Chapter 74. Branded Deck Thought Process Explained! Does the Fusion Engine Keep Churning Out Monsters?
Not only in the VRAINS world.
In the ARC-V world.
Duelists from every dimension were dumbstruck after watching that final chain of "defuse the Fusion" plays!
Their first thought was to revive a Branded Fusion Monster.
They also considered reviving some other Extra Deck card.
But no one expected this!
Revive Predaplant Verte Anaconda, pay Life Points, and pull the final comeback card straight from the Deck!
"So that's it—if you savor the line carefully."
"I finally understand why he didn't revive anything else."
"Because reviving any other monster wouldn't work at all!"
Yuya Sakaki cooled down and worked it out.
Zuzu Boyle, Gong Strong, and Declan Akaba stared, taken aback.
None of the three understood what Yuya meant.
"What do you mean? Why is there no chance of winning if he revives anything else?"
"Just a vanilla beater—can that really stop those overtuned Fusion bosses?"
Declan frowned and asked.
He honestly couldn't see what was so scary about a vanilla Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
"Did you forget that Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was Fusion Summoned using Rapid Trigger?"
"As long as it was Fusion Summoned by that card, even if it gets 'stolen' by the Minotaur player, it still isn't affected by any monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck!"
With Yuya's explanation, the color drained from Declan's face.
He really had overlooked that self-restriction clause.
At the same time, other duelists, after replaying the sequence in their heads, showed looks of sudden realization.
Main World.
Sei Yuki was very satisfied after watching this video.
Sure enough, it sparked plenty of hot discussion across the first four worlds!
Which also points to a funny fact.
When it comes to these "dirty" decks, it turns out lots of straight-arrow protagonists still love Branded!
Yugi Muto: "At last—he won in the end. That Branded player lived up to expectations!"
Seto Kaiba: "Hmph! It was my Blue-Eyes White Dragon that taught those degenerates a lesson. It was all the power of my White Dragon!"
Jaden Yuki: "What a fascinating Duel! Both sides kept trading monsters back and forth! I could barely follow the operations!"
Yuma Tsukumo: "Eh, it's a pity they didn't slot the invincible Xyz endboards. Do they not like them?"
Because of this Duel, a bunch of duelists who love "degenerate" builds got interested.
Weevil Underwood: "Quick, quick, quick! Mr. Sei! I want that Minotaur deck! I love it so much! Add my Insect Queen and it's unbeatable!"
Bonz: "Heh heh heh, Weevil, forget it. Add Zombies plus Zombie World and it's truly invincible! I want that list too."
Odion: "Ahem. I quite like this build—and with my five set backrow, the joy only grows!"
Marik Ishtar: "Gotta add the big baby! Lava Golem eats, 740, then take it back! That would feel so kimoji!"
Sei Yuki's mouth twitched at these old-school degenerates from DM.
Truly, our paths diverge.
They're all interested in the Minotaur list!
But here's the thing.
That early Hippo plus Exchange to pull off the five-for-five swap?
You might play ten matches and hit that "clean high" only once!
Of course, the moment you do hit it, you're grinning all day.
Win or lose, you've already had your fun.
But by itself that kind of list has no real power.
It's a pure fun deck.
If I handed it to them, they'd probably get crushed to pieces in no time.
So, Sei Yuki first explained the main differences between fun decks and competitive decks.
Sei Yuki: "Ahem, note that the Minotaur list is just a fun deck."
Sei Yuki: "In our era, decks are broadly split into competitive and fun."
Sei Yuki: "Fun decks are weak by nature—either the engine is too outdated or too self-restrictive, and so on."
"Or it's a one-shot combo that's hard to assemble, with the whole build dedicated to lining it up."
"Or it's purely for entertainment—following your heart and chasing 'fun wins.'"
"Like Exodia."
"But pursuing victory is only a minority goal; most want the experience along the way—like the Minotaur line, the point is enjoying the bull-headed antics."
"..."
After a quick primer for the old-guard degenerates, they dropped part of the idea.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Sei Yuki moved on to today's short-video topic.
Namely the Branded deck—and the later Branded "Dragon-Fist" follow-ups!
Once he locked in the newest upload from this creator, the video title popped up.
"Depth God Activates! Teaching You the Basic Branded Mindset! Mom Won't Worry About Me Misplaying Branded Anymore!"
That title immediately appeared on the screens of the six Duel Worlds.
Once the next topic was confirmed as Branded, the Fusion world—GX—pricked up its ears and listened intently.
No joke.
The Branded combos shown earlier—forget the students—even Jaden Yuki felt dizzy trying to follow them.
Even the ever-proud Zane Truesdale reined himself in and listened carefully.
No doubt, the onboarding difficulty of Branded is very high.
If they don't listen, they won't understand what Branded is trying to do.
Nor will they get why Branded can search all sorts of things in such messy ways.
Even less how Branded actually expands.
Inside the short video:
Depth God Branded Activate: "Hahaha! Welcome, cardheads, to my Branded tutorial!"
Depth God Branded Activate: "As everyone knows, Branded's onboarding difficulty is quite high."
Depth God Branded Activate: "A lot of players look at Branded's dazzling spread of cards and get totally confused!"
"To address that, hey, I made this video!"
"Specifically to help Branded babies get into the deck and understand it better!"
"Of course, I can't truly make you master everything in one go."
"I'm just giving you the thought process and a few simple combos—the rest you'll have to grasp on your own!"
"For the record, we're focusing on Branded itself."
"Alright, enough talk."
"Let's start today's lesson!"
With that smooth intro, under everyone's gaze, the full Branded card skeleton and nicknames rolled onto the screen.
And just seeing a skeleton and those terms left plenty of duelists cross-eyed.
Albaz? "Black-Clad Dragon"?
Albion? Tragedy? Magnamhut?
Opening? Lost? High Spirits?
They were baffled. Completely baffled.
If it were a familiar archetype, they could at least follow each card's role.
But with Branded, facing a wall of dense text and all those quirky effects, all the old-guard duelists felt that just this one decklist was already burning through their brain cells.
Thankfully, the prior Duels had primed them.
So they could understand… a little.
Yes—just a little.
Depth God Branded Activate: "Before we start, I'll split the mindset into three parts."
Depth God Branded Activate: "Once you grasp these three, you'll get it."
Depth God Branded Activate: "A thousand variations share one core—Branded revolves around Fusion, so of course we're talking about Fusion, right?"
"So the core mindset is clear."
"First, line up our in-house piece 'Branded Fusion.'"
"Second, send Extra Deck monsters to the Graveyard and expand in the End Phase."
"Third, end on Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon, Rindbrumm the Striking Dragon, or other bosses plus backrow."
"That's it."
Indeed, looking only at those three points, almost every duelist could understand Branded's core.
But how do you execute?
Depth God Branded Activate: "Once the mindset is clear, we explain around it."
Depth God Branded Activate: "First point—securing the core Fusion line."
"This involves several searchers."
"Namely Aluber the Jester of Despia, Springans Kitt, and Keeper of Dragon Magic."
"Then you have the 'double-dump' to put Branded Retribution and Branded Fusion into the Graveyard."
"Use Branded Retribution's Graveyard effect to banish itself and add Branded Fusion back."
"Conversely, what cards let you achieve that?"
"Guiding Quem, the Virtuous; Bystial Saronir; and Albion the Branded Dragon."
"All three help us mill in-house cards."
"So to retrieve Branded Fusion, you'll involve Retribution."
"Yup. That simple. Got it?"
After the pitch, the six Duel Worlds fell quiet.
Viewed as a mindset, it really is easy to follow.
Use those pieces to combo, by any means necessary, meet the conditions, and obtain Branded Fusion.
For example, Normal Summoning Aluber just adds Branded Fusion.
Keeper of Dragon Magic needs a discard to fetch Branded Fusion.
That's Step One done.
Then we move to Step Two.
Depth God Branded Activate: "How's that? Isn't the outline already clear?"
Depth God Branded Activate: "Next is Part Two—EP expansion."
Depth God Branded Activate: "This likewise involves several Extra Deck cards."
"First, the Fusion Monsters that yield value when sent to the Graveyard."
"Albion the Branded Dragon, which during the End Phase adds or Sets a 'Branded' Spell/Trap from the Deck or GY."
"Titaniklad the Ash Dragon, which during the End Phase adds or Special Summons a 'Dogmatika' monster or Fallen of Albaz."
"Sprind the Irondash Dragon, which during the End Phase adds a 'Springans' monster or Fallen of Albaz to hand."
"These three each generate resources when they're sent to the Graveyard."
"And don't worry about not using those mills."
"Plenty of our in-house Fusions fuse using Graveyard resources after being Summoned."
"For example, Albion the Branded Dragon and Despian Proskenion—both help extend resource-based Fusions."
"..."
At this step, the six Duel Worlds—who'd felt fuzzy on the plan—suddenly saw the light.
No wonder in that Duel the Branded player kept searching, kept retrieving, and kept Fusing.
So that's how it works.
At this moment, they realized exactly how frightening the Branded engine is.
Resource management, recursion, searching, and consistency—far beyond most Fusion decks by an order of magnitude.
And that's just Branded by itself.
Add another engine to combo with it—like Blue-Eyes, or any other powerful package—and if you run Branded as a sub-engine, it will absolutely elevate your main plan.
So this is Branded?!
Depth God Branded Activate: "With Part Two clear, let's see which in-house cards help us send to the Graveyard and profit."
Depth God Branded Activate: "There are quite a few."
"On the monster side, Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon and Granguignol the Dusk Dragon."
"Mirrorjade is our final boss and end-board piece—its Quick Effect sends an in-house Fusion from the Extra Deck to the Graveyard, then banishes an opponent's monster to disrupt."
"Additionally, if it leaves the field by the opponent's card effect, it wipes all monsters they control during the End Phase of that turn."
"Then Granguignol—on Fusion Summon it mills a Level 6 or higher LIGHT or DARK from the Deck or Extra Deck."
"Its second effect triggers when the opponent Special Summons via a monster effect—banish Granguignol from the field or Graveyard to Special Summon a 'Dogmatika' from the Deck or a 'Despia' from the Extra Deck."
"Then on the Spell side, there's the Quick-Play Branded in High Spirits."
"It reveals and sends while helping you search, and even has a built-in way to recycle."
"And Nadir Servant."
"It sends from the Extra Deck while also retrieving."
"These two are excellent for helping us mill Extra Deck monsters and cash in value."
"..."
Having seen these mill-helpers, all the lines started connecting.
Fusion. Keep Fusing. Make the boss. Disrupt on the opponent's turn. Gain resources. Keep Fusing. Keep widening the resource gap.
That is Branded's terror—and its absurdity.
Everyone who reached that conclusion wore a solemn expression.
DM world.
Seto Kaiba's face went pale.
Wait.
Looked at this way, why does it feel like Blue-Eyes White Dragon was the one clinging to Branded's leg?
No. Absolutely not.
It's Branded clinging to Blue-Eyes White Dragon!
Right!
Kaiba was convinced—Branded is not stronger than Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
"So that's how it is. The Fusion engine really does keep printing monsters."
"First HERO, then Red-Eyes."
"And now Branded."
"I truly don't know what Fusion will churn out next."
Yugi Muto smiled bitterly.
He felt more and more helpless.
For a moment, he had the illusion that even new prints couldn't keep up with the higher world's cards.
Depth God Branded Activate: "Last is Part Three of the Branded mindset."
Depth God Branded Activate: "What are we ending on?"
Depth God Branded Activate: "Setting aside Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon and Granguignol the Dusk Dragon, we can also make Rindbrumm the Striking Dragon."
"Effect 1: when the effect of a Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Monster is activated, you can negate that effect, then return a monster on the field to the hand."
"It brings a built-in negate plus board control—an excellent end-board piece."
"The drawback is, you just have to watch if it's a low-Level Main Deck monster."
"And Effect 2 gives it some revival—during your opponent's turn, if this card is in the Graveyard, you can meet the condition to Special Summon."
"So if you put up Mirrorjade plus Rindbrumm—that's one banish and one negate/bounce. Not bad."
"But Branded still relies on its Spells/Traps to reach full strength."
"Once your board is set, leverage the End Phase expansions we discussed earlier."
"We have many disruptions we can search."
"For instance, the Continuous Spell Branded Lost."
"It protects your Fusion Summons while adding resources."
"Or the Quick-Play Branded in Red."
"It recycles and gives you a Quick-Play Fusion on the opponent's turn."
"At worst, search Branded Retribution."
"Proactively, it's a Counter Trap negate; in the Graveyard, it retrieves Branded Fusion for your next wave."
"Or the Continuous Trap Branded Beast."
"Once per turn you can Tribute a Dragon to destroy an opponent's card, and you can recycle and Set a 'Branded' Continuous Spell/Trap—nasty value."
"In short, monsters plus backrow is the Branded answer."
"Three parts—explained."
"Do you understand?"
Got it… right?
The old guard stared blankly as the short video wrapped its "mindset" section, and they asked themselves:
Do I really understand Branded…?
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