Thunder Dragon Deck #774387 — Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 61/100 (±6 · Confidence: Medium)

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

Legality

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

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Level 8+ Fusion/Xyz/Link boards: Thunder Dragon Colossus (2 copies, 2600 ATK) and Levianeer/Lubellion/Imsety-class 3000-ATK bodies, reached through Thunder Dragon, Horus and Bystial hand/GY summons; King's Sarcophagus recursion of six Horus monsters from the GY, feeding Xyz and Link material into the Extra Deck
• Turn 1 (going first): Search or draw a Thunder Dragon starter (Dragonroar, Dragondark or Dragonhawk, 7 copies) and use its GY/banish effect to bring out a second Thunder Dragon, then Xyz or Fusion into a 3000-ATK boss; Sarcophagus is needed only for the Horus line.
• Turn 2 (going second): Hold D.D. Crow or Nibiru (2 copies each) for the opponent's summon or Quick Effect, then rebuild through Bystial hand-summons (Saronir, Lubellion, Druiswurm, Magnamhut) that banish a LIGHT or DARK monster from either GY.
• Recovery: Recover from the GY: Dragonroar, Dragondark and Dragonhawk each re-add or re-summon a Thunder Dragon, Sarcophagus revives Horus monsters, and Bystial monsters return from the GY through their own effects.
• After siding: Not applicable: Duel Links has no sideboard in this export (Side Deck size 0), so no post-side plan is evaluated.

Why it scores here

The deck scores on how the whole system behaves, not on the card list. Its opening reliability comes from 7 Thunder Dragon starter/searcher copies (about a 76% chance of at least one in a 5-card opening hand, Inferred) plus 12 searcher-text cards (about 94%). Three sub-engines (Thunder Dragon, Horus and Bystial, 9/6/6 exact-name or family copies) give it redundancy, so one disrupted line can be replaced by another, which is what earns the resilience and resource scores. Board breaking and interaction come from D.D. Crow, Nibiru and the Bystial banish effects, and the Extra Deck supplies several 3000-ATK closers. The score is held back by the 23.1% exact-name purity, the dependence of six Horus monsters on a single King's Sarcophagus line (only about 43% to open with it), and the absence of any recorded boards, so the combo ceiling and median are text-only inference. Guide popularity and the usage stats confirm that the list is real and accessible, but they added no points; card scores were not averaged.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Midrange. Structural ≈ 62.8, Going First ≈ 66, Going Second ≈ 60, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 62. Modifiers: Engine redundancy (2); King's Sarcophagus choke point (-2); Shared GY/banish resources (-2). Final formula: 0.80*Structural + 0.20*TournamentReliability + ContextModifiers (Meta provisional; Structural is meta-neutral: D13 dropped and weights renormalized over 95)

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.76 · 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

• Three archetype engines give redundancy after one disruption
• Seven Thunder Dragon starters/searchers, with 12 searcher-text cards overall
• Two hand traps (D.D. Crow, Nibiru) plus Bystial banish for going-second interaction
• High-ATK Extra Deck closers at 2500–3000 ATK

Weaknesses

• Exact-name purity 23.1%; the list spreads across three sub-archetypes
• Six Horus monsters depend on King's Sarcophagus (3 copies)
• No recorded boards, so the combo ceiling and median are text-only
• No sideboard, so no post-side adaptation

Critical choke points

• King's Sarcophagus: required to revive the Horus monsters from the GY
• Bystial hand-summons need a LIGHT/DARK monster in either GY to banish
• Colossus needs a Thunder monster effect activated in the same turn or a Thunder Effect Monster to tribute

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Main 30 / Extra 9 / Side 0 within duel-links size rules; Coach King Giantrainer Limited 1/1; Druiswurm and Magnamhut Semi-Limited at 1 copy each (legal 2); Copy histogram 4×3, 5×2, 8×1 across 17 distinct main cards; Card ATK/DEF and Extra Deck breakdown (2 Fusion, 3 Link, 4 Xyz); Guide titles and snippets acknowledge the deck's popularity and past nerfs
• Inferred: Opening-hand probabilities (≈0.76 for Thunder Dragon starters; 0.43 for Sarcophagus); Consistency, brick risk, and going-first/second estimates; Combo ceiling and median from text only (no boards); Interaction quality from card text (negate/banish/hand traps)
• Provisional: Meta Power (null, no dated metagame sample); Matchup fit (D13 dropped from structural); Post-side plan (no sideboard in format)
• 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 usage statistics marks Thunder Dragon Colossus (card 15291624) as not in this deck, but the card list shows it ×2 in the Extra Deck; the card list was treated as authoritative 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