In 2007, the Dueling world was shocked when Phantom Darkness revealed dark and twisted versions of classic monsters. Longtime Duelists still remember what it was like to see Armed Dragon LV7 corrupted into Dark Armed Dragon for the first time. Soon, Duelists will be able to experience that feeling again when Hidden Arsenal 7: Knight of Stars unleashes the Evilswarm monsters, corrupted versions of classic monsters with a thirst for destruction!

All of the Evilswarm Xyz Monsters are Rank 4, which ties in perfectly with the rest of the Evilswarm monsters – they’re almost entirely Level 4! You can use these Xyz Monsters in a variety of Decks, especially in a dedicated Evilswarm Deck. Step 1 is getting at least 2 monsters into play, and that’s where Evilswarm Mandragora and Evilswarm Castor can help you out!

First up is Evilswarm Nightmare, the evil version of XX-Saber Boggart Knight! Evilswarm Nightmare can be Summoned with any 2 Level 4 DARK monsters. Whenever your opponent Special Summons, you can detach an Xyz Material from Nightmare to turn that monster(s) face-down. Nightmare lets you manipulate your opponent’s Special Summons in a unique way. Either you can prevent your opponent from setting up big Xyz and Synchro Summons, OR you can allow them to combine their monsters and make those Summons only to have the new monster be flipped face-down. With a bulky 1950 DEF, Nightmare can be tough to take down without Special Summoning!

What happens when you take Fabled Ragin, mount him on The Fabled Unicore, and POLLUTE THEIR MINDS? You get Evilswarm Thanatos! Like Nightmare, Thanatos requires any 2 Level 4 DARK monsters. By detaching one of its Xyz Materials, you can make Thanatos unaffected by all monster effects for the rest of the turn! That’s all monster effects, not just the ones that destroy. You can use this effect on either turn, so Thanatos will be safe at any time.

Most Duelists still have Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier fresh in their memories. While Brionac may have left us to the Forbidden & Limited List, it’s returned as the terrible Evilswarm Bahamut! You’ll Summon Bahamut using any 2 Level 4 “lswarm” monsters. That means you can use either Evilswarm or Steelswarm monsters for your Xyz Summon.

And Bahamut packs a punch just like its predecessor! Once per turn, you can detach an Xyz Material from Bahamut and target a face-up monster of your opponent’s to activate the effect. You’ll discard any “lswarm” monster, and if you do that, you gain control of the targeted monster! Note that you don’t discard as a cost. If Bahamut’s effect is somehow negated, you won’t have to discard.

Following in its cousin Brionac’s footsteps, we have Evilswarm Ophion, the tainted version of Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier! Just like Bahamut, you can Summon Ophion with any 2 Level 4 “lswarm” monsters. Ophion’s got two great abilities to go with its awesome 2550 ATK. First, as long as it’s got an Xyz Material attached, no Level 5 or higher monsters can be Special Summoned!

It’ll already be tough to take on such a tough monster without Special Summoning any high level monsters, but Ophion’s second effect can make that even tougher. You can detach an Xyz Material from it to add any “Infestation” Spell or Trap from your Deck to your hand. There are a number of good Infestation cards, and one of the best to use with Ophion is Infestation Pandemic. It’s a Quick-Play Spell that makes all “lswarm” monsters you control unaffected by other Spells and Traps for the turn. Use Ophion’s effect once to get Infestation Pandemic and you’ll have protection from Spells, Traps, and high level Special Summons!

And finally it’s the most powerful of all the Ice Barrier dragons! Even the mighty Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier has been taken over, now known as Evilswarm Ouroboros! Ouroboros stands out from the rest of the Evilswarm Xyz Monsters, because its materials are any 3 Level 4 monsters. Ouroboros takes a new twist on Trishula’s already powerful effect. Once each turn, you can detach an Xyz Material to activate any one of these effects:

-Return any of your opponent’s cards to the hand.

-Send a random card from their hand to the Graveyard.

-Banish any card in their Graveyard.

You can only use each of the effects one time while Ouroboros is face-up on the field. By using up each of Ouroboros’s materials, you’ll get to use each effect one time.

You’ve already experienced how powerful these cards were before, but now is the time to take on their new sinister forms! You’ll be able to try them out with Hidden Arsenal 7: Knight of Stars on April 26^th!