Forbidden Seal of the Ice Barrier

[magemeek22]

Just recently made this card for a contest, but it kinda began to grow on me so I decided to post it here as well :) :
 

Forbidden Seal of the Ice Barrier

 

 

Tribute 1 face-up "Ice Barrier" monster you control to activate this card. Once per turn, during either players' turn, if this face-up card you control would be destroyed by your opponent's card effect, you can discard 1 "Ice Barrier" monster from your hand; negate the activation of that effect. Once per turn, you can reveal 1 "Ice Barrier" monster in your hand, then target an "Ice Barrier" monster in your Graveyard whose level is less than or equal to that of the revealed card: either Special Summon the target to your side of the field or add the target to your hand.

 

 

[spoiler='Explanation and Purpose']

 

Well, okay, this is gonna be quite the wall of text. But Ice Barriers deserve it. They want it.

 

Purpose and Function

Simply put, this card lets you swarm the field with Ice Barriers and Ice Barriers only. You activate the card, and it stays on your side of the field, letting you activate its effect once per turn. You reveal an "Ice Barrier" card in your hand, and then Special Summon OR add to your hand 1 "Ice Barrier" monster in your Graveyard.

 

Costs and Limitations

Thing about this card is that, yeah, while it supports Ice Barriers, it limits itself to prevent over exploitation. The first condition is for activation itself - you need to tribute a monster, and it has to be an Ice Barrier monster you tribute. No Ice Barrier card procs any special effects on tribute, so this is a flat-out cost that you need to fulfill. This way, the turn this card is activated, you can't instantly swarm the field. You need to wait. In addition, you need to reveal an Ice Barrier monster in your hand to actually execute the Special Summon - plus, the revived monster needs to have a level that doesn't exceed the level of the revealed monster. Thus, you won't be able to run this in other Water decks and make them absurdly powerful. It's a selective Ice Barrier card that requires you to maximize the potential of this archetype and none other.

 

Benefits and Applications

Yes, this card is tough to use. But when done correctly, boy does it work WONDERS. On the first turn alone, when you activate this card, if you have an Ice Barrier monster in your hand with a sufficiently high level, you can instantly revive the tribute. This makes way for GREAT synchro plays - the meaning of this archetype. One combo would be to Summon a level 2 tuner (say, for example, Cryomancer). Then tribute him and activate this spell. Reveal a level 4 monster in your hand, Special Summon Cryomancer, Normal Summon the level 4, and instantly Synchro Summon a level 6 Dewloren. Then, use Dewloren's effect to return the Spell to your hand. Tribute Dewloren, activate the Spell again (there are no limitations on the number of times you can activate this spell card, so exploit it to your advantage), and then reveal a monster in your hand to revive Dewloren. In one turn, you get Dewloren out with some bonus ATK. Either way, this fits perfectly into the Ice Barrier synchro engine -  a must for good Ice Barrier support. Further, Ice Barriers rely on using their Graveyard to maximize their summoning potential, and in reviving discarded cards, this spell support card fits the Ice Barrier theme perfectly. Plus, if you're short on cards, you can add cards in your Graveyard - including the Dewloren you used (Dewloren is limited at 1, so this makes him nice and recycle-able again) - to your hand. Finally, the destruction protection is an added benefit. In addition, it lets you stack your Graveyard for future uses of this Spell - making it a protective effect with a dual purpose. Send a monster to the Graveyard that you want to revive next turn, and you maximize the effectiveness of this spell! Since it's only once per turn, it's not exploitable - but it IS useful!

 

[/spoiler]