New Mini-Archetype: The Requiem! (For all of you who've wanted to see a music-based archetype)

[magemeek22]

Well, unlike my usual posts (which, unfortunately, rarely get responses), I'm going to skip the long explanation of how this archetype works, why it works, and how to use it. Nope. None of that here. All I'm going to say is that this archetype is based on the concept of a Requiem, or a song played for the dead; the cards in this archetype monopolize off off of this concept; there are three musicians that can easily swarm when other musicians are out. Each of these musicians can search out music - "Requiem" cards - from the Deck; after all, what is a musician without his music? Plus, there are certain elements of musicianship that have been incorporated, e.g. divisis, harmony, and dissonance. Plus, there is are a total of 5 movements to the actual Requiem itself (aka 5 different Requiem continuous spell cards) that each serve a specific purpose and can only be played if the antecedent movement is active. Anyways, the cards:

 

The "Requiem" Level 3 Fiend-type DARK Monsters, whose ATK and DEF add up to 2000:

  

 

[spoiler="Effects"]

NOTE: ALL THREE MONSTERS SHARE THE SAME EFFECT:

Cannot be used as XYZ Material. Cannot be used as Synchro Material except for the Synchro Summon of a "Requiem" monster. When this card is Normal Summoned: Add 1 "Requiem" card from your Deck to your hand. While you control a face-up "Requiem" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand, and it gains the following effect:

-If you do not control any other "Requiem" monsters, destroy this card.

[/spoiler]

 

The Requiem Support Spells:

     

 

[spoiler="Requiem Score"] Once per turn, during your Standby Phase, you can return 1 "Requiem" card from your Graveyard to the bottom of your Deck to draw 1 card. While you control a face-up "Requiem" monster, you can Normal Summon one additional time each turn. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Requiem Harmony"] Activate only while you control 2 or more face-up "Requiem" monsters. All face-up "Requiem" monsters you control gain 800 ATK for each other face-up "Requiem" monster you control. Then, gain 500 Life Points for each face-up "Requiem" monster you control. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Requiem Dissonance"] Activate only while you control 2 or more face-up "Requiem" monsters. Destroy Spell and Trap cards your opponent controls up to the number of face-up "Requiem" monsters you control. Then, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent for each card sent to the Graveyard by this card's effect. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Requiem Divisi"] Activate the following effects depending on how many face-up "Requiem" monsters you control: 1: Add 1 "Requiem" monster from your Deck to your hand; 2+: If your opponent activates a card effect, during either player's turn, you can destroy 1 "Requiem" card on your side of the field to negate the activation and destroy that card. [/spoiler][spoiler="Requiem Fermata"] Target 1 face-up "Requiem" card on the field. The targeted card cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn. When the targeted card is destroyed, destroy this card. During your Main Phase, you can destroy this face-up card. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Requiem Trinity Compendium"] Activate only while you control 3 face-up "Requiem" monsters with different names. Send all of the monsters on your opponent's side of the field and in his/her hand to the Graveyard. [/spoiler]

 

The Requiem Movement Continuous Spells

  

  

 

[spoiler="Requiem Movt. 1, Decay"] Activate only while you control 2 or more face-up "Requiem" monsters. Select and send 1 card on the field to the Graveyard. If you do not control a face-up "Requiem" monster, destroy this face-up card you control. [/spoiler]

[spoiler="Requiem Movt. 2, Death"] Activate only while "Requiem, Movt. 1: Decay" is face-up on your side of the field. Select and banish 2 cards from your opponent's Graveyard and/or side of the field. If you do not control a face-up "Requiem, Movt. 1: Decay", destroy this face-up card you control. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Requiem Movt. 3, Disintegration"] Activate only while "Requiem, Movt. 2: Death" is face-up on your side of the field. While you control this face-up card, card effects that would activate in your opponent's Graveyard are negated, and your opponent cannot Summon monsters from their Graveyard. If you do not control a face-up "Requiem, Movt. 2: Death", destroy this face-up card you control. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Requiem Movt. 4, Judgment"] Activate only while "Requiem, Movt. 3: Disintegration" is face-up on your side of the field. While you control this face-up card, your opponent cannot Special Summon monsters. If you do not control a face-up "Requiem, Movt. 3: Disintegration", destroy this face-up card you control. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Requiem Movt. 5, Finale"] Activate only while "Requiem, Movt. 4: Judgment" is face-up on your side of the field. Send all face-up "Requiem" Continuous Spell Cards you control (including this card) to the Graveyard; then, send all cards on your opponent's side of the field and in their hand to the Graveyard. Your opponent cannot chain card effects to this card's activation. [/spoiler]

[wightpower]

Well these are pretty cool. I want to start by saying that I love the card images for the three monsters. Where'd you find them? (unless you made them, in which case, well done). Anyway, I'm a little meh about some of the names and while I like the flavor of it all, and the 5 movement spells, I feel like the set is trying to accomplish a lot of different stuff at the same time, and I don't know if it feels really "requiem"-ish. If that makes any sense. As far as I can tell, all your OCG is correct, and way better than mine ever is, so that's out of the way.

 

But let me start with the monsters. The only major changes I'd suggest are making all of them LIGHT or DARK. Having Flutist be a different attribute than the other two feels weird and might cut into their ability to work with attribute support cards. I actually support making all of them LIGHT, because LIGHT fiends has always seemed unorthodox, and therefore fun, to me, and I feel like it works for these guys. But you can make them all DARK, too. It's not a big difference. Heck, WIND is also an option. You've got two woodwind instruments and you can probably make an excuse for percussion having something to do with it, so I'd say make all three of them LIGHT, WIND, or DARK. I don't think there's anything wrong with their effects, and I like their searching and special summoning capabilities. You might need to cut Clarinetist's ATK down a few hundred. 1700 for a 3 star with no more risk than the other two monsters seems slightly too high. Either that or make it's DEF 0. The only other thing I have to say is I applaud you for cutting out Xyz monsters for these three. Getting really sick and tired of them.

 

I'm not too crazy about the middle set of spells (the non-movement ones). They're so general that I'm not really wowed by any of them, and I feel like you could use the cards for a more cohesive strategy. I'm glad you made sure to allow the player to destroy the continuous spells themselves so they don't interfere in the Movement spells, but I think you should go even further and take away the continuous spells entirely. I feel like because there are only three monsters, you could probably get away with giving them more spells or even traps that help support non-requiem monsters. Maybe give them effects that let you summon and support other fiend monsters, like the requiem instruments are ushering in a demonic invasion of the end of days. You know, something epic. Heck, with three fiends and a bunch of continuous spells, these guys can support two of the Sacred Beasts easy. Again, take all this with a grain of salt. Also you can probably slightly change the Requiem Score to apply to both players. I'm not sure why more recent field spells only affect the controller of the spell, but I always felt like affecting the whole field was just something field spells were supposed to always do.

 

As for the movements, I like them, but I don't really know how you'd improve the images. Maybe if you fade in shots of death and devastation over the musical bars and notes. Really set in the impression that the opponent is going to lose everything they have in a slow downward spiral of agony.

 

That's about it for now. I'm tempted to playtest these and see how they function as they are to see if I'm wrong with my review, or if anything else comes to mind that I can suggest. Again, I like the images, and I really like the flavor, but as with anything I think they can still be improved. I don't do number reviews so for now I'll give you a rating of "awesome, but capable of being even more awesome".

[magemeek22]

Captain Plaid, I applaud your review and thank you deeply for the suggestions. To clarify some of your findings, let me just identify the unintentional errors I made:

• All of the monsters were supposed to be DARK; the LIGHT attribute flutist was an error I made in Card Creation
• Requiem Divisi was supposed to be a Quick-Play Spell, not Continuous

That said, I see exactly what you mean by "incohesive." I guess I really didn't think too much about that while trying to make this archetype. The monsters are fine, and the movements do show a progression of more damaging stages of doom (unfortunately, I could find no suitable artwork; any suggestions from anyone are appreciated), but the non-movement support are kind-of, well, scattered. They all try to do too much - boost atk, destroy spells/traps, deal damage, heal, protect, etc. I can already tell that I need to rework basically all 6 of those cards so they have some sort of relationship with each other. Actually, I like your concept of having them Summon other fiends, but the problem is as follows: I want this archetype to center on having as many Requiem monsters out as possible (idealistically, this represents a full ensemble of musicians), but individually, these musicians are weak (level 3 fiends, as you are well aware, can only be so strong). I detest the XYZ Meta, so I don't want them to be manipulated for level 3 XYZs, but I do like Synchros. Perhaps, seeing as they are musicians, they can use their powers to Summon tuners. OH CRAP I THINK I JUST STRUCK GOLD. Maybe, just maybe, they should be able to Synchro Summon using tokens they summon with their music? hmmmm I have to think this through, but I'll make changes as soon as I find a good way to rework some of this!

[wightpower]

*facepalm, as though I could've had a V8* Summoning tuners! Of course! The pun seems so obvious, I never would've thought of that. Yeah, making them all about Synchro support while also crushing your opponent with the movement spells sounds like a good strategy to build on. I wasn't a big fan of Synchros back in the day, but I feel like they were unfairly pushed aside for Xyzs almost as soon as they were finally getting fun, so I'm all for Synchro support. Glad I could be of some help. I like the idea, and I'd hate to see it forgotten about like so many other good concepts on this site.