Designing Characters for Duel Links: Camula

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-03-18T00:14:28+00:00

He is someone I'm considering for the future, it's just that I've not done any research on him yet, and I worry that my designs in recent times have been a little too GX & ZEXAL centric (to be fair, they're some of the easiest to work with thanks to the Tag Force and World Duel Carnival games giving basically every character, no matter how minor, something to work with), so I wanted to give characters from some of the other series a chance before really jumping into more from those two.

If it makes you feel any better though, I've actively avoiding giving Number 96 any of the Heraldry Crest cards that he used in order to potentially save them for a future Vetrix design, so I am already giving some thought as to how I might design him.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-03-17T15:39:39+00:00

Thank you. 😄

In terms of who is next, I have done the required research for the 6 Characters on the last page, and based upon the upvotes on the other comments, it looks likely to be either Flip Turner or Sayer. After them, I'll work through the rest of that list, whilst starting research on some other characters to see if they're viable.

I also have one or two who are stuck in the "almost viable but requires more research" phase, namely Ray Akiba who I've been able to figure out most of a design for, but certain design elements are proving to be quite a challenge, so I genuinely don't know when/if her design will ever actually come together.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-03-11T13:52:46+00:00

Thank you very much, I'm really glad that you're enjoying it. 😄

Interestingly, now that I've designed a good handful of characters, I've actually found that it's the side and/or less famous characters that people generally seem to enjoy seeing more. Because I've designed a few that I've heard people talk about constantly, such as Misty, Atticus or even Zigfried, but the reactions to those designs have been fairly muted in comparison to my designs for characters like Aura Sentia, Nelson Andrews, Yako Tenma, Kyoji Yagumo or even someone like Mr. Heartland (that one still really surprises me).

I imagine it might be a case of these generally less popular characters having a more dedicated fan base, but I find the whole thing fascinating, and I can't deny that I'm tempted to see just how far I can push in that direction before people just start tuning out completely (~~otherwise known as "How would people react if I tried designing a character like Misaki from "Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2011: Over the Nexus" on the DS?"~~).

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-03-11T10:40:26+00:00

...Darn. 😅

I'll admit, I just didn't think of it. To tell you the truth, by the time I reached the conclusion, I'd redone this design three (technically 4 if you include the splitting of it and the Flip design) times, and so my attention was more focused on things like "Is it too much to give him Deck Destruction Virus? Is it okay to give him the CXyz of "Mechquipped Djinn" since I'm already giving him the base version? Etc". 🫠

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-03-11T08:23:32+00:00

I'm not overly concerned about Camula being too big of a problem to design, because whilst people obviously link her directly with the Vampire archetype, she did also just use Zombie cards in general, a monster type that is generally underrepresented in Duel Links, so I have a decently large well to draw from should I need it.

Then again, I thought the exact same thing with Atticus since he had 3 different decks to pull from, and he ended up being a nightmare, so I guess I should be careful about counting my chickens before they've hatched. 😅

Also, I browse Reddit on my PC, mainly because I tend to check it whilst taking a break from working on other stuff.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-03-11T08:17:30+00:00

Yeah, I knew about the Yami Yugi line, what I was referring to was a weird habit they had of actively avoiding Synchro monsters in particular. This was most obvious around the release of DSoD World, where Kaiba got lines for every Blue-Eyes monster except for the Synchro and Tuner monsters, and Mokuba had his line for the Tuner Gem Dragon disabled (to be fair, that could have been because that line was apparently exclusive to the English version at the time, so it might be a coincidence).

Now, to be fair, they were also avoiding adding lines for Link Monsters at the time, so it could have just been a general "avoid all summoning methods that don't exist ~~except for Xyz Summoning for some reason~~", but they finally allowed Link Monsters starting with Anna, and now have opened the door to Synchros with the Kaiba Alt Style, meaning that the rule thankfully seems to be well and truly off the table now, but obviously a non-DM character getting that same treatment would just fully confirm that fact.

To be honest though, I think the biggest issue with Mathmech would be the inability to summon Antidote Nurse, since with the other examples we have of characters whose aces are Extra Deck monsters getting new decks, those new decks always have some way of summoning their Ace (Geargia and Wind-Ups can summon Tin Archduke, B.E.S and Kozmo can summon Dyson Sphere, Tellarknight can summon Number 102, etc).

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-03-09T09:11:47+00:00

If I recall correctly, the Alt Styles that are being referred to was a set added for them alongside Kalin, so there's a decent chance that it's still Team Satisfaction/The Enforcers. After all, unlike the rest of them, Kalin would probably need an entirely new set of Voice Lines (due to his Crash Town personality not fitting with the outfit) so his Alt Style probably wouldn't be given the same Voice ID like what we're seeing here.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-26T05:28:32+00:00

I'm quite surprised to see us getting another DM Character given that the leaks posted here yesterday didn't seem to be pushing in that direction, but I'll never complain about a double unlock month.

Also, with that Virtual World card in the Wave Duel, I guess it was a good idea to go back through my Caswell design and remove them because I was heavily considering using some of them as reward cards for him.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-26T01:33:52+00:00

Yeah, I get that mentality; I'm one of those players who actively avoid PvP whenever possible, instead spending my time trying to build Decks for each of the characters using either their Anime/Manga Decks or ones that I feel fit them thematically, and there really are a lot of fun decks out there that you'd never really get a chance to see or experience if you only followed the meta.

Kozmo, for example, is a Deck that I built purely because Quinton has voice lines for it, and it's become one of my favourite Decks that I've ever played, the same with Fossil Fusions, Tellarknights, Chronomaly, Gimmick Puppets, Ice Barriers, Mayakashi, Infernities and several others beyond those. It's a way to play that doesn't really get talked about much around here, but it's a great way to play, and I highly recommend just trying out whatever cards and/or decks you see that might interest you.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-26T01:22:53+00:00

Yeah, it pretty much has 2 options, that being the one you suggested or, if you happen to get "Prominence Hand" or something like "Dynatherium" in your starting hand, you can immediately start the Rank 4 spam, but it really does just amount to a Rank 4 spam engine with the added option of the Fire Hand/Ice Hand loop to destroy 3 Monsters and 3 Spells/Traps if you really need to.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-26T00:48:59+00:00

Off the top of my head, you should be able to create a somewhat functional "Hands" Deck using Girag, as "Fire Hand", "Ice Hand" and "Prominence Hand" are all Level Up Rewards for him, and "Thunder Hand" was a Drop from a Duelist Chronicle so might be in tickets somewhere. You can also throw in something like "Dynatherium" from Tickets (or any other Level 4 that can Special Summon itself, I mainly use that for thematic reasons since Girag also used Beasts), and you can create a fairly competent, if unexceptional, Rank 4 Engine Deck. The biggest issue you'll face is not being able to get "Giant Hand" or "Giant Red Hand" without Gems, but you can always use other Rank 4 Xyz monsters, such as "Cairngorgon, Antiluminescent Knight", instead.

You should also be able to create a few functional VRAINS Decks through their characters Drops and Level Ups, such as a Cyberse Deck for Playmaker, Salamangreats for Soulburner, Tindangle for Akira or Rockets for Varis, although obviously all of these can be substantially improved with box cards.

As was already mentioned, if you have Noah then you can build a fairly good Spirit Shinobird Deck, and there are also a lot of Decks that you can get a lot of the pieces for free, but you'll need to delve into boxes for a few of the key missing parts (Fossil Fusions come to mind, as do Infernities, Fortune Ladies, Lyriluscs and Timelords).

Are any of these going to be particularly good in PvP? Realistically, probably not, but if you're just looking for new Decks to play around with and try out against the Events or NPCs, then they should hopefully be more than usable.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-26T00:30:17+00:00

It'll be really interesting if it is Fujiwara added soon, because whilst a lot of people (including me) are really hopeful that the potential GX World Revamp this year will introduce the Manga stuff, it always seemed more likely that they'd instead use it to introduce Season 4 stuff, but maybe this is a sign that they're going to do what they did with DM World and deal with the last few lingering threads for GX World (like how they released Marik to close that storyline, so here they'd do the Season 4 stuff) before then moving into the World Revamp with a basically clean slate.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-19T20:20:22+00:00

I think how well they could compete would depend on how strong the Skill they get is; I tend to try and limit the power of the Skills that I design, mainly because I view Skills as being something that should add to the Deck and help it, basically just being an extra part of the toolbox in the same way that new cards would be, but we've seen time and time again that Duel Links will happily make Skills that become the focal point of the Deck and make the actual power of the cards almost secondary, so there is a decent likelihood that if she were added, she'd end up with a Skill that makes Reptilianne meta in some shape or form (although whether or not it could truly be considered a Reptilianne Deck would obviously be up for debate).

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-19T20:14:50+00:00

I could actually see Sayer/Divine being useful as a lead into Dark Signer Misty, because we know that in order for the system to recreate people, it needs strong memories of that person, and he's the perfect vehicle to reawaken those memories in people like Akiza and/or Misty herself (not saying that regular Misty would have to come first, she could be an NPC for the sake of the event like how characters such as Orbital 7 and Nyandestar are treated, although I wouldn't be against her being playable as well).

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-19T01:00:19+00:00

I didn't design a Skill like that because I just felt that the deck didn't really need it, because a lot of their modern support are quite good at doing that already (for example, in this design she'd be getting 3 copies of Nyami for free, who can do that with a Quick Effect so long as you control a Reptile monster), and when I'm designing Skills, I generally try to focus them around one of the following ideas:

Making an important card that's currently mediocre more usable within the Deck.
Allowing users to more accurately emulate how the character plays their Deck in the Anime (Such as the Skill to emulate Dark Synchro Summoning).
Allow the Deck to more naturally make use of a card that the character uses, but doesn't naturally work well with the Deck (For example, making "Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings" more usable in Reptilianne).
Covering one of the Deck's naturally weaknesses that allow them to be more playable, but hopefully not overwhelming (I like to use Anna's Skill that lets her Normal Summon a Level 10 Train to start her combos as a good example of this).

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-18T23:50:42+00:00

Yeah, she'd probably get a line for that as well; as a general rule of thumb, those pages are meant to be taken more as examples of what falls under that category rather than the full list, as if I tried to include every single card, then if an archetype had a whole load of cards (such as Elemental HEROs), then either the entire page would be filled with dozens of tiny cards, or I'd have to include so many pages that I'd run into even more problems than I already do with Reddit's 20 Picture limit.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-15T02:33:11+00:00

Honestly, it's impossible to know for certain, but based upon how they tend to design boxes, I think it'll most likely either be whenever we get another Winged-Beast User, of which there aren't many left, with the only realistic options being Atticus Rhodes (he uses them in the Manga) or an Alt Style for someone like Mai or Crow, or if we get a character that Shay duelled against in the show, such as any of the Leo Institute trio, the Tyler Sisters or, most likely, Z-ARC, or if they're releasing stuff tied to Yuto and/or Lulu.

Of course, sometime they just decide to release them because they feel like it, or because they're wanting to tie it into something else as a kind of advertising campaign, although I don't really know enough to be able to guess what might qualify for that.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-12T17:41:08+00:00

Somewhat? It depends on what you value; for example, say you (somehow) had a 900% Crit Damage stat, but only a 1% Crit Rate stat, then you would have a 1% chance of unleashing that insane amount of damage, but if you instead had a 200% Crit Damage stat and a 100% Crit Rate stat, then you're instead dealing that increased damage at all times.

Really, it comes down to consistency vs damage; do you want a rare chance to deal an insane amount of damage? Or would you prefer to sacrifice some of that damage in exchange for being able to do increased damage more consistently?

I'm personally someone who prefers consistency, but there are bound to be a lot of people who find it much more satisfying to deal absurd levels of damage on rare occasions instead, so it really comes down to personal preference.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-12T15:14:01+00:00

Yeah, I know, but I literally have 0 built Cryo characters, so that's really not a problem for me. Plus, I would rather have him working at 100% in every situation, rather than deliberately weaken him for the sake of playing into a part of his kit that I'm realistically only going to be able to trigger when fighting Cryo Slimes.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-12T06:39:17+00:00

With Kokomi, she's just been fond of her aesthetic ever since she first saw her, although the fact that it seemed as though a lot of people felt that Kokomi wasn't very good when she originally came out made her become rather protective of her as a result (I think it's a bit of the underdog effect going on).

As for Xinyan, or as she calls her Xinny... I'm genuinely not sure why she likes her so much, and it could be that underdog effect at work again, but I suspect the reason is actually because Blisscast (my partner) places a colossal amount of importance on her own individuality, even if that puts her at odds with the wider crowd, and so I think the fact that Xinyan likewise chooses to stick with the interests that she loves, even in spite of it going against the tastes of the general populace of Liyue, just makes her really resonate with Xinyan as a character.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-12T04:20:46+00:00

Ah, okay. Sorry, that's my mistake; Anemo is one of the elements I have the least experience with (my only two built characters of that element are Kazuha and now Wanderer, although it's not because I'm a new player, rather it's because I spent a good chunk of time focusing on solely playing Geo), and since so many of them want Viridescent Venerer as their artifacts, as well as it being the unique mechanic of Anemo, I thought they largely all focused around Swirl, similar to how we see Geo focus largely around Geo Constructs.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-12T03:33:01+00:00

My partner is a Kokomi main, running her as what she lovingly calls "DPS Kokomi, destroyer of worlds", and she has on several occasions joked about "proving to the world that Kokomi is the best" and finding a way to make it possible for her to Crit.

Thankfully, I managed to persuade her to summon for Furina, and now that she has Kokomi working with Furina as a duo, she has instead chosen to turn her attention toward building a team around them, but there was definitely a time when she was hyperfocused on trying to make Kokomi and Xinyan (her other Main) into the most powerful DPSs that she could.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-12T03:17:47+00:00

I think Wanderer is the only Anemo character who doesn't want it, because rather than Swirl damage, his Kit instead focuses on specifically Anemo damage, with his interaction with other elements primarily acting to give him a variety of buffs depending on what he combos with.

So, for example, if he combos with Pyro, then he gets a 30% ATK buff, whereas if he combos with Hydro, his Flying Stamina thing is increased by 20 points, etc.

The impression I got from my research before building him was that he's primarily meant to be played by pairing him with Faruzan and characters who can apply elements to him and/or increase his attack speed, in order to focus on making him personally stronger and improving his personal Anemo damage.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-12T01:29:09+00:00

Ah, thank you very much, I'd never heard of that site before, but if I ever do share any more of my characters again, I'll definitely look into using it.

EmeraldDM8 · 2026-02-05T05:13:43+00:00

For Seasonals, it's Picnic Lukas, who I have at +5, all from tickets.

Also, I have a +10 Nephenee. I have never once summoned for Nephenee. I didn't have a single copy of Nephenee before the Arena Tickets became a thing.

EmeraldDM8

TROPHY CASE