The Viability of Worms in the Current Format
I believe that Worms are a much underrepresented deck that could thrive in the current format. This deck plays very similar to Anti-Meta with its heavy backrow setups. While Anti-Meta decks rarely have much success, there are a few key factors that set this deck apart from similar decks. These factors are that it can generate constant advantage and its ability to deal with problem cards. These are two things that many other Anti-Meta decks have a problem with. Let me start by giving an example deck list and explaining some of my card choices. Here is the deck list:
Monsters: 20
3 Maxx "C"
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Sangan
3 Worm Xex
1 Honest
Spells: 7
Traps: 13
2 Offerings to the Snake Deity
Card Choices
This deck is much geared towards the current Meta. The inclusion of 3 copies of Maxx “C” and 2 copies of Thunder King Rai-Oh are fantastic against the Meta.
There are two reasons for playing Tour Guide in this deck. Firstly it gives you the necessary Darks to play Black Luster Soldier. The second is that it gives you access to key XYZ monsters. You can utilize these monsters much the same as you can in Plants, making Zenmaines to grind out advantage or Leviathan when you can back him with Maxx “C”.
The reason for only one Worm King is that, while he’s not quite a themed Tytannial, he is bad to draw. Also once you successfully summon a single Worm King via Nebula, you probably won’t need a second Worm King.
The reason that spot removal like Dimensional Prison is so good in this deck is because this deck grinds out lots of advantage. Dimensional Prison takes away a card from both players creating a simplified game state, something you want when you have the ability to gain pluses through Xex, Nebula, and Tour Guide. It also deals with problem cards like Zenmaines, Laggia, and Dolka.
How this Deck Generates Advantage
Other Anti-Meta decks play cards that are good against the format like Fossil Dyna, Kycoo, and Doomcaliber Knight. The problem that these cards have, is that while they are good at stopping things from happening, they do little to generate advantage.
Worms have several cards that allow them to gain pluses. There are three optimal first turn plays with Worms. The first of these plays is to summon Thunder King. Often times you opponent will have to Synchro to get over him and take a minus or they will have to waste a single power card like Tour Guide or Dark Hole to get rid of him. If they have to Synchro over him, you get a plus as they used two cards. If they waste a power card, they have one less power card and you simplified the game state so that you can use the other two plays to get advantage.
The next first turn play is to summon Tour Guide. Generally you would want to make Zenmaines and grind out advantage with him.
The last first turn play in this deck is to summon Xex, send Yagen to the Graveyard and revive Yagen. This is an automatic plus 1 that requires a very minimal investment on your part. This play also sets you up for a rank 4 XYZ the following turn.
When you combine the above play with W Nebula Meteorite, you create even more advantage. If you were to summon Xex, send and revive Yagen, and set this, you put extreme pressure on your opponent. This play comes built in with defense. Since Yagen bounces an opponent’s monster when it flips and Nebula flips Yagen, if they try to push over Xex with say a Thunder King, you can respond with Nebula to flip Yagen, protecting your Xex. During the end phase you flip down the Yagen again so that you can reuse his effect, you draw 2 cards, and you special Worm King from your deck. The Xex into Yagen play was a plus 1 and the Nebula play was a plus 2, netting you a plus 3 that puts insane pressure on your opponent as they are now forced to deal with a 2700 Gravekeeper’s Descendant while you are up 3 cards. Keep in mind, this is only a two card combo and you run 3 of each of those cards.
Dealing with Problem Cards
This ability to maintain advantage is something that set Gravekeeper’s apart from other Anti-Meta decks in their abuse of Descendant and Recruiter loops and recurring monsters in the form of Stele. A problem that Gravekeeper’s had was that they couldn’t deal with a big monster that was already on the field very easily. Dark Hole was essentially the only out to a Scrap Dragon that wasn’t attacking. Also the release of Zenmaines posed a huge threat to Gravekeeper’s as they did not really have any outs to the card. Worms, on the other hand, have a way of dealing with these problem cards.
Worms’ solution to all of these problem cards comes in the form of Worm Yagen. It’s Gravekeeper’s Guard-like effect allows you to deal with Zenmaines, Scrap Dragon, Stardust, and most other problem cards the deck has. The deck also has very easy access to the card, not only through drawing it, but through Xex and Duality as well.
Worms also have more ways of breaking up plays than just about any other deck. Most decks run a fairly standard amount of cards that allow them to break up plays (Maxx “C”, Book, Torrential, the Solemns, etc), but Worms have two additional cards on top of all these cards to allow them to effectively break up plays. This is Offerings to the Snake Deity. This card has an Icarus Attack-like effect and is nothing short of amazing in this deck. The fact that Xex into Yagen gives you a plus 1 is huge when you have this card. If they were to MST this card after you went Xex into Yagen, you could chain the card giving you a plus 1 on top of the plus 1 you already got from Xex. This not only gives you card advantage, but breaks up any setups your opponent may have had.
I think that these two factors really set this deck a bar above other Anti-Meta decks. Everyone should try out this deck for themselves. Until next week guys!
Patrick Hoban
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