2013 Deckmaster Format - No, this isnt like the Anime

[Delibirb]

To begin, this isnt much like the Anime, though it draws inspiration from it. Instead of any monster being selected as a Deckmaster, there are specific Deckmaster Monsters, with unique summoning conditions and effects.

 

What is a Deckmaster?

This is an example of a Deckmaster:

And ill explain what is unique about them.

 

• Each player can have only 1 Deckmaster per duel, and cannot exchange their Deckmaster During the Duel. It does not count towards their deck min./max. (Meaning they are still 40 and 60, respectively)(Deckmasters can be changed between duels during a match)
• Most Deckmasters have 2 abilities: 1 which activates or is continuous while in the Deckmaster Zone (Beside the Deck) and 1 that activates or is continuous when it is Special Summoned to the Field.
• A Deckmaster can be Special Summoned at any time, including your opponent's turn (except the Damage Step) when you control the number of monsters which would be required to Tribute Summon for your Deckmaster's Level. IE: If you Deckmaster is Level 8, you can Special Summon it when you control 2 or more monsters.
• Deckmasters cannot be used as Tributes, and cannot be targeted by any effect which would send them to the Graveyard (This includes Number 66: Master Key Beetle) or Banish Them (Big Bag Shot, Bottomless Trap Hole)
• If a Deckmaster would be sent to the graveyard (by a card which does not break the above rules, such as Black Hole) they are returned to the Deckmaster Zone face-down instead. They cannot be flipped face-up until your next turn after it was returned.
• Deckmasters cannot activate their effects while face-down.
• Control of Deckmasters cannot switch (This includes by the effects of Relinquished, etc. They also cannot be targeted by cards such as Creature Swap)
• Deckmasters cannot be targeted by any effects while in the Deckmaster Zone (Except another Deckmaster's Effect)
• If your Deckmaster is destroyed by battle, you lose the duel.

Other than those Rules the duel continues as normal, and one can still win by other win conditions or reducing their opponent's LP to zero.

 

Other Deckmasters: (I wont go into too much detail as they are primarily just mock-up potential designs and effect concepts.)

          

 

This next one was built for my Deceiver Archetype:

 

Ill post a video showing how I made the Deckmaster Card Backgrounds at some point, as well. If you want, lend me some ideas and ill make them up for you. :)

[Toffee.]

Quetzl > Disciple >>>> Every other Deckmaster
Just sayin', things are pretty damn one-sided and on a rather unfair level. I mean, in general, they are just too game-breaking by themselves.
Quetz gets played first turn; Opponent's hand goes to 0 -> Opponent looses unless they play Dark Worlds/Fabled, but even then, that's just too ridiculous.
Disciple's once-per-turn perma-Change of Heart is blantantly overpowered, and using the monster as Tribute/Xyz/Synchro fodder overwrites the drawbacks.
etc
etc

[Delibirb]

Someone wasn't paying attention when I said not to take the examples too seriously. The post is mainly about the format, not the cards used to get the point across.

I wholeheartedly agree with your points on those two, but if I wanted them graded this would be in the cards section.

[Sora1499]

1. I don't like the look the cards themselves have. The stripes make them really hard and annoying to read. 2. This should be in ban lists and theory.

[Toffee.]

Someone wasn't paying attention when I said not to take the examples too seriously. The post is mainly about the format, not the cards used to get the point across.

I wholeheartedly agree with your points on those two, but if I wanted them graded this would be in the cards section.

Still, even if Deckmasters themselves are that extreme, then the game boils down to whoever has the better one.
Deckmasters should be important to the deck your using, yes, but it shouldn't be something blatantly overpowered and wins the duel by itself, which is what I'm getting at.
I mean, yes, they are examples, but if that's the kind of shenanigans people can expect, then it just too ridiculous for it to even considered a duel in the first place.
No offense, of course.

[Azuh]

hmmm

[Delibirb]

Still, even if Deckmasters themselves are that extreme, then the game boils down to whoever has the better one.
Deckmasters should be important to the deck your using, yes, but it shouldn't be something blatantly overpowered and wins the duel by itself, which is what I'm getting at.
I mean, yes, they are examples, but if that's the kind of shenanigans people can expect, then it just too ridiculous for it to even considered a duel in the first place.
No offense, of course.

You dont seem to have problems with the others being overpowered.

 

hmmm

Found it on JazinKay's photobucket and gave him credit. I dont know anything about that.

 

1. I don't like the look the cards themselves have. The stripes make them really hard and annoying to read. 2. This should be in ban lists and theory.

1. It is likely just a problem with the resolution. If they were actually done professionally I am certain it would not be so distracting. Also, the design doesnt have to be final, of course.

2. My mistake, I saw similar posts like this in this section, perhaps they simply werent moved.

[Toffee.]

You dont seem to have problems with the others being overpowered.

[spoiler=Because I don't really need to mention why, as it's blatantly obvious]
Dinju is too gimmicky, and won't survive on it's own.
Entreken rewards you for throwing blind Typhoons and is a walking 3K+ beater + Feather Duster out of thin air.
Fox kills off like 50% of the decks people could make, just by existing, and is also a Royal Tribute on legs; Makes a deadly first turn if it goes right.
Millipede's mill is pointless, unless your playing luck-based decks, which is bad. It's Graveyard recycle will likely lead to loops because it recovers anything.
Nobody will play Sephalous.
Guarden is absurd.
Disciple; Walking, perma-Change of Heart with drawbacks that can be worked around.
Seth is pure winmoar.
Ringleader is likely the only normal one.
Thundomo's 2nd effect is absurd.
Quetzl; Everyone will use the same stupid logic as Rabbit- Run 3 FIREs in any deck, just to trigger it's hand-nuke to use it on the Opponent's 1st turn, netting an auto-win against anything that isn't DWs, Fabled, and to an extent, Mermail or Zombie(but even then, that's a stretch)
Salamander is absurd.
Master is excluded because it belongs to a custom Archetype.[/spoiler]

[Delibirb]

[spoiler=Because I don't really need to mention why, as it's blatantly obvious]
Dinju is too gimmicky, and won't survive on it's own.
Entreken rewards you for throwing blind Typhoons and is a walking 3K+ beater + Feather Duster out of thin air.
Fox kills off like 50% of the decks people could make, just by existing, and is also a Royal Tribute on legs; Makes a deadly first turn if it goes right.
Millipede's mill is pointless, unless your playing luck-based decks, which is bad. It's Graveyard recycle will likely lead to loops because it recovers anything.
Nobody will play Sephalous.
Guarden is absurd.
Disciple; Walking, perma-Change of Heart with drawbacks that can be worked around.
Seth is pure winmoar.
Ringleader is likely the only normal one.
Thundomo's 2nd effect is absurd.
Quetzl; Everyone will use the same stupid logic as Rabbit- Run 3 FIREs in any deck, just to trigger it's hand-nuke to use it on the Opponent's 1st turn, netting an auto-win against anything that isn't DWs, Fabled, and to an extent, Mermail or Zombie(but even then, that's a stretch)
Salamander is absurd.
Master is excluded because it belongs to a custom Archetype.[/spoiler]

OK, now you have some points. So the cards I designed for examples perhaps are not balanced or useful, and I would attempt to rebuttal and likely go fix them IF this post were about the cards. But this post is primarily about the format, the cards are mere (and yes, bad) examples of what Deckmasters could be, or perhaps what they shouldnt be.

 

EDIT: If this post were about the cards, those responses about them would not fly with the forum rules, anyway.

[Sleepy]

Without reading the other comments, this is what I think of it:

 

-The templates have too much contrast. No matter what design anyone wants to use for a new card concept's template, the rule of thumb is that the data must be easily readable. Even Xyzs that are a full black page, made sure this would be the case.

 

-The concept has some features I do not agree with.

It should not have built in protection. An individual one could, but as a whole mechanic it's a no no.

The game does not need yet more ways to lose more quickly. If anything, you should take advantage of this mechanic of yours to bump up the Duel's duration.

 

-Does that mean that your Deckmaster is nothing and does nothing until it fills your field? Hmm...it's like a 1-card second Extra Deck if you ask me. Might as well just have it in the Extra Deck and save some text.

 

 

-I'd suggest instead of making them monsters with power stats that get Summoned, you make them supporting effects outside the field to prevent them from being caught by every destroying effect out there. To make up for that invensibility, you could also give them Life Points for your opponent to be able to get rid of them in a natural way. That in turn would increase the average Life in a Duel and be generally good for the game if done correctly.

 

I've personally been working on something of the sort. I have to tune down a couple details though.

[Delibirb]

Without reading the other comments, this is what I think of it:

 

-The templates have too much contrast. No matter what design anyone wants to use for a new card concept's template, the rule of thumb is that the data must be easily readable. Even Xyzs that are a full black page, made sure this would be the case.

 

-The concept has some features I do not agree with.

It should not have built in protection. An individual one could, but as a whole mechanic it's a no no.

The game does not need yet more ways to lose more quickly. If anything, you should take advantage of this mechanic of yours to bump up the Duel's duration.

 

-Does that mean that your Deckmaster is nothing and does nothing until it fills your field? Hmm...it's like a 1-card second Extra Deck if you ask me. Might as well just have it in the Extra Deck and save some text.

 

 

-I'd suggest instead of making them monsters with power stats that get Summoned, you make them supporting effects outside the field to prevent them from being caught by every destroying effect out there. To make up for that invensibility, you could also give them Life Points for your opponent to be able to get rid of them in a natural way. That in turn would increase the average Life in a Duel and be generally good for the game if done correctly.

 

I've personally been working on something of the sort. I have to tune down a couple details though.

Thank you for your thoughts! :)

 

-I see what you mean with the card background. to be totally honest I couldnt think of another color for them, so I went with something more abstract - and perhaps that didnt work.

 

-In my tests duels seem to last the same amount of time or longer, based on the Deckmaster matchup, but as we've only worked with a few of the Deckmasters I have up there, this isnt decisive.

 

-I dont see what you mean by doing nothing until it enters the field? They all have effects while not on the field.

 

-The invincibility from destruction effects was specifically to keep the duels from being too short, so removing that wouldnt help your above point, but the entire concept can of course be modified as necessary around that. I do kind of like that idea of separate Life points, not sure how we could grow around that at the moment, though.

[Sleepy]

Thank you for your thoughts! :)

 

-I see what you mean with the card background. to be totally honest I couldnt think of another color for them, so I went with something more abstract - and perhaps that didnt work.

The background design itself is fine, you just need to make it less harsh around the text. Kind of how other games like Vanguard have it. They can even cover the whole card with the art, but the parts that have important info must not be too sharp compared to the background, so they use whiter transparent tones around them to let you know the design is still back there, but it still doesn't bother the reading experience.

 

-In my tests duels seem to last the same amount of time or longer, based on the Deckmaster matchup, but as we've only worked with a few of the Deckmasters I have up there, this isnt decisive.

Yeah... Testing helps, but it's still not decisive to the degree it'd be if you were to really try it with let's say... 1000 people. Some problem oughts to arise, especially if the cards are meant to be powerful.

 

-I dont see what you mean by doing nothing until it enters the field? They all have effects while not on the field.

No, nevermind that. I was able to read a little bit of them (it's somewhat hard)... "while in the Deckmaster Zone". I take this bit back.

 

-The invincibility from destruction effects was specifically to keep the duels from being too short, so removing that wouldnt help your above point, but the entire concept can of course be modified as necessary around that. I do kind of like that idea of separate Life points, not sure how we could grow around that at the moment, though.

I can see the why of those, but it's still weird that some effects would not be able to touch them, and some of those are oddly specific (controlling effects, used for a Summon, used for a cost, sent or banished, and probably neither returned to the hand, or maybe that'd make it go back to the Deckmaster Zone just like Extra Deck monsters).

 

Have you considered just removing all those details, making your Deckmasters bulnerable to everything, and just removing the part where you lose if your Deckmaster is gone?

They DID take that risk the moment they decided to get out of their comfort zone after all.