Chapter 100. Counting the Accomplice Cards of Tearlaments! The Acceleration Dread from Tearlaments' Major Power-Ups!
It wasn't just Yusei Fudo.
The other protagonists from the various worlds also realized how terrifying Tearlaments became once combined with the Ishizu (EARTH Fairy) cards.
Even though they hadn't yet seen any match videos of Tearlaments,
Just the combo of the Ishizu cards with Tearlaments was already enough for them to get the picture.
In the short video, the full walkthrough of Tearlaments was still continuing.
Beloved Mermaid: "Tearlaments with Ishizu dominated roughly half of the pie chart at the time!"
Beloved Mermaid: "And even after losing Toadally Awesome, Spright was still struggling and looking for chances!"
Beloved Mermaid: "Precisely because Ishizu Tearlaments was so strong back then,"
"In the pie chart at the time, the meta was basically either Tearlaments or decks built to beat Tearlaments."
"Which raises the question."
"How could mere Tearlaments, just by being buffed with the Ishizu cards, seize the meta like that?"
"I remember that after Tearlaments got those power-ups, they took about 46% of the July 2022 pie chart."
"It wasn't only that Spright lost Toadally Awesome and so couldn't contest Tearlaments!"
"This also involved the July Forbidden & Limited List and the July booster set at that time."
"Besides Toadally Awesome, powerful cards like Crystron Halqifibrax and Vanity's Emptiness also got hit."
"Then a number of generic staples became Tearlaments' accomplices!"
"As a result, 'comboing off' during the opponent's turn became possible for Tearlaments!"
"First I'll talk about the other engines."
"The July booster power-ups will come later."
"'Combo on the opponent's turn?'"
At that last sentence, the old-guard duelists across the worlds all wore confused expressions.
Taken literally,
It meant Tearlaments could 'explode' and build a board on the opponent's turn.
But the problem is—
How is that even possible?
It's the opponent's turn!
The opponent still needs to combo off!
How is Tearlaments supposed to combo off?
Isn't that self-contradictory?
Even if the Tearlaments core has a few cards that can move on the opponent's turn,
So what?
That still isn't enough to do much!
What waves could it possibly make?
Only when they saw the follow-up inclusion of generic single cards
Did they realize just how laughable their earlier thinking had been.
The short video moved into the "generic support" section!
Beloved Mermaid: "With Ishizu plus Tearlaments, the shell of a meta-defining deck was complete."
Beloved Mermaid: "The next issue is what other singles to include."
Beloved Mermaid: "I'll go over several famous—and frankly mandatory—lines."
"The first: the Shaddoll package."
"Include Shaddoll Beast and Shaddoll Squamata!"
"Milling Squamata means you're effectively milling into Shaddoll Beast."
"And Shaddoll Beast gives you a draw."
"Naturally, if you play this, you also put in the iconic Shaddoll Fusion boss for the Extra Deck!"
"El Shaddoll Winda!"
"Level 5, DARK, Spellcaster!"
"ATK/DEF 2200/800."
"Effect 1: This card on the field cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects."
"Effect 2: While this card is in the Monster Zone, each player can only Special Summon once per turn."
"Effect 3: If this card is sent to the GY: Target 1 'Shaddoll' Spell/Trap in your GY; add it to your hand."
"The main point of these three effects is the second!"
"Make this as part of your end board, and you've locked out multiple Special Summons!"
"The second: the 'Orange Light' line."
"Include Herald of Orange Light to negate monster effects!"
"And the Level 2 that helps with milling, Diviner of the Herald!"
"Because of these two cards,"
"You directly increase the chance of Tearlaments building a board on the opponent's turn!"
"To negate with Orange Light, you send this card and one Fairy from your hand to the GY to negate the activation and destroy."
"Fairy monsters! Oh, right—those Ishizu cards are all Fairy, feeding the GY!"
"Well then! You just dumped half your Deck for me!"
"On the opponent's turn?"
"No problem!"
"First, let my GY effects chain off!"
"You want to negate? Try and see if you can actually stop the Tearlaments Fusion resolves!"
"And Diviner of the Herald is even nastier—on Summon it sends a Fairy to the GY and can increase its Level!"
"It's a Level 2 Tuner; if it sends a Level 4 like Herald of the Arc Light, it becomes Level 6, right?"
"Okay then, what Levels are the Tearlaments main-deckers?"
"Level 4, Level 3, Level 2—there are all of them!"
"Which basically means you can Synchro for Level 10, 9, or 8!"
"So doesn't that let you include Baronne de Fleur?"
"Great, you've got yet another negate."
"The third: the Xyz line."
"Tearlaments already has Level 4s, and Ishizu gives you more 4s!"
"Without Ishizu, you might have found it hard to access Xyz."
"Now you can! Put in Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS – Sky Thunder, the stall piece Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir, the thief Time Thief Redoer, and Abyss Dweller for graveyard-centric mirror matches, etc."
"That's why the Tearlaments end board is actually very flexible!"
"In the mirror, you can simply Xyz into the 'sewer'—that is, Abyss Dweller."
"Against others, just Bagooska and stall."
"These all became accomplices!"
"Even missing one of them lowers Tearlaments' power by a noticeable margin."
"The fourth: the in-archetype Fusion axis."
"Putting aside the core cards and later power-ups for a moment!"
"Let's check the other includes."
"Like I said before, Predaplant Dragostapelia is mandatory!"
"A Quick Effect monster-effect negate!"
"Grapha, Dragon Overlord of Dark World and Guardian Chimera!"
"You can also include Mudragon of the Swamp for protection."
"The fifth, and last one!"
"The Link axis!"
"Here we arrive at an utterly absurd, extremely strong monster!"
"Spright Elf!"
"Effect 1 grants targeting protection to monsters it points to!"
"For Tearlaments, Effect 2 being a Quick Effect to revive a Level 2 from the GY is just gross!"
"For example, pair it with the Tearlaments Level 2, Merrli, to revive at Quick Effect speed."
"Or use Spright Sprind!"
"On Link Summon, it can send a Level 2 from Deck to the GY."
"What do you dump? Naturally, Merrli as well."
"As for others—Dharc the Dark Charmer, Gloomy and Underworld Goddess of the Closed World—those are just icing on the cake."
"That wraps up the Extra Deck and other generic inclusions overall."
"As for the other hand traps—Maxx 'C', Infinite Impermanence, etc.—no need to belabor them."
At this point,
They had more or less covered the non-Tearlaments, non-Ishizu cards worth including.
Just these alone
Were already enough to make the six Duel Worlds take a breather!
Shaddoll?
"Orange Light" lines?
Spright?
To these old-guard duelists, all of that was unknown!
So after listening,
They only felt… stunned!
Yes!
Just stunned!
But after they carefully mulled it over,
The fear slowly surfaced in each of their eyes!
This Tearlaments deck—
Its Extra Deck can comfortably pack Xyz, Links, Fusions, and even Synchros at the same time!
Wait, what?
That absurd?
The more Extra Deck types this deck runs,
The more varied its boss end points become!
And once diversity increases,
The possible board states during a duel also diversify!
What makes it even harder to deal with
Is not just that,
But that the end points you access with these packages are all absurdly powerful!
How could the old guard not realize how terrifyingly much these cards elevated Tearlaments?
In the DM World,
Only now did Yugi Muto's blank stare start to relax a little.
Not because he understood,
But because he went completely numb!
Just from looking at the list and learning the cards,
They already realized how strong Tearlaments was!
Yugi Muto and the Pharaoh Atem within him
Didn't even dare imagine what Tearlaments would look like in an actual duel!
"If you pair the 'Orange Light' line with Tearlaments,"
"Then the success rate of building a board on the opponent's turn really does shoot up!"
"No—this still feels unbelievable!"
"Even if I more or less get that Tearlaments' hallmark is making plays on the opponent's turn,"
"This is still hard to accept!"
Joey Wheeler blinked.
Even though he got the gist of the "Orange Light" line,
And learned how to develop plays on the opponent's turn,
He still couldn't believe this outrageous feature without seeing a real blowout.
In the 5D's World,
For Yusei Fudo and company,
The most incredible thing at first was the inclusion of the Shaddoll package!
If you can, at Quick Effect speed on the opponent's turn, go into El Shaddoll Winda,
Then for Synchro strategies that's practically a dimensionality-reduction strike!
What do Synchros rely on?
Isn't it the ability to Special Summon repeatedly?
To make the strongest possible going-first board?
If Tearlaments makes Winda on your turn when you go first,
The consequences are unthinkable!
Not only for Synchro decks—this holds true for many decks!
"So this is the power of Tearlaments?"
"Just hearing it already sounds unbelievable."
"If we actually duel…"
A chill ran down Yusei Fudo's spine as the thought formed.
He had no chance.
Beloved Mermaid: "With these accomplices in place,"
Beloved Mermaid: "Tearlaments skyrocketed across the entire metagame!"
Beloved Mermaid: "Of course, reaching the absolute apex"
"Still required the later Tearlaments power-up cards from the next set."
"It was precisely that next wave of support"
"That let Tearlaments completely dominate the format as a top-tier force!"
"Without that wave of support, those 'accomplice' cards I mentioned couldn't have worked hand-in-glove with Tearlaments."
"July—booster set '11xx' released!"
"Beyond Blackwing and Tearlaments support,"
"It also introduced brand-new series: Kashtira and the Bystials!"
"We won't talk about Kashtira yet!"
"First let's see what that set gave Tearlaments,"
"And how it made Tearlaments the tyrant of July!"
"First, another Fusion boss joined the lineup!"
"Tearlaments Rulkallos!"
"Level 8, 3000/2500!"
"WATER, Aqua."
"Fusion Materials: simply Tearlaments Kitkallos plus one 'Tearlaments' monster!"
"Effect 1: Other Aqua monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle."
"Effect 2: When your opponent activates a card or effect that includes a Special Summon, you can negate the activation and destroy it, then send one 'Tearlaments' card from your hand or face-up field to the GY."
"Effect 3: If this Fusion Summoned card is sent to the GY by a card effect, you can Special Summon it."
"As an end point in terms of power, this card is absolutely on par with Kaleido-Heart!"
"And it has an inherent Special Summon negate! As a going-first piece, its strength is sufficient!"
"Next are several Spells!"
"The strongest among them is Tearlaments Scream!"
With the booster-set Spells now on screen,
Before everyone could recover from how strong Rulkallos was,
They were immediately stunned by Tearlaments Scream's effect!
A Continuous Spell!
Effect 1!
When a monster is Normal or Special Summoned and you control a "Tearlaments" monster, you can send the top three cards of your Deck to the GY, and all your opponent's face-up monsters lose 500 ATK for the rest of the turn!
Effect 2!
If this card is sent to the GY by a card effect, add one "Tearlaments" Trap from your Deck to your hand!
After reading that,
The duelists across the six worlds fell silent!
How strong are the Tearlaments Traps?
This card—
When sent to the GY by effect, it can search!!!
That's downright terrifying!
It means that Tearlaments,
Once it makes Kitkallos, can effectively search once for Tearlaments Cryme—the omni-negate Counter Trap!
And once Scream is milled, you can then search the monster-effect negate—Tearlaments Sulliek!
Going first—without saying anything else,
Just setting these two cards already gives you two interruptions!
What kind of concept is that?
And after activation, it still keeps fueling mills!
If you mill the three main-deck names—Merrli, Havnis, and Scheiren—your Fusion chains start exploding!
If you miss them? You'll probably mill an Ishizu card, right?
Okay, hit an Ishizu card!
The Ishizu cards can mill five more!
If those five include another Ishizu, keep milling!
If you hit a Tearlaments name, start Fusing!
If the opponent tries to leverage graveyard resources, the Ishizu cards shuffle them away for you!
At this thought, the protagonists of the six worlds all twitched.
So this is the new-era Fusion deck?
Fake! Way too fake!
Beloved Mermaid: "Those two are the key power-ups!"
Beloved Mermaid: "The remaining ones are the Quick-Play Spell Tearlaments Heartbeat,"
"And the last one, Tearlaments Grief."
"These two aren't run in large numbers."
"If Tearlaments isn't under limitations,"
"There honestly aren't slots for them."
"First, Heartbeat at one or two."
"It targets Spells/Traps, shuffles them into the Deck, then you discard one card."
"If Heartbeat is sent to the GY by effect, it adds a 'Tearlaments' Trap from your GY to your hand."
"Then Grief at zero to one."
"It Special Summons a Tearlaments monster from Deck or GY, then you send one monster you control that shares a Type or Attribute to the GY."
"Its second effect, when sent to the GY by effect, adds one of your banished 'Tearlaments' Traps."
"So its second effect isn't that relevant as an opening mill."
"That concludes the acceleration-inducing, meta-warping dread that Tearlaments gained from its major power-ups."
"You could say that without Tearlaments Scream and Tearlaments Rulkallos,"
"It wouldn't have been so easy to sweep the standings!"
At this point,
The Tearlaments list and its overall game plan
Had been fully revealed!
This was the full display of how strong Ishizu Tearlaments was back then!
Its terror when unrestricted—
Only those who lived through it truly know!
But the duelists of the six worlds noticed a key highlight.
Kashtira!
They had, after all, already learned Kashtira's lines and plans earlier.
Since that very booster introduced Kashtira,
Wouldn't Tearlaments get crushed by Kashtira afterward?
However—
The truth surprised the old guard!
The next chapter section was:
"The hunter ultimately becomes the prey!"
"The first accomplice deck to fall to Tearlaments—Kashtira! A hundred million!"
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