LIGHT
1Magical Merchant
ATK:
200
DEF:
700
View:
3685
FLIP: Excavate cards from the top of your Deck until you excavate a Spell/Trap, then add that card to your hand, also send the remaining cards to the GY.
Magical Merchant — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 50 ± 4 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 48 · Deck: 51 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Searcher / Tutor · Secondary: Material body, Utility
Why it scores here
Magical Merchant is a grind-engine tutor that reliably finds Spell/Trap cards and mills to fuel recursion in flip-heavy strategies. It scores mid-range because while it provides consistent card value across 33 archetypes—particularly older formats like Black Luster Soldier and Jinzo—it requires a flip activation (either opponent-triggered or self-flipped via Book of Moon or D.D. Warrior Lady), limiting free accessibility. The card offers no opponent interaction, the Level-1 body is weak as material, and zero combo appearances indicate limited metagame impact beyond format-specific homes.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 50 | The flip condition gates activation—the card requires opponent action or a flip enabler like D.D. Warrior Lady or Book of Moon. Decks running it across 33 archetypes include these enablers, and the 1.76 average copies per deck suggests reliable activation in those shells. (Verified) |
| Combo & Conversion | 35 | Each activation tutors one Spell/Trap and mills additional cards, providing modest card advantage. However, the card is a one-time tutor per activation with no board generation, and zero combos appear in recorded boards. (Verified) |
| Resource Economy | 55 | The tutor replaces itself, and the mill feeds recursion engines like Magician of Faith and Sangan that appear as top partners. In the context of mill/recursion shells, the value is slightly positive overall. (Observed) |
| Effect & Interaction | 5 | The card offers purely personal deck engine value—tutoring and milling. It does not negate, remove, or disrupt opponent plays, scoring lowest on this axis. (Verified) |
| Material Utility | 35 | As a Level-1 generic Insect with 200 ATK, it is usable but weak as Xyz or Link material. The body has no archetype synergy with most homes (Black Luster Soldier, Jinzo, D/D/D), making it filler material. (Inferred) |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 30 | The flip effect is one-time activation per turn with no ongoing presence. If negated during resolution, the excavation fails, leaving a face-down body with weak stats. (Inferred) |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 55 | No severe garnet or lock risk when run at 1.76 copies in decks built to enable flips (e.g., Jinzo). However, it is weak to hand/deck disruption and redundancy is limited to archetypes that actively enable flips. (Observed) |
Calculation
Weight profile: Primary role: Searcher / Tutor. Intrinsic ≈ 48, Deck ≈ 51, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40 * Intrinsic (48) + 0.60 * Deck (51)
Strengths
- Tutors Spell/Trap cards, enabling access to specific engine pieces in grind-heavy decks
- Incidental mill feeds recursion engines (Magician of Faith, Sangan) in mill/control shells
- Runs across 33 distinct archetypes, primarily older-format strategies where flip effects are active
Weaknesses
- Flip condition gates activation—requires opponent action or self-flip enabler, not a free searcher
- Offers zero opponent interaction: no negation, removal, or disruption value
- Level-1, 200-ATK body is weak as material with no archetype synergy in most homes
- One-time activation per turn with no ongoing presence; vulnerable to negation mid-flip
- Zero recorded combo appearances indicate limited metagame centrality beyond format-specific shells
Counters / choke points
- Hand disruption (Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Maxx 'C') negates the excavation during resolution
- Deck lock effects prevent Spell/Trap tutoring access
- Going-second removal (Raigeki, Dark Hole) destroys the set card without triggering flip
Best use
Grind-engine tutor for Spell/Trap access and mill-fed recursion in older-format flip-heavy strategies. Decks: Black Luster Soldier, Jinzo, D/D/D, Greed, Lightsworn. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: FLIP tutor finds Spell/Trap, mills remaining deck cards to GY; Deck prevalence: 101 decks, avg 1.76 copies, 33 distinct archetypes; Top partners include flip enablers (Book of Moon, D.D. Warrior Lady) and recursion engines (Magician of Faith, Sangan); Legal in 4 formats: TCG, OCG, MasterDuel, DuelLinks
- Observed: Concentrated in older-format archetypes: Black Luster Soldier (17.8%), Jinzo (9.9%), D/D/D (8.9%); High copy count (avg 1.76, with 27 decks running 3 copies) suggests consistent deck value; Appears in gameplay types 7 (51.5%) and 6 (30.7%), indicating older/control-focused formats
- Inferred: The flip condition requires opponent action or self-flip enabler—the card cannot search freely on summon; Tutoring + milling is a personal-deck engine, not a combo enabler or board generator; Level-1, 200-ATK body is weak material with no archetype synergy in most homes; No metagame centrality: zero combo appearances, no guides, limited to format-specific shells
- Data gaps: No combos supplied—combo conversion is text-only inference; cannot confirm real-world combo performance No guides supplied—no human strategy context on card role or metagame usage No banlist token—assumed unlimited in all formats No usage statistics—archetype inclusion rates inferred from deck sample only, not historical data