Gekiha Dan – Episode 30

Last episode was the unveiling of a fun little X-Rare wasn’t it? In which case let’s. Keep. Going!

Now we know Pantera’s ultimate strategy, a nasty combo involving the synergies of BS08 and BS04’s Red X-Rares, enabling Pantera to produce 2 X-Rares at the cost of 1, with 3 symbols between them.

So it seems the Lightbearer Team are still in the Yellow World.

After Mai went missing last episode, it looks like they had an agreement to go look for their missing Blogger.

Naturally it’s not like most Otherworlders have access to the Internet, apparently, and this particular Otherworlder doesn’t know her.

I imagine this has been on-repeat throughout the Yellow World.

We do switch scenes to a World that doesn’t seem to have the right ambience to be Yellow.

That is because, of course, as we saw in the very first episode, this is the Purple World.

All the buildings are really gothic here, which I suppose is entirely in alignment with the themes of Purple in general.

Looks like that lady took Mai with her to the Purple World and gave her a room.

Now I’d of course, praise the woman for bringing Mai back if this place didn’t resemble a prison.

But apparently no time for that now, we have the Episode Title, which has no new cards displayed but suggests a certain conflict is about to occur.

Meanwhile it seems Kajitsu is attempting to help Dan using Mother Core’s powers.

It looks like Magisa’s washed out magic wasn’t able to fully repair it, even after it sent her into a state of fever, the Core is holding together but just barely, and is still fractured.

Magisa notes that this probably wasn’t just the Otherworld King’s damage, but every ounce of damage Dan had taken since coming to Otherworld contributed to it’s current state.

The Core is “Scarred”

Poor Dan’s locked in his own head, we get to see this symbolic vision of his 3 strongest Red Dragons.

Who… All seem to be treating Dan somewhat roughly.

Well whatever that was, it’s caused Dan to react intensely to it, completely becoming alert.

It seems that Dan’s broken soul in trying to piece itself together has conjured an image of Dan’s Red Dragons, they’re roaring cries of Anger, Sadness and a Prayer to ressurrect.

Given this is taking place within Dan’s Soul, this is probably a very subtle hint that Dan hasn’t given up, Kajitsu’s just examining the image she sees but it’s Dan’s head.

If he sees that the Dragons want him to fight, then he probably also wants to fight.

Dan falls back asleep.

Hot damn, what a debilitating state, really hitting home the amount of damage a loss to Otherworld King can do to you.

Back in the Wisdom Gate, seems Leon and Pantera have visited Otherworld King for something.

Leon resolves to Otherworld King that he won’t lose Kajitsu for a second time, asking to continue pursuing her, I’d imagine.

Leon’s very evidently taken aback by the change in Otherworld King’s appearance, last time Leon saw him he was probably a decrepit old man.

Pantera explains to Leon that this is what happened when the Red Soldier did damage to Otherworld King, it seems like Otherworld King converted the power of the Red Core into “Life”, which manifested itself in regained Youth.

One can only wonder how this works, really, in relation to Otherworld King specifically.

But given that we’ve already been told that the Bearers of the Core’s Light can revitalize the life in Grand-Lolo, it’s possible that the Otherworld King just used his magic to translate that into life for him when dealt damage.

I’m theorizing that he couldn’t have obtained his regained youth without a Lightbearer.

Leon’s thoughts here are weird, it seems like the whole point of Kajitsu was to essentially perform this same function using Mother Core to restore Otherworld King’s Youth… Which is a fairly nasty ulterior motive for keeping Mother Core to himself.

And explains why Otherworld King might be unwilling to give it up, control over a power source that can continuously rejuvenate his life produces functional immortality.

Leon and Pantera leave after this exchange and Yuuki, who was hiding behind armor, pops out.

So the subtitles here are a bit odd but it’s also possible that the Japanese being used here is also causing the story to be spoken in riddles, Yuuki seems confused as to what “this dispute” was for, which I presume he’s referring to Leon trying to pursue Kajitsu, which Leon very clearly now believes Otherworld King no longer needs.

Otherworld King exclaims that Dan’s helped him discover another method to restore Mother Core’s light, which is to damage Core.

It’s unclear if he means the Cores of the Lightbearers specifically, or Life Core in general, which would be odd considering how often battles occur in Otherworld.

I do feel like he’s referring specifically to Lightbearers though, as Otherworld King seems pleased by the fact that even though he completely smashed the Red Symbol in Dan, it still chose to shine.

Yuuki asks a very… odd question to follow up, asking if he should damage his own White Core as well, which should naturally trigger the same outcome.

Otherworld King’s face here suggests that he doesn’t dislike the idea of Yuuki agreeing to go through the same process as Dan.

I wish I could tell you what the hell this means, but I suppose Yuuki is saying that Otherworld King has somehow become stronger than he already is thanks to the new Life restored to his body, and the power now inside it.

It’s hard to see from the screenshots, but it looks like Yuuki was heading to the Blue world castle.

Suzuri is being tended to by his servants, who are noting the fact that Suzuri has entered his 10th Tournament.

It’s unclear whether it’s the 10th Tournament since he became King, 10th Tournament in general, or that his last Tournament was his 10th attempt.

Suzuri claims that Tournaments have never been tough but that he still hasn’t managed to become the Champion.

Suzuri exclaims that he loves Grand-Lolo, because of the difference in rules, which is that Battle Spirits decides everything, a win for someone like him who’s mainly proficient at Battle Spirits.

Suzuri has a flashback to his bullying again, apparently one particular gripe he had was a nickname he was given, “Hidebu”, which takes the “Hide” from “Hideto” and adds a consonant that was never there.

It’s a clear failure to remember his name properly, but rather than relent when Suzuri points out the issue, the Bully doubles down, saying that he took 2 consonants out of his last name, and that should be sufficient.

Not that Suzuri can argue because he has no strength, it’s a fairly nasty manifestation of power. Given enough leverage, anyone can do things that inconvenience others immensely, or say things that are wrong but have them accepted, wrongs become rights when enough power is exercised.

Suzuri has no physical strength, and so couldn’t push back on this bully calling him “Hidebu”, Suzuri had no leverage while the other guy was exercising his leverage of Strength.

I’m a bit more of a violently inclined person, so while I’ve never, since becoming an adult, ran into someone rude enough to use names I didn’t like, anyone who actively attempted to inconvenience me for fun would find it to be significantly painful each and every time until it stopped.

Sometimes fights aren’t about winning, it’s about ensuring that the trouble someone is going through to get you to submit to abuse isn’t worth it for them.

You’re less likely to slam your hands on a table known for giving you splinters.

Suzuri doesn’t want to go back to Earth it seems, he intends to live out the remainder of his days in Grand-Lolo, a place with different ideas of strength, and which suit him more.

So some people might resonate with this feeling but the ultimate goal of any human being is to improve the self. Our selves in reality are forever detached from the selves we wish to be ideal, but the whole point of growth is trying to be the person who we believe to be ideal, even though we never quite reach it because there’s always a rub.

That doesn’t mean we should give up, self improvement is both better for the self, and better for others.

You might argue “Why should I have to change in order to deal with problems caused by other people?” which is fair.

And I’ll tell you, because the only person you get to control in this life is yourself. The statement works backwards, why should other people change their ways to cater to your convenience?

It’s the same concept, you don’t control those people, and there isn’t a single argument you could make that would convince those people that you do, could, or even should.

You DO control you.

With a bit of logic, it’s fair to surmise the difference between becoming someone capable of handling that adversity, and others changing their ways to cater to preserve your convenience is that you can achieve the former through your own power alone, while the latter is impossible via the same method.

Adversity is a test of wills, be someone who can dispel Adversity via their will. And this doesn’t always have to be retaliation, you could be a person strong with negotiation, or strong abilities in ignoring others, just someone capable of changing their current situation in a way that benefits them, it’s not just one route out, but you do need to have the will to do so.

Suzuri notes that his White Collection is incomplete, as Suzuri completely lacks an Armored Sacred Walhalance, and a Sacred Gungnir.

Which from what I can tell appear to be One-of-a-kind cards as they are the Armor and Weapon that designate the White King.

Which is a convenient thought to have when the specific Master of those cards waltzes into your room.

Yuuki makes an earnest plea to Suzuri, claiming that he wants assistance saving Kajitsu, he requests aid from Suzuri.

Suzuri once again, much like he did with the Lightbearers, states firmly that he wants no part in the battle between the Core Lightbearers and Otherworld King.

Yuuki tries to appeal to Suzuri’s sense of danger, noting that neither Leon nor Brustrom have done anything about Suzuri’s position as of yet, especially since Yuuki was the one who helped instate Suzuri.

This makes Suzuri something of Yuuki’s responsibility, Leon and Brustrom would certainly harm him to get at Yuuki.

Also “Cutting off your hand in your sleep” is a weird use of terminology, it could be a Metaphor but it could also be a valid method of preventing someone from battling, after all you need hands to hold cards.

Suzuri responds to this with what I can only describe as a temper tantrum, it seems like Suzuri intends to maintain his position as Blue King no matter what, after all fighting Otherworld King might mean he’s stripped of his position and has to return to a World he hates.

‘Course, Suzuri spots an opportunity in the face of adversity.

Suzuri realizes both he and Yuuki want something out of this, and so sets the stakes for Battle Spirits, agreeing to assist Yuuki in anything he likes as long as Yuuki can defeat him.

In exchange, Suzuri demands The ArmoredSacred Walhalance and The Sacred Gungnir as prizes if Yuuki is unable to defeat him.

He then realizes he’s being incredibly greedy and tries to pass it off as a joke to Yuuki, essentially giving him the option of refusing the battle.

Yuuki dispels Suzuri’s fears, agreeing to the stakes.

One might go “Ayo really? 2 one-of-a-kind cards for some help” doesn’t seem very fair, but 2 things.

Firstly, Suzuri is a card collector, to have him as assistance is to have his entire X-Rare collection at his disposal as well.

Secondly, given that the end goal is saving Kajitsu, giving up 2 cards many will never even see in their lives isn’t even close to the worth of his sister.

Interestingly, the Gate Open sequence causes them to be enveloped in Light like this, which is rather cool.

Yuuki immediately notes that Suzuri has a rather curious look on his face.

Suzuri raises the evident question, Yuuki is seeking out Suzuri’s assistance for help with his Sister, rather than seeking out the near infinite resources at Otherworld King’s disposal, the only reason this could be the case is because Yuuki needs help that the Otherworld King is unwilling to assist with, this is a subversion of his authority.

This also calls into context Yuuki’s statement earlier against Otherworld King, “Should I damage my core as well?” Given that Dan only achieved this after fighting Otherworld King, Yuuki was potentially, and very subtly, asking if he should fight Otherworld King given the King’s recent discovery of being able to Damage cores in order to make Mother Core Shine.

Yuuki dismisses Suzuri’s concern, the subtitle is definitely literal but the sentiment is essentially “Don’t think too hard about it.”

With that, the battle begins, Suzuri gets the first move.

Let’s see if his deck has changed much since inheriting Brustom’s collection.

This isn’t a smoking gun necessarily, but Suzuri didn’t use this card in his last battle against Randel.

After deploying the rather glorious looking “Honourable Fight”, he ends his turn.

“The Honourable Fight” is a new card, so let’s have a look.

From now on I’m not gonna bother formatting the Level requirements, while it did replicate how the card was listed it didn’t actually change any of the clarity (and potentially made it worse)

I’ll still format the text as necessary just so it’s more obvious what part of the text we’re looking at.

Anyway, The Honourable Fight is a Cost 4 Blue Nexus from BS06, a card supporting Demolish.

At all levels, whenever one of your Demolish Spirits wins a battle of BP on your attack step, you can also destroy cards in the opposing deck equal to the losing Spirit’s Cost.

At Level 2, all Demolish Spirits are refreshed during the End Step, this requires 3 core to maintain.

It’s a Nexus that favours a heavily aggressive strategy, this card synergizes well with the Demolish keyword as Demolish usually only triggers on attack, this allows the player, at least at Lv2, to essentially attack without regard for leaving Blockers as they’ll regain them at the end of the turn.

This can put the opponent’s Life in danger as well as increasing the amount of Demolish triggers.

Good Nexus.

The turns go a bit rapid fire so I’ll try to keep pace, Turn 2, Yuuki summons The Sacred Gungnir at Lv2, and passes.

Turn 3, Suzuri summons Rock-Golem and Block-Golem, and immediately proceeds to attack with Block-Golem.

Yuuki blocks Block-Golem with Sacred Gungnir, Lv1 Block-Golem’s 3000 BP loses to Sacred Gungnir’s Lv2 BP of 4000.

One might wonder why Suzuri attacked if his Spirit would get destroyed anyway, but what’s glossed over is Block-Golem’s effect when attacking at all levels, Block-Golem destroys 2 cards in the opponent’s deck for every Nexus you control, with a maximum of 4 cards, so Suzuri’s actually attacked Yuuki’s deck here.

Yuuki’s drawn an opening hand of 4 cards and drew 1 for his turn, leaving 35 out of a 40 card deck.

With these 2 cards lost, Yuuki has 33 cards remaining.

Turn 4, dropping Yuuki to 32 cards thanks to drawing, summons Kigna-Swan.

So we skip to Turn 7 but it’s a time-saving measure, and don’t worry Yuuki thankfully explains what happened on Turn 5 and 6.

On Turn 5, Suzuri summoned a BlastingGiant Douglas, he raised it to Level 3 on Turn 7.

On Turn 6 Yuuki drew a card, reducing his deck size to 31, and summoned The Artifact Droiden, Now that it’s Turn 8, Yuuki’s deck size is 30, and Droiden is raised to Level 3, raising it’s base BP to 6000, but Droiden’s effect at Level 2 and up raise all White Spirit BP values by 1000.

Back to linear chronology, it’s Turn 9, and Suzuri raises Rock-Golem to level 3.

It’s a very passive game at the moment, not many attacks being waged.

It’s Turn 10, Yuuki has 29 cards remaining in his deck, Yuuki levels down Kigna-Swan and Droiden back down to Level 1.

With 4 core on his Spirits, Yuuki has 5 Core in his reserve and 3 reductions.

Prime conditions for a powerful Spirit.

Yuuki summons The ArmoredSacred Walhalance, but with a Lv1 BP of 6000, and all his other Spirits being somewhat below that, Suzuri’s 7000 BP spirits might be prompted to attack now.

Yuuki has 4 Spirits though, this could be bait.

Suzuri’s now under conditions where he needs to defeat the X-Rare he so desperately craves.

Suzuri appears to have drawn a good card, it’s Turn 11.

Suzuri drops Douglas to Lv1, and Rock-Golem to Lv2, it’s Turn 11, so Suzuri has 6 core available in his reserve with 2 reductions now.

Suzuri spends 2 of that core to deploy a second copy of The Honourable Fight.

This is quite nasty, The Honourable fight is the type of Nexus where the first effect stacks and the second effect doesn’t need to stack, meaning Suzuri can reap maximum benefits from only having levelled 1 copy, while still stacking heavily damaging Lv1 effects.

Suzuri then summons his X-Rare, The GiantEmperor Alexander, with only 4 core in reserve, it can only be at Lv1, at a measly 6000 BP.

Interesting risk to take.

Suzuri enters his attack step and attacks with The GiantEmperor Alexander.

Suzuri activates Alexander’s Assault, exhausting one of his Honourable Fights to refresh Alexander.

So, there were ultimately 2 options here, Take from the life or block Alexander with Walhalance.

Yuuki evidently thinks the chances of winning is higher as long as his X-Rare is available, either that or Yuuki really needs the Core, but given we’re on Turn 11 I’m fairly sure Core shouldn’t be that hard to come by.

Walhalance and Alexander were both at 6000 BP, both would have been destroyed had they battled, not destroying Alexander just warrants Suzuri attacking again…

…That is unless Yuuki has a Battle trick in his hand that he could use earlier lost lives to obtain.

Which could also allow Yuuki to destroy Alexander using Walhalance on a later attack.

But if Suzuri thinks of that, he might get that Life for free if he doesn’t attack with Alexander on a later attack.

THE DEPTH. IS. ENDLESS.

Yuuki is dropped to 4 lives.

Huh?…

Hold on, that isn’t right. Yuuki was hurt by his life being destroyed.

It seems when Yuuki felt that pain, it resonated with Dan as well.

Suzuri is evidently confused, as he’s well aware that the White Soldier isn’t supposed to feel pain when losing lives.

Based on Yuuki’s reaction, Suzuri’s guess as to why that is happens to be correct, Yuuki’s stark immovability that stressed Dan out was a form of protection from Kajitsu, Kajitsu used Mother Core’s abilities to give Yuuki essentially invincibility to the damage from a Core.

That certainly means that Yuuki is somewhat advantaged by Kajitsu’s presence, the pain of losing life is meant to induce stress in a battler on this kind of field, testing a battler’s willpower and focus.

Yuuki’s been gaming the system, by being protected from pain, the stress that came with it doesn’t interfere with his thoughts. And he’s able to resume battling with no worries.

But also, given Yuuki’s surprise at feeling pain, he’s either forgotten what it feels like, or he wasn’t aware until now that Kajitsu was protecting him, the plausibility of it only reaching him when Suzuri mentions it now.

Could be multiple things, not sure it’s ever indicated which it is.

whichever way it is, the stress caused by pain is now going to affect Yuuki’s play for once.

Suzuri attacks a 2nd and a 3rd time, using the second Honourable Fight to refresh Alexander again, each time Yuuki takes from the life, leaving him with a measly 2.

Given that Yuuki evidently didn’t have a way to bridge the power gap between Walhalance and Alexander, I still feel that after maybe 2 attacks, he should have destroyed Alexander using Walhalance to block.

It’s possible he might have been wary of Strong Draw, a Card Suzuri could use by levelling down Rock-Golem without depleting any Spirits, and would have given Alexander 3000 BP. He’d have lost Walhalance for no reason in that case and be in a worse state.

Being at 2 lives is better than losing his only copy of Walhalance I suppose.

Not so nice now is it Yuuki? The pain of battle.

Suzuri taunts Yuuki, letting him know that the pain that Yuuki’s struggling with is what Dan uses as fuel.

Suzuri’s basically telling Yuuki that Dan is more scary than Yuuki is currently. The painlessness granted by Kajitsu was a crutch.

Suzuri ends his turn.

He also declares that next turn, Suzuri’s “Flow” will continue, essentially his deck is a repeated pattern, focusing on Alexander’s flood of attacks.

Skipping to Turn 13, in which I can only presume Yuuki levelled up his Spirits last turn and nothing more, while dropping to 28 cards in deck.

Suzuri summoned a second GiantEmperor Alexander.

Suzuri does not fuck around, it seems inheriting Brustom’s collection also meant that Suzuri inherited Brustom’s copy of Alexander, either that or the collection had more than the one Brustom had on him.

Either way, unlike most card game anime, Suzuri isn’t operating with single copy aces, he’s got an actual deck here.

On Turn 13, with 4 core on his spirits, Suzuri would have had 6 core left, I’m somewhat surprised he was able to produce a Lv2 Alexander, an action that requires 5 core.

But he summoned a 2nd Alexander, that’s 3 Core for the summon alone and 1 to maintain it’s Lv1. Leaving 2 Core in reserve, and 1 spare core on Rock-Golem as it’s Lv2, So where did the other core come from?

This could be Turn 15 but I haven’t seen a prompt suggesting it is. Which makes this a fuckup.

As Alexander’s at Lv2, he’s permitted to destroy a Spirit of Cost 4 or less, and smash cards in Yuuki’s deck equal to the destroyed Spirit’s Cost.

Suzuri selects the most supportive and highest cost spirit he can select, Droiden.

Also once again, if anyone can find out the theme that plays during this sequence please tell me as it’s my favourite theme in the entire series and isn’t in any of the OSTs available to me.

Yuuki loses 4 cards, as Droiden’s Cost is 4. His deck now dwindles at 24

additionally, Suzuri exhausts The Honourable Fight to refresh Alexander.

This statement from Suzuri suggests to me that this is still Turn 13, so again I ask, where is the extra core?

You could not have summoned a 2nd Alexander and raised your first one to Lv2 without offing a Spirit.

…Hold on I’ve just noticed something. The image before this one, Suzuri’s missing 2 lives.

And on some images earlier, Suzuri’s also missing 1 life. When did Yuuki attacked? It’s never been stated that he has.

He lost 1 life before Walhalance, somehow, and 1 life after, but when is completely unknown.

But I suppose losing 2 lives covers the cost, I just kind of which we knew when that attack happened.

Yuuki’s finally moving for a response.

He uses Holy Elixir.

Holy Elixir restores Yuuki’s life by 1 using a core from his reserve.

Also, apparently Yggdrassil is now here for some bizarre reason. What is happening?

Suzuri notes that 1 life restored won’t stop Suzuri from winning with a full attack.

Assuming Yuuki still has Kigna-swan and Gungnir…

Suzuri has a total of 6 attacks, each attack taking out a Cost 4 or less Spirit, and he’s still addressing this one. Yuuki has 3 lives.

Assuming he blocks this one with a Spirit that would be destroyed anyway, he’d have 3 spirits left, and Suzuri would have 5 attacks remaining, the following attack would destroy Yuuki’s last blocker, leaving 5 attacks to be addressed by 2 blockers.

Suzuri’s correct, a full attack does win him the game here.

Suddenly though, Yuuki explodes.

This takes Suzuri aback, as he wasn’t expecting the Ice cold White Soldier to suddenly flare up.

Yuuki uses his iconic defense, Blizzard Wall and takes Alexander’s attack from the Life, dropping him to 2.

Now having lost a life, Blizzard wall prevents Yuuki losing any more lives from Spirit attacks this turn.

Skipping Turn 14, and Yuuki’s drop to 23 cards, Suzuri summons a 3rd god damn Alexander

Also you can see that notably Suzuri has a 3rd copy of The Honourable Fight on his board.

Which means between just the Alexanders, Suzuri has 6 attacks from 3 Spirits, with Rock-Golem and Douglas that’s 8 attacks.

Suzuri declares that he doesn’t feel as if he can lose.

Yuuki’s starting to burn up again.

Suzuri once again notes that Yuuki is acting incredibly strangely.

It seems like Kajitsu’s had her Mother Core abilities ever since she was a small girl, using it in panic after some complete utter twats who totally deserve it was ruining a rose garden.

…Sending them through a literal god damn tornado seems like excessive retribution.

Granted, if they knew what their asshattery was going to potentially bring upon them, they wouldn’t have tried to trash the flower garden.

She’s eventually calmed down by a tiny and very polite looking Yuuki.

Well isn’t this a nice strong scene of familial duty to one’s relatives. Though protecting your sister being the reason you were born when you’re clearly the elder is certainly a farfetched conclusion.

Yuuki once again declares his resolve to save Kajitsu.

And now we get to the resonance as to why these 2 are battling each other, other than being the Soldiers with the least ties to our main Lightbearer cast (meaning it’s a rather novel contest)

Yuuki is trying, desperately, to save his Sister any way that he can, and Suzuri refuses to help anyone because no one was capable of saving him from his own suffering.

Now we get context for this particularly traumatic sequence of Suzuri’s bullying.

It seems he was trapped in the bathroom and had water tossed over him, the reason the bullies were pissed is because they pressured Suzuri into building a powerful deck for them, he succeeded but they couldn’t make the deck work, Suzuri then drew their ire after articulating that the deck wasn’t the issue, their lack of skill was, which naturally, as the one with unchecked power allows them to ignore facts dictated to them by those with no power, they attempted to retaliate with violence.

Suzuri had to deal with this all of the time, every day he was bullied, exploited for his intelligence, and punished for his abuser’s failures.

Suzuri reaffirms his belief, that Grand-Lolo is a better home for him as Battle Spirits, and not physical strength, decides everything.

This could also be a “strength in numbers is irrelevant” type deal, after all Battle Spirits is a 2 player game (usually), meaning the Battler stands alone, no strength or companions required.

One can impose their rule on an entire world, alone, as long as they’re the strongest…

…Which is eerily how Otherworld King imposes his rule, you can tell this is a vice, not a virtue.

It’s so weird how Brustom’s being presented consistently as a powerful battler, when his only examinable board states were a sea of colourful X-Rares he somehow managed to defeat Suzuri with, and never on-screen, and his White/Blue deck that he defeated Dan with once.

He doesn’t come off as powerful in any way but yet the show acts as if he is and that’s just… not the vibe I get, Brustom’s rather forgettable.

Suzuri declares his resolve to win, but then realizes there’s an awkward silence given he’s in the middle of his own turn, becoming embarrassed by getting that vexed.

Suzuri attacks with his Lv2 Alexander, destroying Yuuki’s Sacred Gungnir and destroying 3 more cards in Yuuki’s deck, leaving him with 20 cards.

Suzuri activates Assault, refreshing Alexander at the cost of exhausting 1 Nexus.

Yuuki chooses to block Alexander with Walhalance.

Suzuri declares it’s a draw at 10000 BP (meaning Walhalance was raised to Lv3 on an earlier turn somewhere), and notes that even with a draw, Suzuri wins with a full attack.

Yuuki activates Walhalance’s Lv2 effect, exhausting a card he hasn’t used before now, The Sacred Laevateinn.

a Cost 2 White Spirit from BS07, The Sacred Laevateinn is the superior support card to Walhalance in just about every concievable way compared to Gungnir. Having the same baseline BP but a higher max BP.

Additionally, Laevateinn is designed to be exhausted, at All Levels, if either Thor or Walhalance defeats a Spirit via comparing BP, Laevateinn is refreshed, meaning it will always be an available attacker in spite of Thor and Walhallance exhausting it for power.

Well, so long as Walhalance wins.

Laevateinn also beats all other Armed Machines by virtue of BECOMING A GOD-DAMN SWORD!

AND I DIG SWORDS!

Walhalance defeats one of the GiantEmperor Alexanders.

Also this technically removes 2 attacks from the equation, as Alexander was refreshed when this occurred.

Suzuri attacks with his 2nd Alexander, using Assault to Refresh it.

Suzuri then uses Build Up during Flash Timing.

It’s been a minute, but Build Up raises the Level of any Spirit by 1, it’s Cost 3 with 2 Blue Reductions, meaning Suzuri only needs to spend 1 Core for it here.

He uses this to bring Alexander to Lv2 so it’s BP is 10000, this is likely a measure to cover situations where Alexander has been summoned but Suzuri needs it to be a higher level a turn earlier, as the Level raising effect can be used during the Main Step. And is cheaper than the core needed to raise Alexander to Lv2.

Sadly, doing it during Alexander’s attack means he can’t gain Alexander’s destruction effect to destroy Laevateinn.

Yuuki blocks with his Lv3 Yggdrassil, under normal circumstances, Alexander would be the better of the 2, having 10000 BP currently. And Yggdrassil only sits at 9000.

Yuuki however counters using Avalanche Aura, the magic he used to outfox Dan’s power, now this turn, blocking Spirits gain 2000 BP, and if those Spirits happen to have the Armor ability, they gain an additional 2000, putting Yggdrassil at a whopping 13000 BP.

Suzuri attempts to deal with Yuuki’s consecutive Magic, but finds he has no responses in his hand.

Yuuki’s far from done.

Yuuki uses Chivalry, which will refresh every one of Yuuki’s Spirits, as long as only Mounted Warrior family Spirits are able to attack.

Which isn’t a problem as it’s not Yuuki’s turn.

To cover the cost however, he needed to expunge all the core from Laevateinn, depleting it.

Yggdrassil and Walhalance are back up and ready to block again now, and thanks to Avalanche Aura, they’ll gain 4000 BP on block.

Yggdrassil destroys Suzuri’s 2nd Alexander.

Just one X-Rare remains.

Yuuki’s Battle Style is one that favours the use of Magic, he’s a Magic-user for all intents and purposes, filling his board with Spirits and using vast arrays of White Magic to pick apart his opponent’s board and strategy as they’re executing it, producing fragile board states by the time his turn arrives.

The result is a deck that’s rather difficult to crack offensively, a shield that breaks any spear thrust in it’s direction.

As the turn counter proceeds to Turn 16, this means Suzuri’s turn has ended.

On the following Turn 16, Yuuki’s deck drops to 19 cards, and both Yggdrassil and Walhalance attack, destroying Rock-Golem and Alexander as Suzuri chooses to block with it.

This statement is… incredibly weird as it doesn’t make any sense.

Suzuri has 2 lives and a Douglas, sacrificing Alexander was entirely unnecessary here… As he could have blocked with Douglas, or taken 1 life. That would make things precarious but he’d have an Alexander for next turn.

Yuuki has 1 Kigna-swan to his name, but it’s possible that Suzuri is being cautious about reaching for Yuuki’s life with another Alexander attack as Yuuki might still have a White Magic counter.

Still, this guy would sacrifice every last one of his morals for one X-Rare he doesn’t have.

Suzuri draws and his confidence is bolstered, it seems like he’s drawn a card that can let him change the board state.

Also a bit weird, the Nexuses have moved to Suzuri’s front Row.

Ultimately it really doesn’t matter what row the Nexuses are placed in as long as they aren’t distorting what’s actually going on. Usually anything that can attack is placed in front, and Nexuses are placed in the middle, while the Opened Zone gets placed in the back.

Suzuri uses Strong Draw, now he can perform what we in Yu-Gi-Oh! Call “Graceful Charity”

He’s allowed to draw 3 cards and trash 2.

The cards he trashes are “Construction” and “Nexus Attack”

Construction is a card from BS03, a powerful-in-concept-but-not-quite-in-practice card that deploys every single Red, Green and Blue Nexus from your Trash for absolutely free, theoretically this could enable some really nasty combos but the card is incredibly expensive and building a Blue deck around it can be rather difficult, especially since the cost would leave you open for a turn that your opponent could use to rip you apart. As a result it’s not been touched and is seldom played.

Nexus Attack is a Magic from BS07 that grants 2000 BP to an Assault Spirit for every exhausted Nexus, the issue here is the fact that it requires the Nexus be exhausted first, meaning it’s only 2000 BP on the first swing of an assault spirit, and the opponent is unlikely to somehow threaten the darned thing on attacks 2+

Besides, Suzuri’s got no Nexuses in his Trash, nor an Assault Spirit on his board.

What he does have… is MORE X-RARES.

Suzuri goes balls off the walls and summons The MobileFortress Castle-Golem!

A BS04 Blue X-Rare, a card so darned strong in Nexus strategies it’s run even in Decks that aren’t Blue as an alternate win condition for any deck that mainly produces many Nexuses.

It’s got 2 simple effects, but it’s mainly used for the first, Castle-Golem can destroy 5 cards in the opposing deck for every one of your Nexuses, the limit on this effect being a max of 15 cards.

At Lv2, when it attacks, it also wipes out a single card for every Blue Symbol on your field.

With 3 Nexuses and 2 of these, by the time you’re able to summon 2 Castle-Golem’s, you’ve won the game.

This game’s been going for a while now and Yuuki has only 19 cards left. At this stage, Castle-Golem is capable of wiping out every last card in Yuuki’s deck by itself!

Ah shit, Suzuri’s starting to show the face he only makes when a Deck Out is coming.

Thanks to Castle-Golem’s effect and 3 Nexuses being available, Yuuki’s losing a full 15 cards.

With this, Yuuki is reduced to just 4 cards in his deck, a Level 2 swing from Castle-Golem ends him right here.

But that would be too generous.

No instead Suzuri summons a second MobileFortress Castle-Golem.

The terror of Suzuri’s Deck, an aggro deck that attempts to win using as many Alexander’s as possible to wittle down the opposing life.

But if he somehow fails, the leftover Nexuses are just fuel for his later Castle-Golems.

He might not succeed in his main game plan but he doesn’t need to, how do you stop a 30 card mill when you’ve spent all your resources stopping a wave of attacks?

I know this is done for effect, but it’s also possible that Yuuki had added extra cards to his deck knowing he’d face off against Suzuri’s deck destruction.

Not that it was enough, but hilariously, assuming that a battler is working with 40 cards isn’t a safe assumption in this show.

With that, Yuuki’s hope of being able to save Kajitsu, something he risked his White X-Rare for, vanishes completely.

Rather poetically, Yuuki’s last card is Blizzard Wall, a card he consistently uses to preserve himself on few lives.

Yuuki’s deck is empty, with no way to recover cards before his Start Step, Yuuki has lost the battle.

The first defeat of the White Soldier, and it’s not by Dan, it’s by the Blue Soldier!

Suzuri notes that Yuuki’s behaviour was somewhat odd, and states unusually perceptively, that he’s far too fixated on saving his Sister, to the extent of which that he battled in an incredibly shallow manner, resulting in openings produced from not being able to see the big picture.

He became ultra-fixated in annihilating Alexander to protect his lives that he forgot that Suzuri’s main plan is to destroy his deck.

Suzuri likens it to the purpose of a key card, it’s not enough simply to get them onto the field, they need support in order to let you win the game…

Which is rich coming from a guy who won using 2 copies of an X-Rare that win the game by being summoned.

Suzuri ends off his criticism, before realizing he just launched a criticism, it’d normally draw retaliation from a bully but Yuuki’s no bully, and he takes Suzuri’s criticism to heart.

Yuuki’s rather open to criticsm I thought, he just has a habit of asking incredibly rhetorical questions.

Yuuki notes that the pain of a battler affects his heart, he seems quite fond of it though, so it’s unlikely he’ll be relying on Kajitsu to protect him from that pain from now on. Even after he gets her back.

Undeterred by his failure to recruit Suzuri, he says he’s going to move on.

But not before keeping his end of the deal, The White Soldier is back to stage 1 of his deck, before he obtained Walhalance and Gungnir.

Back in Dan’s psyche, he seems to be reckoning with the apparitions of his Dragons in his head.

His fighting Spirit is returning.

Having shattered his melancholy, Dan is resolved to go back and fight again.

As a result, his Red Symbol is now fully repaired.

This seems to have restored his mind fully as well, as he’s finally attentive of his surroundings.

Zungurii, being the most worried about him out of the lot, straight up attacks him with a hug.

Clackey welcomes back Dan with a handshake, which is classic cool collected Clackey.

Dan seems to acknowledge Kajitsu having been there a while now, telling her about how he felt Yuuki, likely through the pain of his core.

Kajitsu seems to have felt him as well, granted she doesn’t seem bothered by his pain. It’s also possible she felt the change in his heart that’s starting to occur thanks to the pain of the core.

Naturally, after you take a bigass nap for several days, you’re bound to have some god damn cravings, Dan asks Zungurii for some good old fashioned curry!

I had curry today, coincidentally, a good ol’ Chicken Jalfrezi

Very pleased.

Suzuri has finally completed his White Collection, Notably Suzuri’s not like most other collectors in that he actually gives his collection some exercise, putting his most prized cards into effective, well-oiled decks designed to draw out their most supreme abilities.

Ah the age old contradictory question that all selfish fighters ask. “What is the gain in fighting for others”

The issue is unfortunately the question itself. And likely stems from his bullying.

Suzuri has never helped someone willingly, he’s been forced to do so, and has been punished when it’s failed, additionally, no one has ever attempted to help him willingly either.

As such he’s never truly felt the rush of Oxytocin that floods your system when you help someone else and are well and truly thanked, so he’s unable to understand why fighting for others would ever feel good.

Suzuri states that Dan is also the type to fight for others, and dismisses the thought entirely, deciding that he and Dan have nothing to do with each other.

I suppose this nasty thought process was completely reinforced by Yuuki’s desire to help his Sister being defeated by Suzuri’s desire for Yuuki’s rare cards.

Back to an update on Mai’s situation, she’s finally woken up!

And she very much is in a prison cell, hoo boy.

Sadly, Mai’s mystery saviour only responds to Mai’s question by asking how Serge is doing, so however this lady is, she believes Mai’s Violet is hers, and is acquainted with Serge.

Apparently Mai seems quite cordial with her, remembering her name.

This rather… Well-endowed edgelord of a lady, is called “Namii”

And she doesn’t seem to be nearly as fond of Mai as Mai seems to be of her.

Ah yeesh, I can understand that feeling, when someone wrongs you in an incredibly deep way but suffers no karmic retribution for it. It appears Mai has “Stolen” Namii’s best card, I presume that means that Mai’s Beelzebeat was not originally hers.

If I had a good memory of someone who stole something from me and suffered no consequences, that grudge would be incredibly difficult to wash out

Though given this statement, it seems like Namii had her things not quite “Stolen” as opposed to spoils offered in a battle against Mai, which Namii then lost and Mai claimed as hers.

I can understand being a little bitter about it but you very much could have avoided that by not battling her?

Whatever it is, we get a fade out view of the Prison Mai is trapped in, before the Episode closes out.

Alright! Card o’ the day!

Naturally, the darn card of the day is The MobileFortress Castle-Golem, as before I don’t really have anything to say I haven’t already said… Sooooo….

But I will cover a mistake I made, I said the card Suzuri dropped was Construction, but actually it occurs to me that it was not.

I was thrown off because the same spirit appears in both, but I’ve preserved the mistake because I like to be honest.

The card he discarded was infact “Reclamation”, it’s a Battle Boost on a bad day, but on a Good day you can destroy a Nexus card in order to summon a Cost 4 or less Blue Spirit from your hand, for no cost.

It’s not great but some Nexuses really want to get destroyed, this card allows you to do so, that’s basically it.

In exchange for the mistake and poor lackluster Card-of-the-day review due to me talking about the card so much upfront, here’s an attempt at recreating the type of Deck Suzuri was using in today’s episode, naturally this won’t work against any kind of modern deck but for format restricted, I imagine you could get some mileage out of this.

Til next time!