Altar Of Dark Chaos

[Guest]

As long as this card is on the field, each time a monster is Tribute Summoned, place 1 counter on this card and the monster is returned to owners hand. By removing 5 counters from this card, you can Special Summon a monster with "Magician" in it's name from your Deck, decrease it's ATK by 500. Each time this monster inflicts damage to your opponents Life Points, inflict extra 500 damage.

[Zauls]

This card is very slow, outclassed and underpowered. For starters, you're relying on your opponent to Tribute Summon 5 times to get off the last effect, which will take at least 5 turns and Tribute Summoning is extremely rare in the vast majority of decks nowadays. You will probably have lost the game before those turns are up.

 

Also, the only deck that does tend to Tribute Summon is Monarchs, and most of the Monarch cards can get rid of this card once they hit the field, which means it is only a minor disruption at most. It is vulnerable to removal and minimum 5 turns is way too much for it to be likely to survive. 

 

Then there's the issue of the effect itself. You wait ages on a very opponent-reliant and situational game state and you get a Magician with a slight buff. Not worth it in the slightest.

 

The card might be able to be used in the Side-Deck against Tribute Summon-heavy decks, but Monarchs don't care about this card and Mask of Restrict stops the ability to summon altogether, while this does not. Also, there aren't enough good decks that Tribute Summon for it to be worth siding. 

 

Its difficult to make this effect better without completely redoing it. Perhaps change it so that it gets a counter when your opponent Special Summons, since that is far more likely to happen as every deck Special Summons at least once per turn. Then it would be a bit crazy though because returning all Special Summoned monsters to the hand upon summon is broken, so change it so that you can remove, let's say, 2 counters to return a Special Summoned monster to the hand, and only during your turn, since you don't want the card to turn into an infinite Compulsory Evacuation Device. Then reduce the last effect to remove 3 counters and give it an effect so that the monster can't be destroyed by card effects. That will make the card more usable, since card effect destruction and Special Summoning are extremely common.

 

You're also having trouble with your OCG, so I will word the revamped effect for you:

 

Each time a monster is Special Summoned, place 1 Counter on this card. You can remove 2 Counters from this card to target 1 Special Summoned monster your opponent controls; return that target to the owner's hand. You can send this face-up card with 3 or more Counters on it to the Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Magician" monster from your Deck. That monster cannot be destroyed by card effects.

 

I also changed the last part so that the card would be sent to the Graveyard to Special Summon the monster, since it will be a badly designed plus-machine otherwise (think Wind-Up Factory kind of thing). 

 

With this effect, I don't think the card would be played outside of Dark Magician decks, but it is still a good support card for them. The first effect is really generic but still probably too slow and the card is too vulnerable to justify playing it outside of its own deck. I was quite careful when remaking the effect to make sure it wouldn't turn into a generic staple.

[Guest]

Now that's overpowered "monster can't be destroyed by card effects" learn to talk and read, before criticising me. You must lack a regular eye sight. The effect states "each time a monster is tribute summoned" meaning it could be you or your opponent who tribute summons.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Saber is trying to help you improve your card; not trying to insult you (he may have skipped over some details, but). If you're not going to take CnC properly, I suggest finding another area to post your cards because I cannot guarantee that other members reviewing this card will be as pleasant as Saber or I are being towards you. While you're in the regions of RC, you agree to allow your card to be reviewed/given suggested fixes.

 

Yes, the effect triggers when either player Tribute Summons, but as he mentioned, Tribute Summoning is rare in most Decks nowadays (outside of Monarchs, but they don't really care about this card as they can simply get rid of it later with their effects). Dark Magician decks could use this to some extent, but note that they have much more reliable options in summoning them in Magical Dimension or what not.

 

Keep in mind that Spell/Trap removal is VERY common nowadays and factoring that this card needs to benefit off of 5 Tributed monsters to SS a Magician monster with weakened stats (but does additional damage); it won't last very long (and will most likely result in your loss). Granted, the monster is returned to the hand when it happens, but as Saber mentioned, Monarchs don't mind being bounced as they can just trigger their effects again (and have access to regenerating Tribute material in Treeborn Frog or whatever).

 

Even Skilled Dark Magician has a better chance at summoning a "Magician", albeit only the original one; given he only requires that 3 Spells be activated (for counters) and that's not hard to pull off in a couple of turns.

 

I would advise lowering the requirement to 3 counters and changing it to something more manageable.

[Trebuchet MS]

How many games have you played where there was a total of 5 or more Tribute Summons? Unless you're playing (as or against) Monarchs, very few. Sometimes even Monarchs don't Tribute Summon enough times to fulfill this card's condition.

 

So for something that takes a lot of effort, we need a large payout. What do we get? A monster with a specific name phrase with 500 less ATK, but inflicts 500 extra battle damage to offset the ATK drop. That is not a large enough payout to justify protecting a card that has to sit on the field, doing nothing for at least 5 turns. And your opponent is prone to destroying this card, sometimes at the worst possible time - right before you can reap its payout.

 

Increase the payout and decrease the effort needed for it. Right now, it's giving too little output for too much input.