Yu-Gi-Oh! was huge in 2005. The year saw two very different Advanced format Forbidden lists, as well as the rise and fall of the Goat Control deck, a strategy that fell to pieces when its key components were forbidden or limited on October 1. The 2005 holiday tin promos included many new cards that finally made their debut here in North America, including the popular Exarion Universe. The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX animated series also made its premiere late last year, and it’s been a huge hit! It was unfortunate to see Bastion Misawa lose to Jaden Yuki’s Elemental Heroes, but I’m still awaiting an episode where Bastion utterly decimates Jaden.* Hopefully next time he won’t lose to bad luck.
What exactly is on the horizon for 2006? You can bet that there will be plenty of Shonen Jump Championships, including a few in locations that have not previously hosted one of these big events, such as Denver and Toronto. The next Yu-Gi-Oh! set, Shadow of Infinity, will debut in mid-February with another Yu-Gi-Oh! Sneak Preview event. And, of course, Metagame.com will continue to bring you event coverage and articles on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. It’s you, the readers, who have helped make Metagame.com such a huge success, which is why I’m delighted to jump right into today’s card of choice. Phillip W. originally requested that I look at Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn over a month ago. He mentioned that is definitely an underrated monster, and he has every right to think so.
The Basic Breakdown
At first glance, Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn may not seem like a decent monster. Its ATK value is only 1000, which means that if you ever tried to swing at your opponent with it, it would be left open for a counter-attack, even against Sangan. However, its DEF value is 1800, which means that it can survive most attacks in this environment from monsters that are level 4 or lower. More importantly, Meanae can survive an attack from D. D. Assailant, which is one of the most commonly seen monsters in the current Advanced format. Of course, being able to survive an attack due to a high DEF value wouldn’t be the only thing that makes a card underrated. Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn, leader of the Dark Scorpion tomb-robbers, has an effect that will trigger when it deals damage to the opponent’s life points, similar to that of Don Zaloog.
Whenever Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn inflicts battle damage to the opponent’s life points, whether it attacked or its DEF was too high for an attacking monster, its ability will trigger. This effect allows you to search your deck or graveyard for a card with “Dark Scorpion” or “Cliff the Trap Remover” in its name to add to your hand. Currently, this list includes the following cards.
Cliff the Trap Remover
Dark Scorpion – Chick the Yellow
Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn
Dark Scorpion – Gorg the Strong
Dark Scorpion Burglars
Dark Scorpion Combination
Mustering of the Dark Scorpions
The ability to search out a monster, spell, or trap from a single effect is a rare find, and Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn is one of the few cards that has this ability. This makes it an absolute gem for the casual duelist, as it single-handedly makes the Dark Scorpion deck playable. Meanae has the ability to fetch anything that’s needed to set up a massive Dark Scorpion attack—with the exception of Don Zaloog, which can be added to your hand by using Reinforcement of the Army.
However, what if you’re looking for a more competitive strategy? The Dark Scorpion deck is a lot of fun, but it lacks the consistency to succeed in a larger Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament, due to the amount of one-for-one card removal that’s currently being used in the Advanced format. The key advantage to Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn is that you can add copies of itself from your deck or graveyard to your hand, so it’s possible to have a constant supply of powerful defensive monsters at your disposal. More importantly, it also allows you to earn extra card advantage every time you defend against weaker monsters, or manage to deal damage to your opponent through an attack of your own.
Against an expert duelist who may play out his or her monsters conservatively, Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn can be used to encourage your opponent to bring out more threatening monsters. This is an excellent way to trap your opponent with Torrential Tribute or Dark Hole, and you’ll still have another Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn to summon or set after the field is cleared away! It’s easily one of the more powerful forms of resource management, if you’re looking for a card engine to use in your deck.
Combos and Strategies
There aren’t a lot of competitive combos that can be created through the use of Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn, but there are plenty of powerful strategies where it can be used.
Some readers may recall that I analyzed Masked Sorcerer a few months ago and showed how it’s a powerful draw engine for Control decks. The same logic can be applied to Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn. Its ability allows you to effectively “draw a card” every time you use the Scorpion to inflict battle damage to your opponent. However, its ATK value is slightly better than that of Masked Sorcerer, and its DEF value will allow its ability to trigger far more often than that of Masked Sorcerer. The DEF value of Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn is incredibly useful in this format, and it allows you to not only stabilize your field, but also to stabilize your access to monsters.
As many duelists will tell you, this Advanced format is based upon earning advantage through battle, which makes your monsters a very important resource. Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn gives you immediate access to more monsters, which means that your opponent may have some problems punching through your resources, unless he or she has a monster such as Cyber Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer, or Mobius the Frost Monarch. More importantly, consider the fact that Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn allows you to run fewer monsters in your deck. It’s not uncommon to find players choosing to run nineteen or twenty monsters in their decks in this Advanced format. Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn allows you to run seventeen or eighteen monsters without having too few monsters early in a duel. This frees up space for more spells and traps in your deck, and these can improve your deck’s ability to remove your opponent’s resources.
One of the most beneficial strategies of using Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn is that in an unprepared environment, there’s no way that your opponent can use your own Meanae against you. Occasionally, your opponent can turn a card such as Masked Sorcerer or Des Lacooda against you by using cards like Snatch Steal and Brain Control. However, if your opponent isn’t running any Dark Scorpion cards of his or her own, he or she won’t be able to improve his or her resource count by taking control of Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn. This makes the Scorpion a more effective form of resource advantage in this format, since it transforms normal actions that your opponent would take against these types of monsters into sub-optimal plays.
Final Thoughts
Many duelists are running Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive as a method of earning resources in this environment. It is obvious that a resource engine is necessary for a deck to be successful right now, and Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn is one of those resource engines that’s available for duelists to utilize. The Scorpion possesses many benefits over the other resource engines, and unlike Dekoichi, Dark Scorpion – Meanae the Thorn can provide a solid stream of resources on its own. It doesn’t require tricky and potentially time-consuming combos with other cards to earn you card advantage.
If you’re looking for some unique ideas to try out for an upcoming Shonen Jump Championship, it’s worth digging through your old Dark Crisis commons in order to excavate a few copies of Meanae. You’ll be surprised by how effective it is in this Advanced format environment.
*In that episode of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Bastion used Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell to destroy Jaden’s deck strategy of running Polymerization. Of course, since Jaden is the master of drawing Pot of Greed, he managed to win by top-decking Elemental Hero Wildheart. Bastion is all about card advantage and numbers, so it was sad to see him lose to a lucky draw.