Notes & Combos

After messing around with troll decks in Diamond, I made a late season push with the last viable VW variant I haven't hit Master 1 with yet -- Armored XYZ. Playing Rollback and the Mayakashi trap is a better strategy overall, but Armored XYZ is actually fun -- when you don't brick or lose 5 coin flips in a row.

The advantage of Armored XYZ is its card advantage -- in exchange for playing one garnet, you both draw a card and get a free discard via adding Full Armored XYZ to hand and then pitching it with Qinglong or Xuanwu. Then you can still draw more cards via Stardust Charge and Coral. Also, you can guarantee Crystal Wing via searching Full Armored XYZ and then setting it for Tzolkin. My verdict: Armored XYZ is definitively the second strongest variant of Virtual World, just a few paces behind Rollback.

To really make the most of this deck, you'll need to learn when to pitch the XYZ trap in the GY and when to set it instead. To pitch the XYZ trap, use either a Qinglong or Xuanwu effect in the GY. Try to hold your Xuanwu until the end of your combo for exactly this.

However, if you need to set the trap in order to summon Crystal Wing with Tzolkin, then remember NOT to summon Dark Knight Lancer! Just leave Fortress on the field, then play the trap next turn to summon Lancer on top of it; the trap will then go to the GY. If you accidentally set the XYZ trap with Dark Knight Lancer on the field, then you'll need 2 other monsters on the field that can XYZ to make the trap live -- that's not always possible. Again, remember to plan ahead.

The Extra Deck has a few flex spots. The Synchro lineup should not be tinkered with, but a few of the XYZ choices are less essential. Totem Bird prevents dying to Evenly Matched, board clears, and idiotic stun decks -- but has a restrictive summoning requirement. Cicada King is a fantastic grind game option against meta decks, but will rarely appear on Turn 1 boards. In fact, you might want to replace Totem Bird with Evolzar Lars: they stop the same cards, but Lars has the distinct advantage of not playing into Super Polymerization since Lars is FIRE attribute, while both Totem Bird and Crystal Wing are WIND. Hmmm.

Anyway, see you all next month maybe! (probably with a different deck)