Small World

Small World — Power Evaluation

Final Score: 63 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium

• Intrinsic: 60.4 · Deck: 64.8 · Meta: provisional
• Primary role: Searcher / Tutor · Secondary: Combo enabler, Starter, Consistency engine

Why it scores here

Small World does not win games by itself; it wins by turning whatever monster you happen to be holding into the exact monster your deck needs, and that pivot is fully generic (no archetype lock) and legal in every format in the evidence. That flexibility is why it is main-decked in all 400 sampled decks at 2.2 copies on average and reaches 100% inclusion in 16 different archetypes, but the play is not free: it costs the revealed monster (banished face-down, unrecoverable) plus a bridge monster from the Deck, and it is a hard once-per-turn. Its 0 ATK/0 DEF and Spell frame earn literally zero points here — the score comes from conversion, broad legality, and predictable consistency, tempered by the real bridge/garnet tax and the fact that it provides no interaction of its own.

Axis scores

Calculation

Weight profile: 0.7 Searcher/Tutor + 0.3 Starter/Combo enabler. Intrinsic ≈ 60.4, Deck ≈ 64.8, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Exceptional splashability (2); Bridge/garnet deck cost (-2). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck

Strengths

• Turns any spare monster in hand into any monster in the Deck through a single-property bridge, giving decks a second, fully generic route to their starter.
• Completely generic: no archetype lock and legal in TCG, OCG, Master Duel and Duel Links; observed across 158 distinct archetypes with 100% inclusion in 16 of them.
• Cost is usually paid with a monster you did not need, so the card is rarely dead once you hold any extra monster.
• Sees consistent main-deck play (all 400 sampled decks, 2.2 copies average, 200 decks at the full 3 copies).

Weaknesses

• Net -1 in real resources: the revealed monster is banished face-down and unrecoverable, and the bridge monster is banished face-down from the Deck.
• Requires a valid bridge (exactly one shared Type, Attribute, Level, ATK or DEF) between the hand monster and the desired target, which constrains Deck building.
• Hard once per turn, so duplicate copies drawn in the same turn are redundant.
• Provides no board presence, disruption, or recursion of its own — it is pure setup.
• Because it adds from the Deck, it is directly answerable by common hand traps.

Counters / choke points

• Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (negates the add-from-Deck effect)
• Droll & Lock Bird (locks further Deck-to-hand additions after the first)
• Crossout Designator naming Small World
• Any omni-negate aimed at the Spell's activation (e.g. Solemn Judgment-style effects)
• Hand states with no spare monster or no valid bridge, which leave the card dead

Best use

Generic consistency pivot that converts a spare monster into the deck's key starter or payoff. Decks: Madolche, Blackwings, Mermail Atlantean, Vanquish Soul, Mathmech, SPYRAL, Swordsoul, Tenyi, Therion, Generic combo decks needing starter redundancy.

Evidence & gaps

• Verified: Card text: reveal 1 monster in hand, choose a Deck monster sharing exactly one Type/Attribute/Level/ATK/DEF, banish the revealed monster face-down, then add a monster sharing exactly one property with the chosen Deck monster and banish that chosen monster face-down.; Card text: 'You can only activate 1 "Small World" per turn' (hard once per turn).; Card identity: Normal Spell, no archetype, 0 ATK/DEF, legal in TCG, OCG, Master Duel and Duel Links.; Decks evidence: 400/400 sampled decks run it in the Main Deck, average 2.2 copies, max 3.
• Observed: Copies-per-deck distribution: 119 decks at 1, 81 at 2, 200 at 3.; Spans 158 distinct archetypes, led by Blackwings (5%), Mermail Atlantean (4.8%), Vanquish Soul (3.2%), Mathmech (2.8%), Ryu-Ge (2.2%).; Usage statistics show 100% inclusion at typical 3 copies in Madolche, Swordsoul, Tenyi, Therion, Time Thief, Performage, Bystial Buster Blader, Sylvan, Tindangle and others.; Top co-deck partners are hand traps and staples: Ash Blossom 82.5%, Droll & Lock Bird 57.8%, Mulcharmy Fuwalos 56.8%.; No combo recordings exist for this card (0 appearances, 0% as starter/material/payoff).
• Inferred: Because it adds a card from the Deck to the hand, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and Droll & Lock Bird can stop or follow up on it.; The bridge requirement forces dedicated Deck slots that are otherwise low-value draws, creating a real deckbuilding tax.; Functionally it acts as a backup starter: it grafts the deck's key monster onto a hand that lacked it, at the price of one banished monster.; Multiple copies are semi-redundant because of the once-per-turn clause.
• Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no ruling notes on bridge/banish timing edge cases no dated metagame sample, so meta_power is null and the final score is provisional usage_statistics inclusion data comes from a different, larger historical sample than the 400 attached decks