Minicon - Brick or Broke!

[Draconus297]

[spoiler= Prompt]

Minicon

 

All members are Machine-Type EARTH Level 2 Normal monsters. They have really low ATK/DEF stats, but especially focuses on Xyz Summon mechanics. Thanks to field and continous spell cards they have, they can rapidly fills your field and performs Rank 2 Xyz Summons quickly. Their boss card requires 2 or more Level 2 "Minicon" monsters, but it gains massive effects based on its Xyz materials, up to 5. But some of cards such as Dimensional Barrier, Vanity's Emptiness slows down the deck drastically. You can also support this deck with Paleozoic engine.

 

 

 

Thank you for the very sparse prompt, Syserr, as I think I have more freedom with this than with any other prompt. However, I'm going to break it one way and one way only: One single, solitary Effect monster in the Main Deck (you'll see why in a bit).

 

Anyway, I had ideas for this prompt right out of the gate, because the idea for the big boss Xyz reminded me of Rhongomyniad . . . so I made Rhongo's little brother, who is very different on a functional scale, plus a secondary Xyz monster that literally exists to make losing said boss not instant death for your entire Deck. I also took a lot of ideas from other very gimmicky Xyz Decks- you'll find traces of Geargia and Lyrilusc in here- and made it so that the backrow mostly made up for the lack of effects in most of the Main Deck. I say "most" because, on a functional level, a Deck with a high concentration of Normals is bound to brick like mad, even if most of them are Machine Dupe targets. Your solitary Effect monster is mostly just an enabler to keep your boss going once it actually hits the field with enough Materials to make a difference, and a play extender to actually get it on board in the first place. That said, it's still a very "brick or broke" kind of Deck, where opening up badly can utterly screw you over. This was actually a lot of fun to make, and I'm glad I had the opportunity.

 

Also, I know that the name is a reference to . . . something or other . . . but I can't be bothered to look it up, and I honestly prefer the freedom that the prompt gives at a very basic surface level.

 

[spoiler=Main Deck monsters]

Minicon Control Unit

EARTH - Level 2 - Machine/Effect - 600/700

If your opponent has 5 or fewer cards in their Graveyard, or more cards in their Banished Zone than in their Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. When this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can target 1 "Minicon" monster in your Graveyard, except "Minicon Control Unit": Special Summon that target in Defense Position. If this card is detached from a "Minicon" Xyz monster you control and sent to your Graveyard, you can activate the following effect:

●Banish 1 card from your opponent's Graveyard, then increase the ATK of the monster this card was detached from by 100 for each card in your opponent's Banished Zone.

 

Minicon Backup Unit

EARTH - Level 2 - Machine/Effect - 300/300

When this card is Normal Summoned, you can send 1 Machine-Type Normal monster from your Deck to the Graveyard: Add 1 "Minicon" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand. If this card is used as Xyz Material for the Summon of a "Minicon" Xyz monster, you can target 1 Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls: Attach that target to the Summoned monster as Xyz Material. When this card is detached from a Rank 2 Xyz monster you control to activate its effect, you can target 1 "Minicon" monster in your Graveyard, except "Minicon Backup Unit": Attach that target to the card this card was detached from.

 

Minicon Assault Unit

EARTH - Level 2 - Machine - 1000/0

A toy racecar in its stealth form. When combined with the other pieces, this forms the weapon arm of a powerful machine.

 

Minicon Primary Unit

EARTH - Level 2 - Machine - 500/800

A toy tank in its stealth form. When combined with the other pieces, this forms the torso of a powerful machine.

 

Minicon Armored Unit

EARTH - Level 2 - Machine - 400/1000

A toy train in its stealth form. When combined with the other pieces, this forms the right leg of a powerful machine.

 

Minicon Dashing Unit

EARTH - Level 2 - Machine - 200/1400

A toy plane in its stealth form. When combined with the other pieces, this forms the left leg of a powerful machine.

 

Minicon Guard Unit

EARTH - Level 2 - Machine - 0/1800

A toy boat in its stealth form. When combined with the other pieces, this forms the shield arm of a powerful machine.

 

 

 

[spoiler=Xyz]

Minicon Super Robot - Heroic Armor

EARTH - Rank 2 - Machine/Xyz/Effect - 1400/1400

2 or more Level 2 "Minicon" monsters

During each of your opponent's End Phases, detach 1 Xyz Material from this card. This card gains the appropriate effects depending on the number of Xyz Material attached to it:

●1+: At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles: Increase this card's ATK by 200 for each Xyz Material attached to it.

●2+: Any monster destroyed by battle with this card is banished. If you banish a card by this effect, inflict 100 damage to your opponent for each card in their Banished Zone.

●3+: At the end of your opponent's Main Phase 1, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Your opponent must conduct their Battle Phase, and attack this card with all monsters they currently control in an order decided by this card's controller.

●4+: If this card destroys your opponent's monster by battle, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: This card gains the destroyed monster's effects.

●5+: This card cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. This card cannot be Tributed, or used as Material for a Summon.

 

Minicon Super Robot - Guardian Armor

EARTH - Rank 2 - Machine/Xyz/Effect - 1000/1800

2 Level 2 Normal monsters

Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Add 1 "Minicon" monster from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: "Minicon" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects this turn. At the start of your opponent's Battle Phase, if this card has no attached Xyz Material, you can target 1 "Minicon" Normal monster in your Graveyard: Attach that target to this card as Xyz Material.

 

 

 

[spoiler= Spells/Traps]

Minicon Assembly Zone

Field Spell

If you Normal Summon a "Minicon" monster: You can add 1 "Minicon" card from your Deck to your hand. You can target 1 "Minicon" Xyz monster you control: Attach 1 other "Minicon" monster you control to that target as Xyz Material. If a "Minicon" monster you control inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can gain LP equal to the amount of damage inflicted. You can only activate each effect of this card's name once per turn.

 

Minicon Buyout Craze

Continuous Spell

The first time a "Minicon" monster is Special Summoned in a turn, you can target 1 card your opponent controls: Destroy that target. Once per turn, during either player's turn, if your opponent adds a card(s) from their Deck to their hand by a card's effect, you can target 1 "Minicon" Normal monster in your Graveyard: Special Summon that target.

 

Minicon Collector Buyout

Continuous Spell

Once per turn, during either player's turn, if you control a "Minicon" monster: You can Special Summon 1 "Minicon" monster from your hand. Once per turn, if you control a face-up "Minicon" Xyz monster(s) with attached Xyz Material: You can draw 1 card for each.

 

Minicon Nostalgia Pack

Continuous Spell

If your opponent's monster attacks, you can target 1 Level 2 "Minicon" monster in your Graveyard: Special Summon that target. You can only activate this effect of this card's name once per turn. Once per turn, if a "Minicon" monster inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can Special Summon 1 Level 2 "Minicon" monster from your Graveyard whose ATK is less than or equal to the amount of damage inflicted.

 

Minicon Advert

Continuous Spell

When this card is activated: You can Special Summon 1 Level 2 "Minicon" monster from your hand or Graveyard. While you control a face-up "Minicon" Xyz monster, your opponent cannot activate Trap Cards during the Battle Phase.

 

Minicon Multipack

Normal Spell

Send 1 "Minicon" monster from your Deck to the Graveyard, and if you do, you can add 1 "Minicon" monster with a different name than the sent monster from your Deck to your hand. You can banish this card from your Graveyard to target 1 face-up "Minicon" monster you control: Special Summon 1 monster with the same name as that target from your hand or Graveyard, then, if the target was an Xyz monster; you can attach 1 Level 2 "Minicon" monster from your Graveyard to the target. You can only activate each effect of this card's name once per turn.

 

Minicon Mania

Normal Trap

Special Summon 2 "Minicon" monsters with different names from your Deck. You can only activate 1 "Minicon Mania" per turn.

 

Minicon Sale

Normal Trap

If you control a face-up "Minicon" Xyz monster: Special Summon up to 3 Level 2 "Minicon" monsters from your hand or Graveyard, and if you do; you can attach any number of the Summoned monsters to "Minicon" Xyz monsters on the field. If there are 6 or more cards in your opponent's Banished Zone, you can banish this card from your Graveyard: Take a number of "Minicon" cards from your Deck, up to the number of your opponent's banished cards -5 (max. 3), except "Minicon Sale"; either add those cards to your hand, or send them to the Graveyard. You can only activate each effect of this card's name once per turn.

 

 

[Dova]

I must say, I like this a lot more than your other set. I always liked massive material hogging on Xyzs, and this is a little more than just basic Attribute Fusions, with some pretty neat effects done with the prompt. Also, Normal monsters :D Really, the only flaw in regards to flavour that I see is the lack of anything really here to work with in order to use the Paleozoic engine, but that is a throwaway line at the end of the prompt, and I like what you have made so much that I can forget that.

 

I think the main, and probably only real, issue here, is the means of actually getting started. Your main monster Summons only from the GY, and while you can NS it with the field and get your search of Buyout or Craze, it's very slow after that, forcing you to get your search with your Xyz and hope you survive until the next turn. True, it's certainly not a bad thing to open with, and it is a better form of Geargia by anyone's reckoning, but that's all it's doing turn 1. Barely any in-archetype destruction/disruption, but there are other alternatives in both the AGM and TCG/OCG meta, so that's not an issue. There's a surprising amount of GY play, considering your main monster Summons from the GY without any HOPT itself. I would've expected more searching, but you have a +1 Trap, so I guess all you really need is milling.

 

Apart from this issue; again, this set is good stuff. A bit iffy on the Spells having Quick Effects that aren't trigger effects, as there's not really a precedent for that, but as we have that Crystal Beast Field Spell, there's no real reason why you can't. Guess that's just personal :P But yeah, really fun boss, and the lack of stun/disruption makes it a really fun archetype to play against. The focus on the battling theme means your opponent has a full turn to prepare for the ultimate clash, and while your boss doesn't deal with Defense Position monsters, they're still up for grabs during your turn. It's dictating your opponent's plays while they still have the choice whether to listen to your dictation or not. Good stuff!

[Draconus297]

Thanks!

 

I actually went that far with lowering their startup speed because of how easy it is to grind for resources with a bunch of Level 2 EARTH Machine vanillas. Magnet Circle, Machine Dupe, Unexpected Dai, Human Wave Tactics, Tri-Wight . . . it's honestly pretty ridiculous how nuts this could get if I gave them much more than the Geargiagear expy to start out with using only Konami cards (remember, there's a LOT of low-Level Machine support in the AGM, and EARTH is stupid searchable as an Attribute thanks to the existence of things like Gravel Pit). I made the archetype more grindy than anything, so that going for more than a couple of turns would put you a considerable distance ahead in trades for resources, and the Field Spell essentially makes Heroic Armor nigh-immortal. Maybe I overcompensated for the unsearchable power cards, but that just leaves the question of what to give them without busting them wide open.

 

I mean, I suppose that that just means that Final Attack Orders of all things becomes a major tech choice in Minicons, if only to make fighting Heroic Armor an order rather than a suggestion.

[Draconus297]

Bump for the new playmaker Normal Spell: Minicon Multipack! In conjunction with Mania, this card will surely make building boards considerably easier!

[RtHonJohnMajor]

I wasn't hooked on the concept but the execution turns out to look like a quite fun archetype, albeit needing to be carried by external support. I can't really expand upon anything Dova has already said and I won't repeat what he said just to try and hit a word count. Although, some of the effects seem a bit random to me, like dealing damage to your opponent based on how many cards they have banished, doing a Vampire and gaining LP equal to the damage you dealt, etc.

 

Also, just as a heads-up, if you care a lot about PSCT, there's no such thing as the Banished Zone. Wording of effects should probably go from this:

 

If you banish a card by this effect, inflict 100 damage to your opponent for each card in their Banished Zone.

 

To this:

 

If you banish a card by this effect, inflict 100 damage to your opponent for each of their banished cards.

[Draconus297]

That's mostly just chip damage and small bits of healing to keep you alive while your boss monster grows too big to conventionally kill.

 

While the Banished Zone is not a thing in the game as-is, it's a convention adopted by the AGM (a MR3 card creating group) to simplify obnoxious text referring to things like "a card that is banished".

[Draconus297]

So, I'd been thinking about the point @@Dova made about the one archetypal Effect monster not exactly being enough for the archetype's plays. I'm thinking about adding exactly one more, but I'm not sure what it would be from a thematic standpoint, considering that Heroic Armor is a "giant" mech (about seven feet tall) made up of different toys. Control Unit is the head, and the "leader" of its respective team, Assault is a weapon arm, Guard is the shield arm, Dashing and Armored are the legs, and Primary is the torso.

[Dova]

I don't remember talking about another effect monster, but if you are doing one...

 

I'm terrible with theming, but considering you do need to fuel plays, why not have one related to fuel? Like the backup guy who grants support/drops in to help occasionally, and he keeps other monsters in the wings, ready to help if they need it (i.e. sends to the GY)

[Draconus297]

Backup Unit now exists! It Foolishes a Machine-Type Normal as cost to search the backrow on the NS, meaning that negation doesn't stop the Graveyard setup. Also, as the team's "seventh ranger", it's arguably the strongest single member of the team in terms of usefulness.

 

Also, in terms of its "toy vehicle" form, it's a jet helicopter- forming a jetpack for the Heroic Armor in fully combined form.