Strike of Neos has some fantastic support for the Dark World theme. Kahkki, Guerilla of Dark World and Gren, Tactician of Dark World add to a new control strategy, utilizing the powerful spells available that discard cards from your hand as an effect. However, Dark World Dealings seems most powerful as an enabler to put multiple big monsters onto your field. Combine this discard outlet with Dark World Lightning and Brron, Mad King of Dark World, and you have the potential to destroy your opponent in the first two or three turns!

Before Strike of Neos, there were only a few cards that could let you immediately drop a free Dark World monster onto the field with your normal summon. You could occasionally get the powerful turn 1 Dark World Lightning with a Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World or a Sillva, Warlord of Dark World in hand, and that typically proved to be very brutal for your opponent. A play like this against the typical turn 1 of a set card in each zone can blow the duel open for you, requiring your opponent to have something like Apprentice Magician to really halt your oncoming onslaught.

While Dark World Dealings isn’t nearly as ideal in these situations, it is still going to be powerful. The weakness of a turn 1 Dark World Dealings into Goldd or Sillva is that you are vulnerable to more cards that your opponent might have. Typically, with Dark World Lightning, you have the option to destroy the opponent’s face-down card in his or her spell or trap zone. This usually gives you the option of terrorizing your opponent’s monster and life points, since even a set recruiter like Mystic Tomato will still allow you to press damage through early-game defenses. However, with Dark World Dealings, you are not only vulnerable to the opponent’s face-down monster, you’re also running the risk of smashing your army straight into a Mirror Force. Even a timely Sakuretsu Armor could be brutal, since it would take out your 2300 ATK special summoned beater while you are only left with your original normal summon.

However, Dark World Dealings can also filter through your deck, allowing you to find answers to these predicaments. It can also put the opponent in a difficult bind in the late game. Perhaps the opponent has only one card in hand, which is something good for him or her. Perhaps it’s the middle of a series of Gadgets sitting in the opponent’s hand. If [Dark World Dealings] draws the opponent another powerful card (like a late Mirror Force), he or she will be hard pressed to make a decision: does the opponent keep his or her important monster over the mass removal card, or throw away a possible turn or two of summons in order to have a solution to your growing field, even if you could have an answer to the Mirror Force?

The cool thing about Dark World Dealings is that, unless you topdeck it, it’s never going to be a dead draw. While you technically lose a card for playing Dealings without having a beneficial Dark World monster to discard, it can at least find you something that will help you in the duel. Perhaps you’ll draw into a Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World to special summon, or perhaps you’ll stumble into something else of use. Dark World Lightning isn’t nearly as useful in these situations, since the monsters that will typically cost you a duel will be face up and in attack position.

There is, however, one very large concern in my mind as I look at Dark World Dealings. What if my opponent has Dark World monsters in his or her deck?

Think about this possibility for a second. Consider the fact that, while the card is meant to help your own Dark World deck, it is almost always going to help your opponent more if he or she is running things like Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World or Sillva, Warlord of Dark World. Sure, you get to special summon a 2300 ATK monster to the field, but so does the opponent. He or she also gets to blow up two cards on your field, or force you to drop two cards from your hand. Both effects can cause you to lose the duel outright. It’s not the massive amount of card advantage alone that will cause you to lose, but also the basic tempo swing that the opponent gains on you. Both of these plays will literally strike down a good half of your options for the current turn. Did the opponent summon Sillva, Warlord of Dark World off of your Dark World Dealings? Have fun dealing with an empty hand for the turn.

While these hypothetical disadvantages to Dark World Dealings in the wrong format concern me, I cannot help but think of how much better this makes Sillva in the post-Strike of Neos format. While he won’t be able to deal with a Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch if he’s summoned by Thestalos’ discard effect, he dramatically punishes a Dark World player for running Dealings. While Goldd’s effect is quite nice, Sillva can catch a player up more frequently. When someone’s opening up with a play like Dark World Dealings, that player is probably holding back on his or her normal summon or any normal spell plays in order to give the opponent a chance to respond. This means that the player is probably holding onto cards that could deal with an opponent’s reaction to the aftermath of a Dark World Dealings. Sillva cuts off this reaction immediately with his effect, leaving the opponent without two cards, and most likely limited to either ending his or her turn . . . or conceding. The latter option will probably follow a fully-triggered Sillva in a matter of one or two turns.

Honestly, I’m a little nervous about playing Dark World Dealings, especially with so many players considering Dark World strategies. Still, I’d probably play two copies of the card in an aggressive Dark World deck, and I’d also play the full number of copies in a control-oriented Dark World deck utilizing Kahkki, Guerilla of Dark World and Gren, Tactician of Dark World. The tempting potential of this card really seems to outweigh its risks.