Setuppercut

Setuppercut — Power Evaluation

Final Score: 45 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium

• Intrinsic: 45 · Deck: 45 · Meta: provisional
• Primary role: Recovery/Recursion · Secondary: Material body

Why it scores here

Setuppercut is a reactive Normal Trap that only converts after your own monster is destroyed by battle, then replaces it with a face-down Defense Position body fetched from your hand or Deck. That gives it near-zero combo conversion and no interaction with the opponent, so it earns its points almost entirely from deck-thinning, a roughly even resource trade, and its observed fit in face-down/flip archetypes like Tindangle, Prediction Princess and Subterror. Its 0 ATK/DEF and lack of material utility (the summon arrives face-down, so it cannot be used as Extra Deck material) cap the ceiling. It is niche support, not a win condition, and neither its high view count nor its cross-archetype appearance inflates the score.

Axis scores

Calculation

Weight profile: 0.7 Recovery/Recursion + 0.3 Material body. Intrinsic ≈ 45, Deck ≈ 45, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck

Strengths

• Fetches the replacement body from the Deck, thinning the deck and enabling toolbox access to any monster within the ATK threshold.
• Observed play across 7 archetypes, with particular fit in face-down/flip decks (Tindangle, Prediction Princess, Subterror).
• Unlimited at 3 copies with no lock or once-per-game clause, so it is cheap to slot as a 1-of.

Weaknesses

• Purely reactive: it only activates after your own monster is destroyed by battle, so it does nothing proactively.
• Slow Normal Trap that must be set a turn in advance and relies on the opponent attacking into your monster.
• The summoned monster is placed face-down in Defense Position, limiting its use as Extra Deck material.
• Provides no disruption, negation, or removal against the opponent.

Counters / choke points

• Backrow removal or Trap negation before it resolves.
• Effects that prevent your monster from being destroyed by battle or end the Battle Phase.
• Refusing to attack into your monster, leaving the Trap stranded.
• Banishing or locking the Deck to deny the fetched monster.

Best use

Reactive recovery trap that replaces a battle-destroyed monster with a face-down body from the Deck. Decks: Tindangle, Prediction Princess, Subterror. Suggested copies: 1.

Evidence & gaps

• Verified: Text: 'When a monster you control is destroyed by battle: Special Summon 1 monster from your hand or Deck with ATK less than or equal to that destroyed monster, in face-down Defense Position.'; Text: 'You can only activate 1 "Setuppercut" per turn.'; Card type is a Normal Trap with 0 ATK / 0 DEF and no archetype; legal in TCG, OCG, Master Duel and Duel Links.
• Observed: 17 decks run it, all in the main deck, at an average of 1.12 copies (15 decks use 1, 2 decks use 2).; Most common archetypes: Tindangle 35.3% (6 decks), Prediction Princess 17.6%, Mekk-Knights/Shaddoll/Subterror 11.8% each.; Top co-deck partners: Subterror Behemoth Fiendess 70.6%, then Foolish Burial/Monster Reborn 47.1% and Book of Moon/Tindangle Angel/Subterror Succession 41.2%.; combo data contains 0 combos and 0 appearances.
• Inferred: The face-down Defense Position summon cannot be used as Extra Deck material for Link/Xyz/Synchro, so material value is low.; The card is a reactive recovery piece best suited to face-down/flip archetypes that value bodies placed face-down.; Because it requires a battle destruction of your own monster, it is slow and dead without a body to lose.
• Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no usage statistics (StatisticsCard) — archetype inclusion % inferred from deck sample only