Branded Deck #750858 — Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 60/100 (±6 · Confidence: Medium)

• Primary strategy: Combo
• Secondary strategies: Midrange
• Format: duel-links

Legality

Main 30 / Extra 9 / Side 0 — status: Legal.

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Fusion Summon Level 8+ boss monsters (Albion the Branded Dragon, Despian Proskenion, Mirrorjade, Alba-Lenatus, Masquerade) through Branded Fusion, Branded in Red and Despia Theater, using Fallen of Albaz or the Bystial/Despia support monsters as material; Bystial dragon beatdown (Lubellion, Saronir, Druiswurm, Magnamhut) after Bystial monsters are Special Summoned from the GY or banished
• Turn 1 (going first): Open Aluber or Blazing Cartesia (searchers) to find Branded Fusion and Fallen of Albaz, then Fusion Summon a boss monster; Saronir or Druiswurm banish a LIGHT/DARK GY monster to add pressure and clear a blocker
• Turn 2 (going second): Use Branded Retribution or Tri-Brigade Mercourier (negation tied to a Fallen-mentioning Fusion on field) or Branded Lost to answer the opponent's first summon, then rebuild the Fusion line from the GY through Despian Tragedy and Branded in Red
• Recovery: Recover from the GY: Despian Tragedy and Branded Regained redraw and reset resources, Aluber and Albion the Shrouded Dragon re-enter the GY loop, and Bystial monsters banish-summon from the GY
• After siding: Not applicable: Duel Links has no sideboard in this list (side_count 0), so there is no post-side plan; adaptation is limited to the choice of Extra Deck boss

Why it scores here

The deck is legal and its engine is accessible: 14 searcher-text cards give a 97% chance of at least one searcher in a going-first 5-card hand, and the archetype core is almost always reachable. Its ceiling is high because the Extra Deck covers five core bosses and the Fusion chain can produce a 2500-3200 ATK board, and it keeps interaction (about 5 negation and 7 removal text effects) across the turn. The score is held back by the single-point failure of Fallen of Albaz (only 2 copies, 31% to appear in a going-first hand), the off-theme Lava Golem copies that need opposing monsters to summon, and a mixed Branded, Bystial and Despia build with no sideboard. No combo boards were supplied, so the ceiling and median are text-based and Inferred. The score comes from consistency, interaction and boss output judged on the whole system, not from Branded being a popular archetype or from averaging card scores.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Combo profile only; Midrange secondary noted but not blended into the weights. Structural ≈ 64, Going First ≈ 65, Going Second ≈ 62, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 58. Modifiers: Sub-archetype mixing (-2); Single-copy-gated engine piece (-1); Banlist exposure (0). Final formula: 0.80*Structural + 0.20*TournamentReliability + ContextModifiers (no dated meta sample; Meta provisional). 0.80*64.2 + 0.20*58 = 62.9, then modifiers -3 = 59.9, rounded to 60

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.31 · 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 engine with about 97% chance of a searcher in a going-first hand
• Five of five usage-core Extra Deck bosses are present
• Interaction across the turn: negation plus banish-summon removal
• Boss ATK and multi-attack threats for closing

Weaknesses

• Fallen of Albaz only 2 copies: 31% to see one in the opening hand
• Lava Golem x3 is off-theme and needs opposing monsters to summon, a brick risk
• Mixed sub-archetypes (Branded, Bystial, Despia) reduce engine coherence
• No sideboard and no post-side plan

Critical choke points

• Fallen of Albaz (2 copies) gates Branded Fusion, Retribution, Mercourier and most Fallen-mentioning Fusion routes
• Branded Fusion (2 copies) is the only direct Fusion starter from hand

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Legality: 30 Main, 9 Extra, 0 Side, all copies within legal limits for BanDuelLink; Banlist: Super Polymerization Limited (1 copy), Bystial Druiswurm and Bystial Magnamhut Semi-Limited (1 copy each); Card text for the 20 distinct main cards and 9 Extra cards; Usage statistics show Branded core and Albion the Shrouded Dragon at 100% inclusion; Composition counts (type, attribute, archetype purity 20.5%)
• Inferred: Engine consistency from hypergeometric probabilities (starter 31%, searcher 97%, archetype core 99%); Brick risk from Lava Golem and Bystial summon conditions; Combo ceiling and interaction quality from card-text reads; Going-first and going-second power split
• Provisional: Meta Power (null: no dated metagame sample); Matchup coverage (D13) and tournament reliability; Post-side plan (D12): no sideboard in this list
• Data gaps: no combos supplied: combo floor, median and ceiling are text-only inference no tournament link: archetype meta-share and per-pilot match record absent no win-rate telemetry (going-first/second, matchup, brick and starter rates) Meta Power provisional: no dated metagame sample usage_statistics in_this_deck flags Alba-Lenatus, Lubellion the Searing Dragon, Granguignol, Predaplant and Mirrorjade as absent, but these five Extra Deck cards are present in cards[]; likely because the usage check counted Main Deck only, so the core-present percentage (52%) understates the Extra Deck core Deck title is null; the name is taken from the Branded archetype