Gekiha Dan – Episode 25

Alright, Episode 24 we started heading for Otherworld King after kicking Pantera’s Robotic tush!

Now, onto Otherworld Ki-

Whatever it is, Hyoudo’s only on one life remaining.

And his opponent is Leon?!

Ah, I wasn’t expecting to get flung into a battle like that! Er, It looks like Leon’s playing Blue?

Well I guess whatever it was, it didn’t matter, Kenzo went from being the strongest 9 year old to…

Well I suppose he still is the strongest 9 year old, but Leon being able to take him out so easily and effortlessly is pretty bad news. And he’s still taking a precaution against Yuuki?

Given the scene we have, it seems like Leon ran right over to where Kajitsu was if he’s here.

First time? This is the first fight we’ve see-

Oh… Given Mai is being held carefully by Serge there, it appears that Mai had a go at him first, and Leon used a Purple/Yellow Hybrid deck, then when he went up against Kenzo he fought Blue.

Haha, well, Leon embodies one of my favourite character archetypes in this series, because it’s the archetype I personally love the most.

That is that Leon doesn’t have a main colour!

He freely swaps decks as he sees fit, using different colours in different combinations!

A true connoiseur for the game!

So, in particular it appears that Leon’s main colour is in fact Purple, and that this Purple colouring is the basis for many of his Hybrid decks.

Though this is directly stated it doesn’t tend to actually be what happens, as Leon’s been observed using decks without Purple. But that’s a little later, for now it seems all his Hybrids are Purple based.

And Kenzo, likely expecting to see the Yellow side of Leon’s Purple/Yellow deck, was blindsided by the fact that Leon was infact playing a Purple/Blue deck.

Purple Blue, by the way, goes about as well as White Blue does.

And a simple episode title, this time we’ll get to see the X-Rare that Clackey’s been hiding from us for a good few episodes!

Looks like that preview was a bit of a Flash forward. As we’re now peacefully talking about the Horizon Ladder

Seems like the residents of the Green world are mainly wildlife, as this one was built by insects, likely under the direction of Kajitsu.

They don’t seem to be having too great a time, as the Butterflies returning from the Horizon Ladder fade away completely.

Gosh that’s even worse than the Otherworlders in the Red World, there they stayed alive, these Butterflies did their job and then poofed out of existence.

Either that or they’re pieces of Kajitsu’s power, and they’re returning to her, but there’s never been an explicit statement that Kajitsu creates the butterflies she controls.

dunno what to think really.

Anyway, Kajitsu does seem to be feeling better here.

Zungurii asks the obvious question of why they aren’t committing horrible acts of terrorism.

To which the following statement is made, Kajitsu damn near blew up when the first Horizon Ladder was wiped out, destroying the Horizon Ladders in general may put her in grave danger.

Hell of a problem to have honestly, The Horizon Ladders are clearly there for something malicious and yet we can’t destroy them without harming a friend.

Seems the group are a bit stranded, the Horizon Ladder needs to stay put to keep Kajitsu in good condition, but they can’t go find Dan because Kajitsu only really starts to feel better while she’s in the Green World.

That’s the Spirit, Curry makes everything better.

That is a fair point, Clackey and Zungurii are currently differing in that, while both agree they dislike Kajitsu, Zungurii isn’t letting that get in the way of helping her because he knows he should, and Clackey’s being Clackey.

I’m still sad that I don’t live in a household that loves Curry as much as I do, really depressing to be honest.

Also it seems like Clackey is starting to be taken in by Kajitsu’s appearance, he may have his qualms but he can’t ignore a pretty girl when he sees one.

Or he’s just being a moody muppet and is just automatically getting into a poor mood whenever Kajitsu’s around.

Magisa, you’ve been eating his Curry for literal days now, you’ve tasted it every single day since you met the kid, “Can’t believe you made this” my ass.

I suppose it must be extra nice today, Zungurii put his focus into making it since he couldn’t do anything else about Dan or the Horizon Ladder.

Kajitsu however hasn’t touched any of her food, and Clackey’s being absolutely riveting about it.

Even Hyoudo’s digging it, eat plenty kid, you’re a growing boy.

HEATHENS

THE LOT OF YOU

THIS WOMAN IS OFFICIALLY ON MY SHIT-LIST.

DEATH TO THE NON-BELIEVER!

Spicy food is the pinnacle of all food and I refuse to believe a single soul who says otherwise!

If you cannot handle the spice you are too weak for this- entirely valid and I respect your choice in food and would highly recommend checking out some less spicier curry options such as Butter Chicken (or Vegetarian/Vegan alternatives for those who follow those diets) as the curry experience is something everyone should enjoy.

This was my Curry-is-more-important-to-me-than-spicy-food PSA. Thank you.

Lady can’t handle a Curry you think she’s ready for the sheer awesome that’s Ramen?

Those come in big bowls good sir!

I would liken this person to people I know however I know things about this little lady that would make anyone who doesn’t know shudder.

So I am not going to do that.

You’ll understand, in due time.

So it appears that Kajitsu’s diet consists entirely of sweet food and she isn’t capable of eating anything else.

This is… certainly a level of pickyness I wasn’t expecting. The person with the worst eating disorder I’ve ever personally witnessed has a wider palette than this girl.

Mai tells Serge and Magisa to look after Kajitsu, and drags everyone else off to find something in the Forest.

Not a bad plan actually, I suppose that Kajitsu generally eats a diet consisting of mainly fruit if she’s limited herself to sweet things.

Zungurii’s soul as a cook seems to override his hatred of Kajitsu, as he moves very quickly to assist Mai in searching for something to eat. It’s quite adorable seeing him try so hard.

…Oh god I’m starting to warm up to Zungurii

Oh god what is happening?

Clackey’s also told to get moving but he’s incredibly unhappy about it.

Seems Leon knew very quickly where to begin looking for Kajitsu and got there right away.

I’m a little surprised at the distance he covered but I suppose his ship is capable of outdoing even The Violet.

It seems like Leon’s ship has both a Castle and a Lion motif but hot damn that thing is a BEHEMOTH

You could fit a small town in there!

It seems that Zungurii is going to slowly turn into a Honey-addicted Golden Bear. Based on the bees it looks like he’s found at least a schmeckle of honey.

Okay why does Kenzo need to climb that tree the kid is 9.

and I know you’re younger Zungurii but you’re made of literal bricks.

It’s hard to indicate in any meaningful way with singular shots as its a sliding one, but the Tree is really bloody tall.

Standard human reaction to Bees, can relate, especially since there’s the danger of allergies and such.

I think the issue 99% of us have is that we have no idea what the hell the line is before they are bothered!

God I could go for some honey right about now.

And I bloody hate the stuff. Honey tends to be too sickeningly sweet for my taste buds, I can just about bear it in my coffee.

Hyoudo seems to start having the same problem that Mai was having earlier, he has absolutely no idea why everyone is so interested in Dan.

This is true, Hyoudo may have lost to Dan, but the fact that it required Three responsive magics to achieve and would have failed had Dan not drawn any of them means that their relative strength should be about the same.

Hyoudo starts wondering if it’s because Dan has a ton of cards, or if he designs attractive decks.

Naw, apparently Dan receives so much attention because he’s a dumbass.

Well, when someone who’s incapable of worrying about themselves and consistently worries about others has a contagious personality, it does lend one like Zungurii to worry about Dan to cover up for it.

Zungurii’s fat-ass gets stuck in the hole, so he needs pulling out.

Sadly it seems all that commotion from that action “Bothered” the bees.

Mai and Clackey seem to have set off in search of Otherworld Fruit.

Also forget wondering if they’re sweet, are they even edible?

Many Fruits can be poisonous!

OH I SEE YOU THOUGHT OF THAT DID YOU?

FUCK YOU SHOW.

CALLING MY BLUFF.

Thanks Clackey, really adding to the conversation.

The point is you can grab several samples, see which ones are sweet, then go back and get the ones that are indeed Sweet.

Yeah as it turns out “Condoned Slavery” is pretty up there in the list of disqualifying features.

Clackey reiterates his disqualifying feature, namely a girl who is mysterious, never talks much, and ensures her thoughts are an enigma, then he wants absolutely nothing to do with it.

Is it? Communication’s kind of important in a relationship, a person who makes no attempt to make their thoughts known, even to voice distaste or request something, can be incredibly difficult to work with, many people won’t bother with a person like that cuz you’ll never know if they’re happy or not with you.

That’s not to say it’s impossible, but without communication, relationships can and will crumble, the main step will be rectifying that exact issue of their personality.

Clackey raises the ultimate question: What’s the point?

Mai poses that Kajitsu bearing Mother Core’s Light makes her an extension of their mission to Protect Mother Core, as they’re one and the same, it’s their duty to protect Kajitsu.

Clackey fires back, noting that not only is she the enemy’s little sister, but Yuuki sanctioned the slavery of thousands of Otherworlders, forcibly separating many from their families, all to acquire the labor needed to build a Horizon Ladder to mess with Mother Core.

He’s a prick, and he’s well supported by his little sister.

Mai’s clear the other extreme, Kajitsu has apparently pushed herself severely far for the sake of that idiotic sibling, to leave her alone in that state, justified or not would be an incredibly cruel thing to do.

There’s a very clear parallel of discussion here, think of it like politics, there are many who would not extend a hand to those they are ideologically opposed to, If you met someone who was pro-slavery and they were drowning, and you had the power to save their lives, would you let that ideological opinion, however severe, stop you from doing an otherwise moral obligation?

Many would say yes. Which is also an admittance that someone who wishes to deny others their basic human rights should not have their human right to exist. And would not protect it if it was threatened.

Morally however, rights are not rights if they can be taken away, so someone’s ideological opinion should not cost them their right to live, regardless if they’re attempting to infringe upon the rights of others.

It’s that kind of debate, if there is a right answer, we’re not agreed on what it is. I for one would save someone I was ideologically opposed to, but I’d be less forgiving toward someone who directly threatened someone I cared about.

This is funny because Clackey completely misses the obvious implication of that statement, if Dan would look after Kajitsu, and you are here for him. Then it’s obvious what you should be doing, right?

Hah, that’s fucking RICH coming from Viole Mai, Queen of pissing off.

You exited stage left because you thought Dan was too interesting, and now you have the gall to tell Clackey to not be part of the group you yourself left?

Granted, if Clackey’s going to be incredibly difficult about protecting Kajitsu perhaps he would be a liability rather than a help.

Mai then goes off at him and tells him to get back to picking fruit.

It seems like Mai returned without Clackey? But on an upside, Kajitsu’s eating Hotcakes with honey.

Ah, they’ve finally noticed he’s missing.

You know, this is a pretty bad place to lose a Human who isn’t from here, I’m not certain that it’s particularly easy finding a gate back home.

I suppose it’s typical for a girl of 13 to just completely unperson someone they’re upset with. Happened in my high school too, set of girls who would completely ignore someone if they were upset with them without telling them. You just got socially ghosted.

It’s awful, but you don’t have a right to a specific person’s attention after all.

I see Clackey’s found a hill to brood on.

So, the show is framing this as if Kajitsu is completely innocent, and that she’s just been powerless to handle her big brother.

Here’s the thing though, Yuuki very clearly cares for Kajitsu and her opinion, if she had asked him to stop he would have, and she clearly had no fear of him.

Instead she supported him in every way, and even battled Dan to buy time for him to complete a Horizon Ladder.

She knew precisely what she was doing, framing Clackey’s issues as “Well she’s the Sister of a guy I don’t like” makes zero sense.

A War Criminal might commit several war crimes but you don’t start claiming that his 2nd cousin is equally as guilty just because they happen to share a Grandad.

Interestingly, though extremely difficult and I have the utmost respect for anyone who can pull it off, it is possible to do right by people you aren’t able to forgive.

Forgiveness is the absolution of a punishment, if you know what the action you can’t forgive is, and you’re clear on what the punishment for that discretion should be, you can act perfectly within that person’s otherwise best interests as long as the punishment is upheld.

I know it’s a heavily downplayed example, but if I didn’t forgive a family member who stole something from me, I would heavily restrict their ability to come into contact with my things, as long as I continue to do so, they have it on good authority that I haven’t forgiven them for the act.

Ignoring that topic of discussion, Leon’s finally appeared.

Interesting that Hyoudo still refers to him as “Brustrom-sama”, using the lord-like honorific, I suppose they were allies not too long ago and switching up your dialect based on the situation can be a bit hard.

I suppose it’s part of Brustrom’s current job description that he needs to so excessively suck Leon’s dick.

Granted, Brustrom did have his title of Blue King stripped from him, without the proper show of respect Leon could probably do far worse.

For those who maybe aren’t familiar with the crime of Treason, Treason is quite specifically, the crime of actively “attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance”

This is things like helping your enemies in war, overthrowing your government, spying on your own government entities for the enemy, etcetera. Depending on the authority, simply sleeping with the King’s Wife could be considered an act of Treason.

So while it’s usually meant to punish people acting against their own country, in practice it ends up being anything that generally offends whoever’s leading if done directly

Leon seems quite fond of speaking for his King, and he uses the word “suspected” very carefully, he believes that Yuuki gave Kajitsu to the enemy for the direct intent of keeping her away from Otherworld King’s forces, and they kind of need her.

Kajitsu’s a pretty important witness if it comes to the crime of Treason given the Treasonous act in question was “giving Kajitsu to the Lightbearers”

Hyoudo sees through the crap for what it is.

Surprised we can hear Brustrom with his mouth full of Leon’s balls!

Yeah it seems the official type language isn’t fooling anybody.

Oh that’s cool, Mai’s deck is held in the little heart adornment on her thigh highs.

So I was right, Mai was the first to challenge Leon to battle.

Seems like whenever the gate is opened for a new battle, a rainbow coloured light envelops the surrounding areas.

Well you’re not gonna find out from there.

Anyway, I didn’t wanna go out of my way to get a single screenshot of it, but Clackey starts making his way back to the group.

Regardless, we know how this ended.

It seems like when Leon attempted to take the spoils he earned for beating Mai, he was blocked by Hyoudo

Hyoudo feels the need to point out to Brustrom that he very clearly made no promises of allegience beyond the tournament.

It seems Brustrom is an inherently very trusting person, he’s been quite easily bamboozled due to his faith in the words and actions of other people.

Leon’s face is probably the same one we all made, getting back to this moment again.

Because he did, infact, lose like this.

Seems even Kajitsu’s raring to go now. Granted she is the last available battler.

Kajitsu asks to use Hyoudo’s deck as it’s the most compatible deck available, and she apparently doesn’t seem to have access to her own deck at the moment, god knows why.

Naturally, battles that don’t involve Kajitsu already take a massive toll on her, and the last one she took part in she wiped out a Horizon Ladder.

Kajitsu isn’t naive though, she’s aware they intend to use her to exert control over Yuuki out of fear for her safety, and she refuses to be burdensome.

Before anything can happen however, they’re interrupted.

Erm, guys, that’s the enemy, why are you LISTENING to him.

You’re all armed with batons, you can literally kick the snot out of him!

I’m not sure Clackey has the point he thinks his making, many of Hyoudo’s cards are cards that Kajitsu would use, such as MachG and Amenborg.

Sure Byak-Garo’s not an Insect, but… Neither was Hououga, and Byak-Garo’s easier to use.

The Episode title dictates that he must.

It seems Mai really wasn’t expecting Clackey to come back after being so harsh on him, nor expected him to run to the defense of Kajitsu.

And now we can get to the battle!

But before that, we jump to Dan finally making it to the top of the stairs.

Unfortunately, to reach Otherworld King, they must go through the Wisdom Gate… Which is another flight of absurdly long stairs.

No you see, the Wisdom Gate is just the 2nd of them, you then have the Fool’s Gate, the Masochist Gate, and finally, the Insanity Gate.

In actuality, Dan was told he’d be meeting with Otherworld King before and ran into Pantera. So he’s likely asking if it’s not another Pantera situation.

Yuuki agrees to keep his promise (and by extension Pantera’s) as he defeated Pantera.

And thus one of the more important details of the show occurs, Otherworld King’s ascendency is a trial by combat, whoever can defeat Otherworld King automatically becomes Otherworld King.

This is likely to ensure that chaos doesn’t befall anyone who is able to defeat him, or Otherworld, Power vacuums and all, and more importantly, rewards the new Otherworld King with access to resources that can allow them to shape Otherworld however they please, including revitalizing it.

It could also potentially be a trap, Otherworld King very clearly has a vision for Otherworld and that power being transferred to his successor might cause them to follow in his footsteps.

He’s the Clash King, not the Otherworld King, you think Dan rules anything other than a battlefield?

Dan, quite positively, says this is a problem for later.

Dan sees through Yuuki and is clearly aware that Yuuki is wondering why it should be Dan that battles Otherworld King, to which Dan states defeating him is the reason Dan even came “here”

It’s loose wording, but it can be extrapolated any way you wish, to come to the Wisdom Gate, or to come to Otherworld, it’s all the same, he’s only here to take out the King.

Well, Balls, we have a rare moment of turn skipping.

In this case, we’re off to Turn 5. Clackey has Gremly who appears to be exhausted, and Leon is back to using Purple, with Hellscorpio and a new Spirit, Ashtal.

Ashtal is a vanilla Spirit from BS07, of the Nightling family, a family that typically features Vampiric creatures. It’s a Cost 1 with no reductions but in return for that forced payment, it’s Lv2 reaches a nice and hefty 4000 BP with only 3 core. For decks that need the extra power, its not bad.

Leon’s notably missing a life, which explains why Gremly’s exhausted, he took one on Clackey’s last turn.

Leon raises both Spirits’ levels.

During Hellscorpio’s attack, we can see that Clackey actually still has all of his lives remaining, and 3 cards in his hand.

Leon’s full attack however drops Clackey down to 3 lives, giving Leon the life advantage, but leaving himself with no blockers.

Clackey’s turn, he summons The Angelia Cherubim.

We see at this point Clackey actually has a Fairy Tanya on his board as well. And his Gremly is Lv2.

Anyway, Clackey reveals 3 cards from his deck as he has 3 Yellow symbols, he only has 1 Magic target, Royal Potion, but I’d like to have a look at the last card on the left, the one that isn’t Froger.

The Angelia Kleio is a Cost 2 Yellow Spirit from BS05, it’s a noteworthy card for various reasons, the first but not least of those is that it’s Cost 2, a Cost number that Yellow actively supports with many of it’s effects as it’s one of Yellow’s designated gimmicks.

The second is that it’s one of the cheapest “Divine Spirit” family cards currently available, many Divine Spirits can be a bit up in cost, so Kleio being low to the ground means it can benefit from those effects really easily.

Lastly, is it’s powerful effect at All Levels, Kleio draws you a card anytime your Cost 2 spirits are destroyed, this includes herself as a Spirit’s effects don’t stop applying until after they hit the trash, and the destroyed state leaves them on the field until the very end.

Kleio is a must have for any Cost 2-centric decks built around this time, due to the fact that in many cases it refunds it’s own cost in card advantage, along with refunding you any cards you lost with any potential rushes you may have made, Kleio lets you be reckless with your resources.

Just thought it was a cool card to talk about, anyway, onward.

Having added Royal Potion to his hand, Clackey takes a life from Leon with Tanya.

Next, Clackey attacks with Gremly

During Flash timing, Clackey uses Royal Potion, allowing all Cost 2 Spirits to Refresh, the only Cost 2 Spirit on the board at present is Gremly himself.

Leon takes another life, leaving him with a measly 2.

Clackey attacks again, now if Gremly and Cherubim land their attacks, Clackey wins right here and right now.

But it seems Leon has decided he’s done enough scouting to confirm that Clackey is a Magic-using Yellow Battler, I suppose he’s formulated the best plan of action against it.

Holy Elixir’s a Cost 4 White Magic from BS06, it’s precisely as simple as it reads, you move 1 core from the Reserve to your Life, this essentially operates like blanking an attack during flash timing, though on your turn it can be restorative for other mind games.

Leon’s Life is restored by 1 from his previous 2, leaving him with a current total of 3.

Naturally, Leon being Leon, he’s once again wielded a colour that he hasn’t shown the Lightbearers before, first it was Purple into Yellow, then it was either Pure Blue or Purple into Blue, now it’s Purple into White.

Purple/White mind you, is an excellent combination.

To use a Purple main for the beginning of the fight, he forces you to operate to address his Purple strategies, before blindsiding you with his unforeseeable second colour, it’s unforeseeable because he’s skilled in various Purple mixes and thus it cannot be known what colour he’s using at any given time until he does so, meaning you can’t reliably plan for any given second colour to appear.

For an individual match it can be hit or miss depending on how well he’s been doing with Purple, but as an art of war where he must play many matches, it’s an apt way to prevent anyone from being truly prepared for him.

Using his newly restored life, he takes a life from Gremly.

Clackey worries that without a Refresh, he can’t win, and to full attack without one opens him up to a complete loss as Leon only needs 1 more spirit.

So Clackey ends his turn, leaving Cherubim to block.

Leon’s turn, and he summons a completely new White Spirit.

Haha, not quite class, That was the Sacred Gungnir.

This here’s The HellSacred Gungnir!

A Cost 3 White Spirit from BS08

That’s right, we’ve seen an all new BS08 card before we’ve seen Clackey’s BS07 X-Rare, cuz that makes sense!

Whatever happened to Gungnir powered it up. HellSacred Gungnir has the exact same stats as Gungnir, but has gained an extra Lv3 at 4 core, allowing it to Power up to 6000 BP, and for it’s most versatile feature, it’s effect. When HellSacred Gungnir is used for a Tribute, it’s cost is increased by 3, what that means is HellSacred Gungnir can be used to cover the cost as if HellSacred were a Cost 6. This card which can be summoned on the very first turn, can be used to cover the cost of the SacredEmperor Siegfrieden on it’s own.

It’s gone from a mediocre defensive card that’s just a convenient Armed Machine, to a straight up upgrade, it’s a convenient Armed Machine and a facilitator for Tribute.

Next, Leon uses another card we haven’t quite seen yet.

Bloody Coffin is a Cost 4 Purple Magic that destroys any opposing exhausted Spirit with a Cost of 4 or less, this can also be used during an attack as it’s timing is during Flash, so you can blank an attack using this.

It was released in BS05.

Gremly is destroyed.

As Clackey has no exhausted spirits with Light, Gremly’s effect when destroyed is pretty useless here.

Finally, Leon ends his turn without attacking.

Magisa comments that Leon has done this twice now, though we’ve only seen this instance, where Leon ends his turn without attacking even though the conditions are favourable for him to do so.

Naturally, given that Leon’s strategy relies on blindsiding the opponent, it’s likely he would prefer to play around any of Clackey’s defense cards, and reduce Clackey’s resources with his own counters.

When Clackey presses Leon for why he’s being so passive, Leon drops this one-liner, “There’s no point in defeating someone who’s lost”

This is to say, that Clackey is lost in his own thoughts, rather than having lost the game.

Clackey is sent back to his thoughts, proving Leon correct, Clackey has no idea why he’s fighting, he clearly doesn’t feel he’s supposed to give 2 shits about whether or not Kajitsu is taken or not, and yet he’s here.

Clackey is torn up over it, he doesn’t like the idea of letting Kajitsu suffer but he also doesn’t want to protect her, so he calls out to his thoughts of Dan, wondering what Dan would do in this situation…

…As if it wasn’t bloody obvious for the guy who meets every brick wall with his face.

Lightbearers have the power to feel each other’s thoughts, as Yuuki felt Dan’s vision of being defeated by Walhalance, Clackey’s now trying to feel out Dan’s current feelings.

Conveniently at this time, Yuuki asks a rather simple question, why does Dan fight for others rather than himself?

The obvious answer would be because it’s the morally right thing to do, or because he’s a good person, but both answers sound like he’s trying to paint himself as some moral paragon or some such.

No, Dan chooses to be honest, he doesn’t need a reason. He acts because he wants to, why he wants to is irrelevant beyond that fact.

And Clackey finally resolves his inner conflict, of course he has a vendetta against Kajitsu.

But that does not mean he needs to bring her harm, or need a reason to protect her from harm.

Conflict resolved, Clackey is once again Maximum Womanizer

Clackey finally brings it out, He summons The ArcAngelia Isfiel at Level 1

Let’s talk about it!

The Yellow X-Rare from BS07. It’s of the Divine Spirit family, so perfectly in tune with Clackey’s deck.

At all Levels, Isfiel enables the use of 1 Magic, completely free of charge, and as an added bonus, once it’s finished resolving it’s effect, you can fire the effect again free of charge.

So it essentially allows you to cast 1 Magic from your hand, twice, for no cost.

This effect is quite nasty, as the cost of the card, nor the colour, isn’t taken into account, this allows for quite nasty effect repeats, one example would be using BS03’s Double Hearts to give a symbol to a Spirit, and then give another symbol to a spirit, making Isfiel Triple symbol for a Turn, or making 2 Spirits Double Symbol for a turn.

The 2nd effect is a new keyword we’ve yet to see in Gekiha Dan, Holy Life. A Keyword that rewards aggressive Yellow play, when a Spirit with Holy Life damages the opposing Life, a Life from the Void is restored.

Many low to the ground decks featuring strong Holy Life centric strategies can be a problem for any deck that aims to get the Life advantage, as a Holy Life deck can essentially always obtain the life advantage due to recovering Lives (and therefore negating previous hits to their life) for being aggressive whereas other Aggro decks mostly don’t.

Since this life comes from the Void as well, it’s an indirect form of Core accumulation, it’s quite potent.

The only thing going against Isfiel here is it’s BP, It has an incredibly low BP value, but given it’s penchant for allowing you to perform rather powerful combos on it’s own, it probably doesn’t need the BP really.

Fun fact, in Battle Spirits Saga, the “Holy Life” Keyword was localized as “Blessed”

Clackey raises Cherubim to Lv2, presumably this is just for it’s BP, as currently there are no Light Spirits to benefit from Cherubim’s Lv2 effect.

Cherubim attacks, and Leon allows himself to be dropped to 1 Life.

Clackey then attacks with Isfiel, a weird note is that Clackey doesn’t use any of it’s effects this turn.

A more cooler note is the fact that Isfiel’s Helmet actually becomes a Visor when she attacks, which is awesome.

Leon blocks with Ashtal.

So Leon’s performed a rather cool trick, he’s blocked with Ashtal, and as Ashtal is almost certainly going to lose to Isfiel, it doesn’t really matter what happens to it.

As a result, he depletes Ashtal’s core using Holy Elixir, in Battle Spirits, the disappearance of the blocker mid-flash doesn’t allow your attack to reach the life, once an attack is blocked, it’s been blocked.

This sort of tactic basically lets you make the most out of your core, by chump blocking something, and then using the core that would otherwise go to the reserve uselessly for something now, it’s not like the Spirit needs it anymore.

This results in Isfiel “Missing”, and being unable to do anything with it’s attack.

This tactic works similarly to a “Miss” in rulings as well, a Spirit who is depleted this way isn’t counted as being defeated by the Spirit it was battling, so effects that rely on the Showdown step, that is, defeating an opponent via BP comparison, won’t occur when the Spirit is depleted this way.

Ashtal is defeated, but Leon gains another Life.

Clackey has decided he doesn’t care how many times Leon restores his life, he’s still going to win.

With the board the way it is, Leon will need 2 Spirits in order to threaten Clackey for game.

Well that came out of nowhere! And the Core!

Leon’s operating with only 1 reduction on this thing, he’s got 11 core total, 2 are on his spirits, and he’s just spent 7 of it.

An oldie but a goodie from the Toppa days, Leon summons a White X-Rare.

First time we’ve seen this in a while from Toppa Bashin, so let’s look at it again!

IceBeast Mam-Morl is a Giant Beast White X-Rare from BS03. It’s better suited for an all-white build but I suppose it’s difficult to find cards that aren’t.

Namely, Mam-Morl grants a 2000 BP boost to White Spirits when they block at Lv1, at Lv2 it gives Red, Purple and Green Armor to all Spirits, and at Lv3, a requirement of 8 core, it grants every Spirit Armor to every colour that is not White.

Leon has enough core to raise this to Lv3 on his next turn, it’s likely that he intends to grant himself Armor to Clackey’s Yellow cards on the following turn to put a stop to any chances for a turnaround with Yellow Magic.

For now though, Leon doesn’t have anywhere near enough Core to raise it to even Lv2. So it sits at a measly 6000 BP.

Er, what? You spent 7 core playing a card that only has enough core to enable a defense and you attack?

Clackey takes a life from both Mam-Morl, and takes another from Hellscorpio’s subsequent attack, leaving him with 1.

Leon moves for the last life, though he’s only summoned 1 Spirit, so this is gonna get blocked.

Clackey blocks with The Fairy Tanya

Clackey uses Archaic Smile, a Cost 4 Yellow Magic from BS06, it has a rather simplistic effect, that being that it ends a Battle without comparing BP.

In practice what this means is that neither Spirit gets destroyed during the battle, as the Showdown step never occurs.

Geez, Leon also has a Flash?

…Well that explains why he so confidently attacked with spirits suited for defending.

Hellscorpio is depleted for the cost.

Chivalry’s from BS06, I’m somewhat surprised we hadn’t seen it until now as I’m almost certain it was used at some point, but I’m blanking so I’ll mention it again.

It’s a simple card, It’s a superior version of Pure Elixir that refreshes all of your spirits with the caveat that anything not in the family “Mounted Warrior” is able to attack. This added benefit of Mounted Warriors being able to attack again is offset by the card having 2 less reductions than Pure Elixir.

2 Lives, 2 Blockers, and Clackey has 3 attackers.

He’ll need another Spirit, or a way to remove one of Leon’s.

Bit premature considering it’s only the start of Clackey’s turn.

Clackey raises Isfiel to Lv2.

Cherubim and Tanya are raised to Lv3.

Isfiel attacks and is blocked by Mam-Morl

But Clackey fires a Magic, Wing Boots.

Now, during this turn, anytime Isfiel is blocked, if the blocker has a lower Level than Isfiel, the attack is treated as if it wasn’t blocked, and goes straight to the opponent’s life.

Leon is dropped to 1 Life.

I was about to comment “Hey that’s not how the effect works” but then I went and checked the rulings.

The way Isfiel’s effect works is a little weird due to the way it’s worded, but checking the official rulings, it works like this: During ordinary Flash Timing, Isfiel can cost flub one of the Magic cards you choose to use in your hand, once that card has finished resolving, you can then resolve that Magic again, once more and only once more.

Hence why Clackey was able to wait until the Block before using Wing Boots and repeating it’s effect.

Thanks to Wing Boots specifying a target as part of it’s effect, Cherubim is selected as the next candidate for Wing Boots.

Clackey then activates Isfiel’s Lv2 effect, Holy Life, restoring one life to himself as he was able to damage Leon.

With one final attack from Cherubim, Leon’s last life is smashed, and the Bewitching Leon is defeated.

Damn, guy barely looks fazed by the whole ordeal.

He’s got a couple scratches on his armor but he’s practically unshaken.

Clackey is the designated Dan replacement, even IF Hyoudo is the one who’s meant to be his equal in skill.

Unfortunately, all of Hyoudo’s abilities are centred on known quantities, this makes Hyoudo exceptionally susceptible to being blindsided by things he doesn’t expect.

Leon allows Kajitsu to remain, and leaves.

Naturally, time for a little awkwardness due to the earlier argument they had.

Clackey squares away her doubts, by repeating reasoning she herself gave him earlier, he’s basically admitting he was wrong and she doesn’t need to worry about the discussion any further.

Indeed, what a character, he’s definitely one of my personal favourites in this series. I’ve always been a big fan of characters who wield hybrid colour decks, and Leon maximises it by playing various different decks.

He’s just like me, for real!

Belga 2.0 everyone.

Oh-ho, you’re really going to tell the girl with the Brother Complex to call you “Brother”?

Also given that you’re a man of romance that’s kind of fucking weird.

Thanks Kajitsu for putting an end to whatever the hell that was going to turn into.

Granted I sadly know the reason why she said no and we’re still not at that stage yet so I can’t talk about it.

Later in The Violet, Magisa comments that it seemed like Leon “lost on purpose”

She isn’t totally wrong, he chose not to attack on turns where he could have gained an advantage, he did initially use the excuse that Clackey was lost and therefore had no reason to defeat him but given the stakes involved that seems a bit flimsy a reason.

Unfortunately for them, even though Leon did lose, he’s still holding all the cards, such as their exact position at all times.

Sure he didn’t take Kajitsu, but now he knows where she is at any given moment.

One might wonder how he’s able to track them?

It seems when Hyoudo was defeated, a tracker was placed on his bag.

So now, because of that, Leon always knows where Hyoudo is, and so long as he doesn’t leave The Violet Crew, he’ll know where the rest are too.

This marks the end of the episode.

Naturally, the card of the day is Isfiel.

But I’ve already covered all of the quirks of her effect, listing off useful cards probably wouldn’t help much either unless you’re playing a format restricted game.

Though I suppose if you are Playing Format Restricted, using Thorn Prison sounds absolutely hilarious.

Though, we did finally see a BS08 card in the form of The HellSacred Gungnir.

So I’ll talk about the 2 X-Rares in BS08 that we won’t see.

A Cost 8 Tribute Spirit in the form of The GreatKing Blacktaurus, a Dark Evolution of Kingtaurus, much like DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried.

And a Cost 7 Spirit, The FallenAngelia Mikafar, a Dark Evolution of the typical ArcAngelia Mikafar

Covering Blacktaurus first, the first thing to note is it’s rather lax Tribute Cost, it can be summoned Tributing any Cost 3 or greater Spirit, Spirits of that scale tend to want something a bit bigger, like a Cost 5. Blacktaurus is a relentless attacker, anytime it defeats an opposing Spirit, an opposing life is sent to the reserve, and anytime the opposing life is reduced while it’s attacking, it can send 2 core from itself to the Void in order to Refresh, letting it repeat the process.

It’s almost a straight upgrade from The Providence Hououga, needing less Core to summon (though the same minimum cost to play), a Tribute of a Cost 3 (But you’re probably not doing that while BlackAmenborg exists), but ultimately it can really nastily check your opponent if they can’t properly answer it.

Of course, one of the ways to stop it’s nasty attack train is to beat it with something stronger, after all it’s Lv3 needs a whopping 7 core and before then it’s only got 9000 BP, and the other way is to do what Leon did with Ashtal, deplete your spirit before Blacktaurus can defeat it.

Mikafar on the other hand is less destructive but more supportive, she empties your hand and refreshes it with the amount of cards you tossed out when she’s summoned, additionally, while she’s attacking she enables the use of any of the Yellow cards in your Trash as if they were in your hand, this can be done repeatedly as long as you have cost to pay, for example, I dunno, using Wing Boots multiple times during her attack to flood the board with semi-unblockables. To add to the cycling, anytime you use Magic during an Attack Step at Level 3, she nets you a card.

Fallen Mikafar essentially creates what I’ll call “Virtual” card advantage, there’s no actual card advantage, but the game acts as if you do, cards are not “Used up” as they should be and can be re-used repeatedly, anytime this happens you’re allowed to draw cards, etc.

She’s incredibly frail however, your deck needs a very clear gameplan in order to use her effectively, but if you have considered this properly then she can be a very potent support.

And of course, the other reason the card was a good release was due to the fact that the actual Mikafar was banned a little before this, thus this was the only way for players to make use of the “Mikafar” character in any way.

Course, ArcAngelia Mikafar is now back in the game after so long but that’s a discussion for faaaaar later.

Anyway, fret not about Gekiha Dan missing out on these X-Rares, as BS08 was the first set to feature X-Rares of every colour, and the game has continued down that trend since, which means this does spoil the presence of new Red, White, Purple and Blue X-Rares in the upcoming episodes but aahhhh that’s not all that much of a Spoiler, especially since this game does like to blindside us with who wields them.

Anyway, see you lot in the next one! Buh-bye!