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Crest-Dark Scorpion

"Dark Scorpion" tattoo

"Dark Scorpion", known as "Black Scorpion" ( (くろ) (さそり) Kurosasori) in Japan, is an archetype of DARK Warrior monsters who have Trigger Effects that activate when they inflict battle damage to their opponent, giving the controller a choice of two effects. The majority of these card effects disrupt the opponent's field, hand or Deck, with the exception of "Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn" who instead searches out other "Dark Scorpion" cards.

The "Dark Scorpions" have been featured on numerous Spell and Trap Cards. "Don Zaloog" and "Dark Scorpion Burglars" were introduced in Pharaonic Guardian, "Cliff" in Magician's Force, and the rest in Dark Crisis.

Design[]

DarkScorpions

Members of the Dark Scorpions in their civilian disguises.

The Dark Scorpion's outfits consists of a grey, sleeveless, skin-tight top, featuring studs on the stomach, pants sectioned into grey and red layers, and grey wristbands with red tips. All members have a tattoo on their right arm of a scorpion. Each member carries a distinct weapon, and sometimes feature additional holsters on their costume for them.

Meanae Linework

Depicted here is Meanae in full Dark Scorpion regalia as well as her in civilian clothing.

All members appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and wore civil disguises. Cliff appeared as a security guard, Gorg as a janitor, Meanae as a school nurse, Chick as a Slifer Red student, and Don Zaloog as a police detective in a Sherlock Holmes guise.

Members[]

Monster Variable effects
Option 1 Option 2
Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow Target 1 card on the field; return that target to the hand Look at the top card of your opponent's Deck, then return it to the top or bottom
Dark Scorpion - Cliff the Trap Remover Target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy that target Send the top 2 cards of your opponent's Deck to the GY
Dark Scorpion - Gorg the Strong Target 1 monster your opponent controls; return that target to the top of their Deck Send the top card of your opponent's Deck to the GY
Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn Add 1 "Dark Scorpion" card from your Deck to your hand Target 1 "Dark Scorpion" card in your GY; add that target to your hand
Don Zaloog Discard 1 random card from your opponent's hand Send the top 2 cards of your opponent's Deck to the GY

Support[]

Card Origin
Dark Scorpion - Tragedy of Love Love & Sacrifice
Dark Scorpion Combination Jail Break with Goblin Thief
Mustering of the Dark Scorpions Ginyu Force
Retreat of the Dark Scorpions Sound the Retreat!

Playing style[]

"Dark Scorpions" are fairly weak physically, but benefit greatly from Spell and Trap Cards that boost their power or weaken the opponent's monsters; "Mirror Wall", "Fairy Box" and "Shrink" can drastically cut an opponent's attacking monster's ATK, causing the attacked Dark Scorpion to inflict battle damage and trigger its effect. "Burden of the Mighty" and "The A. Forces" work well; combining "The A. Forces" with "Mustering of the Dark Scorpions" can both swarm the field and give you many strong monsters all at once.

"Don Zaloog" is the only Dark Scorpion that cannot be searched out or retrieved with the effect of "Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn", so including some copies of "The Warrior Returning Alive" and a copy of "Reinforcement of the Army" will be handy in a Dark Scorpion deck. Also, it is a good idea to have 3 copies of each of the Dark Scorpions except "Dark Scorpion - Gorg the Strong" and "Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow". "Dark Armed Dragon" is very handy for clearing the field to let the Dark Scorpions attack. Their DARK Attribute also makes them eligible for "Dark General Freed", protecting them from Spells and searches some of them out. "The Dark Creator" and "Dark Horus" can also be used to bring them back from the Graveyard.

Should you successfully activate "Dark Scorpion Combination" you may wish to give some thought as to which Dark Scorpion's abilities you use in what order. You may use the effect of "Chick" to check the top of the opponent's Deck, then use another Dark Scorpion's effect to send the top card of their Deck to the Graveyard, or use the effect of "Gorg" to send a monster to the top of their Deck and then discard it the same way. After pulling off a "Combination", use "Meanae" to retrieve the "Dark Scorpion Combination" card to play again next turn.

A commonly used Trap Card with Dark Scorpions is "Robbin' Goblin", and sometimes "Robbin' Zombie". Since the archetype focuses on inflicting Battle Damage to trigger effects (even if the damage is not great due to the Dark Scorpions being rather weak) those two cards will quickly deplete the opponent's hand and Deck, especially if you activate "Dark Scorpion Combination" and hit the opponent five times in a turn. Another card that can combo easily with Dark Scorpions is "Armor Breaker", allowing you to destroy an opponent's card whenever you successfully inflict battle damage (on top of protecting the equipped Scorpion from destruction once). Since"Chick" and "Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn" have 1000 ATK, they can be used with "Crush Card Virus".


Weaknesses and Counter-Strategies[]

Dark Scorpions have no tricks at all to survive on their own on the field, and are heavily dependent on Spell and Trap support to be effective. In the current metagame, a deck purely focused on this archetype is competitively unviable; a competitive deck is required to be able to use the Graveyard as a resource, and the effects of "Dark Scorpion" cards only aid this. "Dimensional Fissure" and "Macro Cosmos", two cards that would help overcome this problem, are currently Limited, and while cards such as "Necrovalley" and "The End of Anubis" can help by locking out the Graveyard, they lock both players' Graveyards and thus hinder a "Dark Scorpion" deck's ability to recover.

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