Rex drew a card and immediately revealed it.
"Spell Card 'Graceful Charity.' Draw three cards, then discard two from my hand."
After swapping cards, he played two more.
First, he slapped one onto his duel disk.
"I special summon 'Gilasaurus'!"
[Gilasaurus, ATK 1400]
"Oh, Rex immediately goes for a special summon!" Kogashi explained to the viewers.
"Gilasaurus can be special summoned from the hand, but lets the opponent special summon a monster from their graveyard," added Sasaki.
"But since it's the first turn, Kira has nothing in the graveyard, so the effect doesn't matter here."
Rex played his second card: "Now, special summon a second 'Gilasaurus'!"
[Gilasaurus, ATK 1400]
Rex hadn't been idle in all those years away. He was called a 'legendary duelist' mostly because he once fought Yugi and Joey. Back then, he'd underestimated the nobody Joey, but now, all he could brag about was being beaten up by Joey Wheeler.
To return to the top, he'd refined his tactics, focusing on dragon and dinosaur strategies, inspired by Seto Kaiba's aggressive playstyle.
"Dragons are the strongest creatures! Dragon tamers must suppress their foes with overwhelming force!"
Rex declared, "Quick attacks suit dragons best! Feel a dragon's power! Battle—first, my 'Gilasaurus' attacks your face-down monster!"
The dinosaur charged. Kira's face-down monster flipped up—a small, red Machine-type.
[Machina Peacekeeper, DEF 400]
Machina, an old archetype from the DM era, first appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh R. Despite its age, it still had strong cards.
With only 400 DEF, the Machina was easily destroyed. Kira calmly sent it to the graveyard. "Machina Peacekeeper's effect activates. When destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I can add a Union monster from my deck to my hand."
He drew a card and showed it. "I add 'Machina Gearframe' to my hand."
"Machina?" Rex frowned.
Kira hadn't used this archetype at all in previous matches.
"Saving his main deck for the finals? Does that mean all his previous decks weren't even his best? That's a lot of confidence."
It's rare for someone to hide their main deck all the way to the finals—if you lose without using your best, you're a laughingstock.
"But whatever—against my dinosaurs, it doesn't matter," Rex said. "Battle continues! My second 'Gilasaurus' attacks directly!"
"Flip card," Kira said as a trap triggered.
"Trap Card—Magic Cylinder!"
Rex was shocked. "Magic Cylinder!?"
Even Sasaki was excited, "Wow, Magic Cylinder—the legendary trap from Yugi Muto's deck! It negates an attack and deals damage equal to the attacking monster's ATK!"
Magic Cylinder was a powerful trap—even more so in a 4000 LP format. It wasn't rare by the GX era, but still iconic.
This was one of the few good cards Kira had ground out in his predecessor.
Rex took the reflected damage, staggering a bit.
[Raptor, LP 4000 → LP 2600]
"First blood goes to Fujiki Kira in the finals!" announced Kogashi. "I never thought Rex Raptor would take such heavy damage in the first round!"
"Looks like even Rex Raptor will have to get serious now!"
Rex wasn't too bothered.
This was within expectations. He knew Kira loved traps, and his early attack might have been baiting them out.
Traps are annoying, but if you never trigger them, they'll just sit there forever.
Losing a 1400-ATK monster to Magic Cylinder wasn't so bad.
"End of Battle Phase. I tribute both 'Gilasaurus' to summon a high-level monster!
From endless darkness, break your cocoon and heed my call— Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn nοvelfire.net
Level seven, Tri-Horned Dragon, summon!"
Both Gilasaurus vanished in a whirlwind. Golden claws and fangs emerged, and a giant dragon landed with a tremor.
[Tri-Horned Dragon, ATK 2850]
"Tri-Horned Dragon!" Kogashi narrated. "Not only did Rex Raptor launch a fierce double attack, he also summoned a powerful high-level monster!"
"The appearance of Tri-Horned Dragon shows Rex Raptor acknowledges his opponent's strength and is going all out!"
Bathed in the summoning storm, Rex felt his presence grow even larger.
"See? This is my new dragon, Tri-Horned Dragon! Stronger than my old Red-Eyes or Serpent Night Dragon—a symbol of my rebirth!"
"Uh..." Kira thought about saying, "That's just a seven-star vanilla monster."
But in those days, Red-Eyes and Serpent Night Dragon were also seven-star vanillas requiring two tributes.
Fine, he couldn't argue with that.
He snapped his fingers.
"Flip card. Trap Card—Floodgate Trap Hole! When your opponent summons a monster, it's flipped face-down defense and can never change positions."
—I'm sending your Tri-Horned Dragon to the shadow realm!
The mighty Tri-Horned Dragon slipped and fell into a pit, never to emerge.
The commentators: "..."
Kira looked at Rex, who was still frozen in his summon pose and felt a weird sense of guilt.
It felt like he was being downright villainous.