Chapter 969: Regretful Tuning

For someone using a deck destruction strategy, Breo was actually quite lucky.

Deck destruction strategy clearly means destroying the opponent’s deck by reducing it to zero cards until they can no longer draw, causing them to lose by rule. A duelist with no cards in their deck has no right to continue the duel—that’s the basic rule.

But unlike life points. Life points are fixed and identical for everyone at the start, but deck size varies from person to person.

Most of the decks You Xuan used in the anime world were sixty-card decks, because, as previously analyzed, the thicker the deck in the anime world, the more meaningless cards you can cram into it, the greater the deck’s resilience, and the lower the chance of dying instantly when facing an unbeatable field.

That said, You Xuan didn’t use only big decks—he also had decks exactly at the forty-card minimum standard. And for You Xuan, these decks were generally gimmicks.

Yes, gimmicks. Decks built around a specific one-turn kill combo, or a summoning setup like the one used against Long Ya to summon Gudong in a single turn, or decks targeting a specific infinite loop.

In short, the entire deck serves one specific combo, so there’s no need to add meaningless cards to increase resilience. On the contrary, the fewer cards in the deck, the easier it is to achieve that combo.

Such decks work well against opponents far weaker than you, either to troll or to burst them down, but they perform worse against strong opponents compared to conventional large decks.

Breo was lucky—he faced You Xuan’s deck, which happened to be a standard forty-card deck. For a deck destruction user, it was like the opponent’s life points were reduced; clearing it naturally became easier than with a sixty-card deck.

The spectral two-horned beast, as a Synchro material, passed straight through You Xuan, its two horns each plucking one card from the top of You Xuan’s deck and sending both to the graveyard.

“Then, attack!” Breo said. “Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast, attack ‘Iron Knight Gia-Fried’!”

The two-horned beast let out a roar, its body overflowing with transparent electricity. The lightning surged along its body’s lightning patterns, converging at its horns, and as it charged, it transformed into a thunder vortex striking You Xuan.

“I activate a face-down card,” You Xuan said. “Trap card—Sacred Barrier—Mirror Force!”

“When an opponent’s monster declares an attack, destroy all face-up attack-position monsters on the opponent’s field!”

The trap flipped, releasing a sacred blue energy that formed a hemispherical shield. The torrent of lightning crashed against it, exploding into scattered sparks that rebounded onto the Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast, electrocuting it into fragments.

“Hahahaha! You set such a powerful trap? No surprise from an officer,” Breo said. “But at this moment, the effect of the Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast activates!”

“When the Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast is destroyed, both players send to the graveyard a number of cards equal to its level from the top of their decks!” (Original effect)

In real cards, this effect only triggers if destroyed by the opponent, weakening its utility as a core of deck destruction strategies. Real cards directly send seven cards to the graveyard, while in the anime, the number depends on the level of the destroyed two-horned beast.

The Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast is level seven, so in most cases, it sends seven cards to the graveyard like the real card. But in the anime, theoretically, you could stack its level high and delete ten or twenty cards from the opponent’s deck in one go. The real card effectively capped its upper limit.

Seven cards flowed like water from You Xuan’s deck into the graveyard, leaving his deck with twenty-five cards.

Breo: “I set two cards, end my turn!”

Though he had swiftly reduced You Xuan’s deck, his own field was now empty—no monsters to serve as a defense line, clearly placing all hope on those two face-down cards.

You Xuan: “My turn, draw.”

“I summon ‘Temple Guardian’.”

A massive spectral shadow of the temple guardian appeared, its semi-transparent body covered in labyrinthine patterns, its face looking simple and harmless.

【Temple Guardian, ATK 1100】

“Attack,” You Xuan said. “Iron Knight Gia-Fried, direct attack.”

The black-armored knight flew through the air, slashing downward with his sword.

You Xuan expected the attack to trigger one of the face-down traps—but instead, it passed cleanly through the back row, striking Breo without resistance. Breo’s D-Ring trembled but held.

【Breo, LP 4000 → LP 2200】

You Xuan: “Huh? No trap to respond to the attack?”

“Ahahaha, Officer, don’t rush—it’s coming now.”

Breo chuckled.

“I activate a face-down card: Trap Card—Regretful Tuning!”

“This card can only be activated when you take direct attack damage; it special summons a Synchro monster from the graveyard.”

“Return, Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast!”

Another surge of electricity filled the air as the previously banished beast reappeared.

【Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast, ATK 2500】

“However, as a side effect, if a monster summoned by this effect declares an attack, it must be destroyed at the end of that battle phase,” Breo continued explaining.

You Xuan understood: “If the Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast is destroyed, it’ll delete seven more cards from my deck.”

“Exactly!” Breo grinned. “A duelist with no cards in their deck can’t keep racing forward.”

“Then you’d better work hard—my deck still has plenty of cards,” You Xuan smiled. “I set one card, end my turn.”

“My turn, draw!”

Breo waved his hand.

“Then let me press forward immediately!”

“Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast, attack ‘Iron Knight Gia-Fried’!”

The two-horned beast charged again, its horns firing lightning that struck the iron knight’s armored shell.

“At this moment, I activate the effect of ‘Shield Warrior’ in my graveyard,” You Xuan said. “When ‘Shield Warrior’ is in the graveyard, I can banish it from the game once to protect one of my monsters from battle destruction.”

The monster card floated into view like a shield before the iron knight. A warrior holding a shield emerged from it, blocking the knight’s front and absorbing the full force of the lightning.

Breo: “A card I sent to the graveyard from my deck?”

You Xuan smiled: “Yes, thanks to you sending it there, I could activate it.”

“Hmph,” Breo said. “But damage still counts.”

【You Xuan, LP 4000 → LP 3300】

“And after the Stream-Electric Two-Horned Beast, revived by ‘Regretful Tuning’, attacks, that revived two-horned beast is destroyed!”

(End of Chapter)