Hey everyone!  I'm back again with the second installment of what I'm guessing is going to be a 5 part series on the sets of 2010 in Yu-gi-Oh!.  So, without further ado, here comes my review of The Shining Darkness
 
firstly, the playable cards (just in order that they appear in the set)
 
1. XX-Saber Boggart Knight
2. Blackwing - Breeze the Zephyr
3. Infernity Mirage
4. Infernity Beetle
5. Infernity Avenger
6. Spore
7. Wattgiraffe
8. Roanintoadin
9. Herald of Perfection
10. Infernity Doom Dragon
11. Cards for Black Feathers
12. Infernity Launcher
13. Into the Void
14. Corridor of Agony
15. Infernity Break
16. Infernity Inferno
17. XX-Saber Darksoul
18. Infernity Barrier
19. Genex Controller (I'm not kidding)
20. Genex Undine (because of this guy)
21. XX-Saber Palomuro
22. XX-Saber Pashuul
23. Genex Neutron
 
(Side note - I'm not tech enough to include Koa'ki Meiru and Morphtronic cards)
 
1.  XX-Saber Boggart Knight
To be 100% honest I'm playing sabers right now and am loving it, so I'm pretty partial to this guy.  This set, lemme start off, is what broke sabers in half, not that the deck sucked previously, as it had fulhelmknight, hyunlei, and emmersblade, but half the damn deck is in this set.  At the time people realized this and loved this guy as an auto include 3 of in the deck.  Not much has changed
 
2. Blackwing - Breeze the Zephyr
At the time this set came out you could play two Black Whirlwinds and only a few decks splashed this guy.  Now that you can only play one,  I consider this guy unplayable, but cool artwork since his wings are quite orangish-red.
 
3. Infernity Mirage
Who needs monster reborn when you can get two guys back at once?  When the set came out you could play three barriers so he wasn't verty good, now, though, this card is huge.  The reason that I included all of the infernity cards and didn't group them together is because the deck really did evolve (in my opinion, at least) when it got restricted.  Now, this is the key to the puzzle as far as why the deck is still viable.  It helps you get triple barrier in one turn, therefore, I think it is pretty "baller".
 
4. Infernity Beetle
This guy helped get the triple mist wurm out in 1 turn when you were allowed to play triple barrier.  So, at the time that set came out this guy was pretty much essential.  Nowadays, at least in the main infernity builds that play barrier, he has fallen on the wayside to avenger, though whenever someone I know wants to build the deck without barriers I tell them to use beetles and avengers and go for Red Nova Dragon.
 
5. Infernity Avenger
At the time that the infernity deck first came out in America, most people preferred the beetle, as I previously stated, though, I have always preferred the avenger.  I honestly love the combo feel of newer infernity decks, and though I didn't play infernities as well as I do today, I still love avenger.  He is able to set up some pretty crazy plays with his star-altering ability.
 
6. Spore
I feel that this card should've been a super rare.  I've heard so many rules questions about this guy, not to mention I feel it's one of the better cards inthe set.  I'm not just saying that because of plant synchro's popularity, I just love spore because I love graveyard based tuners.  At the time the set came out this guy was in quickdraw and solid, nowadays, this guy is part of the turn 1 Shooting Star Dragon combo in plant synchro/quickdraw.  For those who don't know the combo
 
Summon lonefire blossom
Sac for lonefire blossom
Sac for dandylion
Monster reborn the blossom
Sac dandy for spore
sync 2 for formula/draw card
remove lonefire for a lvl 4 spore
sync spore/lonefire/token for stardust
sync for shooting star
 
(note: you still have 5 cards in hand)
 
7. Wattgiraffe
This card is one that when the set first came out, everyone wanted to think of a deck to break with this guy.  I dont think that this is a horrible card, but frankly, I feel that without being able to atk the same turn and it takes up your normal summon, it just sets up combos that your opponent will just break before you get to reap the benefits of said combo.
 
8. Roanintoadin
When the set came out: OhhaiMassDriver
Now: Often replaced by fishborg blaster in monarchs, not always, but its a slowly but surely kinda deal
 
9. Herald of Perfection
I love this card.  I love this deck.  When this guy came out, he shortly thereafter, if memory serves correctly, won a jump, but, in my opnion, the player just didn't play against very many decks that mained/sided very many dimension fissures/banisher of the radience, or, people didn't think that their abilities turned off Herald.  I'm gonna try to break the shit outta this deck when Kristya comes out as a common, but I refuse to trade for them with that info out there.
 
10. Infernity Doom Dragon
When the set came out this guy wasn't really played because it wasn't as instakill as Mist Wurm.  Now?  I feel that he is a staple in the deck because he is hard to deal with by just attacking and he has infernity in his name so you can set three barriers and have him turn them on.
 
11. Cards for Black Feathers
I'm honestly not sure how this card hit the scene when the set came out.  It wasn't a card for Sabers, Infernities, or Herald.......  Now?  Generally I see a 2-1 split between Pot of Duality and Cards for Black Feathers, respectively.
 
12. Infernity Launcher
This card does literally everything infernities needs to do.  It is a discard enabler, it reanimates, and it doesn't make you wait a turn to do it or take up your summon.  At the time the set came out this card was broken as shit.  Not much has changed....at least it's limited I guess....
 
13. Into the Void
A lot of people probly looked at this card and questioned the playability of it.  I'm not gonna lie, it isn't exactly a top tier card as far as the high level tournament scene, but, this was a card that Konami not-so-secretly made for infernities.  It has Infernity Avenger on the picture for christ sake!  It burns through your deck and discards it at end of turn?  Yes please!  If only it wasn't a dead draw late game it'd be playable as hell......  Today, it just get's played in every combo deck under the sun.
 
14. Corridor of Agony
GB Hunter just wasn't enough sidedeck for Gladiator Beasts.  At the time the set came out I put 3 of this baby in my sidedeck just because there were other small uses for the card.  Now?  GBs sucks, so does this card.*
 
15. Infernity Break
When the set came out: lul this card doesn't win turn 2
Now: I feel that this card is an essential 1 of if you're playing barriers just as the 4th relevant search outlet.  I view it as a 3 of if you don't have barriers.  I've heavily considered it as a bottomless trap hole alternative in my builds with barriers.
 
16. Infernity Inferno
This card is rediculous.  Not only do you get to discard cards from your hand, its at spell speed two, and you get to foolish burial up to TWICE.  Its because of this card that getting three barriers so easily in one turn is such an easy thing to do.
 
17. XX-Saber Darksoul
I literally haven't been to an event since this card was printed that at least two different people didn't tell me that this card was getting errated.  At the time that this card came out people freaked out over X-sabers being a crazy good deck.  Now?  Other than Rescue cat the deck didn't really get hit by anything on the list so it just got better.  I'm not going to waste time ranting about how awesome this card is.
 
18. Inferity Barrier
Wait, so you're telling me that not only can I play 4 solemn judgments, but I can tutor for them, not pay lifepoints, and use them as a divine wrath?  Huh, that seems pretty good I guess....**
 
19. Genex Controller
When the set came out I laughed at this guy.  Now, I still do.  When the set came out I traded a copy of this guy for the most beat up copy of red dragon archfiend I've seen in my life.  Now, I still play with that same copy because it has sentimental value.  When this guy came out I wondered if him and undine had a place in frogs.  Now I'm about to go to the next guy and not get ahead of myself.
 
20. Genex Undine
When this guy came out I thought long and hard about using him over swap frog, and then I remembered that substitoad was awesome and deckthinned 25% of my library.  Now I use this guy religiously because he can also get fishborg blaster and help me cycle through my deck at a crazy pace with formula synchron.  I also like that you can do some crazy gungnir plays in this way.
 
21. XX-Saber Palomuro
At the time the set came out, this guy was tested a bit and not really played.  Now?  I don't have emmersblades so I play one of this guy and a one for one.  I also like the fact that you can go infinite life with two of this guy and a rainbow life.  If I can get emmersblades I'll probly try to play it and go crazy with triple darksoul triple pot triple emmersblade and play final countdown and just be "that guy".
 
22. XX-Saber Pashuul
Now I'm not saying that nothing makes me like Faultroll more than being able to play Boggart Knight and Pashuul and go Hyunlei to clear the back row to be safe...but.....dang....
 
23.  Genex Neutron
I promise I didn't put this here because of the Genex deck.  I put it here due to the often forgotten Salvo deck.  When the set came out, this guy didn't go in Herald, GBs, Infernities, or Sabers, so he was irrelevant.  Now?  He is kinda relevant.
 
     So, that one was definitely a lot wordier than last one, but, I feel that it was all justified.  Here are the top lists for then and now
 
Top 5 cards of then
5. Infernity Barrier
4. Roanintoadin
2. Tie for second Herald of Perfection + XX-Saber Darksoul 
1. Infernity Launcher
 
Top 5 cards of now
 
5. Into the Void**
4. Infernity Barrier/Launcher
3. Cards for Black Feathers
2. Spore
1. XX-Saber Darksoul
 
So there you have it, my review of The Shining Darkness.  I'll continue the next installment with Hidden Arsenal 2.
 
 
LINKS!
my facebook: www.facebook.com/shakezilluh
my youtube: youtube.com/themcshakealchemist
my pojo articles: http://pojo.com/yu-gi-oh/FeaturedWriters/TheMcShakeAlchemist/index.shtml
my email address: andro_Sphinx@yahoo.com
finally
My girlfriend is going to start making hand drawn playmts, she'll take requests or make her own to sell as well, if you are interested just send her a message on her deviantart.  For references to her art style look on there and her only playmat that there is a picture of online is on my facebook under Mobile Uploads.
 
her deviantart: xxxtearlessxxx.deviantart.com
 
 
*Gladiators beasts don't actually suck, I just view it like a lesser degree of lightsworn, where the deck is semi playable, but, it isn't placing that well, but is a great deck to play at locals.
**.........Please tell me you didn't expect me to correct that statement.
***I put Into the Void as #5 because I felt there were several cards deserving of this spot, but, while often unrecognized, in the traditional format, this card is HUGE.