[Let's Salvage] Jump Scare!

[Trebuchet MS]

Jump Scare!!

Trap/Continuous

If a monster is Summoned, and you have fewer Life Points than your opponent: You can negate that monster's effects and send it to the Graveyard, then it becomes the End Phase of this turn. During either player's turn: You can pay 500 Life Points or discard 1 card; skip your opponent's next Battle Phase. During your End Phase: You can send 2 monsters you control to the Graveyard; skip your opponent's next turn. If you successfully resolve this effect 7 times, you win the Duel.

 

What's Wrong?

We'll break this card down into its individual effects and then tackle them separately.

 

The first effect allows you to, if you're at any point of LP disadvantage, impose an ultimatum on the opponent - either they proceed the rest of the Duel without being able to Summon, or they might as well stop playing. Regardless of how one would try to proceed without immediately answering this card, it's not something you'd want to face. Eventually, after a few rounds of the opponent's turns getting utterly denied, they should be able to Summon successfully again, right?

 

The second effect remedies this issue by letting the controller pay their LP on a whim and skip their opponent's next Battle Phase. Yes, they will soon come to a point where the slightest inch of burn will kill them outright, but that's assuming they don't amass a field strong enough to oneshot the opponent by then. A meager LP payment to repeatedly block off the opponent incredible compared to needing to constantly draw Swift Scarecrows or Threatening Roars to do the same thing. Very few players will opt to discard cards from their hand for that effect - unless they benefit from doing so.

 

The final effect is essentially Arcana Force XXI's Heads effect, but if you somehow use that 7 times and still haven't won the Duel by then, it's an automatic victory. While this effect is arguably a little more difficult to maintain and abuse endlessly, the win condition is essentially redundant - if you somehow have failed to win with 7 bonus turns and essentially preventing the opponent from doing anything, something is up with how you've built your Deck.

 

How to Fix?

Honestly speaking, it's not a Jump Scare!! any more if it continues to sit on the field and the opponent sees it coming subsequently. If anything, make this a one-off card (and thus, a Normal Trap) and excise everything that needs it to continuously sit on the field in order to make it an actual Jump Scare. This means we'll have to settle with either the first or second effect.

 

Using only the first effect still makes this a very powerful Summon response Trap that can leave an unlucky opponent utterly defenseless, even if it's for that one turn. If anything, let them keep the monster so that they still have something in the form of an obstacle to surmount rather than with nearly nothing new, and have the effect negation temporary. After all, jump scares only get you for the moment, but after you collect yourself you can proceed normally.

 

 

[Normal Trap]

When a monster is Summoned, and you have less LP than your opponent: Negate that monster's effect(s) until the start of your opponent's next turn, then it becomes the End Phase of this turn.

 

Using only the second effect makes it no different from Threatening Roar or Frozen Soul, and one with a slight cost to it. That... might actually be somewhat permissible, being an inferior version or parallel to the above. As mentioned above, very few will choose to discard unless they actively benefit from that.

 

 

[Normal Trap]

Pay 500 LP or discard 1 card; skip your opponent's next Battle Phase.

 

Conclusion

Textbook definition of a floodgate - something that doesn't allow your opponent to play at all. You could argue that they can just MST it and be done with it, but the same can be said of every other existing floodgate. If they don't have an answer within the first few turns of its activation, they're in for a world of hurt and general unpleasantness.

[Hydra Iron Man]

DELETED

[Trebuchet MS]

*Slow Clap* You took that thing and made it good. That requires immense skill. You made a solid trap card out of broken s***. Good job

Thank you.

 

Now that I think about it, by splitting the card into its separate effects I had, in a way, drastically changed its function.

 

At least it fits its name thematically now.