"DUEL" X 4
[Yako & Mako: 4000]
[Yutaka & Mai: 4000]
"My turn! Draw!" Yako, the boy among the twins said.
"In order to make sure that you understand the rules, let me explain again. First, in a tag duel, the life points of both parties are combined. You both have 4000 LP instead of 2000, but if one loses LP, the other does too.
Second rule, the board spaces between partners are shared. That means if one of you plays a card, the other won't be able to play a monster in the same zone. So each of the front row and back row spaces is precious, as you only have five of them, just like a normal duel.
Third, for the back row set cards, if your partner played a card, you can activate it during your turn by clicking on that space, BUT, you cannot see what card it is before activating it; hence, tacit understanding is crucial for tag duels.
Fourth, the turn order will be me, Yutaka, Mako and Mai, then we will start from the top again. Until each of us has taken a turn, no one is allowed to declare an attack.
Fifth, during your turn, you can order both your own monsters and your partner's monsters to attack, so once a card is on the field, its ownership belongs to both of you. The same holds true for the card effects that mention the ownership of a monster.
The other rules are the same as the Duellist Kingdom's, so they aren't mentioned.
If you are ready, I will be starting!"
Looking at the twin duo in front of him, Yutaka was nodding seriously, but deep inside he was screaming injustice!
He had intentionally avoided the Paradox brothers' tag duel, and now another twin duo appeared in front of him.
They were enforcers sent specifically by Pegasus to hunt them down, and they even wagered all their chips.
Originally, Yutaka only needed three chips to advance. but now because of the rule that said they had to bet the same amount of chips as the opponent, he could only go all in.
As the test subjects chosen by Master Pegasus, Mai and Yuta were told they should feel honoured.
Feel honoured, my foot!
And the most vexing thing was, they did not even bet the cards in their deck, as they were precious cards specifically made for them by Pegasus, and they were a brand new type.
Actually, that last sentence was the reason why Yuta had agreed.
From what he remembered, Pegasus had created a brand new monster type all for himself called 'Toon'.
The effect states that only other toon monsters can destroy toon monsters.
There were even spell and trap cards that made toon monsters immune to destruction by card effects.
He thought the duo in front of him must also be playing toon monsters.
Seeing that no one raised any objections, Yako finally started his turn.
"Okay then! I summon V-Tiger Jet in attack position!"
"You say what now!?"
[V-Tiger Jet] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[MACHINE / UNION / NORMAL]
[This ace fighter is unbeatable in a dogfight. It combines with other monsters to launch an array of encircling attacks.]
[1600 ATK / 1800 DEF]
No no no no, what do you mean by summoning a union monster?
Even Kaiba didn't get his hands on X-Head Cannon yet, and you are already playing with unions here.
What kind of a bs is that?
It's like they were playing in the first version, while this person directly brought a third-version card.
Furthermore, why does V-Tiger Jet have a Union typing?
He didn't remember it having that typing while playing online!?
Are you blatantly cheating just because Yutaka looks like a country bumpkin?
"Haha! Behold the power of the new monsters designed by Master Pegasus just for me and my sister! Are you curious about what they do? Good, because I won't tell you!" Yako said as he laughed, looking at the expression on Yuta's face. This was the effect he wanted.
"Brother!" Mako finally couldn't hold it in, and she signalled for her brother to play his turn.
"Oh, oh, I set down one card and end my turn."
"Yuta!" Seeing that Yuta was still in shock, Mai reminded him. Honestly, she was surprised that Yuta was showing such a big reaction to the opponent's monster. He must have discovered something that shocked him, hence the reaction, which also worried Mai.
"Right... My turn! Draw!" Looking at the monsters in his hand, Yuta didn't know whether to cry or laugh.
A werewolf that was useless without its ritual spell.
A fiend that was just useful as a beat stick.
A dragon hatchling that hoped to grow up to be a black dragon,
A princess that liked to play with knives instead of learning how to govern,
Lastly, there was a Poly without any fusion materials in sight...
Coach! I don't want to play anymore!
*Kyun~*
Thankfully, all was not lost, as he had drawn his Duel Spirit, Fencing Fire Ferret!
See, this was how a Duel Spirit was supposed to act.
Always in your starting hand.
Yutaka did not want to name any names, but he hoped that a certain black dragon would also learn from its little brother.
*Roar*
Red-Eyes replied it did not know who Yutaka was talking about, but it would surely warn the other duel spirits to be careful in the future as well so that they would know to start in the initial hand.
Yuta: ...
"I summon Baby Dragon in the defence position, and I end my turn!" Since there was nothing he could do, Yuta just threw the baby dragon as a sacrifice.
Baby Dragon: ...
Coach! Why did you give up on me? I am still useful!!
Zoa and Fire Ferret were left for special situations, so they could only be played in the third or fourth round.
It was too much of a waste to set Tsurugi with a single set card.
Lycanthrope simply could not be summoned.
That only left Baby Dragon to be sent out as a sacrifice.
[Baby Dragon] [WIND]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ]
[DRAGON / NORMAL]
[Much more than just a child, this dragon is gifted with untapped power.]
[1200 ATK / 700 DEF]
Looking at Yutaka, who looked like he had given up on the duel, Mai started to get worried. It was not just Yuta's chips that were on the line, but hers as well!
Just what was so despairing about the enemy monster that Yuta directly gave up and just played a single monster in defence position and finished his turn? He did not even play any spell or trap cards in the back row. This Yuta was truly strange to her, so Mai started to get worried.
"My turn! Draw!" Unlike Mai, Mako did not see anything weird about Yutaka's actions. After all, it was normal to just summon a monster and then pass your turn, right?
"I summon W-Wing Catapult in attack position! Then I set one card and end my turn!"
[W-Wing Catapult] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[MACHINE / UNION / NORMAL]
[1300 ATK / 1500 DEF]
It was over!
DOOMED!
They were DOOMED!
Yuta wondered if it was better to surrender now and then pack up to leave.
Of course, what bothered Yuta was never the fusion of the two monsters, VW-Tiger Catapult.
It was what they represented.
Since the opponent had these cards, they must also have their support cards like Union Hangar and Union Scramble.
Basically, while he was playing around with the graveyard, the opponent had already started playing with the banishment zone as their second hand, and he had no way to interact with them!
FUCK!!!!!!
Even if the opponent brought a card from the second version, Yuta had a way to bullshit his way into printing a new Red-Eyes vest to close the gap, but these bastards directly brought third-version cards! Why didn't you just ask him to die directly!?
"My turn! Draw!" Mai stopped paying attention to Yuta and looked at the cards in her hand. Good! She already formulated a battle plan in her mind.
"I summon Harpie Lady in attack position!"
[Harpie Lady] [WIND]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[WINGED-BEAST / NORMAL]
[This human-shaped animal with wings is beautiful to watch but deadly in battle.]
[1300 ATK / 1400 DEF]
"Then I activate my spell card! Cyber Shield! Granting my Harpy an extra 500 ATK points.
[Harpie Lady]
[ATK 1300 → ATK 1800]
"That's not all! I also activate my spell card! Elegant Egoist to triple my harpies! Come forth, sisters!"
[Harpie Lady] X 3
Looking at these 'brilliant' plays, Yuta wanted to say something but in the end gave up.
"Then I set down two cards and end my turn!"
Now that Mai ended her turn, she proudly looked towards Yuta, only to see his disappointed expression, but Mai was confused.
Why?
She summoned a whole 'three' monsters with 'powerful' 1800 ATK points, the highest on the field. She even learnt from Yuta and set two trap cards.
So why was he disappointed?
Mai was originally about to get furious, due to her pride, but then she remembered Yuta's expressions since the beginning of the duel.
Then it dawned on her that there must be something she was missing.
But what?
Anyway, since she had already ended her turn, there was nothing else she could do.
She also had two trap cards in her backline, so whatever mistake she made was still salvageable.
"Now, this is when the true duel starts! Are you ready, sister?" Yako declared and looked towards his sisters.
"Yes, let's go and show them the power of our union, brother!" Mako also excitedly chimed in.
"My turn! Draw! I summon X-Head Cannon!"
[X-Head Cannon] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[MACHINE / UNION / NORMAL]
[1800 ATK / 1500 DEF]
"Next I activate the continuous spell card! Frontline Base!"
[Frontline Base] [SPELL]
[CONTINUOUS SPELL CARD]
[Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Union monster from your hand.]
"I activate its effect and summon Z-Metal Tank."
[Z-Metal Tank] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[MACHINE / UNION / NORMAL]
[1500 ATK / 1300 DEF]
"Now, let me explain to you what is so special about our Union monsters!" Yako declared proudly.
As soon as he said that, Yuta saw the tiger, the dragon and the co. approaching each other and starting to transform just like a voltron robot.
[VW-Tiger Catapult] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ]
[MACHINE / UNION / EFFECT]
[2000 ATK / 2100 DEF]
***
[XZ-Tank Cannon] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ]
[MACHINE / UNION / EFFECT]
[2400 ATK / 2100 DEF]
"Thanks to their Union type, our monsters can combine or disengage once each turn!" Mako also chimed in from the side in sync with her brother.
"I knew it..." Yuta said as he looked at the two cool robots in front of him. He wondered what kind of bs ebizarre effects the cards would have, given that this was the Duel Monsters era, during which thees were extremely vague. Though a part of him also wondered if he might be able to print a new vest because this time he also had Mai by his side.
Just by himself, he definitely would not be able to print a third-version card, but with Mai it was different. She was a semi-character, meaning she had some destiny in her. So maybe by leveraging that 'destiny', he could print a third-version card? Though, he had to plan this carefully.
At that moment, Mai was also looking at Yuta with a concerned expression. She finally understood what Yuta had been worried about ever since he saw that tiger monster. Turns out by summoning so many monsters, she was actually just creating a bigger target for them to attack; this was also the first time she had felt the weakness of her beloved ace monster, Harpie Lady. In this tournament, everyone summoned monsters with 2K attacks easily, while her ace only had 1300 ATK points, definitely on the lower end of the spectrum.
"I activate VW-Tiger's effect! By discarding one card, I can change the position of one monster on the field! I choose the Baby Dragon!" Then Yako discarded the card he just drew and sent it to the graveyard.
In response, the tiger jet cruising the sky sent a missile that forced Baby Dragon to move and change to the attack position.
The Baby Dragon started to sweat.
He finally felt the malice of the world towards weak monsters like him.
"Then I activate XZ-Tank Cannon's effect! By discarding one more card, I can destroy a set spell/trap card on the field! I choose that one." Yako said as he pointed towards the card that Mai set last turn.
The XZ-Tank Cannon menacingly aimed towards Mai and sent shockwaves that revealed Mai's set card, which turned out to be Mirror Wall.
Tch, another good defensive card wasted.
Thankfully, though, there was some good news, as these back-to-back discarding actions left Yako's current card count at a measly one.
"Now XZ-Tank Cannon! Destroy that Baby Dragon! Hyper Flash!" But Yako did not seem to be worried about his decreasing card count, so he confidently declared an attack. Yuta glanced at Mai to see if she was going to play the last trap card, but she seemed to have no intention, so the attack went through successfully.
[Yutaka & Mai: 4000 → 2800]
"It is not over yet! VW-Tiger Catapult! Destroy one of the harpies for me!" Yako kept up with his offence without any care in the world.
Yuta wondered to himself where this era's duellist got the guts to attack so willy-nilly without checking the back row cards.
Each and every one of them was like that.
What if the set card was Mirror Force or something?
If it were Yuta in his position, he either would have fished for Harpie's Feather Duster, granted he had draw cards, of course, or he would have kept the VW-Tiger Catapult in the defence position; that way, he would not be wiped.
But these guys never had such concerns, which honestly threw Yutaka out of rhythm.
It was like playing a chess match; you would make a move and also plan ahead while taking into account the moves the opponent might make, and once the opponent played something else, you would instantly be thrown off rhythm and have to start planning from scratch again.
At least, that was how Yutaka had felt in these two days while duelling.
Like no one played Maxx "C", Effect Veiler, Droll & Lock Bird, Ash Blossom, or any other hand traps.
There were no back row clearing spell cards or other negate cards either.
If he did not remember it wrong, even this beyond-version A to Z deck, probably did not have any negates in it; of course, don't quote him on that, as this was not a deck that he played much, so he might be wrong.
That did not mean this deck was not troublesome, though; otherwise, he would not have been so emo since the start of the duel. The bothersome part about this deck was banishment effects. Especially VWXYZ's banishment effect, which could trade one-for-null, and Yuta played many graveyard effects, so he was really bothered about how to defeat it. He himself did not have any banishment cards, and in this current version, Machine-type were immune to spells, so even Tribute to the Doomed would not be of much use.
So brute force was the way to go?
As Yuta was strategising in his mind, the VW-Tiger Catapult had already finished its attack on the harpy sisters and destroyed the one with the green hair.
[Yutaka & Mai: 2800 → 2600]
"My turn! Draw!"
Ancient Lamp!
A very good trap card with flexible use; unfortunately, he was not sure if it would have a good effect considering XZ-Tank Cannon's effect.
"I summon the ancient fiend that has the potential to combine with the wonders of technology! Arise, ZOA!" Yuta uttered these cringey words without any hesitation; it was actually quite enjoyable to make phrases up like this. Then again, he also needed to come up with better ones in the future, as this one did not feel quite right. Zoa would likely be a staple of his deck in the future, even during the Battle City arc, so he needed a suitable catchphrase.
Hearing Yutaka's words, a blue beastly arm erupted from the ground, followed by its complete body.
Then Zoa gave a hearty roar towards the sky.
The scourge of the underworld, Zoa, was back!
This time, he would not shame its identity as the ace monster of the deck and would definitely bring glory to his master.
Red-Eyes: Ace monster? You? *Snicker* Are you even worthy?
"Now Zoa! Attack XZ-Tank Cannon! Go, Shadow Ball!" Yuta shouted as he pointed towards the half-tank, half-robot monster.
"What? Why would Yuta attack the monster with the highest points instead of the weaker one?" Tristan exclaimed, making his presence known.
He feared that if he did not react now, everyone would forget he even existed in the first place.
"What would you know?" Mai said sarcastically. Anyone aside from this noob could tell that among the two the effect of this XZ-Tank Cannon was harder to deal with. So, of course, it would be destroyed first.
Hearing the command of his master, Zoa poured all his energy into the shadow ball in his hands with enormous gusto.
This time.
This time, he would avenge his last appearance, where he was defeated easily, and make his presence known!
Otherwise, he really was afraid of being replaced from the deck, as Yutaka himself said that aside from Red-Eyes, all the other cards in his deck were only temporary.
When this comment was heard by the monsters in the deck, it sent them into a frenzy where everyone started to get worried about being replaced.
With the prior example of Launcher Spider, even a strong (?) monster like Zoa was not safe!
However, there were three exceptions to this worry.
Number 1 was the newly arrived Fencing Fire Ferret; as a Duel Spirit that could communicate directly with its master, it had no worries of being replaced. At worst it would just play a mascot role; after all, it was adorable.
Number 2 was the Princess of Tsurugi; she still remembered why Yutaka had said he had kept her in the deck last time, simply because he liked her rather than considering her utility, so there was no way he was replacing this noble princess, she even thought if she could become a Duel Spirit, she would reward him handsomely for his dedication towards her.
Lastly there was Jinzo #7; he was extremely confident that he would never be replaced from the deck. Why? Because he knew his master the best, during the duels his master liked playing mind games and enraging the opponent, and when it came to enraging the others, was there anyone better than Jinzo #7 in the world? Of course not! So he was quite relaxed, unlike these noobs.
The most nervous among them was the Magician of Faith, who had not even made a single appearance since arriving in the deck.
As a Duel Monster, she also wanted to have appearances and fight in the field; unfortunately, her previous master, Tea, was a beginner and was not interested in getting stronger, so she could not make full use of Magician of Faith's talents. When she was traded into Yutaka's deck, she had thought she would finally have a strong master that could make full use of her, but what did she hear?
She heard that aside from the big boss, everyone in the deck was expendable!
She did not want to be taken out and thrown into a card binder, waiting to be traded!
She also wanted to fight!
Back to reality, seeing the oncoming attack, Yako gave a command.
"XZ-Tank Cannon disengage!" Hearing the command, the tank and the robot separated from each other, dodging the attack.
???
"Surprised, are you? Our Union monster can combine and decombine once per turn! So if you want to defeat them, you have to try harder than that!" Mako said haughtily.
Yutaka started to sweat coldly.
Is that even human talk?
So in order to take down a monster, he had to attack at least twice?
And it was also immune to spell cards!?
Judge! Judge! Someone is cheating!
Yutaka could swear that he did not remember Union monsters being this awesome before.
But then again, dodging by disengaging was probably only a thing for this version and maybe for the GX era as well; after all, he remembered Yugi doing something similar in one of his duels against Kaiba, where he had used de-fusion to dodge the attacks from Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
Once the rules became more concrete and they added stuff like attack replay, they would not be able to dodge like this anymore, or at least, even if they dodged with the replay, he could still take one of them down, instead of wasting his attack completely.
"Fine, okay then, so what! I attack with Harpie Lady! Destroy that Z-Metal Tank!"
The Harpie Sisters, who were covering at the side, trying to make their presence as little as possible so that these bosses would not target them, suddenly felt invigorated.
Picking on the weak—wasn't that something that they, the Harpies, were the best at?
So the red-haired big sister immediately took the lead in attacking.
She grabbed the tank with her mighty claws, flew into the sky, then instantly dived back down and smashed it into the ground!
[Yako & Mako: 4000 → 3700]
"Kuh! Brother, I told you to be careful before, look, your hotheaded actions resulted in our powerful monster getting destroyed!" Mako dissed her brother jokingly.
"Shut up! I was just not expecting him to have such a strong monster, that's all. I will not make such a mistake again." Yako said while nodding to himself.
"Oi, you two, who told you that my turn was over?" Yuta asked the bickering duo.
"Isn't it?"
Even Mai looked confused. There was not a monster on the field with a weaker attack, so shouldn't he have finished his turn?
"Then you would be wrong! The other Harpie Sister, make a suicide attack towards the X-Head Cannon, showing them how they do things in the middle-east!"
The blonde, short-haired sister looked bewildered and pointed towards herself.
Me?
Seeing that Yuta was serious, she gave him a wronged and pitiful look, like, how can a man be so heartless as to send a beauty like her to her death?
No wonder he was still single!
However, unlike Yuta, Mai did not look pleased with this attack.
Yuta's actions directly made her carefully set trap card useless!
Couldn't he have considered her feelings when he sent her ace monster into a suicidal attack?
Is that how you play a tag duel?
They were supposed to be a team, a team!
Just like her sister, this Harpie Lady also took to the skies and just dive-bombed with a resigned expression, while also cursing the red-haired Harpie Lady, also known as Airo.
Yes, the harpie sisters actually had names.
The red-haired Harpie was named Airo.
The green-haired Harpie was named Ocupete.
And hers, the blonde-haired Harpie's name was Keraino.
These three were actually the most promising harpies of their generation, hence why they were chosen to be Mai Valentine's Duel Spirits by their Harpie Queen.
If Mai proved to be up to the task, the whole Harpie Clan would support her fully and be her strength, but she was currently in a probationary period; that was why only her sisters and their pet dragon were currently in Mai's deck.
The Harpie Sisters were not originally taking this mission seriously, just treating it as a way to travel around and see the world, without any intention of doing their job.
But recently a stinky amazoness sneaked into the deck, which startled the trio.
It looked like Mai started to despise their weakness and was planning on changing her allegiance to the Amazon Tribe.
This could not be allowed!
How could prey locked on by the Harpies be snatched halfway?
They might not want it, but others could certainly take it!
That was why the sisters had decided to go back and give their honest evaluation once this tournament was over.
Whether the Harpie Queen decided to support Mai or not was her own matter.
The sisters were actually quite happy with Mai, so even if the queen decided to not support her, the sisters would still stay with her.
What?
At worst, they would just share a home with those stinky amazons.
No big deal!
"With this, I set two cards and end my turn!" Seeing the destroyed X-Head Cannon, Yuta nodded satisfiedly.
The field situation was quite good.
Their side had an 1800 ATK Harpie Lady on the field, as well as a 2600 ATK Zoa.
The enemy's side only had a useless VW-Tiger Catapult with 2000 ATK points.
Since he had delayed the arrival of VWXYZ by who knows how many turns, Yutaka was quite relaxed.
"My turn! Draw!" Mako said, seriously looking at the situation on the field.
It did not look promising.
The fault was theirs.
Master Pegasus had given them such a strong deck; it was only because of their own inadequacy that they were pushed into such a grim situation.
"First I summon Y-Dragon Head in attack position!"
[Y-Dragon Head] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[MACHINE / UNION / NORMAL]
[1500 ATK / 1600 DEF]
"Then, I activate the continuous spell card Frontline base to summon Z-Metal Tank from my hand!"
[Z-Metal Tank] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[MACHINE / UNION / NORMAL]
[1500 ATK / 1300 DEF]
"But it is not over just yet! I activate a spell card from my hand! Silent Doom!"
[Silent Doom] [SPELL]
[SPELL CARD]
[Special Summon 1 monster from your Graveyard in face-up Defense Position.]
"I choose X-Head Cannon and summon it in defence position!"
[X-Head Cannon] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★]
[MACHINE / UNION / NORMAL]
[1800 ATK / 1500 DEF]
"With this, all the pieces of the puzzle are right here! Next I combine all 4 monsters on the field to summon VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon!"
Then the sibling duo together shouted;
"UNION!" X 2
[VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon] [LIGHT]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ]
[MACHINE / UNION / EFFECT]
[3000 ATK / 2800 DEF]
Then, under Mako's shout, all the monsters started to transform; Z-Metal Tank became the arms, Y-Dragon Head became the crotch and the wings behind its back, X-Head Cannon became the torso, W-Wing Catapult became the legs, and finally, V-Tiger Jet became the head.
Damn!
It really became Voltron!
Looking at the giant cool robot with cannons in place of nipples, Yutaka once again felt the urge to complain.
He had just gotten rid of two of the materials, and then she suddenly re-summoned all three of them.
As if that was not enough, she also bypassed the requirements for summoning.
Originally, this boss monster could only be summoned by combining XYZ and VW, not just their fusion components.
At least, that was how it was inside the game.
But now, she had directly ignored that requirement and gone straight for the boss monster of the deck.
At the same time, looking at the dragon head on the crotch, Tristan also felt like this monster was very mighty, maybe even mightier than the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. After all, facts were there for everyone to see; it was looking at him straight in the eye with its dragon-like head...
"See! This is the true power of the cards granted us directly by Master Pegasus himself! You can never hope to reach our level!"
Sister, we get it, you are extremely loyal to Pegasus; no need to praise him in your every sentence, geez.
"Hmph, we will see about that!" Mai did not back down. She felt like there was no need to be afraid of this monster. It only had a mere 3000 ATK points, the same as Blue-Eyes; Yuta should be able to deal with it.
Yes, Mai had no intention of dealing with this monster herself; after all, for monsters like these, her deck used spell and trap cards to deal with them.
Unfortunately, being a Machine-type, this monster directly ignored them, so she could only leave it to Yuta.
I mean, this was a tag duel; they needed to share the burden, right?
She was prideful, not stupid!
Of course, she would do things in her capacity and not try to bite off more than she could chew.
Doing that would not only not reflect her pride; instead, it would be an act of stupidity.
"We will see about that! I activate the effect of the VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon! By discarding one card from my hand, I can banish one card from the field! I choose that set card!" Mako said as she pointed towards the card Mai set on her last round. It was Mai's turn next, so she needed to reduce her resources.
A sword extended from VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon's arm, and it sent an air slash towards the card, revealing it to be a Harpie Lady Sparrow Formation.
[Harpie Lady Sparrow Formation] [TRAP]
[TRAP CARD]
[Activate only when you control two or more "Harpie Lady(s)". Reduce the Battle Damage you take from an opponent's monster to 0.]
Looking at the effect, Yuta at least felt a little balanced. Compared to the IRL counterpart that did not consume any resources. This version required them to discard a card, so it was still a one-for-one trade, which Yutaka could begrudgingly accept.
"Now! VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon! Destroy Zoa! Hyper Dragon Cannon!" Mako gave the order, and a beam of light started to gather around the dragon head on its body.
Zoa, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to give up on living.
Why!?
He had only just gotten out of the deck to breathe, and it was getting sent to the graveyard in the next turn.
Twice!
This happened twice!
Over!
It was over!
He was definitely going to get booted out of the deck!
Why was his little fiendish life so difficult?
Every other random passerby had the ability to deal with him.
With his stats, wasn't he supposed to walk sideways in this environment?
After all, even the big boss of the deck was not as strong as him.
Maybe he should learn additional skills beyond Metalmorph to demonstrate his utility; otherwise, his position would definitely be in jeopardy.
[Yutaka & Mai: 2600 → 2200]
Seeing Zoa die with an aggrieved expression, Yutaka also shared his plight.
After all, it was a monster that was even stronger than the Dark Magician, so it really should not have been treated like this.
But there was nothing he could do; this was just Zoa's luck.
First, he faced Kaiba, one of the strongest two duellists in the world, and got abused, and now he was facing a deck that was at least two versions ahead of the current meta.
If he didn't get abused, who would?
Red-Eyes?
Sorry, he would just print a new vest on the spot, so it was just tough luck for Zoa.
"My turn! Draw!" Mai looked at the card in her hand and breathed a sigh of relief.
She only had a single Grave Arm spell on her hand, but since the opponent's monster was a Machine-type, it was useless.
"I activate Pot of Greed!" Mai said as she showed her card to the twins.
Looking at the card, Yutaka was surprised and wondered when Mai had learnt how to use draw cards.
Aside from Yugi and maybe Kaiba, didn't all the duellists in this time frame look down on draw cards?
If asked such a question, Mai would just point towards Yuta.
After all, she had already seen the successful use of draw cards from a certain white-haired individual, so she would be stupid not to adjust her deck.
That was also when she understood Yuta's weird overreaction back then when she had tried to take his Pot of Greed, running away as if someone was after his life.
"Pot of Greed's ability lets me draw two more cards from the deck!"
[Pot of Greed] [SPELL]
[SPELL CARD]
[Draw 2 cards.]
"Then I play Amazoness Swords Woman! Set down two cards and end my turn!"
[Amazoness Swords Woman] [EARTH]
[LV: ★ ★ ★ ★ ]
[WARRIOR / EFFECT]
[1500 ATK / 1600 DEF]
There was nothing she could do; the cards she drew were not good enough, so she had to compromise.
With this she was out of playable cards, a first for Mai since she started duelling.
The same was also true for the twins, both of whom only had a single card in their hands.
The only exception among them was Yutaka, who only had three cards left in his hands, which was weird since Mai remembered that he was one of the duellists that consumed his cards the fastest, or was she remembering it wrongly?
Then again, most of Yutaka's cards were life-saving cards, so he probably did not have an opportunity to play them yet.
Yep, that must be it.