Chapter 165. The Supposedly "Absolutely Unbeatable" Total Lock! The Old-Guard Try to Crack It… and Tilt Hard!
Such swagger!
Sei Yuki's first reaction to that title was—arrogant! Self-important! Eyes only for himself!
That's right!
In a Duel, how could there possibly be an "absolutely unbeatable" total lock?
Isn't that just blowing smoke?
He had to see it for himself!
What the heck is this board state supposed to be, and what exactly is getting locked?
With that, Sei Yuki clicked the video without hesitation.
And then—
The video began to play!
Short-form clip.
The uploader—our "shenanigans player"—immediately started pattering away.
Shenanigans Player: "Welcome, Duel fiends, and thanks for clicking into today's Shenanigans video!"
Shenanigans Player: "Let's kick off the 'absolutely unbeatable total lock' show!"
Shenanigans Player: "When I'm done building the board, how many of you can think of a way out?"
"Alright, no more talk—showtime!"
"I activate the Spell 'Into the Void'!"
"I draw 1 card!"
"I activate the Spell 'Into the Void'!"
"I draw 1 card!"
"I Normal Summon 'Summoner Monk'!"
"On effect, I discard 1 'Allure of Darkness'; it becomes Defense Position and I Special Summon 'Treasure Panda' from the Deck!"
"I activate Panda's effect, banishing 'Into the Void' from my Graveyard!"
"I Special Summon 'Flamvell Guard' from the Deck!"
"'Flamvell Guard' and Summoner Monk Link Summon!"
"Link-2! 'Crystron Halqifibrax'!"
"I use its effect to pull out 'Deskbot 001' from the Deck!"
"Then Deskbot and Halqifibrax continue into a Link Summon!"
"Link-3! 'Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon'!"
"Activate Auroradon's effect to generate 3 Tokens (Machine/WIND/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 0)!"
"When 2 or more Machine monsters are Special Summoned at the same time, 'Deskbot 001' Special Summons itself from the GY!"
"I activate Auroradon's effect, sending itself and 1 Token to the GY!"
"I Special Summon 'Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion' from the Deck!"
"I Tuner 'Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion' (Level 2) and a Level 3 Token Synchro Summon!"
"2 + 3 = Level 5!"
"Synchro Summon! 'T.G. Hyper Librarian'!"
"O-Lion's effect triggers to generate a Level 3 Token!"
"The Level 3 Token and the Level 1 Tuner 'Deskbot 001' Synchro Summon!"
"'Crystron Quandax'!"
"Librarian triggers—I draw 1 card!"
"Use the Level 4 Synchro Tuner 'Crystron Quandax' and the last Level 3 Token to Synchro Summon!"
"'Power Tool Dragon'!"
"Librarian triggers—I draw 1 card!"
"'Power Tool Dragon' effect—I choose 3 copies of 'Wonder Wand' from my Deck!"
"Here, 'Wonder Wand' is guaranteed to hit my hand."
Stunned!
Everyone was stunned!
The old-guard duelists across the Duel Worlds had just come down from the high of "Galaxy-Eyes," and when they saw the next short titled as an absolutely unbeatable board, they all thought it would be some pile of omni-negate setup Duels!
But what they got was—
Panda plus all sorts of bizarre cards making some mysterious combo string!
Even now, faces were blank and totally lost.
Wait—where is this so-called absolutely unbeatable position?
Hold on—are we really going to listen to this guy "tell the story" for half the video?
Yugi Muto, Seto Kaiba, and Sei Yuki immediately caught on!
If it's a "specialized" deck—
Of course it's going to be a lot of storytime!
Welp!
You could already predict an eye-watering sequence of steps ahead!
Shenanigans Player: "I use Panda to banish 'Into the Void' from the GY!"
Shenanigans Player: "I Special Summon 'Left Arm of the Forbidden One' from the Deck!"
Shenanigans Player: "Keep chaining Panda! Banish 'Allure of Darkness' from the GY to pull 'Flamvell Guard' from the Deck!"
"Level 1 'Left Arm of the Forbidden One' and Level 1 Tuner 'Flamvell Guard' Synchro Summon!"
"'Formula Synchron'!"
"Librarian triggers—I draw 1 card!"
"'Formula Synchron' effect—I draw 1 card!"
"I Synchro Summon using the Level 2 Tuner 'Formula Synchron' and my Level 7 'Power Tool'!"
"Level 9 Synchro! 'Old Entity Cthugua'!"
"Librarian triggers—I draw 1 card!"
"Cthugua's effect—I draw 1 card!"
"I activate the Spell 'Advanced Draw'!"
"I Tribute Cthugua to draw 2 cards from the Deck!"
"Panda effect—banish 'Advanced Draw' from the GY to Special Summon 'Left Leg of the Forbidden One' from the Deck!"
"I activate 'White Elephant's Gift' to send Left Leg and draw 2 cards!"
"Keep using Panda—banish 'White Elephant's Gift' from the GY to Special Summon 'Flamvell Guard' from the Deck!"
"I activate the Equip Spell 'Overdone Burial'!"
"I discard 1 card to revive 'Left Leg of the Forbidden One' from my GY!"
"Then Left Leg and 'Flamvell Guard' Synchro Summon again!"
"'Formula Synchron'!"
"Librarian triggers—I draw 1 card!"
"'Formula Synchron' effect—I draw 1 card!"
"Panda banishes 'Overdone Burial' from the GY to Special Summon 'Right Leg of the Forbidden One' from the Deck!"
"I Synchro with Librarian and Formula!"
"5 + 2 Levels!"
"Level 7 Synchro Monster—'Yazi, Evil of the Yang Zing'!"
At this point!
The whole build finally looked fully online!
All the old-guard had seen enough to get it.
This specialized line needs a ton of key cards!
No wonder he's spamming Librarian draws!
And milking the little car's effect to draw!
He's straight-up rate-drawing!
Now the veterans—and Sei Yuki in the main world—were all wearing the same puzzled look.
What the heck is this final board supposed to be?
Why all the theatrics?
If the end board isn't even that tough—
Sei Yuki's going to laugh.
Shenanigans Player: "I activate the Spell 'Symbols of Duty'!"
Shenanigans Player: "I send Right Leg to the GY and revive 'T.G. Hyper Librarian' from my GY!"
Shenanigans Player: "I activate 'Pot of Avarice'—I choose 5 monsters in my GY, return them to the Deck, then draw 2 cards!"
"Panda effect—banish 'Pot of Avarice' from the GY to Special Summon the recycled 'Flamvell Guard' from the Deck!"
"I activate the Spell 'Magical Mallet'!"
"I return 2 cards from my hand to the Deck and draw 2!"
"Panda effect—banish 'Magical Mallet' to Special Summon 'Left Arm of the Forbidden One' from the Deck!"
"Left Arm and the Guard Synchro Summon!"
"The returned 'Formula Synchron'!"
"Librarian triggers—I draw 1 card!"
"'Formula Synchron' effect—I draw 1 card!"
"I activate the Spell 'Foolish Burial'!"
"I send 'Cyber-Stein' from my Deck to the GY!"
"Panda effect—banish 'Foolish Burial' to Special Summon 'Flamvell Guard' from the Deck!"
"Use 'Flamvell Guard' and my on-field 'Yazi, Evil of the Yang Zing' to Synchro Summon!"
"Level 8! 'Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing'!"
"Librarian effect—draw 1!"
"Baxia's effect—shuffle 'Formula Synchron' back to the Deck, then draw 1!"
"Activate the Spell 'Into the Void', I draw 1!"
"Panda effect—banish 'Into the Void' to Special Summon 'Left Leg of the Forbidden One' from the Deck!"
"Activate 'White Elephant's Gift'! Send Left Leg to the GY and draw 2!"
"Activate the Equip 'Living Fossil'! I revive 'Cyber-Stein'!"
"Activate the Spell 'Psi-Impulse'—I Tribute the 'Cyber-Stein'; your entire hand shuffles back into your Deck. Then you draw 3."
"Activate 'Magical Mallet', I return 4 and draw 4!"
"Activate the Spell 'Dark Magic Curtain', pay LP to Special Summon 'Right Arm of the Forbidden One'!"
"Activate 'Wonder Wand', equip to Right Arm then send it to the GY to draw 2!"
"Panda effect—banish 'Wonder Wand' from the GY to Special Summon 'Right Leg of the Forbidden One' from the Deck!"
"Activate 'Wonder Wand' again, send Right Leg to the GY to draw 2!"
"Activate 'Pot of Avarice', I return 5 monsters and draw 2!"
Still rate-drawing!
He's still rate-drawing!
Mental break!
The old-guard across all Duel Worlds were on tilt watching this!
What even is this?
The sheer abuse of resources—especially the Forbidden One pieces plus 'Flamvell Guard'—
Looped with 'Pot of Avarice' over and over!
By now—
They had a brand-new respect for the Panda-engine dark arts!
In the DM world—
Yugi Muto and Solomon Muto were completely numb.
Never in their wildest dreams—
Did they think the supreme pieces of "Old Ai," the Dark Master—
Would become nothing but draw fodder in this specialty line.
That's right.
Just tools!
Just "Old Ai" pieces as tools for rate-draws!
In the GX world—
Duel Academy and the faculty were equally stunned!
"Wait—huh? That Panda is way too scuffed! As long as there's a Spell in the GY, it just keeps summoning?"
"I'm losing it—make it stop! This isn't Dueling! Playing him is like serving time!"
"Uh… even giving him a whole song isn't enough for the full setup! Ridiculous! Totally ridiculous!"
"So where's that absolutely unbeatable lock? Has he not drawn the keystone yet?"
"..."
Syrus Truesdale, Daichi Misawa, and the other students were already chattering non-stop.
From the clip—
They could roughly follow the line.
But the final trump?
Still a fog!
Yes.
They still didn't understand what the "absolute lock" actually referred to!
Shenanigans Player: "Panda again—banish a Spell from GY to Special Summon the recycled 'Flamvell Guard'!"
Shenanigans Player: "Panda—Special Summon Right Arm!"
Shenanigans Player: "Right Arm and 'Flamvell Guard' Synchro Summon 'Formula Synchron'!"
"Librarian triggers—I draw 1!"
"'Formula Synchron' effect—I draw 1!"
"Panda—banish a Spell; Special Summon 'Flamvell Guard'!"
"Panda—banish a Spell; Special Summon 'Left Leg of the Forbidden One'!"
"Activate 'Feather of the Phoenix'—I discard 1 to put 'Pot of Avarice' from my GY on top of the Deck."
"Left Leg and 'Flamvell Guard' Synchro Summon Level 2!"
"'Assault Blackwing – Sayo the Rain Hider'!"
"Librarian effect—I draw 1!"
"Level 2 Tuner 'Formula Synchron', Level 2 Tuner 'Assault Blackwing – Sayo the Rain Hider', and Level 8 'Baxia, Brightness of the Yang Zing'—Synchro!"
"2 + 2 + 8!"
"Level 12! 'Stardust Sifr Divine Dragon'!"
"Librarian effect—draw 1!"
"Activate 'Pot of Avarice'—I recycle 5 monsters and draw 2!"
"Panda—banish a Spell; Special Summon 'Flamvell Guard'!"
"'Symbols of Duty' effect—send 'Flamvell Guard' to the GY and revive 'Naturia Ragweed' from my GY!"
"Panda—banish a Spell; Special Summon 'Left Arm of the Forbidden One'!"
"Activate 'White Elephant's Gift'—send Left Arm to draw 2!"
"Activate 'Feather of the Phoenix'—send 'Cyber-Stein' to put 'Wonder Wand' back!"
"Equip 'Wonder Wand' to Librarian, send it to the GY to draw 2."
"Activate 'Pot of Avarice'—I return 5 and draw 2!"
"Activate the Spell 'Double Summon'—I Tribute 'Naturia Ragweed' to Tribute Summon 'Naturia Bamboo Shoot'!"
Finally—!
Is it happening?
Seeing 'Stardust Sifr Divine Dragon' earlier—
Plus now 'Naturia Bamboo Shoot'—
This setup was starting to smell like a lock!
Duelists who were half-checked-out now wore serious looks at the two monsters on board, each with clear lockdown implications!
Looking at the shenanigans player's Deck—
It was nearly wrung dry!
Which meant—
He had just about drawn all the crucial pieces!
Meanwhile—
In the 5D's world—
Sei Yuki and Bruno were about to cough blood!
They'd never have guessed—
'T.G. Hyper Librarian' and 'Formula Synchron'—
In this build—
Had both become mere "rate-draw tools"!
This specialized deck—
Really does run on a completely different logic from normal Duel thought!
Shenanigans Player: "Activate the effect of the monster in my hand, 'Angel O1'. I reveal 'Angel O7' and Special Summon O1!"
Shenanigans Player: "Panda—banish a Spell; Special Summon 'Right Arm of the Forbidden One'!"
"'Angel O1' effect—gain an additional Normal Summon, then Tribute it and Panda!"
"I Tribute Summon this monster—'Angel O7'!"
"First, I activate 'Forbidden Chalice' to negate O7 until the end of the turn."
"Then I trigger Sifr's protection to grant my board battle and effect destruction endurance."
"'Dark Simorgh' in my hand activates—banish Summoner Monk and O-Lion to Special Summon!"
"Activate 'Symbols of Duty'—send Right Leg to revive 'Cyber-Stein' from my GY!"
"'Cyber-Stein' effect—I pay 5000 LP! Then chain at Chain Link 2 the Quick-Play Spell 'Mask Change II'!"
"I discard 1; send 'Cyber-Stein' to the GY and Special Summon 'Masked HERO Dark Law'!"
"'Cyber-Stein' effect resolves to Special Summon from my Extra Deck—'The Last Warrior from Another Planet'!"
"'The Last Warrior's' destruction is held off by Sifr's protection."
"Unbeatable board—complete."
"It's your turn to play Yu-Gi-Oh!"
Over already?
Duelists across the worlds still looked confused!
But once they carefully examined the monsters on the field—
Every old-guard duelist tilted at once!
Card #1: Stardust Sifr Divine Dragon
Grants each of your cards once-per-turn battle/effect destruction protection.
Carries a monster-effect negate.
Card #2: Angel O7
When this card is Tribute Summoned.
While it remains face-up on the field, Effect Monsters' effects cannot be activated.
Card #3: Naturia Bamboo Shoot
While this Tribute Summoned card (Tributed a "Naturia" monster) remains face-up.
Your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards.
Card #4: Dark Simorgh
While this card is on the field, your opponent cannot Set cards.
Card #5: Masked HERO Dark Law
While this card is on the field, any card that would be sent to your opponent's GY is banished instead.
When your opponent adds a card(s) from the Deck to the hand, banish 1 random card from their hand.
Card #6: The Last Warrior from Another Planet
While this face-up card is on the field.
Neither player can Normal Summon, Flip Summon, or Special Summon monsters.
Lockdown! An absolute, perfected lockdown!
What card in the world is supposed to crack this board!? Ugh…
Enjoyed the story? Support me and get access to early chapters by joining my Patreon!
Find me at: Patr*eon*.com/Resium
Free members can read 10+ Chapters Ahead of Release
Paid member can read 150+ Chapters Ahead of Release
Stories Available
Honkai? No, This Is Daily Life
Hogwarts Pet Master
Pokémon: Who Let Him Leave Pallet Town!
Scrolling Yu-Gi-Oh! Shorts