Gekiha Dan – Episode 31

If these episodes were a month, we’d be at the end of it.

Welcome back, last episode we had a very ambitious Suzuri vs Yuuki, lore-wise it seemed like a win for Yuuki would be almost obvious given Suzuri’s unusable and static position as Blue King, and the stakes at hand, but surprisingly, Yuuki lost and gave up his White X-Rare.

Dan’s been restored too, so let’s see how this show goes with the Red Soldier back in the game.

Sick, Dan’s ’bout to get his curry.

Dan is however, interrupted by Magisa, and is prevented from consuming the all-encompassing spicy nectar that is Curry.

Magisa, this will be remembered.

But Magisa is pressing Dan for information about their number one enemy of all time, Otherworld King.

Dan explains that Otherworld King was somehow able to become Young during the battle.

You can see where Magisa’s priorities lie, given that she’s regarding this information with pleasant surprise rather than fear.

Kenzo (Calling him Hyoudo is apparently incorrect so Kenzo from now on it shall be) is very evidently highlighting that Otherworld King could barely be called Human with such an ability.

While it seems that Otherworld King can control life by converting it into years, using it to reverse his own aging process, it’s not very clear whether or not that’s an ability he has via Mother Core, or if it’s Magisa’s magic enabling this.

It seems like we’re leaning on “He’s about as powerful as Magisa’s magic was”, given Clackey uses Magisa’s magic as the metric for the extent of his abilities.

Magisa confirms it though, Otherworld King converting the energy generated from a Lightbearer destroying his lives into Youth is a use case for Magisa’s magic.

Erm, priorities?

She’s lucky that given it’s a possibility via her Magic, she can technically get back both.

Looks like today’s battle is going to be a feature match between Kenzo and Pantera, given the records at play here, Kenzo should be more than capable of dealing with Pantera as both have lost to Dan once.

Though there’s the key note that Pantera wasn’t able to use Dark-Crimson against Dan, which might mean the difference.

You’d think, given his newfound Youth and ability to walk that Otherworld King would be doing literally anything other than watching Leon do his job for him.

Leon plans to head for the Yellow World… but judging by the clouds he seems to already be there, so this very clearly makes no sense.

Seems like Leon still intends to capture Kajitsu, his main aim appears to be maintaining Grand-Lolo’s “Control” under the authority of Otherworld King.

He’s certainly a very loyal Lion, I’m still not certain what his particular gripe with Yuuki of all people is.

Back to the Violet crew, Dan thanks everyone for looking after him, least he can do for being doted over by Magisa and Kajitsu.

Zungurii quite happily informs Dan of the fact that he’s had his first battle, but you can see by Dan’s expression here that he’s not quite so happy about it as he should be

Zungurii asks Dan for a battle, likely in order to train so that Zungurii can be more of a help to Dan.

Dan refuses however, incredibly out of character for him, stating that he has made the executive decision to never battle again.

Clackey reacts in just about the way anyone else would, “What the HELL man?”

Fact of the matter is, Dan, if you can’t battle…

There is genuinely no benefit to being here if you’re incapable of battling.

Clackey notes that Mai practically allowed herself to be captured, to be placed in the worst possible situation, just so Dan could recover and fight again.

Dan seems to be completely adamant, even in spite of the effort everyone went through to make sure his soul returned to him, he will not battle, even for his friends.

Oh genuinely go fuck yourself you moody sod.

a World of experience that could at least assist the cast if you don’t intend to use it yourself and you won’t even allow that.

Piss off back to Earth ya damn whingebag.

He’s being a complete jam tart is what he is.

It seems the bruising that Otherworld King left on Dan’s Soul is so bad, that even though his personality has returned to him, and his Red Symbol has been fully restored and hasn’t left him just yet, he’s still so scared of losing a battle that important again that he won’t go anywhere near battle spirits at all.

Even Kenzo’s disappointed. Infact Kenzo’s probably the one most bothered by this, given that Kenzo’s a very strong proponent of adjusting from your losses, but Dan absolutely refuses to do precisely the one thing that all good battlers should.

Serge’s decided not to let this poor news stop their plans, deciding to go into town in order to get more information on where Mai might have gone.

Speaking of Mai, it seems like she’s not having too great a time.

It seems like Mai’s being served god-awful food, Japan rather consistently represents awful-tasting food with a Purple sheen in their anime, I wonder where the source for that is… I suppose it’s the only unnatural colour for otherwise well-cooked foodstuffs that isn’t blue, green, grey or black, as blue or green implies mold (Old food), Grey implies tastelessness, and black implies it’s been burned, it’s hard to convey via colour, that food doesn’t taste good.

It seems Namii is being deliberately destructive, apparently along with her ship and her best card, Mai also got Serge.

There’s an implication she’s poor at cooking but something tells me that she’s deliberately cooked Mai’s food poorly.

Down the hatch.

Namii apologizes profusely for her “Mistake” of burning Mai’s food and adding way too much salt.

Back to the Yellow World, it seems some gossip has made it’s way there, some of the Otherworlders have seen Namii take a Lightbearer.

Luckily for us, this is the line we need in order to connect our detached Lightbearers back with the main plot.

So, being captured by Otherworld King would have been the expected outcome, given that Mai left the Violet in order to intercept one of two pursuants who were directly working under him.

Serge argues that this situation is probably worse, as while Otherworld King may remove the Lightbearers as a means to an end, simply because they stand against him, there’s a unique quirk about this particular person.

Her full title is Namii the Scorpion.

So, Serge was working for Namii before he entered Mai’s employ, and her long Rivalry with Mai in addition to Mai suddenly having 99% of her stuff now, suggests that Namii will have a rather deep-seated hatred for Mai.

So we’ve gone from someone capturing her to suppress retaliation, to someone who actively wishes Mai harm.

Yeah I can see why Serge would consider this to be a worse scenario.

Alright! Time to head to the Purple World! The penultimate World before the White World I think too.

…Oh right, that little Plot thread has gone wholly unresolved… Kenzo still has an active tracker, meaning Otherworld King’s forces still know their location.

And right now they’ve been sitting ducks trying to find info on Mai.

So of course, as soon as they get moving, Leon once again appears in his gargantuan ship out of buttfuck nowhere.

Certainly a change in tactics, due to not being able to chase them into a place with high chance of collision, they’re instead aiming nets at the group.

Due to the incredible about of drifting induced by the assault of nets, The Violet is forced to halt, as Serge accepts that he can’t escape them.

So how do the rules work here, Leon’s already been told to piss off once before, so what’s the circumstances that allow Leon to no longer adhere to the rule that has already been imposed on him?

He went back to Otherworld King first I suppose, but was it once per outing? What constitutes a new outing? Is it daily imposed?

Like where did the buck stop after Clackey kicked his ass last?

Magisa realizes the oddity of how accurately Leon continues to find them in spite of all their attempts to jump worlds and escape.

Belga confirms their suspicions, noting that when Leon defeated Kenzo, he used the opportunity to plant a transmitter on him.

…Personally Belga shouldn’t have said anything and maintained the ruse a little longer.

Kenzo feels exceptionally terrible about being the reason why they were able to be located so frequently.

Also the fuck is Dan doing here so seriously? He’s not going to battle so he’s got no business doing squat here.

Leon’s been carrying you asswipes this entire time.

Magisa quickly puts the ki-bosh on the tracker plan, deciding to bust the thing once and for all.

Magisa and Leon have a disagreement over the method used, Magisa declares the use of a tracker to be “Cowardly”…

Which I find to be a bit odd considering its a device he can use to identify your location, I’m with Leon, if his aim is to find and capture Kajitsu, planting a tracker without informing them about it seems like it would make that task significantly easier.

Leon moves to take the The Violet’s crew prisoner.

But we’re interrupted by a somewhat familiar voice.

That black coat.

Those grey trousers.

The wrinkles on his face.

His evolving butt-chin…

Julian arrives to assist!

I was wondeirng when we’d see this chap again, being the former red soldier the show’s doing a lot of work trying to ensure he did indeed leave a Legacy.

I wonder how he’ll deal with the fact that Dan’s being a complete pansy.

This is a fairly good question, Julian was back in the Blue World, why is he on the Yellow World, and more importantly, why is he helping?

It seems the news that the Red Soldier lost to Otherworld King made it’s way to Julian, so Julian came over to visit him, I guess Julian intends to reconcile with how Dan is feeling now, as Julian refused to battle as a Soldier anymore after losing horribly to said King.

Dan is in that same predicament now.

It seems Leon’s a little too recent to remember Julian, having never met him, which probably means that Pantera of all people was the only “Head” of the Otherworld King at the time Julian was taking him on.

Julian takes particular note of the slimyness of attempting to capture Kajitsu while Dan’s still in a state of BITCH-

Sorry, recovery.

Julian states his case, firstly, that he doesn’t intend to allow Leon to capture Kajitsu as she bears Mother Core’s Light, secondly, that his qualified to do so, being a former Core Soldier.

Leon’s happy to take this dance, noting Julian’s Legendary status, the lack of a smile on his face suggests he’s mentally preparing himself for something difficult.

Ah, if only this show was so cool as to allow a throw down between Julian and Leon.

Unfortunately, this show is not that cool.

Irritated by the fact that Leon basically jump-scared him with a Purple and Blue deck, Kenzo wants a rematch with him, now fully aware of the fact that Leon operates a series of Hybrid Decks in a random rotation

Leon tries to remind Kenzo that the Green Soldier lost to him last time they went at it, the subtitling’s a bit weird but accurately translates what is said, the issue I have is with the statement being made.

Kenzo claims Leon would not of won if Kenzo had advance knowledge of the fact that Leon was using a Hybrid Deck, except Kenzo did have knowledge of this.

The issue wasn’t that Leon was using a Hybrid deck to surprise Kenzo, Kenzo was fully aware that Leon had defeated Mai using a Purple and Yellow Hybrid.

The issue was once Kenzo was up to bat, Leon used a Purple/Blue Hybrid deck, the sudden appearance of the Blue attribute threw off Kenzo’s preparations for a Purple/Yellow deck.

Kenzo however now knows that Leon is fairly skilled with a myriad of decks, and so as long as he doesn’t dismiss the possibility of a colour hitting him from nowhere, he’ll be perfectly fine.

Kenzo then gives his “updated” win/loss record to Leon, noting to Leon that while he may have lost to Dan, that was his first loss, and he’s most certainly never lost to the same opponent twice.

It’s time for… Wait didn’t the Episode Title mention Dark-Crimson’s combo? How is that going to work if Kenzo’s fighting Leon?

In the midst of the gate opening, Julian strongarms Dan, demanding that they watch the battle.

Dan, still scarred by his battle with Otherworld King, vehemently refuses.

Julian states 2 very good reasons as to why Dan really cannot miss out on battles, the first being that he bears the Core’s Light, but even more than that, Kenzo is Dan’s friend and Dan won’t even watch him fight to protect him?

Julian successfully drags Dan into the Spectator Booth.

It looks like this battle will begin with Leon taking the first move.

Ah don’t dick me over like this again! I hated the turn skips in Toppa, I don’t need them here!

It seems even though Dan, Julian and Magisa made it to the spectator booth, it’s not gonna be so easy for the remaining 3 passengers.

Additionally, until that fight finishes…

…Belga is free to do as he pleases, it seems like there’s a hole in the rule of Battle Spirits that essentially means that until a victor is declared and a course of action concluded, no one is obligated to do… well, anything.

After all if Leon takes his time taking out Kenzo, then what rule are they breaking by taking Kajitsu in the meantime?

Clackey’s cool as a cucumber, promptly tells Belga to suck a fat one.

Kajitsu then asks Clackey for some help, asking for the power of his Yellow Light.

It seems we’re gonna witness some more of Kajitsu’s MotherCoreTooOpPlzNerf Powers.

Kajitsu inches closer to Clackey, which would probably make him real happy if it weren’t for the fact that he’s got weapons pointed at his face, and whispers her plan to him so that we, the audience, can’t hear

Whatever it is, Clackey very much had absolutely zero idea Kajitsu was capable of doing this.

Thankfully, we didn’t have any nasty turn skips, it’s simply skipped to the end of Leon’s turn.

Leon has summoned Lizardedge and Ankillersaurus, which means he’s currently using a Red Deck.

This is a pretty bad matchup for Kenzo, given it’s the only colour that’s beaten him so far, Leon likely knows this which is probably why he chose it.

Don’t get too comfortable, Leon has a knack for pulling colours quite literally out of his arse.

Turn 2, Kenzo summons Gabunohashi and ends his turn.

Turn 3, Leon raises Ankillersaurus to Level 3.

Leon then performs a full attack with both Ankillersaurus and Lizardedge, and Kenzo takes a life from both, dropping to 3 lives. Leon ends his turn.

Turn 4, with 7 Core available to spend, Kenzo pays 5 of it to summon The BladeKingBeast Byak-Garo

Probably the fastest I’ve seen an X-Rare summoned, made only possible by Kenzo taking those lives earlier but sweet jesus.

Byak-Garo attacks, Leon having no blockers, takes the attack from his life, dropping him down to 4.

Kenzo ends his turn.

Magisa makes an excellent point, Byak-Garo ate a crapton of Kenzo’s available core that could have been used for more Spirits, at 3 lives, Leon just needs 2 more Spirits to put Kenzo in a really awkward position.

Julian notes that the Green Attribute makes this situation somewhat okay for Kenzo.

Firstly, there’s Swift, Kenzo’s number of blockers per turn is undetermined until the attack step due to the surprise factor of Swift.

But what Julian chooses to focus on is a different, standard strategem for Green decks, that is Core Boost.

Anyone reading has heard this before, but for the uninitiated, Core Boost is a strategy possible in Green decks due to a large portion of it’s card pool having effects that allow you to accelerate the rate in which you produce core.

I wouldn’t believe it so far, given that Kenzo is having his 3rd battle, and he hasn’t used a single card that produces a Core from the Void.

Kenzo’s been using a Swift & Windstorm strategy up until now, a rush deck.

Julian goes on to explain that Green decks having Core Boost as a trait, means that over the course of the game, Kenzo will naturally have more Core than Leon.

He’s essentially saying that Kenzo has inevitability in this battle, as Kenzo will almost always be able to play his hand.

In order to get to inevitability though, he needs to resist Leon’s beatdown.

Julian then notes that by summoning Byak-Garo, a High cost, High BP spirit (and by virtue of this, difficult to remove by a Red deck), Leon will have to play around it, which will slow down his game plan.

This will give Kenzo time to access his Core boost.

Magisa notes that Julian’s still got it.

Dan averts his eyes from the battle, not wanting to be any part of a world decided by Battle Spirits that he loved so much less than a week ago.

Julian notes that the only way Dan’s going to recover from his wounded, afraid heart, is to battle again.

And Dan of all people should know that, because Dan did precisely that for Julian.

Yuuki returns to his ship, asking Kazan what’s going on

Kazan reports to Yuuki that Leon has once again gone to retrieve Kajitsu. Yuuki seems rather taken aback by this.

I suppose its because of Leon’s earlier conversation with Otherworld King, that should have indicated that Kajitsu was no longer necessary, also potentially Otherworld King reassuring Yuuki not to worry about Kajitsu in general.

Turn 5, Leon brings Ankillersaurus down to Level 1.

Leon’s got about 7 core to work with, 2 of which are on his Spirits.

Then, spending said 5 available Core, and using Lizardedge’s only core, he summons The DinoCavalry Diridalus..

…Leon appears to be using a copy of Pantera’s deck, I’m not sure if it will be covered whether or not this will be explained.

Leon attacks, with it’s Lv1+ attacking effect, he can destroy a Spirit with 2000 BP or less.

Gabunohashi with 1000 BP is destroyed.

With no blockers remaining, Kenzo is forced to take a life, dropping him to a measly 2.

Back to the hostage situation, Kajitsu and Clackey are ready to execute Kajitsu’s plan.

Kajitsu starts accessing the power from Clackey’s Yellow Core.

This causes the Ship’s Core System to also start giving off light.

I feel like a blinding light diversion won’t work given that the ship would then take the light with it. Plus they’ve already been boarded.

Whatever it is, Belga does realize that Kajitsu is attempting to use her abilities.

Turn 6, Kenzo has 1 Core on Byak-Garo, and 9 core in his reserve.

He adds 3 Core to Byak-Garo to bring it to Lv2. 6 core left.

Now Leon will be left with problems to say the least, he can either block and get his Spirits exhausted, or take lives from Byak-Garo and get his Spirits returned to his hand.

This will slow down Leon incredibly.

Kenzo then summons MachG and Caterbarga, 1 core, and then 2 core, with 2 more core to supply the Spirits.

This leaves Kenzo with 1 Core in his reserve.

We haven’t seen Caterbarga in a while, but it’s effect when summoned exhausts all Cost 1 or below Spirits, this causes Kenzo’s MachG to be exhausted.

Kenzo then follows up with Speed Star, with maximum reductions Kenzo still needs 2 core, so he takes the core from his reserve and the singular Core from MachG.

One might wonder why MachG was summoned then, the answer was because had Kenzo only summoned Caterbarga, he would have had only 2 Core in his Reserve and 2 reductions, meaning he’d need to deplete Caterbarga in order to use it. It’s actually quite an impressive use of Maths.

By spending 1 Core using MachG, he then recovered the core he spent on it by using it for the reduction of 2 cards, essentially recovering the 1 core spent and the 1 core used to maintain it, and using MachG like it was a Cost 0.

Using a 1 cost card to reduce the cost of 1 card by 1 core means you break even and the card had no point being summoned, a 1 cost card that reduces the cost of 2 cards by 1 core means you actively spent less core than you otherwise would have.

It’s quite genius.

Anyway, Speed Star isn’t new, Kenzo used it as a Battle Boost during his battle with Dan I believe, here though, Kenzo is using it’s main effect, which means that now, each time Kenzo’s Spirits take a life from Leon, Kenzo gets an extra 2 core from the Void.

Seems Julian was on the money either way, as Kenzo’s first ever Core boost strategy begins.

Dan doesn’t appear to be stirred.

The only thing “Dan-kun” is watching right now is his relevance as a character in this series dwindling away by the second.

Kenzo attacks with Byak-Garo, notably Byak-Garo’s Lv2 effect requires Kenzo spend 1 core from his reserve, which is currently empty.

However, the turn player gets to select the order of effects that occur at the same time, so Kenzo will be able to resolve Speed Star before Byak-Garo uses it’s effect.

Leon chooses, oddly, to take from the life, this will potentially threaten his Spirits as he could have safely blocked with Ankillersaurus.

And now he’s not going to have either Spirit for reduction, but it’s possible that he needs to maintain a decent number of resources available.

Speed Star resolves, adding 2 core to Kenzo’s reserve.

Kenzo then does as I specified earlier, spending a core he only just gained to activate Byak-Garo’s Lv2 effect.

Ankillersaurus and the horrifically expensive Diridalus are returned to Leon’s hand.

…It’s turn 6, Leon just played a Cost 7 that’s now no longer on his field and his board is empty.

I feel like, at least for this battle, Leon is very much getting his ass whooped.

This however I agree with, if only for the stakes involved given that winning as soon as possible is somewhat desirable to get Otherworld King’s soldiers off their GOD DAMNED BACKS

Caterbarga attacks, as Leon’s board is empty, he’s forced to drop to 2 lives now.

Speed Star resolves, adding 2 more core to Kenzo’s reserve, on his next turn, Kenzo will have, at least 15 core to work with on his next turn.

Kenzo intends to use this battle in order to get Dan out of his funk.

Oh right, out of attackers, Kenzo ends his turn.

It looks like, given that the Lightbearers can share experiences, unlike Julian, Dan can’t get out of feeling what his fellow Soldiers are feeling in their battles by not battling.

Julian likely wanted to capitalize on this connection, hence why he wanted Kenzo to be as close to Dan as possible while he fought.

Notably, the Core’s Light being projected into The Violet’s Core System flickers between Yellow and Green.

Yellow for Clackey’s Core, and Green for Kajitsu’s choice of core.

It seems they’re forcing The Violet to gain a crapton of energy from just the force of their Core alone.

Unfortunately, Otherworld King’s forces are very much up their rear-ends right now, meaning they can’t act too freely.

Also notably, Kajitsu was producing that energy by temporarily merging her Core with Clackey, which given how well associated the Core is with a person’s Psyche, must have felt like an incredibly intimate procedure, I imagine it’d be like feeling the other person’s emotions.

Kajitsu collapses from the strain though, and laments that she hasn’t yet produced enough light.

I guess she’s trying to give The Violet enough power to make a quick getaway?

Leon admits he’s starting to have trouble with Kenzo, I presume Kenzo’s gotten him into a much nastier position than before.

It’s Turn 7, Leon has 10 core to work with.

Leon starts by summoning a 2nd copy of Lizardedge, and his Ankillersaurus again, that’s 3 of that 10 core used up.

…And then leads into a summon chant which begins with this blasphemy.

One can only wonder if Leon’s actually trying to usurp Otherworld King with all his heavy-handed measures and power of suggestion.

Leon summons, for a total cost of 5 core, The MasterDragonRider Dark-Crimson.

This could be quite nasty now, as Kenzo has no blockers with only 2 lives…

Leon activates Dark-Crimson’s effect on-summon, revealing 7 cards from his deck and enabling him to summon a Dragon Knight or Dragon Emperor Spirit, ignoring both it’s Cost and it’s Tribute requirements.

His only target is The DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried.

Notably, Dark-Crimson’s effect is now characterized by it calling down Lightning to summon it’s ally.

Regardless, The DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried (hereinafter “Dark-Siegfried”) is summoned, ignoring it’s Cost and it’s Tribute, and functionally adding a Cost 9 double-symbolled X-Rare to Leon’s board for no reason.

It’s Pantera’s X-Rare combo, here again.

I wonder if this episode was originally written with Pantera in mind battling Kenzo, but was rewritten at the last minute to have it be a revenge match against Leon and they didn’t have time to change the deck being used.

It’s also entirely possible that since Pantera defeated a Lightbearer using Dark-Crimson, Leon’s more cautiously using the Most Effective Tactic Available (or META) for taking on Lightbearers given he lost to Clackey.

Also, Dan’s finally become invested in a Battle he said he wouldn’t watch, not that he can ignore it thanks to his Red Symbol.

Leon attacks with Dark-Siegfried, as it holds a Double symbol, this threatens to win Leon the game.

Kenzo has a response however.

Firstly, Kenzo uses Thorn Prison, forcing Leon to select 2 unexhausted spirits to exhaust, he selects Lizardedge and Ankillersaurus.

This doesn’t address the incoming attack, however. And Kenzo only has 1 core left in his reserve.

Kenzo then follows up with an additional magic, and one we’ve yet to see, Flock Recovery.

It’s a simple Green Magic from BS03, you declare any family in the game, and refresh 3 spirits that have it.

What’s notable here is the Cost, 6 Cost and a maximum of 2 reductions, meaning you’re spending a minimum of 4 core on this card.

And well, Kenzo doesn’t have 4 core in his reserve, but this is recognized don’t worry.

Kenzo declares Blade Beast, as Byak-Garo is a member of that family, Byak-Garo is refreshed.

Byak-Garo was Lv2 at 9000 BP earlier, meaning Kenzo spent the 1 core in his reserve as well as 3 core from Byak-Garo to pay for Flock Recovery, dropping Byak-Garo to Lv1 and 7000 BP.

As Dark-Siegfried’s Lv1 BP is a pitiable 5000, Byak-Garo’s block defeats it.

Indeed, with Dark-Crimson only having 1 Symbol, Leon isn’t capable of winning this turn.

Indeed, Leon has 1 Blocker, and Kenzo only has 2 attackers, while Leon sits on a comfortable 2 lives.

As Kenzo’s hand is empty after that incredible sequence involving Speed Star, Kenzo must draw a Spirit in order to take a win from Leon.

And Leon needs to have zero responses from his currently 3 card hand.

Back to The Violet situation, Zungurii has decided that Violence is ultimately a question, in which the only answer for people ignoring the rule of Battle Spirits is Yes.

We then find out what’s actually in those guns, they don’t shoot lasers or anything relatively deadly.

They shoot nets, which capture Clackey and Zungurii.

Unless those Nets somehow have a way to block fists I’m not sure Zungurii being trapped in it will stop him quite literally kicking the shit out of your Men.

Also these Soldiers are far less terrifying now knowing they don’t actually have any deadly weapons.

Alright, Kenzo Turn 8, No hand, and 13 core without offing a Spirit.

Kenzo needs to draw a Spirit.

He doesn’t get a Spirit, however he arguably got better, Kenzo uses Hand Reverse!

We all know this beautiful thing, but just incase you don’t.

Hand Reverse is a powerful Green Draw card from BS01, it’s a 3000 BP Battle boost on a bad day, but on the Main Step, by tossing out your entire hand, you can draw cards equal to the number of cards in your opponent’s hand.

Most importantly, there is no requirement to actually have cards to discard in order to use it!

This is an excellent card for Green decks, as their Core ramping tendencies can leave them with small hands, Hand Reverse enables them to replenish their resources after emptying said hand.

ah right, when I last checked Leon’s hand, it was his Start Step, he hadn’t drawn, Leon actually has a 4 card hand.

This means Kenzo is able to draw 4 new cards.

Caterbarga and Byak-Garo are both raised to Lv2.

And… interestingly, Kenzo doesn’t summon a Spirit yet. Instead moving directly to the attack step.

Likelihood is the cards he’s drawn are Swift Spirits, so it’d be better to summon them during Flash Timing to make it ambiguous what Kenzo is going to do.

anyway, given Byak-Garo’s on-screen, it’s clear Kenzo is declaring an attack with Byak-Garo.

God Leon’s expressions are just… the best.

During Flash Timing, Leon uses Spirit Link.

We haven’t seen this card since Toppa, Spirit Link is a Cost 5 Magic that quite simply grants a Spirit Awaken for a turn.

Though, even if Dark-Crimson absorbs all the core from Ankillersaurus and Lizardedge, it’s Lv2 is only 8000 BP, which isn’t enough to take on a 9000 BP Byak-Garo.

Leon now blocks using Dark-Crimson who currently only holds 6000 BP.

Is he planning to use Awaken?…

Er, apparently not! Leon uses Great Link.

This is a BS04 card that functions exactly like Nature Forces, it moves every core in your Trash to a Spirit who has Awaken.

It’s also banned from tournament play for precisely the same reason as Nature Forces, recovering all your spent Core can essentially allow you to spend more core than you have, and in a worst case scenario, can enable nasty loops when used in decks specializing in Light.

All the Core in Leon’s trash is given to Dark-Crimson, bringing it to Lv3, totalling at 10000 BP. Just 1000 BP higher than Byak-Garo.

Seeing the obvious problem, Kenzo Swift summons 2 MachG’s, now even if Byak-Garo loses, Kenzo has 3 attacks to take out 2 lives.

Leon notes how good that draw from Hand Reverse was, as Kenzo has 1 more attacker than he needs to win off that 4-card draw.

Undeterred, and now with Core to spare from Dark-Crimson, Leon uses Victory Fire.

This wipes out the 2 MachG’s Kenzo just summoned, leaving him once again with 1 attacker short.

Dark-Crimson and Byak-Garo enter showdown, with Byak-Garo losing the fight by 1000 BP.

It seems even with a 4-card draw producing 2 excellent cards, the remainder of his hand isn’t useful.

The sad thing is Kenzo was too hasty on summoning both MachG’s.

If Kenzo had just summoned 1, and then after Byak-Garo’s defeat, attacked with it, Leon would have been forced to use Victory Fire early to destroy that 1 MachG, otherwise he’d lose to an attack from Caterbarga.

And even if he used it, on Caterbarga’s attack, Kenzo could then summon the 2nd MachG, he sequenced the moves improperly, and lost the battle because of it.

Kenzo ends his turn, leaving Caterbarga as a blocker, not that it will help him.

Leon running Victory Fire would almost certainly have been a choice made because he would have seen the effectiveness of it from Dan’s match with Kenzo.

As for the rest, well, of the 4 cards in Leon’s hand, precisely 3 of them enabled to produce a Spirit with Awaken, move his entire Core Trash to said Spirit which just so happened to put it’s BP over Byak-Garo’s and have an out to the contingency set in place for that exact scenario.

Leon must be a squirrel artist, because he drew the fucking nuts.

Pansy Dansy has finally decided to stop being a complete wuss about battling, deciding to call out to Kenzo and leap out of the Spectator booth.

Magisa manages to catch Dan in a bubble just in time to allow him to land safely, because that’s a steep jump.

I’m not quite sure it isn’t, Leon has 3 attackers on his next turn, including a Lv3 Dark-Crimson which will destroy Caterbarga, Kenzo has to defend 2 lives in the meantime with a 2 card hand and potentially no spirits or reductions to cover them.

I’m glad we resolved all of Dan’s lasting trauma by having him watch a battle.

Granted, someone who loves Battle Spirits that much could never be away from it for long, no matter the reason.

Whatever comes, Kenzo is going to face it alongside Dan.

Still, god only knows how there is a turnaround here.

The Core System that was shining earlier is now a deep Red, even without Kajitsu directly supplying it.

The mere Presence of Light coming from Dan’s Core alone is powering The Violet with energy, all the way from the Battlefield.

Hell yeah he is, Dan’s about to beat some ass after this battle’s over.

Bewitching Turn 9. He has a total of 11 Core available.

Dark-Crimson is dropped to Level 2.

Ah, right, the last card in Leon’s hand was the Diridalus that Kenzo bounced.

Meaning EVERY unknown card was a card that helped Leon worm his way out of that loss.

SQUIRREL. ARTIST.

Also notably Leon’s other Spirits are missing, it’s possible they were depleted in order to pay for Spirit Link and Great Link, which would have Costed about 3 Core to use.

This also means that provided Kenzo can survive ONE attack, he can still come back.

Leon attacks with Dark-Crimson, using it’s Lv2 effect, enabling him to destroy a Spirit with 5000 BP or less.

Caterbarga, with 5000 BP, fits the bill, and is destroyed.

Dark-Crimson strikes true, robbing Kenzo of another life, leaving him with 1 remaining.

Diridalus attacks, with 2 cards it would be possible to defend with a Swift summon, but given the music that’s playing and the nature of what’s happening, as well as available episode time… I don’t think Kenzo was being honest about turning this around.

Kenzo takes his last life, and is defeated.

The Winner is The Bewitching Leon!

It seems even though Kenzo has lost, Dan’s revival has fully powered The Violet.

The sheer energy erupting from it blows away the Human forces right off the ship.

Once again, I feel like a casualty is to be expected here, at least ONE of them is going to hit their heads the wrong way.

The Violet escapes!

Leon doesn’t seem particularly worried, even though he’s technically in a worse position than he was before. Given he can no longer rely on Kenzo’s tracker to immediately pinpoint their location.

Yuuki does what I can only describe as a complete bloody vibe check, holding a White Rose, a symbol Kajitsu loves dearly, and notes that it has bloomed in his hands.

He extrapolates from this phenomena that Kajitsu must be safe.

Yuuki’s off on his next adventure.

It seems he’s resolved himself to protect Kajitsu at any and all costs, it’s unclear how he intends to do this, but given the circumstances and how he attempted to enlist the help of another Lightbearer to do so, he may be switching sides.

After all, Leon is determined to capture Kajitsu at all costs, even if it’s of no benefit to Otherworld King, and Yuuki very well can’t stop him while Otherworld King sanctions Leon’s activities.

The intensity of Yuuki’s emotional state however is causing Kazan to be surprised, normally Yuuki is completely unreadable but now he’s visibly resolute.

Back on The Violet, Serge has switched over to Autopilot.

Said Autopilot is set to head towards The Purple World, likely at a reasonable enough pace to keep them away from Leon.

And given that Leon has no frame of reference for where Mai was taken, extrapolating that they’re in the Purple World may be difficult.

The group thank Kenzo for battling, even though he lost, his battle was able to re-awaken Dan, the Light of which enabled The Violet to get moving again so quickly.

At least they recognized the root cause of that was Kenzo.

Dan also thanks Kenzo for returning the Battler in him back to the surface.

Kenzo does what any and all League of Legends players do when they accidentally get ahead through complete luck.

They say it was all Calculated.

Magisa pokes fun at the fact that Kenzo clearly lost, which couldn’t have been part of the plan, and Kenzo claims that was just because Leon was strong.

My guy, Leon had the precise 3 card out to that last turn, Strong my ass.

Magisa pokes fun at him, noting that the first time he lost he cried. Granted he lost a 2nd time and was just surprised to get hit with Blue cards out of nowhere.

The next stop is most definitely set, next time we’ll be in the Purple World!

Seems like Julian’s also tagging along for the ride.

And it’s the end of the episode!

Surprisingly, our card of the day isn’t any of the new Magic Kenzo used against Leon.

Nope, the Card of the day is more like an “Effect” of the day.

Because it once again covers The MasterDragonRider Dark-Crimson.

Sadly, I don’t really have a basis for talking about it, so instead I’ll do what I did last episode, and post a sample deck using the cards featured in the episode!

Since we’ve already done similar with Kenzo, this time let’s produce something akin to what Leon seems to be using.

After examining the cards, mainly the ones revealed via Dark-Crimson, it’s apparent to me that Leon’s using a rather Spirit-Heavy Deck centred on maximizing the effectiveness of Great Link.

Great Link wasn’t banned until 2015 with the introduction of the Burning Soul Era’s mechanic, along with Nature Forces, so we can comfortably run this at 3. That being said the Bandai-TCG plus app still flags the card for being illegal.

We have Ankillersaurus to gain BP from the presence of Awaken Spirits, Awaken Spirits in Pteradia and Sabecaulus, and 2 ways to obtain more Awaken Spirits, using Spirit Link and Meteor Stream Night Sky (which admittedly only grants Awaken to Braver Ark)

It seems like Leon’s leaning with this deck was to make it incredibly ambiguous how much he was actually able to do at any given time, as Great Link on a good day, spends 1 Core in order to refund your entire Core Trash, luring you into attacking believing he had no core for a response, or blocking with a weaker Spirit only to utilize the Spirit Link and Great Link combo for a counterattack.

in essence, Great Link enables Leon to use a poor position as bait. Which is very in character for a man known as “Bewitching Leon”

I was down a card, so while Pteradia wasn’t seen in the game I had a choice between an extra destructive Magic, but it seemed wrong given he had so much focus on Awaken without any real Awaken Spirits outside of the Sabecaulus we saw, so Pteradia was added.

There is one quirky card in the deck and it was seen amongst Pantera’s cards as well, I’ll talk about it.

La-Diablord looks to be a strange card here at first, it’s a BS07 Spirit of Cost 4 from the Dragon and Deified General families.

It has 2 effects, during your attack step, all your Deified General Spirits gain 2000 BP, and at Lv3 all your Deified Generals and Vanity Deity spirits are treated as being their highest levels.

This is very clearly a card designed for use alongside Catastrophedragon, so why is it in a deck full of awaken?

Well it has nothing to do with it’s Lv2 effect and everything to do with it’s family, and it’s cost.

La-Diablord is a Cost 4 Red Spirit with 3 reductions, this means that at full reductions you are spending 1 Core on this thing.

Additionally, it has a respectable Level requirement, 4 core for Level 3 is pretty standard, and 7000 BP means it’s hitting the average for a Lv3 Spirit of that cost.

…And then it’s effect during your attack step gives it 2000 BP.

So for 1 Cost, and 4 core, you’ve got a Spirit hitting for 9000 BP, that’s Siegwurm levels of power.

It also, unlike Sabecaulus, lacks the Awaken keyword, meaning with Spirit Link it can suddenly shoot up to 7000 on a block as a surprise, which would take out a Lv1 Dark-Siegfried as clearly evidenced.

So it’s a strong Spirit that can be summoned incredibly cheaply, is why.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough, looking forward to Episode 32! See you then!