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[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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[AGATHODAIMON BANGTAIL COW]

Is there an "open all spoilers" button that I for some reason haven't noticed yet? It'd be amazing here.

 

I don't remember what all I said the first time I reviewed these quite some time ago. You simply have waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many cards here. Tons and tons and tons and tons of these look more like generic cards that simply share the "Brute" name. You've got some decent damage-dealers, some removal, plenty of draw cards, at least two RotA-like search cards, monsters that only boost their stats/decrease other monsters' stats, and much, much more. How is this archetype supposed to actually play out? For a larger archetype, you can have multiple goals, though not in a way where you'd want to focus on achieving multiple of those goals unless the means to achieve either worked nicely with one another or else you might as well just make multiple archetypes.

 

For example, Fire Fists. They're a rather large archetype with a fair share of filler material. Their filler material, like the rest of their cards, all focus on doing something involving the Fire Formations. Fire Fist - Bear, one of the key Fire Fist monsters, lets you Set a Fire Formation from your Deck if you deal damage, as well as letting you destroy a monster at the cost of one of those Fire Formations. You also have filler like Fire Formation - Snake, which lets you Set a Fire Formation Trap if a Formation is sent to the Graveyard, and can let you lose two Formations to draw a card. Its effect still ties into the concept of the archetype; it isn't "Once per turn: You can discard 1 card; increase this card's ATK by 1000 until the end of the turn" or something like that. Another thing that that archetype promoted, albeit not very much, was different playstyles. You had a Fire Fist Deck that focused on Level 3s, one that focused on Level 4s, and even one that focused on Level 5s (though it wasn't nearly as good as the other two). A lot of the good Fire Fists saw play in both "3 Axis" and "4 Axis" even if they weren't the right Level. Bear searched by dealing damage for both Decks, and Leopard still Tributed a Fire Fist monster (usually itself) to search a Fire Formation in the 4 Axis version. Naturally, this ended up giving birth to the "3.5 Axis" variant that utilized the strengths of both builds.

 

Your cards need to have a use that helps to achieve the wincon of your Deck. By wincon, I don't mean "win the duel" or "reduce my opponent's Life Points to 0," it's more of how you win the Duel. Like how Kozmos want to Summon their gigantic ships, Shaddolls aimed to get their Fusions out, and so on. For your archetype, it sorta-kinda looks like the wincon is to modify the ATK/DEF stats of monsters so battles end in your favor, but at the same time you got a lot of cards that don't have anything to do with that. Yes, you do need ways to build advantage since "winning battles" will not do enough (heck, I've tried this myself). This is an enormous group of mostly standalone cards benefiting from name support' what you have here feels much more like a Type than an archetype. You need more of "Brute Beast Kain" and less of "Brute Beast Eury."

 

Misc: You accidentally posted "Brute Beast Sanjeet" a second time in the "Brute Beast Achan" spoiler.

[Arctic55]

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[AGATHODAIMON BANGTAIL COW]

It can have a lot of customization, but there is a difference between that and having a large amount of 'filler cards.' I'm only seeing two actual ways to build a Deck as of right now. There's spamming Level 5s (Brute Beasts Nabil and Sanjeet, Brute Beast-Warrior Bahadur, Brute Warriors Kaden and Vailen (who are both the same exact card for some reason, just different names and artworks), and maybe Brute Ogre Sampo), which sounds tame in most cases. Right now, the only problem that I can see with this is that Bahadur is a CyDra-like monster that Summons itself at 2900 ATK (and could climb higher quite easily).

 

The other way is spamming Level 4s through Brute Golem Smug and Brute Noble Nabil (huh, just noticed there are two Nabils here). In fact, this part might be overpowered. Smug is a reincarnation of Rescue Rabbit, but gets the benefit of its archetype name and by Special Summoning monsters that get to use their effects. Nabil is practically a Level 4 Tour Guide for the Deck. Both Rescue Rabbit and Tour Guide are really good cards. Here, you have two Spell Cards that can search either of them for free (Brute Beacon and Brute Search). Then, among the monsters they can Summon, there's Brute Librarian Trainee which lets you draw a card when it is Summoned in any way. Normal Summoning Nabil and then Special Summoning Trainee gives you a 2-material Rank 4 Xyz and a card as a one-card "combo." It gets better with Smug - you Special Summon two Trainees and draw two cards.

 

Alternatively, there's Brute Insect Amcer, which shuts down Special Summons for your opponent only while still having a rather impressive 1800 body (it can also Special Summon itself if need be). Alternatively, there's Brute Maiden Off-Limits, which is a Change of Heart 50% of the time and a backrow steal the other 50% of the time. Where Smug into Trainee turned out to be a +2 after you Xyz Summon (as opposed to Xyz Summons usually being -1s), Smug into Maiden is a +4 after the Xyz Summon with the potential to put a lot of damage on the board all by itself. If you get monsters, you can Xyz Summon The Phantom Knights of Break Sword with the Maidens and pop one of those monsters to get rid of another of your opponent's cards while making sure your opponent doesn't get that card back. If you get backrow, you can mess up your opponent's Pendulum scales, steal powerful backrow like BTH and MST, and your opponent doesn't even get those back at the end of the turn. Speaking of stealing cards, I think Brute Beast-Warrior Wafi is too searchable to have that Mind Control-like effect. It has Brute Beacon, Brute Search, and Fire Formation - Tenki on top of being Summonable from the Deck by Nabil and Smug. Brute Winged-Beast Galchobar might be ok since the monster has to be face-down.

 

Back to more concerning Level 4s that you can Summon with Nabil and Smug: Brute Goblin Slasher. With two attacks per turn, and two of them swinging at 1900 ATK, you deal 7600 damage against an empty field (achievable with Raigeki, Dark Hole, and perhaps some well-timed Traps), which turns into an OTK once you Xyz Summon Gagaga Cowboy. For a monster so easy to get out, being able to deal 3800 damage on its own is too much. In fact, Gagaga Samurai (Rank 4 Xyz with 1900 ATK that can attack twice per turn on detach) gets flak for being able to do this. Then you have Brute Spirit Dan, which can revive any of the other Brute monsters I've mentioned in the Level 4 spam part. That's another free draw from Trainee, another card steal from Off-Limits. Since it works off of any Summon like Satellerknight Altair, it can revive itself to revive something else; it doesn't have Altair's hard OPT, and it doesn't even have its only-Satellarknights-can-attack restriction. And then, you can banish it to revive one of those monsters again. It's also allowed to revive any Level 4 or lower monster, so it's a Mezuki for quite a large number of Decks.

 

I'm not very sure how well the Level 8 monsters actually fit in, might have to try to have a go at this archetype on DP and see for myself. Some other potential problems I'm seeing: Brute Beast-Warrior Rais having Naturia Beast's effect. I know it's a Level 6 monster, and thus it needs a Tribute, but one-sided Spell negation for a very low cost is still a concerning effect. Brute Beast-Warrior Hasim might need a Hard OPT just to be safe (on contrast, Mahesha seems fine-ish, but might become a problem depending on the direction this archetype goes). Brute Warrior Haig is Fire Formation - Tenki on legs, so Decks that normally run Tenki get three more copies of it. Being Level 4 also means you can oftentimes use it to Xyz Summon as well (especially with Fire Formation - Tensu). I have no idea where A New Dawn Special Summons from, or where it sends cards to the Graveyard from. It'd be totally busted if it Special Summoned from the Deck though. Brute Banning does too many things, and the Once Per Duel restriction acknowledges this. You can have it just Special Summon a banished Brute monster and it'd be fine, though its name won't make much sense then. Brute Brewing Beatdown is an extra draw on each of your turns which can be used in any Deck. It's leagues better than Upstart Goblin since you can draw multiple times, it has a chance to deal damage to your opponent rather than healing them, you have a chance for it to also be Double Summon. and being a Continuous Spell isn't that bad since you can just discard a card to avoid destruction.

 

Brute Gift Bearer and Brute Lizard Gift gives the Deck insane turbo powers; it gives the Deck six Pots of Greed. A "discard 1 "Brute" Monster; draw 2 cards" effect would be good enough, and only have one card do this, not two. Brute Search really shouldn't exist when you already have Brute Beacon. It means you have six cards in your Deck that are in essence any one "Brute" monster (or Spell/Trap, though only Search searches those). Opening the Brute Gate shouldn't have an effect as good as drawing a card to go with the Special Summon-from-the-hand effect. It might be a bit bad if it just Special Summoned though. I don't think Zombie Storm should be a Soul Charge that costs less Life Points and has less attack restrictions. In fact, it doesn't seem all that necessary. There's Soul Charge (which has a wider range of targets, making it more useful despite the higher cost and restrictions) and Book of Life, though in Book of Life's case you'd probably fare better running a few Zombies from here in a Zombie Deck than running Book of Life here. Desparate Brute Comeback seems like a bit too extreme of a card; it has a Life Point requirement that makes it too hard to play unless you're trying to get to 2000 or less Life Points, and at the same time, drawing 3 cards is a pretty scary effect. Drake Fire Element probably is a good card without the double Foolish Burial effect - Spell Speed 2 banishing for free is actually a really nice effect.

 

As for fixes for some of the cards, here are ideas for some of them:

 

Trainee: With its effect, it's bound to have some way to net some rather unnecessary draws. On the other hand, Sacred Crane hasn't really been a problem, like, ever. But Trainee benefits from a better Type and name support. Maybe have it draw on Normal Summon only?

 

Nabil: The archetype already has Opening the Brute Gate, Brute Golem Eberhard (kinda) and Brute Beast Kain for Special Summoning from the hand, and Spirit Dan for the Graveyard/banished monsters. Lowering Nabil's Level probably won't be a good fit, but maybe you can lower the Level of the monsters he can Summon. Puts Mahesha and Hasim to good use, and there's also Carey for Synchro plays.

 

Smug: If you're unwilling to scrap cards completely, you could make this not actually part of the archetype (but still supports it). Also, negate the effects of whatever you Special Summon.

 

Bahadur: Seems unnecessary when you already have Nabil (the beast Nabil, not that other one), but if you want to keep it, lower its ATK so that it comes out the gates with an ATK in the low 2000s. Alternatively, you can have it negate its own effects if it Special Summons itself.

 

Amcer: Its anti-Special Summoning effect is too powerful for a monster that can hit the field so easily. Scary Moth and El Shaddoll Winda have weaker forms of this effect, and they both are either harder to Summon or more costly (usually) to Summon. Weakening its effect so that it isn't too much for a Level 4 that can Special Summon itself will probably just weaken the effect so much that it wouldn't make a difference. Maybe it can have a higher Level. Either way, the restriction should go both ways.

 

Goblin Slasher: You already have Brute Beast-Warrior Zranras, who avoids the problem by needing its first attack to be directed at a monster (instead of having both hit directly). You could probably also make Zranras have 1900 ATK too. Makes Goblin Slasher really redundant though.

 

Dan: Letting it only work off of Normal Summons means you get a "Normal Summon Rank 4" card that needs a bit of effort, however small, to use. If you want to keep Smug as a Rescue Rabbit clone, then this really shouldn't Special Summon a monster when this is Special Summoned. You'd get four monsters out of one. I'd give the Mezuki-like effect away to a different monster, or just get rid of it. Whatever you do with it, it shouldn't be able to revive non-"Brute" monsters.

[Arctic55]

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[Arctic55]

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