As a Day 1 and Day 2 competitor on the ground floor, Matt Peddle was afforded a different perspective in Nashville. Whenever a strong player like Matt has a different vantage point from my own, I’m always eager to see what he or she thinks, and Matt made a very interesting observation coming out of Nashville: Phantom of Chaos was, to him, the standout tech card of the weekend. The Phantom didn’t have a heavy representation in Day 1, but four of the Top 16 main-decked a single copy, so Matt’s observation was a very relevant and insightful one.

Fast forward to now, three weeks later: Shonen Jump Championship St. Louis has come and gone, and while Phantom of Chaos had less representation at that event than it did at Nashville (it was only main-decked by Jose Arocho, and sided by two more Day 2 duelists), I think it’s become a far more relevant card. I want to explain why, and show you how Phantom of Chaos could work for you in the current environment.

First, The Basics

First up, Phantom of Chaos provides incredible graveyard management. Removing a monster from your graveyard to mimic is part of the Phantom’s resolution, not a cost, so you’ll need to be able to successfully resolve its effect in order to remove a monster. But beyond that, the effect is incredibly easy to use. You don’t have to give anything up, and once per turn you can just kick a monster out of your graveyard. Unlike Strike Ninja, you don’t need to remove two monsters, and unlike both the Ninja and Prometheus, King of the Shadows, you can remove any effect monster—Phantom of Chaos isn’t limited by attributes.

This makes it a useful card for those situations where you just need to pare away a single monster to unleash Dark Armed Dragon, as well as an amazing combo with D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation or Escape from the Dark Dimension. Most Dark Armed decks aren’t running Strike Ninja and Prometheus anymore, since both tend to under-perform in an environment where Dimension Fusion is Forbidden and Return from the Different Dimension is Limited. But the Phantom’s higher level of versatility and access to desirable effects makes it viable, so graveyard management is still accessible.

Those big effects represent the second of four primary capabilities the Phantom wields. Need to lock down traps for a big push? Mimic Jinzo. Need targeted monster removal? Mimic Destiny Hero - Plasma. Turning the Phantom into Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon means an easy clearing of the field, and descending from those highlights are all sorts of effects that can help you dominate your opponent. I’ll go into finer details later, but for now, consider the fact that Phantom of Chaos gives free access to effects that you’re usually supposed to tribute or otherwise jump through hoops for. It’s a devastating shortcut with few drawbacks.

The Phantom mimics ATK too, and while it can’t deal battle damage to your opponent, it can wipe out one of his or her monsters with an attack. With Lightsworn and Gladiator Beasts often commanding control of the field simply by keeping an 1800 ATK beatstick on the table, this factor really can’t go ignored. The most satisfying plays with Phantom of Chaos will usually involve the use of a borrowed effect and a big attack in a single turn, stabilizing the field (and often destroying two of the opponent’s cards while you lose just the Phantom next turn). The prime example of this is Destiny Hero - Plasma. Mimic it with Phantom of Chaos, and you can inhale one of the opponent’s monsters while attacking over another to quickly wreck two cards with one.

Granted, in the wake of such a move you’re left with an attack-position 0 ATK Phantom on your opponent’s turn, but that’s often where the fourth and final capability of this deadly little monster comes into play: it’s Crush Card Virus bait. The Phantom is a Dark monster, and until it mimics something with higher ATK, it’s a valid tribute for the most feared trap in the game. If it pulls off a trick or two and then survives until your opponent’s next turn, you’re in an amazing position. The average player is going to want to take advantage of the Phantom’s vulnerability, which means attacking it with the biggest monster he or she can muster. Should that monster happen to have more than 1500 ATK, it’s a goner when you flip Crush Card Virus, stealing even more momentum.

There are many times when mimicking an effect-driven monster like Dark Grepher or Plasma, using the effect, and then just refusing to attack in order to keep Phantom on the field (safe from an opposing Mirror Force or Dimension Prison) will actually be the right play, specifically because of Crush Card Virus. Other times, mimicking nothing and just setting Phantom of Chaos will be even better. The fact that Phantom of Chaos is splashable in so many competitive decks right now makes it a prime complement for Crush Card.

So Where Was It Used?

First, Jose Arocho main decked a copy of Phantom of Chaos when he made Top 8 in St. Louis. Arocho was playing a Dark Armed Light and Darkness Dragon build, meaning that he could mimic Dark Armed Dragon, Jinzo, Destiny Hero - Plasma, and Snipe Hunter as his top four picks. Other options included Strike Ninja and Dark Grepher, both of which provide graveyard management above and beyond the Phantom’s own effect. That suite is important, because by playing just three cards, Arocho effectively gained access to five potential forms of graveyard management. That gave him an advantage in the mirror match, which panned out when he faced Jason Holloway in the Top 16. Holloway played Strike Ninja and Dark Grepher, but no Phantom, and I think that put him at a disadvantage heading into the Top 16.

Arocho’s deck had access to a ton of power cards through Phantom of Chaos. Dark Armed Dragon, Plasma, and Jinzo form a triumvirate of strong options for relatively little cost, a fact that’s kind of ironic when you consider how Dark Armed Return was originally fueled by a similarly under-costed trio of high-impact effect monsters. Arocho didn’t even have Crush Card Virus, but the Phantom still pulled him win after win all weekend long. With Dark Armed Dragon now a slower deck, access to effects through Phantom of Chaos makes a huge difference.

We saw similar showings from Lazaro Bellido, Cesar Gonzalez, Jerry Wang, and Hector Macias in Nashville, all of whom played a single main-decked copy of Phantom in Dark Armed Dragon decks (with relatively similar monster spreads). When Dark Armed Dragon was slowed by the mid-format changes to Dimension Fusion and Return, it got a lot harder for the deck to access its best effects. Phantom of Chaos swings the pendulum back in the other direction, and so far that’s made for five Day 2 appearances in focused Dark Armed Dragon builds.

Moving along, Chris Ballard played another deck that ran two copies of Dark Armed Dragon in St. Louis, taking a Jinzo - Returner strategy all the way to the Top 8 while siding a single Phantom. While he could mimic Dark Armed Dragon as well, the similarities kind of ended there. Since sending Jinzo to the graveyard was such a huge part of Ballard’s strategy, he played three copies of Armageddon Knight in conjunction with one Dark Grepher, giving him easy access to Phantom fodder.

Jinzo itself was an important part of the picture, much more so than in the dedicated Dark Armed builds, simply because it was there in the graveyard far more often. Ballard’s deck found huge benefits any time he could negate the opponent’s traps—making big presses when Jinzo was on the field—and the Phantom gave him another way to accomplish that in trap-heavy matchups. He could also mimic Card Trooper to send more Dark monsters, Jinzo cards, and copies of Jinzo - Returner to the graveyard, and he even played Darklord Zerato to fit his high-impact OTK style. Phantom of Chaos allowed him to reuse those big effects, or search them out in the first place with Armageddon Knight.

Finally, Lazaro Bellido’s Lightsworn deck (which took his brother Dale to the Top 16 of St. Louis) sided a pair of Phantoms, an insightful call that many competitors may not have thought to make. This smart tech choice debuted at a Toronto regional in Dale’s hands shortly before St. Louis, and made waves by solving one of the deck’s key problems: Light-Imprisoning Mirror. Since the Phantom is a Dark monster, it can mimic Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress to blow away an offending Mirror, or it can go even bigger and mimic Judgment Dragon to clear the entire field. Naturally this wasn’t a side deck choice just intended for opponents running Light-Imprisoning—it was also exceedingly valuable against trap-heavy strategies in general.

Siding Phantom of Chaos is probably a good idea for any Lightsworn build, but it was especially important for Lazaro’s version because it didn’t main deck any Dragon recursion: no Monster Reincarnation or Beckoning Light. It did, however, send cards to the graveyard at a furious pace, meaning that Dragons were almost always buried away instead of drawn. That made Phantom of Chaos a perfect choice, and with secondary options for mimicry like Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner, or Ehren, Lightsworn Monk, Phantom opened plenty of options. When raw ATK was called for, the Phantom could become a 2400 ATK or 2100 ATK beatstick thanks to Celestia, Lightsworn Angel or Wulf, Lightsworn Beast.

Moving forward, I expect all three of these examples to create continued play trends. Phantom of Chaos adds a lot of utility and speed to Dark Armed Dragon, a deck that needs it to stay on top. OTK strategies will benefit from being able to mimic Jinzo and Darklord Zerato, and I for one already put two copies of Phantom into my Lightsworn side. I don’t think there’s much question about the continued use of these techniques at the upcoming National Championships. The real question is, "what’s next?"

There’s a legion of monsters waiting to be used with Phantom of Chaos that haven’t seen mainstream play yet. Ratbox could mimic Card Trooper, Exiled Force, Injection Fairy Lily, and more while also reusing those monsters and the Phantom with Limit Reverse. Batteryman Industrial Strength could be mimicked without ever having to special summon it, and at that point Phantom of Chaos easily takes down two cards plus a monster in battle.

There are a lot of possibilities and as time wears on, this card is only going to get better. Keep your eye on it.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer