DARK
4Aloof Lupine
ATK:
1700
DEF:
300
View:
4504
When this card is Normal Summoned: You can banish 1 monster from your hand; banish 1 monster from your Deck with the same Type as that monster. If this card is destroyed by battle, or if this card in its owner's possession is destroyed by an opponent's card effect: You can target 1 of your banished monsters; add it to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Aloof Lupine" once per turn.
Aloof Lupine — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 54 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 53 · Deck: 55 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Recovery/Recursion · Secondary: Material body
Why it scores here
Aloof Lupine is a Level 4 DARK Beast with 1700 ATK that is commonly run in Thunder Dragon, Bystial and Branded shells (2.2 copies per deck, 93% co-inclusion with Gold Sarcophagus). Its value is recursion: a destroyed copy returns one banished monster to hand, but the Normal Summon costs one hand monster and one same-Type Deck monster, so it is card-negative on entry and only refunds value after it is destroyed. The 1700 ATK earns nothing on its own; the score comes from the recursion, the generic Beast body that still works as material when its effects are negated, and the ease of running it. Combo evidence is thin (3 boards, none with a recorded role for this card), so the combo axis stays near the middle.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 60 | Live in most Thunder Dragon and Bystial hands because it is a Normal Summon body with 2.2 copies per deck, but the hand and deck costs make it a second-card-dependent route (inferred, observed from decks_evidence). |
| Combo & Conversion | 50 | Only 3 recorded boards include it with no role tags, and its own combo averages a power index of 76.7 largely from other cards, so conversion is roughly even (observed, thin sample). |
| Resource Economy | 45 | Costs two monsters (one from hand, one from Deck) on summon and returns at most one banished monster when destroyed, so the refuel is conditional and the card is net negative until that trigger fires (verified from text). |
| Effect & Interaction | 15 | No negation, removal or hand-trap effect; it only adds a recovery trigger after destruction (verified from text). |
| Material Utility | 55 | A Level 4 DARK Beast with 1700 ATK is a clean generic material, and its body still converts if its effects are negated (verified from card stats; the as_material count is 0 in combos, so the score is inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 50 | Its recovery trigger needs destruction by battle or by an opponent's card effect and is limited to once per turn per effect, so it resists only some interaction (verified from text). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 55 | No garnet, no self-lock, and the copy count is observed at 1 to 3 copies; a guide snippet says Lupine was limited, which the pack does not confirm, so the score is held at mid-high (observed plus a guide claim). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Recovery/Recursion + 0.3 Material body. Intrinsic ≈ 53, Deck ≈ 55, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Banish-cost brick risk (-2). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Recovers one banished monster when destroyed by battle or an opponent's effect, giving a conditional refuel
- Clean Level 4 DARK Beast body that keeps its material value even when its effects are negated
- Widely run in 400 recent decks across several archetypes, with high co-inclusion with core Thunder Dragon and Bystial cards
Weaknesses
- Normal Summon costs two monsters, so it is card-negative until its recovery trigger fires
- No negation, removal or hand-trap effect
- Combo evidence is thin (3 boards) and never records the card as starter, searched or material
Counters / choke points
- No counter-specific evidence in the pack; the recovery trigger can be stopped by keeping the card alive (inferred from text, not tabled)
Best use
Recursion body that refunds one banished monster after it is destroyed, and a Level 4 Beast material. Decks: Thunder Dragon, Bystial, Branded. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Level 4 DARK Beast, 1700 ATK / 300 DEF, Effect Monster (card stats); Normal Summon cost: banish 1 monster from hand and 1 same-Type monster from Deck (card text); Recovery trigger: destroyed by battle, or destroyed by an opponent's card effect while in owner's possession, adds one banished monster to hand (card text); Each of the two effects is once per turn (card text); Appears in 400 of 400 recent decks, 2.23 copies on average (decks_evidence)
- Observed: Co-inclusion: Gold Sarcophagus 93%, Thunder Dragon core cards about 91%, Bystial Magnamhut 82% (top_partners); Appears in 3 of 3 recorded combos with no role tags (combos_evidence); Usage statistics: 100% in Metaphys and 66.7% in Gren Maju (small sample, 2 archetypes)
- Inferred: Recovery is the primary role because the combo pack never tags it as searched or starter; Negated-body material value (text plus Beast Level 4 stats; no combo tag); Deck cost is moderate because the Beast-type requirement limits the deck but the card has no garnet
- Data gaps: No banlist token; copy limit assumed 3 (unlimited), but a Thunder Dragon guide says Lupine is limited Combo sample is 3 boards with empty role_in_combo, so combo_conversion and the starter/material claims are weakly supported usage_statistics covers only 2 archetypes No counter or metagame evidence in the pack Recent decks show 2 to 3 copies, which does not fit a Limited-1 status, so the limit cannot be settled from this pack