Gekiha Dan – Episode 43

Well the last episode was a little bit lackluster just due to the content being added in being not all that relevant.

This time however hopes to be an Episode we can sink our teeth into, so let’s get into it shall we?

At least we’ll confirm the passing of a day, as the Core Soldiers get some much needed rest.

As we all know however, Edgey characters are allergic to sleep, as the attractive darkness of the sky invites them to stand mysteriously.

Gonna keep trying VLC for the start of these until I get an episode that behaves, as VLC feels a bit smoother to use than Pot Player

It appears the setup for the episode is set in stone, it seems the Core Soldiers have started to pass over the Town Kajitsu and Yuuki lived in, naturally they’ve been living in Otherworld for an extended period of time so if they were wanted for blowing up all those people as children they’re unlikely to be wanted fugitives by now.

Switching scene to something a little more Otherworldly.

One can only wonder, if walking up an obscene amount of stairs gets you to Otherworld Castle, what does walking down them do?

It appears down in the deepest depths of the Otherworld Castle, Otherworld King has a rather menacing looking Otherworlder down here.

Given his somewhat unique appearance and lack of identifiable tribe, it’s clear that this guy is a Mazoku. Mazoku, unlike other Otherworlders, do not have a consistent appearance between members. No wonder they’re so dangerous, as you can’t have them typed out.

If a Tribe of Otherworlders are what happens when an Otherworlder Culture has Order… Mazoku are what happens when that Culture has Chaos.

And already VLC has decided to misbehave on Otherworld King’s lips, back to Pot Player.

Anyway, this particular Mazoku is known as “Kurotaru”, presumably “Assassin” is his title.

It’s a bit rich for someone who quite literally put the darn guy there to be asking if being locked up is a “Loss of face”

Salt the wound why don’t you?

As with most Prisoners with a reputation, Kurotaru is more interested in why the hell Otherworld King is even here.

Much like Magisa’s magic, it appears that many of Otherworld King’s “gifts” are stolen. And apparently, Otherworld King had wished to steal a “Poison” from Kurotaru, something that seems key to his being.

After enough ego stroking, Kurotaru realizes that Otherworld King intends to send him to kill someone.

The reward is essentially nothing, as Kurotaru’s freedom is a pre-requisite for him to be able to hunt, once he’s out there’s no real collateral in place to stop him doing as he pleases.

It’s likely however that Otherworld King knows this.

As Kurotaru doesn’t seem to have any particular interest in Otherworld King specifically, or any hatred for being locked up by him.

Seems Kurotaru just has a particular enjoyment for killing people. In this case, his target is someone in the White World.

Back at the ship, the Momose Siblings have decided to be anywhere other than where they should be.

How nice of them, they left a note telling them to not look for them.

I get the distinct impression that the cast are going to do that anyway, given the somewhat high degree of delicacy the situation is in.

Mai comments on whether or not this is a cause for panic, they left a letter saying they were stepping out and don’t want to be bothered.

While Magisa does point out that they haven’t come back yet… erm, if they were going to be back by the time you read the letter they probably wouldn’t have left you one?

Another display of Magisa’s newly acquired bullshit powers. She can apparently detect that something sinister is moving towards Yuuki and Kajitsu’s location.

Shit’s got REMOTE RADAR

This is cause enough for concern as Yuuki and Kajitsu may not be aware of the fact that the Assassin Kurotaru is heading directly for them in order to take their lives.

Speaking of which, it’s a bit odd that Otherworld King is trying to kill Lightbearers directly now, though I suppose he’s had it up to here with things going wrong, and as such, just needs to disrupt the fully gathered Core Soldiers in any way possible, in this case, by killing Yuuki.

Yuuki and Kajitsu have returned to the old house where they used to live.

One might wonder why an abandoned house like this was left in disrepair for so many years without any changes to it, but surprisingly it isn’t uncommon in Japan. You can have whole entire towns filled with houses that are just falling apart and don’t have anyone in them. It’s usually due to a combination of a few things. Japan’s falling fertility rate causing families to die out and having no heir to pass on to, younger generations inheriting the house but then moving to the cities. Due to historical ownership the house never really gets sold or maintained. For tax purposes it’s often cheaper to retain the house as is rather than sell or refurbish.

And for the ones that no longer have a living owner, they’re stuck in the paperwork as apparently Japan isn’t very good at keeping records of who owns what homes.

These types of houses are so common they have a standardized name, “Akiya”, meaning “Empty House”

In the siblings’ case, they themselves destroyed it, their parents wanting nothing to do with them and anyone else who could have done anything about it being caught in the explosion.

I would be all for it if your “dream in the present age” was anything other than getting married.

And before someone assumes that’s quite normal for people, you clearly didn’t read Episode 37 and are assuming the best. Don’t change, we need positive thinkers like you.

For those who haven’t and won’t read Episode 37, they wish to get married to each other

I see our Assassin has arrived.

Also. No one should envy how well these 2 get along… No one at all.

Seems one of Kurotaru’s bits of Magic is the ability to hide in people’s shadows.

Either Kurotaru has been debriefed on the White King, or also possibly, Kurotaru has met the White King before and recognizes Yuuki as him.

For reference we do have an official appearance for The White King, he’s the spitting image of Yuuki.

That cool ass shot is a single frame, I’m very glad I caught it.

Yuuki appears to know this guy, the question is, is it a memory of the White King, or his own?

I mean depending on who’s blade you’re remembering, it might have been yesterday, relative to when it could have happened.

A safe assumption, but an incorrect one, as we know, Otherworld King wasn’t capable of extracting Kurotaru’s powers from him.

Present tense, so Kurotaru still wants to kill Otherworld King.

But priorities are priorities.

And that sells it, Kurotaru is old enough to personally know the original White King.

And given he finds it strange to meet Yuuki in this form, that means all of Yuuki’s memories of him are from the White King’s memories.

This is a pretty dumb question to ask, it might just be killing you.

Seems Kajitsu is also on the list of targets.

While Yuuki chastises the Mazoku for becoming subordinate to Otherworld King, Kurotaru does raise a fair point, the guy imprisoned him, and seemingly with not much effort, Kurotaru isn’t quite within his capacity to start disobeying orders.

As Yuuki moves to accept the challenge, Kurotaru starts shrouding the surrounding area in thorned vines, rather subtly.

The entire surrounding area is contained within them before the Gate Opens for battle

This apparently has the side effect of causing Magisa to lose track of Yuuki and Kaitsu, but the sinister presence she detected in Kurotaru has only strengthened.

Regardless, she can’t pinpoint their location, so Dan’s off to go find them manually.

I don’t remember, but based on context clues, it seems the vines surrounding this entryway to the battlefield are what Kurotaru uses to set up his Death games, it seems to change the rules of battle such that the loser will in fact die once their last life is taken. Seems to make the battle nigh undetectable via magical means, thereby restricting the chance that someone could interfere.

This is the “Poison” Otherworld King likely spoke of.

Yuuki declares that he alone will fight, and to leave Kajitsu out of it.

This… probably won’t fly, Kurotaru’s target includes Kajitsu.

Kurotaru hears Yuuki but doesn’t heed him, merely commenting that if Yuuki chooses to fight, then Kajitsu has nothing she can do but watch.

Naturally the non-response suggests that Kurotaru intends to involve Kajitsu very much regardless of whether or not she’s handling the cards.

Kajitsu places a hand on Yuuki’s deck, noting that he’s reconstructed it, having created a Hybrid deck of Green and White.

She’s satisfied with this, meaning that Yuuki intends to make use of both their main colours to fight off, it’s like fighting together.

Yuuki Turn 1.

Yuuki deploys The Fruit of Wise Tree, now anytime he loses lives he’ll gain a core from the void.

White and Green are both Core-boosting colours, this means that Yuuki will have a large amount of resources to play his large white walls.

Fruit of Wise Tree was such a potent Nexus it was sometimes worth running in Non-Green decks just because the Core boost was so good.

Yuuki ends his turn.

Assassin Turn 2

Kurotaru summons a new card, The SevenShogun Beldegaulle.

And if you’re wondering why the sudden animation like he’s playing an X-Rare, that’s because it is an X-Rare

A Cost 3 Purple X-Rare Spirit from BS09. And incredibly powerful too.

It holds the Immortality Keyword, while it does list a level requirement on the card itself, because of the way this keyword works, the level of the card doesn’t matter as the Immortality Spirit must be in your Trash to activate it.

How it works is, essentially, Immortality lists a condition, usually a cost, but can be a Spirit Family, in Beldegaulle’s case, it’s a Spirit who’s Cost is 4 or 5.

When a Spirit of that category is destroyed, you may activate Immortality from the Trash, you then pay the cost and summon the Immortality Spirit in question. So in Beldegaulle’s case, as long as he’s in the Trash, you can pay his cost to summon him every time a Cost 4 or 5 Spirit you control is destroyed.

This, tied with it’s powerful on-summon effect, which emulates Bloody coffin in that it destroys an exhausted Cost 4 or less spirit, means it can resolve this effect multiple times in a game.

Something so irritating to get rid of while continuing to diminish opposing card advantage and preserving one’s own is worthy to be an X-Rare.

The card is so potent that as long as you were running Cost 4s or 5s in your deck, it was worth running max copies of Beldegaulle. The only reason you wouldn’t is likely due to either space, or Beldegaulle didn’t have the right families for you to support.

But for a goodstuff build? Beldegaulle is right at home.

X-Rares are often meant to be powerful cards that can potentially win the game on their own, Beldegaulle’s a weird subversion in that, due to it’s nature of being an X-Rare summonable on turn one.

It can’t win the game on its own, but it can carry a battler who uses it excessively.

Kurotaru attacks

Sweet bloody arachnophobia that’s terrifying.

Yuuki takes a life from Beldegaulle, and drops to 4.

Well, it seems the idea of them “Battling together” was more on the nose than anticipated, Kajitsu loses lives alongside Yuuki when they take them, even though it’s not quite a Tag battle.

Fruit of Wise Tree grants Yuuki a Core from the void as he lost a life.

Kurotaru ends his turn.

No points for realizing but this guy definitely hasn’t quite got all the lights on upstairs.

Elsewhere, beyond the battle, Dan and Zungurii are tired out from all the running, but based on Dan’s location he hasn’t gone very far.

All of them slowly come to the conclusion that something’s off however, as they haven’t made any progress despite running around for a while.

Magisa, who’s watching from above, notes they’re circling but not quite getting to a specific place.

Oh that’s cool, each Core Soldier has their own little light that indicates them.

Seems Kurotaru’s little vine prison also has visible stealth, jesus what an annoying bit of magic.

Yuuki Turn 3, he summons Dio-Mantis at Lv2

New card! Must Review!

Awww, well that’s disappointing, Dio-Mantis is just a Cost 2 Parasite Spirit from BS08.

I suppose it’s BP values are quite nice for it’s cost. But that’s basically all it is, nothing interesting about it’s applications at all sadly.

Not sure why they have this frame of Kurotaru trying to shit-talk Yuuki, it’s not really anything interesting or with any depth

Yuuki deploys a 2nd Fruit of Wise Tree, and ends his turn.

So far this White/Green hybrid has been straight green.

Assassin Turn 4.

Kurotaru summons The HellFencer Berith

With it’s effect when summoned, Yuuki is forced to remove 3 cores from his Spirits, as long as it doesn’t deplete any of them.

Beldegaulle attacks, and Yuuki takes it from the life. Falling to 3.

Also the city skyscrapers in the Battlefield are more visible from this shot now.

As Yuuki just took a life, both his Nexuses activate, granting him 2 core from the void.

Yuuki’s now gained a total of 3 core from his Nexuses.

Kurotaru mocks the Momose Siblings for their somewhat awkward situation, having been lovers reincarnated as Human siblings, who are unable to marry.

Berith attacks and Yuuki drops another life, going down to 2.

But The Fruit of Wise Tree activates once more, giving Yuuki 2 more core.

Kurotaru ends his turn, his life total still at 5, meaning Yuuki needs to clear a 3 life difference.

Figures the guy who assassinates professionally in a world that doesn’t typically pay people in money would probably do it for his own enjoyment

Yuuki Turn 5, the guy’s accumulated like… How much core?

4 core + 2 Core steps + 3 lives lost + 5 core from Nexuses

4 + 2 + 3 + 5 = 14 core available, damn, not bad for Turn 5.

Dio-Mantis is also raised to Lv2, and Yuuki ends his turn.

What an awkward position, are all his spirits high cost or something? Or maybe his hand’s full of magic?

Assassin Turn 6, he summons Skulldevil.

Well then, X-Rare number 2.

Kurotaru uses the core on Skulldevil to pay the cost.

And The SevenShogun Destlord is summoned.

I don’t believe a character in this anime has used it up until now, surprisingly.

The 2nd Purple X-Rare in the game, and one released in BS02, The SevenShogun Destlord has the weird quirk of only having an effect when summoned at Lv1. Which is just as well as the effect in question exhausts all Spirits at Lv2.

At Lv2 however, when it somehow defeats an opposing Spirit in a BP contest, you gain Core in your reserve from the Void equal to the number of Core on the destroyed Spirit.

Surprisingly, neither effect is particularly deadly on it’s own, but in this scenario.

By exhausting Yuuki’s Lv2 Spirits, Yuuki now has 2 lives and no blockers to content with Kurotaru’s 3 Spirits.

It’s the natural standard to level up your spirits as high as they will go, people don’t usually try to play around Destlord.

It’s just that Destlord’s target for exhaustion is deceptively broad, essentially it assumes that, 1, they’re levelling responsibly, and 2, they have spirits that either have prohibitively high Lv3 costs, or don’t have a Lv3, which for quite a majority of spirits is true.

So because Yuuki made a correct decision with his available Spirits, they were susceptible to a Destlord he didn’t see coming.

Destlord attacks

During Flash Timing, Yuuki uses High Elixir, and pays in a very specific manner, as he has 11 core available, he has to pay 7 core such that at least 2 of it remains in his reserve, as he has only 1 white reduction.

In this case, Yuuki pays leaving 1 core on both Spirits, which is just enough to keep 2 core in his reserve.

The remaining 2 core in his reserve are added to his life.

He then, now at 4 lives, takes from the life.

This causes his Nexuses to activate again, producing 2 more core from the Void.

Kajitsu’s a little affected by the sudden influx of damage from an X-Rare, but Yuuki catches her.

Again, it’s an incredibly sweet moment but it feels a little tainted sometimes.

Regardless of what type of bond they share however, no blame is flung at the other for what’s currently happening, their sights focused directly on Kurotaru.

Kurotaru seems rather caught off guard by this, but decides to simply keep going, wondering how long Yuuki can continue to stay focused and resolute.

…My guy’s playing Green/White, he’s just gonna always have the requisite core, mate.

Beldegaulle attacks.

Outside the battle, our slightly unentertained peanut gallery have finally arrived at the Thorn Prison Kurotaru erected.

With the equivalent of zero warning, Magisa just goes “Yeah they may be in there” and sends them in magically.

Because y’know, Magisa OP.

Back to the battle, I believe Beldegaulle was in the middle of attacking.

You’d think if entering the wall of thorns was the equivalent of entering the Battlefield, that the Battlefield itself would be different, no?

Budgets are indeed budgets though, I’m not going to fault them for not doing something that might have cost them more money than they had left, especially for just the one battle.

Yuuki takes from the life, dropping back to 2.

His Nexuses provide him 2 more core from the Void, total boost from other sources now is 9.

Kajitsu has finally noticed the presence of her friends, and seems pleased to see them, how nice.

Kurotaru takes this moment to greet Magisa, acknowledging her return to her original glory

Kurotaru ends his turn, leaving Berith as a blocker.

Seems Kurotaru is familiar with Magisa as he’s killed plenty of her friends, go figure.

Magisa confirms that which we were told earlier, if Yuuki and Kajitsu lose, they will be dead as doornails

…Okay Beldegaulle I could agree that it would be his first time seeing it, as it’s our first time seeing it.

But Destlord? C’mon son, that one’s from BS02, there’s no way your collection doesn’t have one.

As part of the last of the Peanut Gallery’s observations of the battle, they’re caught up in that Kajitsu also bears a Battle Form, as Yuuki is using a Green and White Hybrid deck, combining cards from both of their card pools.

Yuuki Turn 7, let’s total the core, 4 + 3 lives + 3 core steps + 9 boosted

4 + 3 + 3 = 19 core. Holy moly.

Anyway, Yuuki raises Dio-Mantis and Gungnir back to Lv2, that’s 5 core accounted for.

Yuuki then summons The Artifact Fjalar at Lv3, that accounts for another 6, leaving about 8.

Yuuki then summons the IronKnight Yggdrassil at Lv3. Accounting for the final 8

Yggdrassil’s effect when summoned bounces Spirits on both fields who’s BP is 3000 or less.

as Berith and Beldegaulle are both at Lv1, both their BPs clock in at 3000, so are returned to Kurotaru’s hand.

Now only Destlord remains, and Destlord is exhausted

The issue with accumulating all the core needed for the cards in your hand is that your hand can get rather low rather quickly, and running out of options isn’t fun

Naturally, it seems Yuuki thought of this, using Hand Reverse.

To use it, Yuuki must discard his hand, but as his hand is empty, he has no need to.

As Kurotaru holds 5 cards in his hand, Yuuki draws to match it, drawing 5 new cards.

Thing is, Yuuki needs 3 core in order to use that, and I believe he just used the last of his core.

Conveniently however, Dio-Mantis and Gungnir have 3 core spare without needing to be depleted in order to cover this.

This doesn’t invalidate their earlier level up, as if Yuuki didn’t, they would have been returned to his hand.

Excellent core management from Yuuki there.

Yuuki doesn’t attack however, and ends his turn.

Assassin Turn 8, Kurotaru re-summons Beldegaulle and Berith to the field, he doesn’t seem to resolve Berith’s effect.

Berith isn’t optional, so it’s possible they just gloss over which Spirit, we’ll see if it matters.

Kurotaru attacks with Beldegaulle but Yuuki blocks with Yggdrassil, leaving Beldegaulle to be destroyed.

Even if Yggdrassil were Level 1, it’d have just enough BP.

Berith attacks and Yuuki takes from the life, dropping him and Kajitsu to a single 1.

The Nexuses resolve again, total core gain is now 11.

Mai notes that the situation is bad, and not just because Yuuki’s on one life.

Well, sort of because of that, but because he’s at 1 life, he’ll need to block every attack, and doing so may allow Beldegaulle to activate it’s Immortality.

Yuuki Turn 9, total core available: 4 + 5 + 4 + 11 = 25 core total available.

…And for his main step, he activates Reload Core.

Side note, there’s an animation error here, Yuuki has 1 life remaining but here it’s displayed as 2.

As Yuuki controls 2 Armed Machine Spirits, 1 core is added to the Reserve for each, producing 2.

Total Core Gain is now 13

If you’re wondering why Yggdrassil didn’t grant a core, it’s because Yggdrassil isn’t an Armed Machine, surprisingly, it’s in the Machine and Mounted Warrior families.

Yuuki raises Dio-Mantis, Gungnir and Fjalar back up to their highest levels.

The fact that Fjalar has been levelled twice now means that it was the target for Berith’s effect.

The Fruit of Wise Tree is also raised to Lv2, now he can attack safely, right?

Apparently not, as Yuuki ends his turn again.

Yuuki’s very clearly waiting patiently for… something, which explains his incredibly passive strategy for the moment.

Assassin Turn 10, adding an extra 5 core to Destlord raises it to Lv2… and it’s BP a measly 8000.

Berith attacks, but is blocked by the Lv2 Gungnir.

Berith has only 3000 BP, so it’s defeated by Gungnir’s 4000.

…There are precisely TWO spirits in his Trash.

As Kurotaru’s just had one of his Cost 5 spirits destroyed, he’s now able to activate Beldegaulle’s Immortality

Kurotaru resolves Immortality but the visualizations a bit weird, as it’s Effect on-summon looks as if it triggers in the trash

In essence, Kurotaru resummons Beldegaulle from the Trash, and destroys Gungnir with it’s effect on-summon, as Gungnir is both exhausted and under Cost 4.

There’s a slight mistranslation where it says “Cost 4 or less exhausted Spirit without tribute” but Tribute requirements have never been a trait of the card.

Destlord now attacks

But… rather than block with the 9000 BP Yggdrassil, Yuuki elects to use a Magic in Flash Timing, Mist Curtain.

Targeting Destlord, now Destlord cannot reduce Yuuki’s life this turn via an attack.

Kurotaru ends his turn, leaving Beldegaulle to block.

almost everything about Kurotaru is actually quite cool for a one-off character, unlike Dr. Franker he’s set up and designed well

But god damn for an Assassin he talks a FUCKTON

SHUT UP YA MAZOKU BITCH

Yuuki Turn 11… Yuuki passes

Welp so much for that turn.

Also it seems Yuuki’s lives have corrected themselves, though they’re drawn a little differently in that frame.

Assassin Turn 12, he brings Destlord down to Lv1.

And summons a 3rd X-Rare, The SevenShogun Pandemium.

It seems as if Kurotaru’s deck makeup is that of a SevenShogun deck, I’ve yet to see any connective tissue that links the unique strategies of the SevenShoguns together though.

Kurotaru ends his turn, declaring that he now has a way to put an end to Yuuki’s vehement defensive play.

This is likely because Pandemium will be capable of exhausting Yuuki’s Spirits whenever Kurotaru’s own Spirits are destroyed.

Yuuki Turn 13, He summons BlackMonoqueiroz and immediately Tributes it.

Yuuki summons The WingDeity Grand-Woden at Lv3. His new Key Spirit has arrived.

As Yuuki’s finally gotten his Strongest Spirit out, the Core Soldiers are certain that Yuuki will now make a move toward Kurotaru’s life.

But Yuuki, once again, ends his turn.

Hrm, with the current board state Yuuki can refresh Grand-Woden once, making for a total of 2 attacks, with 3 other spirits.

…Blocking correctly means Kurotaru survives with many lives remaining, but it’s hard to get an edge when he’s sitting on life totals so high.

Does he intend to take 5 lives in a single turn?

There’s a difference between being unable to use a Spirit, and just not doing so.

Well, seems Kurotaru has a play, let’s see.

Hah, interesting, he’s added 1 core each to Destlord and Pandemium, which isn’t enough to level them up but they don’t need to level up.

They just need more than one.

Kurotaru summons his 4th X-Rare, The SevenShogun Desperado

Desperado sends 1 core from every Spirit to the reserve, as Beldegaulle was the only 1 to have 1 core, It’s depleted

Desperado gains 1 core from the void as Beldegaulle was depleted, Kurotaru then brings it to Lv2.

Desperado attacks, with it’s Lv2 effect it can drop core from 1 Spirit to the reserve until it has 1 remaining, Kurotaru selects Yggdrassil.

During Flash Timing, Kurotaru uses Danse Macabre.

It’s not shown upfront, so if you don’t remember it by name, it’s this Magic:

Kurotaru can now discard any number of cards from his hand, for each he discards, a core from an opposing spirit is sent to the Trash.

Kurotaru can only select a single target, but it doesn’t matter, as he’ll have more Spirits than Yuuki will be able to block with, as long as Fjalar or Grand-Woden are targeted, and Kurotaru has 4 cards in hand, more than enough to deplete one.

Okay, noted, this one gets positively orgasmic when he feels that he’s about to kill someone.

Why Otherworld King didn’t kill you I… Well I suppose he wanted your powers.

…Why someone else didn’t kill you I don’t understand.

Not that he’ll get that far, Yuuki activates Grand-Woden’s Ice Wall to all colours, since it’s Kurotaru’s turn, Yuuki exhausts Grand-Woden to negate Kurotaru’s Magic.

Hrm, they continually refer to their situation as a “curse”, which I suppose is correct, being lovers reincarnated in the body of siblings is pretty damn cursed.

But Yuuki vows to erase the curse of their fate, lord knows how he means though.

Presumably he intends to find some alternative to their situation that allows them to die happily together without needing to be married or crossing the moral boundary of marrying as siblings.

Yuuki blocks with Artifact Fjalar, as doing so exhausted an Armed Machine, Grand-Woden is refreshed.

Desperado destroys Fjalar, and Kurotaru no longer has the requisite number of attackers to blockers to finish the game off.

Desperado’s effect activates, as Kurotaru destroyed an opposing spirit, he now draws one card.

Kurotaru now declares that his next turn will be the last one.

Kajitsu uses an ounce of her power to revive a wilted white rose she picked from her house, and declares that Kurotaru won’t get a next turn.

Something resonates as Yuuki begins Turn 15.

4 Core start
7 Core steps
4 lives lost.
and 13 core gained.
Yuuki’s total core budget this turn is 28 core.

a Core is dropped from Dio-Mantis, as it’s not Lv2, and probably doesn’t need to be.

His 3 Spirits now are only taking up 6 of the 28 core, so Yuuki has a budget of around 22.

Fruit of Wise Tree has 3 but pfft, if Kurotaru doesn’t get a next turn then it doesn’t matter how much core it has.

Spending a whole 7 of it immediately, and an 8th to maintain it, Yuuki summons The Providence Hououga.

14 Core remain.

Kajitsu goes on to explain the philosophy of their combined deck, Yuuki uses White to Protect the Life, while Kajitsu’s Green accumulates insane amounts of core over time, as Kajitsu stated in Episode 37, Yuuki will accumulate core after core until he has infinite power.

For a second time this game, Yuuki DECLARES A TRIBUTE

The target is Yggdrassil!

The ultimate ace of the Momose Siblings has arrived.

And it spells out Yuuki’s aim.

If Grand-Woden is Odin, and Odin symbolizes the White King.

Then the only way to completely demolish the cursed fate of resurrection is to annihilate the Soul of the White King, Odin, completely.

To become his own person, To bring about Ragnarok!

The DoomKnightLord Ragna-Rock is a Dual-Coloured Green and White X-Rare from BS09, and takes up the Green X-Rare slot for the set. Sporting the Mounted Warrior and Shellman families and a Green and White Double Symbol.

Downsides include a benefit involving a specific Tribute target and a Cost of 9 with split colour reductions, but that’s where they end.

Requiring a Tribute of Cost 6 or more, when summoned, Ragna-Rock will exhaust every opposing Spirit your opponent controls, and if you so happened to tribute The IronKnight Yggdrassill exactly, it gains 6 core from the Void. With even 3 reductions from either colour, that’s a full refund to it’s cost, and more importantly, that instantly raises it to Level 3!

And if that wasn’t enough, AT Level 3, whenever it attacks OR Blocks, you can refresh 3 Cost 8 or less Spirits you control. While that excludes itself, the fact that 3 different spirits unlikely to be as high costed as himself could make a second attack can be an incredibly potent combo.

Ragna-Rock’s effect when summoned activates, all of Kurotaru’s Spirits are exhausted.

As Yggdrassil was the Tribute, Ragna-Rock gains 6 core from the Void, raising it to Lv3.

With that boost, Yuuki is now able to raise Grand-Woden and Hououga’s Levels to be ALSO Lv3

This monstrous board state is something only made possible by the core provided via Fruit of Wise Tree and supported by High Elixir.

In most cases I’d have considered this a time of war, and a deranged Mazoku who’s been indiscriminantly killing others for nothing more than his own enjoyment and self-preservation is someone not worth keeping alive as the likelihood that sufficient therapy exists, is available, and Kurotaru would capable of engaging with it in earnest is incredibly low.

Yuuki and Kajitsu perform a full attack with all 3 of their Spirits.

Grand-Woden has a Double symbol, and takes 2 of Kurotaru’s lives, dropping him to 3.

Hououga strikes true, dropping Kurotaru to 2.

The DoomKnightLord Ragna-Rock has a Green and White Double Symbol.

Kurotaru’s remaining 2 lives are taken, leaving him with 0.

Yuuki is the winner.

Well I’m glad that, unlike Dr. Franker, Kurotaru at least sticks around just a little bit longer after his defeat instead of his balls going twang and snapping him out of reality.

Kurotaru, rather classically uses a metaphor of how White, while beautiful, is easily corrupted.

Then declaring that eventually, Yuuki will become the Evil he seeks to destroy.

This would be a reasonable threat if it wasn’t 7 episodes before the end of the show.

a Face-Heel Turn at this juncture, after Yuuki spent the rest of the series being a villain, would be incredibly strange.

No, like, literally, at no point does Yuuki become evil.

And I will preface that at some point it will look like I’m going to eat those words but I’m really not I promise you.

Kenzo admonishes the siblings for running off on their own, as their reward for doing so was leaving them open to attack from the one fucking guy who could initiate Death Battles.

Kajitsu recognizes that it was a bit careless and apologizes for it.

Kenzo and Mai both note that they’ve had a pretty rough time given the state of disrepair their house is in, and Mai notes that they’ll respect their privacy and not pry about it, which Kajitsu appreciates.

Kajitsu, having taken plenty of damage that battle however, collapses.

Well I suppose this is excellent timing, just what we needed, right on the cusp of the Series end and the Bearer of Mother Core, like a dying PC, craps out on us at the most crucial moment.

But what else could it be other than the end of the episode?

This was significantly superior to the last Episode, Kurotaru is not only better designed than Dr. Franker, but also doesn’t seem entirely unwelcome in the story, plus his presence serves as narrative butter to better the speed of the plot, rather than delaying it as Franker did.

Kurotaru is certainly designed to fulfill the same role as Franker but he’s executed on much more favourably, being treated like a character rather than a checkbox to be filled. The writers learned from their mistakes immediately.

Now, you may be expecting that the Card of the day to be Ragna-Rock, but nope.

Today our card is Beldegaulle. Talk about a staple, essentially Beldegaulle was the kind of card that was just so useful you just ran it, even if that immortality wasn’t so frequent because of deck makeup, that on-summon beats out 90% of Cost 3 purple Spirits.

In essence, while it’s so wearily simple, the card is just so effective in it’s simplicity that if you could find space for it, you probably should be running it, it’s just that nuts

in any case, for today’s decklist, we’ll be producing something not disimilar to Kurotaru’s deck, a SevenShogun build.

Unlike Kurotaru however, we’ll use SevenShoguns that aren’t the ones he chose to mix them with, instead will mix them with the one Mai has, using Beldegaulle to support a Curse playstyle.

This deck aims to capitalize on as many of Beldegaulle’s traits while still containing a cohesive strategy whether or not it draws him.

Demo-Bone and Bronzemaiden are both Zombies, as such, Depths of the Netherworld have been added to increase their Curse capabilities, and ChopSword Shadowslicer has been added to allow us to recur them, being a Cost 5, it can trigger Beldegaulle’s Immortality.

Skel-Viper and DoubleHead Snake are simple Cost 4s that draw a card on summon, the idea would be that they come in, do their job, and as they’re easily destroyed, can trigger Beldegaulle.

As we produce a fair bit of Curse in this deck in various ways, Beelzebeat is here not only to recover them, but also to ensure the ones we grant Curse gain benefits for doing so. Asmodious exists to be a finisher to play off of Beelzebeat.

Digged Tombstone lets us draw off of our own Spirits being destroyed. Depths of the Netherworld can grant even our Beldegaulle Curse thanks to it’s Infernal Lord family.

Deadly Balance can destroy our Spirits to initiate Beldegaulle’s effect, and Danse Macabre, Mind Control and Silent Wall are staples.

Once again, I’m no tournament player, this is built to have some level of fun, it’s just a nice sample deck for you to try if you want to.

Til then, I’ll see you around!

Buh-bye!