EARTH
4Elemental HERO Clay Guardian
Archetype:
Elemental HERO
ATK:
0
DEF:
2800
View:
839
1 "Elemental HERO" monster + 1 Warrior monster (This card is not treated as a "Guardian" card.) If this card is Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Elemental HERO" monster from your Deck, then if your opponent controls a card, you can inflict 400 damage to your opponent for each, also you cannot Special Summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except "HERO" monsters. You can only use this effect of "Elemental HERO Clay Guardian" once per turn. Other "Elemental HERO" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.
Elemental HERO Clay Guardian — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 49 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 48 · Deck: 49 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Extender · Secondary: Combo enabler
Why it scores here
Clay Guardian's value is its on-summon effect: it Special Summons another Elemental HERO from the Deck, which extends a HERO board that is already live. Its Fusion cost is covered by Polymerization, Instant Fusion and Mask Change, and it appears in 100% of the sampled combos. Its ATK/DEF and its 400-damage clause earn little, and it has no negation or removal, so the score stays in the middle band. The 'other HERO monsters cannot be destroyed' clause adds resilience, but it only applies to a HERO board.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 60 | Needs a Fusion summon through Polymerization, Instant Fusion or Mask Change, which the deck data shows at 88-98% co-occurrence, so it is usually live but depends on Fusion enablers (observed, inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 40 | Average combo power index is 34 and the worked examples are post-Clay Guardian boards with one starter, but the role fields are empty, so the conversion is only partly measured (observed, inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 45 | The Deck-to-field Special Summon of an Elemental HERO is a one-for-one body gain with no graveyard refuel and no measured card advantage (verified, inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 15 | No negation, removal or hand-trap effect; the only protection is the HERO indestructibility clause, which is a board-protection effect rather than opponent interaction (verified). |
| Material Utility | 35 | The card text does not state it can be used as material; no combo or deck evidence shows it as material (inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 60 | The HERO indestructibility clause protects other Elemental HERO monsters, and the card is live across the Heroic and Kuriboh homes, but its value depends on a HERO board (verified, observed). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 55 | One copy in 63 decks, with no garnet or lock, but it needs a Fusion enabler and a HERO partner set and cannot be summoned from the Extra Deck except for HERO monsters (verified, observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Extender + 0.3 Starter/Combo enabler. Intrinsic ≈ 48, Deck ≈ 49, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Extra Deck summon restriction (-2). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Extends a live HERO board by Special Summoning another Elemental HERO from the Deck
- Appears in 100% of sampled combos and 100% of sampled decks (63 of 63)
- Protects other Elemental HERO monsters from battle and card-effect destruction
- Reliably accessible through Polymerization, Instant Fusion and Mask Change
Weaknesses
- No negation, removal or hand-trap effect
- Dependent on a Fusion enabler and on a HERO board
- Once-per-turn effect; the 400-damage clause is conditional on the opponent controlling a card
- Role-tagged combo evidence is empty, so the starter/material/payoff roles cannot be confirmed
Counters / choke points
- Board-wide negation or hand traps that stop the Fusion summon before the on-summon effect resolves
- Opponent removal aimed at the HERO board, since the indestructibility clause does not stop targeting or banishment
Best use
Extender in HERO Fusion lines; the Deck-to-field Elemental HERO Special Summon extends the board after Fusion. Decks: Heroic, Kuriboh, Branded. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: one-per-turn Deck-to-field Special Summon of an Elemental HERO, a 400-damage clause, an Extra Deck summon restriction, and the HERO indestructibility clause; Formats are TCG and OCG; Present in 63 of the sampled decks at one copy each, with 8 distinct archetypes
- Observed: 100% co-occurrence with Masked HERO Furnace and Masked HERO Dark Law; 98.4% with Polymerization and Mask Change; Appears in 6 of 6 sampled combos, average power index 34, average starter count 1.5; Example boards are post-Clay Guardian lines, each with one starter and zero recorded roles
- Inferred: Extender role: the Deck-to-field summon is the main value, and it is confirmed by the card text; Fusion accessibility depends on Polymerization, Instant Fusion or Mask Change; Board-protection value is limited to a HERO board
- Data gaps: no guides supplied no banlist token; assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no usage statistics (StatisticsCard); archetype inclusion inferred from the deck sample only combo role fields (starter/searched/material/payoff) are all zero or empty, so the role mix is unconfirmed no card text evidence that the card can be used as Fusion or Link material