Spell
ContinuousChain Energy
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6273
Each player must pay 500 Life Points per card to Normal Summon, Special Summon, Set or activate cards from his/her respective hand.
Chain Energy — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 56 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 56 · Deck: 55 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Floodgate/Control
Why it scores here
Chain Energy is a symmetrical floodgate: it taxes 500 LP for every hand-based Summon, Set, or activation by either player, so its value comes from slowing hand-dependent strategies rather than from building a board. Its high deck count (178 decks, 2.36 copies on average, 105 decks at 3 copies) and broad spread across 60 archetypes confirm it is a practical, widely accepted tech card, but that inclusion is frequency, not power, and it earns no points for its own zero-ATK body. Because the tax also falls on its controller, its deckbuilding and resource cost is real, and no combo or starter evidence was supplied to lift the combo axis.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 55 | A Spell that is run at 2–3 copies in most of 178 decks, but with no as_starter or as_searched data it is only drawn normally, not searched (observed; route is inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 15 | No combo boards were supplied, and the card text says only that it taxes hand actions, so it builds nothing on its own (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 20 | The text gives no card advantage and no refuel; the LP tax is a cost on both players with no return (verified). |
| Effect & Interaction | 65 | The continuous tax applies to every hand-based Summon, Set, or activation by both players, which is strong soft interaction that is hard to play around, although it is not a hard negate (verified; strength is inferred). |
| Material Utility | 5 | As a Spell it is never Material and is not a body of any kind (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 45 | It is a face-up Continuous Spell, so it can be removed by Spell-destruction effects, but it stays active across turns once placed (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 45 | It takes one main-deck slot with a moderate LP cost on the controller's own plays, and the copies are redundant but not free (observed for copy counts; cost is verified from text). |
Calculation
Weight profile: Floodgate / Control primary role, no secondary blend. Intrinsic ≈ 56, Deck ≈ 55, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Self-locking restriction (-3). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Taxes hand-based Summons, Sets, and activations for both players, which is strong soft interaction against hand-dependent strategies (verified)
- Runs in 178 recent decks across 60 archetypes at an average of 2.36 copies, which confirms it is a practical, widely accepted tech card (observed)
- Simple, unambiguous continuous text with few timing questions (verified)
Weaknesses
- Taxes the controller's own hand-based plays, so it cuts against the deck that runs it (verified)
- Contributes nothing to the board, the Material pool, or card advantage (verified)
- No combo evidence was supplied, so its conversion value is text-only (data gap)
Counters / choke points
- Spell-destruction or continuous-Spell removal that clears the field card (inferred)
- Decks that rely on few hand-based plays are barely affected by the tax (inferred)
Best use
Floodgate / hand-tax tech in control or disruption builds that rely on few hand plays. Decks: Lava Golem / Ring of Destruction control shells, Greed, Timelord, Hole, Toon. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Continuous Spell: each player pays 500 LP per card to Normal Summon, Special Summon, Set, or activate from hand (card text); Formats: TCG, OCG, MasterDuel (evidence.card.formats); Average 2.36 copies per deck, with 105 of 178 decks running 3 (decks_evidence.copies_per_deck); Distinct archetypes: 60 (decks_evidence.distinct_archetypes)
- Observed: Appears in 178 recent decks, 62.4% under gameplay 4 and 33.1% under gameplay 7 (decks_evidence); Top partners include Ring of Destruction (37.6%) and Lava Golem (35.4%) (decks_evidence.top_partners)
- Inferred: The card is a floodgate whose effectiveness depends on how much the opponent relies on hand plays (rubric reading of text); Removal of a continuous Spell clears the tax (rules reasoning, no ruling in evidence)
- Data gaps: no combos supplied, so combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token, so 3 copies (unlimited) is assumed no rulings or guide text on how the tax interacts with the controller's own plays usage_statistics show one archetype only (Toon, 100% inclusion), which is a small sample