[Written] Spell Parasite

[Spenstar]

Name: Spell Parasite

Category: Continuous Spell

Effect: You can activate this card on your opponent's side of the field by sending one face-up Continuous Spell Card they control to the GY or by banishing one Spell Card from either player's GY. (Your opponent chooses which zone to place this card.) When this card is activated: each player draws 1 card. You can only control one "Spell Parasite".

 

 

Functionally, this card plays 2 roles. First, it's a backrow Kaiju. Second, it acts as a parasite by eating up one of your opponent's backrow slots. You get to refresh your hand (though I should probably limit the draw effect to the card's controller) and your opponent gets a free card for their troubles, but then it just sits there, limiting your opponent's control over the backrow unless they have an easy mechanism to get rid of it. The option of banishing a spell to use it is specifically so it can be used to eliminate Denko's effect, which I think is fitting for a card that's meant to restrict what your opponent can do with their backrow.

 

You can use Emergency Provisions to turn the parasite into free LP if it's used on you, but otherwise you would have to personally use backrow removal to get rid of it. It's cumbersome, but at least you can only have 1 of these bother you at a time. Ironically, some pendulum decks can (and frequently do) destroy their own cards, so they can handle this just fine.

 

edit: added a stipulation so that it can't shut down pendulums by existing.

[Kid Gambino]

Hmmmmmmmmm... a backrow eater/blocker, very nice. For the stipulation, I would just add at the end of the first sentence in parenthesis "your opponent chooses which zone to place this card", pretty cut-and-dry and shouldn't cause any confusion.

 

Not sure why you felt the need to add the draw effect though, but it's a +1 for both of you so no balancing issues there, just seems out of place and unnecessary. The card is great overall, has a chance being brickable as a lot of decks probably wouldn't care to lose 1 S/T zone, but in the decks that do... well, sucks to be you.

 

Maybe you could consider removing the "can only control 1" and giving it a cost that lets the opponent self-destroy the parasite, that way you can punish an opponent with multiple copies while granting them additional means to remove it, so it has the chance of being more effective the more you're able to draw? Idk, just a thought.

[Spenstar]

Hmmmmmmmmm... a backrow eater/blocker, very nice. For the stipulation, I would just add at the end of the first sentence in parenthesis "your opponent chooses which zone to place this card", pretty cut-and-dry and shouldn't cause any confusion.

 

Not sure why you felt the need to add the draw effect though, but it's a +1 for both of you so no balancing issues there, just seems out of place and unnecessary. The card is great overall, has a chance being brickable as a lot of decks probably wouldn't care to lose 1 S/T zone, but in the decks that do... well, sucks to be you.

 

Maybe you could consider removing the "can only control 1" and giving it a cost that lets the opponent self-destroy the parasite, that way you can punish an opponent with multiple copies while granting them additional means to remove it, so it has the chance of being more effective the more you're able to draw? Idk, just a thought.

 

Thanks for the stipulation! Added that in. And thanks for your kind words! :)

 

I could probably remove the draw effect, but I kind of feel like it should do something when activated. It's inspired by cards like Dark Magic Circle and ESPECIALLY Spellbinding Circle and Premature Burial, stuff that has an effect when activated but can end up just in your backrow, doing nothing, as dead weight. It also makes it a little bit more main deck-able, as even if it isn't all that useful, you at least get to replenish your hand, at the obvious cost of your opponent doing the same. To be honest, it's also there because I fell in love with DMs, and quite a few DM cards like Circle and Rod replace their spot in your hand with something else. (finally, it may as well do something to benefit its controller. Even Lava Golem and the Kaijus can act as beatsticks) Maybe that effect is better off gone, but that's why it's there.

 

I do like the idea of replacing the "you can only control one" with some kind of self-destruction mechanism. I actually have 2 ideas for this: either it self-destructs after a certain number of turns, or it "eats" spells in the controller's GY by banishing one during each of the controller's end phases. It wouldn't be optional, but if there aren't any to eat, all of the Parasites self-destruct at once. The only concern here is I don't want it to stack. I want the cost to be 1 spell in the GY regardless of whether you have 1 parasite or 3 clogging up your backrow, and I'm not 100% sure how to word that.

 

(also, I do like the fact that even if you get all 3 onto your opponent's field, they can still use their pendulums, lol)

 

edit: I'm also considering slapping a "cards and effects cannot be activated in response to this card's activation" effect, so that it harms instead of helps that archetpye (can't remember the name) where the monsters can activate effects if a spell is activated in the same zone as said monster. Not sure, though...