Illusionist of the Ice Barrier

[Darj]

Therrion's recent Ice Barrier monster inspired me to rework an Ice Barrier monster I made like years ago. At first, this was a Level 3 Tuner that Special Summoned an Ice Barrier monster from the Extra deck when it battled and returned it to the Extra in the End Phase. However, with 2 of the dragons forbidden I saw no point in keeping such effect when its only valid target would be Gungnir.

Thus, I decided to retrain it into an useful Xyz to give "Ice Barriers" a boost. To stick with the original flavor of the card (creating illusions of the Ice Barrier Dragons), I gave him effects that reflect those of the 3 Dragons, as you will see below:

 

2 Level 4 "Ice Barrier" monsters
While this card in Defense Position has Xyz Material, it cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to activate 1 of these effects, depending on the number of "Ice Barrier" monsters you control; • 1: This card's original ATK becomes 2300. Then, you can return 1 card on the field to the hand. • 2: This card's original ATK becomes 2500. Then, you can destroy 1 card your opponent controls. • 3 or more: This card's original ATK becomes 2700. Then, you can banish 1 card on your opponent's field or hand.

 

 

[Ideally, it should have "•" symbols on each effect but YCM won't show them so I had to use "-"]

 

As you should have noticed, each effect represents Brionac, Gungnir and Trishula. That's why Illusionist's ATK becomes equal to the ATK of the respective dragon, along with their related removal effect.

The dragon seen in the artwork part of this card's flavor: it is meant to be a familiar the Illusionist transforms into, well, a way-too-real illusion of one of the 3 Ice Barrier Dragons. I considered giving the Illusionist an effect involving a Token who represents this dragon but I realized it would have made the effect longer and more complicated.

 

Things about this card:

- By itself is essentially a Pleaides for Ice Barriers, who gets stronger with each additional Ice Barrier monster you control.

- Since it is practically a Pleaides but with more specific materials, I felt he deserved an additional effect to balance it and further reward Ice Barrier decks, who are quite undersupported (otherwise you might as well go for a Sacred deck instead). After thinking about it, I decided that a built-in protection effect was the best: Since most Ice Barriers rely on other Ice Barriers to activate their effects, this effect increases the survivality of the Illusionist while fellow Ice Barriers arrive the field, ready to trigger their effects. The protection effect is only active while in Defense Position to prevent him from attacking.

- This card's effects have the advantage of not targeting.

- You should be able to pick which effect to activate even while you meet the requirements for more than 1 effect. For instance, while you control 2 Ice Barriers, you can pick either the first or second effect, and if you control 3+, you can pick any of the three effects (If this aspect of the effect is not clear in the card description, please let me know to fix it).

- This card should do wonders on an Spell Barrier deck, and I kind of designed him for it. By keeping himself safe he can maintain "Secret Village of the Spellcasters" active, locking the opponent's Spells (as long as they don't control Spellcasters, of course).

 

Random trivia:

- If this card's ATK and DEF are reversed, it will have 200 ATK and 300 DEF less than Brionac. I did this on purpose as I noticed that between each Dragon there was a difference of 200 ATK and 300 DEF, so you could say the Illusionist is following the trend, but with his stats reversed to end with balanced ATK/DEF after his ATK boosts.

 

 

Thoughts?

[Darj]

Made a few edits on the effect, and I am taking this opportunity to bring the thread up.

[Zeaux]

I am not a ice barrier expert but i can say this card can be awesome on its own. Being able to activate the effect during either players turn becomes a little op, since it can destroy or banish cards from the field or hand, unlike pleiades that can only bounce. Also, none of the dragons can use their effects during your opponents turn, so the pattern breaks a little here. Anyway, very creative and awesome design, i really like this one.

[Darj]

Thanks for the review, and I'm glad you like it.

I was more interested in following the Dragon's ATK/DEF pattern than their effects, that's why I gave the Illusionist the freedom of activating his effect during either player's turn. Plus, if his effect was OPT, players would find him less interesting when Pleaides can do his "Brionac" and "Gungnir" effects  better: sometimes bouncing > destroying, for bypassing Stardust and whatnot.