[Artificial Human - Telekinesis Intimidator, Attack Power 2400]
Making its debut after landing in Yugen's hand, Soga seemed determined to orchestrate an intensely majestic entrance to give a full display for its premiere.
The fog roiled in the field, and the crimson beams from its eyes pierced through the haze. The metallic body strode out slowly, arms crossed like a steel king, eyes exuding the dominance of a superior looking down, with electric light spilling all over.
The gaze, looking down on all, seemed to say that with a powerful master combined with me, we are invincible under the heavens.
Now with my arrival as Soga, it is practically akin to having victory within our grasp!
Xiaoyuan's face turned somewhat grim.
Unexpectedly, it turned out to be an artificial human. This way, wouldn't their powerful back row become useless...
"Activate the Magic Card 'Sudden Mutation,'" Yugen stated calmly. "Sacrifice one monster on your field and Special Summon a Fusion Monster with the same Level as that monster.
I sacrifice the Level 6 'Artificial Human - Telekinesis Intimidator!'"
The artificial human, ready to shine in its debut: "???"
Nani!? Sacrifice me?
Not my first time, boss! How could you treat my first like this?
But the Magic Card had already emerged, and Soga's form dissipated into light points in a flash of golden light.
Ohara and Xiaoyuan were momentarily dumbstruck.
He sacrificed Soga...?
Such a good thing could happen?
No matter what appears next, wouldn't their back-row traps be reactivated?
"By the effect of Sudden Mutation, Special Summon from the Fusion Card Deck in defense position—
—Level 6, Electrified Ice Blade Hand!"
After being made into a physical card, Ice Blade Hand was adjusted to 7 stars, though in the original it was 6 stars. Precisely because of this, Asuka in the original often equipped Ice Blade Hand with the Magic Card "Fusion Weapon," which could only equip monsters under 6 stars. This combination naturally could not be replicated after becoming a physical card.
[Electrified Ice Blade Hand, Defense Power 800]
Asuka: "???"
What's with this sudden change in style?
She wasn't surprised Yugen had his own cards. Due to constant research, she knew Yugen possessed many electrified cards.
Yet who could have thought that his disruptive lockdown strategy, in the midst of execution, would suddenly pop out something completely out of style like this?
But recalling the effect of this Fusion ace, she suddenly kind of got it, and couldn't help but open her mouth wide in shock at the possibility that instantly crossed her mind...
"Kida!" Xiaoyuan said, "No matter what monster, as long as you pitfall it, it's the same! Ohara, activate the Trap!"
Ohara: "Activate Trap, Bottomless Trap Hole! Destroy the opponent's summoned monster with Attack Power over 1500 and banish it from the game!"
Bottomless Trap Hole appeared beneath Ice Blade Hand's feet. However, Ice Blade Hand only glanced through the goggles, elegantly swept the blade on its foot, and the Trap Hole immediately closed, vanishing without a trace as if it had never existed.
"Why... why!?" Xiaoyuan was shocked, "I clearly activated it successfully, your monster should've been destroyed..."
"Electrified Ice Blade Hand is a monster that gains different effects based on the number of monsters on the opponent's field."
Yugen calmly explained.
"When there are only three monsters on the opponent's field, all the effects of the opponent's Magic, Trap, and Monster Cards... are nullified!" (Older version effect)
"What!?"
The two nearly jumped up, eyes wide open.
All effects nullified?
Then what's the point of fighting?
The new effect after Electrified Ice Blade Hand was adjusted is that only the opponent's "activated effects" are negated, while effects like Continuous Magic, which work persistently, are effective.
But in the animation, Ice Blade Hand's effect was consistent with the old version before adjustment, nullifying all effects of the opponent's cards, almost providing unbeatable absolute suppression.
This is also why, even though Electrified Ice Blade Hand appeared mediocre in the animation, it once became the core of a notoriously vicious LOCK deck in Yu-Gi-Oh!'s card environment.
The concept of this lockdown deck was simple, using a common disruption deck of the blockade system with the three effects of "Electrified Ice Blade Hand" forming absolute lockdown.
Realizing the concept was quite straightforward. Give the opponent three Ojama Derivatives to fulfill the "three monsters on the field" condition. Then use "Earthbound Immovable" or the effect of the Ojama Fusion Monster to seal the remaining two slots. This way, as long as Ice Blade Hand is on the field, an almost invincible ultimate sealing array is achieved.
And the pioneers of this tactic in the past were even more underworldly than Yugen.
The early pioneers who discovered this combo exploited a tournament loophole at the time, assembling a deck known as TOD (Time Over Death), an ultimate stifling deck.
Using disruption lockdown combined with Electrified Ice Blade Hand to achieve a LOCK, once the lockdown was set up, the opponent couldn't do anything but draw one card per turn, staring blankly.
At this point, you may ask, then how do you win yourself?
The answer is, you go low with the opponent.
Early Yu-Gi-Oh! didn't have rules for conceding and forfeiting, and the best-of-three match had a forty-minute time limit. If the total match time exceeded the forty-minute limit, the side with higher Life Points at timeout would directly win the entire best-of-three match.
TOD leveraged this loophole.
Once the sealing array was achieved, any offensive was completely abandoned, relying solely on stalling tactics like recovering Life Points. Once the match time was up, victory was secured through the rules—not just a single duel, but the entire match.
The amount of annoyance from this rules exploit was such that even the eternally banned Victory Dragon had to sign in resignation. Furthermore, it's imaginable that players daring to use such a lock-up-the-opponent-for-forty-minutes-tactic ultimate stifling deck were undoubtedly psychologically prepared for limbic dueling prior to commencement...
"Damn..." Xiaoyuan gritted through his teeth.
Ohara in despair: "With all Magic-Trap Monster effects permanently nullified, aren't we just..."
"Wait, don't rush." Xiaoyuan gritted his teeth, "The effect of Ice Blade Hand is that when there are three monsters on the opponent's field, all effects are negated, but only with exactly three monsters.
In other words, as long as we summon any monster next turn, the number of monsters on the field will become four, and the blockade will disappear..."
"That's it!" Ohara suddenly realized.
At the same time, he couldn't help but admire Xiaoyuan, who immediately spotted the loophole in such a dire situation...
Yugen smiled: "Then, the effect of the Trap Card 'Ojama Duo' in the graveyard. Remove this card from play from the graveyard to Special Summon two 'Ojama' monsters from the card deck.
I Special Summon 'Ojama Yellow' and 'Ojama Green', which I shuffled back into the deck earlier."
[Ojama Yellow, Defense Power 1000]
[Ojama Green, Defense Power 1000]
"Then activate the Magic Card 'Fusion', to fuse 'Ojama Yellow' and 'Ojama Green' on the field for a Fusion Summon—"
From the vortex of fusion emerged a figure dressed in silver armor, a deep green cloak billowing, a comical knight with snail-like eyes wielded a shield and gracefully landed.
"Fusion Summon, Ojama Knight!"
[Ojama Knight, Defense Power 2500]
"The effect of Ojama Knight!" Yugen said, "While this card is on the field, designate up to two Monster Zones on the opponent's field; those zones cannot be used.
Therefore, I seal off the remaining two Monster Zones on your field!"
Ohara: "..."
Xiaoyuan: "..."
What the hell are you talking about?
Ojama Knight waved his large hand, and two doppelgangers leaped out. The images of Ojama Yellow and Green each sat in the remaining two zones on the opponent's field, sealing them directly.
The two of them were instantly stupefied.
At this point, they had exactly three monsters on the field, and the two remaining slots were both sealed. Furthermore, they couldn't use any card effects...
Ohara couldn't help but say, "Xiaoyuan..."
Although he didn't finish his sentence, his meaning was clear: Are we about to be carried out now?
"Damn it, it's not over yet." Xiaoyuan gritted his teeth, his gaze landing on the Material Dragon on their field.
They still had the Material Dragon, there was still a chance!
Although "Gigantification" was negated as well, and the Material Dragon's Attack Power dropped back to 2400, it was enough to break the opponent's closed core "Electrified Ice Blade Hand". As long as they could break this blockade...
"Submarine Robot changes back to attack position." Yugen said, "Direct attack."
Another torpedo slammed in their face, and the 3D holographic explosion left Ohara dust-covered.
[Ohara, LP 2700→LP 1900]
"Then according to its effect, Submarine Robot switches back to defense position."
Yugen drew another card.
"Set one card, turn ends."
"Draw!" Xiaoyuan shouted.
Following Xiaoyuan's instruction, Ohara drew a card and immediately acted, "Use 'Material Dragon' to attack 'Electrified Ice Blade Hand'!"
"That won't do." Yugen snapped his fingers, "Activate the set card, Continuous Trap 'Super Gravity Net', all monsters above level 4 on both sides cannot attack."
Xiaoyuan spat blood.
Numb, completely numb.
The moment their attacks were sealed, it was essentially declaring their death sentence.
This Super Gravity Net's seal was almost insurmountable. Under the suppression of "Electrified Ice Blade Hand", whether it was Tornado, Great Storm, or Hurricane, they would all be negated. They couldn't break this attack seal.
And without taking down Ice Blade Hand, they couldn't activate any card effects...
Even if they drew another Upper-Level Monster, sacrificing Material Dragon to summon a new monster wouldn't have any meaning. The number of monsters would still be three, and the Ice Blade Hand's seal would continue to be effective.
Moreover, Ojama Derivatives can't be used for Upper-Level Summoning, so attempting to reduce the number by sacrificing the two on-field monsters for an Upper-Level Summon, wouldn't work either.
All the opponent's monsters were in defense position, so using the derivatives to crash into them for suicide wouldn't work either...
Some people are still alive, but they're actually dead.
"My turn, draw." Yugen showed his hand card, "Activate the Magic Card 'Revive the Dead', revive 'Crossbowman' from the graveyard in defense position."
[Crossbowman, Defense Power 1000]
Everyone: "..."
"This card inflicts 600 points of damage to the opponent during each of your standby phases."
Clearly, it wouldn't take long for Ohara and Xiaoyuan to be pierced to death by Crossbowman, shot after shot.
Death by a thousand cuts.
But they didn't end up waiting for that to happen.
Because seeing Xiaoyuan already on the verge of losing control and afraid of him doing something stupid, Ohara quickly took advantage of now to surrender at five-speed.
Otherwise, he feared his teammate would go mad.