Carmilla and Will-o-Wisps, 2 pieces of Ghostrick Support [Written]

[drowsyCoffee]

Welp, those are 2 pieces of Ghostrick support i've made, being designed having in mind the 2 current main weaknesses of the archetype: lacking any kind of meaningful first turn plays and lacking any kind of interruption outside Book of Moon-ing the opponents monsters, as well as having very few outs to Link monsters. My objective with those two cards is improving the Archetype's performance in those 2 specific tasks while still keeping them as easily identifiable and exploitable weaknesses of it. Due to some lack of knowledge on my part, their psct might be wonky, specially the parts were they force you to flip face down your own cards, as i had problems finding official cards with similar effects to compare mine's to. With that out of the way, lets get this started

 

Ghostrick Will-o-Wisps
Level 1 / Dark
Fiend/ Effect
0 Atk / 0 Def
Cannot be Normal Summoned, unless you control a "Ghostrick" monster. Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position
During your Main Phase: You can reveal this card and 1 other “Ghostrick” Monster in your hand; Special Summon both of them, then, if they had different levels, flip them face down. 

 

So, lets quickly talk about Will-o-Wisp. In theory, the objective of this card is giving you the tools to build any kind of board turn one, as well as improving your field swarming abilities on future turns, to reduce the deck's dependency on Fairy and Mummy (As well as Doll to some lesser degree) in order to get monsters on the field. If you draw it in a hand that only has 1 other Level 2 or 3 Ghostrick monster, this card is a bit awkard to play, and specially if that card was Jiangshi or Doll (Both would give you access to another Level 1) you might even decide to not play this card at all; but still, it gives you the option to slap more bodies on the board, which might help you in getting at least 1 monster to survive till your next turn, as you would have access to more Scare targets, you would have more card that you'll opponent would have to get rid of, etc. Outside that unlucky scenario, this card is simply an instant Dullanhan, which in turn would become an Angel, letting you add a Spell/Trap (Probably a Scare, as it is your only interruption) and either set this card in GY for future use or let you add a card from your GY to hand, which could let you generate more plays afterwards. It also doesnt consume your Normal Summon, a very important resource on this deck; and gives you a face-up body on the field, allowing you to summon Ghostricks face up in case you had more future plays (Like Mummy into another LV3, into Alucard, into Angel for more searches) or letting you use their on field effs in case it is relevant, like summoning Nekomusume in certain match-ups  as some sort of weak floodgate

 

Your first turn plays would still definitively suck, a lot, and even on a best case scenario the only reliable end board this card could end would probably be basically 2 monsters and a Book of Moon (Angel, + any face down monsters, + Scare), but there is the chance that you could build some stronger and a bit tougher boards to deal with, specially including Nekomusume into the picture, though still your boards would be sub par when compared to most other decks, almost anything would be a better turn 1 board considering how low the bar has been set by the archetype. Mid to Late game, this card would rise in power and peak down again, as you could do some interesting combos off of it, and you would be able to resolve Jiangshi more reliably on a built board, with it being the only monster searcher the archetype has, giving you a quicker access to more copies of this card; but then there is the issue where you would relatively quickly  run out of copies of Dullanhan and Angel, and unless you had Links and/or a way to recycle those Xyz, like Pot of Avarice, you wouldnt be able to keep getting as much use of the resources made out of this card. Finally, the reason i didnt give it a HOPT clause, is because even though the deck could recycle this card easily, and use it to keep summoning Xyz thanks to the floating eff of most of their Xyzs, the deck simply doesnt have a way to add enough monsters back to hand as fodder nor does it have enough good level 1 monsters worth including into the deck to do anything crazy with it

 

Ghostrick Carmilla
Level 1 / Dark
Fiend/ Effect
0 Atk / 700 Def
Cannot be Normal Summoned, unless you control a "Ghostrick" monster. Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position
When a monster on the field activates its effect (Quick Effect): You can reveal 1 other "Ghostrick" card in your hand, except "Ghostrick Carmilla", then send this card in your hand to the GY; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card. If you control card(s), change 1 monster you control to face-down Defense Position to actívate and resolve this effect

 

This one is actually relatively simple. It gives Ghostricks some much needed interruptions to slow the game down and reach more easily their ideal game state, it can act as an out to Link monsters since most of their other outs (Outside atk manipulation) are centered around flipping cards face down and/or targetting set cards, it can be searched (Though it is a bit hard to do since Jiangshi is their only monster sercher), and Ghostricks have ways to recyle it to, being a more useful alternative when compared to other targets, as usually the only thing they could do with the cards they added to the hand is either use them as discard fodder, or use them as Book of Moons in the case of Scare. Another detail is that it is generic (though if you dont have a way to benefit from it setting cards face down, there are better options going second like Impermanence or Evenly), and you could probably use it along a LV 1 ghostrick engine, with Wisp, Specter and maybe Lanter; or on a flip deck (Like Guru Control), as an extra avaible interruption. Not that much else to say about it, the effect is kinda straight foward, and again the only interesting things you could do with it are maybe targeting a Jiangshi to flip it face down and add more Carmillas;, or maybe use the floating eff on Xyz to recover the already used copies, but outside being a handtrap the card doesnt have that many uses

 

 

 

That is about it for the pieces of Ghostrick support ive made, i think just the addition of those two should make the deck more playable in MR5,  and i cant really think of any degenerate uses of those cards; though again i must admit that my game knowledge is very lacking, so if you find any potential degenerate combos/interesting strats please feel free to tell me, i would love to know your ideas. I hope you like those cards, and again, sorry for the messy flipping down psct, i didnt found any real cards to compare my effects to and thus i might have broken some of the guidelines when using those kinds of effs

 

See ya!

 

[Rayfield Lumina]

Hell yeah, you finally posted the Ghostrick Cards! Let me tell you something: You must be the first person whose explanation of the cards is like thrice the length of the effect xD.

Your card grammar is very good. There are just small details, but it's not messy at all. I'll try to help you with it:

Quote

Ghostrick Will-o-Wisps

Cannot be Normal Summoned, unless you control a "Ghostrick" monster. Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position. During your Main Phase: You can reveal this card and 1 other “Ghostrick” Monster in your hand; Special Summon both of them on your side of the field, then, if they had different levels, flip them face down.

* As you can see, I'm only removing the side of the field part. It's redundant, as Special Summon = Your field. Only specify when you're Summoning on the other side (e.g. "Special Summon both of them to your opponent's field...)

Ghostrick Carmilla

Cannot be Normal Summoned, unless you control a "Ghostrick" monster. Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position. When a monster on the field activates its effect (Quick Effect): You can send this card in your hand to the GY; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card. If you control a card(s), change 1 monster you control to face-down Defense Position to activate and to resolve this effect.

Use m instead of M when referring to a monster, unless you're talking about Fusion/Synchro/etc Monster. After a semicolon, always use lower case. Even though the "and" conjunction is quite valid, I suggest that you try to use "and if you do". If you control cards in your field is redundant. If you control, then that means they're in your field. I'm not 100% positive of the next, but I think you can forgo the "you must", simply write the mandatory action. Finally, "In order to", is something I've seen in older cards, but now it's ok to say "to activate and to resolve".

The cards are cool. like you mention, they're not going to win you games everytime, but they do their work. Since I'm a little abusive (lol), I might have added another effect for WIll, but it's fine as it is. For instance, Will-o-Wisps made me think of the Pokemon move of the same name (I know you haven't played it, don't worry) which causes Burn on target, making it's ATK go halved, and the Pokemon losing a fraction of HP each turn. In this case, something like: If this card is destroyed by battle: Place 1 Burn Counter on the attacker. Once per turn, during your opponent's Standby Phase: Inflict 500 damage for each Burn Counter placed on your opponent's monsters. Don't mind me too much, just some stupid ideas xD. As for Carmilla, I'm pretty sure she'd like to meet Socuteboss nice, evil Trap Card. So, evil that it actually makes me feel it's overpowered. It's pretty much Effect Veiler and Ghost Ogre in one card, with the classic Ghostrick con and no-Tuner. Sure, the face-down clause is bad, but this would be pretty much the holy grail of turn 1 hand traps xP. I feel it's borderline, but balanced in the end thanks to the final restriction, since it'll be screwed if you have backrow but no monsters to flip face-down. Scary girl.

[drowsyCoffee]

Thank you very much for the compliment, actually, explaining my thought process behind cards, and reading others thought process on em and all that stuff is my favorite part about making cards, it has got a very similar feeling to brainstorming with someone to make a deck or something, just, from a designer perspective instead of a player one

 

Ironically, i actually know a whole lot about pokemon, specially the competitive scene, since it is in my opinion one of the most interesting Turn Based Strategy Games out there, and i've watched a whole lot of nuzlocke runs, weird builds and all that good stuff, that is the main reason why i feel so bad not being able to play those games myself xD. Though the burn counter shenanigans sound fun, i feel like counters on Ghostricks have counter synergy (?, (I'll get myself out sorry for that xD) due to Ghostrick flipping shenanigans constantly disrupting your counters, something  that probably wouldnt feel good to play with. Still, link monsters are a thing, so maybe you could just make so a Stein can beat down an Appollousa or something like that. 

Leaving that aside, i agree that though it is fine as it is Wisp could maybe use an extra eff, it is just that i didnt had that many ideas for some extra effs (Maybe something triggering when it is detached?) and since i felt fine as it was i wanted to leave it at that, after all, i have a pretty bad habit of overcomplicating my cards that i've been trying to break out of. Did you know that Duel Portal had a limit on how long your effs could be? Yeah it got that badly

 

I can totally agree with Carmilla's eff being potentially overtuned, specially when you consider that her powerful turn 1 disruptive nonsense is avaible throught the whole duel for decks like Guru Control or Ghostrick, which already posses enough disruptions on their own. I based her using Subterror Fiendess as comparison point for what was ok for an Archetype specific Handtrap to do, but she may be a bit too generic to judge her effs under that light. There is also the thing that throught Jiangshi spam the deck could relatively quickly add all 3 copies of Carmilla to hand, while still being able to recicle her throught Xyz floating effs, so you could find yourself having to deal with 2 to 3 copies every turn past their first turn for the rest of the duel. Maybe removing her destruction eff on the negation or making her less generic might be a good idea. Idk, would love to hear your own ideas about it

 

All in all, i think that is about it. Thank you very much for the feedback, specially for the psct, it has been really informative to me  and i've learned a lot of rules that i had absolutely no clue on, it helped me a lot to improve my own psct which is somewhat outdated. Though i've been avoiding the "and if you do" clause, since i had used it quite a lot on the past and i know that if i start i am not gonna stop anytime soon, i do admit that its specific traits make it the correct conjunction for Carmilla

 

Thank you very much, see ya

[Rayfield Lumina]

You're welcome, I'm glad you found it useful. Again I take the opportunity to clarify I am no master of PSCT, but I'm positive of the changes I suggested, at least xD.

Ahem, yeah, huhhh... the Counter Idea was quite the stupid one, nervermind that, lol.

Yes, the main problem with Carmilla is her generic status. We don't want to nerf her too much, though, as she doesn't have a flipped face-up effect, and thus her role should stay strong. Actually, I'd say the fix is quite simple, and also works in a similar way to Will-o-Wisp: Revealing. But probably we should stay nice and make the reveal wide, by including any "Ghostrick" Card, and not only monsters.

When a monster on the field activates its effect (Quick Effect): You can reveal 1 other "Ghostrick" card in your hand, except "Ghostrick Carmilla", then send this card in your hand to the GY; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card.

p.d. for real, what kind of PC do you use. Maybe I can help you get an emulator you can run. All for the sake of playing Pokemon.

[drowsyCoffee]

My pc knowledge is dwarfed only by my knowledge of link combos, so if i am being honest the only way i know to describe it would be an "office notebook" (Netbook? Never learned the difference). My only experience emulating pokemon was that one time with Sun and Moon were i couldnt even go through the first cutscene, as i had in general pretty awful experiences with emulators and really didnt felt like wasting my time trying out alternatives

 

I kinda like the idea of revealing Ghostricks, though i feel like it might be a bit too restrictive when combined with the mandatory flip. Bah, the deck is almost always floating in random traps in hand added by Angel, if anything, it might hurt the variants that run Carmilla as a part of a Ghostrick toolbox, which is the intended effect. Usually, im not a big fan of those revealing clauses, as i feel that they are a bit of an easy way out as a designer, but considering that the card is intended to be used on an empty field, i think that there arent that many other ways to restrict her into the archetype, for now, i'll add that effect to keep the card balanced, but i am open to other alternatives

 

On another topic, maybe it could have worked as a lingering eff instead of a counter, though i am not exactly well versed on those

[Rayfield Lumina]

Ok, ok, Mr. I don't want an easy way out as a designer, how about something like this:

Cannot be Normal Summoned, unless you control a "Ghostrick" monster. Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position. When a monster on the field activates its effect (Quick Effect): You can send this card in your hand to the GY, then shuffle 1 other "Ghostrick" card in your hand; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, also, after that, draw 1 card, but if it is not a "Ghostrick" card, banish it.

Now, this effect removes the generic part, as we agreed, but make it stronger, as it seems quite unlikely you don't have another Ghostrick to pay for the new effect. Furthermore, it gives you a bit of an strategic shuffle. I'm not sure if the banishing is pushing it, but simply discarding it as well still stays as benefit in general, unless you want it to be a non-permanent banishing (as in, returns during your third Standby Phase as punishment) OR shuffle it again, which hurts.

Lingering effects... I'm not exactly an expert either...

Cannot be Normal Summoned, unless you control a "Ghostrick" monster. Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position. (Quick Effect): You can send this card in your hand to the GY, and if you do, negate the next monster effect your opponent activates this turn, also, if a monster effect is negated by this card's effect, destroy that monster.

Just an idea. The grammar is probably a little wonky, also, but I'd say it's understandable xD. As you can see, it comes with its own set of pros and cons. Doesn't target, cool. Harder to use, yeah. Depending on when you decide to use it, it'd be complex to catch the monster you're interested in seeing screwed. Moreover, this thing negates a monster effect, but not the activation, which can lead to some trouble because of opponent still paying costs and whatnot, something that can be beneficial for them.