Duel Time Clock Wizard

[Sleepy]

Duel Time Clock Wizard

LIGHT [spellcaster / Link / Effect]  ATK/ 0  LINK- 1      Arrow: Upper Left.

1 monster

Once while face-up on the field (quick effect): select a player. Each time that player adds a card(s) from the Deck to the hand by a card effect, this card gains 1 Link arrow adjacent clockwise to its other Link arrow(s). You cannot Link Summon into zones this card points to if those Link arrows were gained this turn. It gains 500 ATK for each Link Arrow it has. During your Standby Phase, if this card would become a Link 9 monster, you win the Duel.

 

 

 

The idea is that it might punish Decks with tons of searching, but it still needs to survive until the start of your turn, and since it starts from the left, it'll fill up the Arrows pointing at your opponent's field first, and then Right, before finally starting to give you Extra Monster Zones to point to for yourself.

 

It can have up to 8000 ATK, especially if it responds to a Maxx C challenge, though to be fair, if you Maxx C challenge this card doesn't have the best of pointers to swarm and ladder and will likely be made late in your shenanigans, so yeah..... It's as many safety nets as I could think of off the top of my head.

 

Comments, suggestions, thoughts, fixes, etc welcomed~ 

xD

[~~~~]

I like the idea, but in reality this card is just a generic link 1, and that's how people would likely use it. Once in every 50 games or so you might get the wincon, but this would still see a lot of play because it allows you to actually abuse Firewall Dragon loops.

 

Also after just 2 searches this becomes a 3k <^ which is kinda really good for Extra Link.

 

That's also not to mention its use in Link laddering. For example, Normal Summon Tour Guide, summon Sangan from the deck. Link 1 using Sangan, Sangan activates, chain this effect declaring yourself. Add Link In-Flyer, or my preference, Gilasaurus, and there, you have the materials for a Firewall just off a Normal Summon. And that's definitely not the most extreme example. If I wanted to, I'd go into detail about looping B-Buster Drake to that way and beyond, probably get this to Link 5 or 6 if I played well.

 

I don't really know how to fix it, because it's a generic Link 1, and that's broken, it's a Link that gains Rating easily, and that's abusable. IDK what could be changed about this card that would remove those factors without just making a new card. Sorry

[Sleepy]

I like the idea, but in reality this card is just a generic link 1, and that's how people would likely use it. Once in every 50 games or so you might get the wincon, but this would still see a lot of play because it allows you to actually abuse Firewall Dragon loops.

 

Also after just 2 searches this becomes a 3k <^ which is kinda really good for Extra Link.

 

That's also not to mention its use in Link laddering. For example, Normal Summon Tour Guide, summon Sangan from the deck. Link 1 using Sangan, Sangan activates, chain this effect declaring yourself. Add Link In-Flyer, or my preference, Gilasaurus, and there, you have the materials for a Firewall just off a Normal Summon. And that's definitely not the most extreme example. If I wanted to, I'd go into detail about looping B-Buster Drake to that way and beyond, probably get this to Link 5 or 6 if I played well.

 

I don't really know how to fix it, because it's a generic Link 1, and that's broken, it's a Link that gains Rating easily, and that's abusable. IDK what could be changed about this card that would remove those factors without just making a new card. Sorry

 

 

I think I'll move the original arrow to upper Left so that it cannot service Extra Link and so that it doesn't work as well when used in linked Main Monster Zones.

Then I'll halve that ATK boost, since it is true the card gains ATK a bit too fast....

 

I think I can further lower the genericness of this card with an extra effect that restricts the arrows usable for laddering. For example:

You cannot Link Summon into zones this card points to whose arrows were gained this turn.

^that way it'll take a little more to unlock and it won't just disperse like no tomorrow in combos.

 

Not sure yet if this is all too much or not enough, but really thank you for calling those things out to my attention. xD

[Darj]

I agree with the Speedroid. Generic Link1 is deceptively good, the win condition is asking for abuse, and I feel you underestimate the capabilities of adding 9 cards to your hand; Exodia decks come to mind, except that instead of bothering with the 5 pieces of Exodia, you just need 1 monster to turn into this. End even if don't make it all the way to 9, the gained Link points give you access to bigger Links.

 

Ways to water it down that I can think of is making the summoning requirements more specific, and gaining a Link point only once per turn; that way, the link point gaining effect won't be as practical to use for laddering, and the win condition becomes more of a "protect the castle" strategy. Also it would remain good, as Speedroid elaborated with the example with TGU.

 

That aside, I spotted an issue with the text. The win condition requires it to be Link 9, but the monster only gains Link points with its effect and doesn't state that its Link Number is actually increased. Now, IDK if gaining Link points --> increased Link Number, but just for the sake of consistency and being ruling-friendly, I suggest to re-write the win condition effect to require 9 points on the monster, rather than becoming Link 9.

[Sleepy]

I agree with the Speedroid. Generic Link1 is deceptively good, the win condition is asking for abuse, and I feel you underestimate the capabilities of adding 9 cards to your hand; Exodia decks come to mind, except that instead of bothering with the 5 pieces of Exodia, you just need 1 monster to turn into this. End even if don't make it all the way to 9, the gained Link points give you access to bigger Links.

 

Ways to water it down that I can think of is making the summoning requirements more specific, and gaining a Link point only once per turn; that way, the link point gaining effect won't be as practical to use for laddering, and the win condition becomes more of a "protect the castle" strategy. Also it would remain good, as Speedroid elaborated with the example with TGU.

 

That aside, I spotted an issue with the text. The win condition requires it to be Link 9, but the monster only gains Link points with its effect and doesn't state that its Link Number is actually increased. Now, IDK if gaining Link points --> increased Link Number, but just for the sake of consistency and being ruling-friendly, I suggest to re-write the win condition effect to require 9 points on the monster, rather than becoming Link 9.

 

 

I believe I ninja'd you there. I edited the card just before your post went through.

I suppose I could specify the increased Link, but I mean, they go hand in hand because that's what the Link number means. How many zones it can link to.

The card never becomes a Link 9 because there is no space for the arrows. Instead it maxes out at Link 8 and then when it tries to repeat the +1 Link effect, it wins the game instead. I did not put "instead" in the text because after you win the game it hardly matters xD but I guess I can re-word it just in case.

 

OPT is a bit too slow because it demands about 8 opponent's turns or 4 of yours if you feel confident to be able to get quick effect searching  once per turn for the rest of the duel. 

Let's see what you think of this other change instead..... 

 

 

[~~~~]

Yeah I think that the main problem here is that it's still a generic Link 1. Even with Linkuriboh in the real game, some (imo minor) examples of abuse show up when coupled with cards such as Level Eater.

 

Basically, the Link 1 allows you to get your recurring fodder (in this example Level Eater, but there are more degenerate examples) off the field so that you can resummon it and Link ladder up into Proxy Dragon etc and branch across the field into an easy Extra Link.

 

I believe that the problem cards in these situations (were they ever to actually become a problem for the meta) are actually the Firewall Dragons and Level Eaters that provide the infinite loopage. Konami will probably at some point release a Link 1 that can be used with ABC (or your choice of main deck loop), but I think that that is Konami's mistake to make. Firewall Dragon imo should be banned, but it's the protagonist's ace, it's not our call to make as card makers, and this isn't the section for it.

 

In the meantime, a fully generic Link 1 vanilla, regardless of where its arrow points serves only to be exploited by a multitude of decks. If you make it slightly less generic, then fewer loops would have access to it, but the problem would still persist, at least in principle. I really don't know how to balance this card other than making it archetypal (which beats the point) or just straight up preventing you from summoning other Link Monsters in the same turn that it was Summoned, and that's quite a nuclear option.

 

Add on to the fact that it's an alt-wincon (something which is notoriously difficult to balance), and this is a really tricky card. On one hand, it's easy to declare no alt-win condition should ever be viable because it just feels unfair. On the other hand, I'm sure you feel that as the creator of this card, you want there to be a point to it beyond "generic link 1" or "noob bait" like Spirit Message and other alt-wincons.