Dark World

The Dark World monsters are a series of DARK Fiend-Type monsters with 「暗黒界」 in their Japanese names that were introduced in Elemental Energy with further support in Strike of Neos. Brron, Mad King of Dark World uses these monsters during episodes 135 and 136 in the GX series. They are based around effects that activate when they are discarded from the hand to the Graveyard by a card effect. Therefore, this does not include cards that require you to discard as a cost, such as "Magic Jammer", "Tribute to the Doomed" and "Lightning Vortex" since Costs are not considered to be card effects. Also, because sending cards to the Graveyard is not considered to be discarding, cards like "Hand Destruction" will not work. Dark World cards benefit from the use of cards like "Card Destruction", "Morphing Jar" and "Dragged Down into the Grave".

Trivia
The names of Dark World monsters are based on colors: "Goldd" is based on gold, "Sillva" is based upon silver, "Gren" is based on green, "Kahkki" on khaki, "Broww" on brown, "Renge" on orange, "Scarr" on scarlet, "Beiige" on beige, "Zure" on azure, "Brron" on bronze, "Grapha" on graphite, "Celri" on cerulean, "Cobal" on cobalt, and "Snow" on snow-white, with the exception of "Reign-Beaux", which is a play on "rainbow". (It is pronounced as "Rainbow"). Most Dark World monsters' artwork have the color their names were based on (Reign-Beaux has many colors, Goldd's armor is gold, etc.) The names of the cards are also based on positions in an army. (Tactician, Overlord, King, Knight, Scout, etc.)

Basic Strategy
Dark World cards in general are intended to gain summoning, destruction, and abilities by discarding cards (through effect)from your hand into the graveyard, and many of the Dark World monsters gain extra effects if discarded by an opponent's effect."Dark Deal" is included in this set because it exists solely to make it possible to trigger those secondary effects, by randomly discarding one of your own cards but making it "count" as having been discarded by the opponent.

Dark World monsters can rapidly and aggressively swarm the field and overwhelm the opponent by destroying and discarding your opponent's cards. Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World are fine examples of this swarm with 2300 ATK. Other powerful Beat-Sticks include "Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World", who cannot trigger its own effect or summon itself if you discard it by your own card effect, and "Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World" which has the highest ATK out of all "Dark World" monsters.

With the new Structure Deck 21: Devil's Gate, this deck has picked up more speed in summoning and getting cards. "Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World", the new key monster, has a powerful destruction and revival effect. "Snow, Magician of Dark World" allows for quick searches for any key cards. One of the biggest problems is that the more powerful effects are required to activated by an opponent's effect. "Celri, Monk of Dark World" adds a more precise effect to discard monsters from your hand by your opponent, which eliminates "Dark Deal's" random discard. "Gate of the Dark World" is basically a once per turn "Dark World Dealings", which with "Dark World Dealings", "Strategy of the Dark", and "Broww, Huntsman of Dark World" allows for more drawing options.

Other Discard Methods
Dark World cards do not activate if they are discarded as part of a cost (e.g. "Lightning Vortex" or "Monster Reincarnation"), but there are other ways to discard them than by "Dark World Dealings", "Dark World Lightning" or "Brron, Mad King of Dark World". These include:


 * Card Destruction
 * Clear Vice Dragon
 * Dangerous Machine Type-6
 * Dark Deal
 * Dragged Down into the Grave
 * Drill Warrior
 * Fabled Raven
 * Fine
 * Into the Void
 * Mirage of Nightmare
 * Morphing Jar
 * Rigorous Reaver
 * The Cheerful Coffin
 * Infernity Inferno
 * Depth Amulet
 * Fabled Dianaira
 * Royal Tribute
 * Graceful Charity

Recommended cards
The "Dark World" cards, which have effects that activate when they are discarded from your hand to the Graveyard via a Card Effect. By taking advantage of this effect, players are able to both create easy field presence and turn the opponent's discard effects against them. It should be noted that these effects activate in the Graveyard and are only triggered when the discard is a part of a Card Effect, not a Cost. Likewise, "sending" cards to the Graveyard due to a card effect does not trigger the Dark World monsters.

Thanks to its potential speed, this Deck can be very aggressive and powerful, though incredibly vulnerable to cards that lock the Graveyard, namely "Dimensional Fissure", "Macro Cosmos", and so on. Thankfully, the same does not apply to "Necrovalley". To be safe, "Imperial Iron Wall" is a worthy card to include or at least Side Deck, as it not only erase most of these problems, it also completely locks down the Decks that use those cards.

Knowing its weaknesses however, a Dark World Deck is fearsome. As fast as the first turn it can throw into the field its most powerful monsters, "Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World", "Sillva, Warlord of Dark World", and "Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World", which can all be considered staples. "Brron, Mad King of Dark World" grants sheer attack power for a low-level monster and can further discard cards from the hand, while "Broww, Huntsman of Dark World" increases exponentially the drawing power of the Deck. Discarding cards plays a crucial role, so cards such as "Morphing Jar" along with many support cards that the archetype offers, are a staple. Another incredibly useful card is "Card of Safe Return", which offers draw power with each Dark World monster sent and revived from the Graveyard, although outside of Traditional play, this card is banned.

Use a "Morphing Jar" and "Creature Swap" combination to get "Morphing Jar" on your opponents side of the field to activate the second effect of "Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World", "Sillva, Warlord of Dark World" and "Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World". In fact, it is possible to create an OTK with the above combo; first give "Morphing Jar" to your opponent with "Creature Swap" and attack "Morphing Jar" with their card (it won't matter whether you can destroy Morphing Jar or not). You will discard your hand and if you contain enough of the big Dark World monsters ("Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World", "Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World" and/or "Sillva, Warlord of Dark World") you can clear the opponent's field with their effects and attack directly with them. However, this does rely on your opponent's monster being in attack position. "Dark Deal" is also a staple in this Deck because not only does it negate your opponent's Spell Card but turns the Spell Card's effect into making you discard one card from your hand so you could use the second effect of the monster discarded.

Other powerful Dark Monsters, such as "Dark Necrofear" or "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms",and Dark Armed Dragon, can be included as additional, unexpected and powerful beatsticks.

Suggested support monsters for Dark World Decks can include "Dark Ruler Ha Des" (nearly as strong as "Reign-Beaux" and with a powerful negation effect), "Dark Necrofear", which takes advantage of the Fiends filling your Graveyard and gives you a chance to take control of an opponent's powerful monster, and "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms", to turn the fiends swarming the field into a massive beatstick. Lastly, an equip Spell Card such as "Big Bang Shot" can help "Brron, Mad King of Dark World" inflict battle damage on the opponent, triggering his effect. A great card to include in a Dark World Deck is "Forced Requisition", meaning that your opponent must discard the same number of cards you discard (over time), which will usually involve their entire hand! Since most Dark World monsters gain additional effects when discarded by your opponent, "Dark Deal" will come in handy a lot. Recycle it with "Mask of Darkness" to reuse the effect over and over again (potentially devastating your opponent's field if you have multiple "Reign Beauxs" at your disposal).

"Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World" is a good monster to tribute because you can Special Summon him while still having the ability to tribute for a higher level monster. If you have "The Cheerful Coffin", you can discard 2 and Tribute Summon them for a level 7 or higher monster on your very first turn! It's also a good monster because when you tribute him, you are not sacrificing potential attack power, unlike other Dark World monsters like "Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World" or "Sillva, Warlord of Dark World".

Dark World monsters can also be combined with "Crush Card Virus", "Deck Devastation Virus" and "Eradicator Epidemic Virus".

"Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord" is another dark monster to use in a Dark World Deck with a respectable ATK of 2800 and can be Special Summoned by "Dark Illusion".

Also, if you plan to use Synchro Monsters, one of the most, if not the most useful Tuner Monster would be "Fabled Raven", as its effect triggers the effect of the Dark World Monster, and increases its own level and attack. In fact, "Raven" discarding either "Goldd" or "Sillva" will merit you level 8 Synchro Monster materials. Fabled Raven is also a Fiend, so it gets an attack increase from "Gate of the Dark World" and can be removed or discarded for its effect.

"Allure of Darkness" can offer draw power, then you can Special Summon the monster you removed from play with "Escape from the Dark Dimension", which can also be used to summon monsters removed with the effect of "Gate of the Dark World".

"Necrovalley" does not affect this Deck, because "Necrovalley" can't negate the effect of monsters that Special Summon themselves from the graveyard.

"Solidarity" is also helpful to Dark World Decks since all Dark World monsters are Fiend type monsters.

Because of the ability to swarm level 5 monsters, "Protector of the Founders, Tyrus" and "Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon" are great additions to a Dark World extra deck.

It is also possible to add burn elements to a Dark World deck. As long as "Forced Requisition" is on the field, "Magical Thorn" will deal 500 points of damage each time your opponent has to discard from their hand, though this is very difficult to pull off. Give and Take and Book of Eclipse can be used in a combo with Morphing Jar resulting in Morphing Jar flipping on your opponent's field and making you use the Dark WOrld monster's effect with maximum potential. Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World clears the field and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World preventing any hand advantages.

Monster Cards

 * Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World
 * Snow, Magician of Dark World
 * Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World
 * Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
 * Brron, Mad King of Dark World
 * Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
 * Sillva, Warlord of Dark World
 * Morphing Jar
 * Tour Guide From the Underworld

Spell Cards

 * Allure of Darkness
 * Card Destruction
 * Dark World Dealings
 * Dark World Lightning
 * Dragged Down into the Grave
 * Gate of the Dark World

Trap Cards

 * Deck Devastation Virus
 * Eradicator Epidemic Virus
 * Strategy of the Dark

Extra Deck

 * Any level 8 Synchro Monster
 * Chaos King Archfiend
 * Dark Highlander
 * Scrap Archfiend
 * Ancient Sacred Wyvern
 * Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
 * Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon
 * Leviair the Sea Dragon

Dark World Skill Drain Deck
This Deck was created by Robert Pace shortly after the initial release of Dark World cards in 2005. It was popularized as a competitive build when Pace was featured by Metagame.com in tournament coverage of several California Shonen Jump Championships.

Dark World Decks swarm well and their effects activate outside of the field, making "Skill Drain" a useful card in this Deck, Along with the attack power of "Beast King Barbaros", and you can easily empty your opponents field with "Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World" and certain combos with "Celri, Monk of Dark World", it'll leave your opponent stunned when you swarm, overpower, eliminate, and negate. You can use "Tyrant's Tirade" instead of "Skill Drain" since it has extra negate from hand which shut down "Honest" and "D.D. Crow" and it's effect will only conflict with "Brron". "Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast" is used as a great beatstick, as it can be summoned without tributes and it keeps its massive ATK while "Skill Drain" is active. "Darkness Neosphere" is also a great beatstick and can be easily summoned when your opponent attacks, switching one of your lower leveled Fiends with a massive 4000 ATK monster.

Dark World OTK Deck
Extra Deck
 * Chaos King Archfiend

Since "Emergency Teleport" is limited to one it can be hard at times to summon the Synchro Monster you want, so go with thinning out your Deck to get the cards you want instead.

Dark World OTK revolves around Non-Dark World monsters thinning themselves out of the Deck while bringing out valuable Tuners such as "Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind" or "Dark Resonator" in order to quickly Synchro Summon and overwhelm your opponent. Dark World OTK only focuses on swarming the field and draw power rather than destroying your opponent's cards using weaker monsters such as Gren or Kakkhi.

Weaknesses and Counter-Strategies
Dark World cards activate in the Graveyard, so remove-from-play strategies that revolve around "Dimensional Fissure", "Karma Cut", or "Macro Cosmos" almost completely negate their threat, though a Dark World player will still be able to Normal Summon their stronger monsters and use "Dark World Lightning" to destroy face-downs. "Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror", "Banisher of the Light", and "Banisher of the Radiance" will also completely negate all in-Graveyard effects, making Dark World cards nearly useless. Dark World cards are also all DARK Fiend-Types, making it possible for your opponent to tailor their strategy to counter those kinds of cards specifically (such as with "Tualatin"). Since the majority of Dark World monsters have to be Special Summoned to gain their effects, they can be handled with cards that prevent Special Summoning, such as "Royal Oppression" (though this can easily backfire) and "Vanity's Ruler" or "Vanity's Fiend".