There are so many awesome cards in Phantom Darkness that it was really hard for us to figure out which ones to use for our preview weeks. In retrospect, there are probably enough great cards in this set for four weeks’ worth of articles. While the most anticipated material in Phantom Darkness runs the gamut from Zombie support to Volcanics (and even a new killer Machine-type), the bulk of the set is devoted to the Dark attribute, and a lot of those cards require one thing: other Dark monsters in the graveyard.

Jerome looked at Armageddon Knight last weekend and showed you some of the ways it helped other cards from the set. The Dark monster it moves from your deck to the graveyard can make it easier to summon Dark Armed Dragon or The Dark Creator. In the case of the latter, it could load your graveyard with the perfect monster to special summon as well. It does the same thing for Dark Nephthys and Rainbow Dark Dragon, and it helps juice up the all-new Darknight Parshath while working you toward The Beginning of the End.

All those cards are amazing, but like the Six Samurai, Volcanics, and other deck themes before it, the Dark theme had one flaw. In this case, it was a simple one: speed. In Japan, a good Macro Cosmos deck or any strategy packing a few copies of Banisher of the Radiance can outpace one of Phantom Darkness’s best cards, shutting off access to the graveyard and stopping the Dark duelist from getting his or her requisite monsters into position. You could go first, summon Armageddon Knight to send your first Dark to the graveyard, and if your opponent plays Banisher next turn, you’ll still be in major trouble despite your strong opening.

So the good folks over at UDE put together a card very similar to Armageddon Knight, but bigger and faster. Check it out:

There’s a lot going on here, so Dark Grepher can be a bit tricky to get a handle on. At first glance he might look like an overblown, weaker version of Armageddon Knight, but that’s really not the case. Most decks are going to want to run both. Though comparing the two cards only gets you so far, I still want to do it to explore some interesting points.

First up, Dark Grepher is a Warrior just like Armageddon Knight. An erroneous Phantom Darkness ad identified Dark Grepher as a Beast at one point, but the error was later acknowledged and corrected—you can search for Dark Grepher with Reinforcement of the Army. He shares that quality with Armageddon Knight, so any deck that wants to get to Dark Grepher reliably should have no problem doing so.

One thing that sets Dark Grepher apart from his Knightly accomplice though, is his size. At 1400 ATK, Armageddon Knight is extremely vulnerable to recruiter monsters like Mystic Tomato or Giant Rat. Any of the 1400 ATK recruiters can trade with Armageddon Knight in battle, only to special summon another monster that can then make a direct attack. If you’ve ever lost Green Gadget to a recruiter, you know how much that hurts, but at least with Green Gadget you still had another Gadget to show for your efforts. Armageddon Knight has no compensation prize to offer, so Dark Grepher’s superior 1700 ATK is a huge asset. In addition, 1700 ATK and 1600 DEF means that Dark Grepher can block Banisher of the Radiance when he’s in defense mode, or run Banisher over with an attack.

Of course, a 1700 ATK Warrior wouldn’t be that impressive on its own. Dark Grepher is all about his pair of effects, and they’re quite unique. Since each requires a discard, you’ll only rarely want to invoke both effects on the same turn, but alone, each ability is useful and can help you fill your graveyard.

Dark Grepher’s deck-searching effect is sort of like a supercharged Armageddon Knight, and it’s what makes people draw comparisons between the two cards. On the one hand, Armageddon Knight’s effect is free, but on the other, Grepher’s effect gets more Dark cards into your graveyard at a faster pace (even if one of those cards comes from your hand). That might seem like a hefty cost, but many Dark decks are going to play a few monsters that they’d rather have in the graveyard anyway. Destiny Hero - Malicious, Dark Magician of Chaos, and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander are all prime discard fodder for the average Dark duelist, while niche possibilities could include anything from Necroface to Yubel, Doom Shaman, or specific Dark monsters for Rainbow Dark Dragon.

Dark Grepher’s optional special summon effect operates on a similar principle—you can choose to view the discard cost as a drawback or as another way to work toward a big graveyard-costed effect. In this case, your discards are a bit more limited: Destiny Hero - Malicious is certainly the ideal discard that comes to mind, but there are a few more options. Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World or Sillva, Warlord of Dark World could be used and later returned to your hand with The Forces of Darkness, balancing out the discard cost. Toss a dead copy of Gravekeeper's Chief, set up Vampire Lord for recursion with Book of Moon, or ditch niche picks like Byser Shock, Magical Marionette, or Helpoemer. You could even discard Darknight Parshath.

Whatever you discard, there are two end results—another Dark card in the graveyard and a free special summon. Once Dark Grepher is on the field, he can be used to attack, or (since he was a special summon) you can tribute him immediately for something else. Pitching Malicious to special summon Dark Grepher, removing Malicious to bring your second copy to the field, and then tributing for Light and Darkness Dragon is ridiculous, and that’s the kind of play you can pull off with this card. You’ll probably find that you don’t use this effect nearly as much as the other, but it’s a nice option when you have the right opportunity.

Light and Darkness Dragon is actually just the beginning: the number of crazy plays Dark Grepher can create is impressive. An opening hand of Grepher, Dark Armed Dragon, a level 5 Dark card, and one more Dark monster will let you special summon Dark Armed Dragon on turn 1. That’s a big commitment for an early game play, but there are more reasonable offshoots. Far more common (and far less risky) would be normal summoning Grepher, discarding for its second effect to send two Darks to the graveyard, then letting it get run over on the following turn. That will set you up for a more practical turn 2 Dragon without a need for a level 5 monster.

Want to get out Dark Creator on your second turn? Dark Grepher can make it happen. He can even deploy all the Dark monsters you earmarked for Dark Creator’s recursion (and thus don’t want to draw), a factor I feel to be underrated. While Armageddon Knight would only get a single part of the Yubel/Doom Shaman combo into your graveyard, Dark Grepher can dump one-half of the combo from your hand and search the other from your deck—you can easily special summon Yubel – Terror Incarnate on turn 2, and can do so on turn 1 if you were lucky enough to special summon Grepher with his effect. Once Dark Armed Dragon hits the field, you can refill your graveyard with Dark monsters to let the Dragon destroy two more cards. The list of incredibly good, incredibly fast plays goes on and on.

Truth be told, the Dark monsters of Phantom Darkness didn’t need help as much as the Six Samurai, the Volcanics, or the Gladiator Beasts. Each monster would have stood on its own. They didn’t need another advantage, but they have it anyway, and you can get a copy of this card just for hitting up a Sneak Preview this weekend!