Before getting started:
Originally I planned on playing a (mostly) pure 'Lair of Darkness' deck, a deck that solely revolves around it's field spell, but it's just not all that good. Next I combined them with Rikkas, since their main gimmick is to tribute monsters, and for the most part, that worked out decently well (if anyone wants that version, I can upload it).
Firstly, what *is* a Lair of Darkness deck? It's a deck centered around it's field spell, a field spell that lets you tribute your opponent's monsters. Although that sounds amazing, the deck can brick, very hard, this deck aims to improve consistency and/or stall enough to where you can get your plays going. I'll touch up more down below the explanation of the monsters/spells/traps. Without further ado, let's go through what the deck consists of, and why they're there.
Monsters:
(I will NOT be covering Maxx "C", Monster Reborn, or Raigeki here)
Tour Guide From the Underworld - Tour Guide is a staple in virtually any fiend deck, as it allows you to special summon 1 level 3 or lower fiend monster from your deck when it's normal summoned. She's a great extender and an amazing combo starter for this deck, as the fiend monsters (every one of them, aside from Tour Guide herself) don't *need* their effects (I'll touch up more on this later). (3)
Lilith, Lady of Lament - Lilith is arguably the boss monster of this deck, although her stats aren't as good as 'Darkest Diabolos', her quick effect (she's the only one in this deck with one) allows you to tribute 1 dark monster (more on why this is good later). If her effects aren't negated, you can tribute 1 monster to reveal 3 normal traps and have your opponent choose one of them at random to set on your field (so keep in mind, if you want to add more Trap Trick in, that's totally fine).
Ahrima, the Wicked Warden - Ahrima is honestly what makes the deck a lot more bearable, you can discard him from your hand to search out 'Lair of Darkness', making him invaluable to have. When he's on field, you can also tribute 1 dark monster to search out your 'Darkest Diabolos', which you'll almost always want either in-hand or in your GY.
Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair - Diabolos is the other boss monster of this deck, and you'll always want at least 1 copy of him in your deck list (you can add more, but he can be bricky at times). He can't be tributed and your opponent can't target him with card effects, both very good effects for the most part, but aside from that and being a beatstick with 3k attack, he's very easy to get on the field, as he special summons himself from the GY or hand when one of your monsters is tributed (yes, even getting Kaiju'd works). To top it off, when he tributes, your opponent has to put a card from their hand on either the top or bottom of their deck (their choice).
Spells:
Foolish Burial - Mostly included here for 2 reasons: you can use it with Monster Reborn, and to send Diabolos to the GY.
Terraforming - A must-have for any field spell centric deck, it just searches out your field spell.
Pot of Extravagance - This deck can be very bricky at times, and you definitely don't want any of your main deck banished, so this and Pot of Prosperity are the next best thing. The only reason I included this instead of Prosperity is because of allowing you to draw 1 more card, you can swap these if you want, though.
Lair of Darkness - The main center piece of this deck and something you'll always want on the field, it's the field spell. When this card is on the field, all face-up monsters become DARK attribute monsters, making your life a lot easier. Once per turn, you can tribute 1 face-up DARK monster your enemy controls, which is great removal as it's not destructive, it doesn't target, and it allows you to potentially get some of your effects off. To add on to those 2 effects, it also creates tokens up to the amount of times the turn player tribute summoned. That means if you tributed 4 times, you get 4 tokens. Note that if you tribute on their turn, they get the tokens.
Traps:
Dimensional Prison - This trap allows you to target and banish an opponent's attacking monster, making it decent at stalling and helpful for situations where you need it.
Trickstar Reincarnation - Normally you'd use this with the other Lament sister, Malice, but I'll touch up on her down there. This trap card is limited to 1 (thankfully), because it allows you to banish your opponent's entire hand (they get to draw the same amount, so it's usually run with 'Droll & Lock Bird', but they'd end up bricking us).
Metaverse - Another limited 1, kind of Terraforming's older brother, it allows you to take a field spell from your deck and either add it to your hand or activate it.
Waking the Dragon - In a deck with as many traps as this, and with how often people run things like 'Harpie's Feather Duster', this is a no-brainer. When your opponent removes (in any sense, banished, destroyed, or gently sent to the GY), you get to special summon 1 extra deck monster.
Grinning Grave Virus - GGV is something that can make your life worse or better, depending on what's sent to the GY. It allows you to tribute 1 DARK monster with 3k or less ATK, and then have your opponent destroy 1 card for every 500 ATK of that monster from their hand and/or deck (so if you tributed a monster with 1k ATK, they'd destroy 2 cards). If you, however, tributed a monster with 2k or more ATK, you get to look at all the cards your opponent draws until the end of their 3rd turn after you activated it. Not only that, but all monsters they draw are immediately destroyed, and they can't activate their effects in the GY the turn they were destroyed by that effect.
Trap Trick - Trap Trick is another must-have for this deck, as it allows you to banish 1 trap from your deck to set a copy of that trap (you have to have 2+ copies), which you can activate that turn.
Ice Dragon's Prison - It'd be weird if I didn't include this in the deck profile, it's a trap that allows you to target a monster in your opponent's GY, special summon it to your field (its effects are negated), and then banish a monster they control of the same type (ie. if you use this to target a Dragon in their GY, and they have Dragon on field, you can banish both of the cards.) So at worst it's a worse Monster Reborn.
Solemn Judgement - This deck doesn't have much of anything in terms of negation, so this is probably your best bet for that, highly advised to run with at least 2 copies.
Skill Drain - I know people hate Skill Drain and that's just another reason I put this in here, it's something that not only stops your opponent from using on-field monster effects, but it doesn't really affect this deck much at all (more on that).
Summon Limit - Pretty self-explanatory, neither player can summon more than 2 times per turn (negated summons still count), and it's not like we're summoning a bunch of monsters anyways, aside from tokens.
Extra Deck:
Naturia Exterio - Naturia Exterio is an amazing card to have on field since he's like a Drytron for activated spells/traps. You can banish 1 card from your GY, send the top of your deck to the GY, and then negate an activated trap/spell (doesn't work on already activated traps/spells). Best part? It's not a once per turn, as long as you have banish targets and a deck, you can negate.
Black Rose Moonlight Dragon - You don't necessarily need this, but it does help a lot in keeping your opponent in check, since it (on special summon as well) allows you to send 1 level 5 or higher special summoned monster your opponent controls to the hand. With summon limit, it becomes a lot more oppressive.
Geomathmech Final Sigma - Sigma is a win-con by himself a lot of the times, since he's unaffected by card effects outside of other Mathmechs (which, who runs?). Any battle damage this card inflicts is also doubled, which at 3k attack, is pretty decent. The catch being that this card *has* to be in the Extra Monster Zone for those effects.
Beat Cop from the Underworld - Beat Cop is a great addition here, since she not only can tribute a monster your opponent controls, but when you do tribute a monster with her (so long as you used 2 DARK monsters with different names), you can put a Patrol Counter on a card, allowing it to be safe from destruction, by the amount of counters on it (your main target for them would be Lair of Darkness).
Wee Witch's Apprentice - You can definitely take her out or substitute her for something else, but she's mainly just another way of getting back a monster from your GY, which you can also use tokens.
Extra Information:
This deck has a lot to it for the most part, a lot of it comes down to knowing your opponent's decks, since you'll want to make the most out of your 1 tribute summon. I'll add some 'I-think-you-should-know-this' info down below.
What happens if my monster effects are negated?
Outside of maybe 'Tour Guide' who special summons Lilith or Ahrima, you don't really need them, as you can still activate their effects and tribute monsters, they just don't get the benefits of them tributing (ex: you can tribute a monster with Lilith, but you don't get to excavate trap cards if her effects are negated).
Why do you run 'Waking the Dragon' in this deck?
Simple, it's a trap heavy deck and centered around a field spell, people are going to want to pop every trap and the field spell at any chance they can get, why not reap the benefits if you don't have an out to them like Solemn?
Why Skill Drain at 3? Isn't that a bit bricky?
Absolutely, it can be a brick, but like Solemn and Summon Limit, you can't search for them as you can with normal traps, so you'll want to increase your chance of having it in your starting hand.
No hand traps outside of Maxx "C"?
The deck needs all the consistency it can get, putting Ash Blossom, Called by the Grave, or any other hand traps would just clutter it or make it harder to stall.
Why is the Extra Deck so small?
Mostly because I'm leaving it to you, so I can be lazy, as I'm not all that knowledgeable on the best targets for 'Waking the Dragon' (and no, I won't just Google "best targets for Waking the Dragon').
No Sangan?!?!
Swap out Sangan for a Skill Drain if you want, but I just prefer stalling until I get that monster on field.
Where are the other cards, 'Alice, Lady of Lament' and 'Diabolos, King of the Abyss'?
They're probably hanging out with 'Trouble Sunny', who is also not in the game. Give us them, Konami.
Recurring Nightmare?
You can tech this in, but it's not searchable and for it to appear in your hand often you'd have to add 2 or 3, so it's not really worth it in my opinion.
Weaknesses:
So we've covered the good, what's the bad? Well firstly, since it *is* based around its field spell, it can be vulnerable if you don't have negates or anything to stop the removal of it, which can stop your play dead in the tracks if you don't have that good of a hand. Although this deck can go second and still win, it'll have some trouble, as we rely heavily on our normal summon and not having our stuff, y'know, destroyed.
The deck also struggles with cards being sent to the GY and/or being banished, as there are hardly any ways to get them back, so that means if an enemy is about to banish your on-field Lilith, let her tribute herself and/or a monster that will be removed. Pot of Extravagance is both a blessing and a curse for this deck, as you can banish your main 'Waking the Dragon' targets, so be weary on using it. Backrow heavy decks are also an annoying matchup against this deck for the most part so keep that in mind.
Last thoughts:
This deck is an absolute blast to play for the most part, which if you didn't like playing Eldlich because it's just "bring back goldie boy, activate trap monster", you might like this. I have not done any playtesting in Platinum with this deck (I don't want to) so I can't say this is a Plat 1 deck, but it is very annoying when you have the right setup going. I hope I don't see this deck in Ranked, please keep it away from me, thank you.
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