Chapter 237. FTK and Infinite Loop as the Byword of "Blood"! The Curtain Falls and Thoughts on Power!
Jack's thoughts.
Also the thoughts of some Duelists from other worlds.
"Blood" is strong, no mistake.
But it's a Trap Card, after all.
And it has no protection, so a single "Mystical Space Typhoon"–type answer clears it.
If you build a Deck specifically around this card, wouldn't losing "Blood" instantly turn the Deck into a pile of dead weight?
With that doubt in mind, and still thinking it over, the next part of the short video's breakdown began at once.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "After that! We get the combo between 'Blood' and burn!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "May 2006."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "Black Ptera released."
"The genius deckbuilders immediately dug up the combo between 'Blood' and Ptera!"
"The new tactic is a 2-card namesake: the 'Blood–Ptera Cannon!'"
"The idea is simple!"
"'Black Ptera' has a monster effect: if it's sent from the field to the Graveyard by a method other than being destroyed by battle, it returns to the hand."
"Alright, not by battle—anything else will do, right?"
"Then just use Cannon Soldier to Tribute it and send it to the Graveyard!"
"Tributing 1 monster with 'Cannon Soldier' is 500 damage!"
"'Black Ptera' + Ultimate Offering + 'Cannon Soldier' = burn FTK."
"In other words, as long as 'Cannon Soldier' fires 16 times, the Duel is over."
"Setting aside the first Normal Summon that doesn't consume 'Blood's' 500 LP payment—"
"—the remaining 15 shots cost you exactly 7,500 LP!"
"While your opponent, at exactly 8,000 LP, gets burned out in one turn!"
"Sure, the 3-card combo doesn't have a high success rate."
"But that doesn't stop the strategy from being powerful—and from delivering a rush!"
"And so, the 'Blood–Ptera Cannon' blasted its way to instant fame!"
"But the 'Blood–Ptera Cannon' wasn't even the apex of this FTK plan!"
"The truly terrifying 'Blood' FTK—"
"—needs one more card to cooperate!"
"That card is Scrubbed Raid, a Continuous Trap!"
"Its effect lets you, during the Battle Phase only, send 1 card you control other than itself to the Graveyard to end the Battle Phase."
"Great!"
"Besides burning!"
"You can even use Scrubbed Raid together with 'Black Ptera' to seize control of the Battle Phase!"
"Now then, for those who were worrying about how to protect your LP before you slowly open up with 'Blood'—"
"That's solved."
"With this card around—"
"It perfectly patches the defensive weakness!"
"On offense, you use 'Blood' plus Ptera."
"On defense, you use Scrubbed Raid plus Ptera."
"Two Trap Cards, and your chance to see at least one isn't even that low!"
"And thus, the first core FTK of Ultimate Offering was gradually dug out by players and got its label."
Stunned!
Stunned all over again!
They'd thought that crazy explosive swarming was about the limit of "Blood!"
But then the later FTK plan shows up—!
And Duelists across worlds were left completely dumbfounded!
What?
You can even do burn with this?!
Genius Duelists of the Higher World—!
They always invent tactics and combos that make everyone's eyes go dark!
This card—!
A card like "Black Ptera" that none of them could figure out a combo for—!
Even that got turned into a live wire!
"Whoa—this works too? 'Blood' is even more complicated than we thought!"
"The main culprit is 'Cannon Soldier,' right? I swear I've seen that card show up in all kinds of shells!"
"Yeah, as long as you've got enough ammo you can burn infinitely. 'Black Ptera' and 'Blood' are innocent."
"Even so, I'm nauseated! How is this a Duel anymore?!"
In the group chat, Duelists from all the worlds went off like a powder keg complaining.
They could admire the sheer power of system Deck tactics—
Like Tearlaments, Zoodiac, Shaddoll, and Dragon Ruler, and so on.
But what made them lose composure—
Was a few non-theme cards ganging up to sabotage gameplay.
Like Old God FTK, "Blood–Ptera," and others!
This was just too much to take!
And they didn't know—this was only the beginning!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "You think that's the end?"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "It isn't."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "In February 2008, a monster card appeared."
"The card was Honest!"
"Its effect lets it return to the hand during the Main Phase, with no 'once per turn.'"
"Alright, the genius deckbuilders cooked up the 'Fire Princess Blood FTK!'"
"There are two more core cards in it!"
"One is 'Fire Princess!'"
"Its effect: while this card is face-up on the field, each time you gain LP, inflict 500 damage to your opponent."
"The second is the Continuous Spell Spring of Rebirth!"
"Its effect: when a monster on the field returns to its owner's hand, you gain 500 LP."
"Okay, the line is clear."
"'Spring of Rebirth' + 'Fire Princess' + 'Ultimate Offering' + 'Honest' = burn FTK."
"Activate the Continuous Spell 'Spring of Rebirth.'"
"Flip up the Continuous Trap 'Ultimate Offering.'"
"Normal Summon 'Fire Princess,' then pay 500 LP via 'Blood' to Summon 'Honest.'"
"Activate 'Honest,' choose itself, and return it to the hand."
"'Spring of Rebirth' gains 500 LP; 'Fire Princess' inflicts 500 to the opponent."
"Pay 500 LP to Summon 'Honest;' use 'Honest' to return itself."
"'Spring of Rebirth' gains 500; 'Fire Princess' burns 500."
"Pay 500 to Summon 'Honest;' return itself."
"'Spring of Rebirth' gains 500; 'Fire Princess' burns 500."
"And so on."
"'Spring of Rebirth' neatly offsets 'Blood's' 500 LP payment."
"With this, 'Fire Princess' can FTK the opponent with ease."
"Thus we also dug out 'Blood's' second label!"
"'Infinite loop.'"
"FTK + infinite loop are tactics 'Blood' is extremely prone to enabling."
"And that, too, showcases 'Blood's' power!"
More?
You're still rolling out tactics that make people's eyes go dark?!
Duelists who were still debating the previous FTK—
Went completely numb this time!
After hearing this 'Fire Princess' line—
They felt their dueling thought process couldn't keep up at all!
Which genius came up with this combo?
These few cards—
Maybe the success rate isn't very high!
But you can't deny—
If you actually pull it off—
It leaves the opponent with zero experience!
Yugi Muto swallowed hard, struck speechless and stunned.
Jaden Yuki blinked and blinked, wanting to say something but swallowing it back.
Yusei Fudo exhaled sharply, also completely thrown by the play!
Not just the protagonists—supporting cast were the same.
All the worlds fell into silence and contemplation after hearing this tactic.
And this—wasn't over yet!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "Of course, that's not all beyond the two lines I just mentioned."
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "'Blood'—it's a bogus card, no question!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "'Blood' can keep finding more partners!"
"For example, the Geminis + Plants FTK cannon."
"There are a few cards involved!"
"Card 1: Lonefire Blossom!"
"Its effect: once per turn, Tribute 1 face-up Plant you control; Special Summon 1 Plant from your Deck."
"With this effect, we Tribute itself to Special Summon a Plant from the Deck."
"What we Summon is the second key card: Gigaplant!"
"As a Gemini monster—"
"—after you Normal Summon it again, it gains an effect."
"Once per turn, during your Main Phase: Special Summon 1 Insect or Plant from your hand or Graveyard."
"Great."
"The 3-card combo is assembled again!"
"'Gigaplant' + 'Lonefire Blossom' + 'Ultimate Offering!'"
"Equals a pseudo-infinite 2400 ATK 'Gigaplant!'"
"'Cannon Soldier' + 3 copies of 'Gigaplant.'"
"Where the third 'Gigaplant' hasn't used its effect yet."
"Then Cannon tributes the first 'Gigaplant' to burn; the third 'Gigaplant' revives the first."
"Cannon tributes the second; the first revives the second."
"Cannon tributes the third; the second revives the third."
"Cannon tributes the first; the third revives the first."
"Repeat to perform a burn FTK."
"Even if you don't burn—"
"—three 2400-ATK bodies can OTK in one go without issue!"
"And 'Blood' plus Blackwing can go into a fun specialized build."
"'Blood' + Black Whirlwind is roughly equivalent to searching 'Blackwing' monsters like crazy!"
"But that line isn't focused on Synchro—"
"—and it's more of a fun Deck, so I won't go long on it."
"Next up, 'Blood's' development triggered truly terrifying performance in the Synchro environment!"
"Because the FTKs I just talked about and others—at first glance, they look flashy and fun—"
"—but their consistency is still shaky, unlike, say, Infernity FTK."
"Hence in 2009, 'Blood' moved to Semi-Limited, and by 2011 it was Unlimited."
"At that time, we entered the Xyz era."
"And 'Blood–Geargia' started mad growth."
Gemini Plants.
Once again shut up Duelists who wanted to speak.
Okay, okay!
Is this how Duels are played?!
This "Blood" card—is it really this disgusting?!
Using these combos—
Even if the success rate isn't high—
It still made plenty of Duelists clench their fists!
Is this a Duel?
Is this still a Duel?
This is obviously dark-tech clowning!
If they ever ran into a Duel like this for real, they definitely wouldn't be able to hold back their tempers.
And the coming of the Xyz era and the Synchro era—
—also proved the predictions by Yusei Fudo, Yuma Tsukumo, and Playmaker about "Blood–Geargia!"
Originally, you could only feed Tribute monsters as "gears!"
Now resources could really take off!
That made them sigh—
The next era—
—was even darker!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "'Blood–Geargia' I talked about before: one 'Geargia' equals many 'Geargia.'"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "So then, the three 'Geargia' names are all Level 4!"
Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Card Commentator: "Perfectly enabling Rank 4 Xyz, with a massive spike in explosiveness."
"Worried about ATK numbers before? Not anymore."
"Number 39: Utopia, Daigusto Emeral–style shuffle-3 draw for burst and recycling, TG with 'Blood–Geargia,' Plant 'Blood,' and so on!"
"In short, 'Blood' with 'Geargia'—"
"—one engine equals an insane amount of resources!"
"That made 'Blood–Geargia' blossom into a hundred flowers at the time!"
"And 'Blood's' value shot up."
"In 2012 it immediately went to Semi-Limited."
"After that, the 'Geargia' Deck got major support!"
"So even if 'Blood' got Semi-Limited to 2, it didn't matter."
"And for 'Blood's' final moment of glory—"
"—besides the 'Blood–Geargia' I mentioned, there were two builds!"
"One was 'Blood–Mermail,' and the other was 'Blood–Madolche.'"
"In Mermail—"
"—'Blood' plus fast dump lines could load the Graveyard in a flash!"
"Dump Atlantean Dragoons to search Deep Sea Diva (community slang 'songstress/queen')."
"And since Deep Sea Diva isn't hard once per turn on its Summon trigger, pairing it with Ultimate Offering lets you chain multiple Normal Summons and extend."
"Mermail's power at the time was burst + popping!"
"Easily good enough to take tournaments!"
"As for 'Blood–Madolche'—"
"The two cards involved were way, way overtuned when paired with 'Blood!'"
"One was Madolche Magileine—"
"—a mainline searcher with no once-per-turn on Summon."
"The other was Madolche Messengelato!"
"—an add-a-card effect on Summon that can be repeated with additional Summons that meet its condition."
"With those builds shining together with 'Blood'—"
"As expected—"
"This card, along with the environment's evolution—"
"—still met its ban."
"April 2014, Ultimate Offering—Forbidden."
"As for how strong 'Blood' is—"
"I personally don't see it as the kind of card that's the core of a mainstream, single-theme strategy."
"If it's the casual FTKs and loops, sure, it's the core."
"But for lines like 'Geargia–Blood,' 'Madolche,' and 'Mermail,' 'Blood' was more like timely aid rather than the heart."
"Without 'Blood,' these meta Decks could still play."
"With 'Blood,' these meta Decks could smash."
"Without 'Blood,' those metas were relatively slower eras."
"With 'Blood,' those Decks could speed up and explode."
"But is 'Blood' truly that strong?"
"Slow Trap + no protection so it eats a bounce/blowout + you go minus a card from hand—those flaws don't go away!"
"So, 'Blood' depends on the environment."
"Look at the previously released lower-tier replacement Continuous Trap for 'Blood.'"
"Effect 1: during your Main Phase, you can pay 1,000 LP; this turn, you can conduct up to 3 Normal Summons."
"Effect 2: during your opponent's Battle Phase, you can pay 500 LP; conduct 1 Normal Summon!"
"Is this card strong?"
"Did it shake the environment?"
"I think you Duelists have your own answers."
"Alright, that's the end of today's video."
"That was the life of 'Blood.' See you next time."
Looks like—!
Really looks like it!
They'd already foreseen it—!
With newer Summoning methods added—!
What a terrifying impact "Blood" with "Geargia" would cause!
"Blood–Geargia" was pure cancerous resource funneling!
Yugi Muto and Jaden Yuki both twitched all over as they listened, scalps going numb.
Is that how you're supposed to make resources?
What shocked them even more—
—was the later "Madolche–Blood!"
What?
If that's how it works—
Wouldn't "Madolche–Blood" be even more terrifyingly unbeatable?!
Spew multiple Madolche monsters out at once; their in-theme Xyz lineup wasn't weak either!
That was basically crushing the rest of the field of that era in a different flavor!
But the final discussion in the short video—
—threw Duelists from every world back into thought.
Is "Blood" strong?
Is "Blood" not strong?
Those two answers left them at a loss for a while.
After all, the downsides are exactly as summarized later.
And the newest lower-tier "Blood" didn't make much of a splash.
Whether "Blood" is strong—truly is a question worth pondering.
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