Chapter 70. Galaxy-Eyes Explosive Combo Lines Explained! Now this is what you call "Galaxy"!
Yuma Tsukumo and Astral could hardly even imagine it.
Facing a board like that, even they couldn't figure out a way to keep extending through the opponent's Bagooska.
In the ZEXAL world.
After hearing a few basic Utopia combo concepts, even these Xyz-centric players found their dueling logic broadened.
By contrast, Kite Tenjo let out a sharp breath, then gave a helpless, bitter smile.
At this moment, Kite finally understood.
His opponent, Yuma Tsukumo, was—just like him—playing off years of deck experience.
Those instincts can be applied to any unfamiliar deck.
Yet even so, Kite felt even more helpless and bitter.
If both were equally unfamiliar, why did he still lose?
Where exactly did something go wrong?
Kite Tenjo: "Mr. Sei, could you teach me the explosive combo lines for Galaxy-Eyes in your world?"
Kite Tenjo: "I want to learn! I have to learn! Mr. Sei!"
Kite Tenjo: "I really want to improve!"
Main world.
Sei Yuki quickly saw Kite Tenjo firing off barrage after barrage of messages in the group.
They had only just finished the basic Utopia operations.
Originally, Sei Yuki was about to move on to the next theme.
For example, Ryo "Zane" Truesdale's Cyber Dragon, Alexis Rhodes's Cyber Angel, or Crow Hogan's Blackwing deck.
But now, it was better to grant Kite Tenjo's little wish first.
After all, following those earlier showcases, a simple review of core ideas should already benefit Kite quite a bit.
Sei Yuki: "Since Kite asked so earnestly…"
Sei Yuki: "I'll reluctantly go find some Galaxy-Eyes combo explanation videos for you."
Sei Yuki: "And the rest of you duelists from the other worlds—don't tune out just because it isn't your favorite deck."
"You have to understand, many Duel Monsters strategies are different paths to the same goals."
"Search, meet conditions, snowball resources, build an opening board with negations, break boards going second, etc."
"Or even…"
After a round of Sei Yuki's sermon in the main world, duelists from the first four worlds listened in a daze.
The more they heard, the more terrifying this higher world seemed.
As for the duelists from the last two worlds, they hadn't yet blended into this big happy family.
All they could do was keep consolidating notes on Utopia's lines and ideas.
Once Sei Yuki finished speaking, he quickly found the next target video.
Click to enter.
The title appeared:
"Galaxy-Eyes for the diehard Dragon-deck fan! Master Duel starter build tutorial!"
With that short-video title on screen, duelists in the Duel Monsters world, the GX world, and the 5D's world all knew what this was.
It must be a response to Kite Tenjo's request after his test-match loss.
Seto Kaiba narrowed his eyes.
For some reason he felt a natural fondness for Kite—or perhaps for Galaxy-Eyes itself.
Maybe it's because his Blue-Eyes deck also runs the Galaxy-Eyes three-piece package.
Maybe it's because the dragons of Galaxy are just ridiculously cool.
Once upon a time, he was drawn to Blue-Eyes White Dragon for its overwhelming might.
As a diehard Dragon-deck fan, Seto Kaiba was very into Galaxy-Eyes.
Someone else who felt a liking for Galaxy-Eyes was Dr. Crowler.
As a professor, after chatting with Xyz duelists, Crowler finally understood one thing.
There are always higher mountains and deeper skies.
In other worlds, there are so many things he never knew.
In the 5D's world, Yusei Fudo stayed calm; even though his ace is also Dragon-Type, he mostly plays around Levels 7 and 5, and his in-archetype dragons are no less handsome than Galaxy-Eyes.
So he didn't feel that much, but he still wanted to learn the ideas.
While the various duelists all had their own thoughts, the video content rolled.
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "Welcome, welcome—thanks for swiping into my short video."
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "Since you're here, don't leave—because you are the coolest duelist around!"
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "Hahaha, okay, no more jokes! First, congrats to student duelists on summer break, and may office-worker duelists get promoted and rake in cash! For lady duelists, congrats on… er, wait, do my videos even have lady viewers?"
"Ahem, no more digressions. Today I'm bringing a Master Duel Galaxy-Eyes deck primer."
"Everyone knows the general build—although it's called Galaxy-Eyes, the in-archetype labels don't entirely match; they split into Photon, Galaxy, and Cipher lines."
"If you subdivide even more, you can tack on a Galaxy-Eyes label; for instance, Afterglow Dragon needs a Galaxy-Eyes to jump."
"Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon carries both 'Galaxy' and 'Photon' tags."
"Why mention all this up front? Because these labels matter."
"Once we understand, we can get into the real combo explanations."
"..."
That brief preface—already touching on build details—let duelists across the six worlds finally understand why Kite Tenjo was at a loss at the start.
Indeed, with so many mixed labels jammed into one deck, even basic searching becomes a headache: do you search 'Photon' or 'Galaxy'?
And the Extra Deck is crammed with options—just looking at it made quite a few Xyz duelists drool.
Galaxy-Eyes was a bit beyond their comprehension.
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "Next up, combo explanations! I hope this helps players who love Galaxy-Eyes."
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "But a heads-up first—I don't recommend Galaxy-Eyes if you're chasing competitive results; it's for soul-players to enjoy."
"Because Galaxy-Eyes is a going-second oriented deck, heavily reliant on Normal Summons. The Main Deck runs many big monsters, and it bricks easily."
"And its first-turn pressure isn't that strong. Unlike Stardust or Utopia-type decks, it doesn't stack multiple negates easily."
"Because of that, you run a lot of generic hand traps and backrow."
"With that preface out of the way, let's look at 1-card lines."
Hearing this, Kite Tenjo's heart turned half cold.
In the higher world, Galaxy-Eyes didn't have much competitive strength?
No way.
This is his ace—Galaxy-Eyes.
Even if it's weaker, it can't be that bad, right?
Did that company—what was it, K-Snake—not give Galaxy-Eyes any brutal support?
After venting inwardly, Kite calmed down and looked to the 1-card line explanations.
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "The 1-card line revolves around the Continuous Spell Galaxy Hundred."
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "In a grind, if you draw this card—"
"We activate Galaxy Hundred and, on activation, send Photon Jumper from the Deck to the Graveyard."
"Photon Jumper then adds Galaxy Trance from Deck to hand."
"Galaxy Trance pays 2000 LP, revives Jumper from the Graveyard, and also pulls Galaxy Summoner from the Deck."
"Here we Link Summon Galaxy-Eyes Solflare Dragon (Link-2)."
"Then use Solflare to add the Summoner back from the Graveyard."
"Normal Summon Galaxy Summoner, and use its effect to revive Photon Jumper."
"Overlay the two Level 4s for Galaxy Photon Dragon (Rank 4)."
"Detach to search and set the Trap Eternal Galaxy."
"On the opponent's turn, climb into Number 90: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Lord, scraping together one monster-effect negate and a Deck search."
"That's the basic idea."
"..."
Indeed, the idea is simple.
But the perspective shift it brings made Kite Tenjo jolt upright.
Linking into Solflare with two monsters?
Why bring that out?
Shouldn't you just make a Rank 4 right away?
Back when he first saw this Link-2, Kite even dismissed it: only 2000 ATK.
The search on summon looked barely okay.
And the pop cost—if you don't have Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon in hand, you discard two—too resource-hungry, so he never planned to make it.
But after seeing this, Kite suddenly understood something.
Perhaps Solflare's value isn't its opponent-turn pop at all.
If you have Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon in hand, it shines.
If not, that on-summon add—used properly—becomes a key extender.
He had been chasing raw strength and overlooked that detail.
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "Next is the 2-card line."
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "You could call it the 'standard' Galaxy-Eyes formula."
"For example: Galaxy Soldier plus Photon Emperor."
"Discard Emperor for Soldier; Special Summon Soldier, and Soldier searches Galaxy Wizard."
"Photon Emperor then gives you two additional Normal Summons this turn."
"Normal Summon Galaxy Wizard; tribute it to search Galaxy Summoner, then Normal Summon again."
"Normal Summon Summoner; use its effect to revive Wizard."
"Don't forget a crucial point: Galaxy Wizard's search is not once per turn by card name."
"So we tribute Wizard again to search Galaxy Trance."
"Link Soldier and Emperor for Galaxy-Eyes Solflare Dragon."
"Use Solflare to add Wizard back and hold it for next turn."
"Cast Galaxy Trance, pay 2000 to revive Emperor, and from Deck you can precisely fetch Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon."
"Don't Xyz into a Rank 8 yet—use Galaxy Summoner to make Afterglow Level 4."
"Overlay Summoner and Afterglow for Galaxy Photon Dragon (Rank 4)."
"Detach from Galaxy Photon to search and set Eternal Galaxy."
"When Afterglow is detached, it pulls Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon out for you."
"Now you make Rank 8 into Number 90: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Lord."
"At this point we're open at all timings."
"On the opponent's turn, use Eternal Galaxy to Rank-Up your Rank 4 into Rank 8, becoming Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy."
"That's the simple standard Galaxy-Eyes line: face-up, you've got one Spell negate and one monster-effect negate."
"..."
With that 2-card line wrapped, everyone finally had a brand-new concept of a Galaxy-Eyes first-turn board.
And exactly this side-by-side comparison left Kite Tenjo frozen on the spot.
Right.
Because, at the time, he didn't rush to make a Rank 8 Number 38: Hope Harbinger early.
Instead he wanted to lean on a Trap to dodge destruction and such.
But because of that oversight, his opening board ended up being only a Number 90: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Lord.
That before/after comparison made Kite realize just how big a gap there still was between his dueling mindset and that of the higher world.
Why be greedy for a slow Trap?
Rank up sooner. Get an early negate on the key activation.
Meanwhile, in the ZEXAL world, the 5D's world, and other worlds, duelists all sighed.
Yugi Muto: "Indeed, Kite overlooked the any-time Rank-Up into Hope Harbinger to secure a Spell negate."
Jesse Anderson: "Eh, it's normal. Kite only just started with cross-era Galaxy-Eyes. Not knowing the usual first-turn board is understandable."
Crow Hogan: "Honestly, this Galaxy-Eyes is already strong. A two-card start usually gets you moving—so long as you don't brick."
Dr. Crowler: "What a pity, what a pity—don't panic, Kite! Knowing it now isn't too late!"
All those voices made Kite want to cry.
Why didn't he think to Rank-Up right away back then?
With Hope Harbinger on the table, Yuma would have to ask his permission before doing anything.
But that still wasn't the most important part.
The key single card that came next made the faces of ZEXAL duelists change color.
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "Basically, two-card combos and typical first-turn boards are all like this."
Veteran Galaxy-Eyes Player: "So there's nothing too unique… but there is one card that can change the battlefield."
"That's the 1-card piece Galaxy Hundred."
"In my opinion, it's a mandatory three-of."
"Why? Let's look at Galaxy Hundred's second effect."
"It's once per turn on activation."
"If Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is Special Summoned to your field, you look at your opponent's Extra Deck, then choose one of these effects to apply."
"Option one: banish one monster from it."
"Option two: Special Summon one 'Number' monster from it to your field."
"In the earlier lines, didn't we use Afterglow Dragon to bring out Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon?"
"So what can we do with this effect?"
"Forget the banish for a moment—we can steal something."
"Does the opponent have Number 38: Hope Harbinger? We just yoink it."
"Do they play Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir? Yoink that too."
"What? You've got Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS – Sky Thunder in the Extra? Then we'll just banish it."
"..."
What the heck?
A 1-card starter that does this too?
It can both banish or steal from the opponent's Extra Deck?
In that instant, players from every world who'd thought Galaxy-Eyes was "whatever" all closed their mouths.
They stared, wide-eyed, as the creator laid out the fancy uses and combos of Galaxy Hundred.
And the ZEXAL duelists immediately thought of Number cards 1–99.
Astral even jolted all over.
This card—couldn't it pull any Number over, as long as conditions are met?
Number 99, Number 58, Number 41, Number 38—so long as you can trigger it, bring them out.
Wait.
Number cards aren't just 1–99 either.
Thinking of that, Astral and Yuma could barely hold it together.
This card is a bit over the line.
"Hahaha! What's 'Galaxy-Eyes'?"
"Now this is Galaxy-Eyes!"
"It perfectly fits my title as a Number card hunter!"
"On my turn, I steal one. Find a way to bring out Photon Dragon on their turn—"
"I steal another."
"Can't steal it? I'll just banish it."
"..."
Kite's eyes flashed and he burst into hearty laughter.
His words made plenty of nearby duelists—who actually ran Number Xyz in their Extra—twitch at the corners of their mouths.
One after another, they all felt like taking their Xyz out of their Extra Decks.
What's this 'using the opponent's Extra as your own resources' nonsense?
Bringing them just to serve as a dowry for Galaxy-Eyes.
Who could stand that?
As for Kite Tenjo, he was delighted, yet also a bit regretful.
If only he had drawn this card in that duel, at the very least, Yuma would have learned what it means to be robbed of your Extra Deck.
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