Dark Worlds: Fading into Shadows, or Not?

As much as I do not want to admit it, a lot of people are underestimating Dark World right now, and I'm not sure that's justified. Since the event coverage from YCS Brighton only published the deck lists of the Top 16 finishers, at least one Dark World deck made Top 32 at that event, only to slip beneath the radar of the general public. That wouldn't be a big story on its own, but the Duelist that built and played the deck makes the situation pretty interesting: Claudio Kirchmair.


Some of you just noticed your ears perking up. Others may not be familiar with the name, so let me bring you up to speed: Claudio Kirchmair is one of Europe's most recognized and successful Duelists. If you ask any informed competitor to list the Top 3 players in Europe, Claudio will always make that list. If I were to summarize all of his accomplishments we'd be here far longer than I'd be comfortable with, but we can certainly run down a few of the highlights. In 2008, Kirchmair took second place at the European Championship, which at the time was inarguably the most gruelling and competitive tournament in existence. He'd go on to make Top 4 at the World Championships. That same year, he became one of the first-ever European Duelists to top an SJC when he made Top 8 at Shonen Jump Championship Seattle. He was the 2009 National Champion of Austria, and stormed the US once again in 2010 to take a Top 16 finish at SJC Los Angeles. He topped YCS Paris and YCS Brighton last year, achieving the latter accomplishment with an innovative, heavily controlling version of Dark World, and here is said build:

Monsters

3 Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World

3 Snoww, Unlight of Dark World

3 Broww, Huntsman of Dark World

3 Tour Guide of the Underworld

1 Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World

Spells

3 Dark World Dealing

3 Dragged Down to the Grave

3 The Gates of Dark World

3 Upstart Goblin

1 Allure of Darkness

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Card Destruction

1 Foolish Burial

Traps

3 Reckless Greed

2 Deck Mind Crush

1 Deck Devastation Virus

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck

2 Wind-Up Zenmaines

2 Leviair the Sea Dragon

1 Steelswarm Roach

1 Number 39: Utopia

1 Number 20: Giga-Brilliant

1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Scrap Dragon

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1 Ally of Justice Catastor

1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

Side Deck

Now that would be telling, you will see this as a re-curing trend in my articles. I seriously dislike giving out people’s side decks as it is the most important part of the build and the player has spent a lot of time on it. Comment if you want but I will only give away a side deck via private message.

Now I could take this deck card by card and explain why I believe he chose to play it and then at the end give you lovely readers my opinion on why the deck worked so well. And to be honest I think I will. I love detail and giving as much insight as possible, it’s something you cant really do in youtube videos which is why I wanted to blog in the first place, so let’s take the deck apart and see why it is what it is.

We’ll take the monsters first.

Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World: The boss monster of the deck and his 2700 attack is enough to prove so. He enables free destruction and so you can free up spaces in your maion deck as you do not need to run copies of Mystical Space Typhoon in game 1. He makes your weaker Dark World monsters a constant threat because each one is a potential Grapha until he is banished from your graveyard. As long as you have a Dark World monster in hand Grapha is live in your grave. This can lead to plays where you can use the monster in your hand for plays such as dark world dealings on The Gates of Dark World. Even if your opponent banishes one copy of Grapha, you still have 2 more, so the pressure isn’t easy to get rid off. Also he has the ability to write articles on the American coverage on the official Yugioh site, which is pretty impressive.

Snoww , Unlight of Dark World: Snoww is probably the most versatile search card that any archetype has, I could only compare it to a card such as Reinforcements of the Army (which is at one). Snoww is able to search for every key card in your deck, even the spells… I hate that about it. But it adds a great deal of consistency to the deck and allows to deck thin a huge amount if you search for another copy of Snoww.  There is rarely much need to search for cards other than other copies of Snoww as the draw power allows you to key for key pieces so quickly anyway. With Gates on the field Snoww becomes 2000 and so beats problem cards like Thunder King Rai-oh, which would prevent you from searching with any other copies of Snoww you may be holding. And, in being a 2000 attack point monster it can be tributed for Deck devastation virus… devastating right?

Broww, Huntsman of Dark World: If you are holding a Dark World Dealings or have a Gates of Dark World in play, broww becomes much like a destiny draw. More draw power is never bad in any deck so why not put it in a deck where it combos so well for more than just draw power. Broww can be searched out with Tour Guide, yes card other than Sangan and other copies of Tour Guide can be searched via Tour Guide’s effect- shocking I know but true. After doing this you can use the Broww to bring back the Grapha in your grave then use the Broww at a later time. He’s good and annoying.

Beiige Vanguard of Dark World: Beiige is the weakest Dark World monster in the deck, but you need to run at least one in my opinion. He lets you draw every turn with Gate even if he's discarded, while Snoww and Broww will stay in the grave, and that means you won't be able to bounce them back to your hand with Grapha. Beiige also gives you the option to summon two Grapha from the Graveyard if you first normal summon him, and then discard him for an effect. 5400 to 6000 ATK is a lot of attack power to field in one turn... That's the biggest reason why I would play Beiige over Goldd and Sillva: because he can be normal summoned. I wouldn't like to run more than one Beiige, because I have the feeling that he's not that great if you activate Dragged Down to the Grave. He's the weakest choice in the eye of my opponent, and will always be chosen to be discarded over Grapha, Snoww and Broww. 

Tour Guide of the Underworld: This card is insane, plain and simple. Most players have to design their decks to counter this one card, mostly with the increased used of hand traps. Cards like Effect Veiler and Maxx ‘C’ have become staples in basically every deck and this has pushed the price up (Woops I’ve said too much). Tour Guide again acts like a reinforcement of the army, searching out your Broww allwing you to bounce for Grapha and gain a plus one from it. Tour Guide is a fiend type monster as well; this means it fuels your Gate of Dark World making plays very quick and easy. Tour Guide allows you to make Leviair plays (fuelled by both Gates and allure) which can net you a plus one by returning a banished monster then bouncing the monster for Grapha. If you don’t have a Grapha in your grave you can always make a Zenmaines or Leviathan Dragon, sometimes they are just as useful.

You can tell that the deck only runs 13 monsters, I believe this because as soon as you draw one of the draw/search monsters you can get the combos rolling very easily. If you don’t you can easily control the field with Grapha until you do get a Snoww or Broww.

Upstart Goblin: I actually really like this card, a lot of people do but find it difficult to fit into non- combo decks. The main reason I like this card is because it allows the user to run a 37/38 card deck depending on whether they run 40/41 cards in the first place. This means the user can dig for their power cards quicker than their opponent. If I’m playing a deck and I can get to my power cards faster than my opponent I wouldn’t complain, would you? Okay so your opponent gains 1000 life points per Upstart. If you think about it, how easy is Grapha to summon in this deck? If you have a Gates in play and make a direct attack with Grapha that’s 3000 damage, simples.

Dark World Dealings: Dark Worlds was an extremely hyped deck upon realise but we all know it is difficult to get a working build of it that is consistent, so running this card during the beginning stages of Dark World was a poor choice, but now it is a more viable option. This is because it is a great draw card to add to the deck and it triggers the effect of the Dark World monsters. It is difficult though, when playing the mirror match with this card you must play it very very smart or else hold back from using it. If you choose to hold it is means that you have 3 dead cards in your deck and if you choose to play it and your opponent has a dark world monster you card lose a great deal of advantage. Decisions decisions.

Dragged Down to the Grave: This is a little bit like Dark World Dealings, but more dependent on your hand. The big difference is that Dragged Down allows you to see your opponent's whole hand and choose the most annoying or strongest card, and get rid of it. This is something that I would call “informational advantage over your opponent,” and it's pretty strong for a good Yu-Gi-Oh! player. With full knowledge of your opponent's hand, you can predict all of your opponent's moves and outplay him with the information you gained. That will usually result in a win. The downside of Dragged Down is that you have to set your spell and trap cards in order to leave your opponent with no choice but to discard a Dark World monster. I believe he tried to play only a few monsters and a lot of spell cards to make this card work as efficiently as it could. By running very few monsters, you can control your opponent's choice about what to discard. That's something you have to think about if you build this deck: you should always try to play your cards as efficiently as possible. 

Card Destruction: This card is the MVP of Dark World. If you have enough Dark World monsters in your hand you should win after the resolution of all their effects. Also, it's pretty strong in combination with Deck Devastation Virus, because you see the opponent's entire hand when Card Destruction resolves, and you can cost them a few cards if they draw the wrong monsters.

I am not going to review cards that are considered staples here, if you don’t know what heavy storm does or how good Gates of Dark World is in a Dark World please stop reading and follow this link

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyhpszGmQk1r57mwbo1_500.jpg

Now onto the trappy traps

Reckless Greed: This can is pretty sick in this deck. Most of the time you don’t even need to draw because after you execute 3 reckless greeds in one turn you will have drawn a huge amount of extra draw cards from them anyway. I think this card was used as the deciding factor as to whether or not to ‘go off’ and attempt to gain control of the game, if not win that turn.

Mind Crush: You take their best card again, like Dragged Down, and you have also the chance to hit more than one card since many decks run at least triple Tour Guide. Most times you take their Dimensional Prison to protect your Grapha, or their Heavy Storm to protect your static backrows or at least one of their power cards. You run enough cards that give you the informational advantage you need to make the right call with Mind Crush, but it helps if you know the core deck list and first turn plays of the popular strategies. Mind Crush is a skill based card where you have to guess sometimes, and it's easy to misplay with it. You can also activate it and call a card you know you won't hit, just to discard a Dark World monster from your hand and get his effect, with a big surprise factor for your opponent. You will receive informational advantage and be able to discard. Profit?


Trap Dustshoot: Dustshoot is the best card to open with in a format dominated by Heavy Storm. Your opponent will usually have the minimum of four cards in his hand because he will always be afraid to set too many spell or trap cards. Dustshoot takes their best monster, gives you informational advantage, and you will open with it a lot more often than other decks because you have superior draw power in the early game. The synergy with Mind Crush should be obvious.


Deck Devastation Virus: This card acts like Crush Card did back when it was legal. Everyone runs Tour Guide, Maxx "C", Effect Veiler, Spirit Reaper, and other small monsters: you will destroy many of your opponent's most important monsters with it. You also get 3 turns where you see every card your opponent draws. That's a big deal! Devastation Virus can even be used to play around Bottomless Trap Hole or Dimensional Prison, tribuing away a monster that would be banished otherwise, and you will draw it very fast in this version of Dark World. The only problem is that it can be difficult to set up, but with our fast and easy Grapha access (Snoww is also a possibility) we should be able to activate it whenever we draw it. Three turns of informational advantage, and maybe even card advantage, is a great deal!

I think this build of Dark World has a kind of Destiny Hero level of draw power, which means that it's the fastest deck in the current format. There's no other deck with that many draw cards, and that's why I think that this strategy is kind of ahead of a lot of others. Being frequently able to draw the whole deck if you want, and that's something that's rarely seen in Yu-Gi-Oh. Dark World also has the ability to search their boss monsters! What other deck can do that? 


I will say something that not everyone may agree with, but I think that this deck has similarities to TeleDAD and Infernities. It takes control over the game in one big turn, and it gets to its key cards very quickly. You have a very good first game match-up and should be able to side into a much slower control version for games two and three. You have a nearly infinite amount of big monsters, and that will put constant pressure on your opponent. 

Anyways, it’s late and I think that’s a fairly in-depth breakdown into the deck, again I hope you enjoy it and stay tuned for more interesting articles.

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AJ