Who Let Him Play Yugioh? (Re-Upload)

[Jinzo, ATK 2400]

This was its first appearance since it entered Kira’s hand. It seemed Spirit Jinzo had made up his mind to create the most overwhelming entrance possible for this debut.

Mist rolled across the field. Red beams shot out from its eyes, piercing the fog. Its metallic body strode forward at a slow, steady pace. The king of steel crossed its arms, its gaze radiating the confidence and arrogance of a ruler looking down from above. Electric arcs danced all over its body.

Its proud, dismissive eyes seemed to say: ”With a powerful master like mine, and me at his side, together we are invincible!”

Brier’s face turned grim.

He hadn’t expected it to be Jinzo. Doesn’t this mean their powerful backrow was now basically useless?

”I activate the Spell Card ’Metamorphosis,’” Kira said calmly. ”I tribute one monster on my field, and Special Summon a Fusion Monster of the same Level from my Extra Deck.

I tribute my Level 6 Jinzo!’”

Jinzo, who had been getting ready to show off in its debut: ”???”

Nani!? You’re tributing me?

No way, boss! This is my first time! How could you treat my debut like this!?

But the Spell Card had already appeared. Jinzo’s form dissolved into golden light and vanished.

Beauregard and Brier were both dumbfounded.

He tributed Jinzo…?

Isn’t that great?

No matter what comes out next, doesn’t that mean all their traps in the backrow will come back to life?

”According to ’Metamorphosis’s’ effect, I Special Summon from the Extra Deck in Defense Position—

—Level 6, Cyber Blader!”

(In the real TCG, Cyber Blader was adjusted to Level 7, but in the anime, it was Level 6. That’s why Alexis could often equip it with ’Fusion Weapon,’ which only works on Fusion Monsters of Level 6 or below. After it changed to 7 stars, that combo became impossible.)

[Cyber Blader, DEF 800]

Alexis: ”???”

What’s with this sudden change in deck style?

She wasn’t surprised Kira had his cards. Since he was always researching, she knew he had a lot of Cyber cards.

But who would have thought that in the middle of this lock-down strategy, he’d suddenly bust out a card with such a completely different vibe?

Then, recalling the effect of her own Fusion ace, she suddenly seemed to understand something, and her eyes widened in shock at the possibility she had just now realized.

”Muda!” Brier shouted. ”No matter what kind of monster it is, as long as we trap it, it’s all the same! Beauregard, activate the trap!”

Beauregard: ”Activating Trap — Bottomless Trap Hole! Destroy and banish any opponent’s monster with ATK 1500 or more that is Summoned!”

The Bottomless Trap Hole appeared beneath Cyber Blader’s feet. But Cyber Blader merely glanced down through its visor, swept its icy blade across the ground, and the hole snapped shut as if it never existed.

”Wh-why!?” Brier exclaimed. ”The activation was successful! Your monster should have been destroyed!”

”Cyber Blader is a monster whose effect changes based on the number of monsters on your opponent’s field,” Kira explained calmly.

”When your opponent controls exactly three monsters, all effects of their Spells, Traps, and Monsters are negated!” (old effect)

”NANI!?”

The two nearly jumped up in unison, eyes wide as saucers.

All their effects, negated?

Then how are we supposed to play!?

(The updated effect in the real card game is that it only negates ’activated effects’ of the opponent, while Continuous Spells and similar effects still work.

But in the anime, the old effect was in play, where all effects of the opponent’s cards became completely nullified—an almost impenetrable lock.)

This is why, although Cyber Blader didn’t seem that great in the anime, it later became the core of one of the most infamous LOCK decks in Yu-Gi-Oh history.

The lock deck’s concept was simple: use the common disruption cards of lock-down decks at the time, and combine them with Cyber Blader’s third effect to form an absolute lock.

It was also simple to set up. Give your opponent three disruption tokens, meeting the ”three monsters on the field” requirement. Then use ”Ground Collapse” or the Ojama Fusion Monster’s effect to seal off the remaining two zones. As long as Cyber Blader stays on the field, it forms an almost invincible ultimate seal.

And the pioneers of this combo were even more devious than Kira.

Those pioneers discovered this combo and exploited a loophole in the tournament rules at the time, building a deck known as TOD (Time Over Death), the ultimate stall deck.

Using the lock-down combo with Cyber Blader, once the lock was set up, the opponent couldn’t do anything; they could only draw one card per turn and stare helplessly.

At this point, someone might ask: ”But how do you win yourself?”

The answer: By having a higher LP than your opponent.

Back then, there was no rule for surrendering in Yu-Gi-Oh, and matches were best of three with a 40-minute time limit. If the time limit was reached, whoever had a higher LP at the end won the entire match.

TOD decks exploited this loophole.

Once the lock was set, the deck would stop attacking and just use LP recovery effects to stall for time. When time ran out, you’d win the match by the rules—not just one duel, but the entire match.

This kind of rules-lawyering was so disgusting that even the infamous Victory Dragon had to bow out. And anyone who dared bring such an ultimate stall deck, making their opponent sit through forty minutes of hell, had to be ready for a physical duel afterward.

”Damn it,” Brier gritted his teeth.

Beauregard, despairing: ”With all Spell, Trap, and Monster effects forever negated, doesn’t that mean we’re…?”

”Wait, don’t panic,” Brier said through clenched teeth. ”Cyber Blader’s effect only works when there are exactly three monsters on our field. If we summon one more next turn and make it four, the lock will break.”

”That’s right!” Beauregard realized.

He couldn’t help but admire Brier for immediately spotting the loophole in such a dire situation.

Kira smiled. ”Then, I activate the effect of the Trap Card ’Ojama Duo’ in the Graveyard. I banish it to Special Summon two ’Ojama’ monsters from my Deck.

I Special Summon the just-shuffled-back ’Ojama Yellow’ and ’Ojama Green.’”

[Ojama Yellow, DEF 1000]

[Ojama Green, DEF 1000]

”Next, I activate the Spell Card ’Polymerization,’ fusing ’Ojama Yellow’ and ’Ojama Green’ on my field. Fusion Summon—”

In the vortex of fusion, silver armor appeared, a dark green cape fluttered, and a clownish knight with snail eyes and a shield spun down onto the field.

”Fusion Summon — Ojama Knight!”

[Ojama Knight, DEF 2500]

”Ojama Knight’s effect!” Kira declared. ”While it’s on the field, I can choose up to two monster zones on your field—those zones can’t be used.

So I’ll seal your last two monster zones!”

Beauregard: ”.”

Brier: ”.”

What the hell did you just say?

Ojama Knight waved its hand, and two copies leaped out, sitting on the last two open monster zones and sealing them completely.

The two of them were instantly dumbfounded.

Now their monster count was exactly three, and the last two zones were sealed off. And they couldn’t use any card effects.

Beauregard couldn’t help but mutter: ”Brier…”

He trailed off, but the implication was clear: Are we dead now?

”Damn it, it’s not over yet!” Brier gritted his teeth, looking at their Prime Material Dragon.

They still had Prime Material Dragon—there was still hope!

Even though ’Megamorph’ was negated and Prime Material Dragon’s ATK dropped back to 2400, it was still enough to break through the self-locking core, Cyber Blader. As long as they could break the lock…

”Submarineroid switches back to Attack Position,” Kira said. ”Attack directly.”

Another torpedo blasted Beauregard, leaving him covered in soot by the virtual explosion.

[Beauregard, LP 2700 → LP 1900]

”Then, Submarineroid switches back to Defense Position by its effect.”

Kira played another card.

”I set a card and end my turn.”

”Draw!” Brier shouted.

Beauregard drew as instructed and immediately followed up: ”Use ’Prime Material Dragon’ to attack ’Cyber Blader!’”

”Muda,” Kira snapped his fingers. ”I activate my set card, Continuous Trap ’Gravity Bind.’ All Level 4 or higher monsters on both sides cannot attack.”

Brier spat blood.

He was done—completely done.

With their attacks sealed, it was their death sentence.

This Gravity Bind was also nearly unbreakable. With ’Cyber Blader’ suppressing everything, there was no way to get rid of this attack lock—not with Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm, or Giant Trunade.

And if they couldn’t destroy Cyber Blader, they couldn’t use any card effects at all.

Even if they drew another high-level monster and tributed Prime Material Dragon to summon it, it was pointless. The monster count would still be three, so Cyber Blader’s lock would remain.

And Ojama Tokens couldn’t be tributed for tribute summons, so trying to reduce their monster count that way wouldn’t work.

All their monsters were in Defense Position, so they couldn’t crash tokens for self-destruction, either.

Some people are alive, but they’re already dead.

”My turn, draw,” Kira revealed his card. ”I activate Monster Reborn to resurrect ’Bowganian’ in Defense Position.”

[Bowganian, DEF 1000]

Everyone: ”.”

[This card inflicts 600 damage to your opponent during each of your Standby Phases.]

It wouldn’t be long before Beauregard and Brier were picked off, one shot at a time, by Bowganian.

Death by a thousand cuts.

But in the end, they didn’t wait that long.

Seeing that Brier was on the verge of a meltdown, Beauregard, fearing he might do something drastic, hurriedly surrendered while he still could.

Otherwise, he was worried his teammate might lose it.