#that archetype has lots of pendulums in it

[enemyoflactose]

I know what a pendulum summon is, I just can't explain it.

what the fuck is a pendulum summon

[fluffalpenguin]

⬅[Prev] Day 2: Family

@ygoc-week Day 3: Decks

I wanted to sketch something for each of my ocs with their aces but unfortunately i passed out last night so i'm just going to chuck the actual card beside a picture of them, lol

Image heavy post below!

Starting off with the Synchro Dimension, Hamelin uses a Yang Zing deck, and has two "secret roommates" (read: pet rats) that she named after Ba Xia and Jiaotu, her two main Extra Deck Aces.

She switches gears to Magikeys when in her Phantom Thief persona, who has a deep grudge against...

Jackie, who uses Swordsouls, an archetype that carries much meaning to her. Her belt is based on QXYL's sword(?)tail(?) and her unwavering devotion to an estranged childhood friend makes her a worthy wielder of the sword the card is based on, which represents integrity.

Jackie works for Fleur, who uses Aromages. As someone who is very at home behind a chessboard, she doesn't like dueling that much as it has too many uncontrollable factors, such as luck.

Moving to the Standard Dimension, first up is Cider and her Myutants! What? Her duel disk? Oh, that's because she's originally from [REDACTED]

Weird, how did we end up in the Xyz Dimension? Anyway, Alcidis uses Witchcrafters, and before you ask me how he Xyz summons with this deck, my answer is that he splashes in Dogmatika cards from his bestie:

Arte, who uses Dogmatika! When she duels, it's like a switch flips, and she looks a lot like her brother... It scares her teacher, because it reminds him of a very unpleasant memory...

Viol used Mermails during the war, but after the events of the show he upgrades his ace from Abyss Dweller to a... custom monster... that I haven't designed yet lmao sigh one day i will

Back in Academia, Faye and Fence shared a Dream Mirror deck, each memorising one side of the deck as they struggled too much to memorise and use a single deck by themselves. After they moved to Standard, Fence picked up Normal Pendulums and Faye uses a custom Xyz archetype that lets her transform like her favourite masked riders!

(Above art by @mechaseraph go throw money at them you won't regret it)

Last but not least, Fuschia with his Despians! He picked it because he loves red and purple, but more importantly, he found the love of his life... Aluber the Dogmatic. Yeah, he's one of those weirdos with a duel monster crush (same tbh)

He'd never admit he had a crush on Aluber during the events of ARC-V, but post-canon he unabashedly has a giant poster of him (pictured above) in his room.

死の舞台で闇と光こそ栄える… 答え探し道はここに途絶える！ 融合召喚！レベル⑧ デスピアン・クエリティス!

Upon this stage of death¹, darkness and light² alike thrive… Your path for answers³ ends here! I fusion summon! Level 8 Despian Quaeritis!

Did I make a summon chant in japanese too because i could yeah i may be cringe but at least im free

[1] Despia is a portmanteau of 'death' and 'thespian'. [2] His ace's fusion materials requires one Despian monster and a LIGHT or DARK monster. [3] Despian Quaeritis is named after quem quaeritis i.e. Whom do you seek? It's a question Fuschia often asks his quarry during the war. (And then he cards them all together after helping them reunite)

➞[Next] Day 4: Relationships

[bloomboxygo]

This witch is a problem.

"Diabellze of the Original Sin" is generally a contested pick in the meta in general because of belonging to the new lore archetype, thus expected to be supported. And I've heard lots thrown at her already, but... I believe this is the worst Card for the Melodious to face, and feels like a mean gut punch especially after Melodious got its new support IN THE SAME SET.

Since I specialize in them, I would like to go over just how bad this is for them.

First off, how would the Melodious plays be disrupted when facing this Card ALONE. (Emphasis on alone)

Ostinato, 1st Movement Solo and Melodious Concerto, power players in Melodious Combos, have to be set first. Considering Diabellze can decide, once per turn, to destroy that set Card, that potentially leaves them in the dust.

Refrain and Couplet cannot be set from the Hand to the Pendulum Zone. However, they can set themselves from the Extra Deck if a Melodious is Fusion Summoned. Now, for Refrain, this isn't so bad. Her on-field effect is more important early on than her Pendulum Effect. FOR COUPLET, IT'S A BIG PROBLEM. She is mostly set early on as a Scale to grab Melodious Concerto, and she just can't do that under Diabellze's anti-spell effect. Not only that, but it's a pain in the neck to get her to the Pendulum Zone via her effect in the first place, because she has to get in the Field as a Monster, which is the worst place for her to be and really clunky considering she's a level 5. With Ostinato (Assuming it doesn't get destroyed beforehand) it's not impossible, but Refrain alone cannot add Couplet to hand unless there's another level 4 or lower Melodious, even still, you have to opt for the vulnerable Harmonist line. If she gets disrupted... Tough luck, welcome to Melodious pre-2023.

Doesn't look like many problems thus far, but they're pretty big ones considering the plays become much more vulnerable without access to early Couplet and Concerto. Also, she's a Monster that can be removed or at least disrupted. Yet for Melodious, it's a bigger issue to remove her than with most archetypes. This due to a few reasons:

A lack of in-archetype removal outside of Etoile. With the Spells so easily disrupted, all that remains for her Summoning is Soprano. At least there's her. But it'll require a Maestra on the Field. Again, hindered by the witch, because all 4 playmakers that are the new support are affected in some way.

Imperm and EVENLY not working. The Normal traps which can be activated from the hand to disrupt are not an option when it comes to her. Because of the archetype's xenolocks other types of Monster disruptions aren't as common, so Impermanence works as a staple just fine. Not anymore, with this worse Anti-Spell.

The Forbidden Quick-plays not working. Not as common as Impermanence, but searchable off of a Fairy in Condemned Witch, and Droplet is used because of its costly, yet extremely good disruption. You gotta wait a turn now.

Dark Ruler no More being disruptible. Seriously, how does a face-up Card counter the counter to face-up Cards?

Outside from the first problem, the other three are generic issues she presents. However, because of an infamous aspect of Melodious, there are some more answers which are more problematic for them to resolve than most other archetypes.

Kaijus. Usually, a Kaiju would be a fine and dandy way to say "see ya!" to a troublesome Monster. However, for Melodious, it presents some problems... Of the xenolock variety. 1st Movement Solo and Harmonist are integral to Melodious and... If you so much as activate them, you are only allowed to Special Summon Melodious for the turn. And by that, I don't mean that it's worded like "you cannot Special Summon Monsters, except "Melodious" Monsters, for the rest of this turn", rather like "you cannot Special Summon Monsters, except "Melodious" Monsters the turn you activate this card/effect". So that means if you use Harmonist or 1st Movement, you cannot Kaiju AT ALL, and if you Kaiju someone first, you cannot use these two playmakers AT ALL for the turn. That's why they're clunky to use in Melodious, because they make the boards way less consistent.

Triple Tactics Talent's "take control" effect. That's another used way to take control of a troublesome Monster and effectively remove it. However, you won't keep it for the turn. So not only do you have to set even THAT first, you also cannot easily link Diabellze away because, again, the xenolocks. Also the Melodious Fusions can't use her as Material, as they can only use Melodious Monsters. The only way to dispose of her without interfering with Harmonist and 1st Movement is... Tribute Summoning Couplet or Elegy over her.

Nibiru. Already a fairly contentious pick for Melodious, as if you use Nibiru yourself then you have it on your side of the board, and need to use specific Cards if you want to free up your Field for Ostinato or 1st Movement (Donner and Azalea are good for this in Melodious). Even still, you have to deal with the same xenolock problems.

So... There it is. This card alone I believe will cause so many problems. And the worst part is, she's searchable, Special Summonable from the Deck and... She's a card in the current lore that Yu-Gi-Oh is so keen on promoting. She's going to get more support down the line.

Konami, don't make me say that, despite having received support in the same set, Melodious is STILL cursed. I know it's a crazy thought to have, but I can't help it with this.

[qedmirage]

Yugioh Lore / Story Integration: Nemleria

Master duel just got a new archetype added to it, the "Nemleria" cards. The theme is that there's a sleepy girl, "Dreaming Nemleria":

Cute, isn't she? Well, let's talk about this, because Nemleria as a deck focuses on whimsy, cuteness, and screaming existential horror. And its mechanics work to enforce that vibe!

Let's focus on Dreaming Nemleria, the archetype's core monster. Nemleria is a Pendulum Monster, the bane of returning older yugioh players and much of the playerbase. Introduced in Arc-V the pendulum mechanic lets you do a lot of stuff and has a lot of words that let you all culminate in decks that are not very good.

Nemleria interacts with the Pendulum mechanic in a somewhat deviant way, though. Normally a Pendulum deck will at some point place two pendulum monsters face up in their spell and trap zones, then execute a "pendulum summon", summoning monsters from the hand or face up extra deck with levels between the "scales" of the two pend cards, the little blue and red icons on the card. Nemleria doesn't do that. Instead, she focuses on the "face-up extra deck" part of the pendulum rules; destroyed Pendulum monsters are placed there, and for Nemleria that's good, because this is the secret to her theme:

She's the dreamer, and your opponent is but a dream

Here's how it works. First, you take a Dreaming Nemleria from your hand, then place it in a spell/trap zone, and activate her Pendulum effect:

Once per turn, during your Main Phase: You can place 1 "Nemleria" Continuous Spell from your Deck or GY face-up on your field, and if you do, add this card to your Extra Deck face-up.

You cannot Special Summon "Dreaming Nemleria" the turn you activate this effect.

This gets Nemleria off of the battlefield (it's dangerous!) and off to the Extra Deck, where enemies generally can't interact with her. She's placed on top of the extra deck, with all the other monsters in it under her, like a pillow. How cute.

You also get to add to your hand a continuous spell card. That's gonna be the Dream Tower of Princess Nemleria:

In her dreams she's a princess in a land of sweets! As a fun detail, the card's tower has 15 layers of tarts, and the Extra Deck can contain no more than 15 cards at the start of the game, all tucked away under Nemleria. Dreaming Tower has multiple effects but the relevant combo one is this:

You can banish 2 face-down cards from your Extra Deck, face-down; add 2 Level 10 Beast monsters with different names from your Deck to your hand.

This gets us to the core of the Nemleria theme and the start of the horror aspects. As Nemleria restlessly sleeps, she's protected in the dreamland by her powerful dream defenders. In the game-mechanical sense, the Dream Defenders keep you from dying while banishing cards from your Extra Deck that are under Nemleria to gain some kind of advantage. And the Dream Defenders look like this:

Oreiller, Couette, Revil - that is, Pillow, Duvet, and Alarm Clock. The last one is a 'Dream Devourer' who can destroy the others.

What happens when you run out of cards in the Extra Deck? What happens when all the stuffing under Nemleria is banished? Well, then you get to her monster effect:

Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set.

Must be Special Summoned (from your face-up Extra Deck) by having no cards in your Extra Deck, except "Dreaming Nemleria".

You can only Special Summon "Dreaming Nemleria(s)" once per turn.

If this card is Special Summoned: For every 3 of your face-down banished cards, you can banish up to 1 card from your opponent's field and/or GY, face-down, then shuffle 1 of your face-down banished cards into your Deck for each card you banished by this effect.

She wakes up. And when she wakes up, the battlefield fades away like so much mist. This last effect is often going to banish five cards from your opponent's field/GY, and it doesn't target and it places them in the even-harder-to-retrieve face down banish. If this effect resolves it is going to wipe your opponent's board clean, leaving you free to maul their face with the Dream Defenders and close the game. The Dream Defenders being level 10 also means Nemleria also has access to the Rank 10 XYZ package, meaning she can use their cute sweets bodies as fodder to summon Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max and overlay it into Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Juggernaut Liebe

These two will just kill your opponent. Sometimes a girl dreams of Bigger Gun. In summary, if you are facing off against a Nemleria player, consider bargaining:

[andromebaa]

what are some of your favorite headcanons for just the two of us?

Oh man, I have so many lol. I'm gonna split them into serious stuff (plot/character hc), cute stuff (pairing/shipping hc) and dumb stuff (they're idiots hc). This is definitely not all of them, just the ones I could think of tonight. Kinda spoiler-ish if you haven't read up to the most current Just the Two of Us chapters so be warned! Serious Stuff

Kaito as a hero archetype always fascinates me. I feel like he has this compulsion to help others, especially those he perceives as weaker or unable to protect themselves. I think that's why I portrayed his 'biggest fear' in the simulation as hurting the people he loves the most and losing control in a way that makes him become a monster. (Very fun to consider depending on your HCs about his pre-game personality ehehe)

Kokichi is a walking bundle of trauma. So much has happened to this guy and I'm sure it's been dissected by people smarter than me but like - compulsive liar? Tiny? Really good at hiding? Those weird little spacing-out moments he gets? Something bad happened to you, didn't it? Like, maybe not as BAD as what I've depicted, but yeah. Poor baby.

Shadow Child was created as a representation of both Kaito and Kokichi's 'inner children', specifically the darker and more traumatic parts of their childhoods. They are portrayed more often as Kokichi because his trauma is much larger and more pronounced, and therefore more influential in the subconscious part of the simulation. I don't know why I stuck with they/them pronouns for them, it just kind of felt right?

The leech was based on Kaito's subconscious fears of his death. The concept of this parasite that drained its host's life force felt fitting for a death fear sort of thing. It also represents the loss of control he feels over this aspect of his life. It kind of 'evolves' as it takes in influences from other people, but that's kind of its main framework.

Miu's Copy had a massive breakdown during the bathroom scene. It was kind of her last straw before she turned on the leech. She kind of reflected on what she knew about the original Miu, the contents of the simulation and how Kaito and Kokichi interacted and it made her realise how fucked up everything was and how much she did not want to participate. Also she was getting sick of all the edgy thoughts leech was putting in her brain.

Cute Stuff

Kokichi's favourite food never used to be strawberries, it changed after Kaito fed them to him and he got some sort of psychological association between strawberries and him.

On that note, Kokichi probably can cook, like, decently, but he kind of plays up his ignorance because he likes Kaito showing him how to do it.

Kaito is super super into domestic life lol he can try to pretend he isn't but he so is. Definitely got into a routine when they were stuck in the simulation for that year.

Being with each other for that year made them get a really close, almost psychic-ish bond that people get when they spend too much time with each other. It's how Kaito can pick up on when Kokichi is lying, for example.

After he overcomes the whole 'don't touch me' hurdle, Kokichi swings to the other side of the pendulum and is very clingy. Won't leave Kaito alone. It annoys him at first but it grows on him.

They have lots of petty squabbles but they usually don't last. They're not fantastic at apologising properly to each other, it's usually just settled through physical affection or gifts (food).

Dumb Stuff

Kokichi drank shampoo the first time he saw it because he thought it was a fruity beverage. That's why Kaito started washing his hair for him.

Kaito named all his plants. He gets offended when Kokichi forgets them.

Miu definitely had relations with her P.A.L self.

I'm sure I'm missing a bunch lol but yeah headcanons woo! Thanks for the askkkk <3

[itsclydebitches]

I don't go here, but I really dislike how ubiquitous the notion has become in fandom that 'strong and independent woman' is somehow mutually exclusive with 'woman in a romantic relationship/prioritizing romance'. I feel like that's the kind of attitude that leads to terrible readings like 'The Little Mermaid is anti-feminist because Ariel gives up her voice for a man' which requires ignoring several key aspects of the film's plot and Ariel's character specifically (such as the fact that she sings Part of Your World before she ever lays eyes on Eric, and she spent her entire life collecting artifacts from the surface world and arranging them in her grotto), nevermind the fact that a story where someone falls in love and values that highly enough to make significant changes to her life to fight for it would still have value! Because love has value!

Like you said, just because there are a lot of cases where female characters are reduced to love interests and nothing else doesn't mean a female character caring about love and being motivated by love means she can't also be strong and independent. I feel like a lot of people just swing the pendulum way too far in the other direction and seem to think that being in love is what devalued those female characters, and not the fact that they were (by and large) written to be accessories for the male characters they were attached to and had nothing else to contribute to the story.

That is the problem, not romantic storylines themselves.

Precisely, anon! I'm really glad you brought up The Little Mermaid, both because the latest adaptation showcases how important intersectionality is (a black mermaid getting the "generic" love story is not the same thing as another white mermaid getting it) and because I've had similar gripes about many fans' readings of Cinderella. To be clear, I think the Disney + princess craze is a complicated subject with an equally complicated impact on kids, but a lot of people will attempt to simplify that conversation down to, "It's bad because she wants a man." Putting aside that this is not, as discussed, inherently a bad thing... did we miss the part where she's in a clearly abusive household, wants only to experience one fun night, and happens to meet the Prince without ever actively aiming for that to happen? This is a debate my friend and I have had for years, to the point where "Cinderella" is a bit of a code-word for, "We're never going to agree on this topic and others are getting annoyed at our impassioned arguments, so can we just move on now?" lol

I experienced similar frustration back when Jupiter Ascending came out and -- putting aside the quality of the film (or supposed lack thereof) -- people were up in arms about how terrible it is that the woman lead needs to be rescued by the guy, with the reason for that terribleness boiling down to, presumably, the idea that a woman is automatically weak if she needs help. Meanwhile, I was reading things through the lens of the show's realism (of course the average cleaning lady is not going to be able to fight off alien kidnappers without assistance) as well as the joy of seeing parts of myself in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy story. I'm not physically strong. I'm not a martial artist. I'm not someone who's going to immediately come up with a cutting remark and satisfyingly punch someone in the face. As cool as that archetype is, it's reductive to present a Strong and Independent Woman as solely physically strong and romantically independent. That definition should -- and does -- mean a thousand different things!

I do get it. I often have a knee-jerk reaction to certain writing choices for women (there was a maybe baby plot-line for one of Ted Lasso's characters this season that, far more than Keeley, I've been side-eying), but overall I try to approach each story as the individual text that it is. Yes, there are issues with these trends across media... but is this story actually falling into those stereotypes and harmful depictions, or have we just trained ourselves to reject anything in this category by default?

[blueeyeswhitegarden]

Day 2: Kahyoreigetsu @arcvmonth

Out of all of the Braclet Girls, Yuzu is my favorite. I really like her determined spirit, her kindness and compassion. Her determination to protect You Show after losing to Masumi leads to her learning Fusion summoning from Sora, which makes them better friends and that hleads her into forming other strong connections with other characters like Serena and Yugo. I love Yuzu's friendship with Yuya. It's arguably the most important relationship in the series. It never felt like a one-sided friendship, but an important connection and support for both of them. That's a huge reason why both Yuya and Yuzu crying over their separation was so emotionally powerful. It felt like they had lost something important and struggled throughout the rest of the series to get back to each other. Even so, Yuzu has plenty of other noteworthy friendships in the series as well, such as with Sora and Yugo. She was willing to put herself in danger against the Obelisk Force during the Battle Royal just so that Serena could learn the truth from Shun. After her understandable emotional breakdown over realizing that she was stuck in Synchro with seemingly no way of getting back home to her loved ones, Yuzu still wanted to warn complete strangers about Academia and how they could potentially be caught in the crossfire of the war, even if she looked and sounded ridiculous in front of them. Even when she was dueling against Sergey, she was worried about his injuries and was trying to end the duel. Yuzu saved the world from Zarc twice, even if she was unaware of it the first time when the Dragon Boys nearly became one in Synchro, and she does not get nearly enough credit for that. I also like her pink pigtails with the blue hairbands and her season one school uniform is her best outfit.

I also really like Yuzu's Melodious deck. I've played with it for awhile in Duel Links, but it's a pretty fun archetype with some great designs. It's probably my favorite archetype among the female leads, especially when I have the most experience playing it with out the batch. I wish that it would get more support like Melodious Pendulum cards. I don't mind that they weren't featured in the show. In-universe, I think it would have been too impractical for Reiji to make Pendulum cards for Yuzu when they didn't know when they'd find her and he was already making Pendulum cards for almost every other Lancer anyway. I don't know why Konami hasn't made Melodious Pendulum cards since then though. Since a lot of her monsters' effects rely on being special summoned, Melodious Pendulum cards would make perfect sense, so hopefully they'll be made someday.

I really like Serena as well. She is confident and more aggressive than Yuzu, but she has a warrior's pride. She was so determined to prove her worth to the Professor, not realizing the truth behind the Dimensional War until she talked to Shun. One of my favorite moments for Serena is just her shocked reaction to hearing Shun's story. She was so set on joining the front lines for what she thought was this noble goal only to learn that everything she knew about Academia was a lie and that they had done so much harm to innocent people. She immediately wanted to fight against Academia and joined the Lancers, which just showed more of her honorable spirit. I like that her aggressive and confrontational attitude wasn't treated like a problem. It's typical for that to be considered more of a flaw among female characters, but that wasn't the case with Serena. She needed to understand that duels can be fun, which she did during her match against Yugo, but it never felt like Serena needed to change her more aggressive personality traits, which was really refreshing and appreciated. I also like Serena's purple hair with the blue highlight and red looks really good with her design as well.

While we don't get to see as much as Rin and Ruri, I thought that they both still worked well with both their roles and limited screentime in mind. Most of Rin's screentime comes from flashbacks from Yugo's perspective, but despite that, it still gives the audience enough insight into their relationship, still made them one of the more popular ships within the fanbase and showed a bit into Rin's own personality. She was smart enough to build a D-Wheel with Yugo and wanted to enter the Friendship Cup to defeat Jack. Rin's duel with Yugo was really good and emotional. I also like her regular outfit. The lighter shade of colors work really well with her design and especially her light green hair. Ruri comes off as a happy and gentle person in her flashbacks.  I liked what we saw of her relationship with Yuto. It was cute fluff and I love cute fluff. Even though they may not have known each other long prior to the Dimensional War, I liked how they seemed to instantly develop crushes on each other. Ruri might have my favorite design among the Bracele Girls, but purple is one of my favorite colors and I'm partial to long hair, so long purple hair would be appealing to me.

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

Yugioh's extra deck summons ranked purely based on how much I like them

From the perspective of someone who has seen all six Studio Gallop series, all of Studio Bridge's current episodes, and whose only exposure to the game is Duel Links and the occasional master duel with his sibling. Also I'm including ritual summon even though it's not an extra deck summon because I feel like it.

7 Pendulum

Pendulum in the anime, and probably the game at the time is incredibly broken. Nowadays though, it has the opposite problem: it's been nerfed to the point of hardly being usable, especially in speed duels. So I almost never use it.

6 Maximum

I haven't ever played with these as they haven't been added to Duel Links so they're quite low. Anime wise though, I like them. They fit the mechanics of rush duels well. Sevens mostly knew not to overplay and fusion was treated as an equal to maximum in the second season. Go Rush meanwhile... definitely missed the memo and made Maximums too overpowered. Oh well, still kinda cool.

5 Ritual

I always kinda viewed this as the less versatile and less creative version of fusion, since you always need at least three cards in your hand and a lot of ritual monsters I've seen aren't worth that price. However, lately I've been practicing with a couple decks in Duel Links that can use them fairly effectively so it's grown on me.

4 Synchro

My most special monster (aka: the ace card in my personal original deck) is a synchro monster that feels as thought it fell out of the sky for me. It and the tuner I found fit the deck I'd built so well despite me having no prior knowledge of the card. Other than that and a couple other decks though, I find most synchros a little too gimmicky to use without building my entire deck around it or using a specific synchro archetype like Blackwings.

3 Xyz

The first summoning mechanic I ever mastered, and the one I built my first real deck around. It's a bit simple and quaint feeling but I like the overlay units and ranking up gimmicks (even if I've never done the latter) and its straightforward summoning requirements make it fairly versatile.

2 Link

This one took me a while to get the hang of and while I didn't think I'd care for it at first, it's grown on me a lot to the point of using it in some way in just about every deck I build since some link monsters aren't picky about their requirements. It's very versatile and also hella fun for combos.

1 Fusion

I am unhealthily in love with fusion. When I see it in the anime, I squeal with joy because more than any other summoning mechanic, fusion represents two or more monsters joining together to become more powerful. I love it conceptually, as from a design perspective it leads to a lot of creativity. There's a lot of variety in how a fusion summon can be done, from different fusion spells, to cards like field spells or monsters that bypass the need for a spell that make this mechanic a lot more versatile than you'd assume at first glance.

[photon-hypernova]

@y-lisse dont apologize for rambling i am always down to ramble about yugioh sdlkfjsdlfk what about your ddd deck

WHAT'S THAT. THAT'S THE SOUND OF ANOTHER HYPERFIXATION WAVE CRASHING UPON THE SHORELINE

ngl the d/d/d decklist is a lot more prone to change, but this is what i've got at the moment!! ^^

when i first got back into ygo at the start of the year, i REFUSED to touch pendulum summons. they terrified me. i was but a simple gx boomer. links and synchros were already stressful enough (xyzs my beloved)

so then, naturally, at one point, i went: fuck it. we ball. i'm going to learn one of the most infamously difficult archetypes that focuses on pendulums and has every single summoning method apart from rituals (PLEASE give us a ritual d/d/d monster i'm begging)

and y'know what? it slapped. it fucked. the designs are amazing (what's more gender than a deck of all-male fiends based off an amalgamation of historical people and apocalyptic events?) and it's INSANELY fun to play!! months on, and i'm still learning new shit about them today and i adore playing them. rip to my opponents having to read

i have a decent amount of them already irl (mostly from friends gifting me them lmao) and with the 70+ god help me cards i ordered online i should be able to complete them when they all arrive!! <3

[frosty-mage]

Metalfoes!

Do you look at a pendulum monster and think "whoa, that's too complicated"? Do pendulum lines look awesome but you don't know where to start? Do you want to mess with alchemical bikers with sick gear? Do you want to play one of the most consistent decks ever conceived that still has variable combo lines and a grind-game focused playstyle? Do you want to endlessly recycle your fusion monsters to wear your opponent out of resources? Give Metalfoes a try!

First up, the normals:

Here are the normal monsters for the archetype. They're pretty much as straightforward as you get. They don't have any monster effect, and their pendulum effect is the same: you can destroy another face-up card you control to set a Metalfoes Spell/Trap from your deck. Normally, this means you go even, but you can often get some benefit off of destroying your cards, even if it's just putting a monster in the extra deck to pendulum summon it back. Their scales are nothing to scoff at, either: a scale 8 without drawback will allow you to summon most anything, and the 1 compliments it nicely.

Also, Volflame is a house. 2400? It can clean up simplified game states with ease. Don't forget, these are normal monsters, so there's plenty of support that combines with them.

The cards that care about being destroyed:

Melcaster and Bismugear are also scale 1 and 8 monsters, and they too have the same pendulum effect. However, they have the added benefit of having some benefit when destroyed by battle or card effect. Melcaster lets you get back one of your destroyed 'foes, and Bismugear lets you search at the end of the turn (and can even find itself!) You can set one of these in the pendulum scale, have your other scale pop it, and go off to the races, setting backrow for free.

Do note that Melcaster prevents you from scaling that name for the rest of the turn, and Bismugear can't be pendulum summoned back, since it's level 1 to go with your scale 1s.

The odd one out:

Okay, Metalfoes Vanisher is weird. The pendulum effect is different; its level is too high to be pendulum summoned back... and it's not even good! Sure, it has some synergies, but the card it's meant to synergize with isn't particularly good right now either, even with this benefit. It exists, and can be fun to mess with in casual.

You might be asking: But Prinrin, what's the point of all this? Sure, you can get a bunch of pendulum normals, but that wouldn't win you a game in 2016, much less 2023! And while that's true, there lies the main objective: The fusions.

Fusion Monsters

Let's start with my wife, Mithrilium, since she holds the deck together. She can recycle your metalfoes backrow, so you can set it again. She bounces cards in play, meaning that you don't have to deal with their floating effects, she can deal with problematic backrow, destruction protection doesn't matter, and so on. She can even bounce your own cards! She even has an effect when sent to the graveyard, be it by battle, card effect, or even being used as fusion material herself. And don't forget, that graveyard effect isn't once per turn.

Alkahest has traditionally been one of the deck's primary forms of disruption. If you've ever dealt with Relinquished, you know how it can be troublesome to deal with. This is like that, but during the opponent's turn, as a quick effect, and isn't limited to 1 equip! Just suck up however many bodies you want.

Orichalc is an interesting case. He has two primary roles: disruption and pushing for damage. His on-field effect is nothing to scoff at; double piercing is a lot of damage (and is completely insane at the lower life totals in duel links). However, don't forget that the graveyard effects trigger when sent to the graveyard by any means, including as fusion material. If that happens during the opponent's turn... it can be quite potent.

Azortless is a more recent piece of support. While the pendulum effect looks good on paper, it's primarily played for the on-summon effect. Reshuffling spent cards in order to pop cards on the field is very strong. Don't forget that this can trigger off of pendulum summon or off of Mithrilium's graveyard effect, so this will do its thing very often. Don't sleep on this.

Adamante and Crimsonite make up a duo. Neither card is particularly good in a vacuum, but they do serve one very important role: interacting extremely well with super polymerization. You don't have to care about your opponent's monsters' type and attribute; as long as they have two with 3000 or less ATK, yoink. This still isn't amazing but it is cool.

Link Monsters

Electrumite is really good. It's also banned in the TCG, though it is legal in master duel and the OCG. An easy to hit summoning condition, ability to access any pendulum in the game, card drawing, recycling... this card does it all, and its interaction with Astrograph Sorcerer is extremely potent.

Amalgam is... less so. In some hands it lets you pendulum summon three monsters from the extra deck on turn 1, but even so, it's only okay. I'm only including it for completeness.

Spells/Traps

Remember back with the maindeck mosnters, they all had the ability to set Metalfoes spell/traps from the deck? Well, let's take a look at them!

Metalfoes fusion is both extremely Gender and one of the namesake cards of the deck. It's an archetypal polymerization, but also has the ability to shuffle itself back to draw a card. You sometimes see this see play in other decks just for that second effect, but we use both here. This just lets you always have access to a fusion spell, no matter how deep in the grind game you get.

Remember how I mentioned being able to fusion summon on the opponent's turn? Fullmetalfoes Fusion is the tool for that. You can often fuse away your Mithrilium or Orichalc into an Azortless or Alkahest, trigger their floating effect, and then have some other disruption from the card you just summoned. If the opponent isn't aware of what you're doing, even better! It also has utility by being an OTK enabler; you can use this during the battle phase as well. Attack with your Mithrilium, fuse it away into Orichalc, get the floating effect of Mithrilium, and push in for tons of damage. Just be sure you didn't set it that turn.

Parametalfoes Fusion is the last of the deck's fusion spells, but boy is it a doozy. Monsters in your extra deck are essentially free material in many cases. They provide fodder for Mithrilium to reshuffle, or are in a better spot to be brought back, since Mithrilium can only summon monsters from the extra to an EMZ or a linked zone. Monsters in the graveyard are therefore much easier to bring back, yet another benefit for this.

Metalfoes Combination is part of what makes the deck tick in the TCG, OCG, and Master Duel. It has two very potent effects: One gives you endless recursion. Any time either player performs any fusion summon, you get to bring back a Metalfoes monster from your graveyard. This can trigger during the opponent's turn, too. Remember the "fuse away Mithrilium for Azortless" comment? Not only do you get Azortless, not only do you get a pendulum monster back, but you then can get Mithrilium back too, and when it leaves, it can get back another monster, even in the same turn.

As crazy as that is, though, the main draw for this is the graveyard effect. A lot of your turn 1 setups involve using scales to set two copies of this, then using Magicians' Souls to send both, draw 2 off of souls, then search twice for whatever you're missing. You can then build some formidable boards from there.

The last piece of Metalfoes backrow is Counter. While Counter is extremely strong in lower power formats and can trigger Vanisher during the damage step, it is still a bit weak. Definitely fun in casual and potent in N/R, though!

Conclusion

There's your rundown of all the Metalfoes cards! Going first, you can assemble some really nutty boards, including Apollousa, Odd-eyes Vortex Dragon, Mythical Beast Jackal King, and a Fullmetalfoes Fusion for more follow-up. Going second, you struggle a bit, but pendulums give you many resources to push through whatever disruption the opponent has to throw at you. Regardless, after the first wave is dealt with, you can just keep going and going, recurring threat after threat until they run out of resources.

The deck is available in basically every platform! Duel Links, Master Duel, TCG/OCG... (though I cannot in good faith recommend it for competitive play in anything but Duel Links right now). It's also extremely inexpensive on Master Duel.

Also, it's alchemical bikers! How could you say no? Sweet designs, awesome lore (I didn't even touch on it here, but they team up with the Crystrons and the Zoodiacs to take on the True Dracos), cool mechanics... truly, a home run of an archetype.

[millennium-academy-of-summoning]

Introduction (Master list work in progress)

“ Hello I am Petro B Maximus and I am here to introduce you all to Millennium academy of Summoning.”

Millennium academy is mix Gender Academy though our Population is male dominate , You will see Young Women around then Campus .

Our Campus way more advanced than Night ravens or Royal Swords Stuffy old Fashioned halls . Though not as much as that Hourglass place I’ve Here about

Our Students are know for being the best at Magic Duels as well as entertainment and Tech . We are know for Holding a large magic Duel tournament between The various academies called one is called the “Battle city” and the other “ Battle Carnival “.

Now ,my Boy/Girl/Friend stand up to the Deck and draw your card , but, Becareful the card you draw will your fate of in this school.

Note. All the Staff and Students are based not just the duelists of Yugi oh but, the Monsters as well so students and Staff based off Blues White dragon , Duel terminal , World legacy .ect are welcome .

—————

Characters Creation and Fandorm Rules

Discord Server

———————

Headmaster

Petro B Maximus ( Twisted from the Millennium eye/Thousand Eyes Restrict / Pegasus J Crawford )

Tenma J Maximus ( Twisted from Pegasus J Crawford/Toon world )- Headmasters Son , he gose to NRC in Heartslabyu

Vice Headmaster

Arman Diaval ( Twisted from Priest Seto/ Seto Kaiba)

Other Staff

Vivian De Campo (Twisted from Crowler) - Basics of Magic Duel teacher/ Advance Magic Dueling Teacher

Yunna Fukuyama( Twisted from Yusei Fudo? ) - Mechanics Teacher /Synchro Magic Teacher

Patrick Knox ( Twisted from Paradox ) - Assistant Synchro Magic Teacher

Musa Solachord ( Twisted from GranSolfachord Musecia )- Music teacher

Regulus Akira ( Twisted from Leo Akaba ) - Fusion Magic Teacher

Basic and Advanced Magic Teacher- ( Twisted from Dark Magican) * He has a lot of Family

?????- Link Teacher

?????- XYZ Teacher

?????- Pendulum Teacher

?????- Ritual Teacher

??????- History teachers

?????- Math Teacher

?????- Writing teacher

????- Literature

?????- Art

?????- Alchemy

?????- Libraian

?????- Mental Magic

?????- Elemental Magic

?????- Familiar Magic

?????- Summoning

?????- Combat Teacher

Dorms

Just at Places like Night Raven There are Seven Dorms

Dulinx based on Duel Monsters

Based the Ruthless Determination of The Duelist of the white Dragon and his Rival

It’s unknown who Dulinx was Created for but the Story is the Duelist of the White Dragon whose Determination and Ruthless attitude towards regulating the Magic Duels and mastering the Magic Duels allowed them to Flourish .

Dulinx is Founded on determination those who are Sorted in to Dulinx’s Dorm Are often known to be Stuffy , Stubborn , and Hard headed . Dulinx Students Excellent in Support Magic and Making use of Magical Tools and Relic .

Taken

Blue Eye White Dragon

Red eyed black Dragon

Obelisk

Yugi and Atem

Mai Valentine and Harpy Ladies 1, 2 and 3

Gennyx Based on  Characters from GX and the Fusion Dimension from Arc -V 

based on Good Sportsmanship of

Created to Celebrate a duelist in Red said to have never lost a Battle though it conflicted whether he never Lost . What was know is that the duelist in red had a Special powers to see everyones “ Duel spirit “A special “monster( From yugioh)” someone is connected as well as being able to speak to his Familiars let to the Duelist in Reds reputation of  good sportsmanship . The Majority of Students excel in magic Duels And Spelldrive  . They have a rivalry with the so called “ Loser’s  Dorm”  Numeria  .

*Gennyx Dorm has the highest turnover rate with many Transferring into Numeria, @Ignita or Synchrocity due to the Dorms strict Hierarchy based on how good someone is at Magic duels many lower Ranked students say they aren’t even ailowed to use the Dorms Kitchen .

Taken

Jaiden Yuki

Yubel

Chazz

Serena/ Lunalight Blue Cat

Yuri/ Straving Venom

Ritualisk - Based on Ritual monster ,Duel Terminal ,Albaz and other Story Archetypes

Based on the Sacrifice of the witch of rituals.

In the Ever Changing world of Duelle Terminus 

 there is a tragic  Story about a woman Whose life was full Sacrifices . Sacrificing Mind, Body and Eventually her life to Combat InvaZwarma threat that Eventually over took her Upon seeing what she did under the influence of the Invazwarm she Sacrificed herself to defend against it. . 

Ritualisk Embraces the Sacrifices of the Witch of Rituals and learn from her mistakes and various  misgivings . Most of them Descent from The Necrize said to be  Successors of the Witch of Ritual’s Tribe but the Others like The Dogmatics and Even Descendants of The InvaZwarm Descenters who managed to Break from the Hivemind.

—————

Taken Gishiki Noella

Ecesselia

Alexis

Visas Starfrost + all the Heart Monsters(Offical Protagonist)

Synchroncity - Based on 5D’s and the Synchro dimension in Arc-V 

Based on the Adaptiabilty of the Signers 

Synchroncity despite the Name the Dorm it’s self is full of Mechanics, Speed nuts , Racers and many other  types of Engineers they Consider Monsiville and Dulcisregnum  Suitable rivals in both . 

Based upon the Struggles  of the Signers , Synchroncity Prides it’s Self in the Hardwork ethics and clever Thinking put in by their Students, but also  has no qualms for Slackers though recently with Influx  of People Transferring to the Dorm   From Fusinex , Things are Getting a Bit out of Hand for thier Current Dorm Leader. They are known for being adaptiable duelist which  make GennyxPull thier hair out.

————

taken Characters

Stardust Dragon/ Yusei

Jack Atlas

Black Rose Dragon/ A

Yugo/ Clear Wings

Rin

Numeria - Based on Zexal  and The XYZ Dimensions from Arc-V

Based on the Improvement of the Golden Key holder

Numeria has a Not so Great Reputation among Student body  in Millenium  ,  Most of the Students Consider it A Losers or Good  for nothing Dorm , Sure they may Lose a  lot of Magic  Duel  but they sure won’t it let get them  down .

Because their based on the Holder of the Golden key motto of Feeling the Flow and Improving once they get into the Flow  , Numeria is Unstoppable  they offend Help Synchroncity , Pendulala , @Ignita and Rushtown Dorm with   Various projects .

However Gennyx has been Giving them Trouble as of Late .

Taken

Yuma

Astral

Shark

Lulu/Ruri

Yuto/ Dark Rebellion

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Pendulala - Based on Arc -V and Pendulum Monster 

Based on the Passion and Tragedy of the Supreme King

The Resident Entertainment  dorm , Based on  the Bevelonce ,Passion and Tragedy of the Supereme  King.

The Dorm Prides it self on Making People Smile and to never give into the Desire To Make Magic Duels more Brutal than Necessary To Avoid a Second Splitting of Dimensions .  

Many of Pendulala Battles Are more Entertaining And Showy often Using which Annoys Gennyx Dorm are they aren’t slouches When it comes

To Magic duel but  often like Showboat  which annoys the Fusnex dorm. They are often focused on what looks cool.

——-

Taken

Yuuya/ Odd eyes

Yuzu

I might take Gong if no one else dose him

————-

@Iginita- Based on Vrainz and Link Monsters

Based upon the Unawavering sense of Justice of the Playmaker and Ignisters

The Iganita Dorm is home to  many Technological wonders, the Dorm almost looks like a Virtual City space  with Student Riding on hoverboards dueling each other  not unlike the Duels In Synchrocity  , Many of them have become Internet famous for thier Duels along with other pursuits. Many of them Are idols or Magituber,some are even software Engineers and talented Hacker. They are. Often Considered A Niuances to Magic Duel Against due thier More Strategy focused mind set which the Gennyx Dorm Deems a Threat to thier win streak.  ——-

Taken

Yusaku

Skye/Blue Angel

The Gore

Ai

——

Rushown

Based on the innovations of the Seven Roads Duelist 

Rushown is the Newest Dorm set up by one Student in the School who thought the Rules of  Magic dueling were starting Get overwhelming for new People and made it harder for Millennium academy to keep student. So The Student strived to make a more Simplifed Rule set  with a basis bringing more causal People into the Fun parts about Magic Duels while still being  Competitive dorm simlar to Numeria  they are known for Losing a lot but they Never let it get them Down .  The Gennyx Dorm Dosent like Rushown lax Attitude towards it and hate the Idea of the Basics of Magic dueling being changed for quote on Quote “Children “.

———

Yuga

Roman

Yuamu

---

Unknown form as of yet

Lightray madoor

[turboacek-blog]

Ash’s Yugioh Deck

The flip side of the Ash vs Yugi I said in a different post

Where I made some Pokemon teams for Yugi/Atem

My attempt at a deck for Ash

I'm not as familiar with Yugioh as Pokemon I've played duel links and some master duel and watched duel monsters and some of GX and some 5DS so bear with me

Since this is a for a hypothetical dduel against Yugi it has to be more of an anime deck, which means it isn’t the most optimal TCG/OCG deck as anime decks very rarely have multiple copies of a card (with exceptions like Kaiba’s 3 Blue Eyes white dragon, and cards whose effects are using the same copy of their card like Thunder Dragon)

There were different ways to look at it so I have different decks

1) Focus around “Pikachu”

With the idea that characters have “1” precious card/monster and they build that deck around that

And by the time of DSOD characters basically have an archetype deck, (Blue eyes, Cubic, etc)

Watts

So I don't know if this is obvious but the archetype would be Watt’s

Wattfox resembles Pikachu a lot so that would be Ash’s Dark Magician or Kuriboh

The problem is Watts is mostly a synchro deck and even Wattfox is a tuner

Yugi was in bonds beyond time and saw Yusei even though that movie undid everything, Yugi wasn't freaking out over synchro summoning but was confused a little plus Watts isn’t as strong so could balance out against Yugi’s deck(s) and not many watt synchros so it wouldn't be much different than Yugi fusion summoning

Might pair it with the hunder engine as they can be the “trainers” to the “Pokemon” that the Watts are

I won't go too into the extra deck as that just gets complicated on what extra monsters they would use as that's even a question mark for Yugi but in later master rules, cards like the hunders can also facilitate Xyz summoning, and link summoning can be in any deck basically to do with the synchros

2) The “Pokemon” deck

Watts was because of Pikachu and Ash, but Ash can also just be seen as the Pokémon character stand-in so we need a deck that can be a Pokemon deck

Performapals

A lot of the performapals very much look like Pokemon from an art style perspective and some like Performapal Lizardraw looks literally like Charmander

Performapals are usually a pendulum deck but in this scenario would have a good number of non not strong Performapals plus no odd-eyes, etc so it isn’t as strong as it could be

3) Ash’s Pokemon as Yugioh Monsters

Then to do the route I did with Yugi for his Pokemon team where I needed to find the closest Pokemon for his monster cards, I'll try to find the closest Yugioh monster cards for Ash’s Pokemon

Wattfox (Pikachu)

Tyrant Dragon/Winged tortoise/and more (Charizard)

Poki Draco (Dragonite)

Performapal Lizardraw/Kidmodo Dragon (Charmander)

Butterspy monsters (Butterfree)

Performapal odd eyes light Phoenix/ (Talonflame)

End of Anubis (Lucario)

One of the frogs like Ronintoadin (Greninja)

Performapal guitartle (Squirtle)

Etc

Got some from here won't lie

Got some from here too

I don't know Yugioh as well to find more similar cards for the Pokemon Ash actually owns as I’ve seen some that can work as Pokemon but there are a lot of cards that can be Pokemon but Ash hasn't actually caught them so would feel strange to include them

So I'll just stop listing them here but as usual, fill it out with some decent spells and traps and more monsters to get to a 40-card deck

But the gist is it is just like early duel monsters with random monsters and spells and traps that don't go together since there weren't archetypes yet but they work well enough in the slower-paced game

As with cards like pot of greed being legal bricking isn't much of an issue

4) the Combination

I think the dream anime deck would be a Performapal deck with a Wattfox added in with some support from some spell cards for Wattfox to make it stronger like Pikachu is weak but strong at the same time and a few more nonarchetype monsters like Tyrant Dragon to be a boss monster in the deck like Charizard was his ace in Pokemon and the other special summoning like the Butterspy’s xyz’s for Butterfree, etc to represent his other Pokemon

So it's a pendulum deck with the focus on getting his boss monsters out which could represent his team of 6

Overall

I feel more realistically that Yugi would have just higher more useful cards plus better synergy but Ash has those situational cards that come in handy when you least expect it to I would say Yugi wins just off the probability that Ash could win maybe 3/10 times but Yugi wins a majority of the time

[krawlernyannyan]

Another round of LEDE reveals tonight! This time it's long-awaited support for Melodious!

It's been six years but Melodious, an archetype from the series that introduced Pendulum Monsters, finally has some Pendulum Monsters of its own! And the whole lot is solid:

The Level 4 Refrain searches you a Melodious on summon and can mill a Melodious from Deck with its Pendulum Effect.

The Level 5 Couplet searches their new fusion Spell with its Pendulum Effect, and can Special Summon another Melodious from your hand if you search for it.

The Level 7 Spectacular Bach is a great resource tool, being able to Special a Melodious from Deck and reviving a Melodious from the GY when it's sent there (in any way, including Linking it off for the Melodious Link).

The Level 8 Flowering Etoile is, pivotally, interruption in a Deck that was lacking it before, and does so by banishing any number of Melodiouses you control until the End Phase and then bouncing face-up cards your opponent controls to the hand. There's actually a lot of utility in this on top of just being efficient removal.

The deck's actually got some really solid tools now to bring it up to modern standards, and I'm very interested in seeing what people cook up with it now!

We're a quarter of the way into LEDE now and we're still due for Ancient Gear support this weekend. With the way setcodes work they're due for three Main Deck monsters and one Spell at minimum, but probably 1-2 Fusions and some Traps on top of that.

[aialaau]

So, my Yu-Gi-Oh hyper-fixation from 3 years ago revived with the grace and subtlety of a tactical air strike, and my brain went back to a proto-archetype I designed for a potential fic and I’ve decide to post it here so all of you can be subjected to it as well. I take constructive criticism. This archetype was made more so with Anime/Manga rules in mind. 

Manic Melodies The archetype is based on music and songs. It has a wide variety of types and attributes, but there is a clear focus on Light and Dark attributes, along with Fiends and Spellcasters. Most of the cards I've come up with so far are based on my favorite songs and artists. All of the monsters can sing, or in some way play music. It's best suited for a "Bait and Punish" strategy, with a lot of traps, counter traps, and monster effects that activate from the hand and graveyard when the user's field is empty or the opponent does something.

Here are some cards I thought up:

Manic Melody Sudden Gardna (Light/Fiend/Effect/ ATK: 700/ DEF: 2800/ LV: 5) Appearance: A quadruped canine build with strong front limbs that have shields modeled after music bars. The spines along the back and tail look like the fortissimo symbol. Its face peaks out from between the shield, revealing piano key teeth. Monster Effect: When there are no monsters on your field and the opponent declares a direct attack, this card can be summoned in the defense position from the hand and become the target of the attack.

Rit. Ricochet (Normal Trap) Effect: If an opponent's monster failed to destroy a "Manic Melody" in the defense position in battle, the offending monster is destroyed and the opponent takes half that monster's attack points as damage

Haunted Harmony (Counter Trap) Effect: By discarding a Manic Melody from the hand to the graveyard, or banishing a Manic Melody in the graveyard from play, an activated trap card on the opponent's field is banished from play.

Holy Harmony (Continuous Spell) Effect: If there are two or more Manic Melodies on the field, they can not be destroyed in battle. This card is destroyed if the number of Manic Melodies on the field becomes less than two.

Manic Melody Chthonic Conductor (Light/Spellcaster/Effect/Pendulum/ATK: 1750/ DEF: 3000/ LV: 7/ SC: 3) Appearance: Monochrome color scheme with a somewhat bipedal reptilian build. Dressed to the nines in a fine suit with a cape resembling dragon wings covered in musical symbols. They have four disembodied hands floating around them with two of them holding conductor batons. Only one silver eye is visible from the shadow of their top hat. Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, a card outside the Pendulum scale can be summoned from the extra deck with its effects negated until the End Phase of that turn. Monster Effects: This monster is also treated as a Dark attribute while on the field. Once per turn, by not battling that turn, this monster will force the opponent's monsters with the highest and lowest attack points to battle each other; the weaker monster is destroyed and the opponent takes the difference as damage. If there is only one monster on the opponent's field, by discarding a Manic Melody from the hand, this card can attack directly by lowering its attack points to 1000. If this monster is targeted for battle or a card effect, once per turn, a spell or trap card can be activated from the hand or graveyard.

Manic Melody Duality Dragon (Dark/Dragon/Effect/Fusion/ATK: 3000/DEF: 1500/ LV: 8): Inspired by Set It Off's album, Duality. Materials: 2 Manic Melodies: One Light and One Dark Appearance: Massive wyvern-style dragon with two diamond-shaped heads in metallic blues and silvers. It has no discernable eyes and the heads split down the middle to reveal the mouths. The spines on its back and wings vibrate to make sounds and activate its effects. Its wing beats sound like clapping. Monster Effects: This monster is also treated as a Light attribute while on the field. When it's fusion-summoned, a trap card can be added from the deck to the hand and one face-down card on the opponent's field is revealed. If an opponent's card effect changes any of the stats of this monster the difference from the original stat to the new stat is dealt as damage to the opponent. When is card is destroyed, a trap or spell card can be activated from the hand or graveyard.

[12pt-times-new-roman]

c3e33

We've already split the party. This is gonna go great.

The Call doesn't seem to have very many spellcasters.

The assailants have taken one of the walls of the Seat of Disdain, and they're attacking from on top of it by lobbing attacks over and taking cover behind the parapets.

"I'll reach out to cast Spare the Dying, but I'll hesitate, because I don't know what it'll do to me." .....huh. But they're fine with casting shield of faith.

The Treshi boxes are broken open and they have "dozens of small crystal vials, about a foot long" with "dark, viscous gray liquid." Both Fearne and Ashton got some of them.

Looks like Fearne took a 6th level in druid!

It looks like all these explosions are from literal explosives and gunpowder, not from spells. The attackers are heavily wrapped in cloth and cloaks, to a point where it seems intentionally vague, and they are predominantly using firearms.

Oh fuck this was a distraction to get Treshi, wasn't it? There's an unconscious guard and their keys are already gone.

It's Artana Vo! I fucking knew it!

She's a ranger with the Hunter archetype, and is at least 7th level.

That's like 4 natural 20s in this sequence alone. I can't wait to see when and how fast this pendulum is gonna swing

Vo was going to take Treshi back to Jrusar, just like the Hells, and is now loosely helping them! Which further reinforces my thinking that Orym seeing her was Matt throwing them a bone and giving them an alternative path to the same goal.

Oh my god the controls of the skirmish crawlers are like those lawn mowers that you ride and drive with the bars

Fearne got one of the Cerberus Assembly boxes!!

jesus fucking christ

Otohan is just standing up there on a balcony, watching the chaos, when Laudna climbs up the front of the fortress with spider climb into her fucking face and casts darkness. this is INSANE and one of the most cinematic things to happen in this campaign so far

Laudna has planted the tracking ring on Otohan Thull.

"Whoever you are, your timing is curious."

I didn't see it before, but I'm definitely getting sense now that Orym is desperately looking for a leader and desperately trying not to let himself be a leader.

Ashton rage build update: Ashton can open a portal to a space adjacent to the target of their attack, but it expends a use of their Chaos Burst ability. They don't seem to be able to open a portal unless they attack.

Otohan is waiting for them outside the Seat of Disdain. "Let's have a conversation, shall we?" "Three shadowy versions of herself appear around her, wearing dark leathers somehow darker than her own."

This sounds similar to what an Echo Knight can do, but they can only ever have 2 echoes at a time (which they get at 18th level).

break time!

These shadowed versions of her move independently, so they're not from the mirror image spell, and they're the same as the assassins in Zephrah. They also have veeeeery low HP.

Otohan appears to also have psychically-oriented power with a save DC higher than 15.

She knows Eshteross to an extent, but so do a lot of people; he used to be a pretty public feature.

FCG's sympathetic binding seems to be hurting them now — they reacted negatively when they gave a bonded blessing to Imogen.

"Perhaps the rest of you are weak, like sheep that bleed for a higher power. You deserve only ashes, then."

Initiative!

Aaaaand there's the pendulum swing.

Yeah, Matt referred to these things as "echoes." So I'm betting that she's an Echo Knight with a couple additional things to give her more of a chance in a 1v7.

No, she's a psi warrior. Protective Field is a 3rd-level psi warrior ability, as is Psionic Strike, and as far as I'm aware you can't multiclass subclasses — so whatever these echoes are, they're not from the Manifest Echo ability, and might not even be dunamancy-based. Maybe they're something to do with that mirror that Yu had, with corrupted versions of fey creatures and Unseelie assassins inside it?

bitch what the fuck??? Matt's talking like she has the Manifest Echo ability, and literally called it that, but she also has psi-powered leap, a 7th-level psi warrior ability. but she's not using the unleash incarnation ability (which echo knights get at the same time as manifest echo), which makes me pretty sure that this is an item or potion that's giving her the ability to do this.

god, Imogen telling Laudna to run in such a breathy and desperate voice while there's a sandstorm swirling around her and purple lightning streaking through red clouds, with Otohan Thull and her assassins darting through the peripheries of her vision like ghosts, just like all of Imogen's dreams......

is this the closest we've ever gotten to a TPK? is this what all you fuckers felt like when you watched the Lorenzo/Tombtakers fights live???

Ashton rage build update: Whenever Ashton brings an enemy below 0 hit points with their space build active, they can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space they can see.

Imogen started this shit, let's hope she can finish it

Fearne has Enhanced Bond, which means she took a level in druid when she leveled up.

NAT 20 DEATH SAVE

"Not yet, my child. We have much to do."

Okay yeah, pretty sure Otohan's getting this from an item or potion. She's got all the abilities of Manifest Echo but nothing else.

Fearne has Revivify prepared automatically. it's a circle spell for her, it's always prepared. and we know FCG has a diamond. I never wished I had kept track of their spell slots more--

Otohan -> Fearne: "You carry the seed... just not as strong as others'."

"The Moontide Crown. Ira. We know where it is. Do you want it? You have to stop." and a 22 persuasion check by Laudna. "We got a direction. The Panagrip Sands."

Otohan -> Imogen: "You're so close... the more you run from it, the more you lose. There is greatness in you, and our time is soon. Embrace it, or be culled like the rest."

Imogen feels something in her chest, the power and the fear that always accompanies her dreams. "The storm rages in your belly. Do you fight it?" "I'm not losing them to just surrender to you." "'You are not surrendering to me, but to your nature.' That same burning, growing, alluring sensation somewhere deep in your soul, in the very essence of every fiber of your being, is going now, now, and she sees it, there's excitement, like a teacher waiting for a student to have a breakthrough... [You let them go.] 'You give in, or you all die. I only need the strongest of us.'"

"You don't choose to give in, you let go when the time is right."

"That burning in your stomach is screaming. It is bellowing... That call is screaming to you. Do you continue to resist? [I'll go with you.] 'Let go, and give in to your nature.' As that burning storm within you burns up, you feel a tidal surge pulling you under, like the ocean swallowing you up, but it's nothing but red, warm, crackling fury. As it does, the entire landscape around you turns red — the dust storm, the wind, freezes, the sand just frozen in the air. Those of you who are still here notice as the coloration of the city turns a deep, deep red. 'Yes, yes! This is it!' The space around her shakes and adjusts, and as you scream uncontrollably, all that fury and vengeance within, as you unleash it, you watch as the buildings tear away, you are all dragged along with the whirlwind and everything goes white."

aKJHJHDGFKAJHLFDA MATT WHY

I have. Thoughts. to be elaborated upon.

[taking-thyme]

Favorite Tropes: The Skill Monkey

My favorite role in any friend group, fictional or otherwise, is the skill monkey. I personally fill this role a lot in my groups, so I wanted to talk about it for a bit. Rambling ahead.

When I say “skill monkey”, I don’t mean the friend who’s booksmart or even that dude who actually knows how cars work. I mean the friend who has the most seemingly useless knowledge ever that somehow turns out to save the day. The kind of person who’s dabbled in pretty much every out-of-place skill you can think of. It’s the difference between actually studying and binging Wikipedia and Reddit at 3 in the morning. They're not booksmart at all, but they're still very knowledgeable. Bonus points if this skill or knowledge is never mentioned until it’s actually needed, or is mentioned with zero context whatsoever like during group banter.

The Skill Monkey is that friend who will randomly bring up experiences and skills and knowledge they've had that seems so nonsensical and weird in the most charming way possible. Like maybe the gang is fighting a killer clown and it turns out they’ve dabbled in clown college or know a lot about the history of clowns. Or a situation comes where they need to lead an enemy away and they’re suddenly able to throw their voice because SURPRISE! They were a ventriloquist for a year or two! Or they need to contact a Spirit and the skill monkey is already pulling out the Planchette and Pendulum because they just randomly had it with no prior context.

This makes a character who’s perfectly set up for both comedy and badassery. It’s perfect for Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass characters, or characters who seem stupid on the surface but suddenly become badass and amazing at something when the situation calls for it. Overly Sarcastic Productions has a very good video on this too. The skill monkey is the character who saves everybody’s asses by using a skill that no normal person would ever casually know. They’re particularly versatile and useful in a plot because they can know almost anything so long as the situation calls for it, though it works better if it’s a particularly strange skill. It leaves the audience wondering how the skill monkey will get everyone out this time, or what else they might know. Loads of room for both canon characterization and potential headcanons for the fandom to come up with.

But it’s important to make sure that the skill monkey doesn’t know everything. If they solve literally every single problem by themselves, it gets boring really really fast. That’s why the skill monkey works best in groups where they can work off of others and everyone’s unique skills and knowledge plays a role. Skill monkeys work really well in mystery, paranormal or fantasy series, particularly if it also has a comedy aspect. And remember to give the skill monkey certain quirks and defining traits beyond their skills - like maybe they’re constantly tired because they’re up all night researching new things. Or maybe it’s the opposite and they’re so full of energy that they rarely even need to sleep, hence why they have so much time for these things. Maybe they’re a non-human creature who doesn’t even need to sleep, or has lived for like 500 years so they’ve had the time to gather all their knowledge. What’s their aesthetic? Their defining personality traits? Stuff like that.

Skill monkeys are also fun because both the writer and even the audience can project their unique skillset onto them. If the writer knows a lot about witchcraft, so will the skill monkey. Got really into Mayan civilizations back in middle school? Give the story a plot point revolving around that and let the skill monkey work their magic! They practically write themselves, so personally I hope more people use this archetype in the future.

Anyways, end of rambling. Stay tuned for more Favorite Trope Dissections in the future!