Phantom Knights Deck #774930 — Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 57/100 (±8 · Confidence: Medium)

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

Legality

Main 55 / Extra 15 / Side 0 — status: Legal.

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Xyz bosses from the Extra Deck (Arc Rebellion, Dark Requiem, Four Heavenly Dragons, Divine Arsenal) built from Phantom Knights Level 3 monsters; Link and Xyz pressure via Rusty Bardiche, Evilswarm Ophion, Exosister Karmael, Malevolent Scythe
• Turn 1 (going first): Turn 1 Phantom Knights Level 3 starter (Torn Scales, Silent Boots, Decayed Cloak, Doomed Soleret or Tsuchinoko) to search or recur a Phantom Knights piece, then Xyz Summon a boss while holding interaction for the opponent's first response
• Turn 2 (going second): Hold hand traps (Ash Blossom, Ghost Ogre, Ghost Belle, Maxx C, Droll and Lock Bird, Infinite Impermanence, Dominus Impulse) against the opponent's starter, then rebuild the Xyz engine from the Graveyard and searches
• Recovery: Recur Phantom Knights monsters from the Graveyard and banishment via the Graveyard effects of Silent Boots, Decayed Cloak, Ancient Cloak and Ragged Gloves, then re-Xyz from the remaining Level 3 monsters
• After siding: No Side Deck is run, so there is no post-side plan; the best-of-3 adjustment is absent

Why it scores here

The deck reliably opens a functional Phantom Knights starter: the 15 starter copies give about 0.81 chance of at least one in a 5-card opening hand and about 0.87 in a 6-card hand (Inferred hypergeometric), and the 20-copy archetype core is at least one in hand about 0.91 of the time. Its system strength comes from layered interaction (about 11 hand traps plus Solemn, Dominus, Heavy Storm and Feather Duster variants), which scores well on end-board quality and interruption resilience, and from Graveyard recursion that lets a Phantom Knights engine restart after disruption. Conversion is the weak link: no recorded boards exist, so combo ceiling and median are text-only inferences and are scored conservatively, and 61 percent of copies are off-archetype, which dilutes the engine. The deck runs no Side Deck, so best-of-3 adaptability is minimal. Popularity and usage statistics were used only to confirm the core is real, not to add points, and no card scores were averaged into the deck score.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Midrange. Structural ≈ 62, Going First ≈ 64, Going Second ≈ 68, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 54. Modifiers: Engine conflict (-2); Banlist exposure (-1). Final formula: 0.80*Structural + 0.20*TournamentReliability + ContextModifiers (Meta provisional; D13 dropped and Midrange weights renormalized by 95)

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.81 · 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

• Legal and complete 55/15 list with all restricted cards at legal copy counts
• Dense, layered hand-trap and end-board interaction
• Graveyard recursion restarts the Phantom Knights engine after disruption
• Xyz bosses reach 2500 to 3000 ATK
• Strong going-second interaction

Weaknesses

• No Side Deck, so no best-of-3 adaptation
• 61 percent off-archetype copies dilute the engine and create bricks
• Heavy Storm and Feather Duster conflict with the deck's own Spell/Trap engine pieces
• No recorded combos, so conversion and median are unverified
• Several Extra Deck slots have little support (Burning Abyss, Exosister, Lswarm)

Critical choke points

• Phantom Knights Level 3 starters (15 copies) are needed for the engine; losing them early leaves interaction-only hands
• Limited single-copy searchers and interaction (Reinforcement of the Army, Foolish Burial) are not replaceable

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Legal 55/15/0 list with banlist-compliant copy counts; Card text for the Phantom Knights engine and interaction cards; Usage statistics show the archetype core is present (48 percent of core cards)
• Inferred: Starter probability 0.81 (5-card) and 0.87 (6-card); Engine consistency and brick risk; Interaction density and resilience read from card text; Going-first and going-second estimates
• Provisional: Meta and matchup fit (D13 excluded from Structural); Median and ceiling combo output (no recorded boards)
• Data gaps: No recorded combos; combo ceiling, floor and median are text-only inference No tournament link; archetype meta-share and per-pilot record absent No win-rate telemetry; going-first and going-second splits are inferred No Side Deck; post-side plan cannot be evaluated Meta Power is Provisional with no dated metagame sample