DARK
4Aratama
ATK:
800
DEF:
1800
View:
6295
Cannot be Special Summoned. During the End Phase of the turn this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: Return it to the hand. When this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up: You can add 1 Spirit monster from your Deck to your hand, except "Aratama".
Aratama — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 57 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 56 · Deck: 58 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Searcher / Tutor · Secondary: Recovery / Recursion, Starter
Why it scores here
Aratama is a Level 4 DARK Fiend with 800 ATK, and its stats earn nothing here. Its value is text-verified: each Normal Summon or flip turns it into one Spirit monster from the Deck to hand, and it returns to hand in the End Phase, so it can search again the next turn it is Normal Summoned. That makes it a recursive searcher that converts one card into a repeatable +1 card with no extra board presence. Its weaknesses are that it cannot be Special Summoned, has no interaction, and carries a fixed bounce drawback; the observed Exosister-heavy deck usage confirms it is a practical, live role but does not prove its strength.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 68 | Runs in 400 of 400 sampled decks at about 1.85 copies each across 42 archetypes, but it is a Normal Summon from hand with no recorded starter or searched-card data (observed deck frequency; route is text-verified). |
| Combo & Conversion | 45 | Text converts one Normal Summon into one searched Spirit, with no recorded boards or combo examples to show a larger payoff (text-verified; no combo data). |
| Resource Economy | 68 | Each Normal Summon or flip adds one Spirit from the Deck, and the End Phase return lets the card repeat the search (text-verified, with the search count limited by how often it can be Normal Summoned). |
| Effect & Interaction | 5 | The card has no negation, removal, or disruption effect, so it contributes almost no interaction (verified from text). |
| Material Utility | 35 | As a Level 4 DARK Fiend it is a usable Normal Summon body, but its Spirit type and effect-based return make it an awkward material; no material stats were supplied (inference from text). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 40 | Returning to hand at the End Phase keeps it out of the field and GY for most interaction windows, but it has no recovery of its own and depends on a Normal Summon (inference from text). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 60 | It is a single-copy-style body with no garnet or lock text in the evidence, and it is run widely at low copy counts, but the observed Exosister partner dominance means its slot cost is tied to a specific shell (observed deck data; restriction is inference). |
Calculation
Weight profile: Searcher/Tutor primary profile, no secondary blend applied because combos are absent. Intrinsic ≈ 56, Deck ≈ 58, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Recursive searcher: returns to hand in the End Phase, so it can search again on later turns
- Searches a Spirit from the Deck on every Normal Summon or flip
- Runs in every sampled deck (400/400) across 42 archetypes
Weaknesses
- Cannot be Special Summoned, so it needs a Normal Summon each time
- No interaction or negation
- Low ATK and Level 4 body give little material value
- No recorded combo data to confirm its conversion
Counters / choke points
- Monster effects that negate it or prevent Normal Summons
- Anything that shuts down Normal Summons on the turn it would be used
Best use
Recursive searcher that adds a Spirit monster each time it is Normal Summoned or flipped. Decks: Exosister (observed 60.5% of sampled decks), Shinobird, Mulcharmy, Ryzeal. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Cannot be Special Summoned; Returns to hand in the End Phase of the turn it was Normal Summoned or flipped; Adds 1 Spirit monster from Deck to hand on Normal Summon or flip, excluding itself; Runs in 400 of 400 sampled decks
- Observed: Average 1.85 copies per deck; Exosister archetype in 60.5% of decks; Top partners co-occur in about 79% of decks; Two guides mention the card
- Inferred: Repeatable searcher from recurring Normal Summons; Awkward as material because of Spirit type and bounce; Moderate resilience from the End Phase return
- Data gaps: no combos supplied, so combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token, assumed 3 copies no Spirit-count or starter-count data to measure how often the search finds a live target no usage statistics beyond one Shinobird row