Making Harpies Okay

Introduction

Harpie Ladies hold a special place in my heart. Growing up, Mai from the Yu-Gi-Oh anime was one of my favorite characters, especially in the original anime. The first deck I ever had was the Lord of the Storm structure deck which featured the Harpie Lady archetype along with Simorgh, Bird of Divinity. When I came back to Yu-gi-oh around the time Master Duel was released, one of the first things I did after getting reacclimated with the rules and all the changes that had happened was try and make a Harpie Lady deck. It did not work out. The archetype was simply just too weak and too inconsistent to compete with any of the competent decks that existed. There were a few options here and there which I will get into later, but they oftentimes were suboptimal strategies done just so that fans of Harpies like myself can have something that we can steal a few wins with. So, I decided to take a crack at design a few cards for this archetype that could hopefully bolster their power to something that is even remotely near the rogue tier.

Before we get into it though, there are a few points that I want to make in regards to what I believe the Harpie archetype should be and things to avoid when trying to think of new support for these lovely ladies. The first is that this archetype at it's core is a control focused midrange deck. That means it wants to prevent your opponent from playing the game by manipulating the board state. They do this through card destruction and monster bounces. They also want to slow down the pace of the game by providing different ways to prevent your opponent from targeting your Harpie monsters with effects or attacks. They are midrange by the fact that they have small combos and can recycle themselves (albeit, badly by modern standards) and thus have resource loops in play.

This falls apart when we get to two cards in particular. One is Triangle Ecstasy Spark, a fairly unknown and mundane card, and the elephant in the room, Harpie's Feather Storm.

Triangle Ecstasy Spark is rather useless, being a boost to your Harpie Lady Sisters which is never used in decks. The interesting effect is that it's a lingering floodgate effect that stops your opponent from activating trap cards and negating all their trap cards on the field. Similarly, Harpie's Feather Storm is also a lingering floodgate and quite frankly what I would call a design mistake. Don't get me wrong, it's powerful card for an archetype that is quite weak. I understand its purpose, but the issue with this card is that it creates a chokehold around the archetype. This card is essentially a hand trap turn skip that prevents your opponent from playing the game. It's not banned right now because it's difficult to search within its archetype and unsearchable in archetypes that can use it like Floowandereeze, Simorgh, and Lyrilusc. Thus, this creates a situation where support of Harpie Lady needs to always be cognizant of this nuke lurking in the background. We see this already with Harpie Perfumer, a card released after Harpie's Feather Storm.

Harpie Perfumer searches for a Spell/Trap from your deck, but it must mention "Harpie Lady Sisters", meaning its targets most notably DO NOT include Harpie's Feather Storm as this card only mentions "Harpie". Many other cards released at the same time as Perfumer in the 2019 set "Sisters of the Rose", are similarly hamstrung by the existence of this card. All the new spells and traps mention "Harpie Lady" and "Harpie Lady Sisters" exactly in their text in order to be searchable by Perfumer (Hysteric Sign which was released before Feather Storm does not have this meaning it's not searchable by Perfumer which tells you a lot). Harpie Oracle, much like Perfumer, also requires spells and traps to mention "Harpie Lady Sisters" in them in order to be recycled by her effect in the end phase. This shows the problem with Harpie's Feather Storm and how it's limiting the card design space for the Harpie archetype. I can't deny, though, that this card is one of the few power cards this archetype has access to and that it feels fantastic to slap down on to the table from your hand and laugh as your opponent tries to do anything. However, that doesn't change the fact that this style of gameplay is inherently toxic and not interactive.

These two cards are the otherside of the Harpie archetype: the floodgate playstyle. This is where you try to prevent your opponent from doing any actions by stopping them from even attempting those actions. It's not the same as normal control where you disrupt by removing cards or stopping certain effects in an attempt to stifle your opponent's combo. The main difference is that you must make decisions on when to disrupt and how to disrupt. With floodgates like turning off all monster effects, there is no decision. You just do it as that's the best course of action. This is further shown by the one time Harpies ever really saw modern play and that was by abusing Barrier Statue of Stormwinds. This lovely card prevents your opponent from special summoning any monster that isn't the Wind attribute. Technically, it affects both players, but you as the Harpie player are playing a deck consisting of all Wind monsters and so this restriction doesn't effect you. Most decks do no revolve around Wind monsters, Dark and Light being historically the most common and Fire and Water having more and more representation in recent years. The only deck that focused on Wind monsters to have some meta relevance was Floowandereeze which normal summons so this wouldn't even effect them anyway. Speaking of, Floo also abused this wonderfully designed card. Both decks, Harpies and Floo, consistent ways to search and summon Stormwinds. Floo could use Robina to search and use their extra normal summons to put it on the field. Harpies could link climb easily into Simorgh, Bird of Sovereignty who will then special summon the Stormwinds onto the field at the End Phase. Speaking of Simorgh, this is also an archetype that floodgates opponents in much the same way by using Stormwinds and prevent cards from being set.

This is a play pattern that I very much want to avoid. Barrier Statue of Stormwinds has been banned for a while now and is likely never returning. With it going, so too did all the Harpie decks at that time and since then, Harpies have seen little relevance outside of Tri-Brigade brews from those who really like Harpies. I believe that in order to prevent this playstyle and in order to give Harpies any sort of support that is remotely powerful, Feather Storm needs to be banned. Until that day comes, it will simply be lingering there like its effect, preventing any sort of support for the Harpie archetype. For now, I'll design cards in mind with this restriction, hopefully still bolstering the archetype while skirting around this card. Hopefully, when this card is banned, we can just change every search effect from specifying "Harpie Lady" to just saying "Harpie".

With that being said, what are my goals for Harpies? To put them plainly, I want them to have good recursion with some resilience when creating a board. I want the end board to be interactive, giving ways to bounce monsters and destroy spells and traps while protecting the Harpie monsters themselves. What I want to avoid are negates where I can and floodgates preventing your opponent from activating cards or effects. In this way, we retain the identity of both the wind attribute and the original idea behind the Harpies. That isn't to say that there won't be some annoying effects. The protection I give these cards are quite powerful and their disruptions, while not negates, are meaningful.

The New Cards

Harpie Girl - Trainee

"This card's name becomes "Harpie Lady" while on the field or in the GY. If you control a Winged Beast monster: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Harpie" monster from your deck, also you cannot Special Summon for the rest of this turn except Winged Beast monsters. You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon one "Harpie Lady" from you GY. You can only use each effect of "Harpie Girl - Trainee" once per turn."

One thing that I think many people, especially those who enjoy Harpie Ladies, have wanted for a while is a Harpie Girl retrain. Before, it was one of those cards that was just kinda there. A level 2 that didn't do anything except maybe be used to make Spright Elf in a deck that really really likes Harpies. So now, let's make it more useful. For one, making it level 1 does a lot. It opens the door for many search effects like One for One and Where Arf Thou. It bridges Lyrilusc cards with Harpie Ladies being a level 1 Winged Beast making it searchable by various Lyrilusc effects. It make it a proper bridge, it summons itself when there is a Winged Beast on your board. This special summon effect is also important as it solves a problem that Harpies have: reliance on the normal summon. If Harpie Perfumer or Harpie Channeler is negated, your play usually is stopped unless you have an extender in hand and even then your board is weakened considerably which is death for a deck whose ceiling is already quite low. Harpie Girl's effect to summon from the deck is obviously powerful but the cards she can find aren't. The graveyard effect is also strong, but again, the cards she can summon are all often hard once per turns and aren't that good. At best they give bodies, but the extra deck monsters available to Winged Beasts is limited. The graveyard effect is incredibly important as well since Harpies have only 1 card that does anything when discarded and its a card that was mediocre even when it first released. Harpie Harpist only adds at the end phase and its summon effect is only good in certain niche situations. This effect is good as long as you can get another body in the graveyard which is a good enough restriction for a card with so many power effects.

Being a Tuner and level 1 also opens up room for synchro lvl 8s and lvl 5s that aren't just from the Harpie archetype. This opens up the ceiling for the Harpie archetype and allows for more creativity in the Harpie boss cards.

Harpie Regina

"This card's name becomes "Harpie Lady" while on the field or in the GY. You can return 1 "Harpie" monster you control; then Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is sent to the GY: You can add 1 "Harpie" monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Harpie Regina" once per turn."

The next normal summon. This card is meant to recapture the bounce portion of the Harpie strategy. It bounces a Harpie you control to summon itself, acting as another very necessary special summon. That means you can use a dead normal to get this card out and also do something else which will be apparent in a later card. The graveyard effect is, of course, powerful but for the same reason Harpie Girl has one. Harpie Channeler needs good discards to use her effect. Now, Regina is different from Harpist in that it is specifically Harpie monsters as opposed to Winged-Beasts with 1500 ATK or less making her less generic. That doesn't really matter though because this allows you to search for, say, Harpie Girl or Fearsome Fireblast to extend. You can even add Harpie Oracle who is one of the only extenders the deck has if you already summoned a level 5 or higher Harpie monster. All together, it's two simple effects, but two power effects.

Harpie Regina Splendid Armor

"1 Tuner + 1+ non-Tuner monsters

For this card's Synchro Summon, you can treat 1 "Harpie" monster you control as a Tuner. This card's name becomes "Harpie Lady" while on the field or in the GY. If this card is Synchro Summoned: You can send 1 "Harpie" monster from your hand or Deck to your GY. (Quick Effect): You can return 1 card from the field or GY that mentions "Harpie Lady" or "Harpie Lady Sisters" to your hand, then destroy one card on the field. You can only use each effect of "Harpie Regina Splendid Armor" once per turn."

This card is meant to serve as a new end piece on a Harpie board and combo piece. It being a level 5 means that she can be made with a level 4 and a level 1. Notably, Harpies are predominantly level 4 and with the retrain of Harpie Girl, we now also have an in-archetype level 1. With Lyrilusc, provided you haven't locked yourself into XYZ monsters yet, you can also use them to bring this synchro out. The ability to treat a Harpie monster as a tuner is to introduce flexibility (not making it so that you need Harpie Girl) and to keep it inline with Harpie Lady Cyber Slash who has similar material requirements.

It's effects are meant to be flexible. The effect to bounce and destroy can target anything that mentions "Harpie Lady" including herself and spells, so in the worst case, you still get a pop by bouncing herself. The destroy effect is also non-targeting, a very power form of removal. There is also synergy with the destruction for your own Harpie cards like with Hysteric Sign and another card I designed later.

Harpie Lady Pet Master

"2 Level 7 Wind Monsters

This card's name becomes "Harpie Lady" while on the field or in the GY. Your opponent cannot target your "Harpie" cards for effects or attacks except for "Harpie Lady Pet Master". You can only use the following effects of "Harpie Lady Pet Master" once per turn. You can detach 1 material from this card: Add 1 Spell/Trap that mentions "Harpie Lady" or "Harpie Lady Sisters". If this card is in your GY and you control 2 or more "Harpie Lady" or "Harpie Lady Sisters", you can Special Summon this card."

The "why wasn't there one already" card of the bunch. One of the oddest effects on Harpie Channeler was her effect to modulate her level to 7 if there was a dragon type monster on the field. The dragons this has the most synergy with are the big pet dragons, particularly the newer one in Fearsome Fireblast. However, Harpies themselves didn't have a rank 7 XYZ making this effect seemingly random. It allows Harpies to bridge into various generic rank 7's like the Mecha Phantom Beasts which I would imagine Konami believed to be powerful enough. This also creates incidental synergy with Dragon Rulers in the form of Tempest, the wind Dragon Ruler. However, the problem then becomes that you can't do anything after. Channeler takes up your normal and Fearsome Fireblast becomes XYZ material which means its effect to send from the deck won't trigger. Fearsome Fireblast requires that it gets sent from field to graveyard. Thus, you are generally stuck with maybe 1 form of disruption unless you draw extenders (not to mention Channeler requires a Harpie discard so it's almost a 2 card combo).

Thus, it seems almost too obvious that Harpies should have a rank 7 that makes sacrificing Fearsome Fireblast's effect worth it and can be an extender. Thus, its effects reflect these goals. It has 3 effects: the first gives protection to all other Harpie cards, the second gives you a search for a spell and trap that mentions Harpie Lady (Elegant Egotist being the obvious and being usable as Pet Master is considered a Harpie Lady), and the third is an extender in the form of a free reborn provided you have enough bodies.

The protection effect is meant to fall in-line with the other pet dragon cards in the Harpie archetype. Though this card isn't a dragon, in spirit it is and that is why that effect is there. In combination with another card, it will actually be more powerful that it seems. The search effect is meant to provide another play through finding extenders or other cards like Harpie's Feather Rest or Harpie's Hunting Ground to do other plays. The reborn effect is so that this card can also act as an extender, something that is important since XYZ monsters are some of the worst in terms of material advantage. The need to have multiple other Harpie monsters is meant to play into the swarming nature of Harpies and to provide ways to play around this extension.

Harpie Lady Pet Master

"2 WIND monsters

This card's name becomes "Harpie Lady" while on the field or in the GY. If this card is Link Summoned: You can add one Equip Spell that mentions "Harpie" from your Deck to your hand. (Quick Effect) You can target up to 3 different Equip Spells in your GY; shuffle them into your Deck and destroy the same number of Spells/Traps on the field. You can only use each effect of "Harpie Cara" once per turn."

Another link monster for the archetype, but this time one that is useful. I debated whether or not to make this a Link-1, but having multiple bodies on the field is kind of the point of Harpies and so a Link-2 felt thematically correct. Now an actually useful Harpie link is important so that we can convert bodies into useful cards. Harpie Conductor was purely made because of Master Rule 4 and the need to have link arrows. Without link arrows during this time, you couldn't summon from your extra deck outside of the extra monster zone. Incidentally, though, Harpie Conductor becomes a lot better with the cards I have proposed here and I'll get more into that later.

For Harpie Cara, this is meant to serve as the way to get into the equip cards of the Harpie archetype. Now, thematically there were 3 equips in the anime that Harpies used: Cyber Shield, Rose Whip, and Aero Nail. Only one of these was ever made a card and it was Cyber Armor long ago and its effect reflects that. Thus, I wanted to play into this less explored aspect of Harpies and Harpie Cara is just that. In Rush Duels where she comes from, she is the one that makes the Harpie garments. So to translate that, she searches for Equip Spells that list Harpie in its text which I will show next.

In addition, she will over more disruption, this time in the form of spell and trap removal, a staple of the Wind attribute including Harpies. The effect is for up to 3 pops if you shuffle back 3 Equip Spells and also gives the benefit of recycling your powerful equip spells. All together, a power card. However, she does have low stats and thus is easy to beat over (of course, she will be protected via the dragons which is the point of the low stats).

Harpie Full Dress

"Equip only to "Harpie Lady" or "Harpie Lady Sisters". The equipped monster gains 500 ATK and cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. If this card is destroyed: You can target one "Harpie Lady" monster in your GY; Special Summon it. Then for the rest of the turn, you can only Special Summon "Harpie" monsters. You can only use this effect of "Harpie Full Dress" once per turn."

So what spells are we working with for Harpie Cara? Well, we have first a retrain of Cyber Shield. So, it can only be equipped to Harpie Lady or Harpie Lady Sisters and gives the 500 ATK just like its original counterpart. The equipped monster also cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects. The most obvious target for this Harpie Pet Master, creating an entire board that is untargetable. However, it's effect when destroyed allows for a lot of different plays. The effect reborns a Harpie Lady meaning this can be used for extension in clever ways. With Harpie's Hunting Ground, we can pop it to force its effects. If it's equipped to a monster, bouncing the monster it's equipped to will destroy the Equip Spell and thus also trigger the effect. This combined with, for instance, Harpie Regina would be a powerful effect.

Harpie Rose Whip

"Equip only to "Harpie Lady" or "Harpie Lady Sisters". The equipped monster gains 300 ATK and DEF. If the equipped monster would leave the field: You can destroy this card instead. If this card is destroyed: You can target one monster on the field; return it to the hand. You can only use each effect of "Rose Whip" once per turn."

Another Equip Spell, this time Rose Whip. It's stats are just like from the anime and it maintains its Harpie Lady restriction. This time, it serves as both protection and disruption. It can stop one of your monsters from leaving the field and destroys itself, triggering its destruction effect to bounce another monster. What's important here is that this card is easy to get into the graveyard along with Harpie Full Dress. This is integral for Harpie Cara so that she has essentially ammunition for her spell/trap destruction effect. Something I didn't mention before but I will now is that this card and Harpie Full Dress having their Harpie Lady restriction is very important for another reason. It allows them to be searchable by Harpie Perfumer and Harpie Pet Master meaning we have 3 different methods to find these cards. That means at even 1 copy, they are easily accessible and recyclable via Harpie Cara.

All Together

Those are the current versions of the cards I have come up with. There are some more ideas that I want to try from creating Aero Nail, making formation cards like Harpie's Sparrow Formation, and creating a retrain for Harpie Lady Sisters (the most obvious idea being a contact fusion for 3 Harpies). However, as a baseline, I believe these cards would be enough to make Harpies...well "OK". Like the title suggested, my goal wasn't to make them OP or meta, merely bring their power up to something that you can play as a rogue strategy. There are glaring weaknesses such as an inability to prevent Nibiru and no in-engine negates. There is a world where you play Primite with the vanilla Harpie if you want negates and of course in the OCG and Masterduel, Simorgh is an option. However, that doesn't change the fact that Harpies themselves won't have any answer outside of hard drawing Feather Storm, a card that I have said needs to be banned.

That doesn't mean that it has to be this way, though. These cards were made with Feather Storm very much in mind and the moment it's banned, we can start to really push the envelop. The Harpie Lady Sisters retrain for instance could be a negate and not many would complain provided the correct restrictions are put into place.

At current, what these cards do is that with one Harpie Girl, we can end on 3 in-engine disruptions plus potential follow up for the next turn. With one more card, we can also end on 4 provided we are in the OCG or Masterduel. The disruptions aren't as many as some other decks, but they would be an omni-negate, a non-targeting pop, a spell/trap pop, and a monster bounce. This plus any hand traps you draw would be plenty to answer anything your opponent has. Of course, if you are disrupted, having some extension to play through it is important, but now with 2 different extenders, it becomes a lot easier to draw at least 1. I may record a video and show the combos I came up with.

In the future, if Winged-Beasts and Wind gets as much support as Fiends and Fire/Water have had in recent times, the core engine these cards facilitate will only get stronger the higher quality the cards they can bring out become. Thus, I feel quite confident with these cards I have designed here and hope that something of their nature becomes a reality. Please Konami. Mai lost enough already in the anime.

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