WIND
4Starship Spy Plane
ATK:
1100
DEF:
500
View:
3330
If your opponent controls a face-up Xyz Monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). When this card is Special Summoned from the hand: Target 1 Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls; return that target to the hand.
Starship Spy Plane — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 48 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 47 · Deck: 48 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Hand trap · Secondary: Board breaker
Why it scores here
The card's value is a conditional hand-only Special Summon (only while the opponent controls a face-up Xyz) followed by a one-time bounce of one opponent Spell/Trap. It converts into tempo and a 1100-ATK body, not card advantage or a board, so the score sits in the low-to-mid 40s. Its 54-deck presence is almost entirely one Gandora shell (52 decks), which confirms it is a practical on-deck piece there, but that frequency does not raise its power. The 1100 ATK and Level 4 body earn nothing by themselves.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 40 | The hand-only Special Summon requires an opponent's face-up Xyz Monster, so it is live only in some matchups; it is in 54 decks but no combo data shows how often it is actually reached (inferred from text plus deck count). |
| Combo & Conversion | 25 | No combo boards are recorded, and the card's own effect only bounces one Spell/Trap, so it adds little board on its own (inferred from text; no observed combos). |
| Resource Economy | 30 | A bounce on an opponent's Spell/Trap is tempo, not card advantage, and the summoned body is not a card-advantage engine (inferred from text). |
| Effect & Interaction | 45 | It removes one opponent Spell/Trap from the field by returning it to hand, a soft, conditional interaction rather than a negate or destruction (verified from card text). |
| Material Utility | 40 | A Level 4 WIND Machine is a reasonable generic material body, but it is not a Tuner and has no recorded material usage (inferred from text; no combo material data). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 35 | A single hand-only effect with one bounce target is easily shut down by a hand-trap or negation, and it is not multi-zone (inferred from text). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 70 | It runs mostly as one copy (46 of 54 decks) with no garnet or lock restriction, though its Xyz condition makes it a conditional slot (observed from deck copy distribution; verified from text). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Hand trap + 0.3 Board breaker. Intrinsic ≈ 47, Deck ≈ 48, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Cheap hand-only Special Summon that doesn't use a board slot until it is needed
- Bounce on a Spell/Trap is a real tempo tool against set backrow
- Consistently included in the Gandora shell (52 of 54 decks) with a single copy each
Weaknesses
- Requires the opponent to control a face-up Xyz Monster, so it is dead in many matchups
- Bounce returns a card to hand rather than destroying it, so it does not remove the threat for good
- No combo data, so its real starter or extender role is unverified
Counters / choke points
- Negation of the summon or its effect
- Matchups without an opponent Xyz Monster leave it stranded in hand
Best use
Conditional hand-based tempo answer to backrow, summoned when the opponent runs an Xyz Monster. Decks: Gandora. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Effect text: hand-only Special Summon when the opponent controls a face-up Xyz Monster; on that summon, return one opponent Spell/Trap to hand; Level 4, WIND, Machine, 1100 ATK / 500 DEF, Effect Monster; Appears in 54 decks, 52 of them Gandora (96.3%)
- Observed: Mostly one copy per deck (46 of 54 decks run 1 copy); Co-occurs with Gandora-shell staples at 81–96% of decks
- Inferred: Conditional Xyz requirement limits live matchups; Bounce is tempo rather than card advantage; Hand-trap-style summon is shut off by negation
- 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 deck sample only