Darkus Rising!While it is right for our heroes to fear Masquerade and his powerful Darkus attacks, there can be a strong pull to jump to the grim side of the game and pick up a few of those Darkus Bakugan yourself just to see what all the fuss is about... Darkus is all about surprising your opponent by taking away their options. Their Bakugan are of average G-Power, but if you can keep your opponent from maximizing his or her own Bakugan through control, it is pretty easy to stomp them into dust! Your Ability cards in particular can be stunningly frustrating for your opponents, crippling even the best-laid plans. The Darkus Bakugan Darkus Bakugan come in lots of flavors, for game play though, most are just as good as others. Unless you have a specific trick up your sleeve, you'll probably want to pick at least 2 high power G-Power Bakugan. You might want to pick one lower G-Power Bakugan in case your opponent is playing any tricky Gate cards that allow the lowest power Bakugan to win. You should have enough control over which Bakugan fight at which cards, that you can use your low-G-Power Bakugan to great effect if your opponent is playing tricky, and if he's not, you should be able to avoid using that low G-Power Bakugan in a battle at all.The Gate Cards Usually for Silver Gate cards, I recommend looking for a card that not only gives a great bonus for your attribute, but one that also doesn't give too high a bonus for anyone else. There are some other related tricks that I use sometimes when I play Darkus though. I often pick a card with a high Darkus bonus and a low highlighted bonus like Haunted Night or Dusk. This is because I plan to use another card that can change my opponent's attribute to the highlighted one (I'm telling you, Darkus can be so nasty...) For your Gold Gate card, you will likely want to include one that matches the shape of one or more of your Bakugan. Most of those gate cards give an extra bonus to the named Bakugan. There is a really fun card in the third card release of Series 2 Bakugan called El Condor. I had mentioned before that it's sometimes a good idea to take at least 1 low G-Power Darkus Bakugan, and probably the best choice is the lower G-Power El Condor Bakugan, and then take it's matching card. This card has a low G-Power bonus for Darkus, but that's OK as you're not going to use it anyway, your opponent is! If your opponent is playing Aquos or Pyrus, you are going to get a HUGE advantage with this card's attribute bonus. If your opponent is playing Subterra or Ventus, just don't use your El Condor on the gate and leave the battle to one of your high G-Power Bakugan. For your Copper Gate card you've got some great choices. There are several choices you might want to use that combo nicely with a low G-Power Bakugan, but be careful with Duck and Win and Tricky Gate as they have pretty big Darkus attribute bonuses. High Voltage can be really good for you and ugly for your opponent - just plan to lose the battle with your little Bakugan, and watch all of your opponent's Ability cards go to his used pile! High Voltage is a card that can be a real game changer. The Ability Cards The Red Ability cards are really the key strength for Darkus, and as such, you've got some fantastic choices. The cards are very situational, meaning they have to be at just the right time to get the most out of them, but wow are they good! There are three cards that you can play "before you roll a Darkus Bakugan" that deserve special attention. Masquerade's Throw is probably the best card to pick if you can't make up your mind or if you know your opponent is relying on his own Ability cards to win - this is particularly powerful against Haos and Ventus, who often needs really good Ability cards to win. Clean Slate is good if you aren't the greatest roller in the world. When your opponent has 2 standing Bakugan, this card is a nice reset. You can also use this card when your opponent has 1 Bakugan, but you know you can't beat it on the Gate card it's on. As a bonus, this card can put your opponent in a situation where he only has bad choices for which Bakugan to roll. Lastly, Masquerade's Launcher is extremely powerful when fighting on an opponent's Gate Card. If you have a higher G-Power Bakugan, just change your opponent's attribute to Darkus so you both get the same bonus! For Blue Ability cards, I like to pick the ones I can use on my opponent's Gate cards like Power From Darkness. I also really like Triangle of Power as it combos so nicely with Clean Slate. For your Green Ability card, there are good choices, but you'll want to make sure that the card fits with your overall strategy. For instance, Darkus 2 is a great card as long as you have picked Gate cards that make it work. Darkness to Victory deserves special notice because making your opponent play his Gate cards face up can be a huge advantage when deciding which Bakugan to roll and deciding when to play your other "Before you roll" Ability cards. Lastly, no talk of Darkus would be complete without mentioning the Doom Card . This card has a really good effect if played early, as you can get rid of one of your opponent's Bakugan for good, making it so that you never have to see it again in the rest of the game! For Darkus, the Doom card has an extra small G-Power bonus, but the real benefit for Darkus is that because you control so many elements of who fights who, the loss of a Bakugan is doubly bad for an opponent (imagine removing your opponent's low G-Power Bakugan from the game before it's had a chance to fight on the Gate cards meant for low G-power Bakugan - now what is your opponent going to do?) Darkus is fun to play, but make no mistake it's evil. Losing to a Darkus force can be very frustrating for your opponent. Like all attributes though, it takes practice and time to get a handle on the more advanced tactics of when to play your cards. I find that when I win with Darkus, I win handily (often my opponent thinks it's close, but really they had no chance!), but when I lose, it's because of a mistake that I made more than any brilliant strategy of my opponent. I find that Darkus has some trouble against a straight forward fighting attributes like Subterra or Pyrus as they do not rely too much on a single trick to win the game.
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