Toppa Bashin – Episode 23

OH GOD IT’S BEEN FOREVER.

Apologies to anyone eagerly awaiting what happens next on the mis-adventures of BlackAce watching a show about actual children playing actual children’s card games.

Buuuut with University starting up again I was having a really hard time organizing myself in a way that allowed for me to make another blog post.

Uuuuuuuntil right about now where I realized I actually have a buttload of free time on my hands and the means to squander it immediately.

So you’re lucky I’m squandering it on you guys.

So since it’s been a while, recapping the previous episode. Meganeko learned how to Battle!

Aaaaand is intending on surprising Bashin at the next tournament however to uphold the surprise she’s being EXPRESSLY mean to him to make Bashin think she’s still mad.

Which is a bitch move in my opinion and at the moment Kyouka is slowly turning into Best girl as a result, buuuuut Meganeko is absolutely adorable still and she still firmly holds that spot.

So nothing less than Kyouka actually battling is really going to shake that monolith now that we have a Yellow representative in the show.

So, without further ado lets move on with this absolute monstrosity.

The Episode title is “Last Days as an Elementary Schooler”

So what are we finally around Summer time again? Because the language used in the show seems to have confused the subbers to the point where it’s unclear when school is actually ending or if it’s just a break.

But this wording seems clearer now, so hopefully they’re actually finishing their dumb elementary school.

And we’re starting off strong in the plot foreshadowing department with Nine communicating with someone on the phone about the delivery of High Ranker passes.

If you remember, that job is typically given to Eight, which means she must be the person on the other end of the phone.

There’s a distinctly female voice on the other end that is very recognizable, it’s Eight.

Apparently she’s done well this time around and hasn’t had a massive delay delivering everyone’s passes.

That’s odd…

Previously they were testing people and only those who could defeat the Nazo-Otonas were handed X-Rares. But then again given that was only the first set of the game it was likely the first time this ever happened.

I suppose now that they have a large quantity of potentially strong battlers, they’re less concerned about actually battling as long as they continue to prove themselves in the tournaments, so now they’re just handing out the X-rares.

This also provides some consistency between the Cornerstone holders, given that J received his new X-Rare from Elliott and didn’t have to battle him first for it.

Given the person Nine’s had his eye on and has been emulating the Battle style of, it’s not unlikely that he’s talking about Bashin here.

So it stands to reason that Bashin is going to receive a new X-Rare. Which is great!

Eight agrees with Nine and then decides to go on a tangent here saying that the Tournament is the only reason they have so many strong players participating.

I’m not quite sure what the relevance of this is, but it might be Gunslinger related.

Now we cut to Meganeko knitting something in Card Sensei’s room, and Card Sensei reminds Meganeko of her debut match.

More interesting parallels here between Meganeko and the unfortunate Smile, is that they’re going to have to make a name for themselves in the Gunslinger.

Meganeko doesn’t have a High Ranker, so her fate and how well she does in the Gunslinger are entwined, not sure how hilarious it would be if Meganeko took Smile’s title of being “The Gunslinger’s Apparition”

Card Sensei reminds Meganeko of High Ranker passes, since they let her skip the primaries.

And given that Card Sensei is a Nazo-Otona, he’s absolutely got the power to provide her with one.

And in a surprisingly wholesome turn of events, Meganeko turns down the need for a High Ranker pass.

Meganeko sees the point of the Gunslinger, it’s a good way to test her deck’s ability against a large amount of people at once. She can improve her ability as she plays so that she arrives in Bracket with a well educated idea of her strategy, deck, as well as what type of decks players are using.

That was a VERY abrupt cut if all they were going to give us is Richboy- I mean J, drinking some tea.

Apparently J’s so miffed with Smile randomly showing up inconveniently that his mind has developed his own “Smile sense”

Smile shows up cosplaying as Postman Pat and tosses something to J

And of course because everyone in Card Game anime has apparently been 30 years in the Olympics for discus throwing that they can frisbee non-throwable objects in straight directions.

And even more weird is the other character’s seemingly developed reflexes that allow them to catch it between 3 fingers.

In this case it’s a letter, which is significantly heavier and bigger than a single piece of card stock, so you can fling that through the air a little more easier.

But throwing basic card stock in a straight line across a whole freaking PIER to hit someone directly in the hand without air resistance causing the card to spin out and land in the water somewhere…

Apparently all of these “Deliveries” have been off-screen because as far as everyone else is concerned, you received The Gigantic Thor and The Sacred Mjolnir from Elliott, and the only things you’ve received from Smile was The WhiteTiger Huck and White Potion.

So… Wanna divulge what else he’s delivered to you?

J just casually calling Smile an “Errand boy”

Oh, it’s just a High Ranker.

Well, that was completely unexpected-

I can’t say that with a straight face, alright next scene.

Son of a-

Alright so we have Bashin now, who was apparently “Cutting it close” with the receiving of his High Ranker.

I like to think that the Nazo-Otonas think Nine is bloody insane and REALLY didn’t want Bashin to participate in the next tournament.

I thought she was meant to be “Sexy Queen Number Eight”?

But I guess Bashin isn’t really old enough to know what the significance of that is so Big Sister it is.

Also you guys should totally message me on Discord Verus#6257 about whether or not you prefer me to call her “Eight” or “Big Sister”

For now I’ll just call her Eight until further notice.

Because the answer is obvious when it comes to hyperactive 12 year-olds who can’t think of anything but playing really good card games.

Yeah one would be happier that they have better chances in a tournament that really likes groin-knitting.

I see these fits of blatant spoilage from Bashin and I can’t tell if he’s naturally meant to be this annoying or if the show is being accurate on it’s representation of a 12 year old card game player?

Or both?

Anyway, Bashin decides that he prefers permanence over his temporary boon and wants an X-Rare.

God bless these writers, they’re actually bringing up the point that Bashin thoroughly beat the ass of Eight not once but twice and she hasn’t yielded an X-Rare to him.

The 2nd time was due to tournament bracket, so it’s understandable that she isn’t obligated to present Bashin with any reward mid-tournament, I would say usually because when you’re in a tournament you can’t change what your deck composition is throughout the entirety of it, though in this case it seems like what deck you use for the Gunslinger doesn’t need to be the same deck you use for bracket if J’s sudden usage of The Gigantic Thor is anything to go by.

But there’s absolutely no reason why Eight didn’t yield an X-Rare the first time, I could probably explain it with something Nine said, claiming that “Nazo-Otonas give X-Rares to people they recognize the strength of”

Eight’s main deck is a Green one, but she used Purple against Bashin, so since she was doing the equivalent of sandbagging (the act of not playing your main deck or character in a card or fighting game because you’re confident enough that you can win while actively inhibiting yourself), she was able to ignore the need to recognize Bashin’s ability.

She’s such a Diva at times really. “I don’t even know if I’ll show up so I GUESS!”

But you know, we’re fighting now, so GATE OPEN!

Skipping straight to Turn 17…

At least it’s not Turn fucking 999…

Moving on the side of speed they didn’t actually give us a field review, but Bashin has a Level 2 Metalburn on his board, Bashin then adds a Level 3 Rokceratops and Level 2 Eyeburn to it.

That’s a pretty bulky board.

Bashin then attacks with Metalburn and Eyeburn (they apparently skipped Eyeburn’s attack animation) and snatches 2 lives from Eight, leaving her with 2 left.

Bashin then leaves Rokceratops as a blocker and ends.

Well this isn’t looking good for Eight but I don’t know what position Bashin is in concerning lives.

Eight then deploys The Hermit Wise Tree at Level 2.

If you don’t remember what this does (it’s been a while I don’t blame you), for every exhausted spirit Eight has her battling spirits gain +1000 BP, and at Level 2 all her Spirits refresh during her End Step, letting her full attack without fear of needing to leave blockers.

…Dropping a Cost 7 Red X-Rare.

Alright, you had my curiosity.

But now you have my attention!

The TwinRowdy Diranos, a Cost 7 Red X-Rare from BS02.

And it’s a Member of not one but TWO prominent families, Terra Dragon and Emperor Beast!

We finally get a view of Eight’s Board, and it consists of a Flyingmirage which she just lost thanks to adding it’s core to Diranos.

and a Level 2 Shockeater.

Using Shockeater’s Core to level it up to Level 2.

Now would be a good time to review all of Diranos’ abilities.

The first effect grants all spirits with Evolution an extra +1000 BP.

The 2nd effect grants all “Terra Dragon” family spirits the Awaken keyword at all levels but only if Diranos is Level 2 or higher.

So at Level 2, you can count on all your Terra Dragons having an extra +1000 BP and Evolution, which is good for trading around Core for your attacks.

As for the “Terra Dragon” Family itself, it’s a family of cards with Dinosaur motifs, and they’re very popular.

Maybe you should have thought about that before using Diranos in what seems to be an all-green deck.

Honestly this happens so often in this particular show and it bothers me.

Bashin blocks the now 6000 BP Diranos with Rokceratops, and Rokceratops, having only 4000 BP, is destroyed.

Bashin loses a life to the remaining Shockeater.

Eight ends her turn, and thanks to her Level 2 Hermit Wise Tree, she can now safely sit behind her big nasty X-Rare as a powerful blocker.

…

Lizardman, Skeleton-Jaw AND your own bloody X-Rare are normally strong enough to take on TwinRowdy Diranos you absolute shitstain.

Bashin out here giving Gingers a really bad name, Orange is one of the coolest hair colours and Bashin don’t deserve it.

Unsurprisingly, Bashin draws The DragonEmperor Siegfried, and summons it at Level 3.

…Except that Eight does have an available Shockeater to Block Siegfried instead of Diranos. So it’s not like she couldn’t just block with that and keep Diranos.

Plus you’ve got only 2 other attackers and 1 life. But I assume you have a plan for that. Eight still has 2 lives so even if you full attacked this turn you couldn’t win.

Bashin’s stupidity must be contagious because apparently Eight takes Bashin’s challenge and Siegfried defeats The TwinRowdy Diranos.

Forgive me if I’m a little bit confused at this course of action.

WHAT!?

HOW!?

YOU HAVE 2 LIVES AND A BLOCKER, BASHIN ONLY HAS 2 ATTACKERS!

YOU WOULD LIVE!

For the sake of argument, lets play this out.

Bashin has 2 remaining Red Spirits, both stronger than Eight’s Green Spirit.

Eight has 2 lives, Bashin has 1.

If Bashin swings with both, Eight takes one, blocks the other, then Bashin has no blockers remaining and Eight can play The TwinRowdy Diranos again and win (Because that’s what’s in her hand)

If Bashin swings with one and Eight takes a life, if Bashin chooses not to continue attacking, Bashin STILL loses because he only has 1 blocker and Eight would have 2 remaining attackers because she would just summon the extra Diranos in her hand.

The only situation that ends unfavorably for Eight is if she blocks the first attack and Bashin ends his turn leaving a blocker, because then Eight would only have 1 Attacker.

But that requires that Eight willingly be stupid enough to not take a life for it. Strategies that rely on opposing stupidity are not reliable strategies.

But lets say Bashin decides to err on the side of caution and not attack leaving 2 Blockers, Twin Rowdy Diranos gets played again at Level 2, Eight can attack with Diranos, get blocked (because Bashin only has 1 Life) and even if Bashin blocks with Eyeburn which has 6000 BP, Diranos’ BP wasn’t actually 6000 during it’s attack.

Because of the Hermit Wise Tree’s Level 1 ability.

Spirits must exhaust to attack and to defend, so Diranos’ attacking BP when on it’s own is actually 7000 BP. Meaning Bashin loses Eyeburn.

And while Eight wouldn’t win on that turn you’ve still got a few turns to go which firstly, isn’t a lost match, and secondly, THE BEST CASE SCENARIO THAT FOR BASHIN THAT HE CAN CONTROL.

Because if he tries to incur stupidity with an attack on Eight, all Eight has to do is take the first attack with her Life.

These Nazo-Otonas are stupid I tell you.

And of course, Bashin now has a copy of The TwinRowdy Diranos.

I suppose we had to improve his deck somehow.

It’s an alright powered X-Rare, on its own it squares evenly with Siegfried, and while it beats Thor in base BP, it can’t beat it while Mjolnir is around.

Back at Fort Bishounen, Suiren and Striker both have their High Ranker passes.

Though I’d have thought Suiren would have been confirmed to have hers like way earlier, considering she played her 2nd X-Rare.

Bashin makes his way in, announcing his new X-Rare.

Striker’s face is absolutely priceless, but unsurprising considering how he lost his mind when he initially saw The DragonEmperor Siegfried back on Episode 7.

It’s been 16 episodes since then?… Geez.

Speaking of which, Striker is the only Cornerstone holder lacking a 2nd X-Rare.

You’ll need a combo of your own if you’re going to use Diranos to defeat J, Mjolnir puts Thor’s BP over Diranos’

Sucks to be you.

It’s something normal people would call “Growing up”

It’s also something that anime characters are allergic to, so yes, there’s definitely something wrong with J.

…But he won’t even be watching it if he’s confined to his room.

If he doesn’t know it’s being played this won’t work.

And you’re just projecting.

I’ve been graced with not having my time wasted watching Striker and Suiren battle for what will feel like the umpteenth time. J seems to be keeping watch on Smile-

Hold on a fucking moment, how old is Smile?

Approximately 13.

The dude is DRIVING A GOTDAMN TRUCK.

If he could Drive a Nazo-Otona sanctioned Truck he wouldn’t need a bloody Taxi Driver to get him to Tournaments.

DOES JAPAN NOT HAVE DRIVING LAWS!?

No time to worry about that now! The PLOT is happening!

Emergency report sounds eerie, I wonder what J was expecting a report from

Nevermind, we cut to Striker battling Suiren and Bashin losing his proverbial shit over not being able to fight J.

“There is no such thing as a dumb question”

Carl Edward Sagan

Carl Sagan did not die for his legacy to be disproved by a talking mouse.

What fucking planetary arrangement told you he was even aware you were playing?

Or even cared?

Bashin is both dumb as a brick and yet still the smartest person in the room.

And that doesn’t bode well for the world he exists in.

It’s almost like something urgently called him away.

You know you couldn’t use the more efficient car that I know full well you can afford, one with less seats considering you’re not planning on picking anyone up or taking anyone with you.

Or do you just hate the driver that much that you have to sit as far away from him as possible?

In which case why haven’t you hired a new one? You’ve got more than enough money to burn for a new driver, there’s probably a fucking waiting list.

I understand that Kyouka is very distressed considering she has no clue what is going through her brother’s head.

But I would just like to point out once again that she has the most unique voice of any anime character.

And I absolutely love it.

Ah yes, the classic method of simply having someone inconspicuously take a suitcase to a location, wait a bit and then just leave it there.

You pull this on a Train in London and the whole line will go down for a few hours.

I assume this suitcase was what “Emergency report” was about.

And it seems the Driver is aware of J’s situation with his friends.

Just gonna come right out and admit it aren’t ya?

Isn’t there an incentive for you to defeat Uchuuchouten? Not become his puppet?

I suppose it’s hard to beat someone when you don’t know who they are.

Ah yes, most sneaky. Except both your Sister AND Bashin caught you.

Not exactly the stealthiest kid on the block.

Captain they’re your friends, you think they give a damn about Thousupi Group specifically?

None of them have any hard feelings about the Nazo-Otonas, hell Eight and Card Sensei are friendly to them!

The show seems to think that the Nazo-Otonas are very carefully established as evil but if anyone came and told me that I’d slap them.

The only established evil character in the show is literally Smile, and NO ONE ELSE, NOT EVEN UCHUUCHOUTEN.

Uchuuchouten is the “Antagonist”, obviously, but he is not established as “Evil”, his conversation with Card Sensei ordering him to fight was indicative of his personality, but there’s no established action Uchuuchouten has taken.

Smile on the other hand, his entire backstory shows how he fell from being a polite young boy to the “Gunslinger’s Apparition”, his personality shifted for the worse, earning him a reputation for breaking the wills of his opponents as well as a knack for seeing kindness as a weakness.

Just a bit of explanation for ya if you’ve gotten this far on the premise that all Nazo-Otonas are automatically evil, none of them besides Smile have shown “Evil”, merely antagonism.

In an odd turn of events we’re actually getting to see what’s on the disk immediately.

I was not expecting to see J’s father’s face but now that I have a good look at it, the dude looks like he could cut Diamonds with his nose.

So J’s father, isn’t from Japan?

This requires some background.

After a quick check on the Wiki, J’s father, namely S. Kiano Sawaragi as he’s named is from Finland which is the oddest nationality for a character in a Japanese anime.

And it’s cool.

Which means J is actually half-japanese, half-finnish.

Interesting trivia, I don’t think this comes into play at all though.

And now we see Smile and Elliott welcoming Kiano.

Considering we know that Kiano was having Elliott help him with the New Battle Spirits System, namely the Tag System, this isn’t much of a revelation.

How does a video involving Kiano and Elliott IMMEDIATELY indicate that Elliott is a member of Thousupi Group?

You must have been aware of their collaboration, nothing has indicated that he’s a member so this conclusion comes seemingly out of nowhere.

Considering how you jumped to the conclusion that they’re members of Thousupi without a clear indicator, who knows.

You could probably deduce that they’re trying to find the most complex method of milking a cow if your deductive reasoning is this bad.

Nothing like spilling the beans on Isekai, but we’re aware the Nazo-Otonas know of Isekai so this isn’t surprising.

As for why they’re informing Kiano about this, likely they intend to use the funds of the Sawaragi family to do something to it.

Kiano’s smile here is… actually kind of hard to decipher.

Considering the Video camera here, it could be that Kiano was trying to get them to spill the beans about it on video.

But at the same time it could be an expression of interest, the smile is indicative of something but we don’t know what.

We call this good directing, it makes the audience speculate.

The Smile does mean one thing, the information of Isekai is useful to Kiano in some way.

It’s at this moment that Elliott and Smile realize there is a Camera filming them and Smile cuts the feed there.

Seems they weren’t happy about it, so either Kiano didn’t know about the Camera or he brought it knowing that the Nazo-Otonas wouldn’t approve.

No Shit Okyou. Though one could argue he looks like he’s having a headache.

Dude’s been receiving rare cards from a pair of Nazo-Otonas, who work for Uchuuchouten, who the Cornerstone holders are destined to defeat.

I’d be having an identity crisis as well, but I assume the worry here is more about what his father is doing with them.

J was expecting his father to have been duped by Thousupi into working with them?

The dude’s RICH, he didn’t get that far by being a moron.

Seems J and Okyou are at opposite ends.

Okyou doesn’t want J to immerse himself in Thousupi any further I’d imagine, so that’s why she’s encouraging J to focus on the tournament and not on investigating Thousupi.

It’s hard being a rich kid involving yourself in what seems to be the Battle Spirits Illuminati while ALSO being a champion at card games.

J just casually informing Okyou that he intends to beat the answers out of Smile.

Well that’s one way to kill 2 birds with one stone.

I did NOT sign up for this today.

WHAT IS HAPPENING!?

WHY IS KYOUKA BLUSHING!?

Oh okay, they put her in a uniform.

From the looks of things, it looks like school clothes, in which case I can sympathize with her being bashful.

Trying new school clothes was always an embarrassing endeavor.

All round flattery from Kyouka’s mother and Suiren.

Meanwhile Striker is being Striker and falling for it.

First he wanted to be choked out by My Sunshine, now he’s entranced by Kyouka in a skirt.

I think I preferred the Blue dress to be honest.

Wouldn’t the blue dress do more for that kind of appearance than a school uniform and skirt?

I suppose the tie helps.

…Practice for what?

Apparently nothing considering they won’t elaborate as to what it was.

Instead Striker interrupts with the Plot, which is totally acceptable.

Ah, I see Bashin is missing because he’s hunting for J.

Well this should be interesting, I wonder what Bashin intends to do about J once he finds him considering J has a tendency to be rather stubborn about nothing.

J’s been not only ignoring casual battle spirits but also just not conversing with his friends altogether.

This is a good enough cause for concern.

J’s mother isn’t aware of Kiano’s activities.

That’s significantly alarming, normally your Wife is the person you’d want to confide in the most.

He wasn’t exactly making it hard for you.

“The Battle Spirits Center” isn’t the most inconspicuous location to invite a Nazo-Otona

I’ve been tricked by Bashin so many times that I don’t know if he’s skillfully covering up the fact that he’s worried about J, or if he’s being genuine.

If I were doing this for Kyouka’s sake rather than… being Bashin.

I’d have immediately retorted with “That statement won’t fly” and warn him what’s going on with the people around him.

I suppose J is dense in his own way, he’s not aware how his actions are affecting the others.

After some protest from Bashin, J decides to battle.

Didn’t exactly take much.

Well, I get another fight to watch, so this is the opposite of a problem for me.

Gate Open!

Bashin has a Level 2 Taurusknight, and a Level 2 RiseDragon Balmung, which is a new card, so we gotta check it.

It’s just a Cost 4 Spirit with Awaken, not really much to see here. It’s Winged Dragon Family isn’t a particularly prevalent one in the game either.

Meanwhile J has 4 Spirits.

Baby-Loki
Queen-Valkyrie (Level 2)
Sphereroid
and The Sacred Mjolnir.

That’s a pretty hefty board, and with that much reduction there’s a lot he could play too.

Bashin adds a 2nd RiseDragon Balmung to his board.

Bashin swings with his Level 2 Balmung, J blocks with Sphereroid which is destroyed.

Surprised J isn’t taking from the life, you’d think if he wanted to block he’d use a Defensive Aura maybe…

Bashin prepares to attack with his 2nd RiseDragon Balmung, using it’s Awaken ability to have it match the level of the previous attack.

Queen Valkyrie takes this attack, Bashin hasn’t managed to snatch a life.

I’d argue taking at least one would be worth it here but J is playing White, blocking is kind of the aim of the game.

J refills his board, summoning Baby-Loki and The Artifact Laguna, which is at Level 2.

Bashin… Mutters to himself suggesting a problem with J’s play…

I haven’t noticed anything myself, perhaps its the lack of attacks? I’m unsure.

Bashin hasn’t lost a life and he’s been swinging, so it’s likely that J hasn’t made a single attack whatsoever.

Bashin deploys a Level 2 Plateau of Duel.

This will let him refresh all his Awaken Spirits on J’s Start Step, letting him attack as much as he likes.

Ah, it appears we’re finally getting into the meat of what Bashin’s Deck is.

It’s a deck focusing on his unique Keyword at the time, Awaken, which is good when you want to make a lot of powerful attacks.

Awaken lets you maximize the levels of your Spirits with limited core by moving them around, giving you strong attacks without much card investment.

Still got no clue what utter nonsense Bashin is spouting.

Bashin attacks with Taurusknight, using Awaken to bring it up to Level 3.

The Artifact Laguna is destroyed.

J is REALLY not wanting to get hit by ANY of these attacks and it’s starting to bother me.

AND FINALLY THE GAMESTATE CHANGES!

Bashin swung with his remaining 2 Balmungs, using Awaken to bring them up to Level 2 each.

J then took both of them from the Life.

Bashin doesn’t realize, it, but he’s just been caught in a really nasty mental trap.

J was blocking every attack up until now, and even Taurusknight’s attack, but made sure to leave 3 spirits available.

Why?

Firstly, the first Block was to goad Bashin to continue attacking, making him think he wants to protect his life.

By taking the next 2 attacks and leaving 3 spirits, not only has he gained 2 extra core to use for the Gigantic Thor, but The Gigantic Thor has 3 White reduction symbols, which J can fulfill in it’s entirety.

Laguna wasn’t necessary.

And was sacrificed as a way to goad Bashin.

Bashin’s Plateau of Duel refreshes every one of his Spirits, that means it’s J’s Start Step now.

J seems to be prepping his board, he summons Baby-Loki.

Alright, now would be a good time for The Gigantic Thor-

-Wha?

J? Ima need you to run that by me again because this was the PERFECT time to play your Key Spirit.

Bashin can’t pin-point what J’s strategy and you know what? Neither can I.

Bashin is having a hard time identifying whether J’s trying to defend or not, given that J took 2 lives and nothing came of it.

I’m confused as to why there is no THOR when it looked like a huge build up to it…

Haha, this is actually pretty self-aware.

Since Bashin has a massive Track record of drawing Siegfried with Double Draw, the show is trying to pass it off as an indicator that Double Draw always tends to give Bashin the exact card he needs.

And this makes it a really freaky way to not only subvert the audience’s expectations, but also hit home that Double Draw will give Bashin Siegfried as opposed to the card he needs.

This get’s reflected in a Revival to Double Draw’s effects. (Revival cards are cards that got updated effects to make them more usable in current formats)

Bashin depletes a Balmung to summon The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

Leaving all the core on Balmung, which is fine because Siegfried ALSO has the Awaken ability.

Have fun with that, J has 4 Blockers.

Well, so much for that plan, Bashin didn’t get to make much of his turn.

Attack Step ending is very nasty against a Red deck that rewards itself mainly for attacking.

Is it happening?

Finally, we now get The Gigantic Thor!

Not sure what the wait was for, probably to enact a Battle between Siegfried and Thor.

Which is kind of an interesting way to abuse the “I’ve only got 1 copy in deck so I didn’t draw it yet” excuse.

Gigantic Thor is levelled up to Level 3!

So Gigantic Thor is now at 8000 BP, and it can refresh itself by destroying an Armed Machine.

Bit of a shit plan, you’d think he’d want to get Bashin within kill range before defeating him with his Key Spirit.

Bashin quite rightfully points out that Mjolnir is the only Armed Machine family spirit there, meaning even with the 5-6 attacks Thor gets off, he won’t be able to deal anywhere close to 5 lives through 3 blockers.

J deploys a Nexus I haven’t seen before! So time to examine!

How I failed to notice this card existed in BS02 is beyond me.

The Artifact Plant, during any attack step, grants all your Cost 2 White Spirits the “Armed Machine” Family.

Which is just a fancy way to say “Thor’s gonna go HAM”

That second effect is pretty nice too, combined with Thor you can get a lot of Core for defense later if you level it up.

J levels up all of his Spirits besides Thor to Level 2. The reason this is important is because Thor otherwise wouldn’t have enough power to defeat Siegfried at Level 3.

Exhausting a Baby-Loki, Thor bludgeons a RiseDragon Balmung.

Which is confusing, because Balmung has the most core, therefore it would make more sense to grant the core to Siegfried if it was going to lose anyway.

Hell, Bashin’s perfectly allowed to block with Balmung then deplete it with Awaken just so the core doesn’t go to waste, he doesn’t lose a life that way.

Siegfried will give Bashin an Extra life at Level 3, so.

Baby-Loki is destroyed to refresh Thor.

Now that Balmung’s core is in the reserve, Bashin has 0 way to actually survive any of J’s attacks now, because he was a dumb-dumb and didn’t Awaken Balmung’s Core away.

Friggin’ idiot.

Mjolnir attacks and takes out Taurusknight.

Thor attacks, defeating The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

Bashin currently has 5 lives, so lets do a check, by destroying Mjolnir, Thor will refresh again.

So J’s field will be 2 Baby-Lokis and a Thor who can destroy each for 2 more refreshes.

That would give Thor a total of 3 attacks, along with the 2 Baby-Lokis, Bashin would lose all 5 of his lives.

Just barely, and only because Bashin can’t use Awaken to it’s fullest extent.

He’s an idiot, and so are you for making a Rival of him.

…What?

No it wouldn’t!

Diranos would have made the situation MUCH MUCH worse! He only gives himself Awaken at Levels 2 and 3, and YOU had to deplete a Balmung just to summon Siegfried.

Your loss hinged on decent use of Awaken and you fucked it up.

J asks if… The Cost 7 TwinRowdy Diranos…

Can handle Cerru-Berus?

Are you some sort of moron– You know what I already know the answer to this question.

Anyone who thinks Cerru-Berus is genuinely threatening can go suck a fat one, It’s Cost 6 Limitation means it’s COMPLETELY useless against 99% of the cards in the game, if your highest cost in deck is Cost 6 you’re doing something horribly wrong.

Bashin gets straight to the point.

Good, we need more plot to deal with this aching headache caused by the sad fact that was that battle.

Ah yes, the classic retort for when you want to avoid answering a question, change the subject.

And we call this an OOF.

J’s doing a dang good job to make it seem like Bashin’s a hypocrite for trying to pester him.

Of course, this is true, no one is worried about the tiff between Bashin and Meganeko because people know what’s going on.

No one knows what J is doing, that’s the difference.

In my experience, bottling stuff up never ends well, especially when you don’t tell your friends what’s ailing you.

Or you end up like this guy:

And NO ONE defines edge quite like this guy.

Bashin finally decides to leave it and tells J to promise they’ll battle tomorrow.

Tomorrow of course, being the Tournament.

After this scene, we cut to Best Girl, hoping for the best tomorrow when she finally gets to play Card Games with everyone else.

It’s adorable and I hate you all for not squeeing over it.

FINALLY, WE CAN RESOLVE THIS LITTLE DISPUTE. ITS BEEN CHOKING ME EVER SINCE.

Meganeko asks Bashin about the Tournament and Bashin perks up after realizing that Meganeko knows about it.

Meganeko realizes that she might blow her cover if she continues to talk about the Tournament so she thanks Bashin for her Diary and tries to cut the conversation off there.

She’s… Gonna come to the Tournament obviously.

It’s not rocket science.

Luckily the object of your affections is about as intelligent as that inanimate bag you’re holding.

Also god dammit this dispute didn’t get resolved here.

I swear to god the pacing of this is putting me to sleep.

Finally, now we get to something RELEVANT.

Smile says all of this with nothing separating it other than a “Keke” and both the first and second things he says have absolutely no relation with each other.

This is a tad weird to see. You’ve got no control over how your father chooses to operate J.

It would be a little different were it the other way around, Kiano has ABSOLUTELY a reason to not want his son influenced.

But otherwise, I’m slightly wondering why J isn’t more suspicious of his father, and is sat here, telling a boy the same age as him not to involve his Dad in whatever shenanigans the Thousupi Group are invested in.

Well, this isn’t anything new, I’d be very surprised if Smile wasn’t an acquaintance of Kiano, given how they kind of had a meeting.

Even Smile can hear the Wishful thinking from here.

Its moments like this that make me absolutely love Smile’s character. He definitely needs another Battle so I can get TRULY invested.

There’s nothing that gets the Blood Knight in me going like “If you wanna know you’ll have to beat it out of me”

J decides to take Smile’s suggestion but Smile interrupts him.

Well if Smile isn’t the person J is battling then who is?

This… Doesn’t exactly answer that question but it does answer why Smile was holding J’s hand with all the card deliveries up until now.

Well that declaration was sudden!

In one fell swoop, Smile confirmed something we were already expecting but then declared something that subverted it immediately.

Smile wants J on the Numbers Elite, but ONLY to Tag up with him so they can defeat King Uchuuchouten (Whoever the fuck that is)

See here’s another few questions that get raised by that declaration, we can infer that Smile is working for Uchuuchouten so he can slowly learn how to beat him through proximity (with the help of Elliott’s supply), the odd part here is why does he need J to Tag with him to do so?

And secondly, what is so wrong with Uchuuchouten that he absolutely needs to be defeated? As far as we know, Uchuuchouten exists simply as an obstacle to be beaten but we have nothing to tell us WHY he needs to be.

And given Smile’s determination and need for J to assist in beating Uchuuchouten, that means that they are telling the Audience that Uchuuchouten is powerful, though with no explanation as to why.

It also doesn’t explain what Kiano’s purpose is in all this either.

Anyway, we’ve got no Card of the Day, merely an explanation of the Multi-Attack Combo used in the episode.

So with that, I’ll hopefully be able to actually get these out routinely now, this one took a damn long while and I apologize for that.

Til the next one!