Chapter 1212: The Future Deck

"Well done."

Z-ONE looked at Kira, who had just returned to his domain, and spoke with a calm air.

At this moment, Kira was checking through the cards he'd just received from Z-ONE—or, more precisely, from a research institute under Z-ONE's control.

Z-ONE was the secret mastermind behind the Iliaster Organization. Iliaster themselves had travelled through multiple eras of human civilization, establishing deep foundations and leaving hidden forces and organizations in every age. Unsurprisingly, among these were institutions dedicated to card printing and dueling research.

This time, Kira had received some new cards from one such institution, generously sponsored by Iliaster—cards that happened to pique his interest.

For example, an incomplete set of T.G. (Tech Genus) cards.

As the first deck in anime history to showcase the concept of "Accel Synchro" as an ace, Kira was naturally somewhat interested in T.G. And thanks to Antinomy's pivotal role and popularity in the anime, the archetype even received decent support in the future.

Kira didn't know whether T.G. was considered an ultra-rare deck in the future, or if, like HEROes in the GX era, it would be fairly common. At least, Z-ONE's stockpile had some, though apart from the set once held by Antinomy, the rest weren't exactly complete.

Notably, heavy-hitters like T.G. Blade Blaster and the ultimate ace T.G. Halberd Cannon were missing.

Kira felt a little regretful about that.

He was interested in the anime-exclusive version of Halberd Cannon, but unfortunately, it wasn't included.

It was a shame, because Kira felt that the anime Halberd Cannon would have suited him perfectly. Being able to lock out up to three summons of any kind per turn—even shutting down monster card effects that perform summoning—was an insanely powerful form of suppression.

How fun would it be to summon something like that? After all, isn't enjoyment the most important part of dueling? Was there anything in dueling more enjoyable than this?

Sadly, it simply wasn't an option.

In the anime, "Accel Synchro" was presented as an ace of a unique nature, on a transcendent level of power.

According to lore, one needed to achieve a state of "Clear Mind" to control Accel Synchro monsters. Even after Yusei obtained Shooting Star Dragon, he'd always draw a completely blank card when synchronizing for it—only for Shooting Star Dragon's artwork to appear as the Accel Synchro process completed.

So Kira boldly speculated: these Accel Synchro monsters only materialize during duels, appearing through the process of awakening to this mindset and accelerating within the duel.

As for this "Clear Mind" state, Kira wasn't very clear himself. The anime didn't give much to latch onto in terms of character growth or inner state.

Besides T.G. cards, Kira also got another unexpected haul.

"There's actually this many of these cards?"

Kira counted a fistful of Meklord Emperor cards and all sorts of their pieces, looking surprised.

He used to think that decks belonging to top Iliaster Organization executives like the Three Pure Nobles might be rare cards too. Turned out, not only were they not rare, Z-ONE's stockroom seemed to be mass-producing them—there was a whole pile.

Thinking about it, it made sense. In the ruined future, "Meklord Emperors" were just mass-produced machines, swarming the world like locusts.

It was said that perpetual motion engines, tainted by the darkness in people's hearts, went haywire and began disaster. The "Meklord Emperors" were the result—anti-virus machines churned out automatically in this reversal.

In the anime, during the flashbacks of the future's four protagonists, the main enemies of humanity's final resistance were indeed the Meklord Emperors. In that apocalyptic wasteland, they covered the planet like Terminators, systematically exterminating humanity. The perpetual motion machines identified mankind as the virus plunging the world into darkness, and the Meklord Emperors became antibodies to erase said virus.

However, once Z-ONE assimilated his own persona with Yusei, and after achieving "Clear Mind" to summon Shooting Star Dragon, all the Meklord Emperors before Z-ONE and Shooting Star Dragon were instantly rendered powerless.

This now perfectly validated Yusei's theory: guide the perpetual motion engines with the right heart and open a new path in dueling, and you could halt their reversal and avert destruction.

Z-ONE had already brought three stone tablets—engraved with the data of three Meklord Emperor decks—from the future to the present. As long as those tablets were safe, mass-producing Meklord Emperor decks was hardly a problem.

Kira himself wasn't much interested in the combined Meklord Emperor decks used by the Three Pure Nobles in the anime. He'd mentioned why before.

Sure, Meklord Emperors could absorb Synchro monsters, swap parts for multiple powerful effects—on paper, very impressive.

Yet, the deck bricked way too easily.

The basic form required all five parts, five monster cards, and you couldn't draw them directly—you had to draw Wise Core, then destroy it with another card's effect to special summon all five parts from the deck. The conditions were just far too demanding.

Of course, narrative convenience ensured that the Three Pure Nobles in the anime never suffered hand jams. Fate favored the main Villains. Yet, even if that were ignored, the deck's sheer number of dead draws made it intimidating.

Even from an anime-deck-building perspective, if the deck occupied so many slots, that meant less room for "meaningless" cards to address weird situations.

In the anime, if your deck couldn't handle odd scenarios with such "meaningless" cards, your max potential was lower. It might generally be fine, but if you ever ran into a situation your whole deck couldn't answer, you'd be done for.

So Kira wasn't hot on the fusion-Meklord deck in the show. However, the archetype itself—as a "Synchro Killer" series—was still interesting: the ability to eat any Synchro monster made it savage in a Synchro-dominated dimension.

For this reason, Kira ironically found the real-life version of Meklords more practical. Each Meklord Emperor was just a single card with a summoning condition: if a monster you control is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the graveyard, you could special summon it.

While it didn't have five parts or mountains of effects like in the anime, it kept the most important trait: absorbing an opponent's Synchro monster. That was more than enough.

Kira made a quick count of his haul. Z-ONE quietly watched him for a while, then suddenly spoke: "The Meklord Emperors. You seem interested in them?"

"It's alright. They're 'Synchro Killers' after all. Studying them could be useful."

Kira put away his new cards and glanced up at Z-ONE.

"Alright, now can I ask what your next plan is?"

Z-ONE pondered for a moment before answering: "We intend to hold the world's top Riding Duel tournament—WRGP—in one month."

Kira was surprised.

Just one month?

…