u/Superb_Bus584

So, I've gotten my hands on a copy of Fizband's Treasury of Dragons, and I fiond the Draconians to be a really cool type of monster. However, I've been wodnering something: why would a villain use them as minions from an in-universe perspective? Like, yeah, I get it, it's fantasy, not realistic, but picture it this way: suppose I'm an evil dark lord lich, and I want to conquer the world (or some other BBEG goal), and I really need a big evil army. I could get a massive undead army within a day at the cost of raiding a cemetary or two (pretty easy to do), and they're easily replaceable. I could contract with a Devil general and have a fiend army within hours, and they'd bring their own equipment, and be already perfectly capable as an army. However, Draconians require me to track down and steal a bunch of dragon eggs (pissing off the entire dragon community in the process), and then figure out the specific magical process through which to corrupt the eggs, and then I'd still need to train and equip the Draconians. And at that point, why not just raise an army of regular dragons? What benefit do Draconians provide an evil mage that other types of armies or minions don't?

This feels like a dumb question, but I've been reading the lore of these races and it doesn't quite make sense to be. Dragonborn and Half-Dragons both seem to be half-dragon half-humanoid races descendant from dragons and both Cambion and Tieflings seem to be demonic humanoids descendant from fiends. In both cases, what's the difference between the two? Couldn't I just play a Dragonborn and roleplay it as a Half-Dragon, or roleplay a Tiefling as a Cambion?

So, I'm trying to design some modern support for the Red-Eyes deck, in the same vein as the new Blue-Eyes structure deck, or the OCG-only decks for Blue-Eyes and Dark Magician. The thing is...I don't actually know how to design cards for Red-Eyes because, frankly, I don't know what playstyle the deck is supposed to have. Like, Blue-Eyes is all about big power, big monsters, big effects that destroy the opponent's field. Dark Magician is more subtle and manipulative, all about control and protection. Smaller monsters, but heavy field manipulation, banishing cards and making their own monsters unaffected by card effects. Thing is, I can't figure out what Red-Eyes is supposed to be beyond "worse Blue-Eyes". Their best monster (Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon) may as well just be Dark Magician support, and their best spell (Red-Eyes Fusion) is basically just compensation for how bricky the deck plays, and was only good before Verte Anaconda was banned...and even then was played in EVERYTHING BUT RED-EYES. What is this deck's identity supposed to be? It kinda looks like burn and recursion...maybe? The anime wants me to believe it's "potential", but what the hell does that even mean? How do I design new support for this deck?

So, for the longest time, I've had this serious fear of large amounts of weight being on basically anything (like, I get scared of adults on trampolines and swingsets). I always have this fear that whatever the weight is on will break (I actually used to be afraid of elevators for a long time based on this, though I've largely stopped caring now. I just get this subtle anxiety about things breaking if large amounts of weight are applied to them, even if logically it should hold up. This also extends to any giant machine with a lot of moving parts (like giant robots, or those massive war planes). Is there a specific name for this? A phobia of mechanical breakdown? Weightphobia?

So, I'm trying to design a card that's meant to basically be an "anime final boss"-style card (you know, Egyptian God card, Earthbound Immortal, etc.) I was calling this card "Divine Nexus Allmother", (DNA) and basing its design off the concept of DNA. However, how would I adapt something like this into a card design? How would I adapt DNA into trading card game mechanics? I need some ideas if anyone has one they'd be willing to share.

So, I've been designing custom cards before ever finding this subreddit, and one of the archetypes I had some card ideas for was Triamid. I really like the deck, but I'm sad by how bad it is, and how it's gotten basically nothing to work with since its release. So, I came up with some new cards of my own, to hopefully give them a gameplan and a win con (I don't have any art, sorry). My ideas were:

Triamid Guard:

Attribute: EARTH

Level: 3

Type: Rock/Effect

ATK: 1900 DEF: 1800

Effect: If this card is Normal Summoned: Special Summon 1 "Triamid" monster from your hand, except "Triamid Guard". Once per opponent's turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 "Triamid" Field Spell Card in your Field Zone; send it to the Graveyard, and if you do, activate 1 "Triamid" Field Spell Card from your Deck with a different name.

Triamid Shrine Maiden:

Attribute: EARTH

Level: 4

Type: Rock/Effect

ATK: 1600 DEF: 1900

Effect: Once per turn: You can shuffle up to 3 "Triamid" cards from your GY into the Deck; draw 1 card and reveal it, then if it was a "Triamid" monster, Special Summon it. Once per opponent's turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 "Triamid" Field Spell Card in your Field Zone; send it to the Graveyard, and if you do, activate 1 "Triamid" Field Spell Card from your Deck with a different name.

Triamid Sage:

Attribute: EARTH

Level: 3

Type: Rock/Effect

ATK: 1100 DEF: 1500

Effect: Once per turn: You can add 1 "Triamid" card from your Deck to your hand. Once per opponent's turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 "Triamid" Field Spell Card in your Field Zone; send it to the Graveyard, and if you do, activate 1 "Triamid" Field Spell Card from your Deck with a different name.

Triamid Pharaoh:

Attribute: EARTH

Link: 2

Type: Rock/Link/Effect

Arrows: Bottom Left, Bottom Right

ATK: 2500

Effect: 2 Rock monsters

If this card is Link Summoned: Special Summon up to 2 "Triamid" monsters from your GY to zones this card points to. You cannot Special Summon monsters the turn you activate this effect, except Rock monsters. Thrice pert turn, when you activate a "Triamid" Field Spell: Set 1 card your opponent controls. Monsters Set this way cannot change their battle positions until the end of the turn. Spells/Traps Set this way cannot be activated until the end of the turn.

Triamid Guardian:

Attribute: EARTH

Link: 4

Type: Rock/Link/Effect

Arrows: Bottom Left, Bottom, Bottom Right, Top

ATK: 4000

Effect: 2+ "Triamid" monsters

If this card is Link Summoned: add 1 "Triamid" Field Spell from your Deck to your hand. While you control a Field Spell, this card cannot be destroyed by card effects, also, your opponent cannot target it with card effects. When your opponent activates a card/effect (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 "Triamid" Field Spell from your GY; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, also, you cannot banish a card with the same name to activate the effect of "Triamid Guardian" for the rest of this turn. If this face-up card is sent to the GY by an opponent's card: destroy all monsters your opponent controls.

Triamid Temple:

Field Spell

Effect: Rock monsters you control gain 500 ATK/DEF. You can only use each of the following effects of "Triamid Temple" once per turn. When this card is activated: target face-up cards your opponent controls, up to the number of face-up "Triamid" monsters you control with different names; negate their effects. If this face-up card in the Field Zone is sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon 1 "Triamid" monster from your Deck. You cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck the turn you use this effect, except Rock monsters.

Triamid Mothership:

Field Spell

Effect: All face-up monsters on the field lose 500 ATK/DEF, except Rock monsters. You can only use each of the following effects of "Triamid Mothership" once per turn. When this card is activated: destroy cards your opponent controls, up to the number of face-up "Triamid" monsters you control with different names. If this face-up card in the Field Zone is sent to the Graveyard: Target "Triamid" monsters in your GY with different names, up to the number of face-up monsters your opponent controls; Special Summon them, but negate their effects. You cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck the turn you activate this effect, except Rock monsters.

What are your thoughts?

You see, I'm currently working on an archetype concept I call "The Colony", it's basically themed around a cult of ants (I don't have any art yet, but that's not important). The idea is that they facilitate Ritual Summoning by mass sumoning "Worshipper Tokens" (Insect/DARK/Level: 2/ATK: 100/DEF: 100), which can be used as material. Thing is, historically, ritual decks have either been absolute garbage (Cyber Angels), or have completely broken the game (Nekroz, Drytron, etc.) How do I properly balance this deck to avoid these pitfalls? Also, what made these decks break the game like they did?

So, I'm getting more into custom card designing, and I've been heariong advice about choosing a role for my cards, but I'm still stuck on one thing: the difference between a starter and an extender. I've heard about how starters are supposed to start a combo on their own while an extender continues an already existing combo, but I'm still not getting it, it just sounds like starters are better since they can be used with any board state. Can I get some examples of good starters and extenders and some advice on how to design one versus the other?