Return of the Ancients - taking the game back to PRIO format

[HomoSapientissimus]

Return of the Ancients
Trap/Continuous
Activate by paying 1000 Life Points. Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed by card effects.

Continuous Trap Cards cannot be activated. Neither player can place Pendulum Monsters in the

Pendulum Zones nor Pendulum Summon. Cards and effects cannot be activated when cards

are sent to the Graveyard. Neither player can Special Summon monster(s) more than twice
per turn. Once per turn, when your opponent adds a card to their hand (except during their
Draw Phase): You can pay 800 Life Points; banish that card. There can only be 1 face-up
"Return of the Ancients" on the field.

[SANDAA BORUTO]

This is quite the powerful card. It has half of the Seal of Orichalcos clause (once per turn indestructibility). Locking out Continuous Traps is quite neat, but being a Continous Trap itself, that makes it less powerful as it's more vulnerable to the gazillions of Spell/Trap hate we have in Yugioh these days. No More Pendulums seems okay on paper, but I'd have to test that to be sure. The "when this card is sent to the Graveyard" effect lock seems useless at first glance, but then you realize Shaddolls exist, and that effect literally KILLS HALF THE DECK'S PURPOSE. The Special Summon restriction is fine (Winda does it worse). As for the draw effect, change the cost to like "Tribute 1 monster" or "Banish the top X cards of your Deck". Why? I believe this card should have a maintenance cost because it's quite damn powerful. So, instead of paying 1000 LP at activation, make it so you pay 800 every End Phase or something like that. That, combined with the suggested cost for the draw effect, would make this card perfect for me. Overall, it's good, just a little bit OP, but nothing that can't be fixed. I'll give it an 8/10.

[SirReal]

Also, on the Dark Law esque banish effect, do you mean to stop adding from deck, or just adding cards in general? The way you word it, if I would play something like A Warrior Returning alive, you can outright banish that card. Not to mention it's already more powerful in that aspect than Dark Law in the sense that Dark Law hits something random on search where this snipes the card. If you are going to make an effect that powerful, one way to balance it aside from adding a cost (paying 800 LP that you added) is to make the effect mandatory so it can be played around. There is a reason Lancelot, Ghost Knight of the Underworld doesn't see too much play, it's because it negates the first effect it can by default. That doesn't make it unplayable (LADD does the same thing) it simply allows the opponent to play around it, trigger it with something stupid, then go off. If you have another idea, shoot.

 

The card itself currently is a little overpowered. The only balancing factor is 1000 LP to activate, 800 LP for each banished search, MSTable. However, Scout and Skill Drain are MSTable but people still play them at 3 in the same deck. The issue with using LP for a cost is that LifePoints do not matter until you have few to none. If a card came out that read, pay 3000 LP; draw 2 cards, you can damn well bet it'll be run at 3.

[HomoSapientissimus]

This is quite the powerful card. It has half of the Seal of Orichalcos clause (once per turn indestructibility). Locking out Continuous Traps is quite neat, but being a Continous Trap itself, that makes it less powerful as it's more vulnerable to the gazillions of Spell/Trap hate we have in Yugioh these days. No More Pendulums seems okay on paper, but I'd have to test that to be sure. The "when this card is sent to the Graveyard" effect lock seems useless at first glance, but then you realize Shaddolls exist, and that effect literally KILLS HALF THE DECK'S PURPOSE. The Special Summon restriction is fine (Winda does it worse). As for the draw effect, change the cost to like "Tribute 1 monster" or "Banish the top X cards of your Deck". Why? I believe this card should have a maintenance cost because it's quite damn powerful. So, instead of paying 1000 LP at activation, make it so you pay 800 every End Phase or something like that. That, combined with the suggested cost for the draw effect, would make this card perfect for me. Overall, it's good, just a little bit OP, but nothing that can't be fixed. I'll give it an 8/10.

 

The indestructability helps to combat the problem you mentioned of being MSTed, and as I think it's unlikely anyone will have 2 MSTs in the same turn, once-per-turn should be enough. The no Pendulums effect doesn't completely kill Qliphort as they can still go Summon -> Saqlifice -> Attack, but I guess you could test it out. I'm not sure why you thought the next effect looked useless at first glance at it kills Burning Abyss since their pluses rely on their when-sent-to-graveyard effects. I see your point on the banish effect (which, SirReal, does indeed stop from graveyard, deck, or anywhere else) and the maintenance cost.

 

New version below.

 

Return of the Ancients
Trap/Continuous
Activate by paying 1000 Life Points. During each of your Standby Phases: Activate one of these effects.

- Pay 500 Life Points.

- Send one card you control to the Graveyard.

- Destroy this card.

Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed by card effects. Neither player can activate Continuous Trap

Cards. Neither player can place Pendulum Monsters in the Pendulum Zones nor Pendulum Summon.

Cards and effects cannot be activated when cards are sent to the Graveyard. Neither player can Special

Summon monster(s) more than twice per turn. Once per turn, when your opponent adds a card to their

hand (except during their Draw Phase): You can pay 800 Life Points and discard one card; banish that card.

There can only be 1 face-up "Return of the Ancients" on the field.