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.
