Volcanic is a name that should be quite familiar to many old Yu-Gi-Oh players.
This deck was once a legendary set and, for Kira, was even once deemed the "strongest deck" by him and his friends.
Back in the day, everyone played cards together with their friends, not understanding the official tournament's banned and limited list, and all their knowledge of Yu-Gi-Oh came from the anime. So the rules naturally followed the anime's format.
For instance, like in the anime, everyone had a baseline life point of 4000.
For many duelists, life points were just a trivial matter, existing only in the distinction of "having" or "not having." But for a deck like Volcanic, the difference between 4000 life points and 8000 life points was a completely different concept.
The reason is simple: this is a deck that practically wears its self-destructive nature on its sleeve.
When talking about Volcanic, the first thing that comes to mind is its representative weapon, the "Blaze Accelerator." From the basic form of "Blaze Accelerator" to the upgraded form of "Tri-Blaze Accelerator," and then the subsequent actual card upgrade, the "Volcanic Blaze Accelerator," all make up the core of Volcanic.
The common feature of several cannons, and the basic strategy of Volcanic, is to discard Fire monsters as ammunition to blow up cards on the opponent's field and directly inflict damage.
Including other Volcanic-type monsters, most have the common trait of dealing direct damage.
Moreover, because the Blaze Accelerator has the restriction of "you cannot attack this turn after using it," this deck naturally synergizes well with various lockdown strategies.
Thus, a legendary deck that combines destruction, direct damage, lockdown, and other self-defeating traits was born. Especially in the era of 4000 life points during offline matches with friends, it was practically a weapon of mass destruction, to the point that it eventually evolved into a situation where "no one would play with someone using Volcanic."
Thus, friends who specialized in Volcanic were left with no choice. To allow their classmates to continue enjoying playing Yu-Gi-Oh, they had to promise not to use Volcanic weapons first.
This kind of self-destructive deck was naturally favored by players who enjoyed revenge against society in the slower early environments. Not to mention that this deck appeared in the anime and even had quite a brilliant performance there, naturally boosting its popularity.
In the anime, the holder of Volcanic was Axel Brodie, a mercenary who appeared during the Yubel arc.
From the moment he appeared, he displayed a level of sophistication that set him apart from most side characters in the anime. His first battle was against the protagonist, Jaden.
The anime clearly indicated that his strength was above that of Jaden at that time.
Axel, as a mercenary, accepted a commission to "draw out all of Jaden's potential," but the client required him to lose, and he had to lose spectacularly, allowing Jaden to win with difficulty.
Thus, Axel deliberately let Jaden win, but according to the flow of that duel, he could have likely won.
Unlike Aster Phoenix, who also defeated Jaden before—Aster came out at his peak, having previously defeated the power ceiling of the series, Zane and Jaden, but then pretty much went downhill.
However, Axel later achieved a one-for-one exchange against the Supreme King Jaden with his Volcanic, maintaining his activity in fans' discussions about the "MVP side characters of Yu-Gi-Oh GX" nomination lists for years.
Mokuba, having collaborated with Kira for so long and observed many of his duels, had some understanding of Kira's dueling philosophy.
So now, after briefly browsing through the deck, Mokuba immediately grasped Kira's intentions.
His expression became somewhat strange as he handed the deck back to Kira and asked, "So… which unfortunate soul will be lucky enough to be tested against your new deck?"
"Hard to say."
Kira shrugged but then continued, "However, I have a feeling I might need to use it soon."
"Oh? Do you already have a target in mind?"
Mokuba felt a bit sorry for the victim he had never met.
"Sort of. I suspect we might soon face a slightly tricky opponent, so it should come in handy—uh, hold on, I need to take a call."
Kira pulled out his personal terminal. By now, he was a public figure, and his contact information was relatively confidential. Not many could reach him directly.
He swiped the screen and saw it was Joey.
"Mr. Joey, was your meeting with President Pegasus successful?"
Kira had heard Jaden mention that Joey was going to Duel Kingdom's island for an appointment.
"It's about that. The situation is a bit complicated; to put it simply, Pegasus seems to have been manipulated, something about the Light of Destruction…"
Kira raised an eyebrow.
"Light of Destruction? Pegasus?"
"Yes. And we just had a duel."
Kira nodded. "You're still talking to me, so it seems Pegasus wasn't lucky."
"Haha, you saw right through me."
Joey couldn't help but smugly touch his nose, but he quickly shook his head.
"That's not the point. Pegasus is unconscious now, but before he passed out, he told me some important things. For example, he mentioned a crucial card… something about a Duelist card.
He said he couldn't complete it on his own, so he manipulated Pegasus and used the power of the Duel Monsters to create that card."
"Ha?"
Kira was taken aback.
A Duelist card completed with Pegasus's power… which one?
"Also, Pegasus mentioned that they have their sights set on that kid."
"Who?"
"Jaden Yuki!" Joey said. "They said Jaden is getting close to the source of darkness or something. In short, it seems like the faction of the Light of Destruction is very concerned."
Kira thought for a moment.
Well, Jaden originally possessed the powers of the Gentle Darkness, which were already linked to the forces of Darkness of the Universe. Now he had acquired the power of the Supreme King, so if there were a God's eye perspective from the Light of Destruction looking down from above the Earth, it would indeed make Jaden appear like a walking black hole on the surface.
It was reasonable for him to be targeted.
"I've tried to contact Jaden, but it seems all communication has been cut off; I can't reach him no matter what, not even on Duel Academy Island."
Joey sounded a bit anxious.
"I'm afraid something has already happened. I'm on my way back. You should consider…"
"Calm down." Kira interrupted him. "You know Jaden's abilities and have seen the power of the Supreme King. So do you think if someone really tried to attack Jaden while we're all away, is that something to really worry about?"
Joey paused, thinking for two seconds.
Then he scratched his head in confusion.
Oh right, what's there to worry about?