Qliphort Carrier

Qliphort Carrier — Power Evaluation

Final Score: 61 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium

• Intrinsic: 56 · Deck: 64 · Meta: provisional
• Primary role: Extender · Secondary: Material body, Removal

Why it scores here

Qliphort Carrier is the core body generator for the Qliphort archetype, run at 3 copies in 64% of decks and present in 100% of all Qliphort lists. Its primary value lies in being easily accessible via normal summon without tribute, providing a clean pendulum scale, and accumulating bodies for tribute into larger Qliphort bosses—not in building complex combos or generating card advantage. The bounce effect on tribute offers situational removal, but the card's leveling-down and ATK reduction reflect its role as consumable fodder rather than a power card. The 2400 ATK is purely incidental to its actual function.

Axis scores

Calculation

Weight profile: Primary role: Extender. Intrinsic ≈ 56, Deck ≈ 64, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck

Strengths

• Virtually guaranteed inclusion in every Qliphort deck (161/161 appearances)
• Normal summon without tribute cost enables turn-1 tempo and accessibility
• Searchable via Qliphort Scout, ensuring consistent access
• Provides pendulum scale for the archetype's core cycling mechanism
• Accumulates bodies needed for Qliphort boss tribute summoning (Apoqliphort Towers, etc.)
• Grants +300 ATK to all Qli monsters, creating distributed synergy across the board

Weaknesses

• Zero independent combo potential (no recorded combos; archetype is non-combo)
• Levels down to 4 and loses 600 ATK when summoned without tribute, reducing material ceiling
• Bounce effect is situational and costs the card itself, limiting tempo return
• Completely archetype-locked: pendulum effect (non-negatable) restricts special summons to Qli only
• Effect interaction is soft only: level-immunity fails vs higher-level monsters, bounce is not negation
• Minimal cross-archetype utility despite 161 deck appearances (97.1% are Qliphort variants)

Counters / choke points

• Spell/trap removal or negation of pendulum scales before activation
• Effect negation of the monster effect (pendulum effect cannot be negated)
• Higher-level monsters circumvent its level-immunity protection
• Hand traps like Ash Blossom preventing normal or special summon
• Opponent bounce effects returning it to hand before use as tribute fodder

Best use

Pendulum scale provider and tribute-fodder body accumulator. Decks: Qliphort. Suggested copies: 3.

Evidence & gaps

• Verified: 161 total decks; 103 run 3 copies (64% of all decks); Top 3 partners are core Qliphort cards: Scout (100%), Helix (98.1%), Stealth (95%); Card text: Level 6, 2400 ATK; becomes Level 4, 1800 ATK when normal summoned without tribute or special summoned; Pendulum scale 1; pendulum effect locks special summons to Qli monsters only and cannot be negated; Monster effect: normal summon without tribute; level-immunity to lower-level monsters; bounce on tribute; 97.1% of deck appearances are Qliphort-based (156/161 decks); minimal cross-archetype adoption
• Observed: Average 2.58 copies per deck; heavily skewed distribution (103 at max, only 9 at 1 copy); Partnership with Apoqliphort Towers (55.9% co-run) confirms role in boss-summoning line; Skill Drain (51.6% co-run) confirms role in Qliphort control variant; 1 guide mention in Duel Links Qliphort strategy confirms standard lineup inclusion; All top 10 co-run cards are either Qliphort monsters or Qliphort-specific support
• Inferred: Combo conversion (35): Level-down and ATK reduction designed for consumable fodder; no independent board-building capability; Resource economy (50): Bounce trades card for tempo; net advantage depends entirely on what gets bounced and opponent board state; Effect interaction (45): Level-immunity provides soft protection only to lower-level opponents; bounce is tempo, not negation; Material utility (70): Searchable body with flexible summoning (level 4 or 6) and tribute utility; values as material vary by context; Resilience (60): Multiple access routes reduce brick risk; pendulum recovery available; but effect negation of monster part ends contribution; Generic utility (25): Card's text is purely Qliphort-specific (archetype lock, synergies); virtually zero cross-archetype portability
• Data gaps: No combos supplied (0 total appearances) — unable to verify combo conversion, power index, starter/material roles, or independent board-building capability; combo_conversion score is text-only inference No usage statistics (StatisticsCard unavailable) — archetype inclusion percentages and historical consistency cannot be verified beyond the 161-deck sample No banlist token — assuming unlimited (3 legal copies); if restricted or forbidden in a format, that format would face scoring penalty