Spell
NormalDark Dragon Ritual
Archetype:
Red-Eyes
View:
3656
This card is used to Ritual Summon "Paladin of Dark Dragon". You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal 4 or more. During your Main Phase, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; add 1 "Red-Eyes" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand.
Dark Dragon Ritual — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 54 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 52.5 · Deck: 54.25 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Combo enabler · Secondary: Searcher/Tutor
Why it scores here
Dark Dragon Ritual's value is its role as the Ritual enabler for Paladin of Dark Dragon, which is the card's only direct board conversion. Its GY effect (banish from the Graveyard during your Main Phase, except the turn it was sent there, to add a Red-Eyes Spell/Trap) gives it a real recursion refuel, but that route needs the card to be in the GY first. High deck counts (36 decks, 97% with Paladin) confirm it is a reliable staple across several homes, but that frequency is not scored as power. No combo evidence was supplied, so the conversion score rests on card text alone.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 55 | Playable as a non-searchable Spell in most Red-Eyes and Ritual lines, and the GY search route is live once it hits the Graveyard; no searcher or combo routes are tabled (inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 55 | Text converts one card into a Ritual Summon of Paladin of Dark Dragon with a Level 4+ tribute requirement; no recorded combo boards exist to confirm the payoff (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 60 | Spending the card to Ritual Summon is a -1, but the GY banish search returns a Red-Eyes Spell/Trap, so it can break even or gain one card on later turns (inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 10 | No negation, removal, or hand-trap effect in the text, so it adds no opponent interaction (verified). |
| Material Utility | 10 | A Spell card can never be Ritual or Fusion material, so it does not convert as a body when blanked (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 45 | The GY route survives a dead hand, but the Ritual Summon depends on Paladin and tribute resources, and the GY effect is one-use per card (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 65 | Averages 1.14 copies per deck (33 of 36 decks run one), restricted only to Red-Eyes-friendly lines, with no garnet or self-lock in the text (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Combo enabler + 0.3 Searcher/Tutor. Intrinsic ≈ 52.5, Deck ≈ 54.25, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Ritual Summon route to Paladin of Dark Dragon with a cheap, one-copy footprint
- GY banish effect returns a Red-Eyes Spell/Trap, giving a refuel that does not need the card to stay on the field
- Present in 12 archetypes, so the card is portable across several deck homes
Weaknesses
- No opponent interaction or board presence of its own
- The GY search needs the card to reach the Graveyard and a Red-Eyes target in the Deck
- Score is capped by the Paladin dependency, since Ritual Summon needs Level 4+ tributes
Counters / choke points
- Graveyard hate, which removes the GY banish search
- Spell negation or Ritual-chain disruption, which stops the Ritual Summon
Best use
Ritual enabler for Paladin of Dark Dragon, with a GY Red-Eyes Spell/Trap search as a secondary refuel. Decks: Red-Eyes, Dragon Link, Rokket, Kashtira, Borrel. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Ritual Spell that Ritual Summons Paladin of Dark Dragon, requiring Level 4+ tributes from hand or field (card text); GY effect banishes this card during your Main Phase, except the turn it was sent to the GY, to add 1 Red-Eyes Spell/Trap from Deck to hand (card text); Appears in 36 recent decks, 33 of them running one copy, with Paladin of Dark Dragon as a partner in 97.2% of decks (deck data)
- Observed: Averages 1.14 copies per deck across the 36-deck sample (deck data); Runs in 12 distinct archetypes, with 25 of 36 decks in gameplay type 7 (deck data)
- Inferred: The GY search is the main refuel route, and the Ritual Summon is the main board route (text and rubric reasoning); Net card advantage is roughly even to slightly positive, depending on whether the GY effect is used (text reasoning)
- Data gaps: no combos supplied, so combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token, so 3 copies (unlimited) is assumed no usage statistics (StatisticsCard), so archetype inclusion is inferred from the deck sample only