Underground Arachnid …

Obviously built for an Insect deck, this card is pretty good. Only requiring a Dark Tuner (thank goodness not a dark INSECT Tuner) and an Insect monster to create, he can be built quite easily, assuming u have a fair share of insect cards. At Level 6, 2400 ATK is pretty fair as well, but this spider has 2 pretty good effects to go with it. The first – which is always lovely, is that when it attacks, your opponent cannot activate any spells or traps until the end of the damage step. No Mirror Force, no Sakuretsu Armor, no Shrink, etc. No nasty little surprises and walls that people often worry about when attacking. And then the 2nd effect – once per turn u can equip one of your opponent monsters to this card, and if Arachnid would die by battle, u can destroy the equipped card instead. Truth be told, often people will probably just kill it with a spell or trap. At 2400 ATK, your opponent may not have a choice in the matter. But the Arachnid’s ability to remove a face-up threat is what gives this effect merit. Since it doesn’t destroy the monster it snags in its web, even Stardust dragon can’t fake it out, so it is a great answer to almost ANY monster threat.

I’m a fan.

Traditional: 3.5/5
Advanced: 4/5

- FREEZA

Underground Arachnid:

Wow, spiders actually get some decent support. Insects are fun, so this card is quickly becoming a new favorite of mine. First, it's pretty easy to summon in a spider deck as there are numerous dark tuners (which is a requirement for this synchro) to pick from and almost all spiders are insects. Second, it has a Relinquished like effect that works on your opponent's face-up monsters. The built-in s/t protection for the battle phase is nice, but it doesn't save it from Bottomless or the like, so it's negligible at best. Not to mention Book of Moon is this guy's worst enemy... it can either turn him face-down when summoned or it can flip the targeted monster for his effect face-down, thus nullifying the "suck up". Arachnid will really get to see some play when we get Infernity Beetle. Beetle is a level 2, Dark, Insect, Tuner that can be tributed for 2 more of the same card from the deck if you have no cards in your hand. While the effect is cool and allows for some sick plays in an Infernity deck, we are interested in him here mainly because he can be resurrected with Spyder Spider's effect, and then Spyder and Beetle combine for an easy Arachnid. There are, of course, many other ways to get this bug onto the field, and he is usable in many other decks than just dedicated spiders. So give him a try if you've got a deck with dark tuners and some insects in it, you'll be sucking up your opponent's monsters in no time!

Traditional: 2.5
Advanced: 3.5 (would be higher if it didn't require an insect as synchro fodder)