Crusolars, an alternative victory archetype

[AGATHODAIMON BANGTAIL COW]

Oh god why. But anyway, it's a weird fusion of Crystal Beasts and Destiny Board in that you need to put 5 Crusolars in your backrow to win (and it doesn't matter which ones). The idea came from seeing somewhere that YGO Decks act similarly to one another when compared to other card games (or at least M:tG). They all also share several common themes: When they inflict Battle Damage to your opponent, you can gain some sort of effect, and then drop that monster off to your backrow. They also all have an effect while in the backrow. Then, they have an effect for when they're destroyed by your opponent while in the backrow. Finally, they all share the "you win the Duel" effect.

 

Since the monsters are rather wordy, I'll post a tl;dr version, color coded to determine which effects take place as a monster or as a backrow thingy. The Spells are a lot more simple though.

 

[spoiler='Cards and stuffs']
When this card is Summoned: You can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; that monster loses 500 ATK. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: You can draw 1 card, and if you do, place this card face-up in your Spell & Trap Card Zone as a Continuous Spell Card. While this card is in your Spell & Trap Card Zone: All monsters your opponent controls lose 300 ATK/DEF for each card in your Spell & Trap Card Zone. If this card in your Spell & Trap Card Zone is destroyed by an opponent's card: You can place 1 "Crusolar" monster, except "Crusolar Paladin", from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard face-up in your Spell & Trap Card Zone as a Continuous Spell Card. If you control 5 face-up "Crusolar" cards in your Spell & Trap Card Zone, you win the Duel.

 

Bump's an opponent's monster's ATK down by 500 when Summoned in any way.

Draws a card and slips into the backrow when it inflicts damage.

Drains all of your opponent's monsters' ATK by 300 per card you have in the backrow.

Places any archetype monster (except another Paladin) from your hand/Deck/Graveyard in backrow when killed by the opponent.

Wins the duel if you have 5 Crusolars in the backrow.

 

This card can attack your opponent directly. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: You can Special Summon 1 "Crusolar" monster, except "Crusolar Archer", from your hand or Deck, and if you do, place this card face-up in your Spell & Trap Card Zone as a Continuous Spell Card. If a "Crusolar" monster attacks or is attacked while this card is face-up in your Spell & Trap Card Zone, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step. If you control 5 face-up "Crusolar" cards in your Spell & Trap Card Zone, you win the Duel.

 

Can attack directly.

Special Summons any Crusolar (except another Archer) when it inflicts damage, as well as slipping into the backrow.

Stops your opponent from activating effects when a Crusolar battles, like Armades.

Wins the duel if you have 5 Crusolars in the backrow.

 

When this card is Normal Summoned: You can target cards on the field, up to the number of face-up "Crusolar" monsters face-up in your Spell & Trap Card Zone (max. 2); send those cards to the Graveyard. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: You can gain 2000 Life Points and if you do, place this card face-up in your Spell & Trap Card Zone as a Continuous Spell Card. While this card is face-up in your Spell & Trap Card Zone, when you Normal/Special Summon a "Crusolar" monster(s), your opponent cannot activate cards or effects. If this card in your Spell & Trap Card Zone is destroyed by an opponent's card: You can Special Summon 1 "Crusolar" monster from your hand or Deck. If you control 5 face-up "Crusolar" cards in your Spell & Trap Card Zone, you win the Duel.

 

Sends up to 2 cards on the field to the Graveyard, but not more than the number of Crusolars in your backrow (but still with a max of 2).

Heals you by 2k when it damages the opponent, and jumps into the backrow of course.

Prevents your opponent from activating cards in response to your Crusolars' Summons, like Delteros.

Special Summons a Crusolar from your hand or Deck when offed by the opponent.

Wins the duel if you have 5 Crusolars in the backrow.

 

You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) if you control 2 or more "Crusolar" cards in your Spell & Trap Card Zone. Once per turn: You can send 1 card from your Spell & Trap Card Zone to the Graveyard; draw 1 card. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: You can place this card face-up in your Spell & Trap Card Zone as a Continuous Spell Card. When your opponent declares an attack while this card is in your Spell & Trap Card Zone: You can negate the attack. This effect of "Crusolar Lancer" can only be activated once per turn. If this card in your Spell & Trap Card Zone is destroyed by an opponent's card: You can add 1 "Crusolar" monster, except "Crusolar Lancer", from your Deck to your hand. If you control 5 face-up "Crusolar" cards in your Spell & Trap Card Zone, you win the Duel.

 

Special Summons itself from the hand if you already have 2 Crusolars in the backrow.

Can send a card from your backrow to the Graveyard to draw a card as a 1/turn effect.

Can place itself in the backrow when it hurts the opponent, though with nothing extra to get out of this.

Can negate an attack once per turn (only one regardless of how many Lancers you have).

Searches any Crusolar (except another Lancer) when struck down by your opponent.

Wins the duel if you have 5 Crusolars in the backrow.

 

Excavate cards from the top of your Deck until you excavate a "Crusolar" monster. Add that monster to your hand, also shuffle the remaining

cards into the Deck, and if you do, all monsters your opponent controls lose 100 ATK for each card shuffled into the Deck by this effect.

 

Target 1 "Crusolar" card you control; shuffle that card into your Deck, and if you do, you can place 1 "Crusolar" monster from your hand or Deck in your Spell & Trap Card Zone as a Continuous Spell Card.[/spoiler]

 

My biggest concern is that they just don't have any field presence at all, and the ATK-draining is going to make it take like one extra attack to make you lose. They also probably are pretty slow. Anyway, your thoughts, YCM?

[Trebuchet MS]

Seeing victory conditions plastered throughout all members of an entire archetype is unheard of so far. Normally it'd be their boss card having the victory condition, and everything else being a supplement to the end goal.

 

The archetype as a whole feels like Crystal Beasts, only tooled to be more aggressive. Yes, the cards slipping into the backrow on their own would mean that there's a lack of field presence to deter incoming attacks, but unlike CBs the cards still do things in the backrow and replace themselves should they get offed. As of now there aren't a lot of tools to speed the cards into the backrow like how the CBs do, and their standard-range ATK scores for LV4 monsters make it difficult to bypass stronger beaters and inflict damage without assistance, but the opponent would still stop at nothing to ensure you don't get the alt-win.

 

3x Lancers in the backrow already give a difficult-to-penetrate defensive array, not to mention the inevitable plethora of hand traps that the player would run alongside this archetype to make it even harder for attacks to connect. I would personally change the win condition to include "with different names", but that would make accomplishing the wincon a taller order.

[AGATHODAIMON BANGTAIL COW]

Getting 3x Lancers doesn't seem like an easy task though, and almost impossible to pull off in one turn. Blocking two attacks, though, can happen easily. It's even a two-card combo. I can just change it from 1/turn to "can only activate 1/turn" so that you'd only want one Lancer in the backrow under normal circumstances.

 

As for having it be 5 Crusolars with different names, I only have four of them so that wouldn't work. I don't really know what role the fifth member would fill, to be honest.

[Trebuchet MS]

Oops, my bad. Didn't stop to count properly.

[AGATHODAIMON BANGTAIL COW]

Nerfed away Archer's protection and backlash effects, and considering dropping her ATK to a point where Lance nullifies her her attacks, since she hoards the spotlight so much.

 

Also changed Gathering to swap out any Crusolar you have (monster or backrow) to put a Crusolar from your hand or Deck in your backrow.

[BatMed]

Well, This is actually a good theme...

The Only suggestion I have, is to remove Victory condition from these 4 cards and add it to a 5th one who will be the boss, as Gadjiltron had already said...

Overall, I like the idea, these cards will be kinda funny to use at Duel Portal...

[Blacklion65]

Well, This is actually a good theme...
The Only suggestion I have, is to remove Victory condition from these 4 cards and add it to a 5th one who will be the boss, as Gadjiltron had already said...
Overall, I like the idea, these cards will be kinda funny to use at Duel Portal...

Noooo keep them the way they are I like it but make more because these guys are awesome, maybe a field spell?

[AGATHODAIMON BANGTAIL COW]

Well, I'm conflicted with the whole "give wincon to boss or let everyone share it" thing now. By giving creating some sort of boss with a wincon, I could more realistically add a "with different names" clause to the victory condition which would mean less "hurrdurr Archer a bunch" stuff and would probably promote Lancer more. But by not having it, you can be silly and claim you won five times at once (even though that doesn't really work) and means that you aren't reliant on as many specific cards to win.

Noooo keep them the way they are I like it but make more because these guys are awesome, maybe a field spell?

I'd like another member for the early game since Magus needs for you to already have some Crusolars in the backrow to work and Lancer can't really hop into the backrow without some sort of preexisting stat debuff. That leaves Pally and Archer (who is only decent early game for tossing any other Crusolar onto the field) as the only decent monsters early-game. It would take time for me to figure out a good early-game effect that I feel fine with, though.

 

As for a Field Spell, the archetype, in testing, seem scarcely populated with monsters. Of course, the Field Spell gets to serve as a Continuous backrow effect that doesn't conflict with the victory condition, so if I ever feel like creating a continuous backrow effect, it would pretty much have to be a Field Spell. Right now, I don't really know what I would want that effect to be. Plus, with me being picky on my own card art and the fact that non-monster card art is much more difficult to find, I might not find the right image for such a thing.