Gishki Ritual/Pendulum Pair

[вєgσттєη ιηѕαηιту]

In Greek Mythology Scylla and Charybdis are two monsters, each living on opposite sides of a river. A boat traveling through this river must avoid moving too close to one side in order to prevent their demise by one of these two beasts.

 

Scylla, once a beautiful nymph, was transformed into a sea monster.

 

Charybdis was once believed to be a powerful Sea-Serpent capable of causing whirlpools.

 

Later investigation led to the discovery  that these two monsters did not exist, but the destruction of the boats in this region was the result of natural whirlpools. Regardless of this fact, these two mythical beasts felt like a perfect fit for the Gishki Archetype.

 

[spoiler=Evigishki Scylla]

[spoiler=Image- LARGE]

 

 

Evigishki Scylla
Level 6 | Water
Aqua/Ritual/Pendulum/Effect

<7 - 7>

Once per turn: You can target 1 "Gishki" monsters with 1500 or less ATK in your Graveyard; add those targets to your hand.

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Gishki" Ritual Spell Card. Once per turn: You can discard 1 "Gishki" monster to target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; The target monster must attack this monster during your opponents next turn if able.

2500/1500

 

 

[spoiler=Evigishki Charybdis]

[spoiler=Image- LARGE]

 

 

Evigishki Charybdis
Level 6 | Water
Sea-Serpent/Ritual/Pendulum/Effect

<1 - 1>

Once per turn: You can discard 1 WATER monster; draw 1 card, and if you do, reveal it, then, if it was a "Gishki" monster, add 1 "Gishki" ritual spell card from your Graveyard to your Hand.

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Gishki" Ritual Spell Card. When your opponent declares an attack: you may destroy this card; destroy the attacking monster.

2600/1400

 

[Blake]

It isn't very flavorful for Gishki to have Pendulums.

 

In the Duel Terminal world, where the Gishki reside, the power of Pendulum comes from two sources; Tierra, as seen with her Qliphort/Qliphot, and Sophia, as seen with the Zefre/Sephira/Sephirot. While Sophia was replaced by Sombres and Kerykeion, the general idea remains. Gishki were disbanded/dead by the time Pendulum showed up in the Duel Terminal world, and their remainder became the Nekroz.

 

So off the bat, they're not a great idea. They can be fine in practicality, but Flavor is just as important as any other facet of design, especially in AC.

 

There's also further flavor to consider with Gishkis; Who are these monstrous versions of? The Gishki Rituals give up bodies to turn them into monstrous versions of themselves, and while some have shown up twice, they by large don't. So... Who are these supposed to be? This is more a nitpick than anything. And while the first one looks like she belongs, she's not really... Monstrous. The only one that wasn't monstrous was Psychelone, and this was due to her being corrupted by the Verz/Lswarm virus.

 

On to the monsters themselves...

 

Scylla:

The Pendulum effect is dumb. Regardless of Pendulum Summoning, it's a free OPT renewal of your 1-card Rituals, Beast, and so on, meaning it offers far too much value for too little effort. At least make it discard or something, because it's just a continuous spell with free value. You don't even get punished for setting 2 of these as scales, because it means you get 2 renewals a turn. 

 

Monster effect is pretty much garbage, but that just solidifies setting doubles of this. Gishki don't have much reason to Pendulum Summon, anyway, so 2pt add a card from grave to hand.

 

Charybdis:

T*his pendulum effect is also really dumb. While it doesn't set Atlanteans off, thankfully, it's still a generic draw engine for water with the potential to go +1 for... Playing a deck? This isn't very skill intesive or encouraging, instead simply rewarding you for playign a decktype(s) with a cheap lowscale (much more valuable than a cheap high scale) that has really strogn generic uses, not to mention themed uses.

 

And again, the monster effect is garbage. It doesn't do anything, it's too defensive, and...

 

Actually, the issue is that these are not designed to be Gishkis. Their P-Effects are, despite the flavor issue there, but their monster effects are not. Gishki are a ritual deck that was based around simply funking the opponent up in every way possible, while giving yourself the capability to do loops/mini-loops, at least for some of them.

 

These... Don't do that. They're very passive and not really worth summoning beyond being Rank 6 fodder with Hieratics. While I'm not fond of the Gishkis, given the design of the archetype as a whole is one of the worst in the history of YGO, these simply don't feel like Gishkis, except in a way that defies flavor.

 

They feel out of place as monsters, ARE out of place and too strong as Pendulums, and simply don't fit in as well designed cards, or even well designed Gishki cards.

[вєgσттєη ιηѕαηιту]

Thank you for the response, I actually didn't intend to post these in the Advanced category and only just now realized that I did.

 

I'm creating cards now trying to get back into the swing of it (considering I haven't played / created cards in nearly a year).

 

Is there a way to salvage what I have done here, or should they just be dumped?

[Blake]

In terms of flavor, they're beyond saving.

 

However, they can be salvaged as practical designs.

 

I don't think Charybdis' Pendulum Effect is that bad, I just feel like it rewards you for playing Gishki too much, in addition to being a strong card. A hard OPT stops it from being a continuous spell you can control 2 of. I'd change the Gishki reward just a bit, though it's admittedly not too bad, given that Aquamirror is the only good one, anyway. Just feels a bit unsafe in design.

 

Scylla's PE needs a hard OPT and some sort of cost or pseudo-cost as well. Like... OPT, target 1 "Gishki" with X or less in your Graveyard; Add that target to your hand, and if you do, discard 1.

 

I'd actually make it a level limit, because I don't think giving it a few extra Lv. 4 targets is that bad.

 

Monster effects need a complete revamp, though. Stats are fine.