It’s no secret that the current format can be frustrating sometimes. Monarchs are seeing a ridiculous amount of play and Cyber-Stein still causes problems. But the dominance of one deck type and the public call to ban specific cards from tournament play are common factors in all formats since before the creation of the ban list. During these times, most people still continued to play cookie-cutter builds, hoping their skills as a player would separate them from the pack. Others turned to deckbuilding, believing their anti-metagame decks and in-game skills would give them the edge.

Unfortunately, these decks rarely made Top 8 placings, and as such, the metagame still remained confident in the cookie-cutter build. Even though decks like Nate Nielebeck’s “The Answer” appeared to completely dominate the format (and did well in tournament play), they never saw much use. However, players have evolved over time, and are a lot smarter now. Eager to make a name for themselves (and decrease the amount of Cyber-Stein and Monarch decks seeing play), many players have turned to anti-metagame decks. Even players like Anthony Alvarado—famous for playing cookie-cutter decks—have been playing different kinds of anti-metagame builds of late.

Theeresak had been out of major competition for a year before he made an appearance at Shonen Jump Championship Hamilton. However, we can assume the rest of Comic Odyssey shared with T all the stories about Monarchs. CO as a team had been playing different decks aimed at taking down both Stein and Monarchs. At SJC Seattle, many members of the team played a Stein OTK/burn deck. T opted to take a different approach, and took this to a Top 4 finish at SJC Anaheim:

Monsters: 19

3 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World

2 Sillva, Warlord of Dark World

1 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

2 Cyber Dragon

2 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Magician of Faith

1 Mystic Tomato

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Night Assailant

1 Treeborn Frog

1 Sangan

1 Morphing Jar

1 Giant Orc

Spells: 13

1 Card Destruction

2 Smashing Ground

2 Dark World Lightning

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Scapegoat

1 Graceful Charity

1 Premature Burial

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Heavy Storm

1 Confiscation

Traps: 8

1 Mirror Force

2 Deck Devastation Virus

1 Call of the Haunted

2 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Ring of Destruction

In typical T style, the deck doesn’t play very many copies of the same card, though there are multiple copies of the big Dark World monsters. Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World are the heavy hitters of the line-up, both scoring in at a massive 2300 ATK. While this is just below the traditionally accepted 2400 ATK for a tribute monster, their effects can dominate those of other tribute monsters. Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch’s effect can mean its own destruction if it discards a Goldd.

Even more important, though, is the deck’s ability to keep monsters off the opponent’s side of the field. If your opponent has no monsters, he or she will be unable to use them as tributes without a copy of Treeborn Frog hanging out in the graveyard. Cyber Dragon and spell cards like Brain Control and Soul Exchange help as well, but they tend to get used up very fast in the early game. T can just let those tributes come down, get destroyed by a Sakuretsu Armor or Smashing Ground, and then drop his bigger Dark World monsters.

Dark World Lightning supports this plan, blasting away at either defense-position monsters or the back-row defenses that protect them. Either one means that T now has multiple monsters on the field. Successful attacks from them mean two things; it’s a lot harder to tribute for a Monarch and the opponent’s life points will often drop below 5000. The ability to fulfill both of these conditions in one turn is what makes the deck such an anti-metagame powerhouse.

Deck Devastation Virus can achieve the same thing. It’s hard enough to use a monster for a tribute when you’ve got to keep it on the field, but when all monsters with 1500 ATK or less are stripped from your field, your hand, and your next three draws, it becomes virtually impossible. By saving Deck Devastation Virus until his opponents attempted to destroy a Dark World monster, T can escape the hefty cost of this trap card. However, the impact from the Virus is often worth taking advantage of as soon as possible, and if you’ve read some of the matches that feature T, you’ll notice he does this quite often.

The deck only plays two copies of Cyber Dragon—very uncommon since the release of this powerful Machine. More than likely, the third Cyber Dragon was cut for space reasons. Dark World decks have some extremely powerful cards in Graceful Charity, Card Destruction, and Morphing Jar, which allow them to activate the special summoning effects of Dark World and storm the field without losing any cards. As such, the deck wants to optimize the ability to hit these cards, and plays only 40 cards.

Two copies of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive support this. Dekoichi can speed the deck up, while also acting as a 1400 ATK beatstick. Mystic Tomato follows the same plan, and Morphing Jar can speed the deck up, in addition to giving Dark World monsters another outlet for special summoning. Magician of Faith is necessary in this deck as well, fetching back the powerful draw cards and Dark World enablers.

Night Assailant is a great card for this deck. With lots of discard effects, it can act as the perfect discard, turning itself into a more productive flip effect monster in your graveyard. A second Magician of Faith or Morphing Jar gives T a greater chance to use his power cards, which the Dark World deck relies upon pretty heavily. For times when there’s no discard available, Night Assailant acts as a smaller Old Vindictive Magician, clearing a path for his other monsters.

Confiscation and Deck Devastation Virus can be a scary combo. With Confiscation to deal with the best spell, trap, or high ATK monster and Deck Devastation Virus to take care of all the smaller monsters, T can often win games simply by applying pressure with his other monsters. Giant Orc can help aid this, both by taking out opposing Cyber Dragon cards and acting as perfect tribute fodder for the Virus.

Dark World has the aggressiveness necessary to take down Cyber-Stein, punching the opponents below 5000 life points before they can hope to get its effect off. At the same time, the deck makes Monarchs uneasy, rendering them virtually unable to play Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch and Spirit Reaper. The Monarch deck is also put at considerable disadvantage by the synergy of Graceful Charity, Card Destruction, and Morphing Jar in conjunction with the Dark World monsters. With such an anti-meta deck, it’s no surprise that a player of T’s caliber could take the deck to an unprecedented sixth Top 8 appearance.