Duelist Kingdom [v3]

Lief Katano wrote:Not sure how interested anybody is in Yu-Gi-Oh! any more (or who will be, after this announcement), but there's been some shake-ups in the Dueling world, as well as the requisite new mechanic. The latter requires the former to make more sense, though they're heavily reliant on each other.

First up - since it isn't paired with any other new mechanic - is the removal of the Pendulum Zones. Instead, Pendulum monsters are now stashed in the back row when you set them as scales, in your leftmost and rightmost Spell/Trap Card Zones. Those still function as Spell/Trap Card Zones normally, but as soon as a Pendulum Monster is set in there as a Spell Card they become Pendulum Zones for the rest of the match. This is obviously a huge disadvantage to players of Pendulum monsters, since it means they can only have three Spells in there.

The next screws over Pendulum users as well (rip me), but also screws over pretty much everyone with an Extra Deck and who has more than one Extra Deck monster out at a time. A new Monster Zone has been added to the field - the Extra Deck Monster Zone (hence referred to as "Extra Zone"). Whenever you Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Summon a monster, it goes there instead of into the old Monster Zones (now called Main Monster Card Zones, hence referred to as "Main Zone"). Standard Special Summoned Fusion/Synchro/Xyz monsters still go in the Main Zones, so...that's cool, at least? Of note is that there's two Extra Card Monster Zones in the middle of the field, and neither one "belongs" to a player until the first person summons their Extra Deck monster into the zone. Why add in such a meaningless mechanic? That's because of the new type of monster.

Link Monsters. These blue (rip Rituals), leveless monsters are stored in the Extra Deck, and notably enough cannot be in Defense Mode at all (not even face-down Defense Mode), and always have 0 DEF. Performing a Link Summon is similar to performing the Fusion Summon colloquially referred to as "Contact Fusion" - you have to send monsters to the Graveyard based on the materials listed on the card, though there's the extra wrinkle of needing monsters equal to the "Link Number" (which takes the place of DEF on the card's readout). So, for example, Decode Talker needs 2 or more Effect Monsters, but has 3 LINK, so you need to send three Effect monsters to the graveyard. (You can lessen the blow by using a Link monster as material - then you only need a 2 LINK monster and another Effect monster.) Confusing, no?

You're probably wondering - how is this intertwined with the new Extra Zone? Well, Link Monsters have a special property. On the borders of their card artwork is something called "Link Markers". Monsters who are summoned to Main Zones that are pointed to by the Link Monster are considered "Linked" to it, letting it be used for various effects ala (easily replaceable, mind) Xyz Material. Of note is that the only revealed Link Monster, "Decode Talker", has a Link Marker pointing to the opponent's Main Zone, but I'm not sure if that means you can summon to it or if it's just Linked to it. (That said, "Decode Talker" also has an effect that lets it Tribute one of its Links as a cost, so that'll be annoying either way.)

This mechanic is integral to actually using your goddamn Extra Deck. Main Zones currently Linked to a Link Monster can double as Extra Zones - "Decode Talker" has two Link Markers pointing towards your monster card zones, so that means that summoning "Decode Talker" doubles the amount of Extra Deck monsters you can use. Which means that you're going to have to use Link Monsters if you want to effectively use your Extra Deck, especially since Link Monsters summoned as Links still have their Link Markers take effect. I'm not sure if bringing down a Link Monster will destroy its Links, or by what degree (e.g. it always destroys all of the links or if it only destroys Fusion/Synchro/Xyz Summoned monsters) but that'll be annoying either way.

tl;dr Konami really fucking hates Pendulum monsters and hates the rest of the Extra Deck to a lesser, but still notable, extent

me about halfway through this wallpost:

Lief Katano wrote:I haven't played against it in a loooooooong time, but it seems to me that you can still Xyz Summon Cyber Dragon Infinity just fine without using a Link Monster - you're just using one Xyz Monster to summon it, after all, so you'd just place CDI on top of the Cyber Dragon Nova in the Extra Zone. (Unless your strategy used multiple CDIs, in which case rip.) Quazar and Shooting Star Dragon (among others) can't be used without a Link Monster (or revive from Graveyard effects) because they use two or more Synchro Monsters.

In fact, Cyber Dragon Decks actually benefit, to a point, from the introduction of the Extra Zone - that's one or two more monsters you can use to summon Chimeratech Fortress Dragon.

Spoiler: