#duel links deck list

[maggie-candy999]

Check it out, I made my own version of Téa’s deck in Duel Links!

[tiredgremlintime]

Yuto and Jaden may have been kicked off BUT YUMA AND TREY STAY WINNING RAHHHHHHHHH‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

AND YUYA HAS A CHANCE OF MAKING IT TO THE TIER LIST RAHHHHHHHHHHH‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[fizziygo]

YuGiOh Duel Links- Destiny Heroes

Deck List and Optional Changes below 10 Consecutive Win Streak

Character: Aster Phoenix (Destiny Effect) Main Deck: x1 Destiny Hero Plasma x2 Destiny Hero Malicious x1 Elemental Hero Liquid Soldier x3 Destiny Hero Decider x3 Destiny Hero Celestial x2 Destiny Hero Drilldark x1 Destiny Hero Dark Angel x1 Destiny Hero Dreamer x1 Reinforcements of the Army x1 Miracle Fusion x1 Mask Change x1 Destiny Draw x1 Fusion Recovery x1 Crack Down Extra Deck: x1 Destiny Hero Dystopia x1 Mask Hero Koga x1 Elemental Hero Sunrise x1 Vision Hero Adoration x1 Vision Hero Trinity x1 Destiny Hero Dangerous x1 Xtra Hero Wonder Driver

Optional Changes: -2nd Sunrise instead of Koga -Floodgate Trap Hole or Ultimate Providence instead of Fusion Recovery

[mey-rin-is-fabulous]

Well that's neat so they tell you average usage and card amount for cards during a duel

Also win rate but I don't care about that

Now if only that could be fine tuned to be deck specific like if there was an option in the deck tab

[pico-farad]

I absolutely love your Vrains analyses and I honestly can't wait for you to reach season 3.

I was wondering what you thought of the character of Spectre? Out of the whole cast, he's the one I really can't pinpoint how I feel about. (Beside the obvious fact that this kid needs therapy, I know they all do, but THIS ONE REALLY DOES.)

To be honest... Spectre is just really funny to me LMAO

My guy was raised by a tree. As a BABY. No food, no water, no body heat. There's probably ants crawling all over him. The tree scares away wolves who try to eat him, because they're probably like Oh shit, did that tree just fucking move???

This is peak Yugioh. Who put this Giving Tree-ass backstory into a hard sci-fi card game anime? Give them a raise. Where is Spectre's tree mom going on the Yugioh parent tier list?

Besides the funniness of staying connected to tree mom through card games, I like his Sunavalon deck. The Spectre vs. Lightning duel fucking ruled. From a gameplay perspective, it's one of the best in all of Yugioh. The reverse extra link? Stealing Judgment Arrows? This duel goes incredibly hard for no reason and definitely made me like Spectre more.

So yeah, those are my prevailing thoughts on Spectre, he's just not very important in my mind. If I were to take a more in-depth look at him, though...

I actually disagree with the premise that all of the kids need therapy, but I especially disagree that Spectre especially needs therapy. It's pretty explicit in the text, that Spectre is better off because of the Lost Incident.

Yusaku: If you endured the same hell as me-- Spectre: Hell? What do you mean? Am I different? I guess so, from your point of view Spectre: I grew up in an orphanage. I lacked the ability to mingle with others. Even among people, I was always bored and alone. That's when that incident occurred. Finally, I was entertained. Yusaku: The Lost Incident entertained you? Spectre: Yes, I enjoyed it. Even if I could go home, loneliness and boredom awaited me. Nobody would talk to me. Nobody cared about me. But it was different in that room. Someone was testing me. Someone expected big things from me. When I realized that, I felt the will to live for the first time. Spectre: You probably can't understand. Because if the incident hurt you, you must have led a happy life before. Yusaku: You don't hate the Knights of Hanoi? Spectre: Hate? Revolver-sama gave me a place to belong. Am I strange? But I think you're stranger, loudly proclaiming your sense of justice. Yusaku: Due to that incident, time has stopped moving for me. Spectre: But due to that incident, it started moving for me.

Spectre is characterized as someone who's fundamentally different from other people (maybe because he was RAISED BY A TREE), and this is the case long before getting kidnapped. He's not crazy because of the Lost Incident, and he might not even be crazy at all. He has what he wants, he's happy, he's just happy in a way that normal people, including the audience, cannot understand.

In the above conversation, Spectre is very aware of how he is strange to others, questioning multiple times, "Am I different?" "Am I strange?" Despite being unlike others, he has the capacity to understand how others think and live, and because of that, how they see him. He's actually very discerning, in general, about the perspectives of others; this is how he's able to manipulate Aoi in their duel, and how he easily recognizes Lightning's secret.

Because that's one way of coping with a world of people very different from you -- getting very good at understanding people who would not put forth the same energy to try and understand you. That's what happens in that conversation with Yusaku. Spectre is able to recognize that he is strange to Yusaku, and why. Even though to him, Yusaku is the one who's strange. But he doesn't say that either of them is "right," just that they have different perspectives.

Now, is all of that what the Vrains writers were thinking when they made him?

Uh, maybe I'm just cold and dead inside, but I think they mostly just wanted to make their antagonist seem like a crazy psycho who believes he was raised by a tree and enjoyed getting kidnapped.

Because if I were writing a story about a character who feels alienated by what other people consider normal, I don't think I would have gone the route of, "Some people actually enjoy trauma! It makes them feel important!" I mean, you could incorporate that into a story about how different people experience trauma differently, but, I dunno, these would not be my first choices if I was trying to write a nuanced character exploration.

I also would not go the route of dedicating his entire life to Revolver, and if I did, I would actually develop their relationship.

I wish Revolver had more of a relationship with the Knights of Hanoi in general, which could have actually fleshed out his character. All of them, including Spectre, are just loyal yes-men who do whatever he says. Any scene with them may as well be Revolver monologuing by himself, because they don't bring anything of their own to the table. It just makes both Revolver and the Knights less interesting to me. 

There's various other areas in which Spectre could have been better utilized too. Like I said in the Aoi post, it would have been interesting if they actually built on the themes explored in that duel, and had some recurring interactions. I also would have liked to see him actually interact with Earth, and his actual perspective on the Ignis and the AI vs. humans conflict. 

To be honest though, not every character in Yugioh has to be a main character. So while all these things may be interesting to explore in theory, I think Spectre is mostly fine the way he is in canon: funny tree man.

[mirpuzzle]

I've been really curious about this, who are your top ten Yu-Gi-Oh characters?

Hello! 🌷 Usually, I only have a few favorites. So, aside from the first three, the rest is constantly changing. I'll try to put them in order (all under the cut).

♡. 10 ── Carly Nagisa (5Ds)

What's not to love about her? She's funny, pretty, and a complete mess of a person. She gets in all sorts of trouble, all because she's trying to make a living. I like it when she gets screen time.

♡. 9 ── Noa Kaiba (DM)

He was my favorite as a kid, so I still have a special place in my heart for him. His story made me cry. He did not deserve that. He only wanted others to understand him. You're valid, Noa.

♡. 8 ── Yusei Fudo (5Ds)

It's rare for me to favor a protagonist. That's how you know he's good. This man is a blessing to Yugioh. He has a natural charisma that's impossible to ignore. He's perfect.

♡. 7 ── Bandit Keith (DM)

...I think. I have mixed feelings toward him. I don't even know why he's on this list. I keep going to him in games where Kotsuzuka is not there. So, that must mean I like him, right? I'm confused.

Cross Duel showed me he can be really nice to you if you help him win. I appreciate how he helps other duelists fortify their decks, using the themes they originally had instead of giving them a completely new deck. He cares.

While there's no excuse for what he did to Kotsuzuka and the boys, the fact that, behind that 'bad guy' front, there's a sad, broken man makes me feel bad for him. He deserves to heal.

♡. 6 ── Ryou Bakura (DM)

The anime doesn't do him justice. The more I learn about him through other fans and Duel Links, the more I like him. He's a precious cream puff who likes spooky stuff and is treated terribly by almost everyone. He deserves better (friends).

♡. 5 ── Divine (5Ds)

This man is terrible in every way, and that's the point. I hate that his character was designed to be hated. He gets no backstory, no redemption arc, no nothing. He's just there to be blamed for every bad thing that's ever happened. I pity him. He's the worst. I love this guy.

♡. 4 ── Thief King Bakura (DM)

PLEASE give this guy a break. He has gone through enough. The way he pulled himself back up after all that tragedy is impressive. Imagine how one skillful Thief became a Pharaoh's major threat. A Thief who brings up important moral questions that society seems to ignore (deliberately). He deserves to be heard.

♡. 3 ── Kiyoshi Takaido & Satake (DM)

They share third place because I can't have one without the other. I automatically started loving them because they're close friends with Kotsuzuka. I like that they care about him. These guys have so much potential to explore, and it's a shame we see so little of them.

They're not 'Keith's lackeys'. They're duelists in their own right. They have ambitions and aspirations. They just didn't get to be in the spotlight.

♡. 2 ── Yami Bakura (DM)

Sometimes switches places with Takaido and Satake but usually stays in second place. He's wickedly perfect. From his gorgeous design to how he pretends everything is part of his plan, even though he's literally dissipating into nothingness. He has the nerve to make empty threats that he never carries out. And I love him for that. No one can deny that he looks cool when he shows how evil™️ he is.

There's something beautiful about this ancient evil spirit dedicating his existence to fulfill his objective - all while showing us that he can enjoy normal human activities, like playing games. The complexity of his character captivates me. You can study him for hours, and it will still take you a while to figure him out due to his confusing lore. I like reading what other fans have to say about him.

The way he makes others suffer causes me to have mixed feelings. Sure, I love angst. I just wish there were some feelings involved.

Seeing him make enemies with almost everyone he crosses paths with makes me think he wants to keep everyone away, and that's sad. I want him to care about someone other than himself. I want someone to care about him.

♡. 1 ── Ghost Kotsuzuka (DM)

Yes, that one guy who's known for using Zombie-Type monsters. That short, spooky 15-year-old who walks around hunched over pretending to be a ghost, not realizing he's too cute to be scary. That naive boy who trusted the wrong person and then was unlucky enough to cross paths with the main antagonist. He's my favorite.

I love him. The way his eyes light up when he talks about the things he likes is adorable. I could listen to him gush about ghosts for hours.

His character tends to be frustratingly misinterpreted and overlooked. It's sad that some people think of him as nothing more than collateral damage to Yami Bakura's 'mischief'. He deserves better than that.

When you see past his 'side antagonist' role, you realize he's a precious little guy who's trying his best. Behind that ghostly, mischievous smile, there's a lost youth looking for guidance from a 'big bro' figure he can look up to, whether he realizes this or not.

Despite the differences in his characterization between the manga, anime, and games, one thing remains consistent. He grows into someone who wants to prove he can duel by himself.

But what does he get? Nothing but pain. Betrayed, deceived, ending up dead or lost in the darkness, condemned in almost every canon, with only his sentient Duel Links data to remember him by.

He only wanted to duel.

---------------------ꕥ

I'll stop here. Otherwise, I'll be talking about Kotsuzuka for hours. Thank you so much for the ask! ♡ Sorry that it took a while. I was struggling to organize what I wanted to say for some of the characters, and I wanted to add some art :3

Keep in mind that I've only seen Duel Monsters and the first half of 5Ds, so there are many characters I don't know yet.

[syntaxevasion]

holy FUCK that last post popped off like crazy <3 heres some more descryption stuff weve been working on

the (as of now) full lineup of menu cards, from left to right: story mode, rogue run, duels, puzzles, compendium (list of cards and sigils, explanation of game mechanics, or other important stuff), options, quit

hot new sexy trait displays for the gbc style

starter deck display screen, the last two being onyx and spells

rogue runs begin by having you sacrifice three of the five scrybes (refer to the last post), and the two remaining scrybes are the ones you've chosen to use their cards, nodes, bosses, in your run each scrybe has their own 8 starter decks which are all progressively unlocked a la kaycee mod - you can also see there's a second screen of decks to choose from

the scrybe of artistry galliard and his underlings: the scout, cartographer, and playwright he was once a pupil of magnificus but a difference of opinions caused the two to have a falling out, which is elaborated on in the story mode

some more artistry cards and full-art spells (full-arts will only display their sigils/stats when moused over so just imagine my cursor is over all 4 of them at once)

this one isn't actually descryption related, just some shitpost-y sprites or cards that didn't make the cut

...「78 71 66 20 6d 78 78 20 6f 64 71 6d 66 75 61 7a 20 6b 75 71 78 70 20 66 61 20 59 6b 20 6f 61 79 79 6d 7a 70 0a 78 71 66 20 6e 78 75 7a 70 75 7a 73 20 69 74 75 66 71 20 65 67 6e 65 67 79 71 20 6d 7a 70 20 6f 78 71 6d 7a 65 71 20 66 74 71 20 65 78 6d 66 71』...

again if you want to check out everything we have, the discord server link is https://discord.gg/TUPb3VBsAX (i figured how to hyperlink stuff properly this time :d)

[incorrect-mtg]

Flavor Text Highlights

So, one thing that I did two years ago (and have kept updated since) on twitter was my flavor text thread, where I went through each set in Magic history and picked the top 4 (or, for some exceptional cases, 8) best pieces of flavor text in my opinion.

Since then, I have regreted some choices and very much dislike the fact I can't edit the original tweets to reflect changes on the rules I followed for card selection... So I might as well use Tumblr as the place to correct all that.

Every day from now on, I will re-post a set from the list until I catch up to it, then eventually update it as new magic sets come out. The rules for selection can be seen after the linebreak below (as well as a full list of sets I've already gone through, with links). The first one can be found here.

1- Categorization

I will always try to select a diverse list of cards so as to fill the following 4 categories of flavor text types:

Cool - Boasts and descriptions that serve to make the subject matter of the card seem powerful and/or interesting.

Funny - Dialogue, descriptions or epigrams meant to get a laugh out of you

Worldbuilding - Flavor text whose biggest strength comes not from what it says on its own, but how it helps build upon either the world the set takes place in or the story of the set in question

Emotional - This one could conceivably be separated in two whole categories, but it encompasses cards that would fill the same niche as the "Cool" category but with a specific focus on either sadness or horror.

However, there will be situations where there might be a number of good flavor texts within a certain category while another is found lacking of any truly great options. In such scenarios, I will simply remove one (and in rare cases more) of the categories and repeat one of the remaining options. For an extreme example, the first Un-sets barely had any non-Funny options, so when picking cards from those sets most/all of the picks will be from the Funny category.

2- Card Selection

Cards will be reviewed only if they have new flavor text (using scryfall's "new:flavor" filter) and only if it's original flavor text (aka no real world references or quotes from literature) while sets will either be reviewed alone or grouped up depending on the amount of eligible cards in the set. Although I don't have a hard cut-off point for how many new flavor texts a set needs to be reviewed alone, the general range is around 150.

For sets that don't reach that number, they will either be bundled with an associated set (i.e. reviewing Commander precons with their associated Standard set) or bundled with a lot of other smaller products until a suitable number is reached (i.e. bundling all early Masters sets and Duel Decks together, since the amount of new flavor texts in those products is very low).

2.1 - Cycles

For some sets, a collection of cards (usually a cycle) will have flavor texts that work together, expand on each other or combine into a single theme. If said interaction is particularly good or if there isn't already a good flavor text that can stand up on its own, a cycle might be picked for a specific entry. Below, I will try to set up a list of every post for this, in order:

Alpha/Beta/Unlimited

Antiquities

Legends

The Dark

Fallen Empires

Ice Age | Homelands | Alliances

Mirage | Visions | Weatherlight

Portal

Tempest | Stronghold | Exodus

Portal Second Age

Unhinged + Unglued

Urza's Saga | Urza's Legacy | Urza's Destiny

Mercadian Masques | Nemesis | Prophecy

Invasion | Planeshift | Apocalypse

Odyssey | Torment | Judgment

Onslaught | Legions | Scourge

Mirrodin | Darksteel | Fifth Dawn

Champions of Kamigawa | Betrayers of Kamigawa | Saviors of Kamigawa

Core Sets (4th Edition - 10th Edition)

Ravnica: City of Guilds | Guildpact | Dissension

Coldsnap

Time Spiral | Planar Chaos | Future Sight

Lorwyn | Morningtide | Shadowmoor | Eventide

Duel Decks

Shards of Alara | Conflux | Alara Reborn

Magic 2010

Zendikar | Worldwake | Rise of the Eldrazi

Magic 2011

Scars of Mirrodin | Mirrodin Besieged | New Phyrexia

Commander Precons (Commander 2011 - Commander 2019)

Magic 2012

Innistrad | Dark Ascension | Avacyn Restored

Magic 2013

Return to Ravnica | Gatecrash | Dragon's Maze

Masters Sets

Magic 2014

Theros | Born of the Gods | Journey into Nyx

Conspiracy + Conspiracy: Take the Crown

Magic 2015

Khans of Tarkir | Fate Reforged | Dragons of Tarkir

Magic Origins

Battle for Zendikar | Oath of the Gatewatch

Shadows Over Innistrad | Eldritch Moon

Kaladesh | Aether Revolt

Amonkhet | Hour of Devastation

Ixalan | Rivals of Ixalan

Unstable + Unsanctioned

Dominaria

Battlebond

Magic 2019

Guilds of Ravnica | Ravnica Allegiance | War of the Spark

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

My Duel Links Character Wish List

DM

-Rebecca Hawkins

-Anyone from Waking the Dragons really.

GX

-Fubuki

-Hayato

-Amon (Honestly he should've gotten the Exodia deck event instead of Solomon. I don't care that he's "less iconic." Amon using Exodia was a major plotpoint dammit.)

-Yusuke Fujiwara (Okay I mainly want this to fuck with the dub watchers and because I don't think they'll be able to change his name)

5Ds

-Lazar

-Sherry Le Blanc

-Greiger (Doubtful but I still want it. Normal or Dark Signer form is fine)

Zexal

-Cathy

-Mizael (This one's definitely happening but I figured I'd still list him)

-Durbe

-Vector

-Nasch and Merag (Specifically in Barian form)

-Dextra and Nistro (I struggle to spell their JP names lol)

-Nelson (Extremely doubtful but I want it anyways)

Arc V

-Ruri

-Dennis

-Yuri

-Mieru (For no other reason than it would be funny)

-Zarc. Kind of. I'd want him to look normal but I know they won't do that :/

-Shinji

VRAINS

-Spectre

-Blood Shepherd (If his cards ever get printed)

-The other Ignis. All of them. In some way. Either partnered with their humans (Flame and Aqua) or on their own (Windy, Lightning, Earth) I'd pray on my lucky star for purple eyes Windy but I know that's not happening so I'll take sassy evil green bean.

-Blue Maiden and Aqua. As one character. And for that matter: Soulburner and Flame (Spectre and Earth isn't even remotely in the realm of possibility but hey I can dream)

-SolTis Ai. As his own character. I have no idea how they'd do it story wise (preferably not recounting season 3 please), I just kinda wanna see his @Ignisters in action.

-Roboppi. I want my son back.

Sevens

Sevens has hardly any characters at the time of writing this so I'm gonna list some that are probably very likely first but that I still want to see.

-Nail

-Asana

-Tiger/Haruka

-The Lukeman. Just to baffle all the non Sevens fans because that's been one of the most entertaining things about the Sevens events so far.

-Yuo Goha. He's my favourite of the Goha siblings. I want to see all of them (particularly Yuro and Yuka) so this spot is for all of them but Yuo is the one I want to see most.

-All of the other Umiko clones. Please. The non Sevens fans would be so confused.

-Seatbastian. Please. Please. The non Sevens fans. I beg. I need to see that reaction.

[chimerafflesia]

Yuri Duel Links 2024

(this is literally just a masterpost of everything that made me insane over the course of the event so I can reflect and laugh/cry/etc)

first of all the sentence "Yuri Duel Links Event 2024" would have put me in a coma if you told me that say like. a month and a half ago. when Lulu and Rin came in September I was SURE it was going to be at least early 2025 before we got him. and Yet,

I was in the middle of getting ready for a concert when I got a notification from the DL subreddit of all things that said "He's Finally In" and I saw a little picture of Yuri and I was like Lol. Yeah Ok. so then I opened duel links and checked and was hit with This:

and I was like Okay. okay. cool cool cool cool. I'm gonna be so normal about this. *narrator voice* "via the tags on this post, you could see they were indeed not normal about it"

and girl sorry I wasn't gonna be normal about it like I've wanted this cunt in duel links since he landed on my radar. I knew from the first episode he appeared in that he was going to be my favorite arc-v character because I tend to have a Type when it comes to characters. it's been the same since I was like 8. sue me.

I even started getting into theory territory I was SERIOUS

(this ended up not being the case but congrats to Dumon for being the July unlock that was a lot of fun)

HOWEVER SPEAKING OF PREDICTING UNLOCKS I DO HAVE TO SAY I made this list back in MAY predicting the rest of the characters for 2024, and while some of these are very out there and Not Happening (sorry Marik and Atticus) I DID ORIGINALLY PREDICT YURI FOR AN OCTOBER UNLOCK. (Dumon for July as well) I AM LITERALLY JOHN KONAMI I GUESS.

so time goes by and I have a month to grind gems for Yuri's box because OBVIOUSLY I need a full character deck for him. would tumblr user chimerafflesia do anything less. I achieved this btw. 9999 gems the day before the event started. I was READY.

October 23rd. I literally wake up at 6am because I was so excited I was like a kid on christmas. I am hit with these screens and actually got kinda misty eyed because it was Happening

I waited 5000 years (about 7 months) to see that "Event Exclusive" in front of him and it was real and happening like CHEERS I'LL DRINK TO THAT!

I recapped a lot of my initial reactions on day one here and here but it just doesn't do it justice like I was just so excited and happy and having the time of my life playing this little freemium mobile game. I've said it like 348735 times now but duel links is genuinely so fucking amazing to me I love this game so so so much.

AND THIS EVENT WAS SO WONDERFUL!!!! THEY DID RIGHT BY HIM I WAS (AND STILL AM) SO HAPPY. HIS CHARACTERIZATION STAYED INTACT. WE GOT SOME NEW LITTLE FLAVOR DETAILS FOR HIM. THAT MAY HAVE TO BE A SEPARATE POST BUT GOD. YURI FANS WE ARE EATING GOOD.

here are some personal favorites. little problem child 🩷💜

and course this instant classic:

but there are so many. I point to this video which has all his dialouge including taunts.

look at these screenshots man like come on. I can't believe these are real. they look like images that would've been posted on reddit like 3 years ago with the caption "This Will Be Duel Links in 2024" EXCEPT IT IS.

I set up this board with all the predap extra deck mons + starving venom and was staring at it like Man We Really Won. this shit's beautiful

Just. man I feel like there's so much more I wanna say but overall it was just a really fun event. this might sound silly to some people but I really do have a special connection to yugioh in general and I do feel like it was fate when it came into my life. I really got into yugioh in April 2021 during a particurally dark time in my life and yugioh became like a lifeline for me. it was an escape. it still is. I'm always going to be grateful for this franchise.

I watched arc-v from March-April of this year (immediately after finishing zexal btw, which is the first time ever I watched two yugioh anime back to back) and to say it fried my brain is kind of an understatement like I still think about this show every day of my life. to quote my own tweet:

like. YEAH.

Yuri in particular is a fusion parasite all on his own he wormed himself into my brain and hasn't let go. I've rewatched his episodes so many times but I think I've seen arc-v episode 135 in particular roughly 124 times. could be more. it will be more.

I can't help but feel like watching arc-v this year was meant to be. (first of all, the same year I watch it FOUR arc-v characters get into duel links? divine timing if I've ever seen it) but in particular the timing of the Yuri event feels very nice. I've been dealing with some personal woes (particulary surrounding employment, amongst other things) and again this event was such an escape for me, even if just for a few hours each day. I can't wait until he's back in a few months. we will be there :)

I'm at the point where I don't really care if it's "cringe" to get this emo about shows/characters/games etc cuz at the end of the day this shit really does mean something to me man. I know what yugioh has done for me and what it'll definitely continue to do for me and I'm grateful for it <3

(PS it is really really fun to wreck people on ranked with super poly) here is a live image of me playing online duel links

[cyberdragoninfinity]

fellow duel links player. how do i escape battle chronicle hell. help.

ANON IM SO SORRY. THE BATTLE CHRONICLE TORTURE LABYRINTH IS ENDLESS AND I WISH I KNEW HOW TO STOP IT we're gonna have to wait for konami to finally nerf their Extra Special Blue Eyes Skill Number 3289423894 (they will not do this) and/or everyone playing it to get bored and try out a different deck (they also wont do this) and/or Successor Soul to get put on the forbidden/limited list (THEY MIGHT DO THIS. MAYBE. HOPING AND PRAYING. I HATE THAT CARD SO FUCKING MUCH.) for it to finally leave the atmosphere i fear.....BUT HEY AT LEAST THERE IS SOME LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS!!!!

ADIOS MUCHACHO!!!!!!!

[maggie-candy999]

My extra deck from my Mighty Meek deck list.

[tiredgremlintime]

ms michael trey iii arclight for the ask game... :3

WOW THIS WAS FAST

Why I like them/why I don’t

The Beloved!!!! I really like how she’s such a kind and loyal person to anyone he loves, especially family! Despite that you can really see how he’s apart of the Arclight family, the sassiness and disrespect she can have (that one moment in her duel against Mizar maskjakdkdjdjd)

What I like about their appearance

Overall I really like the pinkness and fluffiness! I also like how fancy her outfit is, makes him look all princely/knightly :)

(kinda related I notice that the show likes to put huge focus on Trey’s eyes, especially in his big moments)

Do I prefer their dub names or original names?

I really like both! I’m pretty sure her original name is also canon to the dub? So I like to think Micheal is his name, III a code name, and Trey as a nickname

OTP

:)))))))))))))))) oh. Ya know. :)

I’m so normal about Aztecshipping :) the loyalness and care both Yuma and Trey have for one another, the protector x protectee dynamic, the influence Yuma has on Trey, the matching color scheme, how their decks can work so well together (tag duel my beloved), Trey being a literal knight to Yuma, how they could’ve been friends earlier if it wasn’t for certain story events, I like em a normal amount :D

NOTP

If you ship Trey with her family you should die if I’m being honest

(also cause I saw it before, Trey x Kite)

OT3

Trey/Yuma/Tori (Kouhaishipping) I feel bad I barley talk about them, especially since I did coin the name

listen I think they could be very sweet and cute :) also it’s great thinking about Trey being dragged into the shenanigans that Yuma and Tori get into (put that galguy into more silly situations)

Favorite card they use

Atlantis is so iconic but shout out to tuspa rocket and nebra desk for the great duel links combos 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Favorite moment they were in

HER BIG RETURN💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

I was SHOCKED when I first saw his return debut episode, iirc her duel links event came before I got to that episode so I think I was surprise that Trey officially becoming Yuma’s friend and officially being a good guy was shown in the show

Anyways back on track, they did his return JUSTICE, coming in immediately after Yuma tells Heartland that his beliefs are the same, throwing a fucking SWORD, A WHOLE ASS SWORD, DIRECTLY TO HEARTLAND’S HEAD, declaring that he will stick to Yuma’s side from now on, Yuma trusting her and giving him his number cards back, gah such a good scene

THE ENTIRE TAG DUEL IS SOOOO GOOD TOO, MY FAVORITE OUT OF ALL THE ZEXAL TRIO/ARCLIGHTS TAG DUELS

Least moment

Listen I know why he did it, but the whole scene where she tells Yuma to piss off during the beginning of the Barian war

Ow ow OWWWWWWWWW it HURTS remembering that moment, especially seeing Trey apologizing to Yuma for what he said and that Yuma is a great friend. OWWWWWWWWWWWW

Random headcanon I have about them

Imma list off two because I’m so normal about Mikey here

Project diva F came out around the zexal time so I like to think post zexal Yuma gets the game and gets Trey to play it with him, unfortunately Trey is kinda bad at rhymn games :(

Before they got together, Trey ask Quattro advice on how to flirt and what pickup lines to use, Quattro gives him the shittest advice AND pickup lines ever, so now whenever Trey tries to use said pick up lines on Yuma anyone around them cringes hard

[destona32]

desu!'s Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024 QUALIFIERS - RUSH DUEL division Day 1 Write-Up

Decided to spend some time today to attempt and get a decent ranking on the Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024 QUALIFIERS event for the RUSH DUEL format. Yu-Gi-Oh Rush Duels is probably my favorite card game so I figured trying to level up my gameplay by writing this out would be fun.

The current ladder is littered with three decks from what I can tell. Machines (strongest deck in the format), Harpies (strongest f2p deck i assume), and Magnum Overlord (funny one turn kill deck).

Aggro is also floating around as it's basically the same deck as it was on launch day just with the staples that trickled out from set to set added. I've only seen them a few times but enough for me to call it out. Also shout out to Cyberse. Already a really strong deck, but Chaos Femtron really powered it up it seems.

Current Stats:

Global Rank: 681 / Regional Rank: 63 (this stat barely gets updated so idk) Times Dueled: 61 Victories: 30 Winning Percentage: 49.18%

Deck Profile:

Card explanation & other thoughts underneath if you're interested in hearing me yap.

I decided to run pure Spellcasters because I want to walk the road to victory just like Yuga, the protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh SEVENS. Also because I got tired playing my main deck, Noodle Ninjas. This list isn't really anything too special, Spellcasters has been solved for a while now, it's just personal preference when it comes to ratios at this point.

Skill: Sevens Accel Road When activated, this raises the ATK of a Normal Summoned monster whose current ATK is 1600 by 800 ATK until the end of the turn. After turn 4, it can search Seven's Road Magician for the cost of returning a card from hand to the deck. The searching effect can only be done once per duel.

Easily the best skill for pure Spellcasters as it grants access to our deck's boss monster when we need him. The turn 4 requirement comes up quite a lot however as it makes going first feel awful. Not only are most Rush Duel Turn 1 boards just a bunch of monsters in Face-Down Defense Position and some Set Spells/Traps, but we still aren't able to search for our boss monster on our next turn as it's only Turn 3. If we go second, we can search our boss monster the second turn we get to play. This wouldn't be an issue if Duel Links let us decide if we wanna go first or second but whatever.

Monsters

3x Seven's Road Magician - Yuga's ace monster. It's able to send a card from the top of the Deck to the Graveyard to gain ATK equal to [the number of different Monster Attributes in the owner's Graveyard] x 300. If all 6 Attributes are in the Graveyard, then Magician can reach 3900 ATK easily and beat over all other boss monsters who aren't Maximum Summoned. Of course, that doesn't happen every game so as long as there are 2 monsters with different Attributes, Seven's Road Magician becomes 2700 ATK and that's more than enough to clear the 2500 ATK threshold of most boss monters.

3x Seven's Road Witch, 2x Torna the Windweaver, 1x Magician's Valkyria - These are the 1600 ATK monsters that are allow us to activate our skill. Both Witch and Torna are Level 6, so they require us to Tribute one monster for us to summon them, however Magician's Valkyria is a Level 4 so she's just normal summonable. With the skill, they all become 2400 ATK monsters, underneath the typical boss monster ATK value but it's better than 1600 ATK.

Witch is the main card we want to find as she lets us send a card from our hand to the Graveyard to Special Summon out Seven's Road Magician from our hand and then give herself 400 ATK, making her 2800 ATK. In regular Rush Duels, she'd be pretty situational as you need to have drawn Magician alongside her, but with the skill we can literally just cheat and get him, allowing us to just have 2 high ATK point monsters on field for the cost of getting rid of 1.5 cards in hand from Witch and the Seven's Accel Road. Of course, sometimes we just have Magician in hand already, so we only need to toss 1 card out!

Torna allows us to change the battle position of a monster on the opponent's field. One hurdle Rush Duel decks need to overcome is the "Set 3, pass" As you're able to summon however many times you want in a Rush Duel, if your board of 3 monsters can't overcome 3 Defense Position monsters, you just aren't doing any damage. Torna allows us to turn one of our opponent's set monsters to Attack Position and get in some damage. It can also help with many boss monsters as most have very little DEF, so we can attack over them after putting them into Defense Position with Torna. WIth the skill, he basically becomes a boss monster for 1 turn, but if we're able to summon out Seven's Road Magician, then we can push for even more damage. Torna is also our WIND Attribute monster.

Magician's Valkyria is our monster Legend card, which are cards we're only allowed to pick 1 from our available set for each card type. 1 Monster, 1 Spell, and 1 Trap. As mentioned earlier, she's here to activate the skill on normal summon but she does have interesting edge cases. The obvious one is her effect where she forces the opponent to attack only her on the field, but her 1800 DEF is another appealing quality. Level 4 monsters in Rush Duels only rarely be over 1500 ATK, so they won't be able to destroy her and it'll possibly waste an incoming attack from the opponent. This quality is surprisingly useful that I find myself setting her more than summoning her to activate the skill.

3x Mystic Dealer - Our WATER Attribute monster. Mystic Dealer allows us to send a Spellcaster from hand to the Graveyard to draw a card. Not only does he allow us to dig a little bit deeper into our deck, but he lets us send monsters to the Graveyard to boost up Seven's Road Magician's effect. Also in horrible situations where we draw 3 Seven's Road Magician, 1 Spell/Trap, and 1 Mystic Dealer, we're actually able to play and not just be sad.

1x Thunder Gazelle, 1x Sparksheart Girl - Our FIRE Attribute monsters. Thunder Gazelle barely comes up, but he allows us to make one of our monsters inflict piercing damage, allowing us to deal damage through Defense Position monsters. While good, our opponent must have no card in their hand for it to activate and we can't exactly control that (but it is likely to happen as Rush Duels rules encouraging emptying your hand to draw more cards). We also need one of our boss monsters on our field for it to be effective as piercing damage from a 1300 ATK body is pitiful.

Sparksheart Girl is here because I don't have a second Gazelle and she's probably the best FIRE Spellcaster, which only matters just in case I need to use Mystic Dealer. Her effect allows us to lower a face-up monster by 500 ATK at the cost of discarding a Level 4 monster from our hand, which is not very good as we preferably would like to play the cards in our hand.

2x Seven's Road Mage - Mage allows us to send a card from the top of the Deck to the Graveyard and allows us to lower a Level 7 or higher monster's ATK by 400. Not only that, but if Magician's on the field, it also lowers the opponent's monster's by [number of Spellcaster Type monsters in the owner's Graveyard] x 100 which is useful to push for game. The second effect is appealing enough that it makes me want to run him over cards like Speedy Performer.

2x Light Sorcerer of Sanctity, 2x Light Sorcerer - Our LIGHT Attribute monsters. Sanctity allows us to pay 300 LP to lower a face-up monster's ATK by [the number of face-up LIGHT Attribute Spellcaster Type monsters on the owner's field]. Light Sorcerer is a 1500 ATK normal monster who is also a LIGHT Spellcaster. I'm sure you can see the synergy there. Also I guess Magician's Valkyria is a LIGHT Spellcaster too by the way.

2x Doraido - There are 2 EARTH Spellcaster monsters in the format. Straynge Cat who has 0 ATK and 1400 DEF and Doraido who has 1200 ATK and 1400 DEF. Normally, I'd play Straynge Cat out of spite but I do wanna take this event a little seriously, even if it's against my morals.

Spells/Traps

I run 6 Spells and 2 Traps in this deck, which I find to be a decent ratio to encounter them throughout the game. This format is defined by strong battle traps, so Spell/Trap removal is pretty high. Of course, I want my traps to not be destroyed, so having a decent amount of spells that I can set throughout the game will hopefully let my opponent waste a few of the removals on that instead of the traps.

1x Tribute to the Doomed - The Legend spell card of my choice. This card lets us just destroy a monster on the field by discard a card. This card easily deletes any Maximum Summoned monster, any large ATK monster we can't clear, or even just a set card so we can push for damage. Monster Reincarnation isn't particularly useful in our deck as our deck requires a good amount of Tributing and we don't have any engines to make it easier like Seahorse Carrier or Crawling Torso. Shield & Sword is genuinely a decent pick as it swaps the ATK and Def of all face-up monsters, typically making their values smaller... But it encounters many problems. Maximum Summoned monsters straight up ignore the effect, the Machine deck's boss monsters have 1600 DEF, which means we can't get over it without our Tribute Monsters, and Blue-Eyes decks are running around since it's a structure deck and those monsters have 2500 DEF. It just makes Blue-Eyes White Dragon lose 500 ATK, great. There's also Negate Attack which stops us from our attack and lets the monster turn back to their normal stat values. I find just deleting a card is more consistently better.

2x Magical Stream - This card lets us destroy a Spell/Trap card if we control a Spellcaster, basically any monster in out deck. Battle traps are very strong in Rush Duels as it doesn't have a Main Phase 2 which allows a player to fix up their board if something bad happens in Battle Phase. Negate Attack was mentioned earlier, but there's also Buffered Slime and Widespread Ruin. It's a well-known secret that these three cards are pretty game-winning, so... hopefully we can destroy them.

1x 7 Shift - This card lets us Special Summon a Level 7 or lower Effect monster on the field by discarding a card. It's not good here because we already shit out Magician every other turn. It can technically help us with a bricked hand of Tribute monsters, but we still need to draw it. This would be the 3rd Magical Stream if I had it. Duel Links wants me to waste my time leveling up Yuga to Level 35 before I can get it.

2x Talismanic Seal Array - This card lets us shuffle 4 monsters from our Graveyard to lower an opponent's monster's ATK by the [the selected monster's level] x 200. This card easily lets us hit over boss monsters with ease while also letting us refuel our deck. We can reuse our Magician and our Witch pretty easily when our deck is running lwo on numbers. This is also our main way to defeat Maximum Monsters as the ones typically ran have 4000 ATK, which our Magician cannot clear even with all Attributes in grave.

1x Negate Attack - Our Legend trap card. When an opponent declares an attack, we flip it up and they suddenly can't attack with any monsters this turn. It's better than Widespread Ruin as that card destroys the opponent's highest ATK monster, which is nice but it doesn't fully stop an entire battle phase from happening now does it.

1x Buffered Slime - When an opponent's Level 8 or lower monster attacks, this card lets us take no battle damage. However if our Lifepoints are higher than 3000, then we take 2000. Of course, if the opponent was going to go for game that turn, then that's a more than acceptable condition. The only issue with this card is that Maximum monsters are Level 10, so this card doesn't do anything for them. Everything else though... This card fucks.

General Thoughts

So far, I think this deck is more than capable at fighting toe to toe with the common decks in the format right now, but I do find that we can easily explode and die if the draws are just not in our favor. It happens. I'm probably gonna keep rolling with this deck as I find it to be pretty versatile and it's honestly just fun

The main problem being the amount of Tribute Monsters being ran at 8. Drawing too many Tribute Monsters is a death sentence as it depends on drawing at least one other monster that is Level 4 or lower. Luckily if we draw one of the Level 6 monsters, we only need one, but drawing Seven's Road Magician with other high tributes is pretty much game over.

I am thinking of giving Magnum Overlord a try as I have the cards for it or even running Noodle Ninjas again. Overall, the format has felt pretty varied and fun compared to the last Goha Festival or whatever, which was dominated by Royal Rebels, so I actually do feel inclined to try and get a high rank.

[voicesofchaos]

Zexal Month - The Magician

So today we are supposed to talk about our favorite Duel Monster or Number specifically. I feel like I always share that clip of Beyond The Hope’s Summoning so going to do something a little bit different this time. A lot of different Numbers get used in both the anime and manga. But the Numbers that always fascinated me are the ones released in the card game after both had ended. For a fanfic I have wanted to write for a long time would be a rewrite from a different point of view and a genre shift. One of the goals of that fanfic would be to all Numbers 1 through 100 get used in some way so I have spent a long time thinking about these 30 unused Numbers and how they would be used in the series. So this post is going to go through all 30 cards and I will explain who I think should use each one. Some are very obvious and self-explanatory but some others are very weird and out there. So hopefully this post is amusing and maybe educational. Be warned it will be very long! @zexalmonth

Tron. Making it his 3rd Number and being tied with IV for Numbers used.

This is a bit of a weird one because the “Wyrm” monster type didn’t come out until Arc-V so it literally couldn’t have existed in Zexal. Despite that though I assign this card to Mizael. I feel like all the Barians would have at least 1 backup Number 1-100 that isn’t their Legendary (Mythyrian) Number. Mizael is a dragon tamer and this is close to a dragon but also a huge edgelord.

Space-themed monster. This is totally V’s number. Psychic type monsters are even used by his dad and his brother, III. Sadly only raising V’s number count to 2 and behind the rest of his family as we will see. Alternatively, in the manga this would belong to Eviluder who used Number 42: Galaxy Tomahawk (which I would also assign to V to being his Number count to 3).

Anna of course! She even summons it in Duel Links! Making this card the only card in this list to appear in a semi-canon Zexal story!

Cathy. And honestly it seems so perfect for her style.

III. Giving him a 3rd Number (Not counter Number 32) and getting him to keep up with IV.

This is definitely the single hardest card to assign on this list. I am simply going to give it to Rokujuro because the card has old man vibes. 

Durbe. That might seem weird but what is this monster holding and what meme is Durbe most famous for? BOOKS! Durbe very much seems like the “prophet” character archetype.

Kotori! Her name means little bird and I feel like the colors would even match her style. 

Gilag. Another kind of weird one but his archetype is Hands after-all. They even have a similar body type.  

So you are probably thinking yet another Number for Yuma. But actually one other character in the series has played Gogogo Golem. Yup! The man who Yuma got his deck from! Tsukumo Kazuma! Yuma’s dad totally deserves his own number!

Cool 3-headed FIRE dragon. I feel like either Mizael or Kaito could have this one but I am going to give this one to Kaito. This was definitely one of those initial 10 Numbers Kaito had already hunted before the series started.

Alit. Okay hear me out because I know this is a stretch. This is a FIRE monster and only Alit plays those. Few characters across all Yugioh series play FIRE monster. But also I headcanon that Alit would totally be obsessed with reality/celebrity cooking TV shows or just a huge fan of Food Wars! I know we don’t see that side of him in the show but the same energy is there.

Going real obscure here with Jin (Fortuno in the dub). The guy that worshipped Kaito for no real reason and had both Number 11 and 16. Yeah, let’s give him a 3rd Number as if he needed another but come one this card has his style.

Only one character uses dice and luck. Charlie McCoy! I don’t blame you if you don’t remember him either. Sadly not the last time he will be on this list.

I take it back. This is the hardest. Being a sky prison I feel like Eliphas would vibe with this, maybe after being corrupted and made evil by its influence. Alternatively for the manga, I really want to give Luna a Number and sure this makes enough sense if you stretch it.

Obviously Shark but more specifically Nasch. If you want to be spicey you could say this belonged to past-life Nasch.

Okay I don’t have a lot of reasoning for this but I strongly feel like this card belongs to Droite. She uses Butterfly Assassins and this guy is totally an assassin. 

So you could easilly say Number 96: Dark Mist for this one. But for a more creative option I am going to Tsukumo Akari gets corrupted by this Number as she is chasing a story. Alternatively in the manga, Shadow would use this as his Number 48: Shadow Lich is on of the 3 monsters in the background and it also fits him.

I’m breaking the rules here. This Number belongs to Hiragi Yuzu from Arc-V who ended up in Zexal while dimension-hopping. 

This just has to be Astral of course.

Alit’s true Number!

Anna! She even has a voice line for it in Duel Links apparently!

Charlie McCoy yet again!

Gauche’s number!

I get both Rio and Droite vibes from this one. But sadly reaching into the obscure makes the most sense here with Aika Hanazoe (Lotus Hanazoe) who was Rio’s first on-screen duel and used Battlecruiser Dianthus. 

I really wish I could tell what was going in this artwork but every version it just looks weird. I feel like it would be a Cyberse monster now a days. I feel like you could this off as belonging to Vector. But more so on the manga side I could totally see this as Kyoji Yagumo card, a fitting 8th Number for him.

So obviously a Kaito card but what if instead this was used by Haruto to backup and support his brother’s battles? Haruto does use a Number (28) so why not give him a cool supportive Number as well.

A DARK version of Mizael’s Legendary Number (46) so I can’t in good consciousness give this to Mizael and it doesn’t fit Kaito either. So I am actually going to give this to Don Thousands as a means to corrupt Mizael and others.

On the anime side this belongs exclusively to Dark Zexal. But for the manga, this clearly belongs to E’Rah whose ace monster was Anti-Hope God Of Despair. Yeah this totally the Numbers version of that card.

[platonicreaderinsertfanfic]

Stuck in Another Dimension (Part 4)

Word count: 1,699 Post Duel Monsters anime. This takes place a few years after the end of the show. Dub continuity plus a version of DSoD. Female reader, who is friends with Kaiba. If you would like to read the previous three parts, you can find them listed here. Or you can read the following summary. Summary: You and Kaiba have been accidentally tossed into another dimension. After a series of adventures, the two of you landed in the possession of this dimension’s version of Gozaburo Kaiba, who fitted you and Kaiba with linked shock collars before sending Kaiba to The Underground, and giving you as a "gift" to his own version of Seto. (This version of Kaiba also wore a collar, linked to his version of Mokuba.) Unlike your friend, this dimension's version of Kaiba long ago lost his will to fight. After you and your new friend were summoned to dinner with Gozaburo and Noah, your new overlord entertained himself by describing how much trouble Kaiba was likely to be in. (A lot.) He also gave you a deck of Duel Monster cards, which you thought were your own at first, but quickly realized actually belonged to Kaiba. As you reached the limits of your emotional stability, your new friend made excuses to get you away from Gozaburo and into his lab. You found yourself sitting on the floor in this Kaiba's laboratory, leaning up against the wall, gently holding a copy of Blue-Eyes White Dragon and failing at your attempts to stop sobbing.

“I cried when Mokuba was sent to the Underground. Take all the time you need.” It was strange to hear Kaiba's voice saying such gentle, understanding words.

Your shoulders heaved, “You’re supposed to say ‘We don’t have time for this,’ or ‘You can cry later,’ or at least, ‘It’s fine, but hurry up.’”

“Why would I say those things?” He crouched in front of you, concerned.

“‘Cause you’re Seto Kaiba! I expect you to push me to be strong, not let me wallow in useless feelings.”

“But I’m not him!” Your companion took a deep breath and calmed himself. “You were right about me. I lost my will to fight a long time ago—but I survived, and so did Mokuba.” He shifted from a crouch to sitting on the floor. “If you don’t adapt to your circumstances, you and your friend might not be so lucky.”

“I know.” You angrily wiped tears from your eyes, as though such an action would make them stop. “But I have to try.” With a Herculean effort, you forced yourself to stop crying and stand up, gently placing Kaiba’s deck down on a nearby table. Still shaky, you turned to the version of Kaiba sitting on the floor. ”You wanted to show me something, right?”

He nodded and jumped to his feet, looking skeptically at you all the while. “If you want. That was mostly a lie to get you away from Mr. Kaiba. You seem smart, I’m sure it would be fine if I put it off till tomorrow morning.” He joined you at the table. “Though I would like to see your cards—if you don’t mind.”

“They’re not mine. Gozaburo said, ‘Your friend will suffer without his cards��� and then handed me his deck.” 

Your new companion softened his eyes even further. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Realizing you never answered his question, you gently pushed the deck towards him. “And of course you can look at Kaiba’s cards.” You watched with interest as your new friend slowly read through the stack; he treated each card with reverence. 

“Blue-Eyes White Dragon.” You inhaled sharply; hearing those words in Kaiba’s voice hurt. “I didn’t know a Normal monster could have such a high attack value.” He stared at the card for a few more seconds, “I like this one.” 

“Not surprising—that’s Kaiba’s favorite card too. It’s like having part of his heart here.”

You couldn’t speak further, your throat was too tight. Without setting down Blue-Eyes, your companion picked up the next card in the deck. “Rider of the Storm Winds. ‘You can target one Dragon Normal Monster you control…’” his voice trailed off as he continued reading the card text. “I see, this monster supports Blue-Eyes—are you alright?”

You didn’t know how to explain what was wrong. That card he had pulled, Rider of the Storm Winds, it was…well, Pegasus had told you once that you were the inspiration for it. He said the card represented you, and that early mock-ups of the card art had looked like you too. And then, with a slight bow, Pegasus had handed the first printed copies to you and Kaiba. The symbolism was clear. In hindsight, Mokuba and Pegasus had both been rooting for you and Kaiba to become friends since you met. Although it took a while, you had become close—perhaps Kaiba was your best friend at this point, (although even now, you would hesitate to admit such an audacious feeling.) 

“Y/n?”

Ngh, you had no focus. And you were so tired. That explained why you were so overly emotional; you weren't used to feeling strongly, and were too tired to properly self-regulate the powerful emotions brought on by your predicament. Maybe it was better Kaiba wasn’t here to see you like this, although, if he was here you wouldn’t have been so worried. Oh crud, you were crying again. Stupid. It’s like your body was trying to make the worst first impression possible.

“Are you okay?” 

“Not really.” Your shoulders heaved as you struggled to bring your emotions back in line, if for no other reason than your new friend was clearly alarmed by your behavior. Closing your eyes, you tried to reassure him. “I’m sorry, I’ll be alri—”

He hugged you.

Shocked, you stopped crying. This was new. This was a proper hug. This was…you grabbed handfuls of his sweater vest and allowed yourself to cry without fighting back anymore. 

“I know you feel helpless, but you’ll see your friend again.”

You cried harder. 

When you finally finished crying, you felt nothing but quiet worry in your stomach and an overwhelming sleepiness filling your head, drowning out almost everything else. You let go of your grip on your friend‘s sweater and started to pull away. At once, he released you, stepping back to give you space. “You look tired.”

“I’m exhausted. I haven’t slept in…” your voice trailed off as you tried to work out how many hours you had been awake, “a long time.”

Without another word, your friend began to turn everything off. You soon found yourself back in his room, where you crawled into bed and fell asleep at once.

You awoke to your new friend gently nudging you. Groggily, you sat up, your brain sluggish and desperately attempting to return to sleep. Thirty minutes later, the two of you entered his lab. During that time you had barely spoken—mornings were for sleeping, not talking.

Your new friend showed you what he was building. Apparently, Gozaburo used him to manufacture electronic devices when he wanted there to be no purchase history or other way for the world to know what he had at his fingertips. Looking over the pages handed to you, you could see today’s project involved several electronic devices hidden inside potted plants. You could easily help with this.

As you worked, you took the opportunity to ask your new friend about the world you found yourself in; all his answers were discouraging or alarming. Still, you made good time on the project, finishing before expected. Only when you asked about the collars did your new friend clam up. You glanced around to check for creepy, eavesdropping butlers, dropped your voice to a conspiratorial whisper, and leaned across the table towards not-Kaiba. 

“Come on, you don’t even have to tell me, you can just show me the code.”

He stopped putting away his tools. “That’s not a good idea.”

Your voice became even quieter. “What’s there to hide? I already know you have a built-in knock-out protocol in order to limit how much pain Gozaburo can inflict on his prisoners.”

Eyes widening, your friend grabbed your wrist, “How do you know that?”

“Because despite what you think about my 'perfect life,' Kaiba and I have managed to get into a lot of trouble over the years.” You gripped his wrist right back and leaned in further. “I know what technology like these collars can do, and as bad as it was yesterday, I know it could have been worse.”

“I don’t know…”

“Do you want to go on like this? Help me work out how to escape from Gazaburo.” You read the hesitation in his eyes. “Please, we need to act before he breaks me too.” You let go and pulled back with a sigh. “And Kaiba…we need to escape before Kaiba gets himself killed.”

“I’m sure that won’t happen.”

“Are you lying to me?”

“No!”

“You’re truly sure my friend won’t die?”

Your new friend stuttered a moment, “I’m—he’s—I’m not ‘sure,’ I guess, but I thought you would want to hear me say your friend wouldn’t die.”

“Part of me wants to hear that, but I need to deal with the harsh truth of our situation right now. Otherwise I might get complacent and end up regretting it later.”

“You’re…intense.”

You gave a wry laugh, ”You should meet Kaiba.”

“I’m not sure I want to.”

“I doubt he’d think much of you, either. But if we’re going to beat Gozaburo, you might have to work together at some point.”

“I understand what you want, but I don’t have the code on my computer anymore. And I’m not helping you sneak into Mr. Kaiba’s office, that would be tantamount to torturing you myself.”

“Yeah, I see where you’re coming from.” Sighing heavily, you began to help with putting away the tools. “If memory serves, you mentioned you would get to see Mokuba soon. How does that work?”

“I’ll get to leave here, and go down into the Underground for a day with Mokuba.” Kaiba smiled at the thought.

“Can I come?”

“I doubt Mr. Kaiba would allow—”

“But he gave me to you, and you’re going.”

“But I’d still need to ask for permission, and if it went badly I might be barred from making the trip at all.”

“Okay, but what if I ask him inst—” Your counter proposal broke off into a scream as your collar came to life. Fortunately, it didn’t last long. Still, when it ended, you were leaning on the table, with anger and worry competing to be your main emotional response.

“I’m not used to seeing these collars used on someone else.” Seto looked worried.

Since you did not yet trust your voice to be steady, you merely waved off his concern. After completely regaining your composure, you resumed the conversation as though nothing had happened. “But what if I ask Gozaburo to let me accompany you?”

“I suppose that would be alright…”

“When would be the best time?”

“Lunchtime?”

“Works for me. Is there anything we can do to impress him or put him in a good mood?”

“Possibly, let me think.” He snapped his fingers, “You could give him access to the information on your duel disk.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Hmmm.”

“I’ll just ask him. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Gozaburo prevents me from visiting Mokuba.”

You gave what you hoped was an encouraging smile, “I’ll try my best to keep that from happening.”