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 average 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 (starter role/material role/payoff role/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