DARK
4Guard Ghost
ATK:
1800
DEF:
100
View:
3318
If this card is Special Summoned from the GY: You can target 1 monster you control; it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects this turn. During the End Phase, if this card is currently banished, and was banished this turn: You can add this card to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Guard Ghost" once per turn.
Guard Ghost — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 47 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 50 · Deck: 46 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Utility · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion
Why it scores here
Guard Ghost reliably converts a Graveyard Special Summon into a one-turn protection effect for one of your monsters, and its end-phase clause returns it to hand only if it was banished this turn. Its 1800 ATK earns nothing here; the score comes from its generic Level 4 DARK Zombie body, its 1-of footprint, and the spread of 30 sampled decks across 13 archetypes. Those deck counts confirm it is a real, practical tech card, not that it is intrinsically strong, and with no combo evidence its conversion score stays low.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 35 | Only reachable from the Graveyard, and no searcher or recursion route is evidenced; it is played in 30 sampled decks across 13 archetypes, which confirms it is live but not that it is reliably drawn. (observed) |
| Combo & Conversion | 20 | The text only protects a monster and builds no board by itself, and there are zero combo appearances, so conversion rests on text inference. (inferred) |
| Resource Economy | 30 | The end-phase return to hand requires being banished this turn, which is a conditional self-recovery with no card advantage evidenced. (inferred) |
| Effect & Interaction | 35 | Its protection shields one of your own monsters from battle and card effects for a turn, which is defensive rather than opponent interaction. (verified) |
| Material Utility | 60 | As a Level 4 DARK Zombie body it is a generic material for Level 4 summons and keeps that value when its effect is negated; no material-use combo stat is supplied. (inferred) |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 45 | Its trigger depends on Graveyard Special Summon and its recovery depends on a banish, so it has limited multi-zone reach; the 13-archetype spread gives some flexibility. (inferred) |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 85 | It runs at 1 copy in 29 of 30 decks, carries no garnet or lock restriction, and is cheap to include. (observed) |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Utility + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 50, Deck ≈ 46, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Protects one of your monsters from battle and card effects for a turn after a Graveyard Special Summon
- Generic Level 4 DARK Zombie body that works as material when its effect is negated
- Single-copy inclusion across 13 archetypes, so it is portable between homes
- Cheap to run with no garnet or lock restriction
Weaknesses
- The protection only triggers from the Graveyard, which is not reliably reached
- The end-phase return to hand requires a same-turn banish, which is fiddly
- Each effect is once per turn, which limits repeated use
- No combo evidence that it builds a board or generates advantage
Best use
Protection / Utility body in Zombie-type decks. Decks: Shiranui, Mayakashi Shiranui, Vampires, Orcust. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Protects one of your monsters from battle and card effects for the turn after a Graveyard Special Summon; End-phase return to hand requires being banished this turn; Each effect is once per turn; Legal in TCG, OCG and MasterDuel
- Observed: Appears in 30 sampled decks across 13 archetypes, 1 copy in 29 of them; Partners most often with Changshi the Spiridao, Necroface and Uni-Zombie
- Inferred: Generic Level 4 DARK Zombie body works as material when its effect is negated; Conditional end-phase recovery gives little card advantage; Limited multi-zone reach because the trigger needs the Graveyard
- 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