#phantom demon

One Inch Ash  by  六舞竹‏  (twitter: 六舞竹@Aritaire  lofter: aritaire.lofter.com)

Dark Summoning Beast ———————————————— You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 "Uria, Lord of Searing Flames", "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder", or "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms" from your hand or Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions, also monsters you control cannot attack for the rest of this turn. You can only use this effect of "Dark Summoning Beast" once per turn. You can banish this card from your Graveyard; add 1 "Uria, Lord of Searing Flames", "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder", or “Raviel, Lord of Phantasms" from your Deck to your hand. ———————————————— Can Be Found In: 20th Anniversary Pack 1st Wave (20AP-JP007)

The Sacred Beasts have a respectable reputation among players despite a barely pressence in competitive events. "Uria, Lord of Searing Flames" can work along all sort of disruptive effects coming from Continuous Traps, "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder" became a popular choice in certain Decks like Crystal Beasts, while "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms" took a more traditional approach with its own kind. But while they are powerful on their speciality it was nearly impossible to create a steady Deck with all three together. Fortunately, with the recent improvement on classic themes and builds, the Sacred Beasts gained enough options to threaten players with their combined forces.

"Dark Summoning Beast" is an extremely important monster if we want to build a strategy with all three Sacred Beasts in the same build. Although lacking in stats to defend itself, "Dark Summoning Beast" priority is to tribute itself so we can summon one of the Sacred Beasts from our hand or even inside the Deck no matter their respective requeriments. This ability will nullify the Battle Phase by not allowing us attack, but is undoubtly a powerful effect which entirely skips all the requirements and setups the trio requires for their respective summons. Later on, if "Dark Summoning Beast" is in our Graveyard, it can banish itself to look for a Sacred Beast to add in our hand. This is another useful ability if we manage to prepare the summoning conditions of a particular Sacred Beast, but is clearly overshadowed by the exploitable ability to instead summoning them from the Deck as soon this monster makes its pressence on the field.

Despite being a Level 5, thanks to it statless condition along various tools at our disposition is very easy to obtain "Dark Summoning Beast" right on time to summon a Sacred Beast when needed. The defeat of "Mystic Tomato" will suffice to summon it from our Deck, specially helpful if the opponent's last monster attacks it before their Battle Phase ends. Working along Level 4 Fiends we can use "Transmodify", a Spell replacing its target with "Dark Summoning Beast" from our Deck. If is in our hand a "Stygian Street Patrol" in the Graveyard will Special Summon it, while "The Monarchs Stormforth" can compensate the loss of our Battle Phase by tributing an opponent monster for its arrival. When it comes to Graveyard options "Dark Summoning Beast" truly shines as several copies of "Call of the Haunted" and "Limit Reverse" will assure is back each turn to summon a new Sacred Beast. This setup is not hard to pull out with the help of effects like "Dark Grepher" and "Foolish Burial", dumping this monster to become immediately available.

There's no in-depth strategy to work arround this monster as all it really needs is some coverage. "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms" and "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder" are powerful enough in terms of stats to wall any possible attacks, with the latter able to lock down the opponent if is brought in Defense Position. "Uria, Lord of Searing Flames" is a bit trickier as depends on the Graveyard to obtain powerful stats, but with the ability to destroy backrow can become the easiest option to compensate the drawback of being unable to attack. While they can withstand attacks on their own our shortcut summon can still be ruined by certain effects, easily solved with the pressence of Field Spells such as "Fallen Paradise" or "Mound of the Bound Creator" protecting them against most threats. Although "Dark Summoning Beast" has a searching effect from the Graveyard, is highly recommended to instead become a target of "Phantom of Chaos" to steal its effect in later turns and keep summoning Sacred Beast with its aid. If we manage our Sacred Beasts properly, there's a chance of not only gathering various copies together but also the possibility to Fusion Summon "Armityle the Chaos Phantom" if we want to.

The Sacred Beasts have very particular summoning conditions which "Dark Summoning Beast" can easily get over with. Regardless of playing arround a particular Sacred Beast or all three together, is undoubtly the efficiency this monster provides to these creatures to cheapen their arrival. With powerful setup to not only make its summon easier but also recycle it from the Graveyard, is a monster very easy to keep depending on each turn to summon a new Sacred Beast despite being unable to attack after each use. This powerful ability really outshines its searching effect, having barely any valid uses with all the Graveyard tools we can work along to retrieve "Dark Summoning Beast" over and over. While clearly needs some assistance to compensate its drawback, "Dark Summoning Beast" is an important monster to work along the powerful trio.

Personal Rating: A

+ Summons a Sacred Beast from our hand or Deck + Banishes itself from the Graveyard to add a Sacred Beast to our hand + Highly supported specially from the Graveyard

李轩，生日快乐！（Artist @十四_色相莊嚴 ）