DARK
6Nightmare Apprentice
ATK:
2000
DEF:
1700
View:
4740
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by discarding 1 card. You can only Special Summon "Nightmare Apprentice" once per turn this way. If this card battles a monster, neither can be destroyed by that battle. If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 Illusion monster from your Deck to your hand, except "Nightmare Apprentice". You can only use this effect of "Nightmare Apprentice" once per turn.
Nightmare Apprentice — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 69 ± 5 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 66.5 · Deck: 69.9 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Starter / Combo enabler · Secondary: Searcher/Tutor, Material body
Why it scores here
Nightmare Apprentice converts a single discard into a hand Special Summon and a one-card search for another Illusion monster on summon, so its value is access and an extra body rather than board impact on its own. It is live in 400 of 400 recent decks across 55 archetypes and appears in all 17 recorded combos, but only 2 of those are starter boards and it is a material body in 3. Its 2000 ATK and 1700 DEF earn no points; the battle protection and lack of interaction keep the effect axis low.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 78 | Hand-summonable for one discard and searchable on summon, with 400/400 decks and 2.21 average copies showing repeatable access (text + observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 62 | Summons itself and fetches one Illusion, with an average combo power index of 59.4 across boards it appears in and 3-4 end monsters in the example boards (observed + inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 55 | One discard for one search is roughly even; the example boards show a net card advantage of 4-5, which is driven by the wider combo rather than this card alone (observed + inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 20 | Its only defensive effect is battle protection, with no negation or removal and no opponent-facing interaction (verified from text). |
| Material Utility | 60 | A Level 6 DARK Illusion body that is a material in 17.6% of its combo appearances, and the body remains a Level 6 material even if its effects are negated (observed + inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 50 | The hand effect works regardless of field interaction, but the search is a single hit on summon and redundancy comes only from copies (text + inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 80 | No garnet, lock, or self-restriction, and 3 typical copies in the usage statistics show it is cheap to run (observed from usage statistics). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Starter + 0.3 Searcher. Intrinsic ≈ 66.5, Deck ≈ 69.9, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Cheap hand Special Summon (one discard) that also fetches an Illusion on summon, giving access without a searcher spell
- Live in all 400 sampled decks across 55 archetypes and 4 gameplay types, so it is portable across homes
- Clean once-per-turn wording with no garnet, lock, or self-restriction
- Battle protection keeps the body on board through combat
Weaknesses
- Requires a discard to hand-summon, so it is a 1-for-1 at best
- No negation, removal, or disruption of the opponent
- Search is limited to Illusion monsters, which restricts it to Illusion-supporting lines
- Effect value depends on the wider combo (combo sample is only 17 boards)
Counters / choke points
- No counter cards are named in the evidence; its on-summon search is a summon-response target in general (inferred from text)
Best use
Starter/extender that discards for a hand Special Summon and searches an Illusion on summon. Decks: Phantom Beast (Chimera), Hecahands, Diabellstar, Fiendsmith. Suggested copies: 3.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Level 6 DARK Illusion Effect Monster, 2000 ATK / 1700 DEF; Hand Special Summon by discarding 1 card, once per turn; Battle protection for itself and the battled monster; On Normal or Special Summon, add 1 Illusion monster from Deck to hand, once per turn; 400/400 recent decks run it, 2.21 average copies
- Observed: Appears in 17/17 recorded combos; starter 11.8%, material 17.6%, end-hand 11.8%; Average combo power index 59.4 and average starter count 1.71 when present; Usage statistics show 100% inclusion in several archetypes at 1-3 typical copies; Top partners include Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (78.5%) and Gazelle (70.8%)
- Inferred: The on-summon search gives access that is roughly one-for-one with the discard; Level 6 DARK Illusion body remains useful as material even when its effects are negated; Summon-response interaction is the main threat to its search
- Data gaps: no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) combo sample is small (17 boards); combo role is empty on 2 of the 3 worked examples no rulings or counter-card data in the evidence no dated metagame sample, so meta power is null