094 Straight Flush: I Am a Card of Unclear Meaning (O_O)

“At the end of the turn, I offer up Sangan to keep Dark Sanctuary in play! And because of Sangan’s last words effect, I can add the final Sangan from my deck to my hand once again!”

To satisfy Dark Sanctuary’s upkeep requirement, he willingly sacrificed Sangan, triggering its last words effect. In this way, every End Phase, he could tribute a monster to maintain Dark Sanctuary, and thus complete the full Destiny Board combo.

Perfect.

“My turn, draw!”

With only three turns left, and with Dark Bakura still walling the field with a heap of attack-locking cards, did he still have any hope of winning?

It was not yet despair, but being sealed under this kind of suppression was truly miserable.

Wait.

This card is...

Suddenly, Yugi found a special Trap Card in his hand, one whose effect seemed almost absurdly, maddeningly meaningless.

Calming himself, he studied the card’s effect. A few seconds later, after reading it through, the corners of his mouth could no longer help but rise.

“Arigato, Bakura.”

Thanks to you activating the mutually beneficial Spell Card Pot of Greed, I was able to draw the card that will settle this so quickly.

“I set three cards from my hand. Turn end!”

Yugi filled his back row as well, then did absolutely nothing else and passed the turn.

“Hah-ha-ha! Yugi! Against my supernatural deck, are you out of moves? Eh?”

To Dark Bakura, Yugi’s swift end-of-turn declaration was nothing less than a sign of helplessness before his supernatural deck and his attack lockdown.

“Hm~. Say whatever you like.”

Yugi did not argue. He simply watched as the third English letter of the death sentence, “A,” emerged after the first two.

He had two turns left.

“My turn! Draw!”

He was so pleased with himself that he had already started calling himself “I” in the grandiose, arrogant way he favored.

Dark Bakura likewise had little to do this turn. He merely tributed his final Sangan, then searched out the Witch of the Black Forest, a monster whose effect was much like Sangan’s and another familiar face on the forbidden-and-limited list of the OCG.

One sent from the field to the Graveyard, and it searched a monster from the deck with less than 1500 ATK. The other also left the field for the Graveyard, but searched not by ATK, rather by DEF, for a monster with less than 1500 DEF.

Yugi entered his fourth turn.

After drawing normally, this time he went even further—he did nothing at all and ended his turn directly.

That move left the spectators baffled, and even Dark Bakura, as his opponent, sensed that something was off.

The four letters were already assembled on his field. Only the final “H” remained, and victory would be his.

Yet there was not the slightest trace of panic on Yugi’s face. No despair. Instead, there was only a faint, almost invisible anticipation.

Was I mistaken?

While that thought crossed his mind, the turn came back to Dark Bakura for his fourth move.

This time, what he drew was Pot of Greed, along with one monster and one Trap Card.

‘Though I do not know what you are up to, Yugi! This Trap Card of mine will let you taste despair!’

Looking at the Trap Card in his hand, Dark Bakura could not help but grin wickedly.

“Tribute Witch of the Black Forest! Then search my deck for a new Witch of the Black Forest! Turn end!”

Come now, Yugi! Let me see just how you will struggle on this final turn! Hah-ha-ha!

“My turn... no! The final turn of this duel! Draw!”

With a powerful pull, Yugi drew his card. Without even looking at it, he slammed it directly into the Monster Zone.

“Attack Summon, Swordsman of Landstar! Then switch Dark Magician Girl and Baphomet to Attack Position!”

The effect version of the sacrificial swordsman made its first appearance in this Duel City tournament, and as Yugi changed the other two monsters from defense to attack, everyone could see it clearly: he meant to finish Dark Bakura in one turn.

But with so many attack-locking cards in the back row, did Yugi really have a way to OTK Dark Bakura?

“Battle Phase!”

As expected, Yugi was going for the kill.

But Dark Bakura was not afraid of any attack coming his way.

Just as he waited for Yugi’s attack declaration so he could chain his set cards, Yugi suddenly made a different move.

“I have entered the Battle Phase, but before I begin my assault, there is still one card I must activate!”

Dark Bakura: ?

Under everyone’s curious gaze, the face-down card in the center of Yugi’s field slowly flipped open, revealing a picture of five set cards lined up in the back row.

“Trap Card, Straight Flush, activate! Destroy all Magic and Trap Cards on your field, Bakura!”

“What!?”

At Yugi’s declaration, Dark Bakura froze. Clear my back row? What kind of nonsense was that?

“Looks like you do not know this card.”

At that moment, Yugi’s companion, who had been watching from below, suddenly spoke up, instantly drawing everyone’s attention. In particular, Dark Bakura, as the one who had been hit by this card, immediately wanted to know exactly what Straight Flush did, and why Yugi had played it with a declaration that would wipe out his entire back row.

“Straight Flush. Most people understand that term as a poker hand made of sequential cards in the same suit. The Trap Card Yugi has just activated is one our Illusion Corporation designed based on that idea, a card used to clear an opponent’s back row!”

“When the opponent’s Spell and Trap Zone is completely filled with cards, you can activate Straight Flush and wipe out every card in their Spell and Trap Zone in one sweep!”

Dark Bakura: !!

“Bakura, if I remember correctly, you said Dark Sanctuary’s effect lets the Monster Zone also be treated as the Spell and Trap Zone, yes? Then in that case...”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang!

First came five successive explosions, then two more. Every card in Dark Bakura’s normal Spell and Trap Zone was blown away. Then the two set cards in the Monster Zone, used as a second Spell and Trap Zone, followed right after.

But just as the final set card was about to explode, the Trap Card Bakura had drawn with Pot of Greed on the previous turn, the detonations suddenly stopped.

“Hm?”

Seeing that the eighth card had not yet been destroyed, Yugi could not help but let out a soft sound of surprise.

“Yugi! You truly have surprised me! I never expected you to include a card as bizarre as Straight Flush in your deck!”

Dark Bakura applauded. This move had truly exceeded his expectations, but it did not matter. He too had left himself a way out on the previous turn.

“At this moment, I chain to your Straight Flush with the Counter Trap Seven Tools of the Bandit!”

A Counter Trap designed after the image of a Swiss Army knife.

“I pay 1000 Life Points and negate and destroy your Straight Flush! In that case, my destroyed cards all return to the field!”

Under the menace of the Swiss Army knife, Yugi’s Straight Flush began to show signs of collapse, and the destroyed cards on Dark Bakura’s field began to reappear through the 3D projector.

“Heh-heh! I knew it. That final set card of yours was a Counter Trap meant to deal with Trap Cards!”

Yugi showed no concern at all over Dark Bakura’s use of Seven Tools of the Bandit. Everything was already within his calculations.

“What? ...M-masaka! You have a Counter Trap too!?”

If Yugi could still smile in a situation like this, then there could only be one answer.

A Counter Trap, to chain to the three-speed Trap that was Seven Tools of the Bandit, required another three-speed card of the same kind: a Counter Trap.

“Counter Trap, Trap Jammer, activate! Any Trap Card activated during the Battle Phase by the opponent will be negated and destroyed!”

A Counter Trap to counter a Counter Trap! And thanks to Dark Bakura’s earlier self-imposed branding restrictions, preventing card printing, every card on his field exploded apart, leaving only Dark Sanctuary, the Spell Card standing in the Field Zone.

With Dark Bakura reduced to a single monster and a life total already halved by Seven Tools of the Bandit, Yugi activated the Monster Reborn he had set in advance, revived the Dark Magician from the Graveyard, joined him with his disciple Dark Magician Girl, and with his companions in battle, the Swordsman of Landstar and Baphomet, swept away the last flicker of Dark Bakura’s 3000 Life Points.

Seeing Dark Bakura’s Life Points drop to zero, the referee immediately declared his presence:

“The first match of the semifinals, the winner is Muto Yugi!”