DARK
4Time Thief Regulator
Archetype:
Time Thief
ATK:
600
DEF:
200
View:
4780
If you control no other monsters: You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 2 "Time Thief" monsters with different names from your Deck in Defense Position, except "Time Thief Regulator". When an Xyz Monster you control is destroyed by battle, while this card is in your GY: You can Special Summon this card, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use each effect of "Time Thief Regulator" once per turn.
Time Thief Regulator — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 60 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 59 · Deck: 65 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Starter / Combo enabler · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion
Why it scores here
Time Thief Regulator converts itself into two Time Thief monsters from the Deck by tributing itself when no other monsters are controlled, and it can return from the GY after an Xyz is destroyed by battle. The recorded boards it appears in average a structural power index of 88 and include two bosses and two end-monsters, and it is a three-copy staple in 400 of 400 recent decks. The 600 ATK and Level 4 body earn little on their own, and the card has no interaction, so the score rests on conversion and deck fit rather than stats. The no-other-monsters condition and the complete lack of opponent interaction cap the score.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 65 | Appears in 400 of 400 recent decks at an average of 2.88 copies and 100% inclusion in Time Thief usage stats, but no starter role or searched-for role labels show how it is reached (observed; the route is inferred). |
| Combo & Conversion | 72 | Tribute self into two Time Thief monsters from Deck plus GY revival; boards average power index 88 and the examples show two bosses and two end-monsters (verified text; observed combos). |
| Resource Economy | 65 | Self-tribute for two Deck summons is a net +1 card on its own, and the examples show netCardAdvantage 4 (verified text; observed). |
| Effect & Interaction | 5 | The card text contains no negation, removal, or disruption, so it is a pure body (verified). |
| Material Utility | 55 | A Level 4 DARK Machine could feed a Level 4 Xyz, but material role is 0 of 4 boards, so this is not corroborated (inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 55 | The GY revival works from a zone it can reach after an Xyz is lost, but the main effect is blanked by any other monster on the field and each effect is once per turn (verified text; inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 60 | A three-copy staple in its own archetype with no garnet cost, though the no-other-monsters restriction limits flexible use (inferred). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Starter / Combo enabler + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 59, Deck ≈ 65, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: self-locking restriction (-2). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Present in 400 of 400 recent decks, with Time Thief Winder at 99.8% co-occurrence
- Four of four recorded boards include it, with average power index 88 and netCardAdvantage 4 in the examples
- Self-tribute into two Deck summons nets +1 card, and the GY revival adds recursion
Weaknesses
- Main effect requires controlling no other monsters
- Only Defense-position bodies, so it does not break the board on its own
- No opponent interaction; the combo role labels (starter role, searched-for role, material role) are all 0, so the role is inferred from text
Counters / choke points
- Generic monster negation or removal in response to the Tribute activation (inferred from text; the evidence has no counter data)
Best use
Starter / Combo enabler: self-tribute to summon two Time Thief monsters from Deck. Decks: Time Thief. Suggested copies: 3.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: Tribute self when no other monsters are controlled, then Special Summon two Time Thief monsters with different names from Deck in Defense Position; Card text: GY Special Summon after an Xyz is destroyed by battle, banished when it leaves the field; 400 of 400 decks run it, average 2.88 copies, 3 copies in 363 decks; Four recorded combos, all containing the card (100% appearance)
- Observed: Average power index 88 across the boards it appears in; Example boards show netCardAdvantage 4, two bosses, two end-monsters and two face-down S/T; Time Thief usage statistics show 100% inclusion at 3 copies in the main archetype
- Inferred: Primary role is Starter / Combo enabler, with Recovery as a secondary role, based on the text; Level 4 body could serve as Xyz material, though no board corroborates it; Restriction on the no-other-monsters condition reduces flexible use
- Data gaps: No banlist token; assumed 3 copies (unlimited) Card rulings are empty combo data combo role is empty for all 4 examples, so starter role, searched-for role and material role cannot corroborate the role average starter count when present is 0, which may reflect missing role data rather than a true zero No counter or negation data in the evidence Decks sample is Time Thief-heavy, so partner and inclusion figures may overstate generic use