Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 154 To Destroy a Deck!

Destroying the deck of some jerkwad that we're never going to see again after this moment is a pretty weak reason to take this detour. Not that there aren't WEAKER ones, mind you, but this is down there in strength. Unless, of course, KT pulls a totally unprecedented move and actually has Yami lose this one despite all his efforts because of his snap decisions and vastly overgrown sense of righteous indignation on behalf of his friend. Wouldn't THAT be something?

Heh, fat chance, Writch. As per usual, Yami's arrogance is being framed in a rather different light here. Especially in the next panel when Cloaked-guy is just SO SHOCKED that Yami knows his strategy, heart beating wildly and mouth gaping. Yami smirks, chuckling as he tells Cloaked-guy to watch as his Exodia deck is destroyed.

Yami is shown looking at his hand, right at the top of which is Lightforce Sword. Nothing like a lightsaber to bring down a gigantic five-part beast. Jonouchi is grinning, impressed that Yami figured out Cloaked-guy's strategy in just three turns. Goodness, the last chapter was only THREE TURNS?? This duel might outlast my will to stick it out! Jonouchi recalls that Yami didn't listen when he tried to spill the beans on Cloaked-guy's deck, citing Yami's confidence that he could beat Cloaked-guy no matter what tricks he had in his favor. Jonouchi mutters that Yami has taught him another valuable lesson, about the confidence of a duelist and a little thing called pride.

Or a guy who almost always seems to be right about just about everything.

Cloaked-guy has put his smirk back on, though, mentally congratulating Yami for figuring out his strategy, but thinking that it's too late anyway. He does, after all, already have four of the five pieces of Exodia he needs, and is going to draw the fifth on his next turn. He knows because he's got those superfluous contact lenses on that let him see through his cards. That sure is doing him some serious good, as made evident by the next couple of panels.

Oooh, that's a question I haven't had to ask in a while - did Cloaked-guy speak aloud, or did Yami read his mind? Does it matter? I'm not sure anymore.

Yami has drawn the trap card "Chain Destruction", which Yami immediately realizes the play of which will prevent him from summoning a monster on the same turn. It's a risk that he's willing to take, because he's certain Cloaked-guy has most of the pieces of Exodia by now. Besides, the next panel shows pretty clearly that he's still got Chimera on his side, though Cloaked-guy has his two wall monsters up and acting as his sentries.

Yelling that he's making a move, Yami's ready to fight. He places his Chain Destruction face down and uses his Chimera to attack the Stone Statue on Cloak-guy's side. Chimera roars and charges, busting through the rock creature with a move called "Impact Dash". That thing has a REALLY hard head, apparently. The pieces of virtual rock rain down around an unimpressed Cloaked-guy's head while Yami shouts that it's the end for the statue.

Smirking, Cloaked-guy silently encourages Yami to break all his wall monsters while his points remain on their perch at 4000. He's pretty certain that the moment Yami's turn ends, Yami will also end the game by losing. Yami, bookending his attack with yet another card he plays face down, ends his turn. This pleases Cloaked-guy, who does this weird internal laughter as he grins at Yami and announces it's his turn, thinking he's won. Yami is sweating when he pontificates in his head about how the card he just put down will only work at a particular phase in Cloaked-guy's turn, and how it's all over if he misses the window. Good thing everyone in this comic compulsively shouts about everything they're doing 24-7, then, huh?

Cloaked-guy reaches for the card on top of his deck, elated about how he's going to win once he's got it, and ALLLLLLLMOOOOOOST draws it on his announcement.... Until Yami deems this very second the "phase" he was thinking about before. He points, telling him to hold his horses a moment before Cloaked-guy draws so he can activate his spell card. While Cloaked-guy wonders what card Yami's playing THIS TIME, Yami flips it to reveal that it was Lightforce Sword! The gaping Cloaked-guy can only repeat the name of the card in his head.

Flinging swords around like that is bound to put out someone's eye someday. Luckily, this time it was only a hand. Exodia's right hand, to be precise, with the sword pinning it right on that field between them. Yami smirks at having caught Exodia's arm, and I assume he's rather proud of the fact that his hologram managed to influence a physical card like that. Somehow. No one else seems to notice this, more impressed with the fact that it's the celebrity Exodia's hand. Jonouchi cheers about the victory.

A sweating Cloaked-guy groans in his upset, but Yami's not finished with him yet. He points, as he does for 90% of his existence because his mother apparently never taught him manners. Yami says that Exodia's hand touching the field activates his trap, flipping it to show that it's indeed Chain Destruction. Bet you can't guess what THAT does! Cloaked-guy is astonished at this spell/trap combo, or the use of the former to trigger the latter. Yami explains that his trap not only destroys the target monster on the field, but every duplicate in the hand and deck of the user. This, of course, leads him to smugly declare that Exodia will never awaken, his right arm being taken out of the running altogether.

Somebody's having a bad trip...

Yami continues to blabber on about how Exodia's pieces can never be brought back from the graveyard, and Cloaked-guy has no way to win without Exodia, because the biggest weakness to an Exodia-based deck is losing one of the pieces. I feel like Cloaked-guy should be sitting in a pew for how preachy Yami's gotten here. Although, I AM kind of digging how this scene harkens back to when Yami would explain a villain's punishment to them when they were clearly not listening. Throwbacks are fun.

Pointing again, Yami announces that Cloaked-guy has lost, and Cloaked-guy agrees, albeit a bit on the dazed side of horrified. His eyes start to pop as he insists that it can't be, because his deck was all ultimate and shit. He clutches his head and screams, throwing some sort of fit, though it's not because he's sad for his loss. Once we get a look at his front, we're alerted to the fact that welts are raising on his forehead into the shape of an Eye of Horus, just like Yami observes himself with horror. Cloaked-guy cries for help, claiming that someone is coming, and generally shrieking.

Jonouchi runs over, asking what's happening and if it's Yami who's doing it. Yami just stares gaping at the guy screeching in front of him like a wild animal. Eventually, Cloaked-guy stops screaming, announcing that the person he was yelling about before, Lord Marik, is finally here. With a sudden burst of strange aural light around Cloaked-guy's form, a voice issues from him that is clearly not Cloaked-guy himself. The possessor asks Yami if he's the Yuugi he's heard about, while Yami balks at the changed speech and manner of Cloaked-guy.

The possessor claims that Cloaked-guy is actually the weakest of the Rare Hunters, and the group's strength is actually much greater. He seems to realize ho much he's freaking out Yami and assures him that this possession was not meant to surprise him. How it was supposed to AVOID doing that, I'm not sure. The possessor explains that he's throwing his voice through this shell of the Cloaked-guy right now, and is actually quite a bit farther away. He managed to do this by implanting a bit of himself in Cloaked-guy so he can control him whenever he wants and make him do whatever. Yami likens it to a remote control, still looking pretty shaken.

He narrows his eyes again, though, demanding to know who this possessor is. The possessor responds that he's another who has been chosen by the Millennium Items, but just as Yami is wrapping his head around this, the possessor says that this was all only an introduction and that it was nice to meet him.

Oh, don't worry, I promise not to forget about you as soon as it's convenient.

Wait, who are you again?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Well, as I'm sure anyone familiar with my reviews thus far have noticed, this review is a little sparse on choice panels from the source material this time around. There just... wasn't much to show here, and it didn't help that there wasn't a whole lot of content either. Most of the chapter was dedicated to a turn-and-a-half, which is quite a scant bit of writing to stretch. Not the MOST scant, mind you, because that award goes to chapter 39.

Still, the pacing was very slow and clunky, almost STOPPING on occasion. A big example is when Yami was waiting for Cloaked-guy to say he was going to draw his card; a whole PAGE was dedicated to this when a small panel or two would have done just fine. I think KT was trying to play it off as suspense, given Yami's words on the previous page alluding to having to pull this off at the exact right moment, but it comes across as dull. Since this is a card game, the sense of urgency is just not the same as if the monsters and magic were actually there. If they were, the rules could literally restrict the movement of opposition in a way that isn't the case with cards and holograms, so I just ended up yawning more than teetering on the edge of my seat.

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by the "meeting" of Yami and Marik at the end. I feel like the duel has more meaning now that it was used to introduce a protagonist and antagonist in an interesting way, even if the mechanism to get them here was low on appeal. I would have liked it if KT had dispensed of his dimestore suspense and given a bit of that wasted space to more interaction between Yami and Marik instead.

But, hey, what can you do?