In 2007 the Yugioh game was taken by storm by the hero engine. Destiny Draw was a revolutionary card bringing back the pot of greed draw with a cost and pairing perfectly with Destiny Hero Malicious from the same set. Not only did you have reliable draw power but as long as you had extra copies of Malicious in your deck you got a free monster on the field as well. Malicious didn’t have very good stats but a free monster on your field allowed for easier tribute summons among various other things.
However, the engine truly became complete shortly after the Aster Phoenix Duelist Pack came out when Elemental Hero Stratos was released through the Shonen Jump Magazine Series. For the time and even currently, Stratos had every attribute for a perfect non tribute summoned monster. 1800 attack was a high standard you were happy for your monsters to meet, especially if they were carrying powerful effects on top of that. Whenever Stratos was normal or special summoned you could either destroy spell and trap cards on the field up to the number of other Hero monsters you had on your field or add any Hero monster from your deck to your hand. The latter was what made this card most famous letting you easily access Destiny Hero Malicious and meeting the discarding cost of Destiny Draw.
You didn’t only have Malicious though as a great discarding target, Destiny Hero Disk Commander would make its way as a game promo shortly afterwards, a phenomenal monster on its own right letting you draw 2 cards every time it revived from the graveyard. The Hero engine was powerful because it allowed you to regulate your hand while getting free card advantage with Stratos and Malicious. Not only that, but since Malicious was a dark attribute monster its weak stats were a blessing in disguise; letting you easily take advantage of the strongest game winning card at the time, Crush Card Virus.
The engine itself shifted what the best decks would be at the time and led to the creation of Perfect Circle Monarchs and other monarch variants, Diamond Dude Turbo and Destiny Hero Beatdown variants. However, the strongest deck that left others in the dust with its speed and power was Airblade Turbo. Elemental Hero Stratos got quickly limited to 1 after its release among other cards; but in the short period before that happened Airblade Turbo won Shonen Jump won Shonen Jump St. Louis and did it in a fashion that made other tier 1 decks look out of its league by comparison. Dimension Fusion was a card that won you games back then and with the speed of the d hero engine and Stratos at 3 Airblade Turbo made the fastest and most brutal use of it. The combo between Black Magician of Chaos and Dimension Fusion was so strong in fact that Diamond Dude Turbo had arguably morphed from Airblade Turbo’s philosophy after it could no longer use Stratos at 3.
It was towards the end of the year that the spotlight went to Gladiator Beasts; a very strong archetype from the last set of the year Gladiator’s Assault. Gladiator Beasts were a lot less risky and more reliable than the other dominant decks from 2007 and especially Diamond Dude Turbo that had a lot of inherent risk as it was. So, for that short period many players put aside Dimension Fusion and Black Magician of Chaos favouring Gladiator Beasts. It was at the start of 2008 when everything turned upside down again and all the other decks were literally swollen by darkness.
The first main set of 2008, Phantom Darkness, was a legendary set filled with power cards and had an extreme emphasis on dark monsters and the dark attribute. Various iconic monsters from before made a return here with darkened versions of themselves, such as Dark Grepher, Dark Horus, Dark Nephthys, The Dark Creator and so on.
But the strongest and most dangerous of all of them was Dark Armed Dragon. Dark Armed Dragon had similarities with win condition boss monsters from previous formats; Black Luster Soldier Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos End Dragon. It was a high level monster that could be summoned from the hand if certain conditions were met in the graveyard and could destroy multiple monsters very easily with its effect.
Allure of Darkness was a new draw spell like Destiny Draw but better, letting you draw first before removing from play any Dark monster from your hand. These were just some of the many tools dark monsters had received and there were numerous ways to try and make use of them just by mainly using cards from this set.
However, the d hero engine and Black Magician of Chaos worked stupendously well with these new cards being dark monsters themselves; and so the perfect marriage of power was made. Dark Armed Return having the speed of Allure of Darkness and the d hero engine and allowing Black Magician of Chaos to work at its finest. Of course, despite the importance of Magician of Chaos it was Dark Armed Dragon that was the brutal face of this deck. Easily summon-able with how the decks were designed, fuelling the removed from play zone with Dark monsters and destroying your opponents cards. If Dark Armed Dragon didn’t win you the game Dimension Fusion and Return of the Different Dimension would do the trick.
Between Diamond Dude Turbo, The Dark Creator and Princess of Ohm there were a bunch of different variants of this deck sharing these powerful darkness cards. Because these darkness cards confidently established their power and impact they became extremely expensive very quickly and this didn’t only affect cards from Phantom Darkness but cards such as Destiny Draw and Destiny Hero Malicious too. Regardless, all of them paled in comparison to how expensive Dark Armed Dragon was in 2008. Due to its rarity and power Dark Armed Dragon ranged from 250-350 dollars in that year cementing itself as one of the most expensive metagame cards of all time that wasn’t a Shonen Jump promo.
But such dominance came with a hefty price. That was the first emergency banlist by Konami if we were to exclude Upper Deck’s emergency ban of Cyber Stein that came years before Phantom Darkness. The banlist limited Return from the Different Dimension and killed off Dimension Fusion completely. Allure of Darkness was also semi-limited in the hopes that these darkness decks would slow down. It wasn’t long before Light of Destruction would come out swaying the power balance once again giving Gladiator Beasts Gyzarus, a monster with such powerful destruction it helped Gladiator Beasts rise in popularity again and introducing the Lightsworn theme of monsters in a poetic manner to counter the darkness with light; complete with Judgment Dragon, a Dragon of light meant to rival Dark Armed Dragon with similar summoning conditions and destructive power.
Light of Destruction was a legendary set itself just like Phantom Darkness and was a worthy set to finish off the fantastic GX era. Between these 2 sets and Gladiator’s Assault Yugioh was at its peak; one could only imagine how they would top these types of sets but of course it was time for a new Genesis.
For the first time since the beginning of the game a new type of color coded card would be introduced along with the fusion deck changing as the extra deck. The new 5DS era of Yugioh would bring synchro monsters; a new type of monster that needed the new tuner monsters to summon them. Appropriately named The Duelist Genesis, the first set of the 5DS era came packed with all these powerful synchro monsters just waiting to be used.
The face of the entire set and the entire 5DS era, Stardust Dragon was an incredibly powerful monster with its effects, especially for the time. With its power to protect your field from destruction cards it was clear that the decks that managed to make use of this card would have a strong advantage. Outside of Stardust Dragon other powerful synchro monsters had a lot to offer too. With this in mind players found out the new merit Destiny Hero Malicious acquired with synchro summoning now. Combined with Emergency Teleport and Krebons from the same set it was possible to summon a level 8 synchro monster without even using your normal summon. Thus, Dark Armed Return decks evolved into Tele-Dad.
Krebons and nearly all the other monsters you wanted to take advantage of were dark so the d hero and allure of darkness draw engine worked wonders once again. Tele-Dad had the ability to summon 2-3 boss monsters on the field with minimal effort while simultaneously having the ability to set a bunch of spell and traps too. Dark Armed Dragon retained its place as the boss monster that would win you the game depending on when it was summoned and matches between these decks gained a reputation for the players skill involved.
Duelist Genesis also brought cards that greatly aided both Gladiator Beasts and Lightsworn but it was undoubtedly established that Tele-Dad was the fastest and most well rounded deck soon naming the format after itself.
By the time the deck would be severely chained by the banlist and ultimately become too unreliable Crossroads of Chaos would come out as the last set of 2008 and the last set Upper Deck had anything to do with Yugioh; bringing Plaguespreader Zombie and helping Malicious in Tele-Dad even more.
And more or less, that’s the story of how Dark Armed Dragon decks became the strongest and most successful in 2008. By making use of the d hero engine and working perfectly with Black Magician of Chaos and Dimension Fusion, Dark Armed Return had power miles before its time and one can only wonder how strong it would be with an extra deck under its belt. Tele-Dad, despite missing a lot of gems Dark Armed Return had still managed to make the best use of the new synchro mechanic and still be able to drop the mighty Dark Armed Dragon and win the game. Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments about Dark Armed Dragon and the decks it was a part of and thanks for reading!
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