This week’s Phantom Darkness preview card is Dark Nephthys. It’s a highly anticipated card with a powerful effect similar to our old-school favorite: Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Dark Nephthys not only has the same stats as its cousin, but it also boasts a much more flexible effect:

Dark Nephthys
Winged-Beast / Effect
Dark / Level 8
2400 ATK / 1600DEF
When there are at least 3 Dark monsters in your graveyard, you can remove 2 of them from play to send this card from your hand to the graveyard. If Dark Nephthys was sent to the graveyard by its effect, special summon it from your graveyard in your next standby phase. When this card is special summoned, destroy a spell or trap on the field.

The special summon condition built into Dark Nephthys is a fantastic alternative to the restrictions of the original Phoenix. For the paltry cost of two Dark monsters in the graveyard, you can special summon this card during your next standby phase and gain a Mystical Space Typhoon effect for your trouble. While some may say that this is hardly a substitute for the Heavy Storm effect you can pull off with Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, I say this effect offers you more precision and flexibility.

Dark Nephthys, by virtue of its effect, combos with a popular Dark monster: D.D. Scout Plane. What better way to special summon a monster than by using spent cards? Dark Nephthys is great for setting up your field after an unsuccessful attack or summon. Did you just get hit by Mirror Force? Did you get nuked by Torrential Tribute? No problem! Just discard Dark Nephthys from your hand, then set up your field with a Scout Plane or two. You can take solace in the fact that no matter what your opponent does to the above monsters, Dark Nephthys will come back with a vengeance.

Dark Nephthys can also create aggressive swings for damage with Return from the Different Dimension or Dimension Fusion. You can remove Dark monsters like Jinzo, Mystic Tomato, or Spirit Reaper to create a monstrous attack for game on the very same turn you discard Dark Nephthys, or you can set it up next turn to make use of the spell or trap destruction effect.

Another nifty aspect of Dark Nephthys is that the Mystical Space Typhoon effect is not restricted just to the special summon condition built in with the card. Whenever this card is special summoned, you can destroy a spell or trap. That’s simply amazing. This means you can destroy spells or traps at your leisure via the plethora of options we have to special summon monsters. If you’re tributing for this monster at any time, you’re underutilizing a valuable card. Think Reasoning and Monster Gate. Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted become sources of removal too. Monsters are the primary engines of destruction in our battle-based game. We certainly aren’t short on ways to destroy back-row cards, but it’s never a bad thing to bundle removal with a monster.

I like how this effect mixes an old mechanic (removing monsters from the graveyard) with discarding. There aren’t any monsters like this in the game. It represents a new approach to summoning monsters. It’s not fast, but it presents a more strategic aspect to the game. You are presenting your opponent with a threat on a later turn rather than the immediate turn.

My fascination with this concept is that it doesn’t require your opponent to do something to the card in order for its effect to trigger. While cards like Vampire Lord and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys have amazing special summon effects, part of the trouble lies in their reliance on the opponent to trigger the effect. You almost never want to tribute for Vampire Lord and you have to use two monsters to special summon the original Phoenix with Hand of Nephthys. While Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys allowed you to trigger it yourself, there aren’t many cards that could trigger it—pretty much just Torrential Tribute or the occasional Hammer Shot. Thus, you must rely on the opponent and his or her card effects. Dark Nephthys is different in that you can fill up your own graveyard with Dark monsters without help from your opponent. You don’t need any conditions beyond your control. How many cards can throw stuff in the graveyard on purpose? Card Trooper, Foolish Burial, and Magical Merchant immediately come to mind. Using spent cards to trigger an effect that grants you field presence and simplification is not a new technique. It’s very efficient. I’m glad it’s being embraced by this set.

A control deck centered on Dark monsters with Dark Nephthys in it could bring a much-needed slower pace to this highly explosive and high-speed metagame. The new Dark monsters and support cards (to be previewed within the next few weeks) present an intriguing opportunity to build decks that are different from what we have now. The metagame is pretty established as it is. However, I think the community can come up with a deck or two that can mix things up. I’ve already seen a few ideas floating around the net.

If you’re worried about Macro Cosmos or Dimensional Fissure, just be sure to drop Dark Nephthys first. If you can delay your opponent from playing those cards and get Nephthys into the graveyard, then that player will have to concede his or her remove-from-play lynchpin should the opponent play it. If you play a deck with Dark Nephthys in it and you run D.D. Survivor or D.D. Scout Plane, then you already have cards available to sustain your field presence against remove-from-play strategies.