Dark counterpart

The Dark counterparts are a series of DARK monsters, identified by having an existing non-DARK counterpart and 「ダーク」 in their Japanese name.

The Dark counterparts were released in the OCG and TCG in Phantom Darkness, but dated back to the anime with the card "Rainbow Dark Dragon". The TCG exclusive Dark counterpart cards were introduced in OCG in the Extra Pack.

Dark counterparts have no external support, but are highly playable and powerful, particularly "Dark Armed Dragon", which supported one of the most tournament competitive Decks around (Tele-DAD). However, the March 2009 banlist has severely hampered this Deck, with some of the main cards such as "Emergency Teleport", "Destiny Hero - Malicious" and "Plaguespreader Zombie" (Not to mention "Dark Armed Dragon" itself) being restricted and semi-restricted, therefore making it somewhat obsolete.

Dark counterparts usually have effects similar to their counterparts (with the exceptions of "Dark Grepher" and "Dark Valkyria", whose counterparts are Normal Monsters), but reworked to go with the theme of manipulating DARK monsters you own or control, typically either summoning them, sending them to the Graveyard, or removing them from play out of the Graveyard to trigger effects.

Though they do not support Dark counterparts explicitly, several cards released in Phantom Darkness work very well with them. "Doomsday Horror" gains power for Removed DARK monsters and can "reload" your Graveyard with the removed DARK monsters. "Escape from the Dark Dimension" can Special Summon one of the removed DARK monsters, and "Allure of Darkness" increases your draw power while removing another DARK monster. "Veil of Darkness" can also vastly increase a DARK-user's draw power while flooding the Graveyard with DARK monsters to use as a resource.

Individual Dark counterparts splash well into a number of other established Archetypes as support cards. They work best with Archetypes that happen to focus on Graveyard control and which happen to be composed of DARK monsters, such as Destiny Heroes, Zombie or Fiend-based decks, and Dark World cards.

Disputed Cards
There is some debate whether "Arcana Force EX - The Dark Ruler", "Malevolent Mech - Goku En" and "Paladin of the Cursed Dragon" should be included in the categorization of this Archetype. They are clearly counterparts of "Arcana Force Ex - the Light Ruler", "Majestic Mech - Ohka" and "Paladin of White Dragon", but despite their names, have the same Attribute, LIGHT. All of them have 「ダーク」 in the katakana part of their Japanese names, rather than the kanji/furigana. The latter two are considered Zombie counterparts.

"Darklord Zerato's" Japanese name does not contain 「ダーク」, and instead its name in the OCG is Fallen Angel Zerato. However, this card is still considered to be the Dark counterpart to "Archlord Zerato" by some players, even with the pre-existent "Mazera DeVille".

"Shadowpriestess of Ohm" is occasionally confused with being within this archetype, since she is a DARK monster with an effect related to other DARK monsters and bears a strong visual resemblance to another existing card ("Elemental Mistress Doriado"), and she was released in Phantom Darkness alongside many of the Dark counterparts. However they possess differences in ATK and level.