Gekiha Dan – Episode 22

Alright lads, Dan has just won the first tournament of his life, wielding a card that represents a separation from the previous series.

I’ve been harping on about the similarities between this series and the old one, designating this series as a “Spiritual Successor” to Bashin Toppa.

Reborn Flame is the first true indicator that the series will now begin to diverge, ever so slowly, to become something completely different than Toppa Bashin.

With this in mind, let’s jump in.

Since I’m in a meta-narrative mood, from the outset, Brustrom appears to be acting as a pseudo-Nazo-Otona type role here, a mysterious adult acting in service to a King we are as of yet unable to meet.

To rehash the stakes for anyone who didn’t watch the last episode, Dan’s initial wish of telling everyone to piss off was ignored, Dan’s second option, to see Otherworld King, is grantable but just annoying enough to be contingent on Dan being able to overpower Brustrom.

If Dan loses however, he will serve Yuuki, the White Soldier.

It’s been a hot minute but it’s a curious thing to mention, the Core Soldiers, the Bearers of the Core’s Light have the power to revitalize Otherworld and are chosen for that task, and by virtue of Otherworld King causing Otherworld to need revitalizing in the first place, are fated to be opposed to him, however, 4 of them, Yuuki, Kajitsu, Hyoudo and Suzuri, have been acting in Otherworld King’s interests. Notably the only one seeming particularly loyal to him is Yuuki, the rest seem to be acting on their own vices which is being exploited for Otherworld King’s benefit, Kajitsu wishes to assist her brother in any way he needs, Suzuri wants X-Rares, and Hyoudo wants to be the strongest.

The rule of war in Otherworld dictated by Otherworld King is Battle Spirits, Physical force is secondary, Otherworld King’s allies favour the result of a Battle more than their own Physical might, Dan is not an ally though, so he has to actively give his word that he’ll abide by the rules.

Oh hey, Hyoudo’s watching.

And Hyoudo, you’re a Core bearer too? Also you defeated Clackey who bears the yellow light.

‘Fuck does that mean?

Yuuki comments that while Dan does try exceptionally hard, he has made a decision, a promise to act based on the results of this battle.

I find this exchange to be quite interesting actually, Hyoudo comments being a Card Battler is Troublesome, when Yuuki starts to wonder why Hyoudo’s speaking as if he’s not one, Hyoudo points out that being a Card Battler in Otherworld and being a Card Battler on Earth is not the same thing.

Playing Card Games in the Real World confers no real power, If I’m the best player in a world, my voice only holds sway in the Court of Public opinion within the community that I’ve gained power in.

I can’t enact law or enforce rules by playing a game of cards, and there’s no expectation that I would be able to do so, or be expected to submit to rules. Infact to some extents, to offer antes in a card battle is stigmatized.

Attempting to wield power in that manner would be laughed at and actively suppressed.

In Otherworld though… It’s a lot different, Card Battlers have power that is respected more than physical might, weaponry.

To be an efficient Card Battler is to wield power over someone without threatening their life.

Hyoudo notices the oddity of the question, Yuuki is Human, he must be fully aware of the differences between how card battles in this world and earth differ.

Yuuki answers with this incredibly unsure answer, “Supposedly”

This is obviously foreshadowing that Yuuki being Human, while correct, doesn’t appear to be the whole story.

Which is weird, Yuuki’s been actively witnessing the effects of the Core System on Kajitsu for ages, and his statements earlier clearly show knowledge that Kajitsu bears Mother Core’s light.

It’d be one thing to say he didn’t care but to say he doesn’t know suggests that he might not have been aware that this is a direct consequence and not just a side effect.

Clackey questions Mai’s actions, wondering why she’d go out of her way to rescue an enemy just because she was unwell.

Suzuri is very unhappy that he’s having an X-Rare held over his head for his services that seem to have no end in sight.

Mai does try to praise him, but surprises him by calling him the rather affectionate “Suzurin”

Zungurii however is significantly less jovial about it, as far as he’s concerned Kajitsu was directly involved in the enslavement and imprisonment of many members of his personal family, he is understandably not convinced to act differently just because she’s sick.

Zungurii asks the ultimate question, why did Mai help Kajitsu? What was the end goal?

Right, unfortunately this episode suffers from a fairly nasty spoiler in it’s title, so while I am prepared to talk about it, people who are reading this but not watching alongside, I will not spoil the surprise for them.

The Battle’s finally underway, Dan starts with a simple bit of board set up, summoning a Lv2 Lizardedge and a Lv1 Ankillersaurus.

All the core does something here, so this is an okay first move.

Kajitsu suddenly reacts to the Core’s effects again, which is a little strange, supposedly the Core system they destroyed should have stopped pouring power into Mother Core.

Serge states their deduction based on their available information, and ultimately the audience’s.

That the Core System was what was connecting the Core to Mother Core, by destroying it, Core energy should have stopped reaching Mother Core, and Kajitsu should no longer be suffering whenever Core is used.

Serge says there is something about the pair of them that we’re not being told.

But also says that, as they’re following the will of the Otherworld King, they’re of no consequence to him. Which makes sense as Serge is an Otherworlder.

I’m not sure what the point of this statement is as Serge is incredibly composed while saying but, but I think the meat of his statement is that they simply don’t know enough about the 2 of them to make determinations as to what’s causing Kajitsu’s condition, and as they’re enemies, they shouldn’t have to care.

Brustrom plays The Soldier Gustav. As expected of the Blue World’s King, Brustrom plays Blue.

‘Scuse me?

Now we’re getting into the fun bits, Brustrom appears to be using a Mixed Colour Deck of White and Blue.

Brustrom’s clearly a man with a collection of many X-Rares like Suzuri, but favours Blue cards, as a result its probable that he normally wields a Blue base, mixing in the colours of the X-Rares he wants to use.

Now that we’re out of the Tournament Arc, the Battles, beyond just being a competition, are once again back to settling differences between the Battler’s.

What that means is just there’ll be more discussions now mid-fight rather than just taunting.

Brustrom asks Dan if he’d consider the state of the Blue World to be peaceful.

Notably, Brustrom is asking who Dan is supposedly trying to rescue, though he limits his range to “the Blue World”

Suzuri comments that the question is disingenuous, but you do need to be specific as to which groups are being unduly affected when trying to sort out any particularly widespread problem.

In this case, Brustrom is ultimately casting doubt on the idea that Otherworld King is bad for Otherworld, as the Blue World is peaceful under Otherworld King’s rule, regardless of Dan’s experiences in the Red World.

Brustrom wonders how Dan will explain people are suffering to Otherworld King if he can’t show him anyone that is.

Sure, Dan’s fighting based on his experience of oppression in the Red World, but the Blue World doesn’t appear to have such a problem.

It casts doubt on the idea that Otherworld King is actively bringing suffering.

But it’s an undeniable fact that Otherworlders were enslaved and forced to build a Horizon Ladder in the Red World, and that task was carried out by Otherworld forces, it might be peaceful in other worlds but accepting that peace requires accepting those atrocities as a necessary consequence, and no moral person is going to do that.

If Peace can only co-exist with the suffering of people who don’t deserve it then that isn’t Peace.

Brustrom performs a full attack, attacking with Berserker-Gun and Soldier Gustav

This explains the levelling choices between having 4000-1000 BP split between the 2 spirits, or 2000-3000, the first option would have allowed Dan to destroy Berserker-Gun without issue.

Dan takes both from the life, leaving him on 3 lives on the 2nd turn.

Defending the life would have required sacrificing board presence, I don’t think there is a single battler playing today who wouldn’t have done the same thing.

Dan levels down Lizardedge and summons The ThunderDragonEmperor Siegwurm.

This is a rather odd play, Brustrom has no refreshed Spirits for Siegwurm to destroy, any other Spirit would achieve about the same effect as Siegwurm is doing here.

But I suppose this is just an example of Dan’s straightforwardness.

Oof, that’s an incredibly Red light, unlike the others we’d seen until now.

Magisa observes the effect Mother Core has on Kajitsu, noting that stronger spirits need more Core, and that causes Kajitsu more damage

Dan’s offering his rebuttal now, namely that he saw plenty of suffering in the Red World, Brustrom’s question being limited to his own World is one asked in bad faith.

Dan contends that the Humans who came here aren’t even following Human rules, which is true.

Slavery’s pretty awful, most developed countries have it completely illegalized, so to have people from the future completely unopposed to forcing it upon the Otherworlders and willing to commit genocide to make space for themselves seems fairly regressive.

Yuuki questions why Dan fights for those other than himself.

Dan declares he’ll force them to return Grand-Lolo to the Otherworlders once he wins.

Brustrom mentions that Otherworld was rather uncivilised before the Humans arrived, that much of what good happens in Grand-Lolo is a result of Human presence.

Brustrom is essentially advocating that Otherworld King and the Humans allied with him are doing far more good for Otherworld than bad, even if that level of “Bad” includes literal slavery.

Indeed. Fact of the matter is there still has been no clear reason as to why the suffering of Otherworlders is necessary for these “Advancements” Brustrom praises so highly. Asking us to ignore it just because those benefits exist makes absolutely zero sense.

And that’s because Brustrom, despite being an Otherworlder, is a beneficiary of the system, and therefore doesn’t give a damn what happens to anyone else.

Dan evens out the Life difference, taking a life from Brustrom with both Siegwurm and Ankillersaurus. Brustrom’s got 3 lives remaining.

And unlike Dan in his battle against you Hyoudo, he has 0 core available to respond with a Flash.

Dan ends his turn.

Brustrom adds more White Spirits to his board, summoning Berserker-Magnum

…And then, very surprisingly, Summons The Sacred Gungnir!

That is a one-of-a-kind card that only Yuuki owns at this present moment in time.

So that begs the question… How does Brustrom have one?

I do find it amusing that the Sacred Gungnir of all things is regarded so highly as a one-of-a-kind card in this show, Gungnir has the trashy effect of bouncing every opposing Cost 1 or below card to the hand when it’s destroyed. And it was released in a Starter Deck as a common.

Kajitsu’s pain has caused the symbol of Mother Core to appear.

Oh right! Dan has never seen Gungnir before! Yuuki’s only use of the card was against Belga.

Magisa’s 4000 year old ass apparently knows full well what Gungnir is, allowing the cast to catch up on the fact that it’s one of the 2 spirits that represent the White World’s King.

…Brustrom being the Blue World’s King means this shit don’t add up.

I can’t actually tell if Kajitsu is exclaiming that this is her Brother’s out of a need to remind the audience, or in actual disbelief that he’d lend the card to Brustrom for any reason?

Fuck you mean “Do you still think we’re even?”

Gungnir is actual trash, don’t even start.

It’s only benefit is that it doesn’t demand as much core as Mjolnir to perform essentially the same function.

That is a fair observation, Dan only has Lizardedge, Brustrom could win with a full attack and Dan would be hard-pressed to stop him.

Though if Dan did stop him, Brustrom would be in a spot of trouble.

Dan raises Siegwurm to Lv3 (9000 BP) and Lizardedge to Lv2 (2000 BP)

This is a pretty fair move to make, Dan doesn’t know what Brustrom is planning, and worse, Brustrom has a board advantage.

And even if he knew what Gungnir did, this would still be an okay play, because Gungnir would bounce Lizardedge if Dan attacked with Siegwurm now, giving Brustrom an additional opportunity to play more spirits and win even harder.

Brustrom seems to like his draw…

Well that’s certainly a draw and a half.

Well that’s a little reckless but okay, Brustrom summons The Armored Sacred Walhalance, but to help it reach Lv2, he depletes all of his spirits that aren’t Gungnir.

The Spirit advantage is gone, all to get Walhalance to 7000 BP.

Under any other circumstance this would be kind of risky, but I suppose Brustrom does still have enough White reductions for a cheeky White defense magic later.

Aside from Soldier Gustav being a Red Herring, or in this case, a Blue one, this could functionally be seen as a Proxy match between Dan and Yuuki.

But anyway that was the Spoiler in question, Brustrom wields both Gungnir and Walhalance!

After all, the Episode in question is simply called “Meteorwurm vs. Walhalance”

Wait really? It’s Turn 6 and you lost 2 lives, your maximum available Core is 9, you just spent 4 of it summoning Walhalance.

Walhalance needs 3 core to be Lv2, Gungnir needs 2…

Yeah, adds up, if only just about.

Sadly if there’s one thing I agree with Brustrom on, its that we both adore seeing classic formations like this one.

And out comes the truth, Yuuki made gifts of these cards to Brustrom, likely expecting Dan to challenge him I suppose.

Yuuki explains the history of the 2 cards, as those 2 cards protect the King of the White World, Brustrom is justified in wielding them against Dan, as defeating Brustrom will indirectly bring Dan closer to defeating Yuuki, that makes Dan a threat to the White King.

It appears Suzuri is familiar with those cards, likely learning of them upon arriving in Otherworld.

Still, Gungnir being a common starter deck card still makes this funny.

Serge makes the same comment I did earlier, this battle is somewhat of a Proxy battle between Yuuki and Dan.

And Mai focuses on the fact that the Battle causing Kajitsu pain means that the summoning of Walhalance as gifted from Yuuki makes him responsible for hurting his Sister.

Hrm, I suppose if even Zungurii feels that Yuuki is being too obvious to suggest malice, he must truly not know that his sister is suffering.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
~ Hanlon’s Razor

Fun fact, the act of attributing conditions to villainy that which arises from stupidity is occasionally called the “Devil Theory” fallacy

Though there is of course an adequate extension to this rule:

Never attribute to malice or stupidity that which can be explained by moderately rational
individuals following incentives in a complex system.
~ Douglas W. Hubbard

This extension exists because selfishness is kind of a default state of being, if I intend to eat from a selection of plates and I take the last of the most desirable option such that no one else can eat that option for the rest of that day, I am being neither malicious nor stupid, I’m acting on the incentive of eating the best meal I can access and as a result of that have denied others from being able to do so. I knew it was the last one, so I couldn’t have been stupid enough to not realise that taking it wouldn’t inconvenience someone else who wanted it. But the motivation for taking the dish wasn’t specifically to inconvenience those people either, it was just because it was the dish I personally wanted.

I got a bit off track after that analogy, moving on.

Yuuki’s very clearly acting as an antagonistic force but one of the weird things about the way he operates is he always speaks in words that almost sound like he’s trying to motivate Dan to continue down his current path rather than force him to stray.

Brustrom ends his turn, yeah attacking here would be a bit suicidal.

I wonder what precisely she believes will mess with Dan’s pace, the fact that Brustrom is using Yuuki’s cards or the fact that Dan literally has never seen these cards before now?

Nice, deductive reasoning from Dan here, Yuuki’s specialty is Armor. Ain’t no reason it doesn’t have Armor to Red.

Ah, good ol’ anime bullshit.

In a real game a player is allowed to freely verify the effects of any card placed on the board, theirs or their opponent’s

Here though, the logistics of doing that are difficult on account of the fact that Dan can’t fucking see the opposing board.

So really it’s up to you if you think this is bullshit or not, on one hand it’s not how this would play out in reality, on the other, it makes sense given the mechanics of the show.

Dan attacks with Siegwurm, activating Clash.

The issue here is this won’t confirm a single thing about Walhalance, because the board state is ripe for Walhalance defeating Siegwurm.

So, I know that Yuuki is saying this because of Walhalance’s Armor: Infinite means that Walhalance doesn’t have to block, but here’s the problem, Gungnir does.

In order to protect both Spirits, blocking with Walhalance is the only move.

Brustrom activates Walhalance’s Lv2 effect, by exhausting Gungnir, it’s BP is added to Walhalance, giving it a grand total of 11000 BP

Brutal, Siegwurm is completely skewered by Walhalance, destroying it.

Brustrom really do be watching all of Dan’s matches, seeing him win every one with Meteorwurm and then proceed to spit out of his mouth what he expels from his ass.

Hoo boy, Mother Core’s turnin’ red!

Seems like something’s emitting from Kajitsu as well, as her hair is floating.

But such is the case with any card with Armor to Red cards really? Walhalance is technically even slightly easier to circumvent than Yggdrassil, as Walhalance is vulnerable to cards that don’t have a matching colour symbol on the opposing field.

If you’re wondering “How does that work”? It means Dan could essentially fire a Dark Coffin from his hand, and since he has no Purple symbols on board, Walhalance would be susceptible to it.

Dan probably doesn’t realise, but Yuuki was trying oh so desperately to give Dan a hint as to Walhalance’s other abilities, since Brustrom blocked Siegwurm, Dan believed it was susceptible to Clash and therefore doesn’t have an Armor ability.

So now, based on this knowledge, Dan is going to bank on it being susceptible only for it to blow up in his face.

What is your DAMAGE Yuuki!?

You keep throwing encouragement after encouragement and yet you oppose him like he’s public enemy number one?

Naturally, knowing Yuuki’s motivations will give clarity to why he’s like this but there’s not a lot of hints about it given the thoughts we hear Yuuki think.

…Walhalance Gungnir isn’t that strong a combo, what?

So I understand the rage, I feel like it’s not helping, but at the same time it’s a bit hard to tell Zungurii this is an unwarranted course of action because someone he hates is telling them that Dan’s fucked essentially, and well, given the stakes he’s not about to leave anytime soon as he wants to watch over his friend.

Could tell him to say nothing but that does precisely nothing. “Sit there and be uncomfortable” doesn’t quite have the resolutionary vibe.

Dan ends his turn and Brustrom goads him.

My guy he doesn’t have enough Spirits to kill you, what’s he gonna do? Summon a MachG?

Of course he’s going to sit there and wait, chill your beanstalk

I suppose the point is to rile him up, disrupting your opponent’s pace is a method of winning after all.

…Oh this could be nasty.

Walhalance being Lv3 opens up an entirely new effect.

I mean, Brustrom still has 3 core in his reserve, he could still summon.

Also in actual gameplay you’re free to re-arrange your core as much as you like, what most people do is gather all their core on one Spirit they want levelled before doing things like summoning to ensure their Spirits remain as levelled as possible.

“YoU’rE gOnNa BeAt Me WiTh JuSt ThAt CaRd!?” is a bit of an overreaction to someone raising their Key Spirit to the max level.

Walhalance attacks.

Thanks to being at Lv3, all opposing 4000 BP or less spirits return to the hand, which just so happens to be all of Dan’s Spirits.

Lizardedge and Ankillersaurus return to Dan’s hand.

At least they were relatively cheap to play, shouldn’t cause too much of an issue.

Dan’s life on the other hand…

Dan takes a life, he’s got 2 left.

Brustrom follows up with Gungnir, and Dan loses another life, leaving himself with 1.

Clackey notes that because Dan is up against Yuuki’s spirits, he’s at a disadvantage.

I’m really not sure where this sentiment that Red is uniquely poor when trying to deal with White comes from given they’re meant to be opposites, it’s kind of irksome actually because the show just continually assumes this to be true.

Brustrom is out of attackers, so it’s Dan’s turn, and he drops a Lizardedge and 2 Erimakilizards.

Dan then follows up with a Lv3 Summon of Meteorwurm.

Meteorwurm needs 6 core to be at Level 3, Dan started his turn with 12 core in his reserve (4 core steps, 4 lives lost, 4 at the start), each Cost 0 Spirit needed 1 core to maintain, so 9 core remaining.

Meteorwurm at Max reductions needed 4 core, with only 5 core left, he needed an extra core from somewhere, Lizardedge was depleted to ensure the cost for Meteorwurm’s level was paid.

I’m trying to wrangle my head around how Dan wins here, he has an Ankillersaurus in his hand and Brustrom has no blockers.

We interrupt this battle to inform you that Kajitsu’s Core appears to have started a fucking rave

Oh now you’re paying attention!

Yuuki calls out to Mai in a rather low tone, asking her if it was “Fun getting to know Kajitsu”

Well that’s about as Grim as the sky is Pink.

Magisa states that Kajitsu is “Breaking”, her episode back when she fought Dan was apparently the exact same scenario as this one.

In spite of this big expulsion of energy, Kajitsu’s body is cold

Physics is weird here, normally things that emit bright light and have high energy are warm.

Clearly no one was informed about this, even Brustrom’s stopped to wonder what on earth-er, Otherworld is happening.

Apparently Brustrom doesn’t get to know things.

Dan tries to target attack Walhalance using Meteorwurm.

Sadly besides a raw attack, Dan has no other options… if attacking Walhalance was even considered an option.

Attacking Gungnir would cause his Erimakilizards to bounce back to his hand due to it’s effect on destruction, then Brustrom could attack with Walhalance to win.

Target attacking functions as if you’re forcing the Spirit you selected to block, since it affects the Spirit’s actions, you can’t bypass Armor with it.

As Dan has Red Symbols, Walhalance is immune to all his Red effects

Brustrom uses Diamond Strike during Flash timing.

A Cost 3 White Magic from BS07 designed to support Armed Machines, it refreshes an Armed Machine, no questions asked.

Naturally this is a much cheaper version of White Potion, the trade-off being you can only Refresh Spirits of a given Family.

Brustrom has no core in his reserve, so he drops Walhalance to Lv2 in order to refresh it with 7000 BP.

Brustrom then uses Walhalance to block Meteorwurm’s attack.

Now that’s an interesting play, fighting Siegwurm before made sense, but in this scenario it looks like Brustrom went above and beyond, weakening Walhalance to get it to do what Dan wanted it to do anyway.

…It’s one way out of 2, what?

…’scuse me?

So, Brustrom follows up with another Flash, Arms Impact.

An incredibly weird BS07 Blue Magic, it’s only usable during the Flash Timing of when you’re blocking an opposing Spirit, by then blowing up a Cost 4 or less Spirit on your board, you can then destroy opposing Spirits up to the destroyed Spirit’s Cost.

There is a slight issue I have with this, Brustrom just paid core from Walhalance in order to use Diamond Strike because he lacked core.

Arms Impact is Cost 4 and Brustrom has no blue symbols.

In order to destroy the Sacred Gungnir he’d need to pay 4 core from somewhere, 1 from Gungnir and at least 3 from his 4 core Walhalance.

The interesting thing about “up to” cost effects is that Cost 0s are just automatically included without actually wasting space, Gungnir is cost 3, had Dan had another Cost 3 spirit, the Erimakilizards would have still been destroyed.

Walhalance catches Meteorwurm’s attack, and is destroyed

Well I suppose Arms Impact dropping it to Lv1 wasn’t relevant then, assuming this is true the move is still legal, not a fuck up, just a glossed detail.

Kajitsu seems to be not having fun with the high intensity battle here.

Still, I’m curious as to why Brustrom sacrificed both his spirits there, Arms Impact would have still defeated Dan completely, there was no need for a Diamond Strike to have Walhalance challenge Meteorwurm.

And apparently that produces more Core Energy than anything else that actually uses Core.

It is, but pointlessly.

This would have been true had Walhalance blocked or not, the difference would have been that Brustrom would be on 2 lives.

I don’t think sacrificing an X-Rare to stop yourself going to 2 is particularly worth it.

..

I can’t read.

I completely forgot the fact that Arms Impact requires a Blocking Spirit in order to use.

…2 seconds after reading it.

It IS a bit weird that Arms Impact requires a blocking Spirit in order to use, but there is the added benefit that you can use Arms Impact to blow up the Spirit you’re blocking with.

If Brustrom wanted to protect Walhalance, he could have refreshed Gungnir, forcing it to block, once Gungnir was destroyed it’s effect when destroyed would have bounced all the Erimakilizard’s to Dan’s hand, producing the same situation without wasting Arms Impact.

He could also have just used Arms Impact anyway and achieved the same result without sacrificing Walhalance.

There was no necessity for Walhalance specifically to block.

Run that by me again?

That X-Rare summon is causing Mother Core’s energy to start rupturing the arena.

Notably, Alexander’s summon here is accompanied by Yuuki’s theme.

Suzuri exclaims that Brustrom is scary as he had another Alexander.

Well for a King like himself, it’s likely he’s amassed a rather large collection of extra X-Rares, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was running triple Alexanders here.

Kinda, I don’t think we’ve ever seen Dan use a magic to destroy a Spirit with 6000 BP, I don’t have a reason to believe he’d use one now.

And yeah, lord knows what’d happen to Kajitsu at the end anyway.

Zungurii has a change of heart, unable to ignore his own desires to help Kajitsu in the state she’s in, he changes his mind and calls out to Dan, saying “he’s battled enough”

Essentially, Zungurii’s trying to take the pressure off of Dan to win, as to continue battling would harm Kajitsu further.

Brustrom attacks with The GiantEmperor Alexander

Even losing the man’s gracefully confident.

Dan loses his last life, but Alexander breaks through the life barrier…

Dan seems alright, but he’s lost his last life, making the Blue King Brustrom the Winner.

I wouldn’t be alright if I lost to White/Blue

The thing about colour combinations is there’s usually a complimentary benefit to wielding both.

The problem with Blue specifically is that it’s a one-trick pony colour designed to hard-focus on win conditions, it does what it does very well. Attempting to mix in utilities detracts from Blue’s ability to actually perform it’s intended task.

Only 2 colours get away with mixing with Blue under normal circumstances, Red, as Red’s aggressiveness and Blue’s ability to take many lives at once lines up. And Green, not because there is an inherent synergy, but because that’s only Green is unique in the sense that there isn’t a colour it doesn’t benefit, Core boost is something every deck appreciates.

White is usually better for defensive strategies and extending game time, something rather counter intuitive to Blue’s hard-focus on win-cons.

Dan apparently surmised that it was Kajitsu based on his previous experience with her exploding.

Ah, isn’t that a nice callback? Kazan at the very beginning confiscated a deck from Zungurii’s brother after he’d lost, now Kazan’s here again after Dan’s first serious loss to the Otherworld King’s forces… asking Dan for his Deck.

Dan has no right to refuse, the rule for the loser is to be Yuuki’s servant, and Kazan is one of Yuuki’s men.

The last time Kazan confiscated a Deck, Dan protested, saying “A Deck is a Battler’s life“

To take away a Card Battler’s Deck is to take away their ability to battle, essentially ending their life as a Card Battler.

Zungurii clearly doesn’t intend to respect the rules, but unfortunately…

Dan clearly has a code of ethics as a battler, if he can’t respect the rules he himself agrees to then there’s no point engaging in battles in the first place. Why should he be allowed to impose his will on others if they can’t use the same method to do the same to him?

It’s a principle, and it also ensures that if Dan is able to battle again that he’s able to once again use Otherworld King’s rule of Battle Spirits against him, to ignore it now would be not only dishonest but I’m fairly sure Otherworld King’s men would no longer heed his wishes to Battle.

Why fight a guy who won’t keep his word when he loses?

Kazan takes Dan’s deck and has Dan taken prisoner.

Dan isn’t the only Lightbearer however, he passes the Torch to Clackey, Bearer of the Yellow Light, to look after everyone else in his stead.

Kazan takes the opportunity to try and take Kajitsu back, however Yuuki interrupts him, exclaiming that he is the reason Kajitsu is suffering.

Hrm, he’s blaming himself a bit harshly there, but based on his thoughts in earlier episodes it appears he genuinely believed Kajitsu would be revitalized by the Core System, he’s now acting as if he blames himself for not knowing how much damage Kajitsu was actually taking and that her condition was getting worse as a result.

Yuuki asks Magisa a favour, that being to take care of Kajitsu.

Yuuki curses himself for being so close to Kajitsu, witnessing her struggles and still not realising that the Core System was what was causing her issue.

So he’s punishing himself by separating himself from her.

Seems that for some reason, Yuuki trusts Magisa more than his own men to look after Kajitsu…

Something isn’t quite adding up here.

If he wanted anyone to look after and keep him separated from Kajitsu, his loyal followers should have been the first people to go to.

But Kazan was under the impression that the Core System and the Horizon Ladder along with Kajitsu was the only way for him to have Hope that his era of humanity could survive and to that end tried desperately to keep Kajitsu away from Mai and the others.

We know based on Yuuki’s beliefs and how easily he rectified them that the Core System was indeed harming Kajitsu, the question then becomes who let them think that the Core System was supposed to help?

They’re acting under orders from Otherworld King, so a keen-eyed viewer would deduce that perhaps Yuuki is starting to have his suspicions about Otherworld King and given Magisa’s opposition to him, makes her the safest place to keep Kajitsu away from him.

Dan comments on the idea that Yuuki is fighting for Kajitsu’s sake and not his own, Yuuki seems to resent Dan’s line of questioning.

Seems Dan has a lot to think about all of a sudden.

Yuuki thanks Mai and Mai gets flustered about it.

Notably when Mai gets flustered she straightens one of her bangs.

Welp, seems wherever Yuuki’s going, he’s taking Brustom with him.

Also I’ve been spelling it “Brustrom”, like “Maelstrom” the entire time, I just checked the Japanese spelling and it’s certainly “Brustom”, without the additional R.

Welp, Bye Dan, I hope Yuuki’s employ has a good dental plan.

Hyoudo pokes Suzuri for his opinion, but he says he “Isn’t interested”

“Kyoumi” is the word used for Interest, curiosity or Zest, Suzuri here says “Kyoumi Nai”, so “Not Interested”

It’s a literal translation sure, but it seems like the context would have been better served by a translation of “I don’t care” which is how Suzuri is using the phrase, when Serge earlier said he wasn’t interested in the Momose Siblings, he used the same phrasing, “Not interested” suggests an indifference whereas “Don’t care” suggests an active unwillingness to get involved, which is what Suzuri and Serge meant.

I’m not gonna ride Soaker over the translation decision, they made the correct translation because that is what the phrase means, it just surprises me that Japanese doesn’t have alternate phrasings to highlight the subtle difference between indifference and actively uninvolving oneself.

By extension, he’s Yuuki’s subordinate more than anything.

He didn’t lose to ordinary power, he lost to White/Blue, that shit should have folded like a chair.

I don’t know that phrasing, the closest I can think of is “There are no lessons learned in victory, but a thousand in defeat”

Also “When you have nothing left to lose, you win”

Errr… “Only way is up?”

None of these really capture the same sentiment.

Mai seems concerned, given that even if Dan “Profits” from his Loss, he’s currently working for Otherworld King.

I guess Mai’s suggesting that Dan could become an enemy but uh, that’d be too cool for this show.

And finally, Zungurii doesn’t know what’s going on, as he no longer understands who is a friend and who is an enemy, Dan has accepted his fate and become Yuuki’s servant, technically making him an enemy, and Kajitsu has been left in their care by an enemy, so Zungurii has no idea what’s going on.

With that, the Episode closes.

Oh, that’s a surprise, the card of the day is Walhalance.

I don’t really… have much to say, I guess I can talk about some interesting notes.

They were definitely future proofing with some of these card wordings, as “Armor”, quite interestingly, states that the Spirit is unaffected by Spirits, Nexuses and Magic of the aforementioned colour.

Almost as if they knew that these wouldn’t be the only available card types, and they certainly aren’t at time of writing.

Even ignoring that fact though, on it’s own Walhalance is incredibly difficult to remove, a blanket “Your colour doesn’t work on me” makes the spirit immovable via effect, that makes it an incredibly difficult body to address once it’s on board, Low max BP but pfft, it can solve that.

Hrm… Ah! There’s an interesting quirk, You might find it a bit odd that Walhalance ended up being the White Feature for the current Set display’s fights, currently we’re on BS07 and we’ve had a nice feature from Red, Blue and Green, the reason we’ve only seen BS06 showings from Purple and White is because BS07 is the last set that only included 4 X-Rares, Purple and White missed out this time around, hence the X-Rares for those sets were thrown into the fights with the colours that got X-Rares this set.

From BS08 onwards, every colour will receive at LEAST 1 X-Rare, however the show’s run will not reposition itself to accommodate this meaning 2 colours per set until the end of this series will not have their X-Rares shown.

Naturally, I will review them at times that seem relevant, because I’m fun like that.

Anyhow, I’ll see you guys in the next one! Buh-bye!