Trap
ContinuousNightmare Wheel
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Activate this card by targeting 1 monster your opponent controls; it cannot attack or change its battle position. When it leaves the field, destroy this card. Once per turn, during your Standby Phase: Inflict 500 damage to your opponent. That monster must be on the field to activate and to resolve this effect.
Nightmare Wheel — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 56 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 56 · Deck: 56 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Floodgate / Control · Secondary: Removal, Utility
Why it scores here
Nightmare Wheel scores as a mid-range control piece because it delivers meaningful disruption through a permanent monster lock but lacks the card economy, combo synergy, or resilience to climb higher. The lock is powerful against single-monster strategies, but self-destruction when the target leaves the field creates significant fragility; the 500 damage per turn is incidental clock damage. Its broad archetype adoption (26 distinct homes) confirms accessibility and splashability, but zero combo appearances and no card advantage generation prevent it from reaching higher power tiers.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 60 | Found in 64 decks across 26 archetypes with 2.06 average copies, showing strong adoption as a control staple requiring no specific search route (observed) |
| Combo & Conversion | 25 | Zero combo board appearances; functions as a static lock effect rather than a combo enabler or converter (verified) |
| Resource Economy | 40 | Generates no card advantage and deals only chip damage (500 per turn); the lock provides indirect value by restricting opponent's monster usage (inferred) |
| Effect & Interaction | 65 | Creates a permanent lock preventing attacks and position changes, though this is matchup-dependent and can be circumvented by removing the target (verified) |
| Material Utility | 0 | As a Continuous Trap Card, it has no material utility; traps cannot be used for fusion, synchro, or other summoning mechanics (verified) |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 35 | Self-destructs immediately when the target monster leaves the field, creating high fragility; running 2-3 copies per deck provides only partial redundancy mitigation (inferred) |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 70 | Requires only one Main Deck slot, can be set without dead-draw risk, and has no archetype restrictions; splashable across diverse control strategies (observed) |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Floodgate/Control + 0.3 Removal. Intrinsic ≈ 56, Deck ≈ 56, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Splashable control tool across 26 distinct archetypes
- Permanent lock prevents target monster from attacking or changing position
- Low deck-building cost with no specific synergy requirements
- Pairs effectively with forced-summon effects like Lava Golem
Weaknesses
- Self-destructs if the target monster leaves the field
- Provides zero card advantage or resource generation
- Damage output (500 per turn ≈ 18 turns) is too slow to close games
- Vulnerable to target removal and disruption
- Not a combo enabler; purely static control piece
Counters / choke points
- Monster removal (immediately destroys Nightmare Wheel)
- Mass-field effects or board wipes
- Decks with multiple monsters that can attack when one is locked
- Effects that move the locked monster to another zone
Best use
Permanent disruption through monster lock with incidental chip damage. Decks: Control, Stun, Lock-focused strategies, Relinquished, Ojama. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Nightmare Wheel is a Continuous Trap that targets an opponent's monster and locks it from attacking or changing battle position; Inflicts 500 damage per Standby Phase while the target remains on field; Self-destructs when the target monster leaves the field; Found in 64 decks with 2.06 average copies per deck; Appears in 26 distinct archetypes; Co-appears with Lava Golem in 50% of decks and Gravity Bind in 46.9% of decks
- Observed: Most common copy distribution: 3 copies in 46.9% of decks, 1 copy in 40.6%, 2 copies in 12.5%; 35.9% of decks using it are Control gameplay type; 31.2% are Stun; Top homes: Greed (7.8% of sample), Relinquished (7.8%), Ojama (6.2%); Zero appearances across all combo boards in evidence
- Inferred: Primary role is Floodgate/Control due to the permanent monster lock mechanism; Self-destruction creates severe fragility; effectiveness hinges entirely on the locked monster's survival; Effectiveness is highly metagame-dependent; strongest against monster-heavy single-attacker strategies; Chip damage (500 per turn) is too slow to function as a primary win condition; Broad adoption across 26 archetypes with no common shared trait suggests true splashability
- Data gaps: No combos supplied; combo conversion is entirely text-based inference No guides supplied; deck context derived from partner-card analysis only No banlist information; assumed unlimited (3 copies) No usage statistics; archetype inclusion percentages inferred from 64-deck sample only