Skull Dragon

[Nmaster]

 

Dragon / Synchro / Effect

ATK: 2500, DEF: 2000

Attribute: DARK

Level: 8

 

Lore:

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
Once per turn, when this card battles a monster: You can discard 1 card; target 1 monster in your Graveyard; this card gains ATK equal to half its ATK until the End Phase of this turn. During the End Phase, if this effect was activated this turn (and was not negated): Shuffle the targeted card into the Deck.

 

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This one is my first card in a while, as I thought about the effect for a while. I guess OCG-errors are very much possible! I tried for this card to have a great Graveyard-support: The card is supposed to symbolize a fallen dragon which kept living magically and remembers his passed friends. (It is a storyline I have in my head, but I guess it's not that important...)

 

Please note that this card is also meant as a rival for a card I made earlier this year. As the phoenix symbolizes life and rebirth, this card stands for death and destruction. Obviously there is the difference that this card is a Synchro Monster while the other one is a Xyz Monster. And yes, these cards are based on the main characters rivalries in the YGO anime series.

 

The picture isn't mine, I found it on DeviantArt and I liked it. All credits to the maker!

 

Please rate!

[Oriannis]

I like this  card quite a bit. I like how the target is shuffled into the deck instead of being added to the hand. This slows the card down to an acceptable pace when you consider the other effects. The discard effect is pretty standard. However using this in a zombie deck would, DW or shatroll, deck would give these decks more power than they need. I liked the attack gain effect but the original attack is already pretty high and I personally think it could do with being brought down a few hundred points.

 

Overall a nice card but could do with some tweaking.

[Darj]

Suggested OCG fix:

 

Once per turn, when this card battles a monster: You can discard 1 card, then target 1 monster in your Graveyard; this card gains ATK equal to half the ATK of that target until the end of this turn. During the End Phase, if this effect was activated this turn (and was not negated): Shuffle the targeted card into the Deck.

 

Now, in my opinion this looks quite weak. Yes, it can reach a high ATK depending on the targeted monster, but it comes with an undesirable discard cost that will chip your card advantage. The recycling effect is cute, but I don't think it would have an strong impact in the game. Also, 2500 base ATK is low for a generic Synchro8; they usually have 2700~3000 ATK. Yes, the Stardust Dragons do have 2500 ATK, but they come with a strong protection effect, while this card is nothing more than a beater.

 

The card has its perks, like being the only generic Synchro8 (if I'm not mistaken) that can reach an ATK higher than 3000, but I think it wouldn't hurt if you removed the discard cost in exchange of reducing the ATK boost. For instance, you could raise its base ATK to 2700 and gain ATK equal to the targeted monster's Level/Rank x 100; even if you target a Level/Rank4 monster (the most common LevelRank) this card would still be able to get over the 3000 ATK benchmark and deal with big monsters.

[Nmaster]

(Sorry for the late reply)

 

Maybe this card would've fitted better in the Casual Cards-section, as the current model isn't really what the current metagame needs. 

 

Personally, I intented for the discard-effect to have an impact on its ATK-gain effect. For example you could discard a 3000-ATK monster from your hand, so this card would gain 1500 ATK. Though I must admit the discard-effect could bring undesired trouble to the card advantage.

 

I'll try to rethink the effect and upload a new version in a few days time.