DARK
1Sphere Kuriboh
Archetype:
Kuriboh
ATK:
300
DEF:
200
View:
6926
When an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can send this card from your hand to the GY; change the attacking monster to Defense Position. When you Ritual Summon, you can banish this card from your GY as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon.
Sphere Kuriboh — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 58 ± 5 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 56 · Deck: 57 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Hand trap · Secondary: Material body, Utility
Why it scores here
Sphere Kuriboh earns its score as a cheap, widely splashable defensive hand trap that doubles as free Ritual material from the GY, not as a combo piece: it appears in 400/400 sampled decks across 74 archetypes (Gandora 22.2%, Lunalight 11.2%) at ~2 copies each. Its disruption is soft — it only changes an attacking monster to Defense Position rather than negating or removing it — and there is zero combo evidence, so combo conversion is a text-only inference. Its 300/200 ATK/DEF earn it nothing here; the number is driven by accessibility, deckbuilding efficiency, and the free GY Ritual-fodder utility.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 60 | Live from the hand whenever the opponent declares an attack, but no in-evidence search route exists; it was observed in 400/400 sampled decks at ~2 copies (observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 18 | Zero combo appearances and the card starts no line on its own, functioning only as a defensive reaction rather than a combo starter (observed). |
| Resource Economy | 50 | Sending it from hand is roughly a -1 to blunt one attack, but the same physical card is later banished from the GY as a free Ritual material, leaving the exchange roughly even (verified). |
| Effect & Interaction | 38 | It only changes the attacking monster to Defense Position — soft, non-negating defensive disruption with no removal attached (verified). |
| Material Utility | 55 | A Level 1 DARK Fiend body usable as generic material and, per its own text, as 1 of the required monsters for a Ritual Summon from the GY (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 55 | It operates from two zones — hand for defense and GY for Ritual fodder — across multiple turns, though a single battle trick is easy to play around (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 67 | One-to-three slots, no locks or garnet cost, and presence across 74 distinct archetypes confirm it is a near free-roll (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Hand trap + 0.3 Material body. Intrinsic ≈ 56, Deck ≈ 57, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Exceptional splashability (1). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Defensive hand trap that is live whenever the opponent declares an attack
- Doubles as free Ritual Summon material banished from the GY
- Highly splashable — played in 74 distinct archetypes at ~2 copies per deck
- Very low deckbuilding cost: no locks, no garnet, redundant copies fine
Weaknesses
- Effect is soft — it only switches an attacker to Defense Position and does not negate or remove it
- Sending it from hand is roughly a -1 to blunt a single attack
- No search route evidenced, so it must be drawn naturally
- No combo applications; combo data shows zero appearances
- 300/200 ATK/DEF give essentially no combat or material-body stats of note
Counters / choke points
- Graveyard removal (e.g. banishing it from the GY) denies the Ritual-fodder effect
- Opponent effects that deal damage or answer your board without declaring an attack bypass the hand trap
- Negating or removing the Ritual Summon it would feed
- Playing around the Defense-Position shift with already-low-DEF or effect-based removal
Best use
Defensive hand trap and Ritual material from the GY. Decks: Gandora, Lunalight, Relinquished, Black Luster Soldier (Ritual), Thunder Dragon. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: when an opponent's monster declares an attack, send this card from hand to the GY to change the attacking monster to Defense Position; Card text: when you Ritual Summon, banish this card from the GY as 1 of the required monsters; DARK Fiend, Level 1, 300 ATK / 200 DEF, Kuriboh archetype; legal in TCG, OCG, Master Duel and Duel Links
- Observed: Ran in 400/400 sampled decks, all main deck, at ~2.04 copies average; Present across 74 distinct archetypes, led by Gandora (22.2%) and Lunalight (11.2%); Top co-deck partners include Number 70: Malevolent Sin (40.8%) and Kiteroid (29.8%); Zero combo appearances (total combos = 0)
- Inferred: Functions as a defensive battle trick plus a free Ritual material from the GY given both effect clauses; Its wide archetype spread and low cost make it a near free-roll defensive tech
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) no usage statistics (StatisticsCard) — archetype inclusion % inferred from deck sample only no explicit search route for the card in the evidence