Bait & Switch

[Synchronized]

 

[quote]Target 1 Level 4 or lower monster you control; Special Summon 1 monster from your Deck with the same Level but lower ATK than the targeted monster.  Then, shuffle the targeted monster into its owner's Deck.  You must control a face-up monster to activate and resolve this effect.  You cannot Summon additional monster(s) for the rest of the turn.[/quote]

 

First card I've made in a while.  I'd like to actually design a new archetype, but I'm trying to get some practice designing singles first.  Anyway, it's a pretty solid card in my opinion, with a few restrictions because I didn't want to make something entirely broken.

 

The Deck that would benefit most from it, at least that I can think of off the top of my head, is Fire Fists, maybe.  But at the same time, the monster has to have less ATK (not equal, so you can't go like Gorilla > Bear) and you can't Summon any further for the rest of the turn (so there's no Inzektor/Wind-Up loops).  I'm sure someone is going to say it's broken regardless but if that's the case definitely give me some pointers as to why.

[Shinobi Phoenix]

What's your intention behind shuffling the target only after you Special Summon?  Why not as part of the cost or at the start of the effect resolution (shuffle and Special Summon instead of Special Summon, then shuffle).

 

Just asking your mechanical reasoning since I assume you did that on purpose.

[Synchronized]

Not that I can think of a ton of situations in which this would actually be applicable, but you shuffle the monster back into the Deck after the new monster is successfully Special Summoned.  So if for some reason, say the new monster's Summon was somehow stopped, you would no longer have to shuffle the original back.  Like I said though, there's very few instances in which this would even be the case, but it's there just in case to accommodate for future situations.

 

On top of that, if you target the monster, and the opponent responds with Book of Moon, you can no longer Special Summon.

[Shinobi Phoenix]

At the same time, you could have a card like GB Hunter out that would prevent the target from returning to the Deck at all, so this becomes a free Summon for nothing.

 

Sure, that's a basic tactic and should be allowed, but I'm assuming you are aware of that.

[Synchronized]

At the same time, you could have a card like GB Hunter out that would prevent the target from returning to the Deck at all, so this becomes a free Summon for nothing.
 
Sure, that's a basic tactic and should be allowed, but I'm assuming you are aware of that.

That would then force you to run GB Hunter, which is awful, so it's not like there would be any kind of consistent way to use it. It'd just be a "solid" combo.