The recent list saw True King of All Calamities (VFD), the most oppressive boss monster of the previous format, get vanished from the game. Being as dominant as it was, all the competitive builds of Virtual World focused on getting 2 level 9's and slapping it on the board. With its strongest wincon gone, let's see what Virtual World can do, and if it's enough to combat the meta.
Ha! Gottoms!
Virtual World is notorious for being able to spam level 3's and 6's on the board. This gives them free access to the entire pool of Synchro 6, 9, and XYZ 3, 6, and 9. That being said, XX-Saber Gottoms is extremely easy to access for the deck.
Opening Lulu + Kauwloon allows you to setup Chuche, dump Qinglong, then add and Summon Lili. This allows Gottoms to come out as the 3rd summon, playing well around Nibiru. This gives you the ability to rip one card out of their hand right away, possibly getting a hand trap if they haven't used any yet.
Cloudcastle is the card that allows Gottoms to be looped, because lo and behold - he's not once per turn. It is easy and consistent to bring out Gottoms AND two Cloudcastles. That means, Gottoms will be able to resolve THREE times, ripping three out of hand. In addition to that, two Clouds will be on board and you can go on to use Enterblathnir to rip the 4th, or setup Hyperyton for a negate. This could leave your opponent with two cards for turn, against a Chuche pop - granted that they didn't use any hand traps.
Dragoon... in Virtual World?
While hand looping seems extremely fun and with a high ceiling, most players agree that it's extremely fragile. Let's look at a more resilient route.
Ultimaya Tzolkin is the way to go if you want to set up an interruption or a layer of protection before hitting Nib territory. You will need a backrow card to set, but Lulu can take care of that. Tzolkin allows you to bring out Crystal Wing from the Extra Deck, giving you a blanket against Nibiru (or any other monster hand trap).
Comboing off with a hint of relief, you can make Muddy Mudragon to fuse itself with Tzolkin to make... yes, you guessed it - Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. You will NOT be able to pop monsters with him, but it's still your good old, big beat-stick with an omni-negate that is extremely hard to out.
Having Crystal Wing, Dragoon and a Chuche will be enough to win most games! That's one omni-negate, a monster negate (that boosts its attack), and a pop! However, there are other options that you can utilize! (Especially since Dragoon shot up in price recently.)
BONUS: If your read is that they don't have Nibiru, you can summon another synchro monster first to play around Impermanence / Veiler. This is thanks to Tzolkin's nifty last effect!
Unorthodox Alternatives
If you missed your chance to get Dragoon and don't have the budget for it now, fear not! There's still another option for you. Invoked Caliga recently got a reprint in BLAR that isn't even over a dollar in price. This is a floodgate-type monster in that both players will only be able to attempt 1 monster effect per turn. Where's the cool part in that? Well, you would have Crystal Wing to negate the only monster effect they have! That, on top of Chuche (for those pesky Zoodiac players), you have a board that deal with most decks in the format.
Beast of the Pharaoh is a fairly old card that is usually used as a tech option in the hand loop version. This little guy can summon himself over and over whenever he's used as a synchro material. If you have Kauwloon or Qinglong, being able to normal summon Pharaoh will make your plays exponentially more explosive. You can use this in the regular version too! You can climb up to a Synchro 9 and potentially set up a Hyperyton before continuing your combo.
Virtual World Locks
Now if Crystal Wing - Caliga isn't Lock-y enough for you, we have the answer to that. Let's check out a couple other locks that the deck can pull off!
Dragon Buster Destruction Sword recently came off the list in exchange for Union Carrier. This doesn't mean that it's not possible to use it! Virtual World can utilize Beatrice and Exa-Beetle to dump and equip Buster, respectively. Of course, it's going to take a lot of resources, but if you can pull it off, you're going to end on a Chuche pop to protect Exa-Beetle from a normal summon and battle attempt, plus the Extra Deck lock. It's pretty fragile and requires commitment, but it's something to keep an eye on!
Similar to the extra deck lock, another Buster lock - this time the Buster Blader lock - is also available to the deck. You will need to utilize Tzolkin to summon Buster Dragon and fuse Muddy with Tzolkin to bring out Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman! This will act like a Bagooska on steroids! Your opponents' monsters will be switched to defense position courtesy of the Buster Fusion and the Buster Dragon making them dragons.
Shenshen the Virtual World Kyubi
Many people gloss over the fact that Virtual World still has the easiest access to Virtual World Kyubi - Shenshen. Shenshen DOES still banish mostly everything that touches the field. It's easier to out for sure - Impermanence, Kaijus, Droplet, Chalice, Dark Ruler No More. These are all going to work against Shenshen - something that we couldn't say about VFD. However, they still NEED to draw into the outs! Some decks still outright lose to a singular Shenshen, and that is something that people really need to keep in mind.
Meta vs Virtual World - Implications
Zoo Eldlich
Zoodiac is one of the toughest decks to go against for a negate board. After all, they can just normal summon a Zoo, overlay Boarbow, attack and make a 4/6-material Zeus that can just eat through negates and still clear the board. Any Virtual World - Crystal Wing board can deal with this! Having a Chuche is ridiculously good against Zoodiacs! A quick effect pop can just disrupt their normal summon.
Now, if you remember - we used to call "Light" whenever we shotgun VFD, right? This is mostly to prevent the Golden Lord send effect. They could activate the effect to send either the Caliga or the Chuche. Now, they're going to be able to activate that effect - but we'll have Crystal Wing to negate it.
Zoo Eldlich is a really strong deck. But with Chuche for the Zoo's, Crystal Wing for the Lord, Dragoon being hard to out, and Shenshen for the Grind game (banishes Golden Lands and Eldlixirs) - Virtual World is very well equipped to face them.
Dragon Link
Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres is an extremely strong card - but so is Qinglong! Being able to force out the Seal before you start your plays might just be that little nudge you need to actually be able to play Yu-Gi-Oh! against Dragon Link. Going first, Caliga might be a better choice than Dragoon since combo decks usually don't find it hard to out the big bad Dragon. Caliga, on the other hand, will put them on drawing the out to be able to play the game.
Shaddolls
Shaddolls have been pretty hot as of late. El Shaddoll Winda is one of the reasons why. It's an extremely oppressive card that locks both players into only being able to special summon only once per turn. What's even better is the fact that Winda can now be brought out by Shaddoll Schism! Schism can be chained to an effect that special summons a monster and that Winda will be summoned first before the resolution of the said effect. This puts them on zero special summons post-Schism. Oh, and in some matchups, Schism can send a monster, too!
Now, if only there was an archetypal card that could negate Winda at any point in the game... Wait a minute, there is! Virtual World has, yet again, Qinglong at its disposal. Being able to negate stuff like Winda, Mechaba (who can't negate ignitions) among other things has always been a great utility to have. This definitely comes in clutch against decks such as Shaddolls.
Bird-Up!
Nope, no Qinglong this time. Simorgh, Bird of Sovereignty prevents targetting against Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds . That being said, Virtual World doesn't auto-lose to Tri-brigade going second. How so? Well, well, well. It's a good time to be a deck that mainly has Earth and Wind monsters, isn't it? You can setup a Chuche to get rid of Linkuriboh (or negate it with Qinglong) and/or get enough monsters on-board to beat over Stormwinds through Rendezvous and/or Oath! It's not always going to work, of course - it's going to depend on the hand. But having in-archetype outs sure feels good.
Going first against birdy decks isn't as tough, either. Again, people - SHENSHEN. Bird-up relies on filling up their graveyard, and that's going to be a tall order when all they can send are from hand or deck. Oh, and don't forget the Crystal Wing - Caliga setup. That could beat them, too.
At this point, you should get the gist of it, right? Qinglong, winds, chuche, extra deck monsters - Virtual World just has a lot of things going for it to deal with the meta.
Conclusion
Virtual World only lost one extra deck monster - VFD. It was extremely strong, no doubt - but the deck will always be able to adapt. After all, it does have almost the entire pool of Rank 3, 6, and 9 XYZ monsters in addition to the Synchro 6's and 9's at its disposal. You can even throw in some fusions with the help of Muddy Mudragon!
The deck has a myriad of options available to it. Anything that the meta presents, it will have an answer. It's all just going to depend on how you build your deck - and how good of a player you are. It's going to be more interactive now, with VFD out of the picture. But that should be fun, right? More interaction, more skill needed? You think so? Well, I certainly think so. I believe that's the way the game should be played and enjoyed - and I'm still on the Virtual World train for it!
