EARTHDefender of the Labyrinth
ATK:
1400
LINK-2
View:
4618
Link Arrow:
Bottom-Left
Bottom-Right
2 Normal Monsters Non-Effect Monsters you control gain 500 ATK, also all Effect Monsters your opponent controls lose 500 ATK. If this card in its owner's possession is destroyed by your opponent's card: You can target 1 non-Effect Monster in your GY; Special Summon it. You can only use this effect of "Defender of the Labyrinth" once per turn.
Defender of the Labyrinth — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 50 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 49 · Deck: 51 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Board breaker / Going-second · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion
Why it scores here
Defender of the Labyrinth is a Link-2 that needs two Normal Monsters to summon, so its access depends on Normal-monster support rather than a searcher. Its text gives a continuous +500 ATK to your non-Effect monsters and -500 ATK to the opponent's Effect monsters, which is a soft board effect and not removal or negation. The GY recursion needs the card to be destroyed by an opponent's card, a narrow condition. Its 148-deck presence confirms it is routinely run, but the score does not reward that frequency, and the high 1400 ATK earns nothing on its own.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 50 | Needs two Normal Monsters to Link Summon, and 148 sampled decks run it, which suggests that requirement is routinely met; no searcher or starter evidence was supplied (inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 30 | Text-only inference: a Link-2 body whose main output is a passive stat modifier, with no recorded boards to confirm a larger conversion (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 35 | No card advantage or refuel; the GY Special Summon needs an opponent's card to destroy it, so it is a conditional, once-per-turn recovery (verified). |
| Effect & Interaction | 40 | Passive -500 ATK on opponent Effect monsters is soft interaction, not negation or removal; a continuous effect that a single negate ends (verified). |
| Material Utility | 40 | A Link monster with a Warrior/EARTH body and Bottom-Left/Bottom-Right arrows, usable as Link material in specific routes, but its value as material is narrower than a generic material (inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 35 | The passive stays only while the card is face-up and unnegated, and the recursion is gated on an opponent-destruction condition, so it does not reliably survive interaction (verified). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 75 | Average 1.18 copies per deck with no garnets, locks or restrictions, so it is cheap and clean to run (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Board breaker / Going-second + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 49, Deck ≈ 51, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Playable in 148 sampled decks across 61 archetypes, so it is not a niche pick (observed)
- Cheap and clean to run at about one copy per deck with no restrictions (observed)
- Passive board effect that shrinks opponent Effect monsters by 500 ATK (verified)
Weaknesses
- Soft interaction only; no negation, removal, or hand trap reach (verified)
- Recursion requires an opponent's card to destroy it, a narrow trigger (verified)
- No combo or starter evidence, so its conversion value is text-only inference (inferred)
Counters / choke points
- Negation or removal of the continuous effect (inferred from card text)
- Opponent Effect monsters that stay above the ATK debuff (inferred)
Best use
Board breaker / soft stat disruption with a conditional recursion. Decks: Normal-monster Link decks such as Dark Magician, Phantasm Spiral and Metalfoes lines (observed from archetype spread). Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Link-2 requiring two Normal Monsters, Warrior/EARTH, Bottom-Left and Bottom-Right arrows; Passive +500 ATK to own non-Effect monsters and -500 ATK to opponent Effect monsters; GY Special Summon of one non-Effect monster when destroyed by an opponent's card, once per turn; Average 1.18 copies per deck, max 3, all in main deck
- Observed: Present in 148 sampled decks across 61 archetypes; Gameplay type 4 holds 60.8% of decks, type 7 holds 23.6%
- Inferred: Normal-monster requirement is routinely met in these decks; Material value is narrower than a generic material; Soft interaction gives little pressure against negation-heavy boards
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no usage statistics (StatisticsCard) — archetype inclusion % inferred from deck sample only