Spell
QuickNightmare Hands
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Send 1 Illusion monster from your Deck to the GY. During your Main Phase, if you control a Level 5 or higher Illusion monster: You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 monster in your opponent's GY; Special Summon it to your field, but banish it during the End Phase of the next turn. You can only use 1 "Nightmare Hands" effect per turn, and only once that turn.
Nightmare Hands — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 52 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 49 · Deck: 54 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Recovery / Recursion · Secondary: Combo enabler
Why it scores here
Nightmare Hands converts a graveyard card into one temporary Special Summon: it takes a Level 5+ Illusion condition, banishes itself from the GY, and revives one opponent GY monster that is banished at the next End Phase. The card's ATK and rarity earn nothing here. Its score comes from deck-level reach: 378 recent decks run it across 42 archetypes, mostly as a one-to-three-copy staple in Illusion lines. Combo evidence is absent, so the combo and resource axes stay modest, and the score is capped by the Illusion dependency and the lack of observed board outcomes.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 60 | Present in 378 of 378 recent decks at an average of 1.74 copies, but live only once a Level 5+ Illusion is controlled and the card is in the GY (text plus deck stats; observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 42 | The text yields one temporary revived body per use, with no board-building beyond that; no combos were supplied to confirm a larger line (text only; inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 45 | The first clause sends an Illusion from Deck to GY, which is a mill with no card gain, and the revive costs the card's own GY banish, so the card is roughly even (text; inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 15 | No opponent interaction is printed; the only effect takes a monster from the opponent GY (text; verified). |
| Material Utility | 30 | The card is not material itself, and the revived monster's material value is not evidenced; the milled Illusion body has no measured material use (inferred; no combo data). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 45 | Living in the GY means it is not exposed to hand traps, and the revive lasts through a turn, but the once-per-turn limit and Illusion condition narrow its uses (text; inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 60 | No garnet or lock is printed and copy counts vary from 1 to 3, but the Illusion requirement means it only fits Illusion-leaning lists (deck stats plus text; observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Recovery/Recursion + 0.3 Starter/Combo enabler. Intrinsic ≈ 49, Deck ≈ 54, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Live in 378 recent decks across 42 archetypes, so it is portable across homes (observed)
- The GY-based activation keeps it out of hand-trap range (text; inferred)
- Has cheap copy counts and no printed garnet or lock (observed)
Weaknesses
- Needs a Level 5+ Illusion on field, which ties it to Illusion lines (text; verified)
- The revived monster is banished at the next End Phase, so the value is temporary (text; verified)
- Adds no board on its own and no observed combo outcomes exist in the evidence (text; verified)
Counters / choke points
- No counter is evidenced in the pack; the GY-based effect is plausibly exposed to graveyard hate (inference only)
Best use
GY-activated revive for Illusion decks; mill fuel for the Level 5+ Illusion condition. Decks: Hecahands, Phantom Beast (Chimera), Fiendsmith, Azamina, Kashtira.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Text: the card sends 1 Illusion from Deck to GY and can banish itself from the GY to revive one opponent GY monster until the next End Phase; Text: the revive needs a Level 5+ Illusion monster in your control during your Main Phase; Text: once per turn limit on the card's effect; Deck evidence: 378 decks run it, 42 archetypes, avg 1.74 copies
- Observed: Partner rates: Nightmare Apprentice 73.8%, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring 70.4%; Gameplay split: 89.9% of decks in gameplay type 7
- Inferred: Revived monster is best seen as a temporary body rather than board-building; GY-based activation keeps it outside hand-trap reach; Primary role is Recovery/Recursion with Combo enabler as secondary
- Data gaps: no combos supplied; combo conversion and starter role/material shares are text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token; assumed 3 copies (unlimited) card text does not state whether the first clause is a hand activation or a GY-only activation