User:Romanoff Blitzer/The Nameless Guide/Darkness Civilization

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Destruction
Okay, Darkness has the best destruction, but sometimes the good old standbys aren't so good anymore. Now that we've got that over with, let's go over some better options. From best to worst, here are some good destruction cards:
 * Terror Pit: Too slow.
 * Death Hands, Misfortune Emperor is a creature with a Terror Pit in it and it can be used against creatures that lock your spells. It's ineffective against 5000GT, Riot, however.
 * Demon Wolf, Howling Moonlight Castle is the main removal of mono-Darkness decks, being able to take down both a weenie and any other creature for just 5 mana. And it has shield trigger.
 * Deadzone, S-Rank Zombie is a zombie version of Redzone, Roaring Invasion that packs a huge -9000 power deduction that reduces even mighty finishers into bite-sized creatures, which it can deal with one-handed via a battle, and it can also deal with Premium Madonna, Nobility Dragon Elemental all by itself. It also won't die, as it just comes back from the graveyard via S-Rank Invasion.
 * Hyperspatial Emperor Hole is amazing just as a hyperspatial spell, being able to fetch Dias Zeta, the Temporal Suppressor and Ryusei Kaiser, the Victorious among other things, but I get to remove one of my opponent's weenies with that too?! What an incredible deal! This card is usable as a 3 or 4-of in...just about every single darkness deck, both control and beatdown, that isn't rush.
 * Black Ganveet, Temporal Soldier: Amazing card; see my review for more details. Creates incredible card advantage with Emperor Hole; you spend one card to remove two of your opponent's cards and get a creature. That's a +2, right there.
 * Gaial Kaiser, the Victorious (aka VGK): See Black Ganveet above. Both Black Ganveet and VGK have their niches; Black Ganveet can take down a troublesome large creature, while VGK can get rid of an annoying untapped creature. You can also target a creature with 7000 power or less with Emperor Hole, and then kill it with VGK.
 * Thunder Tiger: With generally unkillable stuff like Perfect Madonna and Perfect Lily nowadays, this could be the best way to get rid of them. Or you could just use Thunder Tiger to get rid of another weenie while keeping your VGK for a possibly bigger target.
 * Zakira, Ultimate Lifeform gets all the race support it can get and can unleash fixed removal like Thunder Blade, Wolf Tiger, but it can also be summoned from the graveyard, which means that discarding it does not help, and if your opponent destroys it it just comes back.
 * Olzekia, General of Decapitation is a simple two-for-one. You could kill one of your small creatures for Olzekia...or destroy Black Ganveet, VGK or Thunder Tiger to reset them, or even destroy Olzekia itself to get it back later with a Hyperspatial Revive Hole.
 * Hanzou, Menacing Phantom: SURPRISE I GOT YOUR GAIAL KAISER or Cyber N World or whatever. Hanzou kills just about anything in beatdown short of Cosmo Cebu Lambda, the Super Electromagnetic.
 * School Man/Deathraios, Cursed Blade Reaper/Deathmorry, Gate Watcher of Hell/Necrodragon Abayo Shabayo/Heavy, Dragon God are cheap removals that can be recovered and respammed.
 * Bonbaku Tiger, Bomb Cluster is another cheap removal that can get rid of annoying creatures like Berlin, Bell Gravekeeper or Perfect Madonna, Light Weapon which are usually a disturbance to discard or beatdown strategies.
 * Black Insect Magistrate/Varz Romanov, Dark Lord of Demons are pseudo-speed attackers that remove any non-evolution creature.
 * Supernova DEATH Dragerion is an insanely strong removal that sometimes combos quite well with Necrodragon Guljeneraid.
 * Tsumitobatsu, Misfortune Hero is another insanely strong mass removal, reminiscent of other creatures, though somewhat better, even if it is just a niche card for Mono Darkness Control and Courtney decks.
 * Death Gate, Gate of Hell kills a creature and gets you back a body from the graveyard.
 * Necrodragon Odol Needle forces the opponent's creatures to battle it and get destroyed. And it has shield trigger. And it is a Dragon.

Continuous Power Reduction
Unlike most forms of destruction, these cards stick around and apply their power-decreasing effects over a continuous period.
 * Funk, Guard of Hope can be anti-rush, but is mostly used to severely weaken psychics. What were once formerly mighty dragons are now reduced to bite-sized creatures with 1000 power at best and dead at worst. Psychics with enters-the-battle-zone abilities, like Prin Prin, the Victorious and Black Ganveet, Temporal Soldier, however, still get their effects off whether they die immediately or not.
 * Rose Castle is first and foremost an anti-rush card. Kills many things, including Zabi Claw, Dark Warrior, BloodRayne, Start Dash, Death March, Reaper of Death, Marrow Ooze, the Twister, Deadly Fighter Braid Claw, and so on. It's not that effective in the current metagame as stuff are too quick and powerful to allow you to defend your shields.
 * Kanashimidomino, Destruction Demon Dragon is another strong anti-rush card that in certain cases can clean entire battle zones, and unlike Rose Castle, it can stay on the battlefield consistently regardless of your shields, which are difficult to defend in the current metagame.

Discard
Out of all civilizations, Darkness focuses almost exclusively on it. But what cards should you use?
 * Jenny, the Dismantling Puppet is the best type of discard for both beatdown and control, as it interferes with the opponent's strategy beforehand.
 * Black Psycho, Revenge is basically the evolution creature version of Skeleton Vice, which is surprisingly easy to bring out due to both its bait and its Invasion ability.
 * Lost Soul discards your opponent's entire hand, plain and simple.
 * Dark Masters, Demon Dragon is Jenny, the Dismantling Puppet with its effect tripled. Due to its cost, it has seen as much use as Lost Soul in mana ramps and slower controls.
 * Jenny, the Suicide Doll is a recoverable and respammable early discard.
 * Ghost Touch is the spell version of Jenny, the Suicide Doll. It also has shield trigger.
 * Tigernitro, Explosive Devil is an earlier nerfed Lost Soul for Mono Darkness Control and Courtney decks. If your opponent has this creature in the battle zone, kill it quick before your opponent casts Upheaval, or it will bring your mana zone away with your hand!
 * Ganveet Blaster is both removal and strong discard, mostly used to get around Zeniths.
 * Lost Mind Torture is a stronger version of Mind Reset that has synergy with stuff like Batou Shoulder, Shadow of Fiction.
 * Pet Puppet, Puppet Trick works well with Death Puppets, especially Troll, Graffiti Doll.
 * Gachinko Joker works in mana ramp decks paired with Lost Soul.
 * Vicious Deslar, Fantasy Knight is a quicker Jenny, but unfortunately it hasn't seen much use since its effect requires an attack and Mono-Darkness rush doesn't fare that well.

Self-mill
While Volg Thunder is mostly used to mill the opponent, you sometimes need cards in your graveyard for an advantage. To do this you need to self-mill. The following cards should be helpful for self-milling decks:
 * Darslain, Dream Knight is a stronger version of Honenbe used for decks that require more offense.
 * Honenbe, Skeletal Guardian fills your graveyard, recovers a creature and is a solid blocker. That's a +3.
 * Bone Dance Charger supplies your graveyard and increases your mana early game.
 * Romanov the 2nd, Demonic Eye Hierophant fills your graveyard with 5 cards and allows you to recast a spell.
 * Primal Scream was the main graving spell back in the day.
 * Loud Park, True Flashing Right God is the same as Honenbe, just that it has a niche in God Nova OMG decks. I guess you could use it in Zombie Dragon decks too.
 * Bloody Cross is the earliest type of graving you can get. It can be abuse-able with stuff like graveyard evolutions, Giovanni the 10th or Shrine of Rebirth.
 * Devil Hand is a Terror Pit with self-mill attached to it.
 * Zombiebar, Zombie is invasion mill AND beatstick. And it's easy to invade too.

Reanimation
Although reanimation isn't quite used these days, here are some good cards. From best to worst:
 * Welcome Hell, Supreme Devil King Palace has synergy with Draguners and features strong even if a little-restricted reanimation abilities. Also, it can dragsolution into a big bad finisher. Due to its extreme versatility, it has been restricted, so you can't dragsolution it and send out another one using Hellvorof, Supreme Dragon Edge.
 * Haridelberg, Hell of D works well with Welcome Hell, Supreme Devil King Palace and also nullifies its Dragsolution requirement.
 * Inferno Sign both reanimates one of your non-evolution creatures with cost 7 or less and has shield trigger.
 * Babelginus, Demonic Dragon revives any non-evolution creature.
 * Urami Hades, Curse Hero is the same as Babelginus, but restricted to Darkness.
 * Killer the Kill, Revolution Demon King has a massive reanimation effect, though conditional.
 * Yata Izuna, Eight-Headed Parasite spams evolution creatures from your graveyard. Due to its strong role in King-Queen lockdown decks, King Alcadeias, Holy Gaia got banned.
 * Killeredeye, Dark Armor is the same as Yata Izuna, though with an added self-mill effect and it's restricted to Darkness evolution creatures only.

Finishers

 * All Delete seems like very luck based, but all you will have to do is to use a Dokindam X, The Legendary Forbidden to finish the opponent instantly after you cast this spell. Beware of an opponent's Dokindam X, however.
 * Asmoshis, Craving Demon Dragon is a pretty strong field and hand removal.
 * Beginning Romanov, Lord of the Demonic Eye is a favorite finisher of graving decks, one that used to be comboed with Sir Virginia, Mystic Light Insect until it got restricted.
 * Death the Lost, Demon Revolution can discard your opponent's entire hand when it is put into the battle zone, and when you have no shields, it breaks all of your opponent's shields when it attacks, and is thus reminiscent of the Mad Romanov Miraculous Meltdown one shots several years ago since it can kill your opponent instantly, Unless you run into Shield Triggers and Shield Savers, of course, so take care.
 * Deathmatmel, Super Zombie is easy to summon if you have lots of graveyard fodder, can take care of lots of stuff such as Gaiginga and Ohginga by itself, and is destruction resistant. (No, sending him to the mana zone isn't good) Just watch out for bounce and you are fine.
 * Diabolos Double Zeta, Temporal Demon Dragon is almost the same as its predecessor, a strong and hard-to-kill finisher once it awakens. The hyperspatial spells that can bring it out have good removal effects too.
 * Dorballom, Lord of Demons/Dorballom D, Demon Dragon King are insanely strong removals against decks that don't run Darkness.
 * Galloween, Super Revenge protects your creatures with the power of revenge when it's tapped...well, it should not be called "Revenge", it should be called a blatant massacre. Simply block your opponent off with a few Honenbes and they will have your opponent's creatures mass killed AND you get to reuse to Honenbes and if your opponent sends out Redzone, Roaring Invasion, it will have his Redzone killed instantly.
 * Hellvorof, Supreme Dragon Edge into Welcome Hell, Supreme Devil King Palace are way better than their predecessors, as it has a pretty strong reanimation effect not restricted to just one race and an even stronger removal effect once Dragsolutioned. Also, it is a Dragheart Fortress and its Draguner fuels your graveyard when brought out. That's a +4 right there.
 * Killer the Kill, Revolution Demon King is a Ballom with a strong additional reanimation effect. It's conditional, though.
 * "Mastermind" is obviously amazing in God Nova OMG decks, especially when comboed with Upheaval.
 * Ryusei In The Dark: Its predecessor was used in many decks as a finisher that turns the tides in the battle zone to its owner's favor. Ryusei In The Dark is the same thing in a civilization where its only battle zone control is most of the time just creature removal.
 * Upheaval is plain insane as it screws many decks, especially mana ramps, and works great in discard controls. And the most unbelievable thing is it has shield trigger!
 * Volg Thunder when spammed multiple times to mill the opponent.

Card Advantage
Well, Darkness didn't have much ways to gain card advantage, but over time this has changed.
 * Dark Soul Creation gets you three cards for the price of one creature.
 * Dead Ryusei, Eternal Demon Dragon See the removal section.
 * Heavy, Dragon God is highly versatile, as it is both cheap removal and draw that can be recovered and reused.
 * Kodamadance Charger is a Charger spell with Kodamanma's effect attached to it. While it does cost you a shield, it both gives you hand advantage and increases your mana.
 * Kodamanma, All-Devouring Puppet gains you a card and a body. Who cares if it's from your shields? It's still card advantage, and it doesn't matter if you lose a shield as long as your opponent is dead. Kodamanma only goes in quick beatdown decks, though.
 * Pork Beef has for some reason seen use in Mono Darkness Control, mostly based on Funky Knightmares though.
 * Super Trash Train, Fuuma Devil is a stronger version of Mongrel Man, but it's pretty unreliable.
 * Vader, Dark Armor is the best darkness draw. Ever. And it also supplies your graveyard too.
 * Wicked Soul Reincarnation is almost the same as Dark Soul Creation, with the exception that it sacrifices any number of your creatures, gets you two cards for each and has shield trigger.

Creature salvage
While putting creatures from the graveyard into the battle zone is the more preferred thing to do, sometimes you need cards in hand for other reasons, so here are some good options:
 * Hyperspatial Revive Hole is the best graveyard salvage, as it can bring out a Gaial Kaiser, the Victorious which can help you out with Invasions, provided you returned something like Redzone, Roaring Invasion to your hand. It has access to other strong psychic creatures too.
 * Darslain, Dream Knight/Honenbe, Skeletal Guardian: See above.
 * Dark Hydra, Evil Planet Lord was once banned due to incredibly overpowered combos it did with creatures such as Heavy, Dragon God. Nowadays the game is much faster and thus it's balanced at one copy.
 * Sir Virginia, Mystic Light Insect  has a niche with Knight and Parasite Worm decks. It gained its restriction due to the incredible strong synergy it had with Beginning Romanov, Lord of the Demonic Eye.
 * Scale of Life and Death is a good shield trigger that either allows you to recover two creatures or get rid of an opponent's weenie.
 * Gordebat, Dark Armor is a cheaper and weaker version of Honenbe that still has some use in quicker decks.
 * Magic Shot - Soul Catcher can be used in some Knight or Knightmare themed decks to toy around and recover two creatures for free. Because of this, it is regarded as a better version of Dark Reversal.

Other interesting Cards

 * Batou Shoulder, Shadow of Fiction is an important card in a meta where every single deck is running spells, mainly hyperspatial ones. It's at its worst against N EX and rush, which focus on creatures, but great against other decks.
 * Benzo, the Hidden Fury is the cheapest way to cast any shield trigger. Good with Memories of the Planetary Dragon. Good with Shield Plus, especially Milzam, Spirit of Miracles. Crazy with both. Of course, you could just use Benzo to summon two creatures for the price of one.
 * BloodRayne, Start Dash has become strangely useful nowadays due to its effect quickly bringing out creatures such as Jenny, the Dismantling Puppet and Honenbe, Skeletal Guardian, as well as their evolution versions.
 * Dark Lupia creates some interesting combos with creatures like Heavy, Dragon God or Necrodragon Guljeneraid, it is the engine of Heavy Loop decks.
 * Dokindam Area, Forbidden of D: Countering Dokindam X never made harder.
 * Death March, Reaper of Death is usually seen in lightweight darkness/nature rushes as it actually has 5000 power and can deal with Perfect Madonna, Light Weapon all by itself, but it's also seen in Water Darkness Degeneration to bring out Some crazy fatties a few turns from the start. Beware of Rose Castle however, although i doubt that will be seen in the current meta.
 * Duema Ogre! Kikuchi, Assistant Instructor/Kareiko, Karma's Banned Technique stop tons of things, from Hogan Blaster and Mystery Cube to mana boosting cards.
 * Duenyan Emperor makes some interesting combos, having in mind the strong Funky Knightmare stuff we got out there. Mostly it is comboed with Ulvorof, Dragon Edge and Go To Hell, Annihilator Blade.
 * Ghastly Drain offered great card advantage, despite wasting an important resource, and it helped fulfill the Gravity Zero requirements of many cards. This lead to a powerful combo deck and its restriction.
 * Hell Mission, Dark Armor is one of the best Shield Saver creatures out there, because of the removal effect it has attached to it.
 * Kill the Live, Revolution Demon Dragon can have each player discard a card from his hand when it attacks, but its true selling point is if you have 2 or less shields, you can put a darkness creature you discarded into the battle zone! You can put out Dorballom, Lord of Demons/Dorballom D, Demon Dragon King and use it as evolution bait, then if your opponent does not run lots of darkness cards, he will lose. You can also put Codeking Mozart or Zabi Mira, the Reviving Shaman and you will win easily too. He does get Summoning Sickness, but he costs 6 so it can be got around using Eternal Sign.
 * Magnum, Allshot Puppet is an anti-psychic and anti-shield trigger card, among other things. Interesting hoser, although it doesn't fit in decks these days because most decks want to take advantage of those decks (or in the case of rush, too fast to use Magnum).
 * Migawari, Nightmare Manji is good for graving decks and offers grave recovery.
 * Necrodragon Guljeneraid is an annoying thing that just won't fucking die, no matter what. It works well with the graving and self-removal that Darkness Dragons have going at.
 * Ninjariban, Dragon Edge is a versatile little thing for Mono Darkness Draguner which can bring out a nice amount of good draghearts. Although if combined with Welcome Hell and Magnum into a loop, it can help Dragsolution a certain Dragheart creature.
 * Time Tripper, Shadow of Stagnation slows the opponent down. Contrary to Kaijudo Portal, Time Tripper is used in beatdown decks, where it gives an advantage in tempo*. It holds a Master Weapon - All Yes well, too.
 * Zabi Mira, the Reviving Shaman is used to spam a huge variety of psychic creatures, mostly Volg Thunder though, with the intention of decking out the opponent.