Samsara -- Ritual Monster Archetype

[Adak33]

The advent of Nekroz has inspired me to go back and finish and old Ritual archetype of mine. Much like Nekroz, it's intended to make rituals effective by making certain cards not be dead in the hand if you don't have both the ritual spell and monster. But it doesn't do it via discard effects; rather, the ritual spells can become spell monsters, while the ritual monsters can become continuous spells.

 

The names stem from the terminology surrounding Samsara, the repeating cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

 

 

[spoiler=Spell cards][spoiler=Enlightenment of Avidya]

Enlightenment of Avidya

Ritual Spell

This card can be used to ritual summon any "Samsara" Ritual Monster. Tribute exactly 1 monster from the field or hand, then ritual summon 1 "Samsara" monster from your hand or banished zone whose level is equal to or less than that of the tributed monster.  During either player's standby phase, you may reveal this set card: Special Summon this card as an Effect Monster (Fiend-Type/Earth/Level 6/ATK 2100/DEF 1400).If this card is tributed or detached as an xyz material, you may banish it: add 1 "Samsara" monster card from your deck to your hand.[/spoiler][spoiler=Contemplation of Avidya]

Contemplation of Avidya

Ritual Spell

This card can be used to ritual summon any "Samsara" Ritual Monster. Tribute exactly 1 monster from the field or send exactly 1 monster from your deck to the graveyard, then ritual summon 1 "Samsara" monster from your hand or spell & trap zone whose level is equal to or less than that of the tributed or sent monster. During either player's standby phase, you may reveal this set card: Special Summon this card as an Effect Monster (Fiend-Type/Earth/Level 6/ATK 1100/DEF 2400). If this card is tributed or detached as an xyz material, you may banish it: add 1 "Avidya" spell card from your deck to your hand.[/spoiler][spoiler=Avidyan Tranquility]

Avidyan Tranquility

Ritual Spell

This card can be used to ritual summon any "Samsara" Ritual Monster. Tribute exactly 1 monster from your hand or banish one monster from your spell & trap zone, then ritual summon 1 "Samsara" monster from your hand or graveyard whose level is equal to or less than that of the tributed or banished monster. During either player's standby phase, you may reveal this set card: Special Summon this card as an Effect Monster (Fiend-Type/Earth/Level 6/ATK 1400/DEF 1400). If this card is tributed or detached as an xyz material, you may banish it: Place 1 "Samsara" Ritual monster from your deck or graveyard face-up in your spell & trap zone as a continuous spell card.[/spoiler][spoiler=Avidyan Fury]

Avidyan Fury

Ritual Spell

This card can be used to ritual summon any "Samsara" Ritual Monster. Tribute exactly 1 monster from the field or banish exactly one monster from your graveyard, then ritual summon 1 "Samsara" monster from your hand or deck whose level is equal to or less than that of the tributed monster. During either player's standby phase, you may reveal this set card: Special Summon this card as an Effect Monster (Fiend-Type/Earth/Level 6/ATK 1900/DEF 1900).If this card is tributed or detached as an xyz material, you may banish it: special summon (From your deck or graveyard) one spell or trap card that can be special summoned as a monster.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

 

Now, I know that's a massive wall of text and it may be hard to keep track of where each one tributes and summons from at first, as well as what effect each gives when tributed/detached (The one major failing of this archetype thus far), so here's a handy guide so you don't have to keep going back to read them:

 

Enlightenment: Tributes from the field or hand, summons from the hand or banished zone, adds a Samsara monster to the hand.

Contemplation: Tributes from the field or deck, summons from the hand or spell & trap zone, adds an Avidya spell to the hand.

Tranquility: Tributes from the hand or spell/trap zone*, summons from the hand or grave, puts a Samsara monster into the spell/trap zone from the deck or grave.

Fury: Tributes from the field or grave, summons from the hand or deck, special summons a spell monster or trap monster from the deck or grave.

 

*The reason this one banishes from the spell/trap zone instead of tributing is that... well, I'm pretty sure monsters don't have levels while their spell cards, so I don't think it would count as a level 6 tribute if you tributed it from there. Please let me know if I'm wrong on this one.

 

[spoiler=Ritual Monsters][spoiler=Samsara Warguide]

Samsara Warguide

Light/6/Psychic/Ritual/Effect

2100/1400

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Avidya" Ritual Spell Card. During your main phase you may place this card from your hand into your spell & trap zone as a continuous spell card.  While this card is in your spell & trap zone, once per turn you may return an "Avidya" monster you control to the hand: target 1 spell or trap on the field; until end of turn, it can't activate and its effects are negated. While this card is a monster, once per turn you may return a "Samsara" monster in your spell & trap zone to the hand: target 1 monster on the field; until end of turn, its effects are negated.[/spoiler][spoiler=Samsara Peaceguide]

Samsara Peaceguide

Light/6/Psychic/Ritual/Effect

1100/2400

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Avidya" Ritual Spell Card. During your main phase you may place this card from your hand into your spell & trap zone as a continuous spell card. While this card is in your spell & trap zone, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the special summon of an "Avidya" monster. While this card is a monster, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the special summon of a "Samsara" monster.[/spoiler][spoiler=Samsara Formguide]

Samsara Formguide

Light/6/Psychic/Ritual/Effect

1900/1900

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Avidya" Ritual Spell Card. During your main phase you may place this card from your hand into your spell & trap zone as a continuous spell card.  While this card is in your spell & trap zone, "Avidya" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or be targeted by by monster effects. While this card is a monster, "Samsara" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or be targeted by monster effects.[/spoiler][spoiler=Samsara Thoughtguide]

Samsara Thoughtguide

Light/6/Psychic/Ritual/Effect

1400/1400

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Avidya" Ritual Spell Card. During your main phase you may place this card from your hand into your spell & trap zone as a continuous spell card.  While this card is in your spell & trap zone, once per turn you can banish a ritual monster from your graveyard: draw a card. While this card is a monster, once per turn you can banish a ritual spell card from your graveyard: draw a card.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

 

I considered making these guys each a different attribute -- Fire for Warguide, Wind for Peaceguide, Dark for Formguide, and Water for Thoughtguide -- but I decided that it didn't really add anything so I left them all as Light-Attribute.

 

Also, Warguide originally had a much better effect: in addition to what it already did, if a monster in the pendulum zone was targeted its scale would become 4, and a targeted monster had its attack and defense reduced to zero that turn as well as losing its effect; it also originally banished from the grave as a cost (While Thoughtguide returned to the hand). Not only did this make the card very crowded text-wise, I decided it might be a bit too strong.

 

[spoiler=Boss Monster]

High Lord of Samsara

Light/6/Fairy/Xyz/Effect

3500/3500

2 or more (Max. 5) level 6 "Avidya" or "Samsara" Monsters

While this card has xyz materials, it is unaffected by the effects of your opponent's trap cards. Once per turn, you may detach an xyz material from this card, then:If the detached material was a monster:  then attach one of your banished "Avidya" or "Samsara" cards to this card as an xyz material, then banish the detached monster and target 1 spell or trap card on the field; banish that target. If the detached material was a spell card: target 1 monster on the field; banish that target.[/spoiler]

 

This guy's effect was originally bulleted, but that made the text tiny even when blown up to that size (Hooray wall of text!). I also considered naming him "High Lord of Samsara and Avidya" so that he'd benefit from the Samsara Monsters' spell effects as well as their monster effects, but it looked pretty ugly.

 

I considered giving these guys some support beyond just the ritual spells and ritual monsters... but decided that it probably wasn't necessary. Generic Ritual/Rank 6 support would probably be enough.