"Paralyzed by Jiang He's Open Scheme?"
Syrus looked at Jaden, his face full of doubt. "You mean summoning Stealth Bird just to tell him what it was before flipping it back down?"
"But what does that actually accomplish?" Chumley echoed the confusion.
"If Jiang He's backrow contains another trap like Wall of Disruption, then telling the opponent that the second monster is also a Stealth Bird creates a choice that is almost impossible to make," Alexis Rhodes explained, her eyes fixed on Jiang He's figure.
"Once Stealth Bird is successfully Flip Summoned, it can reduce the opponent's LP by 1000."
"Normally, the opponent could just attack it every turn, just like Titan did with his Infernalqueen Archfiend. That forces the bird to flip over without activating its effect, keeping the threat neutralized."
Syrus and Chumley nodded along.
"But the problem is," Alexis continued, "if Jiang He has another Wall of Disruption back there, then attacking a Stealth Bird with 1700 DEF might actually cause Titan to take more damage than the Flip Summon would have dealt."
"Wait... that's exactly it!" Syrus and Chumley's faces froze as the realization hit them.
In that case, hadn't Jiang He left Titan with no idea how to proceed?
If Titan didn't attack those face-down birds, he would inevitably take a staggering 2000 LP of damage next turn!
For an opponent with only 2300 LP remaining, that would be a near-fatal blow. And the following turn, Titan would be faced with the exact same nightmare.
However, if he chose to attack, and Jiang He did have Wall of Disruptiona super ATK-reducing trap that cuts all of the opponent's monsters' ATK by 800 for every monster they have on the fieldTitan would suffer immensely.
Given the state of Titan's field, he might end up taking even more damage than the Stealth Bird effects would have dealt!
The thought made Syrus and Chumley's hair stand on end.
Of course, if Titan could just destroy the birds or the backrow cards with card effects, he could easily break the scheme.
But the Archfiend deck they were facing focused on a powerful gambling effect: whenever an Archfiend was targeted by an effect, Titan could roll a die. With a high enough roll, the effect would be negated and destroyed.
Because of this, Archfiend decks rarely included cards that could negate or destroy the opponent's Spells and Traps. They usually ran cards for revival or cards that allowed Archfiends to attack the opponent directly.
In other words, for this unlucky Shadow Duelist, Jiang He's scheme was almost entirely unblockable.
What a toxic strategy...!
Syrus and Chumleyand even Jaden, who had guessed it early oncouldn't help but complain internally.
Why did a strategy called an "Open Scheme" feel so incredibly "Toxic" and underhanded?!
"Damn it...!" Titan could hear their analysis, and the pressure on him mounted.
The cold sweat on his forehead increased.
Jiang He looked at him, tempted to say: If this were a video game, you'd have been flagged for a time-out by now!
"I summon Archfiend General in Attack Position!" Titan finally roared, clenching his fist.
He slammed the card he had just drawn onto his Duel Disk!
"ROAR!!"
Amidst a surge of dark light, an ugly demonic figure materialized. Its body was a mass of exposed orange-yellow muscle, covered in what looked like bone armor. A pair of black bat wings sprouted from its back as it let out a savage hiss.
The monster appeared before Titan, brandishing a blade made of bone.
[Archfiend General]
[Level: 4]
[Attribute: DARK]
[ATK: 2100]
[DEF: 800]
"2100 ATK? That's even higher than the original ATK of Terrorking Archfiend," Jaden noted with surprise.
"This card is destroyed if Pandemonium is not on the field, but since my field spell is active, it suffers no negative effects!" Titan snapped, his face still grim despite Jaden's shock.
"Next, I activate the special effect of Infernalqueen Archfiend! I target Archfiend General, and until my next turn, its ATK increases by 1000!"
As he spoke, a dark purple energy surged from the purple-robed demon queen and poured into the Archfiend General.
The newly summoned General's ATK stat beeped as it climbed all the way to 3100!
Meanwhile, the previously boosted Terrorking Archfiendstill weakened by Jiang He's Wall of Disruptionlost its queen's favor. Its ATK dropped from 1400 down to a pathetic 400.
"Does this count as being NTR'd right in front of his face...?" Jiang He watched the scene with a strange expression, his mind wandering.
The Queen abandons her old, powerless King to run off with the General.jpg.
Still, Jiang He understood why Titan had made this choice.
Titan had to account for the possibility that Jiang He had another Wall of Disruption hidden in the backrow.
If he had left the ATK on the 1400 Terrorking Archfiend, it would have been reduced to 0. At that point, attacking the bird would have been more painful than doing nothing.
In contrast, by putting all the power into the newly summoned General, even if its ATK was reduced, it wouldn't take more damage than the Stealth Bird's Flip effect would deal.
It was a way to minimize his risks.
Unfortunately, Jiang He thought to himself, Titan was still thinking too small!
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