There are a lot of different ways to play a Dragon Deck.  In the past, successful Duelists have relied on cards like Stamping Destruction and Burst Breath to make the most of a varied Dragon lineup.  They’ve combined DARK Dragons with The Dark Creator and Armageddon Knight to rush the field in 1 big turn.  Others have used Reckless Greed, Trade-In, and Cards of Consonance to draw huge numbers of cards with Super Rejuvenation.  They’re all very different strategies, and they all work.

Every time Dragons get a new monster, Dragon fans stand up and take notice.  There aren’t a lot of Level 2 Dragon-Type Tuners, so Dread Dragon from The Shining Darkness is a welcome addition.  It lets you Synchro Summon monsters that can be difficult for a Dragon Deck to unleash without a Level 2 Tuner, and its effect lets you add a Level 3 or lower Dragon from your Deck to your hand when it’s destroyed in battle.

If you already have a Dragon Deck, it’s really easy to fit in Dread Dragon.  If you were playingMagna Drago, then you can easily drop it for Dread Dragon – you’ll give up 300 ATK, but you’ll gain that awesome search effect, and you won’t be as weak to cards like Mystic Tomato.  If you don’t play Magna Drago, but you do play 3 copies of Totem Dragon or Masked Dragon, it’s easy to drop 1 of those cards for Dread Dragon because it can search out the Dragon it’s replacing.

Modern Dragon Decks usually play The White Stone of Legend and Debris Dragon, so they have plenty of Level 1 and Level 4 Tuners.  However, adding a Level 2 Tuner to the mix opens up a lot of plays that can be difficult or impossible otherwise.

Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon’s Special Summon effect makes it easy to gather monsters for a Synchro Summon.  It also lets you reuse the same monsters over and over, so you can really put Dread Dragon to work for easy Level 8 Synchro Summons.  Since Prime Material Dragon and Genesis Dragon are both LIGHT monsters, you can even unleash Light End Dragon!

On their own, Dread Dragon and a Level 8 like Stardust Dragon top out at less than 4000 ATK combined.  But Tune them together, and you can Synchro Summon the 3000 ATK Trident Dragion.  It can attack up to 3 times in a single turn at the cost of destroying 2 of your cards: if you have a couple extra Spell or Trap Cards, just set them and let Dragion destroy them.  From there, it can attack for as much as 9000 damage. 

Synchro Summoning Dragion without a Level 2 Dragon Tuner is rough, because Dragion requires Dragon-Type Synchro Materials.  You’d usually have to use Debris Dragon with…

-A Level 6 Dragon

OR

-A pair of Level 3’s like Masked Dragon

With so many Level 8 Dragons out there, it’s way easier to just Tune a Level 8 to Dread Dragon.  Dread Dragon’s especially good if you Summoned Light and Darkness Dragon, negated a few effects with the Dragon’s ability, and want to mount a big attack as a follow-up before your opponent can destroy Light and Darkness.  Just Tune the 2 Dragons, and you can take advantage of your opponent’s battered defenses with 3 huge attacks.

Dread Dragon’s a flexible card that unlocks lots of big plays.  It’s really easy to fit into all sorts of Dragon Decks, and it works well with tons of cards Dragon Duelists already play, too.  Give it a shot!  You’ll find it does things no other Dragon can do.