Gekiha Dan – Episode 20

Last episode was somewhat disappointing, but the only way to get as far away from it as possible is to press onward, now to episode 20!

The Episode starts by offing the no name Gaius Bando, he wasn’t important anyway.

Which means this Episode is really trying to speed us along to Dan vs Hyoudo.

…This is an incredibly weird statement to make, if he hadn’t made it to the final match by now it’s because he was eliminated, what?

I see these 2 are still depressed as ever, if I was possessed by a random ass onmyouji and then only regained control as I was losing with a deck that wasn’t even mine I’d be pretty bummed out too.

ah yes, the greatest match of the year, a 12 year old wielding the strategical equivalent of smashing their heads against a wall until it cracks, and a 9 year old who’s a complete asshole.

Hyoudo… The first thing you did when you met Dan was completely shit-talk the fact that he folds the second he gets out of the Gunslinger, knew precisely when?

At least Dan is trying to look past the kid being an absolute twerp.

In Brustrom’s case, him thinking they’d square off makes sense, as Hyoudo appears to have been favoured by Yuuki given their conversation last episode, and Dan’s been a complete thorn in the Otherworld King’s left ass cheek for goodness knows how long.

Yuuki seems to believe that this battle will somehow “Heal the scars on her Soul”

From the outset it feels like he’s banking on Dan losing, thereby “Healing the scars on her soul” by giving the Clash King a defeat but I don’t recall anything beyond this point allowing Kajitsu’s Soul to “Heal” necessarily.

Nothing significant about this title, it’s 2 BS07 X-Rares going at it for the final round.

…That’s probably another reason for last episode, they wanted to save a BS07 clash between 2 similar powers for the final match and not the penultimate one.

Gods, where’s MY spice-filled curry…

I suppose my Birthday is coming up… I can have whatever I want on that day.

Seems Dan has a Stalker that would make any his age envious.

Given the way their last exchange ended, it appears Mai isn’t quite sure how to approach Dan in this situation, given she broke her promise and said she’d take off… And then didn’t.

Bit hard to rectify the Supreme Queen of Backpeddling.

God forbid you’re happy to see someone you’re actually happy to see.

Tsundere surprises me with how popular it is, given it seems like a really inefficient method of acquiring any kind of adoration or affection.

I agree with Serge, “Don’t be a bitch” tends to be a good approach to many situations.

Bathroom trips must be incredibly difficult.

Serge opts to focus on the fact that saying anything at all is probably better than nothing, which I suppose is a fair assessment.

No time for that now, Kajitsu is calling.

This is probably the only unrealistic portion of most card game anime, the fact that competitors can modify their deck basically at any time before any given match, while in reality, once you enter, you’re stuck with that deck until the event ends. This is most likely to ensure that the deck is valid as you tend to need to write down what you’re using but I suppose with an automated system like the battlefield to auto-validate any deck or card played this is kind of unnecessary.

Some would argue surprise factor is unwarranted but it’s not like each of these players have the other’s decklist.

Brustrom and Yuuki be plottin’

Ah shit, it’s another Horizon Ladder, also it seems like they’re relying on Dan and Hyoudo’s match to repair Mother Core.

Also a subtle hint as to what “Kajitsu’s Soul” is based on Yuuki’s commentary earlier

We don’t actually know what the Horizon Ladders are for to be fair, the last one was only destroyed as they enslaved people to help build it.

I was about to ask if Mai ever heard of knocking but that’s a massive door, probably made of stone no less, no sound was getting through that.

Well that’s a first, Yuuki’s very seldom separated from Kajitsu for any reason…

What could be so important that Yuuki needs to see to it personally without bringing his ever-so-precious Sister along?

What the hell kind of face is that?

Mai’s face is incredibly hilarious here, given that I believe she kicked Kazan in the face at one point.

It must be really weird standing in the same room casually with someone you literally meant harm to.

I’m not sure he was giving you a choice.

Though Yuuki seems to make it clear that Mai isn’t staying there for Kajitsu’s protection, she’s there for her entertainment.

I wish I had the confidence to completely ignore someone who was half-decided on an action knowing they would take the one I asked them to do.

Gal-et me get to the match already!

As an odd note, Galaxy seems to consistently refer to Hyoudo as “Tensai Shounen”, or “Genius Boy”, Even though it’s not quite his Battler title as he doesn’t seem to have one.

Well they’re not champions yet, not until they win anyway.

I feel like Brustrom is conveniently leaving out the massive fucking Asterisk that is “Except Otherworld King”

Keyword being singular, but at least they offer one in any colour the user wishes.

I do wish they showed us what they were, analyzing them would be fun.

Clackey appears to have just completely imagined some kind of asian princess as being the Top X-rare.

You… You can’t bang a card Clackey

Geez man, I know you’re 15 and at an age where you’re interested in women but find a god damn room.

If I worked my ass off to win at card games such that I could get one of the most strongest and most exclusive cards in the game, I wouldn’t waste that decision on the guy who lost to the guy I’m fighting.

Brustrom also rehashes that a Wish is indeed up for grabs, stating that no matter what the wish is, it will be granted.

Brustrom’s a slimy fuck, so I don’t trust that line of dialogue for one second.

Dan tries to declare his wish prematurely.

Only to get completely invalidated by Hyoudo. This fucking kid is all manners outside the battlefield but the second he gets into any kind of competitive setting he’s insufferable.

I suppose as a 9 year old he’s not particularly realistic with his wants and desires, but being unbeatable in a competitive setting… invalidates the point of competition.

And if that competition was required to settle matters like it does in this show, it would cease to be a reliable metric to determine a course of action, people who know you’re an invincible fighter just won’t fight you.

People do not like engaging in battles they will know they will lose, the only reason they might is to see how far they’ll get, which is the same as saying that they’re not 100% sure they will lose.

He probably could… But would he is the question?

Why would Otherworld King create a battler that could threaten his control? Especially given that his control over Otherworld is certainly based in Battle Spirits.

Dan seems understandably agitated by this, he was just cut off by someone who effectively told him to keep quiet because he wouldn’t get what he was about to ask for, then told he was going to lose, THEN the opponent did just the same thing he was going to do.

Given that we seem to already have our 6 contestants, one can only wonder what he means by this.

Recap, the Plot’s been setting up, so far, that the colours are represented by the following:

Red – Clash King Dan
Purple – Viole Mai
Green – Momose Kajitsu
White – Momose Yuuki
Yellow – The Noble Youth of Light, Clackey
Blue – Suzuri Hideto

There’s no gaps, so how could this guy be-

Which then begs the natural follow-up question: If Kajitsu isn’t the Green Soldier, then why was she capable of bearing the Green Core’s Light?

His opponent’s talking shit, Yuuki’s talking shit, Brustrom’s… there.

There are many reasons for Dan to be relatively upset at the moment.

Hyoudo takes the first move, and with it, summons Gabunohashi.

This card is… Actually new I think, I don’t think we’ve seen it before now!

A Cost 3 Windstorm Spirit from BS06, weak Lv1 but respectable Lv2. It’s also of the Plant Spirit Family, a series of cards that resemble Plants in some way.

In any case, it’s wide power range gives you various options for goading the opponent into blocking.

After Byak-Garo’s debut, it seems like Hyoudo’s decided to include more Windstorm spirits into his deck.

Seems like Windstorm is intended to be the Keyword that the Green Light-bearer is most associated with.

3 core spent, 1 core maintains the spirit, nothing more to do here.

Yeah, Dan’s probably only just found out that he’s associated with Yuuki due to Yuuki only singing Hyoudo’s praises now.

Hyoudo seems mighty puzzled as to why Dan’s angry at him.

That is a fairly interesting question, how does Hyoudo view the current situation through his eyes, he seems a little too smart to turn a blind eye to what’s going on with how Brustrom, Yuuki and Kazan operate via force.

This answer’s probably striking all kinds of nerves within Dan, Hyoudo could have very easily feigned ignorance concerning it and they could have moved on, but no.

Hyoudo acknowledges what Dan is saying, doesn’t refute it, and then says he doesn’t see a problem.

Hyoudo details that he really could not give less of a shit about what’s going on in Otherworld, Otherworld King has what he wants and Hyoudo very much intends to get it.

The details of what happens to others, or to Otherworld in general is irrelevant, he doesn’t live there, and he doesn’t know these people, they don’t mean anything to him provided he can get what he wants.

This is a general callousness that many people will wield as an excuse for being exceptionally selfish at the direct expense of others, especially people they don’t know. “I don’t know these people, so I don’t care if something bad happens to them, if that gets me what I want”

You know what other kinds of people think like this?
Thieves.

Thieves operate under this same principle, gain at the expense of people they don’t particularly care about.

To enrich oneself at the detriment of others when the environment is not zero-sum is tantamount to thievery.

Dan’s talking mainly morals here, it wouldn’t be right for such a person to become the strongest.

But even functionally, if I became the strongest only by robbing the strength of others, then while I may be the strongest relatively I wouldn’t be the strongest objectively. To be the strongest person surrounded by strong people is more impressive than To be the strongest person surrounded by weaklings.

In a flurry, Dan summons Lizardedge, Erimakilizard and Ankillersaurus all at once.

Definitely a good idea to level up Erimakilizard to Lv2, Gabunohashi only has 1000 BP, so take all you can get.

We interrupt this very interesting program to give you Mai trying to make small talk with Kajitsu

Kajitsu just says Mai has to stay there, when pressed for a reason she doesn’t give a particularly satisfying one, simply saying that Yuuki wanted her to.

Yes… Yes she does.

Mai tries to see if she can’t wrench any individualism out of Kajitsu by asking her a question to get her to consider herself beyond her brother.

She gets precisely nowhere though, Kajitsu just repeats Yuuki’s request.

Unfortunately Mai you’re not winning this battle… Those of us who have watched this before will know why Kajitsu is… not incapable but utterly unwilling to consider herself beyond her brother’s needs.

Dan attacks with Erimakilizard and Ankillersaurus, Hyoudo takes a life from both, dropping him to 3.

It seems that Mother Core is receiving energy everytime a life is lost.

Dan leaves Lizardedge as a blocker, granted I believe that might have more to do with the fact that Lizardedge will tie with Gabunohashi, rather than because Dan wants to leave a blocker available.

How bloody flashy do you want him to be? He wasn’t going to use any nasty effects and 3 whole spirits is a whole lot more than most people play on Turn 2.

Hyoudo summons a Lv2 Gabunohashi and ends his turn…

He’s a Core off from levelling up the other one, only 1 in his reserve, but it means that he won’t respond with Swift as Swift requires that Hyoudo handle the entire summon, Cost and Core movement, using only core from his Reserve.

I too agree with kicking the everloving shit out of conceited people.

Could have, and the last one should have.

Unlike yourself Clackey, I don’t think Suzuri is quite so easily cheered up just by thinking about incredibly attractive women.

This is an incredibly fair complaint Doylist-wise… but in-universe, it’s your own fault for picking up that stupid X-Rare.

No Magisa, it really wasn’t, there are various reasons as to why Suzuri’s true deck would probably have fared differently.

Dan raises Ankillersaurus’ level to Level 2, giving it 3000 BP.

He then ends his turn, a 5000 BP Gabunohashi is a bit tough to topple and Dan can’t press the attack without losing spirits.

Question is, if the Core energy is meant to be repairing Mother Core, why is Kajitsu having such a nasty reaction to it anytime anything happens?

This… incredibly sinister sting suggests to me that Yuuki has plans different to what Brustrom intends to do with that Core Energy.

Thanks Kajitsu, can always count on you to remind me that the Sky is blue, could have forgotten! Whew!

As a reminder, given Mai’s been offscreen for a little bit, the reason she separated herself from Dan is because she felt like he was occupying her thoughts too much, and she found herself writing about him more than anything.

As it turns out, absence has made the heart grow fonder, so at the first instance of potential news she jumps at it.

Even when she tries to change the conversation she still ends up talking about him, she wants to know Kajitsu’s thoughts on Dan, having fought him, explaining how she finds him incredibly, well she used three words to describe it, but essentially annoying.

Kajitsu merely describes him as “Light”, if it was anyone other than Kajitsu I’d probably find that quite romantic.

She also extends the same statement to Mai, it seems like the bearers of the core’s light seem very bright for little Kajitsu.

“Poetic” describes Kajitsu quite well, she kept calling herself Poison when she got angry so.

Hyoudo’s turn, he drops his levelled Gabunohashi down to Level 1.

He’s got 6 core in his reserve, and 2 Green symbols on his field.

That stance… Wait.

ALREADY!? IT’S TURN 5.

If it was any other card I’d say this was a little too early to be summoning an X-Rare, but Byak-Garo has a Lv1 BP of 7000, that let’s it sit above most Red magic BP limits.

Even worse, since it’s got more BP than Dan’s entire board, it can attack without falling victim to Clash, and it’s much too early for Dan’s Meteorwurm.

Or not…

Granted maybe I’m looking at this too shallow, Dan’s next turn will be his 3rd Core step, with no lives lost he has only 7 core, and he has 3 Spirits, even if he can summon Siegwurm it won’t have anywhere near enough BP.

Obtaining momentum in Battle Spirits can be done in one of 2 ways, Life advantage, and Core Denial.

Life Advantage is the more aggressive way, you assert Momentum by forcing the opponent to rush to defend themselves, done by attacking early so that you yourself are up in lives before the opponent, the opponent retaliating without thinking just grants you more core to keep up the pressure.

…Then there’s Core Denial, a strategy that leaves your opponent’s life untouched so that they can only amass core slowly during their Core steps, you set up your board so that you can achieve your win condition safely, when all the opposing lives are available for taking.

And as a result they’re playing incredibly safely, Dan dropped his aggression the second a bigger Spirit came along, and now Hyoudo’s denying Dan resources to stop him breaking out of this situation easily.

Hyoudo might be low on lives but he’s up on core, which means he can set up his board state a lot easier than Dan can right now.

Magisa notes that Dan knows he can’t beat Hyoudo with just Clash.

Sorry to say but isn’t that basically all he’s got going for him? That and Victory Fire…

Suzuri has decided he’s going to go ask Brustrom to re-do the Semi-Finals.

Unfortunately it’s a bit late for that, the Finals have already begun, if the issue was raised directly after his match with Hyoudo, then this would be fine, but to cancel the current battle now would poison the results.

Of course, Suzuri is acting now because he doesn’t care if the results are poisoned, it would give him a higher chance of winning that Top X-Rare he wants so badly.

Dan’s noting that none of his Spirits really compete with Byak-Garo, even though the Gabunohashi’s are both Lv1 at 1000 BP.

Next turn both can be raised to Lv2, giving them 5000 and it just kind of gets worse from there as only Ankillersaurus can get that high IF Dan can play an Awaken or Clash Spirit.

Speaking of, here’s one now, Sabecaulus, an Awaken Spirit.

This isn’t a good situation to be in, Byak-Garo’s Level 2 effect makes this board incredibly flimsy. And Ankillersaurus would need another turn before getting to Lv2.

Hell, Sabecaulus can only compete with Byak-Garo’s Lv1 and Dan doesn’t have the Core for that.

Definitely not, Hyoudo spent 4 core playing Byak-Garo last turn, that means he’ll have at least that much available for Byak-Garo to reach Level 2.

Once that happens, Dan’s board state is going to be painfully easy to crack.

And adding to the inevitable danger that is this turn, Hyoudo adds a BlackMachG to his board.

Hyoudo attacks with Byak-Garo, and Dan seems entirely caught off guard by this.

My presumption is that Dan thought Hyoudo was trying to deny him core by not attacking, so Dan acted as if this would continue to be the case, I don’t think he was quite prepared for the idea that Hyoudo would infact attack eventually.

Ah fuck here we go.

Righto, so this is going to become a running theme and it’s not a joke I find particularly find funny. But essentially, for the rest of the series, Magisa is going to be completely incapable of remembering Hyoudo’s name and will call him all manner of things instead.

Dan, likely thinking on his feet and being wary of Windstorm, takes Byak-Garo’s attack to the face, leaving him with 4 lives.

Sadly this isn’t going to go as smoothly as he thinks.

Hyoudo activates Byak-Garo’s Lv2 effect, by sending 1 Core from his Reserve to the Trash, Ankillersaurus and Sabecaulus are bounced to Dan’s hand.

Well this isn’t going to go well, if Dan blocks he’ll lose a Spirit and the other one will be exhausted.

That leaves the only other choice:

Dan now only has 3 lives remaining.

With an attack from BlackMachG, Dan takes another life, leaving him with 2.

Well that’s not good, it seems like the Championship battle between 2 Light bearers is causing more energy to hit Mother Core than Kajitsu is able to take and she collapses

Well at least Yuuki made sure she was looked after incase this happened.

Maybe not permanently but he’s certainly set back a little, the issue with Cards being bounced to the hand in games where cards aren’t free and must be paid for is that it causes the resources spent to bring those cards out to be wasted and then must be re-spent returning those cards to the field.

Worse still, Dan can only take one more of those hits, and if he tries to block, Byak-Garo’s Windstorm will activate, making it incredibly difficult to block.

I suppose Hyoudo’s been winning fairly easily using this particularly patient and then suddenly aggressive strategy.

Byak-Garo to rip apart the opposing defenses, Swift for his own defenses.

Mai desperately tries to get the attention of someone outside, demanding a Doctor.

Naturally, fainting is a pretty severe symptom so her fear is warranted

Then get a Doctor and bring them here you prick.

Thank you!

You know, you’d think the guards would have at least been briefed on whether or not Kajitsu was to be alive by the end of this ordeal.

Granted, I don’t think a Doctor would be able to fix what Kajitsu has so my ramblings will inevitably fall on deaf ears.

…Oh, they probably were briefed then if there’s no particular fear of something fatal happening.

At the very least I can commend Mai for knowing when she wants something done and just doing it.

Oh…

Yeah that’s uh… a pretty powerful card to play… Pun not intended.

One does not simply fuck with Serge.

Dan’s turn! He re-summons Sabecaulus.

Bleh, that re-summon eats 2 whole core though, minus the 3 on his Spirits he should have roughly 6 core left in his reserve.

Ah really, you’re summoning Meteorwurm now!?

At 4 core spent you can’t even bring it to Lv2 without offing another Spirit, and even then you can’t bring it to Lv3 and take out Byak-Garo!

This seems like a pretty big miss….

You’re all nice and scary but a 6000 BP spirit with Clash isn’t going to be as helpful as you think it is…

Dan immediately moves to attack with Meteorwurm, but hoo boy, as if the 6000 BP wasn’t poor enough, Hyoudo’s got a response.

Aww geez and it’s a nasty one too.

Thorn Prison is a Cost 4 Green Magic from BS06, and it’s incredibly powerful. Windstorm: 2 is a double exhaust contingent on the opponent blocking, it’s situational, most Exhaust magic only covers 1 card, but Thorn Prison covers 2, and even more annoyingly, the way the game works means that the opponent gets to select what they exhaust, but they must exhaust 2, and can’t exhaust any already-exhausted cards.

Dan’s got a board of 4, he’s got 2 lives left, he’s just swung with 1, this will make it so he has 1 blocker to address at least 3 spirits after this Clash, with 2 lives that’s almost a loss right there.

Erimakilizard and Sabecaulus are selected by Dan to be exhausted.

Thorn Prison was so incredibly potent that it was competing for space with Silent Wall of all things, you either ran Thorn Prison, Silent Wall, or some combination of the 2 when thinking of defense cards to include. Usually the determining factor ended up being what colour you were leaning on, or what your preference was.

And that’s only if you weren’t running both.

It wasn’t until an even more broken card in BS14 of all things came out that it started to not see as much use, and for reference, that BS14 card was so busted it got limited for the longest time.

As Meteorwurm’s clash is active, Hyoudo has to block with his available Gabunohashi, causing it to be destroyed.

A Thorn Prison used in this situation is both an attack and a defense, Dan doesn’t have enough attacks to reach Hyoudo’s last life, and Hyoudo has more than enough attacks to reach Dan’s.

We cut to Serge checking on Kajitsu, as Mai is clearly out of her depth on this one, being a 13-year old blogger and all.

Also, Serge says he’s never seen a girl like this? Does that imply he’s seen a boy like that?…

…Also why would the gender be medically relevant here?

Serge quite intuitively suggests that Magisa, having lived for 4000 years, might have seen this before.

Which is actually a fairly astute idea, good job Serge.

Kazan, you clearly see Kajitsu passed the hell out, in dire need of medical attention, to the extent that we had to summon Serge to kick the crap out of your guards in order to seek that Medical attention.

And you’re still stuck on “Well Yuuki told me to do it so uuhhhhh…”

And worse still, if 3 armed guards couldn’t stop Serge why the hell would a bunch of lifeless DRONES stop him?

Ohai Suzuri, I see you’re being as useful as a pile of bricks, as per usual.

Hyoudo’s turn, now the numbers are back to scary, Byak-Garo’s at 9000 BP and Gabunohashi’s at 5000.

Hyoudo makes the correct play and attacks with Byak-Garo first.

Gabunohashi could attack but if Dan takes from the life for that attack, Byak-Garo will never trigger it’s Lv2 effect again for the rest of the match. At least here Dan has to make a somewhat predictable move as if he doesn’t block, that blocker is going back to his hand anyway.

Naturally, Dan blocks with Lizardedge, thanks to Thorn Prison though, Dan has no other Spirits to exhaust, so Windstorm is a non-issue here.

Hyoudo keeps up the pressure, Dan has no blockers, 2 lives, and 2 attackers to address.

One might argue “Hey, he’s got 2 lives, he can afford to lose one”

Actually, being on 1 life is an incredibly dangerous thing to be, the reason for that is because of the vast amount of effects in the game that can force the opponent to lose a life via an effect.

Being on 1 life means you can lose from anywhere and nowhere.

In Flash timing, Dan plays Victory Fire… Issue is he’s only got 2 Core in his reserve, the 1 he left behind and the 1 lost from Lizardedge’s block, and he needs 3 Core to pay for Victory Fire.

Erimakilizard is the unfortunate sacrifice that needs making for this to work.

BlackMachG is destroyed but it’s a little unfortunate, Victory Fire can destroy 2 Spirits with 3000 BP or less, but Hyoudo only had 1 to destroy, in spite of that, Dan had to use the card in order to not die.

Dan relaxes, as Hyoudo only has 1 attacker, Dan is naturally expecting Hyoudo to hold off for now and leave Dan’s lives alone.

No such luck for Dan, Hyoudo’s performing a full attack anyway regardless of whether or not he can defeat Dan.

That leaves poor ol’ Dan with 2 issues, no spirits to block with, and after taking from the life, 1 life remaining.

Hyoudo taunts Dan’s evidently disadvantageous position, still declaring the battle to be unfun.

You know, in a real tournament setting, sportsmanlike conduct is an expected behaviour pattern, acting like a complete ass generally gets people disqualified.

Now if you’re wondering about the fact that the episode was going on for a while, while being nowhere close to finishing, that’s kind of because it was.

This is a rare 2 part battle. So we’ll only be able to see the end next time!

The end of episode card of the day is, of course, Thorn Prison!

I seem to be getting ahead of myself a lot when talking about these cards, I should probably start saving some topics for the end just for cases like these as once again, got nothing to say that I haven’t already said, Thorn Prison around this time was an incredibly potent card that was competing for space with Silent Wall, a Cost 4 White Defense card.

Instead, I’ll give you something else…

Here’s a deck from this time featuring mainly the kinds of cards and strategies Hyoudo Kenzo is using. It’s mainly a weenie rush type build, but it features lots of Core gain and plenty of exhaust options, very much a Green Goodstuff build.

If you’re playing older formats, I’d definitely like to hear how well this deck fared, til then! See ya in the next one!