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ecreip · 6 months

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Custom Ideas: Touhou Project

I have Many Thoughts about both of these series and last year I decided to mash them together by creating a full YGO archetype based on Touhou. Recently, I got the urge to refine them further. To satisfy my desire to ramble, I will be sharing them here.

Fair Warning: I will be writing with the assumption that anyone reading this has an approximate working knowledge of the modern Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG/OCG. Explaining the reasoning behind every word/phrase used (as exact wording is very important for YGO effects) would bog down card breakdowns and this is already gonna be a very wordy post. Most explaining will be how the effects work, some strategies therein, and how they relate to the characters/lore they're based on. This will include amateur proxies I made so if you wanna jump ahead and read those, be my guest.

To the Touhou fans stumbling upon this without much YGO knowledge, if you decide to read, I hope the theming gets across well.

To begin with a broad overview, there are two major categories of Main Deck monster: -Two Level 4s: "Bordered Shrine Maiden" (Reimu) and "Bordered Magician" (Marisa) -Three Level 5s: "Bordered Maid" (Sakuya), "Bordered Gardener" (Youmu), and "Bordered Priestess" (Sanae)

These five characters are the predominant recurring protagonists of the series (specifically the Windows Canon, starting at Touhou 6). Reimu, the primary protagonist, has been playable in every mainline game; Marisa debuted as a boss in Touhou 2 and became playable starting in 3. The latter group's members all weave in and out of the protag slot. Said members also all debuted as Stage 5 Bosses (Sakuya in 6, Youmu in 7, Sanae in 10), hence their Levels. Reimu and Marisa, when they've been Bosses in a traditional Touhou game, were in Stage 4, lining up well with YGO's cutoff for monsters that can Normal Summoned without Tribute.

Both groups are both further supported by one other Main Deck monster each: -Level 8: "Bordered Sage" (Yukari, Okina, Kasen) -Level 6: "Bordered Master" (Remilia, Yuyuko, Kanako)

For "Bordered Master": Touhou games usually have six Stages and one Extra Stage, for a total of seven Stages/Bosses. The characters represented by "Bordered Master" are all the Stage 6 Bosses of their respective games, immediately after their subordinates who comprise the Level 5 monsters.

For "Bordered Sage": -Yukari - the first and most commonly seen Sage in Touhou - is the Phantasm Stage Boss of her debut game (Touhou 7), effectively a Stage 8 and the only one of its kind, which is the primary reason for the card's Level. -Okina is the Boss of both Stage 6 and the Extra Stage in her game (Touhou 16), a distinction currently unmatched. It's a similar kind of prestige to Yukari, I'd argue. -Kasen has never been in a traditional entry, but is the protagonist of one of the official manga (which began roughly halfway between Touhou 12 and 13's release dates and ran for ten years) and has been playable in the two of the official fighting games. For her, I view the card's ATK/DEF stats as a better representation of her involvement (which I'll get to later). All three of them have taken an active interest in Reimu and Marisa to varying degrees (more so the former), with all three of them but mainly Yukari assisting with resolving incidents throughout the series.

After that preamble, time to finally get to brass tacks: CARDS, BABY!

I'll start with woman of all time herself, Reimu Hakurei aka "Bordered Shrine Maiden", and the Field Spell that makes the deck tick, "Danmaku Battle" (the character in the image is Aya Shameimaru and that will be her only reference). To give background, in Touhou, (nearly) all battles are fought using a set of in-universe rules, often referred to as the Spell Card Rules. These enforce non-lethal combat that utilize "danmaku" - basically any projectiles, magical or otherwise, the characters want/are able to use - so that the ludicrously powerful characters in the setting don't destroy the world or kill each other, which also allows characters less powerful in the traditional sense to battle those stronger than them on even footing.

Reimu Hakurei is NOT one of those less powerful individuals but - despite what she or the village she relies on for donations might tell you - she actually prefers not to kill her enemies. She'll make a show of "exterminating" them (effectively a slap on the wrist) and has done what she must for the handful that have crossed the line in the past (see the manga Forbidden Scrollery), but she's very much a peaceful (albeit lazy) soul. Here's a pertinent excerpt from one of the many quality official print works, Symposium of Post-Mysticism:

The character saying the first line has an ability that's somewhat adjacent to mind reading, creating the obvious implication that Reimu is lying about wanting to exterminate youkai. Other works before and after also make it clear where her feelings lie, but the long and short is that Reimu doesn't desire violence despite her status as Gensokyo's protector (Gensokyo being the name of Touhou's setting for those unaware).

As such, she was a key part of creating the Spell Card Rules that allow for everyone to survive and, with her own power, can easily enforce them. This ties into her second effect (yes I'm actually getting to the cards now)! When she's summoned by any method, she can place the Field Spell on the field from the Deck, which is a very strong kind of effect due since it can't be negated by YGO staple "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring". "Danmaku Battle" itself massively benefits from her being on the field by becoming unaffected; this is my way of saying that the rules will be enforced while Reimu's around. Reimu's first effect lets her Special Summon herself from the hand or GY, a generally solid effect that deserves a hard once per turn (hereafter abbreviated as HOPT). The effect to grab the Field Spell isn't once per turn (hereafter OPT), though, since I want it to be as accessible as possible for both the archetype's gameplan and the thematic flavor. Her third and final effect is my take on the games' Life system. Basically, if you get hit, you lose a life. Run out of lives, you game over and have to start from the beginning (Continues exist but they're effectively extra lives that reset your score). "Bordered Shrine Maiden" can save itself twice for an effective three lives. Some variant of this effect is on all monsters in this archetype except for "Bordered Sage" and "Bordered Master"; Reimu just does it the best because She's Her (she's canonically the overall most skilled danmaku user by virtue of having beaten nearly every combatant in the setting at least once).

While Reimu's effects are pretty self-explanatory, the Field Spell is where the wider ideas of the archetype become apparent. First, as mentioned, it's unaffected while its user controls "Bordered Shrine Maiden". The second effect lets the the Level 5s be Normal Summoned without Tribute to symbolize how they became protagonists after their debuts; it also works for Extra Deck (hereafter ED) plays that I'll get into later, but just know this gives the Level 5s a lot more flexibility. Once the user performs a given ED (or Ritual) Summon, this gets into the Continuous cards that gives the gameplan a bit more teeth (again, more details later). Finally, and this is the most important effect in the deck, any on-field effect that requires discarding a "Border" card while you control "Bordered Shrine Maiden" can send from deck instead. This is what I'll refer to as a replacement effect. Looking at the monsters in this deck in a vacuum, they very much seem to minus the user if you want to keep them around. But by having the Field Spell up, the conflicts they go through suddenly become less life-threatening; this all goes back to the core idea of the Spell Card Rules keeping everyone alive. In summary, by following the rules, the characters can easily survive most things with little risk. While characters regularly engage in these battles even when Reimu isn't around, I want to enforce "Bordered Shrine Maiden" being on field for card design purposes. I think it's a fair compromise.

Next is the Ordinary, or should I say "Border-nary", Magician, Marisa Kirisame!

At this time I will make clear that yes, all five protagonists have upgraded variants tied to a given Summoning Mechanic (my condolences to Pendulum - a mechanic I like a lot - but what I have made is already a ton for one archetype, though I do have some ideas I might actualize later down the road). Reimu's have effects that are reliant on the others so they will be covered last.

That aside, Marisa is Reimu's rival in the kiss-on-the-mouth-with-tongue sense who always wants to resolve incidents before her; this means she'll almost certainly arrive on the scene if Reimu's there already, hence the first (non-OPT!!!) effect. She's one of Gensokyo's fastest and won't fall behind. Beyond that, the two are basically inseparable in the various manga; you can expect them to see them together, another reason for the first effect. She also has an on-and-off joke of introducing herself as Reimu and sometimes other characters, which is the idea behind her second effect. This lets her act as Reimu and the others for summoning purposes, again adding more flexibility. Lastly, she has the standard replacement effect. "Bordered Magician" is great extender for milling names and summoning the deck's various monsters while also being a starter since you can mill "Bordered Shrine Maiden" and summon her from GY.

Next is her upgraded form, "Border-nary Magician". This card, and all other upgrades, require the original to make and are treated as the original on field or in the GY. Marisa famously has stolen, or been inspired by, other characters' Spell Cards when making her own, including her signature Master Spark. This has been downplayed as the series goes on but I felt it made for a fun basis when making the second effect. This effect's ATK increase is permanent, which is somewhat rare among YGO effects, but this is in service to the third effect: the non-OPT destruction effect that permanently lowers her ATK. Marisa, in contrast to Reimu's slow and defensive fighting/play style, is all about speed and power. She has more ATK but less DEF and will blow the opponent away. The first two turns (yours and then the opponent's) she's out, the user can pretty effectively leverage the larger ATK and/or destruction effect's Quick Effect clause depending on who went first in the Duel. She'll run out of steam if you detach her base version and keep destroying, though. But at that point, you're likely in a winning position if the card has stayed on field. If not, well, a later Reimu card can help with that. To jump the gun a bit, I consider this to be the deck's most powerful disruption effect relative to how accessible it is (there are many ways to access "Bordered Magician" and I would consider the effects of "Border-nary Magician" to be pretty strong). But, like the base version, it requires another monster on field to get the most out of it.

Now we'll go over "Bordered Sage" and "Bordered Master" to put a cap on the last two sections and lead into the next few.

As anyone can likely tell, I wanted these proxies to visually mirror each other. They're extremely amateurish but hopefully get the idea across that they don't represent any single character; rather, any Sage or Master-esque figure (the latter of which numerous in Touhou) could be depicted here. The former has silhouettes of the three currently known Sages previously discussed: Yukari Yakumo (bottom middle), Kasen Ibaraki (top right), and Okina Matara (top left). The latter depicts the superiors of the three Level 5s: Remilia Scarlet (from Touhou 6, bottom left), Yuyuko Saigyouji (from Touhou 7, bottom right), and Kanako Yasaka (from Touhou 10, top middle). In a world where I made more cards and added more Level 5s, I could easily make an alt art with equivalent characters. Conversely, if for some reason I made other Level 4s, Sage could support them. That's the idea I'm going for. I generally like to future proof cards.

"Bordered Sage", probably more than any other card in this archetype, is designed to be good. Not to say I made the other cards bad or anything, but this is something I think anyone familiar with the game would read and immediately say seems good, if that makes sense. Put another way, I approached it like I was designing broken legacy support. I want it to be a card that would be an instant 3-of in any decklist. This is partially because it's not a piece of the end board on its own, it's entirely a starter and combo piece.

Breaking it down, being able to summon from Deck as a Quick Effect is insanely strong. That's why it gives an archetypal lock. That said, the lock only applies to the current turn; using this when your opponent is going first means the lock's a non-issue. This might be too strong! But the way I see it, going second is (generally speaking) much less ideal in YGO. I honestly think it's balanced in that way since the best case scenario there is summoning "Bordered Shrine Maiden" and setting up "Danmaku Battle", which alone don't equate to any interruptions. Plus controlling a card turns off the user's ability to activate cards like "Infinite Impermanence" while making something like "Nibiru, the Primal Being" trickier to use effectively. You absolutely can hold this effect for the End Phase after you've used up any other potential handtraps, but then your opponent very well could have a negate set-up. Or they couldn't and you get it for free! It depends and I want this effect to encourage this kind of planning both in deckbuilding and in-game decision making. I'm a big fan of recent cards like "Tearlaments Havnis" and "Rescue-ACE Impulse" in how they similarly can be leveraged as going second handtraps. Those cards represent more actual interaction in comparison to "Bordered Sage", though. That's why I think it being a free Quick Effect to fire whenever is largely fine (and being honest, the two examples I listed only have the activation condition of the opponent activating a monster effect on the field, which is hardly a high bar). Otherwise, going second, it's basically an archetypal "Emergency Teleport" with upside since it does more after the summon. Speaking of, it provides blanket protection for all "Border" cards on the field as an Equip by summoning itself, which is meant to show how the Sages will sometimes step in to help with preserving Gensokyo since they are the ones who created it. Finally, as an Equip, it can be used as Link or Xyz Material (yes Reimu's upgrades are Links, more later), effectively making it a one-card "Border-nary Magician". The stipulation it can be treated as Level 4 doesn't apply when it's properly treated as a monster, though, so be mindful (I imagine this wouldn't come up super often, though). There are currently three Sages, but Kasen specifically is much less antagonistic in her interactions so I thought that was a fun justification for 2050 ATK but 3050 DEF (two are more proactive but all three can be reactive). The extra 50 on both ends is because they always seem to know more than the others (though in actuality these characters are extremely fallible and have made many mistakes, often using mysteriousness as a way to obfuscate how they sometimes fly by the seat of their pants, especially Yukari). Alternatively, it could be viewed as their pride not allowing them to settle for less.

That was very long but so are those women's rap sheets. For slightly shorter rap sheets, look no further than your average Touhou final boss! "Bordered Master", in contrast to the background role the Sages often like to occupy, represents those ones who start incidents and cause problems though the Sages definitely can be guilty of this. The first effect lets it summon itself because these folks are here to become an issue. The second effect lets them search an important card for the Level 5s should you summon one such monster while you control this card (more later). Finally, if this card is in the GY for whatever reason, having said important card and controlling a Level 5 will let you summon it back for basically free. This is a strong effect so it provides the other archetypal lock of the deck and acts as another fun foil to how "Bordered Sage" works. This card would also probably be a 3-of by virtue of being a free body on top of how important it is for the next slew of cards. Not much else to say, though a quick note on the stats: 2300 (the DEF) is 600 + 700 + 1000, representing the three games used as the main inspiration. The ATK will be explained later.

Coming straight from the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the absolute master of Time and Space as well as the ultimate maid, Sakuya Izayoi!

The maid will come at her master's call, resulting in "Bordered Maid" having a Quick Effect to self-summon from the hand provided you control said master. All the Level 5s have a variant of this effect. OPT, she can send from Deck to GY either a Level 6 or 9 "Border" monster, which currently is just "Bordered Master" (facilitating its revival effect if you already have the Quick-Play Spell) or "Bordered Paradox", Sakuya's upgraded form. This lets you unrespondably freeze a Spell/Trap on the field, which potentially includes "Danmaku Battle" (a card that's ideally unaffected provided you control a version of Reimu, meaning it's a free target). This is, admittedly, an effect whose real appeal comes from the cost you pay. Since costs can't be negated, there's no stopping this from going through even if the effect - or, much more likely, the card wholesale via a "Skill Drain" style effect - is somehow negated. There are mixed opinions out there about cards like this where the cost is the main draw, but I think it works for a time/space master who is, and I'm quoting a piece of Forbidden Scrollery narration here, "faster than the speed of light". By making it unrespondable it's not a huge deal regardless imo. That being said, unrespondable effects are another rare but obscenely powerful category of YGO effect, so I was very careful in how I went about designing these cards (more on that in a minute). The actual act of freezing the card in place is an analogy for her stopping time or, alternatively, literally pinning the card with a knife since that's her signature weapon. Lastly it has the replacement effect as is the protag standard (won't bother mentioning this again going forward unless it's relevant, just know every protag besides Reimu gets it OPT at base and twice per turn in the upgrade).

Before I go over the upgrade, this is a good time to break the pattern and briefly touch on the Quick-Play Spell that "Bordered Master" searches:

The design of this card takes heavy inspiration from "Secrets of Dark Magic", an existing Quick-Play Spell that also modulates between acting as a Ritual or Fusion Spell. This card makes both halves better than that card, though. For the former, it can Ritual Summon from the GY (ala the "Vendread" archetype, among others) but requires "Bordered Maid" to be a Tribute, while the latter can banish materials from GY (a type of Fusion Summon first pioneered by "Miracle Fusion" that's been very popular since then for good reason). Finally, it resets if you control "Bordered Master" to encourage having the eponymous Master and Servant together, at least long enough that you can go for the other effect. Notably it resets by being Set on the field, meaning that as soon as you commit to using it, you can't leverage the revival effect of "Bordered Master". Gotta plan things out properly or otherwise pick and choose what's more valuable to a given turn. Currently this is the only Quick-Play Spell in the archetype, but as always I like to keep future options open with wording. As a related aside, I actually didn't want it to specify "Bordered Maid" when designing how the effect could enforce using the base version. Other variants that tried to use wording related to names didn't come out well so I went with this, but I very well might change it in the future out a future-proofing principle.

Going back to Sakuya now that the full context is available, her upgrade gets to be the Ritual. This is always a tricky design space when attempting to join it with the ED gang. The thing with ED card types is that they're always accessible in-and-of themselves; the only stipulation is their listed materials. Rituals, meanwhile, (usually) need to be in your hand. That being said, many cards over the years have bent this rule beyond recognition and "Border Between Master and Student" certainly takes inspiration from them, primarily by having the utility of being a Quick-Play that can summon Rituals from the GY. It's still not that ridiculous as far as attempts the game has made to make Rituals playable, though. That's why the unique effects of "Bordered Paradox" are as cracked as they are. To start with, it can discard itself (since it's in the hand that means you can't get around this with the replacement effect of "Danmaku Battle") to grab any "Border" monster in the GY. Originally I had it just be "Bordered Master" but that didn't feel good enough to offset a Ritual's potential to brick your hand, so I just said screw it and made the effect much better. I want people to run the card (and all the others!) in this hypothetical, basically. The second and much more eyebrow raising effect is what it does on Ritual Summon. The Level 5s' upgraded versions all have an "If this card is [Mechanic] Summoned: You can banish 1 "Bordered [Base Version]" from the GY; (...)" effect, and this one freezes the opponent's board until the End Phase. This reads pretty strong, and it is, but let me get ahead of the allegations by saying I despise floodgate effects. I wanted to design this card such that it depicts an absolute time stop, hence stopping cards and effects from being activated outright as opposed to negating them. This is an important distinction since any Continuous or otherwise non-activated effects the opponent might have still work. However it also means they can't pay costs into a negated effect like you could under something like "Skill Drain". I want there to be blind spots but still have it be powerful both going first if you can get it off into an established board or going second by using the Quick-Play on the opponent's turn after they establish some cards you might want to stop. However, this effect is awkward to time since it requires being proactive; it could very easily trade for just one or two cards like the ignition effect of an opponent's Field Spell. It outright can't do anything to stop effects that trigger on summon, which is extremely common. Plus it still lets them fire effects in the End Phase compared to the base version freezing the Spell/Trap for the whole turn. Also, while "Border Paradox" is unrespondable, the Quick-Play notably isn't. That means it's a good negate target if your opponent knows what you're up to. All of this said, I think it's an effect that's much better into established boards than as an interruption, which I think reflects the in-universe limitations these characters put themselves under. Sakuya can stop time indefinitely without issue, she just has it on a time limit for the purposes of a fair fight. That in mind, I actually think this card's best effect is the discard-to-add-from-GY one.

To address the naming scheme of Sakuya's versions, the first is obvious in that she's a maid, while the second is a play on time paradoxes. The user or the opponent might see "Bordered Paradox" before "Bordered Maid" depending on your opening hand and/or how you play it, despite it being a later version. In-universe, Sakuya even weaponizes a similar idea in how she multiplies her throwing knife danmaku. She'll throw some and then user her ability to compress time such that their immediate past and future versions also appear, effectively tripling how many there are. It's very cool. The only big thing she can't do with space-time is outright reverse or otherwise go back in time. There's a lot more nuance to how her ability's been depicted over the years but that's beyond the scope of this already very long post.

ALRIGHT that's a lot covered but things should speed up from here now that more context has been established. So now we move on to the half-human, half-phantom, half-baked gardener of the Netherworld's Hakugyoukurou: Youmu Konpaku.

Youmu is notable in being the only major recurring protagonist to not be fully human. Her phantom half floats around her like a wisp but can perform its own attacks and take on the form of her human body as a translucent afterimage that mimics her attacks (they hit just as hard as the physical body). She's extremely cool and also a goofball who's afraid of ghosts and all sorts of scary things. Unlike "Bordered Maid", "Bordered Gardener" can summon itself twice per turn to but only once per Phase to represent that afterimage technique. She has two swords so of course she can attack twice as is the way of the universe, obviously. All the Level 5s support "Bordered Master" in a different way. Since Sakuya works for Remilia, a vampire, it makes that vampire would symbolically rise from the dead (the GY to which she's sent). They have a mutual respect that goes beyond words and Sakuya largely has free reign in managing the mansion and its inhabitants. Youmu more directly looks up to Yuyuko - they're the sole residents of their home and Youmu was born into a family sworn to serve Yuyuko - so she's willing to quickly defer to the latter despite often being exasperated by her shenanigans (note: Yuyuko is a ghost i.e. she died in the past; ghosts and phantoms are distinct beings in Touhou and Youmu's species specifically is something she was born as). They're a goofy pair and Youmu acts as her general right hand, though her official jobs are being their manor's gardener and Yuyuko's swordsmanship instructor. That's another inspiration for her tagging out for Yuyuko; she shows her something and then immediately has to go back out there because Yuyuko doesn't seem to care much about actually learning. This makes her good for getting damage in since you can summon her in Main Phase 1 (MP1), attack, tag out for "Bordered Master", then attack with that before summoning and attacking with "Bordered Gardener" again. More specifically, if you used "Bordered Master" as material for something, this lets you reborn it. Otherwise you could bring Gardener out the first time via Normal Summon if you have the Field Spell out. There are options! Battle Phase effects are often looked down on for good reason so I wanted the summon effects on this card to make it as worth using as possible.

Youmu's two blades are named Roukanken and Hakurouken. To quote her on the former: "The things that cannot be cut by my Roukanken, forged by youkai, are next to none!" It's a strong sword, plain and simple. As such, Youmu gets the highest ATK of the base protags and the highest ATK in the archetype for her upgrade (barring one card later). She may be goofy and naive but her focus is so strong that her perception of time - as well as the perceptions of those around her - slows down when she locks in. She does not have any time related abilities. In a series with characters who can "destroy anything" or "manipulate death" (this is Yuyuko), her stated ability is "handling sword techniques". She's just that good at it. Marisa is fast with her magic, Sakuya is fast with her ability; Youmu is just fast. The former two can edge her out in speed when using their abilities to their fullest extent, but Youmu is just always fast, always strong, and always skilled. In a series where battles are done via long range projectiles, she uses swords as her primary weapon. These are the other major reasons for her ATK stat and ability to attack twice. Her second blade, Hakurouken, is an ancestral sword that can only be wielded by a Konpaku. It has the ability to "cut through confusion", which has the stated effect on humans (though it causes discomfort and still can hurt them like an actual sword) but, when used on spirits such as ghosts or phantoms, will send them straight to nirvana. Think of it as instantly dispelling any lingering thoughts or regrets that prevents them from passing on. Hence, when "Bordered Swordmaster" is Fusion Summoned, it will obliterate the cards lingering in the GY and send them to a higher place (the place people usually put banished cards is physically above the GY after all). It specifically banishes face-down to make the effect stronger and tie into that theming of it being a definitive send-off. The +1 is to further emphasize how much the cards involve doing things twice. Personally I think this is actually better as an effect to use on the opponent's turn compared to "Bordered Paradox", though it similarly still requires being proactive. Beyond that, if she battles, even if she doesn't have the higher ATK, the opponent's monster isn't long for the realm. Again, wanna make Battle Phase effects good.

Last bit of flavor talk: she's the only one to change Attribute and Type between versions. I wanted to highlight her association with death considering where and with whom she lives (DARK/Zombie) while also showing how she's an accomplished combatant who can dispel lingering spirits (LIGHT/Warrior). Youmu is very cool I like her a lot.

And now we reach the final protagonist, the deified wind priestess of Moriya Shrine which sits at the apex of Youkai Mountain, Sanae Kochiya!

"Frogs go mlem mlem. Snakes go pbbppbpthpbthppth. Thanks for comign folks." -Sanae Kochiya (real) (not clickbait)

Someone who's a kind of shrine maiden but not in the same way as Reimu, Sanae is the descendant of Suwako Moriya, the deity who created her shrine (and still hangs out there with the one who dethroned her - the aforementioned Kanako - since they actually get along well and are married). She is fully human but is also a living god capable of creating miracles provided she has faith. Though even if she didn't, she could still survive as a human (unlike her patrons who are fully reliant on faith for survival). Here, her miracle working manifests in "Bordered Priestess" as Level manipulation since she is THE TUNER and this allows for some much appreciated flexibility on "Bordered Master". This is primarily to facilitate her upgraded form, which is Level 9 (you might notice that 6 + 5 =/= 9 and I want every Master/Subordinate duo to be able to make their respective upgrades), though it also makes "Border-nary Magician" easier to summon, which is good cause I want that card to be the easiest upgrade to bring out. It can reduce by 1 or 2 for gameplay reasons but Sanae works under two gods (Kanako and Suwako), both of whom provide her powers she can channel. I like to think of her using one or both as needed. I designed both Level modulation effects to account for different circumstances. If you're Normal Summoning this card, then that likely means you have Field Spell access but not "Bordered Master". But the standard Level 5 effect to summon itself can be used if you have "Bordered Master" but not the Field Spell. And if you don't have the Field Spell, then that just means it's time for an even greater miracle.

"Bordered Incarnation" can, on Synchro Summon, search any card in the archetype provided you don't already control it. That effect, combined with not needing the Quick-Play to be summoned, makes this card a great early enabler and negate magnet that can get the ball rolling should you need it. There are a few other search effects later, but this is the only one that can fetch any card in the archetype, full-stop. It's strong, use it well. For one last miracle, every Standby Phase, you gain 500 LP for every differently named "Border"- oh, I'm just receiving word that's time in the round! End the current Phase and whoever has more LP left wins. Look, it's dirty business, but an important aspect of viability is being able to win in time. Making "Bordered Incarnation" Turn 1 in Game 3 and passing right before time is called is a good way of doing that. Besides that, this effect can genuinely add up fast if you manage to make a full board. LP gain effects aren't amazing outside of time limits, but don't undervalue them too much or you'll start missing lethal. "Miracle" can mean many things and Touhou does talk about what means for Sanae's ability. Primarily she uses it to summon certain weather conditions, think of stuff like granting rain to an area stricken by drought, but that doesn't mean she can't do other things. The way the power works in the setting is basically the manipulation of odds. Miracles are not necessarily tied to fortune and one doesn't need to be "good" or "bad". Simpler stuff she can do with a word while super huge and unlikely occurrences can require multiple days of prep time. Here, nudging Levels a bit is simple, but searching a card from the deck requires she take the time to Synchro Summon. From there, she can restore her patron's strength (the user and their LP) by gathering faith (controlling more "Border" monsters). Overall I'm quite happy with the theming here.

Alright, you've seen the others, now it's time to remember who the ultimate protagonist is.

Reimu is awesome so she gets two upgrades. The first, "Bordered Resolver", is a Link-3 that requires exactly that many "Border" monsters, which is partially why the effects of "Bordered Sage" work the way they do. The way this deck works, three monsters can be a big ask, so I want to make summoning this easier while still feeling worth the effort. It points down-right, down-middle, and middle-right. This lets it easily point at two monsters for one of its effects while still letting it do something if it somehow winds up in a Main Monster Zone. OPT as a Quick Effect, it can destroy a "Border" monster it points to (Reimu beats them up, as she does) then summon from GY or banishment a monster with the same name but different ATK/DEF (she befriends them after beating them up, as she does though often to her own chagrin). This lets you recycle the base versions after they get banished for their upgrades' effects, while also letting you tag out for upgrades if the situation allows. The latter situation specifically gets an extra clause for "Border-nary Magician" since Marisa is Reimu's wife closest friend and I want them to have that extra synergy (plus having the base version as material is important for that card's full utility). To cap it off, she gets the fabled THRICE per turn on the protection effect. Love how this card came together both in flavor and as a piece of the archetype's end board.

And finally we have her final form, the Link-5 "Bordered Eternal". 3+ materials including the name are needed, meaning the Link-3 plus two more bodies does it, similar to the last one. Arrows are the same but with the addition of Middle-Left and Bottom-Right. This card is meant to be flashy and not necessarily something you'd always wanna go into, but if it does come down, you're in an extremely good position. Outright indestructible by battle since Reimu's ultimate move allows her to "float away from reality" and become "undefeatable by any method". The only reason she doesn't automatically win every fight with it is because she doesn't always choose to use it and, even when she does, enforces a time limit similar to what Sakuya does with her time stop to make things fair. Anything else that could get her off the field, she can use the protection effect to say no indefinitely. Provided the Field Spell is up, the only way you're beating this card besides with a "Kaiju" is to deck out the opponent, and they have to deal with non-targeting banishes all the while (the banish part specifically is the strongest part of the card and might need an OPT clause). In Touhou, one victory condition in danmaku battles is literally waiting out all your opponent's Spell Cards instead of depleting their health. Certain Spell Cards force the player to time them out. By summoning this, the user is making their opponent do that. But it doesn't stop there. If a Rank 4 or Level 9 "Border" monster (all non-Reimu upgrades) uses its own protection effect, then you can further plus by retrieving cards from the GY/banishment. This extends your time limit. Admittedly it isn't an effect I imagine would come up very often and is there largely for flavor (Reimu will protect Gensokyo and, despite her outward temperament, cares for those around her), but man it's fun. I hope that spirit came across in this.

Since we've covered them all now, an aspect of the upgrades I've neglected to mention is all of them have the final clause of being summoned by their procedure OPT. Going back to "Danmaku Battle", recall that summoning any of the upgrades is what allows you to place a Continous Spell/Trap from Deck. This means you can't spam just one of them if you want more than that. And yes, that finally means...

We're gonna go over a card that isn't a Continuous Spell/Trap!

Jokes aside, this is the deck's mandated archetypal searcher. It works in an off-beat way to show someone causing a problem (the Stage 5/6 Bosses) and the core duo going out to deal with them once they catch wind of it the following turn. The second effect is currently the only other way to place the fabled Continuous cards (and unlike Danmaku Battle can place one from GY). Not the simplest search Spell in the world but it's still just a search Spell so not much else to say. Run what you need for consistency, gets the ball rolling pretty well.

The first Continuous card, "Border Sign - Card Bomb". It follows the naming scheme most Spell Cards in Touhou use ([Category] Sign - [Name]) but "Card Bomb" is not my most inspired thought and imo it has the worst image of all the Spell/Trap proxies in terms of communicating the idea but we'll put that aside for now. The effects are where it's at and they're quite important to this deck's win con. First, when placed on the field by a "Border" card's effect, you can add from a "Border" monster from Deck or GY to hand. A generally solid search and recovery effect. Even if you draw into it and can't place it down with an effect, though, you can still activate it normally and use the other effect: Bombs. Spell Cards, specifically when used by the player in the traditional entries, are referred to as Bombs in the menus and are just big attacks that usually clear the screen of projectiles and heavily damages enemies (every playable character has their own spin and a few options therein). Standard shmup/bullet hell stuff, basically. The effect varies depending on the monster battling but the long and short is that the protags and their upgrades gain ATK/DEF while the other two and "Bordered Eternal" can non-target destroy something. Bear in mind that while the search effect is HOPT, the battle effect isn't. So you can stack multiple copies of this card if desired. I think this is fun since Reimu has canonically bomb spammed certain annoying opponents.

The big ticket monsters outright destroying is self-explanatory (notably none of the base protags can get over the DEF of "Bordered Sage" even with one boost), but now I'd like to take the time to discuss the reasoning for the ATK/DEF stats chosen for the protags as a whole.

Sakuya, from Touhou 6, has 1200 DEF (600x2). Youmu, from Touhou 7, has 1400 DEF (700x2). Sanae, from Touhou 10, has 2000 DEF (1000x2), plus it lets her mirror Reimu's DEF as an added bonus since their positions are similar. In all cases, gaining ATK/DEF equal to half their original DEF is how the stats for the upgrades were made. I knew I wanted Youmu's upgrade to have 3000 ATK which meant her base would have 2300. I wanted Sakuya to be close but still noticeably lower when upgraded so I landed on 2800 since that still ties with many monsters in the game. This makes her base 2200. Sanae's base ATK is 500 since she is (or rather was, when her game came out) the least experienced of the group, plus she gains the most from upgrading, and it mirrors the LP gain effect on her upgrade. This is still the one I'd consider changing the most, maybe to 1000 and 2000 for her two versions, respectively.

Reimu is more defensive but still powerful while Marisa cares more about power so I knew the former should have high DEF and average ATK while the latter would have low DEF and but more ATK than Reimu. 2000 felt right for Reimu's base DEF (she certainly wouldn't have less than Sanae and I wanted it higher than Marisa's ATK) and I wanted Marisa to have the lowest DEF overall so I went with 1100, 100 less than Sakuya. From there, it was a variety of factors that determined Reimu having 1600 ATK. Reimu and Marisa share a role as the variable Stage 4 Boss of Touhou 8, and 800x2 is 1600. But I also just liked the idea of Reimu having 2400 ATK for her upgrade since it felt right (helps that 24 is my favorite number). From there it's simple to add another 800 for the final version's 3200 ATK. Also, 2400 for Reimu's upgrade is why "Bordered Master" has 2500 ATK; it barely edges Reimu out until she decides to let loose.

This is just a game feel thing but YGO has somewhat loose stat tiers it tends to follow pretty well. 3000 ATK is usually the threshold for BIG things and anything beyond that isn't as common ("Blue-Eyes White Dragon" is still the strongest Normal Monster in the game, for example). Similarly, while there are many cards that freely summon themselves such this doesn't matter too much, Level 4 monsters (i.e. ones you can freely Normal Summon) don't usually go past 2000 ATK. Much of this is a relic from how the game was designed in its inception but there's something I appreciate about it still being true to this day. Basically, YGO power creep (outside of the really early days when Normal Monsters were still the predominant force) goes wider, not taller. Extending this to the language of Rank 4s, there aren't many with more than 2500 ATK (only 16 of the current 181), and those that go beyond near exclusively have more specific materials or need three monsters instead of two. Marisa's upgrade falls in the former camp. I didn't want her upgrade to have equal/more ATK than any of the Level 9s at base either (in this case, 2800 is the lowest Level 9) to accentuate the boost she gets from her effect. Marisa is about power, but it's power she earned through countless nights and years of study and practice. She works extremely hard to fight alongside the likes of Reimu, but hides that fact very well. None of this comes naturally. It's a really endearing part of her.

To boil this down: I knew Marisa would share Reimu's stat boosts to A) maintain the idea that the boost is related to the games where these characters are bosses and B) make the related card effects simpler. I couldn't go past 2700 for the upgrade since I didn't want a 50 in there and Sakuya's is 2800. Reimu is locked in at 1600 and I want Marisa's base noticeably higher. This left me with two options for Marisa's ATK: 1800 (to 2600) or 1900 (to 2700). Decided on the former since, going back to YGO's number language, you'll often see 2500 ATK paired with 2000 DEF. Take 100 of the latter and add it to the former? You get Marisa's upgraded stats.

That was a long-winded tangent but I do care about maintaining even the subtler parts of YGO's design principles when making customs. As such, I thought a lot about how to best do that while keeping theming in the stats. Wanted to share that process.

While the last one might've been aesthetically uninspired, I had a lot of fun with the name of this one and doing a silly edit.

Effects that destroy cards in inappropriate contexts, such as in the Deck/ED or to use them as material, are extremely comical to me (shoutouts to the "Nephthys" archetype and "Rapid Trigger" among others). Massive fan. I think the idea of the characters getting into a silly fight (which happens many times in this series) is a fun pretense for a card. This lets you mill whatever you need and recycle something else. Simple, has utility. The second effect requires you control a core protag and a tertiary one, and it will end with one of them being destroyed (or more likely protected by their own effect) in what is effectively this deck's only negate. It doesn't say negate, but it's basically a negate. That means it's a card worth considering for your end board.

The second effect falls into a category called "Quick-like Effects", basically Quick Effects i.e. things that can be activated at Spell Speed 2. While I've largely avoided talking effect logistics up to now, I want to highlight this since, normally, Spell Cards that aren't Quick-Play never get something like this. Effect replacements like this aren't unknown, you'll seem them sometimes on Monsters or Traps (this wording is taken nearly whole sale from "Generaider Boss Room"), plus there are Field/Continuous Spells that have a Continuous-like effect that's usually mandatory that do something similar. I nearly had to bite the bullet and make this effect worse out of deference to precedent, but then I found the single non-Quick Play Spell that has a Quick-like Effect: "Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins". I think it's fitting that my custom archetype based on a series of gay women had assistance from YGO's preeminent gay archetype.

We've arrived at the final card (for now) and the sole Trap in the line-up: "Border of Life". Named for and depicting a scene from the final boss of Touhou 7, this is the revival card. I don't think I need to explain much here even to those unfamiliar with Touhou. The final boss is a ghost, and after you think you win, she resurrects one final time while the theme "Border of Life" blares. You can't attack her; you simply survive until the barrage subsides. Considering the name I went for with this archetype (which I've yet to mention is for the Great Hakurei Barrier that surrounds Gensokyo and insulates it from the outside world), it was too perfect not to use.

The effect summons a "Border" monster from your GY (but ensures you aren't doubling up) when placed on the field; it literally jump scares you like the scene in question. From there, you can give your monster extra protection that mirrors how the opponent must simply survive your monster until it falls on its own. That's why you later must banish the monster you give the protection to. But, just like the character fought in the scene, she isn't gone for good. On the other side of the Border of Life, you can recycle cards thought lost to the banishment. Dropping theatrics for a moment, this is probably the best card to mill for all the protections effects you've seen up to now. Strong recycling and sometimes you might go for its on-field effects. I think it's a fun card and I enjoyed making it a lot.

While I didn't post everything in Set ID order, I did give all these cards their own IDs for organizational purposes (main deck monsters -> Ritual/ED monsters -> the two most important Spells -> the sole Normal Spell -> the Continuous Spells -> the single Continuous Trap). I skipped "TOHO - EN019" since I want to make a third Continuous Spell at some point at least. Also, there are currently nineteen mainline Touhou entries (though there are numerous official spinoffs) so making that many cards felt fitting.

And that's it! Thank you so much if you've read everything up to now, I didn't realize it would get this long when I started writing yesterday. This is something I've worked on for a while and I wanted to share the fruits of that, as I said at the start. It's been very fun and I'll almost certainly make more adjustments in the future, but as is I'm happy with how this ended up. It's an archetype based on the idea of these cards outlasting the opponent before going over the top with the effects of the upgrades and Continuous Spells. I knew I wanted Spell Cards to be a part of the win con for the series that has its own version of Spell Cards play such an important role. Both YGO and Touhou occupy a large part of my brain space and I hope some of that enjoyment came through here. Once again, thank you for reading.

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All proxies were created using the following site: https://lauqerm.github.io/ygocarder/ All art and assets used in the images of the proxies are from various official Touhou media, including: Touhou 6 - Embodiment of Scarlet Devil Touhou 7 - Perfect Cherry Blossom Touhou 7.5 - Immaterial and Missing Power Touhou 10 - Mountain of Faith Touhou 10.5 - Scarlet Weather Rhapsody Touhou 12.3 - Hisoutensoku Touhou 13.5 - Hopeless Masquerade Touhou 14.5 - Urban Legend in Limbo Touhou 15.5 - Antinomy of Common Flowers Touhou 16 - Hidden Star in Four Seasons The Grimoire of Marisa Touhou Bunkachou - Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red Touhou Suzunaan - Forbidden Scrollery

#yugioh #touhou #custom cards #yugioh tcg #touhou project #fair warning this is extremely long

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