With the recent success of Zombie builds in Advanced, I wanted to revisit an old archetype that rarely sees the play it should in the Traditional format: Dark World, featuring Card of Safe Return. While I’ve already included a splash of Dark World into a Chaos deck, this week we’ll be discussing a more focused Dark World build. There is an incredible amount of speed that’s been untapped here, and we’ll delve into the chasms of a darker world of dueling, an almost unfair game of speed and power.
The most interesting thing about this deck is its ability to draw cards quickly. While this isn’t an unusual or game-winning feat alone, the deck is drawing cards and special summoning a field of 2300 ATK monsters. I’m not sure about you, but I’d call that a game-winning feat.
The Monsters
For me, the trickiest job in creating the deck was the incredible difficulty I had with limiting it to 40 cards. One of the reasons Dark World is so rarely recognized for its full potential is that it can go so many places, and the focus often becomes skewed. Here, I’ve kept the monster count fairly thin in an attempt to allow a faster movement through the deck. The nature of the deck is a one-turn KO. The fact that it retains cards in hand is only a side effect of the swift movement it can create.
Monsters: 18
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
3 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
3 Sillva, Warlord of Dark World
3 Cyber Dragon
3 Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan
1 Morphing Jar
Basically, there are only three real elements to the deck: Dark World, Chaos, and support for the two. It’s pretty simple, but it’s effective enough to win the game quickly. The spells will give the relatively unimpressive monster lineup enough bolstering to warrant playing the deck.
The Spells
You’ll notice that the spells each really only serve one of a few purposes: to draw more cards, to take your opponent’s monsters, or to clear the field. The idea is to quickly draw into the cards necessary to clear the field and special summon your hand. Simple, right?
Spells: 20
1 Card Destruction
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart
2 Gateway to Dark World
3 Dark World Dealings
3 Card of Safe Return
With three copies of Card of Safe Return, you’re probably thinking about Zombie decks right now. When you discard a Dark World monster and special summon it, it triggers the effect of Safe Return and lets you draw a card.
Yes, that means when you play Dark World Dealings and discard a Goldd, you’ll special summon a 2300 ATK beatstick and draw another card. Now consider the fact that you can do this with six of your monsters, while also running four monster recursion cards. That’s fast cards and fast summoning—really, really fast.
The Traps
I don’t think I’ve ever had an easier time writing a trap lineup. Sadly, Decree has been Semi-Limited, so we can’t run three. However, there really isn’t room in the deck for anything else: it’s packed solid. Also, recall the card-drawing power of the deck. You’ll probably get your hands on a Decree pretty fast.
Traps: 2
2 Royal Decree
The final deck looks like this:
The Final Decklist
Monsters: 18
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
3 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
3 Sillva, Warlord of Dark World
3 Cyber Dragon
3 Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan
1 Morphing Jar
Spells: 20
1 Card Destruction
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart
2 Gateway to Dark World
3 Dark World Dealings
3 Card of Safe Return
Traps: 2
2 Royal Decree
Playing the Deck
This is one of the most fun decks I’ve ever played. While you can draw completely dead hands sometimes, other times you will be special summoning five monsters and ending the game with twelve cards in your hand to spare. It can be highly competitive, despite the bad hands and its tendency towards overkill. A deck that sacrifices consistency for the ability to overkill is often not for tournaments. While fun to completely obliterate an opponent, such a strategy usually lacks the efficiency of a standard tournament deck. Here, overkill doesn’t represent something the deck actually aims for. You’ll have to know when to stop and just attack for game, because you never know when your opponent will have an answer to your attack.
Perhaps the strangest synergy present in this build is represented in its rarest of combinations. By drawing so many cards through Card of Safe Return, you can successfully deal an exorbitant amount of damage with Chaos Emperor Dragon. If you’ve already taken your opponent down in life points, remember to add up the damage the Dragon can deal with its effect.
Like Zombies, this deck is fairly simple to play. There aren’t many hard decisions, so there isn’t much room for misplays. You simply draw a lot of cards and special summon a lot of monsters. There isn’t much else, besides remembering to draw for Safe Return.
Remember also to watch out for Banisher of the Radiance and other remove-from-play cards: this deck can’t do anything against them. You’ll need to side deck against that sort of tech to ensure you don’t run into difficulties, since it is relatively common. You’ve already got three copies of Cyber Dragon, Dark Hole, and Raigeki, so I’d actually suggest siding three copies of Chiron the Mage. It serves a double purpose as an 1800 ATK monster that can destroy Banisher, as well as a source of extra spell and trap removal.