Chapter 214. Graceful Charity's Second and Third Trips to the List! The Dawn Brought by Dark World—and the End?
The old guard from the Duel Monsters world watched the short video again.
Then they looked at the Graceful Charity in their own Decks.
One by one, their expressions shifted from shock to a complicated mix of emotions.
This card—
—too scary!
It's really too scary!
Say nothing of anything else—
—even those two cards that looked "not that strong" on their own…
…when combined, you can still pull off something wild!
Is this the true value of Graceful Charity?
It's a little too terrifying!
It already changed Dueling itself!
In the GX world—
Jaden Yuki and Jesse Anderson were both speechless after watching that combo.
The two of them felt like their very worldview of Dueling was being dragged across the pavement.
Jesse wanted to say:
Wasn't Graceful Charity just the card he used to turbo his Crystal Beasts draws?
Jaden wanted to say:
Wasn't Graceful Charity just the tool he used to quickly draw into Elemental HERO Avian, Elemental HERO Burstinatrix, and Polymerization?
How did it turn into this?!
That's not scientific at all!
In the 5D's world—
likewise left dumbstruck—
were Yusei Fudo and his friends.
For the first time, they realized—
—Dueling could become like this!
2 copies of Night Assailant + Royal Magical Library + 2 copies of Magical Stone Excavation—that Deck?
That victory formula—
—it left them completely out of their depth!
Yusei could only offer a bitter smile.
Right? If you're playing like that,
what do you need Destiny Draw for anymore?
What "godly topdeck imprinting" are we even talking about?
Looked at this way, it's totally unnecessary!
While the old guard across all worlds were still debating fiercely, shaken to their core—
—the Yu-Gi-Oh! banlist explainer vlogger began the next segment!
Banlist Explainer: "I'm sure after seeing this build—
—all you duelists now understand what the Abyss combo actually is!"
Banlist Explainer: "The whole build spins around that approach."
"So you're probably asking—
—how do you win?"
"With a Deck like this, after you turbo-draw like crazy, how do you actually win?"
"The answer's simple."
"You blow up everything with Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End back when its effect wasn't nerfed!"
"Blow up about 27 cards and just send your opponent packing!"
"Or you clear the board with various sweepers—monsters and backrow alike—
—and then you can OTK!"
"With this combo's appearance—
—our heavyweight, Graceful Charity, was never going to escape the hammer!"
"So in September 2004 it was Forbidden—while Painful Choice was let out!"
"This card was even more of a heavyweight!"
"Its effect: select 5 cards from your Deck and show them to your opponent; your opponent chooses 1, that one goes to your hand, the rest are discarded to the Graveyard."
"In the 'Magical Scientist Cannon' shells, it was even more bonkers than Graceful Charity!"
"So, in March 2005, it went right back."
"And it was around this time that Night Assailant got Limited!"
"The Abyss infinite-draw combo's firepower dropped sharply!"
"Which led K-Snake to let Graceful Charity out again!"
Out again?
Foolish!
Too foolish!
How could K-Snake be that foolish—
—to let this Forbidden card out again?!
The instant the vlogger in the clip said Graceful Charity was released—
—all the Duel Worlds felt struck by a bolt from the blue!
They clearly hadn't lived through that dark era—
—but after hearing the Abyss infinite-draw combo explained,
—everyone had already formed the conviction that Graceful Charity must be Forbidden!
Therefore—
—when they heard it was released—
Yugi Muto, Yusaku Fujiki, Yuma Tsukumo, and the others all sensed something off!
Way off!
Graceful Charity's power had been fully demonstrated—
—so why release it?
Could it be—
—is this… love?
Banlist Explainer: "But the good times didn't last."
Banlist Explainer: "Graceful Charity quickly made its second trip onto the list."
Banlist Explainer: "In September 2005, Graceful Charity was Forbidden again!"
"Why then?"
"It only 'lived' for 6 months!"
"The answer's simple: the Abyss combo had been reined in—
—but that doesn't mean it was gone, right?"
"As long as Night Assailant was at 2—
—things were much easier to manage!"
"So the Abyss combo was specialized as the card pool deepened!"
"For example, we could run Morphing Jar to pair with the draw-rate plan!"
"Or we could run Cyber Jar!"
"Its effect: on Flip, destroy all monsters on the field; then both players excavate the top 5 cards of their Decks and Special Summon all Level 4 or lower monsters among them in face-up Attack Position or face-down Defense Position; add the rest to the hand."
"Even at 1-copy limits, these gave the Abyss Deck decent combos and lines!"
"Or a Metamorphosis shell!"
"That one used a 'fake card'—Metamorphosis—
—Tribute 1 of your monsters; Special Summon a Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck with the same Level as the Tributed monster."
"Plus Cyber-Stein—
—and you could get up to some truly cheeky plays!"
"Of course, those were small potatoes."
"The real key was the Dark World engine!"
"Why was Graceful Charity Forbidden?"
"Most likely because of the news and release of Dark World packs!"
"Put simply—
—they were paving the road for Dark World!"
"Because many Dark World monsters trigger various effects when they're sent to the Graveyard."
"Graceful Charity fit Dark World too well!"
"The result was Graceful Charity got Forbidden!"
"At the time, a lot of duelists complained."
"Did K-Snake overreact to prepare for Dark World?"
"Just for Dark World, you sent Graceful Charity—which you'd only recently released—back onto the list?"
"Whether Dark World 'deserved' Graceful Charity—
—we'll talk more about that with the third trip."
"In short—
—the second trip had two reasons."
"First, Graceful Charity's inherent power and the Abyss combo's resurgence."
"Second, Dark World's debut, and pre-empting an overpowered runway for it."
After hearing the video's explanation of the second forbidding of Graceful Charity—
—all duelists across all worlds glanced at one another!
Only in the GX world—
—at Duel Academy—Jaden and the others—
—who had encountered Dark World—
—truly understood just how correct this ban was!
Dark World's strength wasn't hype!
If you let Graceful Charity pair with Dark World unchecked,
the consequences would be unthinkable!
Syrus Truesdale: "Didn't think K-Snake could plan that far ahead!"
Daichi Misawa: "Didn't they say there are three times? That's only the second, right?"
Jesse Anderson: "Wait—so it'll be released again?"
Jaden Yuki: "Yeah! Sounds like it! Then Dark World..."
After chatting, the Duel Academy crowd suddenly realized something was wrong.
This was just the second trip.
There was still one last trip to make it the third!
Which means—
—the final trip would be the reason Graceful Charity was sealed away for good!
Banlist Explainer: "After this listing—
—the next half-year later—
—March 2006!"
"Graceful Charity was released again!"
"When I found out, I was stunned, you know?"
"Not gonna lie—
—I thought Graceful Charity was done for!"
"Yet somehow, it still came out!"
"I couldn't understand what K-Snake was doing!"
"What's more, after that, Dark World had already released!"
"Unluckily, Pot of Greed went in!"
"Maybe as a trade-off, K-Snake couldn't think of what else to swap."
"So they let Graceful Charity back out!"
"Of course—
—there were two more possibilities!"
"First: in December 2006, a few cards released—
—namely Dimensional Fissure, Banisher of the Radiance, and Macro Cosmos!"
"Dimensional Fissure (Continuous Spell): while it's on the field, monsters that would be sent to the Graveyard are banished instead."
"Banisher of the Radiance (Monster): while it's face-up, any card that would be sent to the Graveyard is banished instead."
"Macro Cosmos (Continuous Trap): while it's face-up, any card that would be sent to the Graveyard is banished instead."
"Not hard to see—these were all banish-axis hate cards!"
"Obvious, right?"
"Your Graceful Charity wants to discard? Then I'll counter with these!"
"So, letting it out seemed fine, right?"
"Second: Pot of Avarice was Limited, Pot of Greed too!"
"Maybe K-Snake felt they still needed to save some face—
—so they let Graceful Charity out!"
"And this time, with Graceful Charity out—
—Chaos Last Will could still fight!"
"The core card involved was Chaos Sorcerer—banish a LIGHT and a DARK to Special Summon, then once per turn you can banish an opponent's monster!"
"Meanwhile, Magician of Faith and Apprentice Magician could keep getting Graceful Charity back!"
"Of course, the one who killed Graceful—was still Dark World!"
"..."
Sure enough!
Sure enough!
That final, true death—
—could never be separated from Dark World!
The old guard across all worlds were sentimental.
They had already guessed it!
Graceful Charity fit Dark World too well!
If that last release onto the list wasn't because of Dark World—
—they couldn't imagine what else it would have been!
Everything before that—
—was just a splash on the water.
How could any of it compare to Dark World?
Yugi Muto: "So, what exactly is Dark World? I'm still a little lost."
Jaden Yuki: "Mr. Yugi, it's basically a Deck that triggers terrifying effects when its cards are sent to the Graveyard! As for the specifics, I'm not too sure either!"
Yusei Fudo: "If you don't know the individual cards, you really can't gauge its real strength."
Yusaku Fujiki: "Right. We still need to look at what the builds at the time actually did! If they leaned on Dark World, what was that, exactly?"
The chat filled with duelists had already guessed the situation and the outcome.
But even more than that, curiosity about Dark World kept growing!
What kind of Deck was it—
—that could make waves under Graceful Charity?
Banlist Explainer: "Back then, Dark World entered the battlefield!"
"Paired with Chaos Last Will, its strength skyrocketed straight up!"
"The two main trump monsters Dark World brought were—"
"First, Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World!"
"When sent to the Graveyard, it can revive a DARK monster from the Graveyard to your field or your opponent's!"
"And if it's sent to the Graveyard by an opponent's effect, you can then pull another copy from hand, Graveyard, or even banished!"
"Second, Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World!"
"When sent to the Graveyard, it can Special Summon itself."
"If sent by an opponent's effect, when it Special Summons that way, it destroys 2 of your opponent's cards!"
"Paired with Graceful Charity, we could quickly put a 2300 ATK Goldd on the field!"
"Precisely because of that—"
"—this engine could flood the board fast, and Dark World doesn't consume your Normal Summon!"
"That let it pair with many cards for extra plays!"
"For example, Monarchs could Tribute and trigger their effects, etc.!"
"At the time, banish-axis 'Dimension' decks became Dark World's natural rival!"
"These Decks fought each other in that environment—
—until the September list, when Chaos Last Will got chopped to pieces!"
"Chaos Sorcerer even made it to Forbidden—proof of how much K-Snake hated that Deck then!"
"At this point—"
"—Graceful Charity was still quiet."
"After all, without Chaos Sorcerer, the 'Chaos Last Will Dark World' shell basically collapsed on its own."
"What good is Dark World in the Graveyard then? Even if Thunder Dragon searches to hand, what of it?"
"Sure, Graceful Charity + Dark World makes 2300 ATK pop out easily—
—but what if you don't draw it?"
"Then what?"
"So, in August 2006, Gold Sarcophagus arrived!"
"That card's strength is self-explanatory—it turned Graceful Charity from 1 copy into a theoretical 4!"
"Together with Card Destruction, it was more than enough to prop up Dark World!"
"Without Chaos Sorcerer, the September 2006 release of Gorz the Emissary of Darkness—
—gave the build a powerful defensive option!"
"If you have no cards on your field and take damage, you can Special Summon it; with 2700 ATK, and you spawn a Token for battle damage or reflect effect damage back at the opponent!"
"Under that unholy alliance, Gorz Dark World came online!"
"It became the strongest Deck of the time!"
"Until March 2007, when Graceful Charity was Forbidden."
"Metas shifted; times changed."
"And Graceful Charity—never again left the Forbidden list."
"One era-defying pseudo-card—curtains."
Hearing the end of the last short video—
—all duelists across all worlds fell into silence.
For a time—
—they couldn't even decide—
—was it good that Graceful Charity was Forbidden, or not?
Would a card this excellent really never see the light of day again?
So this is the historical trajectory of Graceful Charity across higher-tier worlds?
Thinking back over the entire short—
—the old guard couldn't help showing both wistfulness and confusion.
Yugi Muto looked at the 3 Graceful Charity and 3 Pot of Greed in his hand—
—his expression complicated.
Jaden Yuki, Yusei Fudo, and the others also showed helpless shock.
If not for this video—
—they would never have imagined—
—the Graceful Charity everyone had three copies of, even looked down on—
—would, in another world, become legend!
It's just too unbelievable!
So this is how Duel history diverges across different worlds!
Too interesting!
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