Bill: Hey, Mike, what gives?

Tom: Yeah, seriously! This week’s article isn’t called “Bill and Tom’s Binder”!

Mike: There’s a reason for that. Do you actually have most of your Dark World cards trapped in your binder?

Bill: Um . . . no. I’m currently using all of our Dark World cards.

Mike: Exactly! Dark World isn’t exactly an underappreciated deck theme, but many duelists still need some ideas for how to build their decks. That’s the purpose of this week.

Tom: Ah, okay. I understand. For a minute there, I thought you completely forgot about us.

Mike: Actually, I did. Nobody likes you guys, anyway.

Bill and Tom look down at the ground in shame.

Within a few weeks, I received quite a few emails from duelists who were wondering how they could improve upon their Dark World decks. Unfortunately, this meant that I wasn’t able to respond to some of your questions directly. Therefore, instead of answering each individual email, I figured one last Dark World analysis was necessary. In today’s special edition of “Into the Dark World,” we’ll be looking at the different strategies that can be used in a Dark World deck, including each strategy’s strengths and weaknesses. This in-depth look at Dark World will eventually lead to a sample deck that duelists can test out and use as a starting point in creating a Dark World deck of their own!

The Splash Option of Dark World

One option that many duelists seem to be exploring is to splash specific Dark World monsters into their main or side decks. Usually, these duelists are looking at Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Broww, Huntsman of Dark World. These two monsters are being considered as powerful tech for future tournaments, due to their ability to punish players who are aggressively attacking with monsters such as Spirit Reaper and Don Zaloog.

However, the primary issue with putting these cards in main decks is that they’ll detract from the number of cards that you may want to run instead of the Dark World monsters. Honestly, a duelist is probably going to want to have access to Mobius the Frost Monarch as a tribute summon, rather than Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World. Broww, Huntsman of Dark World also has a rather unimpressive ATK value of 1400. Not only will this not allow Broww, Huntsman of Dark World to destroy monsters in nearly any typical deck, Broww also has the same stats as Mystic Tomato. You’ll almost never want to have these monsters on the field, which hurts their main deck playability even more.

However, in case you’re playing against an extremely focused hand destruction deck, Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Broww, Huntsman of Dark World can be powerful side deck options. Of course, you still won’t have much support to assist in triggering these monster’s effects.

Dark World as a Deck: The Beatdown Strategy

The one trend that most players have followed is playing Dark World as an aggressive deck. I’ve seen this in the emails that I’ve received. Many of these decks have included multiple copies of nearly every Dark World monster that could be special summoned. However, some of these decks also run a few copies of Scarr, Scout of Dark World, which is a slow and very control-oriented card.

The purpose of an aggressive Dark World deck is to overwhelm your opponent with the speedy summons of the Dark World monsters. This is something you should never forget about when you’re building an aggressive Dark World deck. What makes these Dark World decks so powerful is the fact that you can always threaten your opponent with a 2300 ATK monster each turn. It’s going to be very rare for you to not have one of your level 6 monstrosities out. This is what you should be working towards when you’re building your deck.

With that general summary of a Dark World Beatdown strategy out of the way, let me tell you about the cards that have no business appearing in these sorts of decks. Scarr, Scout of Dark World is a very helpful search effect if you need to add Bronn, Mad King of Dark World to your hand, but the effect of Scarr is far too slow for an aggressive deck. You should be attempting to apply pressure on your opponent starting on the first turn. Setting a monster along with a spell or trap card doesn’t threaten your opponent much, and that opening play is exactly what you’ll be doing if you choose to run Scarr, Scout of Dark World. Your best goal is to run the maximum number of copies of Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Bronn, Mad King of Dark World. You should try running two or three copies of Sillva, Warlord of Dark World as well, depending on how involved you want your Dark World swarm strategy to be. If you really want to centralize upon the swarm strategy, it may be worthwhile to include a copy or two Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World as well.

However, there is an exception to rule that states you should never run a slow card in a Dark World Beatdown deck. Morphing Jar’s ability may be slow, but it’s one of the most powerful, in terms of triggering those Dark World monster effects. If Morphing Jar’s flip effect resolves, you’ll not only be able to swarm the field with your Fiends, but you’ll also be generating a large amount of card advantage over your opponent.

While Dark Deal is a very powerful counter to many of the normal spell cards that each duelist plays, it’s not the best option for a truly aggressive deck. A Beatdown deck such as this one will most likely rely on drawing new and powerful cards each turn, as the strategy requires a duelist to burn out a good portion of his or her hand in order to maintain his or her field presence. Dark Deal is a potent card for the Dark World Control variant, but its life point cost and its ability to only affect normal spells hinders it as an option for the aggressive Dark World strategy.

Likewise, while Card of Safe Return would be a potentially bad topdeck under certain occasions, this continuous spell is one of the only ways that a Dark World Beatdown player can maintain his or her hand size while swarming the field with monsters. This alone warrants the card’s inclusion into this type of deck. I wouldn’t run any less than one copy in this deck, but I feel three copies may dramatically impact your draws. Two copies of Card of Safe Return should prove sufficient in this version of the deck.

Dark World for the Control/Combo Duelist

Unlike its aggressive counterpart, a control- or combo-oriented Dark World deck is far more reactive. This means that its effects will usually be triggered due to an opponent’s actions, and those effects will often be triggered defensively. This makes the control- or combo-oriented decks a little tougher to utilize than the Dark World Beatdown variant, as many of the deck’s decisions are entirely up to you.

Unlike the more aggressive Dark World deck, a more control- or combo-oriented deck can successfully run slower cards, such as Scarr, Scout of Dark World and Dark Deal. After all, the specific focus of these types of decks is to devastate your opponent with the tricky secondary effects that belong to some of the Dark World monsters. After all, while the special summoning capability of Sillva, Warlord of Dark World is powerful, its secondary hand destruction effect is beyond ridiculous. A Control or Combo deck, which can be built to respond to your opponent’s threats as your own method of winning a duel, can force these secondary effects to trigger. Scarr, Scout of Dark World can be a useful tool in the Dark World Control deck, as its ability allows you to fetch Broww, Huntsman of Dark World or Bronn, Mad King of Dark World. When these two cards are used together, they give you access to a powerful draw engine that can be fueled by multiple copies of Forces of Darkness.

A more control-oriented Dark World deck will probably want to focus on Dark Deal. This trap card is a very powerful form of disruption against many commonly played spell cards. However, what makes this card important is that it turns the opponent’s card effect into “Discard one card from your opponent’s hand at random.” This means that Dark Deal gives you the opportunity to trigger the effects of monsters such as Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World or Broww, Huntsman of Dark World. If you can activate the secondary abilities of these monsters, you’ll earn a huge advantage over your opponent.

Outside of focusing on triggering the secondary effects of Dark World monsters, a Dark World Control deck can still be designed to behave like a Beatdown deck if an aggressive approach is necessary. This type of deck could also share similarities with the Goat Control deck that dominated the metagame a few months ago, as both decks require you to be a reactive duelist in order to play the deck successfully.

A combo-oriented Dark World deck takes on a very similar concept to the control-based Dark World deck, but it does so on a much larger and greedier scale. You may have noticed that I consistently mention how Morphing Jar can practically win the duel for any Dark World deck. The best way to assure this is to focus on triggering Morphing Jar as fast as possible. This can be done through an engine of search effects. If you don’t draw Morphing Jar immediately, then you can use Sangan to fetch that last crucial monster. If you haven’t drawn Sangan, then use the effect of Mystic Tomato to search for Sangan, which can finally fetch Morphing Jar to your hand. Once you have Morphing Jar, set it face down and play Creature Swap. Use the monster your opponent gives you to swing at your old Morphing Jar. Since your opponent is currently the controller of Morphing Jar, its flip effect is considered an opponent’s card effect when triggering the effects of your Dark World monsters. This combo can provide you with at least a solid three-card advantage over your opponent, but it can typically provide you with a seven or eight card advantage if you manage to trigger more than one Dark World monster effect!

Gateway to Dark World also acts as a powerful tool in Control and Combo Dark World decks, due to its ability to destroy an opponent’s battle phase. Since Gateway to Dark World is a quick-play spell card, it’s one of the most versatile forms of recursion that’s available to the deck theme. However, it’s extremely useful—and special summoning monsters during your opponent’s turn will definitely disrupt how he or she conducts his or her battle phase.

As powerful as Card of Safe Return is with Dark World, there are just too many cards to be used in the Dark World Control or Combo deck that causes space for this continuous spell to be rather limited. You’re probably only going to find room for one copy of this card in the more intricately built Dark World decks.

Finally, a Decklist

I promised earlier in this article that I’d provide a sample decklist for duelists to build upon. The Dark World Beatdown deck is the easiest place to start when looking into this unique monster theme, so here’s a sample deck that’s based on swarming the opponent with Dark World Fiends.

Monsters: 18

3 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World

2 Sillva, Warlord of Dark World

2 Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World

3 Bronn, Mad King of Dark World

1 Sangan

1 Morphing Jar

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

3 D. D. Assailant

1 Exiled Force

Spells: 16

1 Dark Hole

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

3 Dark World Lightning

2 Card of Safe Return

2 Smashing Ground

1 Brain Control

1 Card Destruction

1 Gateway to Dark World

1 Enemy Controller

Traps: 6

2 Dust Tornado

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

2 Sakuretsu Armor

Please note that this decklist isn’t perfect. It’s simply here to serve as an example of what an aggressive Dark World deck might look like and to give you ideas so that you can construct a deck of your own. Perhaps you noticed that this build doesn’t run Broww, Huntsman of Dark World. While this Fiend can provide you with even card advantage if it’s discarded by a card effect, Broww does little to contribute to this deck’s field swarm strategy.

It’s hard to say which approach should be taken when you’re constructing your own Dark World deck. While the Control theme has some powerful cards available to it, the more aggressive approach seems like one of the strongest ideas, simply because Card of Safe Return prevents you from losing hand presence while you’re summoning a horde of monsters.

The type of Dark World deck that you choose can best be decided based on your play style. Many duelists have different methods of going through their turns, so pick the deck strategy that suits how you actually play the game. Above all, remember that you must primarily support the theme that you’ve chosen. If you’re exploring the Control or Combo deck strategies, remember that you can always switch to an aggressive play style if your opponent is playing far too cautiously for you to do anything.

If you still have questions regarding the Fiends of Dark World, feel free to email me at Mrosenberg at Metagame dot Com.