sit there being expendable until it's used up by something like Mystic Analysis, at which time you get an extra summon, as well as to increase the Spell count.

The reason you don't splash cards from this archetype in Spellbooks is because of deck space and compatibility. Think about what Spellbooks do. What would they play from this archetype? Mana Recycle, one of the best cards, doesn't do jack without a good repository of archetype Spells. Cleansing Blast is pretty good but not actually particularly better than MST since it cannot be activated later in a turn. The same is true with Mystic Analysis and Upstart Goblin: the 2+ effect is very good, but Spellbooks don't have an easy time maintaining or even acquiring 2 monsters onto the field simultaneously, and the same limitation applies. Arcane Storm is ineffectual because it requires a decently sized monster lineup, but would be pretty good otherwise. Resurgence is just a garbage version of Spellbook of Life if splashed. Radiant Purge is garbage period in Spellbooks (how would you negate their monsters in the first place?). Delphic Command is fine but you don't /want/ to be shuffling back all your Spells - how would you fuel Spellbook of Fate and Grand Spellbook Tower? And isn't the only useful mode the last one, which you don't want to be doing anyway in Prophecy?

So you can try, but it ends up being very awkward and doesn't add much of value. The reason for this is because the core principles of the Decks are too much in line with each other, and thus archetype support messes up any synergy (because you'd just play more cards from one archetype and the fewer cards from the other archetype, the less effective that splash ends up being.)

Yang Zing can make a Synchro that is unaffected by Spell effects, though. I /know/ it kills a lot of decks, but I am not obligated to make sure that it doesn't; only that there exist a reasonable number of good decks that do not get blown out by this card (and far from it). I cannot accommodate every case, and if the previous is true, then it's fine. The effect itself is not easy to interact with - but the aftermath? Not at all. Your opponent gets the first turn after the card is activated. Zombies, Plant Synchro, Infernity, whatever; a decent number of decks can recover from this relatively easily, while the deck that plays this cannot. And even if it kills a lot of decks - it's still a diceroll! That's never addressed.

I know Malefic Geartown is a deck, but that wasn't very good and the only "Malefic Geartown" build that topped that I could see would be more aptly titled Machina Geartown, as the Machina engine provided stability for the deck. (I mentioned Machina Geartown, as you can see... it ran 3 Malefic Cyber End.) The decktype existed, but is only "good" in the same way that pure Ghostrick is "good". I am aware that Harpies can tech it, but I refer only to good decks. Once again, I have no obligation to design with all of casual play in mind; this is the Advanced section.

EDIT: I should note that Delphic Command's last effect -is- being changed and it's a placeholder for now, but it's not broken in its current incarnation either (and that's not the main reason it's being changed).

[Cirrus]

The last effect of Delphic Command has been reworked. This is probably a sizable buff. The card is now pretty good in Spellbooks instead of being trash-tier (but I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually break the deck or is what Spellbooks need).

Playtesting is in order.

[VCR_CAT]

A lot better than the previous effect; essentially becomes a +2 which is pretty big! Also maybe rethink the field spell a bit then? If its main use is really just to get the summon effect, I'm sure it could be changed around to make use of that effect in a more efficient manner; but who knows, you're probably okay with it this way. I'd still probably put a DMoC in the deck at 1 in my own build partially because he's back and partially because he works so well with the design. Also don't underestimate Spellbooks; getting 2 Spellcasters on the field is, indeed, a possibility! I mean besides that, you could also go on the reverse and tech some Spellbook support in this archetype; mainly Spellbook of Power and Wisdom since Power gives that nice ATK boost and then can let you search out Wisdom for protection. There is, at least, space for them considering the decklist you posted has quite a few cards that are banned in the TCG.

Anyways, there's not much else to say now that the deck's all shaped up. Also, you sure you don't want to take my version of Arcane Storm's wording? I looked over your suggestions, and the wording can be changed to "Send either 1 or 2 Spellcaster Monsters" if the above wording doesn't suffice, or a (min. 1) clause of sorts. At the moment it looks like sending the monsters is mandatory, but there could be something about the wording I don't know about.

[Cirrus]

I would play the DMoC in a more controllish build. It's very risky running it with the "going ham" build I posted because you almost never want to draw into it, and DMoC is a lot more reliable with copies of Dark Renewal to back it up as well. I would also probably not run any of the Spellbooks! Except Wisdom, which is alright; but I might as well run Lance instead, right. The power cards provide the function of being singletons (and thus different names for Court), so I would probably not run a mini-suite just for the pump + fetch, which seems almost too cute to work :p there are other good cards to run @ 1, like Book of Eclipse for example.

I feel that the Field Spell is okay as it currently is. It's not intended to proc the summon every time but only "sometimes" / "when you can pull it off"; and is, as I said, the only card in the deck that has no requirements on the number of Spells you activate that turn. It also filters draws a little, and is overall a fine card :)

I will think about rewording Arcane Storm. I'm still not convinced it needs rewording given it's pretty clear what it's supposed to do ... mostly! The only fuzzy thing is calling targets, which is mildly fuzzy for the interpreter but not for the designer. The reason it may seem worded somewhat strangely is because I want it to be a strict trade, resource for resource, no abuse from either side (at least for that turn). Your version of the wording is prone to getting blown out, say, by MST or some such - and mine isn't because you choose how many targets to destroy at resolution, so even if 1 is chained it will still resolve as appropriate (although if 2 out of the 3 targets are chained, you will either have to -1 or have it fizzle).