Chapter 43. Ancient Gear Howitzer! One-Card Wyvern Lines!
The students—especially those who had lost to Dr. Vellian Crowler multiple times—were all staring at him, shivering.
Well then.
This round of explaining the Ancient Gear Deck had restored Dr. Crowler's prestige once again.
Before this, in others' eyes, Dr. Crowler was a comedic teacher with a dash of foolishness.
Now, even though the Dr. Crowler standing here hadn't yet mastered the power of this brand-new Ancient Gear build, he still made them tremble.
By contrast, Dr. Crowler himself was blooming with delight.
"Hahaha! Mamma mia! I can't take it! I can't take it!"
"You all saw it, right?"
"Who still dares say my Ancient Gears are clunky bricks?"
"Go study Ancient Gear Megaton Golem and Chaos Ancient Gear Giant properly!"
"Take a good look at what real overwhelming offensive pressure is!"
Dr. Crowler grew more and more carried away.
Meanwhile, on the other side, in the Duel Monsters world, after watching those Fusion Monsters with massive ATK and relentless multi-attack suppression, even Seto Kaiba fell silent.
Compared to Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Ancient Gears apparently aren't weak at all.
Or rather, Blue-Eyes and Ancient Gears—both Decks—have their own strengths and weaknesses.
But why is this so annoying?
Right now, looking at Ancient Gears feels even more aggravating than looking at Dark Magician.
Seto Kaiba clenched his teeth, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled, trying his best to calm down.
"Kaiba-boy!"
"As you can see, Ancient Gears share some similar traits with your Blue-Eyes."
"But it's fine."
"You must remember one thing—the description printed on Blue-Eyes White Dragon's vanilla card."
Maximillion Pegasus wore a strange smile as he spoke.
.....
In the ARC-V world—Fusion Dimension—Sora Perse narrowed his eyes at the several Ancient Gear Fusion Monsters on the screen.
A user of the Frightfur/Edge Imp Fusion Deck, he felt a flicker of fear toward this Ancient Gear Fusion system for the first time.
"What terrifying Fusion power."
"I wonder, compared to Yuri's and Celina's Decks, who would be stronger?"
After mumbling to himself, Sora Perse immediately shook his head again.
Don't joke around.
How could he let such a thought appear?
It's obvious Predaplant is the strongest.
Sora Perse certainly hadn't forgotten how Yuri's Predaplants made their name in one battle.
"Forget it. I'd better hurry to the Standard Dimension."
"Gotta speed things up."
Once he snapped out of it, Sora Perse stopped watching the Ancient Gear Deck breakdown and went back to his plan.
.....
The short video's rundown of Ancient Gear Fusion Monsters wasn't over yet.
"Ancient Gear Is Faith" started the next part of the explanation.
Ancient Gear Is Faith: "Hahaha, after seeing all that, have a lot of you already fallen in love with Ancient Gears?"
Ancient Gear Is Faith: "In fact, Ancient Gears' strength doesn't stop there."
Ancient Gear Is Faith: "There's one more Fusion Monster in this system."
"Its ATK isn't high, and its attacking desire is weak."
"But here's what I can tell you."
"This one card can give Ancient Gear construction a unique second spring."
"That card is—Ancient Gear Howitzer!"
[Card Name: Ancient Gear Howitzer (Level 8)]
[Attribute: EARTH]
[Type: Machine]
[ATK/DEF: 1000/1800]
What the heck?
Only 1000 ATK?
Its DEF is only 1800?
Is this really a mainline Ancient Gear archetype monster?
Since when did the core theme run something this weak?
No—wait!
It's not that simple!
Duelists across the six worlds were stunned at first.
Just as they began to suspect the card was a joke, they noticed the card's effects.
Effect 1: This card on the field is unaffected by other cards' effects.
Simple, plain, and insanely strong.
Weak stats, god-tier protection.
What is this card's deal?
It actually has godlike protection?
Unaffected by any card effects?
How loaded is that?
Effect 2: During your Main Phase, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent.
Simple and domineering—straight burn.
Burning 1000 in the Main Phase isn't much in the higher worlds.
But this is their lower-tier Duel world.
If this card casually burns 1000 a turn, then in four turns the Duel ends.
Isn't that just pure stall-and-burn to win?
Hold on… a dream crossover with Eldlich?
And then Effect 3: If this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon 1 "Ancient Gear" monster from your Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions.
Great—its last words even help you Special Summon while ignoring conditions.
After it gets run over and the field is cleared, it still helps its controller extend.
Absurd.
Just what kind of disgusting card is this?
...
In the GX world, even Dr. Vellian Crowler was dumbfounded.
This is—what, an Ancient Gear archetype card?
Are you sure it isn't a secret love child of the gods?
Ancient Gears actually got a supplemental Fusion with divine-tier protection?
But very soon Dr. Crowler was on the verge of tears.
Indeed, the protection is stacked, and the intimidation factor is strong.
However, the stats are way too low.
One thousand ATK is basically telling him that if he plays this Howitzer, he can only win by burning.
Dr. Crowler massaged his temples with a headache.
He never imagined the Ancient Gear Deck, after a whole string of hard-charging cards with 3000-plus ATK across the board, would then arrive at this card.
It has invincible protection, but the board stats drop to a measly 1000 ATK.
"Sigh, mamma mia, what a pity."
"If I still have to rely on burn to win, that's too embarrassing."
"The Ancient Gear Deck is not supposed to win like that."
As a dignified professor, Dr. Crowler naturally couldn't stomach closing out with a stall-and-burn finish.
As Ancient Gears, you're supposed to hard-charge and OTK the opponent in one breath.
That is satisfying.
"Professor Crowler! Just be happy with it!"
"The main theme has god-tier protection!"
"Isn't that good enough?"
Alexis Rhodes rolled her eyes.
Her Cyber Angels didn't even know if they'd have any future hope.
Right now, Ancient Gears can advance with hard-chargers or retreat into cards with godlike protection to stall out turns.
Even so, Dr. Crowler was still complaining.
.....
In the 5D's world, after seeing a card with protection even stronger than the Earthbound Immortals, Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas, and the others grew serious.
"This protection and these effects are definitely not weak."
"It's on par with Earthbound Immortals."
"Sadly, the stats are just too low."
"That's really fatal."
"But that's a headline. Gotta film it."
"...."
Beside them, the news-hungry Carly Carmine had already arrived on the scene.
The moment she saw the card, she excitedly kept snapping the screen with her camera.
Perhaps because Carly's silly motions and the scene itself were too funny, Yusei Fudo and Jack Atlas—who had been worried whether this card involved some Earthbound Immortal-like dark power—relaxed.
Yes, the protection is over-spec, but it should still just be an ordinary card.
Besides, with those ATK stats, a card that only chips with burn shouldn't have any Earthbound Immortal-style dark power to it.
....
While Duelists across the six worlds each had their own thoughts about the card, the Fusion-axis segment inside the short video wrapped up.
What followed was how the Ancient Gear Deck builds one-card lines around Wyvern.
Ancient Gear Is Faith: "Alright—after we looked at the Fusion-axis aces!"
Ancient Gear Is Faith: "Next is the reason why Wyvern is the key card I mentioned earlier."
Ancient Gear Is Faith: "As everyone knows, Ancient Gear Wyvern can search most of the archetype's cards."
"So, paired with the theme's Spells and Traps, how can we link them up?"
"Let's look at a simple one-card combo line."
"Start with exactly one copy of Ancient Gear Wyvern in hand."
"We Normal Summon Ancient Gear Wyvern."
"Wyvern's effect: we add the Continuous Spell Ancient Gear Advance."
"Activate Ancient Gear Advance."
"Advance's effect: we add the Spell Ancient Gear Catapult."
"Advance then resolves its other effect: we Tribute Wyvern to draw one and gain the 'without Tributing' clause."
"Activate Ancient Gear Catapult."
"Catapult's effect: we destroy Advance, then Special Summon Ancient Gear Dark Golem from the Deck."
[Card Name: Ancient Gear Dark Golem (Level 8)]
[Attribute: EARTH]
[Type: Machine]
[ATK/DEF: 3000/3000]
[Effect: You can only use this card's second effect once per turn.]
[1: This card's name becomes "Ancient Gear Golem" while on the field or in the Graveyard.]
[2: If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: add up to two cards ("Ancient Gear" cards and/or "Geartown") from your Deck to your hand, except "Ancient Gear Dark Golem," then discard one card. Also, you cannot Set cards for the rest of this turn.]
[3: If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards until the end of the Damage Step.]
"This pulls in this card, and skimming the text you'll see two branches."
"Branch one, going second: we search Ancient Gear Fusion and Ancient Gear Fortress, then discard the extra card we just gained."
"One lets us Fusion Summon from the Deck if we used an on-field 'Golem,' and the other provides targeting and destruction protection on the turn our Ancient Gears are Summoned."
"Branch two, going first: we search Ancient Gear Commander and the Continuous Trap Ancient Gear Duel."
"Pitching Commander to the Graveyard frees us from the 'cannot Set' self-restriction, and Duel lets us Fusion Summon on the opponent's turn."
"Have you paid your tuition?"
"This is the most basic Ancient Gear flowchart and first/second-turn branching."
"I think it's pretty simple, right?"
Silence.
Duelists from the six worlds fell into silence again.
That barrage of jargon, paired with the on-screen one-card Wyvern line, made Duelists from the older-era worlds feel like they were sitting through an English class and couldn't understand a single sentence.
They knew every word, but when put together they were completely lost.
What do you mean "search"?
What do you mean "pop your own card"?
Why, after bringing out a boss monster, can you still take the line further?
What is going on here?
.....
In the Duel Monsters world, aside from Seto Kaiba and Yugi Muto, the other Duelists were already dumbstruck and at a loss for words.
They were all wondering what on earth this video creator was talking about.
That rattled-off wall of text had left them utterly confused.
Even more ridiculous, it actually was a one-card line.
Needing only a single Wyvern to fill the board and snowball resources.
That's absurd.
Since when did Dueling evolve to this point?
Enjoyed the story? Support me and get access to early chapters by joining my Patreon!
Find me at: Patr*eon*.com/Resium
Free members can read 10+ Chapters Ahead of Release
Paid member can read 150+ Chapters Ahead of Release
Stories Available
Honkai? No, This Is Daily Life
Hogwarts Pet Master
Pokémon: Who Let Him Leave Pallet Town!
Scrolling Yu-Gi-Oh! Shorts