Gem-Knights Deck #680498 — Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 40/100 (±8 · Confidence: Low)

• Primary strategy: Toolbox
• Secondary strategies: Combo, Stun
• Format: master-duel

Legality

Main 40 / Extra 15 / Side 0 — status: Illegal. 2 violation(s).

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Gem-Knight Fusion boards (Nepyrim/Brilliant Fusion/Dispersion into Gem-Knight Fusion Monsters such as Lady Rose Diamond, Seraphinite, Lacrima, Master Diamond Dispersion) with Link and Xyz boss support; Off-archetype Link/Xyz bosses (A Bao A Qu, Constellar Ptolemy M7, Fiendsmith's Lacrima) when the Gem line is stopped
• Turn 1 (going first): Open a searcher (Nepyrim, Gem-Armadillo, Quartz, Eva, Engraver) and convert via Brilliant Fusion or Gem-Knight Fusion into a Fusion Monster; hold Ash Blossom and Herald as protection
• Turn 2 (going second): Use Droll & Lock Bird, Ash Blossom, Herald of Green Light and Maxx C to stop the opponent's first search or summon, then rebuild the Gem line from Nepyrim and Dispersion
• Recovery: Banish Gem-Knight cards from the GY to recur Gem-Knight Fusion and Brilliant Fusion; Mulcharmy draw effects refill the hand when the board is empty
• After siding: No Side Deck is run (side 0 is legal in Master Duel); any post-game adaptation has to come from the Main Deck and is not scored separately

Why it scores here

The deck is scored as a system: its Gem-Knight core (Nepyrim x3, Brilliant Fusion x3, Dispersion x3, Gem-Knight Fusion) gives a searcher-dense opening, with P(at least one 3-copy starter in a 5-card hand) about 0.34 and about 0.88 for at least one searcher-text card (Inferred). Its real strength is interaction breadth: 9 hand traps and 12 negation-text cards let it survive a first search, and about 0.81 of going-second hands contain one (Inferred). Conversion is capped by a low-density Gem core (about 19 of 55 cards are Gem-tagged), a splash of Fiendsmith, Spright, Mulcharmy and Herald cards that adds bricks such as Vanity's Ruler, and no recorded boards to measure median output. Popularity of the archetype did not earn points, and card scores were not averaged. The Illegal status (Called by the Grave Forbidden, Herald of Orange Light at 3 copies against a limit of 1) caps the score, so this is a structural-only read.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Toolbox primary, Combo secondary; no blended weighting applied. Structural ≈ 53, Going First ≈ 50, Going Second ≈ 60, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 48. Modifiers: banlist_exposure (-6); off_archetype_splash_bricks (-4); engine_conflicts (-2). Final formula: 0.80*Structural + 0.20*TournamentReliability + ContextModifiers(-12) = 0.80*53 + 0.20*48 - 12 ≈ 40; Meta provisional; Illegal legality so theoretical/structural-only

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.34 · key two-card combo ≈ — · full-brick estimate ≈ — (all Inferred)
• Combo output: best PowerIndex —, median —, board-per-starter —
• Turn order: 0 going-first lines vs 0 going-second lines

Strengths

• Searcher-dense opening: 13 searcher-text cards give about 0.88 chance of a searcher in hand 5 (Inferred)
• Layered interaction: 9 hand traps and 12 negation-text cards cover the first search and the first summon (Verified flags + Inferred)
• Strong Extra Deck boss range from 2300 to 3000 ATK (Verified stats)

Weaknesses

• Illegal list: Called by the Grave is Forbidden and Herald of Orange Light is over its copy limit (Verified)
• Low Gem purity: about 19 of 55 cards are Gem-tagged and the Main Deck core is missing Master Diamond, Prismaura and Topaz (Verified usage stats + Inferred)
• Brick-prone singletons such as Vanity's Ruler and Eva/Lurrie filler (Inferred)
• No Side Deck, so no post-side adaptation (Verified side count 0)

Critical choke points

• Gem-Knight Fusion and Brilliant Fusion as the single Fusion route into the main boss pieces (Inferred)
• Searcher access to the Gem line; if no searcher is live, the hand becomes hand-trap-only (Inferred)

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Main 40, Extra 15, Side 0 legal size; Called by the Grave Forbidden, 1 copy over limit; Herald of Orange Light Limited, 3 copies vs 1 allowed; Hand-trap and searcher counts from card text flags; Boss ATK/DEF stats from card records
• Inferred: P(starter in hand) and P(hand-trap on going second) from hypergeometric estimates; Gem line bootstrap and consistency read; Ceiling read from card text; Interaction breadth and brick risk
• Provisional: Median output (no recorded boards); Meta and matchup fit (no dated meta sample or tournament link); Post-side plan (no Side Deck)
• Data gaps: no combos supplied — combo floor/median/ceiling is text-only inference no tournament link — archetype meta-share and per-pilot match record absent no win-rate telemetry exists in YGOVN — going-first/second, matchup, brick and starter rates are Inferred Meta Power is Provisional unless a dated metagame sample is supplied usage_statistics core list marks Gem-Knight Seraphinite, Gem-Knight Phantom Quartz as not in deck (in_this_deck false), but the card list contains both at 1 copy each — the usage reference and the card list disagree and were not reconciled deck.title is null, so no deck name is available for the writeup