Speed, Power, and Consistency - The 3 Main Things I Look At To Determine How Balanced A Custom Archetype/Deck Is

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Speed, Power, and Consistency - The 3 Main Things I Look At To Determine How Balanced A Custom Archetype/Deck Is

Post #1 by Christen57 » Sat Jun 26, 2021 3:13 pm

I've been making, playing with, and editing custom cards for over a year now, and I've noticed that the 3 main things many people seem to struggle with when it comes to customs is images, PSCT (Problem-Solving Card Text), and balance.

When I say many people struggle with images, what I mean is that people either don't upload images for their customs and instead just play with those customs without any images, or they upload images but don't crop them properly to keep them from appearing stretched or squeezed. In the latter case, I've made a separate guide on properly cropping custom card images so they don't appear stretched or squeezed.

When I say many people struggle with PSCT, here are some examples of what I mean by that:

They tend to use commas when they should use colons (and vice versa), to indicate whether or not an effect is activated or continuous. If you go to the Deck Constructor, and search for all custom cards with the phrase when this card is normal summoned, you can, you will find over 50 pages of customs like that, with that comma instead of a colon.

I currently can't find the replay for this, but I had a duel where a player had a continuous spell that said something like "If your monster would be destroyed by battle: You can destroy this card instead". I had Hope Harbinger on my field, so when he tried to use his continuous spell's effect to save his monster from destruction, I wanted to use my monster's effect to negate that activation. He told me his effect "doesn't activate" since it's "continuous," I told him it does activate since it has a colon and not a comma, and that he should edit and fix it if he wants it to not activate, he rage quits, basically.

Then you have people who use multiple semi-colons or something, back-to-back, where their cards will say something like "when X happens; target 1 card on the field; destroy it; and if you do; do Y" or something like that.

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Then you have those who refer to banished cards as being in the "banished zone" or "banished pile" when neither of those are actual terms or should be used. Over 200 pages of customs currently exist with either one of those phrases.

So those are some examples of how players struggle with images and PSCT, but what people, including myself, tend to struggle with the most, is balance. It's very easy to learn PSCT and to properly upload and crop images. It's much harder, even for experienced people such as myself, to balance a custom deck/archetype. Balance requires days, if not weeks, of testing. Images and PSCT do not, and if you're unfortunate enough, you'll even run into those players who struggle badly with all 3 of those things, like this player who not only had broken unbalanced customs with no images, but also had to spend 11-12 minutes explaining to me what his cards do because he couldn't be bothered with any PSCT.

Now some people will say you can probably figure out quickly if an archetype is broken or balanced if you just count the number of cards that add or special summon from the deck, or something like that...

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While this is true in most cases, there is another way that's just as good, that you can judge a custom deck/archetype, and that is to look at it's Speed, Power, and Consistency as a whole. After all, Goukis have at least 8 different main deck monsters that add from the deck, while Gladiator Beasts have at least 19 different cards that special summon from the deck, but Goukis are balanced by the fact that most of their spells and link monsters are terrible, as well as the fact that they can't special summon themselves and that they need to be sent from the field to the graveyard to get their searches, so they at least don't search for free right away, while Gladiator Beasts are balanced by the fact that most of their special summoning from the deck can only happen at the end of the battle phase after battling, making them super slow.

Think of Speed, Power, and Consistency as the "stats" of your deck/archetype. Decks/Archetypes can have high speed/power but still be balanced by their lack of consistency, have high speed/consistency but still be balanced by their lack of power, or have high power/consistency but still be balanced by their lack of speed. If you make a custom archetype real strong in 1 or 2 of these areas, you need to balance it by making it weak enough in the other area(s) or else it will be broken.

Other games like Pokemon, Call of Duty, and Mario & Luigi use some type of stats system. In competitive Pokemon, there are 6 different stats each Pokemon have: Attack Power, Defense Power, Special Attack Power, Special Defense Power, Health, and Speed. There are also stats for moves, such as Power (the average amount of damage the move should do), Accuracy (the chances of the move missing/landing) and PP (the maximum amount of times a move can be used per battle). Some Pokemon/Move can have high Power but lack in the other areas, and a Pokemon/Move that's too high in most or all of it's different stats tends to be played the most or overpowered.

In Call of Duty, guns have different stats, such as power (how much damage the gun does), accuracy (how accurate the gun's shots are), range (how far the gun can shoot), recoil (how much the gun shakes when it's fired), rate of fire (how fast the gun fires), magazine size (how many shots the gun can fire before it needs to be reloaded), reload time (how fast the gun reloads), and so on. The best guns tend to be the ones good in most or all of these areas, while the worst guns tend to be the ones too bad in most or all of these areas.

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In Mario & Luigi, every time you level up your character, you're given a certain amount of points you can spend to improve certain aspects of your character. For example, if you level up and get 4 points, you can spend all of those points to improve just your character's max health but ignore the other stats, you can spend 1 point each to improve your character's max health, attack power, defense power, and luck without improving any 1 aspect of your character much, you can spend 2 points to improve 1 stat and the other 2 points to improve the other stat that you feel needs improvement the most, you can spend 1 point in 1 area and the remaining 3 points in another area, and so on.

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When designing and balancing a custom deck/archetype, you should imagine you have a certain amount of "points" you can spend to give that deck/archetype a certain amount of speed, power, and/or consistency without making all 3 of these "stats" too high. Having a custom deck/archetype with a bunch of cards that give free consistency and special summoning or adding from the deck is fine if it's power and speed are low enough to compensate for it, in the case of Goukis and Gladiator Beasts. Having a custom deck/archetype that produces powerful fields/monsters or can even OTK or FTK is fine as long as it has low enough speed/consistency to compensate for it, and having a custom deck/archetype with a bunch of quick effects and/or free special summons that can do most of what it needs to do within the first turn is fine as long as it has low enough power/consistency to compensate for it.

The balancing mistake many players in customs make, and also a balancing mistake that I myself sometimes make, as well as a mistake even Konami themselves have been making for a long time, is either giving their deck/archetype too much speed, power, and consistency so all 3 of these stats are high, making the deck/archetype too good in all 3 of these areas with very little weaknesses, or giving their deck/archetype too much speed, too much power, or too much consistency without making it weak enough in the other 1 or 2 areas to make up for it.

Some examples of such players include but aren't limited to:

https://forum.duelingbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4872 A player who made a generic searchable Field Spell that locks the opponent out of 3 different things: special summoning, using effects in the hand/graveyard, and adding/summoning from the deck other than by drawing. It can be searched, played, and used on turn 1 with cards like Terraforming, it can be activated during the opponent's turn with Metaverse, it stops too many things most players rely on, it's only drawback of it's owner not being able to normal summon is pointless since you can just activate it after you've done all your summoning, and on top of that, it protects itself from non-targeting effects, so you can't even remove it with something like Harpie's Feather Duster. Yet this person still called it "balanced".

https://forum.duelingbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9087
https://forum.duelingbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=14574
I get that he wants his decks to win. That's not the problem. It would be hypocritical of me to not want him to win when I've been playing degenerate stuff myself in rated, like Firewall Dragon FTK and full power Adamancipator, prior to Block Dragon getting banned and Firewall Dragon getting it's ban/errata, then switching over to Mystic Mine Final Countdown after that. The problem is when he gave his archetypes super high speed, power, and consistency, having all 3 stats super high, then actively refused to do any of what I suggested to make it less broken while still being able to perform decently against the current top decks. Not sure if even the grammar and PSCT errors I pointed out he would fix. It's also a real shame the latter thread ended up getting locked, meaning we can't further discuss how to fix that archetype, meaning it will likely stay broken.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-28277667
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-28360148
A player whose deck's speed, power, and consistency are all too high, being able to end on a whopping 11 disruptions, all on his first turn. I had far more replays of me dueling this particular guy and him using even more other broken stuff, but these 2 replays were the only ones I could find at the moment.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29388706
A player with easy to summon monsters that give him too much life points for no downside, as well as a generic spell speed 2 continuous spell that lets him once per turn permanently prevent 1 monster from attacking or using it's effects.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29344877
A player with not 1 but 2 link-1s that special summon and search powerful cards from the deck and extra deck for no drawback, along with a bunch other powerful easy to summon monsters that give him more free searches, as well as an omni-negating counter trap that activates itself from the hand.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29344391
A player with a hand trap that's basically Infinite Impermanence but can also negate other spell/trap activations as well as monsters, and can also reset itself, allowing him to use it again. Then he also has another omni-negating hand trap, as well as an easy to summon monster that protects itself and locks me out of spells/traps.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29341739
A player with... not really an archetype, but rather just a bunch of generic powerful and fast customs and hand traps.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29331481
A player with an easily searchable Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End but without any of the restrictions that prevent other activations for the turn, and so on.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29323486
A player with an archetype too fast, powerful, and consistent, ending with 7 cards in hand and 12 cards on his field, including a 4000 attack monster that locks me out of using any cards/effects for 3 turns for free.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29317362
A player who makes an archetype with multiple searchers, an omni-negate monster, and another monster with Masked HERO Dark Law's effect copied and pasted word for word, all of which he can access fairly easily on turn 1.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29316809
A player with an easy to summon link-6 that protects itself and locks me out of using monster effects with whatever attribute he wants. It's True King of All Calamities all over again.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29316037
The thing with Cloudians is that they balance themselves by being somewhat slow, by destroying themselves if they exist in Defense Position, by not protecting themselves from non-battle removal, and by the fact that you can still deal battle damage while they're in attack position. This person removed all 4 of those weaknesses, resulting in Cloudians having too much speed and power, then he went ahead and made his field spell also protect itself from targeting and destruction as well.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29245797
Another player with too much speed, power, and consistency in his custom deck, having not 1 but 2 different omni-negates, a bunch of searchers with one of them being an easy to summon link-1, and a monster that rips a card out of my hand every time a card is added to it outside the draw phase.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29189793
A player that summons a bunch of monsters to my field that are basically Dustons except they also can't be used as link material, have their effects negated, or be destroyed or banished. They're also way more restrictive than Dustons, locking me too much out of doing most things. It looks like he tried to balance this deck by not letting it be consistent, since I didn't see him play any searchers, but the speed and power were both still too high. If you're going to have such powerful monsters that special summon themselves for free, you need to either further reduce their power or further reduce your archetype's speed/consistency.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29199095
Another player with too much speed, power, and consistency in his custom deck, playing at least 8 different cards that have some free special summoning from the deck effect, and ending on a 6000 attack omni-negating monster, all in 1 turn.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29212852
A player with a custom archetype that's basically Psy-Frames on steroids. He might have tried balancing it by making it somewhat slow, requiring him to take a turn to setup, but then he has a bunch of searchers and powerful spell speed 4 handtraps, including one that lets him discard my hand for free. If you're going to have such powerful effects, you need to either nerf the power of those effects, or make them slow enough to compensate. This guy didn't make them slow enough or reduce their power enough.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29082898
Here, a player gives D/D/D way more speed, power, and consistency than they need, making them broken. While some of his cards did require life points, the costs were too small and ended up not mattering in the slightest, while the benefits and advantages were still too big. D/D/D's are supposed to be balanced by the fact that while they are pretty powerful, they have some speed and consistency issues and cannot consistently make turn 1 boards with 6 powerful monsters like this.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29343284
My partner would have ended on a much bigger and far more overpowered board if it weren't for my cards clogging his field, but after this duel, I asked him to show his deck to everyone, and I counted at least 14 different cards that special summon from the deck for free, at least 4 different omni-negaters, and bunch of searchers and easy to summon high attack powerful monsters. Another example of why you shouldn't supercharge all 3 of your archetype's stats without making at least one of those stats low.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29135905
Once again, you can't go making custom decks that are crazy powerful, consistent, and fast enough to make 7 powerful monsters and extra linking, all on turn 1. Even full power Knightmare/Gouki didn't do that. What's worse is that this guy used artworks of other already-existing cards for these broken cards, using the artwork of Sinister Serpent for a Link-1, using the artwork of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon for a Rank 9, and so on.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-28804804
Here, my partner's speed, consistency, and power were all okay, until we saw him play a Psy-Frame Overload that doesn't require losing any cards for cost. Generic things like that make decks too powerful, even if you're losing 700 life points to use it.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=29492930
It's never a good idea to make customs like these that try to completely re-define and alter the rules and mechanics of the entire game in ways that duelingbook wasn't designed for. Not to mention this player made a spell that not only says "Both players health drop to 10 Life Points" with no other restrictions or downsides but can also activate itself from the deck for free, meaning he can activate that spell then activate something like Ookazi for a free win, making his deck have basically infinite consistency (his cards activate themselves from the deck for free, meaning you never need to draw or search it since it's always available at all times no matter what your opening hand is), high speed (it can activate itself on turn 1 and be followed up with an Ookazi for a win), and super high power (drops both players' life points to 10 so even something as basic as Sparks can finish the opponent off).

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-28938165
I get it. Megaman Battle Network was super awesome and I've had a blast playing and beating all 6 games of the series, but again, you can't just completely re-define and alter the rules and mechanics of the entire game in ways that duelingbook wasn't designed for since you end up completely confusing people and messing things up, especially when your cards lack PSCT. It also didn't help that this player's partner played far more broken anime counterparts of existing TCG monsters as customs instead of just using the official TCG versions of those monsters. If a card is broken in the anime, and it gets ported over to the TCG but weakened so it's not overpowered, you shouldn't go ahead and make a custom anyway that's the exact same as the broken anime version of that card instead of just using the official more balanced TCG version of it. Konami nerfs certain cards from the anime for a reason before porting them over to the TCG. Don't make a broken version of Supreme King Dragons just because that's how they were in the anime. Don't make Card of Sanctity draw you up to 6 cards for free when there's already a more balanced version of that card in the TCG with the same name just because that's what it did in the anime. Don't make Number 39: Utopia unable to be destroyed in battle with non-Number monsters when the official Number 39: Utopia already exists in the TCG just because that's how it was in the anime. Don't give Earthbound Immortals additional spell/trap protection on top of the attack protection they already have just because that's what they had in the anime.
Going back to this guy with the rule-altering mechanic-altering Megaman field spell, can you imagine if he dueled the guy in the previous replay who had his rule-altering mechanic-altering Buddyfight field spell? I'd imagine both those field spells would completely conflict with each other and be confusing like crazy, as both players would be trying to force the other to play by completely different and conflicting rules, making the game a confusing nightmare for everyone, in a card game where many of the rules and mechanics are already complicated, mind you. I admit I've got a Megaman-based archetype of my own, along with a bunch of Magic The Gathering archetypes and Bakugan stuff I decided to port over to yugioh as customs, but I don't try to completely change the game of yugioh so it works for my cards. Instead I change my cards so they work in the context of yugioh, still nerfing anything that would be too broken or just not porting it over at all.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-28967203
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29175616
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29213170
A player with devastating generic easily-accessible customs and strictly better upgrades (but still same artworks) of existing cards, including banned ones. He also has the names of his customs in all caps for some reason, as well as "The activation and effects of this card, cannot be stopped,negated or overidden" written on most of his customs, whatever "stopped" and "overidden" are supposed to mean.

https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-28311199
The problem with the Egyptian Gods isn't that they're broken. It's that their power is ridiculously high, especially Slifer the Sky Dragon who disallows all monsters with 2000 or less attack, shutting down most decks by itself, but the Egyptian Gods are all balanced by having very low speed and consistency.

So when you make a card that completely fixes those speed and consistency issues by letting you quickly and consistently cheat out the Egyptian Gods on turn 1, you've basically now made it so their speed, consistency, and power are all super high, making them broken. I see the Egyptian Gods as balanced, but balanced in a bad way and not a good way. They're balanced in a bad way because their power is really high while their speed and consistency are really low, and if they just had more speed and consistency they would be viable, but Konami is afraid of giving them that speed and consistency they need, because they'll become broken since their power is already too high for that, and when you have all 3 stats super high, the speed, the power, and the consistency, the deck/archetype becomes broken. If Konami does end up giving them the speed and consistency cards they need, they will probably have to put restrictions on those speed/consistency cards to make it harder to abuse the crazy high power of the Egyptian Gods.

For example, they could get a normal spell that says "Add 1 DIVINE monster from your Deck or GY to your hand, and if you do, until the end of the next turn, you can Normal Summon Level 10 DIVINE monsters without Tributing, but you cannot activate monster effects." That way, you can search any of the Egyptian Gods and bring them out turn 1, fixing the archetype's speed and consistency problem, but reducing their power for a while so you can't immediately lock your opponent out of 2000 attack or less monsters on the next turn with Slifer the Sky Dragon.

The lesson here is that it's usually better to have average speed, power, and consistency than to have either crazy high speed, crazy high power, or crazy high consistency, but be extremely low in the other 2 areas.

Futuregamer published an article briefly covering this topic. Aquaactresses have slightly above average consistency due to 2 of it's monsters currently in the archetype being able to search, and none of them are hard once per turn, while they have above average power with continuous spells boosting their monsters' attack, protecting them from battle, and special summoning from the graveyard for free upon leaving the field, along with a trap that negates any monster's effect, and changes it's attack/defense to 100, for a single turn. However, they're balanced by the fact that they're extremely slow, with 1 of their searchers being a level 6 that can't special summon itself so it has to be tribute summoned or brought out through other effects, and the archetype having no cards that special summon from the hand or deck except for the 1 Aquaactress Guppy which special summons from only the hand. Their continuous spells only benefit you during the battle phase, since their field effects are all battle-related, making them useless during the first turn or during most main phases. The archetype also has no quick effects or things you can play on your opponent's turn, except for that 1 trap, making them extremely reliant on normal summoning and almost completely helpless against opponent's who start comboing off.

These downsides keep Aquaactresses balanced, but like Egyptian Gods, Aquaactresses are balanced in a bad way and not a good way. They're such a weak archetype that's unable to compete even on a rogue level mainly because their speed is severely lacking, but if Konami gives them more speed, like a spell, a normal summonable monster, or a link-1 or 2, that special summons an Aquaactress from the deck or something like that, so that Aquaactresses are no longer that reliant on their normal summon, or gives them a card similar to Dragonic Diagram where you can destroy one of your continuous spells once per turn for a free search or draw, Aquaactresses could become broken.

To fix Aquaactresses so that they're at least remotely viable, without breaking them, Konami would have to probably give them another card that special summons an Aquaactress from the deck or something like that so it has the speed it needs, but then either ban/limit/semi-limit one of the other Aquaactress cards to reduce the archetype's power/consistency, do what Futuregamer suggested and errata the 3 Aquaactress main deck monsters so they're hard once per turn, or do what I did and add restrictions, like you can't special summon non-Aquaactress monsters from the hand or deck the turn you use the card(s), so that way, they're less reliant on the normal summon but at least can't be splashed well into other random water archetypes such as Frogs. https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-28938861

Another archetype I think Futuregamer should add to that article, an archetype I also find to be balanced but in a really bad way instead of a good way, is Amorphages. This archetype is powerful since it revolves around locking the opponent out of things their deck may rely on, but there are 2 issues with this archetype that make it balanced but balanced in a really bad way.

The first is that it's pendulum scales don't fit it's levels. The archetype has pendulum scales of just 3 and 5, but it's levels range from 2 to 8, so the pendulum scales should have been 1 and 9 so it can pendulum summon all of it's monsters.

This is a problem because most of the archetype's monsters apply their effects only while they were pendulum summoned or flipped face-up. However, without wider pendulum scales, you can only pendulum summon the level 4 monsters, and only half of this archetype's monsters are level 4, making the level 2s and the level 6 and 8 mostly useless/slow in this archetype to normal/pendulum summon. Sure you can normal set the level 2s and flip them face-up later on so they get their effects that way, but that can be too slow, and you would have to use up extra resources like a Book of Taiyou or something to flip them quicker without either relying on the opponent attacking into them to flip them, or waiting until your next turn so you can flip summon them.

The second issue making this archetype balanced but in a really bad way is that, while the level 4 and lower monsters of this archetype have a "rule" where they need to be pendulum summoned or flipped to apply their effects, Konami forgot to give that same rule to the level 6 and 8 monsters, meaning you could splash those 2 into most Dragon combo decks that could bring out either a Guardragon Elpy (which could special summon this straight from the hand/deck), a Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres (which could also special summon this straight from the hand/deck but at the cost of making it's attack and defense 0), or a Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon (which could dump this and Arkbrave Dragon to the graveyard so Arkbrave Dragon would then special summon this from the graveyard during the next standby phase). I also don't get why Konami gave both Sloth and Goliath the exact same monster effect of Neither player can Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck, except "Amorphage" monsters when all of the archetype's other pendulum monsters' effects have different things they lock out. They could have at least made 1 of them prevent non-Amorphage monsters from being special summoned from the extra deck in attack position, while the other prevented non-Amorphage monsters from being special summoned from the extra deck in defense position, so at least that way there would still be some variety there.

The archetype's searchers, the continuous spell and continuous trap, are both mediocre and slow. They only search once per turn, not being able to add from places besides the deck such as the face-up extra deck where the pendulum monsters will also end up, the continuous spell and trap search only upon something being tributed or destroyed, and the trap doesn't add to the hand, it only places in the pendulum zone, making it useless while both your pendulum zones are full. It would have been better if you got to choose whether to put the card you were searching with the trap in the pendulum zone or add it to your hand. Still, I remember playing against Amorphages prior to master rule 4 where they were decent back then, but still awful to play against because they lack wider pendulum scales, they're designed to be as unfun and uninteractive as possible, and their level 6 and 8 don't need to be pendulum summoned or flipped to lock out the extra deck.

Speaking of master rule 4, the archetype was weakened even further under that and is now unable to compete even on a rogue level. Like most pendulum archetypes, this archetype needed to utilize link monsters if it wanted to bring out more than 1 extra deck monster, but it couldn't make any link monsters because it currently lacks any Amorphage link monsters of it's own, and it's own main deck monsters prevent any non-Amorphage monsters from being special summoned from any extra deck. Even under the new change where fusion, synchro, and xyz monsters were no longer bound by master rule 4, pendulums were still bound by it, but Amorphages still couldn't use link monsters due to being so anti-extra-deck.

Amorphages are a disgusting mess of an archetype, "balanced" but in all the wrong ways. They're a bad/weak but still unhealthy archetype for the game due to them being designed specifically to both disallow as much player interaction and lock out as many things as possible. Their monsters are too hard/slow to bring out due to the archetype's pendulum scales being too narrow. Neither their field spell nor their ritual monster is part of their archetype, meaning Amorphage Lechery will disable their own field spell since it's not an Amorphage spell, while Amorphage Gluttony will disable their own ritual monster since it's not an Amorphage monster. The ritual monster doesn't even support Amorphages at all, but rather Dracoverlords, a completely separate archetype. Amorphages need link monsters if it wants to be able to bring out more than 1 of it's monsters from the extra deck, but at the same time, the archetype can't use link monsters because the archetype stops players from special summoning non-Amorphage monsters from the extra deck, and there are no currently-existing official Amorphage link monsters, so Konami needs to give them a link monster, preferably a link-2, but Konami can't give them a link monster because if you make it easier for them to get their degenerate monsters out, it would be unhealthy and uninteractive for the game due to them being designed to disallow as much interaction as possible, so then Konami had to make stuff like Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres and Guardragon Elpy so it would be easier to bring out at least the level 6 and 8 monsters since those don't need to be pendulum summoned or flipped, but that proved to be too broken and abusable in other dragon combo decks, so Konami ended up banning Guardragon Elpy and Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon, leaving Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres as the only way for Dragon decks to consistently bring either of these 2 pendulum monsters out, but again, Amorphages can't use Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres because the archetype disallows non-Amorphage extra deck monsters, ultimately making Amorphages Sloth and Goliath completely useless in their own archetype, but unhealthy, uninteractivate, overpowered, and in many cases straight up broken in other dragon archetypes, especially archetypes that can get them out easier with Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres and whatnot.

u/yoloswagginLOTB said it best: These guys cannot get good or they will be the worst deck to play against ever.

If any badly designed archetype deserves a spot in Futuregamer's article(s) alongside Madolches and Aquaactresses, it's Amorphages.

Here are some more (kinda hilarious) replays published by Futuregamer about other users, most of which also had very poorly designed customs, and some also having a poor attitude towards Futuregamer, with the funniest replay in my opinion currently being of the NISSDAVI guy. https://futuregamer-yugioh.blogspot.com/2021/02/blacklist.html

Now I'll show some custom cards/archetypes I made myself that have/give average speed/power/consistency, high speed/consistency but low power, high speed/power but low consistency, and high power/consistency but low speed.

There are some instances where it's okay to give a specific but super weak archetype a large consistency-boosting, power-boosting, or speed-boosting card, though you still shouldn't overdo it. Take for example this spell card I made for Gladiator Beasts. https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29425212
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29425942

It gives you not 1, not 2, but 3 free searches when it's activated. At first glance, this spell might seem broken, but I've been testing it and it's fine, because it's restricted to Gladiator Beasts, an already very slow and weak archetype, it requires you to have gladiator beast monsters, spells, and traps, and it doesn't allow you to use any other spell/trap cards or effects for the rest of the turn after activating it, so it can't search a copy of itself then let you use that copy to search another copy for a loop. It's simply a consistency booster for a specific bad and weak archetype. Gladiator Beasts are a powerful archetype, having access to both a once per turn monster negater and a spell/trap negater, and almost every monster of it's archetype can special summon any other monster of it's archetype from the deck for free, making it highly consistent, having at least a whopping 19 different special summons from the deck, not including the "Test" monsters such as Test Tiger, Test Ape, or Test Panther, but even with this many special summons from the deck, Gladiator Beasts are still balanced by the fact that it relies heavily on both it's normal summon and on battling, making the archetype extremely slow by today's standards, since it can't really get multiple monsters out in a single turn except by another Gladiator Beast monster's battle phase effect, or the effect of Test Tiger or Test Panther, and Test Tiger isn't really searchable, while Test Panther needs you to already have multiple monsters to link summon with.

My spell doesn't give the archetype more speed, as that would make it broken due to it already having power and consistency. My spell gives the archetype only more consistency and a bit more power while not being able to be splashed into any other deck due to the restrictions it has, so the archetype can at least end on a Gladiator Beast monster + one of the Gladiator Beast traps, and my spell doesn't give the archetype too much power and consistency either such as letting you add 4 or 5 Gladiator Beast cards to your hand. That would be silly too. It also doesn't search every Gladiator Beast related card in the archetype either, such as Test Tiger. It only searches cards with Gladiator Beast in the name.

Another weak archetype that I made powerful (but not too powerful) support for, support that would probably be broken if given to a stronger archetype, is Digital Bugs. https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29443568
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29443738
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29444211

I gave them a (hard once per turn) spell that searches 2 "Bug" cards for free, an Emergency Teleport but for Digital Bugs, an Xyz Change Tactics but for digital bugs, and an equip spell that adds/summons from the deck/grave for free if it leaves the field. Yet even with these strong support cards, which would be broken if they were splashable or just given to other better archetypes, the Digital Bugs still struggle to do well, but now they can at least have much more speed and consistency. What's even more important is that I made these support cards not playable in archetypes other than Digital Bugs and LIGHT Insects, so they don't end up breaking other archetypes they weren't meant to be used in, like how Amorphage Goliath ended up breaking both Guardragon Elpy and Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon because Konami didn't restrict that pendulum monster to it's own archetype and instead made it splashable in any dragon combo deck.

Imagine 2 guys going to watch a baseball game. One of these guys is big, the other is small. Each of these guys is given a single box to stand on to help them see the game.

Image

As you can see, however, the guy on the right is so small that even with his box, he can't see the baseball game.

To help this guy see the game, he would need another box to stand on, like so:

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This same kind of thing can be applied to custom support. If this boy is too small to see the baseball game (in other words, if an archetype is simply far too weak to be remotely competitive in the meta, even on a rogue level), you can give the boy not 1 but 2 boxes so he can see the game (in other words, you can give the really weak archetype some really powerful free searchers so it's more consistent, some more free special summoners so it's has more speed, or some kind of strong boss monster or powerhouse card so it has more power, and still have that archetype be balanced), but for the guy who's already big enough to see the baseball game with just 1 box (in other words, for the archetype that's already strong, like, for example, Eldlich or Drytron), giving him the same kind of boxes you gave to the smaller guy would elevate him to a much higher level than he already needs (in other words, giving the powerful archetypes like Eldlich and Drytron the same kind of additional free special summons, searches, and draws I gave to Digital Bugs would make those Eldliches and Drytrons broken).

Konami sometimes does this too. This banlist, they unbanned Performapal Skullcrobat Joker, Salamangreat Miragestallio, and Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage to bring each of their respective archetypes up to the power level of some current meta decks, while banning Guardragon Elpy to bring down Rokket/Guardragon decks.

Image

As you can see in the above presentation, on the left, Rokket/Guardragon was ridiculously strong and consistent thanks to a card like Guardragon Elpy, while Sky Strikers and Salamangreats were struggling badly to be remotely competitive even on a rogue level. Then on the right, a "box" of Rokket/Guardragon was taken away (Guardragon Elpy was banned, weakening Rokket/Guardragon decks and bringing their power level down) while Sky Strikers and Salamangreats each got a "box" of their own (Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage and Salamangreat Miragestallio respectively, bringing their power levels up to match that of Rokket/Guardragon, Eldlich, Drytron, and the other meta decks), elevating those 2 kids to a high enough level where they can see the soccer game next to their mom (allowing those 2 archetypes to be able to compete in the meta alongside Rokket/Guardragon).

So Rokket/Guardragon lost some speed and consistency, losing such an accessible card that both searched and special summoned, Salamangreat gained some speed, consistency, and power, regaining their previously-banned easily-accessible monster that searched (brought out a Salamangreat monster from the deck), special summoned (put it from the deck straight to the field), and bounced a monster (giving it power in the form of non-destroying removal), while Sky Striker gained some consistency, regaining their previously-banned but versatile searcher.

You can see now, how Rokket/Guardragon lost some speed and consistency, meaning 2 of it's 3 "stats" went down, Salamangreat gained speed, consistency, and power, meaning all 3 of it's 3 "stats" went up, and Sky Striker gained a single "stat boost" in the form of consistency, all so that each of these 3 archetypes can compete on a more even playing field (each of these 3 people can comfortably watch the soccer game).

Now I'll show some of my custom archetypes and explain their speed, power, and consistency, also I make all of my customs public and with images so anyone who's interested can search for them in the Deck Constructor by typing my username in the description box.

Image

Let's take a look at my Minecraft archetype. This is an archetype that does tons of free searching, but is balanced by how slow it is (it relies on a trap to fusion summon instead of a spell like most fusion-based decks), and the fact that most of it's power comes from the much harder to summon extra deck monsters (every main deck monster has 0 attack and defense and no effects that really do anything to the opponent's cards, making the deck very reliant on bringing out the much stronger extra deck monsters). https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29454956
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29455698
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29456889
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29457506

So it has high consistency, but is balanced by it's average to below average power and slightly below average speed, as well as the fact that the main deck cards prevent you from summoning any non-Minecraft monsters the turn you use them, ensuring that this archetype doesn't get splashed into other archetypes and end up breaking other archetypes it wasn't meant to be played in.

Here is my Call of Duty archetype. https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29458068
This is an archetype that focuses heavily on destruction. Searching? Not really. Special Summoning a bunch of monsters in a single turn or ending on a big turn 1 board? Nah. At least 1/3rd of this archetype's cards have some kind of destruction effect, some of which target, and some not targeting, making this deck have high firepower. Plus, one of it's extra deck monsters removes things without targeting or destroying, allowing it to deal with even Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons and whatnot.

Still, the archetype is balanced by the fact that it can often brick, where I might draw a bunch of continuous spells/traps or something, and no monsters/searchers, as well as the fact that most of it's extra deck monsters are too hard, or simply take too much time/resources/luck, to bring out and use on turn 1, each requiring probably at least 2 or 3 turns of setup to bring out. Out of all the main deck cards in this archetype, only 3 of them search anything from the deck, and they each only search specific stuff, with none of them capable of searching the same things as each other. 1 of them searches monsters, the other searches continuous spells/traps, and the third searches only a specific quick-play spell. This archetype has no 1-card combos. Every combo this deck can pull off requires 2 or more different cards. Most of this archetype's extra deck monsters, as well as some of it's main deck cards, require either a coin toss or a dice roll, making them even less consistent. Most of this archetype's spells/traps require you to control a call of duty monster to activate/resolve, while some of the others require you to at least have a call of duty monster in your hand or graveyard. Most of the main deck monsters each have effects similar to the Wind-Ups where they can destroy/search/summon something for free but only once while face-up on the field, and no other activating effect.

Here's my Konosuba archetype. https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29478454
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29479915
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29481563
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29482834
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29483273
https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=58994-29541453

This archetype has pretty high speed, with almost all of it's main deck monsters being able to special summon themselves from the hand for free. The fact that this archetype rarely needs to normal summon allows it to get away with running cards like Lava Golem which normally block you from normal summoning/setting the turn you use it. This archetype's monsters all have an effect that lets the opponent choose 1 of 3 level 12 dark synchro monsters with different names from the extra deck to have special summoned to their field. Then, most of this archetype's cards will have another effect that grants a specific bonus if there's a dark or synchro monster on the field. The archetype's 1 and only spell has the potential to let you draw up to 6 cards, but it requires you to shuffle a Konosuba monster you control into the deck and lose at least another one of your own cards first, and it's hard once per turn.

The archetype still has some power and consistency issues. One of it's weaknesses is that you have to run quite a bit of "Garnets" in order for the archetype to function well. The archetype does quite a bit of searching, but the monsters each search their own thing really. One of them can search the other monsters in the archetype, but only when it leaves the field first. Another can search any 3 continuous traps, but then allows the opponent to return to the hand or deck any 1 spell/trap that is on the field, graveyard, or banished, making it risky if the opponent has a powerful spell/trap they might want to recycle such as Raigeki or Harpie's Feather Duster. One of the archetype's monsters does no searching and instead just has other effects that are graveyard-related and may support monsters on the field, while the rest of this archetype's monsters each have their own specified spells/traps they search that are luck-based or situational. The archetype's monsters also have really low attack except for just 1 of them which has a decent 2000 attack, meaning the archetype often has to rely on either the high attack synchro monsters (putting them on the opponent's field with the monster's effects then stealing them back with Owner's Seal or Remove Brainwashing) or other high attack monsters such as Alpha, the Master of Beasts and Dinowrestler Pankratops.

Currently I've still got probably more broken cards/archetypes that have/give high speed/power/consistency, but I've been re-examining hundreds of my custom cards now, testing and making any needed changes. This can range from editing a card so it's weaker, or just deleting a card outright if I think it wasn't really necessary, or is currently no longer necessary, to have anything like it. It really helps that duelingbook raised the character limit for custom effects from 1000 characters to 2000 characters, making it so I can type more characters in my custom effects. This is great because I had quite a bit of customs in the past where I would give them long effects/texts, but couldn't really add any further restrictions to balance them because then it would say the effect was too long. With the extra space, I can now add those restrictions I've been wanting to add to keep the card/archetype from being splashed into most other random archetypes, breaking other archetypes, or being too generic or broken without enough downsides.

Image

Here, I wanted to restrict my Plunder Patroll support to Fiend decks, but couldn't because it would exceed 1000 characters. Now, with that extra space, I can balance it better with that restriction.

Image

Even if you're sure your archetypes are balanced now, it's still a good idea to keep re-examining them at least once every 4 months or so. Remember that things like new banlists, powercreep, new rule/mechanic changes, and whatnot exist, all of which can throw once-balanced decks... off balance. Often I'll see a custom archetype I made and balanced maybe over 4 months ago or something either get powercrept because of new official releases or take a hit to it's speed/power/consistency because Konami banned a card or something the archetype relied on, so I have to go back and re-examine that deck to take out any now-banned cards, making any needed changes to keep up with the powercreep/banlist, and so on. When the master rules got updated making fusions, synchros, and xyzs no longer bound by master rule 4, a lot of my old once-balanced archetypes suddenly got broken being able to now spam fusion/synchro/xyz monsters without the need for a link arrow, forcing me to re-examine them, so even now I still may have some of those pre-master-rule-4 custom archetypes lying around, now being broken waiting for me to fix them so they're balanced again. I might give a certain fairly weak archetype powerful custom support, but then later Konami either releases powerful support of their own for that same archetype, or takes a certain card off the banlist meant to greatly help that archetype, forcing me to delete/nerf my support so the 2 supports combined don't make the archetype broken. Konami may also make more rule changes/mechanics or something in the future that could break my custom archetypes, or print and release new cards that, when combined with an old custom archetype of mine, make it broken, also forcing me to adjust said custom archetype accordingly. Futuregamer currently didn't cover any of this in his custom card guide, but it's still something to keep in mind when it comes to customs.

So that's all I have to say for now about Speed, Power, and Consistency - The 3 Main Things I Look At To Determine How Balanced A Custom Archetype/Deck Is. The good thing is that while there are both good and bad ways to try and balance a card/archetype, as I've covered with archetypes such as Egyptian Gods, Aquaactresses, and Amorphages, there are a variety of creative ways to balance an archetype's speed, to balance an archetype's power, and to balance an archetype's consistency. The fact that Card of Demise is still limited even though it empties your hand during the end phase, prevents you from damaging the opponent, is hard once per turn, and prevents you from special summoning proves that those alone were the wrong ways to go about balancing this card. It probably should have prevented all summoning instead of just special summoning, prevented you also from activating anything, or prevented you also from setting any of your cards, for the rest of that turn too. I once suggested making all of the banned cards unplayable until a certain number of turns have passed, which I figured would balance them, even though people disagreed that doing so would be a good idea, but it looks like Konami has at least experimented with the idea. For example, they didn't really make a Pot of Greed that couldn't be used until multiple turns later, but they did make Ledger of Legerdemain, which is like a delayed Pot of Greed, giving you a +2 in card advantage but only after a certain number of standby phases.

KTeknis
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Post #2 by KTeknis » Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:27 am

That's one extensive guide to balance there, holy heck.
But it makes me wonder, what if I decided to make an Archetype that focused solely on one point', and nothing else? Like making an Archetype that is Omni Powerful, but are both slow as molases and keep bricking so hard I can make a house out of it?
I have interest in badly designed custom cards.
You saw these cards as terrible, I saw them as ideas.

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Post #3 by Lil Oldman » Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:35 am

KTeknis wrote:That's one extensive guide to balance there, holy heck.
But it makes me wonder, what if I decided to make an Archetype that focused solely on one point', and nothing else? Like making an Archetype that is Omni Powerful, but are both slow as molases and keep bricking so hard I can make a house out of it?

Did you mean "Monarchs"?
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Post #4 by Christen57 » Sun Jun 27, 2021 3:23 am

KTeknis wrote:That's one extensive guide to balance there, holy heck.
But it makes me wonder, what if I decided to make an Archetype that focused solely on one point', and nothing else? Like making an Archetype that is Omni Powerful, but are both slow as molases and keep bricking so hard I can make a house out of it?


Doesn't stuff like Exodia and Destiny Board already exist? Those are focused "solely on one point" right? Exodia is just "I need all 5 pieces" and Destiny Board is also "I need all 5 pieces" but on the field.

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Post #5 by Renji Asuka » Sun Jun 27, 2021 3:46 am

I haven't touched Customs in so long, but here's what I did.

I create a simple engine, 1 card that can search a monster/spell/trap, 1 Monster to SS from Deck (cost like Summoner Monk for instance), and 1 that can SS from hand (much like Legendary Six Sam Kizan).

From there I give them all a secondary effect, for the deck's "Gimmick", this here is where things get super out of hand.

My Stealth ninjas for instance, can be a bit much. But that's because you can banish them until the end of the current phase, while able to synchro summon monsters that have no level just by banishing any 2 Stealth Ninja Monsters. For reference https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=8407394

Meanwhile I'll create something a bit underpowered like my Imperial Buster Chaos Guardians. For Reference: https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=8407444

But honestly, everyone does have a different idea of balance, so a person shouldn't worry about it too much. The only rule I'd have regarding balance is, don't create cards you wouldn't want to face.
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Post #6 by ShinRyu9 » Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:54 am

Looking back at my customs. Man, it certainly is hard to balance them. Whenever I come back to look at my custom cards, sometimes I think to myself "isn't this a little too strong?" and such.
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Post #7 by 777c » Sun Jul 25, 2021 2:34 pm

11 disruptions is too much for an endboard for an archetype. Usually the standard value is 2 or 3 disruptions.

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Post #8 by UberTrainerMinusInfinity » Fri Dec 30, 2022 12:39 pm

You could also mention my deck spotlights, seeing how you reworked nearly every last one of them! To teach others how their custom archetypes work, you can put down what each deck did, what their problems were before their rework, and their new role after their rework!


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