"Neo-Spacian." The alien's eyes flickered twice, "Detestable Neo-Spacians, I will annihilate all of you here!"
Aqua Dolphin actually spoke up: "Judai, the future of Neo Space and this planet is in your hands! You must defeat the evil Light of Destruction!"
Judai was startled: "Whoa! The dolphin can speak!"
Still in shock, he didn't expect the Earth Mole next to him to also start speaking: "Please, Judai, now is the time to harness the power of our companions!"
"What, even the mole... fine, whatever."
Judai seemed to quickly accept this setup too; he patted his chest.
"Don't worry, leave it to me!" he chuckled, "I can't make any promises about other things, but when it comes to dueling, that's a different story.
After all... I am a student of the world's strongest Duelist!"
He drew another card from his hand: "Magic Card 'O - Oversoul' activate! Revive a 'Elemental Hero' Normal Monster from my graveyard!"
One of the five cards he sent to the graveyard earlier shot out, and the instant he held it, it seemed to burst with golden radiance.
"From the Opening, with sweaty palms, waiting for the last three minutes to debut! A brand new hero from Neo Space, born from the distant stars—
—Elemental Hero Neos, Summon!"
The vast starry sky seemed to draw nearer in an instant, the night sky magnified infinitely. A golden beam of light erupted from the center of the Galaxy like a shooting star, accelerating downward in a dive, exploding on the ground in front of Judai.
A silver Warrior emerged from the countless scattering sparks, hands on his hips, his chest core shining like a diamond!
[Elemental Hero Neos, ATK 2500]
The enthusiasm of the fans reached its peak.
"Confirmed the stats, it's the protagonist's attack power!"
"Fire the salutes for the birth of Ultraman!"
No expression or emotional change could be seen from that alien's mechanical face, but his tone gradually lowered: "'Elemental Hero Neos', Guardian of Neo Space... tsk, troublesome guy."
"Battle!" Judai waved his hand, "I use 'Neo-Spacian Grand Mole' to attack the facedown covered Monster!"
"Heh, gotcha." The alien couldn't help but be smug.
His covered Monster was "Marshmallon", not only cannot be destroyed by battle, but when attacked while face down, it can deal 1000 points of battle damage to the opponent, truly a favorite among the self-enclosed...
...What!!?
The alien was shocked to see his "Marshmallon" didn't even get a chance to flip, disappearing into thin air, bouncing back to his hand accompanied by a golden light.
The mole on the other side also vanished, transforming into a card that returned to Judai's hand.
"'Neo-Spacian Grand Mole's Monster Effect." Judai smiled, "When this card battles an opponent's Monster, no Damage Calculation is conducted, and both Monsters are returned to their owner's hands!"
What a mischievous effect!?
A second ago he thought Marshmallon was isolated enough, but he didn't expect this mole to be the pinnacle of self-enclosure—
Even many players watched and shook their heads, sympathizing with this unfortunate Cosmic being.
"Neo-Spacian Grand Mole" is recognized among the top tier of Neo-Spacians, possessing quite unreasonable board-clearing power.
First, its effect isn't destruction, so any "can't be destroyed by effects" big Monsters can be instantly defeated by it.
Then its effect is "during battle return both to hand", showing it doesn't target specifically, meaning big Monsters that "can't be targeted by effects" can also be easily dealt with.
You work tirelessly, perhaps exhausting your hand to summon a powerful Monster, just to show off, only for your opponent to casually summon an unassuming mole, which promptly kicks your big Monster back, while muttering 'fancy'.
And the most cheeky part is that in battle, this mole does not calculate battle damage, returning both itself and the opponent's Monster to its owner's hand. Meaning in this turn, it kicks away your big Monster, and when you manage to summon another one the next turn, here comes the mole again, kicking your second powerhouse back with a plain kick.
In the slow-paced environment of the GX era, although the Neo-Spacian card deck system was mostly considered underdog and was not well-received, the mole still had its moment, at one point even making it to the banlist.
If you're unlucky, you might be driven insane by just one mole from your opponent...
"Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin, direct attack!"
Though its attack power was only six hundred, the Dolphin still stylishly went up and landed a punch on the alien, smashing right on its metal skull.
[Alien, LP 4000 →LP 3400]
"And then, 'Elemental Hero Neos'," Judai said, "Direct attack!"
Elemental Hero accelerated into the sky, diving like a silver bullet, trailing transparent air currents behind him. He spun in mid-air, adjusting his posture, and with a swift hand chop, he slashed down on the alien, who let out a cry of agony.
[Alien LP 3400 → LP 900]
"It's not over yet!" Judai exclaimed, "Activate the effect of 'Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin'! Discard one card from my hand, and I can select a Monster Card from the opponent's hand.
If there's a monster on my field with more attack power than that monster, destroy the selected monster, and inflict 500 points of damage to the opponent!"
This is quite a sneaky effect.
Not only can it reveal the opponent's hand, but it can also disrupt and destroy it, which from the enemy's perspective, can be extremely annoying. It not only allows you to peek at the opponent's strategy but also bombs their key cards to disrupt their setup. Moreover, with the advent of the Yugi Hand Pit era, the Dolphin bro is even the nemesis of hand traps.
As we know, the attack power of powerful hand traps is generally not high — most are even zero.
For instance, the grandfather of hand traps, Kuriboh and its entire family, only have an attack power of 300. The Dolphin bro destroys the Kuribohs in the opponent's hand with frightening accuracy...
There's even an exclusive meme among card players about the Dolphin bro, with the caption: "Hey, can I see your hand?"
Judai discarded a card into the graveyard and shouted: "Echo Location!"
The Dolphin bro opened its mouth, releasing transparent sound waves that quickly scanned the opponents' whole hand. The poor alien's hand, stripped bare like a girl, was exposed to the sly Dolphin bro, and the Marshmallon, which had been returned to the hand by the Big Mole, was quickly locked onto.
"'Marshmallon' only has an attack power of 300, which is lower than the monsters on my field," Judai said, "So destroy 'Marshmallon'! Pulse Burst!"
Echo Location combined with precise targeting, the Dolphin bro's sound wave blasted the Marshmallon in the opponent's hand to smithereens.
The Big Mole bounced them back to the hand, and the Dolphin bro did a hand explosion; the duo of New Space took care of the Marshmallon thoroughly, blowing it to pieces before it even had a chance to reveal itself.
Neo-Space: All bad guys.JPG.
"Damn... I'll discard 'Hanewata' from my hand so that all effect damage this turn is zero."
With only 900 Life Points left, the alien clearly doesn't dare to risk taking even a bit of damage.
"Then I activate the effect of 'Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin' again!" Judai shouted, "Discard another card, Echo Location!"
The card players couldn't remain calm.
"What the heck! Isn't the Dolphin bro's effect once per turn?"
Some even rushed out to check the original material.
"...Damn! It looks like the animation version of Dolphin bro doesn't have a once per turn limit!"
"Holy crap, if it's unlimited per turn, can't it just blast the opponent's hand to zz?"
Some card players, being imaginative, already started brainstorming sneaky moves with the Dolphin bro's effect, like building a Dolphin-specialized deck to bomb the opponent's hand and leave them without monsters to play...
The remaining card in the alien's hand is "Berserk Gorilla," with an attack power of 2000, quite a decent four-star monster.
...Unfortunately, it's still not higher than Elemental Hero Neos.
"Since I have an 'Elemental Hero Neos' on my field with higher attack power than 'Berserk Gorilla,' destroy the monster in your hand!"
Judai waved his hand.
"Pulse Burst!"
Another precise burst, and "Berserk Gorilla" was also blown to dust.
"Damn..." the alien muttered, "but thanks to 'Hanewata's' protection, damage is still zero."
"I know," Judai smiled, "but at least now you have no cards in hand!"
Alien: "..."
Indeed, after this relentless assault by the sly Dolphin bro, his hands are empty, with nothing left...
"End turn." Judai smiled brightly, "Well then, it's your turn, Mr. Alien!"
The onlooking players exchanged glances.
They had an ominous feeling.
It seems that after Judai got this new space deck, he might be heading further down the path of self-isolation...