Chapter 102. Tearlaments Wheelchair Drag-Racing and the Curtain Falls! Tearlaments vs. Tearlaments—Insane Chains Leave the Old Guard Stunned!
After the Duel Worlds understood that Tearlaments getting weaker did not mean other meta decks got stronger,
what came next was a video about how Tearlaments kept "drag-racing on a wheelchair."
Beloved Mermaid: "First we need to understand this Forbidden & Limited List."
Beloved Mermaid: "After this wave of hits, how many in-archetype cards in Tearlaments were actually Limited?"
Beloved Mermaid: "First, Tearlaments Reinoheart to 1, Tearlaments Scheiren to 1, and Tearlaments Kitkallos Forbidden."
"And the Kitkallos ban is extremely painful."
"Because without Kitkallos, if you want to make Tearlaments Rulkallos you have to pair it with King of the Swamp."
"During this time,"
"the metagame seemed to flourish and diversify."
"But before long,"
"duelists realized something was off."
"At first they mocked Tearlaments—'you're on a wheelchair and still trying to struggle?'"
"Midway through they started to doubt Tearlaments—'why are so many people still falling to Tears even on a wheelchair? Do they not want to win?'"
"After that they began to understand Tearlaments—'maybe even in a wheelchair, Tearlaments can still fight back.'"
"In the end they became Tearlaments themselves—'you're on a wheelchair? I'm on a wheelchair too!'"
"Tearlaments took nearly forty percent of the pie chart, and precisely because of that,"
"the big-name duelists realized this Tearlaments system wasn't dead yet."
Not dead yet?
Tearlaments were revving up the nitro from afar?
Hearing this, the various Duel Worlds couldn't help but twitch at the corners of their mouths.
The charm of Tearlaments really is huge.
Even though the core was hit so hard by the K-snake,
so many players in the higher world still kept falling to Tears.
The key is—
they actually picked the right deck to fall for.
This was what none of the old guard had expected.
Duel Monsters world.
Seto Kaiba shuddered all over.
This Tearlaments elegy.
Does it fascinate these people even more than his Blue-Eyes White Dragon?
No way.
What's wrong with his Blue-Eyes White Dragon?
Is it just because it's a vanilla and can't keep up with the times?
Kaiba really couldn't figure it out.
How can mermaids compare to the White Dragon?
Even after being limited like this, why not give up Tearlaments and play the invincible Blue-Eyes White Dragon?
"Looks like this big round of cuts,"
"still couldn't kill off Tearlaments."
"So what's the key to drag-racing on a wheelchair?"
On Solomon Muto's side, he squinted at the short video.
Even he was getting curious about the Tearlaments deck now.
Beloved Mermaid: "So here's the question."
Beloved Mermaid: "Under such brutal hits at the time,"
Beloved Mermaid: "what did Tearlaments' build actually look like?"
"Actually, not much changed."
"It was still Kashtira plus a portion of EARTH Fairies."
"A Shaddoll engine, 'Red Mermaid,' and even running Bystials wasn't out of the question."
"And other generic key cards."
"For example, the graveyard-filling key card 'Foolish Burial.'"
"'Super Polymerization,' which can both enable mills and force oppressive Fusion plays."
"What's worth noting among the hand traps is the wheelchair shard 'Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring.'"
"During the heyday, Tearlaments would never consider running Ash Blossom."
"The competitive entry ticket for others—Ash Blossom—Tearlaments disdained to include."
"After all, milling into Ash Blossom means little, whereas Maxx 'C' would still be run."
"But after one banlist, some players started running Ash Blossom."
"First, Ash Blossom being a Level 3 Tuner sometimes lets you pair for Synchro."
"Second, combining Ash Blossom with Special Summoned EARTH Fairies or Kashtira or Tearlaments,"
"you can go into a Link-2 'Spright Sprind.'"
"Once Spright Sprind hits the field, you can keep milling Tearlaments Merrli to continue the lines."
"So these combinations are the key to drag-racing in a wheelchair."
Turning the out-of-engine into part of the engine?
Hearing the drag-racing keys,
the old guard across worlds realized a critical point.
Exactly.
A lot of important Spright Extra Deck cards weren't limited.
And the Tearlaments main axis was still there.
Even though Kitkallos was gone,
if you run two to three King of the Swamp,
you can still make Tearlaments Rulkallos at a high rate.
Is this the fighting strength of Tearlaments struggling from a wheelchair?
GX world.
Even the teachers and students of Duel Academy found it hard to believe.
Hit Tearlaments again and again,
yet it still became the chosen child of heaven,
beloved by millions of duelists.
"This is what happens once you fall to Tears—no turning back."
"Anti-Tear fighters, trying Tears, becoming Tears players… tsk, what a terrifyingly charming system."
"So even massively nerfed, wheelchair Tearlaments is still a T1 presence."
"Here's the question—when did it truly die?"
"…"
In the chat among Jaden Yuki, Chazz Princeton, and Alexis Rhodes,
they seemed to have fully grasped Tearlaments' strength.
But they were curious too.
When did Tearlaments truly die?
The short video moved into its finale.
And the last segment was the demise of Tearlaments.
Beloved Mermaid: "Once you know how to drag-race in a wheelchair,"
Beloved Mermaid: "the next question is—"
Beloved Mermaid: "how do you make Tearlaments completely disappear from the pie chart?"
"The answer is simple: even the Kashtira that came out fell to Tears."
"Then all you can do is keep relying on the Forbidden & Limited List."
"In April, 3202, the key Tear accomplice 'Spright Elf' was Forbidden."
"The new semi-limits: 'Mudora the Sword Oracle,' 'Keldo the Sacred Protector,' 'Tearlaments Havnis,' and 'Tearlaments Merrli.'"
"After that wave, Tearlaments finally slammed on the brakes."
"The glory of a generation—Tearlaments—came to an end here."
"Even though after April there were still quite a few duelists who kept falling to Tears,"
"after that, Tearlaments found it hard to unify the world."
"What's certain is that Tearlaments didn't completely die out."
"It just can't go back to that midsummer."
"…"
That midsummer, huh?
Hearing this,
even old-guard duelists who had never played Tearlaments
showed a faint, indescribable sense of melancholy.
They hadn't watched a duel.
They hadn't even touched a Tearlaments card.
They didn't fully grasp Tearlaments operations and lines.
Just listening from birth to burial,
from beginning to end,
there was a strange, unspeakable sense of vicissitudes.
In the chat group,
Yusei Fudo looked at how a meta of one era ended up like this,
and couldn't help feeling helpless.
Yusei Fudo: "So this is the higher world's limits against a theme that surpassed Yu-Gi-Oh!'s mainstream.
This cut really hit the artery."
Jaden Yuki: "I don't know why, but I both don't want Tearlaments limited and do want Tearlaments limited.
Such complicated feelings after watching."
Kite Tenjo: "Maybe that's love and hate.
Sadly, that era won't return."
Yugo: "Constant limiting, constantly finding plug-ins, constantly combining to reach the summit—so that's Tearlaments?"
While the old guard sighed in the chat,
in the main world,
Sei Yuki had already found a Tearlaments-vs.-Tearlaments mirror-match video.
After watching Tearlaments from peak to curtain call,
the next step was to learn through a duel the simple operations and lines of Tearlaments.
Only then could one truly understand in what aspects Tearlaments' strength manifested.
Locked in.
A title appeared across all worlds:
"Tearlaments vs. Tearlaments! This Is What Modern Yu-Gi-Oh! Really Is!"
With all the earlier setup,
this time the Tearlaments mirror short video appeared.
Duelists across worlds treated Tearlaments with unusual respect and seriousness.
Almost no one joked or teased anymore, and no one doubted Tearlaments' strength.
The short video began to play.
Duel info appeared.
jk Tearlaments vs. qt Tearlaments.
Both Life Points: 8000 LP.
qt Tearlaments going first.
jk Tearlaments going second.
qt Tearlaments: "My first turn."
jk Tearlaments: "I'll preemptively activate Maxx 'C.'
Alright, go on."
qt Tearlaments: "I Normal Summon Tearlaments Reinoheart."
qt Tearlaments: "Reinoheart effect—send Tearlaments Havnis from Deck to the Graveyard."
qt Tearlaments: "Activate Havnis's effect, fuse it with Reinoheart, and return them to the Deck."
"Fusion Summon.
Tearlaments Kitkallos."
"Kitkallos effect—add the Trap Tearlaments Sulliek from the Deck."
"I Set three and end my turn."
Because of Maxx "C,"
qt Tearlaments clearly didn't intend to build too much board,
and instead set three back-row for pressure.
This sequence wasn't a huge combo.
But the searched Sulliek was open information telling you there is a permanent negation sitting back there.
Duelists across the worlds could still follow this.
But after what came next,
they realized how serious the problem was.
What do you call…
insane chains?
jk Tearlaments: "My turn.
Draw."
jk Tearlaments: "I activate the Spell Reinforcement of the Army."
jk Tearlaments: "I add one Level 4 or lower Warrior from my Deck to my hand."
"Search Reinoheart, then activate the Continuous Spell Tearlaments Scream."
"Normal Summon Reinoheart, effect to send Havnis to the GY."
"Chain Link 2, Scream's effect—mill the top three cards of my Deck."
"Chain Link 1, Havnis's effect."
"Chain Link 2, Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard's effect."
"Resolve CL2 first—both players mill five from the top of their Decks."
The familiar EARTH Fairy plus Tearlaments mill lines.
They had heard of EARTH Fairy Tearlaments beforehand,
so the old guard watched with interest and could still follow the chains.
However,
after Kelbek made both sides mill five,
the resolution that followed made the old guard's heads spin.
jk Tearlaments: "CL1, Havnis's effect—I fuse it with the second Havnis in my GY."
jk Tearlaments: "Come forth—Tearlaments Kitkallos."
"CL1, Kitkallos effect."
"CL2, the GY Tearlaments Scream effect."
"CL3, the GY Agido the Ancient Sentinel effect."
qt Tearlaments: "Hold it.
Cards I milled also need to chain."
qt Tearlaments: "CL4, GY Reinoheart effect."
qt Tearlaments: "CL5, my GY Scream effect."
"Resolve CL5 Scream—I add Tearlaments Metanoise from the Deck."
"CL4, my GY Reinoheart effect—I discard Metanoise and Special Summon Reinoheart from the GY in Defense Position."
jk Tearlaments: "Back to me."
jk Tearlaments: "CL3, GY Agido resolves—we both mill five more."
jk Tearlaments: "CL2, GY Scream resolves—no Trap to add."
"CL1, Kitkallos resolves.
I add Havnis from the Deck."
"Next, I activate the earlier milled CL1 Tearlaments Sulliek effect."
qt Tearlaments: "CL2, I chain the on-field Reinoheart effect."
qt Tearlaments: "CL3, my GY Agido the Ancient Sentinel effect."
"CL3 Agido resolves—we both mill five more."
"CL2 Reinoheart resolves—I send Tearlaments Merrli from the Deck to the GY."
jk Tearlaments: "CL1 Tearlaments Sulliek resolves."
jk Tearlaments: "I add Tearlaments Scheiren from the Deck."
jk Tearlaments: "GY CL1 Tearlaments Merrli effect activates."
qt Tearlaments: "CL2, my GY Havnis effect."
qt Tearlaments: "I'll resolve first.
Havnis fuses with my GY Merrli and Reinoheart and returns them to the Deck."
qt Tearlaments: "Fusion Summon.
Tearlaments Kaleido-Heart."
jk Tearlaments: "Now my CL1 resolves."
jk Tearlaments: "I return Merrli, Reinoheart, and Havnis to the Deck."
jk Tearlaments: "Fusion Summon.
Tearlaments Kaleido-Heart."
qt Tearlaments: "CL1, Tearlaments Kaleido-Heart effect."
jk Tearlaments: "CL2, Tearlaments Kaleido-Heart effect."
jk Tearlaments: "Resolve CL2 Kaleido-Heart—I spin your on-field Kaleido-Heart back to the Deck."
qt Tearlaments: "Resolve CL1 Kaleido-Heart—I also spin your on-field Kaleido-Heart back to the Deck."
Stunned.
Everyone was stunned.
One chain after another.
After resolving a chain, another chain.
Mill into effects that chain again.
And then chain again.
This sequence of ultra-interactive Tearlaments mirror plays
directly left duelists across the six Duel Worlds dumbfounded.
They had thought it would be easy to follow,
but their gazes were already vacant and their eyes hollow.
What kind of Yu-Gi-Oh! is this?
No—do you call this a Yu-Gi-Oh! duel?
Since when could a Yu-Gi-Oh! duel become something this absurd?
After that chain,
in a flash,
all the old guard's CPUs were about to blow.
Their brains completely couldn't keep up with the chain links.
Especially during resolution.
The opponent triggers an effect, the turn player also triggers an effect.
Then a string of effects in the chain.
Then a string of effect resolutions.
Resources on the field and in the GY get constantly mobilized.
Is this the absurd change in dueling brought by Tearlaments?
Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki, Yusei Fudo, Yuma Tsukumo, and the others were directly tilted.
Since when did Yu-Gi-Oh! become so interactive?
Right.
It's all those EARTH Fairies.
In one go they sent half the Deck to the Graveyard.
Too broken.
Yuya Sakaki and Yusaku Fujiki shivered.
Whose turn even is this?
In a daze,
the old guard fully understood what "your turn is my turn" means.
Because with the current string of interactions,
if you don't pay attention to whose turn it is,
just watching the chains will already make you dizzy.
And all of the turn player qt Tearlaments' operations here were in the opponent's turn.
This is the opponent-turn explosion that only Tearlaments can do.
And this was a mirror.
So it got deadlocked.
Both Kaleido-Hearts were spun back.
If this had been against any other deck,
the old guard didn't dare imagine what would have happened.
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