"Great Storm, destroy all Magic Trap Cards on the field!"
The strongest weapon for sweeping the backfield instantly swept across the entire field. The "Insect Extermination Net" defense line on Yugen's field also collapsed, and the three Cover Cards in the backfield were swept up by the storm.
"Then at the moment of destruction, chain and activate one of the Trap Cards, 'No Entry!!', and turn all attack position monsters on the field to defense position.
I use this effect to change 'Leader - Zargul' to defense position."
[Leader - Zargul, Attack Power 1400→Defense Power 1500]
And among the other Trap Cards that were swept up, one was a "Bottomless Trap Hole", faintly visible from the afterimage before it shattered.
Merely catching a glimpse of that retreating Red Pit's afterimage made the spectators shiver, and further kindled the thought, "I wouldn't want to be on the opposite side."
"The other card you just destroyed is the Magic Card 'Divine Summon Magic'," Yugen said calmly, "When this card is destroyed by an opponent's card effect and sent to the Graveyard, select two Magic Cards from your Deck to set on your field." (Animation effect)
In the anime, the Magic Card used by Yuki Judai, when made into a physical card, was neutered to only search Speed Attack Magic, and you could only search one card.
Although the trigger condition that it must be destroyed by the opponent to activate is a bit troublesome, the effect of selecting two Magic Cards is still very powerful.
"I search for these two cards from the Deck."
Yugen drew the two cards that popped out from the Deck.
"Set the Magic Card 'Reinforcements' and the Magic Card 'Revive the Dead' on the field."
"But this way, there's no attack blockade nor Traps left!" Watanabe Hideyuki shouted, "In my hand, 'Hell Great Centipede' effect!
When there are monsters on the opponent's field and no monsters on your own field, this card can be summoned directly by halving its original attack power without a tribute!
So I directly summon 'Hell Great Centipede'!"
[Hell Great Centipede, Attack Power 1300]
"Then use the Equipment Magic 'Dull Axe'!" Watanabe Hideyuki shouted, "The monster equipped with Dull Axe gains 1000 attack power, effect nullified!
Hell Great Centipede's effect is nullified, so its self-compromising summoning side effect is removed, and the attack power returns to 2600! Plus, it receives the enhancement of Dull Axe, raising the attack power to 3600!"
[Hell Great Centipede, Attack Power 1300→Attack Power 3600]
"Next, activate the Equipment Magic 'Nitration Device'!" Shuichi said, "This card can only be equipped to an opponent's monster. When the equipped monster is destroyed in battle and sent to the Graveyard, deal damage equal to the equipped monster's attack power!
I equip 'Nitration Device' to 'Leader - Zargul'!"
The defending Zargul was instantly strapped with an explosive device, and its rough face was full of despair.
"Hell Great Centipede, attack 'Leader - Zargul'!"
[Leader - Zargul, Defense Power 1500]
The giant insect effortlessly crushed the unfortunate leader, triggering the nitration device strapped to it. With a boom, the fiery explosion swept across half of Yugen's field, and the storm's impact swept over him.
[Yugen, LP 3000→LP 1600]
"Then set two cards in the field. End of turn!" Watanabe Hideyuki shouted.
"..."
"As expected from Watanabe," the large-breasted senior on the stand continued to comment, "able to break through in such a situation and regain control..."
"Indeed. And looking at this posture, the backfield configuration seems to have consolidated the defense line, and the footing is already steady." said the Dueling Department student next to her, "Though the freshman managed to have the upper hand using some... uh... special tactics, but it seems to be over now.
However, his performance was quite impressive, and the judges should approve it."
Watanabe Hideyuki actually thought so himself.
On the field, he had the Hell Great Centipede with a staggering 3600 attack power, and one of the Cover Cards in the backfield was the Trap Card "Security Ball", which could turn an attacking monster to defense position. If destroyed by the opponent's Magic Trap, it could also destroy a monster on the field.
This was a high-quality Trap with both defensive capabilities and counterattack potential.
The other was the Trap Card "Holy Spear", which could restore Life Points equal to the attack power of an opponent's monster declaring attack, also a defensive Trap.
His defense line was almost flawless.
But at this moment, Shuichi did not realize.
Actually, right when he blew away the "Divine Summon Magic", allowing Yugen to trigger the Deck search, this Duel was basically already over.
Yugen: "My turn, draw a card."
The victory formula was already in place.
"Activate the Magic Card 'Hurricane', return all Magic, Trap Cards on both sides of the field to the owners' hands!"
The storm swept through, the "Revive the Dead" covered on Yugen's field, and the two Cover Cards on the opponent's field were all returned to the hand.
Watanabe Hideyuki looked at the two returned Traps in his hand and curled his lip.
The backfield defense line disappeared, but the problem should not be big. Even losing the boost of "Dull Axe", Hell Great Centipede's attack power would only drop back to 2600, which was still quite high. His Life Points were still at 2600 too.
Can you really finish me off in one turn?
Yugen drew out a card blown back to his hand by the "Hurricane": "I activate this card searched through 'Divine Summon Magic' last turn, Magic Card 'Reinforcements'. Add a Four-Star or lower Warrior Race monster from the Deck to the hand.
I add 'Iron Knight - Jia Fried' from the Deck to my hand."
Iron Knight - Jia Fried, was one of Joey's signature subordinate monsters during the DM era. But in the GX era, it had become a common lower-level versatile card, even used by passerby elementary students in Marufuji Sho's memories of duels.
Yugen: "'Iron Knight - Jia Fried' Normal Summon!"
[Iron Knight - Jia Fried, Attack Power 1800]
"Next, activate the Magic Card 'Revive the Dead' returned to the hand!", Yugen said, "Resurrect this card discarded to the Graveyard through 'Angel's Charity' earlier—
—Magical Beast - Cerberus!"
[Magical Beast - Cerberus, Attack Power 1400]
The Iron Knight and the Magical Beast appeared simultaneously, and anyone with real card experience now would relate to the fearsome "that card," perhaps even ready to speedily concede and escape.
Because seeing these two things together, no one would not know what they are about to face.
One of the first outrageous combinations in Yu-Gi-Oh! history.
Watanabe Hideyuki frowned, "Summoning so many miscellaneous monsters, what exactly do you want to do?"
"Don't rush, I want to use one last card... it's this one."
Yugen waved a hand.
"Equipment Magic 'Butterfly Short Sword - Echo'!"
[Equipment Magic, Butterfly Short Sword - Echo
Effect: The equipped monster's Attack Power increases by 300. When this card equipped on a monster is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, it can return to the owner's hand.]
At first glance, it seems like an ordinary and useless piece of equipment, completely unworthy of its infamous reputation as a notorious card in the dark room with a life sentence. In reality, newcomwers to Yu-Gi-Oh! might be puzzled as to why such an unremarkable card deserves such notoriety.
Clearly, no one on the scene realized the seriousness of the situation at this moment. No one could see what Yugen was trying to do.
"Butterfly Short Sword - Echo, equip to 'ron Knight - Jia Fried', increasing its Attack Power by 300," said Yugen, "but 'ron Knight - Jia Fried' also has an effect.
It cannot accept any Equipment Card. When equipped, the Equipment Card is directly destroyed.
Therefore, 'Butterfly Short Sword - Echo' is directly destroyed."
Shuichi: "?"
What is the meaning of destroying your own equipment?
"At this moment, the second effect of 'Butterfly Short Sword - Echo' activates. When this card equipped on a monster is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, this card returns to the owner's hand.
So I will recover 'Butterfly Short Sword - Echo' from the graveyard."
Shuichi frowned: "But even so, it has no meaning."
"Of course it has," Yugen said, "I still have a 'Magical Beast - Cerberus' on the field. As long as it's on the field, whenever you or your opponent activates a Magic Card, place a Mana Indicator on it.
Additionally, this card's Attack Power increases by the number of Mana Indicators on it x500 points."
[Magical Beast - Cerberus, Attack Power 1400 → Attack Power 1900]
Watanabe Shuichi: "A mere 500 Attack Power, it's nothing... Hmm!?"
He began to realize something was wrong.
Wait a minute, could it be...
"Equipment Magic 'Butterfly Short Sword - Echo' equips 'ron Knight - Jia Fried' again. But because of the Iron Knight's effect, it is immediately destroyed again.
Then the effect of Butterfly Short Sword itself recovers it from the graveyard.
Since another Magic Card was activated, 'Magical Beast - Cerberus' Attack Power increases by another 500."
[Magical Beast - Cerberus, Attack Power 1900 → Attack Power 2400]
"You... you this..." Watanabe Shuichi began to tremble.
The watching students, however slow, now realized what was happening.
This is... an infinite LOOP!
One of the earliest and simplest infinite loops in Yu-Gi-Oh! history, requiring the fewest components to achieve.
By equipping Butterfly Short Sword to the Iron Knight, it self-destructs via the Iron Knight's effect, and then recovers itself with its own effect, allowing endless activation of Magic Cards in a single turn.
Correspondingly, the Attack Power of Magical Beast - Cerberus can also rise infinitely in such an infinite consumption!
However, in practical terms, this wasn't a top-tier deck at that time. After all, Butterfly Short Sword Echo was only banned in March 2005, and it didn't make a good mark in world championships before that. It shows that although the infinite LOOP is vicious, in practice, it's more of a stunt, as it couldn't outperform the top-tier dominant decks of the time.
Before Yugen's time-traveling, out of interest, he tried to build this deck with the early pool of cards, but in practice found it was far less vicious than he imagined. The success rate was low, and even if the components were assembled, any random resistance would instantly kill it, unable to compete with the top-tier dominant decks of the time.
However, K Society has always been zero-tolerance towards infinite loops, and anything related to infinite loops has been virtually locked away.
But what's called a stunt is something that is enjoyable for a day when it succeeds.
And it would be very cool if it succeeded.
In reality, there is a time limit for a turn in card games, but not in this world. In the animated world, there is a limit to how long a turn can go without operation, but there is no limit to the overall time of a turn.
Watching as Magical Beast's Attack Power soared infinitely, Watanabe Shuichi was almost breathless with shock, his whole body trembling and unable to say a word for a long time.
"Junior brother, your... this..."
"Butterfly Short Sword activates again, and Magical Beast's Attack Power increases again!"
[Magical Beast - Cerberus, Attack Power 12400]
He was about to cry.
It was almost impossible to imagine how painful the impact of such an Attack Power would be.
He wanted to say, no, junior brother, we don't seem to have any enmity, do we?
Was it really necessary?
The other watching students were already numb, and even the host's jaw was almost hitting the floor.
Even Manjome, who thought he had already seen the true nature of this lousy thing, was stunned.
He stared wide-eyed for a long time and unconsciously muttered to himself.
"Who are you really?"
The whole place was silent as if everyone had turned to stone, all watching Yugen operate like a broken record.
[Magical Beast - Cerberus, Attack Power 22400]
"Hmm, that should be enough."
Although it could brush further, it was tiring to keep operating.
Speaking of which, it's remarkable that senior brother hasn't surrendered or run away until now.
So as a thank-you for not running away...
"'Magical Beast - Cerberus', attack 'Hell Great Centipede'!"
[Hell Great Centipede, Attack Power 2600]
Watanabe Shuichi: "......"
A roar as if from hell, a terrifying impact swept vigorously across him.
[Watanabe Shuichi, LP 2600 → LP 0]