Chapter 216. More Possibilities for Future Fusion! The Fall of the Dragon-Type Standard-Bearer!
After a round of discussion in the chat group,
they quickly locked onto Five-Headed Dragon among the Dragons!
For their Duel Worlds,
Five-Headed Dragon is no longer any kind of rare card!
On the contrary,
the name "Five-Headed Dragon" (also known as "F.G.D.")
is arguably the most famous powerhouse card outside of the Sacred Beasts and the Egyptian God Cards!
The requirement on Five-Headed Dragon—
the harsh part is
you need five Dragon monsters!
That's exactly where many diehard Dragon-deck fans start making misplays!
In the Duel Monsters world,
Seto Kaiba and Rex Raptor both know how strong this card is!
But here's the problem!
Back then, getting this card out was as hard as scaling the heavens!
More importantly!
For Seto Kaiba—
there was absolutely no need to summon this monster!
His three Blue-Eyes White Dragons could already make a 4500 ATK monster!
This Five-Headed Dragon requires five Dragon monsters!
And its ATK is only 5000!
That's 500 more!
But you need two more Dragon materials!
And its effect is that this card cannot be destroyed by battle with DARK, EARTH, WATER, FIRE, or WIND monsters.
That made the old guard really want to roast it!
With 5000 ATK anyway—
are you really worried about being destroyed by battle by those monsters?
Isn't that…
basically unnecessary?
And in the short video!
As expected, the next Future Fusion build
is precisely the Five-Headed Dragon build!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "With the prior two builds as cautionary examples!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "Next up, Dragons shoulder the banner of Future Fusion!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "At the time, the standout was Five-Headed Dragon!"
"Let's set aside the 5000 ATK for now!"
"With Future Fusion plus this card, you can precisely dump five Dragon Fusion Materials to the Graveyard!"
"That alone is enough value for Five-Headed Dragon to take a slot in the Extra Deck!"
"And how do we use the five Dragons we dumped?"
"Chimeratech Overdragon has Overload Fusion, the HEROes have Miracle Fusion!"
"Surely you haven't forgotten, right? Dragons also have the big papa Fusion that banishes from the Graveyard—Dragon's Mirror!"
"As a result, the Five-Headed Dragon build centered on Future Fusion exploded in popularity!"
"The lines of play kept growing!"
"For example, we can Fusion Summon King Dragun!"
"Its effect: while this card is face-up on the field, your opponent cannot target Dragon monsters with card effects."
"Once per turn, you can Special Summon 1 Dragon from your hand."
"With this card's support, the deck had decent competitive bite!"
"Just not as explosively OTK-oriented as Chimeratech Overdragon!"
"Of course!"
"Since it's Dragons, our esteemed Blue-Eyes White Dragon won't be left out!"
"A 'Cyberdark-Blue-Eyes' variant was born!"
"Simply put, this build uses Future Fusion to dump Dragons,"
"then equips Cyberdark Edge!"
"After all, Cyberdark Edge can attack directly to steal Life Points!"
"Not only that, we can also use Dragon's Mirror to make Cyberdark Dragon!"
"If you equip Cyberdark Dragon with Blue-Eyes White Dragon, its ATK hits a terrifying 4000!"
"But to sum it up in one line!"
"Whether it's Future Fusion + Chimeratech Overdragon, Future Fusion + HERO,"
"or the current branch using Future Fusion + Five-Headed Dragon,"
"the idea is simple: the main gameplan is OTK!"
"And here we can see a key point!"
"Because of Future Fusion, the format suddenly produced a lot of OTK decks!"
"To a certain extent, it warped how players teched for the meta!"
"Put simply, the environment began to shift."
Indeed!
These few decks,
really are centered on relentless offense!
Chimeratech Overdragon needs no explanation!
It's all about flooring it from behind to OTK!
HEROes—same story—pull out multiple Fusion monsters in one breath and push with overwhelming pressure!
As for the Blue-Eyes line!
Cyberdark's chip-steal, plus the Five-Headed Dragon into Cyberdark Dragon combo!
All can apply serious pressure!
This one card, Future Fusion—
once released, it could shake the entire environment!
No wonder it would later become Forbidden in the higher worlds!
Duelists across all worlds analyzed these three builds and the power of Future Fusion with a sigh!
The deeper they analyzed!
The more they felt just how out-of-date their dueling worldview was!
These lines of play!
Yugi Muto, Seto Kaiba, Joey Wheeler, and many other veterans—
they felt they could have thought of them!
It's not that they were incapable!
But why didn't they think that far back then?
Jaden Yuki, Zane Truesdale, and Dr. Vellian Crowler were also taken aback!
For them, Fusion is their home turf!
But it turned out only Zane Truesdale had spotted this card's shining point!
The others—
didn't notice at all!
That's ridiculous!
Even with Jaden's HEROes, if he hadn't listened carefully,
he wouldn't have thought to use Future Fusion to build around Elemental HERO Bladedge–type lines!
So this is the gap in duel thinking!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "Among the three builds, I trust everyone has their own sense of the power ranking."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "Naturally, it's the Future Fusion + Chimeratech Overdragon build!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "Thus, even in that format,"
"Future Fusion + Chimeratech Overdragon could not become an absolutely dominant super-tier deck!"
"But it still couldn't hide its OTK brilliance."
"And so, in September, Future Fusion was Limited!"
"Note—Limited, not Forbidden!"
"At the same time, Giant Trunade was also Limited!"
"Without its core 'dump from Deck' engine, Future Fusion + Chimeratech Overdragon could still function!"
"The Cyberdark-Blue-Eyes shell could still vie for top cuts!"
"And that was thanks to the Spell Gold Sarcophagus!"
"Suffice it to say that card was truly cracked—but it still couldn't conceal the overall drop in power!"
"Once Gold Sarcophagus was also Limited,"
"these shells could no longer keep up!"
"In 2008, Jinzo – Returner extended into a Future Fusion 'Sanga' variant!"
"Future Fusion would dump Sanga of the Thunder plus Jinzo – Returner!"
"We could effortlessly get three Jinzo on board!"
"But the deck still only ran lukewarm."
"In April 2010, the monster Synchro Fusionist released!"
"Its effect: if this card is sent to the Graveyard as Synchro Material, you can add a 'Fusion' Spell from your Deck to your hand."
"That added another way to search Future Fusion!"
"But it still couldn't push Future Fusion to its apex!"
"As for Worm? Even if Worms could dump the whole Deck, so what?"
"The issue is: Worm's strength wasn't 'Worm' itself—"
"it was the in-theme Trap W Nebula Meteorite!"
"So Future Fusion didn't get to shine in Worms either!"
"Here's the question!"
"What shell finally got Future Fusion Forbidden and later Errata'd before its return?"
"Everyone can guess—one-minute countdown."
After so many years!
So many improvements to the card pool and stronger shells entering and leaving the scene!
Could Future Fusion really not find another combo to shine?
Hearing the breakdown in the short,
they were all stumped!
Future Fusion + Chimeratech Overdragon was already dead!
Could it be that Cyber Dragon got some new shell to carry the Future Fusion banner
and push Future Fusion onto the list?
Or maybe HERO support
gave Miracle Fusion a second spring?
After a round of thinking!
The old guard still couldn't figure out what combo or deck
finally sent Future Fusion to the list!
Yugi Muto: "I think it was Dragons. After all, precisely dumping Five-Headed Dragon's materials is too crazy."
Zane Truesdale: "Mr. Yugi's right—perhaps some Dragon shell and combo?"
Yusei Fudo: "I think so too—only Dragons could carry it!"
Yusaku Fujiki: "The problem is—what Dragon graveyard setup yields especially powerful effects? I really can't think of one!"
Within the one-minute countdown,
duelists across the various worlds fiercely debated which Dragon-type combo and shell would be Future Fusion's next host!
After discussion,
they eliminated Chimeratech Overdragon and HERO!
Which left only Dragons!
But they weren't sure—
what Dragon line and combo?
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "Okay, time's up!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "Answer revealed!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "Dragons."
"I think you all guessed it!"
"Precisely because Five-Headed Dragon's material requirement is so broad!"
"Plus Dragon Fusion decks are plentiful!"
"With that kind of dumping power and precision dump,"
"it's definitely much stronger than the Chimeratech route!"
"And the main point!"
"Dragon graveyard synergies are more explosive than Machines!"
"For example, in the 'Panda Dragunity' style, the card involved is Light and Darkness Dragon!"
"Its effect: while face-up on the field, any activation of a monster effect or Spell/Trap is negated, and this card loses 500 ATK/DEF each time."
"The key is that it has 2800 ATK!"
"You can use that effect many times!"
"Pair it with Dragon Ravine in a Dragunity shell,"
"and the power is respectable!"
"The best-known are two builds:"
"one is Disaster Dragon, the other is Chaos Dragon!"
"In Disaster Dragon, the main power cards were these!"
"First, Koa'ki Meiru Drago!"
"Its effect: while it's on the field, neither player can Special Summon LIGHT or DARK monsters…."
"Second, Thunder King Rai-Oh!"
"Its effect: while face-up, neither player can add cards from the Deck to the hand except by drawing."
"In addition, you can send it to the Graveyard to negate a Special Summon and destroy that monster."
"With those two cards' oppressive lock,"
"plus the deck's core duo—"
"Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Red-Eyes Wyvern!"
"By using Future Fusion to dump these two Red-Eyes monsters,"
"the next turn becomes a fight to the death!"
"Because Red-Eyes Wyvern can revive Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon from the GY!"
"If the opponent can't answer the board,"
"then next turn is Disaster Dragon's eruption!"
After hearing the Disaster Dragon explanation,
Joey Wheeler in the DM world couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth!
Good grief!
Future Fusion really can't leave Red-Eyes alone, huh!
If Dragons are carrying Future Fusion's last hurrah,
then of course you pack Red-Eyes!
And Wyvern working with it—
does make for some potent combos!
It's just—
doesn't that kind of duel feel a little too head-on?
Either you die, or I die!
Feels awfully reckless!
And this kind of lock!
It sounds strong at first glance!
But in the meta back then—
it probably wouldn't make huge waves, right?
Looks like that still isn't the point!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "As for Chaos Dragon, we must mention three key Dragon cards!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden-List Commentator: "In November 2011, Structure Deck SD22 released!"
"It included three cards—"
"Lightpulsar Dragon, Eclipse Wyvern, and Darkflare Dragon!"
"Lightpulsar and Darkflare both Special Summon themselves by banishing LIGHT and DARK!"
"Their base ATK is no joke!"
"So Chaos Dragon's pros and cons were obvious!"
"Pros: it can rapidly 'jump' multiple high-ATK Chaos Dragons onto the field,"
"and steamroll by raw battle power!"
"Today these stats may look tame,"
"but back then—dropping multiple 2300, 2500, 2800, even 3000 ATK bodies in one go—"
"who can stand that?"
"In construction, the precision-dump axis used Future Fusion and Darkflare Dragon!"
"The blind-mill axis used Lightsworn!"
"And the most famous combo born then was the pseudo infinite-revive loop of Lightpulsar Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"
"Simply put, Lightpulsar revives REDMD,"
"and REDMD revives Lightpulsar!"
"That core loop massively boosted Chaos Dragon's combat power!"
"In summary: Chaos Dragon has explosive burst, recursion, high ATK, excellent GY utilization, strong removal, etc.!"
"With the Spell A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon, you could even check backrow!"
"Now for the cons!"
"GY resource demand is huge—even with Five-Headed Dragon helping Future Fusion dump five Dragons,"
"there were still hands where you couldn't meet all conditions!"
"And when picking the five Dragons to dump via Future Fusion in Chaos Dragon,"
"three cards were must-dumps:"
"Eclipse Wyvern, Lightpulsar Dragon, and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"
"The remaining two depend on your hand—"
"if you're on Chaos axis, you can consider Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, Chaos Sorcerer, etc.!"
"If you're not on heavy Chaos, you can focus on establishing the Lightpulsar ↔ REDMD revive loop to swing Life Points!"
"Add the Lightsworn axis,"
"and Chaos Dragon's power at the time was downright absurd!"
"Future Fusion thus earned the nickname 'Victory Fusion'—"
"activate it, and you win!"
"Until September 2012, Future Fusion was Forbidden."
"And only in January 2017, after its effect was changed (Errata), was it released again!"
"In other words, this is the Future Fusion we see today!"
The short ends here.
In the end, Chaos Dragon was the real culprit that sent Future Fusion to the list and forced an effect change!
Many of the old guard wore looks of sudden realization and helplessness!
Dumping on the turn of activation—
was enough to enable two Chaos-related Special Summons with ease!
In that environment,
dropping big bodies effortlessly—no wonder Future Fusion got Forbidden!
And changing the text before releasing it later is perfectly reasonable!
If it hadn't been changed,
Future Fusion combined with Tearlaments or Shaddoll—
the consequences don't bear thinking about!
How is the opponent supposed to play Yu-Gi-Oh! then?
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