Dark Mantis

Dark Mantis is an archetype of DARK Insect-Type Monster Cards in HCCG. All of its members were made by Hippocampus and are included in Underworld's Balance.

The "Dark Mantis" comprise a variety of cards whose effects all revolve around swarming from the Deck or Graveyard. Many "Dark Mantis" cards have effects that send other "Dark Mantis" monsters from the deck to the graveyard, and the monsters can be revived by using the powerful effects of Dark Mantis Sheila and Dark Mantis Reanimation. The goal of a "Dark Mantis" deck is to set up the Graveyard with plenty of "Dark Mantis" monsters, then swarm from the Graveyard and use the effect of Dark Mantis Igorovitch to destroy all the opponent's face-up cards. The deck also makes use of Mantis Welcomer to recycle banished "Dark Mantis" monsters. Due to their constant field presence and their monsters' high ATK, they have been a prominent deck in the HCCG metagame. Being all DARK and Insect-Type monsters, "Dark Mantis" have access to standard DARK support cards and Insect support cards in HCCG as well.

Here is a list of some cards that could be used in a "Dark Mantis" deck:
 * Dark Mantis Igorovitch
 * Dark Mantis Nikita
 * Dark Mantis Sheila
 * Dark Mantis Sonochee
 * Dark Mantis Vampirius
 * Dark Mantis Reanimation
 * Dark Mantis Shuffle
 * Soul of the Dark Mantis
 * Mantis Welcomer
 * Here Even Lamias Live/Dark Motion Detector
 * Broken Ice Machine
 * Foolish Burial
 * Dark Shapeshifter
 * Reaper's Crypt
 * Listening to Darkness
 * Mamunia Gardens (for siding against decks that use Tuner Monsters)

Trivia

 * The "Dark Mantis" archetype is the sworn enemy of the Holy Mantis archetype, and both have very many parallels, including the fact that they are both Insect-Type archetypes, they both were created in the same booster set, and they both have the same number of members (combined Monster Cards, Spell Cards, and Trap Cards). However, they also have many opposites, including their Attributes, the areas they swarm from, and many of their cards' individual effects.