[AGM/Written] Murine: Flowing column-based Rituals! (12/12)

[Dova]

[spoiler=Prompt]

Murine System
 
A WATER Cyberse Archetype of monsters that all have the effect where they gain 600 ATK and DEF for each card in the same column as them.  Because they tend to rely on the opponent having cards to keep their ATK up, they have a lot of effects involving direct attacks and protection. They have continuous Spells/Traps, but they often remove the effects of monsters in their column as cost to activate/maintain.
 
Their boss monsters happen to be blue cards, but they're Rituals rather than Links and generally have gimmicks involving swapping cards in columns to activate stun or protection effects.  Rather than gaining 600, they gain 1000 ATK/DEF for their troubles.  As such though, the optimal version of the deck is mostly agreed to be the non-Ritual variation.

 

[spoiler=Design Notes]Probably one of my fastest sets to make, partially because I saw WATER, Cyberse, columns and Ritual in the same prompt and fell in love with it. Decide to drop the System part of the name for most of it, in order to have a little more variety in making names and not making them the absolute worst thing in the entire history of everything to say by appending roles/ranks onto that along with something more unique that just "Murine System Supplier". Eish.

 

Initially Rituals had a bigger presence in the archetype, but I decided to remain at least semi-accurate to the prompt by making Rituals which worked alright, but weren't particularly amazing. Also, 2 of them for one Spell so that you can't have a Pre-Prep shenanigan going on. Decided the effect negation for effect activation would work best for the Continuous cards, and counteracted that with their pretty neat (feat. experimental wording) GY effects. Am still worried that the perma-negation still clashes too much with the main monsters actual win condition, but that's why I decided to post it. The granting of effects I think works really well with that previously given idea, as it can stack on them after their effects are negated.

 

In regards to my own experimentation, I decided that I wanted to make this WATER archetype flow as it were. You have a series of stages from the Deck back into the Deck: the hand, field, then GY in that order. Cards might skip a step or two due to pipe choices, but they'll never flow backwards (i.e. return to an "upper" stage in the flow) or leak (i.e. get banished). Smoothness was the key here, which was why I gave them all stats which were multiples of 200. Levels 4-3-4-3 for easy 6-8 Ritual Summons, and an easy way of getting them out without having to forcibly give them terrible stats.

 

[spoiler=Monsters: (4)]Murine Source, Spring
WATER | ✪✪✪ | Cyberse/Effect | 600/800
During your Main Phase, if you control a WATER Cyberse monster: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. If a WATER monster(s) is shuffled into your Deck: Add an equal number of “Murine” monsters from your Deck to your hand. You can only use 1 of these preceding effects of this card’s name per turn, and only once that turn. This card gains 600 ATK and DEF for each other card in this card’s column. All face-up “Murine Source” monsters you control gain this effect:
● This card can attack your opponent directly if there are 2 or more cards in this card’s column.

 

Murine Source, Minera
WATER | ✪✪✪✪ | Cyberse/Effect | 1000/1200
This card gains 600 ATK and DEF for each other card in this card’s column. Once per turn: You can shuffle 1 card from your hand into your Deck, and if you do, Special Summon 1 “Murine” monster from your Deck. All face-up “Murine Source” monsters you control gain this effect:
● Once per turn, if this card is targeted for an attack: You can negate that attack.

Murine Source, Purificia
WATER | ✪✪✪ | Cyberse/Effect | 800/200
This card gains 600 ATK and DEF for each other card in this card’s column. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can shuffle 1 card you control into the Deck; regardless, add 1 “Murine” Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand, then if you shuffled a card, add 1 WATER Cyberse monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of this card’s name once per turn. All face-up “Murine Source”monsters you control gain this effect:
● If this card would declare an attack, you can shuffle 1 Cyberse monster from your GY into your Deck to make that attack a direct attack.

Murine Source, Fountier
WATER | ✪✪✪✪ | Cyberse/Effect | 0/1600
This card gains 600 ATK and DEF for each other card in this card’s column. If a card is shuffled into your Deck while this card is in your hand: You can Special Summon this card. If this card is Special Summoned by a “Murine” card’s effect: Draw 1 card. All face-up “Murine Source” monsters you control gain this effect:
● Once per turn, if a card or effect resolves that targeted a card(s) in this card’s column, you can negate that effect.

 

Murine Source, Condensa

WATER | ✪✪✪✪✪ | Cyberse/Effect | 1000/1400

You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by shuffling 1 card you control into your Deck. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 face-up card you control; flip it face-down, and if you do, flip it face-up. This card gains 600 ATK and DEF for each other card in this card’s column. All face-up “Murine Source” monsters you control gain this effect:
● This card cannot be Tributed by your opponent.

 

[spoiler=Ritual Monsters/Spells: (3)]Murine Construct, Aqua
WATER | ✪✪✪✪✪✪ | Cyberse/Effect | 1200/1200
You can Ritual Summon this card with “Murine System Flow”. This card gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each other card in this card’s column. Once per turn: You can target 1 WATER monster you control; move that target to another of your Main Monster Zones. If a monster's effect activated in this card's column resolves, negate that effect, also Set that monster if it is still face-up on the field. If this card is shuffled into the Deck, except from the hand: You can target 1 card in your GY; shuffle it into your Deck, and if you do, draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.

Murine Construct, Vapure
WATER | ✪✪✪✪✪✪✪✪ | Cyberse/Effect | 2000/0
You can Ritual Summon this card with “Murine System Flow”. This card gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each card in the same column as it. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 WATER monster you control; move that target to another of your Main Monster Zones. Other monsters you control in the same column as a face-up “Murine” Spell or Trap Card you control are unaffected by your opponent’s cards or effects. If this card is shuffled into the Deck, except from the hand: You can target 1 "Murine" card in your GY; shuffle it into your Deck, and if you do, add 1 "Murine" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of this card's name once per turn.

Murine System Flow
Ritual Spell
This card can be used to Ritual Summon any “Murine” Ritual Monster. Ritual Summon 1 “Murine” Ritual Monster from your hand, by shuffling monsters from your hand, field or GY, whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of that Ritual Monster. During your Main Phase: You can shuffle this card and 1 WATER monster into your Deck; Set 1 “Murine” Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your side of the field.

[spoiler=Continuous Spells/Traps: (5)]Murine System - Pumps
Continuous Spell
Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up Cyberse monster you control in the same column as this card; negate that target’s effects, and if you do, move it to another Main Monster Zone, also Special Summon 1 “Murine” monster from your hand. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can shuffle this card from your GY into your Deck, then target 1 face-up “Murine” monster you control whose effects are negated; its effects are no longer negated, and if you do, draw 1 card.

Murine System - Well
Continuous Spell
Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up Cyberse monster you control in the same column as this card; negate that target’s effects, and if you do, add 1 “Murine” Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand, then, immediately after this effect resolves, you can shuffle 1 card from your hand into your Deck to activate it from your hand. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can shuffle this card from your GY into your Deck, then target 1 face-up “Murine” monster you control whose effects are negated; its effects are no longer negated, and if you do, draw 1 card.

Murine System - Aquifer
Continuous Spell
Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up Cyberse monster you control in the same column as this card; negate that target’s effects, and if you do, add 1 “Murine” monster from your Deck to your hand. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can shuffle this card from your GY into your Deck, then target 1 face-up “Murine” monster you control whose effects are negated; its effects are no longer negated, and if you do, draw 1 card.

Murine System - Hydraulics
Continuous Trap
Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up WATER monster in the same column as this card, then target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; negate the first target’s effects, then Set the second target. If this card was not sent to the GY this turn: You can shuffle this card from your GY into your Deck, then target 1 face-up “Murine” card you control whose effects are negated; its effects are no longer negated, and if you do, draw 1 card.

Murine System - Dam
Continuous Trap
Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up WATER monster you control in the same column as this card; negate that target’s effects, and if you do, Special Summon 1 “Murine” monster from your Deck to your side of the field in Defense Position. If this card was not sent to the GY this turn: You can shuffle this card from your GY into your Deck, then target 1 face-up “Murine” card you control whose effects are negated; its effects are no longer negated, and if you do, draw 1 card.

 

 

Again, feel these cards are a little too weak, and perhaps the repetitive yet complex effects are difficult to read. What do you guys think? CnC would be appreciated ^^

 

Changelog:

7/04 - Shuffling replacing all Tributing/Discarding/GY mentioning. Ritual Monsters/Spell buffed.

12/04 - Edited the Ritual Spell's search
13/04 - Buffed Rituals, added Condensa

[Darj]

Please tell me the monsters at least resemble mice xD

Glad to see you used the original prompt name for the Spell/Trap support.

I don't see why they shouldn't benefit from Pre-prep. That would help with your ending statement of feeling them a little weak.

 

Unsure about Puricifia's WATER-Cyberse searching with no Level limit or whatever. I get that it's for grabbing the Rituals, but still, personally I would rather futureproof this with an extra restriction. Since Vapure is Level 8, quite high already, how about a ATK or DEF restriction instead? 2000 ATK for instance.

 

Aqua: maybe make the Zone shifting effect a Quick Effect? that way it can negate something during the opponent's turn. Actually, that wouldn't work since the negation applies on-Summon. How about making the negation  effect as continuous, taking some tips from Mekk-Knights? That way you can respond with the Zone-shift effect on Summon and successfully negate the Summoned monster's effects.

 

System Flow: Seems a bit too fair to be good, IMO. No Ritual Summoning shortcut, although Spring can alleviate the cost, but that makes it reliant on Spring. Also personally I don't like the 1-turn stuns in GY effects some cards have. Perhaps you can get away without it?

 

 

Overall, seems they rely too much on having Murine Sources in the board to enable the support Spell/Traps, and specially Spring to pay back the costs of the a Rituals. I suspect this apparent over-reliance on Spring is where lies a problem. Perhaps more ways to shuffle cards into the Deck could fix this issue and make the deck potentially run more smoothly.

I was also thinking on skipping the "from GY to back into the Deck" part and focus more on directly shuffling into the Deck, and triggering effects from that, although at the moment I cannot think of specific changes that could be made to execute that idea properly. What comes to mind is shuffling the monsters Tributed for the Ritual Summon, and making major changes on Spring's recovery effect.

[Dova]

Sure, they can be mice xD
 
Thanks for the prompt review! Changes have been made to Aqua, Purificia, and the Ritual Spell to fit in with your suggestions. However, will respond to the few others below:
 

I don't see why they shouldn't benefit from Pre-prep. That would help with your ending statement of feeling them a little weak.

The prompt specified that the Rituals weren't required in the archetype, and at the very least I want to make the rest of the cards at least decent without the Rituals instead of simply buffing them.
 

Aqua: maybe make the Zone shifting effect a Quick Effect? that way it can negate something during the opponent's turn. Actually, that wouldn't work since the negation applies on-Summon. How about making the negation  effect as continuous, taking some tips from Mekk-Knights? That way you can respond with the Zone-shift effect on Summon and successfully negate the Summoned monster's effects.

  

Done most of this, but the reason it activated at first was because I didn't want to copy what Mekk-Knights did. However, I did try something a little original with the Level 6 anyway, a slightly buffed version of True Depths. Hopefully that works.
 

Overall, seems they rely too much on having Murine Sources in the board to enable the support Spell/Traps, and specially Spring to pay back the costs of the a Rituals. I suspect this apparent over-reliance on Spring is where lies a problem. Perhaps more ways to shuffle cards into the Deck could fix this issue and make the deck potentially run more smoothly.

 

Yeah, shuffling more prominently sounds like a great idea! I might even add another monster to SS from your hand to hopefully add with the speed. But for now, since it's late here, I'll just start by implementing your basic changes.

 

Thanks again for the comments!

[Dova]

Bumperoo.

[Dova]

Bump.

[Jerrytkrot]

I was just looking at these cards and thinking to my self, boy, a ritual spell that can search itself? Seems fun. I do have some suggestions for the continuous spell/trap lineup. I was thinking that they should all have the ability to trade for each other, as in "If a 'Murine' Spell/Trap card you control would be destroyed, you may destroy this card instead." I also feel that each ritual monster should have a good effect that only activates when they are shuffled into the deck by a ritual spell, just so that A: Ritual chaining can be a thing; and B: for the pure and simple style points. (Who doesn't love having the very much no longer dead hand of 4 ritual monsters and a ritual spell?) If you do this, make sure that you are unable to add monsters to your hand, graveyard or field, and make sure that you can't draw cards, just so that the combos aren't QUITE infinite.

[Dova]

The Ritual Spell searching itself reminded me I needed to give it a cost akin to Gem-Knights, so I added that. The protection is an interesting idea, but I'll meditate on that for a bit before adding it; don't know if it grants you too much control of your opponent's plays. A little hesitant for the Ritual Effects upon being shuffled is, while you certainly have a point in regards to the bricking hand, effects that activate in the Deck are very awkward, considering you have to reveal the card in your Deck in order to activate it, resulting in combos where your Deck is shuffled and revealed multiple times. I definitely want it implement it in some form, but I don't want to willy-nilly mess around with such awkward mechanics.

 

Thanks for your comments!

[Dova]

Edit! Buffed the Rituals by adding Jerrytkrot's suggestion, and added a new monster! Condensa flips the monsters and Spell/Traps face-down so you can reuse their effects!

[Dova]

Bumperoo.

[Dova]

Bumperino.

[Dova]

Final bump!