Brave – Episode 2

Just Ready Go~
You are ever free~

God the opening is so good, I actually didn’t talk about the ending last episode however.

The ending to this anime is a song called “Netsuretsu ANSWER” by DAISUKE GOD-DAMN ONO

Who is also, coincidentally, the voice of Clackey Ray

On the topic of Voice Actors, first of all, I love them to bits, and I love voice acting myself, problem is I have terrible stage fright, don’t quite have the mic and I have no idea what kind of studios are in the UK to enable me to take such a job. So if anyone wants to help me with that, please do so because I suck.

Til then, on my Youtube Channel I’m currently doing a nonsensical voiced playthrough of the Phoenix Wright series, which is always an excellent place to start.

Anyway, this isn’t what you came for, you came for another Episode of Brave after like a month of waiting, so let’s go!

The show feels the need to give us a mild recap of events before actually showing us what’s happening.

I’m sure we don’t need a refresher, it’s 2650 AD, the 27th Century.

Humanity’s warring with Mazoku, for some reason explicitly called the “Otherworld Mazoku”, likely because “Mazoku” can mean many things so they need to explicitly note that the Demons are the ones from Otherworld.

The important bit here is this gathering of nobles here, it seems that in spite of the Mazoku’s boasts of their own savagery, they’ve produced a monarchy system, this probably explains why Brustom was so well-liked as Blue King, each individual Mazoku having much strength probably lends itself to a race of Kings.

And the Mazoku are ruled by a Queen.

What I’ll note here is the sheer variance of the people present, as I mentioned earlier, most Otherworld Tribes had rather similar appearances, the Gurii Tribe were a Monkey-like people, the Ryuki Tribe were… whatever the fuck those were, etcetera.

But the Mazoku are ALL varied, most have horns, some don’t, large variance in skin colour.

Apparently they also suffer from Estigmatism given that guy with the glasses back there.

This… admittedly incredibly attractive lady, is the Queen of the Mazoku, Gilfam.

This is our episode title, to talk about it would be to spoil more about it, so I’ll let you stew on that while we get to the rest of the-

Holy moly, While under normal circumstances I’d attempt to refrain from making reference to the rather bountiful assets Gilfam has here. Clearly the animators did the opposite.

In any case, her design is very obviously intended to be as attractive as possible. For what purpose I’m not sure as this is only apparent with Gilfam specifically, everyone else is drawn rather modestly save for… One character maybe?

This is one of those situations where I need to say what I said for Number Eight in Toppa, clearly the animators enjoyed drawing that.

…Actually after doing some digging, Gilfam is voiced by the SAME LADY who voices Number Eight.

What is it about this actor requires them to give her incredibly sexually attractive characters?

This Mazoku at the front is as of yet unnamed but we’ll see him a lot, notably neither he nor Gilfam are Card Battlers.

Voiced by the same guy who voiced DOCTOR FRANKER in the previous series, this rather hairy horned Mazoku is Geraid

And he reports that The Hooligan General Duc was defeated by a Human.

Gilfam finds this hilarious and just says that’s unusual, it seems that they don’t hold this as a very large concern on it’s own.

Ah, it seems Geraid has clicked onto the problem with the situation though, the issue wasn’t Duc losing it’s who he lost to.

Remember, Bashin Dan is HIM.

It’s clear their Monarchy isn’t founded on lineage, I don’t see any particular family of Gilfam anywhere when normally Monarchies use the Right of Birth to create new Kings or Queens.

Anyway it’s nice that there’s a few Mazoku in the room smart enough to realize that Bashin God-damn Dan is kind of a big problem.

Geraid seems to be treating this with the precise seriousness it merits.

Gilfam seems almost unfazed by the fact that THE Clash King, y’know, the guy who BEAT the dude who almost ran the Mazoku into extinction, has suddenly appeared out of buttfuck nowhere and started clapping Mazoku.

That’s not concerning in the least for Gilfam?

She’s either REALLY not a battler, or doesn’t seem to think Dan’s a problem.

And Geraid clearly does NOT care for the suggestion that Dan, someone of such renown, isn’t someone to be bothered by.

Geraid wonders if the Clash King may also cause other Humans under their rule to start misbehaving, after all one Mazoku being defeated by a Human Battler may inspire others to do so.

In this case, when the rule is Battle Spirits, and you have a Mazoku ruled sector, 100% of all unfought battles are won by Mazoku and lost by Humans.

Naturally, Mazoku would prefer not to battle to re-instate their rule incessently.

Gilfam finds Dan’s effect on the humans hilarious.

Gilfam says there’s probably no harm in Dan being about, and Geraid requests direction

We will… just as soon as you change your face. Dan’s about to mince your Mazoku one by singular one and you’re just like “Yeah I’ll give him an audience, bring him here, we’ll have Pizza”

I suppose a Several Hundred-Year old Mazoku can still be quite immature.

“Several Hundred? How do you know? Can’t find a confirmed Age anywhere”

And to that, I give you not only this image, but an exerpt from The Fixer story. I ommitted Gilfam’s entry but she DID have one

In the year 2650, she was a queen who ruled the high mazoku society. At that moment, although she looked like a child, she already gathered every mazoku lingering around the Earth, and rose in Australia in order to control the Core System. She also saved the mazokus who were captured by the Fixer. During the anime series Brave, she was portrayed as a long-living being who knew Magisa. However, due to the preference of the director Tetsuya Ishikawa, she appeared as a loli, but her age was already roughly 100 years old.

Right I’m going to set aside the… er, sheer oddity of Tetsuya Ishikawa’s… preferences causing such a drastic alteration to her past design.

But in any case, Gilfam rescued all the Mazoku and rounded them up in Australia, the Mazoku typically frequented the Purple World, so likely most of them were concentrated in one place.

Because of this, Gilfam, already 100 years old at the time while still looking like a child, would be several hundred years old now.

Mazoku age at very different rates depending on the Mazoku themselves, but it seems due to their somewhat unlimited amount of life, (being able to live for somewhere in the realm of 2000 years like Boomerang Oryo had), this extends to having incredibly long childhoods.

Assuming that she was 100 and that she struck right when Dan left, that’d place her maximum age at 738. Oryo is more than double her age.

Geraid agrees to try and bring Dan, however he asks why.

This…

…Is technically true. Humanity does have cause to believe that Dan is their enemy.

Simply put, he defeated Otherworld King not for the Humans, but for the Otherworlders, then the Mazoku got stuck on Earth and terrorized the Humans, this would not have happened if Otherworld King stuck around.

Dan not only pulled the Mazoku from their home but put them into a space where they could flaunt their power unchallenged, with no Otherworld King to drive them to extinction, they were unstoppable.

So it’s kind of Dan’s fault that they’re in this pickle.

Switching scenes now to Dan and the crew, Dan gets a standing ovation from Chief Kazan’s staff.

Implying they didn’t have difficulty with other Mazoku, but I guess Duc was much more of a brick wall compared to closer matches and that Duc was particularly skilled.

This really feels like a mech anime at times, except it’s card battlers.

Dan says he wants to thank Kazan, as it was Kazan who made it possible to bring Dan back to the Battlefield he missed so much.

Kazan asks if Dan will be Humanity’s Card battler from here on and Dan answers the question with a different question, asking where he should fight next.

He just got here, had the first battle in this timeline, and he’s already raring to go again.

Kazan tells Dan to hold his horses, as Dan’s currently in an incredibly unfamiliar time, Dan needs to know generally what’s going on before he can stay here seamlessly.

in 640 years, any number of standard words may have fallen out of use, or hell, become offensive in that time-

I’m kidding, that’s not what’s happening, nor is it what Dan needs to be caught up on.

Youth starts to show a bit of his personality here, he’s a little pissed off that Humanity went out of their way to drag a guy from the past 640 years into the future to fight a war for them.

I can kind of see where he’s coming from, after all, a guy 640-years out of date suddenly pops in and outdoes everything Humanity have tried to fight the Mazoku with all this time?

It makes it seem like humanity’s regressed rather than progressed.

Youth is missing a key component, Dan isn’t just a random guy.

He is, quite literally, history’s strongest battler.

And in an Era where Battle Spirits progresses somewhat parallel with the past, skill like Dan’s isn’t suddenly just useless, he’s barely even a set out of the loop yet, so naturally he can transition seamlessly from Set 9 to Set 10.

Plym notes that everyone was wanting Dan to come here and fight, and Plym herself thought he was awesome. Or “Mecha-Kakkoii” which is something she likes to say a lot.

Seems Plym is easily enraptured by cool things, so Youth is dismissive of her opinion.

As Dan and the others start moving through the hallways, an Earthquake hits, it appears that this Earthquake has something to do with what Dan needed to be told.

Which will now be explained by a familiar voice! As we saw in the intro in the first episode, Hyoudo Kenzo is here, unfortunately children are typically not allowed to be scientists and so Kenzo’s coat is far too gotdamn long for his height.

Kenzo was studying in Italy, sent there by his Fixer grandfather, the After-War Lord, to protect him after the Fixer started moving against the Bearers of Core’s Light.

As a result, Kenzo’s likely a bit more resentful of his education, and so once the opportunity arose to do something, he decided to come here.

And this lady is someone we’re going to see too much of for my taste, Dr. Stella, who will appear alongside Kenzo in just about every scene he’s in.

She seems to be a modest individual, claiming that someone as young as the 11-year old Kenzo is technically her senior, as going off of birth dates alone, Kenzo’s got a 600-year lead on her.

But in truth, the 2 have an intellectual rivalry going on. As such, Stella has brought back the common joke of having a character especially designated for mispronouncing Kenzo’s name every god damn scene.

For reference, I didn’t find this joke funny the first time, I don’t find it funny now.

What I will say is interesting about it, is that both Stella and Magisa did it intentionally for different reasons.

Magisa was mispronouncing Kenzo’s name to be amusing, it was Malice for the sake of Humor.

Stella is doing it to be mean, she’s using Humor to convey her Malice.

I WILL WORRY

IT IS MY (admittedly self-assigned) JOB TO WORRY

THEY CAN FUCK OFF.

It seems that the explanation for these Earthquakes has something to do with this 8th continent the Mazoku created here.

It’s a pretty good trick, normally if you want someone to come to your country nowadays you need airports, docks, etcetera.

It needs to accommodate Human transport.

But a Continent in the middle of the Pacific Ocean all of a sudden, well I suppose the only way it’s being accessed is via Core Ship.

And well, you’re in Mazoku territory there.

So by establishing control over an empty land, Oct is an effective isolated continent away from the Humans.

It’s a continent due to being a unique landmass separate from all other continents, but ultimately, Oct is only the size of a large country.

They want to be isolated from humans and there are no humans in Oct, perfect place to establish a capital and run a Mazoku-exclusive Monarchy.

Er, hold on it was created in the 25th centry, so at the earliest, 2400 AD.

It bothers me to say that it’s been governed by the queen for “centuries” if there are only TWO centuries in question!

The Core System relies on large, central cores for structures to be built around, in this case, they shoved a large amount of it into the Earth’s core directly.

So, naturally, forcing large reconstructions of landmass to create an extra continent is probably not a good fucking idea, as that’s initiated climate change on an incredibly quick scale.

Stella insults Kenzo by having him say that the Earth is “Sick”, but Kenzo gives a response that a friend of mine (and myself) would agree with.

Spoken language is designed to perform one function, and that is to let you be understood by someone else. What words are chosen are somewhat irrelevant as long as you are able to convey what it is you are trying to say, to someone else.

Dan’s on board with the explanation, the Earth is operating strangely because it’s not in it’s natural form, and has been altered unnaturally.

So, one of the obvious risks of having a race from another series of worlds join your planet is that, creative as they are, they’re completely unfamiliar with how Planets work, as Grand-Lolo is a series of disconnected landmasses that don’t really have a planetary core like Earth does.

So, naturally, the Mazoku:

They figured out how to create Oct, and didn’t bother with the long-term fallouts from that choice.

It seems the Earth itself will be okay, but that’s only after Mother Nature completely obliterates everything on it first. Returning to a primordial state before restarting life over again.

This is generally one of the main “apocalypses” people worry about when it comes to climate change and pollution, The Earth is most likely going to survive us no problem, hell there may even be more of us later.

But we are somewhat more concerned with surviving whatever Mother Nature retaliates with in the meantime, Unlivable weather conditions doesn’t tend to be compatible with life.

Hilariously, Kazan’s previous version of Earth was over-polluted and unlivable because of it, this time however, it’s instantaneous climate change brought about by the Mazoku.

A good question, if it’s 100 years from now then Dan is likely not going to ever suffer the consequences of failure, it means he has more than enough time to put a stop to it.

Unfortunately, the estimated time of death for all life on Earth is one year.

And it’s a rough estimate, it could be even sooner than that.

The Human race simply does not have the time to be fighting this war with the Mazoku.

Back at a different part of Asia, Duc returns presumably, home, as he’s greeted by someone who calls him “Dad”

Duc clearly has an honest relationship with his son, he admits his own loss, but just thinks about where to go from there.

His son appears young, but naturally this could be misleading, as Mazoku have varying lengths of childhood.

Much like Geraid, this small chap will have his name stated later, but there’s nothing significant about the name that warrants us withholding it now.

This child, is Rugain, and you’ll notice his design is not disimilar to Youth’s, having very similar clothing choices and hair colour.

And apparently he’s got a penchant for letting his emotions dictate his actions too, wanting to fight Bashin Dan, regardless of his reputation.

Barone taunts Rugain, saying that he doesn’t have the ability to defeat Bashin Dan.

Bit bold of him to say that after seeing that poor showing from Duc and only witnessing ONE battle, but he’s been fascinated with the chap ever since he saw his Brave.

Rugain, naturally not appreciating this guy butting in with his conversation with his Dad, tells him to suck a fat one.

Duc comments that the only person who should be concerned about defeating Dan is himself, as Duc’s the only one here who’s been defeated by him.

You’ll note that Duc’s incredibly noble here, he’s been open about his loss to Dan, he took his loss well, and simply thinks about how he’ll go about it in future in spite of the surprising circumstance, he doesn’t seem to have any particular vendetta against him.

Duc’s even checking on the general populace, wondering if there’s been any trouble in his absence.

Duc then walks off with his son, mentioning that while Battling, essentially Military might, is important, Rugain also needs the skills to politically unite those they rule to keep them happy

There is liable to be humans under Duc’s rule, and he hasn’t particularly been belittling of any particular human he’s come across, Rugain didn’t say the “Humans” have been calm, or the “Mazoku” have been calm, just “People” which could be both.

This is clearly a scene intended to highlight that Duc isn’t an aggressive despot, he’s actively acting as a world leader, his invasions of sectors and choice to battle Humans for them is simply the rules of engagement, and the orders of his higher ups of which he is to follow.

Or if you’re as crafty as Duc, entire continents, though he hasn’t finished conquering Asia, he controls most of it.

The Narrator gives us a small insight that we could already extrapolate from the actions but it’s good to have clarification, Mazoku spread their rule over humans, using Battle Spirits as a replacement for Military might, they expand their territory using Battle Spirits to invade sectors until they’re stopped, naturally, now that Dan has stopped Duc, he’ll have to return for Tokyo at a different time, or perhaps ask Dan to offer it up should some other matter involve their fight.

This isn’t the only reference to the Sengoku era that we’ll see, as Battle Spirits Burning Soul, the 7th Battle Spirits anime, will also reference it heavily.

Barone comments on the fact that the moon is out.

The Soldier here, upon Barone’s re-entry to his ship, tells Barone about Gilfam’s recent widespread order to capture Bashin Dan.

Much like Gilfam was, Barone seems relatively unbothered by the prospect of the man who defeated Otherworld King suddenly arriving to kick hella ass…

And then it strikes me, many of these Mazoku might not have lived that long ago.

It’s entirely possible Barone was born on Earth, having never known hide nor hair of Grand-Lolo.

It’s hard to imagine the strength of a man you’ve never met, and so it can be easy to dismiss.

and off Barone goes…

Dan and Mai have a nice night-time talk outside, admiring the moon.

Dan asks if the door he came through was the same kind of door that “humanity migrated through”

He’s talking about the door of light that Mai opened for them. Dan’s asking if it’s like Mother Core’s gates, and that it’s connected to all the Eras Grand-Lolo was.

Unfortunately, time travel physics are incredibly complex things to workaround, and while time travel has theoretically been achieved to bring Dan to the 27th century, unfortunately, it seems picking a time is an incredibly precise mechanism, as such that rudimentary replication of Mother Core’s Doorway is only connected to 640 years ago, and can’t reach anywhere else. Timewise or spacewise.

Dan was likely wondering if it would be possible to move the Humans to Grand-Lolo, or perhaps go to a potential future to see how they did it last time.

Dan states that he needs to do something about the Earth’s Reset, and Mai notes that he is doing something, after all, he’s been assigned the task of winning battles.

Dan states that battling won’t prevent the destruction, and that he isn’t going to do so just to make the Humans feel a little better before the Earth explodes.

If he’s going to battle, he’s going to do it for a good reason.

Panic strikes, it appears a Mazoku Core Ship has arrived, and given Dan’s staying at the HQ for Humanity’s forces, this is a pretty big deal.

Also that’s Barone’s ship we saw earlier, seems Barone has come to have a look at Dan, even if it means flying into the heart of Humanity.

I have no idea what the levels for this are, so got zero clue how bad this is other than gauging their reactions.

Kenzo probes for Dan’s whereabouts, and Clackey says Dan should be with Mai.

Lolwut, the Mazoku have never once thought of just taking out the Human HQ in Asia?

Either they feel some honourability in War or they’re not feeling superior enough to go charging into enemy territory.

Plym comes out to get Dan, as he’ll likely need to get ready to be fired from a Core bullet, but he simply steps forward.

Well naturally, what else were they going to come for? A McDonalds order?

Okay, show, I appreciate that you’ve made this clear not once but twice, but I’m now less concerned with the fact that this has never happened in the, what, 250 years since Oct’s been instated as a continent.

…But the obvious followup is a little more interesting and not being answered, why have they not attempted to take it?

This question will never be answered, naturally.

Mai attempts to drag Dan away but clearly he’s entranced by Barone’s arrival.

Barone’s title is now offiically stated, “The Moonlight Barone”, pronounced “Gekkou Barone” in the anime.

AND HE RULES ROME.

not even Italy, just it’s capital, ROME.

Stella notes that Barone rarely battles, and usually his subordinates invade for him, calling him lazy as a conclusion.

Kenzo however, is familiar with the type, as the Mazoku leaders are quite similar to Leon in how they gallavant across Core Ships.

So in truth, Barone’s actually rather strong.

This is precisely how all of my interactions with my friends go when I try to be dramatic.

Hilariously, his name isn’t given to him because he only battles under a full moon. It’s much simpler.

The fact that his eyes don’t stay trained on Dan makes it seem like he’s looking at the Camera

I bet you any money someone has kept this screenshot for their own personal validation.

Barone, based on his reactions in Episode 1, is very clearly also a Blood Knight.

Clackey’s clicked that Barone is saying he has no intentions of invading this or any other sector, he’s just here for a booty battle call

Youth is more cynical, he thinks Barone is being a decoy, and infact there’s a different sector being invaded that he’s trying to draw attention away from.

And then they kissed.

Jokes aside, the last thing you want is 2 Blood Knights anywhere within the same Solar System as each other because the second they find each other, whatever use you were getting out of them has been entirely replaced because the one thing a Blood Knight wants more than anything else… Is to find another Blood Knight.

Barone is essentially being presented as a Mirror to Dan here. Dan is completely unmatched by Humans, and Barone, much like Dan, is too strong amongst Mazoku.

As a result, both battlers have no real challenges now.

Dan naturally communicates that he understands, precisely, how Barone feels.

To which Barone says… this.

Hm, this sounds familiar, what could possibly strike such a specific memory-

Oh right

Dan said, effectively, the exact same thing in Episode 1.

“That smile” is going to be Dan’s “I’m going to play Battle Spirits and nothing on Earth or Grand-Lolo is going to stop me” signal, apparently.

Both Barone and Dan feel like they’ve hit a limit to what they can draw out because they’ve had nothing to push them, but now they’ve found each other, at the very least, one of them may be pushed further under these circumstances

Dan tells Barone to get back in his Core bullet, saying he’ll join him shortly.

He seems to have completely forgotten the existence of Mai and Plym here.

Youth gets incredibly ticked by Dan’s brazen choice to turn his back to Barone.

Dan cannot catch a break with this guy, what is Youth’s damage?

Regardless, the Beautiful Sophia prepares to Launch.

Naturally, the animation for the Core bullet sequence is incredibly long and doesn’t really cover anything, so I’ll be skipping those sequences from now on.

Dan opens the Gate and heads off!

The Battlefield looks blue from the outside when it was pink in Episode 1 before, so you’d expect the interior to not look the same but unfortunately it does.

There is one time where the Battlefield changes but sadly that is the only time.

The Moonlight Barone offers Dan the first move.

Dan Turn 1, Dan summons Morgesaurus and ends his turn.

Barone quickly notes the Red Spirit, naturally if he’s studied up enough on Dan’s history he’ll know Dan has a red proficiency.

Youth takes this moment to ask what’s actually going on, Youth has only ever seen battles where Land or Property was at stake, but he has absolutely no idea what the hell this battle’s about.

Clackey says he ultimately has no idea, but he thinks that Barone most likely challenged him just for the sake of the challenge.

A true “Why does one climb Everest” sort of thing, “Because it’s there.”

Clackey naturally would find that explanation plausible because he’s lived life in an Era where Battle Spirits could be played and infact was only ever played for casual purposes, for the sake of fun.

Youth comes from an Era where Cards are Weapons, and to fight is to fight over something, to him this is kind of no different to 2 people having an actual Sword fight, risking each other’s lives, for fun.

Moonlight Turn 2, Barone summons a new Spirit, Northernbeard at Lv2.

A Cost 3 White Spirit from the ever-elusive BS10! Officially the first card in this series from the new set, and the 2nd card we ever see from BS10.

It’s a simple card, Cost 3, simple BP values and level requirements, and a useful blocking effect that allows Barone to generate core whenever Northernbeard blocks.

The most notable thing about Northernbeard is it’s family, it hails from Giant Beast which isn’t too interesting… But Astral Soul is very notable.

This is because as gimmicks started to shape themselves into reality into the Battle Spirits game and separated “Eras” of sets became a thing, the design team now start to realize they can’t plan around every single card they’ve ever god damn released for whether or not something is broken.

So they use this family as a failsafe, in this case, the Astral Soul family for smaller Spirits, and the Astral Deity family for boss cards. This lets them create cards intended for specific bosses in this Era of sets without worrying about accidentally creating a nasty, unforeseen combo in a previously released set.

Also also, Barone is using White Spirits, only natural the main Rival is a White player as such is the norm up until now.

Barone ends his turn, and Dan decides now’s a good time to make small talk.

Barone looks generally bothered that Dan is asking important questions.

Like “Bro we’re trying to fight, could you like NOT right now?”

It seems the Humans aren’t the only ones aware of the Earth’s impending Reset.

Barone here is speaking for the Mazoku, it’s clear he’s not the only one who thinks this because he’s saying it as if it’s common knowledge.

Mazoku aren’t afraid of the Reset because they’ve spent the last 6 centuries adapting to the Earth’s Environment, and have evolved to suit the Earth now.

This isn’t an unsurprising viewpoint however, even us Humans can sometimes have the kind of hubris Barone is showing here, assuming that our supposed human “penchant” for adaptability will just enable us to survive the very real problem of climate change.

Brave is of course, using the Earth’s very magical reset to embody very real climate change.

Episode title is ONCE AGAIN a spoiler, so dodging that noodle.

Barone’s excuse for why he didn’t care about the Earth’s Reset is very… surface-level, he states an unverified claim with no proof, its the type of explanation one would give themselves if they were trying to ignore an issue rather than solve it.

Youth notes Barone’s seriousness, and begins to believe that he isn’t infact a decoy.

Apparently there’s an Emergency defense option for the HQ that they have on hand.

Dan Turn 3, Dan raises Morgesaurus to Lv2.

And then throws out a Bladra and a BattleDragon Elginius

Elginius is new to us, so let’s run it!

The BattleDragon Elginius is a Cost 1 Blue Spirit from SD03, it has only 1 ability at all levels, which is that both it’s Symbol and it’s Color are treated as Red.

Back in the day, cards like Additional Color had to be ruled on, as a card’s colour and a symbol’s colour were separate, such that older cards that had a colour changing effect also changed a card’s symbol, which enabled that card’s symbols to offer the relevant reduction

During Constellation Saga, they were officially reworded to explicitly state that a change in colour and a change in symbol were not one and the same.

As such, from this point onward, cards always specify that the symbol also changes, this comes up with significantly more recent cards that can treat themselves as another colour but their symbols cannot also be treated as that colour.

Other than that though, Elginius has no other redeemable qualities, it is a Blue reduction that is also a Red Reduction.

Post-Edit Note: I am informed by one lanelanelane that my info is incorrect, the print of Elginius being shown here is the original print, apparently the Japanese text still only states it’s colour. Additionally, the rewording actually didn’t take place until Ultimate Battle Saga, which is 3 Sagas later. Sorry!

This does mean that it helps summon Dan’s ace, which contains 2 blue reductions.

As potentially gauged from the earlier shot, Dan entered the attack step, he swings with Morgesaurus, which gains +2000 BP for attacking.

Barone blocks with Northernbeard, and uses it’s MIGHTY useful ability to gain a core from the Void when it does so.

Barone could have taken a life and left Northernbeard as a Blocker for the other 2 Spirits who couldn’t match it, but it’s clear from this action Barone wants more Core than just what Northernbeard is giving him now.

Morgesaurus and Northernbeard wipe each other out.

Dan sees “No blockers” and full attacks, Barone practically puts away his hand and welcomes the attacks, happily dropping to 3 lives remaining.

Plym is rather elated that Dan now has a perceived “advantage”.

But it’s clear that Clackey’s noticed the same thing I did, that Barone’s choice of block looked very much like he was asking for it.

Moonlight Turn 4, and whatever Barone’s drawn it was enough to get a clear reaction out of him, which seems to put Dan on edge.

Come on man, it’s Episode 2 and you just clobbered another Mazoku who dropped a Byak-Garo on you that you cleaned up with a STARTER DECK.

Chill out

Barone summons… precisely what he said he did, 2 Gadphants at Lv1.

A Cost 2 White Spirit from the Machine Beast family, introduced in BS10.

Gadphant’s a simple Blocker type Spirit that grants BP when blocking, it also has Blue Armor at Lv2, protecting it from Blue’s Cost based destruction effects.

It’s definitely made with The GiantEmperor Alexander in consideration, as at Lv2 it ties with the 6000 BP Alexander.

Barone then summons a 2nd Northernbeard to the board at Lv2.

Dan sees this rather defensive board of favourable blockers and notes from Barone’s expressions and his subsequent actions that Barone isn’t capable of summoning whatever it is he drew just yet. And so needs to buy time.

Barone then asks rather rhetorically whether or not his battle with Duc was “Simple”

Not a shot I’ll show but Barone also notes how he’ll “confirm” Dan’s ability.

Barone suddenly attacks with both Gadphants

Dan makes an expression that Barone seems to read as a response, but Dan decides instead to take from the life.

Dan is brought down to three lives, and Barone ends his turn, leaving Northernbeard to block.

It seems Dan picked up on Barone’s strange choice of block order on Turn 3, telling Barone outright that they both like to take lives to increase core.

there’s some conversation between Plym and Youth that boils down to this conclusion, which seems to just be an indicator for anyone unfamiliar with the game enough to know who’s really winning.

So far neither Dan nor Barone have made any large misplays or taken really large leads at the present moment.

Dan Turn 5, Dan draws his Key Spirit, The SunDragon Sieg-Apollodragon.

Barone notes Dan’s expressions this time, and guesses that he’s probably drawn a Key Spirit.

Firstly, to add more reduction, Dan summons a Bladra.

Dan then summons The SunDragon Sieg-Apollodragon at Lv2.

As Dan currently lacks the required core to actually keep him at Lv2, he takes a core away from the Bladra he just summoned.

Barone is pleased to finally see Dan’s ace again.

Mai comments that the Bladra Dan summoned didn’t stay particularly long.

This will become a running gag across the entire series.

Spirits that can be summoned with 0 cost are in unique positions as they are the only cards that net an actual reduction in the amount of spent core. If you spend even 1 core on a spirit, you aren’t actually reducing the amount of core you’re spending on the spirit you inevitably summon.

SunDragon Sieg-Apollodragon was a Cost 6 Spirit needing 3 core to be at Lv2, with Dan’s current field, he’d have needed 7 core to pull off the summon he just did.

By summoning the Cost 0 Bladra, who only held a core temporarily, that cost was dropped to 6, with say a Cost 1 spirit like Yoroilizardon, Dan would have paid 1 cost to reduce 1 cost, which would have left him in the same situation.

Dan enters his attack step and swings with Sieg-Apollodragon, using it’s effect at all levels, Dan target attacks 1 refreshed spirit.

He chooses the only available option, Northernbeard.

Barone activates Northernbeard’s blocking effect, 1 Core from the Void is added to Northernbeard.

The 5000 BP Northernbeard is destroyed by Sieg-Apollo’s 6000 BP.

Dan ends his turn.

Moonlight Turn 6.

Barone comments on the “beauty” of Dan’s victory.

Barone notes that Dan’s destruction of Northernbeard gave Barone extra core to work with, but notably for this to be true Barone would need to have a 0 cost spirit on hand to provide any extra reduction.

Northernbeard has merely refunded the core he would have otherwise saved Barone by being present on the field, it’s destruction hasn’t changed what this turn could bring.

Barone’s lost 2 lives, had 3 core steps, and gained 2 core off of Northernbeard, he’s working with a total of 11 core this turn. 2 of which are on his Gadphants, meaning Barone has 9 core and 2 White reductions.

Barone reaches for the card he reacted to earlier, Dan notes that he’s about to play his Key Spirit.

Again, no he did not.

Barone summons his Key Spirit, The MoonlightDragon Strike-Siegwurm.

Wait… did he say Siegwurm?

Clackey and Mai are naturally taken aback by hearing the summon of Siegwurm of all things.

Not only that, but a White one.

Plym has no sense of atmosphere, but yes, it is cool.

One cannot fathom what Dan is feeling right now, not only having to face his old Key Spirit, but one fighting for the complete opposite colour to his nature.

Of course, we don’t need to fathom, because Dan clearly shows he’s been well aware he might have had to fight old faces in new coats of paint. Dan’s fighting a name he knows more than anything, but an X-Rare he doesn’t recognise. And he was probably fully versed in his home era’s card pool by the time he left.

Sadly, it’s only Episode 2 and yet its a gotdamn TWO-PARTER!

But don’t think you’ll have to wait til Episode 3 to hear it’s effects, since the card of the day just so happens to beeeeee…

The Cost 6 White X-Rare from BS10, an Armed Machine who also happens to be a member of the Astral Deity family, meaning it enjoys all the fun family-based gimmicks exclusive to the constellation saga.

It has 3 effects, at all levels, it refreshes whenever any opposing Spirit attacks, you heard that right, this thing can block any number of attacks it likes, simply having this on the board at any given time means your opponent cannot swing safely with a weaker spirit, as you won’t even get the benefit of keeping it down.

At Levels 2 and up, when Strike-Siegwurm blocks and wins the BP Showdown, all Spirits with weaker BP are bounced to the hand, this further punishes attacks made on Strike-Siegwurm.

And at worst, at Lv3, an effect Strike-Siegwurm only has when it holds a Brave, at the beginning of the opposing attack step, it can coerce an unbraved opposing Spirit to attack if it can. This naturally ends up being a crazy combination effects as you’ll target the one with the highest BP it can block, and proceed to wipe the board of anything weaker when you win.

It’s a creative design for such a card, a Siegwurm that heavily punishes the opponent for allowing it to win battles, and essentially has a reverse Clash effect when it’s engaged with the Era’s mechanic.

Now to cover my comment from earlier about Northernbeard’s core boosting being meaningless.

Northernbeard held 2 core, Barone’s 2 Gadphants had 1 each, had Dan not destroyed Northernbeard, Barone would have entered his turn with 10 core available, 4 being on his field, and 3 reductions.

He would have been able to summon Strike-Siegwurm at Lv3 no problem by reducing Northernbeard to Lv1.

On his actual turn, he has 11 core, but uses 1 less reduction, and 2 core on his Gadphants.

so with 9 Core spare, he spends 4 of it, summoning a Strike-Sieg with potentially 4 core at Lv3, and 1 core spare, which would have been on the Northernbeard.

In other words, Dan’s attack didn’t change the scenario, but it definitely didn’t hurt him. As the difference between the 2 turns is that Barone is down a Northernbeard he’d otherwise have.

Anyhow, now for our featured decklist!…

Is what I would say if it wasn’t a glaring spoiler, thankfully the featured decklist for Episode 3 is just Dan’s deck from Episode 1 again, which he hasn’t changed here, so I can talk about Barone’s deck at the end of next episode!

Makes me sour as hell as well but gotta keep you lot on yer toes.

See you in Episode 3!