Seto Kaiba grabbed the first pack from the Legend of the Blue Eyes White Dragon booster box and opened it there on the spot, laying the cards face up for all to see.
Sand Stone, Kagemusha of the Blue Flame, Succubus Knight, Petit Angel, Mountain, Green Phantom King, Tyhone, a Rare Card Pot of Greed, a Secret Rare Card Blue-Eyes White Dragon?
"Hahaha the very first pack and I open not only the field spell Mountain but also Pot of Greed and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Open your first pathetic pack!"
"Why are you revealing all of your cards to me?" Yuli asked in slight confusion, although most of it was why the Blue-Eyes White Dragon was a Secret Rare Card when that clearly should be Tri-Horned Dragon or Gaia, the Dragon Champion.
"Please, you were planning to do the same thing, part of the idea to do this was to have a discussion in the differences between our deckbuilding philosophies, wasn't it?"
Yuli nodded his head, that worked. He really just wanted to try and teach the people around him the basics of advanced Duel Monsters. Well, what he was taught at least. Tentatively he reached for a pack, and he felt his heart race. Before he even realized what was going on he opened his first pack and laid the cards out on the table as if in a trance.
Hard Armor, Masaki the Legendary Swordsman, Yami, Remove Trap, Two-Mouth Dark Ruler, Kagemusha of the Blue Flame, Raise Body Heat, a Rare Card Fissure, a Secret Rare Card Speed Jaguar!?!
Yuli looked at the card that he thought shouldn't have belonged. Carefully he picked it up and for a moment he swore he saw the card's mouth change into a feral grin. The art depicted an anthropomorphic female jaguar wielding a sword. Yuli read the card out loud, mesmerized and confused by the card's text.
"Speed Jaguar, 4 stars Earth Beast-Warrior. 1000 Attack and 800 defense, when this card attacks any battle damage your opponent takes is doubled."
"Incredible, they both pulled Secret Rare Cards in their very first pack! Grandpa those packs are amazing!" Yugi exclaimed in shock.
Kaiba merely huffed.
"What's wrong, you've never seen Speed Jaguar before? It's the other Secret Rare Card in this set, it's not a bad card but nothing to the might of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon."
With that he unceremoniously grabbed another pack and opened it while Yuli was still processing what he was looking at, and for some reason the longer he looked at the card the harder it was to look away.
"I thought the two secret rares were Tri-Horned Dragon and Gaia, the Dragon Champion." Yuli mumbled absentmindedly.
"Why the hell would they print a fusion monster when you don't need them? Also, WHY would the Tri-Horned Dragon be one of the two rarest cards in Legend of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon?" Yuli looked up confused and Kaiba revealed the cards in his second pack with a smirk.
Larvas, Dragon Treasure, Book of Secret Arts, Raise Body Heat, Laser Cannon Armor, Hinotama Soul, Kumootoko, another Secret Rare Card Blue-Eyes White Dragon and a Rare Card Stop Defense.
"ANOTHER SECRET RARE!" Yugi exclaimed. His friends acted as if they knew exactly how impressive that was. He shyly smiled and decided to explain. "If they opened just one Secret Rare Card it would be worth more than double the price Kaiba paid for both booster boxes."
NOW they gasped, struggling to grasp the staggering amounts of money that were in front of them. Kaiba bought these for 100 million yen so the cards in front of them... They all had different thoughts about this. One believed that maybe if he got good enough at Duel Monsters, he could pay off his dad's gambling debts and help his sister, maybe even have a shot at getting his own place to boot! Another had dreams of being able to travel abroad and study to dance. Yet another wondered if Duel Monsters was perhaps a chance to try out a different path than his predestined one his parents set out.
"Hmph of course, MY brother Seto will open the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, it's his signature card! In sealed you can play as many copies of a card as you open, and MY brother will definitely open even more of them!" Mokuba gloated in a prideful tone.
"Well said, Mokuba." Kaiba praised as he gave the Moki a headpat. Yuli finally snapped out of it and slowly grabbed for another pack, his heart was racing still, and it just wouldn't calm down for some reason.
"I didn't know that you guys don't need fusion monsters as actual cards and just need to know them. My grandma and I played with 15 cards in what we called the extra deck which could hold fusion monsters separately from outside the game." Yuli made a mental note that anytime he might have normally pulled a fusion monster it might be a card that he never even knew existed, so it was actually important to read some of them to him.
Seto paused and thought about this concept for a moment, that was actually quite intriguing. Sometimes limited availability breeds creativity. It also doubled as preventing any arguments from breaking out when two people dueled and one person knew the fusion monster but the other didn't. Not bad for an old hag. Then it was Seto's turn for another case of extreme shock as Yuli continued speaking.
"To think, you guys don't even need the card to fusion summon the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon."
"The Blue-Eyes WHAT!?!" Seto shouted as he slammed his hands down on the table. Yuli looked at him confused; how did he not know?
"The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, the very first of the Blue-Eyes Fusion monsters, you fuse three copies of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. It's a level 12 light dragon monster with 4500 attack and 3800 defense, no effect, how do you not know this? I thought the Blue-Eyes White Dragon was your ace monster, there is no way I know more about it than you."
Seto... had no reply to this, instead his mind was also blown by what he just heard. The FIRST Blue-Eyes fusion monster!?! That sick bastard Pegasus, he went to have dinner with him JUST in the past week to help revise the new Expert rules and yet he NEVER mentioned that his Ace Monster had fusions! He was DEFINITELY going to buy out Duel Monsters as a whole if it was the last thing he did. Yuli, completely oblivious to the sheer magnitude of the emotional and mental damage he did to Seto, just opened his second pack and laid out the cards.
King Fog, Green Phantom King, Turtle Tiger, Drooling Lizard, Terra the Terrible, Sogen, Silver Bow and Arrow, Kurama, Hane-Hane.
"Awesome! A Sogen, it would be awesome if I could get more and build around my secret rare! Hane-hane is also a decent flip effect monster! Pick your pack Seto! Seto?"
Seto swiftly grabbed his third pack and opened it.
Laser Cannon Armor, Firegrass, Uraby, King Fog, Petit Angel, Dragon Treasure, Hitotsu-Me Giant, Hinotama Soul, Giant's Might a rare that looked extremely similar to Megamorph.
"Hey look Seto, it's a copy of the first actual card I gave you!" Mokuba said, excitedly as he pointed to the Hitotsu-Me Giant.
"I remember Mokuba, it was a very thoughtful birthday present and truly started my journey as a duelist. In this pack you'll see I opened a Dragon Treasure which is something to keep in mind when I have the powerful Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and another good spell is Giant's Might, it's a normal spell card that will permanently boost the attack and defense of a monster by 20%."
Yuli, was of course caught off guard less by Giant's Might this time. Why wasn't it an equip card, why did it look like Megamorph so much, whatever, he supposed that didn't matter and reached for his third pack. He opened it with a smile, laying out the cards carefully on the table.
Larvas, Dark Energy, Succubus Knight, Armored Starfish, Dark Gray, M-Warrior #1, Meda Bat, Negative Energy Generator as a rare and the super rare Swords of Revealing Light.
Negative Energy Generator was a normal spell card that read, Select 1 face-up DARK monster you control. Triple its original ATK. Yuli had thought he prepared himself, he thought wrong. This card... was not a card he had ever heard about. It seemed... strong for this era. Absurdly strong. He could, conduct his battle phase the turn he played this card? For realsies?
"Uh, is this even a legal card?" Yuli asked in confusion as he pointed to the card.
"What do you mean?" Seto scoffed. "Of course, it's legal, there's no way I wouldn't be able to tell if I bought counterfeit product."
"No... I mean is it a banned card, it seems... stupidly strong." Yuli attempted to correct.
"Here I thought you might have been sad it doesn't work with your precious Speed Jaguar, I have only ever heard of fops like Pegasus having tournaments that ban cards. Please, you're making all of this fuss over a rare, even elementary schoolers can get a copy with their allowance."
"Especially mine! Wait, weren't we friends with Pegasus?" Mokuba asked in confusion, remembering the past week especially as the two men bonded over their frustration with a certain woman.
"He never mentioned anything about a fusion monster using the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, DESPITE me telling him that I managed to acquire three copies of the legendary card!"
"Right, he is now the Kaiba enemy." Mokuba said with conviction.
"Well said, Mokuba." Kaiba praised as he opened his fourth pack and laid the cards out.
Silver Fang, Kurama, Mystical Sheep #2, Kumootoko, Darkworld Thorns, Kagemusha of the Blue Flame, Power of Kaishin, Dragon Treasure, and the rare card Kaleidoscope.
"Not bad, the Dragon Treasure is worth noting but Kaleidoscope is a very powerful equip card. It's one of the signature cards of the Pro Duelist Mai Valentine. When you equip it to a monster you can create up to two tokens with the same name, ATK and DEF. You cannot conduct your battle phase the turn you activate "Kaleidoscope"."
Yuli blinked, that card looked like Elegant Egotist, and it was used by Mai Valentine... he was a little confused, so he asked a question to clarify.
"Isn't that Elegant Egotist? The same artwork, right?"
"Hmph, Elegant Egotist is the Harpie's Lady exclusive support spell, this came first. That card copied this one if anything." Seto replied. Yuli simply nodded and opened his fourth pack, it was in reality nothing special.
Flame Manipulator, Kumootoko, Mountain, M-Warrior #1, Masaki the Legendary Swordsman, Two-Mouth Darkruler, The Furious Sea King, Steel Ogre Grotto #1, Rare Card Stop Defense.
"Well, I have some cards I know can make fusion monsters in this pack but the only two stand outs are Mountain and Stop Defense and with any field spell I only really want to play it if I can build my deck to accommodate it." Yuli said, every word about Mountain being a 'stand-out' card dripping with copium.
Seto opened his fifth pack and then smirked at the contents.
Armail, King Fog, One-Eyed Shield Dragon, Nemuriko, Sparks, Two-Mouth Darkruler, Hinotama, his third copy of Secret Rare Card Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and finally the Rare Card Giant's Might.
Seto Kaiba burst out in maniacal laughter as held up the third copy of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon then as if nothing had happened, he composed himself and began explaining his thought process to his younger brother.
"In this pack of note of course are two cards we already discussed Mokuba but I did want to talk about two cards that have very similar effects. Sparks and Hinotama, Sparks will deal 200 damage to your opponent's lifepoints. Never play this card under the expert rules, it is barely playable at 2000 life points even. However, Hinotama will deal 500 damage. It's not a card you would play in every deck because you will lose card advantage when you play it, however it is good in any Aggro Deck as well as some decks that utilize other cards that have synergy with normal spell cards. Such as a control deck using the Magician of Faith."
Mokuba nodded intently, that made sense. If your opponent started with 4,000 lifepoints being able to take out an eighth of them with a single card could potentially be a powerful effect. Yuli was however suffering from extreme emotional and mental anguish at Sparks being called a barely playable in any context as well as Hinotama being GOOD in a deck? Well, perhaps there was a deck for every card. Just not a good deck. Wait there was that one Earhbound Immortal, Yuli began having actual anxiety at realizing that a potential deck existed that used Sparks as its kill condition. The Primal Seed loop as well. To distract himself from these terrifying thoughts, Yuli swiftly reached for his fifth pack and opened it.
Dark King of the Abyss, Drooling Lizard, Dissolverock, Kurama, Sogen, Petit Angel, Root Water, Meda Bat, and the Rare Card Giant's Might.
"Awesome another Sogen, also Giant's Might is a generic equip spell that can work with my Speed Jaguar!" If he ignored the fact that it would only increase her attack and defense by 200, still Yuli REALLY wanted to play Speed Jaguar. There was something about that card calling out to him.
"Two decent cards but as usual nothing exciting." Seto scoffed, and quickly he opened his sixth pack.
Dragon Treasure, Mountain, Dark Gray, Hinotama Soul, Laser Cannon Armor, Firegrass, Fireyarou, Tripwire Beast, and finally the Rare Card Final Flame.
Seto of course had a smile on his face.
"Excellent, another Mountain and Dragon Treasure. The pieces are also falling into place with Final Flame, this card will decimate a fifth of his life points with a single use!"
Yuli was trying to think about this... in his mind he was wondering exactly how good a burn spell was that would do 1600 points of damage? The answer was probably pretty good, perhaps bannably good? Was bannably even a word? Probably not. With that in mind he opened his own sixth pack and revealed the cards.
Drooling Lizard, M-Warrior #1, Steel Ogre Grotto #1, Dark King of the Abyss, Dark Gray, Two-Mouth Darkruler, Tripwire Beast, Hitotsu-Me Giant, and finally the Rare Card Stop Defense.
"Uhm, Stop Defense is good?" Yuli said, obviously a questioning tone in his voice.
"Pathetic, you underestimate Hitotsu-Me Giant, especially when you already opened two copies of Sogen." Kaiba would then reach for his seventh pack as Yuli had the following thoughts: I'll play it, but it's not very good.
