Chapter 220. Exposing K-Snake's "Sick" Ruling Flip-Flops! All the Old Guard Are Stunned!
They more or less realized it.
A twenty-year gap in dueling standards.
Or rather, a twenty-year gap in how people think about dueling.
That made the duelists of the DM world, the GX world, and the other duel worlds feel like their mental defenses were being torn wide open!
Especially in the DM world.
Yugi Muto and Solomon Muto glanced at each other.
Grandfather and grandson had both realized it.
Their thinking about dueling… was only similar to how duelists thought twenty years ago in the higher world!
But what made it hard for them to keep a straight face was this:
Even with a gap like that, the duelists from twenty years ago were still better than they were at duel thinking and skill!
All they could say was—merely "similar."
For example, they had never considered that future decks would develop into spamming Special Summons!
"Sigh… a 20-year dueling gap."
"All of a sudden, why do I feel kind of miserable?"
"I've gotten old. Truly old."
Solomon Muto let out a long, heavy sigh.
In a flash, he felt truly old!
Another twenty years from now?
Will he still be around to witness the brilliance of the duel environment twenty years hence?
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "Having understood the status of Royal Oppression back then…"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "Let's continue forward along the river of history."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "And see how this Continuous Trap ended up on the Forbidden list."
"First, the early period."
"I've said this before: in that environment there weren't many cards that performed Special Summons."
"So Royal Oppression had no stage to perform on!"
"In a meta that emphasized one-for-one trades!"
"Its inconsistency made it incredibly uncomfortable to use!"
"And that period also belonged to the reign of Chaos!"
"Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and so on—Chaos cards!"
"They were absolutely top-tier then!"
"I won't belabor it; simply put—"
"Facing the Chaos meta of the time!"
"Running Torrential Tribute, Mirror Force, and other Trap Cards"
"worked better than Oppression!"
"One more thing: back then, plenty of builds"
"also played Royal Decree."
"So Oppression became practically unplayable, you know?"
"In other words!"
"If you activated Oppression, I could also use mine."
"You negate mine, I negate yours."
"Master counters master—no one breaks through."
"So its stock fell further!"
"However, in that era, Metabeat began to rise!"
"To put it simply in one line:"
"I get to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, but whether you get to play depends on whether my backrow and monsters are tough enough."
"Thus, in that environment,"
"there were only two kinds of decks: Chaos, and non-Chaos."
"And the non-Chaos builds could tech against Chaos."
"For example, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, King Tiger Wanghu, and the like!"
"Most of those cards didn't need Special Summons."
"So they had good synergy with Oppression."
"So Oppression had a brief moment in the sun here."
"But the good times didn't last long."
"Once Chaos got hit, Oppression went back to lukewarm."
After hearing Oppression's early history, many duelists exchanged looks.
As expected.
In an era where Normal Summon reigned supreme, even decks with a little Special Summoning couldn't really leverage what Oppression offered!
Even when teching against Chaos—when Chaos was the super-top meta—in their eyes it was like the Tearlaments environment!
In that kind of meta, you either played Tearlaments, or you weren't trying to win.
Even decks that could tech against Tearlaments still couldn't truly suppress it!
That's the impact brought by a super-dominant top tier!
"What a pity. A solid Trap Card with nowhere to shine!"
"Totally normal. Let's see how things developed next."
"Anyway, I think the card is strong. Otherwise it wouldn't be Forbidden, right?"
"Keep going—I want to see which 'partner in crime' dragged it onto the list."
After a round of chatter in the group, the duelists quieted down and continued listening to the video creator's explanation.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "Oppression's real glow-up period came when Dark Armed Dragon was rampant."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "With Chaos gone, what came next was this ace monster that could Special Summon itself, then banish to blow up cards with no 'once per turn' limit!"
"After crashing into the OCG in '07, it immediately became the hottest deck!"
"Not to mention, it's a 2800-ATK beater!"
"Coming down with triple pops made many decks in the meta tremble."
"So, how do you stop Dark Armed Dragon from landing?"
"And thus—"
"Dig through the Trap lineup, and Oppression shines again!"
"The supporting monster core was Thunder King Rai-Oh."
"The Rai-Oh Oppression shell became a current in the meta's anti-strategy!"
"But it was still just a tailored counter to a given meta."
"Once the things it countered went away, those tailored builds faded too."
"Until the arrival of the Synchro era!"
"As Special-Summon strategies and engines increased, Oppression's advantage began to show!"
"Royal Oppression Stun became the choice for quite a few players."
"And of course, there were counters to that, too!"
"For example, a heavyweight card of the day—Cold Wave!"
"Its effect: you activate it at the start of Main Phase 1. Until your next Draw Phase, neither player can use, activate, or set Spell/Trap effects."
"Because of how powerful it was, Cold Wave itself walked the road to Forbidden."
Hearing developments up to this period, duelists from every world felt even more certain:
Royal Oppression truly grew stronger as the eras changed!
Its value and payoff rose with time and development!
That made the 5D's duelists twitch at the corners of their mouths.
As Synchro duelists, they naturally knew just how miserable Royal Oppression was for Synchro.
You could even call it devastating!
You Synchro Summon one—they negate one.
You Synchro another—negate again.
And if nothing else, because Synchro demands a Tuner and a non-Tuner, as long as one part is a Special Summon, getting it negated makes the duel feel awful!
"Damn it! We Synchro decks really drew the short straw!"
"Yeah, thank goodness Royal Oppression is Forbidden. Otherwise how are we supposed to play?"
"But even then… doesn't feel like that alone is enough to get it Forbidden, right?"
"True. Let's keep watching—should be getting to it."
Nearby, after some talk, Tetsu Ushio and the other Synchro duelists quickly regained their cool.
They kept waiting for the next part of the video.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "Of course, some people say Oppression 'died to Synchro.'"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "But I think the main reason was the wave of ruling controversies it caused at the time."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "Or we could call it an 'adjustment storm.'"
"I have to say it—"
"K-snake! You really are stubborn and sick in the head!"
"Let me explain why I say K-snake is like that!"
"In the second half of 2008, the incident started with Six Samurai."
"There's a card among the Six Samurai: Grandmaster of the Six Samurai!"
"It has an effect—when destroyed by an opponent's card effect, you can add 1 'Six Samurai' monster from your Graveyard to your hand."
"The weird part is—that effect could be hit by Oppression!"
"Note—not a Special Summon effect!"
"But a recovery-to-hand effect!"
"That left the player base totally baffled!"
"What? Even a hand-recovery can fall under Royal Oppression's ruling scope?!"
"You tell me—how does Royal Oppression negate that?"
"Players immediately started heated debates!"
"If Royal Oppression can hit Grandmaster's recovery, does that mean after Judgment Dragon lands, its board nuke can be Oppressed too?"
"Could Dark Armed Dragon's pops be Oppressed?"
"Someone asked K-snake—K-snake's answer: those can't be Oppressed."
"Okay, then someone else asked about the Field Spell Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins."
"It has an effect: once per turn, you can target 1 'Crystal Beast' card in your Spell & Trap Zone; Special Summon that target."
"Can that be Oppressed?"
"K-snake's answer: that can be Oppressed."
"What about Grandmaster of the Six Samurai then?"
"Why can Grandmaster's recovery be Oppressed?"
"So what can be Oppressed, and what can't?"
"Back then, everyone launched into massive testing over what Oppression could hit!"
"After the Judgment Dragon and Grandmaster questions, K-snake gave some very 'interesting' phrasing."
"Monsters like Dark Armed Dragon and Judgment Dragon have Special Summon methods described as an inherent special summoning condition, a condition-based, non-activated effect!"
"Whereas Grandmaster's method is an additional convenience way to hit the field—not a summoning condition, and not an inherent one."
"Did you understand those rulings?"
Understand?
Everyone just froze on the spot!
Yes.
After hearing this segment on Oppression, duelists across all worlds were dumbstruck!
They completely couldn't follow—couldn't even comprehend—K-snake's rulings and logic!
And Grandmaster of the Six Samurai—when a simple "add from GY to hand" effect could be Oppressed—many of the old guard honestly thought:
Does Royal Oppression have some hidden clause?
Like, even though it isn't written on the card, if you activate a recovery effect, I can negate it!
But obviously, it's supposed to only negate Special Summons!
Yet when it came to rulings, they were utterly at a loss!
Yugi Muto wore a thoughtful look.
He forced himself to parse what K-snake meant.
Jaden Yuki was already numb.
He can't even study properly, and now you want him to learn K-language?
Yusei Fudo fell into contemplation, unsure what he was thinking.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "I'm sure most of you didn't really grasp what K-snake was saying."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden List Commentator: "Simply put—if the Special Summon is written in the card text, any effect that the card uses can be Oppressed."
"Having 'understood' this, the players laughed."
"So Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms—can its banish-to-search be Oppressed too?"
"What about that panda-looking dragon—Light and Darkness Dragon—can it be Oppressed?"
"Can Alector, Sovereign of Birds be Oppressed?"
"Can Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys's board wipe be Oppressed?"
"What about Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind halving ATK?"
"Crossporter… and so on…"
"In short, this ruling was enough to make many players lose their temper."
"So, Grandmaster of the Six Samurai's effect can be Oppressed, huh?"
"The funniest part!"
"Later, K-snake answered—"
"Sure, you can Oppress it. Sacred Phoenix, Gale's ATK-halving—those can be Oppressed!"
"Oppress it—everything can be Oppressed!"
"Alright, K-snake talked himself into a circle and 'resolved' a bunch of questions."
"From then on, Oppression's scope became ridiculously broad."
"Then, as if K-snake caught a fever again—they started adjusting the rulings."
"Sacred Phoenix can be Oppressed? Marked 'under adjustment.'"
"Gale can be Oppressed? Also 'under adjustment.'"
"Apparently K-snake realized the Oppression-hits-everything approach had gone off the rails."
"So after saying 'you can Oppress it,' they started walking it back."
"As a result, players and K-snake kept bickering back and forth."
"Until later, K-snake backed down!"
"Grandmaster of the Six Samurai's recovery-to-hand effect—cannot be Oppressed."
"Final conclusion reached!"
"The Royal Oppression adjustment storm finally ended."
"In my view, the most speechless thing about this whole affair is—K-snake could've ruled the Grandmaster of the Six Samurai question correctly from the start."
"Instead we went around in circles until Oppression went from 'innocent' to 'guilty.'"
"Worse yet—after a whole loop of 'you can Oppress it,' then marking things as 'under adjustment,' and re-thinking—we ended up back at the simplest fix!"
"Tell me—wasn't that one heck of a play by K-snake!"
"Isn't that a 'sick' operation?"
"In my opinion, if you aren't sick, you don't make rulings like this."
Stunned!
Absolutely stunned!
Everyone was stunned!
Across the duel worlds, after hearing the whole process of K-snake's "sick" episode, the old guard were all dumbfounded!
Holy crap!
It actually made sense!
This K-snake—really was acting sick!
The whole thing left the old guard completely at a loss!
Yugi Muto: "Uh… what on earth is K-snake doing?!"
Jaden Yuki: "I don't get it either. For a ruling like this, I feel like Duel Academy could publish a thesis."
Yusei Fudo: "In short—K-snake was being stubborn and 'sick.'"
Yusaku Fujiki: "Er… I'm speechless too. You can do rulings like this?"
Joey Wheeler: "Don't get it, don't get it. I just think Oppression simply negates Special Summons."
Yuma Tsukumo: "Man, I'm still a kid. This is too complicated. Let's settle Oppression's ruling with a duel—wouldn't that be easier?"
Yuya Sakaki: "Ahem… Brother Yuma, that method doesn't seem to work well in the higher world."
In the chat, the protagonists and duelists immediately launched into a heated debate about K-snake.
The more they discussed it, the more they felt just how brainless and "sick" K-snake's decision-making was on Oppression's ruling.
Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba, Declan Akaba, Maximillion Pegasus, and the others also picked up plenty of corporate management lessons from it.
K-snake's "illness"—they must not repeat it.
In the 5D's world, what made Crow Hogan grind his teeth the most was this:
his Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind, a Level 3 Tuner that can Special Summon itself—its ATK-halving effect was once said by K-snake to be something Oppression could negate!
That's just brainless!
Good thing K-snake wasn't sick beyond saving!
Otherwise, Crow Hogan would've completely lost it!
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