Trap
NormalBalance of Judgment
View:
4445
If your opponent controls more cards than the combined number of cards in your hand and that you control: Draw cards equal to their surplus. You can only activate 1 "Balance of Judgment" per turn.
Balance of Judgment — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 45 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 45 · Deck: 46 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Utility
Why it scores here
Balance of Judgment is a conditional draw trap: it converts an opponent's board advantage over your hand plus field into cards equal to the surplus, so its value is strongest when you are behind on resources. It is not a combo piece and has no observed starter, searched, or material role in the supplied combo data, so combo conversion is scored from text alone. Its 158-deck presence (concentrated in Paleozoic) confirms it is a real, practical pick, but that frequency is not used to inflate the score.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 55 | Run in 158 of the 400 attached decks with an average of 1.78 copies, and it is a set trap, but it is live only when the board condition is met; no starter or searched data exists (observed, inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 30 | Text says it draws the surplus of opponent cards over your hand plus field, with no board-building effect; zero recorded combo appearances (verified, inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 65 | Pure draw equal to the surplus, so it can return multiple cards in a flood position and costs only a trap slot with no extra cost (verified, inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 10 | It draws cards and does not negate, destroy, or otherwise interact with the opponent's cards or effects (verified). |
| Material Utility | 0 | A trap card cannot be used as material, so the score is 0 (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 35 | It is a face-down trap that depends on a board condition and can be blanked by any response to its draw; no survival or redundancy data supplied (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 60 | One slot, no garnet or lock, 1 to 3 copies per deck in the sample, but it is dead when the condition is not met (observed, inferred). |
Calculation
Weight profile: Utility / no clear role (default), no secondary blend. Intrinsic ≈ 45, Deck ≈ 46, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Converts an opponent board advantage into cards when the condition is met
- Present in 158 of 400 sampled decks across 41 archetypes, so it is practical and not a forgotten pick
- Cheap to run: one slot, no garnet or lock
Weaknesses
- Dead unless the opponent controls more cards than your hand plus field
- No opponent interaction beyond card draw
- Cannot be material and has no combo role in the supplied data
Counters / choke points
- Any response to its draw effect would blank it (general interaction, not in evidence)
Best use
Utility (conditional card draw trap). Decks: Paleozoic, Ancient Gears, Jinzo, Infinitrack. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: draw cards equal to the opponent's surplus over your hand plus cards you control, once per turn; Normal Trap, cannot be material; Legal in TCG, OCG, and MasterDuel formats
- Observed: 158 of 400 attached decks run it, 1.78 copies average, distribution 1 to 3 copies; Paleozoic accounts for 74 of 158 decks (46.8%); Usage statistics show 100% inclusion in Guardragon and Evil HERO, a sample of only 2 archetypes
- Inferred: Conditional draw trap with Utility role; the board condition makes it reactive, not proactive; Deck fit is generic across many homes, so the synergy score is moderate
- Data gaps: No combos supplied, so combo conversion is text-only inference No guides supplied No banlist token, assumed 3 copies (unlimited) No ruling on whether the activating trap counts toward your own controlled cards No starter count for resilience, so DeckResilience is set neutral usage_statistics covers only 2 archetypes and no sample size