## Watching Yu-Gi-Oh!
Shorts, the Old-school Duelists Have a Meltdown!
# Chapter 24: Toxic Combo Breakdown Part 2!
The Infinite Search Loop!
Joey Wheeler’s reaction didn’t escape the notice of Yugi Muto and the others.
They knew Joey’s personality all too well—honest, passionate, and fiercely loyal.
It was only natural for him to despise such a “toxic” and oppressive deck.
“Unbelievable!”
Maximillion Pegasus, who had been silent for some time, suddenly spoke up with a look of pure admiration.
“To see such a perfect masterpiece of a deck! I quite like it.”
He looked over at Joey.
“Joey-boy, there’s no need to be so upset. Every deck has its own unique characteristics and strengths. While the Eldlich system may seem… ‘toxic’ as you say, it still needs to reduce your Life Points to zero to win, does it not?”
Joey took a deep breath and gradually calmed down.
Pegasus was right.
Every deck was different.
Eldlich was simply an extreme expression of control.
“I guess you’re right,” Joey muttered, relaxing his stance.
“Even my Red-Eyes deck uses a few ‘nasty’ cards. [Magic Cylinder] has won me plenty of games. Maybe this is just what high-level dueling looks like.”
With a newfound perspective, Joey looked back at the screen.
…
Some duelists argued that winning with such “toxic” cards was dishonorable.
Others argued that this was the hallmark of a diverse dueling environment—that a deck like this was necessary to keep the meta from becoming stale and formulaic.
“Yusaku, what do you think of this Eldlich system?” Soulburner asked.
“From what I’ve seen of the monsters alone, the power level isn’t inferior to my Salamangreats. In fact, if my deck went up against Eldlich, I honestly couldn’t predict the win rate.”
Soulburner had already begun mentally simulating a match against Eldlich.
Even without factoring in the backrow of Spells and Traps, the pressure from the monsters alone was giving him a headache.
“Mm. It’s hard to say for sure,” Yusaku replied, his gaze fixed on the display.
“Let’s wait until the Spells and Traps are explained before we draw a final conclusion. But I agree—the strength of this archetype is undeniably high.”
…
**IWantToBecomeAnEldlichPro**: “Those are the primary monster combos and small synergies that make the deck tick.”
**IWantToBecomeAnEldlichPro**: “Of course, you can always splash in other tech cards as you see fit.”
**IWantToBecomeAnEldlichPro**: “Now, let’s move on to the Spell Cards! As shown in the starting decklist, this archetype doesn’t actually run many Spells. Some builds don’t even include [Zombie World].”
“However, there are a few core Spells that are essential to the engine!”
“First is the Continuous Spell: [Cursed Eldland]!”
“Its effects are straightforward. The first effect restricts you to only attacking with Zombie monsters—a minor price to pay. The second effect allows you to pay 800 LP to search your deck for one ‘Eldlich’ monster or one ‘Golden Land’ Spell/Trap and add it to your hand.”
“The third effect triggers when it’s sent from the Spell & Trap Zone to the GY: you can send one ‘Eldlich’ monster or one ‘Golden Land’ Spell/Trap from your Deck to the GY. It provides both direct searching and graveyard setup, which acts as a secondary search! It is a phenomenal piece of in-archetype support.”
The utility of the card was immediately apparent to everyone watching.
Running three copies of [Eldlich the Golden Lord] meant the chances of opening with him were still relatively low.
And if you already had the Golden Lord in hand, you could use it to search out a piece of your backrow instead.
It was an incredibly versatile card that was never dead in the hand.
“You thought that was it? No! To get [Eldlich the Golden Lord] onto the field, we have even more options!”
“Aside from [Eldlixir of White Destiny], which provides revival from the hand or GY, we also run this: [Eldlixir of Black Awakening]!”
[Normal Spell Card: Eldlixir of Black Awakening]
[Effect: Special Summon 1 Zombie monster from your hand or Deck in Defense Position. If you do not control an “Eldlich” monster, you can only Special Summon an “Eldlich” monster with this effect. For the rest of this turn after this card resolves, you cannot Special Summon monsters, except Zombie monsters. ②: You can banish this card from your GY; Set 1 “Golden Land” Spell/Trap directly from your Deck.]
“There’s more?! More cards to facilitate the setup?”
Duelists across the six worlds stared wide-eyed at this Normal Spell.
When combined with the knowledge of [Eldlixir of White Destiny], their understanding of the Eldlich deck reached a new level.
Previously, they had been wondering: if Eldlich required discarding Spells and Traps to activate his effects, how would the player sustain their resources?
Were those discarded cards simply wasted?
The answer was finally here.
When these themed Spells and Traps were sent to the GY, they could be banished to “cheat” a [Golden Land] card directly from the deck and set it on the field!
The discarded resources weren’t wasted at all—they were the fuel for the deck’s expansion!
Realizing this, the duelists shuddered.
With so many ways to cycle through the deck, there was no need to fear a bad draw.
The deck was a self-sustaining engine of search and recovery!
“Wait… so everything they discard… becomes a way to set up even more cards?” someone whispered in awe.
The sheer efficiency of the engine was terrifying.
End of Chapter