Spell
EquipDragon Nails
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Equip only to a DARK monster. It gains 600 ATK, also it cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects. If this card is sent to the GY because the equipped monster was destroyed by battle and sent to the GY: You can Special Summon that monster, and if you do, equip this card to it, but banish this card when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of "Dragon Nails" once per turn.
Dragon Nails — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 53 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 51 · Deck: 54 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Recovery/Recursion · Secondary: Utility
Why it scores here
Dragon Nails converts a DARK monster that has been destroyed in battle into a second board presence: it can revive that monster and re-equip itself, at the cost of being banished when the monster leaves the field. Its ATK boost and protection from opponent card effects are real but modest, and the 600 ATK earns no points on its own. The high deck count (153 decks, with 39% in Red-Eyes) confirms the card is consistently run and easy to include, not that it is strong; the score rests on the revival loop, which is conditional on battle destruction and has no combo evidence behind it.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 40 | Only Red-Eyes-style DARK shells can use it and no searcher is evidenced, so it is a live card in hand only as a speculative line (inferred; decks show it is routinely run, 153 decks). |
| Combo & Conversion | 35 | The text gives a single-card revival loop from battle destruction, but combos_evidence has 0 boards, so no conversion beyond text can be counted (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 50 | Revival through the GY trigger returns a monster for one card, a roughly even exchange with a banish cost, so no repeated advantage is shown (inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 55 | Protection from opponent card effects on the equipped monster is a real but soft defence against targeted removal, with no negation or removal of its own (verified from card text). |
| Material Utility | 30 | The equipped monster's material value is not stated and the card itself is not a material body, so this axis is low (inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 50 | The revival depends on the monster being destroyed in battle and on the card being in the GY, which limits how many spots it works in (inferred from text, observed in 153 decks). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 65 | Runs 1 to 3 copies (avg 1.43) with no garnet or lock and can be trimmed, but it still occupies a slot in a 35-archetype spread (observed in decks_evidence). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Recovery/Recursion + 0.3 Utility. Intrinsic ≈ 51, Deck ≈ 54, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Revives a DARK monster destroyed in battle, giving a second body from a single card
- Equipped monster is protected from opponent card effects, a soft defence against targeted removal
- Consistently run: 153 decks across 35 archetypes, with 1 to 3 copies per deck
- Flexible copy count with no garnet or lock
Weaknesses
- Revival requires battle destruction and a DARK monster, so it is conditional
- ATK boost of 600 earns no points; the card's power is the revival loop, not the stat
- No combo evidence (0 boards), so conversion is text-only
- Banished when the revived monster leaves the field, so the value is one-shot
Counters / choke points
- Inferred from text: removing the equipped monster by a non-battle effect denies the revival trigger
- Inferred from text: stopping the battle that would destroy the monster denies the GY trigger
Best use
Recursive second body and light protection for a DARK equip target. Decks: Red-Eyes, Eldlich, Branded, Harpie, Archfiend.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Equip-only to a DARK monster, +600 ATK; Cannot be destroyed by opponent's card effects while equipped; GY revival trigger requires battle destruction; once per turn; banish on leaving the field; 153 decks, 35 distinct archetypes, avg 1.43 copies, 3 copies max
- Observed: Red-Eyes is the dominant home at 39.2% of decks; Gameplay 7 holds 74.5% of decks; No combo boards recorded, so no structural conversion data
- Inferred: Revival line is conditional on battle destruction and DARK host availability; Combo conversion is text-only and capped by lack of board evidence; Counters are inferred from text, not from evidence
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no starter-count data — deck resilience estimated from archetype spread only