Now, on to the review of Phantom Darkness set. To be honest, there's TOO MANY GOOD CARDS in this set. We already know Dark Attributes are the king of all attribute for YGO. And do they HAD to pump it to another level? No idea, but it sure makes Dark Attribute scary one again.
So, here's the start. The first of many extremely good Dark Monster in this set.
------
Armageddon Knight
Level 4 / Dark / Warrior / 1400ATK / 1200DEF
When this card is successfully Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned, you can select 1 DARK monster from your Deck and send it to the Graveyard.
----------
Let's look at it's stats.
#1: Level 4 Warrior. That means it's ROTA supportable. That's good.
#2: ATK of 1400 means it can be searched with Sangan. The bad news is that it'll be suicide upon Mystic Tomato and it's recruiter friends and your foe can special summon another monster from their deck. So watch out for Tomatos/Rats/etc.
-------
Now, it's effect. When you normal, flip, special summon this card, you can send 1 monster from deck to grave.
What does this sound like? Yeah, Foolish Burial. And we SURE DO love that card. The good thing about this card that makes it better then Foolish Burial is that it's a monster. Meaning unlike Foolish Burial, after you play it, you got something on the field, not resulting a -1 unless you selected Treeborn Frog or something. The bad thing is, you can only select Dark Monsters. So you cannot select Treeborn Frog with this card effect.
But, there's ALOT of good Dark Attribute monsters you want to send to grave anyway so that's fine.
Let's list them
#1: Destiny Hero - Disk Commander.
This will be the undisputed #1 card you select and send it to the graveyard with this effect. NO CONTEST. The only reason you WON'T is cause it's stuck in your hand. (or you don't own this card and can't add it to your deck.) Seriously, this card is the #1 most searched card with E-Hero Stratos for a good reason. And unlike Stratos, you don't have to have that Destiny Draw, Lightning Vortex, Phoenix Wind Wing Blast, etc. for discard to send Disk Commander to grave. This card effect, Disk Commander is send to grave instantly. You don't have to worry about setting Disk Commander and fear for NoC effect. (Unless your rich and have Crush Card Virus) Seriously, if you want to run Armageddon Knight, HAVE THIS CARD IN YOUR DECK NO QUESTION ASKED.
#2: Dark Magician of Chaos.
I rate this card as #2 of best dark monster send to graveyard with Armageddon Knight effect. DMoC is soo good in grave it's not even funny. A 2800ATK beatstick with a free spell is nothing to laugh about. (And a bonus removal effect. Yeah, ATTACK that blasted Treeborn Frog out of oblivion.) The only reason why DMoC is #2 instead of #1 is that DMoC is a good mid game and game-winning late game card if you summon him, BUT a poor early game card. Summoning DMoC too early doesn't change the game flow too much not to mention you might not have that much spell options in grave or worst, have no spell cards in graveyard to target. However, Disk Commander is a great card even in the early game as it gives you Pot of Greed effect. Pot of Greed is NEVER bad, with the exception of decking out, which is really rare. But if Disk Commander is already in grave or stuck in your hand, then yes, this is your 2nd best option to dump it with Armageddon Knight.
#3: D.D. Scout Plane
This might be an odd option. But if you understand the combos that follows with what Armageddon Knight goes with, it makes sense. To understand, let's see it's buddies of Armageddon Knight.
Armageddon Knight's friends.
-Strike Ninja: Yeah, this guy needs 2 darks in grave for "NINJA DODGE!" to get out of any situation with the exception of something like Divine Wrath or something. And since Armageddon Knight sends 1 dark, and when Armageddon Knight dies, it counts as 2nd dark monster, a perfect set-up.
- Dark Armed Dragon: I WILL review this broken monster. But to summon him, you need exactly 3 Dark Monsters in grave. This card will support that role quite well. And if you have too much Dark Monster in grave, just remove a few with Bazoo, Strike Ninja, Beginning of the End, Skull Lair, etc.
- Dark Creator: To get him out, you need 5 or more Dark Monster. And it's effect is special summoning Dark Monsters from grave by removing dark monster from grave. Yep, you guessed it. The best set-up is to remove from play D.D. Scout Plane from play to either special summon Disk Commander or Dark Magician of Chaos. And the best support for this set-up role is none other then Armageddon Knight.
---
There's quite alot more, but these three are what I can think of that gives the reason of D.D. Scout Plane for solid reason for dumping with Armageddon Knight. All 3 of those monsters can activate it's effect by removing Dark Monsters from grave. And removing D.D. Scout Plane, the "cost" is reduced by D.D. Scout Plane being special summoned back to the field at the end phase, which then, it can be tributed, die in battle, etc. for more removal cost when it goes back to grave. Just setting D.D. Scout Plane doesn't help much unless your foe plays NoC on it, which might not happen cause of Shield Crush. I would only set D.D. Scout Plane out of desperation, or unless I have Crush Card Virus or something.
#4: Destiny Hero - Dasher
This card, can work well with Armageddon Knight, but you have to play a specific decktype. And thus why I rate him at #4. Oh believe me, dumping Dasher to grave is good. Especially if you combo it with setting Deep Diver next turn to make sure you topdeck into DMoC the turn after that when Deep Diver dies as a result of battle. But all that set-up takes time, or you just need a good pot-luck draw. And it needs a good deck with alot of high level monsters you want to special summon. Overall, it's good, but not solid like Disk Commander or DMoC.
#5: Destiny Hero - Malicious
Well, although IMO, dumping this with either D Draw, Lightning Vortex, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, etc. is better. if you really need that quick special summon for that 1 tribute monster, then yes, dump him with Armageddon Knight. The only problem is, that you already normal summoned Armageddon Knight so that monster you want to tribute summon, have wait a turn. (So it isn't like, first turn Foolish Burial Malicious to tribute summon Thestalos or something) Because of that, this card is low.
#6: Jinzo
Well, a 2400ATK beatstick that negates traps is never bad. And this card combos well with CotH. If you don't feel like tribute summoning this card and your foe runs way too much traps, then why not dump him instead of DMoC or something.
----------
That's the stuff I can think of for Armageddon Knight dumping. I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of them at the moment. (I don't know, maybe even something like sending Necroface to graveyard and removing it from play for the combo.)
Anyway, for the new set, if you want to play alot of those Phantom Darkness cards like Beginning of the End or Dark Armed Dragon, running 3x Armageddon Knight is a pretty darn good idea and IMO, way better then the promo card Dark Grepher.
In the end, I give this card a
9 out of 10
I have Foolish Burial a 9 out of 10, so I have to give this either the same or better. The bad thing is that it's not as versatile as Foolish burial, but the good thing is that it's a monster. The only one major weakness to this card is Pulling the Rug, as that card will destroy and negate the effect straight out if normal summoned. (And believe me, 90%+ of the time, it will be normal summoned for it's effect. Seriously, who want to waste Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted for this card when there's a Disk Commander or DMoC in grave?)
If this card gets popular, expect more decks to mainstream Pulling the Rug into maindeck rather then sidedeck option.
So, here's the start. The first of many extremely good Dark Monster in this set.
------
Armageddon Knight
Level 4 / Dark / Warrior / 1400ATK / 1200DEF
When this card is successfully Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned, you can select 1 DARK monster from your Deck and send it to the Graveyard.
----------
Let's look at it's stats.
#1: Level 4 Warrior. That means it's ROTA supportable. That's good.
#2: ATK of 1400 means it can be searched with Sangan. The bad news is that it'll be suicide upon Mystic Tomato and it's recruiter friends and your foe can special summon another monster from their deck. So watch out for Tomatos/Rats/etc.
-------
Now, it's effect. When you normal, flip, special summon this card, you can send 1 monster from deck to grave.
What does this sound like? Yeah, Foolish Burial. And we SURE DO love that card. The good thing about this card that makes it better then Foolish Burial is that it's a monster. Meaning unlike Foolish Burial, after you play it, you got something on the field, not resulting a -1 unless you selected Treeborn Frog or something. The bad thing is, you can only select Dark Monsters. So you cannot select Treeborn Frog with this card effect.
But, there's ALOT of good Dark Attribute monsters you want to send to grave anyway so that's fine.
Let's list them
#1: Destiny Hero - Disk Commander.
This will be the undisputed #1 card you select and send it to the graveyard with this effect. NO CONTEST. The only reason you WON'T is cause it's stuck in your hand. (or you don't own this card and can't add it to your deck.) Seriously, this card is the #1 most searched card with E-Hero Stratos for a good reason. And unlike Stratos, you don't have to have that Destiny Draw, Lightning Vortex, Phoenix Wind Wing Blast, etc. for discard to send Disk Commander to grave. This card effect, Disk Commander is send to grave instantly. You don't have to worry about setting Disk Commander and fear for NoC effect. (Unless your rich and have Crush Card Virus) Seriously, if you want to run Armageddon Knight, HAVE THIS CARD IN YOUR DECK NO QUESTION ASKED.
#2: Dark Magician of Chaos.
I rate this card as #2 of best dark monster send to graveyard with Armageddon Knight effect. DMoC is soo good in grave it's not even funny. A 2800ATK beatstick with a free spell is nothing to laugh about. (And a bonus removal effect. Yeah, ATTACK that blasted Treeborn Frog out of oblivion.) The only reason why DMoC is #2 instead of #1 is that DMoC is a good mid game and game-winning late game card if you summon him, BUT a poor early game card. Summoning DMoC too early doesn't change the game flow too much not to mention you might not have that much spell options in grave or worst, have no spell cards in graveyard to target. However, Disk Commander is a great card even in the early game as it gives you Pot of Greed effect. Pot of Greed is NEVER bad, with the exception of decking out, which is really rare. But if Disk Commander is already in grave or stuck in your hand, then yes, this is your 2nd best option to dump it with Armageddon Knight.
#3: D.D. Scout Plane
This might be an odd option. But if you understand the combos that follows with what Armageddon Knight goes with, it makes sense. To understand, let's see it's buddies of Armageddon Knight.
Armageddon Knight's friends.
-Strike Ninja: Yeah, this guy needs 2 darks in grave for "NINJA DODGE!" to get out of any situation with the exception of something like Divine Wrath or something. And since Armageddon Knight sends 1 dark, and when Armageddon Knight dies, it counts as 2nd dark monster, a perfect set-up.
- Dark Armed Dragon: I WILL review this broken monster. But to summon him, you need exactly 3 Dark Monsters in grave. This card will support that role quite well. And if you have too much Dark Monster in grave, just remove a few with Bazoo, Strike Ninja, Beginning of the End, Skull Lair, etc.
- Dark Creator: To get him out, you need 5 or more Dark Monster. And it's effect is special summoning Dark Monsters from grave by removing dark monster from grave. Yep, you guessed it. The best set-up is to remove from play D.D. Scout Plane from play to either special summon Disk Commander or Dark Magician of Chaos. And the best support for this set-up role is none other then Armageddon Knight.
---
There's quite alot more, but these three are what I can think of that gives the reason of D.D. Scout Plane for solid reason for dumping with Armageddon Knight. All 3 of those monsters can activate it's effect by removing Dark Monsters from grave. And removing D.D. Scout Plane, the "cost" is reduced by D.D. Scout Plane being special summoned back to the field at the end phase, which then, it can be tributed, die in battle, etc. for more removal cost when it goes back to grave. Just setting D.D. Scout Plane doesn't help much unless your foe plays NoC on it, which might not happen cause of Shield Crush. I would only set D.D. Scout Plane out of desperation, or unless I have Crush Card Virus or something.
#4: Destiny Hero - Dasher
This card, can work well with Armageddon Knight, but you have to play a specific decktype. And thus why I rate him at #4. Oh believe me, dumping Dasher to grave is good. Especially if you combo it with setting Deep Diver next turn to make sure you topdeck into DMoC the turn after that when Deep Diver dies as a result of battle. But all that set-up takes time, or you just need a good pot-luck draw. And it needs a good deck with alot of high level monsters you want to special summon. Overall, it's good, but not solid like Disk Commander or DMoC.
#5: Destiny Hero - Malicious
Well, although IMO, dumping this with either D Draw, Lightning Vortex, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, etc. is better. if you really need that quick special summon for that 1 tribute monster, then yes, dump him with Armageddon Knight. The only problem is, that you already normal summoned Armageddon Knight so that monster you want to tribute summon, have wait a turn. (So it isn't like, first turn Foolish Burial Malicious to tribute summon Thestalos or something) Because of that, this card is low.
#6: Jinzo
Well, a 2400ATK beatstick that negates traps is never bad. And this card combos well with CotH. If you don't feel like tribute summoning this card and your foe runs way too much traps, then why not dump him instead of DMoC or something.
----------
That's the stuff I can think of for Armageddon Knight dumping. I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of them at the moment. (I don't know, maybe even something like sending Necroface to graveyard and removing it from play for the combo.)
Anyway, for the new set, if you want to play alot of those Phantom Darkness cards like Beginning of the End or Dark Armed Dragon, running 3x Armageddon Knight is a pretty darn good idea and IMO, way better then the promo card Dark Grepher.
In the end, I give this card a
9 out of 10
I have Foolish Burial a 9 out of 10, so I have to give this either the same or better. The bad thing is that it's not as versatile as Foolish burial, but the good thing is that it's a monster. The only one major weakness to this card is Pulling the Rug, as that card will destroy and negate the effect straight out if normal summoned. (And believe me, 90%+ of the time, it will be normal summoned for it's effect. Seriously, who want to waste Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted for this card when there's a Disk Commander or DMoC in grave?)
If this card gets popular, expect more decks to mainstream Pulling the Rug into maindeck rather then sidedeck option.