"It's my turn... Draw card."
The zombie silently draws a card.
But before he has a chance to take further action.
"Activate cover card."
Yugen waves a hand, and the backfield flips.
"Trap Card 'Spiritual Breakdown'! Declare a card name, if the opponent happens to have that card in hand, they must discard all cards with the same name. If there is none, then I have to randomly discard a card from my hand."
He pauses for a moment, smiling at the opponent's hand.
"So let me see, which card should I declare, it's really hard to decide... Let's go with this one."
Yugen gestured with his finger.
"Continuous Magic 'Unity of the Race', let's go with that."
Last round, it was bounced back into his hand by 'Intercepting Crusaders', naturally remaining in his hand. The zombie blankly looks at the flipped trap in Yugen's backfield, then blankly at the card in his hand, until the declared card in his hand emits a gold light, gradually becoming transparent and then disappearing.
The zombie opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something but unable to, only producing a muffled "mm-mm-ah" noise from his throat.
It felt a little unwilling and a little aggrieved...
"I remember, during the league that 'Unity of the Race' was the key to your deck strategy output, right?" Yugen chuckled, "Activating that thing again would have been quite the headache."
The main force of the professional league Morioka Deck is all aircraft, among them Blue Thunder T45 and Great Blade Beta, with attack powers of 1700 and 1200 respectively, aren't much to look at. But with the blessing of Unity of the Race, they can rise to 2500 and 2000 points respectively.
Thunder has the effect of summoning escort derivatives when a monster is destroyed in battle, while the Great Blade Beta has two powerful effects of stacking monsters from the deck into the graveyard and reviving monsters from the graveyard upon battle destruction. With enough attack power augmentation coupled with these effects, the advantage can expand quickly.
If there are two "Unity of the Race" present, it's even more overwhelming, often securing victory in one or two turns. It's a formation that excels in offense and sustainability on the field.
Of course, the prerequisite is having "Unity of the Race" for the basic point enhancement.
But now, the combination of bouncing and spiritual breakdown has clearly nullified his strategy.
The zombie feels aggrieved but says nothing, staring dumbly at the opponent momentarily, then proceeds to play cards.
"Blue Thunder T45... Summon."
The blue battle aircraft, bounced back to his hand last round, jets out onto the field again.
[Blue Thunder T45, Attack Power 1700]
"Level eight, Mecha Cannon... Discard."
He reveals the "Mecha Cannon" level 8 in his hand, discarding it to the graveyard. Meanwhile, another card in his hand glows with golden light.
"Mecha Team - Fortress... Summon!"
The universal plug-in of the Mechanical Race, Mecha Team - Fortress, can be specially summoned from hand or graveyard by discarding mechanical race monsters with a combined level of eight or above.
[Mecha Team - Fortress, Attack Power 2500]
"Flying Disc Turtle... Change attack mode."
[Flying Disc Turtle, Attack Power 1400]
"Magic... Activate!"
Though still appearing idiotic, the zombie's card-playing action seems to quicken slightly, and the tone of his rasping voice seems to rise a few degrees.
There's a sense of being absorbed in the game.
"Burning Earth!"
The bursting flames seem like invisible demon claws stirring the earth, wrapping it in a raging inferno. The fire rises like a dragon, devouring every inch of land, turning the entire stone-throwing area into a sea of fire, the two stone giant cars also burning and disintegrating in the flames.
Continuous Magic "Burning Earth," destroys all field spell cards on activation.
"Stone-Throwing Area... Destroy!"
The zombie seems excited.
Now Yugen can't stack rock race cards from the deck into the graveyard to replace destruction.
The zombie then proceeds to enter the battle phase: "Blue Thunder... Attack... Foreign Soldier!"
Blue Thunder's tail flame jets into the air, its laser beam shooting towards the rock soldiers.
But its beam ultimately fails to hit.
That sudden interruption ahead of the shooting beam turns out to be the giant dignified golden sphinx face once again!
Zombie: "!!?"
He distinctly attacked rock soldiers, how did it become the Underworld's sphinx again?
"Haha, this time it's not 'Guardian Sphinx,' but instead I activated this trap card.
Continuous Trap 'Traveler's Trial.'
"Yugen smiled at the zombie.
"As a league player, you must be well-informed, surely you've heard? The prototype of the Sphinx, the legend of the sphinx face.
The Sphinx requires travelers to answer riddles, what animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?"
Zombie: "..."
"Haven't heard of it? Or don't understand it?"
Yugen looks slightly disappointed.
"Or perhaps intelligence is limited to the scope of dueling... alright then." He points at the trap in the backfield, "Traveler's Trial, activates on the opponent's monster attack declaration.
The opponent randomly guesses one of my cards, guesses whether the card is a magic, trap, or monster. If guessed correctly, the attack can continue.
But if guessed incorrectly, that attacking monster must return to the owner's hand."
Yugen holds out a face-down card to the zombie, smiling as he speaks.
"Come on, now you're the traveler, guess, is this card magic, trap, or monster?"
The zombie stares at that card for a long time, as if trying to penetrate and see through that card.
"Ma... Magic." He says.
"Is it?"
Yugen smiles as he flips the card.
"So unfortunate. This is the monster card 'Jigangtis.' Yugen says, "Wrong guess, deduct points.
"Blue Thunder T45" returns to the hand."
The dignified sphinx face seems to flash with red in its eyes, a burst of gold wraps the fighter, the fighter swiftly flies back to his hand.
Again, bouncing back to the hand.
Zombie: "..."
No choice, the zombie solemnly continues to order: "Flying Disc Turtle, Rock Soldiers... Attack."
"Then once again activate 'Traveler's Trial'. When an opponent's monster attacks, guess my card in hand. If you guess wrong, it will bounce back to your hand."
Zombie: "!!!"
This time his eyes surrounded by dark circles seemed to widen a bit in disbelief.
"What's wrong? You look so surprised?" Yugen smiled, "'Traveler's Trial' is a Continuous Trap, there's no rule saying it's once per turn. As long as you attack, it will activate, isn't that obvious?"
Zombie: "......"
Every time you attack, you have to guess, and if you guess wrong, the monster bounces back to your hand. However many times you attack, that's how many times you have to guess.
If Mr. Zombie were still conscious, he would probably be cursing to himself now —
— What the hell is this!?
By the way, when this card appeared in the animation, its owner was Solomon Muto, used during a duel at the KC tournament against Joey. Even City Blade's mindset almost collapsed at the time.
It can only be said that the playing style of Tabletop Game and Atom is so different, and its origin seems not without traces, likely having a heritage behind it...
"Come on, come on, guess."
Yugen smiled, motioning with the card in his hand.
Zombie held back for a long time.
"...Monster Card."
"Ahaha, what a pity, wrong again."
Yugen revealed the card.
"This time it's the Magic Card 'Planet Transformation'." Yugen said, "Well, sorry, 'Flying Disc Turtle' returns to the hand too."
The Sphinx stood with dignity, and Flying Disc Turtle was also enveloped by golden light, flying back to the Zombie's hand.
Zombie: "......"
Though his expression remained sluggish, it seemed like a pound symbol appeared on his forehead.
"Mecha Fortress... attack."
Zombie raised his trembling hand, pointing to the monster Yugen covered.
"Attack Sphinx."
Obviously, even a zombie's simple mind had calculated; although Rock Soldiers were in Attack Mode, defeating them wouldn't reduce Yugen's Life Points much, since Yugen still had plenty of Life Points left.
But if he didn't deal with this puzzling Sphinx, it would flip over next turn and send all the opponent's monsters bouncing back to their hands.
That would be truly bad news.
"Then once again activate 'Traveler's Trial'."
Yugen shuffled his hand face-down and drew another card towards the zombie.
Zombie held back for a while.
"...Monster Card."
"Oh? Still guessing Monster?"
Yugen nodded, revealing the card in his hand.
"Not bad, not bad, you guessed right this time. It's the Monster Card 'Jigangtis'. So the attack goes through."
[Mecha Team - Fortress, Attack Power 2500]
[Guardian Sphinx, Defense Power 2400]
The cannon fire of Mecha Fortress blasted through the body of the Sphinx, and the giant human-faced statue was finally shattered, crumbling into a pile of fragments.
"Sphinx... destroyed!"
Perhaps it was so difficult to finally defeat this Underworld human-faced statue, the Zombie seemed to become excited.
"Not bad, not bad, you defeated the Sphinx, quite the effort. But..."
Yugen snapped his fingers.
"Activate the Cover Card, Trap Card 'Time Mechanism'. The monster destroyed in battle this turn is specially summoned back to the field in the same form.
I'll Special Summon 'Guardian Sphinx' from the graveyard."
[Guardian Sphinx, Defense Power 2400]
Zombie: "..."
Defeated, but not completely defeated.
"Then it's my turn, draw a card."
Yugen waved his hand.
"Guardian Sphinx's effect, once per turn, can switch to Face-down Defense Position. Flip Sphinx back down."
The Sphinx turned back into a Cover Monster.
"Because Sphinx wasn't summoned this turn, it can be flipped in this turn.
So flip summon 'Guardian Sphinx'.
[Guardian Sphinx, Attack Power 1700]
"When Sphinx is successfully flip summoned, all monsters on the opponent's field return to the owner's hand."
Yugen smiled, gesturing at the opponent's field.
"Mecha Fortress also returns to hand."
The massive and heavy fortress similarly turned into golden light, following in its comrades' footsteps, flying back to the Zombie's hand.
The Zombie's eyes widened to the extreme, glaring at Yugen for a long time.
Then he gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence in a garbled manner.
"You... scoundrel..."
"Oh oh, speaking words beyond duel terms now?" Yugen was pleasantly surprised.
A medical miracle, indeed.
"With 'Jigangtis' in hand, exclude an Earth Attribute monster from the graveyard to Special Summon.
I'll exclude 'Intercepting Crusaders' from the graveyard to Special Summon 'Jigangtis'."
[Jigangtis, Attack Power 1900]
"Attack." Yugen said, "Jigangtis, Guardian Sphinx, Rock Soldiers... direct attack."
The three large rock monsters took turns advancing, and the real physical damage knocked the Zombie to the ground, spewing a mouthful of black blood far away.
[Duel Zombie, LP 4000→LP 0]