Gekiha Dan – Episode 32

So, if you recall me talking about “Construction” in Episode 30 of the Gekiha Dan reviews, well I mentioned that deploying your entire Trash full of Nexuses seems strong, however nothing had abused it until now.

So like, this thing happened, This is the most recent banlist that was released 2-3 days after that post was written.

Lo and behold, Construction has been limited to 1!

There’s 2 cards here that are a card-type we haven’t seen yet but one of them has been banned for the same reason Construction has been limited.

So for the purposes of testing something…

Yo guys, could we get the The DarkStones MachineBeastDeity Fenrig back? Thanks.

We start off with a moment of immediate intrigue, Zungurii is now returning a favour from Dan, he wants to give Dan a card.

Dan of course is initially hesitant, knowing that Zungurii took a real long while over the course of several packs in order to gather a full deck of cards, meaning just a single one of those cards could be incredibly valuable to Zungurii even if it’s something like a Cost 0 Lizardedge.

Zungurii is adamant, stating that it’s a present because it is something of immense value to him.

Remember, Presents have twofold value that some people miss, and it’s why you can sometimes offer objectively menial things as strong gifts.

The harder but more ideal present is something of great value to the person you are gifting.

But another, more personal gift, is to give something that has great value to you. Giving up something you value greatly to another person, even if they don’t value it as much, can mean a lot to them.

Through sheer, unadulterated luck, Dan pulls a Red card from Zungurii’s colour salad.

And it’s a recent card too, we can very clearly read the effect here so no reason not to discuss it.

A Cost 5 Red Nexus from BS08, so far Dan’s not used a single Nexus in any of his battles in spite of having them. Likely because the Nexuses exist to supplant an existing strategy and not to orient his strategy around, this one might change the game however.

The Sunstone Shrine at all levels causes a Domino effect when the first attack of your turn is a Clash spirit and it’s able to destroy something, you can then destroy any number of opposing spirits up to the total BP of the spirit destroyed.

This can still be answered effectively via chump blockers, but there’s no statement that the card must have blocked via Clash…

This means Meteorwurm is capable of target attacking as Dan’s first attack of a turn, into a high BP spirit, and wiping his opponent’s board.

The Lv2 effect is also interesting as it only occurs on Your attack step, which is that Dan can give up lives to the Void to protect his Clash Spirits from going to the Trash when they’re destroyed, remaining on the field refreshed. Meaning when revived this way they can attack again if they were exhausted, not bad for the cost of a Life going to the Void.

“Remain on Field” effects are interesting as the Spirit is technically destroyed (so all effects that assume destruction go off), but the Spirit simply stays put instead of moving zones. Notably the Core does not return to the reserve in this scenario.

Then how do you know whether or not he could use it?

This thing could be supporting an entire family Dan doesn’t even run.

Dan also notes that it’ll be an odd card to use, because Dan’s battle style doesn’t revolve around Nexuses in any capacity.

Julian notes that the card is interesting, and Dan asks if Julian has used it before.

Julian concurs, noting that he also used to be the Red Soldier, and so has an avid familiarity with Red. Sunstone Shrine included.

Julian seems to capitalize on this, offering Dan another card, Meteor Storm.

This one I won’t cover right now for anyone who doesn’t yet know what it does, as the impact it has will be severely lessened if I cover it now

Not so much for Sunstone Shrine has it’s a Nexus, Nexuses are almost always preparational, you can’t really end the game with one like a Magic or a Spirit would.

Julian offers Meteor Storm to Dan, as Dan appears to be the only one who can beat Otherworld King’s Red deck.

I wonder why he’s specifying Red as Otherworld King specializes in all colours, but it’s possible that Otherworld King is well known for matching colours with his opponent whenever possible if his opponent does not dictate a colour for him to use.

Dan hesitates, flashing back to his last battle.

Dan laments, stating that he lost to Otherworld King, because he was so focused on trying to beat the opposing Meteorwurm that he lost sight of all else.

Notably, it’s this type of situation that Meteor Storm helps.

Dan puts his foot down, he seems to steel himself to defeat Otherworld King, not because of his role as the Red Soldier, but before any of that, he’s the Clash King.

And he’s got no business calling himself the Clash King if he’s incapable of defeating an opponent using Clash, and takes the card.

Dan intends to refine his Clash Deck until Otherworld King can no longer put a stop to it.

Kajitsu notes that the “Red Soldier” has awakened.

Seems Julian’s relieved that Dan is engaging with his cards, and genuinely wants to battle

And now the Episode Title, no spoilers here as we’ve already seen the new card depicted in it

Since the Purple world is quite dark, it looks like the Card Stands here benefit from a nice bright sign.

Purple World looks very “dead”, with sprouts of Crystals erupting from the Earth, Though I suppose it’s rather dependant on how you look at it, in the previous shot all the trees are evidently dead but here the grass and leaves are just Purple.

So now the cast are asking random people about Namii, also suits seem to be really popular in this area and many of the residents look more… Human.

There’s a reason for this, I’ll explain later.

Anyway, this witness knows Namii but hasn’t seen her in ages.

This witness mentions that while they haven’t seen Namii, she is admired in the Purple World as a very cool battler.

This chap straight up hasn’t seen her, and once again, SUITS!

And this useless girl has seen Namii before…

…Wait.

Serge clocks in to where Mai is based on the description of Namii coming from an area that was “like a prison”

Prisons are somewhat designed to favour the occupants against those from outside, so Kenzo figures that this is probably a trap.

On the way there, Serge drops some history, apparently Otherworld King used to wield said Prison in order to hold Otherworlders who defied him, but they’re now defunct.

I suppose the Horizon Ladders make better Prisons, given the Otherworlders are put to work there.

Magisa notes that it’s perfect as a hiding spot, the abandoned and creepy nature of it means it’s unlikely anyone would assume it’s occupied, and even if it was, Namii would have the advantage against adversarial visitors.

Like these guys.

Serge also mentions that apparently Namii has completely changed from the person she used to be, based on Serge’s experience.

Clackey notes that it could be the opposite, that Namii was always that way, and her situation has simply caused her to become more honest about it.

Serge counters that either way, he honestly wouldn’t know, he was merely her servant.

Magisa apparently finds the idea that Serge being Namii’s old servant incredibly scandalous.

Yeah the conditions haven’t really changed at all, Serge is still a Servant, just now he’s serving Mai, apparently.

and Mai somehow “Stole” him.

I feel like there’s a distinctly large age gap between Namii and Mai that would make this incredibly weird for at least one of them.

Serge isn’t even going to try and entertain Magisa’s tease with a reaction.

Which is just as well, because we’re here.

Interestingly, the Prison in question is decorated with the visage of a Battle Spirits card, namely the card called “Bronze-Maiden”, which is a card that sparked a large series of Purple Cost 3s that all draw you a card on summon.

Kenzo seems to think that the attempt at making the place Spooky makes it seem more like an Amusement Park attraction than a Prison.

Clackey asks someone who might have more info based on just generally being completely overpowered, Kajitsu.

Kajitsu answers that what she “feels” is a strong “resentment” coming directly from the prison.

Given it was used to imprison those who defied Otherworld King… That “Resentment” is probably towards him.

And like any place trying to seem the least bit haunted, the doors quickly close behind the cast.

For a place that’s not in use, they certainly didn’t skip out on upgrading it with modern security, Namii’s got eyes on them so much as entering the Prison.

My inner grammatical preference demands I say “Your*”

Also seems like Namii is taunting Serge by calling Mai his “Kitten”

Mai is naturally, significantly more happy to see that Dan has fully recovered from his semi-conscious state, Mai didn’t get to see his brief sequence of being what can only be described as a cow’s arsehole.

Ah yes, the ol’ “LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!” that always hilariously fails to absolve responsibility from just about anybody.

Hey you shit talk Battle Spirits one more god-damn time my three-dimensional ass will belt you back to the god damn rough sketches!

Mai tries to reason with the lady, declaring that revenge is pointless, and even offers back the Beelzebeat she earned from her.

No Mai, don’t back down just because you’re in a compromised position!

Kick her ass the old fashioned way!

Nami however highlights that such a thing is absolutely fucking rich given that Mai was mildly bothered by a single Caterbarga user and went on a complete witchhunt to completely destroy him.

Mai realizes that even if she’s right about revenge, it won’t get through to Namii on account of it being stained by SHEER HYPOCRISY.

Erm, was it ever clear that Namii was in cahoots with Otherworld King? Why would Yuuki of all people know anyway? He’s like the one guy who wasn’t even there!

Namii quits haggling with Mai and lays down the task, it’s quite simple, the group need to defeat all of the Card Battlers stationed in the prison and reach Namii in order to rescue Mai.

Though, tasting your Final defeat sounds… vaguely ominous.

It’d certainly be one way of trapping your enemy, make the front door have no access to the rest of the castle, then lock them in.

Though, rather suspiciously, there is a fully coloured dude in the distance who’s kneeling thereabouts.

Why would they put a statue in a dead end? Hurr durr.

It’s not a statue, obviously, it’s just surprising that they don’t seem to acknowledge the guy at all

They’re already locked in from the earlier door! What is the entire point of locking them in this specific room?

Jesus christ dude, you really tried to use that Morningstar whip to kill a 12 year old and and an even younger Otherworlder?

Well it seems obvious to me that he clearly tripped over, fell, and dropped his Morningstar Flail at just the right angle to turn you into paste had you not moved.

He’s TRYING TO KILL YOU!

Like… the cheese?

This is Gouda, he’s the number one bodyguard, which sounds like complete poppycock given he’s the very first threat Namii throws at them. Clearly he’s not regarded very highly for being her number one bodyguard.

…It’s also possible he’s her only bodyguard.

Also his chin has horns that point up and they bother me immensely.

Well, the thing is Kenzo, Haunted Houses…

…Are meant to be creepy, not fatal.

The wall of people on the, well, wall are moving, and trying to drag in anyone who gets close to it.

Magisa frees Kenzo, and points out that this isn’t just the Prison walls having some extra cool functions.

Every single figure on this melted wall is a living being, either Human or Otherworlder.

So if we were wondering why there wasn’t that many prisoners in here, it’s because they’ve all been added to this wall.

…I suppose that means this guy once worked for Otherworld King, given that this was a place for Otherworld King to send defiant people after defeating them…

Scarily it’s also possible there’s some Lightbearers stuck here.

…They can be appointed? How?

Unless they’re not just confined to this room and can move through the walls, which is equally terrifying.

It seems like the stakes are that those who lose to Gouda will become part of this mass of corpses, which is somewhat more horrific than simply dying.

I’m not sure in what way this is comparable to a battle but sure.

Kajitsu notes that this room, and the corpses in the walls, is the source of the “resentment” she was feeling earlier.

Kenzo initially tries to battle Gouda, but Dan interrupts, stating that he’s gonna be the one to battle.

…Though it appears Gouda has meant this more literally than anticipated, tossing his Morningstar whip again.

Undeterred, Dan stops the Morningstar whip by stepping on the soft “Whip” portion of the weapon.

Clackey notes that what Dan’s doing is incredibly dangerous, as this kind of “Battle” isn’t of the TCG-rules-oriented variety.

And Dan… responds in a rather odd fashion. Somewhat reminiscent to anyone who’s watched ahead. This is the first morsel of who Dan will eventually become.

Dan simply wants to battle, he doesn’t care how, he doesn’t care why, he doesn’t even care about if it’s even a card battle.

Dan is coolly, calmly, and collectively, declaring that he just wants. To. Fight.

Hell yeah it did, because Dan’s just shown an ounce of the person he’s going to become, fully renewed by his repaired core.

My guy wants a battle, I want a battle, and we’re not leaving til we get one.

This does suggest that Core Soldiers are among the imprisoned souls in the wall.

Seems news of Dan’s failure to defeat Otherworld King travelled exceptionally fast, reaching even the muppets of the Purple World.

Dan seems to ignore the fact that others know, focusing on being the Clash King for now.

Release!

Except this time, something different is happening.

That’s right, to mark his resurrection, Dan has a completely new Battle Form, now with extra Red.

It seems that the System that produces the Battle forms can be modified by others, this new Battle form being a gift from Magisa.

This guy was strong enough to win a tournament in the Blue world and piss off Otherworld King, you really think it’ll be that easy?

Mai being completely unfazed by Namii’s words, just being happy that her friend is battling again

It seems Dan intends to take his role as the Clash King even more seriously than he was already.

I wonder what’s caused him to be so hard-focused on Clashing, almost even more than before.

Love it, I really do, can we get to the fight now-

Also damn the Core sections of that Battle Form are clean.

Alright, looks like Gouda Cheese is going first.

Gouda turn 1!

But apparently we gotta interrupt the fight for another sequence of words, seems like Gouda is curious about whether or not Dan intends to face Otherworld King again.

Gouda explains to Dan that the Wall in the room they were just in are, explicitly, traitors to Otherworld King, not necessarily just his opponents…

…But I suppose if you’re an absolute ruler, any opposition is treason so.

Dan tells Gouda that what he says makes no difference if his intent is to make Dan back down out of fear.

Gouda believes that fighting Otherworld King is a lost cause, and the Prison acting as a Pseudo-graveyard is proof of what happens to anyone who has attempted to thwart Otherworld King, and til now no one has succeeded, potentially because it cannot be done.

But Dan claims that dying if he loses, and giving up, are functionally the same when you refuse to accept the alternative. If he’s going to suffer anyway he might as well do the best he can to change it for as long as he can do so.

Seems Gouda’s failed this conversational tactic everytime he’s fought a Core Soldier, they’re too determined in the face of grave consequence.

Gouda finally starts the game, he summons The HellFighter Balam and ends his turn.

I really shouldn’t be surprised that the first Purple World battler is a Purple-user.

It seems like the World you reside in might have a hand in what Colour is better for an Otherworlder.

Clackey notes that Balam has Curse, not that Dan’s deck really runs afoul of it, as Curse is only threatening to Blockers, not attackers.

Dan summons Ankillersaurus and a new card, Dinonychusaw.

Dinonychusaw is a Cost 1 Spirit from the Terra Dragon family, much like Rokceratops. From BS08

The main difference between it and Rokceratops is that Dinonychusaw simply doesn’t have Rokceratops’ Lv2. And has it’s Lv3 as a Lv2.

Also this is the 3rd Cost 1 Terra Dragon, there’s another that isn’t used in the series, Ovirapt

The reason this exists however is because most Battle Spirits sets are designed to be used out of the box, each main set product needs the ability to stand on it’s own, it’s supposed to be possible to build a deck from a single product alone.

This is mainly why BS08 instated an X-Rare for each colour mind you, so each colour had a fair chance of doing that.

Also look at the little thing, it’s so CUTE.

Dan attacks with Ankillersaurus and Gouda takes from the life, dropping to 4.

Dan ends his turn.

Gouda Turn 3, Gouda declares that, without Clash, the Clash King isn’t a threat…

…But Clash is his entire gameplan, he’s obviously not going to use it Turn 1, I don’t even think he has a Spirit that can Clash on his first turn.

Gouda summons Humpdump and Skulldemon.

Dan’s trying to get a read on Gouda, he wonders about whether or not Gouda will take an aggressive stance or not.

Gouda attacks with Balam and I for some reason have completely forgotten that this thing has BLUE FIRE JETS.

Dan takes a life, dropping to 4.

Gouda follows up with Skulldemon, which Dan also takes from the life, dropping to 3.

Gouda leaves Humpdump as a blocker, and ends his turn.

Gouda notes that Dan must be a confident battler if he was so readily willing to take lives upfront, but feels secure in his own chances as Dan is at a life disadvantage.

Dan is once again, looking exactly like a version of himself he shouldn’t be for another 18 episodes.

It always feels good to see him like this, it’s like he’s nearing completion.

Clash King Turn 4, Dan brings Ankillersaurus to Lv1.

Dan summons Sabecaulus.

Julian is curious about Dan using Awaken Spirits here, not particularly sure why, given that Awaken was part of Dan’s Clash strategy due to Siegwurm’s effects.

Thanks to having an Awaken Spirit, Ankillersaurus now receives 1000 BP, putting it to 3000.

Now that it has 3000 BP, it attacks.

Dan pulling absolutely zero punches whips out a Victory Fire on his second god damn attack step.

Balam and Humpdump are destroyed, Gouda has no blockers.

Gouda is forced to take a life, dropping to 3 lives.

The Clash King isn’t just back to himself, he’s even better!

Gouda assesses Dan’s strategy, noting that Dan’s aim is to destroy his Spirits.

Gouda still considers himself to be in an okay position, Dan can’t win with a full attack here, so he probably thinks Dan, having wiped out Gouda’s spirits, will be content to end his turn here.

Unfortunately, Gouda’s misjudged.

It’s a young face… But I’m starting to see the character I can’t wait to talk about when he finally arrives.

The cast all note that Dan’s face is starting to look rather fierce and scary, Dan is 100% focused and serious.

Dan throws defense to the wind, performing a full attack.

This is quite nasty as without blockers, Gouda needs 2 spirits to win, and Dan’s practically handing him the Core to do so.

Gouda has no blockers though, so taking both attacks from his life, he’s forced to drop to a single life remaining, if Gouda isn’t able to win, Dan will almost certainly wipe out his last life.

Dan ends his turn.

Dan supplanting his aggressive playstyle with destructive magic seems to be a known strategy of his.

It seems that Gouda’s quite confident being at 1 life, likely an option opened up from the lives he lost.

But before that he roids up by flexing.

Gouda Turn 5, he summons a new card, Demo-Bone!

Demo-Bone is a Cost 1 Purple Spirit from BS08, and a rather simple and effective one, it’s a Cost 1 Spirit that can become Level 2 with minimum Core, and gains Curse when it does so.

Such a powerful effect on such a cheap spirit is justified by it’s exceptionally minimal BP, which in the case of Curse is perfectly fine as Curse activates when a Spirit is blocked and defeated. Demo-Bone is essentially the weakest Curse Spirit, and that also means it’s the most likely to have it’s Curse resolve.

Strangely, it’s more like a “chump attacker” than anything, the Cost 1 that takes out anything that tries to block it no matter how strong.

Gouda then gives 4 Core to Skulldemon, this doesn’t quite meet it’s Lv3 requirement but it’s more Core than is necessary for Lv2, which makes it a strange choice.

But this is all planned regardless, because Gouda then uses Mind Control. Now each player needs to send 4 core from their Spirits to the Trash.

Because Dan’s gone wide with his Spirits (Many cheap spirits with low investment), Dan only has 3 core among the 3 spirits available, so his entire board is wiped.

Conversely, the 4 core on Skulldemon was to ensure that Gouda didn’t have to sacrifice any Spirits for Mind Control.

This combo is only made possible because Dan supplied the core necessary to perform it by dropping Gouda’s life to 1, though it’s clear from Gouda’s reserve that he had a Core spare, so being at 2 life would have made the play possible anyway.

…Which just means Dan made the correct decision by full attacking rather than only attacking with 2 spirits, had Dan ended his turn after Ankiller’s attack, Gouda could not have performed this combo while preserving 2 spirits.

It’s likely he could do it preserving just 1 Spirit, which would have been fine at 3 lives.

Once again, seems like a correct decision from Dan to go aggressive.

Gouda has no more resources with which to threaten Dan’s lives, so his field is short a spirit to corner him. Gouda ends his turn with 2 blockers.

Zungurii is puzzled by the non-aggression, and asks why Gouda didn’t attack.

Kenzo roughly explains what I just said, he didn’t have enough attackers to win, and the lost lives would simply become resource. Gouda can’t let a single attack through, and so he needs to diminish the number of opportunities for Dan to get through as much as possible.

This is the issue with being at 1 life as opposed to 2. You basically always need to make the choice that provides the opponent with the least opportunities to pull the rug from under you.

Clash King Turn 6. Dan has roughly 9 core available.

Dan draws Meteorwurm.

Dan then inquires as to whether or not Otherworld King is watching him.

Dan then starts making an impassioned speech, directed at the White Soldier, Momose Yuuki.

Dan uses the passion from the summon of his X-Rare to try and get any kind of sign over to Yuuki that he is declaring that Yuuki and he should fight together to defeat Otherworld King.

Core Soldiers can communicate via their Symbols, so almost certainly this will reach him.

Dan summons The StarEmperorDragon Meteorwurm.

The Violet Crew are surprised, not expecting Dan to call out to an enemy’s name to encourage them to fight alongside them.

Whatever Dan did, it worked, as Yuuki feels a disturbance.

Notably, Yuuki’s wearing a completely different uniform now from his kingly outfit.

Dan attacks with Meteorwurm and activates Clash, Gouda is forced to choose a blocker, and so chooses his weakest Spirit, Demo-Bone.

With no more attackers, Dan is forced to end his turn.

If Gouda had a low to the ground Spirit he would have summoned it most likely to make a break for Dan’s lives, Dan reducing the number of available Spirits with Meteorwurm at the cost of no blockers should be fine. Gouda is once again in the position where he needs 2 summonable spirits to win, and he wasn’t capable of doing it last turn, unlikely a single draw will make it any more possible.

Julian notes that Meteorwurm truly is Dan’s “Voice of Revival”, though I’m not particularly sure why that Spirit in particular, given Siegfried and Siegwurm also appeared as Voices in Dan’s head.

Kajitsu, either through her intuition or through her connection to Mother Core, is absolutely sure that Dan’s message made it to Yuuki.

Under the circumstances and knowledge gained from last turn, the play made was appropriate.

He couldn’t, Dan had 3 cards in his hand and Meteorwurm was one of them, he likely doesn’t have 3 Spirits to use, diminishing your number of bodies is perfectly fine.

…Shit, 2 summonable Spirits.

It’s clear from the way the animation plays that Skulldevil was the card he drew, and he had been holding onto Pandemium the entire time, otherwise he would have been able to use it last turn and defeat Dan.

In any case, Gouda summons Skulldevil and then SevenShogun Pandemium at Lv2.

While we’ve seen Pandemium before in Toppa, we haven’t seen it in Dan, so let’s cover it.

A Cost 8 Purple X-Rare from BS04. The SevenShogun Pandemium is a master of Purple destruction.

While having a low BP count, Pandemium allows the player to draw a card anytime an opposing Spirit is destroyed for any reason, this synergizes well with a deck centralized on Curse, like Gouda’s.

Additionally, from Lv2+, if any of your Spirits are defeated during any attack step, Pandemium can exhaust an opposing Spirit, this allows the destruction of your cards to diminish both attacking and defensive options for the opponent.

Additionally, for the ultimate hail mary, at Lv3, if Pandemium is somehow destroyed, both players are forced to discard 5 cards from the hand. Pandemium’s 1st effect can make this easier to swallow for the user, but in a simplified game state, this can empty the opposing hand of options.

Additionally, Pandemium is a member of The SevenShogun, a collection of 7 X-Rares, not all of which have been released at this point in the show on account of Purple only currently having 5 X-Rares as of BS07, 1 of which is not a SevenShogun.

Indeed, with no Spirits to block, Dan’s life is incredibly vulnerable.

Gouda starts his assault, attacking with Pandemium which Dan takes from the life, dropping him to 2.

Now Gouda follows with… ending his turn?

What?

Zungurii is as confused as I am, asking why Gouda ended his turn instead of gunning for Dan’s lives.

Clackey helps out by explaining that if for some reason Gouda fell short on the last attack, he’d be completely out of blockers.

Pandemium’s Lv2 effect to exhaust Spirits when your own are destroyed makes Gouda’s defensive choices basically twice as effective, plus it’s ability to replenish the hand means Gouda can get back the cards he loses from Clash.

While these are all fair arguments to declare a defensive stance as a safe one, Kenzo is correct here, Gouda’s completely choked.

Dan’s hand consisted of precisely no defensive cards, Dan had an Offensive Aura and The Sunstone Shrine in his hand.

Gouda was likely banking on the fact that, at 1 life, Dan would have just enough core for a Victory Fire provided he sacrificed Meteorwurm, Meteorwurm’s summon left Dan with 2 core, one of which was on Meteorwurm, providing 1 reduction, and only the prospect of losing 2 lives before things got dangerous.

If Dan drew a Spirit on the next turn, Gouda would straight up lose if he didn’t draw a defensive magic off the 2 cards he’d have gained from Victory Fire’s destruction of his 2 spirits.

So he picked the safe play, knowing that unless Dan gets 4 spirits out of a 3 card hand, he can’t threaten Gouda for game…

Under normal circumstances.

Regardless, you have lethal, your opponent has 1 big tall spirit that’s currently exhausted and they only have 2 cards in hand? That’s a moment where you Make. Them. Have. It.

If the only way you die is exactly a card they’ve already burned into drawing 2 into no outs, that’s a risk enough to go for it.

Dan lets Julian know that he’s drawn his card.

Dan raises Meteorwurm to Lv3, giving it 11000 BP and the ability to target attack.

Dan then deploys Zungurii’s Nexus, The Sunstone Shrine.

Clackey is completely taken aback by the sight of Dan using a Nexus, as he literally has never done so up until now in spite of having one in his hand at several points in the series.

Dan enters the attack step.

And Dan’s new Battle form shows off it’s new feature, allowing him to sprout wings!

What purpose does this provide? I have no idea, looks damn cool though. Battle forms changing in response to the battler’s resolve is always a rule of cool rather than a functional one.

Dan attacks with Meteorwurm!

With it’s Lv3 effect, Pandemium is selected as an attack target, so even though it’s Exhausted, it’s forced to block Meteorwurm.

Plus thanks to the rules of target attacks, the pre-block Flash timing is completely skipped.

Dan now activates his new Flash, Meteor Storm!

Meteor Storm is a Cost 4 Red Magic from BS08. If the effect is confusing, here’s basically how it works.

You use it, then for the rest of the turn, any Spirit with “Wurm” in the name, (So for the moment, Meteorwurm and Siegwurm fit the bill in Dan’s deck) gain an effect while they’re attacking.

If they defeat an opposing Spirit in battle, without being defeated themselves, the opponent loses lives equal to it’s symbols.

Essentially, if Meteorwurm defeats Pandemium in battle, It’s symbols will come out of Gouda’s life.

Pandemium’s BP is no match for Meteorwurm’s, so Pandemium is destroyed.

Due to Dan using a Clash Spirit for his first attack of the turn, and Dan defeating a Spirit during this attack, Dan can now destroy Spirits up to the BP total of the defeated Spirit, in this case, Pandemium’s 6000 BP.

the rest of Gouda’s Spirits are wiped out.

Meteor Storm’s effect resolves, as Meteorwurm was the victor in a battle of BP, it’s 1 symbol comes out of Gouda’s life, as Gouda only had 1 life remaining, Gouda is defeated.

Clash King Dan is the Winner!

Gouda is surprised he defeated, though, in this case he lost because he was playing too safe.

Meteor Storm is a nasty card, as it essentially means that, regardless of the number of Blockers, as long as Dan can get either Meteorwurm or Siegwurm into a battle it’s capable of winning, Dan himself has won the game. It allows Dan to win by clashing, a known downside of the keyword.

I said earlier that the card suited Dan just fine when he was reminiscing about losing to Otherworld King due to tunnel visioning into Meteorwurm, if Dan had Meteor Storm, he could have made that fight matter beyond just defeating the Spirit.

Gouda unfortunately is a bit too close to the wall now.

So I suppose he’s about to join it.

However we’re trying to write heroes here, and Heroes don’t let people die for no reason.

Dan and Zungurii try to stop Gouda becoming one with the wall.

With a little bit of UPPER BODY STRENGTH.

Dan and Zungurii free Gouda from the fate he intended to deal unto them.

Dan gives a mostly stupid reason for doing so, saying that Gouda becoming part of the wall would “Ruin the good mood”.

But ultimately that’s kind of the point, you don’t need a good reason to save somebody’s life, as it turns out, people generally don’t like dying!

Gouda, rather embarrassed at his current situation, attempting to be deadly in physical combat and failing, attempting to scare off Dan, and failing.

Attempting to defeat the Clash King in battle, and failing, and well, I suppose he failed at holding up his own end of the bargain because of Dan as well.

That’s like 4 fails and the only reason he’s still alive is because of the 3rd, Gouda’s not having a good day.

Kenzo notes that the Battle changed the “Mood”, Dan’s force of will has affected the atmosphere around him, first being serious and focused, and then being jovial post-battle, affecting even Gouda.

Mai uses this opportunity to drive in the L that Namii’s just received from The Violet crew.

This also renews Mai’s confidence that she will in fact be saved.

There was apparently a locked door here, which suggests something other than the “Dead End” this was specified to be.

In this case it seems like this Prison is set up in “levels”, so the crew are going to continue to fight battlers until Namii runs out.

Having witnessed this, Julian turns to leave, Magisa pleads with him to stay.

Julian declares that his role in this is over, as there’s no longer any need to worry about Dan, he’s back for good and stronger than ever. He has faith they’ll definitely beat Otherworld King.

Magisa thanks Julian again, calling him the “Red Soldier”, naturally because Julian is very much still Magisa’s Red Soldier.

Julian takes off, with one last statement, rebutting the nickname, and claiming he no longer goes by the title of Red Soldier.

Dan notices Julian is leaving, and we get this lovely shot of Julian’s farewell from the Prison.

This basically signals the end of Julian’s role in Gekiha Dan, a bucket with which Dan pours his ideals into, and then a Mirror with which Dan needed to look into in order to recover from the funk that Julian himself was in.

Now Dan is beyond what Julian suffered, which means Dan not only made the same mistakes Julian did but has started to move beyond them, Dan is officially picking up where Julian left off.

Now Dan will prove that it doesn’t matter who the Red Soldier is so long as they don’t stop getting up no matter how many pieces Otherworld King shatters the Red Symbol into.

There’s not much to go over here, Yuuki makes an impassioned speech to his apparently super loyal men, stating to them, directly, that the Red Soldier has returned, and they’re going to go see him, as well as return to his sister, Kajitsu.

Note the wording on that statement, it’s not “Save” his sister, it’s not “Take back” his sister.

It’s Return To His Sister.

Yuuki has very much made his decision, he plans to realize his destiny as the White Soldier.

Which marks the end of the episode.

So, Dan is back! Which is great, I do feel like more could have been done with Dan’s state after Otherworld King defeats him, the writers very much wanted us to feel the impact of a plot without Dan for a bit, having the Core Soldiers deal with Leon constantly on their tail in the meantime, but once Dan was actually down and out it was resolved fairly quickly, 3 episodes I think.

Zungurii learns to battle, Mai fights Pantera to keep Otherworld King’s forces away from Dan, and then Kenzo fights Leon to stop Dan from being a bitch, there’s not much to go on there, this is all separated by a single episode which has nothing to do with The Violet crew with Yuuki running headfirst into a fight with Suzuri only to immediately lose his X-Rare for… some reason.

That seemed less like “Oh god things suck without Dan” and just business as usual while Dan recovers.

It wasn’t the worst use of the time, but it I don’t think it was the best use either, I think the best out of those use cases was definitely Mai vs Pantera, as Pantera is someone trained to fight Otherworld King and is on par with Leon and Yuuki, and only Dan had beaten him, pitting Mai against Pantera was a pretty good choice then, except then they squandered the intrigue the fight had because Mai played a very specific stall game and didn’t at any point try to win.

Anyway, just my gripes, and no you don’t get a card of the day, because the Card of the Day is the 3-card combo of Meteorwurm, Sunstone Shrine and Meteor Storm.

Eh, I suppose I’ll talk about a quirk of Sunstone Shrine that bothers me.

So, the first effect of Sunstone Shrine is incredibly specific, because it requires a couple things to be effective.

1. You must attack with a Clash Spirit.
2. It must be your first attack.
3. There must be an opposing Spirit.
4. That Attack must result in the destruction of said opposing Spirit.
5. The BP of that Spirit needs to be high enough to produce a relevant destruction effect.
6. There must be Spirits to destroy.

There’s a couple problems with this, namely that Clash Spirits do not get to select what blocks, which means what gets destroyed, or if anything gets destroyed at all, is entirely controlled by your opponent.

They will, naturally, block with the weakest Spirit such that it can’t destroy anything when it falls to your Clash Spirit, and blocking with the weakest Spirit is usually the favourable thing to do anyway, so you’re not really making Clash any harder to deal with. This makes the first effect of Sunstone Shrine an incredibly situational win-more card.

“Win-More” is a descriptor used for cards who’s effects are only useful when you are winning. In essence, they help you win the game faster but don’t in and of themselves win you the game, nor do they stop you from losing.

In this case, Sunstone Shrine rewards you for being blocked in your favour, players typically attack with their strongest spirits to ensure lives are taken and spirits are not destroyed, Low BP spirits are often left as chump blockers.

Naturally, you might have situations where the only available blocking Spirits are Spirits that would result in a hefty loss of Spirits, but again, that’s the Nexus only functioning because of favourable conditions not entirely within your control.

This is where the gripe with the card comes in, the best way to clear as many of Sunstone Shrine’s asinine conditions is to use it alongside a Clash Spirit that can, redundantly, target attack (target attacking already forces a block, so Clash forcing a block becomes pointless)

As by target attacking, you can get around the issue of the opponent’s board state needing to be a certain way for the Nexus to work… And the only Spirit who holds both Clash and an effect that enables Target Attacking…

Is The StarEmperorDragon Meteorwurm.

The Sunstone Shrine, while appearing to be blanket support for Clash cards, has so many asinine conditions to clear for it’s effect to be useful, that it ultimately only ever supports 1 card reliably, and that card is the one card it was designed for, such that it can the most problematic of those conditions by itself, The StarEmperorDragon Meteorwurm.

And that makes the card bad, because then the card only works when you have Meteorwurm on the field…

Even so, undeterred, let’s build a deck around The Sunstone Shrine.

Here I’ve attempted to re-do the deck centred on Bragasaur, as Sunstone Shrine only works when Meteorwurm is available, there are ultimately 2 ways to do it, amass a deck full of Spirits with Clash, or produce a way to get Clash on a lot of Spirits, Bragasaur allows Terra Dragons to become Soldiers, and Meteorwurm gives Soldiers Clash at level 2. The rest is a matter of cycling, so we’ve got many Nexuses and Magic that draws us cards to reach our key combo.

Once Sunstone Shrine and Meteorwurm are both in place, in most cases, Meteorwurm will ensure the opponent never has a full board again.

To that end we’ve only got 2 Blizzard Walls, due to our many cycling options, we’re more likely to see it, as such it’s been bumped down to 2 copies so as not to clog our hand.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for today, I’ll see you lot in Episode 33!