Phantom Knights Deck #773271 — Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 31/100 (±10 · Confidence: Low)

• Primary strategy: Midrange
• Secondary strategies: Toolbox, Xyz/Link engine
• Format: ocg

Legality

Main 50 / Extra 20 / Side 0 — status under the rules at evaluation time: Illegal. 1 violation(s).

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Xyz Summon high-ATK Phantom Knights / Rank-Up Xyz boss monsters (Dark Rebellion Four Heavenly, Malevolent Scythe, Break Sword) from a Phantom Knights engine that recurs from GY and banishment; Link and off-archetype Xyz finishers (Rusty Bardiche, Raider's Knight, Super Starslayer TY-PHON) if the Phantom Knights line is answered
• Turn 1 (going first): Open a 2-card Phantom Knights bootstrap (Torn Scales, Silent Boots, Decayed Cloak, Doomed Soleret), use the hand-summon and Deck-search chain to reach a Level 3 Xyz, then go to a Rank-Up-Magic or Xyz boss (Inferred; no sampled boards)
• Turn 2 (going second): Use hand traps (Ash Blossom, Infinite Impermanence, Maxx C, Droll & Lock Bird) on the opponent's first engine, then rebuild through GY recursion and Rank-Up spells (Inferred; no sampled boards)
• Recovery: Banish Phantom Knights from the GY to re-summon them and Rank-Up into a higher-Rank boss; Raider's Wing and Rank-Up Force provide extra recursion (Inferred)
• After siding: Not evaluable: the deck has no Side Deck (side_count 0), so there is no post-side plan

Why it scores here

The score comes from the deck as a system and not from averaging card scores. The 30 exact-name Phantom Knights copies plus the Xyz and Rank-Up cards give a high chance of at least one archetype card in the opening hand (about 0.96 for the core group, Inferred), which supports a usable T1 engine. Conversion is hard to quantify: there are no recorded boards, so the ceiling and median are text-only estimates and are scored low. Only 43% of the main deck is exact-name Phantom Knights, and 40 copies are off-archetype staples, hand traps and tech cards, which lowers engine coherence and raises brick risk. The deck has no Side Deck, so post-side adaptability is minimal. The Extra Deck holds 20 cards against an OCG maximum of 15, so the list is illegal and is capped to a theoretical, structural-only score. Popularity did not earn points, and no meta or tournament data was supplied.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Midrange. Structural ≈ 44, Going First ≈ 45, Going Second ≈ 40, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 40. Modifiers: illegal_extra_deck_size (-12). Final formula: 0.80*Structural + 0.20*TournamentReliability (Meta provisional) = 43.2, then illegal-deck cap modifier -12 = 31; theoretical/structural-only

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.96 · key two-card combo ≈ — · full-brick estimate ≈ 0.04 (all Inferred)
• Combo output: best PowerIndex —, median —, board-per-starter —
• Turn order: 0 going-first lines vs 0 going-second lines

Strengths

• Dense Phantom Knights engine: 30 exact-name copies, multiple hand- and GY-activated summons, and high archetype-core opening-hand odds (Inferred)
• Layered interaction: Ash Blossom, Infinite Impermanence, Maxx C, Droll & Lock Bird, Dominus Impulse, Fog Blade and Ultimate Sky (Verified text, Inferred impact)
• Multiple Xyz and Link finishers at 2000-3000 ATK, with Rank-Up spells to convert GY resources (Verified text)

Weaknesses

• Extra Deck of 20 cards exceeds the OCG limit of 15, making the list illegal (Verified)
• Only 42.9% exact-name archetype purity: 40 off-archetype copies (Dominus, Mulcharmy, Greed, Armed Dragon, Raidraptor) dilute the engine (Verified)
• No Side Deck, so there is no post-side plan (Verified)
• Dependence on several Limited cards (Maxx C, Droll, Foolish Burial, Reinforcement, Crossout Designator, S:P Little Knight) at one copy each (Verified)

Critical choke points

• Illegal Extra Deck size: the list cannot be played in OCG events until 5 Extra Deck cards are removed (Verified)
• Engine depends on Phantom Knights monsters being in the hand or GY; a clean hand-trap on the first summon ends the line (Inferred)

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Extra Deck holds 20 cards against the OCG maximum of 15 (size_warnings); All restricted cards are at or below their legal copy limits; Exact-name archetype purity 42.9% (30 of 70 archetype-related copies); Side Deck is empty
• Inferred: Archetype-core opening-hand probability about 0.96; Hand-trap probability about 0.62 going second; Engine recursion and interaction density read from card text; Midrange profile chosen from Xyz/Rank-Up engine plus hand-trap density
• Provisional: Meta Power and matchup fit (no dated metagame sample or tournament link)
• Data gaps: Illegal Extra Deck size: score capped and labelled theoretical/structural-only No combos supplied (total_combos 0): floor, median and ceiling are text-only inference No tournament link: archetype meta share and pilot record absent No win-rate telemetry (going-first/second, matchup, brick/starter rates) Usage-statistics inconsistency: several cards marked in_this_deck false (S:P Little Knight, Evilswarm Ophion, Cherubini, I:P Masquerena, Arc Rebellion, Raider's Knight, Exosister Karmael, Dark Requiem, Dark Rebellion, Rusty Bardiche) are present in the Extra Deck card list; core_present_pct 54.5 is unreliable and was not used No Side Deck data Deck title is null