Ancient Gears Deck #487512 — Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 42/100 (±8 · Confidence: Medium)

• Primary strategy: Midrange
• Secondary strategies: Control, Tempo
• Format: master-duel

Legality

Main 52 / Extra 15 / Side 0 — status under the rules at evaluation time: Illegal. 1 violation(s).

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: OTK via Ancient Gear Golem variants with piercing/multi-attack effects; Resource grind with board control via removal and negation
• Turn 1 (going first): Set up a defensive board with negation traps and searchable removal; wait for opponent to commit before deploying boss monsters
• Turn 2 (going second): Use hand traps (Ash, Veiler, Nibiru) to disrupt opponent setup, then pivot to board-breaking via Forbidden Droplet and removal spells; build OTK combo if board is cleared
• Recovery: Ancient Gear Statue and Catapult enable field reconstruction after board wipes; Mulcharmy Fuwalos draws when control is reset; recursion from Golem destruction triggers
• After siding: No side deck supplied (0 cards) — cannot adapt post-game; structural weakness in best-of-3 format

Why it scores here

This Ancient Gears deck opens a searchable core via Ancient Gear Wyvern and Advance with ~81% probability, but the 52-card main deck and 15-copy extra bloat introduce brick risk and inconsistency in combo assembly. The deck can reach a solid ceiling (Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem or Chaos variant with 4400+ ATK, piercing, and multi-attack), but the median board is modest—usually a single boss plus interaction. Recovery is hampered by reliance on Statue/Catapult field reconstruction and a critical legal violation (3x Droll & Lock Bird, limit 2), making the deck illegal in its current form. The absence of a side deck and heavy hand-trap density (15 cards) create tension: going second is playable but going first struggles with interactive depth. This evaluation is structural; competitive viability requires removing 1 Droll copy and adding a side deck.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: 70% Midrange + 30% Control. Structural ≈ 55, Going First ≈ 58, Going Second ≈ 54, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 38. Modifiers: Legal violation penalty (-3); Side deck absence penalty (-2); Hand-trap saturation (-1). Final formula: 0.80·Structural (55) + 0.20·TournamentReliability (38) − 3 (legal violation) = 42 (Meta provisional; no dated metagame sample)

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.81 · key two-card combo ≈ — · full-brick estimate ≈ 0.19 (all Inferred)
• Combo output: best PowerIndex —, median —, board-per-starter —
• Turn order: 0 going-first lines vs 0 going-second lines

Strengths

• Reliable archetype-core search via Ancient Gear Wyvern (81% opening hand probability); Advance provides draw outlet mid-turn
• Boss monsters (Ultimate Golem 4400 ATK piercing multi-attack; Chaos Golem 4500 ATK unaffected S/T) close games decisively if resolved
• Dense hand-trap suite (15 copies) provides going-second disruption and going-first protection via Infinite Impermanence
• Multiple recovery loops: Statue/Catapult field reconstruction, Mulcharmy draw on opponent summon, Golem GY recursion trigger
• Forbidden Droplet (3x) + removal coverage enables board-breaking and tempo gain in mid-turns

Weaknesses

• 52-card main deck reduces consistency; 14 three-of copies create redundancy bloat; archetype core sits at ~50 cards, leaving only 2 flex slots
• No independent multi-turn lines; deck folds to a single negation on Wyvern or Advance early game
• Going first board is defensive (traps + hand) rather than proactive; waiting-to-disrupt gameplan vs building threats
• Runs only 35% of core-card set (missing Maxx "C", Train bosses Liebe/Gustav, Qliphort Genius) — misses key meta synergies
• Illegal in current form: 3x Droll & Lock Bird (limit 2); no side deck (0 cards) in best-of-3
• Modest median combo output; no evidence of consistent turn-2 OTK pivots; mostly turn-1 setup then turn-2 resolve

Critical choke points

• Wyvern/Advance blockade: single negate on either card stops engine from breathing; no alternative starter tutor if both are negated
• Going first: deck sets Impermanence/interaction but cannot pressure opponent; if opponent breaks the board cleanly, recovery is slow (Statue requires opponent control condition)
• Fusion Summon requirement: many payoff cards (Ultimate Golem, Chaos Golem) require Extra Deck access; board wipes remove Extra access, resetting turn economy
• Hand-trap density conflict: 15 copies of negation/disruption in a 52-card deck reduces room for mid-game grind cards; going-second hands often become pure hand-trap clogs if draw luck is bad

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Legality status: Illegal (Droll & Lock Bird 3 copies, legal 2); Main deck size: 52 cards (above 40-min threshold); Extra deck size: 15 cards (at legal maximum); Side deck: 0 cards (absent); Card text excerpts: Wyvern searcher, Advance draw, Statue conditional summon, Fusion payoffs verified from card_text; Banlist status: Droll Semi-Limited (legal 2), Harpie's Feather Duster Limited (running 1, legal), Heavy Storm Limited (running 1, legal); Archetype core inclusion: 25 Ancient Gear-named cards + 11 searcher/support cards identified
• Observed: Composition: 14 three-of copies, 1 two-of copy, 8 one-of copies in main; 4 Fusion, 4 Xyz, 7 Link in extra; Role distribution: 15 hand-trap flagged cards (Ash, Veiler, Nibiru, Droll, Impermanence, Droplet), 11 searcher-text cards, 8 removal-text cards; Usage statistics: Deck runs 7/20 core-card set (35% present); missing Maxx "C", 5x Train bosses, Qliphort Genius, Ballista
• Inferred: Consistency: P(≥1 Ancient Gear searcher in opening 5) ≈ 0.81 from hypergeometric (archetype core 14 cards, 52 total, hand 5); Brick rate: ~19% (inverse of 0.81), likely increasing to 22–25% with 52-card draw variance vs 40-card standard; Combo ceiling: Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem (4400 ATK, piercing, multi-attack) or Chaos variant (4500 ATK, S/T immunity) based on Fusion Summon text and searchable materials; Going-first board: 1–2 Impermanence traps + 1–2 boss setups (Statue on field, Advance searchable); reactive, not proactive; Going-second plan: hand-trap disruption into Forbidden Droplet + removal + Mulcharmy tempo; can pivot to OTK if board clears; Recovery: Statue field reconstruction (requires opponent control), Catapult GY loop (requires board state), Mulcharmy draw (requires opponent summon) — 3 independent recovery threads; Pilotability: Linear Wyvern→search→summon paths; hand-trap saturation reduces mid-game decisions; moderate complexity; Post-side adaptation: impossible without side deck; classified as structural weakness
• Provisional: Meta Power: Ancient Gears ~8–12% archetype-share in Master Duel (estimated from historical context, no dated sample supplied); matchup vs Branded/Swordsoul/Tearlaments uncertain without dated metagame snapshot; Tournament Reliability: inferred 38/100 based on 19% brick rate, single-choke Wyvern line, and zero post-side flexibility; may improve to 45–50 if side deck added
• Data gaps: No combo data (combo data.total combos = 0); floor/median/ceiling inferred from card text and role distribution only No tournament link or pilot record; archetype meta-share is estimated, not measured No side deck (0 cards); post-board best-of-3 plan cannot be evaluated No win-rate telemetry (brick rate, going-first/second split, matchup outcomes) — all performance inferred from structure No dated metagame sample; Meta Power cannot be calculated; format speed/top-deck coverage/format fit remain Provisional