Chapter 822: Chapter 795: Avoiding Direct Confrontation

"Then, activate the Magic Card ’Soul of Fire’!" Yugen said, "The opposing player draws one card from their deck to activate.

Select one Flame Race Monster from your own deck to banish from the game, dealing damage to the opponent equal to half the Banished Monster’s Attack Power."

The Magic used by O’Brien against Judai in the original work selects a high-attack Flame Race and can deal significant damage to the opponent in one go. This card has been recorded very early as a Physical Card.

"Burn life points again?"

Merlot frowned. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

No combat has occurred yet, and if this effect also passes, his life points may be burned to a precarious state in this short turn.

Volcano Card Deck, trying to decide the victory by direct life point deduction?

Merlot’s mind flashed like lightning, and he seemed to suddenly realize why the opponent would choose to use this deck to decide the victory.

The common characteristic of Sword Fighting Beasts is "return to the deck after combat and retrieve new companions from the deck." Then when Sword Fighting Beasts call each other out, various effects can be triggered.

The premise for everything is "after combat."

As long as both sides’ Monsters engage in combat, the Sword Fighting Beast system can rapidly operate, deploying almost any necessary resources to respond to any situation, achieving absolute dominance on the field.

And because the effects of Sword Fighting Beasts are "activated upon returning to the deck," after battle, they generally return to the deck instead of going to the graveyard and thus have considerable resistance against Exorcism effects like Great Cosmos.

Even those traditional Underworld elements can be incorporated into Sword Fighting Beast usage and were commonly seen in mainstream builds. With outstanding operation, resource-efficient allocation, excellent attack, and endurance capability, it has excellent compatibility with heavy traps, is not afraid of mainstream Underworld locks and can even incorporate the Underworld system, even the Exorcism system’s ’Dimensional Sword Fighting’ has been active in the mainstream.

The inherent strength plus the good compatibility with the Underworld system is why it can win world championships.

But what if the opponent doesn’t even fight with you?

"Ha, avoiding combat to defend against Sword Fighting Beast effects, interesting." Merlot chuckled, "Not a bad idea, but Sword Fighting’s power is not limited to just this level.

Activate the Cover Card, Counterattack Trap ’Disarming Weapon’!

Return a card with ’Sword Fighting Beast’ in its name from the hand back to the deck and negate and destroy the activation of the Magic Card!"

The Cover Card in the backfield flips, and a beam of counterattack light bursts forth, hitting right at the ’Soul of Fire’ activated in Yugen’s backfield.

"The activation of Soul of Fire is negated!"

"Alright," Yugen was indifferent, "Then I’ll continue to activate this Magic—

——Continuous Magic ’Flame Cannon’!"

The massive steel cannon dropped onto Yugen’s field, and the long barrel full of a menacing aura pointed directly at Merlot’s field.

"Flame Cannon can destroy one Monster on the opponent’s field by sending a Flame Race Monster with Attack Power below 500 from the hand to the graveyard."

Yugen revealed a card from his hand, showed it, and sent it to the graveyard.

"Send Flame Race Monster ’Volcano Cannonball’ with 100 Attack Power from the hand to the graveyard.

Ammo loading, fire!"

The tiny Flame Race Cannonball was ablaze, transforming into cannon ammunition, filling the chamber of the Flame Cannon. Cannon energy charged, flames spiraled, and the cannonball turned into a fireball blast shot straight out, tearing through the thick shield in Sword Fighting Beast’s hand, until burning the entire Tiger Beast Warrior into a ball of flames.

Merlot twisted his mouth.

His backfield certainly had means prepared for defending against battle destruction, but only limited to battle destruction. Besides, even utilizing traps to immunize against effect destruction wouldn’t trigger Sword Fighting Beast effects—the Sword Fighting Beast can only trigger effects by returning to the deck after combat.

While Volcano is indeed a deck mainly focused on explosive card effects and life point reduction. Moreover, with Flame Cannon as the representative card, even including the recently activated ’Soul of Fire,’ they all share the self-restraining effect of "cannot attack during the turn of activation."

Clearly, this entire deck hardly has direct combat options.

"Activate Volcano Cannonball’s effect." Yugen said, "When this card is in the graveyard, once per turn, pay 500 life points to add another ’Volcano Cannonball’ from the deck to the hand."

[Yugen, LP4000→LP3500]

The shadow of Volcano Cannonball emerged from the graveyard, forming a fireball and flew into Yugen’s deck. The deck mounted on the Duel Disc looked like it was ablaze, and then a card automatically popped out, drawn into Yugen’s hand.

The second Volcano Cannonball.

Merlot’s expression grew colder.

The effect of Yugen’s Continuous Magic Flame Cannon allows discarding a Flame Race Monster with Attack Power below 500 from the hand to destroy the opponent’s monster. Volcano Cannonball meets this condition and also has the ability to self-search from the deck. In other words, it’s an endless supply of cannonballs.

No wonder it’s named ’Volcano Cannonball,’ truly is the literal cannonball of this deck.

Moreover, Flame Cannon’s effect doesn’t have "once per turn," you can activate it as many times in a turn as you have qualifying ammunition in hand.

In other words, next turn Yugen can discard this cannonball to blast one of his monsters, then use the sent cannonball in the graveyard to search for a deck cannonball, discard the newly searched cannonball to blast another one. Next turn, Flame Cannon will surely blow up two of his Monsters.

Completely relying on explosive card effects to break down the Monster line for direct life point burning against the Duelist...

Merlot gritted his teeth, feeling quite tricky for the moment.

This guy, does he really plan not to engage in direct combat the entire duel?

"Set a Cover Card, turn ends." Yugen said.

Merlot squinted his eyes tighter.

Indeed, not even summoning a Monster.

Merlot took a deep breath.

Alright, let’s see how long you can keep evading.

"My turn, draw a card!"

He glanced at his hand and directly revealed it.

"Magic Card ’Pot of Magic Book’, both sides draw three cards from the deck." (Original Card)

Merlot drew cards, then swung his hand down, slamming in one card from his hand.

"Normal Summon ’Sword Fighting Beast - Rope Fighting’!"

Flames surrounded the field, and the Beast Warrior of Sword Fighting Beasts emerged from the flames with a roar.

[Sword Fighting Beast - Rope Fighting, Attack Power 1800]

Rope Fighting, in the earliest released early Sword Fighting Beast decks, was probably one of the most desired cards to have. Its base attack power is 1800, rising to 2100 if specially summoned by a Sword Fighting Beast’s effect.

Since Sword Fighting Beasts must "trigger effects after combat," being a low-star, high-attack quality striker was one of the crucial starting points for early Sword Fighting Beasts.

"If you don’t want to fight, I’ll hit until you can’t avoid it!" Merlot waved, "Sword Fighting Beast - Rope Fighting, direct attack!"