Who Let Him Play Yu-Gi-Oh!-Chapter 63: The Choice of the Strong

A few days later, as promised, Mokuba sent over the list of rare cards that were originally scheduled to be shipped to Duel Academy.

Just as Kira expected, the "VWXYZ" series took center stage on the list. Without hesitation, he immediately claimed that series for himself.

Since these cards were originally meant to be sold through Duel Academy's internal channels, their prices were set at a level you'd never see on the outside. Plus, Kira still had most of the bonus he received from KaibaCorp untouched, so his budget was more than adequate.

Next, he had his eye on the "Magical Mallet" that Chazz used in the anime. In the show, its effect was to shuffle any number of cards from your hand (including itself) back into the deck, then draw the same number of cards.

It's a great card for fixing dead hands. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

However, the real-life version was nerfed to only let you shuffle and redraw cards except for itself, meaning you'd lose a card in the process, making it much less useful.

Kira thought about it. Using the anime effect, you could refresh your hand without losing cards—still useful. But in this anime-style world where destiny-driven effects are king, even search effects aren't very popular, let alone this one.

Plus, he already had a bunch of anime-exclusive draw cards, so under normal circumstances, he wouldn't need the "Magical Mallet."

However, he noticed it was one of the cheapest rares in the whole box, and while usually unnecessary, it could be handy in some gimmicky combo decks. So, he grabbed three copies just in case.

He also spotted the key plot card, "Transcendent Wings." Discarding two cards, it lets you evolve Winged Kuriboh into its rare LV10 form.

But only one person in the entire Duel Academy owned a Winged Kuriboh, so this card might as well have "For Jellyfish-Head Only" printed on it.

Kira only had Kuriboh, not Winged Kuriboh, so this card was useless to him. He decided to let Jaden have it.

After picking through, he realized there wasn't much left for Chazz.

"Don't worry, before we send the shipment to Duel Academy, we'll supplement it with other rare cards," Mokuba assured him.

Well, Kira thought, if these goodies ended up in Chazz's hands, they'd probably get trashed anyway, so he might as well take them and avoid waste.

There were two days left before the start of Duel Academy.

...

The day before leaving for the island, he visited the dojo one last time to say goodbye to the master and the other students.

But as soon as he walked in, he saw all the students kneeling on the floor, heads bowed. Master Takeuchi was at the front, spit flying as he lectured them.

Kira, curious, listened for a bit and soon grasped the situation.

The master was angry that the dojo had become a breeding ground for toxic duelists, with students taking pleasure in making others miserable.

But that wasn't all. The students soon realized that when everyone in the dojo played this way, the fun was gone. So, they turned their attention to the local Duel Arenas.

Rumors of the Silent Dojo spread around the nearby arenas. It was said that every duelist from this dojo was an emissary of hell, delighting in dragging their opponents into the abyss—never mind winning; as long as the other side couldn't play, that was enough.

Worse, this trend spread like a plague wherever these duelists went.

Master Takeuchi probably never imagined that his "Silent Style" would one day become so widespread, but not in the way he'd hoped—instead, it was about silencing the opponent through dueling.

Kira's deck from the Moonlight Cup had been thoroughly studied by the dojo members. Now, everyone's decks were packed with "Solemn Judgment," "Trap Hole," "Torrential Tribute," and hand destruction—everyone was copying his deck.

Kira knew this was inevitable. Right now, he was only a nobody who'd pulled off an upset at an amateur cup against Rex Raptor. Only those around him would study his decks. If he ever became as famous as Yugi or Kaiba, his decks would be studied and countered by countless people.

But with all this dueling and research, Kira now realized that in this world, a duelist's deck wasn't just about strength.

Just like in early GX, when Ra Yellow student Dimitri stole Yugi's deck to duel Jaden but got crushed. Jaden and Zane Truesdale both explained—the deck must be built with your passion, only then will it respond to your heart and unleash its true power. Using someone else's deck, no matter how well you copy the tactics, it won't be truly yours, and you can't win.

Kira interpreted this as: copying someone else's deck lowers your destiny power. Maybe the deck you copied is strong, but your hand gets worse, your lucky draws decline, and in the end, your actual skill doesn't improve.

That's why, in the anime, the soul is everything. It's not just about being cool or flashy—without soul, you can be at a disadvantage against strong opponents.

So, for the past two days, Kira had been thinking about this. The ideal state was to balance competitive strategy with the soul of the deck—using psychological attacks to suppress opponents, but also leveraging the advantages of spirit cards.

In other words, find a balance between competition and soul.

But that's only against top duelists.

For the level of his dojo buddies, he felt copying strong decks wasn't a bad thing. Most of them didn't have much talent and might never improve in their lives, but using a better build could visibly increase their win rate.

Sure enough, after copying his deck, the brothers' win rate in the arenas had improved.

However, it did hurt the dojo's reputation.

"We duelists must believe in our decks!"

Master Takeuchi was scolding the students.

"A deck built with your own heart is unique to you!"

He said this righteously, but one student couldn't help but whisper,

"But, master, I saw you get a 'Confiscation' card two days ago, and three days ago you picked up a 'Delinquent Duo'..."

Master Takeuchi: "..."

He paused for a few seconds, then put his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest.

"That just means great minds think alike! Great duelists often make similar choices, that's normal."

The students: "..."