[Magemeek's Most Popular Archetype - ONLY 6 CARDS] Entropic Fiends! Yay Science

[magemeek22]

Well, here's another attempt at an archetype. Like my Osmosis archetype, this one focuses on field swarming given the compliance of your opponents. It's a strictly anti-meta set of cards that become increasingly powerful based on how much your opponent decides to Summon/use effects.

Backstory:
The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system is perpetually increasing - that is, in layman's terms, a system without external energy will continue to descend into chaos. So, what better way to make an interesting archetype than by communicating this defining law of energy? As you will see, the monsters of this "Entropic Fiend" set all decrease in Level as monsters are Summoned and effects are activated - that is, they embody the increasing chaos of the universe. However, once they reach their limit, they gain a special effect - making this a scientific and viable archetype!

An overview of how these cards function:
Each non-Tuner monster begins at Level 4 and reduces its Level by 1 every time a card effect is activated or a monster is Summoned. Once the monster reaches Level 1, a Special effect procs. This "special effect" consists of a revival of any Entropic Fiend monster from your Graveyard, plus a bonus effect if the revival is successful. Then there's the Tuner monster and field spell that provide added support to the kit.

The Level 4 Monsters:

[spoiler='ENTRO-EN001: Entropic Fiend Sobek']

When your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster, reduce the Level of this face-up card by 1. When this face-up card's Level becomes 1: Special Summon 1 "Entropic Fiend" monster from your Graveyard, except "Entropic Fiend Sobek", and if you do, the next time your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster: Destroy 1 card on the field.

[/spoiler]

[spoiler='ENTRO-EN002: Entropic Fiend Bastet']

When your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster, reduce the Level of this face-up card by 1. When this face-up card's Level becomes 1: Special Summon 1 "Entropic Fiend" monster from your Graveyard, except "Entropic Fiend Bastet", and if you do, the next time your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster: Target 1 monster on the field; its Level becomes 1, and if it is not an "Entropic Fiend" monster, its effects are negated and it cannot attack.

[/spoiler]

[spoiler='ENTRO-EN003: Entropic Fiend Anubis']

When your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster, reduce the Level of this face-up card by 1. When this face-up card's Level becomes 1: Special Summon 1 "Entropic Fiend" monster from your Graveyard, except "Entropic Fiend Anubis", and if you do, the next time your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster: Target 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard; Special Summon that target to your side of the field.

[/spoiler]

[spoiler='ENTRO-EN004: Entropic Fiend Horus']

When your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster, reduce the Level of this face-up card by 1. When this face-up card's Level becomes 1: Special Summon 1 "Entropic Fiend" monster from your Graveyard, except "Entropic Fiend Horus", and if you do, the next time your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster: This card's original ATK and DEF are doubled, also when this card destroys a monster by battle: Draw 1 card.

[/spoiler]


The Level 1 Tuner:

[spoiler='ENTRO-EN005: Entropic Fiend Thoth']

When this card is Summoned: Declare 1 Level; this face-up card becomes that Level. During either player's turn, if you control another face-up "Entropic Fiend" monster: You can Synchro Summon 1 Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck using this card and any number of face-up "Entropic Fiend" monsters you control as Synchro Material Monsters. (This is a Quick Effect.)

[/spoiler]


The Field Spell:

[spoiler='ENTRO-EN006: Thermodynamic Field']

When your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster, place 1 Entropy Counter on this card. During each of your Standby Phases, send 1 "Entropic Fiend" monster from your Deck to your Graveyard or destroy this card and shuffle all monsters in your Graveyard into your Deck. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can remove any number of Entropy Counters from this card; reduce or increase the Level of 1 face-up monster on the field by the number of Entropy Counters removed.

[/spoiler]

[Ren✧]

I truly like the idea behind the cards, incorporating a law of science into card making is interesting and admirable. Who knew I would learn about thermodynamics on YCM? 

 

Like you said, the cards are strictly anti-meta, which is what makes them so interesting. They make your opponent think about what they are going to go with their turn instead of succumbing to the 'draw' 'summon' 'attack' mantra of competitive dueling. Unfortunately, because they are so reliant on your opponent, if your opponent is able to outmaneuver the monsters without setting off an effect, then you are left quite vulnerable. 

 

I had a few questions about the cards, particularly Thoth. What is the purpose of making the Synchro Summon immediate? Is it just a way to balance the versatility of his level manipulation or something more? Also, I feel like his effect needs to clarify that he must be used in the Synchro Summon. On the subject of additions that need to be made on the cards, chief among them is saying that the effect of decreasing their levels stops once they get to the Level 1, I don't like the idea of having Level 0 monsters at work.

 

I think you may want to take another look at the field spell(and the naming of its spoiler), because I think you may have gotten in a bit of a rush there. 

[magemeek22]

Oh god, didn't even catch what happened with the Field Spell spoiler! Changed that as soon as I read your comment!

 

Also, regarding the cards, monsters cannot have Levels less than 1 in the first place unless strictly explained on the card.

(Source: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Level - This is my interpretation of what's written. I think that the way the cards are worded, they won't actually go below Level 1)

 

As far as Thoth is concerned, I guess the whole point of adding the "immediate" clause was because I wanted him to be used during the opponent's turn as well. Since these monsters rely on opponent interaction, I figured that letting him Synchro on the opponent's turn would help the kit. That said, do you think it would be better if I just made it an activatable effect ("During either player's turn, you can Synchro Summon..."). Also, I didn't explicitly say Thoth had to be used as the Tuner intentionally; i figure, let the user have as much freedom of choice as possible. Anywho, now that I've explained the card's intentions, what would you recommend I do?

[Delibirb]

I'm really interested in these cards and really want to give them a proper review, but I can barely understand them with that OCG :( Can you please try and fix it up a bit, because I can't tell what some of them are trying to do enough to be able to repair them. Like I said, I really want to give these a real look-over.

[Ren✧]

Oh god, didn't even catch what happened with the Field Spell spoiler! Changed that as soon as I read your comment!

 

Also, regarding the cards, monsters cannot have Levels less than 1 in the first place unless strictly explained on the card.

(Source: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Level - This is my interpretation of what's written. I think that the way the cards are worded, they won't actually go below Level 1)

 

As far as Thoth is concerned, I guess the whole point of adding the "immediate" clause was because I wanted him to be used during the opponent's turn as well. Since these monsters rely on opponent interaction, I figured that letting him Synchro on the opponent's turn would help the kit. That said, do you think it would be better if I just made it an activatable effect ("During either player's turn, you can Synchro Summon..."). Also, I didn't explicitly say Thoth had to be used as the Tuner intentionally; i figure, let the user have as much freedom of choice as possible. Anywho, now that I've explained the card's intentions, what would you recommend I do?

 

I think that if you are going to let the synchro summon happen on the opponent's turn, then you need make this card included and it would probably make things more clear if you made it an activate effect as I didn't get that it could be used during an opponent's turn when I first read the card. However, something like that may require a cost or restriction. Perhaps all of the synchro materials need to be Enthropic Fiends

[magemeek22]

@Renegade

Okay, I definitely see how Thoth was worded weirdly and didn't make much sense in its old form. I just changed it on the original post so it now requires itself to be used, and limits itself to only Entropic Fiend monsters. Also, as a bonus, I made it a Quick-Effect, so it can be activated at any point during your opponent's turn, thus making it chainable to destruction effects (now this card is even more anti-meta!). Thanks for the advice!

 

@Harpie's Feather Duston

I found one typo in my cards, but I really don't see any other OCG errors (normally, my OCG is pretty solid, so I figure I would have seen any major flaws). Maybe it's just me not noticing something, but in any event, I can try to explain what the cards do so you can review them at the very least :)

 

[spoiler='Clarification:']

 

The level 4 "Entropic Fiend" monsters all have the following wording in common:

 

When your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster, reduce the Level of this face-up card by 1. When this face-up card's Level becomes 1: Special Summon 1 "Entropic Fiend" monster from your Graveyard, except "Entropic Fiend XXXXX", and if you do, the next time your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster: _________________________.

 

So now, to break it down:

• When your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster, reduce the Level of this face-up card by 1. This part is pretty simple; whenever your opponent uses an effect or summons a monster, the Level of the "Entropic Fiend" monster you control goes down by 1. So, let's say you have Entropic Fiend Sobek (Level 4) on the field. Your opponent Summons Satellerknight Altair. As soon as that happens, Entropic Fiend Sobek becomes Level 3. Then your opponent uses Altair's effect and Summons another monster. Your opponent activated an effect, and a monster was Summoned. Thus, the Level of Entropic Fiend Sobek goes down by 1 twice. So now, it's Level 1. Also, note that monsters can't go down below Level 1.
• When this face-up card's Level becomes 1: This is the condition that, when fulfilled, allows the Entropic Fiend Level 4 monsters to function so well. As soon as they become Level 1 (whether by their own effect or another), their effect will automatically activate (note that the effect that follows the colon, written below, is mandatory). Also, the Entropic Fiend must become Level 1; therefore, the effect will not loop if the monster is already Level 1. This effect will only activate if the Entropic Fiend monster's Level is something else and then becomes 1.
• Special Summon 1 "Entropic Fiend" monster from your Graveyard, except "Entropic Fiend XXXXX" This is the effect that is common to all Entropic Fiend Level 4 monsters. As soon as they reach Level 1 (the green-colored condition), this mandatory effect activates. You have to Summon an Entropic Fiend monster from your Graveyard with a different name.
• , and if you do, the next time your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster: _________________________. If the blue effect successfully resolves, then you gain this purple effect. This effect, however, does not resolve immediately. Instead, the next time your opponent summons a monster or uses a card effect, this purple effect will activate and the underlined portion (different for all Entropic Fiend Level 4 monsters) will be executed. The underlined portion for the four cards are: Sobek: Destroy 1 card on the field; Bastet: Target 1 monster on the field; its Level becomes 1, and if it is not an "Entropic Fiend" monster, its effects are negated and it cannot attack; Anubis: Target 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard; Special Summon that target to your side of the field; Horus:  This card's original ATK and DEF are doubled. When this card destroys a monster by battle: Draw 1 card.

[/spoiler]

[Yemachu]

There are some cards which can aid your cards really well, namely:  "Falling Current" and "Star Blast". Those cards are able to immediately set their level to 1. Now if the level of your "Entropic Fiend" became 1, it forces you to Special Summon (lack of the words "you can") another "Entropic Fiend" monster from your Graveyard. If you have succesfully summoned your monster from the Graveyard, the "powerfull" effect starts haunting the duel; even if the monster leaves the field or its level changes again, its effect activates when your opponent does something. Although the effect of "Entropic Fiend Horus" does not really do much once it has left the field.
 
Speaking of which, "Entropic Fiend Horus" his(/her?) last effect might be a bit confusing "When this card destroys a monster by battle: Draw 1 card.". Since there appears to be no connection with the previous line(s), it is more of a separate effect. However the text in 1 of your posts makes me think it is not supposed to be an effect which is active from the start. I guess that the word "Also," would be able to fix this problem. 

and if you do, the next time your opponent activates a card effect or Summons a monster: _________________________. If the blue effect successfully resolves, then you gain this purple effect. This effect, however, does not resolve immediately. Instead, the next time your opponent summons a monster or uses a card effect, this purple effect will activate and the underlined portion (different for all Entropic Fiend Level 4 monsters) will be executed. The underlined portion for the four cards are: Horus:  This card's original ATK and DEF are doubled. When this card destroys a monster by battle: Draw 1 card.

 
Some other cards which can help to quickly reduce the levels of your monsters include: "Mischief of the Yokai", "Level Lifter", "Star Changer", "Level Retuner" "Demotion",  "Level Tuning". Not all of them are as efficient, but I think "Mischief of the Yokai" would be a great addition to a deck running your cards. 

 

The archtype seems quite balanced to me, since the more powerful effects require your opponent to do something. And for the effects to be used multiple times, you need to reset your monsters (flipped face-down, returned to the hand and alike). Also all cards in this archtype seem to have the same focus and the artstyle matches (except for the Field Spell), something some other archtypes lack. I do however have a question regarding your Field Spell: Why is there an "a" in front of the words "your opponent" (When a your opponent activates a card...)? 

 

I hope my vision is of sime use to you.

[magemeek22]

@Yemachu.

 

WOW. I totally love this review - I can tell you really took time to research this archetype's techs and paid attention to detail! Thanks so much (your vision is definitely of some use :) )

 

You brought up a nice list of cards that, to be perfectly honest, I hadn't researched myself when making this archetype. I knew some cards existed that would work well with these cards, but I had no clue that there were as many as you listed. Mischeif of the Yokai would be amazing with these.

 

The errors you pointed out will be fixed immediately. I should have changed Horus long ago, but I'll make sure now that I make the last part of his lore clear. Also, with the field spell, the "a" was a typo on my part that will be fixed shortly.

 

Also, with the field Spell, I'm thinking about it getting Counters whenever any card effect is activated or any monster is Summoned. I feel like that would help this Deck out in the event that the opponent does not fall into the Entropy trap (for example, if they keep destroying your monsters before they have a chance to become Level 1). This change, however, may make the card too powerful. Any thoughts?

[Yemachu]

Nice to hear (read actually) that my review was useful to you. I do however think that it is not such a good idea to have your Field Spell trigger on your own summons and card effects as well. This would cause it to get overpowered really quickly. For example:

• Play "Thermodynamic Field" (0 counters);
• Normal Summon 1 "Entropic Fiend" (other than "Entropic Fiend Thot") and place the first counter on "Thermodynamic Field" (1 counter);
• Get a "Thermodynaic Fiend" in the Graveyard ("Foolish Burial" should suffice) and place the second counter on your field (2 counters);
• Activate a card effect, any will do. And you have your third Entropy Counter (3 counters);
• Reduce the level of your "Entropic Fiend" to one by removing 3 Entropy Counters, placing 1 Entropy Counter on "Thermodynamic Field" (1 counter);
• Special Summon your "Entropic Fiend" from the Graveyard, granting you 2 Entropy Counters (3 counters);
• Wait for your opponent to do something which might blow up in his/her face .

With this setup you have: a "strong" effect which activates upon an action by the opponent, 2 Entropy Monsters on the field and 3 Entropy Counters; which will allow you to Special Summon another "Entropic Fiend" from your Graveyard next turn (or the same turn if there is another in your Graveyard). As you can setup really quickly, and have some strong effects ready for your opponent.
 
Also, I was thinking, since the cards focus on lowering their levels to 1, "Level Limit - Area B" and "Gravity Bind" might be nice cards to run alongside them. This will prevent most of your opponent's non-Xyz monsters from attacking, which can get troublesome. This forces your opponent to either get rid of those cards, which activates your "Entropic Fiends", or not do anything at all. 
 
So in short, only let your opponent's card effects place Entropy Counters on "Thermodynamic Field" (or place it on the banlist, if that is what you prefer). Another little thing about your Field Spell, the text on the image seems off...
 
I hope this is of some help to you.

[magemeek22]

Finally fixed the goddamn field spell thing (I swear, I'm technically proficient. Must've been tired or something. Anyways, now the lore and card match, and both are correct)

 

@Yemachu

Okay, definitely understand how letting the effect trigger on your own cards would make this set crazy OP. Also, Gravity Bind and Level Limit - Area B seem like excellent techs. Actually, your reviews have brought up an interesting conclusion on my part: This archetype isn't so much anti-meta as it is a unique form of meta. Instead of countering current cards, this archetype works by building off what those cards have to offer. This hand-in-hand relationship means that the primary way to counter these cards (aside from Skill Drain, which would really suck) is to focus on attacking. Level Limit - Area B and Gravity Bind take care of this issue as well. This tech, combined with the various support cards you already listed, makes this archetype quite powerful and viable (more so than I expected). Honestly, any set of cards that relies heavily on opponent interaction is typically bound to fail; hence, it surprises me that these cards could actually function in the fast and furious meta we have today. Thanks again for the excellent critique, Yemachu

[krakonfour]

This sounds like an archetype that will lose to a simple 1900 ATK monster unless you bring out a level modifier, or completely wreck the average Spellbook or Lightsworn deck.

 

Very good job.