EARTH
4Spell Strider
ATK:
1800
DEF:
600
View:
2473
If this card is in your hand: You can target 2 face-up Spell Cards on the field (1 from each side of the field); banish them, and if you do, Special Summon this card.
Spell Strider — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 51 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 49.6 · Deck: 51.8 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Extender · Secondary: Material body, Removal
Why it scores here
Spell Strider is a conditional hand Special Summon: it needs 2 face-up Spell Cards on the field, one on each side, so it is not a reliable opening-hand play and is often dead going first or against spell-light boards. What it reliably converts into is one extra Level-4 EARTH Warrior body that feeds Fusion/Link/Rank-4 plays — the 106 sampled decks all run it as exactly one copy inside face-up-Spell heavy shells such as Dark Magician, Relinquished and Millennium. Its 1800 ATK earns no points by itself; the score comes from the free body, the mild upside of banishing one opponent face-up Spell, and the clean generic material profile, discounted heavily for the two-sided condition and the absence of any combo evidence.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 30 | Requires being drawn plus 2 face-up Spell Cards on the field (1 from each side), so it is not live in most opening hands and has no archetype searcher in the evidence (inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 35 | No combo rows exist (0 appearances), so from text alone it converts into exactly one extra Level-4 body toward a Fusion/Link play (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 45 | It banishes one own and one opponent's face-up Spell Card to summon itself, an approximately even trade that leaves no lingering advantage (inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 30 | Its only disruption is banishing a single opposing face-up Spell Card, a narrow, situational answer to Continuous/Field Spells (verified). |
| Material Utility | 65 | Level 4 EARTH Warrior with 1800 ATK is clean generic Fusion/Link/Rank-4 material even when the effect is negated, and all 106 sampled decks run it as a 1-of body (verified/observed). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 40 | It summons itself from the hand, dodging field-based disruption, but the resulting body has no protection and dies to any single removal (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 50 | A single copy with no garnet, lock, or archetype restriction in all 106 decks sampled, but it is a dead draw whenever the two-sided Spell condition is unmet (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Extender + 0.3 Material body. Intrinsic ≈ 49.6, Deck ≈ 51.8, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Special Summons itself from the hand without using the Normal Summon, giving decks an extra Level-4 body for Fusion/Link/Rank-4 plays
- Banish effect can strip an opponent's face-up Continuous or Field Spell as a soft removal
- Generic text with no archetype lock — appears in 8 distinct archetypes in the sampled decks
- Level 4 EARTH Warrior with 1800 ATK is broadly useful material even if the effect is negated
- Cheap to run: exactly 1 copy in all 106 sampled decks, no garnet or engine requirement
Weaknesses
- Requires 2 face-up Spell Cards on the field, one from each side — dead going first or against spell-light boards
- No archetype, so the card cannot be searched within its own engine
- Banishing your own face-up Spell is a genuine cost, not a free action
- Summoned body has no protection or further effect once on the field
- Only a 1-of in practice, so redundancy and consistency are low
Counters / choke points
- Boards that keep no face-up Spell Cards (e.g. all face-down backrow) turn the card into a dead draw
- Decks that quickly clear the controller's own face-up Spell before the effect can be used
- Effect negation that can reach a hand-activated monster effect (e.g. anti-hand-effect tech) stops the summon
- Removal aimed at the summoned 1800 ATK body ends the play immediately
Best use
Free Level-4 body / Fusion-Link material in face-up-Spell heavy builds. Decks: Dark Magician, Relinquished, Millennium, Gate Guardian, Gaia. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: 'If this card is in your hand: You can target 2 face-up Spell Cards on the field (1 from each side of the field); banish them, and if you do, Special Summon this card.'; Stats: Level 4, EARTH, Warrior, 1800 ATK / 600 DEF, no archetype; Legal in TCG, OCG, Master Duel and Duel Links; no banlist token supplied, assumed unlimited; 106 sampled decks run it, all in the Main Deck, exactly 1 copy per deck
- Observed: Archetype spread: Relinquished 26.4%, Dark Magician 26.4%, Millennium 21.7%, Gate Guardian 14.2%, Gaia 7.5% of the 106 decks; Observed partners are Fusion-oriented bodies (Fusion Parasite, King of the Swamp, The Dark - Hex-Sealed Fusion, Millennium-Eyes Illusionist), consistent with a material role; 0 combo appearances and 0 guide mentions across the sampled data
- Inferred: The two-sided face-up Spell requirement makes it a dead draw in most going-first openings; Banishing one own and one opponent's Spell nets roughly even card economy while producing one body; Its matchup interaction is limited to removing a single opposing face-up Continuous/Field Spell; As hand-activated ignition effect, most field-based negations cannot respond to it
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no usage statistics (StatisticsCard) — archetype inclusion % inferred from the 106-deck sample only no win-rate, end-board or starter-count data to measure how much the extra body actually converts