Griffin's notes on card making.

[-Griffin]

Hey guys, card making-related tutorials now officially fit here, along with general discussion and stuff, so I'll kick things off.

#1 - [b][u]No hard counters.[/u][/b]

There are two ways that a card can be good against a specific Deck: hard counters, and soft counters. I'll give two examples:

[img]http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100723102219/yugioh/images/f/f8/CompulsoryEvacuationDeviceSD2-EN-C-UE.png[/img]

Compulsory Evacuation Device is a really nice card for a soft counter. It's specifically good against Fusion Monsters, because it returns them to the Extra Deck, making it a +0. It also does the same to Synchros, but can also return the materials before the synchro happens to prevent priority effects, important against Black Rose Dragon and sometimes others, not to mention returning, instead of destroying, counters Stardust. It works against every Deck, but [i]counters[/i] Synchros and Fusion. It's perfectly balanced and shouldn't affect which Decks are played too greatly. It's a great card.

[img]http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090814024536/yugioh/images/0/0c/ChimeratechFortressDragonJUMP-EN-UR-LE.png[/img]
[i]("Cyber Dragon" + 1 or more Machine-Type monsters.
This monster cannot be used as a Fusion Material Monster. You can only Special Summon this card from your Extra Deck by sending the above cards from either side of the field to the Graveyard. (You do not use "Polymerization".) The original ATK of this card is equal to 1000 x the number of Fusion Material Monsters used to Special Summon it. )[/i]

Chimeratech Fortress Dragon ranks right near the top of Yugioh's worst ever designed cards. Just by existing it makes any Machine Deck run the risk of losing all their cards if their opponent Summons Cyber Dragon, an already great card, and give their an opponent a beat-stick to top it off. To make Machine Decks fair while it exists, they'd have to be absurdly powerful, so to keep them in check, everyone would need to use this or pretty much automatically lose. It's a card that offers two options. Machines suck, or people [i]have[/i] to run it. Neither of those is good in the slightest. It also only does it to a specific Deck(s) – it's a hard counter. It's a terrible card.

Moral
When designing a card, all of its effects should be usable [acronym=Don't expect 100% of duels. You might, for example, go against a Deck running no Traps – but you don't need an extra effect for that situation, it's a very specific situation.]in just about every duel you'll have.[/acronym]

Note: That moral [b]also[/b] means it shouldn't be designed to be [b]in[/b]effective against certain Decks, like not working on Lightsworn or something. Try an apply common sense for when this applies.

[Wardek]

I still didn't understand Soft and Hard counters, but thanks for the thread anyways. O_O

[-Griffin]

[quote name='Wardek the Scary Vampire' timestamp='1284101618' post='4613216']
I still didn't understand Soft and Hard counters, but thanks for the thread anyways. O_O
[/quote]

Soft Counter = useful against everything, but just happens to work well against a particular Deck. Good.

Hard Counter = only good against certain Decks. Bad.

[LiAM]

Chimeratech Fortress Dragon is a kick ass card.

It's actually really good, how can you call it bad?

How does it work against specific decks? Just run a Machine Deck? Jeez.

[-Griffin]

[quote name='LiAM' timestamp='1284234875' post='4617861']
Chimeratech Fortress Dragon is a kick ass card.

It's actually really good, how can you call it bad?

How does it work against specific decks? Just run a Machine Deck? Jeez.
[/quote]

It might be useful, but it's probably the second most horribly designed card in the game, after Victory Dragon. It's Hard Counters personified, and should never have even got near print.

[Shadowfang1992]

This definitely makes sense. Thank you for explaining that. And you do have a point about the Chimeratech being specifically designed, though you could just own a machine deck. That would make up for a few things. Plus, if you opponent also owns a machine deck, you would [b]dominate[/b] the duel, lol.