WATER
4Lantern Shark
ATK:
1500
DEF:
900
View:
4180
If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can activate this effect; Special Summon 1 Level 3, 4, or 5 WATER monster from your hand in Defense Position, except "Lantern Shark", also, you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of this turn, except Xyz Monsters. You can only use this effect of "Lantern Shark" once per turn. If this card is used for the Xyz Summon of a WATER monster, it can be treated as a Level 3 or 5 monster.
Lantern Shark — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 59 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 57 · Deck: 60 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Starter / Combo enabler · Secondary: Material body
Why it scores here
Lantern Shark's power is that its Normal or Special Summon trigger converts one hand card into a Level 3, 4 or 5 WATER body in Defense Position, which is a modest board gain rather than a card-advantage engine. Its WATER Level 4 body and the Level 3/5 flexibility for WATER Xyz Summons give it real material value. Its 1500 ATK earned no points. Appearing in all 400 sampled decks confirms it is a dependable Shark-ecosystem staple (frequency is not power), and the lack of combo records keeps the combo axis text-inferred and the band wide.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 60 | Normal Summonable Level 4 with no searcher, so it must be drawn, but it is in 400 of 400 decks at 1.51 average copies and has strong partner overlap (verified card text, observed deck stats). |
| Combo & Conversion | 45 | Hand-summons one WATER Level 3/4/5 monster in Defense, a one-for-one body gain with no recorded combo examples or power index (verified text, inferred conversion). |
| Resource Economy | 45 | Converts a hand card into a field body without drawing or recovering anything, so net card advantage is roughly even (verified text, inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 5 | The effect provides no negation, removal, or disruption to the opponent (verified text). |
| Material Utility | 60 | A WATER Level 4 body that can be treated as Level 3 or 5 for WATER Xyz Summons, and its base Level and attribute still work as material if the effect is negated (verified text, inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 40 | A single once-per-turn trigger that a single negation shuts off, with little redundancy beyond its multiple copies (verified text, inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 85 | One to three copies, no garnet or lock, and legal across TCG, OCG, Master Duel and Duel Links (verified legality, observed copies). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Starter / Combo enabler + 0.3 Material body. Intrinsic ≈ 57, Deck ≈ 60, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Converts a single Normal or Special Summon into an extra WATER body from hand
- Level 4 WATER body with Level 3/5 flexibility for WATER Xyz Summons
- Clean to run: low copy count, no garnet, legal in all four listed formats
- Appears in all 400 sampled decks across 29 archetypes
Weaknesses
- No opponent interaction
- Single once-per-turn trigger that one negation shuts off
- No recorded combo boards, so conversion is text-inferred
- Its 1500 ATK contributes nothing to the score
Counters / choke points
- Negating the on-summon trigger with generic effect negation (inferred from the once-per-turn trigger structure)
Best use
Hand-summon starter into WATER bodies, and a WATER Level 3/5 Xyz material. Decks: Shark (archetype 842), Shark (archetype 794), Shark (archetype 1818).
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: On-summon effect: Special Summon a Level 3, 4 or 5 WATER monster from hand in Defense, excluding this card; Extra Deck Special Summon restriction for the rest of the turn, except Xyz Monsters; Once-per-turn limit; Level 3 or 5 treatment when used as WATER Xyz material; Legal in TCG, OCG, MasterDuel and DuelLinks
- Observed: In 400 of 400 sampled decks, average 1.51 copies (distribution 247/102/51 for 1/2/3); Top partners: Buzzsaw Shark 98.5%, Abyss Shark 83.2%, Crystal Shark 80.5%; Historical inclusion: CXyz 80%, Seventh 66.7%
- Inferred: Primary role is Starter / Combo enabler from the hand-summon trigger; Secondary role is Material body from the Level 3/5 Xyz clause and base Level 4 WATER; Modest resource economy because the trigger converts hand to field without net draw
- Data gaps: No combo records supplied, so combo conversion and power index are text-only inference No rulings or banlist token; assumed 3 copies (unlimited) Card archetype field is null; 'Shark' decks are inferred from deck archetype names No Rush Duel max_atk data (0)