Dark Scorpion
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Dark Scorpion
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The Dark Scorpions are a group of monsters, whose effects trigger when they inflict Battle Damage to their opponent, giving the controller a choice of two effects. The majority of these card effects disrupt the opponent's cards on the field, in their hand or in their deck, with the exception of "Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn", who searches out other Dark Scorpion cards with her effect. The Dark Scorpions have also been featured on certain Spell and Trap Cards. Don Zaloog was introduced in Pharaonic Guardian and the rest in Dark Crisis.
Contents
Character design
The Dark Scorpion's outfits consists of a grey sleeveless, skin-tight top, featuring studs on the stomach, pants sectioned into grey and red layers and grey wristbands with red tips at the top. All members have a tattoo on their right arm of a scorpion. Each member carries their own weapon and sometimes features additional holsters on their costume for them.
All members appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and wore civil disguises. Cliff appeared as a security guard, Gorg as a janitor, Menae as a school nurse, Chick as a Slifer Red student, and Don Zaloog pretended to be a police detective dressed similarly to Sherlock Holmes.
Playing Style
Dark Scorpions are fairly weak physically and benefit greatly from Spell and Trap Cards that boost their power or weaken the opponent's monsters. "Mirror Wall", "Fairy Box" and "Shrink" can drastically cut an opponent's attacking monster's ATK, letting you do damage to trigger the Scorpion's effect. "Burden of the Mighty" works well, and another card that can be used is "The A. Forces", which boosts all Warriors' ATKfor each Warrior you have. Combining "The A. Forces" with "Mustering of the Dark Scorpions" can both swarm the field and give you many strong monsters all at once.
"Don Zaloog" is the only Dark Scorpion that cannot be searched out or retrieved due to "Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn" 's effect, so including some copies of "The Warrior Returning Alive" and "Reinforcement of the Army" will be handy in a Dark Scorpion deck. "Mystic Tomato" is similarly handy for searching out and summoning most of the Scorpions, due to their low ATK and DARK-Attribute. Their DARK Attribute also makes them eligible for Mystic Plasma Zone, greatly increasing the damage that can be dealt. Another card that can be used is "Allure of Darkness" since all the Dark Scorpions are DARK-Attribute.
Individually Dark Scorpions are a nuisance, but collectively they can play absolute havoc with your opponent's cards. Should you successfully activate "Dark Scorpion Combination" you may wish to give some thought as to which Dark Scorpion's abilities you use in what order. You may use Chick's ability to check the top of the opponent's deck, then use another Dark Scorpion's ability to send the top card of their deck to the Graveyard, or use Gorg's ability to send a monster to the top of the deck and then discard it the same way. The last move you should do after pulling off a Combination is using Meanae to retrieve the "Dark Scorpion Combination" card to play again your next turn.
A commonly used Trap card with Dark Scorpions, in general, is "Robbin' Goblin" and sometimes "Robbin' Zombie". Since the archetype focuses on inflicting Battle Damage to trigger effects (even if the damage is not great due to the Dark Scorpions being rather weak) those two cards will quickly deplete the opponent's hand and deck, especially if you activate Dark Scorpion Combination and hit the opponent five times in a turn. Another card that can combo easily with Dark Scorpions is "Armor Breaker", allowing you to destroy an opponent's card whenever you successfully inflict battle damage (on top of protecting the equipped Scorpion from destruction once).
Recommended Cards
Monsters
- Don Zaloog
- Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow
- Dark Scorpion - Gorg the Strong
- Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn
- Dark Scorpion Burglars
- Cliff the Trap Remover
- Shadow Delver
- Marauding Captain
- Dark General Freed
- Dark Nephthys
- Dark Armed Dragon
- Dark Creator
- Command Knight
- Mystic Tomato
- Comrade Swordsman of Landstar
- Needle Worm
- X-Saber Airbellum
- Spirit Reaper
- Torapart
- Exiled Force
- Pitch-Black Warwolf
- Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
Spells
- Big Bang Shot
- Messenger of Peace
- Burden of the Mighty
- The A. Forces
- Shrink
- Secret Pass to the Treasures
- Gravekeeper's Servant
- Twin Swords of Flashing Light - Tryce
- Mustering of the Dark Scorpions
- The Warrior Returning Alive
- Reinforcement of the Army
- Mystic Plasma Zone
- Inferno Reckless Summon
- Allure of Darkness
Traps
- Sakuretsu Armor
- Dimensional Prison
- Negate Attack
- Threatening Roar
- Magic Cylinder
- Hidden Soldiers
- Draining Shield
- Dark Scorpion Combination
- Mirror Wall
- Rising Energy
- Bottomless Trap Hole
- Compulsory Evacuation Device
- Covering Fire
Extra Deck
- X-Saber Urbellum
- X-Saber Wayne
- Goyo Guardian
- Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
- Colossal Fighter
- Dark End Dragon
- Stardust Dragon
- Dark Strike Fighter
- Iron Chain Dragon
Weaknesses and Counter-Strategies
Dark Scorpions have no tricks of their own to survive on the battlefield, and are heavily dependent on Spell and Trap support to be effective--the opponent will be targeting your back row with Spell and Trap destroyers if they see you are running Dark Scorpions. Recent deck archetypes also punish the use of the most common Dark Scorpion effects--Dark World cards reverse Hand destruction tactics, and Lightsworn and Dark counterparts decks thrive on having their cards sent from the deck straight to the Graveyard. Keep both of these in mind when using Dark Scorpions.
