[Leaderboard] BatMed vs XOXO [CARDS ARE UP]

[BatMed]

Rules:

• All Leaderboard rules apply.
• First to 3 votes or most votes by deadline wins.
• All voters must elaborate on their votes or else the vote will be rejected.
• Both contestants have the right to refuse votes, but must explain why they don't accept it.
• Cards must be PM'd to me.
• Both participants must approve both cards to help prevent functional and grammatical errors.
• I will remake both cards in the same template to help ensure anonymity.
• In case a downtime or an emergency happens, the deadlines may be extended.

Deadlines:

• The deadline for cards is 2 days after challenge has been accepted.
• The deadline for votes is 3 days after cards have been posted.
• In case of a challenger failing to meet the above deadline without explanation, the challenger slot will open up again, at which point it becomes first-come-first-serve between the previous challenger's and new submissions.

Rewards:

• The winner gets a rep from the loser.
• All voters get a rep for voting.

Requirements:

• Link Monster designed to un-nerf Pendulums.

 

[spoiler=Card A]

Dual-Linked Pendent 

LIGHT

L 2

NE | NW

Fairy | Link | Effect

0 ATK

2 Pendulum Monsters

While you control this card, your opponent takes all Battle Damage you would take involving Link Monsters. If this card is destroyed by battle or by card effect, you can place this card in an unoccupied Spell / Trap Zone as a continuous Spell Card with this effect: All monsters you control at the Link Points on this card gain 800 ATK for each Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck.

 

 

 

[spoiler=Card B]

Pendules Enchaînés

EARTH

L 2

RIGHT | LEFT

Warrior | Link | Effect

1000 ATK

2 Pendulum Monsters

While you control a face-up Pendulum Monster; this card cannot be targeted for attacks. If this card is Special Summoned: You can add up to 2 face-up Pendulum monsters from your Extra Deck to your hand. You can target 1 face-up Pendulum monster you control or 1 card in your Pendulum Zone; shuffle that target into the Deck, and if you do, Special Summon this card from the Graveyard. You can only use each effect of "Pendules Enchaînés" once per turn.

 

 

[Dova]

Is that a challenger's choice? Because if so, Thunder-Type Xyz monster.

[BatMed]

Is that a challenger's choice? Because if so, Thunder-Type Xyz monster.

Something else please

[Dova]

Er...a spell that has an effect that destroys only spells in some form?

[BatMed]

Er...a spell that has an effect that destroys only spells in some form?

I know it will sound rude, but nay

How about we just make another Extra Deck staple. Link Format

[Arimetal]

Picky much?

 

Link Monster designed to un-nerf Pendulums.

[BatMed]

Picky much?

Link Monster designed to un-nerf Pendulums.

yes please

[BatMed]

Cards are up

[BatMed]

bump

[BatMed]

Bump

[BatMed]

Bump

[Arimetal]

Eh, I can bump this too right?

[Yuuji Kazami]

Okay, so I spent a good part of an hour trying to figure out combos that would work with these cards, and reviewed the whole Link Summon Mechanic in general. Confirm for me these 2 parts if I got them right:

 

1. Extra Deck Pendulum Monsters can only be PSed to the Extra zone and any link zones on your side of the field. 

2. The arrows pointing from the cards count as Linked Zones, and if it points to your opponent's side of the field they have extra space for Extra Deck monsters.

 

Moving on, let's start with Card A. From my current knowledge, no Pendulum specific Link Monsters have been made yet. So if you PS this card into the extra zone you give your opponent more fire to play with for free. The all damage to your opponent involving Links is pretty nice, and if it dies is when it really starts to... Shine by sucking up 1/3 of your remaining S/T zones? It would give you 2 links on your normal monster zones (I think, unless I'm wrong here), and gives an 800 boost per Pendulum Monster in your ED. Very slow to get out first, but once it does start to run it becomes kinda useful. I don't like how it helps your opponent when you initially Summon it with 2 cards already, but when it dies it would start helping you somewhat well, I guess. I think the most efficient way for it to become useful is to suicide it on an opponent's monster. 

 

Card B is... Also slow in a way. Nothing fancy in the first turn like Card A, but it doesn't hurt you as bad for you to Summon it since you'd technically get your materials back. Some synergy is also seen when it can bring itself back, but both effects are limited with a hard OPT for good reason. I don't see it doing much in any ways when you have it in the Extra Zone, but supposedly if you manage to get it into a monster card zone (Looks like second effect comes in here), it'll really start to get things running. Not by much, but 3 slots for Pendulums from the Extra Deck is a lot better than just 1. 

 

Used Igknights as the testing Pendulum Deck for 3 copies of both cards. A performed a lot better T2 than T1, but acted as an okay wall at the cost of its materials for T1. T2 I can only see it as a suicide bomber that forces your opponent to spend resources to remove it or they'd take some damage. At 3 copies, it took up all of the S/T space, so I assumed that it would be played in a Deck with little to no defensive traps, but you'd get your full PS zone as well as the power boost.

 

B did mediocre Tier 1. You'd get your materials back, have a 1000 ATK that was probably going to die even if you had another Pendulum on the field as a wall. However, after it dies/used as material for another Link Summon it becomes a really useful recycler. Magicians seem to benefit the most out of this effect, but the cost of shuffling one of the Pendulums in your zone/on the field feels like it costs a little too much. The hard OPT could've been altered with the cost in some way to make it slightly less niche imo. T2 I still found it rather mediocre as there was no plays for you to fully benefit off this card. It struggled to work with Igknights, because I couldn't find a way for it to be sent to the Graveyard as material other than to suicide bomb with it as well.

 

In terms of Pendulum Decks, they are expected to be much more aggressive with little to no traps as they focus on swarming. A does that, but it could screw you over the first turn if you play it then. T2 it becomes a lot more viable, and could cause some hard decisions to be made for your opponent. 

 

B is mediocre early in the game, and the only hard decision involving it would be for your opponent to send it to the Graveyard. Mid-late game is when it would start to shine a lot with the combos it can perform.

 

Hard choice, but to help set up early in the game is what benefits the theme of this 1v1. Although Turn 1 would be a disaster, I can see the potential Card A has T2 and so on. Compared with Card B, which is way too mediocre until some other set-ups are completed, it feels a lot more viable in the new meta for Pendulums.

 

Have to go with A here just by a bit, unless I got the part about it giving link zones while as a S/T wrong. Both require suicide bombing since they have no synergy with any existing Pendulum Decks for them to resolve their secondary effects efficiently. If B had something like: "destroy 1 Pendulum Monster or 1 card in your Pendulum Zone" instead, I'd have voted for it. 

 

So yeah, voting for A. 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Yeah, the two points you mentioned are correct: Anything getting summoned from the ED must be placed in the EMZ or a linked zone, and monster zones that Link Markers point to are treated as linked zones (though TCG decided to write that as "zones this card points to" for the time being). 

 

====

But I'll go ahead and vote. 

 

Card A

 

To be fair, this feels more like a solely first turn card in Pendulums (taking into consideration the nerfs). Sure, the opponent will get burned if they battle a Link Monster, but looking at the existing pool (SD32 / CIBR additions included), only things this will work with are probably Decode/Firewall or whatever's in your EMZ that links to this.

 

Last time I checked, wasn't any rulings about whether or not a Link Monster set in the S/T zone will continue to use its Link Markers (but let's assume that it can work). If this ruling does hold, then it will open Pendulum's options a bit more, but yeah. (Is also dependent on if you can ladder enough face-up Pendulums to make the stat boost worth it). If you cannot place a Link Monster into the S/T zone, then this only affects whatever EMZ you can open first (as the "necklace" method to take both isn't really possible right now).

 

Card B

 

It at least adds Pendulums from your ED to hand, so they can be summoned without being forced into the EMZ. Revival effect is kinda meh; granted, it does make your ED Pendulums less dead and opens 2 more zones you can Pendulum Summon to, but that's about all it can do. The "cannot target card for attack" clause is fine and all, but nothing special in the long run.

 

======

Master Rule 4 didn't mention anything about Link Monsters being usable as S/T cards with their Link Markers applying there, likely due to no cards that would enable this. For the time being, let's assume that it is possible (as I do not foresee Konami to release cards that would enable this to happen nor a ruling for a while).

======

 

EDIT: Looking over the info on Wikia, it says that the Link Markers only apply if it's in a Monster Zone; not if it becomes a Spell/Trap Card. So yeah, A doesn't work like the creator intended. It sucks, yes, but unless Konami rules otherwise, yeah.

 

Vote changed to B. At least the card can actually function properly, and reviving/recycling ED Pendulums does have its uses. A still works, but with the new ruling, it's a lot worse.

[Yuuji Kazami]

Then yeah, if it doesn't actually give link markers in the S/T zone, I'll change my vote to B for not being a completely dead card that helps your opponent. I'm fairly sure its reasonable enough to be win in this circumstance, even if it's way too slow in the earlier turns of the game.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I think we would all appreciate it if Konami gave a definitive ruling on it (as mentioned, there was a ruling about its status as an Equip Card; the markers won't trigger, however nothing for if it's just a regular Spell/Trap Card unless I didn't read through all of the new rulings and missed that particular one).

 

A technically still works, but isn't as effective with the new ruling and will require that you revive it later and have it linked to whatever lone Pendulum you chose to SS into the EMZ. But yeah, vote changed after further reviewing the ruling and how it affects both entries.

[BatMed]

2-0 for card B

[BatMed]

well since it's been more than 2 weeks I guess it's time to close this?

 

Card B wins 2-0

 

yay me