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Top 10 Future Card-Making Strategies By Angel-From-A-Higher-Plane

From: AFernan104@aol.com
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:39:27 EDT

Well it's been almost a year since my last articles was posted by THE POJO GROUP, thanks by the way guys. I thought I try to start a trend for other submitters to follow since the topic is rarely discussed and that is the cards that
I(ala-WE) think should be made to keep this wonderfully simple yet deceptively deep/diverse/dynamic...etc/etc game I now refer to regularly as DUEL MONSTERs from going the way of the Dodo(Doh-Doh) which is an extinct bird. FORGET about the OTHER DUEL titled TCG game-too kiddy marketed for my taste. I'm soon to be 31 years old this April BTW. Since it's my BIRTH month pojo guys, it be a nice gift to me if this emailed article gets put on the site for all to ponder on! I'll be updating my last two old submittances, so DMs fans keep a lookout for'em.

Now for the list. I'm always pondering why Konami makes so many totally crappy NORMAL and even EFFECT-based Monster cards. I would think if there is a bigger pool of usable cards in a TCG it would increase popularity for it. Note Duel Monsters for the purposes of this article will be refered to as DMs(yes) I know DM is refered to as YuGi's FAVE monster Dark Magician but hey it's my article.

10# STOP making obviously BROKEN CARDS. This may sound like a big o' whine but it's fundamentally a good critique about a game like DMs which typically uses-up card resources on the field relatively quickly, barring the involvement of stall-based decks. Though I own most of them broken cards; now looking back I think cards like Raigeki and Harpie's Feather Duster should have been specialized for the presence of other cards; for examples HFD would only be played if an Harpie Lady monster was face-up on the field and as for Raigeki which I believe means thunderbolt in Japanese should only have been used when a certain face-up Thunder-type monster was present or affected somehow by your opponent. These cards were obviously money-makers for Konami and UDE since most players wanted them. Plus broken cards promote skill-less uses for any player no
matter what skill level to exploit without any drawbacks.

9# USE the CARD-Text Space on the CARDs for any possible play-mechanic problems between new cards and other existing ones. For example the venerable trap card Waboku if you read it carefully, it really doesn't state that the damage reduction would only pertain to Attack Damage. So one could argue that a Monster Card like Solar Flare Dragon or Bowganian which does Direct Damage could be stop by Waboku. Granted that when Waboku came out in the early days there were only few Monster cards I believe that did Direct Damage which was Jinzo#7 and others like it plus Princess of Tsurugi. However if one observes the Waboku card, one can see that there was enough space to inform players of the
differences of damage types plus other OBVIOUS situations like when 2 equal atk
monsters attack each other and what would happen if a player activated Waboku during that Battle Phase.

8# Keep Making Cards based on ALL the ANIME/MANGA Duelist's DECKs.
Yes I know we have Yugi/Kaiba X 2 variants, JOEY, and PEGASUS starters but
what about Rex/Weevil/Marik etc? This is related to other aspects of the CARDS themselve which will be discussed further down. I consider myself a mixture of Yugi/Kaiba/Marik.

7# Abandon Crappy Normal Monster Cards Unless...
those cards can be combined with new ones to do very powerful COMBO's or something specular. Yes there are cards that help lvl 1-3 normal monsters but what about Level 4 & above. Think along the lines of Dark Magician and BEUD ala Dark Magic Attack / White Lightning Attack.

6# Sponsor Unique themed tournaments.
This may not deal directly with making new cards since it pertains to allowing the use of pre-existing cards in tournaments based on game-mechanics(Spell Counters), sub-types and/or attributes. Even have matches between TEAMS ala 2 vs 2 or bigger Teams. It however relates closely with the following idea for new card strategies.

5# Enhance old Game Mechanics and Introduce new ones.
Now what I mean by the above statement is game-mechanics like deck arche-types like Exodia, Final Countdown, Fire Princess/Life Gain, Level Up/Fusion/Ritual Monsters, FINAL and Last Turn. Other old game-mechs that SHOULD be enhanced/supported are the Spell Counters, Union/Fusion/Ritual monsters, Player Turn boosts(I'll explain this), Coin-Flips, Dice-Roll, Basic Board Structure...etc.
Imagine hybrid decks compose of 2-3 aspects of these game-mech. Lookup Armor Exe a monster card now think how cool it be if there were monster/magic/traps that help keep it on the field easier. Heck, Konami has done somewhat good on Spell Counters since they made Big Core which uses Spell Counters as shields against attack and Breaker is an AWESOME use of Spell Counters. Konami should mix things up to aid concepts like Final Countdown; it needs Spell/Trap/Monsters that speeds/skip players' turn at least we got the trap card called Pyro Clock of Destiny but what if Spell Counters can be sacrificed to also advance a turn to win faster via Final Countdown. Life Gain is such an underdeveloped deck-type that it really needs hybrids like using Spell Counters, coin flipping to get a weak or strong life point gains and dice-rolling. Imagine gaining 100-500 LP times the number resulting from 2 dice rolls from an effect monster/spell/trap; sort of like a Dark Master-Zork effect but for life gain or Spell Counter creation for that matter. In the Anime/Manga there's a Spell card called Seal of Orichalcos(spelling may be wrong), it boosts a player's monsters' attack by 500 but the REAL power lies in the Spell's effect to allow the player to play more than ten monster cards/tokens on their side of the field. Imagine
again, if there was a Spell/Trap/Monster that allowed one to place upwards of
ten Spell or Trap cards on the field; this would greatly help the FINAL destiny cards. Plus Spell Counters can be used to protect those F•I•N•A•L cards for destruction/negation.

4# Develop more support based on Attributes.
This is a very obvious idea. Make the Light, Wind, and Fire attributes stronger contenders against IMHO the strongest attributes; EARTH & DARK.

3# Develop more support based on Sub-Types.
This is another very obvious idea. Make the subtypes like Thunder/Plant/Reptile...etc more dynamic against the others via making them very good at some tactic. For example the Warriors can swarm. The Beast+Beast Warriors can also swarm but are better at overpowering + gaining Trample, Insects can slowly weaken other cards, Zombies have regeneration thus swarm+overpower while Fiends are excellent Field/Deck/Grave manipulators.

2# Make Card Titles/Art associations tighter.
Now this may not be so apparent in DMs. To cite some good existing examples I'll mention a few. Freed the Matchless General and Marauding Captain have
their Images used on Traps and Spell cards MC poses in many cards' art like
Reinforcement of the Army, The Warrior Returing Alive, Staunch Defender and My Body as a Shield. Other samples include Gravekeepers/Dark Scorpions/Ninjas/Amazoness but my favorite example lies with the Fiends. The Archfiends are the more recent grouped cards that comprises of monsters/traps/spells. Dark Ruler Hades has his own FIENDISH visage on many cards' art; here are most of them Demotion, The Puppet Magic of Dark Ruler, Soul Demolition, Bark of Dark Ruler and even Card Destruction I believe should be considered. -HINT- Look closely at the hand tossing away the cards in the picture; the color-scheme may be off but I swear that is his naily figured hand! LOL! Another cool idea touched on in the animated series/TCG is the hybrid of Trap Cards morphing into Monsters or vice versa. We already have a few Monsters turning into Equip Spell cards first and foremost is Dark Necrofear followed by Kiseitai and Brain Jacker all Fiend monsters by the way. To go even further on this card hybrid how about combining Card Icons for the Spell and Trap cards. Think how intriguing a Quick-Play Spell turning into a Equip Spell since this hypothetical Spell has both Quick-Play and Equip icon printed on it. How about a Ritual Spell turning into an Equip/Field Spell or a Counter to Continuous Trap card. HECK create a Spell card that converts into a Trap once the Spell's effect goes unstopped. That's awesomeness versatility people!

1# Card Board Placement
This concept may throw off some people but I think this would be the last frontier for DMs barring HOLOGRAM technology can be invented like it exists in the Anime/Manga. Dungeon Dices Monster's Path/Tunneling/Flying would be the closest thing to what I mean. However I rather use the Checkers/Picture Puzzle analogy; NO I don't mean having cards diagonally jump over one another(may be LOL
hmmm) but putting 3-5 specific cards on the field in a specific pattern in effort to may be complete the image of a Monster/Spell/Trap card picture(s) sort of like having to place the Exodia cards on the field in order to actually look at Exodia's picture in one piece.


Well there you have it. My top ten proposals for creating new Duel Monster cards. Please let me know what you think; good/bad critiques welcomed.

I am Angel-From-Higher-Plane
AFernan104@aol.com