Phantom Knights Deck #775195 — Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG

Deck — Deck Power Evaluation

Final Contextual Deck Power: 30/100 (±8 · Confidence: Low)

• Primary strategy: Midrange
• Secondary strategies: Stun, Tempo
• Format: ocg

Legality

Main 55 / Extra 15 / Side 0 — status under the rules at evaluation time: Illegal. 1 violation(s).

Identity & game plan

• Win condition: Link Summon Salamangreat Raging Phoenix / Pyro Phoenix (2800 ATK) and Super Starslayer TY-PHON / Horse Prince as closers; Salamangreat Miragestallio and Sunlight Wolf board pressure through Link recursion
• Turn 1 (going first): Search a Salamangreat starter (Circle, Foxy, Gazelle) and build toward a Link 2-3 with Balelynx or Sunlight Wolf; hold hand traps (Ash, Infinite Impermanence, Droll) for the opponent's first activation
• Turn 2 (going second): Use Ash Blossom, Droll & Lock Bird, Skull Meister and Nibiru to break the opponent's first board, then rebuild through Salamangreat searchers
• Recovery: Salamangreat Charge and Will of the Salamangreat recover Salamangreat monsters from the GY; Pot of Sloth and Cynet Mining refill the hand
• After siding: No Side Deck in the export, so no post-side plan exists

Why it scores here

The list is mostly a Salamangreat Link shell (29 of 66 off-name copies) labelled Phantom Knights, and only 4 copies carry the archetype name, so the archetype label is not a reliable read of the engine. Its core searchers (Salamangreat Circle, Foxy, Gazelle, Balelynx) give about a 69% chance of at least one archetype-core card in the opening five, which is the main reason D1 is not lower. Interaction is the strongest part of the system: 14 negation-text and 18 removal-text cards, with 11 hand traps, give a 76% chance of at least one hand trap in a going-second six, which lifts D7 and D8. Closing power comes from the 2800-ATK Phoenix Links and TY-PHON, and no combo boards were recorded, so the floor, median and ceiling are text-only inferences. The score was not produced by averaging card scores or by the archetype's popularity: the list is Illegal (3 copies of Ash Blossom against a limit of 2), so the score is capped as a structural-only read and no normal Final Contextual score applies.

Dimension scores

How the score was computed

Strategy profile: Midrange primary; Stun secondary not blended into the weights (disclosed for transparency). Structural ≈ 51, Going First ≈ 50, Going Second ≈ 56, Meta = provisional, Tournament Reliability ≈ 40. Modifiers: banlist exposure (-6); no side deck (-3). Final formula: Pre-cap: 0.80*Structural(51) + 0.20*TournamentReliability(40) + modifiers(-9) = 40; capped to 30 because the list is Illegal (theoretical/structural-only, no normal Final Contextual score)

Probability & combo summary

• Opening a starter: P(≥1) ≈ 0.69 · 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

• Dense interaction: 11 hand traps plus negation and removal text on about 14 and 18 cards
• Strong Link closers: Raging Phoenix and Pyro Phoenix at 2800 ATK, TY-PHON at 2900 ATK
• Good Extra Deck coverage across 12 Links, 2 Xyz and 1 Synchro

Weaknesses

• Illegal list: 3 copies of Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring against a limit of 2
• Archetype label does not match the list: only 4 of 66 off-name copies are Phantom Knights; the engine is Salamangreat
• No Side Deck, so no best-of-3 adaptation
• Many off-plan tech and hand traps lower the consistency of the opening hand

Critical choke points

• Salamangreat searcher density (Circle, Foxy, Gazelle, Balelynx) is the single route to the Link engine
• Ash Blossom over the copy limit must be cut before the list can be used in OCG play

Recommended changes

Evidence & confidence

• Verified: Main 55 / Extra 15 / Side 0 are within OCG size rules; Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring: 3 copies vs legal 2 (Illegal); Card text and stats for all listed cards; Extra Deck breakdown: 12 Link, 2 Xyz, 1 Synchro; Exact-name archetype purity 5.7%; Salamangreat is the largest related archetype (29 copies)
• Observed: Usage stats: 5 of 25 archetype core cards present, 20% core presence
• Inferred: At least one archetype-core card in 5 cards ≈ 0.69; At least one hand trap in 6 going second ≈ 0.76; Going-first and going-second estimates; Brick and consistency estimates from text and copy histogram
• Provisional: Meta Power (no dated metagame sample); Format fit (no tournament context)
• Data gaps: No combos supplied: floor, median and ceiling are text-only inference No tournament link: meta-share and per-pilot record absent No win-rate telemetry in YGOVN: going-first, going-second, matchup and brick rates are Inferred or Unknown Meta Power is Provisional unless a dated metagame sample is supplied Deck title is null and the archetype label does not match the list composition