[AR] Grand Dragons, Heed the Elements!

[Major's Shadow]

Heyo~

It's good to be uploading content once again, and I hope you all enjoy this one! It's my first attempt at a Pendulum Archetype (which, mind you, isn't easy to balance). It's a Graveyard-style archetype w/ its search effects and Pendulum effects slowly building resources and generating constant advantage, at the cost of a good early game. They embody everything I feel makes a fair and interesting Pendulum Archetype, and I hope you all agree. As always, feedback is phenomenally helpful! 

 

Updates:

5/21/16 - Archetype Released!

Artist Credit:

Ghuran (DA Account closed, no links available)

The-SixthLeafClover

 What is [AR]?

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Original Archetype: http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/332916-dragons-adorable-dragons-archetype-syntheticals/

[spoiler=|AR| Archetypes]

Necrocasters

Grand Dragons

More Coming Soon!

AR stands for Archetype Restoration, which is just a fancy way of saying I'll be re-doing many of my previous creations. My previous works were all designed for DP (Duel Portal), and since those times, I have grown significantly in my understanding of OCG, Card Design, and Balance. I wanted to implement those ideas into new, fully recreated archetypes that take the original concepts of my previous decks to new levels.

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[spoiler=Monsters]

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Aerus, Grand Dragon of Fire

FIRE, Dragon-Type, Pendulum Effect, Level 7, Scale 4, ATK 2600, DEF 0

Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except Dragon-Type monsters. This effect cannot be negated. If you have a "Grand Dragon" card in your other Pendulum Zone: You can place 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster from your Deck into your Extra Deck face-up. You can only activate this effect of "Aerus, Grand Dragon of Fire" once per turn.

Monster Effect: When this card is Normal or Pendulum Summoned: you can target 1 of your "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck face-up or that is banished; Special Summon it. You cannot Special Summon monsters during the turn this effect is used, except Dragon-Type monsters. You can only use this effect of "Aerus, Grand Dragon of Fire" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Aurora, Grand Dragon of Light

LIGHT, Dragon-Type, Pendulum Tuner, Level 5, Scale 8, ATK 1900, DEF 0

Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except Dragon-Type monsters. This effect cannot be negated. If you have a "Grand Dragon" card in your other Pendulum Zone: You can place 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster from your Deck into your Extra Deck face-up. You can only activate this effect of "Aurora, Grand Dragon of Light" once per turn.

Monster Effect: Cannot be used as a Synchro Material, except for the Synchro Summon of a Dragon-Type monster. If this card is Normal or Pendulum Summoned: You can send 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster or 1 "Grand Dragon" Spell/Trap card from your Deck to the Graveyard. You can banish this card and 1 other "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster (from your Extra Deck face-up); Add 1 "Grand Dragon" monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only activate each effect of "Aurora, Grand Dragon of Light" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Caster, Grand Dragon of Shadow

DARK, Dragon-Type, Pendulum Effect, Level 7, Scale 4, ATK 2500, DEF 0

Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except Dragon-Type monsters. This effect cannot be negated. If you have a "Grand Dragon" card in your other Pendulum Zone: You can place 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster from your Deck into your Extra Deck face-up. You can only activate this effect of "Castor, Grand Dragon of Shadow" once per turn.

Monster Effect: If this card is Normal or Pendulum Summoned: You can target 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster you control; banish it, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Grand Dragon" monster from your Deck in Attack Position. You cannot Special Summon monsters during the turn this effect is used, except Dragon-Type monsters. You can only use this effect of "Castor, Grand Dragon of Shadow" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Fiora, Grand Dragon of Water

WATER, Dragon-Type, Pendulum Effect, Level 7, Scale 4, ATK 2300, DEF 0

Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except Dragon-Type monsters. This effect cannot be negated. If you have a "Grand Dragon" card in your other Pendulum Zone: You can place 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster from your Deck into your Extra Deck face-up. You can only activate this effect of "Fiora, Grand Dragon of Water" once per turn.

Monster Effect: When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: you can target up to 2 "Grand Dragon" monster you control, then declare a level between 1 - 10; the declared target's original levels become the declared level. You cannot Special Summon monsters during the turn this effect is used, except Dragon-Type monsters. You can only use this effect of "Fiora, Grand Dragon of Water" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Grove, Grand Dragon of Plains

EARTH, Dragon-Type, Pendulum Tuner, Level 5, Scale 8, ATK 2000, DEF 0

Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except Dragon-Type monsters. This effect cannot be negated. If you have a "Grand Dragon" card in your other Pendulum Zone: You can place 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster from your Deck into your Extra Deck face-up. You can only activate this effect of "Grove, Grand Dragon of Plains" once per turn.

Monster Effect: Cannot be used as a Synchro Material, except for the Synchro Summon of a Dragon-Type monster. If this card is Normal or Pendulum Summoned: You can target 1 Level 7 or lower "Grand Dragon" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it. Its effect(s) are negated. You can banish this card and 1 other "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster (face-up in your Extra Deck), then target 1 "Grand Dragon" card in your Graveyard; Add it to your hand. You can only activate each effect of "Grove, Grand Dragon of Plains" once per turn.

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Nimbus, Grand Dragon of Skies

WIND, Dragon-Type, Pendulum Tuner, Level 5, Scale 4, ATK 1800, DEF 0

Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except Dragon-Type monsters. This effect cannot be negated. If you have a "Grand Dragon" card in your other Pendulum Zone: You can place 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster from your Deck into your Extra Deck face-up. You can only activate this effect of "Nimbus, Grand Dragon of Skies" once per turn.

Monster Effect: Cannot be used as a Synchro Material, except for the Synchro Summon of a Dragon-Type monster. If this card is Normal or Pendulum Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Grand Dragon" monster from your hand.  You can banish this card and 1 other "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster (face-up in your Extra Deck); add 1 "Grand Dragon" Spell/Trap card from your Deck to your hand. You can only activate each effect of "Nimbus, Grand Dragon of Skies" once per turn.

 

 

[spoiler=Spells]

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Grand Dragon Aura

Continuous Spell Card

Effect: Your opponent cannot destroy other "Grand Dragon" Spell/Trap cards on your side of the field by card effects. Once per turn, if you control no monsters, and you have a "Grand Dragon" card in one of your Pendulum Zones: You can place 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster in one of your open Pendulum Zones. You can only control 1 "Grand Dragon Aura".

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Grand Dragon Mist

Continuous Spell Card

Effect: You can Normal Summon "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monsters without Tribute. During your Main Phase, You can apply 1 of the following effects. You can only control 1 "Grand Dragon Mist":

* Place 1 "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster from your Deck into your Extra Deck face-up.

* Target 2 of your Banished "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monsters; place those banished targets into your Extra Deck face-up. You cannot use the effects of cards with those names during the turn this effect is used.

 

[spoiler=Image]

 

Grand Dragon Plains

Field Spell Card

Effect: Your opponent cannot negate the Pendulum Summoning of your "Grand Dragon" Pendulum Monster(s). Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 Dragon-Type Pendulum Monster from your hand or Extra Deck face-up. its effect(s) are negated, cannot attack, and can only be used towards the Summoning of another Dragon-Type monster. You can only activate this effect of "Grand Dragon Plains" once per turn.

 

 

[Major's Shadow]

Bump Plz

[Dragulas]

It seems you took igknights and metalphoes concept to these, those pend effects are really powerfull.

Instead of 1 card scales, its a 2 card full board. If the opponent doesnt do something immediately by the 2nd turn the ED will be filled with pends ready to be used, i find that a little broken (just a little). That kind of effect should be used only once while face up, but thats just me.

Dragon mist seems kind of redundant to me (excep of course the no tribute part), it tries to accomplish what the scales already do, it could be used to cover more ground, recycling banished scales is nice but returning to the extra seems like a waste considering what i said above.

And the fact that all your spells need to remain on the field makes them very weak to S/T destruction.

I like the fact that the archtype plays are up to what kind of tuners and synchros the players are willing to run

The draco engine can still improve them if they dont have how to summon the high lvls.

[Major's Shadow]

It seems you took igknights and metalphoes concept to these, those pend effects are really powerfull.

Instead of 1 card scales, its a 2 card full board. If the opponent doesnt do something immediately by the 2nd turn the ED will be filled with pends ready to be used, i find that a little broken (just a little). That kind of effect should be used only once while face up, but thats just me.

Dragon mist seems kind of redundant to me (excep of course the no tribute part), it tries to accomplish what the scales already do, it could be used to cover more ground, recycling banished scales is nice but returning to the extra seems like a waste considering what i said above.

And the fact that all your spells need to remain on the field makes them very weak to S/T destruction.

I like the fact that the archtype plays are up to what kind of tuners and synchros the players are willing to run

The draco engine can still improve them if they dont have how to summon the high lvls.

Thanks for the reviews! Just to cover some points:

Removal is incredibly easy to come by, so having a 2-card resource engine every turn is more fair than a 1-turn OTK w/ late game IMO.

Mist is supposed to help support the deck further, by increasing the speed of the archetype (instead of 2 per turn, it's 3). Probably is a bit redundant though, I'll look at it again.

Aura kinda helps this issue, but it's supposed to be a critical weakness of the deck. Its a deck w/ plenty of options, but its advantage is stagnated by the Pendulum mechanics.

Pretty much, yeah. Fiora opens a ton of plays for the deck, and allows plenty of flexibility w/ Xyz & Synchro plays (so long as they're dragons)

Well, you kinda need both in the scales to use the adding to extra eff, so draco's don't really work that well. Also, the scales are 4 & 8, so you can't Pendulum Summon them. 

[Dova]

Aerus immediately provides a boost when combined with the main effect of the archetype. My only concern might be genericness, but that's taken care of by archetypal restrictions. As for the Pendulum effect, might as well say it now: It's a very interesting theme for an archetype, shame it harkens back archetypes like Igknights, and I wish it had a little more variety to differentiate itself. Ah well, it works well.

 

Aurora has promise, but I see little to no graveyard play in this archetype. The mill effect would be really well done if it actually had a reason, but considering the previous point and the fact this archetype restricts itself so much, it doesn't really seem to have a reason. Heck, even the S/T don't have an effect in the Graveyard. Maybe you should change it to something to do with the Extra Deck? However, considering the archetype does have a response to banishing, the cost really isn't that great in order to get that search for the second effect. Nicely done.

 

Caster has a brilliant effect again, allowing you to Summon the monsters you want to in order to make the plays you need to. It banishes one, and, while it may not seem like a big thing, this archetype only deals with banishing two. In fact, I actually take back what I said about the banishing, as it is still a heavy cost that doesn't really have much support. You only have one card that deals with that, and since quite a few cards did it, I wish it did it more.

 

Fiora is really nice in the fact that it opens up the archetype's plays to more Xyzing, and restricts itself nicely to keep it balanced. Not much else to say here.

 

Grove is the only graveyard playing card, and, while it does work well with Aurora, I feel the combo is too restricted between them. Why not have Aurora banish instead, and have Grove Special Summon from banished? Might make some better combos, especially as this card and the next both banish two. Speaking of the second effect, the add also makes me really want it to work from the banished zone. If not sending to the Graveyard, at least banish from the Graveyard to do something.

 

Nimbus is great. It allows you an extra Great Dragon summon from your hand, giving you their effect as well after a possible search or something, and the on banish gives the much needed searching for the Spells/Traps. I just wish either this card or Grove didn't only have to be for a Dragon-Type. I mean, most of the cards in the archetype already limit you to only Dragon-Type summons, surely if you got out this tuner and could still summon other monsters you would deserve to summon a different monster from your Extra Deck?

 

Aura chooses the much better protection from destruction over protection from targeting, making for a more balanced blanket effect. As for the second effect, it seems really fine, but one comment: Where does it place the Grand Dragon from?

 

"without Tributing/without Tributes" At last, a reason why their effects go off when Normal Summoned. I feel this one card does it well enough for that concept to stay. The placing in your Extra Deck goes with the theme of the archetype, and I adore the effects to do with banished cards, I just wish this archetype brought them back a little more.

 

Grand Dragon Plains does a great job of the new breed of Field Spells, with no ATK boost but wonderful passive effects. No Notice or Warning now, huh? So that one's fine, but the last effect....that is so restricted I can't even believe it. Get rid of one of them! I mean, it basically forces you to use it as a material, and leaves no wiggle room for experimental plays. Oh, and use does not prevent Tributing, so I could still tribute it by whatever means and for whatever reason.

 

This archetype does have nice effects and does have a great concept, but the effects seem to rely on few other cards to activate them, and, even though this is a small archetype, relying on specific card combos and without them rendering those cards not as strong is really annoying. I also have to comment on the fact that the archetype has no power on its own. It's an engine, and since it has no bosses, you're going to have to be using other cards, especially in your extra deck, in order to gain an advantage. The cards focus too much on themselves, and, while that is not such a bad thing, it makes them less interesting.