WATER
4Judge of the Ice Barrier
Archetype:
Ice Barrier
ATK:
1800
DEF:
900
View:
3563
While you control another "Ice Barrier" monster, each time your opponent activates a card or effect by paying LP, they lose 500 LP. You can only use each of the following effects of "Judge of the Ice Barrier" once per turn. You can target 1 or 2 "Ice Barrier" monsters in your GY and 1 or 2 cards in your opponent's GY; shuffle them into the Deck. If you control an "Ice Barrier" monster: You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 Attack Position monster on the field; change it to Defense Position.
Judge of the Ice Barrier — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 55 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 53.2 · Deck: 55.9 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Recovery/Recursion · Secondary: Board breaker
Why it scores here
The card's value comes from its graveyard recursion and position-change effects, not from its 1800 ATK or Level 4 body. The GY effect shuffles 1-2 Ice Barrier monsters and 1-2 opponent GY cards back into the Deck, and the banish-from-GY effect can turn an Attack Position monster to Defense, but both need an Ice Barrier monster on the field. The LP-tax effect is a narrow floodgate against LP-paying activations and adds little on its own. The score is held down by the absence of combo evidence, which leaves combo conversion as text-only inference, and by the archetype dependence shown in the deck sample.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 45 | Not searchable from its own text, and its GY effect needs only itself to be in the graveyard; the live-when-dead route is verified by text, but the deck sample (65 decks, 50.8% in Ice Barrier) shows it is reached mostly through archetype support (observed; route quality inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 30 | No combo boards are supplied, and the text only shuffles back resources and repositions a monster without creating any body or board (inferred from text, no combo stats). |
| Resource Economy | 55 | The GY effect recycles 1-2 Ice Barrier monsters into the Deck and removes 1-2 opponent GY cards, which is a real refuel and anti-recursion effect at the cost of banishing itself from the GY (verified text, inferred value). |
| Effect & Interaction | 40 | The LP tax punishes only LP-paying activations, and the Defense-position change is a soft board effect with no negation or removal (verified text, inferred weight). |
| Material Utility | 45 | A generic Level 4 Warrior with 1800/900 stats; usable as material, but nothing in its text or the evidence shows it converts while its effects are negated (verified stats, inferred usefulness). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 55 | Its GY effects work from the graveyard after being killed or discarded, but the LP tax and position change both depend on an Ice Barrier monster staying on the field (verified text, inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 65 | Typically one copy (avg 1.34, mode 1 across 65 decks), with no garnet or lock; the cost is a single conditional slot inside an archetype-locked deck (observed copies, verified text). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Recovery/Recursion + 0.3 Board breaker. Intrinsic ≈ 53.2, Deck ≈ 55.9, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Graveyard recursion: shuffles 1-2 Ice Barrier monsters from the GY back into the Deck and removes 1-2 opponent GY cards, working from the GY after being killed or discarded
- Its banish-from-GY effect can turn an Attack Position monster to Defense, a soft board effect that works from the GY
- The LP tax punishes LP-paying activations while another Ice Barrier monster is controlled, a narrow floodgate
- Level 4 Warrior body that can serve as generic material
- Typically a single copy with no garnet or lock, so it is cheap to run
Weaknesses
- Its LP-tax and position-change effects need another Ice Barrier monster on the field
- Combo evidence is absent, so its real board conversion cannot be measured
- Not searchable from its own text; it is reached through archetype support
- Its 1800 ATK / 900 DEF body earns no points on its own
- The LP-tax effect rarely matters outside LP-paying activations
Counters / choke points
- Standard negation of its activated effects (inferred from text; no specific card evidence supplied)
- Opponent plays that leave it no Ice Barrier monster to link its effects to (inferred from text)
Best use
Recovery/Recursion support with a graveyard-based position-change effect. Decks: Ice Barrier. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Effect text: LP-tax effect while another Ice Barrier monster is controlled; Effect text: GY shuffle of 1-2 Ice Barrier monsters and 1-2 opponent GY cards, once per turn; Effect text: banish from GY to change 1 Attack Position monster to Defense, once per turn; Level 4 Warrior, 1800 ATK / 900 DEF
- Observed: Present in all 65 sampled decks (100% main deck), average 1.34 copies; Ice Barrier archetype (614) accounts for 50.8% of decks, with four Ice Barrier archetype IDs totaling about 72%; Top partners co-occur in 60-94% of decks, led by Freezing Chains and Trishula; Gameplay type 7 accounts for 60% of decks
- Inferred: The GY shuffle is a real recursion effect that recycles Ice Barrier monsters; The effects are generally conditional on another Ice Barrier monster being controlled; Deck placement reflects archetype support rather than standalone power
- 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 starter/material roles unmeasured without combo evidence