Sea Island, Duel Academy HQ.
Chancellor Sheppard finally had a break after a busy day. He made himself some tea and checked this year's exam results and a few duels he was interested in.
He hadn't expected Professor Crowler to personally test that jellyfish-headed newcomer. But Jaden Yuki was impressive, defeating the academy's top duelist on his turf.
Sheppard sipped his tea, satisfied with Jaden's potential.
He next checked out this year's number one practical duel. Rumor had it his written test was almost perfect, beating second place Bastion Misawa by a hair.
Let's see his deck and duel performance—
What the hell is this? Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novelFɪre.net
Sheppard scratched his shiny head.
He'd been in the dueling world for years but had never really seen a deck .
Well, it did remind him of the deck used by the legendary Duel King, Yugi Meto, in his later years. Many who challenged him ended up furious, their faces twisted in frustration—just like that poor examiner in this duel.
But over the years, the game had evolved, and such secret techniques faded from the meta, as Kaiba Seto's influence set the mainstream direction. After Yugi's retirement, almost no one could pull it off.
But unlike the traditionalist professors, Sheppard didn't insist students follow the textbook. It's just that most students lacked creativity. Yet, with his experience, he felt Kira just might have the talent.
Could it be the academy had found a rare genius this year?
Looking at Kira and Jaden's names on the roster, Sheppard leaned back, sipping tea with a pleased smile.
Two prodigies in one year—what a joy.
Duel Academy was efficient. Within days, candidates could check their results and admission status.
As expected, Kira got his acceptance letter.
With a month until school started, there was no rush to move in. However, the new freshmen were already registered as the incoming class.
Kira, with his new student number, logged into Kaiba Corp's card system. As expected, more cards were now available for purchase.
He quickly browsed, making a list of possibly useful cards, then analyzed them.
Most were situational or combo pieces, set aside for later.
The ones he decided to buy immediately were the staples—the fun red traps.
For example, "Karma Cut," which banishes an opponent's monster by discarding a card, and the infamous "Ring of Destruction"—which blows up a monster and deals damage to both players equal to its ATK, perfect for forcing a draw.
He was even more surprised to find hand traps available.
Hand traps—traps you can activate from your hand—have always been strong, since unlike set traps, they're harder to anticipate and clear. Their origin traces back to the mascot "Kuriboh," which can negate battle damage by discarding it.
So when he saw Kuriboh among the rare cards, Kira bought it instantly, surprised it hadn't been snatched up.
But then, in the "prebuilt theme decks" section, he spotted the legendary "Elemental HERO" precon.
That made sense—Crowler had called Jaden's deck common in the first episode, so at this point, HERO decks were still basic.
Every duelist has a bit of a HERO dream, so Kira checked it out.
And instantly gave up.
Only the four infamous useless HEROes, two or three fusion HEROes, and a pile of weird support cards that even Jaden only used once in the anime.
Just looking it over, he could tell it was unplayable. Every spell/trap worked only with specific HEROes, and even if you managed to draw them, the combos were too situational—guaranteed to brick your hand and make you doubt life.
So the fact Jaden could win with this stuff was already a miracle.
Elemental HERO was out. Kira kept browsing.
Then he found Syrus' roid theme deck.
He perked up and checked the card list.
Roids were never meta, just a fun deck. But there was one card Syrus used that, after nearly twenty years, still hadn't been printed in real life: Kiteroid.
Kira locked on immediately and bought the whole deck.
You couldn't buy singles—only the full precon—but it was cheap, and even for just that one card, it was worth it.
[Kiteroid, Level 1, ATK 200, DEF 400.
You can discard this card to make a direct attack's battle damage to you 0.
While in the graveyard, you can banish it to make a direct attack's battle damage to you 0—once only.] (Anime effect)
This card was never printed in real life—only in the PSP game "Tag Force 3" and "Duel Links." It's essentially two hand traps in one—a lifesaver in the GX era, where hand traps were rare.
Kira, enjoying the thrill of shopping, built up his collection, but his wallet was shrinking fast.
He decided to keep some money in reserve. Logging out, he sighed and gazed skyward.
How can you play Yugioh without money...