[Written] Train Cards [4/4]

[VCR_CAT]

I've been seeing a few people make attempts at giving this deck some support, so honestly it's 'bout time I actually posted some support for the deck I've become a little known for.

 

 

Magnum Slug Express

EARTH / Level 10

Machine / Effect

Cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. You can discard 1 other EARTH Machine-Type monster to Special Summon this card from your hand, but halve this card's ATK and DEF.

ATK 3000 / DEF 3000

 

Heavy Freight Delivery

EARTH / Level 4

Machine / Effect

When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can make its Level become 10 until the end of the turn. You can only Special Summon Machine-Type monsters.  If this card is detached from a Machine-Type Xyz Monster and sent to the Graveyard to activate that monster's effect: You can draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of "Heavy Freight Delivery" once per turn.

ATK 1800 / DEF 1000

 

Roundhouse Repairs

Continuous Spell Card

You can send 1 card from your hand to the Graveyard and target 1 Level 4 EARTH Machine-Type monster with 1800 or more ATK in your Graveyard: Special Summon that target. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 Level 4 EARTH Machine-Type monster with 1800 or more ATK in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand. You can only use 1 effect of "Roundhouse Repairs" per turn, and only once that turn.

 

Superdreadnought Railcannon Langer Gustav

EARTH / Rank 10

Machine / Xyz / Effect

2 Level 10 monsters

Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card and target 2 EARTH Machine-Type monsters in your Graveyard: Shuffle those targets into your Deck, and if you do, draw 1 card. If this card battles a monster your opponent controls, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the damage step.

ATK 2800 / DEF 3300

 

 

Testing, of course, is in order, but I wanna run down some intentions:

 

Trains suffer from a few problems: Crippling linearity, an over-reliance on a single monster to kickstart combos, an over-reliance on the Normal Summon, and a limit to what they can do in a turn.

 

Magnum Slug's intention is to help curb the over-reliances on both the Normal Summon and the need for a single card to kickstart plays. Magnum Slug's summon is something that is very much inspired by Machina Fortress; it's a summon that's open to the state of the field, but also keeps Night Express as an important card by being more costly to play (needing a discard to function). But, there's more under the hood here. The stat choice of 3000 means that this another card that works with Special Schedule; bringing more legitimacy to running that card in multiples beyond 2. The idea is to be a solid card to both set-up combos and get plays rolling without outstaging existing cards.

 

Heavy Freight is part 1 of "Make Iron Wolf a Real Train Card". Having the primary effect be one to make itself Level 10 opens up its flexibility and uses in working with cards as kind-of-a-Night Express, while having it be a triggered effect means that it can't trigger Switchyard or work off Schedule. In other words, it accomplishes a similar role as Night Express without upstaging the card with its grave effect. The idea with the grave effect is to offer a spin on Ruffian's grave effect; allowing some more compensation for its use, but trading a full search for a blind draw.

 

And finally, Roundhouse. Part 2 of "Make Iron Wolf a Real Train Card." There's a lot of intentions with this card, one of which being another card to really make room for Hustle Rustle's use, another of which is offering more support to the Level 4/Rank 4 end of matters by giving a means to summon them. Think of this card as kind of a mixture of Special Schedule and Revolving Switchyard for the Level 4's. Overall, supporting this aspect of Trains offers more flexibility to the engine, and with cards like Magnum Slug there's opportunity to use this without necessarily closing off the opportunity of the Rank 10 plays.

 

Overall, the idea isn't to immediately make the deck super fast. Trains are meant to be a snow-ball deck; using Switchyard's effects and Ruffian's grave advantage to keep accumulating your field and strength while the opponent has to use more resources to remove your monsters even though it's not hitting you as much. Trains are, by and large, a textbook Control Deck. So, the idea is that Magnum speeds up the deck a little yes, but it doesn't remove it from its place as a control deck primarily; it just means the deck has more room to work with its monsters. Without some amazing powerful hands, this deck will now have a ceiling of 2 Xyz monsters in a given turn, although this will do a number on one's hand size. So, with these cards, I do feel like I'm fixing a lot of issues with the deck while, at the same time, not removing it from its original intended niche as a control deck that gains momentum and keeps on going.

[VCR_CAT]

Changed Freight Delivery's effect to something more akin to Trolley Olley. Felt with how Roundhouse better enables the Level 4 recoveries that having additional advantage gain could be too troublesome. It was also VERY generic. This should be better now.

[VCR_CAT]

Changed Heavy Freight again to the draw effect, but this time Derricrane-style. Also added Langer Gustav.

[leafbladie]

Magnum Slug Express: Bit restrictive on the discard effect, but in tandem with the Field Spell, you'll be able to run substitute any card in your hand for a Train. Also, since you'll be running more Trains instead of having to rely on Exodius/Kaijus/Malefic Cyber End Dragon, less likely to be dead.

 

Heavy Freight Delivery: Nice, it's a bit annoying having to rely on the Field Spell to turn your Level 4 Trains into Level 10's. And it also works well with Derricrane or Magnum Slug, so good stuff. The draw effect is definitely an appreciated detach effect, to help keep your hand supplied with more discard fodder.

 

Roundhouse Repairs: Nice synergy with Heavy Freight to get yourself another Xyz play possibly, while also allowing you to get Ruffian Railcar for some searching. The grave effect is the cherry on top, since you're opponent will most likely be destroying it during their turn, so you can add your Ruffian Railcar for some searching.

 

Superdreadnought Railcannon Langer Gustav: Nice effect, I wish it said "up to 2 (min. 1)" though, as you'll have to return 4 Trains to the deck to use its effect twice, which is quite a lot of resources. The armades effect is nice, going in with the protection theme of Trains. Spread on the ATK and DEF feels a bit weird for said effect though. Finally, since it's recycling Trains, I'm not sure on the name. Gustav made since, detach 1, fire 2000 damage straight at your opponent's LP. Something that fits the theme of recycling a bit more might be nice.

[VCR_CAT]

Magnum Slug Express: Bit restrictive on the discard effect, but in tandem with the Field Spell, you'll be able to run substitute any card in your hand for a Train. Also, since you'll be running more Trains instead of having to rely on Exodius/Kaijus/Malefic Cyber End Dragon, less likely to be dead.

 

Heavy Freight Delivery: Nice, it's a bit annoying having to rely on the Field Spell to turn your Level 4 Trains into Level 10's. And it also works well with Derricrane or Magnum Slug, so good stuff. The draw effect is definitely an appreciated detach effect, to help keep your hand supplied with more discard fodder.

 

Roundhouse Repairs: Nice synergy with Heavy Freight to get yourself another Xyz play possibly, while also allowing you to get Ruffian Railcar for some searching. The grave effect is the cherry on top, since you're opponent will most likely be destroying it during their turn, so you can add your Ruffian Railcar for some searching.

 

Superdreadnought Railcannon Langer Gustav: Nice effect, I wish it said "up to 2 (min. 1)" though, as you'll have to return 4 Trains to the deck to use its effect twice, which is quite a lot of resources. The armades effect is nice, going in with the protection theme of Trains. Spread on the ATK and DEF feels a bit weird for said effect though. Finally, since it's recycling Trains, I'm not sure on the name. Gustav made since, detach 1, fire 2000 damage straight at your opponent's LP. Something that fits the theme of recycling a bit more might be nice.

 

The idea behind Langer is to act as a mid-range offense-or-defense alternative to Gustav, who is purely offense, and Dora, who is primarily defense. The weaker attack stat is simply because I don't feel comfortable with an Armades clause on anything stronger, with the defense stat as an alternative for walling up. Now, what I can do is add some sort of minor stat boost for the shuffle-draw in compensation for the Armades clause, but I feel it does enough as-is. I'm not terribly concerned about flavor considering Dora definitely isn't.

[leafbladie]

Oh yeah, some quick errata fixes:

 

 

Magnum Slug Express: The wording for the first part was taken from "Apprentice Illusion Magician", the second part from "Heavy Freight Train Derricrane"

 

"Cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by discarding 1 EARTH Machine-Type monster, but its original ATK and DEF become halved."

 

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Heavy Freight Delivery: The PSCT is fine, I might change that "When" to an "If", just in case, so timing isn't missed in rare circumstances. You accidentally included an extra space between the "." and the "If" in your third sentence.

 

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Roundhouse Repairs: Basically perfect, but you need to change the first colon to a semicolon, as sending a card to the Graveyard, and targeting are costs, so they should be followed by a semicolon.

 

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Superdreadnought Railcannon Langer Gustav: For the first effect, you don't need to specify with "those targets" as shown by "Master with Eyes of Blue". For the second effect, the wording of Armades effects has changed, as they gave the impression that monsters unaffected by card effects still couldn't use their effects because the Player was not allowed to activate their effects, so they changed it to be "your opponent's cards and effects cannot be activated". I pulled it from "Archfiend Black Skull Dragon" text. By the way, speaking of, I think you could leave out the part about it needing to battle a monster, seeing as ABSD exists.

 

"Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card and target 2 EARTH Machine-Type monsters in your Graveyard; shuffle them into the Deck, and if you do, draw 1 card. If this card battles a monster your opponent controls, your opponent's cards and effects cannot be activated until the end of the Damage Step."