[AGM] Zula - Who said Yu-gi-oh can't be educational? [11/11]

[Tojin]

A set of EARTH Warriors that are all lower-leveled, with no ATK higher than 1500 in the whole archetype, but with great swarm abilities and bonuses against monsters with higher levels than them. Said bonuses get better the lower the monster's level is, making their only Level 1 monster, Zula King - Shaka the Magnificent, the de facto boss of the archetype. To round out the archetype, they have a trio of Continuous Spells that increase their ATK and afford varying other bonuses, like battle protection or piercing, based on their battle formations, and a Field Spell that affords a decent ATK boost and the ability to raise the level of an opponent's monster by an amount equal to the number of "Zula" monsters you control. With all of this, you'd think they'd be rather OP, but since the archetype only has a few monsters, the Zula either go big or get wrecked. They have no Extra Deck monsters.

 

Considering that my last set was 30 cards all told, I think this'll be a nice change. History and anthropology are my thing (so much so that I'm majoring in the second one), so making an archetype based on the Zulus, an African tribe famous for kicking the s*** out of the British on a few occasions, is something I'm surprised that I haven't done sooner. And, since I greatly enjoy playing some Civilization, I had to make their boss good ol' Shaka. The other members are named after notable Zulu people.

 

I'm slightly concerned that the ATK boosts could get a little out of hand, but since they have a total of 2 protection cards, it should be fine.

 

[spoiler=Monsters (7)]

Zula Chief - Bhambatha

Level 4

EARTH

Warrior/Effect

1200/900

If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is Summoned by the effect of a “Zula” monster, you can add 1 “Zula” card from your Deck to your hand, except "Zula Chief - Bhambatha". You can only activate this effect of “Zula Chief - Bhambatha” once per turn. When this card battles an opponent’s monster with a higher Level than this card, it gains ATK equal to the difference in Levels x300 until the End Phase.

Zula Mentor - Dingiswayo

Level 4

EARTH

Warrior/Effect

1000/500

When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 “Zula” monster from your hand or Graveyard. Face-up “Zula” monsters you control gain 500 ATK. Once per turn, you can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls and 1 face-up “Zula” monster you control: halve the Level of the “Zula” monster you control (rounding down), and if you do, increase the Level of the targeted opponent’s monster by that much. (A monster’s Level cannot go below 1 with this effect.)

Zula Princess - Magogo

Level 3

EARTH

Warrior/Effect

1100/1000

If you control a face-up “Zula” monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can target 1 “Zula” monster you control and 1 monster your opponent controls: treat that opponent’s monster as having a Level equal to twice the Level of the targeted “Zula” monster (even if it does not have a printed Level). When this card battles an opponent’s monster with a higher Level than this card, it gains ATK equal to the difference in Levels x300 until the End Phase.

Zula Minister - Buthelezi

Level 3

EARTH

Warrior/Effect

1300/800

If you Special Summon a “Zula” monster, except “Zula Minister - Buthelezi” while this card is in your hand or Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card. Once per turn, you can reduce the Level of all face-up “Zula” monsters you control by 1 (min. Level 1). If you reduced the Levels of 4 or more monsters this way, draw 1 card. When this card battles an opponent’s monster with a higher Level than this card, it gains ATK equal to the difference in Levels x300 until the End Phase.

Zula Fighter - Dinuzulu

Level 2

EARTH

Warrior/Effect

1400/600

When a “Zula” monster is Special Summoned while you control this face-up card, you can Special Summon 1 “Zula” monster from your Deck with a different Level from the Summoned monster. You can only activate this effect of “Zula Fighter - Dinuzulu” once per turn. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster on the field: Increase or reduce its Level by 1. When this card battles an opponent’s monster with a higher Level than this card, it gains ATK equal to the difference in Levels x300 until the End Phase.

Zula Despot - Cetshwayo

Level 2

EARTH

Warrior/Effect

1400/400

You can send 1 face-up “Zula” monster you control to the Graveyard: Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: increase its Level by up to 2, and if you do, all monsters your opponent controls lose 300 ATK for each Level gained. When this card battles an opponent’s monster with a higher Level than this card, it gains ATK equal to the difference in Levels x300 until the End Phase.

Zula King - Shaka the Magnificent

Level 1

EARTH

Warrior/Effect

1500/1500

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. When this card is Special Summoned, you can activate 1 “Zula” Spell/Trap card directly from your Deck. Cannot be targeted by card effects. When this card battles an opponent’s monster with a higher Level than this card, it gains ATK equal to the difference in Levels x400 until the End Phase.

 

[spoiler=Spells (4)]

Zula Kraal

Field Spell

“Zula” monsters you control gain 500 ATK. Once per turn, you can increase the Level of a face-up monster your opponent controls by an amount equal to the number of “Zula” monsters you control. When this card is destroyed by an opponent's card effect, you can add 1 “Zula” card from your Deck to your hand.

Zula Formation - Chest

Continuous Spell

“Zula” monsters you control gain 500 ATK. If you control the monster on the field with the lowest Level, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects when a “Zula” monster you control attacks.

Zula Formation - Horns

Continuous Spell

“Zula” monsters you control gain 400 ATK and inflict piercing damage. If you control 3 face-up “Zula Formation” cards with different names, treat all “Zula” monsters you control as Level 1.

Zula Formation - Loins

Continuous Spell

“Zula” monsters you control gain 300 ATK. When a face-up “Zula” monster(s) you control is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by your opponent's card, you can Special Summon 1 “Zula” monster with a different name from your Deck. You can only activate this effect of “Zula Formation - Loins” up to twice per turn.

[Nekomata]

So it's a beatdown deck? Haven't you thought that XYZ/Link monsters don't have Levels? Anyway, let's see what it can do. (I'm not gonna correct the OCG).

 

Zula Chief - Bhambatha

SS itself from the hand, searches if Summoned by an effect. An ok searcher which follows the Archetype. A non-Zula deck might want to run this to: Summon this, then search another Bhambatha and have a free level 4 per turn.

 

Zula Mentor - Dingiswayo

NS: SS a Zula from hand or GY. +500 ATK Continuous. OPT: halve the levels of a Zula and increase an opponent's monster. This monster doesn't have the fighting +300 per level difference, is it on purpose? Also, we have a potential rank 4 engine. The manipulation level effect will usually involve this card and a +2 level, so it fits the Archetype.

 

Zula Princess - Magogo

SS itself from the hand, OPT, an opponent's monster level will be a Zula x2. Ok, so this is how you beat XYZ and Links, i get it. But according to this effect, Zula should be high level? The rest of the Archetype, including Mentor, prefers low level Zulas...

 

Zula Minister - Buthelezi

SS itself from hand or GY when a Zula is SS. OPT, all Zula -1 Level. If you controlled 4 Zulas, draw 1 card. Another swarming monster, and another Zula focused on low levels. I've just one question, why is it the lower the level, the higher the ATK? I know it's the idea of the Archetype, but YGO works the other way around. The higher ATK level 1 monster (Mechlords not included) have 900 ATK.

 

Zula Fighter - Dinuzulu

When a Zula is SS, SS a Zula from the deck. OPT, Star Changer. Summoning from deck is always a strong and consistent move, and since this card can be searched, I'm starting to think lots of decks (especially Link decks) might abuse this Archetype.

 

Zula Despot - Cetshwayo

Tribute a Zula, SS this card from hand. OPT, your opponent's monsters have +2 level and lose 600 ATK. Definitely a good card in this Archetype. It could trigger Buthelezi, which could trigger Dinuzulu, which could trigger Bhambatha, which could search Dingiswayo, which could Summon Shaka... add a Reinforcement of the Army and this will be a consistent strategy. See what I mean by abusable?

 

Zula King - Shaka the Magnificent

SS: activate a S/T from deck. Protection from targeting or destroying. +500 ATK per level difference when battling. Yeah, definitely the boss monster. It' the king, it's magnificent, it can activate a spell (Trap? There aren't any yet) FROM THE DECK, it protects Zulas, including itself, and becomes a massive beater while battling. At least you can't just Normal Summon it. I don't know, feels op. If it battles a level 12 Synchro, it reaches 1500 + (500 x 11) = 7000 ATK, and since the whole Archetype boosts ATK power, it shouldn't have problems reaching above 9000. Add some Equip Spells and even Armityle wouldn't stand a chance.

 

Zula Kraal

+500, reduce levels. When destroyed, search a Zula. It doesn't say "destroyed by an opponent's card effect", and it can search itself, so we have another Kozmotown/Geartown/a Field Spell that can be abused by Metalfoes or autodestroying Archetypes. The card fits the Archetype, and feels balanced, if used by this Archetype.

 

Zula Formation - Chest

+500, battle protection. The ATK boost may be really relevant. The protection is needed, in a beatdown Archetype.

 

Zula Formation - Horns

+400, piercing damage, if you have the 3 formations, every Zula becomes level 1. This is why Princess seems out of place. There might be way around it, though. Also, I think someone would run this just for the piercing damage; you'll get the second effect rare times.

 

Zula Formation - Loins

+300, recovering from destruction by SS from the deck (twice per turn). The twice per turn clause makes this card limited. Right now. And it makes this Archetype a better Yang Zing, because Special Summoned Zulas trigger many other Zulas. Feels way too strong to me.

 

I'm not good at judging if an Archetype is overpowered, but I think this one has... too consistent ways of swarming. But it wouldn't be the strongest deck in the world, so it's fine.

The concept of recreating an organized battling South African tribe which fought against "civilized" countries by making Warriors with ATK boosts if they battle high level monster (so it's like underdogs trying to defeat people with better weapons) is really interesting and accurate, I'd say. If it were a real deck, I'd definitely try it out.

[Tojin]

In order:

 

I meant to prevent Bhambatha from searching another copy of itself, but apparently I forgot to. Thanks for catching that.

 

Dingiswayo lacks the battle effect on purpose, yes. IRL he was Shaka's mentor, but he wasn't a Zulu himself. All the other archetype members are, so they get the battle effect.

 

Magogo is mostly there to beat up Xyz and Link monsters and to provide another body. Her effect could come in handy against non-Xyz/Link monsters, but I don't expect that to happen often.

 

As for the lower Level/higher ATK thing, you answered it yourself. It's part of the archetype's flavor.

 

Dinuzulu's summoning effect is pretty nuts, which is why I put a hard OPT on it. It's also why he can't summon himself like some of the others. As for Links, this deck can definitely get them out with some regularity, but there aren't too many Links that might make this archetype problematic yet (other than Firewall Dragon).

 

The combo you mentioned is pretty formidable, true, but if your opponent has any kind of effect negation or Trap Hole-esque effect, it gets stopped immediately. That's the thing about this archetype; if your opponent doesn't have anything to stop them, they're gonna get overwhelmed pretty fast. But if they have anything at all that can stop you, you're pretty screwed. Unless you have Chest on the field, and even then, it's not a guarantee.

 

Yeah, now that I look at it again, Shaka is kinda ridiculous. I'm gonna change his protection effect to only affect himself (fits flavor-wise, too; Shaka wasn't exactly a nice guy) and to only protect from targeting. I'm also gonna change his battle boost to x400 instead of x500.

 

Meant to make Kraal only search when your opponent kills it, but forgot that too. Thanks again.

 

...Gotta say, I really disagree with you on Loins. It's more of a defensive card imo, so that if you happen to run into a Mirror Force, you get a little consolation prize. However, you raised a good point earlier about stuff like Metalfoes, so I've changed it to only triggering when your opponent destroys something. Hopefully that makes it a bit less broken in your eyes.

 

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Thanks for the feedback!