Who Let Him Play Yu-Gi-Oh! novel Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Chapter 183: Cyber Blader Lock

[Jinzo, ATK 2400]

This was its first appearance since it entered Kira’s hand. It seemed Spirit Jinzo had made up his mind to create the most overwhelming entrance possible for this debut.

Mist rolled across the field. Red beams shot out from its eyes, piercing the fog. Its metallic body strode forward at a slow, steady pace. The king of steel crossed its arms, its gaze radiating the confidence and arrogance of a ruler looking down from above. Electric arcs danced all over its body.

Its proud, dismissive eyes seemed to say: "With a powerful master like mine, and me at his side, together we are invincible!"

Brier’s face turned grim.

He hadn’t expected it to be Jinzo. Doesn’t this mean their powerful backrow was now basically useless?

"I activate the Spell Card ’Metamorphosis,’" Kira said calmly. "I tribute one monster on my field, and Special Summon a Fusion Monster of the same Level from my Extra Deck.

I tribute my Level 6 Jinzo!’"

Jinzo, who had been getting ready to show off in its debut: "???"

Nani!? You’re tributing me?

No way, boss! This is my first time! How could you treat my debut like this!?

But the Spell Card had already appeared. Jinzo’s form dissolved into golden light and vanished.

Beauregard and Brier were both dumbfounded.

He tributed Jinzo...?

Isn’t that great?

No matter what comes out next, doesn’t that mean all their traps in the backrow will come back to life?

"According to ’Metamorphosis’s’ effect, I Special Summon from the Extra Deck in Defense Position—

—Level 6, Cyber Blader!"

(In the real TCG, Cyber Blader was adjusted to Level 7, but in the anime, it was Level 6. That’s why Alexis could often equip it with ’Fusion Weapon,’ which only works on Fusion Monsters of Level 6 or below. After it changed to 7 stars, that combo became impossible.)

[Cyber Blader, DEF 800] freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Alexis: "???"

What’s with this sudden change in deck style?

She wasn’t surprised Kira had his cards. Since he was always researching, she knew he had a lot of Cyber cards.

But who would have thought that in the middle of this lock-down strategy, he’d suddenly bust out a card with such a completely different vibe?

Then, recalling the effect of her own Fusion ace, she suddenly seemed to understand something, and her eyes widened in shock at the possibility she had just now realized.

"Muda!" Brier shouted. "No matter what kind of monster it is, as long as we trap it, it’s all the same! Beauregard, activate the trap!"

Beauregard: "Activating Trap — Bottomless Trap Hole! Destroy and banish any opponent’s monster with ATK 1500 or more that is Summoned!"

The Bottomless Trap Hole appeared beneath Cyber Blader’s feet. But Cyber Blader merely glanced down through its visor, swept its icy blade across the ground, and the hole snapped shut as if it never existed.

"Wh-why!?" Brier exclaimed. "The activation was successful! Your monster should have been destroyed!"

"Cyber Blader is a monster whose effect changes based on the number of monsters on your opponent’s field," Kira explained calmly.

"When your opponent controls exactly three monsters, all effects of their Spells, Traps, and Monsters are negated!" (old effect)

"NANI!?"

The two nearly jumped up in unison, eyes wide as saucers.

All their effects, negated?

Then how are we supposed to play!?

(The updated effect in the real card game is that it only negates ’activated effects’ of the opponent, while Continuous Spells and similar effects still work.

But in the anime, the old effect was in play, where all effects of the opponent’s cards became completely nullified—an almost impenetrable lock.)

This is why, although Cyber Blader didn’t seem that great in the anime, it later became the core of one of the most infamous LOCK decks in Yu-Gi-Oh history.

The lock deck’s concept was simple: use the common disruption cards of lock-down decks at the time, and combine them with Cyber Blader’s third effect to form an absolute lock.

It was also simple to set up. Give your opponent three disruption tokens, meeting the "three monsters on the field" requirement. Then use "Ground Collapse" or the Ojama Fusion Monster’s effect to seal off the remaining two zones. As long as Cyber Blader stays on the field, it forms an almost invincible ultimate seal.

And the pioneers of this combo were even more devious than Kira.

Those pioneers discovered this combo and exploited a loophole in the tournament rules at the time, building a deck known as TOD (Time Over Death), the ultimate stall deck.

Using the lock-down combo with Cyber Blader, once the lock was set up, the opponent couldn’t do anything; they could only draw one card per turn and stare helplessly.

At this point, someone might ask: "But how do you win yourself?"

The answer: By having a higher LP than your opponent.

Back then, there was no rule for surrendering in Yu-Gi-Oh, and matches were best of three with a 40-minute time limit. If the time limit was reached, whoever had a higher LP at the end won the entire match.

TOD decks exploited this loophole.

Once the lock was set, the deck would stop attacking and just use LP recovery effects to stall for time. When time ran out, you’d win the match by the rules—not just one duel, but the entire match.

This kind of rules-lawyering was so disgusting that even the infamous Victory Dragon had to bow out. And anyone who dared bring such an ultimate stall deck, making their opponent sit through forty minutes of hell, had to be ready for a physical duel afterward.

"Damn it," Brier gritted his teeth.