Spell
FieldLair of Darkness
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All face-up monsters on the field become DARK. Once per turn, if you would Tribute a monster you control to activate a card effect, you can Tribute 1 DARK monster your opponent controls, even though you do not control it. Once per turn, during the End Phase: Special Summon as many "Torment Tokens" (Fiend/DARK/Level 3/ATK 1000/DEF 1000) as possible to the turn player's field in Defense Position, up to the number of monsters Tributed this turn while this card was face-up.
Lair of Darkness — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 61 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 58 · Deck: 63 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Extender · Secondary: Material body
Why it scores here
Lair of Darkness scores in the low 60s because it is reliably included (in all 400 sampled decks, 2.15 copies on average) and it converts tributes into Level 3 DARK Fiend tokens at the End Phase, which gives it modest extender value and a usable material body. Its DARK-conversion and opponent-tribute effects are situational rather than strong interaction, and as a Field Spell it is exposed to field removal, so resilience is only middling. The high inclusion rate confirms it is played, not that it is powerful; no combo boards were supplied, so the combo score rests on text inference alone.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 62 | Present in 400 of 400 sampled decks at an average of 2.15 copies, with 202 decks running 3, but no searcher route or combo appearances are supplied to confirm how often it is reached in the opening hand (observed for deck inclusion; inferred for access) . |
| Combo & Conversion | 48 | The text converts tributes into up to as many 1000/1000 Level 3 DARK Fiend tokens as tributed while it was face-up, a fair extra-body payoff, but no combo examples or power index exist to show it converting into a full board (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 58 | Tokens are bodies generated from tributes, which is partial card advantage since the tribute cost is paid by the player's own monsters; no netCardAdvantage data is supplied (inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 40 | Turns face-up monsters DARK and lets the controller tribute an opponent's DARK monster, which is situational soft interaction and not a negation or removal effect (verified from text). |
| Material Utility | 55 | Torment Tokens are Fiend/DARK/Level 3 generic material that the text makes available repeatedly, so the body remains useful as material; no material role count supplied (verified from text, inferred for usage). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 45 | Continuous Field Spell effects are lost if the card is destroyed or negated, although tokens already summoned remain; there is no redundancy evidence (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 62 | A single non-garnet slot with an observed average of 2.15 copies and a broad spread across 93 archetypes, which indicates low deck-building cost (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Extender + 0.3 Material body. Intrinsic ≈ 58, Deck ≈ 63, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Included in every sampled deck (400 of 400), so it is consistently playable across many homes
- Turns tributes into free Level 3 DARK Fiend tokens at the End Phase, adding bodies and material
- Tribute-redirection effect lets the controller use an opponent's DARK monster as a cost
- Clean, low-garnet, low-restriction card with 93 distinct archetypes in the sample
Weaknesses
- Pure Field Spell: if destroyed or negated its continuous effects end
- Token generation is capped by how many monsters were tributed while it was face-up, so it needs setup
- No combo evidence supplied, so its board-conversion ceiling is unverified
- Negligible direct interaction beyond the DARK-tribute redirect
Counters / choke points
- Field-destroy or Field Spell removal effects
- Negation of its continuous effect or of its End Phase trigger
- Opponent setups that avoid tributing or the DARK attribute
Best use
Extender and token generator for DARK tribute lines. Decks: Lady of Lament, Bystial/Byssted, Ogdoadic/Abhyss, Mitsurugi. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: DARK conversion of face-up monsters, once-per-turn opponent DARK tribute redirect, End Phase Torment Token summon up to the tributed count; Present in 400 of 400 sampled decks with 2.15 average copies
- Observed: Top partner co-occurrence: Ahrima 73.8%, Darkest Diabolos 52.2%, Super Polymerization 48.5%; Distinct archetypes: 93; main-deck gameplay 85.8% in gameplay type 7
- Inferred: Field Spell is vulnerable to field removal and negation; Token output is the card's main extender value without combo proof; Tributing monsters is a real cost that dampens resource economy
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no searcher or hand-access data supplied for accessibility no usage statistics beyond two archetypes, so cross-home inclusion is thinly sampled