WIND
4Guard Mantis
ATK:
1000
DEF:
2400
View:
3362
You can pay 1000 LP; Special Summon this card from your hand in Defense Position, but while it is face-up in the Monster Zone, you cannot Special Summon monsters, except Insect monsters. During your opponent's turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 Insect monster you control; change its battle position. You can only use each effect of "Guard Mantis" once per turn.
Guard Mantis — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 50 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 50 · Deck: 54 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Utility · Secondary: Floodgate/Control
Why it scores here
Guard Mantis is a Level 4 Insect that can be Special Summoned from hand in Defense Position for 1000 LP, and its Quick Effect repositions an Insect you control. Its main value is that it is a live, cheap-to-reach defensive body with a lock on non-Insect Special Summons, which Insect shells want. High ATK and DEF do not earn points here; the 1000 ATK body adds nothing on its own. Frequency in 296 decks confirms the card is practical, but it does not raise the score by itself (guardrail 3), and the absence of combo data keeps the conversion axis low.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 70 | Hand Special Summon for 1000 LP with no garnet, and 296 recent decks run it, mostly in Insect archetypes (verified text, observed deck stats). |
| Combo & Conversion | 20 | No recorded boards; the card produces only a body and a lock, so conversion is text-only inference. |
| Resource Economy | 25 | Costs 1000 LP and produces no card advantage or refuel (verified text). |
| Effect & Interaction | 45 | The non-Insect Special Summon lock and the Quick position change are soft interaction, not a negate or removal (verified text, inference on impact). |
| Material Utility | 45 | Level 4 Insect body is a usable Insect material, and the Level and Insect type survive if the effect is negated (verified text, inference). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 40 | Once-per-turn per effect and a face-up lock that dies to any removal of the body (verified text, inference). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 55 | Average 1.44 copies per deck, with 196 decks running one copy; the non-Insect lock restricts only off-type summons (observed deck stats, inference). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Utility + 0.3 Floodgate/Control. Intrinsic ≈ 50, Deck ≈ 54, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Self-locking restriction (-2). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Live from hand with a single LP cost and no garnet requirement
- Insect-only lock slows non-Insect Special Summon lines
- Widely run across 17 archetypes in the sample, so it is a practical, not niche, pick
- Level 4 Insect body remains usable as material even when its effects are negated
Weaknesses
- No recorded combo boards, so its conversion into a board is unproven
- Produces no card advantage and costs 1000 LP
- Its lock only matters against non-Insect Special Summon decks and is a restriction on the deck's own non-Insect summons
- Dies to any removal of the face-up body; the Quick effect only repositions an Insect
Counters / choke points
- Removal or banishment of the face-up body (inferred; no specific counter cards appear in the evidence)
Best use
Insect-shell defensive body and non-Insect Special Summon lock. Decks: Beetrooper, Battlewasp, Inzektor, Traptrix. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Text: Special Summon from hand in DEF for 1000 LP; Text: cannot Special Summon non-Insect monsters while face-up; Text: Quick Effect changes battle position of an Insect; once per turn per effect
- Observed: 296 recent decks run the card, 1.44 copies on average; Top partners co-occur in 70–95% of decks, all within Insect shells
- Inferred: Lock is the card's main purpose; the body is a defensive stall rather than a combo piece; Deck fit is strongest in Insect archetypes
- 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