Phantom Knights Deck #771274 — Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

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

• Primary strategy: Midrange
• Secondary strategies: Toolbox
• Format: ocg

Legality

Main 55 / Extra 15 / Side 0 — status under the rules at evaluation time: Illegal. 2 violation(s).

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Xyz Summons (Phantom Knights Xyz, Raider's Knight, Malevolent Scythe) with Rank-Up-Magic follow-up and Phantom Knights recursion from the GY; Link pressure (Rusty Bardiche) and Xyz Dragon boards (Dark Requiem, Arc Rebellion)
• Turn 1 (going first): Open on Phantom Knights monsters that Special Summon from hand (Silent Boots, Doomed Soleret, Decayed Cloak) to reach a Level 3 Xyz pair, while holding hand traps (Ash, Ghost Belle, Infinite Impermanence) for the opponent's first activation
• Turn 2 (going second): Use hand traps (Ash, Ghost Belle, Infinite Impermanence, Droll & Lock Bird, Dominus Impulse) to break the opponent's first board, then rebuild through GY Phantom Knights effects into an Xyz or Link
• Recovery: Banish Phantom Knights from the GY for their GY and banish effects, search via Silent Boots, Decayed Cloak and Ancient Cloak, and Rank-Up-Magic to re-establish Xyz boards
• After siding: No side deck (0 cards), so there is no post-side plan; best-of-3 adaptation is not available as built

Why it scores here

The deck reliably reaches a live Phantom Knights engine: 27 exact-name archetype copies give roughly a 97% chance of at least one in a 5-card opening hand (Inferred), and the Silent Boots, Doomed Soleret and Decayed Cloak hand-summon routes keep the first turn functional. Its interaction density is the strongest part of the system, with 8 hand traps, 17 negation-text cards and 29 removal-text cards, so a going-second player has about a 63% chance of holding at least one hand trap (Inferred). Recursion from the GY through banish-cost effects supports resilience and resource regrowth across turns. Scoring is applied to the system: consistency, interaction and recovery were weighted, while the 56% core presence, the many off-archetype support cards and the Mulcharmy-versus-field-trap engine conflict held the score down. The deck is illegal as built (3 copies each of Ash Blossom and Dominus Impulse against a limit of 2), has no side deck and no combo or tournament data, so the final score is capped at 40 and reported as theoretical and structural only; popularity in usage statistics was not credited as power, and card scores were not averaged.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Midrange. Structural ≈ 60.5, Going First ≈ 64, Going Second ≈ 66, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 52. Modifiers: banlist exposure (-3); no Side Deck (-2); engine conflict (-1); illegal_cap (0). Final formula: Illegal cap applied. Uncapped: 0.80*60.5 + 0.20*52 + modifiers(-6) ≈ 53; capped at 40 for an illegal list (theoretical/structural only). Meta Power provisional/null.

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.97 · key two-card combo ≈ — · full-brick estimate ≈ 0.03 (all Inferred)
• Combo output: best PowerIndex —, median —, board-per-starter —
• Turn order: 0 going-first lines vs 0 going-second lines

Strengths

• Core engine accessibility: 27 exact-name Phantom Knights copies give about 97% opening-hand access.
• Interaction density: 8 hand traps, 17 negation-text and 29 removal-text cards.
• Recursion from the GY through banish-cost effects supports resilience and rebuild.

Weaknesses

• Illegal as built: Ash Blossom and Dominus Impulse at 3 copies each against a limit of 2.
• No side deck, so no best-of-3 adaptation.
• Low exact-name purity (38.6%) and several off-plan Extra Deck cards.
• Mulcharmy engine conflicts with field-occupying Spell/Traps.

Critical choke points

• Legal copy-limit fix is required before any production-grade read is meaningful.
• Hand-summon starters need a Phantom Knights monster in hand; a hand with only hand traps stalls.

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Legality: Illegal, Ash Blossom and Dominus Impulse over copy limit.; Main 55, Extra 15, Side 0 against OCG size rules.; Card texts for all 29 distinct Main Deck cards and 14 Extra Deck cards.
• Observed: Usage stats: core present 56%, 14 of 25 core cards run.
• Inferred: 97% core-starter access (hypergeometric, Main Deck only).; 63% hand-trap access going second.; Interaction and resilience reads from card text.
• Provisional: Meta power and matchup fit (no dated meta sample).; Tournament reliability (no win-rate or tournament data).
• 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, game-level, brick/starter/OTK rates are Inferred or Unknown Meta Power is Provisional unless a dated metagame sample is supplied no side deck — post-side performance cannot be evaluated