Troop Dragon

Troop Dragon — Power Evaluation

Final Score: 40 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium

• Intrinsic: 41 · Deck: 40 · Meta: provisional
• Primary role: Material body · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion

Why it scores here

Troop Dragon reliably converts into exactly one thing: a Level 2 WIND Dragon body that refunds itself from the Deck when it is destroyed by battle. That is a real but very narrow value loop — it costs no resources, locks nothing, and is safe to run at 3, which keeps its deckbuilding and economy scores moderate. However it does nothing proactively (0 recorded combo appearances, 0% as starter or material), brings no interaction, and is blanked entirely by effect-based removal, so accessibility, combo conversion, and resilience all sit near the bottom. Its 700 ATK / 800 DEF and its Level-2 body are noted but earn no bonus points — the score comes from the self-replacement utility and cheap slot cost, not from stats.

Axis scores

Calculation

Weight profile: 0.7 Material body + 0.3 Recovery/Recursion. Intrinsic ≈ 41, Deck ≈ 40, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: none. Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck

Strengths

• Replaces itself from the Deck when destroyed by battle, functionally refunding the body at no card cost.
• Fully generic: no archetype requirement, no summoning restriction, no lock, no cost.
• Cheap to include and harmless at 3 copies, making it a low-risk filler or tribute-fodder body.
• Level 2 WIND Dragon typing fits low-level Synchro/Link and WIND-attribute material needs.

Weaknesses

• Only triggers on destruction by battle — effect-based removal blanks it completely with no refund.
• 700 ATK loses essentially every battle, so triggering the loop means deliberately ramming it.
• No search support and no proactive effect: it does nothing toward building a board.
• Provides zero disruption, negation, or interaction with the opponent.

Counters / choke points

• Any effect-based removal (destroy, banish, bounce, send) bypasses the battle-destruction trigger.
• Negating the Special Summon, or effects that prevent Special Summoning from the Deck.
• Simply ignoring it — a 700-ATK body with no proactive effect poses no threat and can be played around.

Best use

Self-replacing Level 2 material body / tribute fodder. Decks: Harpie, Dragon tribute/beatdown builds (e.g. Armed Dragon LV5/LV7). Suggested copies: 3.

Evidence & gaps

• Verified: Card text: 'If this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the GY: Special Summon 1 "Troop Dragon" from your Deck.'; It is a Level 2 WIND Dragon Effect Monster with 700 ATK / 800 DEF and no archetype.; It is legal in TCG, OCG, Master Duel, and Duel Links formats.; The effect is a single trigger conditioned on battle destruction, with no cost and no lock.
• Observed: Appears in 3 of the sampled decks, always in the main deck at exactly 3 copies.; Runs in 2 distinct archetypes: Harpie (2 decks, 66.7%) and a no-archetype build (1 deck, 33.3%).; 0 combo appearances: 0% as starter, searched, material, payoff, or end-board piece.; Top co-deck partners are beatdown/tribute pieces: Armed Dragon LV7, Harpie's Pet Dragon, Harpie Lady Sisters, Armed Dragon LV5.
• Inferred: Because the trigger requires battle destruction, effect-based removal bypasses it and no replacement is produced.; Its sampled role reads as tribute fodder / a recurring wall for Level 5-7 Dragon payoffs rather than a combo starter.; With no searcher named in the evidence, accessibility depends purely on drawing it.; Weak 700 ATK means the self-replacement loop usually requires deliberately attacking into a larger monster.
• 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 a 3-deck sample only deck sample is very small (3 decks), so archetype distribution is unlikely to be representative