Chapter 99. Tearlaments under Spright with Toadally Awesome! Hope Brought by the Exchange of the Spirit EARTH Fairies!
The strength and potential are clear.
But among the old-guard duelists, they still can't fully grasp how powerful Tearlaments are.
Or rather, they only see that Tearlaments can Fusion Summon from the Graveyard and recycle resources.
Yet they don't know what you can actually summon by milling with Tearlaments.
And in a duel, they don't know what the deck can actually do.
These are still blind spots to them, so they're savoring the details.
In the short video, Beloved Mermaid's explanation continues.
Beloved Mermaid: "Besides Kitkallos as a one-card Fusion endpoint—"
Beloved Mermaid: "When the pack first released, there was another Fusion endpoint."
"Tearlaments Kaleido-Heart!"
"As the archetype's boss card."
"Level 9, ATK/DEF 3000/3000."
"DARK Fiend."
"The materials are Tearlaments Reinoheart plus 2 Aqua monsters."
"The material requirements aren't few."
"And the effects it brings are very powerful."
"Each of its two effects can be used once per turn."
"Effect 1: If this card is Special Summoned, or while this card is on the field if an Aqua monster is sent to your GY by effect, you can target 1 card your opponent controls and return it to the Deck."
"Effect 2: If this card is sent to the GY by effect, you can activate this effect: Special Summon this card, then send 1 'Tearlaments' card from your Deck to the GY."
"Two effects—one for breaking boards, one self-revival that also mills an in-archetype card."
"Base 3000 ATK isn't weak."
"Plus the Field Spell 'Primeval Planet Perlereino' from that same release gives +500 ATK."
"Make it, and you've got a 3500-ATK ace endpoint."
"As for the Field Spell's effects, let's also take a look."
"Effect 1: On activation it searches a 'Tearlaments' monster to raise consistency."
"Effect 2: It boosts Fusion Monsters and in-archetype monsters by 500 ATK."
"Effect 3: If a 'Tearlaments' monster on your field or in your GY is returned to the Main Deck or Extra Deck, you can target 1 card on the field and destroy it."
"Overall, the Field Spell is extremely strong."
More than just strong.
Just combining these pieces has already made the old guard realize how serious this is.
The archetype already showed explosive development, milling power, and resource manipulation and recursion up front.
Now it even turns out their board-breaking isn't weak either.
With a bounce that returns to the Deck—non-destruction removal—many monsters that resist effect destruction get answered cleanly.
And the Field Spell can blow up cards.
Even if they target, if you fuse and do a "477" send or return on the opponent's turn to separately trigger Kaleido-Heart and Perlereino, just imagining that makes every old guard swallow hard, already picturing how bad it can get.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Beloved Mermaid: "Of course, we've covered breaking boards, which means you also have interaction on the opponent's turn."
Beloved Mermaid: "But if you want even more proactive negation going first—"
Beloved Mermaid: "These three Traps from the pack are also critical."
"Note: all three require a Tearlaments on your field to activate."
"And when these three are sent to the GY by effect, each of them can trigger."
"Start with the first Trap, 'Tearlaments Metanoise.'"
"Effect 1: If you control an in-archetype monster, target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; change it to face-down Defense Position, then send 1 'Tearlaments' monster from your Deck to the GY."
"Effect 2: If this card is sent to the GY by effect, add 1 'Tearlaments' monster from your GY to your hand."
"The second Trap, 'Tearlaments Sulliek.'"
"Effect 1: If you control an in-archetype monster, target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; negate its effects, then send 1 monster you control to the GY."
"Effect 2: If sent to the GY by effect, add 1 'Tearlaments' monster from your Deck to your hand."
"The third Trap is 'Tearlaments Cryme.'"
"Effect 1: It's the archetype's omni-negate; after negating, it also returns that card to the Deck, then you send 1 monster from your hand to the GY."
"Effect 2: If sent to the GY by effect, add 1 of your banished 'Tearlaments' monsters to your hand."
"In summary."
"Together with Kitkallos, you can route into and search all three of these."
"Going first, Tearlaments can easily set up one omni-negate and even add an effect-negate."
"With a good hand, you get 1 set backrow, 1 monster-effect negate, and 1 omni-negate."
"Not to mention, your field may also have other Fusion Monsters that can interrupt."
"..."
Stunned.
Completely stunned.
The six Duel Worlds originally thought this deck was already "enough."
But after seeing the Traps, they realized a terrifying possibility.
This deck's monsters mill to trigger effects and Fusion Summon.
Its Traps, when milled, also trigger effects and basically serve as in-house resource routers.
It's absurd.
How can a deck's entire construction be this tightly linked?
Duel Monsters World.
For the first time, the old-guard duelists feel their deck-building worldview is about to shatter.
"So that's how it is! I knew it! The archetype wasn't that simple!"
"But these Traps are unreal! If they get sent to the GY they still activate! They're just not afraid of being milled at all!"
"Yeah, I finally get it! I thought the Tearlaments monsters only get sent to trigger Fusion. Turns out the Traps also trigger!"
"Uh, I'm already thinking of 'King of the Swamp'—it can be treated as any Fusion material—now I'm scared."
"..."
As the old guard discussed this, just thinking of "King of the Swamp" was enough to turn the faces of Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, Maximillion Pegasus, and the rest completely grim.
Right.
With "King of the Swamp" that can count as any named Fusion material, just that one monster, if it's milled, Tearlaments already gain many more selectable Fusion endpoints.
Likewise, if you draw King of the Swamp you can discard it to search "Polymerization" and set up Fusions.
Fusion into Kitkallos.
Kitkallos mills to fuse from the GY.
Then King of the Swamp gets added back, and you reuse it afterward.
Numb.
Totally numb.
Thinking of this, Seto Kaiba nearly coughs up old blood.
You call this a Fusion deck?
In the short video, Beloved Mermaid continues.
Beloved Mermaid: "The next question is how this deck performed in the meta share."
Beloved Mermaid: "First, Tearlaments' approaches at the time."
Beloved Mermaid: "Because most in-archetype effects rely on the Graveyard to grind resources, there were two schools."
"One was precision-mill, adding the Branded engine to stack power on power."
"But the results were only mid-tier."
"The other was blind-mill, adding That Grass Looks Greener and the like for Fusion 'as fate allows.'"
"Unfortunately, in that environment, all the spotlight was stolen by Spright with Toadally Awesome."
"At the time, Spright with Toadally Awesome had an omni-negate via Toadally Awesome, and could also line up combos with 'Raigeki.'"
"That power level was something Tearlaments—and many other decks—couldn't match."
"Even later, when Tearlaments pivoted to heavy in-archetype plus King of the Swamp plus Shaddoll shells, the improvement still wasn't remarkable."
"From the '1109' release's four-base environment up to early June, the format was ruled by Spright."
"Tearlaments had meta share then, but didn't eat much."
Spright?
Spright with Toadally Awesome?
All six Duel Worlds stiffen at once.
What the heck?
This powerful a Tearlaments deck, in that environment, was still suppressed by another deck?
Just what kind of deck was Spright with Toadally Awesome?
Could it really sit a step above this already disgusting, broken deck?
But it's obvious today's topic isn't Spright with Toadally Awesome, so they can only keep watching the rest of the video with doubt and curiosity.
Beloved Mermaid: "Even though Tearlaments' 'style points' were completely stolen by Spright with Toadally Awesome, we can't deny the deck's strength was still online—T1 mainstay is fair."
Beloved Mermaid: "At the same time, Tearlaments waited for the right engine to appear."
"Eh, and they really got it."
"In the same year's May, the new pack DP27 was released."
"And inside it came the full 'Exchange of the Spirit' EARTH Fairy package."
"From then on, Tearlaments were polished together with the EARTH Fairies, until the July List announced Toadally Awesome was Forbidden, and Tearlaments truly took off."
"So here's the question."
"Why did the EARTH Fairies give Tearlaments that upward trend?"
"Let's first look at these EARTH Fairy cards to see what's going on."
First card.
"Kelbek the Ancient Vanguard."
"Level 4, ATK/DEF 1500/1800."
"EARTH Fairy."
"Effect 1: If a card is sent from the hand or Deck to your opponent's GY, you can target 1 Special Summoned monster your opponent controls; Special Summon this card from your hand, then return that target to the hand."
"Effect 2: If this card is sent from the hand or Deck to the GY, both players send the top 5 cards of their Deck to the GY."
"If Exchange of the Spirit is in a GY, you can also set 1 Trap directly from your GY."
Second card.
"Agido the Ancient Sentinel."
"Level 4, ATK/DEF 1500/1300."
"EARTH Fairy."
"Effect 1 shares the same trigger condition, but on Special Summon it can Special Summon 1 Level 4 EARTH Fairy from your GY, except itself."
"Effect 2: When sent to the GY it also mills both players, but if Exchange of the Spirit is in a GY you can choose whether you or your opponent mills the top 5."
"To support those two, besides Tearlaments' own blind-mill mermaids, there's 'Keldo the Sacred Protector': discard an EARTH Fairy to Special Summon itself and search Exchange of the Spirit or a card that mentions it."
"Likewise, when this card is milled, it has an effect."
"If Exchange of the Spirit is in a GY, you can Quick Effect target up to 5 cards in either GY and shuffle them into the Deck."
"If not, you can only return 3."
"Another one is 'Mudora the Sword Oracle': discard an EARTH Fairy to Special Summon it and place 'Gravekeeper's Trap' from your Deck face-up."
"Its second effect is the same kind of shuffle-back as Keldo."
"These cards combined with Tearlaments—after Toadally Awesome was banned—pushed Tearlaments to a limit beyond the rest of the meta."
"And precisely because of these EARTH Fairies, Tearlaments' blind-mill engines became absurdly strong."
"For example, a single EARTH Fairy can mill 5 cards in one go."
"On offense, that helps Tearlaments chain three Fusions in a turn and stockpile materials."
"On defense, it mills the opponent to quickly understand their engine and can disrupt their GY to block their lines."
"At the same time, 'Gravekeeper's Trap' together with 'Exchange of the Spirit' can lock down Graveyards."
"So tell me, with a card suite this strong, what happens to Tearlaments?"
What happens?
Do we even need to say?
They just become invincible.
The six Duel Worlds' duelists are already numb.
At the start they only felt Tearlaments were "like that," strong because of GY Fusion and resource recursion.
But now, seeing these EARTH Fairies, the old-guard duelists break on the spot.
What kind of nonsense are these EARTH Fairies?
They mill 5 cards at once.
And that's not even just the milling.
Once you mill another EARTH Fairy, effects start to chain like crazy.
Maybe more milling.
Maybe a timed GY bomb to shuffle back resources at any moment.
If you mill Tearlaments, the three mermaids will show you what "Fusion Summon" means.
Mill other Tearlaments Spells/Traps, and it's still fine.
Tearlaments will show you how the Graveyard is a Deck, and the Deck is still a Deck.
Duel Monsters World.
After seeing this, regarding Tearlaments' construction, the old guard already have a simple understanding.
But precisely because of that, Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, Seto Kaiba, and the others all go pale.
"I think I just saw a ridiculous combo."
"EARTH Fairies? Are these effects made for Tearlaments?"
"If that's true, then the earlier thought that 'we aren't milling enough' just collapsed."
Yugi swallows, his vacant gaze still fixed on the EARTH-Fairy Tearlaments explanations above.
"EARTH Fairies?"
"Gravekeepers?"
"Huh? Did I see that right?"
"Aren't these supposed to buff Gravekeepers?"
Ishizu Ishtar has long since frozen in place, unable to move.
These EARTH Fairies seem like level-up versions of her Gravekeeper suite.
But this rank-up feels like it has nothing to do with Gravekeepers at all.
Over in GX World, Jaden Yuki takes a deep breath and slowly exhales.
"I see now."
"This deck fully exploits the Graveyard."
"In other words, the EARTH Fairies let Tearlaments go completely wild with GY resource accumulation."
With this round of explanations, he finally grasps another terrifying point of the Tearlaments deck.
Tearlaments' second sin: few self-limiting clauses in-house, but easily teching in other engines.
Combine that with Tearlaments' first sin: Fusion Summon from the GY while recycling materials.
Put those two together, and Jaden's scalp goes numb.
EARTH Fairies plus Tearlaments—your Deck equals your Graveyard.
In a single turn, milling 20 cards might not even be out of the question.
Viewed like that, what are you even playing?
They start the game with half a Deck—maybe the whole Deck—ready to go against you.
You only get 5 cards in hand.
That gap is insane, okay?
5D's World.
After Yusei Fudo finishes processing all of this, at some point he realizes his whole body is drenched in sweat.
EARTH Fairies plus Tearlaments—one pile, and you've milled out an entire summer.
What's worse, Yusei perceives Tearlaments' third sin: tons of starters in-house, unafraid of interruptions.
Yes.
The Tearlaments deck actually isn't afraid of interruptions at all.
Your interruptions might even help Tearlaments go off.
The most direct proof is that the three Level 4 mermaids total 9 copies, and every one is a starter.
Add Reinoheart's precision mill and that's effectively 3 more.
Add the Field Spell and together it's a terrifying 15 starters.
Having reached this conclusion, Yusei's whole body involuntarily jolts.
You call this Yu-Gi-Oh!?
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