They come to me in my dreams now.

Hundreds of them . . . tiny blue demons with death-filled fangs. some carry axes, some rush recklessly, and others, the worst of them all, are mechanical abominations, shells of the goodnatured faeries they once were.

Last week when I wrote up the first reader challenge I had no idea as to the number of responses I’d receive. I suspected that perhaps I had under-estimated the level to which Yu-Gi-Oh! players enjoyed the prospect of a challenge mixed with free swag when, scant hours after the challenge was posted, my inbox was already bulging with submissions. After just 24 hours, over 150 Mokey Mokeys were running amok in my inbox, patiently waiting their turns to be sifted through and judged for one thing, and one thing only:

Brutal killing efficiency . . .

A lot of really interesting approaches were taken. Some tried equips, using Axe of Despair, Mage Power, and United We Stand, often special summoning Kozacky and Gigobyte to the field to add to the overall "terror by cuteness" theme. Others special summoned far larger monsters and then used Riryoku to pump up Mokey Mokey. One of the most interesting solutions from one reader involved setting Magical Merchant, forcing it to flip to trigger its effect, and then discarding three of almost every monster in the game in order to fuel a huge Deal of Phantom to give Mokey Mokey a massive attack boost.

The most popular tactic, though, was what many competitors dubbed "Mecha–Mokey Mokey". Setting DNA Surgery on turn 1, Mokey Mokey would be converted to a Machine type monster on turn 2 and could then have his attack multiplied to ridiculous levels with repeated Limiter Removals. In fact, the Magical Merchant Mokey Mokey used this strategy as well and was the most successful of the basic Mecha–Mokey Mokey entries, clocking in at over fourteen million attack!

But fourteen million just wasn’t enough. Out of the 400–450 entries I received, just under a dozen entrants managed to infinitely enrage Mokey Mokey, pumping him up with endless loops to literally boundless proportions. How did readers do it? Let’s look at winning entrant Michael B.’s explanation:

How I dealt the damage:

Timmy’s opening hand after drawing:
Mokey Mokey
DNA Surgery
The Little Swordsman of Aile
Dimension Fusion
Painful Choice
Graceful Charity

TURN 1: Summon Mokey Mokey and set DNA Surgery
Pwnzor is still laughing

TURN 2: Timmy draws Soul Release
Timmy summons The Little Swordsman of Aile
Timmy plays Painful Choice, picking three Dark Magicians of Chaos, Limiter Removal, and Mystik Wok.
Whatever Pwnzor chooses is irrelevant, because Timmy’s going to play Graceful Charity next and put that card into the graveyard.
Timmy plays Soul Release to remove all three Dark Magicians of Chaos from play.
Timmy flips up DNA Surgery and names "Machine"
*Timmy plays Dimension Fusion to special summon all three DMoC’s.
*For their effect, Timmy chooses to get back Dimension Fusion, Limiter Removal, and Mystik Wok.
*Timmy plays Mystic Wok on one Dark Magician of Chaos.
*Timmy uses The Little Swordsman of Aile’s effect to remove the other two DMoC’s from play (all three DMoC’s are removed from play once again).
*Timmy plays Limiter Removal, doubling Mokey Mokey’s ATK
Timmy repeats the above starred steps (*) an infinite number of times (the only limit to Mokey Mokey’s attack is Pwnzor’s patience!)
Timmy attacks with Mokey Mokey for infinite damage.

Pretty impressive! Michael B from Brokenwater, Oklahoma was the first entrant to submit an infinite solution that worked, so as per the contest rules, he has earned his place as the first Metagame Reader Challenge winner! The other infinite loops were a bit different: they often substituted other sources of attack power in the place of Limiter Removal, and Hysteric Fairy sometimes stood in for Little Swordsman to give a method of tributing the Dark Magicians. If you read this solution when it was first posted, you may have noticed that the original solution featured an answer that substituted Triangle Power for Limiter Removal (which of course didn’t work because Triangle Power does not stack). Several entrants made this error, while several others chose to tribute the three Dark Magicians of Chaos to Cannon Soldier (leaving Pwnzor long dead before Mokey Mokey could attack). All but one submission at this level used Dark Magician of Chaos to create an infinite loop.

The one that didn’t? It instead used Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Banisher of the Light, Rush Recklessly, and two Primal Seeds. On turn 2, Graceful Charity was used to get some tribute fodder for Black Luster Soldier and it would be summoned, as would Banisher of the Light. An infinite loop would then be formed, wherein Banisher of the Light would remove Rush Recklessly from play after resolution. It would be brought back with one Primal Seed (which would then itself be removed), and used again. The second Primal Seed would then retrieve one Rush Recklessly and the other Seed, and the combo would be repeated until Mokey Mokey just couldn’t take it anymore and hurled himself across the table at Pwnzor’s forehead. Ouch.

So, those are the results of the first Metagame.com Reader Challenge! Now that everyone’s got a feel for how stuff works, things are going to get even harder next week, so study up and keep your wits sharp. I’d like to send out a big thanks to everyone who did all they could to enrage a Mokey Mokey of their own! I’m sure the little guy appreciates it.

Thanks for competing!

-Jason Grabher-Meyer