After the loss of its most powerful monster, Virtual World relied on other synchro and xyz heavy hitters to fill the void. However, with the dominance of more versatile decks in the previous format, Virtual World struggled to remain relevant. What made it one of the best decks around and why did it fall from favor?
Virtual World as a deck has seen play in the Advanced Format since the release of the archetype. It utilized its focus on monsters with levels divisible by three to take advantage of powerful existing cards. This made the deck an instant hit and garnered competitive success at the height of its power.
The Other World
At the release of Phantom Rage, there were two archetypes that showed potential in becoming meta contenders in the Advanced Format: Virtual World and Myutant. While both of these potential decks brought interesting and varied strategies into the game, it was clear that only one of them would be adopted by competitive players. At the time, Myutant cards such as showed promise in their ability to provide protection and negates against each type of card, with decent recursion upon destruction.
However, with a powerful searcher in the form of and a slew of graveyard-manipulating cards, Virtual World emerged as the victor. Ultimately, the battle between the virtual and organic worlds was short-lived and the Myutant deck faded into the background. It wasn't long before the Virtual World deck started climbing the ranks with its first and largest wave of support from the set.
Gateway to Victory
The ace card of the archetype is a synchro monster called . It serves as a built-in for the deck, while allowing itself to be summoned back from the graveyard the turn after it leaves the field. Shenshen is also a generic level nine synchro, which means it can be used in decks like Blue-Eyes as an additional floodgate. As a relatively easy monster that can be summoned every turn in Virtual World decks, Shenshen grants the player a powerful effect at no real cost. Ending on this monster plus our next featured card is often enough to force your opponent to reform their combos in order to gain advantage.
can destroy a face-up card by recycling two banished Virtual World cards. With the amount of graveyard manipulation this deck is capable of during its standard combos, using its continuous effect each turn is a simple task. A second copy of Chuche is used for its level manipulation effect to ensure the player can summon Shenshen or if they have a spell/trap to follow up. This trap in particular has proven to be great at supporting Virtual World monsters and contributing to the success of the deck overall.
Long Live the King
is an xyz monster that previously saw play in Dinosaur decks, where players could utilize other True King monsters to summon their xyz. It has often been cause for headaches because of its effect changing your opponent's monsters to a specific attribute, then stopping those monsters from being used.
While this effect of the King requires the owner to detach a material from the card, it still means that your opponent's monsters become little more than shiny cardboard for at least two turns. In the current competitive era, most duels only average around three turns, so it is clear to see how this card causes problems.
With the rise of Virtual World decks, the King returned to the throne once more. Now it was easier than ever to generate the resources necessary to consistently end on it, which led to the card's ban. Virtual World decks lost their most powerful card. However, it also freed up space in the extra deck for a suitable replacement.
Final Fusion
The most prominent path available to deck after the banning was fusion summoning. is a synchro monster that bypasses the need to play fusion spells or even materials in the main deck and extends perfectly from the standard Tzolkin combo. This means that the expansive Virtual World core and tech options can all still fit alongside a couple new friends for the extra deck.
A popular choice for the fusion monster to summon with Mudragon is another powerful monster called , which offers negates and protection on a large body. As this card is currently one of the most played cards that can be used in any deck, it has accrued quite the price tag.
Budget players who wish to experiment with Mudragon to achieve similar results do have a couple of viable options. The first of these is , which acts as a floodgate to stop all monster activations for the turn and only allow one monster to attack. It's another unique effect that can stop players in their tracks, but Caliga's low stats mean it can easily be beaten over.
Another tech option for a fusion to combat the meta is . This card has the potential to deal a devastating amount of piercing damage in the Dragon Link matchup. Even though the most recent ban list impacted the power of Dragon Link decks, they will still be around for some time, so Buster Blader remains a good budget option.
The Heavens Open
With the dominance of other more versatile decks, Virtual World has seen a decline in representation in the Advanced Format. As well as this, the deck has had to adopt less powerful strategies to remain relevant since the ban of . However, the most recent ban list has opened the way for Virtual World to return to the top tier because of how consistent the deck is in producing effective end boards.
It also has access to because of the deck's reliance on xyz monsters. Since the release of Phantom Rage more of the deck's players will have gotten their copies of ZEUS—an xyz monster that has proven to be incredibly powerful. In this way, Virtual World has the potential to rise above its former glory and ascend into the heavens.
Overall, Virtual World has seen favorable success from the competitive community by managing to beat out other decks in consistency and tech options. With such an impressive card pool of extra deck monsters available to Virtual World players, the strategy was able to survive the banning of its most powerful card. While it has seen a recent decline in representation, the leveling of the playing field by the most recent ban list gives the deck potential to return in a big way.
Do you think Virtual World has what it takes to climb back to the top of the meta? We would love to hear your thoughts on the deck in the comments below.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.
