Mind on Air

Mind on Air — Power Evaluation

Final Score: 44 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium

• Intrinsic: 51 · Deck: 46 · Meta: provisional
• Primary role: Floodgate/Control · Secondary: Utility

Why it scores here

Mind on Air is a soft floodgate that denies hand privacy rather than generating advantage or board state. While its effect is strong against combo-heavy archetypes, it is a brick in most opening hands due to lack of dedicated searchers and no special summon condition. It appears in 120 Dark Magician and control decks primarily as a 1-of supplementary card, confirming its peripheral role in deck-building. Its weak combo conversion and resource generation keep the score modest despite competent material utility and effect strength.

Axis scores

Calculation

Weight profile: Floodgate/Control primary role. Intrinsic ≈ 51, Deck ≈ 46, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Garnet tolerance / low redundancy (-3); Limited generic splashability (-1). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck

Strengths

• Continuous floodgate that denies opponent hand privacy; difficult to play around once on field
• Decent material utility as Level 6 Spellcaster in Dark Magician Fusions
• Appears across 29 distinct archetypes, confirming multi-home accessibility
• Clear, simple text with no ruling ambiguity

Weaknesses

• No dedicated searchers; requires Normal Summon or archetype-specific outlet
• Acts as a brick in opening hand in most situations
• Generates no card advantage or board state synergy
• Effectiveness heavily meta-dependent; weak vs beatdown-focused decks
• Soft control only; does not negate, remove, or disrupt directly

Counters / choke points

• Non-targeting removal (e.g., board wipes, Lightning Storm)
• Spell/Trap removal (e.g., Cosmic Cyclone)
• Negation before summon (e.g., Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring)
• Silent Graveyard (denies field setup)
• Decks that win through mill, direct damage, or FTK (bypass hand advantage)

Best use

Supplementary floodgate and material filler in control-oriented builds. Decks: Dark Magician, Dark Magician-variant control, Multi-archetype control shells. Suggested copies: 1.

Evidence & gaps

• Verified: Card text: 'Your opponent must play with their hand revealed' (from card.description); Appears in 120 recent decks (from decks_evidence.total_decks); Dark Magician is primary home: 73 decks, 60.8% (from decks_evidence.archetypes); Runs 1 copy in 97.5% of decks; 3 copies in 2.5% (from decks_evidence.copies_per_deck.distribution); Appears in 29 distinct archetypes (from decks_evidence.distinct_archetypes); No combo appearances in supplied data (from combos_evidence.total_combos = 0)
• Observed: Top partners are Dark Magician and DM-specific cards (Magicians' Souls, Dark Magical Circle, etc.); no hand-trap or tech partners suggest this is not a staple (from decks_evidence.top_partners); Mentioned once in Dark Magician guide as a main deck monster (from guides_evidence.mentions); Appears across control and beatdown gameplay types (43.3% in gameplay_type 7; from decks_evidence.gameplay_types)
• Inferred: Level 6 DARK Spellcaster is usable material for Dark Magician Fusion summons (e.g., Dragon Master Knight requires DM + Spellcaster); No dedicated searcher in top partners implies card relies on draw or archetype-generic tutors; Hand revelation effect is soft control; strong vs combo decks, weak vs beatdown; Acts as a garnet in opening hand without a summon outlet; 1-copy running pattern confirms low priority; Effectiveness varies by meta composition (hand disruption is meta-dependent)
• Data gaps: No combo appearances recorded; combo conversion inferred from text only No usage statistics (StatisticsCard data); archetype inclusion % limited to 120-deck sample No ruling clarifications for activation timing (assumed continuous, but no formal confirmation) No dated meta sample supplied; meta-dependent effectiveness cannot be quantified No dedicated searcher or summoning support cards explicitly mentioned in evidence