#duel decks: knights vs. dragons

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Knight of Meadowgrain

"By tradition, we don't speak for two days after battle. If our deeds won't speak for themselves, what else could be said?"

Artist: Larry MacDougall TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[teapartypenguin]

Fairy Tale Allusions in Yugioh 5Ds

So I was rewatching 5Ds and Akiza's duel against the knight dude got me thinking about the fairy tale allusions in her design and arc, and thinking about it more got me to realize that 5Ds actually has a lot of loose fairy tale allusions throughout it. So here are just a couple of the ones I noticed:

Akiza in general: Akiza's first duel of the series was already really heavy with the knight vs. witch symbolism. It also got me thinking about the "Princess, Witch, and Prince" theme from Revolutionary Girl Utena. A very basic rundown of what Utena says on it is that people will try to sort women into a box of good (Princess) or bad (Witch) based on how much they conform to the concept of what a girl should be like, a good Princess has to trade independence for protection from a Prince, any girl that doesn’t agree is a Witch. Problem is that no woman is ever just one of those things at a time, and Akiza definitely isn't. She is at first feared for her power, labelled the evil Black Rose Witch, and attempts to find comfort and safety in her "Prince" (Sayer). Only when she meets Yusei and the gang and finds acceptance from them and her parents do we see that she's actually a very kind girl. And even then, she doesn't go trading one Prince for another, she's never as reliant on Yusei as she was with Sayer and maintains her independence. Also just her deck in general carries the theme with fairy tale-like imagery (roses, knights, witches, fairies, and a dragon).

Akiza + Yusei: These two are basically Beauty and the Beast. I am a major faithshipping fan, but even if you take out the romantic aspects, it still fits. Yusei being Beauty and Akiza being the Beast for obvious reasons. The scene with Yusei waking Akiza in the hospital also gives major Sleeping Beauty vibes as well (this scene also owns my soul).

The rose imagery also still fits with both of them.

Yusei: He's Cinderella: he's a poor boy, goes to a ball that he wasn't supposed to go to (Neo Domino), has to leave at midnight (gets arrested), but leaves behind a "glass slipper" (the mark of the Crimson Dragon) that makes it so that the prince (Godwin) can track him down and give him another shot at freedom (not for altruistic purposes of course, but it still fits).

Jack and Carly: Scoopshipping are The Little Mermaid. The mermaid (Carly) falls in love with the prince (Jack), but for certain reasons, they cannot be together. Said mermaid makes a deal, by trading her soul, she gains legs (Dark Signer abilities + duel runner) which allows her a second chance to go after the prince. But the prince rejects her proposal (because she's undead and evil now), and the mermaid concedes. But being unable to hold up her end of the deal, she turns into sea foam and dies (turns into dust and dies).

Leo and Luna: Luna's deck already has a loose fairy forest type theme (and in the manga, has a Fairy Tale archetype). I want to say they're Hansel and Gretel. Has the same beats of two siblings getting lost in the woods (Luna with her spirit world adventure, Leo dueling Devack with "Closed Forest" up). But most of it comes from their duel with Devack, in which Hansel (Leo) stalls the witch (Devack) for as long as possible until Gretel (Luna) can kill the witch by pushing him into the oven (win the duel). You could also say that Luna's arc of freeing Ancient Fairy Dragon has elements of Rapunzel (saving the princess from the witch that locked her up).

Those are at least the ones I noticed. I doubt all of them were intentional but it's interesting when you make the connections. Let me know if there's any I missed because I'm not done with my rewatch yet and don't have anything for Crow. Feel like Team Satisfaction and Neo Domino City have Wizard of Oz parallels, but haven't got enough info to say how yet.

[blueeyesking]

Duel for the World! Yugi & Kaiba vs. Dartz! Part 1

Seto and Yugi had the good fortune to draw extremely powerful opening hands, making their first turns give them a strong start: Seto already has one Blue-Eyes on his field, and the other two are already in his hand; Yugi was able to summon his equally powerful Black Luster Soldier. Facing down both mighty creatures, Dartz doesn't seem remotely intimidated. He draws, and plays his Seal, that ominous blue-green symbol encompassing their Duel and changing Dartz from a gracious host

to a sharp-eyed predator.

Dartz wears a wicked grin as he continues his turn, playing two monsters that seem useless and weak to Seto; Yugi warns him of one's ability to come back stronger every time it's destroyed, but Seto isn't concerned. Dartz doesn't play anything else; clearly, Seto thinks, this man doesn't know who he's dealing with.

Seto's next draw confirms this. He lets out a hearty laugh- Polymerization! Absolutely perfect.

Seto had intended to use all three of his dragons to create Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon... but looking at Dartz's field, why should he summon a Fusion Monster with no abilities, when, objectively, Blue-Eyes Twin Burst dragon has fantastic abilities that will allow him to clear the board, leaving Dartz completely defenseless against Yugi's Black Luster Soldier? Even if Dragon Master Knight is powerful enough to finish this Duel immediately, Seto doesn't know Dartz's deck- he could have any number of counters to their powerful monster, or one of these monsters could have a trick to it that he doesn't know. After all, Seto doesn't have every Duel Monsters card memorized. Kris had suggested well; Twin-Burst would come in handy.

Kaiba reveals his Polymerization and the two Blue-Eyes in his hand, discarding all three in order to summon his great Twin Burst. Its heads rise and roar at the temple's interior, briefly joined by the solo Blue-Eyes next to them, who, to Seto's intuition, seems a little disappointed not to be included. But she's grateful to be here and fighting beside her sisters, which is more than enough for them.

With Twin-Burst on the field, Seto orders her to attack both of Dartz's Orichalcos monsters- but suddenly, the Seal flares with light and closes Yugi and Seto off from their supporting friends, casting a beam of cyan light high into the clouds.

Seto and Yugi recoil, shielding their eyes from the light- and when it fades, they find themselves on the Seal, high above the clouds. It's not long until Dartz appears with them.

Seto rushes forward to grab the man's collar, lifting his feet off of the ground with one arm. "What sort of party trick are you pulling now, bastard?! I won't be fooled by any more illusions!"

Dartz smiles at him, patting his forearm with all of the condescension one might show a small child throwing a tantrum. "Don't worry, Seto; the Seal is reacting to your powerful attack. It's showing us a memory held within the Orichalcos."

Seto scoffs and tosses Dartz to the floor. "We don't care about your dark memories, Dartz- we're here to end you."

Dartz shrugs. "I have no control over what the Orichalcos does in this capacity."

The clouds beneath the Seal reveal a grand city, alight with electric lighting and seated upon an island. Dartz stands, brushing off his robes, while the two Duelists gaze down at the sight.

What follows is a ten-minute exposition dump about Dartz's past, as the ruler of Atlantis. How the Orichalcos came from their volcano, along with the serpent of darkness that blotted out the sun. They used the stones to bring their society into a grand age of prosperity.

However, the stones also slowly corrupted people with darkness in their hearts. Eventually, it tested their wills- and turned those with great darkness inside, into monsters. When Dartz was given a piece of the Orichalcos, he was also told his purpose: to start the world anew, and create one without darkness.

He has Orichalcos Soldiers descend upon Atlantis and tells them to kill the unpure, taking their souls to revive their God! And in response, an aurora shines across the sky, bringing the Legendary Dragons out of their slumber to combat Dartz and the Orichalcos. The fight ended in a draw, with the Dragons sealed by Dartz's magic and Dartz leaving his ruined kingdom.

After his spiel and show, the Duelists are returned to themselves on the field, the light of the Seal fading back to normal. Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon destroys Orichalcos Gigas, then Orichalcos Kyutora...

[turboacek-blog]

Yugi’s Pokemon Team

So there was a topic of Ash vs Yugi on twitter

And basically it just devolved into if they're playing each other competitive Yugi would win but Ash would win if they physically had to fight

Some also said Ash would win Pokemon and Yugi would win Yugioh/Duel monsters not just for obvious reasons but because Ash is more adaptive and Yugi is more of a planner

It made me think what would Yugi’s Pokemon team be?

As the idea is that Yugi would use some competitive Pokemon and that's why he would win as he would be less restricted in Pokemon and such similar to the actual competitive Pokemon play where they use legendaries, mythical, etc as if it's normal which isn't in the anime

But also Yugi’s deck had a theme (not an archetype) of mostly medieval with magic, knights, and dragons and there are pokemon that can meet that theme even if they aren't the most competitive Pokemon

So this was my attempt at a Yugi team

Meowscarada is literally a dark magician lol and makes sense for a starter,

Braixen would have been the starter before gen 9 as it has the “magic rod” and everything but now it can fit the Dark Magician Girl spot (could be Delphox but thought Braixen for the apprentice aspect more since it's a middle stage)

Aegislash is for all the knight cards Yugi has from Celtic Guardian, Black Luster Soldier, Buster Blader, etc

Escavalier, after the dark magician, it seems Gaia the fierce knight is the most consistent of his stronger cards, as cards like summoned skull didn’t appear often and others aren’t as unique or strong, Gaia and Escavalier use the same weapon

Venonat, Venonat is the closest thing to Kuriboh and Kuriboh is such a big part of Yugi had to include

Rayquaza is the obvious pick for Slifer the Sky Dragon the Egyptian God that was the boss monster for them

So that's the team

Pretty strong, the starters are starters so they have good strength, Aegislash is versatile Escavalier is can be really strong, with Rayquaza as one of the most powerful Pokemon ever, Venonat is the weak point here but could be the equivalent to Ash’s Pikachu if we're concerned about stats

Could this team beat Ash’s?

Depends how strong they make the Rayquaza

As everyone else is possible with his starters, aces, Pokemon like Sirfetch’d are no joke, etc

So could be an even battle until Rayquaza comes then it comes down to is this a Pokemon that if he has Charizard, Greninja, Pikachu etc available can they do a legendary slaying performance or will it be like a Tobias Darkrai or a legendary raid battle where he stands no chance?

I made additional team's for if Yugi and Atem are separated for this

Atem

Kept Meowscarada and Aegislash as in the Yugi vs Atem battle Atem had more of the magician and Knight cards

Atem had the Egyptian gods so he keeps Rayquaza for Slifer

Alakazam just represents more of his magician cards

Druddigon is the most similar to some of his dragons like Timaeus

And Kingambit represent more knight cards maybe specifically the Kings Knight, Queens Knight, Jacks Knight cards

Yugi

Atem had the dark magician girl in their duel but this magician can represent more of the fruit magicians he used in DSOD

Magnezone for his Magnet warriors, they had a crucial part against Atem in their duel and are another staple for their joint deck

Golurk for his Fortress cards like Stronghold, Metamorphortress as he used that combination in nearly all his duels

Klinklang for the gadget cards like red gadget, gold gadget

Gardevoir and Gallade for his Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman they are his equivalent to Atem’s Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl

Different teams, Atem has the same Rayquaza question but little Yugi, has a more technical team he's not going to overpower Ash but he could out-strategize him

Additional Pokemon to full out his reserves/deck

Sirfetch’d -another knight

Chesnaught - technically another knight

Armarouge/Ceruledge - fire knights might fit Joeys flame swordsman more

Corviknight - also another knight

Dragonite -another dragon

Charizard - another “dragon”

Mismagius- a witch for more magicians

Mr. Mime - technically a magician

Lucario and Rabscada - the Egyptian connection

Marowak or Duskull - Summoned Skull

Iron Valiant - “Combined” version of Gardevoir and Gallade if ever news to make just one team slot for them (also Silent Paladin)

Basically any dark, psychic, fairy, ghost, steel, or dragon type Pokemon as they generally cover a lot of the magic, knight, and Dragon, Yugi’s medieval theme has and some of Yugi’s toy/kid theme

I couldn't find a good equivalent for Gandora maybe a Pokemon like Zekrom but nothing I felt confident about picking

Same with Exodia don't know which Pokemon could fit that ionic card(s) maybe Regigigas as the ability slow start can match the need for all five cards to summon/win

Legendaries

Magearna - for the gadget cards

Swords of justice - knights

Hoopa - kind of a magician

Zacian/Zamazenta- knights

Mewtwo - psychic type can be a magician

So who wins?

[thecornwall]

Cornwall's Random Card of the Day #854: Claws of Valakut

Claws of Valakut is a common from Worldwake, seen here in its Duel Decks: Knights vs Dragons printing.

To make a block centered around lands interesting, WotC had to come up with a whole lot of ways to make lands relevant. This aura is one of them. Weirdly, it leans you towards monocolour, and if it weren't for the inherent weaknesses of auras, this thing would be kind of OP. Quite the boon for a midrange monored deck. Of course, a faster red deck would want simply another creature instead, since its more reliable and faster to beat down with multiple creatures than risk putting an aura on one, even one so obviously powerful as this one.

[folatefangirl]

List of  Disorganized Enemies to Lovers AUs and Prompts for Your Ficcing Needs

Rival coffee shops (courtesy of The Bookening Group)

Rival Parisian bakeries (courtesy of @ichabodjane)

Rival county fair blue ribbon baking contestants

Rival pet walkers/pet sitters

Rival fashion designers

Rival gamers (twitch streamers? youtubers?)

Rival succulent plant insta accounts (or houseplant fandom in general)

Rival morticians

Rival dragon trainers

Rival knights in a tournament

Other obscure sports rivals

Rival academics in the same niche field who keep responding to each other’s publications with increasingly snarky commentary and shading each other at conferences 

Rival ghost hunters who use wildly different methods of technology to try to find ghosts and mutually think the other is the one scamming viewers

Same set of Stabby McStabby characters, just make one side Sith and the other side Jedi aka the Star Wars AU (courtesy of The Bookening Group)

Rival Jedi Masters who want the same apprentice

Rival smugglers (Star Wars or Firefly or other AU potential)

Rival spies (The Mr. and Mrs. Smith AU, basically)

Angel and Demon trying to stop the apocalypse (aka the Good Omens AU or possibly the Daughter of Smoke and Bone AU, depending on what kind of reader you are)

Superhero vs Supervillain

Sidekick vs Henchperson

Their friends told them to try out for Beatrice and Benedick in a “Much Ado About Nothing” production bc they thought it would be funny

Pirate rivals who accidentally meet while trying to score the same merchant ship

Pirate vs Pirate Catcher

Vampire vs Vampire Hunter

Pride and Prejudice AU

The classic dance fic: “We have to dance together for XYZ thing [an important event or competition] because there are literally no other options and we’re competent at dancing even if we dislike each other immensely.”

One knits, the other crochets; both frequent the same fiber crafting circles (@longsightmyth)

One cooks food crimes, the other insists on cooking to the letter of the recipe every time

“You snapped the pasta in half?!” 

“What, like it’s hard?”

Someone keeps leaving the shared gallon of milk/carton of eggs empty in the fridge after using it up (and they were roommates AU)

Your Preferred Tarot Deck And Reading Method Is Wrong And So Wrong IDK Even Where To Begin

We have each other blocked on our mains but not on our sideblogs for a mutually shared fandom and we are both aware of it

You put lipstick in my Valentino white bag?!?

My name is [Character Name]. You killed my [relative]. Prepare to die. (Sword duels!)

I moved in and I nominated myself for the HOA as a joke and accidentally got the position and now someone with years of personal beef with the HOA hates me by default

If you keep blasting party music until 2 AM, I will keep doing my yard work at exactly 7 AM the next morning, thank you very much!

Our pets are very good friends. We are not. Our pets do not care in the slightest.

Oh no, I understand that particular language just fine, I just wanted to keep hearing the hot goss and shade said about me within earshot

You described corsets incorrectly in one of your novels due to inadequate research and I, a fashion historian, am going to continuously write you essays on corsets and historical underthings in general until you fix your shit. You, on the other hand, are wondering if all my long winded letters mean I’m fixing to turn your skin into a coat. (Maybe I am!)

[cyberdragoninfinity]

I don't have the flame emote but can I ask for takes on 5ds and if Im allowed to be specific, can I request one for your favorite and least favorite arc? If that's okay ofc, I don't eanna shove two at you if you don't want them!

YESSS oh please by all means i love talking about 5D's arcs and all their finer details...

🔥 For my favorite arc:

well, my favorite 5D's arc is--

i do genuinely think Ark Cradle is one of the best arcs in any yugioh, emotionally, narratively, symbolically and otherwise. I'd even say eps 137-151 are, imho, one of the absolute best series of episodes and duels in the entire franchise (and also my favorite stretch of episodes ive seen yet.) Z-one is certainly to me one of if not The best yugioh Big Bad and i will fight to the death over that.

I went into 5D's last arc not thinking i was gonna like it much (i tend to get stressed out by apocalyptic doomsday scenarios) and then every single duel went hard as hell. And then it turned out they were hiding some of yugioh's most interesting characters and character dynamics back there. And then Fucking Everything With Bruno. It rocks. It absolutely rocks. It makes me fucking insane. Ark Cradle made me a different person. slash POS.

and tbh that's part of why i always get annoyed when people write off 5D's s2 on the whole or encourage people to just not watch it--there is some REALLY good stuff back there!! and it's unfortunate that you DO have to wade through some agonizingly frustrating duels to get there. but i promise it is worth it!!!! My babygirl Aporia is BACK THERE and he is SO ETERNALLY UNDERRATED BY WESTERN FANS and you WILL see him and you WILL feel something. MY FINAL MESSAGE.

Anyway, 🔥 For my least favorite arc:

YES i am WRGP's strongest soldier YES it's also my least favorite arc overall and i will fully relent to it having Many Issues YES these two views can coexist in one animal. Anyway I guess my most unpopular WRGP take is, like i talked about in a previous ask, it still does have merit to the story warts and all. In fact I don't even think the main issue is the fact the duels are long, i think a 4-5 episode duel can whip like hell (yugi vs. yami marik battle city finals immediately springs to mind), there just needs to be things that HAPPEN. IN EACH EPISODE OF THE DUEL. And unfortunately WRGP's duels kind of struggle with this more than once. The biggest This Duel Kind of Sucks Sorry offender, the Team Unicorn Duel, that's just 5 fucking episodes of watching a mill deck try to pull one over on the guy whose deck is full of graveyard effects, and it's just not very fun to watch. And then it doesn't even really feel like it effects the world and narrative at large when all is said and done. where the fuck did Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste go for literally the rest of the series. 😐

but i guess "Team Unicorn are not very interesting characters or duelists" isnt a particularly hot unpopular take for this arc. hm. I'm not a very big fan of Team Ragnarok either, I guess. they have really fun character designs but they just dont do anything for me. ho hum.

[krawlernyannyan]

YGOMD 4-14-24

Starting today at Silver II.

1. I assume this one was a Blue-Eyes deck. All they really got to do was Set a Hex-Sealed Fusion and pass, they scooped once Lovely popped it. [Win]

2. Noble Knights vs Labrynth. They got the Link Charles out and he took out the Big Welcome but that was the first time I got to use Arias' revival effect, bringing her back to Synchro with Arianna into Chaos Angel, banishing the Charles. The field was open after that and one pop into their next turn and they scooped. [Win]

3. This one seemed to just be another masochist deck. They had Infernoid, Armed Dragon, and Cyber Angel stuff all mashed together. It didn't do much. [Win]

4. Branded Runick vs Labrynth. This was a really slow grindy game but the endless conga line of Bystials wore me out. It ultimately ended up with me decking out. [Loss]

5. Chimera vs Labrynth. Ate me alive with a Super Poly early on and they handtrapped me to hell and back, and eventually it seemed like they ran out of actual material to Fusion Summon with and had to just sit on an untargetable Guardian Chimera, which thankfully Lovely still gets to pop. Once I got rid of it they scooped, which is great, because this one also ran long. [Win]

The Chimera game was my rank-up game into Gold, so I won't have to muddle through Bronze next season. It also got me to Level 50 on the Duel Pass, so now I've got the new Snake-Eyes cosmetics!

[magpiejay1234]

Episode 68 is not a recap, but sort of serves as a break.

This means Episodes 60-67 sort of serve as a backstory mini-arc.

So far the Duels have been:

**Joke duel of Emma vs. Naoki

**Yusaku vs. Kenmochi, Yusaku vs. Yoroizaka concurrently with Blood Shepherd vs. Takeru (w/backstory duel of Takeru vs. Ryujiro)

**Backstory duel against Knight of Hanoi

**Backstory duel against Ancient Ghost protecting Cyberse Deck's location.

**Yusaku vs. Earth

With the final one, Cyberse Clock Dragon has appeared against Blood Shepherd, Bohman, and Earth. It will be a while before we get to other Summoning methods.

Since Earth's first Duel happens fairly early on, there is a good chance he will appear as an unlock in Duel Links before others, as his Deck has been recently printed.

Even though Episode 68 will establish Ignis vs. Knights of Hanoi, next mini-arc after this episode will be mostly about SOL Tech.

[markrosewater]

One of the first mtg items I purchased for myself was the Elspeth vs Tezzeret Duel Decks. Later I bought the Knights vs Dragons decks and kept those unaltered, teaching well over a dozen different people how to play magic with those

They were fantastic products and I personally used them to recruit new players into the hobby, what convinced wizards that there wasn’t enough interest in them?

Sales data. (And market research data.)

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Punishing Fire

Artist: Greg Staples TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[howaboutalittlehelpneos]

YGO! Questionnaire

Tagged by @cipher-wise

Pleasantly surprised to be in one of these, so let’s go

Favorite series: *Gestures to icon* Is it any surprise I’ll be picking GX? I love GX with all my heart and soul. The story’s pacing is very good and never feels like it’s dragging its feet to get to where it’s going, most duels are over in less than a full episode with the longest one being three, there are so many good characters to get invested in, and this boy right here is your protagonist.

Look at him blow kisses to the audience after beating Crowler, how could anyone not love Jaden Yuki? I care him so much. Even the filler episodes in GX are pretty fun to watch most of the time, and it’s the good kind of filler that may not advance the plot much or at all, but it’ll give you plenty of good memories to take with you. Who could possibly forget the eggwich thief? Not to mention the soundtrack fucking slaps.

Favorite protagonist: I mean...

Yeah it’s Jaden. GX hooked me immediately when I started watching it because of how much I loved this boy. He’s that perfect mix of cocky and sweet when it comes to dueling because he’s confident in his own abilities, but he never stops having fun and being amazed at what his opponent can do, he cares about all of his friends and does his best to help them with their problems, he’s kind to strangers, and he has exactly half a brain cell. 

I feel the gif speaks for itself, but Jaden’s dialogue when he turns around here is “I’m such a sucker for things like this! I’ll help you, ma’am!” Dorothy says “No, you’ll be late... Don’t you have a test today?” And Jaden replies with “Who cares if I’m late? I couldn’t leave a lady in trouble!” Jaden Yuki is my absolute favorite protagonist.

Favorite rival: Oh man is that a tough one. Am I allowed to pick two? It’s a hard call to make between this dumb edgy bitch-

And this dumb gay bitch

Honestly they’re tied for favorite rival in my book. I absolutely loved Chazz when I watched GX, and I thought his arc about breaking through his inferiority/superiority complex and learning to accept loss as a part of life without letting it define him was wonderfully written, and seeing him grow as a person throughout the show just made me feel happy for him. Shark... I really thought I wasn’t going to end up liking Shark at first, but god he just gets so much better as Zexal goes on, starting out as this mean spirited middle school bully in episode one, and slowly ending up as Yuma’s boyfriend closest friend. It’s incredible to look back at how Shark acts when he’s first introduced and compare it to... season 3, I think it was, where just hearing the words “Yuma’s in danger” is enough to send him running to his rival’s side. Chazz and Shark. They are my favorites.

Favorite BFF: Him

Crow Hogan is an absolute treasure and he was my favorite part about watching 5Ds. This little bird man first gets introduced by stealing cards for his kids and clowning on Sector Security, and he’s a source of so much good throughout the show. Excellent best friend (technically brother but I’m counting him), wonderful father, 10/10 person all around. Plus the fact that the only thing stopping him from berating his bitchass brother even more was Yusei having to literally pick him up and pull him away is definitely extra points in my book. What a powerful little bird. His only weakness is people that are taller than him, which is unfortunately most people.

Favorite GFF:

Yuzu. Have I actually watched Arc V yet? No, but I’m still picking Yuzu for my number one here. Tea and Tori are just awful characters, I’m neutral towards Alexis, and Akiza... Did have potential to be something interesting on her own, despite how uncomfortable she made me in seasons 1-2 of 5Ds, but her relevance is alllll downhill from there. I’ve seen one clip of Yuzu yelling at a man eating pie and calling him a 100th rate duelist, and that was all I needed to know she would be my favorite. (Clip here) 

Favorite villain: Oh boy

The fuckin carrot is my favorite villain, and I say this as someone who fully believes he didn’t deserve to be in the last episode. Vector did some fucked up shit in his day, and he only continued to do fucked up shit in Yuma’s day, but I have to say he was pretty effective when it came down to his goals. He got things done and went right for what he wanted by taking direct action to seize Don Thousand’s power, and he manipulated Yuma perfectly by preying on his kind nature and love for Astral to use him to further his goals. 

...Plus I mean just look at his subbed dialogue God he’s such a slut. Evil slutty alien.

Tl;dr Vector was a horrible horrible person, but he was a good villain, and he was so entertaining whenever he was on screen that it was impossible not to like him. Still kinda wish he got what he deserved though, and what he deserved definitely wasn’t another chance.

Speaking of Don Thousand though, can we talk about how unfairly pretty he is? If I had to pick a runner up villain in terms of looks alone, it would definitely be him.

God it was not fair how pretty the big bad of Zexal was. He’s fucking gorgeous, and in my opinion, the best looking villain at the very least.

Favorite card: *Sweats in Duel Links* Favorite? There’s so many cards out there to pick from, but since I’ve already broken the rules with my two favorite rivals, I’ll be picking two of each card type: Spells, traps, and monsters. One for the aesthetic, and one for how often I make use of it.

First up, the Aesthetics group

What can I say, Vampiric Koala is such a cutie, Dwimmered Path has some really pretty card art, and Rainbow Life is an eternal flex on any heteros I may encounter while playing Duel Links. Nothing better than a gay trap card.

Now for usability

Dragon Knight of Creation is suuuper helpful in any dragon themed deck and has a permanent slot in my decks for Mokuba and Kaiba, PoG is always a fun way to boost up weak monsters to ridiculous heights, and Dark Bribe just lets you block your opponent like “Okay I know you wanna hurt me but I will let you draw another card if you do not do that thing”, and they can’t refuse you.

Favorite episode: I’ll be copying cipher’s format here and picking one for each series, but this will still only total out to five for me since I’ve yet to watch past Zexal ^^; Soon I’ll get to Arc V! One day...

Season 0: Episode 16:  Turnabout by a Hair's Breadth - The White-Robed Crisis I’m a sucker for my son Joey, and this was a good Joey episode about him and his sister, plus it was nice seeing that doctor get what he deserved :) Duel Monsters: Season 5, episode 12-14:  The Deciding Match for Duel King - Yugi vs. Leon/Golden Castle of Stromberg/KC Grand Prix Ends  Probably a weird batch of episodes to pick, I know, but a lot of DM was kinda forgettable to me, and these are some of the few episodes I do recall. I just... really felt for Leon’s situation, and I wanted good things for that boy. I care him. GX: Season 3, episode 34: Dark Fusion! Inferno Wing!! Jim. Jim Jim Jimmmmm. This was the episode that finally made me understand why saviorshipping was a thing because it hits you with all these memories Jim has of Jaden and shows how they bonded before all this Dark World shit happened, and the whole thing was very emotional. 5Ds: Season 4, episode 2-3:  Recollections, Entrusted with a Friend's Dying Wish God Crow, my precious bird son. I really liked the backstory they gave him, despite how much it hurt. It was probably the best character development he got in the whole of 5Ds, and let you see a side to him you probably wouldn’t expect. I loved watching him get his justice. Zexal II: Season 2, episode 5-6:  Alito the Silent Fighter - Reunion of the Passionate Duelists!/ Be Revived! The Duelist Soul That Transcends Life!! I picked these episodes for Nistro and Nistro alone. He was one of my absolute favorites in Zexal, and seeing how well he and Dextra were doing was good for the soul. Just look at this good lion man right here.

Look at him!!!

Favorite decks to use: Elemental Heroes, Aromages, Red Eyes, Six Samurai, and Crystal Beasts.

Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, or Link: I’m a simple girl, I love fusion/tributes for how easy they are, but synchro can be pretty fun, too

Years in fandom: ??? Even I don’t know the answer to this one, friends. I used to be in the fandom when I was in middle school, wrote/read a few fanfics here and there, but then I fell out of it for... Well I’m 22 now and only got back into things 6 months ago? I started rewatching the abridged series of Duel Monsters in March, and from there I just wanted to consume actual Yugioh content and never went back.

Who am I tagging: @finding-fallen-petals @dizziedaikonn​ @chazzaroo​ Go wild y’all

[saltiestcoconut]

Dark Templar's name symbolism

Aka why Ai is the perfect example of a knight templar

So in addition to being absolutely obsessed with Ai I am also obsessed with Ai’s deck because holy shit is that deck loaded with symbolism it’s beautiful really but the card I’m the most obsessed with is Dark Templar cause duh of course I am it looks very very similar to Decode Talked, Yusaku’s subace (Firewall Dragon is Yusa’s ace I don’t care what Konami says and this is the hill I will die on) because of course it does and its effect is similar yet opposite of Decode Talker except instead of protecting it revives but like its name (specifically its adaptation name change) is what really interested me

At first I thought it was lame that DT’s japanese name was Dark Knight while its english name is Dark Templar like Dark Knight was pretty much the perfect summary to ais character development (character reveal?) so why would they change it to Dark Templar? (aside from being pieces of shits but let’s assume they had a thematic reason) I got bored enough to find out Google essentially defines a templar as a religious knight which I thought was odd but aight an acceptable name change but then but then I came across the knight templar trope while reading through Yubel’s trope page on tv tropes (I was looking for those elusive Jewish wedding/Jaden vs Yubel fusion duel parallels if you can provide them hit me up pls) and oh boy did that trope change the game 

I’m just going to list the defining characteristics of knight templar straight from the page because holy fucking shit Ai portrays this trope to a t 

“Usually, the Knight Templar's primary step (or objective) to their perceived "utopia" is to get rid of that pesky "free will" thing that is the cause of crime and evil.”

If Ai would have won that duel against Yusaku he would have gotten rid of his free will by scattering it thus dying in the process while utopia wasn’t Ai’s endgame Ai’s existence would have led to a dystopia and preventing that is Ai’s endgame goal 

Many Knight Templars are utterly merciless in dealing with those whom they consider evil, and are prone to consider all crimes to be equal.

While Ai didn’t believe that everyone else was evil (save for Queen but he’s not wrong) he did erase those who tried to stand in his way and that’s pretty much what a knight templar does in face he doesn’t erase Aoi instead forcing her to suffer the same fate he has all because she teamed up with Akira to stop him from getting the second sol key (disproportionate punishment to crime)

It's important to note that despite being villainous within the context of the story, Knight Templars fully believe that they are on the side of righteousness and draw strength from it and that their opponents are not. Trying to reason with one isn't much good either, ...

While Ai isn’t a villain he is very much the antagonist of s3 (remember kids villains and antagonists aren’t the same!) and he absolutely could not be reasoned with because he believes that what he’s doing is for Yusaku’s best interest (a trait he shares with Yubel who is definitely a knight templar don’t get me started on the whole fusion thing) of course this doesn’t get revealed until much later on and it’s even revealed that he was doing this mainly to save Yusaku’s life so he definitely drew strength from his motivation

Indeed, it may take them a while to realize that a person with sense and good will really opposes them ...

He knew Yusaku would oppose him (while this doesn’t fit to a t his antagonism was an act so that he could get Yusaku to kill him or commit a homocide/suicide (sorry couldnt’ resist)) hence why I believe his extreme actions was an attempt to goad Yusa into chasing after him so Yusa would end up dueling him and thus forcing him to pick how he dies 

One of the few ways to actually change a Knight Templar's mind is to kick their ass down to the ground. ... They won't necessarily join you ...

While this part again doesn’t exactly fit Ai to a t these parts do at least to fact that Ai didn’t reveal the entire truth until Yusa beats him and quite literally knocks Ai down and out (gotta love high stakes children card games) even then Ai still doesn’t try to listen to Yusa’s desires (granted he couldn’t have even if he did wanted to) interesting to note that tvtropes says they’ll probably listen to your story when in this case Yusa listened to Ai’s story and this was sprinkled throughout their duel getting progressively worst as the duel continued 

The Knight Templar is often the ultimate incarnation of Light Is Not Good, and in series where Dark Is Not Evil ... If they are still nominally good, expect them to be a Hero Antagonist.

I disregarded everything that didn’t apply to Ai in between these two statements because Ai himself is the dark aspect of the series something he shares with Yusa and obviously he doesn’t believe Yusa and himself to be evil especially Yusa since you know he knows Yusa is actually a good person I included this because Ai was very much originally a hero turned antagonist and this is yugioh it’s the embodiment of light bad dark good (if memory serves me right 5ds is the only series to not follow this trope)

Sometimes, the Knight Templar is an artificially intelligent computer that took its instructions to "protect humanity" a bit too far

I couldn’t resist this was the plot to s3 in a nutshell 

... Knight Templars will insist that they're good guys, even the ones that are practically villains, they often aren't completely ignorant of the pain they cause; they simply consider it to be acceptable collateral damage, or regret the means they "must" use to achieve their ends

In this case Ai had noble intentions but insisted on portraying himself as a villain and he expressed regret at having dragged Roboppi with him and causing Roboppi’s demise (sobs)

Given how well Ai suits this trope (it’s almost every single one of their defining features) it’s no wonder that his symbolic monster counterpart is known as both Dark Knight and Dark Templar with Dark being the common element in its name change cause goddang 

I lowkey want to do an in depth analysis on Ai’s deck and how they fare against Yusaku’s code talkers cause there has to be a connection but I’m lazy and that requires so much research 

[rawwkingrimmie64]

My favorite moment playing Yu-GI-Oh! happened earlier today, so I gotta talk about this.

I was playing a duel with my friend today at the game shop, eager to test out the new strategies in my Cyberse deck, having not played with the deck since Duel Power's release.

I was on the edge of a win, when out of nowhere my friends floods the board with five X-Krawlers. One short of obliterating me through direct attacks, but enough to prevent me from activating effects during the Battle Phase. This means no Cyberse Quantum Dragon, and no Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax. Fortunately, I had anticipated this in advance.

I Link Summoned Decode Talker on my last turn, but was only able to boost its ATK to 3,300 and unable to attack that turn. I knew Krawlers could get above that, especially if my friend played United We Stand. The card was never played though, and we both spent the next 3 minutes crunching numbers in our heads. She was trying to find her monsters attack points, I was busy double checking Cyberse Synchron's effect and calculating damage for my next attack.

So, I was able to survive the battle. More importantly, Cyberse Synchron's graveyard effect kept Decode Talker on the field. 1100 Life Points separated me from victory, and I knew I had enough to win with the Decode Destruction already in my hand.

I activated Decode Destruction, which gave Decode Talker an additional 1000 ATK, as well as being able to banish any monster it destroys in battle. 4300 ATK vs X-Kralwer Synapses 2700 for 1600 damage. My friend starts to pick up the card, but then says "it can't be destroyed by battle!"

So many thoughts raced through my mind in the time it took to put on a cocky smile. I knew that this was the first, and most likely last chance I would get to live out this moment. It was too perfect to pass up, or let time pass by. It honestly felt like an eternity to put my thoughts together, but it went together so seamlessly that the only break was me taking a breath to excitedly exclaim:

"But you still take damage."

TL;DR: I lived out a Yu-Gi-Oh! meme today, and that makes victory so much sweeter!

[darkzorua100]

So nothing much really happened in 79. It was mostly just set up for the Blood Shepherd and Lightning duel. We did get to see more of Lightning, as the title would imply him being the main focus of the episode, and geez this Ignis really is just a prick but he’s an interesting prick. 

As Ryoken has stated, Lightning has been watching everything that has been going on in Link Vrains. The episode starts off with him trying to watch the Revolver vs BS duel but isn’t able to because Ryoken knows how to cover his tracks. He monologues to Jin about their whole situation like they are actual allies in this war before correcting himself that Jin was nothing more then his puppet basically but it is still fascinating to me that he does this. Like the whole Lightning/Jin dynamic from Lightning’s POV. Unlike Windy, Lightning doesn’t so much as hate humans as he finds them to be a lesser species, as he explains to BS, but he almost treats Jin like an equal. Yeah he made him into a human shell, but unlike Windy with his kid, he hasn’t physically harmed him and in a A.I. mind like Lightning’s, he might not take into account the mental pain. Plus he went out of his way to kidnap Jin to use as his footstool when he really didn’t need to. Windy and Earth have both shown that the Ignis don’t need their humans to duel. The Origins and the Ignises are connected to each other and maybe because of that Lightning does see Jin as some kind of higher being, because he was the one to give him a shape, but because of the way he was programmed, he has no choice but to see Jin as nothing more then a simple human as well. I don’t know, I just find their connection intriguing.

We cut over to Windy after that and man, Revolver f*cked him up. Windy isn’t completely healed and Lightning tells him that he won’t ever be completely healed and I loved the fact that he won’t be. It makes sense because the Knights of Hanoi created the Ignis, they should know how to kill them with a program that even the Ignis can’t heal themselves from, but I just love the literal eye for an eye karma in it. If Windy’s Origin is still alive, he has got to have so much physical scarring because of his accident. The fact that now Windy has his own physical scars to match his kid’s just makes me happy because I love these types of symbolism and now I can’t wait for Windy’s kid to be revealed even more because as soon as we see someone with scars just like Windy’s, I’m going to flip out. So yeah, safe to say Windy is kinda pissed and if he didn’t hate humans before, he does now. Again, can’t wait to see his kid because if he didn’t hate A.I. before because of the Hanoi Project, after the car accident because of Windy, oh boy hello more symbolism. Anyway, Lightning gives Windy the details about Earth’s death (which amuses the little psychopath greatly apparently) and Aqua joining Team Playmaker (who annoys him (no one likes Aqua apparently in this group XD). After that, we get some interesting foreshadowing to something big, from the looks of things, from Lightning’s group as after giving Windy the plot rundown, Lightning sends Windy out to Bohman’s location where it seems that Lightning might be constructing something deadly. I very much want to know what Lightning is planning. Tower of Hanoi 2.0 anyone?

We get some sibling interaction between Emma and Kengo visiting their father’s grave. Emma tries to get her brother to join Team Playmaker which fails (if he wasn’t going to join Ryoken’s club, I very much doubt he would join Yusaku’s because you can’t beat what Ryoken is offering I’m sorry) and five seconds later, BS logs into Link Vrains and Lightning invites him to his place. Team Playmaker and the Knights (Revolver and Spectre) follow suit and we get the beginning of the Lightning vs BS duel. Nothing to crazy happens other then BS taking Revolver's advice to heart and takes into account the strategy of Lightning’s group with the Link Spell Cards, with BS destroying Judgement Arrows and that’s how the episode ends. 

Lightning’s deck is spammly but I like the theme. Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains has this Greek Mythology theme to it, but Lightning’s deck almost feels Roman like. Greek and Roman Mythology go hand and hand so it makes sense. I don’t think this is the end of Lightning’s Link Spells though. I’m 100% sure he has another Link Spell in his deck exclusive to him. It might not even be a Spell, it could very well be a Link Trap. If he didn’t have another one of these cards, that would be to easy. As for the stakes of this duel, the winner basically gets the other’s data. BS wins, he gets Lightning and will probably murder him five seconds later if he does and if Lightning wins, it sounds like he is going to turn BS into a mindless drone just like I thought he would. After all, he said it himself, his team is low on numbers. He would be taking out a threat and be gaining one too. Now we all know Lightning is going to be winning this duel, that’s not even a question, but I’m very concerned if this show will do another cop out in order to keep BS on the “hero” side. I’ve seen some people saying that Revolver could jump in and save BS from getting his data stolen once he loses and I very much hope that doesn’t happen and will be something similar to Earth’s lose where it just happens instantly that no one, not even Revolver, can stop it. I think this whole thing would just work out better if BS did get hiveminded because Lightning really does need more people on his team for Team Playmaker to face off against. Like who are half of these people that aren’t Playmaker, Soulburner, and Revolver going to duel against if Lightning doesn’t have more players? BS needs to get brainwashed so Ghost Girl can save her brother and get a win and I’m still crossing my fingers that we will get a Miyu vs Blue Maiden duel because of the virus Lightning put into Miyu.

But yeah overall, it was just a episode to get the ball moving. Next week Jin is speaking and after the monologue Lightning had with his Origin, with the camera focusing a lot on Jin this episode, I’m really curious now to know why he is speaking, if he actually is trying to break free from Lightning’s control or Lightning is just speaking through him. Crossing my fingers for Society of Lightning to happen. We need more anguish. Plus brainwashing always leads to some epic moments in Yu-Gi-Oh. Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon anyone? 

[smorgasbordofobsessions]

liveblog: yugioh! s311-320

ep311

so i'm liking this season because we're learning more about seto's backstory and how he came to be

it's fascinating because his stepfather was a raging dick so it's no wonder that seto is an asshole

seto turned $10M into $100M within a day by buying 51% of a company that treated its employees like family. he then went to the president of that company and "forced" th president to buy back the 51% at a 10x the price seto had bought it for by saying he would close the company and leave all he employees jobless

a huge dick move but good for him because, from a business perspective, not the crummiest move ever done

ep312

once again the site won't let me play an episode but this ep was the conclusion of the kaiba vs ex-board member duel, which i'll safely say kaiba won but i'll know for sure next episode

it would;ve been cool to see how kaiba would've defeated the deep space satellite, though

ep313

um.. noah wants mokuba('s loyalty and trust)

i mean for people who are aware that they're in a virtual world, they also seem to forget that they're in a virtual world

also mokuba's trust in seto is flimsy as shit because a projection of seto came up to him and told him he was a brat and held him back and mokuba acted like his heart was ripped out

like mokuba don't you know your brother better than that

oh so noah has red eyes that have hypnotized mokuba

what fucking weird ass baby cries like that

oh so let's step into a very clearly abandoned mansion to go see if there's a baby in there

how about no

at least seto can recognize that mokuba's been played

what i want to say is that i find it hysterical that noah is here trying to say that seto has treated mokuba harshly meanwhile you KNOW that noah would've treated mokuba worse than trash if he had half a chance

which is OBVIOUS because that' exactly what he's doing by having brainwashed mokuba

"i don't thin there's really a baby in this place at all, tea"

YEAH NO SHIT?

so, i was right, that noah was gozuboro's son

but also i can't imagine gozuboro having sex with anyone

but if noah was supposed to have inherited kaiba corp from gozuboro, then where the fuck has he been

also why is he still like short and childlike when seto has clearly grown

ep314

the big 5 are currently all in tristan's body and they're dueling against joey and yugi

dark magician <3

ep315

gotta say that i particularly like the violins in the opening. they definitely add that necessary sound

what the fuck does joey even mean about oldest trick in the book like joey be wuiet you sometimes make the dumbest moves yourself

"your acting was key. that's what made it convincing"

joey was N O T acting at all haha

oh okay so my thought was correct

noah's dead and his consciousness was uploaded to some virtual program

though! seto's probably correct in that maybe someone else is behind all this bullshit

ep316

the big5 have summoned the 5-headed dragon and yugi + joey only have one turn to change this duel around

dark magician <3

i didn't know we could combine dark magician and flame swordsman

dark flare knight!

loving the tattoos under the eyes (a la grimmjow haha)

how do we know what the special effects of new deck masters are

like how did yami know that dark flare knight's special abilities were to prevent the loss of life points if it's destroyed, and brought about the summoning of mirage knight when destroyed

how did yami know that mirage knight's special ability was to absord the ATK points of the enemy monster

i get that these questions aren't important in the long run but also how do we know this

at least with dungeon dice there was a help screen

"he's got a one in four chance"

bro that's a lot

i'm sorry this dragon can attack four monsters at once

wow joey did a smart move amazing

dark magician knoght haha his uniform looks a bit silly

yami's eyeliner is looking fire

dark magician knight looking fine as well

"we've all had enough of you!"

honestly saying this to someone is hurtful - as it should be

bye bye tristan's (virtual) body

ep317

2 is duke's lucky number

hm, maybe we should press the very obvious red button

i love that setodesigned a theme park and he's honestly turning into such a complex character - way more than i remember. but i remember season 1+2 seto

what i never understand about brainwashing is this - the brainwashER knows that everything is fake - that everyhting was coerced to be the way they want - so everything gained would have to feel like a hollow victory right?

great so noah is brainwashing mokuba into hating seto, and into thinking that noah is his brother

but noah KNOWS that mokuba is NOT his actual brother so..

and also! noah's only doing this to get back at seto - he's using mokuba as a pawn

so even IF noah had plans to actually keep mokuba around, o what? he has a fake brother that he knows is fake because he created his own fake brother

...

these are questions that ultimtely don't need to be answered and aren't relevant to the plot but also i want answers

wow so i was absolutely correctt about noah's consciousness being uploaded

"what happened to me is of little importance"

hm, no, actually, it's not because that freak accident literally turned you into computer software

"the only thing more ridculous than that story is you out dueling me"

seto is 1000000000% about saying how no one else but him could run kaiba corp now because he's right. he also said he built the company from the ground up - and he's right

like even IF noah were to win this duel he hoenslty couldn't run the current iteration of kaiba corp

just had a lot o ice cream

ep318

noah's deckmaster is an ark, that they had to call shinato's ark because i guess noah's ark would be too onthe nose

hm his ark collects monsters destroyed

"you find this funny?" "i find you pathetic."

hmmmmm shinato's ark is actually a good card

why did oah make the implication that gozuboro's still alive someehre

we know he's been missing for 5yrs but does noah somehow have contact with him? because how else wold gozuboro know if noah took control of kaiba corp or not

hahahahhahahhahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

noah's mind got uploaded to the cyber world and gozuboro slowly dropped noah as noah got more entrenched inthe cyber world

"daddy could i run kaiba corp as a cyber entity?"

"uh let's discuss this at a future date

straight comedy

seto's right about gozuboro recognizing and acknowledging hard work and running shit IN PERSON

noah's definitely a spoiled brat - he said it himself

"mokuba has chosen sides basedoff his own free will"

um, noah you dead brainwashed him and everyone knows you did

ep319

hm , destroy mokuba or hand over control of kaiba corp

setooooo :')

wht a great trap card seto!

he played "last turn" which forces the duel to come to a 1 on 1 battle between the chosen monsters - and whichever monster wins that 1 on 1, in turn helps win the game, regardless of life point count

oh wow noah, who's fused with his deckmaster shinato, turned seto and mokuba into stone, with their fingers only centimeters apart

yami's gonna take over seto's place

yami has 400 life points whereas noah has 7400

ep320

gona brush my teeth then time for this episodes!

shinato's special ability allows half of a defeated monster's DEF points gets deducted from life points, and those life points get added to shianto's life points

so there are "spirit cards," inspired by the orient, that allow cards to go back to the person's hand at the end of each turn

naoh has 8100 life points and yami has 200

hahahhahaha yami played cyber jar and all monsters are destoryed

"and since you moved your deck master to the field, your shinato is destoryed as well and you lose the duel!"

why int he FUCK do these deck masters have so many abilities it's absurd

dark magician <3

"oh no not him"

why is dark magician on a carpet?

in any other setup i'd be into it

aw bye dark magician :(

swords of revealing light hell yeah

dark magician girl! <3

"the only thing i need to know about friendship is how to destroy it"