[Jinzo, ATK 2400]
This was Jinzo's first appearance in You Xuan's hand, and it seemed determined to make the most imposing entrance for its debut.
Mist swirled across the field. Red light shot from its eyes, piercing through the fog. Its metallic body slowly emerged, the king of steel with arms crossed, eyes exuding the domineering aura of a superior, as if looking down on all. Electricity crackled around its body.
Its disdainful gaze seemed to say, "A powerful master plus me, together we are invincible!"
"With my arrival, victory is practically in hand!"
Kohara's face turned grim.
He hadn't expected it to be Jinzo. This meant their powerful back row would be rendered useless.
"I activate the Spell Card, 'Metamorphosis'," You Xuan said calmly. "I Tribute one monster on my field to Special Summon a Fusion Monster of the same Level as that monster.
I Tribute Level 6 'Jinzo'!"
Jinzo, who was excitedly preparing for its debut, went: "???"
Nani!? Tribute me?
No way, boss, it's my first time! How can you treat my first time like this?
But the Spell Card had already appeared, and Jinzo's form dissipated into specks of golden light.
Ohara and Kohara were both stunned.
He Tributed Jinzo?
Such a good thing?
No matter what monster appeared next, wouldn't their backrow Traps be active again?
"According to the effect of 'Metamorphosis', I Special Summon in Defense Position from my Fusion Deck—
—Level 6, Cyber Blader!"
After its real card release, Cyber Blader was adjusted to Level 7, but in the original story, it was Level 6. That's why Asuka in the original story often equipped Cyber Blader with the Spell Card "Fusion Weapon," which could only be equipped to Level 6 or lower Fusion Monsters. This combination naturally couldn't be reproduced after its real card release.
[Cyber Blader, DEF 800]
Alexis Rhodes: "???"
What kind of sudden change in art style is this?
She wasn't surprised that You Xuan had his own cards. She knew that because he had been doing research, You Xuan also had many Cyber cards.
But who would have thought that while playing his Ojama lock strategy, he would suddenly bring out something with a completely different art style?
But remembering the effect of her Fusion Ace, she suddenly seemed to understand something, and her mouth widened in surprise at the possibility that instantly came to mind.
"Useless!" Kohara declared. "No matter what monster it is, as long as it's trapped, it's all the same! Ohara, activate your Trap!"
Ohara: "Activate Trap, 'Bottomless Trap Hole'! Destroy any monster with 1500 or more ATK that is Normal Summoned or Special Summoned, and banish it from the game!"
'Bottomless Trap Hole' appeared beneath Cyber Blader's feet. However, Cyber Blader merely glanced at it through its goggles, then elegantly swept its ice blade across. The trap hole immediately closed, vanishing without a trace as if it had never existed.
"W-Why!?" Kohara exclaimed. "It activated successfully, your monster should have been destroyed!"
"Cyber Blader is a monster that gains different effects based on the number of monsters on your opponent's field," You Xuan calmly explained.
"When your opponent has exactly three monsters on their field, all Spell, Trap, and monster card effects your opponent controls are negated!" (Old effect)
"What!?"
Both of them jumped up almost simultaneously, eyes wide.
All effects negated?
What's the point of fighting then?
The new effect of Cyber Blader after its adjustment was that it could only negate "activated effects" of the opponent, while continuously active effects like Continuous Spells were still valid.
However, the anime version of Cyber Blader and its old effect before adjustment were consistent: all card effects controlled by the opponent were negated, creating an almost impenetrable absolute suppression.
This is also why, even though Cyber Blader's performance in the anime was mediocre, it once became the core of a notoriously vicious stall/lock deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! history in the real card game environment.
The concept of this lock deck was simple: it used the common Ojama deck for lockdown, combined with Cyber Blader's third effect to create an absolute lock.
Achieving the concept was also very simple. Send three Ojama Tokens to the opponent, satisfying the condition of "exactly three monsters on the field."
Then, use "Ground Collapse" or the effect of an Ojama Fusion Monster to seal the remaining two Monster Zones. This way, as long as Cyber Blader was on the field, an almost invincible ultimate seal array was formed.
And the predecessors who invented this strategy back then were even more underhanded than You Xuan.
After discovering this combination, those "underhanded" predecessors utilized a loophole in the Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament rules of that era to build an ultimate stall deck known as TOD (Time Over Death).
They used the Ojama lock combined with Cyber Blader to achieve a LOCK. Once the lock was established, the opponent had nothing they could do but draw one card per turn and stare.
At this point, some students might ask, "Then how do you win yourself?"
The answer was: by low-carding the opponent.
In the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh!, there was no surrender rule, and best-of-three tournaments had a forty-minute time limit. If the total match time exceeded forty minutes, the player with the higher Life Points at the time of overtime directly won the entire best-of-three match.
TOD was a deck that exploited this loophole.
Once the lock was achieved, they completely abandoned attacking and simply stalled for time using means like recovering Life Points. By dragging the game until the time limit expired, they could directly achieve a rule win—and not just for one Duel, but for the entire match.
The disgusting nature of this "rule kill" even made the perennially Forbidden Card, Victory Dragon, bow in shame. And it's imaginable that players who had the courage to use such an ultimate stall deck, forcing their opponents to sit in "prison" for forty minutes, must have been psychologically prepared for a physical duel before starting the match.
"Damn it." Kohara gritted his teeth.
Ohara despaired: "All Spell, Trap, and monster effects are permanently negated, so we're just... "
"Wait, don't rush," Kohara gritted, "Cyber Blader's effect states that all effects are negated when the opponent has exactly three monsters. It only activates with three monsters.
In other words, if we summon any other monster next turn, increasing the number of monsters on the field to four, the lock will disappear."
"That's right!" Ohara suddenly realized.
At the same time, he couldn't help but admire Kohara for immediately spotting the blind spot in such a situation.
You Xuan smiled: "Then, the effect of the Trap Card 'Ojama Duo' in the Graveyard. By banishing this card from the Graveyard, I Special Summon two 'Ojama' monsters from my Deck.
I Special Summon 'Ojama Yellow' and 'Ojama Green', which I just shuffled back into the Deck."
[Ojama Yellow, DEF 1000]
[Ojama Green, DEF 1000]
"Next, I activate the Spell Card 'Polymerization' to Fusion Summon using 'Ojama Yellow' and 'Ojama Green' on the field. Fusion Summon—"
A silver-armored figure appeared from the Fusion vortex, a comedic knight with snail-like eyes and a shield, landing with a spin, its dark green cloak fluttering.
"Fusion Summon, Ojama Knight!"
[Ojama Knight, DEF 2500]
"Ojama Knight's effect!" You Xuan declared, "While this card is on the field, designate up to two Monster Zones on your opponent's field. Those zones cannot be used.
Therefore, I seal your remaining two Monster Zones!"
Ohara: "..."
Kohara: "..."
What the hell are you talking about?
Ojama Knight waved its hand, and two more clones leaped out. Images of Ojama Yellow and Green each sat on one of the opponent's remaining two zones, completely sealing them.
The two instantly froze.
At this point, they had exactly three monsters on their field, and the remaining two zones were sealed. And they couldn't use any card effects...
Ohara couldn't help but say, "Kohara..."
Although he hesitated and didn't finish, his implication was clearly to ask if they were about to be carried out directly.
"Damn it, it's not over yet." Kohara gritted his teeth, his gaze fixed on their Prime Material Dragon on the field.
They still had Prime Material Dragon; they still had a chance!
Although "Megamorph" was also negated, Prime Material Dragon's ATK returned to 2400, which was enough to break through the stall core "Cyber Blader" on the opponent's field. As long as they could break this lock—
"Submarineoid changes to Attack Position," You Xuan said, "Direct Attack."
Another torpedo hit their face, the stereoscopic projection explosion leaving Ohara covered in dust.
[Ohara, LP 2700 → LP 1900]
"Then Submarineoid returns to Defense Position by its own effect."
You Xuan drew another card.
"I Set one card, and end my turn."
"Draw Card!" Kohara shouted.
Ohara drew a card as instructed, then followed orders: "Attack 'Cyber Blader' with 'Prime Material Dragon'!"
"That won't work," You Xuan snapped his fingers. "I activate my Set Card, Continuous Trap 'Gravity Bind', neither player can attack with monsters Level 4 or higher."
Kohara spat blood.
He was numb, completely numb.
The moment their attack was sealed, their death sentence was essentially pronounced.
The seal from this "Gravity Bind" was also almost unsolvable. Under "Cyber Blader"'s suppression, neither "Mystical Space Typhoon", "Heavy Storm", nor "Giant Trunade" would be effective; they couldn't break this attack seal.
And if they couldn't destroy Cyber Blader, they couldn't activate any card effects...
Even if they drew a Tribute Monster, Tributing Prime Material Dragon to Summon a new monster would be meaningless. The monster count would still be three, and Cyber Blader's lock would remain active.
Furthermore, Ojama Tokens cannot be used as Tributes for a Tribute Summon, so trying to reduce the number of monsters by Tributing two monsters on the field for a Tribute Summon wouldn't work either.
All of the opponent's monsters were in Defense Position, so charging into them with Tokens to commit suicide wouldn't work either.
Some people are still alive, but they are already dead.
"My turn, draw card." You Xuan revealed his hand. "I activate the Spell Card 'Monster Reborn' to revive 'Bowganian' from the Graveyard, in Defense Position."
[Bowganian, DEF 1000]
Everyone: "..."
"This card inflicts 600 damage to your opponent during each of your Standby Phases."
Clearly, it wouldn't be long before Ohara and Kohara would be slowly killed by Bowganian, shot by shot.
Death by a thousand cuts.
However, they did not wait until that moment.
Seeing that Kohara was on the verge of a breakdown, Ohara, fearing he might do something foolish, quickly surrendered while there was still time.
Otherwise, he was afraid his teammate would go crazy.
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