LIGHTUnion Carrier
ATK:
1000
LINK-2
View:
7824
Link Arrow:
Right
Bottom
2 monsters with the same Type or Attribute Cannot be used as Link Material the turn it is Link Summoned. You can target 1 face-up monster you control; equip 1 monster to it from your hand or Deck with its same original Type or Attribute. The equipped monster gains 1000 ATK. If you equipped it from the Deck, you cannot Special Summon monsters with that Equip Card's name for the rest of this turn. You can only use this effect of "Union Carrier" once per turn.
Union Carrier — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 64 ± 5 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 69 · Deck: 71 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Combo enabler · Secondary: Floodgate/Control, Material body
Why it scores here
Union Carrier is an almost fully generic Link-2 that converts two same-Type/Attribute bodies into an equip effect that reaches into the Deck, and its 34.2% co-deck rate with Dragon Buster Destruction Sword shows it was used as a compact Extra Deck lock layered on an otherwise normal board. Its presence in all 400 sampled decks across 86 distinct archetypes confirms the summoning requirement is trivially easy to satisfy, so accessibility and deckbuilding efficiency carry the score. Its 1000 ATK and LINK-2 body earned it nothing. The card is Forbidden in every format it appears in (0 legal copies in TCG, OCG and Master Duel), which is why the final number sits in the mid-60s rather than near the top.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 78 | The requirement '2 monsters with the same Type or Attribute' is met by nearly any two bodies, and the card shows up in all 400 sampled decks across 86 archetypes at an average of 1.02 copies (observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 72 | Text-only inference: two bodies become a monster equipped from the Deck, which the 34.2% Dragon Buster Destruction Sword co-deck rate indicates was used as an Extra Deck lock; no combo records were supplied to confirm the boards built (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 62 | Equipping a monster from the Deck puts an extra body/name onto the field as an Equip Spell for no discard, but the card provides no draw, recovery or refuel of its own (inferred). |
| Effect & Interaction | 56 | Union Carrier itself has no negation or removal; its only opponent-facing pressure is indirect, coming from the equip target it can place from the Deck (inferred). |
| Material Utility | 65 | As a generic LIGHT Machine Link-2 with Right/Bottom arrows it is a clean stepping stone into I:P Masquerena (69.2% co-deck) and further link climbs, but it 'cannot be used as Link Material the turn it is Link Summoned' (verified). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 50 | A single negate on the equip effect or removal of the face-up target collapses the line, and the no-Link-Material clause limits redeployment on the turn it arrives (inferred). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 76 | It costs one Extra Deck slot at 1.02 copies on average with no in-hand garnet (the equip target is taken from the Deck), though the 'cannot Special Summon that Equip Card's name' clause is a mild turn-long restriction (verified). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Combo enabler + 0.3 Floodgate/Control. Intrinsic ≈ 69, Deck ≈ 71, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Forbidden in every format (-6). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Near-universal Link-2 requirement ('2 monsters with the same Type or Attribute') makes the summon line live in almost any deck — observed in 86 distinct archetypes.
- Equips a monster from the Deck, effectively tutoring a body or an archetype name onto the field as an Equip Spell without spending a card from hand.
- Observed 34.2% co-deck rate with Dragon Buster Destruction Sword, the partner most associated with its Extra Deck lock role.
- Extra Deck slot, so it is never a dead draw, and it pairs with I:P Masquerena (69.2%) for follow-up climbing.
Weaknesses
- Forbidden in TCG, OCG and Master Duel — 0 legal copies in all three formats.
- 'Cannot be used as Link Material the turn it is Link Summoned' blocks the most obvious follow-up plays on the turn it arrives.
- Requires two same-Type/Attribute bodies before it does anything; with an empty or mixed-type board it is inert.
- Only 1000 ATK and a once-per-turn equip effect; equipping from Deck also forbids Special Summoning that Equip Card's name for the rest of the turn.
Counters / choke points
- Effect negation on the equip trigger (Infinite Impermanence, Effect Veiler, Forbidden Droplet) — note Ash Blossom does not stop a Deck-to-field equip.
- Removing or flipping the face-up target (Book of Moon, Knightmare Phoenix, Cosmic Cyclone) so no legal equip target exists.
- Destroying the Equip Spell before the equipped monster matters (Twin Twisters, Cosmic Cyclone).
- Banlist: the card is illegal in every format it appears in.
Best use
Generic Link-2 combo enabler that equips a key name from the Deck (lock or union piece). Decks: Adamancipator, ABC, Drytron, The Agent, Orcust, Therion. Suggested copies: 1.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Card text: Link-2, LIGHT Machine, 1000 ATK, arrows Right/Bottom, requirement '2 monsters with the same Type or Attribute'.; Card text: 'Cannot be used as Link Material the turn it is Link Summoned'.; Card text: once-per-turn equip effect targeting 1 face-up monster you control, equipping 1 monster from hand or Deck with the same original Type or Attribute, granting the equipped monster 1000 ATK.; Card text: if equipped from the Deck, you cannot Special Summon monsters with that Equip Card's name for the rest of the turn.; legal_copies is 0 in TCG, OCG and Master Duel.
- Observed: Appears in all 400 sampled decks as a main-deck Extra Deck card at an average of 1.02 copies.; Spread across 86 distinct archetypes in the deck sample.; Dragon Buster Destruction Sword is a top partner at 137 co-decks (34.2%).; I:P Masquerena co-deck rate 69.2%, Accesscode Talker 64.5%, Apollousa 63.2%.
- Inferred: Equipping Dragon Buster Destruction Sword from the Deck is the line that turns Union Carrier into an Extra Deck lock; the co-deck frequency corroborates the interaction.; Equipping union-style monsters from the Deck is why ABC (7.2%) and Therion (2.8%) lists run it.; The Deck-to-field equip is effectively a tutor that adds roughly one body/name to the field at no hand cost.; The equip effect is not stopped by Ash Blossom, since equipping from Deck is neither an add-to-hand, a Special Summon, nor a send-to-GY.
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no usage statistics (StatisticsCard) — archetype inclusion % inferred from deck sample only ban status is not explicitly labelled; legal_copies = 0 in all three formats is read as Forbidden partner card texts (e.g. Dragon Buster Destruction Sword) are not included in the evidence, so the lock interaction is an inference from co-deck frequency