Gekiha Dan – Episode 46

2 Episodes ago, we said farewell to Kajitsu.

Last episode, we said farewell to the Bewitching Leon.

Now that the Otherworld King’s Dragon is out of the picture, there’s no one to get in the way of their eventual showdown with him, without a vessel to act in his stead, Otherworld King must move personally.

…Which means Otherworld King is probably going to fight soon, after all, now all the movements must come from him directly.

It seems the Episode starts with Otherworld King looking upon a gravestone depicting a ship much like the one in his castle.

I can just barely see some of the text, but it seems that the grave is written in Spanish.

Well, there was some talk earlier about whether he’d be Portuguese, Spanish or Italian, guess we got our answer.

Otherworld King Ramiro Alfonso Carlitos de Ferzaduria, is a Spanish man

Dan and Yuuki arrive to greet Otherworld King, well we haven’t seen any lead up to arrive to this point, this is kind of out of nowhere

Of course, we will see after the Episode Title, that this is a Flash forward, a premonition.

After the Episode Title, we return to the present day.

It seems, due to Otherworld King inheriting Mother Core, Magisa was capable of detecting him via the response of Mother Core, kind of like pinging an address through a terminal you know that can access it.

She’s stopped getting that response from Mother Core however, so she can’t articulate his position.

Clackey sighs in exasperation, Otherworld King is quite literally the last obstacle right now as all of his Three Heads have been eliminated, but the guys done gone vanished.

Dan notes that he’s likely using the time in order to prepare for their final bout, Otherworld King is many things, but at no point in this story has he ever been presented as an idiot.

It’s one of the things that’s quite likeable about him, so far he’s been relatively immune to the concepts of Hubris and Catharsis when it comes to achieving his goal.

Kenzo tries to see if any of his contacts know, which prompts an interesting response, given that most things surrounding Otherworld King will likely be classified, so that kind of info would need to come from a Fixer.

We’re not sure of the connection but it seems Kenzo can get information from the Fixers.

Mai also wants to assist, and loads up the defensive ransomware that defended the Core System in the Blue World.

I’m calling it Ransomware since the effect was similar to that kind of thing, it locked up Mai’s Laptop until specific actions were taken against it.

It seems Mai downloaded a copy of the program after she cleared it the first time… Because it “might be useful”

Really, you kept Ransomware because it may be useful!?

LET’S NOT.

LET’S DO THAT EVEN LESS.

So Mai’s going to inflict an Otherworld Ransomware on a Government, this is going to be awful.

She communicates the rest of her plan with Kenzo but we don’t get to hear any of it.

Whatever the plan is, it’s making Kenzo look like he’s been asked to rob a bank…

…To be fair if we’re uploading Brustom’s Virus into a Government system, that’s about as bad.

Not sure infringing on matters of international security is okay “For the sake of peace” but go off.

Kenzo pullin’ weight

Suzuri wishes to consult Brustom… But wasn’t Brustom loyal to Otherworld King?

I mean sure he’s back with his parents but have they fully resolved that disconnect between Heliostom’s Hatred and Brustom’s faith?

Magisa raises a good point, if they need help, contacting the Kings of Otherworld would help.

Shame we already have the White King, and Suzuri himself is the Blue King.

Are there Kings for other colours?

Well there shouldn’t be Monarchies but this is an excellent start, if there ARE going to be Kings, they should probably represent the people they govern.

Clackey goes to help the President, as they’ll probably want one person that’s a Lightbearer.

Zungurii compliments how everyone is confidently doing what they can to help, but Dan notes that he still hasn’t come up with a strategy to deal with Otherworld King.

Words of encouragement for the Clash King to help him take on the Otherworld King.

Dan, bolstered by those words, agrees to join up with Yuuki to find Otherworld King.

Serge leaves Dan and Zungurii with Yuuki’s ship before splitting off with the others.

Naturally, the perks of Zungurii are onboard chef!

Yuuki doesn’t react to the offer of Curry however.

It’s kind of understandable though, mourning makes people unwilling to act in their own best interests.

This is a nice preparational scene, mainly setting up everyone settling into their assigned tasks and working as a cohesive unit.

We have Mai Programming

Kenzo is Karen-ing

FORESHADOWIIIIING

But man, dude talked to the President for 2 seconds and is already being offered a whole ass rank.

Magisa notes how everybody seems a little more mature, but to be fair, War and conflict has a nasty tendency to cause people to grow a little faster than they’d like.

Suzuri of course, rather than being delivered to the Blue World, intends to bike there.

Not that I’m doubting the Superketta, but… Erm… That’s a continent in the sky

To move at a reasonable enough speed to get there would put a lot of strain on Suzuri there wouldn’t it?

I suppose the barrier makes it easier but still, the entry sounds rough.

But apparently we’ll never get there because Kajitsu’s butterflies have arrived…

…Wait.

something isn’t quite right with that statement.

Kajitsu’s butterflies shouldn’t be. They just shouldn’t exist right now, at least not in such an organized manner.

Dan asks the obvious question that comes to mind, is Kajitsu still alive?

Looks like you won’t need to… since the butterflies seem to be aiming for you.

Er… That’s new, I don’t remember Kajitsu’s butterflies having the power to teleport.

Yuuki resolves to follow the remaining butterfly, and Dan says he’ll come as well, Yuuki doesn’t really care if he comes or not so he simply orders Dan to do as he likes.

Dan has Zungurii look after the core ship, Zungurii has a high amount of strength, and immensely good culinary skills, so at least they won’t starve to death, or have problems of physical strength.

Seems to be an awkward silence after Dan leaves, I suppose since all the craziness has run off.

…

Okay that’s funny.

And slightly adorable.

Zungurii can’t think of anything to talk about so he just defaults to his basic function, offering curry.

And the butterfly leads to Otherworld King…

It seems that Otherworld King’s managed to appropriate Kajitsu’s control over insects after stealing Mother Core.

And we’re officially all caught up.

Also I’m not sure if the episode mentions it, but the episode preview for this episode played at the end of last episode indicate that this location is Spain.

Fairly relevant question, but I presume the answer will be unsatisfying.

Alright, wanton animal cruelty tends to be a massive red flag that someone’s gone off their god damn rocker.

…I didn’t take Otherworld King to be the type to make jokes, he’s usually rather forward with his statements.

Though I guess this was pretty forward, he was showing them that the butterflies were fake, a visual illusion Otherworld King used to draw their attention.

…Well that’s a revelation.

A kneejerk reaction would be that the existence of his grave means that he fails here.

…But ultimately all it means is that when he left, someone thought he was dead. That could also mean he simply never returns to the Era in which he left.

But… how could it be left at your death… if you didn’t die?

Ay, now Kazan and Zungurii can get a visual on what’s going on so we don’t have to have them explain it later.

Firstly, Otherworld King clears up the matter of Yuuki’s loyalty, he’s aware that Yuuki only joined him to use him, but then strangely compares him to Leon.

It’s not inaccurate, Leon joined Otherworld King to use him to ensure he didn’t have to return to his old life. Leon was using Otherworld King to inflate his own value, becoming the 2nd most important person in his employ.

Yuuki was the only other person with full autonomy in the same position, hence their disdain for one another.

It’s a little odd for the man to be staring at his own gravestone and not even be a little stirred by it. He knows for a fact he does not go home from this, that kind of certainty can be… chilling.

Otherworld King offers to battle Yuuki specifically, likely to resolve the matter with the last of his three heads.

If Yuuki wins, he’ll use Mother Core’s power to grant Yuuki a wish.

Dan’s naturally a skeptic, trusting your enemy tends to not be a great idea.

Otherworld King dangles a carrot, suggesting he may be able to have Yuuki see Kajitsu one last time. Mother Core’s power being capable of giving life to the dead seems crazy but to be fair Otherworld King says something later that may shed light on how this could work.

Dan offers to battle, knowing that Otherworld King seems oddly focused on Yuuki explicitly, but is interrupted by Yuuki accepting the match, Dan wonders if Yuuki believes what Otherworld King is saying.

Yuuki acknowledges that Otherworld King could be attempting to trick him, however the possibility, however small, that Kajitsu’s life can be restored, isn’t something he can ignore.

And besides, he’s also here to finish off Otherworld King once and for all, so it doesn’t matter, he who defeats Otherworld King becomes Otherworld King after all.

The stage is set, White Soldier Yuuki vs Otherworld King.

Kazan notes that they’ve moved to the battlefield, and when Zungurii expresses worry, Kazan counters with confidence, noting that Yuuki and Dan are the 2 strongest battlers he knows.

Zungurii looks at him strangely, which catches Kazan’s attention.

It seems, now that Zungurii is on Kazan’s side, he realizes what kind of person he is, and finds him cool.

Certainly a development, but of course, Zungurii learned to let go of his anger a while ago, good on him.

Yuuki notes that while both he and Leon seemed to have their own interests in helping Otherworld King, it was Otherworld King that brought them together.

Otherworld King seems to counter that well, he was old and couldn’t move much, and more importantly his position was lonely. They were his “Friends in Isolation”

But ultimately, it was them that wished to be around him, he doesn’t seem very appreciative of it in the end.

We know Otherworld King was dissatisfied with Human loyalty, looking back, it’s clear that he wished to compel the Humans of Earth in some way to his rule, and once he had it, he began culling those in his employ who he knew had ambitions of their own, as that would be loyalty he didn’t truly have.

Hence Leon’s final failure being punished as it was, and Otherworld King’s tying up of the loose end that is Yuuki.

Yuuki is resolved to get Kajitsu back.

White Soldier Turn 1, Yuuki summons The Sacred Laevateinn at Lv2, and ends his turn.

Otherworld King seems to notice that Yuuki, now feeling the pain of being alone, reminds him of his own past.

I wonder why he makes note of that, perhaps he finds Yuuki to be a suitable person to defeat him, having followed his foot steps?

Otherworld King Turn 2, he summons Lizardedge at Lv2, and Dinonychusaw at Lv3.

Once again, Otherworld King elects to use a Red deck.

Is he still fighting with the copy of Dan’s deck? If so this is going to be a really weird battle simulation

Otherworld King ends his turn without attacking, which I found odd as Dinonychusaw has higher BP than Laevateinn, he could have attacked here safely.

Core denial is an important part of Battle Spirits though, so long as he knows what he is doing.

White Soldier Turn 3, Yuuki brings down Laevateinn to Lv1, and summons Artifact Fjalar at Lv2.

Yuuki then ends his turn.

…What? No.

Otherworld King taunts Yuuki about how, in spite of having failed to protect that which he wanted to protect the most, he still chooses to protect.

Yuuki could attack here, with Laevateinn, as if Otherworld King blocked it, Fjalar could exhaust itself and Laevateinn would defeat any spirit he had

But then he’d have an empty field, and Otherworld King could potentially get a large lead out of it, better to sit on it and see if Otherworld King messes up.

Yeah he’s kind of a dick.

Sorry I know this is supposed to be tense but Otherworld King has a face like he just snuck a whoopie cushion into one of Leon’s shoes.

Otherworld King Turn 4. He brings down Dinonychusaw and Lizardedge to Lv1.

He then summons Rainydle at Level 2 (3000 BP)… This does seem like his Dan deck.

Otherworld King, now with full reductions, uses Extra Draw.

He draws 2 cards and reveals no card Dan has ever used…

Emperor Beast – Fusion Beast
[LV1][LV2] (Either Attack Step)
All your “Astral Dragon” family Spirits gain +3000 BP.
[LV2] (Your Main Step)
When your Blue Spirit is summoned, destroy an opposing 3000 BP or less Spirit.

This is The SnakeDragon King-Gorgo. A Cost 4 Red Spirit from BS09… Hailing from the Red Emperor Beast family… and the Blue Fusion Beast family.

Notably, the first thing you’ll see is the blue reductions in it’s Cost, that’s because Gorgo is a card that supports a colour other than itself.

During either attack step, King-Gorgo boosts Astral Dragon Spirits by 3000 BP, and at Lv2, when you summon a Blue Spirit, you can destroy a 3000 BP or less spirit.

likelihood is, if he’s not using Blue cards, Otherworld King has Astral Dragons in his deck, like Meteorwurm, to boost with this.

Anyway, Blue reductions or not, King-Gorgo is a Red Spirit, Otherworld King now holds 5 cards in his hand.

Dan notes that Otherworld King is gathering a lot of low cost Spirits, but hasn’t done anything with them, which might telegraph the summon of a large Spirit.

Otherworld King ends his turn.

White Soldier Turn 5, Yuuki summons a 2nd Laevateinn at Lv2.

Dan says Yuuki’s Spirits are stronger, but this is technically only true for Fjalar, and only because Otherworld King levelled down.

Yuuki intends to put Otherworld King through the same suffering Kajitsu did.

Or in less PG13 terms, Yuuki’s gonna fucking kill him.

Yuuki attacks with Fjalar and Otherworld King takes from the life.

From the look of the Life barrier though… It looks like Otherworld King’s nasty pain amplifier’s in effect.

And this time it actually looks like he feels it…

Ah geez, what’s he doing now, last time the damage from a Lightbearer enabled him to turn the life energy into Youth, what’s he doing now?

What tipped you off? The glowing aura or his flowing hair?!

Yuuki attacks again with The Sacred Laevateinn and Otherworld King takes it, dropping to 3 lives.

That seemed to knock the wind out of his sails, given the disappearance of the Aura, Yuuki ends his turn.

Well, wherever that energy is going, Otherworld King is now doing something with it.

Joy, now he’s drawing cards so hard he’s igniting the air around them.

What is he doing with all that energy?

Is that seriously where all that energy was going? To produce a new Battle form?

And it seems, much like Dan’s Battle Form, this one also produces Wings.

Otherworld King summons The PhantomStarDragon Gai-Asura.

It’s Turn 6, Otherworld King has had 3 core steps and 2 lost lives.

The guy has 9 core total, 4 are on his spirits. And he has 3 reductions.

He’s spent all 5 of his core and still needs to deplete his 2 spirits that have 1 core.

…Which means he’s spending at least 7 core on this Spirit.

Assuming his Spirits are all contributing, that makes the Spirit Otherworld King is summoning…

a Cost of 10, the same as a Vanity Deity.

Otherworld King’s unveiled his Key Spirit, and the card that will define him for the rest of time. The PhantomStarDragon Gai-Asura.

And as much as I’d like to review the new card… I can’t this time around.

That’s because the artwork of Gai-Asura has a massive spoiler on it, so I can’t review the card until that danger has passed.

So unfortunately readers, you’ll have to live in suspense for a little bit longer, assuming you don’t know the card already, which you probably do.

We take this moment to get a brief cut to Kazan and Zungurii, out investigating the surrounding area while Yuuki battles.

It seems Kazan can’t identify who’s grave it is.

Otherworld King stated that this grave was his, if it doesn’t state his name, how did he identify that it was his?

Otherworld King, in his boasts about Gai-Asura’s power, lets slip that his own power is sourced from loneliness.

Alright, time to get Otherworld King’s backstory!

So! Let’s summarise!

Otherworld King is a sailor, a Pirate under sanction from the Spanish King he served, going to new unexplored lands and returning with the riches from there. On one of his missions where he’d risked his life, he’d washed up in Grand-Lolo, and saw potential to have Spain colonise it.

Upon returning to Spain to inform the King what he’d found, he was disregarded as his story was too unbelievable, no one could believe Grand-Lolo existed and so he was laughed out as a hallucinating castaway.

Naturally, this first hurdle didn’t stop him, so he produced a book series, The Otherworld Observation Records, which put to paper his experiences in Otherworld, and likely includes the evidence of the existence of Grand-Lolo. But the knowledge therein was deemed heretical, and so his books were burned.

Otherworld King then decided to return to Otherworld, sailing a ship there by himself. And eventually arrived there again, starting what would lead him to here now.

All of Otherworld King’s actions are an incredibly long revenge plot, he blames the entire Human race for their disbelief and disregard of something he knows to exist, and wants revenge over them, by ruling over them, and having Earth become an Otherworld Colony.

If they wouldn’t colonise Grand-Lolo because they didn’t believe in it’s existence, he would have Grand-Lolo colonise them, the ultimate proof of it’s existence.

He’s not doing this out of any feeling of order, justice, or even a desire to improve Earth, Otherworld King’s entire reason for doing any of this… is out of Spite.

Dan realizes the same thing, Otherworld King’s disrupted Earth to this extent… Just to be aggressive, the guy had a thousand ways of going about this in a way that benefitted everyone and chose not to because fuck Humans.

Otherworld King states that Yuuki could probably understand how he feels… Ideas that are offensive are destroyed… Such as the existence of a world of magical creatures in a far off sea…

Or marrying your own Sister.

When Negative emotions are driven to the brink, moral rationality dissipates.

The reason this happens is because it’s usually their morals driving them to explain or do what it is they’re trying to do, Yuuki has to marry his sister in order to stop a nasty reincarnation loop, but the process of doing so is so obviously taboo to Humans that they’d never accept it, nor would they even believe Yuuki’s situation in that regard.

For Otherworld King, he wanted to do right by his Kingdom, and saw opportunity, he did everything correctly by believing in the people that he was sure would believe in him.

That then got thrown in his face. He behaved rationally and morally, and was burned for it, not once but several times.

We teach people to embrace Morality, and encourage them to keep to it due to the benefits of doing so. This can have the adverse effect of ensuring people are only moral because of those benefits.

When those benefits are deprived from them, not just once, but repeatedly, its very easy to abandon those ideals for self interest.

Hence: “Do unto others as you’d have them do to you”, it’s easier to be awful even with this creed when they’re already being horrible to you.

Anyway.

Gai-Asura attacks, taking a Life from Yuuki, dropping him to 4.

Otherworld King ends his turn.

His position’s a little… vulnerable? only 1 blocker and at a life deficit relative to Yuuki

White Soldier Turn 7, he uses Reload Cores.

With 3 Armed Machines on his field, the cost of Reload Cores is refunded, gaining 3 core from the Void.

This changes nothing for his turn but he’ll have 3 core gained from next turn onward.

Yuuki levels one of his Laevateinn’s to Lv3.

But then attacks with a Lv2 Laevateinn for his first attack.

Dan applauds Yuuki making use of the opportunity presented by Gai-Asura being exhausted… but it’s not going to be that simple.

Otherworld King, during Flash timing, uses the effect of Gai-Asura, a Keyword known as Ultra Awaken

Ultra Awaken (or Chou Kakusei) is a keyword native to Red cards, the effect reads as follows:

Flash Ultra Awaken
You can put any number of cores from your Spirits to this Spirit. Whenever one or more core is put by this effect, refresh this Spirit.

Essentially, it’s an Awaken, that refreshes the Spirit in question each time it’s used.

this means as long as core exists on other Spirits, Gai-Asura can battle infinitely.

Gai-Asura blocks, It’s Lv1 BP is 8000, so it’s able to defeat Laevateinn’s 3000 BP easily.

Yuuki can’t win from this position, and the near-infinitely refreshing Gai-Asura necessitates a large amount of blockers to deal with

Yuuki ends his turn.

Otherworld King summons 3 Spirits, Erimakilizard, The SnakeDragon King-Gorgo, and strangely, a Purple Spirit with no Red reductions, The Jailbeast Gashabers.

Zombie – Imaginary Beast
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (Your Draw Step)
If you control any 8000 BP or more Spirit, increase the number of cards you draw by +1.
[LV3] (When Destroyed)
Return a Yellow Spirit card from the Trash to your Hand.

The JailBeast Gashabers is a Cost 4 Purple Spirit from BS09, a Purple Spirit that supports Yellow, intended to support the Yellow cards from BS09 who’s designated off-colour for this set is Purple.

To this end, it has both the Purple Zombie family… and the Yellow-aligned Imaginary Beast family.

During the draw step, if you control any Spirits with at least 8000 BP, you can draw an additional card. Gai-Asura has 8000 BP at Lv1, so as long as Otherworld King has Gai-Asura, he’ll be drawing 2 cards a turn.

At Lv3, when it’s destroyed, you can return a Yellow Spirit from the Trash to the hand… I am not all that certain if Otherworld King will do anything with this effect… Or even what the effect is designed for, to be honest.

Dan comments that Gai-Asura would be able to continually refresh with these Spirits available, but Gai-Asura could do that a LOT easier by just loading Core onto the singular Erimakilizard instead of summoning Gashabers.

Otherworld King attacks with Gai-Asura, and Yuuki takes from the life, dropping to 3.

A Battle with Otherworld King is deadly, the damage hits almost 10 times as hard.

Otherworld King’s enjoying himself it seems. He ends his turn.

Right I know that Dan and I have never been in the same room together but I’m not him I swear…

Dan’s too cool to be me.

Yuuki Turn 9, he draws and seems to get some wind back in his sails.

He summons Kigna-Swan at Lv1.

Yuuki then summons The IronKnight Yggdrassil, at Lv1.

With it’s effect when summoned, King-Gorgo, Gashabers, and Erimakilizard are returned to Otherworld King’s Hand, at the cost of Kigna-Swan being returned as well.

Kigna-Swan can be resummoned at no cost, but the other 3 being bounced means Gai-Asura isn’t capable of using Ultra Awaken.

Yuuki then Tributes Yggdrassil, by doing so he summons The DoomKnightLord Ragna-Rock

As Yggdrassil was tributed for Ragna-Rock, it gains 6 core, raising it straight up to Lv3, with 2 core extra.

That extra 2 core is launched over to his other 2 spirits, who only need 2 core each to be Lv2.

Excellent, Gai-Asura is exhausted, can’t refresh, and Ragna-Rock at Lv3 can refresh Laevateinn and Fjalar.

At Maximum, Yuuki can deal 6 damage this turn, and he only needs to deal 3.

Ah drat. Laevateinn attacks and Otherworld King immediately uses Binding Thorn, a Cost 2 Green Magic to exhaust Ragna-Rock.

This is pretty bad, even though it was at Lv3, Yuuki would have won had he not tried to attack for maximum damage.

Had he exhausted Ragna-Rock first, a single Binding Thorn wouldn’t have changed anything.

…Also it occurs to me Binding Thorn hasn’t been used in Gekiha Dan.

Flash
Exhaust an opposing Spirit.

I mean, what were you expecting?

I really don’t need to talk about the applications of this, do I?

Laevateinn lands it’s attack, dropping Otherworld King to 2 lives.

Yuuki ends his turn.

Even when he’s being a complete madman, Otherworld King irradiates charisma.

Otherworld King Turn 10- HOLY JESUS SLOW DOWN.

He summons Erimakilizard, SnakeDragon King-Gorgo, Beatbeetle and The FlyingIronBeast Gale-Fokker at Lv2, a White Spirit and another new card.

Machine Beast・Blade Beast
[LV1][LV2] (Your Core Step)
If you control any Cost 7 or more Spirit, put a core from the Void to this Spirit.
[LV2] (Opposing Attack Step)
All your Spirits with cost reduction symbols of two or more colors gain +2000 BP.

Gale-Fokker is the last of the cards that represent Otherworld King’s Three Heads, alongside King-Gorgo and Gashabers.

…What you didn’t think of that? They’re all cards that support Gai-Asura loosely, all have different colours, have all 6 colours in reductions across all 3 of them (representing Otherworld King’s Mastery over all Colours).

For a who’s who, well, King-Gorgo is the first shown, and represents Pantera, by it’s Red colour. He was created by Otherworld King, King-Gorgo supports Gai-Asura based on it’s family, being an Astral Dragon. The Blue portion of King-Gorgo represents his status as an Artificial being, as Blue has many Artificial Soldier Spirits.

Gashabers is the 2nd to be shown, and is Purple with Yellow reductions, the reason this represents Leon is because the first ever deck he’s stated to have used to defeat Mai, was a Purple and Yellow deck. It supports Gai-Asura based on it’s power, as Gai-Asura minimum BP of 8000, the amount required for Gashabers’ extra draw.

And finally, Gale-Fokker is the 3rd, and represents Yuuki, with Kajitsu noted in the reductions of Green, Gale-Fokker supports Gai-Asura based on it’s Cost, if you control a Cost 7 or greater Spirit (Gai-Asura is Cost 10), it gains a core from the Void. Gale-Fokker notably supports the other 2, as it gives a BP boost of +2000 to all Spirits with 2 or more different colours of reduction symbols during the opponent’s attack step.

King-Gorgo provides Power, Gashabers provides Options, and Gale-Fokker provides Resources.

More importantly, Gale-Fokker’s at Lv2, so Otherworld King can pull some Core from it this time.

Otherworld King seems to have raised Gai-Asura to Lv2 at some point, not sure when, but anyhow, he attacks with Gai-Asura.

As Gai-Asura is an Astral Dragon, King-Gorgo’s effect kicks in, granting Gai-Asura a Grand total of 13000 BP.

Using Ultra-Awaken, Gai-Asura refreshes by sapping a core from Gale-Fokker.

Ragna-Rock is currently unable to block, but if Yuuki’s able to refresh it, It’s 15000 BP could defeat Gai-Asura.

Yuuki uses Blizzard Wall, one of Gai-Asura’s ultimate counters.

Infinite attacks don’t matter if you can’t do any damage, now Yuuki can only lose 1 life from attacks this turn.

Yuuki takes the attack, dropping to 2 lives.

Otherworld King ends his turn.

Alright, the guy went from a turn with 1 exhausted spirit he couldn’t refresh, to 5 blockers.

Otherworld King continues to beat down Yuuki, with their similar situations essentially leading them to the same conclusion.

Yuuki counters that he’s different from Otherworld King, he at no point resents the Humans for their failure to understand his situation or his Sister’s abilities.

He just wants the things he loves to be at peace, and right now Otherworld King is disrupting all of that.

White Soldier Turn 11, he summons Kigna-Swan at Lv2.

He then raises Ragna-Rock, Fjalar and Laevateinn all to Lv3.

Finally, Yuuki fires Jungle Law from his hand.

Main
Exhaust all unexhausted Lv1 spirits.
Flash
Target spirit gets +4000BP until end of turn.

A Cost 6 Magic with 2 Green Reductions from BS04, it’s a 4000 BP Battle Trick during Flash.

But during Main, it exhausts ALL Lv1 spirits.

That means all of Otherworld King’s Spirits, aside from Gai-Asura are exhausted.

Gale-Fokker, while summoned at Lv2, was levelled down when Gai-Asura took a core from it with Ultra-Awaken.

Likely, it seems Yuuki re-configured their united deck here, but still chose to include some keepsakes from Kajitsu.

Gai-Asura is still capable of refreshing, and if Yuuki tries to muscle through with Ragna-Rock at 15000 BP, Otherworld King can still beat it, using Gai-Asura to draw core to it until it hits Lv3, (which sits at 13000).

With King-Gorgo out, that’s 16000 BP, Yuuki will need a Battle trick to cover the difference.

Yuuki attacks with Ragna-Rock, and Otherworld King blocks with Gai-Asura

That’s a shallow thought, Dan.

And that would have covered any battle trick Yuuki used!

Otherworld King has cast the best green card in the game, Storm Draw.

Main
Draw three cards, then discard two cards from your Hand.
Flash
During this turn, give a Spirit +3000 BP.

Storm Draw is a Cost 2 Magic released in BS01, and if that looks like I’ve just posted Strong Draw’s effect, that’s because I have, Storm Draw shares the exact same effect as Strong Draw, except it’s 2 cost, and has 1 less reduction, this enables it to be used in basically every deck as 2 core for a card is nothing.

It’s also the cheapest 3000 BP boost you can get, and as a result, it’s been limited in tournament play around the time Otherworld King used it…

And is currently banned in Tournament play today.

Otherworld King’s raised Gai-Asura’s BP to 16000.

For reference, Otherworld King didn’t even need Storm Draw to win, but by doing so he preserved his 4 other Spirits, as he’d have needed to deplete at least 2 of them to come out on top like that.

With his strongest Spirit destroyed, and no other way to crack Gai-Asura through it’s Ultra Awaken, Yuuki ends his turn.

…No he hasn’t, you used a magic to buff it, calm down.

This however I can believe.

On Otherworld King’s Core Step, Gale-Fokker’s effect activates, granting it a core from the Void, and raising it back up to Lv2.

The lack of an appearance from Grand-Woden is also a pretty bitter pill to swallow, can’t draw your Key Spirits all the time.

Otherworld King summons the Jailbeast Gashabers again at Lv2.

Also lol, earlier they displayed Gale-Fokker gaining a core putting it to 3 core, but here it still only has 2.

That’s quite funny.

Otherworld King is completely fucking power tripping.

And to be honest, I feel that.

Yuuki notes that this is Otherworld King’s true personality, he shows a wise guise in everyday life but when shit hits the fan, the man’s God complex shows as he indulges in his catharsis.

Time to begin the rush.

Otherworld King attacks with Gai-Asura, using Ultra Awaken and taking a core from Gashabers, it refreshes.

Gai-Asura destroys Kigna-Swan.

Taking core from Erimakilizard this time, Gai-Asura attacks again, and refreshes with Ultra-Awaken, defeating the Fjalar that blocked it.

Gai-Asura attacks again, refreshing with Ultra-Awaken, and this time reaching Lv3, totalling 16000 BP thanks to King-Gorgo

Dan naturally gives the reaction of what the actual fuck is this Spirit?

As long as Yuuki doesn’t have an answer, it will keep attacking until one appears or Otherworld King’s enemies are ash.

Laevateinn is destroyed, Yuuki no longer has any Spirits.

Gai-Asura attacks for a fourth time, using Ultra-Awaken to refresh.

Yuuki’s forced to take a life, dropping to his final one.

I’d tell him to chill out but, I imagine in situations like this, tensions are pretty high.

And besides, asshole as he is, he’s my favourite Battle Spirits villain, he’s free to go as nuts as he wants.

Ah shit, I almost forgot, since this is a battle with Otherworld King, the enhanced damage of the battle system causes a person’s Core to be drawn out as their last life.

for a Light Bearer, that’s their symbol, meaning what happened to Dan before is now about to happen to Yuuki.

Gai-Asura attacks one last time, and without cards to stop it, Yuuki has to take from the life.

As Yuuki’s last life is destroyed, so too is his White Symbol shattered to pieces.

The White Soldier Yuuki’s lives have dropped to 0.

Otherworld King is the Winner.

The episode ends right there.

Alright, let’s check out our Card of the day-

Hmmm all I see is a Glowing card, well that must be our Spoiler filter acting up because the damn card’s art has a darned spoiler on it.

For now I’ll review what we should know about the card so far, It’s Cost is 10, it has a single Red Symbol, the card is Red in colour.

It has BP at the following levels:

  • Lv1: 8000
  • Lv2: 10000
  • Lv3: 13000

And it has the Ultra Awaken ability. This is a special kind of Keyword as it’s a direct improvement over an older Keyword, functioning the exact same way but with benefits.

In this case, Ultra Awaken refreshes the Spirit anytime at least one core is moved via the effect. This enables the Spirit to attack as many times as you have Core available. This can make for incredibly lethal attack steps where your opponent must have an answer in hand or you’re kind of dead.

Gai-Asura does indeed have other effects, but I cannot talk about them for the moment. What I can talk about is what set the card is from.

…And that’s that the card is from BS10. It’s that set’s Red X-Rare.

Given that the cast are all working with cards from BS09, that would mean Otherworld King, much like Uchuuchouten, is using a card straight from the Future.

A card from the future, using an evolved effect based on one in the past, interesting how that happens.

Anyway, I can’t say more about the card due to it’s nature, soooo… Let’s talk about some different ones?

Machine・Armed Machine
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Summoned)
If the opponent has six or more cards in Hand, return three opposing Spirits without Tribute to the decktop in any order.
[LV3] Armor: Red/Purple/Green/White/Yellow/Blue
This Spirit is unaffected by opposing Red/Purple/Green/White/Yellow/Blue Spirit/Nexus/Magic effects.
Fighting Spirit・Soldier
Tribute: Cost 5 or more → Void
After paying for the summon cost, you must send all cores from a Cost 5 or more Spirit you control to the Void.
[LV1][LV2] (When Attacks)
When only the opposing Spirit is destroyed by BP comparison, discard 15 cards from the opposing decktop.
[LV2] (When Attacks)
Cores on the Spirit blocking this Spirit cannot be removed.

These 2 X-Rares are the X-Rares we don’t get to see shown off from this Set in any anime.

The first is The ImpregnableKnightLord Odin-Type-X, a Cost 6 Spirit, but it’s rather bad to be honest, when it’s summoned, if your opponent has 6 or more cards in hand, something you can only manipulate by bouncing spirits to the hand, you can spin 3 spirits to the top of the deck as long as they don’t have tribute. The issue I have with this effect is that it rewards effective removal… with more removal, which isn’t what you need at that point, most likely.

At Lv3, it has Armor to everything, giving it technically a stronger Armor than Walhalance, as Walhalance can only defend itself against colours matching symbols on the opposing field.

The next one, which you’d think would get a spotlight given Titus’ use in Gekiha Dan, Titus-The-Black is a Tribute Spirit with effects that improve upon the original Titus’ abilities.

Firstly, when it wins a BP showdown, 15 cards are discarded from the opposing deck, 5 more than original Titus. And at Lv2 it gains an effect to cover a glaring weakness in all effects that involve BP destruction.

Namely, that you could dodge an effect relying on BP destruction by blocking, and then depleting the Spirit, which would cause the Showdown step to not result in that Spirit winning a battle, by preventing cores on blocking spirits being removed, it takes away that ability…

…Except you need 5 cores on Titus-The-Black just to get that far. If the card had an effect on summon that enabled it to mill cards from the opposing deck, it’d be significantly better, but alas, original Titus outclasses this “Upgrade” in every way possible.

Anyway, that covers those 2 remaining cards, I’ll see you all in the next episode! The next 2 fights however are 2-partners, so hold out for me will ya?

See you then.

Gekiha Dan – Episode 45

Righto, if you’re not caught up, read the last episode

if you are caught up, then well, we all know what happened last episode.

Kajitsu is Dead.

Slain by Otherworld King.

The closer we get to the end of the series, the closer we get to righting that awful wrong. Let’s get a move on.

naturally the Episode opens up on Yuuki still anguishing over the death of his Sister, it’s quite a recent event so the fact that he isn’t a complete mess is probably a testament to either his strength of will, or the awfulness of the situation.

Yuuki states to Dan that he’d normally think it was disgraceful for a person to anguish so painfully over something they can’t control, he’s a rather stoic individual.

And then comments that before now, he didn’t know a person could be so emotionally damaged to this extent.

Back at the Wisdom Gate, Leon apparently has something to say to Otherworld King.

Leon expresses a desire to personally eradicate the Core Soldiers, rather than letting them helplessly flail about while they work to get a foothold that will let them challenge Otherworld King.

Especially Dan, who was able to challenge Otherworld King once before.

As Leon preaches his case, Otherworld King tells Leon to prove that he’s prepared to throw away everything for Otherworld King.

This statement feels rather backhanded for some reason, and it likely is.

Looks like we’ll be finishing off a couple of loose ends, in this case, The Bewitching Leon.

ah, looks like even the Humans from other Eras who were in Grand-Lolo have arrived at this one, as Revolver West, from the Old West, is here.

Well I guess we won’t have to wait as long as we expected to get into the weeds with ol’ Leon. Fine then! Bring it on you Gold-Clad Kitten.

Clackey initially voices a desire to take on Leon, noting that he understands how Leon works and can work around his tactics, a fair shake.

Dan interjects, as he’s the only one who hasn’t fought Leon yet besides Suzuri.

Magisa however tells them all to hold on.

Zungurii questions why Magisa is stopping them, as Magisa with her magic is better suited to take on Otherworld King, the Core Soldiers should take on Leon, it’s a fair split responsibility.

Magisa refuses however, noting that fighting Core Soldiers is probably Leon’s intent, and they can’t risk wasting a Core Soldier on Leon, especially since his tricky deck might actually let him win.

So… it will be Magisa, who takes on Leon.

Dan and Clackey relent, seeing no issues with Magisa’s plan.

Mai concurs, and Yuuki, who had intended to also battle Leon (which I would have loved to see a rage-filled Yuuki ripping Leon to shreds but we did technically do that once already) sits down as a form of non-verbal consent.

And just incase you thought it’d be a cop out battle of Magic, nope! Magisa’s power stems from her deck, and she’s gon’ USE IT.

Leon comments it’s been a while since he saw Magisa’s Battle form, meaning that Magisa’s power must have only been stolen within the last 50 or so years.

One might argue that Otherworld’s awkward time-axis means humans don’t age but Otherworld King very clearly did.

Unless they age super slowly but I can’t imagine that being true if it was never mentioned anywhere.

Magisa seems rather overjoyed at being able to finally pop someone like Leon in the face personally rather than hiding behind Dan.

The idea of a World Government is it’s own political concept, some believe it’ll be inevitable that a World Government forms due to Globalization (As technology allows us to access other parts of the world easier, our individual positions in the world matters less), but others believe that such a Government type would simply be a vehicle for mass abuse if someone like say Otherworld King were to take over.

The World isn’t tired, he just murdered a 12 year old because it benefitted him, he’s not a saviour, his claim to Kingship was by right of conquest (which just means he doesn’t have any rights to kingship other than no one else can physically take it from him), and he’s not even excellent.

Leon seems honest today, he engages the statement with earnest, asking why Magisa finds that particularly funny.

God that head tilt, I fuckin’ love this woman’s expressions. Such a sassy character and I’m here for it.

That’s also a valid question, Leon’s support of Otherworld seems uncharacteristic given he’s Human

Leon simply calls hypocrisy on that one, Magisa’s an Otherworlder supporting Earth.

They realise that their situations being similar but completely inversed from each other makes it clear to the 2 that they will never fundamentally agree on anything other than that they disagree.

As a rare situation, we’re actually gonna see Magisa’s full opening hand, but there’s a lotta frames soooo..

Her opening hand is 2 Fruit of Wise Trees, a Holy Elixir, and Blizzard Wall…

Like this hand can do a LOT of living but that’s all it can do.

From the outset, we can see that Magisa’s using what appears to be Green and White.

Leon makes the first move, Bewitching Turn 1

Leon summons Beatbeetle at Lv2, and Dio-Mantis, and ends his turn.

Today he plays Green.

Otherworld Witch Turn 2, she draws Thorn Prison.

Egghh, another Defensive card, but its not like she has zero plays, she can deploy that Nexus and then hope.

Magisa deploys The Fruit of Wise Tree and ends her turn.

Suzuri its turn fucking 2, there’s no flow to keep yet. Get out of here with these dumbass comments.

Bewitching Turn 3, he brings Beatbeetle to Lv1.

Leon then uses Speed Star, now everytime Leon damages the life this turn, he’ll get 2 core in his reserve from the Void

This will let him outpace The Fruit of Wise Tree.

Leon attacks with Beatbeetle, and Magisa takes a life.

Both Leon and Magisa’s effects go off, Leon gains 2 core from Speed Star, and Magisa gains 1 core from The Fruit of Wise Tree.

Dio-Mantis then attacks, and both Leon and Magisa repeat the same dance, Leon gains 2 core, and Magisa gains 1 core.

While Leon is outpacing Magisa’s Core boost, the total amount of core gained is the same, as Magisa also gets a life in her reserve.

Leon ends his turn.

Magisa and Leon are both using similar strategies, using Green to get a core boost.

However, even if they boost core at the same rate, Magisa’s down 2 lives and 2 spirits, so Leon still has the advantage.

It appears Magisa’s collapsed after taking those 2 lives.

Leon picks up on this, noting that Magisa must have still needed time to fully recover her health after expunging all her Magic in Dan’s fight against Dr. Franker and she hasn’t got that, so she’s unable to manage the pain of life loss.

Magisa’s exhaustion turns to a smile, as since her use of Magic is linked directly to her ownership of her deck, the ability to even take damage this way is proof she has her deck, and that she can still use the full powers of her Magic.

So it’s a nice thing, even if it is difficult to cope with

Otherworld Witch Turn 4, Magisa comes to the same conclusion I did, that her hand is flat GARBAGE.

However, she draws a potential out!

Main
By putting any number of Magic cards from your Hand onto the Opened Zone, for each card you put, draw a card.
Flash
During this turn, give a Spirit +4000 BP.

Magic Book is a Yellow Cost 5 Magic from BS02, it’s a draw Magic for Magic focused decks. It allows a player to “Open” any number of Magic cards, and draw a card for each.

If you don’t remember what “Opening” is, its placing a card from the hand onto the “Opened Zone”, Cards in the Opened Zone may have their cost paid and used as if they were in your hand but effects requiring they be in your hand cannot be used from there, and effects that target your hand don’t affect the Opened Zone.

Magisa has 3 Magic in her hand, this card would be an effective draw 3 in this situation, the downside being Leon gets to see 3 of Magisa’s Magic before she uses it.

Magisa has roughly 10 core to work with, so she spends 3 of it to place another Fruit of Wise Tree.

Then she uses another 5 to hard-play Magic Book. By “Hard-play” I mean she spent the maximum amount of core that could be spent on the card.

What? Who bluffs a Magic Book? What benefit would that give her?

How would one even do that?

Magisa reveals all THREE of her Magic cards, and Opens them.

Magisa then draws 3 cards from her deck as she opened 3. We don’t actually get to see these cards.

Magisa ends her turn.

Zungurii finds it odd that Magisa somehow didn’t draw a single Spirit, it’s simple enough to conclude that Magisa might have a bad hand.

But she just played 2 Green Nexuses, Revealed 2 White Magic, and used a Yellow Magic, that’s enough information to realize this deck might be a tad… odd.

Dan however catches on that Magisa isn’t at all surprised by her situation, which means one thing, she knew she could potentially get a hand like that.

The time has come for audience to receive answers and so Leon does that job for us.

40 CARD SUPREMACY.

THAT’S RIGHT BABY

MAGISA HAS A MEME DECK!

She’s got 1 singular Spirit in that entire deck.

The rest is just Magic and Nexus, baybeeeeee.

Gods, and most of it is Magic anyway!

Magic Decks like this are rather hard to handle, Magic doesn’t tend to stick around after you use it, and so can’t provide Cost Reduction after using their one-time effects.

Naturally Magisa’s no idiot, that’s what The Fruit of Wise Tree is for.

Gods it’s a legitimate question you got to ask yourself before playing bad decks but hot damn this episode has some bangers.

Magisa maintains that it is the Ultimate Magic Deck, and it won’t lose to Leon OR Otherworld King…

In spite of the fact that Otherworld King did infact beat her once and steal all her magic.

Bewitching Turn 5

I mean that’s certainly the plan but the whole point of a deck like that is to live until that happens so easier said than done…

Plus Magisa’s just going to Thorn Prison your ass the second you attack.

This time, Leon’s X-Rare is The SavageKnight Hercules!

Seems that Leon’s deck resembles Revolver West’s at the moment.

Leon enters his attack step and attacks with Hercules.

Dio-Mantis and Beatbeetle are exhausted, as the only targets for the effect.

That is what the card is designed to do, yes.
OH BOY ONE LIFE.

Hercules takes a life and Magisa gains 2 more core from the Void thanks to her Nexuses.

Nexi? Nexuses?

I hate the English language. And it’s my mother tongue.

Leon ends his turn, I suppose now that he knows Magisa has only 1 Spirit, he’s full attacking as much as possible, knowing he’s unlikely to have all his lives dropped to 0 to a sudden flood of Spirits.

Leon notes to Magisa that she’s not capable of holding out forever, with only 2 lives and a deck full of Magic.

Confidence? Or blind courage? I wonder.

Suzuri and Kenzo discuss how Magisa intends to get to her single Spirit, which is clearly key to her combo, from a deck of still 31 cards.

To think with all the tactical prowess Leon boasts, he’s about to get ultimately screwed by a single bout of good luck.

Magisa gave Dan a transforming Battle Form, seems like her old Battle Form also had transforming features when summoning her ace.

The MagicalEmpress Ambrocius is summoned.

Let’s talk about it!

Dark Artes
[LV1][LV2][LV3]
When your Life is reduced by opposing Spirit, return a Yellow Magic card from your Trash to the Hand.
[LV2][LV3]
When you or the opponent uses a Magic card, this Spirit refreshes.
[LV3] (Either Attack Step)
You can use Yellow Magic cards from your Hand/Opened Zone without paying the cost.

BS09’s Yellow X-Rare, a Cost 7 Yellow Spirit.

Couple things to note is that it’s solely from the Dark Artes family, so it’s not in a well-supported family of cards. It’s Cost 7 but unusually it has only 2 Yellow reductions, meaning you’re paying at least 5 for this thing, you’d need 5 core left over to summon it at Lv3.

Even at Lv3, it’s max BP is a measly 8000. All these poor traits as a Spirit indicate a potentially powerful effect.

So! At all levels, whenever your life is reduced by an opposing Spirit, you can return a Yellow Magic from the Trash to the hand. A defensive ability, not too notable really, plus the only Yellow Magic Magisa has right now is Magic Book.

At Lv2 onwards, when you OR the opponent uses Magic, Ambrocius refreshes. And suddenly the combo starts to make sense.

The idea of Magisa’s deck is to continually use Magic to keep refreshing Ambrocius as much as possible.

To assist with this, at Lv3, during either attack step, you may use Yellow Magic from your hand OR opened zone… at no cost.

Fueled with enough Yellow Magic you can take 5 lives with this thing all at once.

For a Magic Deck like Magisa’s, this is the only Spirit she needs.

…She should still run more copies of it though.

Otherworld Witch Magisa, ends her turn.

Side note, the eyecatches in the centre of the episode are unique here, showing Magisa as she’s the main battler this episode.

Leon reassures himself, claiming he has nothing to worry about.

But Magisa notes this is the complete opposite of Leon’s battle style

Leon’s battle style isn’t well defined, but I presume it’s that Leon is tricky because he amasses a collection of Spirits of varying colours, which allows him to widen his options when it comes to countering with Magic.

Magisa however, has one strategy, to get one spirit out, and support it and only it with a deck containing at most 36 Magic, ultimately a heavily aggressive style using low spirits while Leon uses a defensive style with various.

Leon concurs with this, stating he and Magisa don’t match anywhere.

Magisa’s deck has a key weakness, with only one spirit she has only 1 angle of attack.

If Ambrocius is destroyed, Leon wins. Magisa literally goes down with her Key Spirit.

Leon resolves himself to win so he can see the Wonderful World Otherworld King is creating.

But Magisa notes that the only reason he even wants Earth, is because of Otherworld King.

Magisa states that all they’re doing is conquering, when Otherworld King came to Grand-Lolo, it was bustling with life, but through his confiscations and subjugations, Grand-Lolo hasn’t exactly thrived with his presence, much less the humans who follow him hoping to expand into Grand-Lolo.

So he goes in, completely ruins one world when the core system should be keeping it thriving, and then moves onto the more lush Earth in an attempt to rule over the Humans there?

Magisa’s claiming that Earth is just convenient for them, and there’s no way to know that uniting the 2 worlds will necessarily make it better when the only example Otherworld King has is ruining his last rodeo.

And how many sacrifices need to be made before you get what you want?

If there’s not an answer to that question, then someone hasn’t done a clear risk assessment. You’re just throwing corpses into the pile not even knowing what the outcome will be.

So I might have made a mistake when mentioning Leon’s backstory, it’s due to the way the subtitles are ordered in that scene.

Leon isn’t from the 15th Century, that’s the date that Otherworld Observations was written, because it’s Otherworld King’s book, and Otherworld King is from the 15th century (meaning it was before Portugal discovered Japan)

Leon is a Gold Miner, he worked to obtain Gold for the wealthy, who would then either use it or sell it off to maintain their fortune. While not earning much value himself.

He’s also from the same era as Revolver West.

While this might seem like an interesting coincidence, Grand-Lolo connects to very specific eras of time, likely such that no one can meet their past or future selves from a given Era (but they may meet an ancestor)

As such there’s liable to be quite a few people coming from the same time.

It seems Leon was downtrodden with the life he had as a Gold Miner, not having much value working for the people that he was.

He’d hoped to get away from his life, go to Grand-Lolo and change everything.

It seems it was Leon that also pleaded with Revolver to have him come to Grand-Lolo with him.

I wonder… Leon states Otherworld King gave that to him but it’s possible he only discovered the book somewhere and reading about it, I imagine he must have had some way to confirm it’s existence, it’s possible they were able to find the gate to Grand-Lolo.

Though given that Grand-Lolo time isn’t very linear it’s also possible that Otherworld King wrote it and then had it returned to the 15th Century such that Leon would receive it, hence why Leon believes he was given that book.

This man just doesn’t miss.

Revolver is the most based character in this entire series, I also want to teach the world how delicious curry is.

But most of all, I’d rather teach the world how fun Battle Spirits is, but I’m a long way from doing that…

Leon seems to be of the opinion that he successfully threw away his life in order to get to Grand-Lolo, and risked it while he was there to get to where he is…

…But is that true? Grand-Lolo connects to his Era still, nothing stops him going back, how do you throw away something will still be there when all is said and done?

Whoa, that wasn’t there before.

Erm, Bewitching Turn 7, Leon seems to have summoned 2 Kigna-Swans.

And it’s his attack step, he attacks with one of them.

Also once again! My favourite theme is playing!

I am once again asking, if anyone knows what this track is or where I can listen to it, tell me.

Magisa responds to Kigna-Swans attack with Blizzard Wall, the most painful card to use at 2 life, as it means the opponent can only leave you with 1.

I repeat: OH BOY ONE LIFE

Kigna-Swan takes a life from Magisa, and she gains 2 core from her Fruit of Wise Trees. Magisa now has 1 life remaining.

Thanks to Ambrocius’ effect at all levels, as Magisa lost life to an opposing Spirit’s attack, she recovers the 1 Yellow Magic in her Trash, Magic Book.

Leon ends his turn.

A card you knew she had no less, she still has Holy Elixir too.

Otherworld Witch Turn 8, Magisa brings Ambrocius back to Lv3.

She then uses Magic Book, she can Open as many magics as she likes to draw that many cards.

Magisa’s mostly been casting from her Open Zone, so her hand should be rather full.

Magisa Opens… what the fuck is this deck?

She opens:

  • Victory Fire
  • Danse Macabre
  • Heavy Gate
  • Dream Chest

Victory Fire makes sense, Danse Macabre sounds like a death sentence in her deck, Heavy Gate I can reasonably see working as it prevents blocks too, and… Dream Chest?

Sorry was Dream Ribbon having a snooze? It’s a removal card sure but damn.

Magisa then draws 4 new cards:

  • Trident Flare
  • Wing Boots
  • the 3rd copy of The Fruit of Wise Tree
  • Blizzard Wall.

Besides Trident Flare this isn’t too whacky but what the hell was that last drop?

Magisa’s lost 4 lives, has had 4 core steps, started with 4 core, and gained 8 core from effects.

Totalling 20 core, she’s only spent 4 of it, with 5 on Ambrocius, Magisa has 11 core she can use freely, and 15 without losing Ambrocius.

This next section is narrated by Suzuri, but screw that guy, that’s what you have me for.

Bewitching Turn 9. Leon summons his White X-Rare, The IceBeast Mam-Morl.

Leon attacks with Mam-Morl, during Flash timing, Magisa spends 4 core using Heavy Gate.

7 Core remain.

Heavy Gate prevents all of Leon’s Cost 1 or below Spirits from attacking or blocking, so Leon’s 2 Kigna-Swans and Beatbeetle can’t move.

Magisa spends a further 4 core (3 left) using Holy Elixir.

This moves a core from Magisa’s Reserve to her life, (2 core left)

Magisa takes Mam-Morl’s attack from the life, resulting in The 2 Fruit of Wise Trees giving her 2 additional Core in addition to the life lost, she now has 5 core in her reserve.

As Magisa took damage from a Spirit, she can retrieve a Yellow Magic from her trash, she returns Heavy Gate.

Leon attempts to attack with SavageKnight Hercules, but Magisa uses her now 5 core in Reserve to use Dream Chest, returning it to the Top of Leon’s Deck.

As Dio-Mantis is now the only available attacker, Leon can’t safely attack with it as it will just be destroyed by Ambrocius.

Leon ends his turn, sadly that Heavy Gate refund is going to cost him dearly.

As by running afoul of it, Magisa can ensure his Spirits can’t even block this turn either, only Dio-Mantis will be capable of defending.

Magisa has finally made a note of Leon’s somewhat hard-focus on the fact that he is “Prepared”

Magisa’s been through a lot.

Magisa is stating that she is prepared to do anything to protect them, she’s prepared because she knows precisely what will happen to her if she fails.

They’re both “prepared” to do anything for their goals… which means that at the conclusion of this battle, one of them is going to lose everything. In what way I’m not certain, but they can’t simply walk away from this if they’re not prepared to take what comes with losing.

Also notably this is the 2nd time Leon has used Mam-Morl, he’s using a White and Green deck featuring Mam-Morl (again) and Revolver’s cards, his friend.

Given his strong associations with HellSacred Gungnir, it’s possible that Leon’s main colour is in fact White, and Mam-Morl is his true Key Spirit. A Defensive Spirit with high armor to other colours is definitely suited to him.

Otherworld Witch Turn 10, Magisa brings Ambrocius to Lv3.

This is odd because she had just enough core to not have to pay from Ambrocius when doing her Magic defense earlier, though she could have paid from Ambrocius anyway.

Magisa’s Total Core this turn is 23, 5 on Ambrocius makes 18.

Magisa attacks!

During Flash Timing, Magisa uses Victory Fire, destroying both Dio-Mantis and Beatbeetle.

Combo time, Magisa uses Ambrocius’ Lv2+ effect, since she used Magic, it refreshes.

Kenzo clocks the strategy of the deck, Magisa intends to continue casting Magic after Magic until Ambrocius takes all of Leon’s lives.

You can spout nonsense Leon, but you do need to stop the attack.

Magisa uses Ambrocius’ Lv3 effect to use a Yellow Magic at no cost, she uses Heavy Gate free o’ charge.

Leon’s Kigna-Swans are rendered unable to attack or Block this turn.

Worse still, Leon’s modes of defense consist of MachG, even if summoned with Swift, he can’t block due to Heavy Gate changing blocking rules, not affecting current Spirits.

That last card Divine Wind is quite interesting.

Main
Summon a Spirit card from your Hand with a Cost equal or inferior to the number of cores in your Trash, without paying the cost. However, any (When Summoned) effects of the Spirit summoned by this effect can’t activate.
Flash
During this turn, give a Spirit +2000 BP.

A Cost 2 Green Magic, Leon can’t use it because it would give a battle boost which doesn’t help a block.

But during the Main Step, you’d be able to use this card to summon any Spirit with Cost equal or less to the number of Core in Trash, this card’s nuts, as it lets you essentially spend a lot of core, then as long as you’re using a Green base, you can summon any spirit off of this.

Leon is likely using it so he can spend large amounts of Core, then summon Mam-Morl if he hasn’t drawn enough White Spirits.

Leon takes his first damage of the game, dropping to 4 lives

Leon’s realized how screwed he is.

Magisa attacks again, this time she uses Danse Macabre.

For the discard, she tosses out the one card in her hand that isn’t a Magic, The Fruit of Wise Tree.

Mam-Morl has no Armor at Level 1, so it’s selected as the target for Danse Macabre, having it’s 1 core removed from it, and it’s depleted.

Leon seems to recall a time when the Otherworld Observation Records flew away from him, and he caught it, the light suggests this was the method he used to get to Grand-Lolo.

Leon drops to 3 lives.

As Magisa used a Magic, Ambrocius’ effect refreshes it.

and yeah it’s pretty over, Leon has no way of accessing any more cards in his deck, hell the next card he’s going to draw isn’t an out either, it’s SavageKnight Hercules.

Without a way to stop Magisa using magic, this doesn’t end.

Magisa attacks, this time she uses Trident Flare, now Magisa gets to destroy 3 spirits with 3000 BP or less, and destroys Leon’s Kigna-Swans

Leon is now out of Spirits entirely.

Leon remembers the time he met Otherworld King after first arriving in Otherworld

2 lives remain.

Ambrocius is refreshed, and so it attacks again, Magisa uses Wing Boots at no cost thanks to Ambrocius’ Lv3 effect.

Interesting, from the moment Otherworld King met him, he noted that Leon needed to throw away everything, he’s repeated it again now. So it’s clear that whatever he meant by that, Leon hasn’t proved he could do it yet.

1 life remains.

Said Leon, staring down a way he could lose.

also Leon has had 6 battles in this series, he’s lost to Clackey and Yuuki once.

Guy’s got a 50/50 win rate, “no way I could lose”, all I need to do is call tails.

…And are you prepared to throw that all away, Leon, if you can’t uphold the rules?

Magisa launches the final attack on Leon using Ambrocius, and snatches his final life.

Magic Combo complete.

With zero lives, The Bewitching Leon is defeated.

Otherworld Witch Magisa is the Winner!

As long as she draws her 1 Spirit from a 40 card deck.

…Otherworld King is doing something with the clocks in light of her victory over Leon.

The Core Soldiers congratulate Magisa on her victory.

Yep, that’s Magisa’s first and last episode as a card battler, still, decks like that are excellent examples to use for single episodes, Battle Spirits isn’t all competitive feasibility, the amount of meme-worthy decks that can still execute gameplans are endless.

The Golden Lion is headed in their direction… at increasing Speed.

Having lost, he plans to ram them, solving the problem through force…

and notably, irregardless of Otherworld King’s rule.

Ayo Magisa hold up

One of Magisa’s more incredible feats, she’s able to erect a Magic barrier, much like the one in the battlefield, to block Leon’s Core Ship.

Leon once again declares that he’s prepared… notably “Kakugo”, the word they use can also mean resolve.

For a brief moment, Magisa gains a surge of energy, and turns Golden.

…Which is interesting foreshadowing actually.

Mostly because of this little thing, but we’ll get to that in… 3 more series.

So we’ll be waiting a while.

With her newfound surge of energy, Magisa deflects the Golden Lion safely into the stones below, without harming anyone.

Leon refuses to take this lying down, trying desperately to get the Golden Lion running again so he can kill the Core Soldiers.

It’s clear Leon is loyal to Otherworld King, but it’s clearly not because of their shared dream.

The promise of a new world meant that Leon could freely leave his old life behind. And become something more than the worthless Gold Miner he was.

Leon is motivated not by loyalty, or agreement.

The Bewitching Leon acts as he does, Flagrantly abusing the loophole in the rule of Battle Spirits, manipulating those around him to act in his favour, buttering up Otherworld King at every turn.

He wants to see Otherworld King ultimately succeed, and the Core Soldiers ultimately fail.

Because he is scared.

And Otherworld King has no need of fearful servants, willing to step on even the rules he himself instated, even if it is to benefit him.

Because for Leon to benefit Otherworld King, is to please Otherworld King, and to please Otherworld King reduces the likelihood

…that he’ll have to go back to that life.

Grand-Lolo seems to still have a tenuous connection with the Eras it linked to, by invoking some Magic into those clocks, Otherworld King was able to send Leon back to the point in time he left from, the Old west.

Where Leon will be forced to return to his life as a Gold Miner, Grand-Lolo being connected to the Era of the Core Soldiers means Leon has no means to come back to Grand-Lolo either.

As far as we’re concerned, his life as The Bewitching Leon is no more. Now he’s been returned to a simple Gold Miner, far in time, so that he can no longer corrupt Otherworld King’s rule of Battle Spirits any further.

Funny, he spent the entire episode sure that he could throw it all away, but I suppose Otherworld King mentioned that Leon needed to wrestle with the possibility that he’d have to be able to throw his new life away as well.

And as if to add insult to injury, Leon’s copy of Otherworld Observation crumbles to dust, removing the last possible method to access Otherworld.

On top of not having fully recovered however, and then needing to unleash a huge amount of power to flip the Golden Lion, Magisa must be all kinds of worn out.

But it seems like her being perfected means that she doesn’t go full fever mode, just needs a bit of sleep, much like anyone else who wears themselves out.

Sleep is important people, gives you energy, this blog will still be here in the morning so anyone staying awake late to read, go to sleep!

“…My friend.”

Revolver West has a rather profound moment here, he talks about the “Size” of a person’s happiness, and how a “spoonful” was enough for him.

What he means is, that Leon pursued his own happiness with a deathly fervor, focused so much on maximizing his own happiness, and unable to be content with the small benefits of his day to day life that were brought to him.

Leon was not a person who was content with what he had, there was always a necessity to want more, always an envy for the wealthy people he served. When Otherworld King promised more with the united worlds, Leon did everything in his power, whether Otherworld King approved it or not, to achieve it.

Revolver West, however, is simply happy ensuring that someone new every day likes his curry, and even if his circumstances aren’t even ideal, he’s content enough that he won’t strive for more.

There is no correct value of happiness that a person should have, it’s why Revolver West wasn’t in full agreement with Leon’s dreams… Revolver didn’t need to change everything to be happy, and because of that, he’s going to lose precisely nothing if he ever returns back to his own time.

With that, Revolver says one last goodbye to his friend, though it may not be goodbye for long if the Core Soldiers have anything to say.

That’s the end of the Episode. Suppose we should talk about Leon.

The Bewitching Leon is a character that’s introduced very well. He’s presented as one of Otherworld King’s Three Heads, of equal standing to Yuuki Momose, who had shown how well he outmatched Dan earlier. Through that, an indication of Leon’s power is shown.

He then goes on to show his mastery over many colours, defeating Mai, and Kenzo, but losing to Clackey, though he loses to him, the loss is somewhat graceful, he then goes on to win against Kenzo again. He’s also shown to be rather ruthless, circumventing the rule of Battle Spirits by acting in his interests while waiting for the battle to conclude.

However, between his battle with Yuuki and his battle with Magisa his character somewhat takes a nosedive, after losing to Yuuki in a somewhat glorious manner, Leon suddenly stops thinking. Hell even before that when his strategy is “Turn bird sideways until you win” and then got surprised when it didn’t work.

Which was a conscious decision mind you, he had spirits he actively chose not to use because he wanted to humiliate Yuuki with Hououga, I don’t recall that kind of callousness to be any portion of his character, he seemed typically ruthless and thorough.

He goes from this cold, calculating individual who tries to strong-arm his way through any situation that’s not yet decided on, to someone who just continually sucks Otherworld King’s dick until the guy tells him to jump off a cliff, which he so does.

I get that they wanted to have Otherworld King punish Leon for his continual disregard of the rules of Battle Spirits but they did so with him spending that entire last game screaming that he’s prepared, full attacking for no reason, and worse still, not having any of his usual counter magic to put a stop to Magisa’s attacks.

The writing was kind of in a corner, so naturally because of the way Ambrocius functioned, they decided to go with having him holding onto MachGs, cards he could defend with but otherwise couldn’t use but then the result is just that the guy who’s been playing rather intelligently until now full attacked 4 turns in a row and then died.

I do wonder if it’s my bias for his style talking, or perhaps that I’m not quite seeing the catharsis they intended by punishing Leon in the best way possible: Sending him back to the place he was willing to give up everything to stay away from, by making him seem as pathetic as possible.

It’s just, egh. Leon’s final end here has no payoff because it seemed like his earlier loss to Yuuki started with him petering out mid match.

In any case, Leon was a character that started very strong, and then presumably due to time constraints, the character couldn’t be retired in a very satisfying way. He’s a character who displays mastery of many colours excellently and was prevented from doing so in his final stand.

I very much do like Leon, though unfortunately I’m not sure there are any mechanisms to do more with him given the story.

Anyway, Card of the day!

Naturally, it’s Ambrocius, and I actually left something to talk about for it!

So, this many covers a quirk involving the combination of it’s Lv2 and 3, It lets you use Yellow Magic at no Cost, and refreshes anytime you use any Magic.

Now, the quirk with this card becomes, well if I always have a Yellow Magic, Ambrocius attacks forever.

Well, we can’t produce an infinite hand, even with all of our other 39 cards being Magic, Ambrocius can only attack 40 times.

…But there is a way to make it attack infinitely. A way so that you always have Magic.

Main
Target spirit you control gets
Light (When Attacks)
At the end of the battle, every Magic card you used during this battle returns from your Trash to your Hand.
Flash
Target spirit gets +2000BP until end of turn.

This is Gleam Hope, a BS04 magic, nothing too flashy, but it enables one to give any Spirit Light.

Now, giving Ambrocius Light means that Ambrocius can recover the Yellow Magic used at the end of her battle…

See the combo?

With just Gleam Hope, one other Yellow Magic, and an Ambrocius at Lv3, you produce an infinite attack combo that will not end until your opponent stops it.

This is the reason for Ambrocius’ horrid cost and low stats, it’s to provide as many ways to get around the Infinite attack combo as possible. As that’s a win condition.

That being said, Magisa’s deck doesn’t look entirely set up to use that combo, or they would have displayed it. Here’s a version I’ve made based on the cards used, I’ve taken some liberties with the build however generally because this deck isn’t capable of cycling well with just Magic Book.

So my additions are the following:

  • The Fruit of Life – a Nexus that draws for losing lives and can be levelled to perform the same function as Wise Tree
  • The Burning Canyon – a Nexus that enables the cycling of cards one at a time, this can let one dig through the deck twice as fast. Also raises Ambrocius BP when levelled
  • Double Draw – It draws 2, what more do you want? Also gets a reduction from Burning Canyon
  • Silent Wall – Ending the attack step is probably a necessity, as we need to stall out until the right cars are drawn.

Needless to say however, this deck is god awful, Magisa took the problem of needing a lot of Magic to supply Ambrocius’ refresh with and answered it by making it almost every other card. She has to basically hope that she draws the right cards fast enough before the opponent pinpoints her strategy, otherwise they’ll do as Leon did and start rushing her.

This almost demands and necessitates drawing a Green Nexus for an opening, otherwise you’re kind of boned.

There are of course, significantly better ways to do this.

But for that, I’ll need a little help from my friend Galaxy. As it’s another Charisma Battler Showcase Deck.

This is a… Aside from the 45 card count, this is a far more sensible Ambrocius build, this one uses various cycling methods such as Kleio, Storm Draw, Cherubim.

[LV1][LV2] (Either Attack Step)
When your Yellow Spirits are destroyed, put a core from the Void to your Reserve.
[LV2] (Either Attack Step)
When your Yellow Spirits are destroyed, draw a card.

It also makes use of this card, The Blessed Sanctuary which achieves a similar goal as The Fruit of Life, but starts with Core, and levels up for draw, and more importantly, triggers on Yellow Spirit destruction, not life loss.

It’s also using something that became more doable in BS08, The DogGeneral Cu-Sith and The Angelia Salaty, that is a strategy supported with Holy Life. By enabling an aggressive playstyle early through those 2 Spirits, you can gain more lives, allowing you to accumulate more core via damage,.

Also rather sensibly, Invisible Cloak is here, though not a Yellow Magic, it can definitely assist the problem of blocking, as an unblockable Ambrocius can’t have it’s low BP abused.

Remember to use these decks responsibly, and of course, I cannot testify to the efficacy of these decks myself.

Anyway, off to the next one, if we weren’t in the endgame before, we are now.

Gekiha Dan – Episode 44

Whew, last episode was fairly good compared to the episode before it, but we haven’t had much in the way of full plot progression have we? Mostly taking on a bunch of dudes one at a time but the way forward isn’t quite clear

This episode will change that, and as an unfortunate consequence of needing to be heavily plot focused, this Episode does not have a battle in it.

In spite of this, however, it is intended to be rather heavy in terms of plot, and unlike the great Toppa Bashin Episode that must never be numbered, won’t waste our damn time.

With that all sorted, let’s jump right in shall we?

Leaving off from last episode, after a pretty explosive showing from Yuuki and Kajitsu sharing the pain of their lives being taken, Kajitsu collapsed seemingly due to her low constitution.

Oh, we’re heading to the White World? That’s somewhat amusing, the Cast has been to every World except White, which has only been visited by Yuuki

I would wonder if Magisa had any remedies for this, given she’s an all-powerful perfect Witch again.

Apparently the OP lass in pink hair who can literally restore energy and teleport people can do nothing for Kajitsu… I have a theory as to why but that’ll come later.

Dan feels a strong compulsion to assist them, as due to their interference in his life, he was sent to Grand-Lolo, met Magisa and Zungurii, and Kajitsu even resurrected Dan’s soul from it’s crushed state after losing to Otherworld King.

Point is, he owes them, whether he liked it or not at the time.

It seems Yuuki wasn’t just being a massive brood, there isn’t a feasible way of assisting Kajitsu from here, even with Magisa’s godlike abilities.

That-a-boy.

Yuuki states his resolve, he intends to separate Kajitsu from Mother Core entirely, at the moment, 99% of all of her constitution issues come as a result of having a body not fit to bear the power of Mother Core.

Yuuki intends to destroy that connection, which if he can do so safely, should mean that Kajitsu can just be a normal girl.

…Well a normal girl with the memories of the Green Princess but semantics.

Yuuki states his aim was always to try and exploit Otherworld King in order to achieve that same goal, but ultimately Otherworld King proved to be a little too intelligent in that regard, and Yuuki ended up putting in all that work for nothing.

Dan chimes in, stating that Yuuki’s track record didn’t leave him brooding over past mistakes like that.

Covering the episode title this time because its… Ominous.

The End of the Green Windstorm.

Alright bros, sisters and other siblings not factored within the two, brace yourselves.

Yuuki casually mentions that Mother Core is too strong for a single person to handle by itself… but as far as I can tell, we’ll at some point hear about not one but 2 cases where a single person could very much handle Mother Core no problem.

Yuuki chastises his own inability to protect Kajitsu from her own and claims he’s not worthy to play Ragna-Rock because of it…

Pfft, if that was enough to make people unworthy to play the card then this card would have been banned a long time ago.

Card’s Core boost is so nuts and the card itself is so iconic, it eventually got a revival that made it ridiculously playable.

Dan asks the obvious question now, can Magisa do something with her OP powers?

I’m… not quite sure what this “Fate” is meant to be, just fucking heal Kajitsu! Try!

DO. SOMETHING.

Geez lady.

I will try to interpret this as favourably as possible but it seems like the nature of their existence suggests that their fate is simply being “Cursed”, things are not allowed to go well for the 2 of them, Yuuki is trying to defy this idea.

Mai makes the wild suggestion that if they’re having so much trouble fighting their own misfortune that they should just stop doing so.

Zungurii gives the only reaction that makes sense, basically “WOAAAAHHHHH THAT’S NOT NICE”

Mai states that Kajitsu is happy enough just being together with Yuuki, my guess is that she’s presuming half the issue with Yuuki and Kajitsu running headfirst into misfortunes is due to the fact that they’re trying so hard to erase the cause of those misfortunes.

Clackey also suggests that relaxation and just spending time with Kajitsu without fighting might be a good idea.

Can’t fight every battle everywhere at once.

Kajitsu’s awake, and mentions that she had a dream of the “White rose”

In essence, she had a dream about Yuuki.

The cast are finally nearing the White World…

Also gods that gravity shift is going to be hella awkward given the way it’s positioned.

Dan wonders if there isn’t a fast and simple solution to deal with this cycle of misfortune the Momose Siblings have to deal with, Clackey, more practically, states that the best they can do at the moment is get rid of the existing problem.

In news of the more literal variety, it seems the newspapers have caught up with Otherworld King’s nonsense, he seems to be making sweeping improvements with greeting the world’s leaders.

Here he is, shaking his hand with the Arab Oil Magnate, Mister Ahad.

I’d be surprised that just a rich person with heavy investments in oil would be considered a nation leader, but I suppose given that Otherworld King is rather perceptive about these things, he’d know to look not for places of perceived power, but places of actual power.

Kenzo rehashes the current belief of Otherworld King’s intentions, namely that he wishes to instate his Core System on Earth as well.

While the nation’s leaders, corrupt as they are, are all for it, the public are significantly more skeptical, they’re not certain that receiving infinite renewable energy is worth the instating of some twit who very clearly is vying for World domination by offering an energy solution he can take away the second it benefits him.

The comments here are all in japanese but lemme cover some of them.

1 user is mentioning that compliance should be relatively easy, the fact that it’s significantly more convenient should make it acceptable.

Another user doesn’t trust the process of terraforming a whole freaking desert.

Another commenter states that Core Energy and the way Otherworld King wields it isn’t something Humans can normally do.

All relatively good points.

Something about the newspaper article’s image is bothering Magisa however.

She thinks the expression on Otherworld King’s face looks a bit off, so she wonders if he might be manipulating a Pantera Doll designed to replicate his appearance.

…Foreshadowing?

Suddenly, we’re in a dark room, full of PCs, and Leon’s burst through the door.

If you think the “Invisible Government” sounds a little like the Illuminati, you’re not wrong, that’s precisely what this room of people is.

They’ll be named a bit later but I’m going to name them now, the reason is, is that after the end of this series, there’s a description of what happens between the end of this series and the start of the next one.

And it all hinges on the group of men in this room.

These guys are the most horrific people in the series, they’re called the “Fixer”

They function precisely like a conspiracy theorist would think the illuminati works, they control the world by essentially holding capitalism by it’s balls. World Leaders don’t make decisions, at least not by themselves, they’re at least in some way influenced by these guys. Naturally they’re not so significant at the moment due to the fact that Otherworld King has completely ripped through their paper-thin preservation of the status quo.

Otherworld King points to the image in the newspaper, it seems that newspaper article didn’t depict Otherworld King whatsoever, and was infact a message from the Fixer indicating their existence to him in order to meet with him.

Otherworld King starts by essentially saying they’re a complete joke, noting that the fact they even exist means that the events throughout history show proof that the world’s been controlled.

Perhaps within a human lifespan this might go unnoticed, but Otherworld King has observed all possible human eras up to Kazan’s.

It’s possible that across longer periods of time, their existence is more obvious.

Otherworld King notes that due to their influence and his sudden presence, controlling the world is now functionally impossible for as long as they’re at odds with each other.

So Otherworld King brings in his loyal men, a mix of Otherworlders and Humans, in order to threaten the Fixer.

I’d take this more seriously if both Belga and Magical Crown, 2 Battlers who are proven jokes weren’t part of the roster.

But physically, yes, Otherworlders have significantly more power at their disposal than humans do, even if Humans can weaponize their wisdom to their advantage.

Otherworld King drops the ultimatum, if the Fixer value their continued existence and the continued preservation of Earth, they work for him.

No questions asked.

It seems the Fixer had planned to get Otherworld King to cave under duress, their fatal mistake was not realizing that Otherworld King didn’t wish to do the same the second he identified them.

Idiots.

This is probably the one situation where I kind of wished the Otherworld King was just a little more cruel, as wiping out the Fixer would have done everyone a LOT of favours.

We’ve finally arrived back at the White Castle, and hey this garden is here now.

It seems that weird garden that Dan passed through to Otherworld King is emulative of the White Castle but that Yuuki was here when he fought Belga, they’re very similar makes.

Dan and Zungurii ask if Yuuki and Kajitsu grew all the beautiful roses here, but Yuuki admits that he basically didn’t do any of it, and that Kajitsu is just completely insane

Kajitsu grew them in the colours of the Lightbearers, and therefore the colours of Battle Spirits.

By growing them with the philosophy of something intended to be enduring, she’d hoped that the Roses would wither less.

Nothing quite like home I suppose, after all they tend to live in this castle.

Suzuri also notes that the place feels rather safe.

Damn Magisa, straight for the throat?

I suppose when your association with the bathroom is due to having the cubicle door kicked in by bullies, it’s not that it feels secure, but it stops people getting in. “It sucks but the alternatives are worse”

Oh that’s a fairly good point, with Grand-Lolo combined with the Human World, it’d be impossible for them to end their curse via marriage due to Human Laws potentially being imposed on Otherworld Space.

Seems The Fixer acquiesced to Otherworld King, now unable to resist him, he’s claimed control over even them.

I’m not really sure what the purpose of comparing political power to a Battle Spirits game is, but apparently Leon sees fit to consider the subjugation of the Fixer to be the equivalent of deploying a Nexus.

A strategy that by itself offers no progression to the gamestate but makes it easier for one to perform their intended goal.

Otherworld King literally has control of the Illuminati, but he’s still not happy.

Indeed, there’s not much more Otherworld King really needs to do, he’s won essentially. He just needs to sit back and wait for the necessary procedures to finish.

Otherworld King seems like he won’t be pleased with what he has until every last human swears fealty to him, the nation’s leaders and The Fixer aren’t enough, he needs the general public to be loyal to him as well.

Now it’s the “Attack Step”, so he intends to make an active move in order to erase the doubt of the masses?

It seems the promise of the Core System has The Fixers gathering info on Otherworlders, and as it happens the President seems aware of the Fixers.

It seems like the Fixers are trying to mobilize against Otherworld King after his power play to subjugate them to his will, but Otherworld King’s access to Mother Core’s Gates means he can traverse essentially anywhere incredibly quickly.

This makes him difficult to pin down.

And Zungurii finally asks the question that will trigger the explanation of what the show believes relevant enough to tell us about the Fixer.

That’s… a fairly concise explanation of them, yeah.

I wouldn’t really call them a Mafia, more like a Shadow Government but eh, semantics

Yeah at least the President only gets his position by making the public believe he’s a good person. Rather than just killing anyone who knows about him.

No one elects a Fixer.

ah of course the Militaries of the world wouldn’t budge when the potential for new ways to wage war are on the horizon, fuck those guys.

The President basically tells Dan that, as Dan isn’t a military, and is capable of imposing his will through Otherworld King’s rule, he’s the perfect middle ground when it comes to dealing with Otherworld King.

I suppose we’re running out of options beyond a head-on fight with the guy.

Clackey’s surprised that the Militaries of the World don’t want to mobilize against him.

Mai notes that right now information is really scarce due to the somewhat INFINITE NOVELTY that Otherworld contains.

The promises of the Core System are immense and well, it’d change all of everyday technology for the greatest of conveniences, so everyone’s somewhat stuck in making the drastic decision to try and nuke Otherworld King from Orbit.

Clackey notes that apparently some faction, not quite sure which as it’s never stated, are moving to real guns, which is a problem as it’s difficult to impose Otherworld King’s rule with a gun in your face.

Based on Magisa’s comment it’s also possible that Otherworld King’s forces are also moving to real guns, the lack of lethality of the Otherworld King forces likely contributed to the ability to impose one’s will through cards, but if they’re getting real weapons now, then it’s unlikely that the Core Soldiers would be able to pull that tactic again

That makes Otherworld King’s “Rule” a bit shit as no one could feasibly execute on it without getting, well, executed.

In spite of this, Dan states that currently, cards are their weapon, so they need to make the best use of them that they can.

Yuuki and Kajitsu seem to have spent enough time in the garden, and it’s getting windy, so they decide to go back inside.

But there’s trouble in paradise.

A dark wind seems to blow through the area, which causes all the roses to die out suddenly.

I see this is what he meant by it being the attack step, Otherworld King appears out of literally nowhere to launch an attack on Yuuki and Kajitsu.

Just incase you didn’t quite get it when he arrived.

Magisa’s anti-Otherworld King alarm seems to be ringing.

Magisa’s only able to identify the problem by the level of Magic she feels.

Zungurii wonders if it might be Kurotaru, as this occurred the last time Yuuki and Kajitsu were separated.

Dan however probably notes that the colour irradiating off Magisa’s staff is wrong, so it must be someone new.

Well it’s about time you had a battle with him then isn’t it if you wanted to finish him off.

Wait shit, NOT LIKE THAT.

Right, so Otherworld King seems to have gone balls off the walls and rather than battle Yuuki, he’s trying to completely kill him.

the King certainly covered his bases, somehow the Core Ship that Dan and the others are on have their doors completely sealed off.

Even Magisa can’t get through it, hot damn, Magisa gets her magic back and becomes near godlike and Otherworld King still has enough juice to out-do her?

It must be the collective ability of all the Magic that he stole from the Otherworlders.

The root cause seems to be that the Ship’s Core system is simply not functioning, much like the barrier from earlier but without any indication of one being active this time.

Suzuri gets some second hand terror, because while they’re locked in here, they’re unable to help the targets of assassination, who are still outside.

Yuuki tells Kajitsu to head back to Dan, not that she’d be able to get through the door.

First it was decaying winds, now it’s Gravity manipulation!?

Otherworld King intends to snuff out Yuuki’s life by crushing his throat.

Dude’s going full Sith Lord.

Kajitsu’s starting to tap into her powers again.

Really? Your Larynx is this close to being the powder Otherworld King adds to his morning tea and you’re STILL saying she shouldn’t use her abilities?

I can’t tell if Otherworld King is trying to snap his neck or rip his head off but given how much pain Yuuki seems to be in… It might very well be both.

Kajitsu seems to unleash her full powers at this moment in an attempt to save her Brother.

Just to hit home the potential effects of this, the White World is crumbling in reaction to this.

Ah you can see Mother Core over her chest, Kajitsu’s fully bearing her symbol.

This couldn’t be any more pointed if he blew a raspberry at her.

Ah yes, the ol’ “Fuck you gon’ do bout it?”

Sadly I don’t feel like Otherworld King is the type to find out after he fucks around.

Still, let’s see if the Graph holds.

Kajitsu starts by burying the guy under a mountain of stone slabs

Yuuki’s free from the force choke, but he insists on having Kajitsu not use her abilities.

Kajitsu states that she can’t forgive Otherworld King, because everything is going his way, and she can’t confirm the safety of the other Core Soldiers if he’s not dead.

Yuuki tries to point out that Kajitsu is the target, he aimed for Yuuki in order to get her to respond in precisely this manner to increase his chances of getting what he wants.

Likely the power to control Mother Core.

Kajitsu makes an excellent point though, if she can’t use her powers now of all times to completely eviscerate their greatest problem, then there isn’t going to be a time for her to use her abilities.

Kajitsu’s not only pissed off for Yuuki and Dan’s sakes, she’s also sick and tired of running away from a problem she wants more than anything to destroy.

She’s willing to take a risk with herself to that end.

Lovely a conversation this is, big bad’s about to bust out!

Well those stones don’t look like they fazed him, plus he’s practically destroying the ground with his punches.

Well if you ever needed a reason as to why people don’t just shoot the fucker, with a gun, this is why.

No footing for you.

A Fight scene that wouldn’t look out of place in an Episode of Dragonball Z.

The White World’s taking so much damage that large wall there has risen from the fissure caused by Kajitsu and Otherworld King’s battle.

Oh geez, it wasn’t just a fissure, a piece of the White World fell off!

…Also that’s a fairly high wave comparative to the buildings alongside it-

Oh that’s just a simulated high tide tsunami, holy shit.

Well, I dunno about you guys, but Otherworld King’s using one hand and Kajitsu’s using one and a half.

I think he’s winning.

The collateral damage is no longer being indirect from the pieces of the White World falling off, it’s expanded to causing Windows to smash and circuitry to malfunction and explode on Earth.

Otherworld King lost the beam struggle! He was forced to back off!

Jokes on you Otherworld King, Kajitsu has FOLLOW-UPS!

It seems Kajitsu is drawing even more power from Mother Core while she holds Otherworld King down.

Yuuki realizes that Kajitsu intends to draw more power from Mother Core, and tries to stop her, she can barely handle what she has already.

Kajitsu continues to draw more power as she prepares to completely vaporize Otherworld King.

But you see, the problem with powering up.

That no one quite seems to notice.

Is that it leaves you…

…Completely wide open.

And using that opening, Otherworld King focuses and smashes Kajitsu’s symbol to pieces.

I cannot imagine what it feels like to have your soul, that which comprises your thoughts and personality, shattered into a million pieces, never to be repaired.

But I imagine it is not pleasant. And as Dan would probably attest to, excruciatingly painful, physically, mentally and emotionally.

It seems the second that Kajitsu’s symbol was smashed, the storms ended…

Otherworld King comments that, in a way, he granted Yuuki’s wish, by shattering her core utterly and completely, he freed her from the fate of Mother Core.

Well I suppose she’s free from any and all fates at the moment given that I’m fairly sure you’ve just done the equivalent a somewhat essential part of her being. The symbol of a Core Soldier is strongly tied to their ability and will to live, we haven’t yet seen what happens when it’s completely erased like that… but I imagine it’s quite fatal.

Oh fuck off with the Batosupi references for 2 seconds Otherworld King.

I couldn’t quite capture the sense of rage Yuuki is emitting if I captured every damn frame of this.

Just, holy shit, pissed doesn’t begin to describe how non-existent his temper now is.

Got him.

But y’know.

If we were just… 6 episodes later

That might have been convincing.

Sweet geez the level of foresight, Otherworld King waltzes up to them in “person”, channelling both his power and his personality through a Pantera Doll.

He aims for Yuuki in the hopes that Kajitsu would snap, forcing her to use Mother Core’s power, which exposes the symbol.

Then, smashing the symbol and robbing Kajitsu of her power and life.

Then knowing Yuuki’s reaction, installing a bomb just incase he’d catch Yuuki in the explosion after Yuuki slew the Pantera Doll

it didn’t work but damn it was good foresight.

These Pantera dolls are some advanced shit, they can act as physical proxies for Otherworld King to exert his will through, and even though Mother Core’s symbol was stolen from Kajitsu via a Pantera Doll, it was still transferred to Otherworld King.

…Also also, OTHERWORLD KING BEARS MOTHER CORE’S LIGHT NOW, OHSHIT.

Seems with the disappearance of that doll, the Core ship finally unlocked, but unfortunately the Core Soldiers were actively prohibited from being of any help.

Course, Dan sees the writing on the wall of what’s happening, doesn’t ask what, why, how…

He Just. Asks. Who?

The foreshadowing from earlier that Magisa brought up turned out to have borne fruit at the worst possible time, it seems Otherworld King can and was capable of putting either his own personality, or copies of it, into Pantera Dolls… Enabling him to effectively be in 2 places at once, with a large portion of his full power no less.

Mai asks Serge to find the Pantera doll to maybe see if they can extract some info, but sadly that self-destruct sequence seems to have covered that line of inquiry as well.

I’m with Dan on this, fuck you mean “prepared”?

Though I suppose they knew that something like this could have happened, which means there’s only one recourse.

Can’t even imagine the range of emotions going through her right now, her own mind is scared of losing the brother she cares about so much, the Green Princess’ memories of love for the White King probably isn’t helping.

…And more importantly, she’s dying, for a girl her age that must be petrifying

I wonder if the memories of the Green Princess can make that any easier.

Yuuki has Kajitsu hold onto Ragna-Rock, for comfort.

There’s also the promise of reincarnation that may offer small comfort compared to the fact that Yuuki now has to live the rest of his entire life without his Sister, and the memories of the White King stonewalling him from taking another lover.

As one final goodbye, Kajitsu uses the last of whatever power she may have had, to turn her corpse into butterflies.

If nothing else, she can make a few new lives rather than simply decaying or being ashes.

There are many thoughts I have right now, but the one that sticks out to me, in this moment, is the idea many people have when family, those further down the family tree, pass away.

And it’s that a parent should never outlive their child. I imagine the same concept applies to older siblings with their younger siblings, there’s just some colossal emptiness tied with the fact that they were never supposed to see their younger sibling die.

Now that Kajitsu has well and truly passed away, the cast begin to reflect.

Magisa reminisces about her first confrontation with her, which is where she learned the most about her.

Seems that confrontation actually sparked a fondness for them, in an interesting way.

Kenzo thinks about the time he was with her in the Purple Prison, he likely felt safe with her there, given her many abilities with Mother Core.

Mai almost certainly became fond of Kajitsu during their girl talk, while she was looking after her for Yuuki.

Serge had to perform favours such as carrying her around, and we know he feels incredibly close to the women he chooses to provide service to.

Clackey spent so long hating her, and when he finally resolved that discord in his heart, he promised to protect her… And he very clearly failed.

Suzuri likely feels similarly, having had to protect her from Kazan during the incident in the Blue World.

Kazan salutes, Kajitsu, being the sister of a man he respected, also would have gained his utmost respect by proxy.

Zungurii has no kind memories to remember about Kajitsu, but he made great leaps in growth to try and rectify his understanding of her, and came to care deeply, having managed to make her pancakes she liked to eat.

And Dan remembers the day Kajitsu sent him to Grand-Lolo, the only reason he’s friends with any of these people in the first place, something he’s grateful for.

…And something he will never be able to repay.

Bit too late for Kajitsu, but the mission hasn’t changed. You never really know what you have til it’s gone, or in this case, they didn’t know how much damage Otherworld King could do, until he actually tried for once.

Dan may not have been related to her in the same way Yuuki was but I can imagine his rage directed at Otherworld King is insurmountable.

It appears that the Fixers are already at work for Otherworld King, the media’s manipulated the scenes that took place between Kajitsu and Otherworld King to make it seem like Otherworld King was trying to protect the Earth.

What a complete Rube Goldberg machine, even the event itself, however it happened, was altered to make him look good.

And of course, when asked to comment, Otherworld King was happy to lean into the lie.

To think he chastised Dan and his entire race for damaging Mother Core and yet he leads by despicable example like this.

He just slew a 12-year old girl and then trod over her corpse for his own benefit and he doesn’t feel an ounce of remorse.

Naturally, Otherworld King’s “reasonableness” vanished rather quickly after his battle with Dan.

He’s an incredibly vengeful individual it seems to me. No less fallible than any other Human at this rate. The second he employed his plan with the Pantera Dolls it was clear he was less than amicable.

It’s clear his words to Dan during their first bout was a simple politician’s trick, to get Dan to question his morals. Not like Otherworld King’s were any better.

Bit of a pickle isn’t it, they’re likely to face resistance from the Humans they’re also trying to protect.

I wouldn’t call them skilled, a skilled liar wouldn’t even let you exist with the disbelief.

Though it could be skillful in use, it doesn’t help that Yuuki might have been caught on camera, and Otherworld King has targeted the guy twice.

So I can understand that Kenzo might be referring to people like The Fixer, but uh…

I feel like “Adults in Suits” could be Lawyers and you kind of do want to listen to them.

Otherworld King was so bothered that the Humans didn’t like him that he barely got up off his ass long enough to make a doll get off it’s ass and hashed that problem out in a day.

The issue here might not even be winning, it might be the aftermath

at the moment, the world is against them, but even if they do win, they’ll have to deal with the fallout of a home who condemns them as beasts, or worse, who had faith in Otherworld King’s Core system that they were jipped out of.

The Core Soldiers may end up crucified for their victory.

Well now this guy’s just spouting nonsense, he claims the corruption of Mother Core was due to Momose Kajitsu… In the same breath that he claims Mother Core was warped by Humanity.

This man’s lived too long, he’s senile.

Well I suppose now that he bears it’s light, Otherworld King has a much more direct degree of control over the thing, though Yuuki mentioned that bearing it’s light caused Mother core to also control Kajitsu.

Oh drop the hateboner for Yuuki for 2 seconds Leon.

But its possible, if the Light of a symbol can create life energy, then keeping Yuuki angry at him makes for an excellent battle catalyst to produce Light to send to Mother Core.

Also, one wonders how Mother Core was stated to be impossible to handle for one person alone… But Otherworld King doesn’t seem to be suffering any adverse effects from bearing it’s light.

Seems Otherworld King’s doing the same thing Kajitsu tried to do to him earlier, he’s now accumulating the full power Mother Core possesses.

The guy’s taking in the full might of a power that threatened to tear Kajitsu in half just for using what she was innately given, and this guy’s just sat here with the greatest inconvenience being that being slapped with the might of Mother Core made his neck stiff.

Well, I guess he’s gonna sit here soaking up Mother Core’s Light like it’s some kind of sponge bath for a while.

Dan returns to Yuuki, potentially to try and console him.

Though it’ll be a little difficult.

Yuuki’s in a very self-defeating state of mind right now, telling Dan it’d be fine to call him a monster when he very clearly has done nothing wrong.

Dan even interjects that there’s really zero reason to think that.

Yuuki tries to refer to the wilted flowers and destroyed White Castle as evidence.

Notably the wording isn’t that Kajitsu’s symbol was smashed, it’s that it was stolen even though that’s how it appeared.

It seems regardless of which Core Soldier it is, unless they lose the light of their core naturally through abandoning the mission of a Lightbearer, if the Symbol is forcibly robbed from them, that Soldier dies very shortly after.

Dan interjects with Yuuki’s line of thinking, wondering if Yuuki intends to remember Kajitsu’s death as his fault, all because he wanted to separate Kajitsu and Mother Core, and while he technically got what he wanted, it resulted in her death

this is evidently not what Yuuki envisioned for his Sister, and he knew such a thing would be unsafe to do, there’s no sense in blaming himself just because someone who couldn’t care less whether Kajitsu lived or died did it for him.

It’s the entire reason they didn’t attempt this at any other point in time. It’d be like saying you killed a family member because you both were considering an operation with a high fatality rate but their life was cut short by some punk with a knife.

It’s not quite the same thing.

Yuuki interjects that Dan can’t possibly understand how he feels, because Dan has not yet found his once-in-a-lifetime love. Yuuki on the other hand had before he was born and has had her taken away from him twice, and that’s not considering the fact that Kajitsu was his only family in this life.

Dan interjects that while he doesn’t have a love of his life, he still has all his friends and would be mortified in a similar manner, but sadly that’s a non-starter, causing Yuuki to dismiss him.

Seems Magisa’s turned up, but rather than chime in with words…

She eases Yuuki’s pain, repairing the damage he claimed he caused, and restoring the wilted flowers.

The sentiment here is generally that beyond death, which is typically irreversible, most of all other damage can not only be survived, but fixed, restored, and forgotten.

Magisa notes that Otherworld King has very clearly fucked up somewhere, he may have stolen Mother Core’s symbol and bear it’s light, but its clear while he’s got a direct dialogue with Mother Core, he hasn’t taken control of it, nor has he extracted all of it’s power.

The reason being that Magisa’s potent Magic seems to be a form of Mother Core’s power, if she still has it, then Otherworld King doesn’t have full control over Mother Core.

Things are bad, but Otherworld King is far from being the God-King he’s evidently trying to be, Dan can still hope to challenge him.

And that’s the end of the episode.

There may not have been a battle, but this was a series of developments that were important, it’s clear that a battle would have disrupted the pace of the episode, we saw the introduction of The Fixer, as well as the furtherence of Otherworld King’s plan in obtaining Mother Core…

…As well as the permanent death of Momose Kajitsu. Sadly, though this is clearly a Shounen anime, Kajitsu doesn’t come back as a character, this is her last moment in the series.

Naturally people who watch later series note that she technically does return, due to the functionality of her situation as the Green Princess… but while the Green Princess’ soul will return, the character Kajitsu, is no more.

It’s an incredibly sad moment in the series even given the weirdness of her situation with Yuuki, which has unfortunately met a rather brutal resolution.

I mentioned a while ago that Otherworld King is one of my favourite villains, and ultimately that is true, he does a significant amount better than Uchuuchouten, his narrative ancestor.

For me, this Episode seems to tip my opinion of him a bit, as beyond this point the guy ceases to be anything more than a raving lunatic at the worst of times, and a measured sociopath at best.

Of course, the entire point of this was to highlight how deeply suppressed his evil infact was, and the level of power required to bring it to the surface, the promise of ruling Earth, as opposed to the other 6 worlds of Otherworld, very clearly corrupted him almost entirely. I just found his other appearances in this anime and others to be a lot more compelling.

Surprisingly, despite the lack of any Battle in this episode, the show deigns to give us a card of the day.

And it’s the card who missed Card of the Day yesterday, Ragna-Rock.

I’ve nothing I can really say about this card given that no new context has arrived for me to put it in, however, what I can do is build a deck.

This is a deck intended to emulate the deck Yuuki used last Episode, with a few cards sprinkled in to make the numbers work of course. Naturally we will have talked about the general strategy but I’ll briefly cover it again.

The Deck is a Mega Core-Boost deck, using Fruit of Wise Tree, Reload Cores, and High Elixir to produce a wall of surviveability in order to maximize the amount of core gain. Naturally, decks with high core boost run low on hand cards fast, and so Hand Reverse exists to replenish the hand once it’s been exhausted.

In order to fill out the numbers, I included this dual colour support from BS09.

Winged Beast
[LV1][LV2]
Treat this spirit as a Green spirit as well as a White spirit.
Parasite
[LV1][LV2] (When Summoned)
Put a core from the Void each to two White Spirits you control.
[LV2]
This Spirit is also treated as a White Spirit.

These 2 make up a few of the Hybrid support BS09 comes out with, with Green’s off-colour target being White for this set, Ookuchiba is a series of weak card clones that treat itself as a different colour, and the rulings for effects treating cards as other colours is that the symbol changes too.

So Ookuchiba, while a Cost 1 with no reduction, can function as White reduction.

Ralba on the other hand is excellent Core boost for white decks, it’s singular white reduction makes it worth running on it’s own even if you aren’t using Green, and finally, if summoned at Lv2, it can BE one of the White spirits you target for it’s lovely core boost.

The Charisma Battler page does have a deck for Ragna-Rock, but it offends me in the sense that the deck consists of 42 cards. And well, I’m such a big fan of 40 card decks that all my deck templates rely on this being true and I probably won’t be correcting it anytime soon…

…Ah why not.

Gives me a reason to use this template for a change.

Anyway, Galaxy was the introducer for the card on the post I saw when it came to this deck, so Galaxy will be the one listed as the designated Battler.

And, well, since I can only pick one colour for banners I’ll use Ragna-Rock’s primary colour, Green.

It’s got clear ideas, mainly intended to stall out for as long as possible until Ragna-Rock can trigger a sudden death situation, I’ll explain.

It shows preference for Fruit of Life rather than Fruit of Wise Tree, because while it doesn’t generate any core until level 2, you do draw cards when losing lives which can be valuable as Green and White have little Draw power, I presume Hand Reverse was too slow.

We’ve got 2 alternative double symbol Tribute spirits in the form of Sieg-Crimson and BlizzardEmperor Ullr, likely because they’re targets to be refreshed by Ragna-Rock and can enable one to stall until Ragna-Rock is acquired, Sieg-Crimson gains core after field-wiping and Ullr prevents damage coming from Cost 4 or less spirits.

The use of OldSage Trenton is creative, but Trenton comes with a nasty downside, sure when he’s summoned, he can summon Ragna-Rock for no cost, and he’s a valid tribute for Ragna-Rock making it an easy summon, but part of Ragna-Rock’s terror is that even when not tributing Yggdrassil for 6 core, it can still exhaust all opposing Spirits, something that won’t occur as Trenton stops the effects on summon for the cards it chooses to use.

The same is true for SkyDragonRider Platinam who can ignore Ragna-Rock’s need to Tribute, but gets rid of it’s on summon effect, it seems that Galaxy has engineered this deck particularly around Ragna-Rock’s Lv3, which would enable it to refresh the Double Symbol Ullr and Sieg-Crimson at the expense of it’s ability to use it’s nasty effect when summoned.

Granted, it’s also possible Platinam is here to facilitate the summon of those double symbol spirits, as so far I don’t believe a single Double Symbol spirit has appeared that has not required Tribute just yet.

In essence, the deck is definitely, probably good, it’s just my main gripe is it focuses on one effect at the expense of the other, causing Ragna-Rock to not be capable of using it’s full powers occasionally, and of course, it’s a whole 42 cards.

I definitely do like that they account for this with the inclusion of 2 Invisible Cloaks to cover the inability to use Ragna-Rock’s effect when summoned, and Emergency to keep the ball rolling after the first attack.

In any case, you’ve all got many decks to mess with now, and I get to use 2 of my deck templates, so I’ll see you all in the next one! buh-bye!

Time to see what the plot has in store for us, now that Kajitsu has been cruelly removed from it…

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

Infernal Lord – Evil Shadow
Immortality: Cost 4/5 (Either Attack Step)
This Spirit card in your Trash can be summoned when your Cost 4/5 Spirit is destroyed.
[LV1][LV2] (When Summoned)
Destroy an opposing exhausted Cost 4 or less Spirit.

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!

Parasite

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.

Nightling – Ogre Wizard
[LV1] (When Summoned)
Exhaust every LV2 Spirit.
[LV2] (When Attacks)
When only the opposing Spirit is destroyed by comparing BP, put a number of cores from the Void to your Reserve equals to the number of cores on that destroyed opposing Spirit.

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:

Flash
Discard any number of cards from your Hand. For each card discarded, send a core from a single opposing Spirit to the Trash.

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!

Mounted Warrior – Shellman
Tribute: Cost 6 or more → Void
After paying for the summoning cost, you must send all core from a Cost 6 or more Spirits you control to the Void.
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Summoned)
Exhaust every opposing Spirit. If “The IronKnight Yggdrasill” was the Tribute, also, put six cores from the Void to this Spirit.
[LV3] (When Attacks/Blocks)
Refresh three Cost 8 or less Spirits you control.

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!

Gekiha Dan – Episode 42

Last episode we unveiled the first card of BS09, and was the first episode of the great countdown.

This is the 9th to last episode in the series, last episode, Dan defeated the… snort… the President of the USA.

Sorry it’s just hard to even type that with a straight face.

While Dan and the others get a plan together, the President has a conversation with Serge about the ship and how it runs. He notes that Core energy might be the ideal kind of energy they were looking for, a renewable and clean energy.

Naturally we’re not trying to deny the humans Core energy, we just want Otherworld King to stop using it as a pretext for letting him conquer the World.

So Serge offers the President to go inside and snoop around the Core Ship, perhaps if they can see how it works they can replicate it.

As for the Core Soldiers, we leave off from the conversation at the exact point we left off last episode.

The aim of the game, Infiltrate Otherworld King’s Castle, find Magisa’s deck, and return it to her in order to re-ignite her full magical abilities.

Kenzo states that he’s a little bit worried about the execution of this plan

When Magisa questions him, she calls him by… This longass name.

As if one needed more evidence to know Magisa was mispronouncing his name on purpose.

For a moment there, Yuuki genuinely believes that this fuckup is his actual name.

Yeah yeah, its “Hyoudo Kenzo”

Kenzo raises the point that, well, it’s bloody Otherworld King, the last time they leapt into a plan to screw him over he, well, did what’s currently happening to the Earth.

Suzuri adds in he’s got a ton of loyal soldiers too.

Clackey chimes in, saying that while these are valid worries, the luxury of time is not with them.

Before they can stew over it any longer, President GEORGE THORMAN comes in, asking if it’ll help to lend a hand.

In the meantime, Leon’s busy stroking Otherworld King’s Ego, commenting that the Earth will eventually belong to him

They are however, contacted by the President.

The President starts by apologizing, as he failed to capture the Core Soldiers.

Leon is rather surprised by this turn of events, but Otherworld King is… eerily curious.

It’s clear to me he can smell the bullshit a mile away

President Thorman waxes lyrical about how the threat of the Core Soldiers, if they oppose Otherworld King, extends to opposing all the world’s nations.

as this is the case, Thorman proposes to mobilize the World to capture the Core Soldiers, by doing so, Otherworld King can easily bring his rule to them all.

Given that Otherworld King seemed to know Magisa was coming last episode, it’s clear he’s aware of Thorman’s treachery, he’s just simply trying to figure out how he plans to assist them.

Oh I must have misinterpretted, it seems that Otherworld King is going to be attending this gathering personally to meet the nation’s leaders

…But while they do that.

Otherworld King is away from home.

…you’re going to fire small ass nets at a giant ship? Really?

Are you actually serious?

Oh how interesting.

It seems they’re trying to weaponize Otherworld King’s rule, without Leon to exploit it, the rest of the forces must acquiesce to the Rule of Battle Spirits.

I like the lampshade here, worthy of an Episode 42, the Soldiers have witnessed firsthand just how powerful the Lightbearers are, so naturally even though the rule is all matters decided via Battle Spirits, they’re not confident they could follow through.

Mmmm… For a bunch of young children it might not occur to them to try this due to the threat of weapons but someone as unscrupulous as the US President would have realized how the rule can be weaponized.

They’re fighting fire with fire, the President is essentially a good-aligned Leon.

It seems that George Thorman is running Leon and Otherworld King on a wild goose chase, intending on buying as much time for the Lightbearers to get Magisa’s magic back.

But also, to deal with the Army problem Suzuri mentioned earlier, some Lightbearers also need to draw the attention of the majority of the Otherworld King’s forces.

With both the King and his men out of the way, the Castle should theoretically, otherwise be free reign.

Sometimes, the best entrypoint is the one not considered on the floor plan.

The one you’re about to make.

Naturally, the downside to infiltrating any kind of area this way is that it’s incredibly loud.

So in spite of distracting most of the soldiers, there are still ones stationed around the castle corridors which is to be honest, rather sensible.

Mai and Clackey move in to block off the corridor using the same logic Kenzo and Suzuri used, as the Otherworld King declared that all matters would be settled via Battle Spirits, the men are compelled to obey the orders of their King, and have to defeat them in battle.

Gotta love a little banter before you battle an entire army!

Given that the Soldiers can’t proceed until Mai and Clackey are defeated, the rest of the party move out.

They make it to the Wisdom Gate, with Magisa using her Washed out Magic to dropkick the fucking door.

Well it wasn’t gonna just be on the table like all of these other useless items now was it?

Suddenly a voice that I don’t recognize and isn’t coming from anyone currently in the room speaks.

And of course, we gotta raise the stakes by locking the door.

Not that they weren’t already boxed in, given the only way out is a rather long drop into the ocean and a sea of Soldiers.

This isn’t news, we’re fully aware that Otherworld King anticipated Magisa would come.

Jesus christ was Frankenstein taken? You’re not trying very hard to be anything other than a typical Mad scientist dude.

…For the purposes of what?

And why haven’t we seen you until now?

The only thing I can think of is because they couldn’t think of anybody to slap here and Leon was needed for someone else.

I guess that’s what you get for killing off Pantera, they needed a battle to settle the episode and found they had no one left.

Which is an unfortunate hole to need patching.

Let’s be honest, when has this ever worked?

Like come on, what other answer was going to be given?

Unlike the Soldiers, the odds are in our favour.

…And this guy appears not to be dumb enough to be compelled by such a rule.

It seems that apparatus isn’t just a container, but appears to be capable of wielding Magisa’s magic in some way.

So I’m not sure what’s quite happening here, but it feels like he may have increased the gravity in the room for everyone except himself?

Not particularly sure why everyone’s holding their heads as well but it’s possible a sudden increase in gravity can also induce some kind of immediate onset nausea.

Doctor Franker had no intention of battling under Otherworld King’s rule, the battle’s more of a last resort incase they can’t get around his machine intended to incapacitate anyone who walked in.

I wonder if Otherworld King was sufficiently aware of the plan or if Franker’s acting outside of his desires by doing so.

Basically, is Otherworld King capable of keeping company he expects or even wants to be hypocrites in his stead? Because if so that’s still by extension hypocrisy.

Dan’s not letting something like the sudden increase of gravity stop him.

…oh I hope nothing important broke.

We’re suddenly taken to a… rather weird headspace.

But it’s not just Dan that’s there, Clackey and Mai also appear to have joined him.

Mai and Clackey wake up in the same space Dan is, and Mai asks if Dan was successful.

Dan promptly remembers he has shit to do, and tries to get a move on.

…Ahh shit.

And they can’t remember what it is they were trying to do, which means the Machine is-

He’s not increasing the gravity, he’s putting them to sleep!

The spell’s range seems to have expanded to cover the entire castle, and no one besides Franker is safe.

In essence, he intends to put an end to the Mission of those who bear the core’s light, by wiping the memory of their mission in the first place along with everything else.

That’s… rather cruel.

Whatever the false headspace is, it’s clearly designed to cover their base needs to ensure they’re blissfully comfortable while they’re getting their minds wiped.

Unfortunately, the memories are fading rather fast, Clackey mentions that Mai will eventually need to update her blog, but she can’t remember ever writing one

Very shortly after, Clackey also forgets having mentioned her blog.

Dan sits up, having remembered something.

But whatever it was, it slipped away just as fast as it occurred to him.

Wherever they are, Kajitsu seems to have made it in.

It seems Kajitsu’s not quite so hard to crack, as her presence in the space immediately starts stirring Dan’s memories.

It starts with the worlds he’s been to, namely the Blue, Purple and Red worlds.

He then remembers the people that were there, recalling that Mai and Clackey were with him.

Remembering names, and the food he ate.

And finally, the one important thing he needs to focus on.

Dan’s almost sure those flashes of things he can barely remember as his own experiences weren’t false however, and dashes off.

Now, single-mindedly focused on helping Magisa having only just remembered her, he tries to focus on the one thing that could get him out of here.

The ability to open the gate.

Whatever Dan did, it worked, it seems to have pulled him out of his slumber, and thrown both him and Doctor Franker into a Battle.

Dan offers thanks to Kajitsu, realizing that it was her butterfly that sparked flares of his memories, and pulled him out of the dream.

It seems even though Dan’s managed to get out of that dream state he didn’t do so unscathed, the magic appears to have also done some damage to Dan’s body, which may make it difficult for him to focus through the pain or exhaustion.

Seems Franker’s satisfied with fighting Dan with his faculties inhibited by whatever damage he’s currently taken.

Kajitsu appears to have used power she was instructed quite specifically to not use in order to get Dan and Magisa out of their dream states.

This seems to have taken an immense toll on Kajitsu’s body however, since she was basically not only accessing Mother Core’s powers but trying to focus on doing so through a diminished state.

Naturally, Kajitsu was already not great at using her ability to do particularly complex actions, so she passes out.

Even so, Magisa’s awake now, so all she needs to do is crack the machine and get her deck, and she’ll be fully restored.

We seem to have performed a very minor turn skip, it’s Clash King Turn 2.

Doctor Franker has done nothing but summon a Babyrouza, likely at Lv2.

Dan however has 2 Spirits, Rainydle and Dinonychusaw, their levels aren’t depicted so I can’t tell.

Dan attacks with Rainydle, and Franker takes from the life.

It seems a memory wipe machine isn’t the only modifications he’s made, it seems he’s also using Magisa’s magic to negate the pain of taking lives.

Dan ends his turn. I presume his Rainydle must have been at least Lv2 otherwise Babyrouza could have blocked.

Franker Turn 3.

He uses the Machine to seemingly control Magisa’s magic, allowing him to play cards and move them around without taking any physical actions.

He summons PatherMan Berserkas at Lv2 and attacks, it has a nice 4000 Bp.

Berserkas lands its attack, dropping Dan to 4 lives.

Franker goes for a full attack, attacking with Babyrouza, and Dan takes another life, falling to 3

Whatever damage Dan sustained from Magisa’s magic is making it difficult for him to appropriately tank the damage of losing lives like he normally would.

Franker is naturally taunting Dan based on the fact that Dan is the only one suffering damage due to lives.

But as we’ve learned with Yuuki in previous episodes, while not suffering the Pain of Core allows one to focus at full capacity without being shaken by fear of suffering physical damage, we also know that the Pain of Core can be motivational, and spur a battler into fighting even fiercer than before.

Franker is sacrificing his fighting spirit just so he can nullify his pain.

Narrator: “It was not, in fact, nothing”

Clash King Turn 4, Dan summons Sabecaulus.

And now we see the core placement, Dan attacks with Rainydle, but before he put his hand down, it was clear Rainydle had 2 core on it, making it Lv2.

Franker takes a life, dropping to 3.

You can see from this shot Dinonychusaw has 3 core, making it Lv2 as well, but this wouldn’t have been possible on Turn 2, meaning the reason he attacked with Rainydle was because Dinonychusaw was Lv1. And Babyrouza would have eaten it.

Franker takes another life, dropping to 2.

While Franker adjusts his neck, Dan’s finally picked up that Franker isn’t suffering any pain.

Franker’s apparently got the Doofenschmirtz level of resourcefulness, having modified his Battle Form to have a machine attachment that nullifies the pain of core.

There’s nothing more annoying than fighting an enemy that’s a complete coward.

Franker Turn 5, he summons a 2nd Lv2 PantherMan Berserkas

Franker then deploys a Nexus, The Rampart of Sapphire

New Card?

New card

[LV1][LV2] (Your Attack Step)
For your Spirits with no printed effects, if there is one core on them, treat them as LV1; If there are two cores, treat them as LV2; If there are three cores or more, treat them as being on their highest level.
[LV2]
While you control three or more Spirits with no printed effects, all your Nexuses can’t be destroyed by opposing Spirit/Nexus/Magic effects.

Strangely enough this Blue Nexus is only from BS03. And the reason we haven’t seen it before now is because of how niche it is.

It’s a Nexus that supports Spirits with “No Printed Effects”, these are cards like Berserkas or Goradon, cards that only have BP and no text printed in their effect area. While not the official terminology, you could say this supports “Vanilla” cards.

From Lv1, on your attack step, it treats Vanilla Spirits as having a Level equal to the number of core that’s been placed on them, capping at Lv3.

It’s Lv2 isn’t very relevant, protecting your Nexuses from destruction while you control 3 Vanilla Spirits.

Franker attacks with Berserkas, as it has 3 core, Berserkas is treated as being Lv3, which would normally have a 6 core requirement, meaning it’s coming in at 6000 BP.

Dan takes from the life, dropping to 2.

It seems Dan’s racked up too much damage and isn’t able to continue battling.

Before he passes out however, he’s caught by Magisa, who tells him the fight isn’t over.

With Magisa now supporting him, Dan continues to battle.

Clash King Turn 6.

Dr. Franker tries to coax a surrender out of Dan, stating that the world belongs to Otherworld King, and is bound to be reborn better than it was.

Magisa counters Franker’s suggestion that he would benefit the worlds he rules, Earth included. Citing his only other example of having done this, with Grand-Lolo. Stating no one knew how much damage he or the humans that followed him was going to do, to the extent of making Grand-Lolo incredibly desolate save for a few areas he’s poured resources into.

Dan raises Sabecaulus and Rainydle to Lv3, giving them 7000 and 4000 BP respectively.

Sabecaulus can now take out the Lv3 Berserkas’, meaning Franker can’t attack carelessly anymore

The most common tactic of any abuser, of a person, people, culture or country… Is to placate them with the lie that their suffering is necessary.

Although the result of my actions proved positive, the ends cannot justify the means

Lieutenant Commander Data ~ Star Trek

Franker Turn 7, and he appears to have drawn something niiiiiice.

…Well this doesn’t vibe with the rest of the playstyle so far but oh well, Dr. Franker summons an X-Rare, The GiantHero Titus

With it’s effect when summoned, 10 cards are discarded from Dan’s deck.

Dan began with a 36 card deck and has had 3 draw steps, no further cards have been drawn from his deck.

So at 33 cards, Titus’ effect reduces it by 10, down to 23.

Magisa comments on Franker’s statement about sacrifice to create something new, noting that she’s heard that a few too many times in her 4029 years of age.

She also claims that those words are the lies Otherworld King uses in order to grasp at power, having made the same claims when coming to Grand-Lolo before seizing it entirely by force.

Magisa refuses to allow the same thing to happen to Earth.

Franker gives the equivalent of a “What are you going to do about it”, Magisa currently has no powers and therefore can’t really exert her will over Franker in any sort of manner.

“Even if I am wrong, you can’t do anything about it” is the hallmark of selfishness. It’s the admittance that morality is secondary to your own desires and no one who uses this statement should ever be taken seriously until they realise how utterly blind of a statement it is.

Franker attacks with the 6000 BP Titus, naturally Dan sees that his Sabecaulus is stronger and blocks with it.

Franker uses Strong Draw in Flash timing.

During Flash Timing, Strong Draw is a battle boost of 3000 BP, for the cost of 1 core.

Now outmatched, Sabecaulus is destroyed.

And there’s the rub, no explanation will convince him because he doesn’t really care whether or not the world will be better for anyone else, just for him.

As Dan looks worse for wear with the continued strain of the battle, Magisa states there’s still hope left as she begins to start glowing green.

Oh shit, Dan’s getting Magic? What’s the effect of that gonna be I wonder?

There’s not much to comment here, Magisa’s making an impassioned speech.

It seems Magisa’s about to burn the last remnants of her power for… something.

OH SHIT.

I DON’T REMEMBER THIS.

Okay so it seems that Magisa using a large portion of her magic caused her to become ill, using all of it caused her to get wiped out completely.

You just killed someone I liked, that is not a safe place to stand.

Tenth Doctor ~ Doctor Who

There’s still notches on his body, it seems like even with all that energy expended she couldn’t fully rejuvenate Dan.

It seems Franker ended his last turn with just Titus’ attack, so it’s now Dan’s turn.

Clash King Turn 8, Dan summons the DragonEmperor Siegfried

Dan then promptly moves to the attack step and attacks with it.

Berserkas was dropped to Lv1 on the last turn in order to make up for Titus’ cost, this means that no Spirit on Franker’s field can top Siegfried’s Lv1 BP of 4000.

As a result, Franker, on 2 lives, opts to protect his few lives, blocking with Berserkas.

Franker Turn 9, he summons The GiantEmperor Alexander.

I probably would have focused on levelling my Spirits but you do you boo-boo..

While it’s a little odd seeing a random jobber like Franker use The GiantEmperor Alexander, a Spirit closely associated with being Suzuri’s Favourite X-Rare, the card’s actually been used by 3 different people at this point in time, it’s quite crazy.

Franker attacks with Alexander, and uses Assault, exhausting The Rampart of Sapphire to refresh it.

Dan takes a life from Alexander’s attack, dropping to a measly 1.

Intending to end Dan this turn, Franker attacks with Titus.

Well, let’s see if that’s actually true, Dan has 2 blockers still available and Franker has 4 attackers, with Titus still needing to be addressed.

With Rampart of Sapphire, Franker’s vanillas will have levels equivalent to their total core.

Franker’s on Turn 9, with 3 lives lost and 4 core steps had. 4 + 3 + 4 = 11 total core.

He’s got at least 1 Core on a Berserkas, Babyrouza, and Titus, subtracting the available by 3 to 8.

He then spent 3 summoning Alexander which holds one, so available is now 4.

It’s entirely possible he’s levelled Berserkas and Babyrouza here given Alexander’s only using 1 core out of the 5 he should have remaining.

Which makes this followup completely nonsensical.

Dan takes core from Dinonychusaw to pay for Victory Fire.

And then uses it to destroy 2 Spirits who, by all counts, should not have had under 3000 BP.

Franker had just enough core to ensure those 2 spirits had 3 core each on them, Babyrouza should have had 5000 BP for it’s Lv3, and Berserkas 6000.

Of course, it’s possible he just offscreen levelled his Titus, which would sap enough core to keep only 1 at Lv2, and IF it was Babyrouza, both would still be valid targets.

Dinonychusaw blocks and is destroyed by Titus.

Because you’re an idiot and made a game-losing misplay by not playing around Victory Fire at all fucking times.

Well, I suppose that was the answer then, he levelled Titus and spread out the BP rather than focusing it on Berserkas.

Titus’ effect at Lv2 states that when it defeats a Spirit through a BP contest while it’s attacking and survives, a further 10 cards are discarded from the opposing deck.

Dan’s now down to 12 cards (he drew on his last turn)

Deck destruction is nice and all but the problem with it is that it doesn’t actually inhibit the opponent in a drastic way until the deck is 0. While you may lose important cards, it doesn’t appear as if Dan has this time.

Dan declares he’ll end it next turn. Franker only has 1 attacker and Dan still has Rainydle, Franker’s attack has been stopped.

to start, Dan summons Erimakilizard.

Siegfried is then offered as a Tribute.

Dan summons The SupernovaDragon Siegwurm-Nova.

Though Dan didn’t mention the level he summoned Nova at, it appears to be at Lv2 as it only has an effect when attacking at Lv2 onwards.

It’s Turn 10, Dan’s lost 4 lives and had 5 core steps, 13 core total.

He’s just lost 5 for Nova’s cost and 1 to the Void for Tribute, leaving roughly 7 left.

That’s enough to keep Erimakilizard at Lv1, Rainydle at Lv3 and Nova at Lv2.

Interestingly, the Spirit Dan chooses to destroy is not Alexander, the blocker, but Titus, a Spirit that’s exhausted.

As Titus’ BP is only 9000 at Lv2, it’s within range of Nova’s destruction effect, and is destroyed.

With only 2 lives remaining, Franker has no choice but to block with Alexander to protect himself.

During Flash timing however, Dan uses Meteor Storm, taking core from Rainydle, and targeting Siegwurm-Nova

Nova’s 10000 BP trumps Alexander’s 6000.

Dan activates the effect of Siegwurm-Nova, granted to it by Meteor Storm. As Siegwurm-Nova defeated an opposing Spirit in a match of BP, it’s symbols come out of the opposing lives.

Siegwurm-Nova is a double symbol, so it’s doing 2 damage for winning.

Upon the first life being taken, Franker realizes his machine is no longer working, and he’s actually suffering the damage that naturally comes from taking lives.

Siegwurm-Nova takes Franker’s final life, destroying his Battle Armor completely, and presumably wrecking the machine attached to it.

Clash King Dan is the winner.

Wait… If Magisa’s body is here, then what was that display earlier?

Was it her using up the last of her Washed out magic such that she couldn’t wield it anymore?

And she’s not even dead, this episode is so whack…

Well whatever that was, it was short lived, as Magisa reclaims her deck, and as a result, her lost abilities.

As just a display of her abilities, in an instant she’s able to wake the other Core Soldiers, and transport them all to the Core ships.

She’s even got a new outfit to go with it, looking more like a Wizard than a Witch.

(I understand that Witch oft-used as a gendered form of Wizard but one has significantly different aesthetic connotations to the other)

The show feels the need to have input from every Core Soldier on Magisa’s appearance, though I’ll only show the 2 I really care about, firstly, Clackey saying Magisa “doesn’t look as nice as his babes”

Odd, I figured Clackey wasn’t so picky with his ladies. Though I suppose he’s into women his age.

Her Magic abilities continue to be shown, not only able to mass transport, but can perform near instantaneous movement.

Kenzou gets confused, as Magisa’s first interaction with him after regaining completion is to refer to Kenzou by his actual name.

Magisa’s staff has also changed shape, having become less constrained around the core gem acting as the focus.

She seems to have moved everyone to The Violet, in order to move on to their next objective.

…Which I’m not sure what it is to be honest, beating Otherworld King was always the plan, having Magisa’s magic back I’m sure helps in that endeavor.

Another showing of Magisa’s magical abilities, she’s been able to grant The Violet significantly better flight capabilities than it had before, now it can compete with even The Golden Lion.

Dan once again reiterates for the audience, who’s clearly heard enough of it, I know I sure have, that Magisa’s been completely restored to before Otherworld King stole her powers.

Yuuki now states that with Magisa, there is still hope.

News has made it to the Golden Lion already that Magisa’s deck has been retrieved.

While Leon starts asking for a status report, knowing full well how much Otherworld King made use of Magisa’s abilities to his benefit. The President breathes a sigh of relief.

It appears Otherworld King’s picked up on that reaction, the deception is known.

This is intended to be an incredibly big blow to Otherworld King’s plan, as the acquisition of Magisa’s full powers, what Magisa has just gained, Otherworld King has also lost.

So why isn’t he worried?

I suppose that’s a question for later though, as we’re slapped with a To be Continued.

I will say, I didn’t like this episode much, it was rather hard to focus on what was going on and certain things were incredibly glossed over.

Franker is very clearly a character who isn’t meant to be really cared for beyond his time onscreen, but due to the fact that he spends a not-insignificant portion of the episode trying to win without battling, it feels like it was padding for time.

To indicate this point, there is not a single frame featuring him after his defeat in this episode, not a single one, he simply stops mattering beyond being an obstacle for the battle.

It’s a victim of an Episode needing time to sort out an unresolved subplot, that being Magisa’s subplot, and having no effective way of achieving it using compelling methods.

Unlike other episodes there’s no deeper meaning to it other than what it is, and even worse, certain things don’t quite make sense, such as Magisa’s “sacrifice” appearing to have been completely negated without explanation a few minutes later.

I will applaud it for executing on a cool loophole of Otherworld King’s rules though, infiltrating the castle using Otherworld King’s rule of Battle Spirits to prevent the soldiers from interfering without attempting something they can’t achieve, beating a Core Soldier in Battle Spirits. But beyond that I found it a little… shallow let’s say

Anyway, we don’t have a card of the day as the card of the day now focuses around the fact that the Meteorwurm combo involving Meteor Storm and Sunstone Shrine can also be achieved with Siegwurm-Nova.

I will say while this is true it’s a little disingenuous to even suggest it, Sunstone Shrine has the effect that when a Clash Spirit defeats an opposing Spirit as the first attack of the turn, Spirits may be destroyed who’s total BP is equal or beneath the BP of the destroyed Spirit.

Here’s the issue, Siegwurm-Nova is a Spirit who only has Clash at Lv3, meaning it can’t make use of Sunstone Shrine before it has Clash. (Spirits on the field are not treated as having a Keyword if they don’t meet the level requirement to use it), but by the time it does, it’s Lv2 effect can already destroy up to 10000 BP’s worth of Spirits, Given the opponent would likely chump block anyway with the lowest, I don’t really see in how many scenarios Sunstone Shrine could be used to help Nova aside from it’s Lv2.

Meteorwurm, of course, is fully designed to take advantage of Sunstone Shrine’s effect on account of it’s target attack ability.

Now, of course, when it comes to comparing Meteor Storm, it’s a whole different ballgame. There is no better candidate to use Meteor Storm than Siegwurm-Nova, for the simple reason that it has 2 symbols while all the other wurms currently have one. Meaning even without Clash, an opponent is liable to block the darn thing resulting in a Meteor Storm making them lose 2 lives and a Spirit.

Anyway, I’ve banged on enough about this, why don’t we build a Franker themed deck?

Here’s an attempt at a Franker style deck (Link attached to the image), it’s very much a deck that uses a great amount of cards that all meet a certain requirement, and then filled with cards that support that requirement, the only issue I really have is the fact that there aren’t any suitable boss monsters for a “No Printed effects” build, resulting in me having to default to Titus, Alexander and Castle-Golem.

Generally I think the philosophy for it is that by focusing on the high BP of the vanilla spirits, it’s easier to gain control of the board and ultimately buy time before summoning the high potential X-Rares like Titus, and then using cards like CircularSawArm to turn your Vanilla Spirits into cards that can assist with the mill effects.

Anyway, that’s all I got for today, I’ll see you all in the next one! Buh-bye.

Gekiha Dan – Episode 41

Righto, we’re in the final sprint, the final 10 episodes of the anime!

You might notice the subs look a little… “Flatter” on the screenshots now, as well as an innocuous black “line” on the right hand side of the screenshots. This is because Soaker (The Subber of this series up until Double Drive… Which never got a complete sub as a result) actually needed to use a different source for the remaining 10 episodes of Gekiha Dan when doing their re-sub.

It seems a company named “Leopard” did the first 40 episodes but then never released the last 10, as a result, these last 10 use some DVD footage.

So, uptick in quality in some places, drop in others, the way the cookie crumbles.

So, in the last episode, which was kind of nutty, Otherworld King succeeded in “Completing” Mother Core and activating the Horizon Ladders, with an additional boost given to them by exploiting the resolve of the Core Soldiers.

In so doing, Otherworld King was capable of opening a Gate to Earth large enough to fit the entirety of Grand-Lolo through, and thus, Grand-Lolo and Earth have been united.

Otherworld King then names Earth the “Seventh” World of Grand-Lolo, hoping to integrate it into the system the other 6 currently have. And declaring it’s Symbol to be that of Mother Core, potentially due to Earth and Mother Core’s connection being not too disimilar to the Grand-Lolo Worlds’ connections to their Grand Core.

“There are no other options” is probably the most annoying argument to be made ever. Because it’s nigh impossible to trust.

It’s only ever used by people trying to get you to pursue a specific course of action, stating that all other alternatives are either not beneficial, or worse, so bad that they shouldn’t be considered options at all.

Now this can be true, but it’s such a frequent talking point for tyrants that it’s difficult to trust.

In essence, when you hear it, without extremely prohibitive amounts of scrutiny, it can be impossible to tell whether or not someone is being honest with you, or if they’re projecting.

After all, “Humanity has no future.” in this case, leaves out the rest of the sentence.

“Humanity has no future… That benefits Otherworld King“

…So he becomes… what? It’s both Otherworld AND this World…

Multiworld King? Seven World King?

Pick a name man.

On a more serious note, notably Otherworld King hasn’t granted the Humans sanctuary under Grand-Lolo via this method like Kazan hoped, he’s instead uniting the worlds together and ruling over all 7.

Essentially, he’s going to save the Earth from it’s bleak future, by achieving World Domination.

Naturally, a One-World Government spearheaded by one guy is not going to be something anyone agrees with.

Fuck it, I’m down. Where do I sign up?

Stand back Leon, ya twat, I want a slice of this pie.

As per usual however, Episode title has spoilers, so I won’t be using it.

Naturally, there’s an initial trigger of mass panic.

Randel’s family, the Ryuki tribe, are now all in an incredibly strange place, and people who’ve never encountered these strange guys are losing it.

Oh god, especially the Winged Otherworlders, many systems that we Humans rely on also run on the assumption that people cannot fly unaided.

So now you have these winged guys able to enter airports unimpeded because unaided and unrestricted flight creates so many security holes.

The Blue World Giants seem to be somewhat orderly at least, the poor guys are just lost.

Seems there are a massive series of news outlets attempting to regulate the mass panic while their governments try to make sense of what the fuck just happened. As such there’s an order to stay indoors and an obvious direction of “Don’t panic”

Most of these Otherworlders speak perfect Japanese, likely taught by Otherworld King.

One can only wonder what the potential chances of Otherworld King being a Japanese speaker would be, and to be honest it’s stupid low.

Due to a character in a later series, it’s actually significantly more likely that Otherworld King is Spanish, Portuguese or Italian.

His real name, never quite stated in show but noted on the Japanese Battle Spirits Wiki: is Ramiro Alfonso Carlitos de Ferzaduría

Now, these are both a collection of Portuguese and Spanish names (they share the same landmass and are neighbours), “Ferzaduria” is a mixture of 2 words that come up in Italian however. “Ferza” has Persian and Arabic connotations for “Victory” or “Intelligence”, but also means “Scourge” in Italian. “Duria” is apparently 2 Rivers that were renamed in Italy, and no longer use that name.

So, we have a guy using a bunch of Portuguese and Spanish names, but has an Italian surname. A later character known to be inextricably tied to Otherworld King in a different series also has the surname “Bellagio”, which is a place in Italy.

Now, this is a mixture of very Latin cultures, and this is all because of the fact that, while the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive on Japanese soil in the 16th Century, both Spain and Italy were sailing about to Japan as well.

So it’s impossible to pinpoint exactly where Otherworld King came from, though if they were asked now, due to the fact that Italy is the only country with a still-active Battle Spirits community (and a massive love for anime), they would probably go on to say that he was, in fact, Italian.

Moving on, Glad that the Core Soldiers didn’t take an excessive amount of time finding each other again, also rather useful that every single Core Soldier just so happened to be Japanese residents.

Also super lucky, The Violet has landed neatly behind a billboard for cosmetics.

Seems Mai’s writing a post on Purple Talk to speak out against the Otherworld King.

Though now the Core Soldiers have a problem, and that’s that the Human race now know of the existence of the Other World.

I can presume whether or not to keep the worlds unified would be a massive point of contention, but naturally the Core Soldiers fight for the interests of Grand-Lolo, which is separation. Under the belief that while peace might be made between the worlds, this cannot be achieved while the Humans continually exploit the Otherworlders.

Well they certainly weren’t hard to spot apparently, as they’ve all been re-united rather easily.

This might be a bad location to try and fire up a Core ship from-

Okaaay, we’re doing this then.

Also man how do you sue someone for damages when you can’t prove they exist?

Also Serge doesn’t have any money of his own I don’t think, Otherworld doesn’t really do cash. So he’d probably end up Judgment Proof.

I see the Ryuki tribe are regarding the Human world with curiosity rather than the expected “AAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

Giants being confused by the existence of money will never not be funny.

“Why are people passing around these papers with a picture of some dude on them?”

HAH! GOUDA’S TRIBE HAVE ALL GONE TO MCDONALDS!

Wow, the Earth moved fast.

The World has declared a representative of Earth… A president by the name of George Thorman.

Before you ask which country’s president this is, it’s the only one that we’d expect, it’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Clackey notes that given Yuuki and Kajitsu weren’t as conveniently close as the others that they likely ended up somewhere completely different.

Dan isn’t so cynical.

I feel like if Dan counters this very light-hearted jab, he’ll get slapped with the fact that he lost to Otherworld King.

I’m not sure it will take a whole Miracle to reunite with some people who should at least be In the country.

Also holy shit Magisa it’s not that bleak, the lady’s hitting the sauce

To be fair, Otherworld King just achieved his goal, you all lost, it’s as bad as it kind of gets really. Magisa can hit the sauce if she wants to.

Cope.

The Core Soldiers lament that their plan was not only entirely foreseen, but taken advantage of, exploited, and hoist them by their own petards.

Even moreso, it’s a bit bleak, given that he turned their victories against them, and he’s already defeated one of them before.

Well I guess Magisa’s not playing around, she already knows something they can do.

Magisa proposes attempting to steal back her Deck, as Magisa’s deck is the source of all of her magic. Given Otherworld King’s nonsense has been due to abusing her Magic, if this succeeds, Magisa will become Otherworld King-levels of powerful.

Magisa states that, right now Otherworld King is liasing with the leaders of the World, in this case, President of the USA, GEORGE THORMAN. Which means he can’t be at the Wisdom Gate.

This produces an opening, as Otherworld King seems to be the only thing they can’t deal with directly right now. As long as Otherworld King isn’t personally protecting Magisa’s deck, it’s ripe for the yoinking.

Dan agrees with this plan and hot damn look at the frame here.

The lines have been drawn a bit differently in this shot, fucking LOOK AT CLACKEY. Dude went from zero to badass REAL quick just by the change in frame.

So it seems like the transportation of the President has got a whole army backing it.

…Naturally for such an unprecedented situation they need to be ready to retaliate should something happen.

HAH.

So this aired on June 27th, 2010, at the moment it’s Barack Obama’s presidency.

But before him the President of the US was President George Bush, who George Thorman is VERY CLEARLY designed after.

Just one of 2 instances I can recall off the top of my head where there’s a Bush expy in an anime

The other is Baki’s “George Bosch“, which in the dub of Baki is pronounced “Bush” in the first few seasons of the Netflix arcs.

So it appears they were able to spawn a meeting with the World’s Leaders, and each one left the decision of what happened to the Earth to President Bush Thorman

It seems while they elected George to represent their interests, the unanimous decision seems to be “Fuck this Otherworld King dude”

Can always count on the Human race to not let the appearance of 6 freaking countries in the sky to deter them from defying authority other than their own.

Translation: “If they are, we’re fucked”

Seems President Thorman is fully aware that attempting to challenge an enemy who flung 6 worlds into their general space in an instant, using ships powered by energy they don’t recognize.

Is tantamount to suicide if not auto-genocide.

Nothing quite like the accuracy of the anime dropping the first reaction anyone would have to something they’re not familiar with.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!“

also side note, seems the Golden Lion has been fully repaired since it was dropped on it’s side.

So, notes about ships running on Core energy:

The lack of burning involved in it’s energy circulation means the Ship is apparently rather quiet when operating

Lack of waste or emission seems to indicate a lack of fuel consumption.

Oh hey, Otherworld King’s Palace containing The Wisdom Gate has descended onto the Sea of Earth.

Seems Leon has gone to greet the President.

In spite of this President being a George Bush expy, I believe Gekiha Dan takes in 2010.

Leon comments that Thorman resembles someone from the previous era.

I have absolutely no idea who Leon is referring to with this statement or who Thorman thinks Leon is referring to, in 1910 the US President was a guy called William Howard Taft, who looks nothing like Bush, who Thorman’s appearance is based on.

I dunno, I wish I knew.

Anyone who can comment on this, please let me know what the fuck Leon’s on about.

Leon dismisses the question, and the gate to Otherworld King opens…

…Wait so the gates still work? Where do they go?

Could the gates lead anywhere on earth now? Planes have become defunct!

Well if this meeting is going to take place in the Wisdom Gate then Magisa’s plan doesn’t bloody work does it?

Likely the one Otherworld King used, if you can identify the year this was in use we could also extrapolate what year Otherworld King was active in.

The angle of Otherworld King’s face here makes him look incredibly unhinged here.

It appears Thorman was probably not expecting Otherworld King to be another Human being.

So it seems that the boon Otherworld King intends to bring as King is the power of Core.

As seen in Kazan’s future, due to an excess of pollution, and corporate interests being prioritized over longevity resulting in the Earth becoming unlivable in the future.

Core, as shown, is a stone that seems to naturally produce renewable energy, and creates no waste product. Very much a miracle stone.

Otherworld King uses the core to show Thorman the effects of the Core, the first example being the Terraformation of a Desert.

Three examples are shown to Thorman, a Desert being made a Field, The melting Ice Caps being restored, and a Power Plant turned to a Forest.

This is how the Core’s Light functions, the Light imbued by Mother Core.

It’s Light can allow for even a wasteland to be lush with life. And it would remove the need for humans to use pollutants for power sources.

seems Otherworld King is aware that Thorman was coming to tell the King to fuck right off, so he offers to show the same thing to the other leaders of the world.

Seems Thorman is fully committed to making a decision that’s in direct opposition to what he was elected to represent.

Solved by More areas to live, including Grand-Lolo’s continents.

While larger core produce more energy, there doesn’t seem to be a limit, and there’s no pollution.

The Core’s light cultivates life, all living things consume life to sustain themselves, except for the basest of creatures who consume a sun’s light.

Agreed.

It appears that Core not only has the power to cultivate life by making the Earth easier to live on, it could potentially accelerate human destruction, by depriving it of it’s ability to sustain life renewably.

Thorman realizes the veiled threat in that piece of information.

Otherworld King is essentially saying they can submit to his rule, and enjoy the benefits Core brings them.

Or refuse, and have the Core be used to annihilate them completely.

The core suddenly shines and Otherworld King makes a face only someone who received an @everyone on Discord would understand.

The Violet has arrived. Well this surprise attack certainly has failed, Otherworld King knows they’re coming.

What’s intriguing is the brief moment of surprise on his face, he expected that they would have given up once Grand-Lolo was brought to Earth, but in spite of having already achieved his aim, they’re still opposing him.

His surprise changes to his usual confidence though, I suppose he’s rectified in his own head that it doesn’t matter if they keep coming at him if he’s already beaten them.

Plus he has a co-operative Earth to assist as well.

Seems that The Violet has some kind of method of verifying whether or not a transport uses Core or not which is the oddest feature for a Ship that could not come to Earth until now to have.

Yeah as it turns out approaching fleet unauthorized intended to protect the President of the United states is probably not the best idea.

If they didn’t before, they do now.

Even something as advanced as the Violet can’t repel an entire aircraft carrier.

It appears Otherworld King has spun a tall tale, about how the Core Soldiers wish to bring the Earth to it’s ruin, which given it would be preventing Otherworld King’s rule, and the man believes only he can guide the Earth to a good future, would be correct from his point of view.

But it’s so incredibly self-centred it’s not even funny.

Otherworld King finalizes the offer, swear loyalty, and he’ll ensure the Earth, bolstered by renewable Core energy, thrives.

Dan meets the president of the United States.

And completely without warning, initiates a battle, what.

That came out of nowhere, who’s the opponent, clearly not the pres-

HAHAHA. Episode fucking 41. Dan fights the US PRESIDENT.

a 12-year old from Japan.

He says, with a face that clearly shows resentment.

You can tell the level of practicality the man feels by the look of his Battle Form, which consists of what appears to be a Bullet Resistant vest and otherwise has no notable features.

Dan’s bothered that this fight even has to happen, but takes the first move.

Clash King Turn 1!

Dan summons Ankillersaurus and Rainydle, notably Ankillersaurus is summoned first, however in this case it doesn’t matter.

As both Spirits have 1 reduction and require at least 1 cost to pay, it doesn’t matter in which order they’re summoned as the same core will remain to preserve both.

As Dan has gone first, his attack step is skipped, he ends his turn.

POTUS Turn 2, Thorman skips his turn.

Clash King Turn 3, Dan summons Erimakilizard and a 2nd Ankillersaurus.

Notably the battlefield has been slightly altered, there are buildings present, dotting around the battlefield, to show how it’s changed since combining with Earth.

Dan tries to make a plea to President Thorman, asking him not to be fooled by whatever offers Otherworld King makes.

Otherworld King’s aim is to rule the world after all, it doesn’t really matter what benefits he can give in exchange for that position.

And like the politician he is, he refuses to comment.

Dan, understandably pissed, moves to the attack step.

Dan attacks with Ankillersaurus, Rainydle and Erimakilizard, and the President takes all from his life, dropping to 2 in an instant.

Dan ends his turn, leaving a single Ankillersaurus as a blocker.

Kenzo notes the obvious problem, the President passed on a turn where he could see 2 spirits, meaning he probably at least foresaw Dan sending in a high number of attackers.

This means that the reason he didn’t summon any was because he was trying to prepare for something.

President Thorman concedes that the obviousness of Otherworld King’s ambitions means it’s entirely possible that he’s being tricked.

Unfortunately the situation means he can’t just ignore him, bit difficult to do that.

And well, he knows full well that he’s militarily outmatched, even though Otherworld King doesn’t use a single ballistic weapon. After all a mineral of infinite energy is a bit hard to top.

The President summons The SevenShogun Desperado, a Purple X-Rare

Nightling – Ogre Wizard
[LV1][LV2] (When Summoned)
Besides this Spirit, send a core each from every Spirit to the owner’s Reserve. For each Spirit destroyed by this effect, put a core from the Void to this Spirit.
[LV2] (When Attacks)
Send cores from a Spirit to its owner’s Reserve until only one core left.

Surprising that an X-Rare from BS01 hasn’t made an appearance earlier, This is the SevenShogun Desperado, the ace of Suiren from the previous series.

Comboing well with The PhantomDragon Sheyron, it’s an excellent card for this situation precisely, as Dan has a series of Spirits all with low core maintenance, it punishes the opponent for going wide.

Spending 8 core from the word go seems a bit excessive on the President’s part.

Desperado’s effect when summoned activates.

As all of Dan’s Spirits had only one core, all 4 of those spirits have been wiped out.

To make matters worse, a sudden, out of nowhere Desperado, has allowed The President to gain 4 core.

The President then levels down Desperado, potentially for another summon?

…Wait what?

I get that the President likely doesn’t play this game but this seems incredibly short-sighted.

Core has no purpose in the reserve other than to be spent, The only reason he’d want to is for the use of Swift.

Anyway, Desperado attacks, as Dan lacks a blocker, he’s forced to drop to 4 lives.

The President ends his turn.

Clash King Turn 5, it’s his 3rd draw of the game, but he’s lost 4 cards, so Dan’s working with a 3 card hand at the moment.

Dan summons Erimakilizard at Lv3.

The President seems a bit nervous that Dan insists on playing in spite of that nasty loss in card advantage.

The animation does feel off here, I really wonder if the studio changed at some point.

Dan ends his turn.

POTUS Turn 6. He apparently has 14 core total. That’s an excessive amount…

Notably his reserve only shows 13, it’s because 1 needs to remain on Desperado.

A 2nd Desperado? But Erimakilizard’s Lv3.

Oh shit!

2 completely unrelated high cost cards of differing colours… but the only thing united between them is the fact that they’re X-Rares.

Seems like President Thorman has used his power and influence to secure him a deck only money can buy, a deck filled with X-Rares.

And he’s just summoned the strongest X-Rare of all, The Deity Catastrophedragon.

Catastrophedragon’s effect when summoned allows Thorman to draw a card for every Ancient Dragon he controls, the only one he controls is Catastrophedragon itself, so only 1.

The Deity Catastrophedragon attacks, Dan chooses to take this one from the life.

While Catastrophedragon lacks both it’s scary Clash effect and it’s Lv3 refresh effect allowing Dan to block freely with Erimakilizard, he’s a little bit low on cards after Desperado.

This somewhat reminds me of House MD, where a man called Vogler donates a large amount of money to the hospital the titular House works at, under the condition that he be admitted to the board of directors that control it so he could oversee how that money was spent.

Upon disliking House (for obvious reasons), he attempts to have the man fired, and upon recieving resistance by the board of directors, threatens to withdraw from the Hospital along with his donation. 1 director refuses to vote to fire House (vote must be unanimous), and so Vogler uses that threat to make another vote to dismiss that director which succeeds, he attempts to re-settle the matter with a vote the following day but another director (the head of the Hospital) changes her vote and refuses to fire the guy.

Upon Vogler once again attempting to dismiss the director for disagreeing with him, she states that if the board of directors allows this, they admit to Vogler that his donation is all that’s required for him to own them.

It’s a similar principle here, George Thorman, the President of the USA, Land of the (supposedly) free, is willing to give up that freedom and enter into a Monarchy with Otherworld King at the helm, something the Americans fought so hard and killed so many to get out of… Just for the chance of solving the world’s 3 most prevalent problems, Population, Food and Energy.

The problem is that they’d be living under a tyranny, where any threat or failure to please Otherworld King would be met with the threat to retract that “solution”, or worse, exacerbate the problem.

…That isn’t loving, that’s someone hanging a solution they should be freely offering to everyone, not conditional on their rule. Fuck anyone who tries to do that to you.

Hoo boy, whatever the animators did, you can really feel Dan’s disdain here.

Obviously he uses “Adult” but the important connotation here is Thorman’s willing to make this decision on behalf of everyone and it’s quite clearly not what everyone wants.

…Weren’t you elected based on the thoughts of the people?

Dan’s on the money.

Clash King Turn 7, he summons Dinonychusaw at Lv2.

Dan then fires Extra Draw.

Dan draws 2 cards from his deck, It’s incredibly difficult to articulate the 2nd card but the first card is Buster Spear. Not that The President has played many Nexuses.

Dan then reveals Siegfried from the top of the deck thanks to the 2nd part of Extra Draw’s effect, as it’s a Red Spirit, it’s added to his hand.

Dinonychusaw is reduced to Lv1.

And Dan goes and summons The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

Due to lacking sufficient core, he’s forced to deplete Erimakilizard in order to maintain Siegfried.

Dan ends his turn, choosing to leave Siegfreid and Dinonychusaw as blockers.

Desperado’s currently in the way with 6000 BP, Siegfreid and Dinonychusaw only have 4000 each.

POTUS Turn 8, he summons Lizardedge and another X-Rare, The TwinRowdy Diranos.

It looks like this deck is very Red centric, which makes one wonder why the hell Desperado’s there.

The President has a moment of reflection, thinking about Dan’s words.

ah, the ol’ presidential “This hurts me more than it hurts you” expression.

He seems to have taken Dan’s words about his “terribleness as an adult” rather personally.

But the President is still very clearly missing the point, there’s nothing to understand about you, because this isn’t about you.

Hwat.

The President suddenly fires out a fourth X-Rare, The DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried.

Lizardedge’s core is taken to cover the cost, so the President is using the last of his core.

Now comes the Tribute, as so far Dark Siegfried has been summoned via Dark-Crimson. But when summoning it normally you need to Tribute a Cost 6 or higher Spirit by sending all of it’s Core to the void.

The selection made this time was The SevenShogun Desperado.

Not sure I agree with this choice, but I suppose Diranos can do more with Awaken than Desperado can do with it’s Lv2.

With all the prohibitive conditions cleared, Dark-Siegfried is successfully summoned.

The President attacks immediately with Dark-Siegfried.

Notably, the President has a tendency to over explain his moves, it’s very clear that upon Otherworld King’s arrival, and the fact that Otherworld King announced his intention to establish order through Battle Spirits, that the President very quickly executed on his resources to not only build an incredibly expensive deck filled with powerful X-Rares, but also that he must have learned the game relatively recently to try and explain common concepts to someone like Dan who plays consistently at a tournament level.

There is a reason for this, by explaining your move you also convey your understanding of the game to your opponent. The President isn’t just informing Dan how the game works he’s also speaking out loud his thought process so his understanding is 1. Sound, and 2. Remembered

After all, in the hierarchy of memory, the things you explain are remembered better than the things you write.

Dan takes the Double symbol straight from the life, he has a measly 1 remaining.

If you’re wondering why the subtitles have changed font, the screen tearing on VLC due to some feature of this episodes playing terribly with VLC was ticking me off.

So I switched to a program called Pot Player.

Anyway, El Presidente ends his turn.

Then who the fuck else should be holding you accountable?

Children just so happen to be rather effective at Children’s Card games.

From a layman’s point of view this might be weird, as Dan already attempted to explain this nonsense to Thorman once already. But I think the surprise here is the fact that he didn’t even consider the option of going up against him because Otherworld King is all powerful, armed with a way to reduce the Earth to a polluted, lifeless rock, yet a bunch of “children” as he calls them, have been contesting him this entire time.

Dan refuses to allow himself to lose, not to Otherworld King, or some puppet President acting in his stead.

If these few children can oppose Otherworld King… Why can’t the Adults, who have the entire world’s military at their disposal, also do so?

Dan’s bitter and bruised but he’s enjoying himself, being put against so many X-Rares.

The poor US Military are so completely confused about what to do about any kind of Core ship that they can no longer tell what actions to take against them without incurring Otherworld King’s wrath.

Ah, a familiar ship, it’s Yuuki’s.

Well I guess that explains why they were missing, probably trying to recover their ship.

As soon as Yuuki descends onto the Aircraft carrier though, the US Military focus their weapons on them.

Kajitsu however uses her powers to melt the guns being used.

Well I suppose that sorts out the problem of “How do they get around without being shot”, this ensures the Core Soldiers can move around unabated.

Yuuki promptly tells the soldiers in question to fuck off.

This at least solves the impending fear that Clackey and Suzuri had earlier, given they had weapons trained on them at otherwise all times.

This is a hilarious thing for the President of the United States to say…

The answer was when you had the inkling in your mind that you could become President of the USA.

Dan reminds Thorman that it’s his turn, and Thorman tells Dan he can move on.

Oh, he got Pantera’s card!

Time to see what was in Pantera’s heart!

The card Dan is summoning requires the Tribute of a Spirit who’s cost is 6 or greater, unlike Thorman, Dan has only one choice. So Dan offers The DragonEmperor Siegfried as Tribute, sending all it’s Core to the Void.

The SupernovaDragon Siegwurm-Nova is summoned at Lv2.

Tribute: Cost 6 or more → Void
After paying for the summoning cost, you must send all cores from a Cost 6 or more Spirit you control to the Void.
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Summoned)
When the Tribute was a “Siegwurm”-named Spirit, put cores from the Void to your Life until you have five Lives.
[LV2][LV3] (When Attacks)
Destroy any number of opposing Spirits up to a total of 10000 BP.
[LV3] Clash (When Attacks)
Opposing Spirits must block if possible.

An X-Rare Tribute Spirit from BS09, Siegwurm-Nova is the perfected, Evolved State of Siegwurm, if Meteorwurm had the strength of a Star, Siegwurm-Nova is a Supernova, the explosive state of a Star in the moment of it’s Death.

When summoned, if your Tribute used Siegwurm, You may take Core from the Void and add them to your lives until you have 5. By selecting the right Tribute you can fully reset your life total from Square one.

Additionally, at Lv2, you can destroy any opposing Spirits who’s total BP add up to 10000. That’s insane.

And as almost an afterthought, It’s Lv3, which tops out at a crazy 15000 BP, re-enables it’s base form’s Clash ability as if it needed it.

To top it off it’s a Double Symbol. So it takes 2 lives when it strikes.

The only 2 major downsides to the card is the fact that it needs a specific Tribute target to initiate it’s most powerful effect, and that the minimum core you must spend for this thing is 6. 5 for it’s actual cost, and the voiding of 1 core for the Tribute.

Unlike before, where Dan needed both Meteorwurm and The Sunstone Shrine to be in play before his Battle Form spread it’s wings, Siegwurm-Nova by itself is enough to cause his Battle Form to do that.

Siegwurm attacks, it’s Lv2 BP is 10000.

Dan activates Siegwurm-Nova’s Lv2 effect, now Dan is able to destroy any number of Spirits so long as their collective BP is under the budget of 10000.

Catastrophedragon and Diranos were unfortunately summoned at Lv1 due to the President’s excessive need to summon more and more X-Rares.

As such, Catastrophedragon’s 7000 BP and Diranos’ 3000 BP keeps them both under the limit.

Dan has removed the last of The President’s blockers, and the President has only 2 lives remaining.

The President, seemingly enraptured by Dan’s resolve, accepts his loss, and demands that Dan finish him off.

The President loses his final 2 lives, reducing him to 0.

Clash King Dan is the Victor.

Post battle however, it doesn’t seem like the President does much further beyond this, my guess is that he’s going to wait for Dan to handle Otherworld King before committing to his plan of submitting to him.

Dan’s ecstatic to be reunited with Yuuki and Kajitsu again.

Yuuki of course is on board with Magisa’s proposed plan earlier, he wants to see if they can try and retrieve Magisa’s deck.

Yuuki does ask the question of how they’ll search the entirety of Otherworld in order to retrieve it. But they seem to know that the deck is in the Otherworld Castle, so I don’t really know why this question is phrased in this way. I presume he just means all of the Castle.

Dan figures that the best idea would be to Spread out.

Zungurii tries to bolster Yuuki’s confidence but is shut down by Yuuki calling his statement “Naive”, but uh, searching an entire castle shouldn’t be too bad, even if said castle is several towns large…

Kenzo gets ticked off with this, telling Yuuki not to shut down Dan’s idea without proposing a counter option.

This is a pet peeve of mine as well, if everyone’s going for the same goal, it’s really irritating to have a plan shot down only for the disagreeing party to do absolutely nothing to contribute towards a better one.

Some people are a little defensive about doing this, claiming that “They don’t need to have a different plan to know that this one is bad”, but if not doing anything isn’t an available option then the only time it’s acceptable is when pointing out that a plan is fatally flawed in some way that the speaker should have thought about.

Kajitsu seems to suggest that even though the plan is naive, they could probably do it, as both Yuuki and Kajitsu have lived in the castle for some time and know a few tricks to get around.

Next stop, Otherworld Castle.

Otherworld King seems to have clicked that Magisa’s the one coming for her magical abilities back, and so relishes the challenge.

And that’s the end of the episode!

No points for guessing what the Card of the day is! (Since we have one)

That’s right! It’s Siegwurm-Nova!

The first BS09 card we’ve seen so far, and there are other cards we’ll be seeing that synergize with said card in the show so I can’t talk too much about this card or those cards due to potential spoilers.

What I can talk about is stuff to do with the set that will not be shown.

BS09 is the last set in the Gekiha Dan Era, and it sets up the first of what is to be the standard for the next one, as it’s a set centred around Hybrid decks.

Yoroilizardon
Reptile Beast
[LV1][LV2]
This Spirit is also treated as a Blue Spirit.
Futabanea
Machine Dragon
[LV1][LV2] (Your Main Step)
When your Blue Spirit is summoned, destroy an opposing 2000 BP or less Spirit.
The GalaxyDragon Andrometeors
Astral Dragon
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Attacks)
You can reveal two cards from your decktop. If any, add an “Astral Dragon” family Spirit card among them to your Hand. Return the remaining card(s) to the deckbottom in any order.
[LV2][LV3]
This Spirit is also treated as a Blue Spirit.

As a result there is a sudden influx of cards that all have effects allowing them to treat themselves as different colours or interact with a card of a different colour, or even have cost reductions from other colour, a feature only really seen on Dual-Colour cards and promo cards like Gundinos, which was a series of promos featuring cards that had special Keywords from other colours.

As if to help support those, the alternative colour for each colour of card went as follows:

  • Red gained cards to support Blue
  • Purple gained cards to support Red
  • Green gained cards to support White
  • White gained cards to support Yellow
  • Yellow gained cards to support Purple
  • Blue gained cards to support Green.

This lines up with the secondary colours of reduction featured on the Gundinos series of promos.

I may have gone over them before, but Hybrid decks’ main weakness is acquisition of reductions, often times its better to use a Pure deck, as a Hybrid deck, while having a wider range of strategies, has a harder time executing multi-card combos due to the fewer amount of core.

This set is the first step in resolving that for certain combinations of colours, offering a wider range of options by granting Spirits that can be both colours at once in exchange for not being useful in other ways (Yoroilizardon is a Cost 1 with no reductions and minimum power, but is also a blue spirit in exchange)

Anyway, with that out of the way, I’ll see you all in the next one, buh-bye!

Small Rant – Broken Links and new PCs

I should probably talk about something, namely to do with this Blog

Also no it’s not ending, and it’s not one of these stupid situations where it technically is even though it sounds like it isn’t, This has nothing to do with the output of new posts

This actually has something to do with preservation of old posts, skimming the blog I found that a number of the image links were broken, Why?

Well the image links I was using pointed to the main Batosupi website’s card gallery, given that it was a frequently used set up for many decks being built, I figured that, unless the batosupi website shut down for some reason (it’s been going strong for 16 years), those images would be preserved.

Turns out, I am a naive nugget.

At some point the website’s card list page changed to match this, and you’ll notice when searching for cards that they’re of a significantly higher quality than the images I was pointing to.

This is because the entire card sets were re-uploaded, and the old image links were taken down. This caused the image links for those images to essentially point to a 404 page.

Since that’s not an image, the link was bust, this caused many of the card images to essentially vanish, wordpress likes to try and automatically format based on what it knows, so the card effects which were mostly pasted beneath formatted incredibly awkwardly, making it difficult to even read.

I have spent yesterday and most of today skimming through about 40 episodes worth of posts and repairing the links that were broken. The images I’ve been using recently point to the Bandai-TCG+ App, which not only have high quality cards in a consistent size but also is what the main website uses to post it’s official decklists now. I am hoping that given the recency of the change that they aren’t likely to do anything like that again, but I’m also not confident in my existing links.

There is an easy remedy for this, I upload the card images manually.

For episode stuff, I use Imgur, naturally, and as long as the posts get even a little bit of traffic, those links get accessed, meaning Imgur isn’t liable to take them down for any reason.

For cards only, I will probably start to keep them in the Media Library. I avoided this at the beginning because I was worried about space really, but atm I have no choice.

That being said, while I’ve fixed the broken links in previous episodes, they’re still links, meaning we can lose access to them, I’m not going to comb through old posts again unless I really feel like catching up on thoughts I already had. SO.

If you’re a frequent reader and you find yourself going back to older reviews, please let me know if you spot a broken link in future, so that I can correct it.

Finally, let’s talk about some other things

You’ll notice I used this cool recreation of the Extreme League decklist, and never re-used it, as well as another Decklist format that I used in Episode 40 of Gekiha Dan that I’d done before but slightly differently:

reason being is because a while ago, June of this year-abouts, I obtained a new PC.

Wanting to ensure I was going in as fresh as possible, certain backups were not taken, as a result I lost most of my Photoshop work that I unfortunately forgot to back up, including the PSDs for this decklist.

Is it possible to recreate? Yes, caveat, It requires a significant amount of effort. But that means that’s time lost I won’t get back. Some I can never 100% fully reconstruct (but can improve on)

I do not want to dive into something if I have to do it again though, so I’d very much like some feedback as to which of the Deck layouts you’ve seen that you’d prefer me to keep. And I will invest effort into using that one.

with that aside, I’ll see you in the next episode, hope you see this.

Post Edit Note:
In the time it’s taken me since writing this I was able to recreate (not 100% but close enough, with some improvements to efficacy) both Templates before my day was over, took me several hours but , so I feel incredibly stupid, even so, consistency can be important, so let me know what you’d like to see in terms of deck list design.

Gekiha Dan – Episode 40

So when do we get the sick mod for Detroit: Become Human that replaces the Main character, Connor, with Pantera?

Jokes aside, this is the 3rd fight taking a total of 2-episodes long… Within the same 10 episodes.

That’s right, in 10 episodes we have had 3 battles that required 2 episodes to resolve.

So if you’ll excuse me, Im just going to jump right in if that’s okay with you?

We’re starting off inside the Wisdom Gate, Leon notes the current situation and I might as well remind anyone watching.

All the Lightbearers have had their lives reduced to 1.

Otherworld King seems to coldly cast-aside Leon’s observation, noting that lives don’t really matter in Battle Spirits.

He… Has a point in a very general sense. Much like Yugioh, you can lose 7999 life points without suffering any kind of detriment for it. In Vanguard you can take 5 damage and play as normal, In Magic: The Gathering having 20 Life or 1 life makes no difference.

The only life that matters in Battle Spirits is the same, your last one. Everything you do, even taking lives, is all to ensure that you do not lose that one life. The last life. This kind of thinking is normal.

It is the reason some people try not to focus on raising their life totals, as doing so does not help them win, just as having less doesn’t make them lose so long as they don’t have zero.

In Battle Spirits however, time is resource, while Life isn’t the most important thing, unlike some other games, having many lives helps you win as you will always, without fail, gain 1 core on each of your turns. And the life can be used to protect spirits. Such is the goal of decks centred around Holy Life for example.

Otherworld King comments about a state of “Feeling prepared”, which is something the Core Soldiers seem to have in common with Leon.

He then goes on to say that a sense of preparation, to feel you are prepared for something, makes you strong.

This might be the reason behind Leon’s effectiveness as one of the Three Heads, he was always prepared to do anything for the sake of Otherworld King.

And he started losing once Core Soldiers started feeling prepared to perform their mission, Clackey defeated Leon after feeling prepared to protect Kajitsu, Yuuki won after feeling prepared to battle him, held back only by Kajitsu’s capture. Once that leverage was gone, Yuuki picked him apart.

Otherworld King also makes one more comment, stating that in spite of a Human feeling prepared making them strong, despair can once again reduce them to becoming fragile.

From another angle, he’s essentially saying that Human strength is inextricably tied to the faith they have in themselves.

…Which is a very protagonisty thing to say for someone who’s the main villain.

This episode title doesn’t spoil the entire plot so I’m going to talk about it, the episode title is the ominous “Grand Lolo’s Final Day”

This makes it seem like there’s a climax coming, however if we check the episode list, we know there’s another 10 episodes remaining after this.

One can only wonder what happens here then.

Currently it’s Red Hot Turn 11.

It’s currently Pantera’s Main Step, Pantera has 2x Lv2 Dinonychusaw’s (4000 BP), and The DinoCavalry Diridalus at Lv2 (6000 BP).

Dan has Rainydle (4000 BP) and The DragonEmperor Siegfried (10000 BP), both at Lv3

Pantera has 3 lives remaining, and 6 cards in his hand.

Dan has 1 life remaining, and 7 cards in his hand.

Zungurii makes a note, finding it strange that Pantera of all people is tapping as a twitch during his thinking.

The reason people tap like that is indirectly to help us think, it is difficult to think while you are anxious, tapping is a repetitive motion that helps us reduce anxiety by stimulating a sense.

In short, it’s a type of “Fidget”, a motion to reduce anxiety when we are trying to focus. Focusing produces stress, fidgeting offsets the stress, make sense?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is kind of like this, OCD is ultimately a consistent feeling of anxiety that is managed via ritualistic behaviour. Granted the human brain tends to work both ways, and so once we find a technique to suppress our stress, we become more stressed when we are unable to perform that technique.

It seems Pantera, for the first time ever, is experiencing a sense of anxiety. This would suggest that he is, on some level, scared of losing. As a result he’s reflexively tapping his fingers to manage that anxiety.

He’s becoming more human by the second.

Dan hurries him out of his funk, asking if it’s the attack step to get Pantera’s head back in the game.

Attack Step, Pantera attacks with Dinonychusaw.

Dan blocks with Siegfried, and during Flash timing, uses Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Pantera likely had absolutely zero data on Dan using this card or having a strategy that his ace, Meteorwurm, can’t use.

As Der Ring Des Nibelungen works on “Sieg” spirits, Meteorwurm which is a “Wurm” but not a “Sieg”, cannot benefit from it.

Notably, “Siegwurm” being the first Key spirit is an interesting case in which it’s connections to Siegfried and it’s Ancient Dragon family allow it to receive more support by being both “Sieg”, “Wurm” and both “Ancient Dragon” and “Astral Dragon”

Hell it even bridges Awaken and Clash together, Siegwurm really is rather symbolic as the bridge between Toppa Bashin and Gekiha Dan.

Dinonychusaw is destroyed

Der Ring des Nibelungen activates, as a “Sieg” destroyed a Spirit in battle, all Spirits who share Dinonychusaw’s “Terra Dragon” family are wiped out. Which just so happens to be Pantera’s entire field.

Notably with Der Ring des Nibelungen, if the destroyed Spirit has multiple families, any spirits who share even one of it’s families will be destroyed.

Losing your entire field on your own attack step is… harsh.

It also means Pantera has to end his turn, as he no longer has any actions he can take.

Time for the routine check in on the other core bearers.

Wait, EvilDeity Big-Loki?

Oh how Nostalgic!

Machine – Armed Machine
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Blocks)
This Spirit gains +3000 BP.
[LV3] (When Attacks)
When this Spirit’s attack reduces the opposing Life, except [The EvilDeity Big-Loki], refresh a Spirit with two symbols or more you control.

A Cost 7 card from BS05 has no business being so bad, it’s a shame too, we got a meh Thor, terrible Odin, and Loki’s not any better.

We’ve somewhat fixed that by having Grand-Woden be the new Odin, but still. Just sad.

Thankfully, “Loki” gets an upgrade later, though we never see it in any anime.

I don’t think you should be reprimanding the doll for having a “Different” thing to protect than it.

Imagine being lectured about how you’re “different” to someone trying to marry his god damn sister.

Yeah, with all your second-hand memories.

…I’ll stop.

Over to Mai, looks like the Purple Pantera is using a bread and butter Purple deck, Demo-Bone and Bronzemaiden are so generically good that the appearance of them is just not indicative of what deck is being played.

Purple is just like that unfortunately. Same happens to Green when it comes to core boost engines.

Oh how interesting, the Purple Pantera is using a Tribute deck, all the cards that were just discarded are Purple cards from BS08.

Jesus, Mai was brought to 1 life before she dropped the Purple Pantera below 4? I suppose Pantera did dabble using a Red/Purple Hybrid initially but I didn’t figure his proficiency was that high.

So Yuuki beat a crappy big spirit, Mai cleared a board, Suzuri appears to have destroyed a Castle-Golem, the fact that one was even summoned is bad news but good on him for getting rid of it.

Suzuri’s intensity’s been brought to the surface, woe betide the Blue Pantera.

Well I suppose I can use the presence of Valiero and Iberix to confirm the Yellow Pantera is also using a Light deck.

I suppose this sequence is trying to show us all that in spite of only having 1 life left, the Core Soldiers are moving on the offensive.

Kenzo’s nailed a board clear much like Mai did.

Well duh, you’re a human, he’s a robot.

I would have loved to know precisely what fucking combo you’re on about

the amount of times something happens off screen, we see like, a segment of it, like in this case Byak-Garo hitting the life.

And someone calls it a combo and I’m like SO WHERE’S THE REST OF IT?

1 card using it’s effect as god damn written is not a combo.

Ooo, we’re back at the Wisdom Gate, maybe we’ll get some commentary from Otherworld King

also Kenzo has 1 life remaining and no blockers. And the Green Pantera had 2 Spirits bounced to the hand.

The only line we get is from Leon, noting how the soldiers are mounting a response.

Notably, we can’t see Otherworld King’s face from his angle, and he doesn’t have his usual smile.

Clash King Turn 12, he skips his main step.

That’s bad, that means the card Dan just drew still wasn’t a Spirit.

Dan attacks with Siegfried and Pantera takes a life, dropping to 2

Dan ends his turn and Zungurii wonders why.

To summarise, Dan might have a big-ass hand, but he’s got 2 spirits on his board and only 1 can block

Pantera’s about to have a 7 card hand and needs only 2 of them to be spirits to make Dan start to crush diamonds with his sphincter.

Dan’s full attack wouldn’t win him the game anyway.

No no, Zungurii means to his deck.

Cuz 8 straight draws with not a single Spirit is just a god damn crime

Well duh, he kind of needs those to win.

Red Hot Turn 13, Pantera summons 2 DarkDinohounds and a Lv2 Sabecaulus.

The guy’s got a Terra Dragon baseline alongside a little bit of Awaken, I wonder if he runs any cards to support them.

It looks like Sabecaulus only exists to be a target for DarkDinohound, but a Spirit Link in Pantera’s deck would be useful for that situation. To my knowledge Pantera doesn’t use a single Clash Spirit to benefit from Sabecaulus’ Lv2.

Probably.

Unlikely.

Pantera attacks with a DarkDinohound but unfortunately he’s made a mistake, he’s left 2 Red Spirits with 3000 BP to be ripe for destruction with Victory Fire.

As a result, both DarkDinohounds are destroyed, and Pantera is unable to win this turn.

Dan notes that was an oddly naive play from Pantera, given the situation it was obvious that Dan was holding onto a ton of Magic.

Pantera is not having a good day. His eyes also look incredibly… angry.

It seems like Der Ring des Nibelungen caught Pantera completely out of nowhere, a card he had never considered to be a possibility with all of Dan’s battle data threw him into a situation he wasn’t prepared for.

Now, because he’s so worried about what else might come, knowing Dan’s using cards he doesn’t know about, he’s forgotten that he still needs to consider what Dan has used.

Pantera is suffering from the most rudimentary Human emotion… Stress.

Pantera ends his turn.

Clash King Turn 14, Dan deploys The Sunstone Shrine.

Annoyingly for Dan though, he’s got precisely 0 spirits that can make use of it, he still needs Clash to make this Nexus do… anything.

Getting it out of his hand does mean he gets another reduction out of it, if nothing else.

Someone gag Zungurii! He’s leaking secrets to the enemy!

…Though given Pantera’s earlier frustration with being caught off guard, this might make him stress more, making him more prone to mistake.

Dan attacks with Rainydle, which Pantera takes from the life.

Now Pantera’s on 1 life remaining as well.

Major pokerface malfunction there bucko.

he could have blocked with Sabecaulus but I’d have taken a life too, Dan’s holding onto a crapton of Magic and I need all the Spirits I can get.

Sabecaulus is brought down to Lv1.

How the hell do you know? You don’t even know what the secret combo is.

…That could be a problem.

Pantera summons The MasterDragonRider Dark-Crimson at Lv2.

Pantera uses it’s effect when summoned, allowing him to reveal 7 cards from his deck, and if a Dragon Knight or Dragon Emperor shows up, he can summon it ignoring both it’s Cost and It’s Tribute.

What happens twice will happen thrice, and Dark Siegfried arrives.

Out of interest the other cards are (New cards will be hyperlinked):

The DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried is chosen, summoned at Lv3 for a total of 12000 BP.

As a certified graduate of the university of edgelords, any combo that produces 2 black dragons, one being particularly hard to summon otherwise, is approved.

So the same situation as before has now been presented, the issue with this time is that Dan can’t run away by using Victory Fire as the Dragons have a high BP stat.

Now, the current sickest looking card in the game as of right now, Dark Siegfried, attacks!

Dan blocks with Siegfried, unfortunately at the moment Dark Siegfried currently holds 12000 BP, which is just a little higher than Siegfried’s 10000.

Dan could probably try and raise it… But if he did so now, he’d lose.

Dan uses a 2nd Victory Fire.

Pantera takes a shot of copium, and says right now is sub-optimal, because only Sabecaulus can be destroyed.

Dan however says this is fine, because unfortunately the current situation requires Pantera to have one more Spirit than he has.

Sabecaulus is destroyed, having only 3000 BP at Lv1.

Even at Lv3, Siegfried is defeated by his Dark other self…

…Sorry hold on, Lv3 Siegfried is defeated by his Dark other self.

Zungurii is despaired that Siegfried was beaten, but in this case any other outcome would have resulted in Dan’s loss.

At Lv3, when Siegfried is destroyed, it awards the player one additional life from the Void.

And in this case, Dark Siegfried’s Double Symbol is relevant, as Pantera only needs to get it’s attack through once in spite of Dan’s extra life.

As Dark Siegfried defeated an opposing Spirit in a contest of BP, Pantera is allowed to draw a card.

As Pantera has only 1 life, and only 1 blocker left, he ends his turn.

Pantera then makes this very sinister comment, stating that Dark-Crimson is waiting to use it’s power.

Well, Dark-Crimson’s 5000 BP destruction is hardly the scariest thing about it, beyond slapping a Double Symbol Dragon free of charge onto your board, I’m not sure it could have any effects to top that.

Dan notes that Pantera’s demeanor changed after he drew, so now he’s incredibly conscious of the fact that Pantera’s probably got something good in his hand.

Clash King Turn 16, Dan draws The StarEmperorDragon Meteorwurm.

Dan summons The StarEmperorDragon Meteorwurm at Lv3.

Dan attacks with Meteorwurm immediately, using it’s Lv3 effect, he target attacks Dark Siegfried.

Notably, this is a bit of a problem, as Dark Siegfried has 12000 BP, higher than Meteorwurm’s 11000.

Time to use Excavation’s Battle Boost-

…Wait hold on I swore that card in his hand was Excavation-

…Right, the card in the corner… Huh

So I made a complete mistake then! Dan isn’t using Excavation in this version of the deck, he’s got Lightning Aura.

What a complete muffin I was.

In defense of my mistake, Excavation would also have added 3000 BP.

In this case however, Lightning Aura offers 1000 BP to attacking Spirits and an additional 2000 for those that have Clash.

This puts Meteorwurm at 14000 BP, just enough to take out Dark Siegfried.

In for a penny in for a pound however, Dan follows up again with Meteor Storm, targeting Meteorwurm.

Now Meteorwurm, for this turn, gains the effect that if it defeats an opposing spirit in battle, the opponent loses lives equal to it’s number of symbols.

Dark Siegfried is destroyed.

Thanks to Sunstone Shrine, Dan can destroy Spirits that have up to a combined total of Dark Siegfried’s 12000 BP. The 8000 BP Dark-Crimson is wiped out.

One attack, 2 X-Rares destroyed.

Due to the effect of Meteorwurm, granted to it by Meteor Storm, as Meteorwurm defeated Dark Siegfried in battle, Pantera loses a life for each of it’s symbols.

Pantera, along with all of the other dolls connected to him, loses his last life.

Clash King Dan, along with every other Core Soldier, is the winner!

Completely to that end, it was kind of required that not a single Core soldier lose their battle. Even with 1 Horizon Ladder it’s possible Otherworld King can still supply enough energy to keep the Humans coming to Grand-Lolo.

Leon concurs with Otherworld King’s previous statement, if you are prepared, you have strength…

Though now I’m worried about the rebuttal that Otherworld King followed up with.

The Barrier protecting the Grand Core is gone, now it can be destroyed.

It’s the same combo Dan’s been using since he got it, it hasn’t really varied much over time.

the specificity of Sunstone Shrine does kind of mean it’s only possible to do with Meteorwurm.

Hah, with nothing else to do, Pantera tried to use the simplest skill in a Human’s toolset.

He tried to lie.

God he’s already got Dark-Crimson and Dark-Siegfried, what other X-Rares could even be fit there?

Pantera also goes on to ponder about Dan’s hand, as Dan’s play suggested he was working with complete crap (which was half true) only for Pantera to act on this assumption and get blown out of the water by magic.

It seems, when it comes to Battle Spirits, playing it makes Pantera feel like he has a heart, and emotions.

He’s a being of Core, not of Electricity, so it’s possible that Pantera does in fact have emotions, and that Battle Spirits, a game that makes use of it, allows his core to shine with emotions too.

Pantera, noble droid he is, acquiesces to the rules, and allows Dan to destroy the Grand Core.

Zungurii, having felt useless this entire time, wants to help at least once by breaking the damn thing himself.

Magisa hands him her staff to use as the club to break it with.

Oh, but while Zungurii and Dan have to do it manually, it seems like the Horizon Ladders, who were never supposed to release these things mind you, have a “Grand Core destruction” sequence programmed into them.

Wat.

I’ll just run on the assumption that they were aware of a setting they could change that would have a high expectation of destroying the Grand Core if done so.

Anyway, the Grand Cores are gone!

Suppose it’s time for the moment of truth.

It seems the Light being emitted from Dan is warm, and Dan can feel the power of the Red World’s Core flowing out through him.

This means that, unfortunately, their bodies will also have to become conduits for the expulsion of Core energy… It’s warm because they’re becoming Suns.

At the very least, it’s not an unpleasant end to their lives, supposedly it feels quite nice.

Ah better yet, those at the Horizon Ladder aren’t going alone, Kajitsu’s keeping them company using the butterflies.

I ask my friends this all the time, what I’ve learned is that asking if you’re cool tends to be the least cool thing you can do.

Teenage girl who’s never had to face a single moment of hardship as an adult yet now being forced to make the incredibly adult decision to end your own life just so you can kick a bunch of humans back to earth.

I’d be terrified too, that’s mortifying.

Ah dang, didn’t figure that Serge would be free of his responsibilities after Mai turned into a Sun.

Kajitsu keeping Clackey company in his final moments does infact mean that she’s technically the last woman he sees.

The Mimi Tribe he left to help are in the Red world so you might be a little misplaced there buddy.

Oh?

5 Teenagers and a Child are seconds away from becoming giant balls of burning gas, what the hell could be wrong at this moment in time?

Sorry, excuse me? I thought we disconnected the Worlds from Mother Core, how could it be possible to still deliver it energy?

Okay so something’s very up, Mother Core should not be receiving energy at this point in time.

For some reason the Symbol hasn’t taken, Dan’s light has gone out.

Pantera glows with a Red Light, but when he speaks, it’s Otherworld King’s voice that comes out.

Magisa comments on the fact that she doesn’t recognize Otherworld King’s voice at all, meaning that when he stole Magisa’s powers he was significantly older.

Ah, classic, the Grand Cores they destroyed were knockoffs.

That is, generally, what “Fake” means.

I also cannot believe it’s not butter.

This explains why Kajitsu felt the way she did, the Dolls took in the light of the Core Soldiers, and given how prepared they were to die in order to get there, their symbols shone bright..

so now the Grand Cores aren’t just supplying Mother Core with the World’s energy, they also have the Light of the Bearers to add to Mother Core.

In essence, what was supposed to end climactically with Mother Core being cut off has now made Otherworld King’s plans better.

Well that’s certainly compact. Not only did Pantera have the Red Grand Core the entire time, but the guy was a walking Horizon Ladder, capable of picking up where the Red Horizon Ladder left off.

Otherworld King had backups!

“Never interrupt your opponent while he is in the middle of making a mistake.”

~ Napoleon Bonaparte

From a programmatical standpoint, part of security and data protection is the ability to not only circumvent problems as they may occur, and foresee actions that may cause issues, and plan around them. But it’s also prudent that in the event that something goes wrong, there are systems in place to recover you back to the point you were initially at.

The Horizon Ladders were the bread and butter of Otherworld King’s goal, once all were complete, he’d have completed Mother Core.

Naturally, any plan that didn’t destroy the Grand Cores would mean Otherworld King could simply restart. So naturally, Otherworld King looked into scenarios that could cause him to be unable to recover his plan. Namely the destruction of the Grand Cores.

The information was well handled, as Otherworld King had fitted the real Grand Cores into Dolls like Pantera, and essentially used fake ones in the meantime. (these fake ones likely supplied less power to Mother Core than a Grand Core could achieve)

Ultimately it seemed like Otherworld King felt as if he needed the Bearers of the Core’s Light’s power to add even more energy to Mother Core, but naturally most would arrive with the pretext of opposing him.

So, using the fakes as red herrings, and leaving the self-defensible dolls as guards, the Soldiers attempt to defeat the dolls, who also absorb the light of their symbol as Otherworld King did with Dan, (it’s likely where he got the idea), and once “defeated” and the fake cores are smashed, it opens up the Horizon Ladder to allow the real Grand Cores to be set.

And these Grand Cores can’t be so easily destroyed, able to overpower any human by themselves while performing their function.

Not even Leon knew that Otherworld King had performed this little trick.

And it’s possible this was Otherworld King’s goal from the start, think about it.

Yuuki built the Red Horizon Ladder under Otherworld King’s instructions, meaning Yuuki knows the makeup of the Horizon Ladders. Final Horizon ladder is rendered incomplete because of this.

Otherworld King needs to get more energy to Mother Core, so he requests the set up of a 2nd Core System in the Blue World which also fails.

Dan is captured, Yuuki brings him to Otherworld King’s HQ. Pantera makes a white lie to fight Dan and brings Dan to Otherworld King, The King’s probably less than pleased but decides to see what Dan’s made of, he realizes that the light of Dan’s core can be converted into energy usable by Mother Core, which with Magisa’s magic he uses to make himself Young, he hits upon an idea, if taking damage can allow him to harness the power of the symbol, maybe that would work for the Horizon Ladders too? And Yuuki is acting weird already as he’s suggested giving Brustom a real harsh punishment and placed Suzuri as King, potentially to ensure that Suzuri’s location would be known at all times to make the Core Soldiers easier to gather. As well as gave Kajitsu to the enemy. Leon’s probably said as much too.

So Otherworld King suspects Yuuki is going to betray him, Yuuki knows how the Horizon Ladders work and how to destroy them, and he’s just learned that damage taken from Soldiers can produce Life energy. How does he play this to his advantage? Well if he replaces the real Grand Cores with fakes, turns the rest into battleable dolls that can convert the energy, then all he needs is for all 6 Soldiers to be gathered and for Yuuki to propose the idea.

Suddenly, Yuuki’s betrayal goes from a suspicion to something he actively wants to instigate.

So Otherworld King lets Leon run rampant trying to acquire Kajitsu and pissing the guy off, eventually Yuuki plays his hand and defects, and naturally they know where Suzuri already is so gathering the 6 is set in stone.

From the moment Dan restored Otherworld King’s youth, Otherworld King just needed to swap the cores, make sure the new ones could battle, and then all he needed to do was let Leon poke the bear until the defection happened. Once Yuuki betrayed him, the rest would play itself out.

I can only guess that this is Pantera performing the function of a Horizon Ladder.

The need for guards is apparently none, as these Grand Core Suits are fully capable of overpowering humans on their own.

Damn, not even a clever insult, just fuck that guy.

As annoying as this is, there is an upside.

You’re still alive, and Otherworld King’s plan still dies with him.

See what I mean? These things can break Big Magical Swords without a problem, who needs guards?

Naturally, since energy is on the Mother Core express, Kajitsu’s going to do what Kajitsu does and pass out.

Nooooooo!!

I don’t believe yoooooou!

What tipped you ooooofffff!?

Dan tries to reach Pantera, using their battle as a pretext to say that Pantera is no different to Dan, a Human being.

Pantera’s personality at least, seems to have come back.

Jesus christ, Otherworld King can remotely control all that energy from all the way in the god damn Wisdom Gate?

Pantera begins to talk about something, mentioning Siegfried’s Thunder.

This is an accurate translation, that is what he says… It’s also stupid.

Because Siegfried breathes fire, It’s Siegwurm that has anything to do with Lightning..

Erm, Pantera I believe what you’re describing is the Light of the Grand Core that’s currently fucking The Core Soldiers’ plans in the ass.

Holy shitballs! Pantera’s pierced his own chest to reach for something.

Seems Pantera’s just ripped something out of his chest, a Card infact.

The cracks caused by Pantera’s self-operation are spreading across his whole body.

Dan approaches, telling Pantera one more time, that he isn’t a Doll.

You could be grim and think about the fact that his head is about to be smashed into a thousand pieces, so forget he very much will.

…But he’s being the most human here as he’s ever been, guy may have not had a heart, but he has a soul, one can only hope it goes the same place everyone else does.

As soon as Dan takes the card, Pantera shatters.

The rest of that energy going to Mother Core.

The rest of the Horizon Ladders also have a similar surge of energy.

Well, guess we’ll see what happens when Mother Core is “Completed” then.

“It’s open”? What’s open…

…Wait.

Well before I state the reasoning I suspect we should be following…

It seems Mother Core’s spitting out so much Light it’s become visible from Grand-Lolo.

Think.

Humans go through gates to get to Grand-Lolo, the Horizon Ladders make this possible.

Stopping the Horizon Ladders, cutting off Mother Core’s Power, would cause Earth and Grand-Lolo to be separated, Humans would no longer be able to get to it.

So… assuming the reverse happens… and Mother Core is instead flooded with energy instead of deprived of it…

Average energy produces small doors… No energy produces no doors…

But a lot of energy…

Would theoretically produce… a very big door.

After a fade to white, Dan wakes up on what looks like a very modern pavement.

Dan’s made it back to the Human World, somehow.

And now we get a good look at the card he was just given.

Even players who have only played Battle Spirits Saga should know this one. One of the most famous cards in all Battle Spirits.

If I had to think of one card that was the face of Battle Spirits above all others. It would be this one.

The SupernovaDragon Siegwurm-Nova

Seems not even time passes accurately based on it’s connection to Otherworld, as in spite of being in Otherworld for what I can only assume to be around a Month, Dan’s been returned to the exact same day he left.

So anyway, about that big door.

What looks like the Red World, has been brought to be directly above Japan. And it’s not just that, it seems to have produced some of it’s natural rock formations on Japan itself.

Haha, Leon says “A section”

It seems Leon was so enamored with the Otherworld Observation Records that he tossed away everything to achieve this result, likely Otherworld King let him in on the fact that Mother Core gaining energy would allow them to bring Grand-Lolo to Earth.

Get real, he wielded Magisa’s Power, and the stolen power of 6 worlds and 6 chosen battlers.

“I’ve come to make an announcement”

So, that spire makes me think that’s the Empire state building. Which is in New York.

…So in other words, America got the White World.

That’s a pretty funny jab at America.

More plot relevant comments, so The reason Earth and Mother Core are intrinsically linked is because Mother Core is meant to be the Earth’s symbol? Because the Earth is the 7th World of Grand-Lolo?

So in other words, Humans are predisposed to being able to play any colour, right if they come from the World exhibiting all colours.

Egypt got The Green World, the result of it’s presence seems to be the appearance of Greenery growing in the otherwise harsh desert.

Suppose Kazan was thinking too shallow, he wanted to move the Humans to Grand-Lolo…

Otherworld King just did one better, and moved Grand-Lolo to Earth.

Also hold on, is space like, not a thing right now?

How does this gravitationally work?

Out in the middle of nowhere seems to be the Yellow World, Though it’s hard to tell if these structures appeared on earth or if they fell…

I’m gonna go with “appeared”, given that Dan was placed quite gently on Earth with no injuries.

Hah, the Purple World ended up in the Arctic.

So the place which is almost universally dark is now in the one place the Human sun remains up in for half the year.

…Well this is assuming that we’re in the South Pole.

Seems Otherworld King didn’t much care where he ended up along Earth’s timeline, but had suspicions that since all the Core Soldiers were from the same Era, the energy that opened the door to Earth would lead them to that Era.

Oh well I’m glad that Zungurii and Magisa made it on the Human world alright… but doesn’t that mean some select other Otherworlders are also on Earth right now?

Well if this isn’t going to up-end Human understanding as we know it then I dunno what does, the stakes just shot up.

But that’s a problem for next episode isn’t it?

Either way, The Core Soldiers aren’t dead!

Naturally given the type of show, Pantera being the final boss would make for one hell of an anti-climactic final battle, especially against something that isn’t quite new.

Given that the character has officially completed their role in this show, I should really give my formal review of the character.

Pantera, to me, is the spiritual representation of one of the core components of Toppa Bashin’s plot, that is the Nazo-Otona. In this show he seems to take most of his design and function from Number Nine. He dresses in rather nice suits, takes after Red battlers that he is interested in, and ultimately wishes to defeat the man he is working for.

Conversely to Nine however, of the Three Heads, Pantera is the most altruistic, seeking only to battle people he finds interesting, his deck is a mirror to Nine’s, while displaying his own X-Rare in Dark-Crimson, he still wields the DarkDragonEmperor that symbolized the Nazo-Otonas.

In this case, they decided to take the part of Nine that was most interesting, and make it Pantera’s entire character trait, stripping him of all the rage and “luck” that defined Nine somewhat in contention with his actual actions, for Pantera however, his entire character is defined by his interest in particularly, the Red bearers of the core’s light.

In spite of this being his essentially only defining character trait, that being his fixation on one character precisely. Pantera is a character we get to see grow, he initially does odd greetings before a battle, he’s shown taking Dan’s statements to heart by visually using the post-battle handshake Dan said he should do, he starts smiling whenever Dan is around, and more still, he begins to form Human habits.

It’s only when he seems to have fully developed his own identity that he’s then heartlessly ripped away from us, he’s shallow because there are blanks to be filled in, and once they are, he’s shattered to pieces.

And in his final moments, he fulfilled the final function of a Nazo-Otona, when he was defeated by a Battler he acknowledged, he handed them an X-Rare.

I think the character is compelling because he’s the type of character who shows signs of growth and you see it happen in realtime, and if you felt robbed at the end when he was destroyed, then the writers succeeded.

Personally, Pantera is one of my favourite characters in Gekiha Dan, he’s definitely in my Top 5 at least.

In honour of the character, and in the absence of a Card of the Day.

Note from me: I made this using Photoshop, please let me know if you prefer the screenshots from the Bandai-TCG+ app, or if you want more spread out layouts like this one.

What I’ve produced here is my attempt at recreating Pantera’s final deck, while I had a good idea of the cards he was using, I did have to make guesses or additions. Also if you click the image it will hyperlink to a Bandai-TCG Plus decklist.

Dan spent all game playing around Victory Fire, so it makes not a lot of sense to not include it. Silent Wall was chosen as a must-have defense card, and finally, Rayblitz.

Dragon Knight – Dragon
[LV1][LV2] (Your Main Step)
Once per turn, you can summon a Spirit card with Tribute from your Hand without using Tribute. However, any (When Summoned) effects of the Spirit can’t activate.
[LV2] (Your Attack Step)
Treat all your “Dragon Emperor”/ “Dragon Knight” family Spirits as being on their highest Levels.

The ThunderDragonRider Rayblitz serves 2 purposes in the deck as an inclusion, 1, it’s a Dragon Knight, and therefore it is summonable using Dark-Crimson’s effect, secondly, it can support Dark-Crimson and Dark Siegfried with it’s Lv2, allowing you to manage your levels better while low on core, freeing up some for Destruction Magic.

Finally, if for some reason Dark-Crimson is not drawn, but Dark Siegfried is, and you get this card, it can be an alternative way to summon Dark Siegfried without needing a Tribute.

Ultimately, looking at it, the deck is rather simplistic, as the key concept is the same as his last one, play as normal, use destruction where necessary, summon Dark-Crimson, profit.

I think I much preferred his Red/Purple strategy, but thems the breaks.

Anyway, next time we’re back on Earth, let’s see what an Earth dealing with a sudden alien invasion looks like?

Gekiha Dan – Episode 39

Right, I’ve got nothing else to cover for the beginning of this episode in particular, so uh.

How about we jump right in?

Seems like in spite of only just coming together, The Violet and Yuuki’s Core Ship separate.

Suzuri has been interestingly left behind

Zungurii is the one narrating this segment, spoken in the form of a letter to his mother and father.

It seems that, for the purposes of destroying the Horizon Ladders, they solved the “who goes where” by having each Core Soldier go to the World that matches the Light they bear. Which explains Suzuri’s return to the Blue Castle.

Suddenly, a level of risk has been raised that wasn’t quite discussed before, namely that apparently this plan may prevent the Core Soldiers from ever returning to Earth.

Zungurii’s main issue with the plan is merely that he is powerless to do anything about it, he can only be a witness.

It’s time for the battle for the Horizon Ladders, all 6 at once!

Notably this title card is interesting as it doesn’t show the favourite card of each battler, but it does show their strongest.

It seems like the Red Horizon Ladder is no better than when they left it, which makes one wonder how Otherworld King is supposedly going to make use of it if it’s still in pieces.

It is incredibly odd that Otherworld King hasn’t done a single thing to try and repair it. Though it’s possible an alternative has been found to creating a giant monument that can be blown up from inside.

Otherworld’s other head, Pantera, has arrived.

Well, if a battle’s going to take place at the Red Horizon ladder it’s only fair that it be a battle between Red-users.

The hell’d you pull that out of! That’s the Red Grand Core!

I’m surprised it’s still intact, didn’t it get destroyed with the rest of the rubble?

It seems Otherworld King is using… something to inform him of what’s going on at the Horizon Ladders. Though given his lack of surprise it appears he predicted something like this might happen.

I suppose you place defenses around the likely methods of wiping out Horizon Ladders.

After being done reading a book he wrote, he hands it back to Leon.

Also notably there’s uh… a floating copy of the Grand Core, right there.

“Fuckin’ take the book asshole”

If the Red Grand Core is here, what is the one Pantera is holding?

Otherworld King goes on to note that, in spite of the Red Horizon Ladder being completely annihilated, the Red Grand Core actually survived it’s collapse, it’s just been lying there under the rubble the entire time.

Otherworld King then summons the Grand Cores of all the other colours.

It seems like the important parts of the Horizon Ladders had nothing really to do with the buildings in question, instead it’s the Grand Cores themselves that are important for linking the core energy from Grand-Lolo to Mother Core.

It’s entirely possible that Otherworld King is more than capable of making copies of Grand Cores, and that the Red Grand Core Pantera is holding is not the only one of it’s kind.

This is nothing we haven’t heard before, but it’s being re-stated for those watching the episode for the first time, it’s a context reminder.

So, this is new information, so far up until now no one has informed us that the Horizon Ladders were a requirement to connect Grand-Lolo to Earth.

I was going to scream absolute bloody murder about the fact that Kajitsu just sent a butterfly to force an image onto a given screen but she also created said butterfly out of thin fucking air so if I don’t take issue with that, I really shouldn’t take issue with this.

That is clearly at least a Gif, it’s even moving.

That sounds more like Mother Core’s doing than Grand-Lolo’s, I thought Mother Core was providing Grand-Lolo with light? Why would taking out the Horizon Ladders stop that?

Okay, so it seems like it’s Mother Core that produces the gate, but only because Mother Core has enough power to do so… That power is supplied by the Horizon Ladders by collecting the Core energy from the Six Worlds and shoots them up to Mother Core.

Right, so the appearance of Grand-Lolo when it suddenly connected to the Human world happened once enough Horizon Ladders were constructed by Otherworld King to supply Mother Core with enough power to open the gate there.

The Grand Core is the mechanism that enables that Core energy to be sent up, so the explanation from Leon earlier was accurate, the Grand Core is what links Grand-Lolo to Mother Core, they supply the energy from a world to the Grand Core, and the Grand Core sends that to Mother Core.

It’s like a transformer.

Yeah this is pretty cut and dry, no Grand Core, no Horizon Ladder…

The plot has a bit of a “Never say die” moment here but it seems like Kajitsu is inextricably linked with Mother Core, if they cut off all the power to Mother Core, then they also cut off any and all power to Kajitsu.

In essence, Kajitsu might die as a result of the process.

Mai pokes Yuuki to see if he’s completely fine with the possibility of Kajitsu dying but Kajitsu notes that this doesn’t just affect her, it affects everybody.

Well that’s all noble but there should be alternatives to you dying-

Oh no, she actually has an explanation, shit.

Oh… wait really? The Core energy, if not supplied to Mother Core, just pools up?

…Right so blowing up the Grand Core produces a huge ass volcanic eruption, I’m failing to see what the downside is.

…Hold on, so the Grand Cores naturally disperse power to Mother Core. The Horizon Ladders seem like they optimize this process. The only way to stop the Horizon Ladder plan permanently is to wipe out the Grand Core entirely, after all the Horizon Ladders don’t work without Grand Cores, but if they shut off the connection between a World and Mother Core, the build up of core energy in that world would cause enough natural disasters to trigger the apocalypse for that world.

Oh well isn’t that a catch-22.

So to circumvent the influx of Core energy having no where to go and causing apocalyptic natural disasters that wipe out all life in Grand-Lolo, instead they place the symbols that each of them bear in place of the Grand Core. It seems like Core’s Light they bear can work like the Mother Core Kajitsu bears, and the symbols can receive the power from each world instead, Mother Core is no longer the Sun that shines over Grand-Lolo, and instead, each World gets it’s own Sun.

With the Core energy being taken to the new Sun, and being dispersed like Mother Core did, Grand-Lolo doesn’t explode.

And without a Grand Core as an intermediary, Otherworld King can’t exploit it, good plan.

….that’s a good question.

Dan’s personality basically stopped working when his Symbol was completely smashed. God knows what would happen if the Symbol became the Sun.

…Yuuki doesn’t appear to be willing to answer the question, either because he doesn’t know the answer, or he knows they won’t like it.

If Kajitsu and Mother Core are inextricably linked, then it stands to reason that each Core Soldier is similarly linked with their Symbol.

Naturally if the Symbol becomes the Sun… the Battler becoming the Sun isn’t farfetched.

Yeah that’s a pretty grim prospect, stopping Otherworld King involves a bunch of under-16s essentially killing themselves in really specific ways.

I’m glad Clackey was able to pull out some Gallows Humour, issue is that Kenzo here is 9 and is being faced with the prospect of fucking dying.

Kid should be thinking about having shit days at school, or what kind of sweets he wants to eat.

Precisely my point.

I see Dan’s straightforwardness works for him at least. He damn near died because he failed against Otherworld King, and Otherworld King is in the habit of killing his enemies, Yuuki and Kajitsu are living proof of that.

He dies if he fails and he might die if he succeeds. If he’s gonna die either way he might as well do it under conditions that screw the guy over.

Yuuki’s adamant.

Oh if you’re gonna do that, do it somewhere that won’t make me wretch.

Well, no one knows if “Becoming the Sun” necessarily means dying, You might not be Human, or you will be, you might become a kind of God.

It’s entirely unknown what “Becoming the Sun” entails.

Kajitsu raises another point, there’s no guarantee they will become the sun either, they only know what will happen to their symbols and they know that can affect them.

But even if Magisa theorizes they’ll become Suns it doesn’t mean they will. I wouldn’t precisely call Magisa an expert in Core Soldiers, especially since they’ve never been gathered before.

Plus the Horizon Ladders are a unique thing, before Otherworld King they’ve never existed, who the hell would know what a Symbol does when placed?

Clackey treats the morbidity of the situation with a “Meh. Fuck it” approach.

The only thing waiting for Suzuri is potentially more bullying, he’s probably fine with this for that reason.

Naturally this becomes a bit difficult when “Doing what you’re told” involves keeling over.

After being encouraged by the people around him also being willing to go, he decides he’ll do so too.

Magisa if these weren’t a bunch of teenagers, I’d have said you’d need to give them a whole lot more than a thank you for the risk they’re taking.

The path to defeating Otherworld King is paved with the corpses of 6 Teenagers and a Child.

From the moment Otherworld King’s plans go up in, well I suppose Magma given the model

Otherworld King himself will still be alive and kicking, from there the Otherworlders will need to handle Otherworld King themselves.

Or at least his plan.

Serge asks Magisa if this is an acceptable resolution, but there’s an oddity here, it seems like Magisa would have been able to provide something more concrete if she just had her full magical abilities.

Kinda makes me wonder why this isn’t being raised, raiding Otherworld King and getting the power back should have been a suggested option.

Oh well.

Reminder that the last time Dan fought Red was against Otherworld King, if there was any colour that would cause him any kind of PTSD at this point, it’d be his own.

Imagine the one thing encouraging you to strap yourself to a large firework is the idea that you’d somehow be the biggest explosion.

“Dude you’ll be dead“

“Yeah but I’d be the brightest!“

I suppose that’s another way of looking at it.

While Mai was ready to dismiss Serge on entry, Serge informs Mai that he has absolutely no intention of averting his eyes from what’s about to happen.

I suppose it would be depressing if Viole Mai’s last showing was filled with empty seats.

Suzuri hasn’t been gone long, so his authority as Blue King should be relatively simple to wield here.

I do like how each Horizon Ladder has an exterior befitting the world it’s in.

The White World is definitely one that the main cast haven’t spent an extended period of time in. Seems like the general outcrop is all Glacier.

Kazan salutes his captain.

Notably, all the Horizon Ladders seem to be empty.

Looks like the Light at the top matches the Light of the World it’s drawing energy from.

Though potentially this might just be due to the colour of the Grand Core itself.

Er, huh?

There’s a figure there that vaguely resembles Pantera.

Even Kajitsu recognizes him as Pantera.

some details don’t quite add up of course, this “Pantera” while similar, had White Cores for eyes, and has a White battle armor, as well as lacking a suit.

Meaning that Otherworld King has produced a White copy of Pantera.

the Real Pantera throws up the Grand Core, surrounding it in a barrier much like the one the White Pantera was standing infront of.

Seems it’s not just Yuuki’s, there’s a Pantera for each colour… It’s possible that they’ve also got access to the same battle memory that this Pantera has.

It appears the Barrier can’t be lifted until the Pantera Doll in question is defeated.

Also these Panteras seem less advanced, Pantera is a Robot who seems almost biological, but these other Panteras have very visible separations in their joints, and seem more mechanical.

But of course, I imagine Dan wouldn’t have wanted to go out with anything other than a climactic battle.

Here we go!

Naturally this battle taking place across 6 people is going to have some skipping, so other than Dan’s battle, I probably won’t analyse the plays too much.

Either Pantera’s going to hold onto it personally to stop any shenanigans from Magisa, or it provides him some sort of benefit.

Either way, Dan’s gonna win!

Rather amusingly, the eyecatches for this sequence feature all 6 of the Soldiers this time.

VERY climactic.

…HAH!

1400 Years of Battle Data analysis and your best strategy for Suzuri’s deck destruction is to run every fucking blue card in the game?

God how many cards would that even be?

So assuming that he’s running every single Blue card at 3 from BS03 (Blue’s release) to BS08 (Now) and including SD02.

The guy’s got a 441 card deck.

Now his deck doesn’t look 10 times bigger, based on how normal decks look it looks roughly 3-5 times bigger.

So anywhere from 120-200 cards.

That’s still a bigass deck.

The guy was probably born yesterday, and given that it’s Otherworld King, probably not intended to be around for long.

You see a 120 card deck and you go “Yeah deck out’s viable?”

Absolute iron fucking nuggets for balls there Suzuri.

Their voices are incredibly robotic, also now that they’re in the light, it’s clear to see they’re nowhere near as sleek as Pantera appears.

Mai tends to bounce off her opponent’s energy, but this one really isn’t giving any out.

Needs it to not crash on startup probably.

Unlike Pantera, he probably wasn’t programmed with emotions, or if Pantera wasn’t initially, he hasn’t been around long enough to develop them.

Much like before, Pantera greets Dan before the battle begins.

Dan’s at least happy to see that Pantera continues to hold the lessons Julian taught him to heart.

Pantera gets the first move.

Red Hot Turn 1

Pantera summons Lizardedge and a Lv2 Dinonychusaw and ends his turn.

Not just any battle between Red, it’s a battle between the 2 main red strategies. Red Clash vs Red Destruction, a tale that will get told again during Battle Spirits Heroes, and again during Burning Soul.

Pantera confirms that his “siblings” are also battling using the same colour as the Core soldier they’re fighting.

and many are showing off the models of cards that haven’t been seen this entire series, welp, might as well.

Blade Beast
[LV2][LV3]
This spirit gets +1000BP for each core in your reserve.

The Green Pantera has this old card from BS01, Gowsilvia, best known for when Bashin added 3 copies of it to his deck in Toppa Bashin, because no card was useless, only for it to fail because Bashin didn’t have any reductions for the card.

Ogre Wizard

Purple Pantera is using Death-Haides. A BS01 Purple Vanilla

Also note that Pantera says that he understands how they all battle, which means each of the other dolls is informed of all the battles Pantera is familiar with.

Creator

I certainly hope no introduction is required for the likes of Berserker-Gun and The Fairy Tanya.

Pantera’s use of Dark-Crimson that he didn’t use against Dan likely makes him believe his last match was some kind of anomaly, or perhaps those were new cards gifted to him, and he wishes to test them against Dan to see how he stacks now.

Oh look at Dan, being all responsible about the fact that he needs to reverse his metabolic processes until he becomes the damn star that spawned the Earth and all the humans on it.

Someone ready the phone lines because Pantera’s spittin’ FAX!

I managed to catch this angle of Dan’s hand which reveals it to us. His hand is not excellent, I can make out about 3 cards in there, Erimakilizard, Rainydle, and Dinonychusaw, the last card is too obscured to see.

Otherworld King seems to be watching the battles directly.

Clash King Turn 2.

Dan makes a fucking brilliant observation about what he knows about Pantera and what that might mean.

He recalls that Pantera downloads basically all of the battles he sees, Pantera has perfect memory of over 1445 Years of Battles. Pantera watched how Dan lost to Otherworld King, and knows Dan needs to surpass Otherworld King no matter what.

As a result, Pantera may show preference for what cards Otherworld King used to defeat Dan, including the move that defeated him, Victory Fire.

Based on this it’d be rational to assume Pantera has loaded his deck with Victory Fires to achieve the same result, so to not be caught off guard, Dan should avoid using Spirits with a BP value of 3000 or less.

What a fucking genius!

Also as a side note, Pantera having 1445 Years of Battle Experience in terms of total battles seems more possible when you consider that Heliostom and Brustom had a fight about Otherworld King that started their feud 2000 years ago.

Otherworld King is at LEAST 2000 years of age then, 1445 collective years of battle data is possible for Pantera then.

Anyway, Dan summons Dinonychusaw at Lv2, it’s 4000 BP won’t get blown away by Victory Fire. And ends his turn.

Pantera might use this as evidence that Dan is wary of Victory Fire, so if Pantera’s accounted for it, he knows he needs to take advantage of the fact that Dan’s amount of spirits will be lower.

Red Hot Turn 3, Lizardedge is raised to Lv2, and Pantera ends his turn.

Could be a few reasons, being afraid of Victory Fire means your number of Spirits will be sparse.

Taking lives increases your core, so if Pantera wants to execute his strategy safely while you’re busy avoiding Victory Fire, it’s in his best interest to deny you as much core as possible until he’s sure he can take a significant advantage.

Clash King Turn 4. Dan does… nothing.

He passes his Main and Attack Step, and ends his turn.

The Rainydle in Dan’s hand could probably be summoned at Lv3, giving Dan a 4000 BP spirit, but I guess he wants to see what Pantera will try to do in the meantime first as Rainydle can be summoned for a reduction at anytime essentially, especially with Erimakilizard in Dan’s hand.

To put it out puts it in danger.

Dan has 3 core in his reserve, this isn’t an unwarranted thought from Pantera, and might explain why Dan chose not to summon Rainydle.

Red Hot Turn 5, Pantera does nothing on the Main step, moving straight to attack.

Pantera attacks with Dinonychusaw, and Dan takes it from the life. Dropping to 4.

Pantera seems puzzled by the fact that Dan chose not to block.

It seems it’s possible for Dan to raise BP from this position, which would allow his 4000 BP spirit to defeat Pantera’s with a boost.

But even if that’s the case, winning such a small scale battle wouldn’t be worth losing cards in his hand.

Pantera ends his turn.

Dan is battling an incredibly analytical opponent, so Dan really has to think about how and when he should use cards. In this case he’s doing as Otherworld King stated, and looking at the whole battle, rather than just the fight in front of him.

Leon also refers to the other Dolls as if they were Pantera, it seems that Pantera is consciously connected with the other dolls, but his personality remains fighting Dan.

What’s that, a top down view of the field as the battle is progressing?

Obscure joke, but if someone laughs I will have succeeded

Clash King Turn 6, Dan summons Erimakilizard at Lv2, and Rainydle at Lv3.

Now that Pantera’s Lv2 Dinonychusaw is exhausted, Dan goes in, he attacks with Rainydle and Pantera takes a life, dropping to 4.

Dan notes that despite Erimakilizard being weaker than his 4000 BP spirits, Pantera chose not to use any counter magic, nor did he block with Lizardedge and use magic to take out Rainydle.

Dan attacks with Dinonychusaw and same again, Pantera drops to 3 lives.

Despite being a robot, Pantera’s lost his Poker face.

This pattern of play informs Dan that Pantera’s trying to gather core for something.

Pantera tells Dan that he still needs to take 3 more lives in order to get to the Grand Core.

Dan ends his turn.

While also promising to take the remaining three.

CHILLS!

ZUWAT-TO!

SOME OTHER LANGUAGE FOR CHILLS!

Unlike little old Zungurii, the rest of us get to see how they’re doing.

Hah! That’s a continuity error, Leon stated earlier that the other Core Soldiers all had their lives diminished already, but this is the first life Kenzo’s lost!

Aside from that, Kenzo’s pin-pointed that his opponent is using a Swift focused deck, Kenzo’s also a rather analytical player, so this match is a game of who can out-analyze the other.

Suzuri’s making steady work of the opponent’s deck.

Suzuri’s already gotten one of his X-Rares out, which is fairly impressive.

Clackey, after so long, has not only his long lost Sophia but ALSO Cherubim, so I can imagine he’s in an excellent mood.

Oh wow, really!

They had a model all set up and rendered for the ArcAngelia Valiero but never used it!?

Like legit, Valiero never sees a single game in any series after this one, I promise you.

Divine Spirit
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Summoned)
Target a color between Green/Yellow. Return every Magic card with the targeted color from the Trash to your Hand.
[LV2][LV3] Light (When Attacks)
At the end of the battle, return every Magic card you used during this battle to your Hand.

The card is an X-Rare, one with the Light keyword no less!

You’d think Clackey would have wielded it, though among the women that make up the Divine Spirit family, Clackey either didn’t have one or didn’t find it attractive enough to use.

Even so card’s pretty darn powerful, adding all Yellow or Green magic from the Trash to the hand is nothing to scoff at

I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want to show it, it wasn’t limited until it was able to abuse 2 cards from BS10.

Red Hot Turn 7, Pantera brings both his Spirits to Lv1.

And summons The DinoCavalry Diridalus to the field at Lv2.

Lv2 is interesting, that means Lizardedge and Dinonychusaw get a boost as they only have 1 core on them, a boost of 2000 BP.

It occurs to me that any Spirits with a 2000 BP baseline used alongside Diridalus get to ignore the threat of Victory Fire, alongside wiping out Spirits with 2000 BP on every swing, Diridalus is troubling in the most mundane way possible but sometimes those mundane ways are the most important.

Diridalus attacks, as Erimakilizard is the only target with 2000 or less BP, it’s destroyed by Diridalus’ effect when attacking.

Dan takes from the life, dropping to 3 lives, and Pantera ends his turn.

Pantera offers this, probably not even as a taunt but as an actual observation.

But from a HUMAN point of view, this could be used as a taunt to gauge a reaction, based on the response from the opponent you could gauge whether or not a person did infact draw badly, or if they’re holding something back.

In Pantera’s case though, I wonder if he’s saying that because Dan didn’t counter the high value Diridalus, the question I would ask would be “With what?”

All his Spirits after Erimakilizard were destroyed, he’d need a blocker to address a 6000 BP spirit, Flame Cyclone misses that mark by 1000 BP.

Dan asks what Pantera would gain from defeating Dan, what precisely is in it for Pantera, but Pantera simply states that defeating Dan was one of his orders.

That kind of response could indicate that Pantera is doing this under duress.

Seems that Yuuki is the only one who can really get a read on how the others are doing, via Kajitsu who is able to feel them through Mother Core.

Kajitsu gives good news that everyone’s core shines more every turn though, which suggests that they’re slowly improving their situations as the battles progress.

Yuuki notes that Otherworld King is watching, which is an issue. Because it means that this plan could get disrupted very badly if he interferes in a way they don’t expect.

Or hell, this could be a trap they’re walking into that he planned for, his awareness of their presence here is a cause for concern on it’s own.

Nothing that can be done about it for the moment until this battle concludes.

Clash King Turn 8, Dan uses Extra Draw.

Dan draws 2 cards and reveals the 3rd, It’s the DragonEmperor Siegfried.

As Siegfried is a Red Spirit, Dan adds it to his hand, effectively a draw 3.

Dan drops both his Spirits to Lv1 this time.

Now he’s mirrored Pantera, both levelled down their Spirits to play a powerful card that, while strong, neither of which is their Key.

Dan attacks with Siegfried, which is blocked by Lizardedge, Lizardedge is destroyed, and Dan ends his turn.

Magisa notes that Dan’s playing incredibly carefully, but apparently not too careful, as he had enough core to keep Siegfried at Lv2 while keeping Rainydle at Lv3.

Don’t believe me? 2 lives lost + 4 Core steps + 4 core start, 10 core.

2 are on Spirits, leaving 8, Dan spends 4 to summon Siegfried, 2 Core to siegfried makes a Lv2 Siegfried with 6000 BP. Leaving 2 core spare.

Add 2 core to Rainydle, Rainydle is now Lv3.

Now Dan has needlessly left Rainydle vulnerable to Diridalus. Though I suppose it was either Rainydle or Dinonychusaw, both couldn’t be saved, so without a refresh it doesn’t matter.

Magisa wonders why Dan insists on taking his time with Pantera, the Grand Core being on display should give him a sense of urgency.

…To be fair that urgency is probably factored into Pantera’s calculation, answering to it might play into his hands.

Leon asks a fairly good question, Yuuki’s been commencing open Rebellion against Otherworld King, so why hasn’t he punished Yuuki personally?

Otherworld King states there isn’t a necessity to be particularly wrathful about dealing with Yuuki rebelling against him, ultimately once he fails he’ll suffer accordingly as a consequence, no point wasting effort admonishing someone who will suffer on their own.

I suppose it’s a form of malicious compliance, Otherworld King is allowing Yuuki to act freely without punishment because Yuuki’s actions will blow up in his face anyway.

Red Hot Turn 9, Pantera raises Dinonychusaw to Lv2.

He then adds a 2nd one to his board, also at Lv2.

It’s fine to level these up even with Diridalus’ BP boosting effect, as the 4000 BP takes away the risk of Victory Fire.

Small spirits can always be chump blockers, and act as reductions if not destroyed.

Diridalus hurts a board trying to go wide.

Diridalus attacks, thanks to it’s effect, Dinonychusaw is destroyed.

I mean what else was he going to do? The Spirits were right there!

Dan takes a life, dropping to 2. He’s lost his advantage over Pantera now.

Checking in on the others, Clackey’s been reduced to a single life.

Mai as well, 1 life remaining.

Same with Kenzo, 1 life, and he’s staring down an old but classic card, The Duke Kingtaurus.

Shell Insect – Blade Beast
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Summoned)
For each other Spirit you control, put a core from the Void to this Spirit.
[LV2][LV3] (When Attacks)
When only the opposing Spirit is destroyed via BP comparison, send an opposing Life to their Reserve.

The Green X-Rare from BS01.

Along with Diridalus, it seems Pantera has a taste for the older stuff.

Suzuri has 1 life and a low deck, but it looks like that the Blue Pantera is also looking like his deck is normal sized now, which means he’s also close to running out.

We also don’t really see what’s on that Pantera’s board, I see 1 card but nothing I can extrapolate.

Holy shit, Yuuki’s staring down The ImpregnableFortress Odin? Man the NOSTALGIA

Machine
[LV1][LV2][LV3]
For each Nexus either player controls, this Spirit gains +1000 BP.
[LV2][LV3]
All Nexuses can’t be destroyed.

This one in particular is complete Trash, but hot damn it’s cool to see.

How does a card this bad get like the best attack animation involving an ARMADA OF LASERS!

Yuuki’s joined the 1 life club.

In spite of having 1 life remaining, their spirits are far from broken.

Seems like Magisa’s gotten the memo about their situations as well using her Staff as basically a giant radio tower.

Pantera attacks with Dinonychusaw, and Dan chooses to take from the life again.

Along with the rest of the Bearers, Dan has also been reduced to a single life.

Gosh, and he’s still got 3 of Pantera’s to go, talk about an uphill battle.

…Strange, I’ve heard Pantera call him “Dan” or “Clash King” but not “Human”

Pantera encourages Dan to keep fighting.

It’s Clash King Turn 10, meaning Pantera has left one of his Dinonychusaws as a blocker.

It’s an awkward board state, Dan’s got 6 cards in hand and is about to go to 7. He’s got Dinonychusaw and Siegfried, and Pantera’s Diridalus and 1 Dinonychusaw are exhausted.

There’s 1 Dinonychusaw that can block, and Pantera has 3 lives.

Tricky one.

Dan draws, and gets… an interesting card.

I won’t discuss it til it’s used though.

Dan raises Rainydle and Siegfried to Lv3.

Pantera anticipates an attack, but beyond that, Dan does nothing, and ends his turn.

For reference, Dan has 2 blockers, and Pantera has 3 spirits, Dan has 1 life.

Pantera has Dan cornered, and yet Dan chose to just raise his Spirits’ level and pass, and Dan hasn’t summoned either of his “Wurm” cards.

“Your draws haven’t been good” sounds very accurate right now.

Naturally, Dan doesn’t have the Spirits required on his board to defeat Pantera this turn.

HO-LEE SHIT WHAT A HAND.

For reference, Dan’s hand of 7 cards consists of 6 magic and a Nexus!

We can’t see 2 of the Magics, but the rest we know:

  • Victory Fire
  • Excavation
  • Meteor Storm
  • The Sunstone Shrine
  • Der Ring des Nibelungen – The card he just drew.

Post Edit: So on the following episode I realize that the card I called “Excavation” is in fact Lightning Aura, and that Excavation is not infact seen this episode at all, apologies for that mistake!

I suppose if it’s front and center, we can talk about it

Flash
During this turn, when any of your “Sieg” spirits, destroy an opposing Spirit by BP comparison, destroy every opposing spirit with the same family as the destroyed spirit.

A Cost 3 Magic from BS04, that support cards with “Sieg” in the name. It does nothing on it’s own when used, but if the same turn it’s used, a “Sieg” defeats a Spirit in battle, Dan can wipe out every Spirit that shares a family with the Spirit he destroyed.

It’s like Sunstone Shrine but for Sieg on a Magic, and instead of BP, it uses Family.

This is gonna be a shaky turn, Meteor Storm and Sunstone Shrine are duds without a Wurm or a Clash Spirit, which for Dan are one and the same as they’re his only Clash Spirits.

Dan’s been holding onto Excavation incase he needs BP which isn’t an issue right now.

Pantera’s been playing around Victory Fire, so Dan hasn’t had a good opportunity to use it.

We don’t know what the other 2 cards are, so Dan’s going to have to pin his hopes on Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Well at least Otherworld King has considered the possibility of a Miracle.

and the Soldiers are known for producing Miracles.

Oh well that came out of nowhere, I didn’t realise how deep into the episode I was!

Well that was fun, the fact is that this game at the very least has Dan and Pantera both making very technical plays, and considering cards like Victory Fire which around this time a lot of competitive players were probably also doing.

It’s incredibly fun to watch and it’s clear the writers for the game portion of this show were working really hard to make this appealing to it’s competitive audience as well, it’s super cool.

We’ve got a whole plot dump of the exact situation and they still had time to spend detailing each turn Dan was spending battling Pantera. Next episode promises to be fun, even if it is only finishing off what was started this episode.

Ah well.

As for the card of the day, of course, there isn’t one. Instead that section talks about how it’s important to be patient when your key cards come, as you can potentially reduce the cost required to summon them… Which is a basic strategem…

I once again don’t have a deck to show, and it’s premature to try a build based on the characters again. So I’ll have to move on.

Still, after the next one, we’ve only 10 episodes left!

See you then!

Gekiha Dan – Episode 38

Not that I’m owed anything by a series that existed long before this review was even a thought at the back of my mind. But I find it to be extremely rude that my battles keep being interrupted halfway!

Anyway, last episode we came to the delightful revelation that 2 siblings who act like a married couple… Are infact the reincarnation of 2 lovers who died right before being married and got unlucky enough to reincarnate in the bodies of Human siblings.

As long as we can be mature enough to understand that yes this is weird and no we’re not into it, we can move on knowing it’s what we have. We can stew about the reasons one might want to write this kind of subplot at a time where it’s relevant.

Thankfully nothing so blatantly controversial as the series main rival being fated to suffer through a long limbo until he reincarnates if he doesn’t marry his sister ever happens again…

Now where we we? Ah yes, it’s Leon vs Yuuki.

Leon is on a single life left while Yuuki has 3.

But Leon’s just summoned The Providence Hououga and launched an attack, and Yuuki’s entire board is exhausted.

Clackey for some reason takes issue with Yuuki choosing to take from the life here..

The guy’s got THREE, Hououga can’t refresh as it’s at Lv1, there’s no issue with taking a life here.

Not with that hand. We saw Yuuki’s hand last episode, it consisted of Mist Curtain, High Elixir, and an additional copy of Sacred Laevateinn.

His aim is to not waste valuable magic like Mist Curtain on a Hououga that can only attack once, if Yuuki saves it for when Hououga is Level 3 then he can blank a turn where he’d almost assuredly die.

Yuuki takes from the life, dropping to a nice crispy 2.

Funny you say that…

Yuuki’s currently in an excellent position, and his hand keeps him rather save, I don’t really see a need for this amount of faith, though in this case it’s well placed.

Leon attacks with Amenborg, Yuuki could use High Elixir here but he’d have to give up both his Spirits to gain the lives, it’s a much more attractive prospect to wait until next turn to blow his defense magic, meaning he has this turn and next turn to fish out a victory.

Teetering on the edge of 1 life each, this means that no attacks can be carelessly ignored now, the game state has just become interesting.

A person’s gameplay very much changes when they’re on 1 life, no longer able to hide behind the safety of taking lives, but given it’s late game, Core is almost always available.

Full Power, Trading blows, where a single mistake costs you, oh the adrenaline!

on Leon’s End Step, The Fruit of Wise Tree activates it’s Lv2 effect, refreshing every single one of Leon’s spirits.

Leon’s turn is now over.

We interrupt this battle to go back to whatever the hell Suzuri was doing with Magisa’s bike.

Ah, so that’s the plan, they need to destroy the barrier so their big ship can get moving.

Kazan points out rather casually that they’d need to bust through the barrier and get on The Golden Lion in order to disable it.

In essence, the Barrier can’t be disabled from the inside.

When Magisa drops the “Just do it, LOL”, Kazan basically speaks for me.

There’s a slight problem with a Plan to get outside the barrier to disable it… when the Barrier is intended to keep those inside from getting out of it.

Is anyone other than me thinking that Magisa’s Magic gets less “Washed out” as the plot requires more nonsense?

Nine?

We already know that Suzuri, Hyoudo and Zungurii are on the demolition team, and we know that Dan, Clackey, Mai and Magisa are rescuing Kajitsu.

Kazan’s being mission control for the Demolition team, what’s Serge doing-

…Actually don’t answer that, Serge deserves a break

It seems that once the topic came up, Suzuri AND Kenzo both immediately demanded to be on the team to destroy the barrier.

Well given they specialize in Swift and Demolish, this fits pretty well.

When Mai prods them for why they want to be the ones to destroy the barrier, they give this rather strange answer.

…Guys you knocked Belga the fuck out, you are BOTH due free coffees for the rest of your lives. Nothing could be more useful than taking a Metal pipe to the back of that twat’s cranium.

Zungurii naturally has been sitting around unable to do much damage in spite of being 99% of the reason Dan is here in the first place, he naturally wants to help out AND get that sweet catharsis while he’s at it.

Gods, I feel like Magisa has mentioned the name of her bike before but it’s called the “Superketta”?

Not the best at names are you, Magisa?

Damn guys, straight for the throat?

At least Zungurii wants to ride it.

If it doesn’t give me +1 on my attack rolls and let me overcome magic resistances, it’s going in the Bag of Holding.

Also that guy behind Magisa loooks like he’s evaluating the life decisions he made to somehow have the exact same boss with a completely different goal.

Probably feels like just last week he was pointing a gun at these guys, now he’s helping them.

It seems like the “Superketta” has the ability to essentially turn all the energy invested into pedalling into magical energy, with that energy they can smash through the barrier.

So it works like one of those eco-bikes, except the energy the bike generates goes back into the bike rather than powering your TV.

Suzuri puts his all into pedalling the Superketta, as a result, his Blue Symbol starts to appear, recognizing the effort he’s investing.

There’s a brief moment of hilarity where he stops pedalling and the Superketta falls incredibly slowly.

But that’s quickly corrected as he gets back into it.

They even get a cool rainbow coloured barrier, now to somehow ram this thing through the barrier.

Also there’s like a sick guitar riff playing through this entire sequence.

So you know how I asked what Serge was doing? Apparently it was tying up every single soldier they defeated to rocks.

Jesus, he gets the most tedious of the tasks.

Also look at Belga’s grumpy ass face.

The Destruction Team finally make it beyond the barrier after generating enough Magical energy.

This anime does dabble in comedy, it wouldn’t be out of place if they just dropped out of the sky because they stopped pedalling to do a fist pump.

Yuuki Turn 9, 4 core steps, 4 lives lost, and 3 core gained from Reload Cores, he’s working with a total of 15 core.

He starts by levelling up Walhalance and Fjalar both to Lv3.

Walhalance attacks.

As it’s now at Lv3, a potent effect activates, Walhalance returns every one of Leon’s Spirits with 4000 BP or less to the hand.

Amenborg fits the bill, so it’s returned to Leon’s hand.

The issue with this is that Amenborg is a Swift Spirit, meaning it’s very easy for Leon to simply resummon.

Assuming he didn’t put 3 core on Hououga just to fail to reach it’s Level 2 which requires 4 core, Leon should be capable of re-summoning Amenborg back at the level it was originally.

Also my favourite theme is playing, still have no idea what it is but I want to know!

Looks like Leon’s designating Hououga to block, if he was planning to chump block, he could resummon Amenborg at Lv1.

Which means this isn’t the kind of assumption you should be making! Yuuki!

Also seems like I was wrong, Leon did add the 3 core leftover all to Hououga.

On his last turn, Leon spent a total of 8 core, 1 to summon Amenborg, and 7 to summon Hououga, this turn he spent 1 to use Nature Forces, seems he only added 1 core to Hououga though, as he moved 9 core from the Trash back to it.

Walhalance doesn’t even compare to a fully levelled Vanity Deity.

Bit early to say, Yuuki still has 2 potential avenues for defense.

Plus we don’t know what card he true, and he hasn’t spent any of his core.

Yuuki ends his turn.

Let’s get an update on how our up and coming bikers are doing?

You can say that again…

I certainly hope they know how they plan to actually do that, is there a switch? Or do they just kick it until it explodes?

Guess they’ll break that window when they get to it.

Speaking of…

I suppose the windows are necessary for the people inside to be able to fucking see but god damn at least guarantee they’re as reinforced as the ones on the cockpit.

Then again the Golden Lion is so astronomically large compared to any other Core Ship that the builders probably went “Fuck it, if anything goes wrong its on you.”

Well I’d expect it to be.

Along with the rest of the ship I’d imagine. Surely they didn’t put all their eggs in one basket.

What’s this? A competently organized separation of assigned forces? You shouldn’t have!

I’m not sure what’s funnier, the fact that Zungurii goes full Mario Kart on these guys.

Or the fact that Stormtrooper logic means that any given standardized henchman has enough empty space in their heads to give a Hot air balloon lift.

Bewitching Turn 10.

Leon summons The HellSacred Gungnir at Lv2.

I do wonder what the lore reason for the existence of such a card is. If the Sacred Gungnir is the Lance of the White King, what on earth is HellSacred Gungnir? How does it exist? How’d it come about?

Leon moves to the attack step, declaring that Hououga attack.

Hoo boy, It’s Lv3 effect involves sending Core from the reserve to the void… Leon’s got 19 core to work with total, 10 are on Hououga, 3 are on a Nexus, he’s just spent 3, and placed 2 on HellSacred Gungnir.

…Hououga’s only refreshing once this turn?

Yuuki’s got more than enough core for this, even with only 1 reduction.

Yuuki uses High Elixir, moving 2 cores from his reserve back to his life.

To be fair they could have left it at this and I would have lost my shit laughing.

“I use High Elixir”
“Oh.”

Leon may be an absolute prick and rely on rather unfair tactics, but he’s not an idiot, he’s probably aware of the calculation I just drew.

Yuuki restores 2 lives.

Yuuki, quite comfortably, loses another life, now in spite of this being the 5th life he’s lost this game.

Yuuki has 2 lives remaining.

Clackey ponders if Leon would have done a Full attack this turn if Yuuki didn’t have High Elixir as if it was ever a question.

Yuuki had 1 blocker and 1 life, Leon had 2 spirits.

Math is hard.

Leon ends his turn, and The Fruit of Wise Tree’s Lv2 effect refreshes Hououga.

Leon asks Yuuki if he regrets the battle…

My guy he wasn’t even going to have a battle initially, he was just going to give himself up, just like that.

It seems like Otherworld King’s answer to losing the Red Horizon Ladder, as he’s alluded to having Dan do before… Is to just build another one.

It seems like Leon is confirming that the completion of the Horizon Ladders means that Kajitsu will come to harm given how they interact with Mother Core.

What, is his dental plan better or something?

My guess is that Otherworld King’s knowledge of Mother Core may lead Yuuki to be able to utilize that knowledge in some way to somehow get Otherworld King his way, while separating Kajitsu’s fate from it.

…But to do that would require Otherworld King to consider Kajitsu’s life a worthwhile enough reward for pursuing an alternative, and I dunno about you, but they’re the reincarnations of 2 people he’s killed once before, and he had no qualms putting a 12 year old boy into a brain-coma.

Kajitsu’s life seems like a small price to pay compared to everything else the guy’s sacrificed.

Dan argues that the Red Horizon Ladder was destroyed, and he won’t allow the construction of a second.

But Leon remarks that it’s only human to try again after failing once before.

Dan was only able to destroy it by stimulating Kajitsu to the point she couldn’t control Mother Core’s power and blew it up.

Dan only needs to fail once for their plan to work.

They can be stubborn because they have the advantage.

Kajitsu interjects, telling Yuuki that Leon’s just trying to make him question his resolve and to ignore him.

Yuuki Turn 11, he summons The Sacred Laevateinn, and passes.

Leon began his turn with 20 core available, 15 of which are used up by cards on his field.

Hououga’s Lv3 effect is to refresh itself by sending a core from your reserve to the void when it snatches a life, it’s ideal to leave as much core in the reserve as possible here.

Though Magisa believes Leon is still hiding behind the naive idea that using Kajitsu’s Key Spirit will somehow bother him.

Hououga attacks.

As taking a life will just cause the attack to repeat, Yuuki blocks using Sacred Laevateinn.

Blocking Hououga however triggers it’s effect at all levels, the powerful Windstorm: 3

Now Yuuki will have to exhaust 3 spirits in addition to the one he blocked with.

Or he would have, if Artifact Fjalar didn’t also have Armor: Green.

Yuuki takes this moment to insult Leon’s intelligence about not knowing Fjalar’s effect.

We know from last episode that Leon was completely unfamiliar with Artifact Fjalar before now, and Yuuki only specified it’s Armor: Red when discussing Victory Fire.

I’m sure it was very skillful, Yuuki did so much skills with that play of… You making a mistake.

This could be a compelling argument, but that extra blocker means you can’t win with the Amenborg in your hand.

Being forced to end your turn sounds very much like “suffering from it”

Laevateinn is destroyed.

At the end of Leon’s turn, The Fruit of Wise Tree’s Lv2 effect refreshes Hououga.

Yuuki Turn 13, he summons his favourite card, The IronKnight Yggdrassil and ends his turn.

It’s effect when summoned would return all Spirits of 3000 BP or less to the hand… If any existed.

Bewitching Turn 14, Leon once again skips his Main Step.

Hououga attacks.

Yuuki uses his last available defense, Mist Curtain.

As Yuuki is unable to block Hououga without putting his Spirits at risk, using Mist Curtain allows him to once again Blank Hououga’s threat, by rendering it incapable of taking lives this turn.

Leon makes a fair statement. At the moment the only thing Yuuki is doing is acting in ways that prevent him from losing. But when winning is impossible, “Not losing” is the only thing you can do.

If Yuuki can stop himself losing he can buy himself time to produce an answer to the current situation.

There’s a rather amusing quirk of some people thinking the answer to their deck building problems is to include more Magic that allows them to stay alive, but it’s important to build a deck that can further it’s own position, not just maintain it.

For the umpteenth time, Leon ends his turn, and his Nexus’ effect refreshes it for blocking.

Answer: “Damn, my hand kinda ass right now, gotta defend for a bit.”

Such is the way White functions, it is the deck of defense, to be firm until your win condition arrives is the way.

Seems though the cat’s out of the bag, the Rescue Team are getting ready.

If your Magic is so washed up should you really be wasting it on Aesthetics?

I have watched and played enough Dark fantasy to perceive that question as a threat.

Can Magisa replicate actual Battle Spirits Magic in that way? It wouldn’t be surprising if she could but once again, this magic seems less and less Washed out the more it’s necessary.

Fine, tickle my curiosity, I don’t care.

Yuuki Turn 15, well, we can see he drew something incredibly extravagent there.

Kajitsu knows from Yuuki’s demeanor that something good has arrived.

Oh ya, much greater, incredibly deadly as well.

Yuuki levels down Yggdrassil.

Suddenly, and quite from out of nowhere, Yuuki declares Tribute, designating The IronKnight Yggdrassil.

Unfortunately Dan, for this card it was the only viable target for the Tribute.

Yuuki summons… something, he doesn’t actually specify the name of the card he’s played.

We can, however, see it very clearly, and damn is it a beautiful card.

Though those Wings aren’t really Silver, they’re Pink.

Whatever it is that Yuuki’s summoned, Leon has been able to correctly articulate it as an X-Rare… somehow.

If it wasn’t clear, this was the card that was given to Yuuki by Kazan, the card from the Future.

Yuuki ends his turn.

While this is a new card, neither Yuuki nor Leon have specified the card’s name just yet. So I won’t talk about it until the name is explicitly stated.

Whatever it is, Yuuki appears to have summoned it at Lv1? There’s also been no level specified for it.

Unfortunately this new Spirit lacks the BP required to attack safely into a 16000 BP Hououga…

Infact very few things can attack into that Spirit safely, only two other Spirits in this show actually tops it in terms of base BP value. And one of them is the Red Vanity Deity, Catastrophedragon… the Strongest Red X-Rare.

…Yet.

Wait why was holding Kajitsu a requirement for any of this? Is Leon threatening Kajitsu’s safety in some way to force Yuuki to not win?

So far though Yuuki hasn’t made any particularly bad misplays that I can think of.

Speaking of still having Kajitsu, it seems Magisa’s plan has begun.

Mai and Clackey seem to be surrounded in the same floating Magic Orbs that the Superketta can produce it seems like.

From the moment that the Core soldiers begin to do something unexpected, Pantera completely tunnel visions into trying to figure out where Dan has gone.

Not gonna lie but isn’t the magic-casting Witch being missing a little more worrysome?

I suppose Pantera was hoping to duke it out with Dan later, so his escape would be not within his hopes.

Dan arrives with Magisa, gliding on an enlarged version of her hat to stuff Pantera into.

What a completely goofy way to incapacitate somebody.

Kajitsu barely hesitates when it comes to taking Dan’s hand, I see a bond of trust has built between the two.

Also Magisa just dunking on the soldier with her staff the second he tries to maintain a hold on Kajitsu.

Dan’s out here trying to rescue Kajitsu and Clackey’s out here doing god damn Naruto moves.

Also look at Kajitsu’s modest little shoes, they’re adorable!

Rescue operation complete.

I’m sure Yuuki’s been “Going all out” the entire time, but at least now Leon doesn’t have the leverage if he wished to use it.

Is it just me or does Pantera look incredibly pleased with himself for getting nabbed for no discernable reason?

Seems Leon was intending to use Kajitsu as a hostage incase things got bad, Leon had set up not one but 2 methods of insurance.

Pantera finds the situation as amusing as it looked.

Dan makes a clear suggestion, given that they’re in the recent habit of turning enemies into friends, and Dan is fully aware that Pantera’s number one function is to defeat Otherworld King, Dan offers Pantera the opportunity to join them.

It’s within his parameters to find a strategy to defeat the guy, plus he’d be amongst humans willing to teach him more about being human.

Seems something actively prevents Pantera from betraying Otherworld King in that regard, either love for his creator? Or perhaps a failsafe.

Pantera’s decided his work here is done. He didn’t do anything, but his work here is done.

Though, it depends where Pantera’s leaving to, is it possible he intends to usurp the destruction team from taking out the Golden Lion’s barrier?

Or is he just straight up deciding Leon’s a bitch and he’s going home?

Dan is… somewhat skeptical of Pantera’s words, he’s a Robot, so he’s used to speaking very plainly, though he can lie he probably won’t if he doesn’t gain anything from it.

Pantera didn’t say he didn’t want to or didn’t see a reason to, he didn’t even outright refuse, he said he couldn’t.

Now the mystery is “Why is he unable?”

Back to Grand-Lolo 3, Blue World Drift.

Seems the Superketta survived the initial crash and Zungurii’s distraction allowed them to get going again.

Damn these guys are trained, they can really outrun a Magic-powered super-bike?

My guy your systems are down, how the hell are you cutting off the lock to the door from there?

This is an incredibly sensitive operation, I don’t believe dumb ideas like ramming it are going to-

…I suppose who needs logic when you have whatever’s powering these dudes’ braincells.

Kazan means physically, though I believe the question is also valid mentally.

Yeah but now the door is bust.

And without a door, stopping those guys from storming you is going to be rather difficult.

There is a slight problem with that, there are DUDES coming up on them!

This is a lovely time to not know what a Panel is in the middle of an INFILTRATION

Why the hell would Kazan, one of Yuuki’s soldiers, know the password to a Panel on a ship he’s not typically stationed on?

You’d think Leon would use his own set given how much he dislikes Yuuki.

Also it looks like the door has other doors as part of it for extra nonsense, because apparently that’s a thing.

They’ve got a Door that can lock using a standard locking mechanism and an additional door just for extra locking. Mhm.

…Cool, how do you get out now without getting captured?

…Take it out?

…Or just learn to code an entirely separate system from our electricity based energy.

I suppose given it’s human wisdom and the Core systems are used for power, presumably a human-designed operating system based on Core energy would be designed as something familiar I guess.

What programming language d’ya reckon they use?

Kenzo inputs the data from Kazan, the Core shuts off and therefore the Barrier is gone!

Seems the “Barrier” mainly caused an issue with the Ship’s operating system, which is why they couldn’t take off with it, but the Superketta, a manual bike that utilizes Core energy and doesn’t have any kind of programming like that, functioned normally.

Seems like the Barrier was entirely intended to keep ships using a Core system OS, such as The Violet, or Yuuki’s own ship, from performing any sort of actions.

We have liftoff!

I am impressed that they somehow managed to re-open the door, get on the Superketta, and start cycling away in spite of the fact that the door was surrounded by soldiers.

As Yuuki’s ship takes off, it bumps The Golden Lion.

Seems that in spite of it’s size that bump was enough to knock it off it’s axis.

And it doesn’t seem like the Golden Lion does well when not upright.

Forget coming out of the window you came in, let’s break a second window, that’ll show em.

Kenzo, Suzuri and Zungurii are safely out at least.

I can only presume that The Golden Lion is so astronomically big that no one ever really thinks of trying to charge it or resist it.

As a result it’s protocol for handling situations like it being fucking capsized are probably minimal, especially when perhaps the only ships large enough to achieve it are ones owned by Otherworld King.

Seems Leon left his book behind, oh boy I wonder what he’d do if he lost it.

Bewitching Turn 16, he skips his Main step for a 3rd turn in a row, and attacks with Hououga.

Surely this time he’ll get it, right? Right?

And it seems they just didn’t say the name during the summon for effect, or the level for that matter, but says the name here as if we always new

alright I’ll review the damn card.

Armed Machine – Mounted Warrior
Tribute: Cost 5 or more → Void
After paying for the summoning cost, you must send all core from a Cost 5 or more Spirits you control to the Void.
[LV1][LV2][LV3] Ice Wall: Red/Purple/Green/White/Yellow/Blue
(Opposing Turn)
When the opponent uses a Red/Purple/Green/White/Yellow/Blue Magic effect, by exhausting this Spirit, negate that effect.
[LV2][LV3]
Besides [The WingDeity Grand-Woden], when your “Armed Machine” family Spirit is exhausted, refresh this Spirit.

The WingDeity Grand-Woden is the White X-Rare from BS08. A Tribute Spirit requiring a Spirit of Cost 5 or greater. Unsurprisingly for Yuuki’s aces, it hails from the Armed Machine and Mounted Warrior families.

It holds a Double Symbol, meaning it can provide 2 White reductions on it’s own and take 2 lives at once.

At all levels it holds a completely new White Keyword introduced this set, Ice Wall. Like Armor, a Spirit with Ice Wall holds the ability targeted towards a certain colour, if the opponent uses a Magic of that colour during their own turn, you can negate that Magic by exhausting the Spirit.

Grand-Woden holds the Ice Wall keyword… for all colours. Meaning if the opponent uses any Magic during their own turn, Grand-Woden is free to negate it by exhausting itself.

“But if I can only use it on their turn, then I can’t attack with the Double symbol”

Sure you can, that’s what the next effect is for.

At Levels 2 and up, Grand-Woden gains a nasty effect for any Spirit holding 2 symbols, it refreshes anytime a differently named Armed Machine is exhausted.

Meaning as long as you end with it refreshed, you can totally attack and negate magic freely. Or go balls to the wall and swing multiple times with 2 Symbols.

Anyway, notably, Yuuki has summoned Grand-Woden at Lv3, so it’s BP is 10000.

As an aside, Grand-Woden has the naming convention of Grand-Lolo, but “Woden” is an alternative naming for “Odin”. To call this “Grand-Odin” however would imply it’s an evolution of the ImpregnableFortress Odin, the White X-Rare from BS01, which it isn’t.

Also also, Walhalance is named after “Valhalla”, Odin’s palace that housed the Spirits of Heroes and Warriors, and Gungnir is Odin’s Spear. In this show’s case, referring to the White King’s Armor and Weapon.

To refer to this card by Odin’s name itself then would suggest this represents the White King’s Soul. The naming scheme of Grand-Lolo being attached to it could reference Yuuki’s goal of having a world suited for him, a World where he and Kajitsu can marry.

Which gives a strong implication that the man in the future was indeed the reincarnation of Yuuki Momose, which is also foreshadowing that whatever Yuuki’s mission is… He won’t succeed.

It’s possible Yuuki knew this, but intends to fight his grim fate regardless of how bleak it looks, or the proof of his failure.

This is of course, less than Hououga’s 16000 BP, there’s a 6000 BP gap to clear there.

As Hououga’s been blocked by Grand-Woden, Windstorm activates.

Unfortunately, the only target, Fjalar, has Armor to Green, and so isn’t exhausted

Yuuki now activates Fjalar’s effect during Flash timing, now by exhausting it, Fjalar can add it’s BP to a different Armed Machine, this emulates the Walhalance power boost by shoving the effect onto the card to be exhausted rather than the card which would benefit.

Grand-Woden gains 5000 BP, totalling a whopping 15000 now.

In addition, since the exhausted Fjalar was an Armed Machine, Grand-Woden refreshes.

He did, and that’s bad news for you.

You really think he’d exhaust Fjalar pointlessly to close a gap if he didn’t have something else?

During Flash timing, Yuuki uses Avalanche Aura.

Now Grand-Woden has a total of 17000 BP!

Needless to say, Hououga’s 16000 BP isn’t going to cut it this time!

Leon responds-

Also holy shit the card models look so clean, makes me real happy.

anyway, Leon uses Mobius Loop during Flash timing.

Main
Return a Nexus to its owner’s Hand. If an opposing Nexus is returned to the Hand, put a core from the Void to your Trash.
Flash
During this turn, give a Spirit +2000 BP.

Mobius Loop is White Magic from BS03, naturally its been used during Flash timing, so Leon only wants that 2000 BP battle boost, but during the Main Step it lets you bounce a nexus to the hand, and if that Nexus belonged to your opponent you get a Core in your Trash.

It’s good against defensive Nexus strategies that might annoy the crap out of you, Purple Nexuses have a tendency to be quite imposing on the way you’re allowed to play.

If this goes through, Hououga will be granted a BP of 18000 and then Grand-Woden will be destroyed.

Unfortunately for Leon, Grand-Woden is refreshed.

Yuuki activates Grand-Woden’s Ice Wall: White, Grand-Woden now exhausts itself in order to negate the Magic that was just used.

So Mobius Loop doesn’t have any effect, Hououga doesn’t gain 2000 BP, Leon doesn’t pass go, and doesn’t collect 200 dollars.

Hououga is destroyed.

It’s one thing to not have the out.

It’s another thing entirely to have the out and get wrecked anyway.

Leon gets called out by Yuuki over his handling of Hououga, Yuuki states that the way Hououga was controlled wasn’t done in the way Kajitsu would have, Kajitsu has a playstyle that’s slow and patient, like the acting of a “beautiful and sweet poison”, a description Kajitsu uses herself.

Leon’s playstyle however, has been a series of exploited assumptions, one after another, each choice from the moment he selected Green as his deck of choice was intended to force Yuuki to draw assumptions for Leon to exploit for a series of small advantages. Such as whipping out off-colour cards, and choosing continuously not to support Hououga with supplementary spirits just to annoy Yuuki.

Hell even outside the game Leon was attempting to rig the fact that the battle hadn’t been decided and therefore until it had, he could do precisely whatever the hell he wanted. Having not yet been bound by any sort of rule.

“Sinister” might be an understatement, and though I like Leon’s style, there’s no reality more fitting for a character like him other than total failure. Such is catharsis

Kajitsu’s happy, given that Yuuki said the equivalent of “My Sister who literally can’t eat anything that isn’t sweet and passes out if she loses her temper plays Hououga better than you”

While Yuuki does have 2 lives remaining, remember that Leon’s been holding onto an Amenborg this entire time since Yuuki returned it to his hand.

10 core just got dumped into his reserve, there is nothing stopping him from Swift summoning it.

Leon lines up the attack with HellSacred Gungnir.

During Flash timing however, Yuuki uses Chivalry

Yuuki refreshes all his Spirits, the only downside being that he can only attack with the Mounted Warriors refreshed with it’s effect…

Which would be rather difficult to do on his opponent’s attack step.

Due to being low on core, Fjalar’s supply is needed, dropping it to Lv2.

It seems Yuuki was choosing a far less aggressive style of play because of Kajitsu’s situation, now however he’s throwing card after card with zero regard or cares.

HellSacred Gungnir didn’t have a chance in hell. It’s destroyed.

Surprisingly, HellSacred Gungnir’s effect to raise it’s Cost when selected for a Tribute makes it an ideal target for Grand-Woden.

How… strange.

Leon blurts out some uncomfortable laughter, before screaming that his card is waiting for Yuuki’s next attack.

We know one of the cards in Leon’s hand is Amenborg, but when Leon knows he can defend he usually doesn’t lose his composure like that

it’s possible that Amenborg is the only response he has, and that alone isn’t sufficient to stop Grand-Woden’s attack, given once Fjalar swings it will be able to do so again.

Either way, Leon ends his turn.

Yuuki Turn 17.

Yuuki, probably to mock Leon, skips his main step.

Fjalar attacks, which is a strange choice as Grand-Woden can refresh when any other Armed Machine Spirit exhausts.

During Flash Timing, Leon summons the Amenborg I’ve been going on about since just about forever at Lv2.

Yuuki didn’t even level Fjalar here, so both spirits are destroyed as they share 4000 BP.

It’s impossible to show due to the framed nature, but Leon here is shaking immensely in spite of the goofy smile on his face.

Yuuki declares an attack with Grand-Woden, causing the sky to shatter.

Leon admits defeat, and demands that Grand-Woden defeat him.

Grand-Woden is, certainly, one of the prettier spirits designed by the artists at this time, it’s a very pristine looking spirit, very sleek, compared to the rough edges concerning the likes of Walhalance, Thor, etcetera.

Leon takes from the life, dropping from 1 life to 0.

Yuuki is the winner!

Apparently my Partner waltzed in while I was writing this bit, and wanted to let everyone know something about the Otherworld King’s Soldiers

“Their Helmets look stupid”

End of announcement.

It appears that Leon doesn’t really care about any of his failures so long as his copy of “Otherworld Observations” is preserved, though I don’t really know what it is about that book that makes Leon cling to it while being as much of a dick as he is.

Something tells me The Golden Lion isn’t leaving port for a good while…

Time to relay good news, firstly, Zungurii excitedly relays that they were succesful in removing the barrier.

…Which I feel should be self evident given they’re currently in flight so y’know, bit tautological to say now.

The result of the battle is not so self evident to Suzuri and Kenzo however as we don’t know if they’ve seen Yuuki or Kajitsu in the meantime.

Ah ruin the mood why don’t ya Magisa?

Oh, right, those.

…I’m not gonna lie I briefly and completely forgot about them, even though they were discussed last episode.

Oh come on Kenzo you were part of the lecture in the previous episode

And more than that, they’re the excuse Otherworld King uses to subjugate the Otherworlders, forcing them into slavery to get them built, and MORE than that, the side effects of Mother Core’s “Rejuvenation” is that Kajitsu becomes deathly ill.

I’m sorry this could be a meme format in and of itself that’s fucking hilarious.

Kazan being completely impassioned about asking what they can do about the Horizon Ladders only for Yuuki to say “We got a plan” and Kazan immediately swings his head around.

It’s just so funny.

Dan drops this cold as hell line. Tickling the Blood knight in me there buddy.

Got a plan for that? Tell me how you plan to destroy them all!

Dan first prefaces that he has absolutely zero idea what this will do to Mother Core.

And by extension, Kajitsu.

Well that solves that problem.

Kajitsu quells Yuuki’s concerns about this, stating that this time around, they have to live on for people beyond just each other.

Oh wow, this late in and we have more Toppa references?

If you’re not quite familiar, in Toppa there were 6 Core systems in 6 stadiums that needed disabling, this is kind of like that, 6 Horizon Ladders need destroying.

No one but you Core soldiers have tried.

Well I suppose the Mazoku have also tried, shame that it seems only Humans can bear the Core’s Light.

Imagine if a Mazoku received it? Otherworld King would be browning his pants.

Magisa asks the obvious question.

This… answers the question slightly but not totally but it’s fine!

Dan intends to send each of the Core Soldiers to a different Horizon Ladder I imagine, each one will be individually tasked with the complete annihilation of said Horizon Ladder.

Though it seems this shot of Otherworld King at this time suggests to me that this guy very clearly knows they’re coming… The question becomes not if he’ll try something, but what?

But that my friends, is a discussion for next episode.

It’s clear to me by the fact that this episode did not seem padded in any way that the presence of the 2-part episode was necessary for ensuring that the story could be told without rushing any facets of it.

I’ll retract my earlier complaint last episode about it being a 2-parter, though I really dislike 2-parters.

In any case, right now we’re moving on from Leon and heading into the endgame as we inch closer to that ever-climactic episode 50.

Anyway, let’s have a look at our card of the day!

What else would it be, if not The WingDeity Grand-Woden?

It’s not a stretch to say that this card, in particular, is incredibly strong. It can wage many attacks on your turn, and provide an immense amount of defense on the opponents given it can refresh on any Armed Machine exhaust, and negate Magic as long as it’s not exhausted.

It’s reductions are quite generous too, normally a Cost 8 Spirit has around 4 reductions but Grand-Woden has 5, making it’s minimum cost 3.

It does have weaknesses though, namely that it’s offense can be interrupted if you use Magic when White attacks, which is perfectly fitting given that White’s main weaknesses are meant to be shifting to an aggressive position, being vulnerable during that offense is entirely in-character for the colour.

There is also the issue of Tribute, this keyword is dropped sometime after the next Saga of cards, this saga being the “Booster Set Saga” and the next Saga being the “Constellation Saga”

I may have mentioned in Toppa but Tribute is an immense detriment as it requires you to give up something powerful in order to obtain something powerful, that is presumably the point but there are various cards that are strong which don’t require such prohibitive costs.

Just to put into perspective how much Tribute was disliked even at this time, BS08 introduced a number of cards that allowed you to ignore Tribute costs, BlackAmenborg discussed last episode was one, Dark-Crimson debuted a while ago was another, but there was even a series of these.

Dragon Knight – Armed Machine
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (Your Main Step)
Once per turn, you can summon a Spirit card with Tribute from your Hand without using Tribute. However, any (When Summoned) effects of the Spirit can’t activate.
[LV1][LV2][LV3] (Opposing Attack Step)
When not blocked, if the opposing Spirit’s BP is equal or inferior to this Spirit’s, your Life can’t be reduced by that Spirit’s attack.

BS08, the same set Grand-Woden released, produced a series of cards, 1 per colour, that enabled you to simply ignore Tribute. It’s not like in the case of BlackAmenborg where you needed to designate it as a target, Platinum could ignore the tribute of say, Dark-Siegfried entirely, no Cost 6 card even needed, as long as you didn’t use an effect when it was summoned, it was free reign.

All of these were in the Dragon Knight family and all share “DragonRider” in their title. This also means that Dark-Crimson was capable of summoning these Spirits off of it’s own effect. The White Platinam was given some favouritism however as it’s the only member of it’s series who’s 2nd effect isn’t a direct form of support for the Dragon Emperor family. Meaning it was right at home in Grand-Woden decks without having any of it’s effects wasted.

Anyway I’ve rambled plenty, I’ll see you guys in the next one, buh-bye.

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