Chapter 54. Red-Eyes Explosive Combo Explanation! Non-Archetype Linkage Leaves the Old Guard Staring Blankly!
Two Link Monsters.
[Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres] and [The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche].
They have each already shown what they do.
At least compared to the previous two—[Striker Dragon] and [Dragunity Knight – Romulus]—their inclusion is easier to understand.
But if it were only that—
For duelists across the six Duel Worlds,
It still wouldn't explain how the Red-Eyes Deck actually pulls off its combo lines!
In the Duel Monsters world.
The entire build has already been explained.
Seto Kaiba let out a calm laugh and began to speak.
"Hmph, a third-rate deck for a third-rate duelist."
"Judging by this alone,"
"My Blue-Eyes White Dragon—whether it's that one-hit Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon, or the Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon fusion—"
"Is stronger than Red-Eyes."
"Looks like I expected too much."
"Red-Eyes is just that."
Kaiba finished, shrugged, and closed his eyes, no longer watching the Red-Eyes short video on the big screen.
Joey Wheeler looked unhappy when he heard that.
But even he couldn't understand the Red-Eyes build, and couldn't grasp the current Red-Eyes combo plan.
For a moment,
He didn't even know how to argue back.
"Kaiba, don't get ahead of yourself."
"This video creator goes by Red-Dad yyds."
"I'm curious—just what is this 'Red-Dad,' anyway?"
"Maybe the Red-Eyes ace is that, who knows."
Yugi Muto joked.
But he didn't know—
What he said
Really did hit the mark!
The next video
Would be Red-Dad's segment!
...
In the GX world.
Atticus Rhodes held his breath and exhaled slowly.
His mind began to churn, sorting through the ideas behind each card,
Trying to find the connections among them.
What RR? What Phantom Knights?
What are these cards, really?
"Don't stress, Atticus-senpai."
"The final part is about to start."
"You'll understand soon."
Syrus Truesdale saw Atticus already frowning and scratching his head in agitation,
So he hurried to offer some reassurance.
"Syrus-kun."
"You don't understand."
"All of this… goes way beyond what we know."
"Right now, I feel like I need to rebuild my whole view of Dueling."
Atticus said that, then fell back into deep thought.
...…
In the 5D's world.
Yusei Fudo and the others had arrived at the Satellite Sector's police station.
Tetsu Ushio snorted with a laugh at the Red-Eyes short video.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
"I'm saying—this Red-Eyes or whatever! Forget it already!"
"Know what my ace monster is now?"
"Ever heard of [Montage Dragon]?"
"My ace right now is this!"
Ushio pulled out an 8-Star [Montage Dragon] with 0 ATK from his Deck.
Its effect allows a Special Summon only by sending 3 monsters from the hand to the Graveyard.
This card's ATK becomes the combined Levels of those monsters × 300.
Simply put!
If the three total 30 Levels,
Then [Montage Dragon] can reach a ridiculous 9000 ATK!
Yusei Fudo and Jack Atlas both tensed when they saw that card text.
Ushio
Had indeed picked up a strong card!
No wonder he'd looked down on the Red-Eyes build explanation earlier.
...…
In the ZEXAL world.
Yuma Tsukumo and Astral both wore troubled expressions.
They didn't really care about Red-Eyes's combo plan.
What caught their attention was the one and only Rank-Up-Magic card in the whole build!
Namely—
[The Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Launch]!
"Astral, you're sure you're not mistaken?"
"A Rank-Up-Magic card! Is that the power of the Barian World?"
Yuma asked again, uncertain.
"Mm. I can be sure."
"The Barian World cannot directly interfere with the Astral World; it was formed thousands of years ago from souls bearing Chaos that were banished by the Astral World—born from Chaos itself."
"That's why the Xyz Monsters there can perform Chaos Xyz Evolution."
"People from the Barian World can basically Rank-Up at will."
Astral set aside the memory that had suddenly surfaced.
Perhaps it was [The Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Launch]
That fused those memory fragments.
"The Barian World, huh?"
"I get it."
Yuma let out a long breath.
They still hadn't figured out this so-called higher world, and now the Barian World popped up.
How many worlds are there, exactly?
...…
In the Prime World.
Sei Yuki stretched lazily and cheerfully checked the group messages from the Duel Monsters world and the GX world.
Each world had its own take on Red-Eyes.
After reading, that lingering ten percent of doubt in Sei Yuki's mind also vanished.
Judging by the duel thinking and logic of some duelists in the Duel Monsters and GX worlds—
They were really behind the times!
"Ahh!"
"No more delays!"
"Let's finish showing them Red-Eyes early, then show them what truly strong cards look like!"
"Starting with Red-Dad!"
Once Sei Yuki decided on the next video's content,
The final segment of the Red-Eyes short began to play!
Red-Dad yyds: "Congrats to everyone who made it this far—you're about to see the most exciting duel sequence!"
Red-Dad yyds: "As we all know, I said from the start—Fusion is absolutely not the focus of Red-Eyes!"
"Because the Spell [Red-Eyes Fusion] self-restricts too hard!"
"After activation, you cannot Normal or Special Summon monsters, except by that card's effect."
"In other words, once you use Red-Eyes Fusion, you're locked out of Summons and Special Summons!"
"That is absolutely fatal to any Deck!"
"So I don't recommend using Red-Eyes Fusion."
"But if it's for Red-Dad, that's a different story."
"Eh, fine."
"Let's first look at how the Red-Eyes Deck actually sequences its combo!"
"..."
After Red-Dad finished line after line,
The duel footage quickly cut to Red-Eyes in action!
Seeing that,
Duelists across all six Duel Worlds wore serious expressions!
Finally—
Is it here?
Red-Eyes's explosive line?
Those non-archetype, card-flow combos?
With that hope,
After drawing 5 cards for the first turn—
Red-Dad yyds immediately began to operate!
"First is the main Red-Eyes engine's setup and usage!"
"Our general idea is the same."
"Everyone, pay attention—learn well, think hard!"
"Normal Summon [Black Metal Dragon]!"
"Then Link it into [Striker Dragon]!"
"Black Metal triggers—add [Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon] from Deck!"
"REDMD's effect—banish [Striker Dragon], Special Summon itself!"
"REDMD again—Special Summon [Black Metal Dragon] from the Graveyard!"
"Now we start looping to churn resources."
With that explanatory sequence, duelists across the six Duel Worlds fell silent.
They had been wondering how to start the engine.
So it's like this—
Use Black Metal and REDMD to repeatedly generate value off Black Metal's search?
You can play it like that?
Red-Dad yyds: "Then we keep Linking!"
"[Black Metal Dragon] and [Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon]—Link!"
"Make [Dragunity Knight – Romulus] here!"
"Romulus triggers—add the Field Spell [Dragon Ravine]!"
"In the Graveyard, Black Metal triggers—add [Red-Eyes Black Meteor Dragon]!"
"Activate [Dragon Ravine], then its effect—discard 1, send [Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms] from Deck to the Graveyard."
"'Black Meteor Dragon' triggers—send [Red-Eyes Black Dragon] from Deck to the Graveyard, then Special Summon itself and increase its Level by 1 to Level 7!"
"Tempest triggers—banish Graveyard resources and Special Summon itself."
Stunned.
One word was written all over the duelists' faces across the six worlds.
Stunned.
Yes.
They were completely stunned.
What even were those follow-up steps?
And the crazy part wasn't that they didn't understand—
But that these plays
Actually linked together all those previously 'non-archetype' cards!
In fact—
Cards they thought were basically useless!
Whether it was [Striker Dragon] or [Dragunity Knight – Romulus]—
Or [Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms] and [Dragon Ravine]—
All kept showing their roles within the Red-Eyes Deck!
So this
Is that eerie synergy?
And on the field,
There were already two Level 7 monsters.
Red-Dad yyds: "We've got two Level 7s on board!"
"What are we waiting for? Overlay!"
"Xyz Summon! Without hesitation, bring out [Raidraptor – Arsenal Falcon]!"
"Key point! As long as you can make [Raidraptor – Arsenal Falcon] through your opponent's disruptions on their second turn—"
"What comes after isn't even the important part!"
"Because you're already stabilized."
"At the very least you can secure a Rank 13 'golden crispy chicken,' namely [Raidraptor – Rising Rebellion Falcon]!"
"With that kind of resistance—no joke—lots of Decks can't push through!"
"With [Raidraptor – Rising Rebellion Falcon] on the battlefield, plenty of Decks get headaches!"
Red-Dad grew increasingly animated.
And the operations on screen continued to unfold just as he said.
The bewildered duelists kept waiting—
Waiting to see just how many more plays would defy everything they knew.
Red-Dad yyds: "If we don't get interrupted, we keep going!"
"Arsenal Falcon detaches [Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms] to Special Summon [Raiders' Wing] from Deck!"
"Then we keep Linking!"
"Use [Dragunity Knight – Romulus] (Link-2) and [Raiders' Wing] to Link into something else."
"The idea is—play it by feel."
"After all, [Raiders' Wing] lets [Raidraptor – Arsenal Falcon] detach again to Special Summon."
"So we can make other Links."
"Or we can make this card—the first-turn control piece—[The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche]!"
"Then just do the standard sequence!"
"Rusty Bardiche sends [The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak] from Deck to the Graveyard!"
"Then Set [The Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Launch] from the Deck!"
"After that, activate [The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak] in the Graveyard—banish it!"
"We can even add another [The Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Launch] to hand!"
"And Rank-Up-Magic lets us make a Rank 8 DARK Xyz."
"Pair that with Rusty Bardiche's second effect to pop a card!"
"For example, we can make [D/D/D Duo-Dawn King Kali Yuga]! Other cards' effects on the field can't be activated and are negated."
"That's the end of our board."
Silence.
Dead silence.
Everyone watched, utterly stupefied.
What was that sequence?
This is the Red-Eyes Deck?
What the hell!
How is it even more complex than any of the lines before!
What is going on here!
The wild part
Is that these plays
Really do tie all those non-archetype cards together!
That's absurd!
Even harder to keep a straight face—
After the board is finished, where's Red-Eyes?
Where is Red-Eyes? Are they really playing a Red-Eyes Deck?
In the Duel Monsters world.
After watching those plays,
Yugi Muto was almost in tears.
He and the spirit of Pharaoh Atem inside him kept discussing those operations,
Trying to understand them.
And precisely because they tried to understand,
They realized that this build wasn't ridiculous at all—on the contrary, it was a perfect fit.
"Aibou! To link so many non-archetype cards together,
This idea is too strong—the duel thinking is brilliant!"
Even the Pharaoh inside couldn't help but praise it.
"The other me, even so,
Give me a moment—I need to think some more."
Yugi only felt a headache.
He still had to digest these lines of thought.
As for Joey Wheeler,
He had turned to stone, not reacting for a long time.
Red-Eyes?
This is Red-Eyes?
Is this the Red-Eyes Deck he knows?
No.
You're not playing Red-Eyes!
That's not how you play a Red-Eyes Deck!
In the GX world.
The short video left students and teachers alike confused and bewildered.
"Mamma mia!"
"Those lines are even flashier than my Ancient Gears?"
"No wonder the Red-Eyes Deck is the legendary duelist Joey's deck!"
Dr. Vellian Crowler blinked.
He had no idea.
How could he know
That Joey was full of question marks right now.
"Uh? Even my Elemental HERO lines aren't that different!"
"No—that sequence is nuts because it turns all sorts of cards into combo resources."
"Whether it's RR, or the so-called Phantom Knights,
They're all linking into their own archetype cards."
Jaden Yuki swallowed.
He immediately grasped how important these ideas were!
The same goes
For the duelists of the VRAINS world.
Yusaku Fujiki, after seeing those Link lines, couldn't help but give a silent thumbs-up in his heart.
It was different from HERO Link lines.
Red-Eyes's plan was all about the final end-board.
For example, what's scary about this board?
First! The second effect of [The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche] gives uncertain destruction to interrupt.
Second! The on-field "last will" of [Raidraptor – Arsenal Falcon] can lead into the Rank 13 "golden crispy chicken" with crazy resistance.
Third! A face-down Rank-Up-Magic is set and can pivot at any time.
Fourth! It's a one-card line; the only minus was the one discarded to [Dragon Ravine].
So in hand, it's highly likely you're still holding cards like [Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring] and [Maxx "C"].
Like this,
How does the opponent even play?
While everyone was still shocked and trying to process the sequence,
Inside the short video,
Another line was still going!
Red-Dad yyds: "Other lines work the same!"
"For example, if I have [Kashtira Unicorn] in hand!"
"I can Special Summon Unicorn, use its effect to add the Continuous Spell [Kashtira Birth]!"
"Then still Link off Black Metal Dragon and continue!"
"The difference is, we can first make the Rank 7 [Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon]!"
"Use Flare Metal to detach and revive a vanilla Red-Eyes, then make another Rank 7 into [Raidraptor – Arsenal Falcon]!"
"After that it's the same."
"You'll have to explore the rest yourselves!"
"I won't say more."
Those follow-up ideas
Opened the door to a brand-new Red-Eyes world once again!
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