Trap
NormalStaunch Defender
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You can only activate this card when your opponent declares an attack. Select 1 face-up monster on your side of the field. During this turn, your opponent can only designate the selected monster as an attack target and your opponent must attack the selected monster with all face-up monsters.
Staunch Defender — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 50 ± 8 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 50 · Deck: 50 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Negation/Interaction · Secondary: Board breaker
Why it scores here
Staunch Defender is a one-copy defensive trap that converts a single card into battle-phase protection: it forces every opposing attack onto one chosen monster. It does not build a board, draw, or act as material, so its score rests on interaction and deck cost, not on its text being flashy. Its live appearance in 9 decks, mostly Dogmatika with Sangan and Ash Blossom as partners, shows a real role rather than a forgotten pick, but the absence of combo data keeps the score in the middle of the range.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 45 | Set trap with no search or draw route in the evidence, but it appears in 9 of 9 sampled decks, 5 of them Dogmatika (observed; no combo starter data). |
| Combo & Conversion | 15 | Protects a board rather than building one, and there are zero recorded combo boards to confirm otherwise (inferred from text). |
| Resource Economy | 25 | One card spent for a battle-phase redirect with no draw, refuel, or recovery (verified from text). |
| Effect & Interaction | 45 | Strong battle-phase redirect that can make one monster absorb all attacks, but it is situational and does not stop effects (verified from text, inferred for strength). |
| Material Utility | 5 | A trap has no material value and cannot be used as material (verified from card type). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 40 | Set-and-wait trap that can be answered by negation, and its redirect only matters on the opponent's attack step (inferred from text). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 80 | Normal trap with an average of 1.11 copies per deck and no garnet or lock cost, so it is cheap to splash or run (observed from deck data). |
Calculation
Weight profile: Primary role Negation/Interaction (Removal/Negation profile); no secondary blend applied. Intrinsic ≈ 50, Deck ≈ 50, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Converts one card into reliable battle-phase protection for a chosen monster
- Cheap to run: one copy per deck, no garnet cost, easy to splash
- Live in multiple homes, with 5 distinct archetypes in the sample
Weaknesses
- Adds no board, draw, or material value on its own
- Situational: works only against attacks, not effects
- No combo evidence to confirm starter or payoff timing
Counters / choke points
- Negation of the trap (e.g., Ash Blossom-style or other trap negation)
- Opponent avoiding attacks or using effect-based removal instead of battle
Best use
Single-copy battle-phase defensive trap. Decks: Dogmatika. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Trap activates when the opponent declares an attack and redirects all attacks to one selected face-up monster this turn; Normal Trap, 1 copy average across 9 decks
- Observed: Appears in 9 of 9 sampled decks, 8 in main deck, 5 of them Dogmatika; Partners Sangan (88.9%) and Ash Blossom (77.8%) co-occur frequently
- Inferred: Strength is situational, limited to the battle step; Accessibility depends on the set-and-wait route with no searcher
- Data gaps: no combos supplied, combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no usage statistics (StatisticsCard), archetype inclusion % inferred from deck sample only no banlist token, assumed 3 copies (unlimited)