Dark Strike Fighter

It has good stats, but instrumental to the success of this card was the [broken] ability to tribute every single monster you control and inflict thousands of points of damage.  Now, with the once per turn errata, this is no longer feasible.  It can do 1400 damage if it tributes itself, which isn't bad for some Gagaga Cowboy-like burn, but it's far from being the card it once was.  If your Extra Deck has room for lots of Synchro options, you might consider this, but if space is tight you can avoid this one.

2/5

Dark Strike Fighter has seen various places on the Ban List, and currently sits at Restricted Status, and for good reason.  Yea, he's a Synchro, and Synchros are slow, but some still have a very big place in the game.  Enter Dark Strike Fighter.  He was fairly easy to abuse, despite being a higher level Synchro, when you could use more than one.  This was either a move when you could use multiples they didn't care, or didn't think people were going to go (back to) abusing, so he finds himself back to one.  He's certainly still good, and worth the Extra Deck space if you can, but you get by fine without him too.  The power, or not, of one, so to speak.
 
Rating: 3.75/5 
Art:  5/5

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Oh how the once mighty have fallen, or in this case, been errataed. Dark Strike Fighter was once the bane of the game. Old-enough players remember the Cold Wave into Summoner Monk play that could be absolutely lethal back in the days of Rescue Cat. Now DSF is back, but severely nerfed.
 
Respectable stats for a Level 7 Synchro monster, its effect that once made it such a highly-sought after card has been changed quite a bit. During your Main Phase 1, you can tribute a monster, then do damage to your opponent x 200 for each of the tributed monsters stars, and this effect can only be used once per turn.
 
To sum up the changes:
 
Effect now can only be used once per turn
Has to happen during the Main Phase
 
While that may not sound like too much of a change, it has taken almost any plus to run DSF in your Extra Deck. You used to be able to fire off at will during a turn, during either of your main phases. You could attack with DSF, then fire him off for a total of 4000 Life Point damage. Even with one, if you could use his effect an unlimited number of times he would be better than he is now. Now, your best bet is to pop a high level monster and keep DSF on the field. Metal Reflect Slime or Shaddoll Core are two choices to get a quick 2000 or 1800 Life Point damage in alongside DSF attacking that turn.
 
In a format that is largely based on Xyz Summoning, DSF's time has passed and with its effect restrictions it is even more painful. While it could still be a finisher in some decks, not many decks are going to be bringing this guy to the field when his effect can only be used in the Main Phase 1, and only once. 
 
Advanced-2/5- Still has some playability, but not as wide as it used to
Art-3.5/5
 
Until Next Time
KingofLullaby

Dark Strike Fighter: probably the most infamous Synchro Monster of all. When it was first released, my fourteen year old self took one look at it and immediately said, “This card needs to be banned”. Turns out I was right; for the one format in which Dark Strike Fighter was legal, it defined the entire format.

Dark Strike Fighter by itself could deal up to 4000 damage: 2600 through a direct attack and 1400 through Tributing itself. Ignoring the fact that making two was laughably easy, the card could end games out of nowhere by the sheer amount of damage it could output. Games often came down to who could summon Dark Strike Fighter.

Conveniently enough, it was released around the time that two Decks that were heavily Level 7 Synchro-oriented came out: Blackwing and Rescue Cat. Unsurprisingly, these two Decks became the heavy hitters of the format (with Lightsworn trailing behind them).

And then Dark Strike Fighter was banned and everyone sighed in relief that they would never see this card again.

Then they errata’d it and unbanned it.

Now Dark Strike Fighter can only use its effect once per turn, and only during Main Phase 1. That’s a big difference, and unfortunately not a good one. Dark Strike Fighter isn’t just weaker now; it’s outright terrible. The effect is far too situational and weak to be worth using a Level 7 Synchro on. You could use it to steal games where your opponent has <1400 LP (a la Gagaga Cowboy), but with the fast pace of the current meta this isn’t likely, and Dark Strike Fighter is a lot harder to make than Cowboy.

You may as well have left this card alone and kept it banned, Konami. Nobody’s gonna use it now.

Rating: 1/5 (5/5 pre-errata)

Today's F&L card is an oldie, but is it still a goodie? Dark Strike Fighter was a true beast way back in the Demise/Black Salvo days, or any deck that can special summon a lot of monsters in a turn. This cause DSF to get limited to one, then just whacked with the mighty banhammer overall. Now it has return to us at one, but with a big change. Now you can only tribute 1 monster to inflict damage to your opponent x 200 its level once per turn. This stops all of the old shenanigans DSF used to cause. It can still be a problem to deal with, but no longer the threat it used to be.
 
Traditional: 2.5    
Advanced: 2.5