Chapter 160. Spright, Toadally Awesome Accomplice! Frog Engine and Cat Shark's Massive Burst Direct Attack!
After Duelists across the various Duel Worlds gained a clear understanding of the Spright system, what followed was the complete development history of Spright from start to finish!
Spright player: "With the above card overviews done!"
Spright player: "Now we get to the core of this video~!"
Spright player: "Namely, Spright's high-tier game plan!"
"The Spright build runs an extremely small engine!"
"And it fits Level 2 builds even better!"
"So after combing through every Level 2 engine in Yu-Gi-Oh!"
"Cardheads quickly discovered the accomplice engine!"
"That is—the Frog engine!"
"Also known for the infamous Spright + Toadally Awesome!"
"For those unfamiliar with Frogs, let's first look at the main Frog cards Spright runs!"
Card #1: Swap Frog!
WATER / Aqua
Level 2 / 1000 ATK / 500 DEF
Effect 1: You can Special Summon this card from your hand by discarding 1 other WATER monster.
Effect 2: When this card is Summoned (Normal, Flip, or Special), you can send 1 Level 2 or lower WATER Aqua monster from your Deck or face-up field to the Graveyard.
Effect 3: Once per turn, you can return 1 monster you control to the hand; during this turn, you gain an additional Normal Summon of a "Frog" monster (except "Swap Frog").
Card #2: Ronintoadin!
WATER / Aqua
Level 2 / 100 ATK / 2000 DEF
This card cannot be used as Synchro Material.
Effect 1: While in the Monster Zone, its name is treated as "Des Frog."
Effect 2: If this card is in your Graveyard, you can banish 1 "Frog" monster from your Graveyard; Special Summon this card.
Card #3: Dupe Frog!
WATER / Aqua
Level 2 / 100 ATK / 2000 DEF
Effect 1: While in the Monster Zone, its name is treated as "Des Frog."
Effect 2: While this card is in the Monster Zone, your opponent cannot target monsters for attacks, except this one.
Effect 3: If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can add 1 "Frog" monster from your Deck or Graveyard to your hand, except "Dupe Frog."
Card #4: Toadally Awesome!
WATER / Aqua
Rank 2 / 2200 ATK / 0 DEF
Materials: 2 Level 2 Aqua monsters.
Effect 1: Once per turn, during the Standby Phase, you can detach 1 material; Special Summon 1 "Frog" monster from your Deck.
Effect 2: Once per turn, when your opponent activates a monster effect or Spell/Trap Card, you can send 1 WATER monster from your hand or field to the Graveyard; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, then Set it to your field.
Effect 3: If this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 WATER monster in your Graveyard; add it to your hand.
Four cards!
That's right!
The Frog engine is just four cards!
Seeing this, Duelists across all worlds immediately grew solemn!
The Spright core is already tiny!
And the Frog engine isn't large either!
Plus, Toadally Awesome is in the Extra Deck!
Which means the entire Spright core still leaves a massive number of slots for other cards!
Triple Ash Blossom and triple Maxx "C" not enough!
Effect Veiler, Infinite Impermanence, and so on can all be maxed out!
At this moment—
The veterans who were still unsure about the Frogs' power finally understood Spright's first strength!
Small core, compatible with a wide array of hand traps!
Very much like Zoodiac in that respect!
And Toadally Awesome's power—
Left many protagonist-era veterans dumbfounded!
This card—after a tricolor negate—you can even keep the negated card for yourself?
What the—?!
What kind of busted effect is that?!
This nasty?!
If it destroys Mirror Force, you just Set Mirror Force to your own field?
And even if it's sent to the Graveyard, it recycles resources!
Now they got it! No wonder, back in Tearlaments' heyday, people always brought up Toadally Awesome.
This card is absurdly strong!
Spright player: "Alright, with the four Frog cards covered."
Spright player: "Our plan becomes very clear."
Spright player: "First, Spright's three key cards!"
"As I said, one is Spright Blue, which searches your in-archetype monsters."
"One is Spright Jet, which searches the in-archetype Quick-Play Spell, Spright Starter!"
"And Spright Starter can then Special Summon another Spright monster!"
"Spright's low-Level monsters can all Special Summon themselves while a Level/Rank 2 monster is on your field!"
"Everything! Chains together!"
"That's right! The trio's combo forms Spright's core line!"
"Open Blue, search Jet; Jet searches Starter! Starter then fetches Spright Red or Spright Carrot."
"If you open Jet, search Starter; Starter fetches Blue; Blue then searches Red or Carrot."
"If you open Starter, fetch Blue; Blue searches Jet—same line!"
"Understand this triangle!"
"The 'iron triangle' is three-of each, mandatory!"
Just hearing Spright's in-house "iron triangle" and its combo flow—
Duelists across the worlds already looked grim!
Just the engine's rotation is this scary!
Never mind the key Xyz and Link monsters!
No wonder it was top-tier!
No—
Back then it could even keep Tearlaments in check as a top-tier!
If Toadally Awesome hadn't been Forbidden—
Who knows how terrifying that format would have been!
"But hold on—where does the Frog engine actually come in?"
"Uh? Seems like the trio can already run by themselves, so how do we use Frogs?"
"Yeah yeah! How do you even make Toadally Awesome? That card looks fake! A tricolor negate and it's a Minotaur?!"
"Spright's already like this—add Toadally Awesome on top, I can't imagine it!"
"...."
Chat instantly filled with discussion and curiosity about what the Frog engine does!
The short video quickly gave the answer.
Spright player: "Now for the Spright + Frog combo lines!"
Spright player: "The simplest one—even if our only card is Maxx 'C'!"
Spright player: "Yes, you heard that right: what others use as a hand trap, we use to combo! Because it's Level 2! I told you—Spright is the glory of Level 2!"
"Please watch!"
"First we Normal Summon Maxx 'C'."
"Special Summon Spright Jet from hand."
"Spright Jet effect, search Spright Starter."
"Activate Starter to pull Spright Blue from the Deck."
"Spright Blue effect, search the monster-effect negate, Spright Red."
"Of course, depending on the matchup, you can instead search the Spell/Trap negate, Spright Carrot."
"Then overlay Blue and Jet."
"We make a Rank 2 'fake card'—Gigantic Spright."
"Gigantic effect, detach a material to Special Summon Swap Frog from the Deck."
"Swap Frog effect, send Ronintoadin to the Graveyard; we can even bounce Maxx 'C' back to our hand."
"Next, use Swap Frog and Gigantic Spright to Link Summon."
"Bring out a Link-2 'fake card'—Spright Elf."
"Elf's effect revives the Swap Frog we just used."
"Swap Frog effect, send another Swap Frog from the Deck to the Graveyard."
"In the Graveyard, Ronintoadin's effect banishes a 'Frog' to Special Summon itself."
"On the field, overlay Ronintoadin and Swap Frog."
"Two Level 2 monsters!"
"We make—Toadally Awesome!"
"This is the basic bread-and-butter line!"
"Face-up, we might show just a Toadally Awesome with a tricolor negate, plus Spright Red's monster-effect negate."
"But have you considered—after Toadally uses its effect!"
"Our Elf can revive it again on the opponent's turn!"
"And because Toadally Awesome isn't 'once per turn' by card name!"
"Our Toad can negate again!"
"So in practice, that's three negates!"
"And after two Toad negates, we also add back the Swap Frog and Ronintoadin from the Graveyard!"
"You don't even run out of gas—got it?"
"This is the synergy between Spright and the Frog engine. For veteran Spright players—"
"It's basics—autopilot!"
Stunned!
The whole world was stunned!
In that instant!
They finally realized how terrifying Spright Elf is!
And Toadally Awesome's second busted point!
Those effects aren't hard "once per turn" by card name!
Two negates in a row, both choosing your own card to send!
That's two recycles!
This is ridiculous!
You even gain resources while doing it?!
In the DM world—
Yugi Muto took a deep breath, face turning serious.
He finally conceded to the decks of the higher worlds!
Is this still Dueling? This is the King of Negates!
Two back-row negates.
One monster-effect negate!
With just those three laid out—
Yugi Muto had no idea what deck could still combo off under this much interference!
Is there really any deck that can?
Even if there is—
It would be compromises on top of compromises, right?
And in the ZEXAL world—
Yuma Tsukumo and Astral were floored—
By this Xyz monster Toadally Awesome and by Gigantic Spright!
"Whoa! I'm convinced! These higher-world Xyz monsters keep getting more outrageous!"
"What rank is that Toad? It even works with Elf like this?!"
Yuma took a deep breath.
For the first time, he felt how fragile his own Hope-line negates were!
The key is—
Spright can easily rebuild these negates next turn!
Even if Toadally is Limited to 1—
As long as you make Elf, it's as good as making Toadally again!
What's more—
Toadally's negate—
Doesn't even require detaching material!
"Man! This is my first time seeing a 'fake card' like this!"
"A Rank 2 with a powerful tricolor negate that doesn't even detach!"
"Just trades itself!"
Even Astral couldn't help but complain!
And that—was just the tip of the iceberg!
Spright player: "Then, back to our turn."
Spright player: "Now we can show the power that the small core brings!"
Spright player: "That's right! Extra compatibility is also strong!"
"Using the two Frogs we added back to hand!"
"We overlay into this monster! Rank 2 Xyz—Cat Shark!"
"This card has an effect—once per turn, you can detach 1 material."
"Then target 1 Rank 4 or lower Xyz Monster you control."
"Its ATK and DEF become double their original values until the end of the turn."
"This is even a Quick Effect!"
"Then, using the Spright engine again, we make another Rank 2—Gigantic Spright!"
"The target for Cat Shark is, of course, Gigantic Spright!"
"When Gigantic meets its first effect's material requirement, its ATK reaches 3200!"
"So with Cat Shark's buff!"
"That's a terrifying 6400 ATK!"
"So don't worry about Spright's 'low damage,' or how it 'can't close games!'"
"Doesn't exist—Spright will show you what 'Gigantic Spright one-hit kill' means!"
Done!
Absolutely done!
A bunch of Duelists in the later-era worlds—
Had thought Spright surely lacked raw ATK!
Even if the opponent couldn't move under the negates—
They still couldn't see Spright OTKing!
Well, here you go!
Overlay Cat Shark, detach!
Gigantic Spright swings for 6400 direct!
The damage issue—solved completely!
Spright with Frogs!
Undefeatable!
Truly undefeatable!
Veteran Duelists took a deep breath and slowly exhaled!
Only now did they fully understand.
Why Spright, back then, exerted such terrifying top-tier pressure!
Spright player: "Of course, even with this main core, you can still run some fun techs."
Spright player: "Spright isn't primarily a Synchro deck."
Spright player: "But this card is still worth running."
"That is—Deep Sea Diva."
"Level 2 Tuner!"
"The key is that on Normal Summon it Special Summons 1 Level 3 or lower Sea Serpent from the Deck."
"Run three Divas to ensure Level 2 material!"
"And the monster you pull is—Atlantean Heavy Infantry!"
"Also Level 2! Good for Xyz!"
"But more importantly—we're greedy for this effect!"
"If this card is sent to the Graveyard to activate a WATER monster's effect, it can destroy 1 face-up card your opponent controls!"
"So that's a free pop out of nowhere!"
"Isn't there a lyric that goes like this?"
"Normal Maxx 'C', Special Blue!"
"Jet, Starter, call Red from the Deck!"
"Deep Sea Diva, embrace Atlantean Heavy Infantry!"
"Overlay Cat Shark, detach, 6400 direct!"
"Primal Being incoming, Gigantic calls a miracle!"
"Swap Frog, Dupe Frog, Ronintoadin, overlay Toadally, hiding in the toilet!"
"Spright Elf, awaken the undying (meaning Toadally)!"
"Gigantic Spright! Even its restrictions are yours to keep!"
"Bookworm God Knight, thunder descends now!"
"Spright! Number one in the world!"
"Playing dirty!"
Stunned!
Everyone was stunned!
Yugi Muto, Seto Kaiba, Yusei Fudo, and others were all dumbfounded, listening to the uploader hum a bizarre melody!
And having fully understood Spright + Frogs—
They could understand it just from the lyrics!
Wait—what is this?
Higher worlds!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters—
Has broken into the music industry?
Who's the idol singer of Duel Monsters now?
The weird part is—
The tune was unbelievably catchy!
Across several Duel Worlds, plenty of Duelists were already humming along!
Other Duelists listened to the "chart-topping" around them and were floored!
So this is the charm of Spright, huh?
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