Last week, several of our writers here at Metagame.com discussed the impact of spell and trap removal in an environment where Escape from the Dark Dimension and Return from the Different Dimension so often lead to game-ending attacks. The ability to disrupt your opponent’s spell and trap zone in the Dark Armed Return matchup gives you a huge advantage and often shuts down winning plays before they happen, all while freeing you up to make your own attacks. Sang Bui clearly knew this, and chose to run not one but two copies of Dark Nephthys to outplay decks similar to his own.

With three copies of Return from the Different Dimension and three copies of Escape, special summoning Dark Nephthys was a breeze. Combined with two copies of Strike Ninja and three Dark Armed Dragon cards, Nephthys gave Sang a tremendous level of control over his graveyard’s contents and removed-from-play pile. With all of his special summoning tricks, he was able to capitalize on that fact with deadly efficiency. The result was a Dark Armed Return build capable of more aggression than its opponents may have expected, and an excellent example of the spell and trap zone control we discussed last week.

In addition, Dark Nephthys wasn’t just used in Dark Armed Return at Costa Mesa: Augustin Herrera sided a single copy in his Diamond Dude Turbo build, taking advantage of his three main-decked copies of Return from the Different Dimension.

I really would not be surprised if Dark Nephthys becomes more of a common sight in upcoming tournaments, and at least one card from April’s Structure Deck: The Dark Emperor will make it even better. Sang Bui was ahead of his time, and his performance may prove to be highly formative.

Dark Grepher

Starting with the former, Dark Grepher acted as an Armageddon Knight with bigger stats, running over stuff like Banisher of the Radiance and Mystic Tomato while swinging for a bit more damage whenever it hit the field. In Navarro’s case it was actually his fourth copy of Armageddon Knight, perfectly supporting his defensive engine (more on that in a bit).

Synergy with high-level Darks that belong in the graveyard was also very significant, since Dark Grepher allowed its controller to discard Destiny Hero - Dasher and Destiny Hero - Malicious to set up for their effects when Destiny Draw wasn’t available. The same could be said for Darklord Zerato, Jinzo, and Dark Magician of Chaos, providing a backup plan when Allure of Darkness was nowhere in site. Discarding any of those three monsters would open the option of retrieving them with Premature Burial and Monster Reborn, or move them one step closer to the removed-from-play pile.

Synergy with those high-level Darks introduced a second aspect that I think was much more important: speed. Being able to special summon Dark Grepher and then normal summon another attacker meant that a duelist was able to drop 3000 or more damage from out of nowhere, without having to resort to Dark Armed Dragon. Last week I talked about the power of opening up hard and fast against a Dark Armed Return player, and Dark Grepher could allow just that, shaving off almost a fourth of an opposing duelist’s life points early on. The same trick was perfect against FTK and OTK strategies—where time was even more precious—and it was often well worth the discard cost in order to really lean on a defending player. Impressive stuff.

Pete Navarro’s Necro Gardna

Necro Gardna let Navarro accomplish two things other decks usually couldn’t. First, it let him keep monsters on the field when other decks couldn’t, leaving him in a position to make bigger attacks on successive turns while also protecting Mystic Tomato from opposing copies of Dark Magician of Chaos. That opened up aggressive plays that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, as was demonstrated in Navarro’s Round 9 feature match against Jorge Olivella. In that match, Navarro used Armageddon Knight to search Necro Gardna from his deck, then removed the Gardna to block an attack and keep the Knight on the field. On the turn that followed he was able to tribute Armageddon Knight for Enemy Controller, stealing Olivella’s one on-field monster for game. Sneaky, effective, and completely owed to the Gardna.

The use of Necro Gardna also served as a line of defense when his opponents would unleash Dark Armed Dragon or make a big push with Return or Dimension Fusion. In either case, conventional defensive measures like monsters or Mirror Force simply aren’t sufficient: Dark Armed Dragon or Darklord Zerato clear field presence and allow for direct attacks, while Jinzo and the Dragon can stop spell and trap defenses. However with Necro Gardna to protect him from damage, nothing short of an effect like Soul Release was going to leave Navarro vulnerable. It was a huge asset in his Round 13 match against Italy’s Stefano Memoli, a match that went to time with Necro Gardna locked and loaded.

In order to make use of Necro Gardna, Navarro ran three copies of Armageddon Knight and a single Dark Grepher, choosing to search out Gardna almost every time he had the option. If he drew them, he could send them to the graveyard to pay the costs of Snipe Hunter, Darklord Zerato, Dark Grepher, or his pair of Raigeki Break cards. But the coolest combo Navarro had at his disposal was Burial from a Different Dimension. With it, he could use his Gardnas to maintain field presence in the early game, then bring them back as a surprise play should he be overrun later. Burial filled several different roles in Navarro’s skilled hands, but one of the most impressive was turning his three Necro Gardna cards into six.

As an interesting side note, since Necro Gardna was Navarro’s automatic pick with Armageddon Knight, it was incredibly rare for him to hand over big plays to an opposing Monster Reborn. Navarro actually controlled the impact of his opponent drawing Reborn by virtually never playing a blind Dark Magician of Chaos to his graveyard. He eschewed Disk Commander altogether so that wasn’t a potential problem either. The result was an intriguing feat of defensive graveyard management that let Navarro mitigate potential harm from one of the format’s deadliest (and often most random) threats.

All three of these cards seem to have a future in the current format, and while each was most prominently used in Dark Armed Dragon Return, they’re certainly not limited to that particular strategy. Give each card presented today some thought, and see if it might fit into one of your decks. Better than that, consider how each card works and how those principles apply to your dueling. Analytical thought is the key to getting better at this game, and each of today’s cards offers something to think about.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer