Chapter 133. The True God Kuriboh Lays the Foundation for Victory! Special-Win Cards Explained (Part 1)
The eyes of Duelists across six worlds all fixed on the only monster left on the field in the short video—Chimeratech Overdragon.
The opponent, the No-Shuffle President, had no monsters left.
With that 30,000-ATK Overdragon swinging in… this should be over, right?
The cheers hadn't even died down when a strange timing ripple slowly appeared in the footage.
The Duel didn't end.
At the instant Overdragon, bearing the madness of all the "kami" cards, launched its attack, that eerie timing flipped the resources in hand with one single card.
Kuriboh!
No-Shuffle President: "Heh… so that's it. You really went to ridiculous lengths to fulfill your 'dueling as art' ideal."
No-Shuffle President: "Too bad. If you hadn't completed your performance piece, I would've already lost."
No-Shuffle President: "I activate the effect of Kuriboh from my hand."
"I send the true god card—Kuriboh—to the Graveyard."
"The battle damage from this attack becomes 0!"
Kuriboh?
Kuriboh!
What the—?!
A Blue-Eyes White Dragon deck actually runs Kuriboh?
The Duel still wasn't over.
Duelists in every world couldn't sit still anymore.
One by one, they stared, slack-jawed, as the President casually tossed out Kuriboh from his hand.
That one Kuriboh single-handedly stopped a full 30,000 ATK of Overdragon.
Or rather, that one Kuriboh single-handedly stopped an Overdragon bearing countless "kami" cards.
It was sheer dimensionality reduction, leaving all the Old Guard at a total loss.
"What the heck? A reversal? No way! This got reversed too?"
"I thought it was over! And now you're telling me he had Kuriboh in hand?"
"Man! I'm stunned! What Blue-Eyes player runs Kuriboh? Even Seto Kaiba himself wouldn't!"
"So that means this Duel still isn't decided yet, huh? I'm speechless!"
The group chat instantly exploded.
The importance of hand traps once again rose in the hearts of the Old Guard.
Overdragon equals the Sacred Beasts, the Egyptian God Cards, the Wicked Gods, the Aesir, and a pile of "kami" plus ordinary monsters.
And Kuriboh equals Overdragon.
Therefore, Kuriboh equals the Sacred Beasts, the Egyptian God Cards, the Wicked Gods, the Aesir, and that pile of "kami" plus ordinary monsters.
It had become art.
Kuriboh was the real god.
But a question remained.
Kuriboh stalled for a moment, but the Blue-Eyes resources in the Graveyard were still gone.
How was he going to win?
In the video, the "12 Gods Collection" player's face turned ghostly pale.
A giant question mark hung over his head.
His lifetime of experience against Blue-Eyes had just been shaken.
Which Blue-Eyes player would sleeve up Kuriboh?
12 Gods Collection: "Why in the world are you playing Kuriboh?"
12 Gods Collection: "If you wanted a different hand trap, fine! But why Kuriboh?"
No-Shuffle President: "What do you know?"
No-Shuffle President: "This is the Kuriboh-faith. I can skip the 'kami' cards, but Kuriboh is mandatory."
12 Gods Collection: "..."
12 Gods Collection: "Fine, fine… my turn ends."
No-Shuffle President: "My turn. I draw 1, then Set 1 monster."
No-Shuffle President: "I also Set 1 back row."
"Turn end."
12 Gods Collection: "My turn! Draw!"
12 Gods Collection: "I enter the Battle Phase."
"Attack your Set monster."
"Now, it should finally be over."
No-Shuffle President: "Oh? How about this, then?"
No-Shuffle President: "My Set monster is Morphing Jar."
"Effect activates."
"When this card is flipped, its effect must activate. Each player discards their entire hand, then both draw 5."
Draw 5?
Hold on.
If both players draw 5, both Decks don't have much left, do they?
Right.
One side had been gaining an endless stream of cards off Maxx "C".
The other had fired off That Grass Looks Greener, practically mowing the whole Deck into the Graveyard.
At the instant that effect resolved, all six worlds focused on the remaining cards in each Deck.
Were they handing the outcome to Lady Luck?
Whoever had more cards left would take the win?
And drawing 5 meant the wheel of fate spun faster.
No-Shuffle President: "I've finished drawing."
No-Shuffle President: "My Deck has 2 cards left."
12 Gods Collection: "I've finished drawing. My Deck has…"
12 Gods Collection: "…0."
When he looked down and saw his Deck had nothing left to draw, his eyes went hollow.
The Deck was empty.
Yes.
They left the end to fate, and fate abandoned him.
He was the one who ran out first.
As if from the moment he activated That Grass Looks Greener, all the way to completing that artistic masterpiece of an Overdragon, his defeat had been sealed.
12 Gods Collection: "M-my turn ends."
No-Shuffle President: "I draw 1 card. Turn end."
With the President's calm final end phase, the Duel finally dropped its curtain.
An uproar erupted.
As the short video ended, many Duelists couldn't help but sigh.
Who would've thought the madman who pursued "dueling as art" would leave a 30,000-ATK Overdragon on the field, yet lose to an empty Deck.
So this was fate?
Yugi Muto: "A pity. If not for Kuriboh, the ending wouldn't be like this."
Jaden Yuki: "Yeah… I kinda feel for him now. But that's dueling. He probably drew Kuriboh off Maxx 'C' from way back."
Zane Truesdale: "It's more than enough. That crazed Duelist already won when he summoned an Overdragon bearing the gods. The result doesn't matter."
Yusei Fudo: "Agreed. No matter how it ended, I think both sides are winners."
The sighing in the chat also brought a shift in mindset.
In this Duel, both sides had already reached their limits.
One completed his art.
The other, a duel of destiny.
Yusei Fudo and the others spoke for everyone.
Both sides were winners.
In the Main World, Sei Yuki couldn't help but feel sentimental after watching.
Piloting an Overdragon that carried twelve "kami" really left everyone numb.
Never mind anything else.
That list ran only a single copy of That Grass Looks Greener as its engine switch.
Drawing it in the opening hand was already hard enough.
And after resolving it, he still produced that breathtaking "Twilight of the Gods" Overdragon finale.
He had already "win"ned.
"Phew, okay, okay."
"Let me see what short video to pick next."
"Hm? A special-win card explainer?"
After a quick search, Sei Yuki locked onto the special-win explainer.
Watching non-stop Duels could get dry.
This explainer on special-win cards might be the perfect palate cleanser.
Decision made.
Video selected.
Title appeared:
"Counting Up the Many Special-Win Cards! Do You Know How Hard They Are to Achieve?"
As the title showed up across the six worlds, everyone who had been sighing over the deck-out loss quickly refocused.
Special-win cards.
They were no strangers to the concept.
They'd even seen quite a few already—Exodia, Holactie, Lyrilusc's crafty wins, and so on.
But if you asked them to name most of the special-win cards, they really couldn't.
Or rather, the one most had encountered was probably Exodia, and even then only some people had truly encountered it.
In the video, the channel "Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall" began to speak.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "Hello! Good afternoon, Duelists!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "Today I'm bringing you an explanation of several interesting special-win cards that have appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! so far!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "We'll go over the win conditions, deckbuilding, and lines—helping everyone grasp what a real special win is!"
"Let's start with what even non-Duelists know: the Exodia series."
"The first way is a quick mention—assemble all five pieces and you win."
"If you want to assemble them, try things like Panda Exodia, Ignite Exodia, Morphtronic Exodia, etc."
"But did you know there are other Exodia cards that can also achieve special wins?"
There are others?
Other Exodias that also win specially?
With that little bait in the video, Yugi Muto and his grandpa Solomon both blinked.
More Exodia spin-offs?
Before they could think further, the Exodia special-win spin-off popped up on screen.
[Name: Exodia, the Legendary Defender (Level 10)]
[Attribute: DARK]
[Type: Spellcaster]
[ATK/DEF: ? / ?]
[Effect: Cannot be Special Summoned. You can Tribute 5 monsters to Tribute Summon (but not Set) this card. This card's ATK/DEF become the combined original ATK/DEF of the Tributed monsters. If this card Summoned this way destroys a DARK Fiend monster owned by your opponent, you win the Duel at the end of the Damage Step.]
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "Okay, after reading, here's my take."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "If I already have five monsters on board, why am I not making a Link rating and dropping an untouchable Accesscode Talker, or Xyz Summoning something else?"
"What am I gaining by summoning this?"
"No protection, dies to hand traps, dies to removal—basically a big vanilla beater."
"And to trigger the win, your opponent has to 'cooperate' by having a DARK Fiend."
"My rating: a hot mess."
"If five-piece Exodia is a 5/5 baseline, I give this a 3."
The Duelists who'd been ready to gasp immediately cooled down.
Five monsters?
Yeah.
That requirement alone isn't trivial.
With five bodies, why wouldn't you make a Link?
And the opponent has to be on DARK Fiends, and you still have to destroy it by battle to win.
With all that in mind, Yugi gave a wry look.
Joey blinked, thinking it over.
Grandpa Solomon couldn't help but chuckle.
This special-win setup clearly isn't practical.
Three points sounds about right.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "Next card!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "True Exodia!"
[Name: True Exodia (Level 1)]
[Attribute: DARK]
[Type: Spellcaster]
[ATK/DEF: 0 / 0]
[Effect: If the only monsters on the field, other than this card, are four different "Forbidden One" Normal Monsters, the opponent of this card's controller wins the Duel.]
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "This one's even heavier."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "Confusing at first glance, right? 'From this card's controller's perspective the opponent wins'?"
"Put simply, when both fields, aside from this card, consist only of the four different 'Forbidden One' Normal Monsters, you give this card to the opponent and we win."
"Yes, you heard that right. When we summon this card, we then have to go out of our way to hand it over."
"Otherwise—guess what? They win."
"So, for the effect alone, this gets a 3/5."
"If it weren't for its lore and a certain autograph, sigh… I wouldn't even give it that extra point."
Three points?
Yugi and Solomon nearly lost their temper right there.
If negative scores were allowed, Solomon would happily give it a −10.
To pull off a special win, you first assemble the four "Forbidden One" Normal Monsters on the field.
If I can summon all four pieces, why not just search the fifth and actually win with Exodia?
Instead, you put this on board and then gift it to your opponent?
Pure nonsense.
This special-win is absolutely worse than Exodia itself.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "Next card—Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Appreciation Hall: "A lot of folks probably forgot this existed."
[Name: Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord (Level 10)]
[Attribute: DARK]
[Type: Spellcaster]
[ATK/DEF: ? / 0]
[Effect: Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by shuffling all monsters in your Graveyard into the Deck, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When this card declares an attack: Send 1 monster from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard. This card gains 1000 ATK for each Normal Monster in your Graveyard. If this face-up card would leave the field, banish it instead. If there are 5 different "Forbidden One" cards in your Graveyard that were sent there by this card's effect, you win the Duel.]
Huh?
A real one?
Whoa.
Exodia has another way to special-win?
There are this many?
Duelists across the worlds—except those from GX—were dumbfounded.
After reading the Summon and win condition, they fell silent again.
At a glance, this one seemed easier than the previous two, but in practice, achieving the special win was no cakewalk.
You must use its own attack-trigger effect to send the five different "Forbidden One" cards to the Graveyard to win.
Milling them by any other method doesn't count.
It has to be Exodius's effect.
A hard requirement.
Unless you can somehow declare five attacks in one Battle Phase and send five pieces in a single turn, winning that turn is pure fantasy.
What's worse, if it has no protection, it can't stay on the board, and then it's gone for good—banished if it leaves the field.
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