WATER
3Armored Shark
Archetype:
Xyz
ATK:
500
DEF:
2000
View:
3015
(This card is always treated as an "Armored Xyz" card.) You can send 1 WATER Xyz Monster from your Extra Deck to the GY, then target 1 Fish monster in your GY with the same Level as the Rank of that monster; Special Summon it. During your opponent's turn, if this card is in your GY (Quick Effect): You can target 1 WATER Xyz Monster you control; equip this card to that monster as an Equip Spell that gives it 500 ATK. You can only use each effect of "Armored Shark" once per turn.
Armored Shark — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 57 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 54.5 · Deck: 58.2 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Recovery / Recursion · Secondary: Extender
Why it scores here
Armored Shark converts itself and its Xyz network into value mainly through recursion: it is a Level 3 Fish that can be Special Summoned from the GY by sending a WATER Xyz from the Extra Deck, and from the GY it can equip to a WATER Xyz for +500 ATK. Its 400/400 deck presence and 96% co-occurrence with Xyz Armor Fortress confirm it is a live, practical staple, but that frequency is not credited as power. Its 500 ATK and 2000 DEF earn nothing; the score comes from recursion, GY-based resilience and a clean single-copy slot, offset by the Xyz cost and the absence of any interaction.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 55 | Reached mainly from the GY and gated by holding a WATER Xyz in the Extra Deck; the 400/400 deck inclusion confirms it is reliably live in practice, but no combo starter data exists (deck evidence, observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 55 | The first effect turns one Extra Deck Xyz into a Level 3 Fish body from the GY, and the GY equip adds 500 ATK to a WATER Xyz; no recorded board confirms the conversion depth (text, inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 52 | Sending an Xyz from the Extra Deck to the GY is a real cost, offset by recovering a Fish from the GY, so the card roughly breaks even with no repeated advantage (text, inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 10 | The card has no negation, removal or hand-trap effect, so opponent interaction is effectively absent (text, verified). |
| Material Utility | 45 | As a face-up Level 3 WATER Fish it is a usable Xyz material, but its value as a body is modest and only partly generic (text, inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 60 | Both effects work from the GY and are once per turn each, so the card keeps value after being removed from the field and has two independent uses (text, verified). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 65 | It runs as a single copy in 393 of 400 decks with no garnet or lock restriction, though it does depend on WATER Xyz monsters being present (deck evidence, observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Recovery/Recursion + 0.3 Extender. Intrinsic ≈ 54.5, Deck ≈ 58.2, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Recursive Special Summon of a Level 3 Fish from the GY
- GY-based equip effect gives a WATER Xyz +500 ATK
- Live in 400 of 400 sampled decks at about one copy each
- Two independent once-per-turn effects that work from the GY
Weaknesses
- Requires an Xyz monster in the Extra Deck to pay the first effect's cost
- Equip effect only targets WATER Xyz monsters
- No negation, removal or hand-trap effect
- No recorded combo evidence to confirm the conversion depth
Counters / choke points
- Opponents banishing or removing the GY card would shut off both effects (inferred)
Best use
Recursion and GY-based support body for WATER Xyz decks. Decks: Xyz Armor Fortress, Full Armored Dark Knight Lancer, Shark, Mermail, Atlantean. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: first effect sends a WATER Xyz from the Extra Deck to the GY, then Special Summons a Fish from the GY matching the Rank level; Card text: GY quick effect equips to a WATER Xyz for +500 ATK, once per turn per effect; Card text: always treated as an Armored Xyz card; 400 of 400 sampled decks run it, average 1.02 copies
- Observed: 96% co-occurrence with Xyz Armor Fortress and 83% to 96% with several other partners; Present across 31 distinct archetypes
- Inferred: The first effect's cost is a net-neutral exchange of cards; Its level-matched Fish body is usable as Xyz material
- Data gaps: no combos supplied, so combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token, assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no usage statistics (StatisticsCard), so archetype inclusion is inferred from the deck sample only no rulings supplied for the GY-summon and equip timing interactions