While Chain Disappearance has garnered a great deal of attention over the past weeks due to its ability to counter the effects of Thousand-Eyes Restrict and Scapegoat, a similar, perhaps better answer has been mostly ignored. The only thing better than destroying bothersome monsters is turning them against your opponent, and today’s card lets you do just that!

Possessed Dark Soul is a little-known common from Legacy of Darkness, and its effect makes it one of the most underrated cards in the current Advanced-format environment. However, before we look at the effect of this little powerhouse, let’s take a peek at its stats.

A Dark and Fiend monster, Possessed Dark Soul has the advantage of fitting nicely into any deck that wants a balance of Light and Dark monsters in order to fuel Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. Its 1200 ATK makes it a passable offensive option in a topdecking situation, while still allowing Sangan and Mystic Tomato to search for it. The fact that it’s a Fiend means it can even feed Dark Necrofear, so this is a potentially synergistic card for a variety of decks.

This is all well and good, but the main attraction is this card’s effect. Possessed Dark Soul can be tributed to give you control of all monsters on the opponent’s side of the field that are level 3 or lower. There are two important rules issues to remember when you’re using Possessed Dark Soul.

First, if you don't have enough free monster slots on the field for all of your opponent’s monsters that are level 3 or lower, you can choose which ones you'd like to take, and the rest will be destroyed.

Second, because you must tribute Possessed Dark Soul in order to claim its effect, that effect is incredibly difficult to counter. You may claim the right to priority upon summoning Possessed Dark Soul, so Bottomless Trap Hole or Ring of Destruction won’t have a chance to interrupt its effect. Also, since Possessed Dark Soul removes itself from the field upon activation, a card like Skill Drain is powerless to stop the effect’s resolution. This means that very few cards can stop Possessed Dark Soul from working, as long as you plan to use its effect as soon as it hits the field. This gives it an advantage over Chain Disappearance, which is relatively easy to negate.

Let’s look at some of the monsters that you can take with this card. We’ll examine a few individually and others in groups, and though there are a great deal of monsters in the game that are level 3 or lower, we’ll stick with the ones that you’re most likely to see.

Scapegoat

There are very few reasons to play Possessed Dark Soul that are more important than this one. Scapegoat is being run in virtually every tournament-competitive archetype, and is the only reason that many games take as long as they do. Most players are packing at least one answer to Scapegoat, and while the most successful pieces of Scapegoat tech are popular for their versatility, they just can’t do some of the things that Possessed Dark Soul can do.

Take Asura Priest, for example. It needs a clear line of fire in order to disrupt an opponent’s Sheep tokens, and a single Sakuretsu Armor will lay it low. Similarly, Chain Disappearance needs to be set before the opponent uses Scapegoat, and can then be activated only if the resolution of Scapegoat was the last thing to happen on the chain. If Scapegoat was chained to the effect of another card, you’re out of luck. Possessed Dark Soul can be used whenever you like, and while that’s a technical strength, it’s also the source of potential psychological advantage. An opponent will believe that they’re safe behind that wall of Sheep tokens, right up until you’re ready to burst their bubble.

Thousand-Eyes Restrict

What’s better than stealing an opponent’s Sheep tokens? How about stealing their most powerful Control monster? The past six weeks have demonstrated just how good Thousand-Eyes Restrict really is, and most of the top twenty finishers at the recent US Nationals were using it. Capable of locking down the field and controlling the game in its owner’s favor for turns upon turns, Thousand-Eyes Restrict can be absolutely brutal.

Using Possessed Dark Soul to deal with it packs all the advantages described in the previous paragraphs on Scapegoat. Asura Priest simply cannot attack Thousand-Eyes Restrict, while Chain Disappearance has its signature weaknesses to Jinzo. Possessed Dark Soul goes one better though, by not only bypassing those problems but also giving you a free Thousand-Eyes Restrict for your trouble. While converting Sheep tokens to your cause is one thing, gaining complete control of the field and the right to attack while your opponent cannot is very, very different.

Spirit Reaper

Spirit Reaper is just a headache. Because it’s generally placed in face-down defense position, there isn’t much that Chain Disappearance can usually do to it, and Asura Priest is similarly ineffective. Not so for Possessed Dark Soul! Once Spirit Reaper is face up, you can easily claim it as your own, and if the opponent is counting on it to hold off your attacks for any period of time longer than a single turn, he or she will probably be pretty shocked. This is another attractive monster to take, as the only thing more demoralizing than losing it outright is seeing it turned to attack position and then losing a card to its effect.

Next up are two groups of monsters that share common interactions with Possessed Dark Soul.

The first are monsters that are simply best not to attack. Sangan, Nimble Momonga, Injection Fairy Lily, Sinister Serpent, and Peten the Dark Clown all see play and are all obnoxious to find on the other side of the table. Possessed Dark Soul prevents all of them from using their nasty battle effects, and in the case of Injection Fairy Lily, it can easily win you the game.

Next, there are many effect monsters that may not be all that helpful to your own cause, but that often become road blocks on your opponent’s field. Snatching them out of the way can allow you to attack directly and exercise more aggression. Think Magician of Faith, Night Assailant, and Mystic Swordsman LV2. Heck, Possessed Dark Soul can even counter Gyaku-Gire Panda, turning what might be your opponent’s best attacker into their biggest liability.

While Possessed Dark Soul’s cost (the summoning and tribute of itself) requires a big commitment, remember that you aren’t just losing a monster in order to claim an effect—you’re always going to be getting at least one monster in return. While it’s easy to see any tribute monster as representing the loss of a turn’s summon, this instance is one of the few exceptions. Keep that in mind when you’re deciding on what to include in your side deck. Give Possessed Dark Soul a shot, and you might be surprised at how many games you can win with it!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Do you know an underplayed card that you think deserves some recognition? Let me know by giving me a holler at Jason@metagame.com.