Chapter 205. The Monarch-Engine Draw-Power Zenith! The Last Shining Salvation of Sky Striker!
Amid the quiet excitement and burning curiosity of the old-guard duelists from every world,
the short-video Forbidden/Limited list commentator for Yu-Gi-Oh! immediately began explaining the next peak of the Monarch-engine, draw-power explosion.
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "No need to beat around the bush."
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "In 2015, the Field Spell 'Chicken Game' was released—a dawn on the horizon."
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "That same September, the Monarch theme received a truly divine card!"
"A Spell Card: 'Pantheism of the Monarchs'!"
"This card has 2 effects!"
"(1) Send 1 'Monarch' Spell/Trap from your hand to the Graveyard; draw 2 cards."
"(2) Banish this card from your Graveyard; reveal 3 'Monarch' Spells/Traps from your Deck, your opponent chooses 1 to add to your hand, and you shuffle the rest back into the Deck."
"Alright—just looking at the effects,"
"I can already feel how powerful 'Pantheism of the Monarchs' is!"
"Compared to the LIGHT Monarch self-destructing and banishing to pull off combos,"
"this 'Pantheism of the Monarchs' straight-up solves a ton of problems!"
"Effortless draw power, effortless searching!"
"With just those two points, 'Magical Explosion' reaches its most terrifying peak!"
"And with 'Chicken Game' in the mix, I don't even dare imagine how 'Magical Explosion' players felt!"
"Enough talk—let's look at the exact Deck build!"
"Once we understand, we'll watch the operations!"
Two cards in, and just from the text, the old-guard duelists already understood the power!
What they didn't expect was—
even the Monarch Deck
could have Spell Cards this strong!
And Monarchs,
in the old-guard's memory,
were still "just" those normal Tribute Summon beaters!
Seto Kaiba vaguely remembered: toss in a few Monarchs as Tribute Summon tech,
and once in a while they'd do something unexpected.
But now it looked completely different!
Especially this key monster in the list: "Erebus the Underworld Monarch"!
When this card is Tribute Summoned: you can send 2 different "Monarch" Spells/Traps from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard; then shuffle 1 card from your opponent's hand, field, or Graveyard into the Deck.
Built-in precise self-mill plus disruption!
While the disruption is just icing for a Magical-Explosion-centric build,
it's still better than nothing!
Its second effect: if this card is in your Graveyard, once per turn, during either player's Main Phase, you can discard 1 "Monarch" Spell/Trap; then target 1 monster with 2400 or more ATK and 1000 DEF in your Graveyard and add it to your hand.
Simply put, it's a recovery line.
But in the Magical Explosion build, this isn't used as often!
What matters more
is compressing the Deck via self-mill!
As for other list choices:
"Allure of Darkness"—banish a DARK to draw 2!
"Tenacity of the Monarchs"—reveal a Monarch to search "Pantheism of the Monarchs"!
"Pseudo Space"—copy the effect text of a Field Spell in the Graveyard like "Chicken Game" or "Domain of the True Monarchs"!
"Into the Void," "Upstart Goblin," etc. don't even need explaining—
they're all vital draw-power pieces.
The whole build: triple key Monarchs, plus the now-Limited-to-1 "Magical Explosion" (after the Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade OTK era),
and several copies of "Life Equalizer"!
Just from this you can already see the game plan!
Under the old-guard's heavy stares,
the short video moved on to the lines of play!
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "Let's get into a live demonstration."
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "Let's see how the Erebus-engine Magical Explosion achieves an FTK!"
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "Before we start, a quick note on testing back then: pseudo-FTK rate—about 70%+."
"That's why I say: only after grafting the Monarch engine did Magical Explosion reach its true peak!"
"First, Spell Card: 'Upstart Goblin'."
"Opponent gains 1000 LP, we draw 1!"
"Activate 'Trade-In'!"
"Discard 'Erebus the Underworld Monarch'; draw 2!"
"Activate Field Spell 'Chicken Game'!"
"Pay 1000 LP; draw 1!"
"Activate 'Tenacity of the Monarchs', reveal Erebus to search 'Pantheism of the Monarchs'!"
"Activate 'Pantheism of the Monarchs', send 'Domain of the True Monarchs'; draw 2!"
"Activate 'Terraforming', search 'Pseudo Space'!"
"Activate 'Pseudo Space', copy the 'Chicken Game' in the Graveyard!"
"Pay 1000 again; draw 1!"
"'Into the Void': draw 1!"
"'Trade-In' again, pitch Erebus; draw 2!"
"Use the copied 'Chicken Game' again, pay 1000; draw 1!"
"Activate 'Pantheism of the Monarchs' to keep drawing!"
"From here it's the same flow—basically pure draw-power!"
"Until we assemble the 2-card win condition!"
"'Magical Explosion' and 'Life Equalizer'!"
"Set both, pass to the opponent!"
"First, 'Life Equalizer'—both LP become 3000!"
"Then 'Magical Explosion'—burn for game."
"That's right, it's that simple!"
"Got it?"
Once the Erebus-engine Magical Explosion lines were laid bare,
the duelists of every world were dumbfounded!
It felt like what they were watching wasn't a Duel,
but a terrifying monster!
Or rather—
it was a monster!
Is this a Duel? Is this even a Duel?!
Draw power, deck-thinning, and auxiliary self-mill—
completely off the rails!
Especially the Monarch engine's draw and search suite—
it practically turned every two cards in the Deck into a "Pot of Greed"!
No one doubted this engine could deck itself out!
Brick? Use "Magical Mallet" to shuffle it back!
If luck doesn't betray you, you immediately resume the draw chain!
Erebus not needed?
Pitch it to "Trade-In" and keep drawing!
This combo
made duelists who thought they'd be Tribute Summoning Monarchs to do "big plays" stare blankly!
Seto Kaiba: "So…the entire build is just serving those two Traps?"
Aster Phoenix: "I thought Erebus did more; looks like it's mostly discard fuel for draw power!"
Akiza Izinski: "Viewed like this, the Monarch engine's Magical Explosion success rate is a bit terrifying!"
Yusaku Fujiki: "How do duelists in the higher worlds keep doing this—always inventing combos that make you black out?"
The group chat exploded into noisy, excited debate!
Everyone was numbed by the Monarch-powered draw engine!
The key is—
the success rate was very high!
Who can stand up to that?
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "After seeing the combo, I believe everyone now knows how this engine's Explosion works."
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "From the early slow meta, to the LIGHT Monarch OTK!"
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "And now, to the Erebus FTK!"
"In truth, 'Magical Explosion' was nearing its end."
"April 2016: 'Life Equalizer'—Forbidden!"
"This card that had been obscure since release finally shined, then, unsurprisingly, got sent off."
"Then came the hit to 'Pantheism of the Monarchs'."
"Marking the collapse of Explosion-with-Monarchs and Monarchs-with-Explosion alike!"
"Without those draw-power attachments, the whole combo turned to dust."
"In the end, it just faded into the crowd."
"But—did you think that was the end?"
"Don't forget, I said—"
"'Magical Explosion' itself wasn't Forbidden until 2018!"
"That's not far from us; so here's the question—"
"Why did a card that had been Limited still end up Forbidden?"
"The answer is simple."
"The Sky Striker theme appeared."
Hearing that the key cards were Forbidden,
the old-guard thought "Magical Explosion" was about to finally exit the stage.
But when they suddenly heard "Sky Striker" at the end,
they were stunned first—
then their expressions all changed!
No way!
It didn't die?!
"Magical Explosion," after all this time, still hadn't died out?!
Spanning more than a decade,
could this card still blossom again?!
What is Sky Striker,
that it could make this old relic, "Magical Explosion," shine once more?
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "I'm sure most of you are familiar with Sky Striker,"
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "or at least you've dueled it here and there."
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "Simply put, the core relies on a large number of Spells!"
"And it revolves around Link-1 summoning!"
"Pair those with Sky Striker Spells to generate tempo and damage!"
"And wouldn't you know—it lines up perfectly with 'Magical Explosion,' which wants Spells!"
"So! Sky Striker and 'Magical Explosion' hit it off!"
"You slap 'Magical Explosion' into the theme, then add the Trap 'Blasting the Ruins'!"
"Its effect: if you have 30 or more cards in your GY, inflict 3000 damage to your opponent."
"A 2-card combo to cleanly burn the opponent out!"
"Sky Striker's in-theme Spells also grease the wheels."
"You also add the Bamboo Sword package for even more draw power!"
"And there you go—a Sky Striker Explosion build is complete!"
"Let's look at the list first,"
"then combine it with the combo to understand it!"
When the Sky Striker Explosion list popped up in the video,
the old-guard duelists all tilted into a defensive crouch—visibly rattled!
They kept rubbing their eyes, afraid they'd misread something!
The entire list—
was absurdly close to all Spells!
The monster count could be counted on one hand!
"Sky Striker Ace – Raye," for example, could be run at 0–1!
But one monster, "Royal Magical Library," was at 2–3!
After carefully reading "Royal Magical Library,"
they finally understood what it was for!
(1) While it's face-up, each time either player activates a Spell, place 1 Spell Counter on it (max 3).
(2) Remove 3 Spell Counters; draw 1.
In short—
activate three Spells, draw one!
Yes.
The Library exists to pair with the draw chain!
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "After that, here's the combo showcase!"
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "Start with 5 cards!"
Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden-List Commentator: "Play any draw cards you have!"
"Like 'Into the Void,' 'Magical Mallet,' etc.!"
"Field 'Chicken Game,' pay 1000 to draw 1!"
"Activate 'Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage!'"
"If you control no monsters: add a 'Sky Striker' card from Deck to hand."
"And with 3+ Spells in GY, also draw 1."
"A terrifying +1 into +1—the strength speaks for itself!"
"Keep going with the search Spell 'Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones'!"
"Per effect, Special Summon a Sky Striker Token (Warrior/DARK/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0)!"
"With 3 Spells in GY, it becomes 1500 ATK/DEF!"
"Use the Token for a Link-1: 'Sky Striker Ace – Kagari'!"
"'Kagari' on summon—add back 'Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage!' from GY!"
"Activate 'Engage!' again to draw and search 'Sky Striker Mecha Modules – Multirole'!"
"Normal Summon 'Royal Magical Library'!"
"'Terraforming' to search 'Chicken Game'!"
"Use it again, pay 1000, draw 1!"
"'Foolish Burial Goods'!"
"Send 'Cursed Bamboo Sword' from Deck to GY!"
"'Cursed Bamboo Sword' in GY: search 'Golden Bamboo Sword'!"
"Library removes counters—draw!"
"Equip 'Broken Bamboo Sword'!"
"Activate 'Golden Bamboo Sword'—draw 2!"
"'Toon Table of Contents'—the classic chain to search another 'Toon Table of Contents'!"
"Then activate 'Toon Table of Contents' again to search the third 'Toon Table'!"
"After that, just keep chaining your draw engine!"
"Until you assemble the win condition: 'Magical Explosion' + 'Blasting the Ruins'—set and pass!"
"On the opponent's turn, flip both!"
"Game over!"
"It's clear Sky Striker simply replaces the prior Monarch engine."
"Sadly, even though Sky Striker breathed some life back in,"
"'Magical Explosion' still couldn't escape its fate."
"With its final, complete Forbidden status, 'Magical Explosion' at last fell from the stage."
Absurd!
Absolutely absurd!
What is the "magic" of "Magical Explosion,"
that it could mobilize so many draw-power engines to serve it?!
Duelists across all worlds would bet anything—
if "Magical Explosion" hadn't been Forbidden,
countless more engines would have been enlisted
to make one-turn OTKs routine!
As for this Sky Striker Explosion—
the real strength
was in Sky Striker Spells!
Each one more outrageous than the last!
Especially "Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage!"—
a precise search and a draw!
And crucially, no once-per-turn restriction!
The old-guard were left slack-jawed!
And this was only part of Sky Striker!
At this point, "Magical Explosion" lost the spotlight to Sky Striker completely!
The group chat's discussion
shifted almost entirely to Sky Striker!
Joey Wheeler: "So, does anyone actually know who these Sky Striker folks are? Looks kinda nuts!"
Jaden Yuki: "Dunno, but if it's a Link-1 Deck, it must be great at snowballing Link values, right?"
Yusei Fudo: "Now I'm curious how Sky Striker really plays!"
Yusaku Fujiki: "Check the other Link-1s—one of the Sky Striker Aces can attack directly, right?"
The chat left "Magical Explosion" behind,
and turned into a free-for-all about Sky Striker!
Watching the short video in the main world, Sei Yuki's expression shifted slightly.
Next short: Sky Striker, huh…?
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