Knights of the Heavens (8/8)

[towitori]

Hi, this is Tori

So I decided to make some Pendulums after learning TCGeditor's existence

Pics taken from Pinterest

 

Knights of the Heavens (KOTH, for short) are based from the Seven Archangels.

They're all Pendulum Monsters. :O

Well, umm, that's all I can say. Let's just check out the cards shall we? ._.

 

[spoiler=Raphael, Knights of the Heavens]

[spoiler=Image]

 

PE: Once per turn, if you have another card in your other Pendulum Zone, while you control a face-up Fairy-type Pendulum Monster: You can discard 1 card; destroy the card in your other Pendulum Zone, then place the Pendulum Monster in your other Pendulum Zone.

ME: When this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Fairy-type monster with a different Attribute in your Graveyard, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; that target's effects are negated and it cannot attack.  You can only use the effect of "Raphael, Knight of the Heavens" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Uriel, Knights of the Heavens]

[spoiler=Image]

 

PE: Once per turn, if you have another card in your other Pendulum Zone, while you control a face-up Fairy-type Pendulum Monster: You can discard 1 card; destroy the card in your other Pendulum Zone, then place the Pendulum Monster in your other Pendulum Zone.

ME: When this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Fairy-type monster with a different Attribute in your Graveyard, then target up to 2 cards on the field; return those cards to the hand. You can only use the effect of "Uriel, Knight of the Heavens" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Gabriel, Knights of the Heavens]

[spoiler=Image]

 

PE: Once per turn, if you have another card in your other Pendulum Zone, while you control a face-up Fairy-type Pendulum Monster: You can discard 1 card; destroy the card in your other Pendulum Zone, then place the Pendulum Monster in your other Pendulum Zone.

ME: When this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Fairy-type monster with a different Attribute in your Graveyard; destroy all monsters your opponent controls whose DEF are lower than this card's ATK.  You can only use the effect of "Gabriel, Knight of the Heavens" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Michael, Knights of the Heavens]

[spoiler=Image]

 

PE: Once per turn, if you have another card in your other Pendulum Zone, while you control a face-up Fairy-type Pendulum Monster: You can discard 1 card; destroy the card in your other Pendulum Zone, then place the Pendulum Monster in your other Pendulum Zone.

ME: When this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Fairy-type monster with a different Attribute in your Graveyard; Inflict 1200 damage to your opponent, then gain 1200 Life Points. You can only use the effect of "Michael, Knight of the Heavens" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Sariel, Knights of the Heavens]

[spoiler=Image]

 

PE: Once per turn, if you have another card in your other Pendulum Zone, while you control a face-up Fairy-type Pendulum Monster: You can discard 1 card; destroy the card in your other Pendulum Zone, then place the Pendulum Monster in your other Pendulum Zone.

ME: When this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Fairy-type monster with a different Attribute in your Graveyard; Banish the top 3 cards of your opponent's Deck, face-down, then this card gains 100 ATK for each of those cards. You can only use the effect of "Sariel, Knight of the Heavens" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Ramiel, Knights of the Heavens]

[spoiler=Image]

 

PE: Once per turn, if you have another card in your other Pendulum Zone, while you control a face-up Fairy-type Pendulum Monster: You can discard 1 card; destroy the card in your other Pendulum Zone, then place the Pendulum Monster in your other Pendulum Zone.

ME: When this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Fairy-type monster with a different Attribute in your Graveyard; send the top 2 cards of your Deck to the Graveyard, then draw 1 card. You can only use the effect of "Ramiel, Knight of the Heavens" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Raguel, Knights of the Heavens]

[spoiler=Image]

 

PE: Once per turn, if you have another card in your other Pendulum Zone, while you control a face-up Fairy-type Pendulum Monster: You can discard 1 card; destroy the card in your other Pendulum Zone, then place the Pendulum Monster in your other Pendulum Zone.

ME: When this card is Special Summoned: You can banish 1 Fairy-type monster with a different Attribute in your Graveyard; Add 1 of your banished monsters to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Raguel, Knight of the Heavens" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Castle of the Heavens]

[spoiler=Image]

 

Effect: All monsters in your possession become Fairy-type monsters. Once per turn: You can send 1 Fairy-type monster face-up in your Extra Deck to the Graveyard; Add 1 monster with a 2400 ATK and 1000 DEF from your Deck.

 

 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Considering their stats, these can also make use of Return of the Monarchs for searching out more of them. That is, if you even want to Tribute Summon these, but it's something to keep in mind, even though the bulk of new Monarch supports do lock off your ED usage (which Pendulums rely on quite a bit, especially when re-summoning). 

 

But otherwise, the Pendulum effects are pretty much the same for everything (and more/less a more restrictive version of Igknights/Metalphosis when they clear their boards). One of my general concerns with the cards is their lack of OPT and possible abuse especially when summoned en masse, but let's see if they are problematic as I think they are.

 

----

Raphael is pretty much a Fiendish Chain on a 24/10 body that can recur/repeat if you have enough materials; can't really say much about it. Fiendish is a good card in its own right, despite the existence of non-targetable threats that can't be stopped with this. 

 

Uriel is basically mass bouncing upon summoning; it is fun to bounce the opponent's backrow and ED stuff so there's that. At least it's flexible, but to be honest, for 1 card bouncing, I'd probably prefer to just Castel the thing into the Deck. Least this one hits face-downs too. 

 

Gabriel wipes anything less than 2400 ATK on the opponent's end. I suppose this is good enough for wiping out smaller/weaker boards, but a few of the common bosses exceed the threshold and/or otherwise float into things if they get blown up. In the long run, it doesn't seem as effective with that in mind. 

 

Michael is heavy burn and LP restoration. This one, I admit, gives me some worry given the burn amount (and LP boosting) here for a simple banish, despite needing to banish another Fairy with different Attributes to do so. 

 

----

As things stand at the moment, only Fairy Pendulum that exists right now is Ariadne (there's also that Ppal, but not considering it until release + likely Archetypal). I suppose you can discard excess copies of these guys to trigger effects (and really, that's probably the only way you're doing this). Maybe if you release more members, we'll get a better idea of how these are intended to function. (You need LIGHT/DARK ones now, but be careful about those)

 

So for now, I guess these cards aren't going to do too much in the early game (unless you set the Graveyard up enough to do things + discard excess copies). I honestly can't think of a Fairy deck (metagame or not) that can put these to good use without screwing consistency. Not saying that they can't trigger their effects with the support you gave them now, but with that in mind, can't see them working out too well at present. (Though, one could run general Pendulum support to fill in the blanks for P-Summoning these). I would suggest a hard OPT on these guys, but even if you do SS multiples, it'll do you little good other than giving you a 2400 ATK vanilla if you lack banish fodder)

[Althemia]

The mechanic of these guys is cute, but I feel like it needs more support if it's ever going to be playable.

 

Raphael is far too weak for what he is. The entire "effects are negated and cannot attack" on a targeting ability just seems far too weak considering that Raphael has to stay on the field. That means you can't really go for any R6 plays with Raphael and have that monster stick down afterward. This is especially the case when you consider that just sticking down a non-ED/Pendulum monster will probably do nothing a lot of the time. Honestly I don't really see any problem with making it a permanent "effect negated and cannot attack" because right now the field restriction is making it so that Raphael is incredibly niche at best.

 

Uriel is without a shadow of a doubt the best one. Being able to spin any 2 cards on the board back to hand opens up a lot of versatility plays, since it even lets you put your own things back to rearrange your scales or potentially abuse Continuous Spells/Traps if you want to go down that road in terms of support. It also clears boards that are weak to targetting in whatever way you seem fit. Just generally good card, probably the only really good one in the archetype so far.

 

Gabriel is good again since it opens up boards for the ability to go for game when a bunch of weenies block the way, but I guess the deck never really had a problem with lower statted monsters to begin with? In a deck that focuses on pumping out a bunch of bigger guys, I'd honestly be more inclined to say that the more threatening thing is their big guys and not necesarily a bunch of smaller ones. Especially since, if they have the smaller guys out to begin with, chances are they're just going to Synch/Xyz and then you aren't going to get the opportunity to stop them anyway.

 

Michael is just about as niche as Raphael, burning and healing is cool and all but it's not overly practical unless you're going to be able to do it multiple times which might seem a bit hard for a deck like this to do. I guess the burn is just really not as worth it as a lot of other effects and making the burn any better instead makes him a problem card... I guess I'm just not really a fan of burn cards. s:

 

Biggest problems with the archetype so far are the following: All of the bosses compete for resources too much and there really isn't a good way to start getting Fairies in the Graveyard without minusing yourself in terms of advantage a lot. This is going to make playing the deck feel very vanilla if you're not going to be able to use their effects a lot. It could also probably do with Raphael and Michael receiving a bit of a rework because right now they are not worth using for their effects. It's a neat concept though.

[cHo ViiRuuS]

Hey how did you create Pendulum Monsters ? and btw I wanna post some cards but I don't know how to add images to posts, help me out!
 And come on man, do Monarchs really need a buff ? :p
 

[towitori]

Added the rest of the Archangels. Made changes to some effects and added hard OPT on their monster effects. Added a Spell Field as well. That should finish this archetype. :D

 

Hey how did you create Pendulum Monsters ? and btw I wanna post some cards but I don't know how to add images to posts, help me out!
 And come on man, do Monarchs really need a buff ? :p
 

TCGEditor for the Pendulums. To add images, type [ img] image link [/img] You have to upload it to imgur first though.

[cHo ViiRuuS]

 

TCGEditor for the Pendulums. To add images, type [ img] image link [/img] You have to upload it to imgur first though.

Thnx for your help, but when I open TCGEditor it crashed and gives me a "Invalid Opeation in GDI+ (code4)" any ideas why ??  Nvm Problem solved but i can't find a Pendulum template in it, do I have to download it ?

 

I can' tbelieve how idiotic i was, Thnx a lot !

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Thnx for your help, but when I open TCGEditor it crashed and gives me a "Invalid Opeation in GDI+ (code4)" any ideas why ??

Ask this question on the TCGEditor site.

 

Though, with that in mind, what are your thoughts on the cards (besides them being eligible for Return of the Monarchs searching)?

[Major's Shadow]

Seems this archetype already got some attention while I was away, but a promise is a promise. Here we go~

 

Also, flavor-wise, not sure if any real archetypes would use "Heaven", just because it references religion and stuff. Also, shouldn't it not be plural? Probably doesn't matter tho.

Monsters (7/7):

Raphael, Knight of the Heaven: Oh, the image has "Knight", while the spoiler has "Knights". OCD initiate! Enough flavor tho, let's talk about mechanic. I can't see this have any practical implications, unless the rest of the archetype somehow directly supports dumping Fairy-Type monsters from the Deck, or benefits from being placed in the scales by the Pendulum effect. To get the full value out of a Pendulum Summoning, it seems you need a lot more Fairy-Type monsters in the grave, which isn't practical considering their current speed, unless the aforementioned effects are implemented. It has some synergy w/ Fairy-Type support cards (like Valhalla and Miraculous Descent), but the benefits provided by its Summoning effect don't seem to warrant running these cards (unless it's already a pure Fairy-Type Deck, but even then you'd probably want to keep those in-grave). Has some synergy w/ Monarchs and their stat requirements, but nothing else really. I'll have to see the rest of the cards to get an idea where you're going with this.

Uriel, Knight of the Heavens: Yeah, still don't see it. This effect seems substantially better than Raphael's, but has the same problems. Lacks consistency and power for the requirements in order to properly activate its effect. Starting to head in a better direction though.

Gabriel, Knight of the Heavens: Same idea applies here. However, a full board nuke is pretty nice, but destroying monsters w/ lower ATK & DEF doesn't help the archetype get around larger-stat minions inherently. Destroying lower ATK & DEF, while fits with the flavor, doesn't provide as much direct benefit to the archetype.

Michael, Knight of the Heavens: You have to be very careful w/ burn effects, especially ones that are fairly easy to re-use (you can essentially stall games w/ this guy, and burn 1200 for each successful Pendulum Summon). The mechanics of Pendulum Summoning already reward you w/ strong late game potential, so in conjunction w/ burn and heal, that gets out of hand very quickly. Not to say this effect is game-breaking, but you're certainly stepping around land mines w/ this one. Feelings are still the same about the archetype.

Sariel, Knight of the Heavens: Not too sure on the 9 Scale, since its also a generic. Higher scales are incredibly powerful, but doesn't really offer further synergy w/ the archetype. At least you have a 2700 ATK monster in the archetype, but that still doesn't do well getting over a good deal of powerful monsters already in the game. Its sub-par in stats. I'd say the warning signs are similar to Michael, but this at least requires 10+ Summons to actually cause a game loss condition, while Michael can take 6+ w/ a little battle damage under normal circumstances, so I'd say its fine.

Ramiel, Knight of the Heavens: Ha ha! Actual support that benefits the rest of the archetype's mechanics, while generating advantage! I'd say that sending and banishing should be part of cost, just so you can trigger the other Knights in the same chain if you run out of targets, but that's minor. Giving the deck a direct way to generate hand and Grave advantage is fantastic! It's probably too slow as-is, but its definitely the ace card the rest of the archetype needed.

Raguel, Knight of the Heavens: Yeah, another good addition. Adding a banished monster supports not only the other Knights, but any Fairy-Type or other form of banishing mechanic splashed into this Deck. Its a LIGHT attribute, which is the most easily countered, so that makes sense. Ramiel and this card are both fantastic pieces to this set, and I'm surprised they weren't the first pieces introduced!

 

Spell Card (1/1):

Castle of the Heavens: Yeah, let's not have a Terraforming target that adds Majesty's Fiend or other Monarchs, please and thank you. The search effect is too generic, but I can see where you're coming from on this. Giving the archetype an easily searchable +1 each turn helps give it consistent advantage, but keeps the advantage generated from it very linear. Also, it only modifies cards in your possession (AKA: on your side of the field, you control), so it doesn't modify the Graveyard (not sure if that's what you were going for or not). At first glance, I thought it sent from Deck as cost, but being from Extra Deck is still okay for the archetype.

 

Overall: The final 3 cards (which were not originally included) are actually the best possible support this kind of archetype could offer. I like the mechanics of providing a semi-generic Pendulum archetype that generates advantage and power plays from manipulating the Graveyard, but the way it was done in its early incarnations didn't assure you had recovery plays if your Pendulum Summoning fell through. At the very least, the new support creates a semi-engine to recycle resources. Still not a fan of introducing higher scales for the newer cards, since its easier to abuse w/ non-archetype cards and doesn't provide any direct benefits to the archetype. Most of the cards are fairly mediocre for early game, and there isn't enough reliable ways to get cards in the graveyard to actually use their effects. Still, with all this said, there's a ton of potential to be had here! I'd say, if you're not willing to add more monsters to the archetype (from a thematic standpoint), then just tweak the effects to make activating their summoning effects more reliable. It's on the right track, but I'm not sure as a stand-alone archetype (or even used alongside Fairy-Type monsters) it's fast enough to function well. Looking forward to any and all future changes made to this archetype!

 

~YugsterMajor

 

[towitori]

As I have stated during the CC Monthly:

 

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Possess

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Control

are different.

[cHo ViiRuuS]

Ask this question on the TCGEditor site.

 

Though, with that in mind, what are your thoughts on the cards (besides them being eligible for Return of the Monarchs searching)?

Honestly I don't appreciate Monarchs getting more support and I think their Pendulum effects are too constly