July 2006

From: Brad Mathews [mailto:bradmathews@clearwire.net]
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 10:12 PM
To: yugiohcrew@pojo.com
Subject: Swarm of Locusts--by brad



Card #2 Swarm of Scarabs

Hello, everyone, I’m back by popular demand (or like a bad dream, whichever you’d prefer). This is the first in a set of articles where i’ll be discussing certain cards. I’ve chosen to write forty of these articles. Quite the task. Verterans, be forewarned, this is going to be a series or articles more geared towards helping people who are new to the game understand strategies and card relationships. Each card is fairly obtainable, and when we’re finished, we’ll have a fairly reliable deck constructed.

The second card we’ll be taking a look at with this set of articles is Swarm of Locusts.

Swarm of Locusts PGD-022

You can flip this card into face-down defense position once per turn during your main phase. When this card is flip summoned, destroy 1 spell or trap card on your opponent’s side of the field.

This is an oldie, but a goodie, for certain. What are the pros? It’s a potentially reusable Dust Tornado in monster form. Swarm of Locusts comes with rather paltry stats for a level 3 monster at 1000/500, but has a nifty effect. It can die in battle very easily and does not get its effect when it is flipped face-up.

Strategy #1. The Tsukuyomi abuse machine. So you’ve manage to protect it, or you’ve just Prematured it. Good Job. You can now drop Tsukuyomi, flip it face down, then flip summon it, destroy one of those worrysome spell or trap cards opposite the table, then flip it face down again. If you have more protection or your opponent is backtracking enough, you can further the pain. It takes some fairly advanced combinations to make great use out of, but that’s what i’m here for.

Strategy #2. Nobleman bait. So you don’t need it. Great. Set it and get your opponent thinking that you have Magician of Faith or something perhaps even worse. It got your Swarm of Locusts. Big surprise, but if you happen to be running more than one, the other one is perfectly safe. THEN you can surprise them again with your set Magician of Faith that they wish they’d saved their Nobleman for.

It’s a quick kill that, in the end, is not as reliable as old favorites such as Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, or even Dust Tornado, but in the right deck it does have potential.

So there you have it. The do’s and don’ts of Swarm of Locusts. Enjoy.

Feedback? Comments? Flames? Email me at bradmathews@clearwire.net. I do not accept unsolicited hate mail.

Ciao.