Chapter 253

Total lockdown!

"Fujiki You Xuan's move is impressive!"

Mokuba's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but tug on his brother's sleeve.

"Angel O7 seals monster effects, Jinzo seals traps, and Spell Canceller seals spells..." Mokuba said. "Doesn't that mean Amelda can't use any effects at all?"

"Hmph, it's not quite that bad," Kaiba huffed.

He could naturally see that even a lockdown like this has ways to be broken. But Duel Monsters rarely has unsolvable situations, especially for a duelist of his level, who could draw an out even from the bottom of the deck.

But it must be said that this formation is indeed enough to suppress the vast majority of effect activations; an average duelist would just give up if they faced this situation.

However, despite saying that, Kaiba looked at Fujiki You Xuan with a bit more approval. He looked at Amelda again, and a strange, slight smile appeared on his face.

"Then let me see if you've made any progress over these years," Kaiba said, crossing his arms. "Or have you been resting on your laurels and actually regressed?"

Amelda closed his eyes slightly and smiled.

"I'm really being underestimated, aren't I? To actually set up such a formation is indeed beyond my expectations."

Then he became serious.

"I see... although he's a student at Duel Academy, he's indeed an opponent not to be underestimated... but if it weren't like this, it wouldn't be worth a fight.

Then let me respond with my full strength as well.

My turn, draw!"

Amelda drew a card, and at the same time, a vortex opened on the field, and a small frog jumped out onto the field.

"During the Standby Phase, if there are no spell or trap cards in my Graveyard, I Special Summon 'Treeborn Frog', which I discarded as a cost to activate Toy Box last turn!"

【Treeborn Frog, ATK 0】

"Angel O7 makes the effects of monsters on my field unable to activate, but monsters in the Graveyard are not restricted," Amelda said.

Fujiki You Xuan shrugged. The original effect of Angel O7 is generally stronger than the physical card—it doesn't restrict it to only being Tribute Summoned to have an effect, and the effect negation is a one-sided lockdown on the opponent that doesn't affect himself—but as a trade-off, its effect negation range is limited to monsters on the field, not as comprehensive as the physical version.

If it were the physical version of Angel O7, it would even prevent the activation of monster effects in the Graveyard.

"Then, I offer 'Treeborn Frog' as a Tribute, Tribute Summon—"

Amelda raised his arm.

"—Level 6, Big Brain!"

What appeared was a strange and uncomfortable-looking giant brain, waving several long tentacles, covered in eyes, with a rather bizarre art style.

【Big Brain, ATK 2500】

And as soon as this thing appeared, several large eyeballs stared at the artificial angel on Fujiki You Xuan's field. The image of the pure white steel angel was reflected in the pupils of the giant brain, the halo soon dimmed, and that field of light seemed to be drawn into the angel's body.

"While Big Brain is on the field, the effects of all Light-Attribute monsters on the field are negated."

Amelda chuckled, while glancing at Kaiba out of the corner of his eye.

"It was originally a trump card prepared to deal with someone, but I didn't expect it to come in handy here ahead of time."

The most famous Light-Attribute user in the current world is naturally Kaiba, who has been called the "King of Light" since three thousand years ago. The series Kaiba often uses, whether it's White Dragons or XYZ-Dragon Cannon, are all Light-Attribute; for him, this is also a monster that has "counter" written all over its face.

But Kaiba didn't care when he saw it, just huffed softly.

"That guy Amelda actually prepared this kind of thing to deal with Brother..." Mokuba frowned. "But, didn't Angel O7 negate the effects of monsters on the field..."

"Angel O7 makes monster effects unable to activate, but continuous effects are still effective," Kaiba explained calmly. "Big Brain's ability doesn't need to be activated; it remains effective as long as it's on the field.

So now it's turned around, and 'Angel O7's' effect is negated."

"I see..." Mokuba realized. "As expected of Amelda, he hasn't regressed even after all these years... no, I should say he's improved. To be able to find a breakthrough in such a powerful lockdown formation so quickly..."

Amelda continued: "I can Special Summon 'Gigantes' from my hand by banishing one Earth-Attribute monster from my Graveyard!"

Another card in his Graveyard was ejected.

"I banish the Earth-Attribute monster 'KC-1 Clayton Tank' that I discarded to the Graveyard with 'Graceful Charity'!" (Original card)

Amelda showed the ejected card, then stuffed it into the card box behind him.

"Special Summon 'Gigantes' from my hand!"

【Gigantes, ATK 1900】

"Next, 'Gigantes' attacks 'Spell Canceller'!"

Gigantes roared and swung its club, slamming into the white metal machine. Spell Canceller was immediately smashed into scrap metal and exploded with a boom.

【Fujiki You Xuan, LP2000→LP1900】

Mokuba: "Ah, so the spell seal is gone too..."

"Then Big Brain attacks 'Jinzo'!"

Big Brain's tentacles swept over, binding Jinzo's limbs completely. Jinzo struggled with all his might, but couldn't resist at all. Beams of light shot out from all those eyes simultaneously, instantly swallowing Jinzo's whole body; the steel body soon decayed and shattered, crumbling into dust.

Jinzo: Damn it, another day as cannon fodder...

【Fujiki You Xuan, LP1900→LP1800】

"Battle Phase ends," Amelda smiled. "With this, the spell and trap lockdown is completely lifted, and the activation of spell cards has become possible again.

Therefore, I activate this card from my hand, the spell card 'Card of Sanctity'!"

It appeared, the most common card-replenishing artifact in DM.

"Both players draw cards from their deck until they have six cards in their hand."

Amelda drew cards, and Fujiki You Xuan drew cards as well.

Quickly spreading out the newly drawn hand, Amelda raised his eyelids to glance at the white artificial angel on Fujiki You Xuan's field and chuckled slightly.

"Although O7's effect is temporarily negated, it's still a huge threat if left there. Once 'Big Brain' leaves the field or is negated, Angel O7's powerful suppression will recover.

So, to be cautious..."

He waved his hand and played another card he had just drawn.

"Spell card 'Hammer Shot', destroy the monster with the highest attack on the field in face-up Attack Position!"

【Big Brain, ATK 2500】

【Gigantes, ATK 1900】

【Angel O7, ATK 2500】

"Angel O7 and Big Brain have the same attack," Mokuba said.

"If there are two or more monsters with the same attack, the player activating the effect can freely choose one of them to destroy," Kaiba explained calmly.

"Is that so?"

Amelda waved his hand again: "The one I choose is, of course, your 'Angel O7' on the field; be destroyed."

The hammer fell, and with a boom, it crushed the artificial angel into pieces.

"The situation has reversed in an instant; now Fujiki You Xuan's side of the field is empty," Mokuba said solemnly.

"It's not just that," Amelda said. "Activate the spell card 'Spider Web', which allows me to add one card the opponent sent to the Graveyard a turn ago to my hand." (Original card)

Spider silk shot out from his spell card, entered the Graveyard zone of Fujiki You Xuan's Duel Disk, and brought out a card.

"What I'm adding to my hand is, 'Monster Reborn'!" Amelda said. "Then activate 'Monster Reborn' to revive a monster in the Graveyard!

I am going to revive the monster in your Graveyard—

—Jinzo!"

【Jinzo, ATK 2400】

Jinzo, who was dragged out and forced to work overtime, had a crying face.

Being cannon fodder is one thing, but to be kidnapped by the opponent...

Boss, you have to believe I was forced!

"Next, activate the spell card 'Scrap Trader'!" (Original card)

It's also a card Amelda used when dueling Kaiba back then, but most of this guy's deck hasn't been released as physical cards; they are basically all original cards.

Of course, most of the cards from Doma weren't released as physical cards to begin with. And even if they were, many were released ten or twenty years later. Part of the reason might be that there are simply too many broken fake cards in this arc, and it took over a decade of the physical card environment to catch up to the power level of those old anime cards.

For example, a relatively famous one is the spell card "Soul Charge" used by Rafael of the Three Musketeers, which allows you to revive any number of monsters from the Graveyard by paying Life Points. This thing is still a forbidden card even now.

"Scrap Trader allows me to choose one to two Warrior or Machine-Type monsters in the Graveyard and Special Summon them in Attack Position, with their original attack halved.

The one I'm reviving from the Graveyard is, of course, this one..."

Amelda pulled out the monster card ejected from the Graveyard and slammed it onto the Duel Disk.

"Return once again, Spell Canceller!"

【Spell Canceller, ATK 1800→ATK 900】

Mokuba immediately realized something.

Wait, this play is...

Amelda performed a reverse lockdown!?

(End of chapter)