A few days later, Keihei as promised sent the list of rare cards originally planned to be sent to the Duel Academy.
As Yugen expected, he immediately spotted the prominent "VWXYZ" series occupying a major position among them. Naturally, he didn't hesitate to snatch up this series first.
Since it was originally slated to go through the Duel Academy's internal sales channels, the price was at levels absolutely unseen in the outside world. Moreover, the prize money Yugen received from the Kaiba Company was still largely untouched, so his budget was quite ample.
Next up, he had his eye on the "Treasure Hammer," used by Chazz in the anime. Its effect in the anime is that you can shuffle any number of cards, including this one, from your hand back into the deck and then draw the same number of cards.
It's a card that can replace any hand during a hand accident.
The physical card was neutered to "shuffle and replace cards except this one," suddenly leading to a loss of one card, making its utility plummet.
Yugen thought about it. According to the anime effect, shuffling without losing cards isn't unusable. But in an anime environment that revolves heavily around Destiny Power, even deck-searching effects aren't very welcomed, let alone this thing.
Besides, he had hoarded a bunch of anime limited edition draw filter cards, which made using Treasure Hammer even more unnecessary.
However, seeing the price, Treasure Hammer seemed to belong to the cheapest tier in the entire card box, and although it wasn't necessary for regular play, it might be useful in certain special gimmick decks, so he bought three cards.
He then also saw the key plot card "Evolutionary Wings," which can evolve the Feathered Chestnut Ball to LV10 by discarding two cards.
However, in the entire Duel Academy, only one person had the Feathered Chestnut Ball, so this card almost seemed like it should have "Jellyfish Head exclusive" printed on it...
Yugen's hand only had a Chestnut Ball, not the Feathered Chestnut Ball. It was useless to him, so he decided to give it to Judai.
But after picking through them, it seemed there wasn't much left for Chazz.
"Don't worry, before sending them to the Duel Academy, we'll add some other rare cards for supplementation." Keihei told him.
Hmm, Yugen thought since these good things would end up in Chazz's hands, they might as well end up wasted or trashed. To prevent waste, he happily accepted them.
There were only two days left until the start of the Duel Academy.
The day before he embarked on the island, he visited the dojo one last time to say goodbye to the master and the other members.
Upon entering, he saw the members kneeling on the ground, heads hanging low, while Master Takeuchi was standing at the front spitting words at them.
Curious, Yugen walked up and listened for a while, roughly understanding the general situation.
Simply put, the master was dissatisfied with how the Underworld was rampant in the dojo, with members taking pleasure in getting revenge on society.
That's not all. Members quickly discovered all their peers in the dojo had become Underworld people. However, when Underworld meets Underworld, the fun halves. So they turned their guns towards the nearby Dueling Arena.
Rumors about the Silence Dojo began circulating in the arenas nearby. It was said that every Duelist from there was a messenger of Hell and took pleasure in dragging anyone they faced into the Underworld, regardless of whether their deck won or lost, just ensuring the opponent couldn't play was enough.
More terrifying, this momentum was like a plague, spreading wherever these people went...
Master Takeuchi might never have imagined that one day their Silence School would truly flourish, but not in the envisioned way, rather by "dueling the opponent into silence"...
Yugen's Moonlight Cup deck had been thoroughly dissected by the dojo members. With everyone having copied Yugen's deck composed of Holy Defense: Bottomless Trap Hole & Torrential Tribute, and the Hand Destruction Three Divine Artifacts, it became a case of copying homework.
Of course, Yugen had anticipated this was bound to happen sooner or later. As an unknown upstart, with a surprise win against Ryuzaki, may have gained him local fame for a little while, hence only those nearby would study his deck. But if one day he became famous like Seto Kaiba, surely his deck would be studied by countless others. Some would study counters, others would imitate, it was inevitable.
However, with recent consecutive dueling and study, developing a deeper understanding of the anime environment, Yugen began to somewhat realize that Duelists' decks in this world didn't just depend on construction strength.
Just like in early GX, Kagurazaka stole Yugi's deck to duel Judai, only to be beaten by Judai. Later, both Judai and Kaiza Ryo explained this theory in their own ways.
According to Kaiza, Duelists must use decks infused with their own emotions, built personally, as only then could the deck respond to the Duelist's intent and exert maximum power. Using others' decks, no matter how closely the tactics are mimicked, it ultimately isn't your own, hence can't win duels.
Yugen's understanding of this was that copying homework reduces the Duelist's own "Destiny Power." You might have copied a deck with high strength, but card clumsiness rises, and Divine Draw rates fall, ultimately not improving personal ability much.
Therefore, many times in anime dueling, it's necessary to pursue as much "soul" as possible. Sometimes it's not just for style and aesthetics, but because lacking soul might lead to losing against experts...
Thus, these two days Yugen also had related considerations. Ideally, one should maintain a competitive mindset, using methods including but not limited to destabilizing opponents' mentality to achieve suppression, while also striving to utilize Elf's advantages.
In other words, finding a balance between competitiveness and soul.
But that's when facing dueling experts.
However, for the dojo companions at this level, he believed copying homework relying on card-playing wasn't a bad thing.
After all, from his observations, members' levels of Destiny Power were mostly already like that; most didn't have much talent and might struggle to achieve progress throughout their lives. Yet changing to a strong deck surely visibly improved their win rates.
Sure enough, these two days, teammates copying his homework while dueling at the arena seemed to maintain decent win rates.
Just a bit of an impact on the dojo's reputation...
"All Duelists must trust their own deck!"
Master Takeuchi was reprimanding the members for their behavior.
"The deck crafted with one's own intentions is unique for everyone!"
Though stating it righteously, a member couldn't help but softly speak.
"But Master, I just saw you receive a 'Detention' card two days ago, and a 'Mischievous Twin Fairies' three days ago..."
Master Takeuchi: "..."
He pondered for several seconds.
Then stood with hands on hips, chin high.
"That just happened to coincide with Yugen's thoughts! Powerful Duelists even share card preferences, that's normal."
All members: "..."