Yu-Gi-Oh's Dark Armed Dragon: The Cover Card for Phantom Darkness!

You love him. You hate him. It doesn't really matter, because this card is a complete beast and will decimate you the turn that it gets slapped onto the field in attack mode. Heck, even in defense mode, Dark Armed Dragon has the power to destroy any three cards on the field, leaving you defenseless for a turn. Got a mirror force facedown on the field? Dark Armed Dragon's controller can just remove a dark monster from the graveyard and destroy your facedown trap. Ever wondered why people run less Mirror Forces than ever now? Do your hands tremble when you face it? Can you counter it?

Dark Armed Dragon is the cover card which is the mascot for the Yu-Gi-Oh! booster "Phantom Darkness", which was sold in record-breaking numbers, far-exceeding the sales of the packs before them like Gladiator's Assault and Strike of Neos. The popularity of this card is far-reaching and it has game-breaking effects which can shift the game easily with effects like, "This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by having exactly 3 DARK monsters in your Graveyard. You can remove from play 1 DARK monster from your Graveyard to destroy 1 card on the field".

When combined with cards like Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight, a player can easily get three Dark affinity cards in their graveyard, and have Dark Armed Dragon on their field in no time. Did I mention that Dark Armed Dragon is a 2800 ATK beatstick that can be special summoned very easily, which can also destroy any three cards on the field? WOW.But whatever! Dark Armed Dragon is still pushing a HUGE pricetag! You could buy a Playstation 2 and some games for that kind of money. The value of this beautiful piece of cardboard is judged primarily by player demand, because dark affinity monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh! are in great abundance. There are more Dark affinity monsters than Aqua Monsters, Fire Monsters, Wind Monsters, Light Monsters and Earth Monsters.

I'm confused as to why Konami even decided to make the game with all these types of affinities, when it is clear that Konami was going to push the Dark affinity the most from the start. Fire & Wind & Earth decks are barely playable in the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! scene anyways, with variants like Water Spiritual Art Hand Control and Earth affinity Giant Rat Toolbox, hope for these variants is looking up.

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Until you come to the fact that they are tier 1.5 decks at the most, and that they have a very small chance of ever making tier 1, considering that great decks like Volcanic Fire Pyro decks and Crystal Beasts have failed to every reach the mainstream surface. Counter fairies and Batterymen were light's one small hope at reaching main-event level, but their hopes were also similarily snuffed.

Dark Armed Dragon was first released as a Rare card in Konami's Japanese OCG Yu-Gi-Oh! game, but in an attempt to increase booster pack sales, UpperDeck Entertainment, the distributor of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in the United States, raised the rarity of Dark Armed Dragon to Secret Rare. What is the significance of this rarity change? Well, on average, you'll recieve one Secret Rare every booster box you buy. The problem with this is that there are 10 Secret Rare cards in the Phantom Darkness booster expansion set, so that means there will be one Dark Armed Dragon recieved in every 10 $80 Booster Boxes. Not only does that mean that Dark Armed Dragon will be incredibly rare, but also there is a great player demand for this incredibly broken card, because of Dark Armed Dragon's massive success in the tournament scene. The power of Dark Armed Dragon has given it key placement in decks which are centered around special summoning Dark Armed Dragon (abbreviated D.A.D.), like Dark Armed Dragon Return, and Emergency Teleport D.A.D. Synchro (TeleDaD).

Can Dark Armed Dragon be countered? Well, both Horn of Heaven and Divine Wrath can counter Dark Armed Dragon, but Konami and UpperDeck Entertainment have teamed up to bring us two more counters for Dark Armed Dragon. The first is Dragonic Knight which has 2800 ATK and can be special summoned to the field whenever Dark Armed Dragon activates it's effect to destroy cards that you control. The best that you can manage to do with Dragonic Knight (JUMP-EN026) is to ram it into Dark Armed Dragon and destroy both of your monsters, but where does that get you really? Anyways another card that UDE and Konami came up with was Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness. This sweet card can special summon a token whenever you take direct damage and is special summoned to the field when you do take damage. Sweet counter.

Dark Armed Dragon is one of the most powerful cards in the game, and with the 2800 Attack Points and the easy special summon requirements comes a downside; on a secondary Yu-Gi-Oh! market, vendors like Ebay and TrollandToad sell their Secret Rare copies of Dark Armed Dragon for upwards of $150! Absolutely insane price I say, considering all the times the Phantom Darkness pack have been released... in the Special Edition... in the Hobby booster boxes... in the Retail Booster boxes... in the Stardust Dragon/Red Archfiend Dragon holiday tins... Here's hoping to an easy-to-get reprint!