Spell
NormalMagic Triangle of the Ice Barrier
Archetype:
Ice Barrier
View:
3350
Reveal 3 "Ice Barrier" monsters with different names in your hand to select 1 card your opponent controls. Destroy the opponent's card and Special Summon 1 "Ice Barrier" monster from your hand.
Magic Triangle of the Ice Barrier — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 56 ± 5 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 59 · Deck: 59 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Removal / Negation · Secondary: Combo enabler, Recovery / Recursion
Why it scores here
Magic Triangle serves as targeted removal with built-in board extension in Ice Barrier decks, efficiently trading a spell activation for destroying an opponent's card and summoning an Ice Barrier monster from hand. The card's strength lies within its archetype, where multiple monsters in hand are the norm, but the requirement to reveal three different Ice Barriers significantly limits activation in suboptimal hands and restricts splashability. The +0 card economy (−1 spell, +1 field) and one-time nature prevent it from achieving higher scores despite strong synergy in Ice Barrier homes.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 65 | The card appears in 88 recent decks (54.5% Ice Barrier, 11.4% Icejade, 10.2% White Aura, plus 9 others), but activation requires revealing 3 different Ice Barrier monsters from hand—achievable but restrictive in suboptimal draws. (verified) |
| Combo & Conversion | 60 | Activation results in +1 field presence (summon) and 1 opponent disruption (destroy), extending Ice Barrier boards modestly; no combo evidence supplied, so evaluation is text-based inference of synergy with archetype monsters. (inferred) |
| Resource Economy | 50 | The spell costs 1 card activation, destroys 1 opponent card, and summons 1 of your own—net 0 advantage despite the revealed monsters remaining in hand, offset by information loss to opponent. (verified) |
| Effect & Interaction | 70 | Provides targeted removal with hard destruction (not negation), offering flexible disruption within Ice Barrier mirror play and against threats; activated removal is solid but not as resilient as hand traps or negations. (verified) |
| Material Utility | 5 | As a Spell Card, it has zero material utility for synchro/xyz/link; effect-negated it contributes nothing, typical of non-Monster card types. (inferred) |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 40 | A one-time Spell with no multi-turn redundancy; activation depends entirely on meeting the hand-cost requirement, making it vulnerable to negation and hand disruption. (verified) |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 55 | Ice Barrier decks naturally run multiple different monsters, making the cost reasonable in-archetype; non-archetype homes must splash 3+ Ice Barriers purely to enable this card, severely limiting efficiency outside Ice Barrier. (observed) |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Removal/Negation + 0.3 Combo enabler. Intrinsic ≈ 59, Deck ≈ 59, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Brick factor (hand-cost dependency) (-1); Limited splashability (-2). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Efficient targeted removal with zero deck-resource cost (cards revealed stay in hand)
- Strong synergy in Ice Barrier decks where multiple monsters are native
- Board extension via Special Summon offsetting the spell card cost
- Tolerates running 2–3 copies (13 decks run 2, 8 run 3 in the sample)
- Clear, straightforward card text with no timing ambiguity
Weaknesses
- Requires 3 different Ice Barrier monsters in hand (prohibitive activation cost)
- One-time Spell Card with no multi-turn or multi-zone value
- Vulnerable to negation (Ash Blossom, Lancea, etc.) and hand disruption
- Net zero card advantage (−1 spell + 1 field)
- Severely limited portability outside Ice Barrier homes
Counters / choke points
- Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (negates Spell activation)
- Any spell negation or chain block
- Hand disruption removing Ice Barrier monsters before activation
- Graveyard-banish effects disrupting Ice Barrier synergy lines
Best use
Targeted removal with board extension. Decks: Ice Barrier (primary), Icejade (secondary).
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text is complete and clear: destroy 1 opponent card + Special Summon 1 Ice Barrier from hand (cost: reveal 3 different Ice Barriers from hand); Appears in 88 decks across 12 distinct archetypes (primary home is Ice Barrier at 54.5%); Legal in TCG, OCG, MasterDuel, DuelLinks; Average 1.33 copies per deck; distribution: 67 run 1, 13 run 2, 8 run 3; Top partners are Ice Barrier synergy cards: Speaker, Trishula variants, Medallion (98.9% co-occurrence)
- Observed: 54.5% inclusion rate in Ice Barrier decks (48 of 88); 11.4% in Icejade, 10.2% in White Aura (secondary homes); Minimal inclusion in Harpie (3.4%), Kaiju (2.3%), and scattered single-deck appearances in Nekroz, Mannadium, Egyptian God; 83% of running decks are Control-type gameplay; 10.2% Type 4, 6.8% Type 3
- Inferred: Combo conversion is text-based: +1 field (summon) + 1 opponent disruption (destroy) = efficient within Ice Barrier synergy lines; Brick potential exists when hand contains fewer than 3 different Ice Barrier monsters; Generic utility is moderate (~65) due to heavy Ice Barrier weighting despite 12-archetype spread; Spell-negation negates the entire effect; no recursive value if negated on activation
- Data gaps: No combos supplied—combo conversion scored from text-based inference only; actual archetype combo lines unknown No guides supplied—role confirmation and deck-building guidance absent No banlist token—assumed unlimited (3 copies); card is not Forbidden or Limited in any format No usage statistics (StatisticsCard)—archetype inclusion % and typical-copies inferred from 88-deck sample only; historical consistency unknown