Dark World and the Side Deck

Hey guys! After promoting part 2 of WCWDA: Dark World in a Facebook group, I ended up having an interesting discussion about Dark World and the Side Deck. Before reading further, I must advise you that this article may become a bit controversial at times - and as always, refrain from reading if you're not the type of person who believes in fixing problems rather than sitting down and dealing with them.

1.
As you probably know, the argument of most people as to why Dark World isn't a big enough deal is the set of no less than four devastating Side Deck cards that can be used against it that are commonly played by many competitive decks.

And sure, you can use your Side Deck - but only after Game 1. If Dark World does what it's supposed to and beats you Game 1 (since most decks aren't so great against it), all they have to do is get lucky for one game after that and the match is theirs. Is that something you're honestly comfortable with? I know I'm not. 

Anyways, the four cards that I mentioned a moment ago are of course Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure, Soul Drain and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. Nearly every deck (save things like Frog Monarchs) can not only use these cards, but will be using them quite often. Then why is Dark World still a problem? This is a common question for lesser-experienced duelists.

So what's the answer? Well simply put, we live in the real world. And in the real world, things don't always work out to our advantage even though we may have planned ahead. Any of the following four things can happen when you go into Games 2 and 3 against any deck while trying to use your Side:

1. You flat-out didn't draw your Side cards;
2. You drew your Side cards, but it was too late (Drawing Macro Cosmos when you have nothing left in hand or on the field and you're staring down two Graphas isn't going to make you win);
3. You drew your Side cards and you had them early enough to make a difference, but the opponent drew their Side cards to slow you down as well;
4. You drew your Side cards and you had them early enough, but the opponent drew outs to them (Mystical Space Typhoon and Royal Decree are near staples in Dark World sides specifically because of the four silver bullets I mentioned earlier).

Happily ever afters can be hard to come by in real life, and that's why even though a good Side Deck can certainly make a difference against Dark World, I'm advocating that the deck is intolerable in its current form.

2. 
We haven't even fully discussed what Dark World itself can side - on top of outs to your Side Deck like Typhoon and Decree, they can use a plethora of nasty cards like Dark Smog, Skill Drain, Gozen Match, Rivalry of Warlords, and of course Deck Devastation Virus and Eradicator Epidemic Virus.  And all of these work on top of the natural hand demolition that Dark World is capable of - so how on earth can anybody who doesn't use the deck themselves say that this is fair?

I honestly think that many players have skewed viewpoints because they remember all of the times that they were able to defeat the deck. Some people may even subconsciously want to preserve it so that they can feel like a hero again one day. Let me assure you this - Dark World, when used by a skilled or even more-than-decent player, is not a joke. I don't care how many scrubs or noobs or nubs you've beaten in your day, that doesn't mean it's not unfair. There might be a ton of less-than-decent players running around getting beaten with Dark World out there, but the whole point of my position on these matters is that we can't take the stand of Konami. We must be able to evaluate and judge fairness without being swayed by outside factors like luck, skill, or how many people are topping a YCS.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and thanks for all of your support in this fight. The struggle continues.