Schrodinger's Cat!

[jockerace]

 

Equip only to a monster your opponent controls. Its effects are negated, it cannot attack, change its battle position, be removed from the field or targeted by card effects, be Tributed, or be used as Synchro or Xyz material. When the equipped monster is selected as an attack target: toss a coin and call heads or tails; If you call it correctly, destroy this card and send the equipped monster to the Graveyard, then your opponent takes damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. If you call it wrong, destroy this card and send the attacking monster to the Graveyard, then take damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. If this card is removed from the field by an opponent's card effect: destroy the equipped monster, then inflict damage equal to its ATK. If this card is removed from the field by your own card effect: take damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. You can only control 1 "Schrodinger's Cat".

This card and the effect of it is a reference to the famous Schrodinger's Cat theoretical experiment. The experiment is about what happens if you put a cat in a box that contained a device that had a 50% chance of killing the cat in an unknown amount of time? This also eventually leads to the question: "how much power does simply observing something have?" Because before we look inside the box, we have no idea whether the cat is alive or dead. So we COULD say the cat is in a state where it is BOTH alive AND dead, until you open the box and find out what is the result of the cat, your observation, could have changed the outcome of said cat.

 

So in a way, if you opened the box and the cat in this experiment is dead, YOU by opening the box and observing its contents, are responsible for the cat's death. 0_0

 

Of course, I'm very much simplifying that theoretical question and there is a lot more to it, but I thought I would try and present it in card form! :D

 

Now I haven't played Yugioh in quite sometime so chances are, I have messed up the wording of this. Which I why I wanted to post it here and ask for help on fixing and changing the wording of the effect I'm trying to articulate.

 

Basically the idea is: you use this card to trap your opponent's monster in a box that can't be touched or messed with...except when YOU attack it. When you do attack the cat (which is your opponent's monster in this case) that's inside the box (which is the equip card), then you decides the cat's fate by a flip of a coin. If you call it right, the cat (the equipped monster) is dead and your opponent takes damage equal to that cat's ATK. If you call it wrong however, the cat comes out alive and takes revenge on the attacking monster. Resulting in the attacking monster getting destroyed AND YOU take damage of the cat's ATK instead.

 

And if you do try to remove the equip card (as in the box itself), then depending on who was the one responsible for such removal, will be suffering the consequences. If YOU are the one to remove the equip card, you suffer by taking damage equal to the cat's ATK. If your opponent however removed the equip card from the field, than your opponent takes the damage equal to the cat's ATK.

 

That's basically what I'm trying to say but don't fully know how to in card form.

 

EDIT: thank you Aquatic Ether Zerpant for that wording change. It definitely looks much better!

EDIT 2: thank you Trebuchet MS for help with the loophole fixes!

[ÆƵ–]

Okay well let's see if I can't help this become shorter. Generally, if a card has text that small it's either too complicated or can be shortened, sometimes both. 

 

 

Equip only to a monster your opponent controls. Its effects are negated, it cannot attack, change its battle position, be removed from the field by card effects, be Tributed, or be used as Synchro or Xyz material. When the equipped monster is selected as an attack target: toss a coin and call heads or tails; If you call it correctly, destroy this card and send the equipped monster is to the Graveyard, then your opponent takes damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. If you call it wrong, destroy this card and the attacking monster, then take damage equal to the ATK of the monster equipped monster. If this card is removed from the field by an opponent's card effect: destroy the equipped monster, then inflict damage equal to its ATK. If this card is removed from the field by your own card effect: take damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster.

Now, this card certainly is interesting. It locks out an opponent's monster, clogging their field and cutting them off from a potentially valuable monster, but at the same time it makes a volatile risk. You can either win or lose by this card as it is, and if your opponent can play around it or remove the monster by a cost, it doesn't really matter. I'm not sure what to suggest here, since it's such a complicated card. Perhaps have a "you can only control 1" clause, or a hefty activation cost/condition?

[jockerace]

Okay well let's see if I can't help this become shorter. Generally, if a card has text that small it's either too complicated or can be shortened, sometimes both. 

 

Now, this card certainly is interesting. It locks out an opponent's monster, clogging their field and cutting them off from a potentially valuable monster, but at the same time it makes a volatile risk. You can either win or lose by this card as it is, and if your opponent can play around it or remove the monster by a cost, it doesn't really matter. I'm not sure what to suggest here, since it's such a complicated card. Perhaps have a "you can only control 1" clause, or a hefty activation cost/condition?

Thank you so much for that edit! I edited my OP and changed the effect in both the pic and the quote.

 

As far as the card itself, yeah it's supposed to be complicated like that because the theory itself in real life is also very complicated. I wanted to try and reflect it as much as possible in card form. :D

 

As far as the cost, perhaps what you also just said should be fine. "You can only control 1 "Schrodinger's Cat" on the field." Or something like that.

[Trebuchet MS]

Let's just say I'm very appreciative of the research you put into this. Very nicely emulates the experiment and translates it into game mechanics.

 

There is a loophole to this, though. The opponent is capable of flipping the equipped monster face-down, which will entirely defuse the situation without needing to go through all that trouble. Equip Cards self-destructing due to their targets no longer being legal (or face-up) is considered destruction by game mechanics; thus, nobody gets implicated.

 

The other loophole that you can exploit is to simply attack the equipped monster with something that can't be destroyed by card effects. And if I'm reading this correctly, if your attacking monster can't be destroyed on "failure", you don't take the damage either.

[jockerace]

Let's just say I'm very appreciative of the research you put into this. Very nicely emulates the experiment and translates it into game mechanics.

 

There is a loophole to this, though. The opponent is capable of flipping the equipped monster face-down, which will entirely defuse the situation without needing to go through all that trouble. Equip Cards self-destructing due to their targets no longer being legal (or face-up) is considered destruction by game mechanics; thus, nobody gets implicated.

 

The other loophole that you can exploit is to simply attack the equipped monster with something that can't be destroyed by card effects. And if I'm reading this correctly, if your attacking monster can't be destroyed on "failure", you don't take the damage either.

They can flip the monster face down? 0_0 I didn't know this was possible. How so? I thought mentioning "cannot change its battle position" would be enough?

 

As for the second loophole, that is indeed a loophole I did not want to create. My change then that I want to do is simply "The attacking monster is SENT to the graveyard" instead of "destroyed". I recall a card called Black Corn that's effect allows you to send the opposing monster to the graveyard instead of destroying or removing. So I could fix it to that to get rid of that loophole that seems to apply to more monster cards nowadays.

[Trebuchet MS]

Under most circumstances, any "cannot change its battle position" normally means that you can't manually do it without assistance of a card effect. Unless I'm mistaken, since there are several cards with that phrase that have been updated to include "except with a car effect." I'll need a second opinion on this.

[jockerace]

Under most circumstances, any "cannot change its battle position" normally means that you can't manually do it without assistance of a card effect. Unless I'm mistaken, since there are several cards with that phrase that have been updated to include "except with a car effect." I'll need a second opinion on this.

Ohhhhhhhhh. I think now I get what you mean. And I changed it to fix that little problem. I meant to put it in anyway since the idea is that the equipped monster cannot under any circumstance move or be touched UNLESS a monster attacks it (or if you get rid of the box).

 

Now what do you think?

 

Equip only to a monster your opponent controls. Its effects are negated, it cannot attack, change its battle position, be removed from the field or targeted by card effects, be Tributed, or be used as Synchro or Xyz material. When the equipped monster is selected as an attack target: toss a coin and call heads or tails; If you call it correctly, destroy this card and send the equipped monster to the Graveyard, then your opponent takes damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. If you call it wrong, destroy this card and send the attacking monster to the Graveyard, then take damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. If this card is removed from the field by an opponent's card effect: destroy the equipped monster, then inflict damage equal to its ATK. If this card is removed from the field by your own card effect: take damage equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. You can only control 1 "Schrodinger's Cat".

[Trebuchet MS]

There we go, we've more or less patched up some of the more glaring loopholes.

 

There's damage vs life loss issue that can still be cheesed, but those need very specific cards (that you won't see in your regular Deck) to cheese, so I won't worry too much about that.

[jockerace]

There we go, we've more or less patched up some of the more glaring loopholes.

 

There's damage vs life loss issue that can still be cheesed, but those need very specific cards (that you won't see in your regular Deck) to cheese, so I won't worry too much about that.

Awesome! I edited the OP again and changed the pic and quote with now the current effect/wording.

 

I'm sure there is. I mean no card is perfect and I'm sure there are loopholes to almost every card if we tried looking for it. But again, I'm still open to any suggestions to fixing any of those kind of issues as well! Like now the card text looks a little big again. Although I have no idea if it can get shortened again. :P