WATER
4Hammer Shark
ATK:
1700
DEF:
1500
View:
2430
Once per turn: You can reduce the Level of this card by 1, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower WATER monster from your hand.
Hammer Shark — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 54 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 54 · Deck: 54 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Combo enabler · Secondary: Material body
Why it scores here
Hammer Shark's text converts its own Level reduction into a Special Summon of one Level 3 or lower WATER monster from hand, once per turn, which is a modest body-for-body conversion and not a board-breaking engine. Its 1700 ATK earns nothing, and its Level 4 WATER body earns only modest credit as material. The seven-deck presence confirms it is a practical, cheap staple across several archetypes, but that frequency is not treated as proof of power, and the absence of combo evidence keeps the combo axis near the middle.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 45 | Appears in 7 of 7 sampled decks at about 1.14 copies per deck across 5 archetypes, but the text gives no hand-activation route and no searcher data exists (observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 50 | Text shows one extra WATER body for one Level reduction; no combo boards or power index data are supplied, so the conversion is text-only (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 55 | No draw, search or refuel; the card stays on board and produces one free extra body per turn, so the economy is roughly even with a small gain (inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 5 | No negation, removal or hand-trap effect in the text, so opponent interaction is effectively absent (verified). |
| Material Utility | 60 | A Level 4 WATER Fish is a generic Level and Attribute fit for material, and negating its effect does not remove its Level (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 40 | The effect is once per turn and needs the card on the field, so one removal or negate ends the activation (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 70 | Single-copy, non-garnet, low-cost slot used across several decks with no locking restriction (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Combo enabler + 0.3 Material body. Intrinsic ≈ 54, Deck ≈ 54, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Level 4 WATER body is a clean material and Level fit
- Cheap single-copy slot played across 5 archetypes
- Once-per-turn Special Summon of a hand WATER monster adds a second body
Weaknesses
- Activation is field-bound as written, so accessibility depends on already having the card out
- No interaction, negation or removal
- One removal or negate ends the activation
- Summon is restricted to Level 3 or lower WATER monsters in hand
Counters / choke points
- Monster removal or a targeted negate on the field stops the once-per-turn effect
Best use
Combo enabler / extender for WATER and Shark lines, with Lantern Shark as the most common partner. Decks: Shark, Kashtira, Umi, Harpie. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Text: once per turn, reduce own Level by 1 and Special Summon a Level 3 or lower WATER monster from hand; Level 4, WATER, Fish, 1700 ATK / 1500 DEF, Effect Monster; Legal in TCG, OCG, MasterDuel and DuelLinks
- Observed: In 7 of 7 sampled decks, 5 distinct archetypes, average 1.14 copies; Lantern Shark appears in 100% of decks that run this card
- Inferred: Primary role is Combo enabler, since the effect converts a hand body into board presence; Once-per-turn limit makes the effect a single conversion per turn
- Data gaps: no combos supplied, so 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 average starter count when present is null, so DeckResilience is inferred from archetype spread card text does not state an activation zone, so the field-only reading is an assumption