Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...

5DS World

As duelists from the Synchro era, Yusei and his friends hadn't felt much of a connection to the Dark Magician build so far. They didn't have the same worldview connection as the GX and DM worlds. Therefore, seeing this vanilla-based archetype exhibit such synergy only brought them a sense of mild surprise.

"As expected, Synchro is still more fun," Leo pouted, still preferring his own deck, the Morphtronics! Using the dice rolls of the Morphtronics to create different sparks was perhaps more exciting.

"Uh, I can only say that decks centered around vanilla monsters probably don't have much of a bright future," Crow Hogan yawned. The "god card" he mentioned, Axe of Despair, was naturally a reference to Axe Raider, the 1700 ATK Level 4 vanilla monster. Unfortunately, Axe Raider seemed to have faded from the minds of most duelists. In the era of dueling "axe kings," wasn't Axe Raider the dream card for so many people?

...

VRAINS World

Yusaku Fujiki had already finished analyzing the Dark Magician's board-building strategies based on the decklist and the synergy of the few cards shown. And it was because he had finished his analysis that Yusaku revealed a mysterious smile.

"The Dark Magician deck... its power level is not high."

One sentence. It made the surrounding Soulburner, Skye Zaizen, and Revolver all fix their gazes on him.

"Not high? Isn't its end board pretty good?" Revolver asked, squinting at Yusaku. "Yusaku, what's your take on it?" After all, Revolver's thoughts were different from Yusaku's. In his opinion, Dark Magician still had some tricks up its sleeve.

"How should I put this?" Yusaku said, leaving them in suspense before closing his mouth. "You'll understand after you watch the video blogger's explanation. Next, he's going to explain the first-turn board strategies."

And the truth was just as Yusaku had predicted. In the short video, the blogger's voice rang out again.

30-Year-Old Dark Magician: "Now that you have a general understanding, the problem is that achieving the ideal end board isn't simple. It requires at least 2-3 turns! And as a 3-card combo deck, its brick rate is not low. So, let's not rush to see how to make the end board. We'll first look at a few first-turn strategies. Once you understand these thoroughly, you can consider yourself to have graduated from the Dark Magician beginner's course."

"First strategy: If you have Magician's Rod in your hand, don't hesitate. Normal Summon it and search for Dark Magical Circle! If you already have it, search for something else. Then, activate Dark Magical Circle's effect, look at the top three, and take the best card, for example, Eternal Soul or the field spell Magical Meltdown. Then, set Eternal Soul. If you have other Trap cards, set them. The final first-turn board is Magician's Rod plus Dark Magical Circle plus Eternal Soul. At minimum, you have a quick-effect banish for disruption, plus a god-like protected 2500 ATK Dark Magician."

After this simple sequence, the duelists across the six worlds frowned slightly. This Dark Magician first-turn board... seemed a bit too plain? To put it nicely, it was simple. To put it bluntly, it was too weak, wasn't it? No, wait. Compared to the HERO first-turn end board of Phoenix Enforcer plus Dark Law plus Plasma, this board wasn't strong enough. It also lacked the intimidating presence of Eldlich's Golden Lord plus 3-5 set cards in the backrow!

"Second strategy: If you have the key powerhouse card Magicians' Souls in your hand. Activate Souls' effect, discard itself to Special Summon Dark Magician. Then Normal Summon Magician's Rod, activate its effect to search for the Spell Card Bond Between Teacher and Student! Activate Bond Between Teacher and Student's effect: while you control 'Dark Magician', Special Summon one 'Dark Magician Girl' from your hand, deck, or Graveyard. Then, set Dark Burning Magic from the deck. End board: Magician's Rod plus Dark Magician plus Dark Magician Girl! And a face-down Dark Burning Magic for a quick-effect board wipe of all your opponent's cards."

After the second strategy was explained, many duelists finally showed slightly excited expressions! As expected! The King of Games' deck still had some power! A quick-effect full board wipe! The set Dark Burning Magic was an incredibly powerful threat! And if you were lucky enough to also have Dark Magical Circle and Eternal Soul, then this second strategy's first-turn board would undoubtedly be the strongest, right?

"Third strategy: If you have Illusion of Chaos in your hand! First, reveal Illusion to search for Dark Magician from your deck, if you don't already have it. Then, use Magician's Rod to search for the Quick-Play Spell Card Secrets of Dark Magic! The effect of Secrets of Dark Magic is simple. One is a Fusion effect, the other is a Ritual effect. So here, we Ritual Summon Illusion of Chaos. End board, one Illusion of Chaos for a negate. If you have Dark Magical Circle, you also have a quick-effect banish. But, it's too difficult. In the end, the fact that Dark Magician is a 3-card combo deck is a fatal flaw."

"..."

Indeed! After going through the three strategies, they all had similar resonance and common points! It also gave the old-school duelists of the first generation something to ponder and reflect on. Looked at this way, achieving the mutual protection lock of Dragon Knight Dark Magician and Eternal Soul was not as simple as they had imagined.

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