The release of Phantom Darkness is literally around the corner. The looming threat of several tournament-playable cards is hard to deny. It’s important to consider possible changes in the metagame with each new release. This set, I feel, will change things. Let’s examine how previously-released cards interact with the upcoming material in Phantom Darkness.

The central theme of the heavy-hitting monsters in this set is: "Remove a Dark monster from your graveyard to do something useful." Dark Armed Dragon embodies this concept in the best way. There’s an obvious overwhelming power to this card. To support this, there are cards in Phantom Darkness that help you fill up your graveyard like Armageddon Knight. You can also look to past sets and find cards that support the Dark attribute.

At the front of the list, we have Mystic Tomato: probably the most useful and powerful solution to all of your Dark needs. It can be (and has been) splashed into many different decks, and it’s respected for its ability to search for extremely useful Dark monsters. That list includes Spirit Reaper, Sangan, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander, Snipe Hunter, and Don Zaloog. Another target for Mystic Tomato’s effect is Armageddon Knight, which will land you a Dark monster from your deck to your graveyard. Two or three of these in a deck is perfect for fueling Dark Armed Dragon or The Dark Creator.

The forgotten king of graveyard spillage is Magical Merchant. Though it’s been collecting dust for a few months now, Magical Merchant will be really useful for speedy graveyard filling. Dark Nephthys is a natural fit in a Dark deck with Magical Merchant. A flip summon can result in two or three Dark monsters in the graveyard, and that fulfills the requirement to summon Dark Nephthys via its effect. It’s also a big contribution toward special summoning The Dark Creator. My favorite benefit of Magical Merchant is its ability to net you a spell or trap while it sets up your graveyard. There’s nothing like nabbing Call of the Haunted or Premature Burial after a successful deck-to-graveyard dump.

Giant Germ is an old-school favorite. How long has it been since any of you have heard mention of this bad boy? Essentially the counterpart to Nimble Momonga, Giant Germ can fill up your graveyard quickly and deal damage in the process. The Germ works beautifully with Creature Swap, allowing for some aggressive pushes for damage. A successful swap could result in 2000 life points worth of damage to the opponent by attacking, and another 1000 life points to him or her just to deal with the two Giant Germ cards on the field by battle.

D. D. Scout Plane, as I’ve mentioned in my last two preview articles, works well with the new Dark monsters. With D. D. Scout Plane, you essentially pay nothing to activate a variety of strong effects—like Allure of Darkness or Cyber Valley’s draw ability—and removing it from the graveyard for one of the bigger monsters just lets you special summon it. What more can you ask for? I love free effects that simultaneously reward me with extra monsters on the field to chump-block with. If they get destroyed in battle, who cares? You get to use them again.

 Strike Ninja is another forgotten favorite that can fit in a deck featuring Dark monsters. His effect can be used in the traditional sense—avoiding destruction—or it can be used to control the amount of Dark monsters in your graveyard. Ask yourself, "What if my Magical Merchant hits too many monsters and I can’t special summon my Dark Armed Dragon?" Let’s assume that your Magical Merchant threw five Dark monsters to the graveyard. Summon that Strike Ninja, use his effect, and get that Dark Armed Dragon out there. You have a monster returning to you at the end phase and you have a demolition engine at your beck and call. Bazoo the Soul-Eater can be used in the same way. Rather than waiting the whole turn for your monster, why not just remove three monsters to pump Bazoo to 2500 ATK? If you take into account the previous Magical Merchant scenario, then let’s assume you dropped six Dark monsters in the graveyard. Summon your chunky monkey to remove three of them. Afterward, special summon your Dark Armed Dragon. The result is obvious: a 2500 ATK monster and a 2800 ATK monster that can clear the opponent’s field.

Return from the Different Dimension and Dimension Fusion make a comeback of sorts with Phantom Darkness. With all this talk of removing monsters from the graveyard, why wouldn’t you play either of the two? Looking at the previous field scenario, you can easily create a huge swing for the game on that turn. Let’s face it, it won’t be hard to properly build a Dark attribute deck focused on graveyard dumping, right? I can see a whole field chock full of Turbo Dark decks taking advantage of strategies that can’t match their speed.