JavaFan yes it does. I guess I just got lost trying to do it with one structure. Would still be interested if anyone spots a way of doing it without specifying two patterns.

Working version using JavaFan's suggestion:

use Test::More tests => 2;
use Test::Deep;

my $id_re = re('^\d+$');
my $vpt_re = re('^-?1$');

my $x = [
          '11',
          '22',
          [
            [
              '-1',
            ],
            [                   # 
              '1',              # only present if '22' above present
            ]                   # 
          ]
        ];

my $y = [
          '11',
          [
            [
              '-1',
            ],
          ]
        ];

my $comp1 =
    [
        $id_re,
        [[$vpt_re]]
    ];

my $comp2 =
    [
        $id_re,
        $id_re,
        [[$vpt_re], [$vpt_re]]
    ];

cmp_deeply($x, any($comp1, $comp2), 'test1');
cmp_deeply($y, any($comp1, $comp2), 'test2');

[download]

In reply to Re^2: Problem defining a Test::Deep structure to match this arrayref by mje
in thread Problem defining a Test::Deep structure to match this arrayref by mje

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