This week, we have a direct counterpart to Call of the Haunted.
Escape from the Dark Dimension
Choose one of your Dark monsters that has been removed from play and special summon it. When this card is removed from the field, destroy and remove from play that monster. When that monster is destroyed, destroy this card.
There are many obvious targets that come to mind for this card’s effect. Dark Magician of Chaos is one of them. Your only saving grace against this behemoth is that it removes itself from the game when it goes down, right? With Escape from the Dark Dimension, this big Spellcaster can come back even from that position. It’s like having a recurring nightmare over and over.
Another card we’d like to keep in the remove-from-play pile is Destiny Hero - Disk Commander. Nabbing this monster out of the graveyard with D.D. Crow is good enough to give me some breathing room. Now the Perfect Circle player generally has nothing to fear from D.D. Crow after Game 1. If your Disk Commander gets removed from the graveyard, simply bring him back with Escape from the Dark Dimension and tribute for Raiza the Storm Monarch. You won’t get to draw two cards, since Disk Commander needs to return from the graveyard, but Escape will at least get him back to where he needs to be. On your next turn, you can play Premature Burial to bring him back, draw more cards, and continue the vicious cycle.
You can have a lot of fun with this card. Let’s expand our horizons a bit. Remember an old friend named Strike Ninja? Removing Dark monsters from the graveyard has never been a more enjoyable experience. Considering that you have many beefy monsters that require tribute, Jinzo is an excellent choice to remove from the graveyard for Strike Ninja’s effect. Dark Ruler Ha Des is another personal favorite. I haven’t taken that fossil out of my "extra cards" box for about two years now. Everyone knows the problem with Dark Ruler Ha Des: "I can’t be special summoned from the graveyard." Now it’s not a problem if it gets nuked while it’s on the field. Just find a way to remove it for something useful like Strike Ninja or Bazoo the Soul-Eater, and bring it back with Escape.
More Benefits
Another benefit to Escape from the Dark Dimension is that it removes the monster from play again if the card is removed from the field. That’s another opportunity to re-use that monster up to two more times if you include additional copies in your main deck. Can you imagine special summoning Dark Magician of Chaos multiple times? It’s bad enough having to deal with him the first time. Don’t forget about Jinzo either. Jinzo is a terror the first time he hits the field. I like how Escape from the Dark Dimension has the same interaction with Jinzo as Call of the Haunted: destroying Escape won’t actually do anything to Jinzo, since Jinzo is negating its effect.
Moving on from the old-school classics, let’s consider what upcoming cards can be used with Escape from the Dark Dimension. You can bring back the monsters that you remove for powerhouses like The Dark Creator and Dark Armed Dragon. Assuming you’ve fulfilled the requirements to special summon The Dark Creator, you can activate its ignition effect to remove a Dark monster from play and special summon another Dark monster from the graveyard. Then, activate Escape from the Dark Dimension to bring back whatever Dark monster you removed. Three monsters on the field is nothing to take lightly. Dark Armed Dragon is a nifty card too. Remove whatever you intend to bring back via its effect and then add another monster to the field. You get to destroy a card using a spent one (the Dark monster) and revive a spent monster to do more damage to your opponent that turn. Preferably, you would remove Dark Magician of Chaos to retrieve a spell card. I love it.
Deck Possibilities
It’s easy to make a good Dark aggro deck with the boost in support Phantom Darkness has provided. Magical Merchant and Armageddon Knight make an excellent duo for fueling your graveyard quickly. Magical Merchant can dump a large chunk of monsters, while Armageddon Knight has the benefit of specifically choosing the right Dark monster for the situation every time it’s summoned. I can see a Strike Ninja deck being viable soon. It’s easier than ever to throw monsters into the graveyard. D.D. Scout Plane is still a good option for some interim field presence as well as tribute fodder. The Dark-themed deck benefits even more from the addition of a certain Monarch arriving in a few months.
You can go beyond Strike Ninja and go strictly remove-from-play with Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos. If you stick to a majority of Dark monsters, you can play these continuous removal cards without fear of losing your monsters for good. Now you have revival options for your remove-from-play deck and the immortal pseudo-Treeborn Frog: D.D. Survivor. For Zombie decks, Escape from the Dark Dimension can offer hope of retaliation from the relentless thievery committed by D.D. Crow. I can’t count how many times I’ve tried to use Zombie Master’s effect or activated Book of Life, only to have that annoying bird nab their target out of the graveyard.
We can say that Escape from the Dark Dimension is the equivalent to Call of the Haunted. As such, a Strike Ninja deck has access to at least three copies of a Call of the Haunted effect. Suddenly, removing two Dark monsters has never been so painless! Return from the Different Dimension and Dimension Fusion are fantastic cards, but both have a harsh life point cost. Escape from the Dark Dimension is your free ticket to powerful monsters.
Final Thoughts
This is an exciting time to play the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. The additional boost in Dark monsters opens up a slew of possibilities for the ever-evolving environment. The Strike Ninja deck is made possible again with Escape from the Dark Dimension. Why wouldn’t you want to special summon Dark Magician of Chaos, the 2800 ATK spell-retrieving harbinger of destruction, as much as humanly possible? Why wouldn’t you want to bring back Jinzo for free after he’s been removed? Why wouldn’t you want to play the now-competitive Dark Ruler Ha Des? The card is stronger, ATK-wise, than nearly every played monster in the game. Return from the Different Dimension can definitely come back to the competitive spotlight with a vengeance. However, I think Escape from the Dark Dimension is a much more stable option. Who likes paying life points for cards? Not me.
Do you like giving your Dark powerhouse monsters a chance for a round two, three, or four? I certainly do. Escape from the Dark Dimension is going to have a definite impact on tournament play.
-Bryan Camareno