Dark World is back, and it still does what the deck does best: swarming the field with monsters and getting rid of the opponent's hand. Just how good is the deck currently, and is this the right format for it? Let's dig out the underworld army and find out what it can do in today's meta!
Structure Deck: Gates of the Underworld was released in October 2011. Really bringing the deck to life at the time was the fearsome . Since then, it has been getting bits and pieces of support. However, the deck only became truly relevant just now, eleven years later, with the release of the new structure deck placing new cards at the disposal of the Dark World army. Right out of the gates, the deck has been topping local, OTS, and regional tournaments.
Structure Deck: Dark World
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The New Recruits and Armaments
First of all, the deck gets a new boss monster that conveniently is a target. is a big boy with 3,200 attack points. Its first effect is an omni-negate that, once per turn, can change the effect of any monster, spell, or trap card to making you discard a card instead. No need to say how much Dark World loves being discarded, especially by the opponent's effects. Also, if your opponent gets rid of our big fusion boy, you can special summon the original Grapha in its place before each player discards a card, which might be even more advantageous for the Dark World player.
Next up, we have the deck's new soldier . You want to play three copies of this card. You can discard it to add from deck to hand. Then, Gates can banish it to help you discard and draw, netting you a lot of advantage and summoning Genta to your field. The search effect is not once per turn, but the special summon effect is.
Marching forward, we have one of the new generals of the Dark World army, . It can be special summoned from the graveyard by bouncing back a level seven or lower Dark World monster you control—again, not once per turn, which is a common occurrence in this deck. Once discarded, you can search a level five or higher Dark World monster. Usually, you want to grab the original Grapha to set up the new fusion boss monster. As a bonus effect, if Reign-Beaux is discarded by an opponent's effect, you can special summon a level four or lower Dark World monster from either the deck or graveyard. Truly a fantastic card.
Since the deck gained a fusion boss monster, it is only reasonable to also gain a new fusion spell. is a quick play spell card that can only be used during the main phase, just like . The card can fusion summon any fiend fusion monster by banishing materials from the field or graveyard. If summoning a Dark World monster, you can also discard materials from hand during your main phase. This effect is once per turn, so it is not possible to churn out multiple fusion monsters. You can also recur Accession back to hand from graveyard once per turn by discarding a Dark World monster. Not a bad if you ask me.
As a graveyard-reliant deck, Dark World is easily affected by cards that disrupt the graveyard, such as the Bystial and Ishizu cards. Konami decided to give them their own graveyard-disrupting card, , a quick play spell that can target and banish any three cards in either graveyard before discarding a fiend monster. Its secondary effect, which has to be activated during a different turn, is to banish itself from the graveyard to add a banished fiend monster to your hand. So on one hand, you have disruption for graveyard-reliant strategies, while on the other hand, it acts as a recovery card for banished resources.
Another new card the deck got is the continuous spell card . If you want to increase the attack of your Dark World monsters, just discard one. If you want to draw two cards, you can discard another card during the turn a fiend monster was discarded. This card can generate so much advantage by being a discard outlet, especially the second effect, which lets you dig deeper into your deck.
The last new monster is . If discarded, you can special summon one Dark World monster from your graveyard. If it gets discarded by an opponent's card effect, you can additionally special summon a fiend monster from either the hand, graveyard, or banished zone. Generally, it is an okay card, but not really needed since it wouldn't do much in your opening hands with limited discard outlets.
The final card is , a counter trap card that negates the summoning of a monster that is summoned before destroying it, then discarding a fiend monster. The card also has a graveyard effect, banishing itself to protect a Dark World monster from being destroyed by battle or card effect. I believe the card would have been better saying "if" instead of "when" in regards to the summon of the opponent's monster. That and the fact that it is a trap card are reasons why the card is absent from event-topping deck lists.
The Allies
Any good deck needs a little bit of synergy with other strategies, and the Danger! theme is simply too good of a fit here. It allows you to discard your Dark World monsters, albeit randomly at times, while helping you put bodies on the board and dig deeper into your deck. Some of them even have relevant levels that synergize with Dark World monsters to churn out rank four and rank eight monsters. The go-to rank four this format is , while the rank eight is , which requires three materials to allow you to dig up to three cards deep into your deck while potentially burning your opponent.
The Danger! monsters themselves help solve different problems. either makes for a draw or a search for another Danger! monster in addition to being a potential discard outlet. is big 3,000 attack beat stick, and if not, it can get rid of an opponent's face up card. is also a big attacker at 2,800 and can get rid of an opponent's set card if destroyed. Overall, great utility monsters that help kickstart your Dark World engine. Nessie is not in the structure deck, but it was recently reprinted. Sadly, it's not that cheap currently since it is almost mandatory for the deck.
Another honorary member that is not in the structure deck, but was released recently in Darkwing Blast is . It is a level four fiend monster. You can reveal it along with another fiend-type monster to special summon one of them and discard the other, acting as a more intentional Danger! monster. Zalamander can also be recurred back to hand if a monster is destroyed in battle involving your fiend monster. Back in the day, the deck used to run as a discard outlet, especially since its effect is not once per turn.
The deck somewhat struggles going second against established boards on its own. With the help of side-deck cards, it definitely has a much better chance. Tearlaments is still the deck to beat, but Dark World can put up a good fight, especially if it goes first as it has so much gas in the tank and can field . Sadly, and were unlimited on the latest ban list—collateral damage from floodgates against Tearlaments.
All in all, the deck is a solid tier two. Maybe in any other format, the deck would have been more relevant. As it is right now, it is strong and definitely relevant, at least until Photon Hypernova hits and refreshes the format. There is a missed opportunity here in reprinting some strong generic cards, but my overall verdict is 8/10 for the structure deck due to the strong new support and the Danger! reprints.
Are you going to buy this structure deck? Do you think Dark World has good potential? What could help the deck do better going second? Please share your thoughts with everyone in the comment section below!
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.
