Chapter 231. The "Last Turn" LB Deck Evolves! Adapting… and Finally Getting Forbidden!
The old-timers gradually calmed down.
Although they were blown away by the idea of locking out Special Summons, they had to admit one thing.
Solving a problem often causes more problems than the problem itself.
That was exactly where the LB deck stood right now.
Life Point locking? No problem.
Turbo draw? No problem.
But how do you lock Special Summons?
You can't just magically find a perfect lock piece, right?
During this stretch of time, the old guard wracked their brains, yet none of them could name the right Special Summon lock.
Part of it was unfamiliarity with those kinds of cards.
Part of it was lack of hands-on experience with that kind of deck.
Even so, a number of Duelists clearly remembered something.
Their expressions quickly turned grave.
And on the short video, the Yu-Gi-Oh! banned-list explainer immediately gave the answer.
"By now, the LB deck's concept is in place."
"Those three issues and the overall line of play—everyone should be clear."
"So, follow my lead and let's see how the LB deck developed over the course of history—its builds, and how it performed in its formats!"
"Before we dive in, let's go back to the core issue among the three: locking Special Summons."
"After all, controlling LP together with Cyber-Stein gives you support."
"And paired with the Trap 'Ring of Destruction,' you can also lock your LP."
"That part isn't too hard."
"The hardest part is still: how do you shut down your opponent's Special Summons!"
"In that era, only a handful of cards could do it!"
"Card #1: 'Jowgen the Spiritualist!'"
"As long as this face-up card is on the field, neither player can Special Summon monsters."
"Card #2: 'The Last Warrior from Another Planet!'"
"It's a Fusion Monster that also locks Special Summons!"
"Good—Cyber-Stein can pull out 'The Last Warrior from Another Planet.'"
"Jowgen locks, too—so that problem's solved."
"As for turbo draw: three 'Upstart Goblin,' three 'Thunder Dragon,' plus 'Pot of Greed' and 'Graceful Charity'—all mandatory!"
"With that mix of cards, your deck-thinning and digging are already more than enough!"
"But once the line is clear, another problem pops up!"
"How do you guarantee Cyber-Stein hits the field?"
"You need Cyber-Stein to control LP."
"You need Cyber-Stein to set up the Special-Summon lock, too."
"So yeah, we circle back to the Cyber-Stein 'forbidden card' talk I did before!"
"But this time it's a branch I didn't cover back then!"
"Before we start, let's look at two cards."
"First: 'Card of Safe Return'—whenever a monster is Special Summoned from the GY, draw 1 card."
"Second: 'Premature Burial'—pay 800 LP to revive a monster from the GY."
"Originally, with turbo draw, sending monsters to the GY was already consistent."
"Now put these together and it gets crazier!"
"Three 800-LP payments and you meet the activation condition for 'Last Turn' right away."
"Three revivals plus one 'Card of Safe Return' equals three draws; with three 'Card of Safe Return,' that's a burst of nine cards!"
"Someone might ask, how do you get multiple activations?"
"Simple—there are other revival cards, like 'Monster Reborn' or 'The Shallow Grave,' etc."
"Alright—now all of LB's problems are solved!"
"Once the idea was complete, the deck quickly started showing up in the meta."
Numb!
They were literally stunned silent!
Duelists who had been breaking their heads to solve those problems—
After hearing the explainer, they nearly spat a mouthful of old blood!
Seriously?
How did they forget the Cyber-Stein into "The Last Warrior from Another Planet" combo?!
This was right there in plain sight!
Cyber-Stein for LP lock; "The Last Warrior from Another Planet" to shut down Special Summons!
A perfect fit for the LB deck!
And as for the turbo pieces, they had a general impression already.
But what they didn't expect was the "Card of Safe Return" + "Premature Burial" combo!
That really shocked them!
Turbo… can be played like this?
Now they understood—understood everything.
Those three issues were all solved!
"Damn! The higher world really is different—they find the key cards with ease!"
"Tch, I thought about it forever and the solution was this simple?"
"That 'Premature'/'Safe Return' line is cracked—draws and revives, resources skyrocket."
"But looking at it like this, I still feel something's missing. Can it really go this smoothly?"
In the chat, Duelists started chiming in all at once.
Even with the problems solved, they couldn't help but wonder.
Was this plan… actually viable?
Could it really secure a perfect 'Last Turn' alternate win?
The explainer continued:
"As the deck evolved, LB did show off its prowess in the metagame."
"But some problems became more and more obvious!"
"First, Cyber-Stein is fine for LP control, but 5000 LP is still a bit unwieldy."
"Second, in that era, 'Jar' decks—decking/hand-shaving strategies—were very mainstream."
"'The Shallow Grave' might look like it helps you."
"But have you considered that it also helps the opponent's 'Jar' deck revive its Jars?"
"And if they set it, it even feeds the 'Jar' plan—big help to them!"
"So LB had a hard time guaranteeing top finishes back then."
"It was still getting clobbered by the meta!"
"Until two cards showed up!"
"Card #1: 'Solemn Judgment!'"
"Pay half your LP to negate—counter power plus flexible LP control."
"Card #2: 'Inspection!'"
"A Continuous Spell."
"During the opponent's Standby Phase, you can pay 500 LP to randomly look at 1 card in their hand."
"So how do I put it… some cards look awful."
"But in the right shell, they shine in ways you wouldn't expect."
"'Inspection' did massive work for the LB deck!"
"Remember! In that era, during the Standby Phase you could use 'Inspection' as many times as you could pay for it."
"And because of that—"
"Cyber-Stein was gradually phased out."
"'Inspection' let LB lock its LP under 1000 perfectly!"
"Who needs Cyber-Stein anymore?"
"As for blocking Special Summons—just max out three copies of 'Jowgen the Spiritualist!'"
"So the LB win combo was simple: 'Inspection' + 'Jowgen the Spiritualist' + 'Last Turn'—win."
"But this Inspection-centric LB also had clear weaknesses."
"First, if 'Inspection' eats a 'Mystical Space Typhoon'-type removal, you're doomed."
"It's either your 'Inspection' gets blown away, or your 'Last Turn' gets blown away."
"Very unfortunate."
"Second, this period still had 'Yata-Garasu!'"
"I don't need to explain how strong Yata was back then!"
"Without Cyber-Stein and with fewer revival lines, you were easily prey to Yata-lock."
"And the 'Jar' strategies were still a big enemy."
"Third, the deck's raw power was low."
"Compared to the Cyber-Stein version—maybe it can't win by LB, but at least it can pull 'Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon,' right?"
"That's the difference between Inspection LB and Cyber LB."
"It just depends on which you think is stronger."
What the heck?
They even evolved an entirely different LB concept?
Huh?
It works like that too?
The Duelists stared, dumbfounded, at the alternate LB build in the video.
They'd thought the Cyber-Stein LB was already perfect.
But to their surprise, there was an even easier way to chip your LP down under 1000!
Especially "Inspection!"
Judging by its text alone, every Duelist thought the same two words:
Trash card.
Yes—by their judgment, it was a card you'd toss into the bin and nobody would want it.
But in this deck, it bloomed.
Pay 500s to lower LP and "peek" at a hand—peeking does nothing.
It's basically just there to shave LP!
Sure enough!
There are no truly garbage cards.
Sometimes a card is just missing the right partner to unlock a different line.
Yusei Fudo, Playmaker, Yugi Muto, and the others looked at "Inspection" with mixed feelings.
If it were them, their first reaction to that card would be "minus."
Pay 500 LP to see a random card in hand?
At 4000 LP?
They'd never consider running or activating it.
But now—
In LB, you max out three copies and go berserk in the opponent's Standby Phase paying LP!
They honestly didn't know what to think anymore.
Is this still Dueling?
The explainer went on:
"LB wasn't a strong deck, but it still ate its share of hits."
"January 2002 Forbidden & Limited List!"
"'Last Turn' was Semi-Limited; 'Ring of Destruction' got Limited!"
"That slashed LB's ability to find 'Last Turn' and its LP-chip removal plan."
"Then the meta shifted."
"'Exchange of the Spirit' FTK became the mainstream!"
"LB was no match."
"Unsurprisingly, LB's standing dropped sharply!"
"Fortunately, in May 2002, a big F/L swing landed!"
"A swath of disgusting OTK/FTK decks got axed!"
"LB came out relatively safe that list!"
"But with the turbo cards gone—sure, your core wasn't directly hit…"
"Your hands and feet, however, were chopped off!"
"No turbo, plus prior restrictions already in place—"
"LB's success rate dropped hard!"
"Thankfully, later set releases indirectly provided ways to stack/search Traps."
"For example, 'A Cat of Ill Omen!'—after it's flipped, you can stack a Trap on top of your Deck."
"Monster options like 'Spirit Reaper' also offered quality for LB!"
"But the only LB list to top didn't even run those monsters!"
"Lose turbo? Find substitutes!"
"'Jar of Greed'—draw 1, just slower by a turn."
"Over time, LB's bright spots faded."
"Even so, there were cards that gave LB hope."
"Such as 'Des Lacooda!'"
"In short, you cycled it to keep the draws coming."
"And then paired the package to Special Summon Cyber-Stein!"
"That way the LB deck could fetch Cyber-Stein!"
"There was also 'Mystik Wok!'"
"As a Quick-Play, it can gain LP by tributing a monster—either its ATK or DEF!"
"Plus Continuous Traps like 'Wall of Revealing Light,' or recovery like 'Mystik Wok,' and so on."
"These all improved LB."
"But none of them granted a qualitative leap."
Hearing that, the old guard sighed.
A card that wasn't even that strong—
And it still got restricted!
Isn't that a bit heartless?
Compared to the format's FTKs/OTKs, LB really was far weaker.
As for the patch pieces—none of them pushed it over the top.
It seemed "Last Turn"… had hit its ceiling.
Just as everyone thought that—
The video's final segment slapped them in the face.
"Until the LB deck changed its philosophy."
"It dropped turbo and pivoted to a trap-heavy Beat/Stall shell."
"Just drag—drag the Duel until the win condition comes together!"
"Run 'Des Lacooda' to draw over time!"
"Use various Traps to disrupt and stall!"
"Believe it or not, with that approach—"
"LB enjoyed another stretch in the sun!"
"Then, for a period, Yu-Gi-Oh! introduced an Extra Turn rule at time."
"LB exploded again!"
"Put simply, after 40 minutes, you go to extra turns to decide the winner."
"With a 1-1-1 record of three draws, one win/one loss/one draw also went to extra turns!"
"LB's plan was simple: lower your LP, then fire off the powerhouse 'Self-Destruct Button!'"
"Its effect: if your LP are at least 7000 lower than your opponent's, both players' LP become 0."
"Three times—three draws—so you force extra turns!"
"Then, during extra, use 'Last Turn' to win."
"Until March 2006, when 'Last Turn' was Forbidden."
"That's when the curtain finally fell on the LB deck."
"All in all—"
"'Last Turn' created a very interesting way to win Duels."
"As a single card, it wasn't a straight kill like burn/OTK."
"But its consequence was to increase the number of draws in tournaments."
"In short, it disrupted tournament play."
"So the reason it was banned had more to do with its impact on events than raw power."
"Moreover, the LB shell centered on 'Last Turn' had moved away from competitive deck norms."
"It forced the battle flow itself."
"And for the Duelists who had to play into it—it wasn't pleasant."
"That was the life of 'Last Turn.'"
As the video's final narration ended, Duelists from every world fell into silence before the Trap Card "Last Turn."
Looking back, they recalled the explainer's opening points.
They realized "Last Turn" wasn't restricted and then banned purely because of power level.
That left them both helpless and contemplative.
For a single card to do all that—well, that's something.
Who knows if it will ever come off the list in the future?
Or perhaps… it never will.
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