Branded Deck #774394 — Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 62/100 (±8 · Confidence: Medium)

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

Legality

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

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Fusion Summon Level 8 DARK/LIGHT Dragons (Albion the Branded Dragon x2, Lubellion, Filia Regis, Khaos, Mirrorjade) through Fallen of Albaz as material, then close with 2500-3000 ATK bodies; Bystial recursion and banish-based removal (Druiswurm, Magnamhut, Saronir) to keep the board clear while fusion lines rebuild
• Turn 1 (going first): Open Fallen of Albaz (P of at least one in 5 cards is 0.43) or a searcher that reaches it, then Fusion Summon through Branded Fusion or Branded in White; hold Branded Retribution or Forbidden Droplet for the response
• Turn 2 (going second): With a 6-card hand (P of Albaz is 0.50), use Branded Retribution, Forbidden Droplet and Mirrorjade's removal to answer the first board, then rebuild a Fusion Monster from the GY
• Recovery: Albaz and Branded Fusion-linked monsters return from the GY via Aluber, Branded Beast, Screams of the Branded and Branded Sword; Branded Lost prevents responses to the Fusion Summon
• After siding: Not applicable: duel-links export has no side deck (side_count 0), so post-side adaptation is unevaluated

Why it scores here

The score comes from how the deck is built as a system, not from averaging card scores or from Branded's popularity: the single Fallen of Albaz starter (3 copies, about 0.43 chance of at least one in an opening 5) is offset by 14 searcher-text cards (about 0.97 chance of at least one in an opening 5), which keep the engine reachable. Conversion is strong on paper, since nine Fusion Monsters pass through Albaz and several land at 2500-3000 ATK, but no recorded boards exist, so the ceiling and median are text-based inference and the median is held at a neutral 50. Interaction is layered across negation (Branded Retribution, Forbidden Droplet, Tri-Brigade Mercourier, Predaplant) and banish or destroy removal (Mirrorjade, Filia Regis, Bystial Druiswurm and Magnamhut), and two GY recursion paths help the deck recover. The deck is held back by the single-copy starter dependence, the 28% exact-name archetype purity, the lack of any sideboard, and the absence of matchup data, so no meta or win-rate claim is made. Confidence is Medium because the list and card text are complete and archetype usage is present, but combos and tournament data are absent.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Combo (D13 dropped; remaining weights renormalised over 97). Structural ≈ 63, Going First ≈ 60, Going Second ≈ 65, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 56. Modifiers: Dependence on a single starter (Fallen of Albaz, 3 copies) (-3); Searcher redundancy (14 searcher-text cards) (3). Final formula: 0.80*Structural + 0.20*TournamentReliability + ContextModifiers (Meta provisional; Structural = sum(score*weight)/97 with D13 dropped: 6072/97 = 62.6, rounded to 63)

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.43 · 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 density (14 searcher-text cards) makes the engine reachable more often than a single starter alone suggests
• Layered interaction: negation (Branded Retribution, Forbidden Droplet, Tri-Brigade Mercourier, Predaplant) plus banish or destroy removal (Mirrorjade, Filia Regis, Bystial monsters)
• Multiple fusion routes through Fallen of Albaz (Branded Fusion, Branded in White, Branded in Red) and high-ATK closing bodies
• Legal: all copy counts within BanDuelLink limits, Extra Deck at its 9-card maximum

Weaknesses

• Single-copy starter access: Fallen of Albaz (3 copies) has about 0.43 chance of appearing in an opening 5 going first
• Low exact-name archetype purity (28.2%) and 9 generic plus 9 non-Branded copies dilute the engine
• Single-copy spells (17 singles in total) raise brick and dead-card risk in some hands
• No sideboard in the format export, so post-side adaptation cannot be assessed

Critical choke points

• Fallen of Albaz is required by most Fusion routes; losing it to disruption or a missed draw collapses most lines
• Going-first 5-card hand has a 57% chance of no Albaz, so opening quality depends on searcher hits

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Legal in duel-links: 30 main, 9 extra, 0 side within size rules; banlist: Super Polymerization Limited at 1 copy, Bystial Druiswurm and Magnamhut Semi-Limited at 1 copy each within limit 2; Composition: 22 distinct main, 8 distinct extra, 9 fusion, exact-name Branded purity 28.2%; Usage statistics: core present 17 of 25 (68%); Card text read from description_excerpt for all listed cards
• Inferred: Starter access: P(at least one Fallen of Albaz) 0.43 going first, 0.50 going second (hypergeometric); Searcher redundancy: P(at least one searcher-text card) 0.97; Interaction layering and recovery routes from card text; Ceiling (D3), resilience (D5), resource economy (D6) and closing power (D9) are text-based reads
• Provisional: Meta power (no dated metagame sample); Matchup fit (D13), side adaptability (D12) and tournament reliability
• Data gaps: no combos supplied: combo floor, median and ceiling are text-only inference (combos_evidence total_combos 0) no tournament link: archetype meta-share and per-pilot match record absent no win-rate telemetry exists in YGOVN; going-first and going-second splits and matchup results are unknown Meta power is provisional without a dated metagame sample No sideboard in the duel-links export; post-side adaptation is unevaluated Guides are context only and do not count as evidence of power