Spell
NormalSoul Release
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5926
Target up to 5 cards in any GY(s); banish them.
Soul Release — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 54 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 53.9 · Deck: 51.9 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Removal · Secondary: Utility
Why it scores here
Soul Release converts one card in hand into the removal of up to five cards from any graveyard, which is a genuinely efficient denial exchange against graveyard-reliant strategies, and it does so with no cost, no once-per-turn clause and no archetype lock. Its 0 ATK/DEF and complete lack of a body earn it nothing here: the card builds no board, provides no material, and never interacts with the field, so all of its value sits in the resource-economy and deckbuilding-efficiency axes. The combo evidence is empty (0 appearances), confirming that it is a generic tech rather than a central combo piece, and its score is capped by the fact that it is close to blank against decks that do not use the graveyard. It scores as a solid, cheap, situational utility card rather than a high-impact one.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 55 | Normal Spell with no cost that simply has to be drawn — no searcher appears anywhere in the evidence, and 351 of 400 decks run just a single copy (observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 10 | It builds nothing on its own; combos_evidence records 0 appearances and 0 as_starter/as_material counts, so its contribution is denial, not board development (observed). |
| Resource Economy | 65 | It trades one card in hand for up to five cards removed from any GY(s) — a strongly positive resource-denial exchange (verified). |
| Effect & Interaction | 45 | No negation and no field interaction; the disruption only exists when the opponent actually depends on graveyard resources (inferred). |
| Material Utility | 5 | As a Normal Spell it supplies no body, Level, Type or Attribute, so it converts nothing toward a summon even before considering negation (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 50 | One-shot with no recursion or reuse, though it is flexible in being able to banish from either player's GY(s) (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 75 | Near free-roll: one slot, no garnet, no lock, no cost, and 96 distinct archetypes already run it at ~1.17 copies on average (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Removal + 0.3 Utility (default). Intrinsic ≈ 53.9, Deck ≈ 51.9, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Splashable generic spell (1). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Cost-free removal of up to 5 cards from any graveyard
- Fully generic: no archetype restriction, no once-per-turn clause, no discard or LP cost
- Can banish from your own GY as well, giving some dual-use flexibility
- Extremely low deckbuilding cost — a single, non-garnet slot
- Broadly adopted (400 decks, 96 distinct archetypes), confirming it is a practical and accessible tech
Weaknesses
- Does not interact with the field at all — no negation, no monster or Spell/Trap removal
- Close to blank against decks that do not rely on the graveyard
- One-shot Normal Spell with no recursion, reuse or multi-turn value
- No dedicated searcher appears in the evidence, so it must be drawn naturally
- Mostly run as a 1-of (351 of 400 decks), so redundancy is minimal
Counters / choke points
- Spell negation such as Solemn Judgment/Solemn Strike, which appear among its own top partners
- Decks that do not use the graveyard at all
- Effects that punish banishing cards from a graveyard
- Fast effects that move the chosen targets out of the graveyard before resolution
Best use
Graveyard disruption / GY-hate tech. Decks: Sky Striker, Lightsworn, Branded, Dark Magician, Metaphys, Generic side deck. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: 'Target up to 5 cards in any GY(s); banish them.' — no cost, no once-per-turn clause, no archetype restriction.; Card type is Normal Spell with no ATK/DEF and no archetype.; Legal in TCG, OCG, Master Duel and Duel Links.; Effect removes up to 5 cards from any graveyard for a single card in hand.
- Observed: 400 decks in the sample run it, all in the main deck, averaging 1.17 copies (351 at 1 copy, 30 at 2, 19 at 3).; Adoption spread across 96 distinct archetypes, led by Sky Striker 7%, Heroic 6.8% and Lightsworn 5.2%.; Top partners are generic staples: Harpie's Feather Duster 58%, Solemn Judgment 55%, Triple Tactics Talent 47.5%.; usage_statistics reports 100% inclusion at 1 typical copy in the Elemental HERO sample.; combos_evidence records 0 appearances, 0 as_starter, 0 as_material and 0 as_payoff across the recorded combo corpus.
- Inferred: Because it touches only the graveyard, its value scales directly with how graveyard-dependent the opposing deck is.; It is a denial card, not a board builder: it cannot contribute material or presence to any summon.; The absence of any listed searcher means it must be drawn naturally rather than tutored.; Its position alongside Solemn Judgment in the partner data suggests it is played as a reactive disruption piece rather than a combo starter.
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no side-vs-main split variation in the sample (all 400 decks ran it in the main deck) no explicit rulings evidence for target-removal-during-resolution edge cases