Brave – Episode 1

“When watching TV, make sure you’re in a well lit room, and don’t sit too close to the screen.”
“That was Hyoudo Kenzo!”

Hyoudo Kenzo

Our usual warnings which I will only post once, delivered by Hyoudo Kenzo this time around, as Magisa would be a little odd.

Welcome, to the first episode of my favourite Battle Spirits series, Battle Spirits Brave!

The opening theme of Brave is Free, by Karasu and it goes hard.

I won’t cover the Intro too much, as its not so structured and I want to introduce characters as they appear.

But, it’s very clear here that this horned chap on the right here is the main rival.

And of course, we’re now seeing the return of our Gekiha Dan Main character, a Bashin Dan, Stronger than Otherworld King and broken by the Fixer, and all by the age of 14.

Yeah, that’s right, the new cards we’ll be seeing will be part of the Constellation Saga of sets. This series is also set in the future, approximately 640 years after the events concerning Otherworld King, in the year 2650.

If you’re wondering how the hell Dan is alive in spite of being our MC, you’ll see.

The show assumes you know the events of Gekiha Dan, but still contextualizes what it’s talking about, also the character speaking is just a narrator.

If you’re joining us for the first time just for Brave, first of all, Hi, second of all, what happened last time was that some dick called the Otherworld King tried to combine Earth and Grand-Lolo together so he could rule it by dangling Core over their heads, a Mineral that naturally produces Infinite energy ad nauseum. But doing so required forcing Grand-Lolo’s residents, the Otherworlders, under his rule in spite of Otherworld King himself being Human.

From their point of view it was a series of changes that heavily affected Otherworlders, changes they didn’t ask for.

So our Hero, Dan, kicked him in the butt so hard he became dust, the McGuffin of the series, Mother Core was given to an Otherworld Witch turning her into a Goddess, and the worlds were separated again.

This… doesn’t seem possible just from the outset, as Magisa moved everyone before magically dragging Grand-Lolo and it’s residents back.

So that’s either a really big fuck up, or Magisa meant to do that.

…The Mazoku?

Yep, the Mazoku. The most varied race of Otherworlders, and the ones with the most innate potency of Magic too.

This.. is how the Fixers are ultimately destroyed.

So, I ommitted some exerpts about The Fixer concerning the Mazoku specifically, the reason for this is because it spoiled their existence in Brave.

The Fixer wanted Core Energy no matter what, whether Otherworld King was alive or dead, they actually captured some of these guys and tried to hide their existence, to run tests on them in order to understand the Core System.

The Mazoku are the most brutal race of Otherworld however, and Otherworlders are naturally far physically stronger than Humans. These guys didn’t even kowtow to Otherworld King even as their extinction was at hand.

Naturally, on Earth, no such Otherworld King existed, they multiplied, expanded…

And ultimately destroyed The Fixer, who had nothing in the face of their supreme power, and superior technology.

Just as a flex, they made a freaking EIGHTH continent!

Also an interesting use of numbers here, Grand-Lolo consists of 6 world in which Otherworld King tried to make Earth the 7th.

Now, an Earth with 7th Continents now has an 8th, exclusive to the Mazoku.

The humorous irony of The Fixer’s destruction is evident here.

The Fixer couldn’t be controlled by Battle Spirits, only by raw power, so the Bearers of Core’s Light, who wielded cards as weapons, and later their voices, couldn’t defeat them.

The Fixer broke them down… until it eventually faced an enemy it could not defeat with Strength, and could only be controlled by Battle Spirits.

Naturally they either realized their need for this far too late, and were defeated, or they insisted on not bothering at all, and were destroyed.

Either way, fuck the Fixer. Actual asshats and I hate them all.

I’m touching a card right now! Take me there! Come on! I’ll fight all the Mazoku!

Let me be in a world of card games dammit!

And here we meet our first Mazoku.

I’d say he’s one of my personal favourites but I just… really like the Mazoku in general.

Anyway, they do appear to be invading what seems to be a human populated city.

Incredibly strange name, but this guy’s name is Duc. Pronounced like “Duke”

He goes by the moniker of “The Hooligan General Duc”, it sounds weird translated but the Title in Japanese is rather cool, His full title is pronounced like “Boh-shoh Duke”

It seems the Mazoku don’t really do surnames, and so titles are used to identify individuals with similar naming, such as The Firm Heliostom. Or Boomerang Oryo

Seems since the Mazoku happily settle their matches via Battle Spirits, having a 40-card deck is now officially a form of self-defense.

Oh it’s going down, a World of card game wars let’s GOOOO.

So you’ll notice, on the place where the 8th Continent is, you’ll be able to pinpoint both it’s name, and a word under it.

Firstly, we can see here the continent is called “Oct”, which isn’t very fucking creative now is it? Octo is 8 in Latin. Given Japanese pronunciation however, they’ll pronounce the “o” at the end of “Oct”, meaning the continent is going to be pronounced “Octo”, like the bloody Latin word.

The word under it is “Demon Clan”, and the reason for that is because “Mazoku” is used to refer to supernatural beings that are Devilish or Demonic in nature… Quite hilariously the “Mazoku” is also the name of the Demon Clan in Dragon Ball.

No we’re not fighting Namekians, slow your roll.

ITS YA BOY KAZAN,

That’s right, it appears Kazan came from approximately the year 2650, as he is from the future, after Otherworld King’s changes to history, this is probably the world he returned to.

Given that it was dying of pollution before, a losing war with Otherworlders is probably a just punishment for him… and a far better deal given there’s now a clean world to fight for.

No! We lost Shanghai!

I’m glad the Chinese speak perfect Japanese in this show. Though given it’s the future maybe Japanese somehow became the International Language of choice as it’s the one the Mazoku clearly speak…

…In spite of being taught to do so by a Spanish guy before Spain discovered Japan!

COME ON!

And just incase you thought “No it’s clearly a different city”, nope.

Hooligan General Duc just bodied the guy who wanted to throw down with him.

How many times do you have to say “Oh not this fucking guy” before you start to grow fond of them?

Under advice from a guy dressed in immaculate White, Kazan is asked to Call him.

Who you ask? Fuck if we know.

And our first episode title, “Brave! The SunDragon Sieg-Apollodragon!”

Safe to say, the only thing this title indicates is the card that will almost certainly be seen this episode.

I’m on and off about doing Episode titles again, as in Gekiha Dan they had a rather nasty case of spoiling what was going to happen. But I did want them represented in some way

so if you head to the Brave Archive page, you’ll see that I’m going to start using the titles as thumbnails for the episode.

It’s clear what’s going on, isn’t it? The story may take place in the future, but Dan is still in the past.

Put 2 and 2 together, one tends to get 4.

Seems there’s CARD GAMES afoot. That’s that good shit.

As we learned from the story of The Fixer, Dan might not be the Hero of the World anymore, but he’s certainly far and away the greatest battler in Japan.

Given his skill was enhanced by his incredibly high stakes battles in Grand-Lolo and against Otherworld King. Dan is probably having trouble finding anyone who can compete with him aside from Yuuki-

…Oh.

It’s clear Dan’s salary comes from being a celebrity battler, but that also means that poor Dan is kicking ass with the same deck over and over.

This one he used basic Siegwurm.

Also he has 3 lives left.

Dan enjoys taking on all battlers, which is nice.

Hell yeah he is.

That is bullshit.

Kid had 3 cards in hand and you had at LEAST 3 life.

You had Ankillersaurus as an extra attacker OR a blocker.

Kid would have needed an exceptional amount of luck to take that game back.

Look at our brilliant champion, encouraging others to be even better than they were today.

You can tell Dan’s design, while not changing much from his original appearance, the way he wears his clothes and the mildly changed shape of his face clearly shows an increase in maturity.

Apparently Dan has a visit from a “Shinomiya”

There’s also subtle changes in the way he expresses himself and speaks.

While Gekiha Dan would have been incredibly confused, here, Brave Dan is cautiously suspicious. His voice takes a super low tone almost as if he’s ready to lose his temper

Given the Fixer is still active at this time, Dan is normal to be like this, as he might be suspecting a Fixer Assassin.

Outside of the Game room, it’s increasingly obvious that Dan is depressed.

The Fixer don’t dabble in Battle Spirits, so Dan’s depression and anger turns to confusion.

there’s also perhaps the idea that he actually recognizes the voice he’s hearing.

Introducing, Viole Mai, or as she’s called now, Shinomiya Mai. Thankfully we can just keep calling her Mai.

The old Purple Light Bearer, her design has changed drastically compared to Dan’s.

While Dan’s had his design tweaked to keep him looking the same, but more competent, the only part of Mai’s design that hasn’t changed is her facial shape.

Her hair is at full length, she’s no longer clad in purple, instead using a very discreet White and Pink outfit.

The shape of her uniform generally remains the same, as she still has uncovered shoulders and such, but where her shoulders used to be bear they’re now fully covered, and her short skirt no longer fans out completely.

Mai was forced to take down her blog due to The Fixer.

Naturally, as a Bearer of the Core’s Light, Mai has the capacity to keep up with Dan in a battle. So it appears Dan’s rather interested in battling someone notable.

You smell that? That’s the smell of blood in the air.

Because Dan’s giving off the aura of the ultimate character trope, and my favourite kind!

The BLOOD KNIGHT.

Mai’s clearly clicked onto the same thing I did, Dan claimed he was saved by a draw but ultimately he had that game in full control the entire time

Dan’s the biggest fish in the largest pond… And he ate all the large fish.

At the end of Gekiha Dan, Dan claimed he wanted casual battles where nothing is risked.

It appears that while Dan always has fun battling, he now genuinely misses Grand-Lolo.

And this is why this Dan is my favourite protagonist.

I RESONATE with this feel.

ARGH.

You can tell how much he wants it too.

He barely blinks at the prospect, Mai’s just offered him something he’s been asking for, and Dan just goes for it.

Dan is so enticed by the idea of potentially getting an inkling of what he wants that he doesn’t even care about what else is there.

The guy’s probably been prepared to lose his life for a while now thanks to the Fixer, his job has naturally made him required to play the deck he’s so darn well used to,

He’s got no ties to this world, no one particularly close who will miss him, No one at home who will notice he’s gone. Not even his trusty deck that he’s played for 2 straight years can keep him tethered here for even a few seconds longer.

How interesting, Mai uses a Brooch to open a gate, very similar to the ones that connect Earth to Grand-Lolo.

And much like the previous series started, the first episode involves Dan, falling off this exact drop, heading towards a doorway to the unknown.

Except this time he’s leaping headfirst into it rather than being an unwilling victim of it.

That sudden jump must have gotten the adrenaline going, Dan’s checking if Mai’s okay but Mai just seems happy that Dan seemed to be enjoying himself.

Here we have the new design of Clackey Ray, who’s also come to the future.

Clackey Ray also has no more ties to his old home, since his Mother was deported to Puerto Rico, and then subsequently passed away, and Clackey doesn’t know his father, the Bearers of the Core’s Light are the only people he’d care about and he’s got no way of visiting them from Puerto Rico in a hurry, especially not with the Fixers attacking planes.

It’s clear reading this story though that he would absolutely take this job, but he’d be even more pleased that his only friends in the world would be joining him.

Dan has now successfully arrived approximately 638 years into the future, as it would be 2012 when he left.

Oh semantics.

Kazan is one of the first few people Dan meets on arrival to a new world, or in this case, a new time. Again.

The callbacks are already hammy.

It must be quite amusing for Kazan to also be in precisely the same situation he was in before. Fighting Otherworlders with a series of human forces.

Difference is he’s not the aggressor this time.

Kazan confirms that the nature of Otherworld King’s changes remained, causing Kazan’s future to also change.

The world is “better” but rather than irreparably dying of Pollution, it’s mostly ruled by Mazoku.

Grand-Lolo was a world of Otherworlders unfairly ruled by Humans.

Now, we’re in a Future world of humans unfairly ruled by Otherworlders.

Naturally, the situation is still the same, people should not be ruling worlds they aren’t from.

There’s a slight nuance that’s difficult though, the Mazoku didn’t ask to be here, they’re naturally vengeful due to the damn Fixer.

Seems a few other Soldiers were summoned first, but they unanimously decided that Dan was necessary,

Which makes sense, these Mazoku rebelled against Otherworld King who even imprisoned one due to how deadly he was.

So they’d need power similar to Otherworld King’s in order to take them on (which is hilarious considering Humans generally have the edge over Otherworlders, but the Mazoku are an exception as they generally have the edge over Humans)

Trouble in Tokyo, the site of Dan’s first battle.

It’s almost like they’re testing a new machine in a Mecha anime, gives me the same vibes.

With a brand spanking new pilot too.

Kazan explains to Dan that he was called here so that he could battle as Humanity’s savior.

Dan finds the irony amusing that this time he’s fighting for Humans.

Kazan naturally accentuates the pressure of the situation, defeat is pretty unacceptable as every loss means Humanity loses more ground.

Also you can tell by the screen up there that the Mazoku have control of most of the known world.

This ain’t Dan’s first rodeo, and Dan is just itching to get into the thick of the second.

Scary? Quite the contrary, it makes my blood boil in excitement!

Dan naturally needs to cover the problem of leaving too urgently, he wants a new deck, one from this era.

I just gotta say I am nerding out about this screen.

This thing is a highly advanced deck building system. It seems to have all the card details as an easy access, including other windows containing available cards.

Dan’s been given a very standard deck, but in actual fact, it’s a fully-fledged imitation of SD03, save for 2 cards that have been changed on this screen.

There’s a Yoroilizardon and a Futabanea inside the deck, singular copies of each.

Kazan naturally asks Dan if he plans to use Red, which would seem a given, since it’s his specialty.

Kazan doesn’t seem to realize yet, Dan is him.

Offered the option of giving him the collection of Red cards, Dan says no.

“Give me all six”

That’s right baby, in the 2 years since defeating Otherworld King, Dan’s… well, become almost a crownless version of the man, and mastered all 6 colours in those 2 years.

He’s not here as the Red Soldier anymore, so Dan need not be bound by his skill with Red.

In Gekiha Dan, they said the choice of colour didn’t matter, for Otherworld King was skilled in all colours.

Also in Gekiha Dan, Otherworld King and Yuuki stated, that he who defeats Otherworld King, becomes Otherworld King.

…Dan is here after defeating Otherworld King, many of the changes to him seem to liken him to Otherworld King.

This indifference to colour is just a part of that.

Dan notices a Brave card, The CannonDragon Bal-Gunner among the Red cards however, and then removes Yoroilizardon and Futabanea

By subbing in the 2nd and 3rd copy of Bal-Gunner, Dan now has an exact copy of the cardlist of Structure Deck 3, a Red and Blue deck.

After accepting the information, this card database interface constructs a deck of the aforementioned cards and spits it out.

I don’t believe it has the capacity to print cards however due to other things that happen during the series. So this is a physical collection of cards that uses an interface to keep a record of said collection, and assist in deck creation.

Given that War is waged with cards in this Era, it makes sense that expenses were invested to make things like this possible. It means people in this Era should be using otherwise optimized decks.

Also since Kazan returned to the future, it’s possible Battle Spirits was lost sometime during the 640 year gap, but since Kazan returned from a time where Battle Spirits in Grand-Lolo was around BS09, it progressed at the same rate as Dan’s Era, if a little bit further, hence why they’re only on BS10.

It’s a contrivance formed from speculation but it helps get over the “How did the game not change in 640 years?” question that never gets explained.

And now for the ultimate reason that Clackey is dressed the way he is, that’s because he’s actually a ship captain now.

Just like how Gekiha Dan showed many parallels with Toppa early on, this show is actually going to show a ton of parallels with Gekiha Dan very early.

In thisn case, Clackey’s role here mirrors that of Leon, someone who he claimed to “Understand” in the previous series.

But whereas Leon piloted The Golden Lion, this beast of a ship puts the Golden Lion to shame, say hello to The Beautiful Sophia.

No doubt named after Clackey’s favourite card, The GreatAngelia Sophia.

Now we meet some new characters, members of the crew.

This blue-haired chap wearing also blue is Youth Glynnhorn, he’s a Pilot.

And this is Plym Machina.

Youth is incredibly reserved and is basically Sasuke fucking Uchiha at this point.

And Plym is, conversely, incredibly friendly… And surprisingly young for a mechanic of a ship this large.

Plym treats machines like people, so she uses honorifics when referring to them.

While Plym focuses on the health of the ship’s hardware, Mai on the other hand, being the daughter of an IT company owner, uses her skills to manage the ship’s software.

The wonders of technology… But not just any technology.

The Beautiful Sophia, is a Core Ship.

It seems that not only where the Mazoku left here, but they brought with them the methods to either produce Core, or had a fair bit of it on-hand when they were left here. It’s also possible that the blessings of Mother Core on Earth for it’s brief stint of time allowed the core to occur naturally, and the Fixer suppressed it’s existence (as infinite renewable energy means they can’t control it’s scarcity)

Either way, the Core system is in place 640 years later as the norm.

And it does crazy things like manifest an entire segment of the ship.

Off it goes!

It seems Duc’s a rather straightforward individual, the general approach seems to be that he occupies an area and declares it conquered until challenged by a battler for the territory.

Defeating said Battler solidifies control over this territory.

Thus the game of war begins.

It seems Duc’s brought a friend on board for this particular invasion.

I have no idea what civilizations Duc is talking about, I will be honest.

If I’m really lucky, Liri_White in the comments will save me again

The Mazoku seem very keen on expanding territory, however this blonde Mazoku with Duc seems rather satisfied with just a small amount. It’s either incredibly good territory, or the Blonde one doesn’t seem particularly interested in expanding.

Finally, a name-drop!

Naturally you’ll notice these 2 have names based on titles.

The Hooligan General Duc is joined by a Mazoku by the name of Barone (Bah-roh-nay)

From the looks of the Profile Pictures used by good ol’ Soaker, the subber for this series, this is one of their favourite characters.

This of course is the face we saw at the end of the opening being shown as the foil to Dan, that’s because this character is the Rival character for the series.

No more time for that conversation.

Seems Dan has arrived and- BARONE ARE YOU COMBING YOUR HAIR WITH A PLAYING CARD?

COME ON MAN, YOU’LL RUIN THE CORNERS.

So, we’ve spotted the enemy fleet, and it seems for some tactical reason that they need to catch said fleet by surprise.

My guess is, as a single ship, they’re somewhat outnumbered. So they need to set up the Battlefield early and soon to force the Mazoku to go along with it.

After all there’s no particular etiquette involving the acceptance of battles, just that the results must be enforced.

…Huh… This matches up with the rules Otherworld King instated, which essentially states that the results of battles must be enforced. But as we know there are loopholes, such as the fact that battles need not be accepted, and until a result is acquired, parties need not be idle.

I suppose one could say this is indeed an Era built by Otherworld King, especially since they use it’s rule.

Dan is given the order to get going, it’s time for his first battle!

Well he did before, now on the other hand he’s got something to finally do!

Like before it might seem like Dan just romanticizes his times in Grand-Lolo and wants to go back, and this is the closest thing to it, but after reading about the Fixer, you realize that Dan was trapped in a world where none of his actions could affect anything, confined to a world where Battle Spirits promises no pain, and the results don’t matter.

He had to suffer that for 2 years because he was met with the reality that, at least on that Earth, Battle Spirits can’t change a thing.

It’s different now, Battle Spirits is the rule, and he’s in an Era where the Fixers are dead.

My guy’s probably feeling all sorts of things, but most of all, relief?

However, despite seeming to have appropriated the Core System, it seems like the Humans don’t have any control over Magic. As a result, Dan has this mechanical, and entirely practical Battle Form.

He’s probably been ran through how the battle system works here, its not so convenient as Grand-Lolo’s.

The Battlefield was a static series of locations in Grand-Lolo, supplied by Mother Core. The gateways to which Mother Core also supplied.

Mother Core, while connected to Earth, doesn’t shine on Earth, and so Mother Core provides no connection to it’s Battlefield here.

So they have to make do with the existing Core Energy, it’s all Mother Core’s energy so it should produce the same result.

And vuala, you have Core Ships with the ability to spawn Battlefields in the sky.

It seems that The Beautiful Sophia is a novelty among Human ships however, the Battlefield appears to be a trait native to most Mazoku Core ships and the Humans don’t typically have that function on theirs.

The Beautiful Sophia however seems to be able to, which is a good thing given it’s a ship designed to supply Bashin Dan to battle.

With a challenge issued, if the Mazoku start refusing challenges with the Battlefield already up, they’re going to look like they’re running away from Humans.

So, of course, Duc goes to see who the hell they’ve thrown at him.

Given that the Mazoku have taken over most of the known world, and we’re following the rule of Battle Spirits.

this confirms that, in spite of the Humans being normally superior to Otherworlders, the Mazoku are an exception to this rule.

So in the hierarchy of natural strength at Batosupi from strongest to weakest, it goes:

1. Bashin Dan & Otherworld King
2. The Bearers of Core’s Light
3. Mazoku
4. Humans
5. Otherworlders

There’s a reason they call it the Core Bullet.

It’s because they’re shooting Dan directly at the battlefield.

No Mother Core, no gates, so they gotta go in manually.

The Battlefield this time reminds me of Isekai from Bashin Toppa, it’s a floating, industrial-built field.

If you’re wondering how Dan lands this thing, here we go, the Core bullet opens up like a flower.

It then folds backwards and around, and Dan’s seat also folds forward.

this allows the Core bullet to fall with Dan in a standing position.

And the Battlefield, which appears to have been modified by the Mazoku, seems designed to perfectly receive the core bullets.

It doesn’t look like Dan necessarily drives the thing Manually.

Because Mai performs a lock-on to the Battlefield before firing.

So it seems like, since the Core bullet’s main function is to slot into the Battlefield first, and be a ship second, it can auto-pilot.

Ah, functionality, we’re in a set of the game where a player can have more than 5 lives, this likely became a problem with Gekiha Dan because the Battle Forms were only designed with 5 lives in mind and couldn’t think of a good way of adding a 6th life at any time.

With these more digital markers they have a bit more freedom.

Ah, we’re finally back, to the Battlefield again.

Also I quite like these Sky fields, they’re more simplistic than Grand-Lolo’s stuff, plus there’s the cool factor of being IN THE GOD DAMN SKY.

This “boy” kicked the crap out of Otherworld King.

…Granted you wouldn’t expect a Human with a lifespan of about 1 century to suddenly be around barely aged 640 years later.

Duc notes that despite Dan being young, he has a Battle Form, and has arrived on the Battlefield, so he’s clearly prepared to fight.

In essence, Duc knows he’s taking on someone competent.

Notably, Dan doesn’t refer to himself as the Clash King. Whereas Gekiha Dan would have done so.

He simply calls himself “Bashin Dan”.

Naturally, he proclaimed earlier that he no longer cared what colour he played with, so a master of all colours would probably not confine themselves to a title as limiting as “The Clash King”

Barone here has a tendency to do these really hard to capture sequences where he’ll rotate his head about his neck as if you were doing a stretching exercise.

Naturally, as Dan is the one who defeated Otherworld King, the event directly preceding the Mazoku’s occupation of Earth, it’s possible he’s rather famous.

Naturally, Mazoku have territories, it appears Duc’s territory is rather large, spanning all of Asia.

Dan declares that if he wins, Duc will be forced to give up Tokyo, and Duc simply says this is the usual fair from Battlers he’s beaten.

So far, Duc’s been given no reason to believe Dan is any stronger than any other human…

Our main character is psyched!

Now for the first move of the game, this time, by a competent Dan!

Given that these cards released with SD03, we’re gonna have a bit to cover.

Anyway, Dan summons Bladra and Morgesaurus.

Both cards from BS03, and will become iconic for Dan’s deck, Morgesaurus is a simple Cost 3 with 2 reductions, with it’s only effect being that it gains 2000 BP when attacking, this means that Morgesaurus can be rather nasty to deal with while it’s attacking, allowing Dan to muscle through typical blockers around the same cost.

Bladra on the other hand… Is the most famous Spirit in the entire game.

No no I’m serious, this card has so many derivations of it, it’s not even funny.

What’s even more hilarious is the memery of the card itself, because the card will almost always, without fail, be used as cost reduction.

This resulted in the card getting swathes of variants, but nothing beats the original… except a revived version that was so strong it got the card limited

that’s right! This cost 0 vanilla, among the rest of them, can only be run at 1 copy, because of the rules concerning Revived cards means that only 1 card of a given name can be run in the deck!

I believe there was a recurring “Joke” that Bladra was in fact limited so it could stop being abused for Cost reduction.

I’ve already explained why Dan is the happiest being in existence at this moment in time.

MAN WHAT TIPPED YOU OFF CLACKEY?

Hooligan General Turn 2, Duc summons The HeavyArmoredBug Caterbarga.

Due to Caterbarga’s effect, all Cost 1 or below Spirits are now exhausted, this causes Bladra to be exhausted…

Not that such a thing was necessary Caterbarga has the highest BP on the field.

Caterbarga’s a spirit from SD01, making it just after BS05.

We’re in BS10, meaning the Spirit was released roughly halfway through the game’s lifespan at this point.

It appears Duc has a preference for older Spirits.

But if he’s so fascinated by history, why doesn’t he remember his own, and who sent Duc to this world…

And more importantly, who defeated the man who sent him here?

Duc enters his attack step, and attacks with Ceterbarga.

Dan takes a life from Caterbarga, dropping to 4 lives.

My inner fangirl is squealing.

Dan had Morgesaurus, which wasn’t exhausted by Caterbarga’s effect

but even if he did have Bladra available, neither Spirit would have survived a block.

In what way?

Mai explains to Youth that Dan’s getting fired up from the fight and Youth finds that odd because losing a life should hurt.

Pain triggers an Adrenaline response, it is possible to become addicted to that Adrenaline. (this is why some people seem chronically violent or unfaithful, Adrenaline can be like a self-produced drug to them)

Mai also explains to Youth that Dan also feels like he needs to fight alongside the Spirits he expects to fight for him.

Somewhat analogous to “If the King doesn’t lead, how do you expect his supporters to follow?” from Code Geass.

Err… Don’t mind Dan, he’s just uh…

Having a private moment… directly infront of Duc.

Jokes aside, it seems that loss of life was necessary to complete Dan’s full resurrection.

Barone seems completely baffled by Dan’s response to pain.

You might think it’s for the same reason as Youth’s confusion… But it’s quite the opposite.

Dan Turn 3, Dan draws The SunDragon Sieg-Apollodragon.

Notably, Dan’s had a single glance at this deck, so he should be fully aware that Sieg-Apollodragon is one of the only 3 hard-hitters in the deck that can win this game for him.

The other 2 are 2 Cost 5 Blue cards that meet certain conditions required for Dan’s deck to function. I’ll go over those later.

Dan summons The SunDragon Sieg-Apollodragon.

Much like Siegwurm, Sieg-Apollodragon climbs in from behind the Battlefield when it’s summoned.

OH GEEZ, I DIDN’T COUNT THE CORE.

I DIDN’T REALIZE BLADRA WAS ABOUT TO GET DEPLETED FOR COST THIS EARLY.

Either way, that completes the summon, Dan’s played the strongest card in the deck.

To review it’s effects now will spoil a much important mechanic that this series centres on, so I’ll manage it then.

Mai notes that while Dan does use 6 colours, it seems he’s most at home using them to support a Red-ace.

It’d be difficult to be the kind of player equally skilled in all colours after all, Dan is most experienced in Red, and to change that would require changing his entire history.

Clackey notes that Dan might already be familiar with his new deck, given how quickly he brought out it’s ace…

But to that I say, dude, it’s basic cost reduction, calm down.

Dan attacks with Sieg-Apollodragon.

Sieg-Apollodragon’s animations very cleanly match Siegfried and Siegwurm’s, just with a new model.

Duc takes a life, lacking blockers, dropping to 4.

Dan attacks with Morgesaurus, taking another life from Duc. Leaving him with 3.

The second Dan got a turn, he summoned a big dragon and full attacked, so Duc asserts that Dan must be exercising a hyper-aggressive playstyle.

Hooligan General Turn 4, Duc summons MachG.

He then summons not quite an oldie, but definitely a goodie from BS07.

The BladeKingBeast Byak-Garo is summoned.

For all the exclamations about Caterbarga being an old but not-stale Spirit, Duc certainly threw out the latest non-Tribute Green X-Rare.

While I won’t be covering every old card that appears, important ones I may once again go-over.

In this case I’ve nothing really to say about Byak-Garo, but I will post it’s effect here as a reminder, given it’s Duc’s current ace card.

Dan wasn’t anticipating Byak-Garo it seems, I suppose now he recognizes how Duc’s been taking games off the Humans now, he has a deck incredibly similar if not an exact match to Kenzo’s.

Duc enters the attack step, and launches a strike with Byak-Garo.

Dan takes another life, dropping to 3.

Duc ends his turn right after Byak-Garo’s attack, causing Plym to wonder why he didn’t attack with his other 2 spirits.

Clackey explains that, even if Duc attacked with everything, he wouldn’t win, and Dan would need only a single Spirit to finish off Duc.

By leaving blockers, he removes this possibility from coming true, the only downside being Dan has more lives to cut through.

He is however, left with less core as a result of this choice.

It’s a safe play.

Dan Turn 5, he raises Morgesaurus and Sieg-Apollodragon to Lv2.

Dan then summons a 2nd Morgesaurus at Lv2.

Bear in mind, Dan only has 2 Morgesaurus in the deck.

Dan then attacks with Sieg-Apollodragon… Target attacking Caterbarga.

Sieg-Apollodragon has 2 effects, this is one of them:

[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Attacks) You can target and attack an opposing refreshed Spirit.

At all levels, Sieg-Apollodragon is capable of target attacking refreshed Spirits. It’s a little better than your run of the mill standard Clash. As you can select which Blocker you deal with.

Sadly as it isn’t a Clash effect, it won’t mesh with any of Dan’s old cards, which is fine, given Dan doesn’t have any old cards left.

Caterbarga is destroyed, and from Duc’s reaction it appears he wasn’t anticipating a target attack like that.

Sieg-Apollodragon’s effect, much like Clash, takes the agency away from the opponent’s choice between blocking and taking lifes, forcing them to give up Spirits.

Sieg-Apollodragon however, doesn’t even let you select the blocker. Thankfully there is counterplay in the sense that Exhausted Spirits cannot be targeted.

Dan smacks Duc with Morgesaurus, an attack Duc takes from the life, leaving him with 2.

Dan ends his turn.

This scene seems to highlight the differences between the way Plym thinks and the way Youth thinks.

Plym is… I suppose not shallow but she sees things as they currently are and makes deductions based off of them.

Youth is more cynical, figuring that Dan isn’t so ahead as the score seems. He’s likely seen his fair share of advantages get lost incredibly quickly.

Hooligan General Turn 6, Byak-Garo and MachG are raised to Lv2.

Duc then summons Dio-Mantis.

Dan notes that Duc’s been using Green “Consistently”, I suppose Dan’s drawing the conclusion that Duc is using a Pure Green deck, and not an odd kind of Hybrid, if there were another colour present he’d probably have seen it by now.

…How strangely honest, it seems Duc has some honourable traits about him, as he confirms that he is indeed using a Pure Green Deck, Today at least.

It seems Duc is skilled in more than one colour, but such would be true across this entire series, as if Booster Set Saga was defined by pure colour decks and Tribute Spirits.

Constellation Saga is defined by Hybrid Decks… and one other card type.

Byak-Garo attacks, and Dan blocks with Morgesaurus. Morgesaurus is floored by Byak-Garo’s 9000 BP.

Duc’s flustered by Dan’s decision to block here… But it should have been clear that Dan was attempting to do that.

They put down a long-winded explanation but I’ll cover the gist.

In essence, had Dan taken a life, boom, this game would be over.

As Byak-Garo’s Lv2 effect would have returned Morgesaurus to the hand, leaving Dan with 2 lives and Duc with 2 attackers, you do the math.

Additionally, Dan clearly foresaw a Lv2 attack from Byak-Garo, hence he attacked with the 2 spirits that could, and then left a single blocker. Once it blocked, Byak-Garo’s Windstorm would have activated… Except Dan had no spirits to exhaust so by blocking under those conditions, Dan voided both of Byak-Garo’s effects.

Youth is surprised that Dan saw that far ahead, and well, it wasn’t that far.

He saw Byak-Garo then arranged his turn such that Byak-Garo would have the least affect.

Dan then takes an attack from MachG from the life, leaving him with 2.

Duc ends his turn, declaring that Dio-Mantis will wait for it.

Duc’s made a very mild misplay by evening out Dio-Mantis and MachG’s BP values rather than levelling Dio-Mantis (they require the same core to be Lv2), the reason will be stated later.

Dan Turn 9, he draws The CannonDragon Bal-Gunner, the “Brave” he saw in the deck builder.

And Dan summons it, The CannonDragon Bal-Gunner has arrived.

This now plays Brave OST Track 14, and my favourite theme of this series, BRAVE!

I mean, Dan would have won anyway but this definitely makes his options for winning significantly more numerous.

Barone’s also surprised by Dan’s use of a Brave.

First, let’s review Bal-Gunner shall we?

The CannonDragon Bal-Gunner is a Cost 4 Brave from SD03.

Braves are unique in that they have 2 modes of play, they can exist either as a Spirit in “Spirit-Form”, which is the Lv1 BP dictated there, or, like moving core, you can move them to a Spirit in order to Brave.

Dan Braves The CannonDragon Bal-Gunner to The SunDragon Sieg-Apollodragon.

This is Braving, you do so by placing the Spirit in some manner that indicates it’s combined with the Spirit you’ve selected, by default, all the Core on the Brave moves to the Brave Target.

Braves have a Brave Condition, Bal-Gunner’s Condition is Cost 4 or More, meaning it can’t Brave to Spirits that are Cost 3 or less.

Sieg-Apollodragon is a Cost 6 Spirit, so it meets the conditions, allowing the 2 to combine.

You’ll notice beneath Bal-Gunner’s Brave Condition, there is effect text, that effect text isn’t for Bal-Gunner though, that’s the effect it grants Sieg-Apollodragon when they’re combined as Sieg-Apollo’s Spirit effect.

In addition to the effects granted by the Brave, a few more things are transferred to the new Spirit.

These are the Colour of the Brave, the Cost of the Brave, the Red BP-Value listed on the Brave beneath it’s Lv1…

And the Symbols of the Brave.

This means that Sieg-Apollodragon, when combined with Bal-Gunner at Lv2, is:

• a Cost 10
• Red
• Brave Spirit
• with 8000 BP (Lv2 Sieg-Apollo’s 6000 + Bal-Gunner’s granted 2000)
• With 2 Red Symbols.

While it retains the name of the original base spirit and doesn’t receive the name of it’s Brave, the fact of the matter is with Braves, there are many many combinations that one can make, there are as many combinations of Brave Spirits as there are Spirits… multiplied by the number of Braves they can receive.

As such, signifying each one individually is a little excessive, so for simplicity, the show simply calls them “Brave Spirits”

And my number one favourite type of card in the entire game. Braves (until roughly the more recent eras at least) promote a unique kind of gameplay that enables one to produce Spirits that can’t otherwise exist. By innately adding effects or features to said Spirit, you can cover bases that aren’t otherwise covered, or produce unique interactions.

They are incredibly fun to play with.

Duc curses his luck, seeming almost irritated that Dan was a Brave user.

This concept will come up even in future series, For some reason the show seems to indicate Brave Users, and the user of another card type, somewhat uniquely. Usually this is because utilizing Braves isn’t something you can do half-heartedly unlike, say, Nexuses or Magic, which are typically essential for deck building.

If a Brave is in your deck, it must serve some kind of purpose for a combo, there are generically good Braves, but it would then compete for space for other, actual useful cards.

There are however, generic Braves that can kind of work in anything, Bal-Gunner is one of these Braves, being a simple Cost 4 Brave with a Symbol (often the easiest kind of Braves to use).

Dan attacks with Sieg-Apollo and activates Bal-Gunner’s Braved Effect, allowing him to not only draw a card, but destroy a Spirit with BP 4000 or below.

Dio-Mantis is the target, had Duc levelled it last turn it wouldn’t have been susceptible to Bal-Gunner, and Duc could have blocked.

Duc declares to take it from the life, but he won’t get off that easy.

Due to the Brave, Bal-Gunner’s Symbol is passed on to Sieg-Apollodragon. Making it a Double Symbol.

Duc takes 2 lives at once, and is dropped immediately to 0.

Duc has some post-battle banter with Dan, admitting his mistake upon his loss.

In total fairness however it really didn’t matter if Dio-Mantis was Lv2, for a few reasons

Let’s review Sieg-Apollodragon for one of them.

The SunDragon Sieg-Apollodragon is a Cost 6 Red Spirit with, interestingly, the same exact BP values and levels as Siegwurm. It also has the odd quirk of requiring 2 Red Reductions and 2 Blue Reductions, making it best-suited for a Red and Blue Hybrid deck.

Most importantly, at Lv3 it has an effect that only occurs When Braved, these are Spirits that are best-suited to Braves and are designed to wield them, and are at home in the hands of a Brave user…

Had the issue of Dio-Mantis’ BP been important, Dan’s Total core for that Turn 9 was 11. He spent 2 summoning Bal-Gunner, and the core to maintain it went to Sieg-Apollodragon after the Brave.

With 9 Core remaining he could have maintained 2 Lv2 Morgesaurus’ and bring Sieg-Apollodragon to Lv3, this would have enabled it’s When Braved effect to destroy Dio-Mantis, who couldn’t even get to 9000 BP.

AND EVEN CONSIDERING THAT.

Dan had 2 Morgesaurus lying in wait ready to aim for the final 2 lives.

Duc was cooked three ways from Sunday.

As a side note, you’ll notice that Sieg-Apollodragon’s families are a 1:1 match with a specific spirit…

Namely the Key Spirit of Otherworld King, The PhantomStarDragon Gai-Asura

Dan’s new ace card emulating Siegwurm’s powers upfront shares it’s details and origins with Otherworld King’s ace card… huh?

Dan once again re-issues his demand, he wants Duc to… promptly, fuck off.

Duc notes that Dan just completely obliterated his entire career, noting that Dan not once feared a response in Duc’s hand, moved forward with his strategy without blinking.

Quite frankly, he’s stunned that the Humans even had a Card Battler this competent that they’d never heard of.

Dan of course, corrects the assumption, no such Human battler comes close to his caliber.

Nonetheless, Dan is here now, and the Mazoku should be very concerned.

Barone of course, hints a couple things, firstly, what moves him appears to be the same things that move Dan, that is, the promise of battle.

Additionally, he specifies a human brave user as if that’s a novel prospect, indicating that Barone himself is a Mazoku Brave-user.

Notably I believe across the whole series there are only 5 characters who end up using a Brave.

I am citing that number from memory mind you, so if I end up being wrong later I’ll let you know.

Regardless! That is the end of the first episode!

And now for my favourite bit, we do still have Card of the Days, but most importantly!

We have confirmed decklists! At the end of each episode, one of the participant characters, usually the victor of the episode’s bout, will have their 40 cards published, for all to steal and emulate. And this is Dan’s!

…Which isn’t that special because Dan is just using SD03!

For the moment, anyway, He will, eventually not use SD03 but for now, the structure deck is what he’s piloting.

At least the show isn’t shy about showing that he’s just piloting a deck he picked up 2 seconds ago, he changed 2 cards in it.

Also as an unrelated aside, I recreated the screen from earlier, so let me know if you prefer the spacey background or what something a little more in-universe, I can also do a sort of mishmash of both whereby I use the layout of one on the other, same template.

For now, I’ll use the Spacey background one I used earlier as it emulates the images used on

Anyway, interestingly we’ll never see Dan Fire a Nexus from one of these decks in his games despite the fact that he’s running bloody 6 of them. There is a time where he will but it won’t be any of the ones featured here or in his next few decks.

Anyway, that’s all I got for today.

Now for the news

At time of posting it will be the 2nd of December 2024, I will be taking a break from posting until at LEAST January 9th to take some time back after finishing Gekiha Dan, the reason I am taking this break after Episode 1 of Brave and not Episode 50 of Gekiha Dan is to ensure this loose thread gets wrapped up later.

After all, it’s easy to be convinced to finish a candy bar you’ve already started.

Anyway, this means that the next post will not be before the new year! So I’ll see you all then.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you soon.