Snake Rain

Snake Rain — Power Evaluation

Final Score: 66 ± 5 · Confidence: High

• Intrinsic: 61.2 · Deck: 69.7 · Meta: provisional
• Primary role: Combo enabler · Secondary: Starter, Recovery/Recursion

Why it scores here

Snake Rain converts a single discard into four Reptile-Type monsters in the Graveyard, which is exactly the setup that Ogdoadic, Mitsurugi-Ogdoadic and Reptilianne lines need; it appears in all 14 recorded combos with an average board power index of 97.7 and is run at 2.76 copies on average across 400 of 400 sampled decks. Its 0 ATK / 0 DEF and lack of a body earn it nothing here - all of its value comes from the size of the Graveyard payload and the absence of a once-per-turn clause. It is held back by being a hard draw with no archetype (therefore no in-theme searcher), by requiring a discard plus a Reptile-dense deck to be live, and by offering zero interaction of its own. It is a strong engine card inside Reptile decks and near-dead outside them, which is what keeps it in the mid-60s rather than higher.

Axis scores

Calculation

Weight profile: 0.7 Starter/Combo enabler + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 61.2, Deck ≈ 69.7, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck

Strengths

• Sends 4 Reptile-Type monsters from Deck to Graveyard at once, filling the Graveyard and setting up Ogdoadic / Mitsurugi-Ogdoadic / Reptilianne / Alien engines in a single activation.
• No once-per-turn clause on the effect, so every copy is a full-strength setup card and multiple copies are never redundant.
• Completely generic text (any Reptile-Type, no archetype restriction), making it portable across every Reptile-based strategy - confirmed by 28 distinct archetypes in the sample.
• Extremely compact deck cost: 2.76 average copies, 335 of 400 decks run the full 3, with no garnet or lock attached.
• Appears in 14/14 recorded combos with avg_power_index 97.7, showing it is a real enabler rather than a niche pick.

Weaknesses

• Requires a discard plus at least 4 Reptile-Type monsters in Deck to do anything, so it is close to dead in any non-Reptile deck.
• No archetype means no in-theme searcher - it is reached only by hard draw, so its access profile is draw-luck dependent.
• Sends from Deck to Graveyard, which makes it directly negated by Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, and any Graveyard hate removes the payoff.
• Provides no body, no ATK/DEF and no interaction on the opponent's turn; it is pure setup with zero board presence of its own.
• Sending 4 beasts to Graveyard consumes a large share of deck resources if the duel goes long, reducing later copies' value.

Counters / choke points

• Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (negates the send-from-Deck-to-Graveyard effect)
• Dimension Shifter / Macro Cosmos / Dimensional Fissure (deny the Graveyard before the effect resolves)
• Graveyard banish effects (e.g. D.D. Crow, Bystials, Soul Release) removing the four sent Reptiles
• Droll & Lock Bird plus search-heavy follow-ups that punish the deck's heavy deck-to-hand searching

Best use

Turn-1 Graveyard setup / combo enabler to fuel Reptile revival and Xyz lines. Decks: Ogdoadic, Ogdoadic/Abhyss, Mitsurugi (Ogdoadic), Reptilianne, Alien. Suggested copies: 3.

Evidence & gaps

• Verified: Card text: 'Discard 1 card. Select 4 Reptile-Type monsters from your Deck and send them to the Graveyard.'; Text contains no once-per-turn clause and no self-lock.; Type is Spell Card (Normal) with 0 ATK / 0 DEF and no archetype.; Legal in TCG, OCG, MasterDuel and DuelLinks per card.formats.; 400 of 400 sampled decks run it in the Main Deck; 335 of those run the full 3 copies.
• Observed: Appears in 14 of 14 recorded combos (100% appearance rate).; Average board power index when present is 97.7.; Average starter count when present is 0.29, i.e. Snake Rain shows up in combos that rely on few other counted starters.; Sample decks span 28 distinct archetypes, dominated by Ogdoadic/Abhyss (25.2%), Mitsurugi (21.2%) and Ogdoadic (18.2%).; Usage statistics show 100% inclusion at 3 copies in four archetype samples and 75% in Ogdoadic/Abhyss.; Example boards include 3-5 end-board monsters, up to 3 bosses and netCardAdvantage of +5 to +7.
• Inferred: Because the card has no archetype, no in-archetype searcher can reach it; access is hard draw only.; Because the effect sends from Deck to Graveyard, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring can negate it.; The card is effectively dead in decks that cannot supply four Reptile-Type monsters and a discard.; The four sent Reptiles supply the Graveyard material/recursion pool for Ogdoadic revival and Xyz Rank 4/8 lines.
• Data gaps: no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) combo role tags (as_starter/as_material/as_payoff/end-board) are empty for all 14 appearances, so role is inferred from board stats rather than labelled no dated metagame sample, so meta_power is null legal_copies is an empty object, so per-format copy limits are unconfirmed