WIND
5The Tricky
ATK:
2000
DEF:
1200
View:
4360
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by discarding 1 card.
The Tricky — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 60 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 61.5 · Deck: 59.7 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Starter · Secondary: Material body
Why it scores here
The Tricky converts a dead card in hand into a Level 5 WIND Spellcaster body by discarding one card, which is a reliable but card-neutral conversion. Its score comes from live hand access across 48 archetypes and a clean generic Level 5 material body that remains useful even if its effect is negated. The 2000 ATK and the 2000 DEF earn no points, and the absence of combo records caps combo conversion at a text-only estimate.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 72 | Special Summonable from hand with a single discard cost, and it runs in 125 of the sampled decks across 48 archetypes with 1.75 average copies (verified/observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 45 | No recorded boards exist, so conversion is inferred from the text as one body with no extra follow-up (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 40 | A one-for-one discard cost into one body is roughly card-neutral, with no direct draw or banish refuel in the text (verified/inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 10 | The card has no negation, removal or hand-trap effect in its text (verified). |
| Material Utility | 65 | A Level 5 WIND Spellcaster is a common material fit, and the body still functions as material when its effect is negated (verified/inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 55 | It is a hand-based summon that works across many zones and archetypes, but the resulting body is exposed to standard removal (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 75 | It is a single-copy-friendly utility card with no garnet or lock, and decks run up to 3 copies with a 1.75 average (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Starter + 0.3 Material body. Intrinsic ≈ 61.5, Deck ≈ 59.7, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Summonable from hand with one discard cost, so it is rarely dead in hand
- Runs in 125 sampled decks across 48 archetypes, a sign of portability
- Generic Level 5 WIND Spellcaster material body that still works when effect-negated
- Cheap to run with multiple copies, so it does not lock the deck
Weaknesses
- Requires a card to discard, which makes it weak in a near-empty hand
- Net card advantage is zero, with no draw or GY refuel in its text
- No interaction effect of its own
- The summoned body is exposed to standard removal
Counters / choke points
- Negation of the Special Summon effect
- Removal of the summoned monster after it lands
Best use
Hand-to-field starter and generic Level 5 material body. Decks: Synchron, Dark Magician, Orcust, Junk, Kuriboh, Magician Girls.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: Special Summon from hand by discarding 1 card; Level 5 WIND Spellcaster Effect Monster, 2000 ATK / 1200 DEF; Runs in 125 decks across 48 distinct archetypes; 1.75 average copies
- Observed: Top partners: Monster Reborn 37.6%, Mirror Force 34.4%, Swords of Revealing Light 30.4%; Usage statistics: 100% inclusion with 3 typical copies in Gogogo, Dododo and Evolsaur
- Inferred: Combo role is a single body with no extra follow-up, from text only; Material value is a generic Level 5 fit
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no banlist token — assumed 3 copies (unlimited) average starter count when present unavailable, so deck resilience is estimated from archetype spread