Trap
CounterDamage Polarizer
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3159
Activate only when an effect that inflicts damage is activated. Negate its activation and effect, and each player draws 1 card.
Damage Polarizer — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 49 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 49 · Deck: 50 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Removal / Negation
Why it scores here
Damage Polarizer is a set counter trap whose only job is to negate one kind of effect, damage-inflicting effects, and then symmetrically draw one card for each player. It converts no board on its own and has no material value, so its score rests on interaction and deck fit. The narrow trigger keeps the interaction score moderate, and the card earns nothing for its 0 ATK, 0 DEF or its high view count. Its 8-deck, 7-archetype spread confirms it is a real, playable piece rather than a forgotten pick, but that breadth reflects demand, not strength.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 40 | Set Trap with no search or draw route in the evidence; it is live only when drawn and set, and appears in 8 of 8 sampled decks (observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 10 | No combos are recorded and the card does not build a board, so conversion is text-only and minimal (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 45 | Each player draws 1 when it resolves, which is symmetric and mildly positive for the user (verified from text). |
| Effect & Interaction | 55 | Negates the activation and effect of a damage-inflicting effect at no cost, but only against that category (verified from text, with breadth inferred). |
| Material Utility | 5 | Trap card, not a monster, so it has no material or level body value (verified from card type). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 45 | Stays set across turns until its trigger appears, but no redundancy or recovery route is evidenced (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 50 | Main-deck, usually 1 to 2 copies (average 1.88 across decks), no garnet or lock cost; the narrow trigger makes it dead in some matchups (observed and inferred). |
Calculation
Weight profile: Removal / Negation profile, single primary role, no secondary blend. Intrinsic ≈ 49, Deck ≈ 50, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Free negation of damage-inflicting effects with no cost to the user
- Symmetric draw means it is not card-disadvantageous
- Playable across 7 archetypes and 4 formats
Weaknesses
- Narrow trigger: dead against decks that inflict no damage-effect activations
- Does nothing for board or combo development
- Set-only, so it must be drawn and kept in the back row
Counters / choke points
- Decks with no damage-inflicting effects leave it with no target
- Opponents who can make the activation expensive or unavailable reduce its live window (inferred)
Best use
Counter trap that negates damage-inflicting effects and draws one card for each player. Decks: Cyber Dragon, Odd-Eyes, Supreme King, Pendulum Magician, Dark Magician, Chaos Phantom. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Counter trap that negates a damage-inflicting effect's activation and effect and draws one card for each player (card text); Appears in 8 of 8 sampled decks, all as main deck, average 1.88 copies (deck evidence)
- Observed: Seven distinct archetypes and three gameplay types, so the card is not tied to one home (deck evidence); Dark Doriado is the most common partner, at 75% of decks (deck evidence)
- Inferred: Narrow trigger limits its live window against decks with few damage-inflicting effects; Set-only, low resilience against interaction that stops the trap from being set or used
- Data gaps: no combos supplied, so combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token, so 3 copies assumed no usage statistics (StatisticsCard), so inclusion is inferred from the 8-deck sample only no measurement of how often damage-inflicting effects are activated in practice