Earthbound Breakthrough

[Atypical-Abbie]

Just a little thing that makes Earthbound a bit more consistent.

 

Target 1 “Earthbound Immortal” monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target. You must control no monsters to activate and to resolve this effect. During either player’s turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; add 1 “Earthbound Immortal” monster or Field Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.

[ChampionZero]

Alright let's see: Instant revival of an Earthbound Immortal for no cost, on the condition that you control no monsters. Chances are, if you're running a dedicated Earthbound Immortal Deck, you need that quick recovery after losing an E.I. As for the second effect, it's good to set up for later. Overall quite good, since it makes the deck a little more capable of making a comeback. I'm glad you stuck to a Normal Trap, for obvious reasons.

[Darj]

Not really impressive, IMO. It's slow and most likely will be used as an slower Terraforming before putting Earthbounds on the spotlight. It could have a stronger Earthbound support effect(s) to have a noticeable impact. For instance, you can try switching the effects: make the graveyard effect the regular effect, and vice-versa. Otherwise, this is fit more for the Casual section.

[Atypical-Abbie]

Not really impressive, IMO. It's slow and most likely will be used as an slower Terraforming before putting Earthbounds on the spotlight. It could have a stronger Earthbound support effect(s) to have a noticeable impact. For instance, you can try switching the effects: make the graveyard effect the regular effect, and vice-versa. Otherwise, this is fit more for the Casual section.

Could you go more in depth than just saying that it's slow, because I don't see your point.

[Darj]

Uh, first, the regular effect requires an Earthbound on the grave, so you will need to set that up, which may not be immediate unless you draw into Armageddon Knight or Foolish Burial; then you have to wait for next turn to activate the Trap.

 

The second effect takes 1 turn as well, and you have to get it in the grave first, so either you mill it with Foolish Burial of Belongings, or draw into it or discard it as cost or otherwise get it in the graveyard. Then, if you add the Earthbound to hand, you still have to get a Field Spell and find your way to Summon it feasibly. In other words, the search is welcomed, but the Summon of the Earthbound it still impractical.

 

Hence my conclusion that this card would be used first for grabbing a Field Spell in, let's say, milling/lawnmowing decks, before giving Earthbounds a noticeable impact.

 

So yeah, that's how the card is slow. Again, this would be fine in Casual Section, but Advanced section has the current metagame in mind, and unfortunately, as it stands this isn't good enough to have a impact in the meta, and thus not suitable for this section.

[Atypical-Abbie]

Uh, first, the regular effect requires an Earthbound on the grave, so you will need to set that up, which may not be immediate unless you draw into Armageddon Knight or Foolish Burial; then you have to wait for next turn to activate the Trap.

 

The second effect takes 1 turn as well, and you have to get it in the grave first, so either you mill it with Foolish Burial of Belongings, or draw into it or discard it as cost or otherwise get it in the graveyard. Then, if you add the Earthbound to hand, you still have to get a Field Spell and find your way to Summon it feasibly. In other words, the search is welcomed, but the Summon of the Earthbound it still impractical.

 

Hence my conclusion that this card would be used first for grabbing a Field Spell in, let's say, milling/lawnmowing decks, before giving Earthbounds a noticeable impact.

 

So yeah, that's how the card is slow. Again, this would be fine in Casual Section, but Advanced section has the current metagame in mind, and unfortunately, as it stands this isn't good enough to have a impact in the meta, and thus not suitable for this section.

It's a Trap Card, of course you have to wait one turn, what are you even trying to say?

[Darj]

It's a Trap Card, of course you have to wait one turn, what are you even trying to say?

 

Really? I already explained above.

It's not good enough for Advanced Section, basically. The card being a Trap is part of the issue. Heck, not even that, because if, for example, with the first effect it Summoned from the Deck it would be acceptable IMO, but it summons from the grave instead, making you "jump through hoops", as explained above.

[Atypical-Abbie]

Really? I already explained above.

It's not good enough for Advanced Section, basically. The card being a Trap is part of the issue. Heck, not even that, because if, for example, with the first effect it Summoned from the Deck it would be acceptable IMO, but it summons from the grave instead, making you "jump through hoops", as explained above.

No, I'm sorry, but I simply cannot agree with your design decisions, I won't make it a Spell Card to make it better, I won't make it able to Summon from the Deck for no cost, I am not making it another Artifact Sanctum, Earthbound are not a very strong Deck, but I still want to balance them as best I can. And please, I don't quite believe it's your place to even say where something belongs, that's the mods decision.

[Darj]

No, I'm sorry, but I simply cannot agree with your design decisions, I won't make it a Spell Card to make it better, I won't make it able to Summon from the Deck for no cost, I am not making it another Artifact Sanctum, Earthbound are not a very strong Deck, but I still want to balance them as best I can. And please, I don't quite believe it's your place to even say where something belongs, that's the mods decision.

 

It's in the section description:

"Post balanced cards with the idea of making them work in the current gamestate and Advanced card making ideals. Pop Culture cards designed with these in mind are welcome here."

 

Making it summon from the Deck wouldn't be broken, IMO. The Earthbound would still need a Field Spell active to stay alive, and summoning beatsticks during the opponent's turn isn't as strong anymore, not to mention the risk of dead-drawing the Earthbounds if you don't have the setup required to Summon them. Your best play basically would be summoning Ccarayhua or Aslla and destroy them to trigger their effects; and that's if the opponent' doesn't manage to clear the board from Field Spells first.

 

Making it a Spell wouldn't be broken, either, since you still need an Earthbound in grave as target, plus again a Field Spell to keep it alive. And the second effect, with the 1-turn delay, would actually act as incentive/reward for playing Eartbounds in the first place.

[ChampionZero]

I'm fairly certain that Zaziuma meant for this to be functional in the current gamestate. And besides, a good Earthbound Deck can put out their boss monsters fairly fast (I would know, I've seen it in action) so this is probably more meant as a recovery card if you lose an important Earthbound and you don't want to risk any damage.

 

That being said, Darj has a few good points. Earthbound Immortals have a LOT of restrictions on them, so you can afford to make this more powerful.

[Darj]

IDK, it doesn't look like the card is intended to allow Earthbounds clash with Tier 2~3 decks, let alone top tier stuff like Blue-Eyes, ABCs, Lawnmowing Infernoids, etc.

I'm intentionally excluding Zoodiacs & variants because their power level is so high that it wouldn't be fair to take them as reference.

 

I mean, the card is fine, but it could be better.

[Fruiota_Hiroshi]

What if you made this card equip on to the Summoned Earthbound Immortal, kind of like Premature Burial, except that it can't be destroyed unless Earthbound Breakthrough is gone? This could counteract the effect where you need a Field Spell to control an Earthbound Immortal.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

That idea could work, but it's still on the slow end considering it's a Trap Card.

 

Going off what Darj mentioned, you can afford to have the EBI to be Special Summoned from the Deck as well (yes, this amounts to a EBI clone of Sanctum and you expressed distaste in that idea), but as mentioned already, they already have the Field Spell reliance on them (outside Linewalker). Unlike the case with Artifacts which have good monsters that can trigger off it, EBIs really only offer beatsticks that rely on said Fields to not kill themselves. Or you can make it a Spell Card to get them faster, and it won't make them broken. The search effect is fine though. 

 

By now, you know how power creeped the meta has gotten (and I'm not taking into account Link Monsters at this time). EBIs would appreciate the added revival, but if you want to make them viable in the competitive state, you will need to up the power level on this card.