The two Link-2 monsters!
[Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres] and [The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche]!
They had both demonstrated their respective roles!
At the very least, their purpose was much clearer than the previous two Link monsters, [Striker Dragon] and [Dragunity Knight - Romulus]!
But if that was all!
For the duelists across the six worlds, it was still not enough to understand how the Red-Eyes deck truly executed its combos.
DM World
The entire deck construction had been explained.
Seto Kaiba let out a faint laugh and began to speak.
"Hmph. As expected of a third-rate deck for a third-rate duelist."
"Just looking at it like this," he mused, "my Blue-Eyes, whether it's the one-shot-kill Chaos MAX Dragon or the fusion of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, are both far superior to Red-Eyes."
"It seems my expectations were too high. Red-Eyes is... just this."
Kaiba shrugged, closing his eyes and no longer watching the Red-Eyes short video on the big screen.
Joey, hearing these words, looked displeased. But even he couldn't understand the Red-Eyes build or its current combo lines. For a moment, he didn't even know how to retort.
"Kaiba, don't be so quick to judge," Yugi Muto said, trying to lighten the mood. "The video creator is named 'Red-Dad YYDS.' I'm rather curious, what exactly is this 'Red-Dad'? Perhaps that's the true ace of Red-Eyes."
He didn't know it, but he had just hit the nail right on the head.
The very next video would be an explanation of "Red-Dad"!
...
GX World
Fonda Fontaine (Tenjoin Fubuki) took a deep breath, his mind racing as he tried to piece together the purpose of each card and find the connections between them.
What were these 'RR' cards? And 'Phantom Knights'? What were all these?
"Don't worry, Mr. Fontaine," Syrus Truesdale (Marufuji Sho) said, noticing his senior's anxious fidgeting. "The final part is about to start. We'll understand soon enough."
"Syrus, my boy," Fonda replied, "you don't understand. This... this is all beyond comprehension. I feel like I need to completely rebuild my view of dueling." He then fell back into deep thought.
...
5D's World
Yusei Fudo and the others had arrived at the Sector Security headquarters in the Satellite.
Tetsu Trudge (Ushio Tetsu) scoffed as he watched the Red-Eyes video. "Hey, hey, hey! I'm telling you, this whole Red-Eyes thing is a joke! Do you even know what my ace monster is? Ever heard of [Montage Dragon]?"
"This is my ace now!" Trudge proudly displayed the Level 8 [Montage Dragon] from his deck, with its ? ATK and 0 DEF. Its effect allows it to be Special Summoned from the hand by sending 3 other monsters from the hand to the Graveyard, with its ATK becoming the total Levels of those monsters x 300.
Simply put, if the total Levels were 30, [Montage Dragon] would have an absurd 9000 ATK!
Yusei and Jack Atlas both tensed up when they saw the card's information. Trudge had actually gotten his hands on a pretty strong card. No wonder he had been so disdainful while watching the Red-Eyes deck explanation.
...
ZEXAL World
Yuma Tsukumo and Astral had been frowning the entire time. They weren't concerned with the Red-Eyes combo lines. What caught their attention was the single Rank-Up-Magic card in the deck: [Rank-Up-Magic - The Phantom Knights of Launch]!
"Astral, are you sure you're not mistaken?" Yuma asked uncertainly. "A Rank-Up-Magic card! Is that the power of the Barian World?"
"Yes, I am certain," Astral confirmed, accessing a sudden memory fragment. "Barian World and Astral World cannot directly interfere with each other. It was formed thousands of years ago from the souls filled with Chaos that Astral World exiled. They are born from Chaos! Therefore, their Xyz Monsters can undergo Chaos Xyz Evolution! The Barians can all basically use Rank-Up!"
The appearance of [Rank-Up-Magic - The Phantom Knights of Launch] seemed to have triggered this memory.
"Barian World, huh?" Yuma sighed heavily. "I see."
He hadn't even figured out this "Higher World" yet, and now a "Barian World" had emerged. Just how many worlds were there?
...
Main World
Yusei Hoshi* stretched lazily, chuckling as he read the messages in the DM and GX world chat groups. The two worlds had wildly different opinions on Red-Eyes. After reading them, his previous doubts vanished. The dueling mindset and logic of some duelists in the DM and GX worlds were simply... outdated!
"Ah, well! No more delays!" he thought. "Let's just show them the real strength of Red-Eyes, and then show them what a truly powerful card is! We'll start with Red-Dad!"
Yusei finalized the next video, and the final segment of the Red-Eyes short began to play.
Red-Dad YYDS: "Congratulations to all the duelists who've made it this far! You're about to witness the most exciting part of the duel!"
Red-Dad YYDS: "As everyone knows, I've said from the beginning that Fusion is not the main focus of a Red-Eyes deck!"
Red-Dad YYDS: "This is because the drawback of the spell card [Red-Eyes Fusion] is too severe! After it resolves, you cannot Normal or Special Summon monsters for the rest of the turn, except by its own effect. This means that once you use Red-Eyes Fusion, your summons are locked down! This is fatal for any deck. That's why I don't recommend using it. But... if it's for the sake of 'Red-Dad,' then it's a different story. Ah, whatever. Let's first look at the main combo lines for the Red-Eyes deck!"
As the video narrator finished speaking, the dueling screen displayed the Red-Eyes combo!
At this moment, the duelists across all six worlds leaned in with serious expressions.
Finally.
Was it time?
The explosive combo lines of Red-Eyes?
The strange synergy of all those non-archetype cards?
With high expectations, the screen showed a starting hand of five cards!
Red-Dad YYDS immediately began his play!
"First, the setup and use of the in-archetype Red-Eyes system!"
"Our standard opening line is always the same."
"Watch carefully, learn well, and think!"
"First, Normal Summon [Black Metal Dragon]!"
"Then, use [Black Metal Dragon] to Link Summon [Striker Dragon]!"
"[Black Metal Dragon]'s effect activates, searching [Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon] from the deck!"
"Darkness Metal Dragon's effect activates, banishing [Striker Dragon] to Special Summon itself!"
"Darkness Metal Dragon activates its effect again, reviving [Black Metal Dragon] from the Graveyard!"
"This is how you repeatedly generate resources."
This explanation of the combo stunned the duelists of the six worlds into silence! They had been wondering how the deck would start, and this was it! Using Black Metal Dragon and Darkness Metal Dragon to continuously generate advantage by searching with Black Metal's effect?
You could play like that?!
Red-Dad YYDS: "Next, we continue to Link Summon!"
"Use [Black Metal Dragon] and [Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon]!"
"Here, we summon [Dragunity Knight - Romulus]!"
"Romulus's effect activates, searching the Field Spell [Dragon Ravine]!"
"Darkness Metal Dragon's effect in the Graveyard activates*, searching [Red-Eyes Black Meteor Dragon] from the deck!" (Translator's Note: This is a slight inaccuracy in the original fanfic; REDMD's search effect is not a GY effect. It's an on-field effect that searches when it leaves the field. The combo still works, but the timing is slightly different.)
"Activate [Dragon Ravine], then its effect: discard one card to send [Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms] from the deck to the Graveyard."
"[Black Meteor Dragon]'s effect activates: send [Red-Eyes Black Dragon] from the deck to the GY to Special Summon itself, and its level increases by 1, becoming Level 8!" (Another fanfic inaccuracy; its level becomes 7, not 8.)
"Tempest's effect then activates in the Graveyard, banishing resources to Special Summon itself to the field."
Stunned.
The faces of the duelists from all six worlds could be summed up in one word:
Stunned!
Yes, they were completely baffled! What on earth were these last few moves?!
What was truly ridiculous wasn't that they couldn't understand it, but that these moves actually managed to link together all those non-archetype cards! Even more, these were cards they had initially dismissed as useless!
Whether it was [Striker Dragon] or [Dragunity Knight - Romulus], or even [Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms] and [Dragon Ravine]! They were all constantly fulfilling their roles within the Red-Eyes deck!
So, this was that strange synergy?
And now on the field, there were two Level 7 monsters!
Red-Dad YYDS: "We have two Level 7 monsters on the field!"
Red-Dad YYDS: "What are we waiting for? Let's overlay! Xyz Summon! Without hesitation, bring out [Raidraptor - Arsenal Falcon]!"
Red-Dad YYDS: "Key point! As long as you can summon [Arsenal Falcon] through your opponent's interruptions, the rest of your plays don't matter as much! Because you're already stable. At the very least, you can guarantee a Rank 13 'Golden Chicken' on the field, which is [Raidraptor - Revolution Falcon]!" (Note: The narrator seems to be confusing Arsenal Falcon's floating effect with other RR effects; Arsenal summons another RR, not necessarily ranking up into Revolution Falcon directly from its own effect.)
Red-Dad YYDS: "Its protection is no joke! Many decks can't get over it! Just having [Raidraptor - Revolution Falcon] on the field is a headache for many decks!"
The narrator grew more and more excited, and the plays on screen unfolded just as he described.
The bewildered duelists were still waiting.
Yes.
Waiting to see just how many more of their perceptions could be shattered!
Red-Dad YYDS: "If we aren't interrupted, we continue our plays!"
"Arsenal Falcon's effect activates, detaching [Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms] to summon [Raider's Wing] from the deck!"
"Then we continue to Link Summon! The Link-2 [Dragunity Knight - Romulus] and [Raider's Wing] can be used to Link Summon something else."
"The line of play depends on the situation. After all, [Raider's Wing] allows [Arsenal Falcon] to detach another material to revive itself from the Graveyard."
"So we can go into other Link monsters! Or we can summon this card, our first-turn boss monster, [The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche]!"
"And now, we activate its standard effects!"
"Bardiche's effect activates, sending [The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak] from the deck to the Graveyard!"
"Then, set [Rank-Up-Magic - The Phantom Knights of Launch] directly from the deck!"
"After that, activate the effect of [Ancient Cloak] in the GY, banishing itself! We can then search for another Phantom Knights card to our hand!" (Correction: Ancient Cloak searches a "The Phantom Knights" monster, not another Rank-Up-Magic.)
"And this Rank-Up-Magic card will let us bring out a Rank 8 Xyz monster. We can also use Bardiche's second effect to destroy a card!"
"For example, we can summon [D/D/D Duo-Dawn King Kali Yuga]! The effects of all other cards on the field cannot be activated and are negated."
"And with that, our board is set."
Silence.
A dead silence.
Everyone stared in a daze.
What... was that combo?
Was that... a Red-Eyes deck combo?
Holy crap!
How was this more complex than any combo they had seen before?! What was even going on?!
The strangest part was, these plays really did manage to link all those non-archetype cards together! It was absurd!
But what made them even more speechless was... after setting up this entire board, where was Red-Eyes? Was this even a Red-Eyes deck they were playing?
DM World
After watching these plays, Yugi Muto was on the verge of tears.
He and the Pharaoh Atem within him had been discussing the combo, trying to comprehend it. And precisely because they tried to understand, they realized that this deck build wasn't ridiculous at all; it was a perfect, synergistic masterpiece!
"Aibou! To be able to link so many non-archetype cards together... This strategy is too powerful, this dueling mindset is brilliant!" the Pharaoh within him couldn't help but praise.
"Other me... while that's true," Yugi replied, "let me catch my breath. I need more time to think about this."
Yugi felt a headache coming on. He needed to process these strategies.
As for Joey, he was petrified, unable to react for a long time.
Red-Eyes?
Was this Red-Eyes?
The Red-Eyes deck he knew?
No.
You're not playing a Red-Eyes deck!
That's not how you play a Red-Eyes deck!
GX World
The video's content left the students and teachers in a state of confusion and bewilderment.
"Mamma mia!" Professor Crowler exclaimed, blinking. "This combo is even more stylish than my Ancient Gears? The Red-Eyes deck is truly worthy of the legendary duelist Joey Wheeler!"
He was, of course, unaware that Joey himself was currently staring with a face full of question marks.
"Uh... even my HERO plays aren't this complex!" Jaden Yuki swallowed hard. "No, wait. The genius of this combo is how it turns the resources of various cards into a linked chain. Whether it's RR or the so-called Phantom Knights, they're all synergizing with the main deck!"
Jaden immediately understood the importance of this strategy!
Similarly, in the VRAINS World, when Yusaku Fujiki saw these Link plays, he couldn't help but give a mental thumbs-up.
This was different from a HERO's Link strategy. The Red-Eyes strategy was entirely focused on building an oppressive final board.
For example, what was so terrifying about this board?
The uncertainty of [The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche]'s second effect, which could interrupt by destroying a card.
[Raidraptor - Arsenal Falcon]'s floating effect could bring out the incredibly resilient Rank 13 "Golden Chicken."
The set Rank-Up-Magic card meant the board could change at any moment.
This was all a one-card combo, with the only cost being the single card discarded for Dragon Ravine.
This meant it was highly likely the player still had hand traps like [Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring] and [Maxx "C"] in hand.
With all that... how could the opponent even play?
While everyone was still shocked and trying to process the combo, the short video continued, showing another line of play!
Red-Dad YYDS: "Other lines of play are similar!"
"For example, if I have [Kashtira Unicorn] in my hand! I can Special Summon Unicorn, use its effect to search the Field Spell [Pressured Planet Wraitsoth] from the deck!"
"After that, it's the same Black Metal Dragon Link combo!"
"The difference is, we can first make the Rank 7 [Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon]! Use Flare Metal's effect, detach a material to revive a vanilla Red-Eyes, and then make another Rank 7, [Raidraptor - Arsenal Falcon]!"
"The rest is the same. These are things you'll have to explore on your own! I won't say more."
This explanation opened up a whole new world for Red-Eyes!
-------
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