Branded Deck #773322 — Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 32/100 (±8 · Confidence: Low)

• Primary strategy: Combo
• Secondary strategies: Tempo, Control
• Format: ocg

Legality

Main 55 / Extra 15 / Side 0 — status under the rules at evaluation time: Illegal. 3 violation(s).

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Sky Striker Ace Link chains (Raye, Zero, Azalea, Zeke, Camellia) converting Sky Striker Mobilize and Special Maneuver recursion into a Link-board with 1500-2000 ATK bodies; Fusion or Synchro plays (Dragon that Devours the Dogma, Ecclesia and the Dark Dragon) as a Branded splash, with only three Branded-named cards in the main
• Turn 1 (going first): Open a monster from the 11 main-deck monsters, then Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage! or Ace Raye tribute into a Link-3-type board; Lightning Storm or Harpie's Feather Duster clears backrow if the opponent sets
• Turn 2 (going second): Hand traps (Ash Blossom, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, Droll & Lock Bird) to slow the opponent's first combo, then Forbidden Droplet or Lightning Storm to reset their board
• Recovery: Sky Striker spells in the GY (Mobilize, Special Maneuver) re-enable Ace summons and Shizuku/Kagari draw-or-add effects, so a broken first board can rebuild if the Extra Deck Link monsters survive
• After siding: Not evaluable: the export has no side deck (Side Deck size 0), so no sideboard plan exists

Why it scores here

The score is structural and theoretical only, because the list is Illegal: three cards are over their OCG copy limits (Ash Blossom, The Fallen & The Virtuous, Super Polymerization run 3 copies each against a limit of 2). The deck is a Sky Striker Link engine, not a Branded deck: 44 of 55 main slots are Spells, only about 11 main-deck monsters are present, and 26 of the Sky Striker-named cards carry most of the engine, while the exact Branded name appears only three times. Consistency is the main weakness: the probability that a 5-card opening hand contains at least one Sky Striker Ace Raye is about 0.25, and many engine Spells need monsters on the field, so the typical hand is a brick. Interaction is a real strength, with five hand traps, Forbidden Droplet, Lightning Storm, Harpie's Feather Duster and Mecha removal giving the deck layered answers that help it go second. Popularity did not earn points: Branded has a high usage-stat inclusion for its core cards, but this list runs almost none of them (only Droll & Lock Bird), and no card scores were averaged into the deck score.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Combo. Structural ≈ 46, Going First ≈ 40, Going Second ≈ 44, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 35. Modifiers: banlist exposure (-8); unrecoverable choke point (-4). Final formula: Illegal list: theoretical/structural-only, capped low. Base 0.80*Structural(46) + 0.20*TournamentReliability(35) = 43.8, then context modifiers (-12) = 31.8, rounded to 32. Meta Power provisional/null.

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.25 · 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

• Layered hand traps and negation (Ash Blossom, Ghost Ogre, Droll, Forbidden Droplet) give a real going-second plan
• Sky Striker recursion via Mobilize and Special Maneuver gives some route redundancy after a broken board
• Strong Link-summon payoffs in the Extra Deck (Ace Zero, Azalea, Zeke)

Weaknesses

• Illegal list: three cards over copy limit
• Very spell-heavy main deck (44 of 55) with only about 11 monsters, so opening hands bricks often
• Archetype label Branded does not match the Sky Striker-dominated composition
• No side deck, so no post-side adaptation

Critical choke points

• Having at least one main-deck monster or Sky Striker Ace starter in the opening hand
• Single Link-summon route per turn (Link monsters are once-per-turn each)

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Illegal status: Ash Blossom, The Fallen & The Virtuous and Super Polymerization exceed the OCG copy limit of 2; Main 55, Extra 15, Side 0 are within size rules; Card text for Sky Striker Ace Raye, Lightning Storm, Forbidden Droplet, Ash Blossom and Droll is taken from the evidence excerpts
• Inferred: Starter access about 0.25 from the 3-copy hypergeometric; Brick rate high given 44 Spells against about 11 monsters; Going-second plan from hand traps and Lightning Storm; Structural weights and dimension scores
• Provisional: Meta Power (null, no dated metagame sample); Format fit and matchup coverage (no tournament data)
• Data gaps: Illegal list: no normal Final Contextual score, so the value is a capped theoretical estimate 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 exists in YGOVN Meta Power is provisional unless a dated metagame sample is supplied No side deck in the export, so post-side scoring is not possible