Trap
ContinuousShadow Spell
View:
4622
Activate this card by targeting 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; it loses 700 ATK, also it cannot attack or change its battle position. When it leaves the field, destroy this card.
Shadow Spell — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 40 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 42 · Deck: 38 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Removal / Negation · Secondary: Floodgate/Control, Utility
Why it scores here
Shadow Spell is a slow, fully generic Continuous Trap whose only output is a soft, single-target lock: the chosen face-up monster loses 700 ATK and cannot attack or change battle position, and the Trap destroys itself once that monster leaves the field. It builds nothing (0 recorded combo appearances) and its interaction is easy to dodge with backrow removal or by simply removing the target, so it earns points only for being splashable, cheap to slot, and functional as a defensive tech in casual/Duel Links shells. No ATK/DEF, rarity, or popularity was rewarded; the moderate score comes from generic portability plus a weak but real defensive effect.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 45 | Fully generic Normal Trap with no archetype lock but no search route, so it is drawn or set and only live once the opponent controls a face-up monster (verified). |
| Combo & Conversion | 8 | Contributes nothing toward building a board and appears in 0 of the recorded combo boards (observed). |
| Resource Economy | 40 | Roughly one-for-one: it neutralizes a single attacker while remaining on field, but never generates advantage or refuels (inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 28 | Soft single-target lock (−700 ATK, no attack, no battle-position change) that does not stop monster effects and is easy to play around (verified). |
| Material Utility | 5 | A Continuous Trap with no body, Level, Attribute, or name value as material (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 30 | Self-destructs the instant the targeted monster leaves the field and is answered by any backrow removal (verified). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 55 | A single slot with no garnet and no self-lock, though the low payoff makes extra copies hard to justify (inferred). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Removal/Negation + 0.3 Floodgate/Control. Intrinsic ≈ 42, Deck ≈ 38, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Fully generic Continuous Trap with no archetype or type restriction, so it can be slotted into any deck
- Single-target lock prevents one opponent monster from attacking or changing battle position and chips 700 ATK
- Cheap investment: one card, one slot, no garnet and no self-lock
Weaknesses
- Does nothing to advance your own board and never appears in recorded combo lines
- Does not negate or remove; the locked monster can still use its effects and can be tributed, linked, or repositioned out of the lock
- Self-destructs the moment the targeted monster leaves the field, wasting the card
- Completely answered by generic backrow removal such as Mystical Space Typhoon
- Needs the opponent to already control a face-up monster before it is live
Counters / choke points
- Mystical Space Typhoon and other Spell/Trap removal
- Cards that tribute, Link away, or otherwise remove the targeted monster (the Trap then destroys itself)
- Monster effects that do not require attacking or changing battle position
- Battle-position-independent removal and effect-based boards that ignore the ATK loss
Best use
Defensive single-monster lock tech (set and hold, chip an attacker). Decks: Duel Links Gogogo, Duel Links Dododo, Duel Links Evolsaur, Casual Dark Magician, Casual Blue-Eyes. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Text: target 1 face-up monster the opponent controls; it loses 700 ATK and cannot attack or change battle position; Text: when the targeted monster leaves the field, destroy this card; Fully generic Continuous Trap with no archetype membership
- Observed: 81 decks run it, average 1.31 copies, spread across 38 distinct archetypes; 0 recorded combo appearances (starter role/material role/payoff role all 0); 3 guide mentions, consistently filed under defensive 'Tech Trap' sections (Gouki, Dark Magician, Hieratics)
- Inferred: Because it neither negates nor removes, it functions as a soft, easily played-around defensive trap rather than real disruption; Its portability (generic text, many homes) is what sustains the score, not any board-building or interaction quality
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) usage statistics archetypes (Gogogo/Dododo/Evolsaur at 100%) appear to be small niche samples and may not be representative no dated metagame sample — meta power left null/provisional