Starting Deck

Kira logged onto the card search websites for both KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions, looking up the Card Pools that were currently available for direct purchase on the market.

First and foremost was "that card" that any Duelist who had transmigrated here, assuming they had a brain, would undoubtedly search for first—

—Pot of Greed.

Or rather, the incredibly powerful Draw Engines unique to the Early Anime World, represented by Pot of Greed.

Pot of Greed allows you to draw two cards from your Deck unconditionally. This simple, brutal effect turned this card into a perpetually Forbidden Card in the Real Card Environment, forever imprisoned and representing a life sentence that would almost certainly never be released in any foreseeable future.

It had siblings in misfortune, like Graceful Charity, which not only allowed you to draw three cards from your Deck but also let you choose two cards from your Hand to discard to the Graveyard. As Yu-Gi-Oh! developed into an era where Graveyard and Hand resources were virtually interchangeable, the terrifying power of drawing three cards while also setting up the Graveyard surpassed even Pot of Greed.

However, these cards weren't very valued by Duelists in the DM Anime. By the GX Era, it seemed Duelists in the anime world had started to notice their power. After all, in the GX Anime, you could see the protagonists each having at least one Pot of Greed and one Graceful Charity in their Hand, and in Asuka's Duels, you could even witness a Pot of Greed drawing into another Pot of Greed, a truly brutal sight.

When it came to Monster Cards, Kira started to feel a bit of decision paralysis.

Because after scrolling through the entire Card Pool, he couldn't find a single one he liked. As a transmigrated Duelist, he really couldn't bring himself to use monsters that required carefully gathering Tributes for a Tribute Summon, only to summon a Vanilla Monster with around 2000 ATK/DEF.

It wasn't that there were no relatively good monsters, but many of them were unavailable for purchase, simply not on the market.

For example, the first one he thought of was Jinzo, one of the signature monsters of Katsuya Jonouchi from the previous protagonist's group. It was Level 6, only required one Tribute Summon, yet had a respectable ATK/DEF of 2400, and possessed a "Trap Negation Ability" that was quite overpowered in the early environment—as long as he was on the field, Trap Cards couldn't be activated.

Kira remembered that in the Real Card Environment of this era, this was also a very good single card, a frequent guest in Top-Tier Deck Builds at tournaments.

However, when he searched for it, it was out of stock.

Jinzo was classified as a highly rare card and was in a state of long-term unavailability; it simply couldn't be bought.

This left Kira feeling a bit frustrated. He quickly realized that another important factor in the difference between the Anime Environment and the Real Card Environment was the difficulty of obtaining cards.

In reality, they could check the entire Card Pool of the current version at any time and achieve almost any Deck Build using virtually any card. But Duelists in the Yu-Gi-Oh! world didn't have this convenience.

There were also some cards he wanted, but just glancing at the price, he couldn't help but gasp.

Forget it.

Kira knew clearly that cards in this world were almost directly equivalent to weapons and power, so he had long prepared to spend a significant amount, sparing no expense for essential cards.

But saying that was one thing; seeing the exorbitant prices of certain rare cards, he figured he probably couldn't afford them even if he sold himself.

This wasn't an exaggeration; he meant it literally.

Sure enough, the price difference between common cards and rare cards in this world was absurd. The prices of general cards and regular card packs were fairly similar to reality in his previous life, affordable for everyone. But the value of some rare cards was such that saying one card could buy a house wasn't an exaggeration at all.

And that was just for generally obtainable rare cards. Cards like "Blue-Eyes White Dragon," which were famously limited to three copies worldwide, all held by Seto Kaiba, were completely out of the question.

Further research revealed that besides car loans and housing loans, there was even something called Card Loans in this world. As the name suggested, you could take out a loan to buy cards.

"Being cardless feels so damn awful," Kira muttered, pouting.

Fortunately, even with these limitations, he managed to design a Deck Build concept using the cards he could obtain.

The prototype for this build was a Deck that held a landmark significance in the Real Card Competitive History of Yu-Gi-Oh!—the first World Championship Winning Deck in history.

Hand Destruction.

Perhaps every new Duelist who got into the game through the anime has some unrealistic fantasies about Dueling, such as clashes between high-ATK boss monsters like in the anime, intense back-and-forth offense and defense, and straightforward duels culminating in a satisfying GG in a thrilling battle.

However, that is fake Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Real Yu-Gi-Oh! is when, out of the two people at the table, only one gets to play Yu-Gi-Oh!.

The most reliable way to win is always to eliminate the opponent's strategic possibilities, preventing them from playing cards at all. This concept is consistently applied; it's true today, and it was true in the early Dueling environment as well.

[Hand Destruction] was a Deck built around this idea. As the name suggests, its strategy was to destroy the opponent's Hand, leaving them with no cards to play, forcing them to just stare blankly and idle from the moment the Duel starts. It could be considered the ancestor of the Dark Side of Dueling.

Opponents facing this Deck would have their perception of Dueling completely overturned. That poor soul would experience a series of commoner's three-part combo within minutes: "Blood pressure soaring," "Am I even playing against you?", and "Summon my fist in Attack Position!".

So, if you had to name the biggest drawback of this type of Deck, it would probably be that the user's personal safety is difficult to guarantee.

Of course, Kira couldn't remember the entire build of such an ancient championship Deck, and some rare cards were impossible for him to obtain. So, he only borrowed its concept and created a new build himself.

As for some empty slots in the Deck, he decided to fill them with a few Trap Cards that had decent single-card quality for now.

Actually, from Kira's Duelist perspective, some of these Traps weren't necessarily profitable and might not be truly useful. The main point was that having many traps made it easier to break the opponent's mindset.

He wasn't a devil, nor was he doing it out of malicious pleasure. Psychological warfare was an important part of Dueling. Sometimes, breaking the opponent's mindset before depleting their Life Points could be a very effective tactic.

Yeah, that's it.

Continuing to browse the website absently, his eyes scanned across a page, and suddenly they lit up.

Jinzo, Stock: 1.

Kira immediately scrolled the page back and clicked to inquire. However, the website immediately rejected him.

"No access permission."

"Academy Division exclusive card."

Kira was startled.

Academy Division? What was that?

After another round of online searching, he finally understood.

The so-called Academy Division referred to Duel Academy. It was the world's largest Duel Academy, personally established and overseen by Seto Kaiba. He specifically bought an entire island as the Academy Headquarters and fully funded it.

Students on the island had priority access to the latest card packs and had channels to purchase rare cards that were completely unobtainable outside, and they even received heavily discounted prices when buying them.

Even setting aside the academy's hardware and teaching staff, the Rare Cards and discounts alone were enough to make anyone envious.

What's more, students with sufficiently excellent grades could even exchange their grades and credits for cards. In a world where a single card could sell for an astronomical price, this saved students a considerable amount on their Deck building budget.

Not to mention, students who graduated from Duel Academy would receive the most reputable diploma in the dueling world. Whether they aimed to go pro, work at KaibaCorp, or take a position at Industrial Illusions, they would receive priority internal recommendation opportunities.

Flipping down casually, Kira even spotted Chaos Sorcerer!

Chaos Sorcerer, Level 6, 2300 ATK/DEF. It could be Special Summoned directly onto the field by Banish-ing LIGHT/DARK Attribute monsters from the Graveyard, and possessed a powerful effect to Banish one of the opponent's monsters from the game once per turn.

Because it had similar summoning conditions and effects to the more famous "Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning", it became a substitute for it after Black Luster Soldier was listed as a Forbidden Card. Duelists playfully nicknamed it "Little Envoy", and it was considered a top-tier force in the current version of the Anime Environment.

In this world, Black Luster Soldier was an ultra Rare Card. In the DM Anime, only Duel King Yugi Mutou was known to possess one. In the GX Anime, there was also an exhibition card in a replica Deck of Yugi Mutou's. Other than that, it hadn't been seen again.

Therefore, obtaining the Big Envoy was practically impossible. But if he could buy a Chaos Sorcerer, that would be excellent as well.

Besides these, there were also some other decent Rare Cards, which were likewise rarely seen on the outside market. The prices were indeed heavily discounted compared to their market value.

Seeing this, Kira took a deep breath.

He had made up his mind.

He'd take the Duel Academy entrance exam first.

If he couldn't get in, he'd try again.