Soul Servant

Soul Servant — Power Evaluation

Final Score: 63 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium

• Intrinsic: 60 · Deck: 64.2 · Meta: provisional
• Primary role: Searcher/Tutor · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion, Utility, Combo enabler

Why it scores here

Soul Servant converts an archetype slot into two reliable jobs: it stacks any "Dark Magician"/"Dark Magician Girl"-listing card from hand, Deck, or GY on top of the Deck, and then trades itself out of the GY for a multi-card draw in your Main Phase. It earns its points on accessibility and refuel rather than on any interaction, since it applies zero pressure to the opponent. Its high play rate (400/400 sampled decks, 1.38 average copies, 51 archetype tags) confirms it is a real, consistently included piece, but frequency is not treated as power here, and the thin combo sample (6 combos, no starter/material/payoff attribution) keeps the score and confidence moderate. The card has no ATK/DEF or board presence of its own, so nothing is credited for stats or rarity.

Axis scores

Calculation

Weight profile: 0.7 Searcher/Tutor + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 60, Deck ≈ 64.2, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck

Strengths

• Quick-Play Spell that stacks a "Dark Magician"/"Dark Magician Girl"-listing card from hand, Deck, or GY on top of the Deck for the next draw
• Second effect works from the GY and draws multiple cards based on differently named "Palladium"/"Dark Magician"/"Dark Magician Girl" monsters on field and in GYs
• Cheap to run: 1-2 copies is the norm (avg 1.38; 292 of 400 decks run a single copy) with no lock or garnet
• Functions across zones (hand, Deck, GY), so a negated activation still leaves the GY draw live
• Appears in 400/400 sampled main decks and co-decks with Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon (98.2%) and Illusion of Chaos (82.8%)

Weaknesses

• No interaction whatsoever: it cannot disrupt, negate, or remove anything the opponent controls
• Both effects are hard-locked to Dark Magician-family names, so it is dead material in non-DM decks
• The draw effect only fires during your Main Phase and requires Dark Magician-family monsters already on field or in the GYs
• The first effect adds nothing to hand immediately; value is deferred to the next draw
• Combo evidence is thin (6 combos) with no recorded starter/material/payoff role, so its exact contribution to those boards is unconfirmed

Counters / choke points

• Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (co-decks 85.2% in the same sample) can stop the GY draw effect
• Graveyard hate that banishes the GY before the Main Phase draw effect resolves
• Droll & Lock Bird (79.5% co-deck) limits the multi-card draw line
• Any deck that removes or banishes the stacked card before your next draw
• Backrow removal before the set Quick-Play resolves

Best use

Archetype tutor/deck-stacking plus GY draw engine (1-2 copies in the core). Decks: Dark Magician, Shining Sarcophagus, Prophecy, Magician Girls. Suggested copies: 2.

Evidence & gaps

• Verified: Text: place 1 "Dark Magician" (or a card listing "Dark Magician"/"Dark Magician Girl") from hand, Deck, or GY on top of the Deck, except "Soul Servant"; Text: during your Main Phase, banish this card from the GY to draw cards equal to the number of differently named "Palladium"/"Dark Magician"/"Dark Magician Girl" monsters on the field and in the GYs, once per turn; Quick-Play Spell Card in the Dark Magician archetype, legal in TCG, OCG and Master Duel
• Observed: 400 of 400 sampled decks run it in the main deck; average 1.38 copies (292 decks at 1, 64 at 2, 44 at 3); 51 distinct archetype tags appear, dominated by Dark Magician variants (25.2% + 7.5% + 5.8% + 5.0%), Shining Sarcophagus (8.8%) and Prophecy (5.2%); Top partner Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon appears in 98.2% of the same decks; Magician's Rod in 81%; Present in 6 of 6 recorded combos with avg power index 93.8 and avg starter count 1.33, but recorded 0% as starter, searched, material or payoff
• Inferred: Because the card text names "Dark Magician", archetype searchers that fetch cards mentioning Dark Magician (e.g. Magician's Rod, co-deck 81%) provide a practical route to it; The GY draw realistically yields 2-3 cards in a Dark Magician build that has Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl and/or Palladium names in field or GY; The 51 distinct archetype tags overstate portability because several rows are different DB ids all named "Dark Magician"
• Data gaps: no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) combos_evidence contains only 6 combos and all role_in_combo fields are empty, so the card's exact function in those lines is unobserved no dated metagame sample supplied, so meta_power is null/provisional decks_evidence.legal_copies is empty and no per-format deck counts are given