Eternal (Ritual Archtype)

[SecondSeraphim]

This grew out of wanting to see an archetype of Ritual Monsters that could work with pre-prep, then I had the idea of Ritual spells that weren’t, well, Ritual spells. Enjoy!

 

Monsters

Queen of the Eternal      LIGHT/Fairy/Ritual                                           LV 8        ATK: 2800 / DEF 2000

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Eternal" Ritual Spell. Cannot be destroyed by card effects while you control another Ritual monster. Other Ritual monsters you control cannot be targeted by attacks. If a card, effect, or attack targets an “Eternal” monster you control you can either banish an “Eternal” Ritual Spell in your GY OR turn one of your face-up banished “Eternal” Ritual Spells face-down; negate the card, effect, or attack. This effect can only be activated once per turn, or, if this card was Ritual Summoned using “Throne of the Eternal”, twice per turn.

 

(Note: Imagined as a retrain of “Guardian Angel Joan”)

 

 

Messenger of the Eternal             LIGHT/Fairy/Ritual                           LV 6        ATK: 2400 / DEF 0

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Eternal" Ritual Spell. If this card is Special Summoned during the opponent’s Main Phase or Battle Phase; end the current Phase. If this card is Ritual Summoned during your turn, this card may attack twice during each Battle Phase, or 3 times if Ritual Summoned by “Forewarning of the Eternal”.

 

(Note: Imagined as a retrain of “The Agent of Judgment Saturn”)

 

 

Swordsman of the Eternal           LIGHT/Warrior/Ritual                     LV 4        ATK: 1700 / DEF 1000

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Eternal" Ritual Spell. If this card is Ritual Summoned, or Special Summoned by the effect of “Unrest of the Eternal”, you can target an “Eternal” monster you control; it gains 600 ATK.

 

(Note: Imagined as a retrain of “Neo the Magic Swordsman”)

 

 

Commander of the Eternal          LIGHT/Spellcaster/Ritual               LV 4        ATK: 1600 / DEF 1200

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Eternal" Ritual Spell. If this card Ritual Summoned, you may take an “Eternal” Ritual Monster from your Deck and add it to your hand, or, if this card was Ritual Summoned by the effect of “Promise of the Eternal” and the selected card is a LV 3 or lower “Eternal” Ritual monster, you can Special Summon it (this is treated as a Ritual Summon).

 

(Note: Imagined as a retrain of “Field-Commander Rahz”)

 

 

Keeper of the Eternal                     LIGHT/Spellcaster/Ritual               LV2         ATK 500 / DEF 400

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Eternal" Ritual Spell. If this card is Ritual Summoned; draw a card, or, if Ritual Summoned by the effect of “Law of the Eternal”, draw 2 instead. Once per turn you can take 1 “Eternal” card in your GY or that is banished face-up and shuffle it into your Deck; draw a card.

 

(Note: Imagined as a retrain of “Spellbook Magician of Prophecy”)

 

 

Scribe of the Eternal                       LIGHT/Winged Beast/Ritual         LV2         ATK 500 / DEF 400

You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Eternal" Ritual Spell. If this card Ritual Summoned, you may take an “Eternal” Spell card from your Deck and send it to the GY, or, if this card was Ritual Summoned by the effect of “History of the Eternal”, add it to your hand.

 

(Note: Imagined as a retrain of “Spirit of the Books”)

Spells

 

Throne of the Eternal                     Field

(This card is also a Ritual Spell.)  Once per turn, you can target one of your face-up banished “Eternal” Ritual Spells; this card’s name becomes the same as that card until the End Phase, also turn that face-up banished card face-down. Once while you control this card you can activate this effect: Ritual Summon any "Eternal" Ritual Monster from your hand. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. You can banish this card from your GY; add a “Queen of the Eternal” from your Deck to your hand.

 

Forewarning of the Eternal         Quick-Play

(This card is also a Ritual Spell.) This card is used to Ritual Summon any "Eternal" Ritual Monster. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. You can banish this card from your GY; add a “Messenger of the Eternal” from your Deck to your hand.

 

Unrest of the Eternal                     Normal

(This card is also a Ritual Spell.) Select and activate one of the following effects:

• Target an “Eternal” Ritual monster in your GY; Special Summon it.
• Ritual Summon any "Eternal" Ritual Monster from your GY or banished cards. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon.

You can banish this card from your GY; add a “Swordsman of the Eternal” from your Deck to your hand.

 

Promise of the Eternal                  Equip

(This card is also a Ritual Spell.) The equipped monster gains 600 ATK. If this card leaves the field because the equipped monster was destroyed by battle, left the field due to an opponent’s card effect, or was tributed, you can Special Summon an “Eternal” Ritual Monster from you hand or Deck whose level was lower than that of the equipped monster (this is treated as a Ritual Summon). You can banish this card from your GY; add a “Commander of the Eternal” from your Deck to your hand.

 

Law of the Eternal                           Normal

(This card is also a Ritual Spell.) Select and activate one of the following effects:

• Take an “Eternal” Ritual Spell from your Deck and either add it to your hand or send it to the GY.
• Ritual Summon any "Eternal" Ritual Monster. You must also send Ritual monsters from your Deck to the GY whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon.

You can banish this card from your GY; add a “Keeper of the Eternal” from your Deck to your hand.

 

History of the Eternal                    Continuous

(This card is also a Ritual Spell.)  Each time an “Eternal” card is banished, all “Eternal” monsters you control gain 500 ATK, until the End Phase. Once per turn, you can activate the following effect, but if you do destroy this card during the End Phase:

• Ritual Summon any "Eternal" Ritual Monster. You must also banish monsters from your GY whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon.

You can banish this card from your GY; add a “Scribe of the Eternal” from your Deck to your hand.

[Dova]

You...you scoundrel! You went and pulled a Vendread on me, making a naughty little reference to the monster its supposed to be Summoned with in the description. I don't like the idea of the Spells being Rituals as well for the soul purpose of Deck searchability (as I'd have hoped you could've taken advantage of that in the archetype as its own gimmick, rather than just making it sort of there. Perhaps just while in the Deck?) but it's cool. I wouldn't quite say it works, as the Ritual Spells searching the monsters themselves need to be in the GY to search them, and they banish themselves, meaning that outside of Throne, you're going to have consistency issues (save for an important detail I'll get to later), but it's certainly something interesting. A lot better than I my past attempts, I assure you.

 

I assume most of your Ritual Spells Ritual Summon from the hand? Only Queen specifies that, with Unrest specifying the GY/among banished monsters, but since they don't say that they can be Summoned from everywhere, I can assume they're not broken :P Their on GY effects make them quick-n-easy Foolish Burial of Belongings targets, so there's that, but it basically turns any of these activating cards into a minimal +1, granting you an immediate search upon it is played. More on that later, but first a note on Swordsman.

 

Swordsman is trash. Like...really, really bad. Not only does it not get a Special effect when just used with its Ritual Spell (allowing for its Spell doesn't count) but it's just an ATK boost. Not even a big useful one. At least it doesn't fizzle out during the EP, but that's like saying at least it doesn't banish itself face-down. It certainly pales in comparison to Messenger, with that phase ending and double/triple attack. Law of the Eternal, on the other hand, is absurdly broken with its lack of any sort of once per turn restriction; activate, search itself, repeat x3, then search out Throne. THEN you banish your triple Law in your GY to search for a triple Keeper, then use Throne to banish a Law face-down to Ritual Summon 1 Keeper from your hand, drawing 2, and drawing a 3rd card by using its effect to shuffle another Law back into your Deck. You've now gone +6 by just opening 1 card. This isn't just an issue with Law either, with so many searching and consistency effects, you're going to have to restrict it in some way. Hey, don't just only use hard once per turn, but chuck in a couple of Summoning restrictions a la Devirituals ED lock-out clauses.

 

I only got a little into the broken parts of the archetype, but I would really suggest you either go with the Pre-Prep abuse OR the non-Ritual Spell clause. Meshing them together is a little awkward, but again, this is just personal. What isn't personal is how broken all this searching is. While I love the retrains and the variety in the effects, there needs to be something else there to prevent abuse. I know you'll come up with something :P

 

[SecondSeraphim]

Goodness, I can't believe I forgot to add HOPT clauses. I can see how that would be broken. And if the prepre use is broken, maybe make the searching type specific? Like, one searches out a Fairy "Eternal", one a Warrior, and one "Spellcasters" (I can change Scribe, so there'd be 2 Warriors). Then the ones that don't search mons could do something else, like search another spell or recover banished cards?

 

I'd assumed Ritual Spells defaulted to hand unless specified, but I can spell it out in the future.

 

What do you think of the unique effects of the spells? I was particularly proud of Promise, but if there are issues with it I wanna know.

 

Late in the game, I considered making the Rituals all retrains of "Agent" monsters instead.

 

Not really sure what to do with Swordsman. Maybe drop his level so he's at least can be summoned via Commander.

 

Finally, I think I came up with a better alternative effect for Throne:

 

Throne of the Eternal                     Field

(This card is also a Ritual Spell.)  Once per turn, you can target one of your face banished “Eternal” Ritual Spells; set it to your field, but banish it face-down when it leaves the field. Once while you control this card you can activate this effect: Ritual Summon any "Eternal" Ritual Monster from your hand. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. You can banish this card from your GY; add a “Queen of the Eternal” from your Deck to your hand. You can only activate this effect of "Throne of the Eternal" once per turn.

[Dova]

No, the Pre-Prep use isn't broken at all. It just seem awkward. There's no real design problem with it in terms of balance.

 

Ritual Spells *did* default to the hand, but with modern card grammar it's commonplace to specify.

 

I really loved their unique effects. Promise itself is...yeah, something to be proud of. Making an equip spell with just an ATK boost good, and makes me think of Ritual Weapon :P

 

Give Swordsman some protection or something, at the very least. Up the ATK boost to 1000?