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Pojo's Yu-Gi-Oh Card of the Day

Mad Dog of Darkness
Rare

Beast / Normal Monster
"He used to be a normal dog who played around in a park, but was corrupted by the power of darkness."

Type - Dark / 4 / 1900 / 1400
Card Number
- IOC-057

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being 
the worst.  3 ... average.  5 is the highest rating

Date Reviewed - 5.26.04

ExMinion OfDarkness Wednesday:
Mad Dog of Darkness

Beatdown gets another weapon in its (already overloaded) arsenal. With only 100 less DEF than Archfiend Soldier (in my opinion, the "perfect" Beatdown monster), it's pretty darn good right off the bat.

But we've reviewed many effectless 1900 attackers before, so there's no point in looking at this straight as a Beatdown monster -- we KNOW it overpowers Control monsters, we KNOW it's not strong enough to take on V-Lord, and we KNOW that this thing is food for Chaos already. That's all been established.

Let's look at the combo potential hinted at eariler this week.

This + Enraged Battle Ox + Berserk Gorilla = sick and wrong. Spirit Reaper use has gone up and Zaloog use slightly down -- trampling monsters are Reaper's worst nightmare (just as an opponent attacking you with Reaper's worst nightmare is to see you to topdeck Scientist, summon 4 fusions, and smack them all into the Reaper for 7200.) It's the same principle.

Even if you don't have all of this on the field at once, you're still most likely dealing a nice chunk of damage.

At the very least, this can go toe to toe with most other monsters you'll see on the field.

3.5/5 in a normal Deck
4.75/5 in Beast 
Omega Mad Dog of Darkness, this monster not only gives beatdown a small boost, but also is very good in a Beast/Beast Warrior theme.
When used alongside Berserk Gorilla, Enraged Battle Ox, as well as some magic cards like Wild Natured Release a Beast deck could be very effective.

Mad Dog of Darkness has 1400 Defense; this means it can fend off such monsters like Don Zaloog or other smaller monsters, while still being able to be searched through Witch of the Black Forrest.

There isn’t much else to say about Mad Dog of Darkness other than the fact that it’s a rare, which means it will be very easy to get (most people probably have several of him already).

My Score for this card is a solid 2/5 in a beatdown deck, and 4/5 in a Beast deck.

With so many different 1900+ attackers to choose from, Mad Dog might be lost in the clutter. 
Otaku

Stats: Mad Dog of Darkness is a Level 4 Dark/Beast with no effects, so it can be dropped without any concerns.  Dark types are pretty common, and has some decent support, and just yesterday we covered a card that is wonderful support for Beasts, Beast-Warriors, and Winged-Beasts: Enraged Battle Ox.  So, why play this naught puppy with EBO?  Check out the last stats: an ATK of 1900 and DEF of 1400.  1900 appears to be the new minimum for beatsticks, at least outside of specialty decks, so this dog is sitting pretty there.  Something I have pointed out as downers on the last two cards were their low DEF scores.  We don’t want the DEF to be so high that Witch of the Black Forest can’t search for them, but we want them as high as they can while being searchable.  That means a score of 1500.  Well, Rover here has a DEF of 1400, pretty close to that ideal.  This isn’t high enough to be an impenetrable wall, but on the bright side, a lot of support monsters (Mystic Tomato, Witch of the Black Forest, Sangan, Don Zaloog) won’t be able to kill it.  This is especially important when one of those monsters is clearing the way for something bigger like Jinzo or with a nasty effect like Don Zaloog itself or Yata Garusa

Uses/Combinations: This is the grunt of Beast-themed decks.  Berserk Gorilla is stronger, but has some drawbacks to compensate.  EBO has a sick effect, but is weaker to compensate.  This is just a solid attacker to back those guys up, as well as bigger Beasties like Dark Manticore.  As an added bonus, since it’s Dark, it can also serve as Chaos fodder. 

Ratings 

Casual: 4/5- Like Berserk Gorilla, it’s a solid Beatstick.  Unlike Berserk Gorilla, it’s a reliable Beatstick that won’t cause any odd problems.  Also, it’s Dark, so its Chaos food. 

Tournament: 3.25/5-Same uses as above here, but Beast-decks are specialty-Beatdown, and thus less potent.  It’s a bit better than some other 1900 Beatsticks for general deck since, as stated, it can be used for summoning of Chaos Monsters. 

Limited: 4/5-A little less useful that Berserk Gorilla for over-powering stuff, but without the possible draw backs. 

Summary

While I loathe the ATK inflation that plagues this game (we’ve gone from base ATK needed of 1800, to 1850, to 1900 for Level 4s), this at least helped round out the Beast Decks.

Tranorix Wednesday: Mad Dog of Darkness

What do we have here? That's right, an effectless 1900 beatstick!

There's no too much to be said about this guy. He's got decent, Witchable DEF and solid enough ATK to find his way into any deck lacking a Beatstick. He's also DARK, which makes him Chaos food.

But there's really no reason to run him instead of Slate Warrior or Archfiend Soldier unless you need to stick to Beasts, which is of course where Mad Dog shines.

Typical tournament deck: 3/5
Beast deck: 3.5/5
OVERALL RATING: 3.3/5  

 

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