DARK
5Vampire Lord
Archetype:
Vampire
ATK:
2000
DEF:
1500
View:
5097
If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: Declare 1 type of card (Monster, Spell, or Trap); your opponent sends 1 card of that type from their Deck to the GY. Once per turn, during your next Standby Phase after this card in your possession was destroyed and sent to your GY by an opponent's card effect: Special Summon this card from the GY.
Vampire Lord — Power Evaluation
Final Score: 52 ± 6 · Confidence: Medium
- Intrinsic: 52.4 · Deck: 55.7 · Meta: provisional
- Primary role: Boss/End-board · Secondary: Recovery/Recursion, Material body
Why it scores here
Vampire Lord converts a reachable Level-5 DARK Zombie body into a recurring threat: 47 recent decks main-deck it at 1.32 copies on average and the usage sample lists it at 100% inclusion in Vampire shells, with Book of Life (66%) and Pyramid Turtle (44.7%) as practical routes to it. What it actually returns is a 2000-ATK body that self-revives from the GY after an opponent's card effect destruction and mills one declared card type when it deals battle damage — useful grind value, but slow and board-neutral rather than disruptive. Its ATK, age, and nostalgia earn no points here: with zero combo evidence and no removal or negation anywhere in its text, it scores as a mid-tier recursion/material piece rather than a competitive end-board.
Axis scores
| Axis | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | 55 | Main-decked in 47 recent lists at 1.32 copies on average and listed at 100% inclusion in the Vampires sample, though as a Level 5 it still needs a Tribute or a revival route (observed). |
| Combo & Conversion | 35 | No combos were supplied, and the text alone produces only one 2000-ATK body with a delayed self-revival — it never builds a board by itself (inferred). |
| Resource Economy | 52 | The mill sends from the opponent's Deck rather than removing a hand or field card, so it is roughly card-neutral, while the GY self-revival is a free extra body after the opponent's removal (verified). |
| Effect & Interaction | 35 | Its only opposing interaction is a conditional mill that triggers after it deals battle damage — no removal, negation, or disruption of any kind (verified). |
| Material Utility | 60 | A Level 5 DARK Zombie carrying the 'Vampire' name that still provides clean Rank-5/Link and Zombie-material value even if its effect is negated (Vampire Sucker co-decks at 38.3%) (inferred). |
| Resilience & Flexibility | 58 | It Special Summons itself from the GY in the next Standby Phase if destroyed by an opponent's card effect, but banishment, spinning, negation, or being used as material all bypass that clause (verified). |
| Deck-Building Efficiency | 62 | It costs few slots (1.32 copies across 47 decks, 32 of them at 1) with no garnet or lock, but a Level 5 body still demands a Tribute or a revival enabler (observed). |
Calculation
Weight profile: 0.7 Boss/End-board + 0.3 average(Recovery/Recursion, Material body). Intrinsic ≈ 52.4, Deck ≈ 55.7, Meta = provisional. Modifiers: Format banlist restriction (-2). Final formula: 0.40*Intrinsic + 0.60*Deck
Strengths
- Recurring body: Special Summons itself from the GY on the next Standby Phase after an opponent's card effect destroys it
- Free grind value on battle damage via declaring a card type and milling the opponent's Deck
- Clean Level 5 DARK Zombie body with the 'Vampire' name, usable as Rank-5/Link/Zombie material even when its effect is negated
- Cheap to include: 1.32 average copies, 47 main-decked lists, 100% inclusion in the Vampires usage sample
- Strong observed partners that enable it (Book of Life 66%, Zombie World 46.8%, Pyramid Turtle 44.7%, Call of the Haunted 42.6%)
Weaknesses
- No removal, negation, or hard disruption — its only opposing interaction is a conditional mill
- Revival requires the opponent to destroy it with a card effect; banishment, spinning, or being used as material blanks it
- Revival is delayed to your next Standby Phase, so it never helps the turn it dies
- Level 5 requires a Tribute or a dedicated revival/enabler route; it is not a one-card starter
- Deck-to-GY mill is card-neutral and can even help opponents who want cards in the GY
Counters / choke points
- Banish-based removal (e.g. effects that banish instead of destroy) blanks the GY self-revival
- Effect negation stops the battle-damage mill trigger
- Damage prevention or battle-indestructible walls prevent the mill from ever triggering
- Graveyard hate aimed at the Zombie/Vampire recursion engine
- Any removal that does not destroy (spin, Tribute, Kaiju-style) denies the return clause
Best use
Level-5 Zombie boss/recursion body and material. Decks: Vampires, Zombie World / Zombie control, Goat-format Zombie lists. Suggested copies: 2.
Evidence & gaps
- Verified: Text: on battle damage, declare a card type and the opponent sends 1 card of that type from their Deck to the GY; Text: once per turn, during your next Standby Phase after this card in your possession was destroyed and sent to the GY by an opponent's card effect, Special Summon it from the GY; Level 5 DARK Zombie, 2000 ATK / 1500 DEF, 'Vampire' archetype, legal in TCG/OCG/MasterDuel/DuelLinks; Goat-format legal copies: 2 (semi-limited in that format)
- Observed: 47 recent decks main-deck it, 0 side-decked, 1.32 copies on average (32 lists at 1, 15 at 2); Usage statistics: 100% inclusion with typical 1 copy in the Vampires archetype sample; Top partners: Book of Life 66%, Zombie World 46.8%, Pyramid Turtle 44.7%, Vampire's Curse 42.6%, Vampire Sucker 38.3%; 0 combo appearances, 0 guides, not a Top-Card in any format
- Inferred: Pyramid Turtle (44.7% co-deck) is a practical fetch route because Vampire Lord's 1500 DEF fits a Zombie-summoning enabler; Its Level 5 DARK Zombie body plus 'Vampire' name make it usable as Rank-5/Link/Zombie material and for Vampire support; With no combo evidence, its role is read from text: slow boss/recursion body rather than a starter or board breaker
- Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo conversion is text-only inference no guides supplied no dated metagame sample, so meta power is null/provisional usage statistics covers only 1 archetype (Vampires), so cross-deck inclusion is thin beyond the 47 attached decks archetype labels in deck data include duplicates and 'Không có' (none), inflating the distinct archetypes count