Chapter 31. Core Dark Magician Main-Deck Staples! Magicians' Souls and Illusion of Chaos!
By now, the six Duel Worlds had formed a preliminary understanding of the Dark Magician strategy.
Even Dark Magician experts Yugi Muto and Pharaoh Atem, after watching, had to regard this familiar yet unfamiliar Dark Magician strategy with fresh eyes.
And the short video hadn't ended yet.
The uploader, "30-Year-Old Dark Magician," continued explaining follow-up Dark Magician content and key points.
"30-Year-Old Dark Magician: After covering the strongest board, next is an analysis of the must-have cards for this Dark Magician strategy."
"30-Year-Old Dark Magician: Three vanilla copies of Dark Magician—nothing to add there, and Magician's Rod, the in-archetype powerful searcher—also nothing to add."
"30-Year-Old Dark Magician: The only ones worth calling out are the following.
First is Magicians' Souls!"
[Card Name: Magicians' Souls (Level 1)]
[Attribute: DARK]
[Type: Spellcaster]
[ATK/DEF: 0/0]
As the info for this Level 1, 0/0 monster popped up, the old-guard Duelists of the original era all furrowed their brows.
Seriously?
You're even running a card with stats that weak?
But once they finished reading the effects—and fully understood them—the old guard couldn't sit still.
Effect 1!
If this card is in your hand, you can send 1 Level 6 or higher Spellcaster from your Deck to the Graveyard, then choose 1 of 2 effects:
either Special Summon this card, or send this card to the Graveyard, then Special Summon 1 "Dark Magician" or 1 "Dark Magician Girl" from your Graveyard.
A simple, blunt search-by-proxy line!
Sending Dark Magician to the Graveyard isn't a waste of resources at all.
It's effectively a Dark Magician "search!"
What's absurd is—
this card can also choose to help Special Summon Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl!
Effect 2!
You can send up to 2 Spell/Trap Cards from your hand and/or field to the Graveyard to draw the same number of cards.
A plain, no-nonsense resource gain on the second effect—also doubles as freeing zones!
After taking it in as a whole—
in the Duel Monsters world—
Yugi Muto and Pharaoh Atem both understood just how valuable this card is in its native archetype.
At its core, Dark Magician is a three-card start; having this card in hand is equivalent to either fetching or Special Summoning Dark Magician.
"30-Year-Old Dark Magician: Running 3 Magicians' Souls is a non-issue.
It's the core of the core."
"30-Year-Old Dark Magician: Next is Illusion of Chaos, a Ritual Monster that can either serve as a negate or function as a search."
[Card Name: Illusion of Chaos (Level 7)]
[Attribute: DARK]
[Type: Spellcaster]
[ATK/DEF: 2100/2500]
"First effect—simply reveal it to your opponent, search your Deck for Dark Magician, then put 1 card from your hand back on top of the Deck."
"Second effect—on the field it functions as a monster-effect negate; then it returns to the hand and can Special Summon Dark Magician from your Graveyard, which, combined with Dark Magical Circle, can even banish!"
"With just these two effects, this card is also a must-run at 3!"
"So it's not hard to see—the native monsters and Spells/Traps, and their synergy with Dark Magician, are very strong."
"Just these two cards alone—I believe all you Duelists watching understand what status they hold, right?"
"....."
Magicians' Souls and Illusion of Chaos.
Indeed.
The roles of these two cards are absolutely critical in the native build.
In the Duel Monsters world—
after a deep breath, Yugi Muto seriously pondered the combos between these two cards and the other Dark Magician cards.
Within him, the Pharaoh had already parsed the entire line of play.
Magicians' Souls and Illusion of Chaos are, in truth, support pieces for a going-first board.
If you want to rely on just these two to produce damage—
that's simply impossible.
Or rather, they're not qualified for that.
One has 0 ATK, quietly serving as a tool to summon or fetch Dark Magician.
Illusion of Chaos with 2100 ATK is also nothing impressive in battle; its focus is on repeatedly cycling into a monster-effect negate.
…
In the GX world—
after seeing these two key cards—
Jesse Anderson and Bastion Misawa had already estimated the general Dark Magician lines.
Except—
if that really is the case—
neither Jesse Anderson nor Bastion Misawa looked especially pleased.
Because—
the power level seemed lacking.
Compared to HERO—
perhaps Dark Magician really can't match HERO?
"So, the King of Games' Deck—"
"still relies on Spells/Traps, right?"
"Like Eternal Soul, or Dark Magical Circle!"
Jaden Yuki rubbed his chin, speaking thoughtfully.
"Roughly that."
"Maybe it relies even more on other engines?"
"Let's keep watching and we'll know."
Aster Phoenix shrugged.
As for Dark Magician's strengths—
what he remembered was ever-changing lines and the creative use of Spells/Traps.
The former King of Games, Yugi Muto, and Pharaoh Atem—
when they piloted Dark Magician—
it all came down to one word!
"Rip!"
Yes—as long as you can "rip," you can make the Dark Magician Deck shine!
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