Dark World

The Dark World series is an archetype of cards, consisting mostly of DARK Fiend-Type monsters. Their Japanese names contain 「暗黒界」 and they were introduced in Elemental Energy, with further support in Strike of Neos and Structure Deck: Gates of the Underworld. Brron, Mad King of Dark World uses this archetype in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime. 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", "Dragged Down into the Grave", "Morphing Jar", and "Fabled Raven".

Naming
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, "Ceruli" on cerulean, "Cobal" on cobalt, "Snoww" on snow-white, and "Latinum" on platinum, with the exception of "Reign-Beaux," which is "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, using its main boss monster, "Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World", who has a built-in destruction effect and the ability to Special Summon itself from the Graveyard.

With the new Structure Deck 21: Gates of the Underworld, this Deck has picked up more speed in Summoning and getting Card's Effects: The aforementioned "Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World" for power and destruction and "Snoww, Unlight of Dark World" allows for quick searches for any key cards. It also adds the easiest option for the "Dark World" duelist to trigger the second effects of his monsters: "Ceruli, Guru of Dark World". However this monster requires committing two other cards to be of any use: an outlet to discard it, and another Dark World monster to be triggered by its effect.

With the release of "Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World", the Deck no longer needs to rely on "Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World" and "Sillva, Warlord of Dark World" for power. Their high level means that they will often sit unused in the hand. Using your discard outlets for other cards such as "Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World" or "Snoww, Unlight of Dark World" is often more favorable to either immediately remove a threat, or search the deck for a card you need. The "Lords" are forgone in favor of "Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World" which allows you to swarm the field while not being useless in the hand.

Discard Effects
This section will show exactly which effects are activated with any "Dark World" monster's discard. This also shows exactly what happens when the opponent's effect is the cause for the discard.

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". This has become easy to determine with the July 2011 "Problem-Solving Card Text" solution. Now all cards with a "discard" effect occurring after a semicolon, ";", are effects that cause "Dark World" monsters' effects to activate. These cards include:


 * Beckoning Light
 * Card Destruction
 * Clear Vice Dragon
 * Dangerous Machine Type-6
 * Dark Deal
 * Dark Smog
 * Dark Scheme
 * Dark World Dealings
 * Dark World Lightning
 * Drill Warrior
 * Extra Gate
 * Fabled Dianaira
 * Fabled Raven
 * Fine
 * Gate of the Dark World
 * Infernity Inferno
 * Into the Void
 * Mind Crush
 * Morphing Jar
 * Rigorous Reaver
 * Royal Tribute
 * The Cheerful Coffin
 * Trance Archfiend

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, Main Decking several copies of "Mystical Space Typhoon" and "Heavy Storm" will prevent these cards from hurting you.

"Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World" is a good monster because his effect allows you to spam Grapha out of the Graveyard while not using up your vital Normal Summon.

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

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 "Gates of the Dark World" and can be removed or discarded for its effect. Fabled monsters as a whole function well with Dark World, as they are Fiend Types with effects that center on being discarded, and add LIGHT monsters to the Deck if the player wishes to use Chaos monsters.

"Allure of Darkness" can offer draw power, then you can Special Summon the monster you banished with "Leviair the Sea Dragon", which can also be used to summon monsters removed with the effect of "Gate of the Dark World".

"Necrovalley" affects this Deck only very slightly because "Necrovalley" can't negate the effect of monsters that Special Summon themselves from the graveyard. Some cards that are affected are "Snoww, Unlight of Dark World", "The Gates of Dark World", "Gateway to Dark World", and "The Forces of Darkness".

Because of the ability to swarm level 5 monsters, "Tiras, Keeper of Genesis" and "Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon" are great additions to a Dark World Extra Deck. However both "Goldd" and "Sillva" take up needed discard outlets and are not necessary.

"Dark Armed Dragon" can be useful since all of dark world monsters are dark attribute.

"Flare Resonator" and "Dark Resonator" are useful additions if Fabled Raven is out of the price range. Flare Resonator also comes in very handily for Anti-Synchro builds that use Dark Highlander, giving it an extra boost to 3100 (3400 with Gate).

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. "The End of Anubis", "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". Dark World decks may also run into complications when facing other Dark World decks, as some of the key discard cards that let the Dark World monsters trigger their effects have both duelists discard, which will activate the more dangerous effects of an opponent's Dark World monsters. Consecrated Light is also a problem, as it stops you from being able to attack with or even summon any Dark monsters, although an easy way to get rid of it is to simply discard Grapha or Khakki to destroy it.