Trap
CounterProtection of the Elements
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3375
When a Spell/Trap Card is activated: Banish 1 face-up "Elemental HERO" monster you control until the End Phase; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card. If you control "Elemental HERO Terra Firma": You can banish this card from your GY; Special Summon 1 of your "Elemental HERO" monsters that is banished, or in your hand or GY, ignoring its Summoning conditions. You can only use this effect of "Protection of the Elements" once per turn.
Protection of the Elements — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 59 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 58 · Deck: 60 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Removal / Negation · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion
Why it scores here
The card's power is its Spell/Trap negation: it negates and destroys a Spell/Trap activation, paid for by banishing a face-up Elemental HERO that returns at End Phase, so the cost is tempo rather than card loss. Its GY effect (once per turn, needs Elemental HERO Terra Firma) adds a recursion route that puts a HERO back into play. The 349-of-349 deck presence and 98.9% partner rates confirm it is a live, consistently played Heroic-core slot, but that frequency is not counted as intrinsic strength (guardrail 3). No combo or guide evidence was supplied, so combo conversion is scored from text alone and held low.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 62 | Live in Heroic (246 of 349 decks, 70.5%) and carried at 1.25 copies on average, but it is a trap that needs a face-up Elemental HERO as cost, so it is not reliably live in every hand (inferred from card text plus deck stats). |
| Combo & Conversion | 35 | Converts a Spell/Trap activation into a negate-and-destroy but builds no board on its own; no combo examples were supplied, so this is text-only inference. |
| Resource Economy | 65 | A 1-for-1 negate-and-destroy whose banished HERO cost returns at End Phase, plus a once-per-turn GY banish-to-Special-Summon recursion route (verified card text, deck stats for the HERO core). |
| Effect & Interaction | 70 | Negates and destroys any Spell/Trap activation (verified card text), a strong but Spell/Trap-only form of interaction that cannot hit monsters. |
| Material Utility | 15 | Trap card with no material value; the only body-related effect Special Summons a HERO from hand, banished or GY, which does not count as material use (verified card text). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 50 | The negate depends on a face-up HERO that the opponent can remove first, while the GY route spans hand, GY and banished zones and is limited to once per turn (verified card text, inferred resilience). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 75 | One slot, no garnet or self-lock, and 349 decks run it at an average of 1.25 copies, which is a clean, redundant-friendly build cost (observed deck stats). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Removal/Negation + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 58, Deck ≈ 60, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Negates and destroys any Spell/Trap activation for a tempo-only cost (the banished HERO returns at End Phase)
- Once-per-turn GY recursion that Special Summons an Elemental HERO when Terra Firma is controlled
- Present in 349 of 349 sampled decks, almost all Heroic, with a stable 1-copy core
- One slot with no garnet or self-lock
Weaknesses
- Requires a face-up Elemental HERO on the field as a cost, so it is dead without a board
- Negates only Spell/Trap activations, not monster effects
- Its power is confined to the Elemental HERO theme, which caps generic portability
- No combo, guide or banlist evidence was supplied, so the score rests on text and deck counts
Counters / choke points
- Removing the face-up Elemental HERO before the activation, which removes the banish cost
- Negating the Spell/Trap activation before the cost is paid, or the opponent playing around it with Trap-free sequencing
Best use
Negation / Spell-Trap protection with HERO recursion. Decks: Heroic (Elemental HERO core), Armed Dragon (secondary Elemental HERO use). Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Negates and destroys a Spell/Trap activation, paid by banishing a face-up Elemental HERO until End Phase (card text); GY effect banishes itself to Special Summon an Elemental HERO when Terra Firma is controlled, once per turn (card text); Formats: TCG, OCG, MasterDuel, DuelLinks; no banlist token, assumed 3 copies
- Observed: Present in 349 decks (decks running it in the Main Deck 349, 0 side), 70.5% Heroic; Average 1.25 copies; 275 decks run 1 copy; Top partners Stratos, Shadow Mist, Sunrise at 98.9% co-occurrence
- Inferred: The HERO cost makes activation board-dependent, which limits accessibility; Tempo cost is recovered at End Phase, so resource loss is small; Recursion route depends on Terra Firma being present
- Data gaps: no combos supplied, so combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token, assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no usage statistics (StatisticsCard), so archetype inclusion is inferred from the deck sample only how often the card is in hand versus on the field at activation time is not measured