After a quick meal on the speedboat, the duelists returned to their rooms, either resting and recuperating or making the final adjustments to their card decks, preparing for the final battle.
According to the official rules of the physical Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, participants are required to register their respective card decks. Matches are typically decided in a best-of-three format, with players allowed a side deck of up to fifteen cards.
Players can adjust and strengthen their decks with specific cards from the side deck, tailored to their opponents and the characteristics of their decks.
However, this competition doesn't abide by such rules. According to Kaiba himself, duelists can "make any adjustments to their decks as needed" at any time.
Youyu was more than happy to take advantage of this regulation. With this setup, his entire deck is effectively his side deck, allowing him to switch cards as needed for each match.
As for his main deck, Youyu pondered carefully, ultimately deciding to blend the Black Magician and Elemental Hero systems, emulating the majesties from the anime by creating a dual-axis deck.
In the physical card environment, mixing two axes with no compatibility is typically frowned upon, as the chances of a dead draw are significantly high, and practical effectiveness is low.
However, Youyu's duelist level had reached a five-star ranking, placing him among the top contenders.
He may not be able to switch between multiple systems as effortlessly as Yugi, drawing divine cards effortlessly, but at least the probability of a bad hand was minimal at this level.
With that in mind, he figured he could manage a dual-system deck. If things went smoothly, he could exploit the strengths of both the Elemental Hero and Black Magic decks, significantly enhancing the adaptability of his deck in complex situations.
Before the match, Youyu did a final check of his deck, confirming the cards he currently possessed.
The top eight competitors did not seem easy to deal with. If he had to pick the weakest target apart from Xue Lang, it might still be Dark Marik...
Though in the anime, Dark Marik defeated Kujaku Mai and Jonouchi, it was all through underhanded tricks (cheating).
He bullied Kujaku Mai by exploiting her lack of background and control over the Winged Dragon of Ra. According to the dueling rules, Mai had already NTR'd the Winged Dragon of Ra onto her field, but Dark Marik chanted some painful Ancient Priestly Texts, and the Winged Dragon of Ra betrayed her...
Can you believe you need to be fluent in multiple languages just to play cards? And 3000-year-old ones to boot.
Beating Jonouchi was even less justifiable, as he relied on the pressure of the Darkness Game and a god's attack to make him faint. To quote a famous saying, you can't even call this a duel. It's essentially an assault, strictly speaking, it's against the rules...
Later, Dark Marik also defeated Bakura and Marik's alternate self, but that was purely because Marik's persona was incessantly yapping in Bakura's ear, telling him what cards to play and pointing out his mistakes.
Amusingly, Bakura trusted Marik's confident claim of knowing the Sun God's effect and followed his tactics. To his dismay, Marik was so clueless he couldn't even recall his card effects correctly, hilariously botching the Winged Dragon of Ra's effect. Thus, the Great Evil God Sock perished tragically, betrayed by a noob teammate...
Discarding all supernatural influences and purely dueling, Marik should have lost to Kujaku Mai and Jonouchi, indisputably the weakest of all.
The card tuning time ended, and everyone was soon gathered together. A Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon-themed bingo machine, specially provided by Kaiba Company, was used to draw the match sequence randomly.
Yes, even the draw machine had a White Dragon design, typical of the CEO's late-stage obsession with dragons which was beyond cure...
The lineup for the first match was quickly announced.
Mirroring the original story, the first match was on the stage of our world's protagonist, Muto Yugi, against the Bakura possessed by the Great Evil God Sock.
However, Youyu was somewhat curious about how this match would play out. According to the anime storyline, the turning point was Slifer the Sky Dragon. If not for the Sky Dragon, Yugi might have lost to Bakura.
And now, Marik's delivery went astray, and the Sky Dragon ended up with Youyu. So, in this duel, would Yugi lose to Bakura because of this?
The answer is...
...of course not.
First of all, throughout Bakura's card playing process, Marik kept nagging in his brain, saying things like, "You're not playing right, why are you playing like that"...
It's well known, one of the world's most malicious curses is grandparents critiquing your card play.
So you can imagine how much Bakura's mindset must have exploded throughout.
Secondly...
...kidding, who is Muto Yugi anyway?
Even without the Sky Dragon, do you think he can't conjure up another card to reverse the situation?
If he can't even pull that off, can't he just talk his way out? No fear!
...as expected, even without the Sky Dragon in Yugi's hand, Bakura still lost with no surprises.
In this duel, Bakura used the "Destiny Board" strategy.
When his monster "Dark Necrofear" was sent to the graveyard, he could activate the Trap Card "Destiny Board," and from then on, each turn, "D," "E," "A," "T," "H" Death Message Cards appeared on his field in sequence.
Once all five cards named "DEATH" appeared on the field, he could declare a direct victory.
This was a tactic akin to that used by the Dark Great Mage, belonging to a special victory condition beyond conventional means.
Similar to the animated scene, in the last round, Bakura had already accumulated four Death Message Cards on his field. If the turn returned to him, the fifth card would activate, directly winning him the duel.
According to the original anime, in this crucial final round, Yugi would draw the Sky Dragon, sacrificing three monsters on the field to summon the Sky Dragon, and take Bakura down in one fell swoop.
Then when Bakura anxiously asked the constantly chirping Marik if there was a strategy to deal with the Sky Dragon, Marik laughed heartily and said, "Are you kidding? The gods are invincible and cannot be conquered!"
To translate, Marik basically meant: That Divine Card must be amazing; after all, I'm the one who gifted it.
However, it's obvious that Yugi doesn't have the Sky Dragon at this moment.
So while everyone held their breath and remained vigilant, Yugi drew the last card of this duel...
..."Magic Card activate!" Yugi directly played the card he drew, "Soul Release! Up to five cards from both graveyards can be removed from the game!
Bakura! I'm removing the Monster 'Dark Necrofear' from your graveyard, which maintains the condition of the 'Destiny Board'! The effect of the Destiny Board is thereby nullified!"
Bakura: "!!??"
At this moment, Great Evil God Sok felt betrayed by the Destiny Board.
Soul Release? What the hell? Yugi, you're not fooling me by saying you have this card in your Deck?
WDNM, did you know beforehand that I was going to use the Destiny Board, or what? Why would you carry such a deck-shattering card in your deck?
Just because you're a true Duelist, you can do whatever you want?
...Damn Pharaoh, ahhh!!!
With the Destiny Board's failure, Bakura's deck lost its ability to fight fundamentally, and what followed was Yugi's relentless pounding that directly took him down.
Oh, of course, before starting, Bakura confidently initiated the Darkness Game again.
So, after losing the duel, he was also carried off the stage on a stretcher...
The first battle ended, and the fierce fight and excellent performance of the two Duelists provided a solid start for everyone.
"Next players, please get ready!" shouted Kaiba Company's black-suited uncle Jino as he stood on stage.
Jino is one of Kaiba's most trusted subordinates and also serves as the referee for this Duel Tournament.
Speaking of Jino, although he might appear to be just a regular bodyguard, many viewers speculate that he might be a hidden boss.
During his time as referee, he witnessed the descent of the three gods, standing as a mere mortal in the center of the clash between them, witnessed the Millennium battle between the Millennium Item holders, and faced various supernatural forces in the Darkness Game...
What's most amazing is that this referee uncle shows absolutely no reaction to the pressure of the gods or the dark forces between Millennium Item holders, with an unperturbed expression, making people suspect that he might actually be a deeply hidden big shot.
"Next to play is Duelist Youyu, and..."
The elevator on one side of the Dueling Arena happened to reach the top as the referee mentioned it, and its door opened at that moment.
The metal doors slid open along their tracks, revealing an Egyptian woman in a white robe, with an elegant figure and a white veil on her face.
She slowly walked onto the stage.
It was only then that the referee realized he didn't know her name: "Contestant, what is your name?"
"...Ishizu." She slowly removed the veil from her face, "Ishizu Ishtar."
Anzu exclaimed, "Yugi, that person is..."
"Yes," Yugi also recognized her, "The woman we met in front of the Egyptian tablet, the one who guided me to attend this tournament."
Seeing her, Marik subtly clicked his tongue beside, seemingly annoyed by his sister interfering.
Kaiba also looked quite surprised.
This woman... wasn't she the one who gifted me the Divine Card, asking me to defeat the Ghouls?
Why does she want to participate in the knockouts?
Youyu narrowed his eyes.
The opponent is Ishizu...
Feeling slightly uneasy.
Youyu looked at the proud Egyptian lady, his gaze resting on the golden eye-shaped necklace hanging around her neck.
The Millennium Necklace, the Millennium Item with the power to foresee the future.
If Ishizu has foreseen everything through the Millennium Necklace and seen her victory in this duel...
...then this duel may indeed be difficult.