Dartz

Dartz (&#12480;&#12540;&#12484;) is the main villain in the Orichalcos Doom (or Doma) story arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, a Japanese anime.

Plotline
10,000 years ago, Dartz was the last king of Atlantis, when the powerful stone known as the Orichalcos rained down upon his kingdom. The taint of the Orichalcos turned man into monster, and after being forced to kill his own wife when she was transformed, Dartz had his mind corrupted by the stone's power, and began his plan to ressurrect the Orichalcos god, the Great Leviathan, which dwelled within the Earth. Dartz's father, Ironheart, called upon the world of Duel Monsters and its' guardians, the three 'Legendary Dragons' (in actuality, three soliders who Dartz had transformed into monsters), for aid, and a conflict dubbed "the Battle of Atlantis" ensued, that pitted the Duel Monsters against Dartz's Orichalos Soldiers, and the Great Leviathan itself. At the battle's conclusion, the dragons sacrificed themselves to seal the leviathan beneath the Earth once more, and the forces unleashed sank the city of Atlantis beneath the waves.

The corruption of the Orichalcos made Dartz believe the world to be a wicked place, and that man had an inherent wickedness in his heart. The transformation the Orichalcos had inflicted on his fellow Atlanteans was, he believed, the punishment for being wicked, as the outside of man became as twisted as their inside. Dartz was driven to revive the Great Leviathan to raze the world, so that he may remake it in the image of glorious Atlantis. And to do so, Dartz required human souls. He proceeded to wander the Earth for the next 10,000 years - presumably kept alive by the power of the Orichalcos - and knew he had found one of the powerful souls he required when he encountered the Pharoah Atem in ancient Egypt, witnessing his control of the powers of darkness and his ability to command Duel Monsters.

It is is unclear precisely when Dartz began to collect souls, but eventually, Dartz established a multinational conglomerate named Paradais, which became a well-know, yet mysterious force in the business world. But this was not the only organisation Dartz had formed - he also controlled the "Doma" organisation (unnamed in the English anime), a group formed to gather souls to feed the Great Leviathan by challenging unsuspecting players to games of Duel Monsters, only to have their souls taken by the Seal of Orichalcos, cards he had suffused with the Orichalcos's power.

In recent times, Dartz had acquired a great number of souls, thanks in part to his three minions - Raphael, Amelda and Varon (Raphael, Alestair and Valon in the English anime), a gang of Duel Monsters players whose lives Dartz manipulated to make them feel only hatred, moulding them to be ideal servants to his cause. He give them each a small fragment of the Orichalcos, which can be used to break the Seal of Orichalcos from outside in case of emergency.

Once aware of the fact that the Pharoah had been reincarnated and his spirit revived in the present day, Dartz began his plan to take his soul by stealing the Egyptian God Cards, using their power along with human souls to revitalise the Leviathan. Subsequently, Yugi, Seto Kaiba and Joey Wheeler free and unite forces with the Legendary Dragons as the souls of both them and their friends come under threat. Events eventually converge on a duel between Yami, Kaiba and Dartz, in which Yami claims victory by unlocking the power of the Legendary Dragons and returning them to their true forms. Kaiba, Joey and Yugi's souls are freed from the clutches of the Leviathan, but instead, Dartz's own soul is taken, providing the power necessary to resurrect the Leviathan and raise Atlantis once more. In the ensuing battle, Yami frees the spirits of the Egyptian Gods from within the Leviathan, and together, they destroy it, freeing all the captive souls. However, a trace of it's darkness remains, along with Dartz's soul, which Yami is able to banish, freeing Dartz from the influence of the Orichalcos, allowing him to be reunited with the spirits of his father and daughter. As Atlantis sank beneath the waves, Dartz was not shown to leave the city, and hence presumably died, allowing his spirit to be free and with his family.

Deck
Dartz plays an Orichalcos deck: a deck that focuses on making an opponent lose life points and make all their moves useless, while increasing one's own life points. Accordingly, Dartz plays Seal of Orichalcos along with Orichalcos Kyutora. Apparently, Orichalcos Kyutora cannot be attacked, and its special ability prevents a player from receiving any battle damage. Dartz uses Orichalcos Gil-Gars, which can return from the graveyard as a result of battle 500 points stronger. Dartz continues to destroy Orichalcos Gil-Gars, and it returns 500 points stronger, and then another 500 points stronger by the effect of the Seal of Orichalcos. Dartz receives no damage because of Orichalcos Kyutora.

Then, Dartz plays Second Seal of Orichalcos. That allows Dartz to gain 500 life points for every monster on his side of the field. Dartz plays four mirror knights along with a mirror shield that prevents the mirror knights from being destroyed. Kaiba was able to destroy the mirror shields and use a special magic card that allows Yugi's Dragon Master Knight to directly attack Dartz, but Dartz sacrifices Orichalcos Gil-Gars to negate that attack. Two turns later, after Kaiba was able to destroy 3 of the 4 shields that the mirror knight had, Dartz plays Third Seal Orichalcos. Dartz then plays Orichalcos Diablos, and Kaiba finds out that trap cards affecting Dartz's monsters are rendered useless as a result of the Third Seal.

Later, Kaiba gets the Legendary Dragon Critias, and fuses it with Yugi's Mirror Force to make MirrorForce Dragon. Kaiba attacks the last mirror knight with the shield, the attack is reflected back at Kaiba, and then Kaiba uses special ability of Mirror Force Dragon to counterattack all of Dartz's monsters with the mirror knight's attack of 500. Since all of Dartz's monsters have 500 attack points, they are all destroyed. But that is not meant to be.

Dartz evolves Orichalcos Kyutora into Orichalcos Shinoras, which can summon its left arm and right arm. The left arm and right arm are always 300 attack points more than the opponent's monster attacking it, and they are always designated as first targets. Orichalcos Shinoras has attack points beginning with Dartz's life points (20,000) and loses attack points as it attacks other monsters.

Yugi had only one thing left that can turn the duel around. It was the blank card Pegasus gave him in the Pot of Greed. Yugi didn't put it into his deck, but it magically got there and transformed into the magic card Legend of Heart. It allows Yugi to summon specially the legendary dragons Timaeus, Critias, and Hermos, then transform them into their true forms: the three legendary knights.

Three Legendary Knights
 * When all three are on the field, destroy the three Seals of Orichalcos.
 * Legendary Knight Critias can automatically destroy all of a player's monsters when it is summonned.
 * You can remove three monsters from your graveyard. Legendary Knight Hermos's attack points equal three times the monster it is attacking.
 * Legendary Knight Timaeus can fuse any number of monsters together

However, when Orichalcos Shinoras is destroyed, Dartz summons God of Serpent with infinite attack power. Dartz must sacrifice all his life points, but he can’t lose unless God of Serpent is destroyed. Dartz attacks Yugi’s Timaeus, but Yugi plays his own magic card that summons specially a monster from his hand and he cannot lose until that monster is destroyed. Yugi summons Dark Magician Girl. Yugi then revives Timaeus. Next turn, Dartz discards ten cards from his deck to his graveyard to allow God of Serpent to have infinite attack. He attacks Dark Magician Girl, but Celtic Guardian somehow comes out to protect her. Then, Yugi orders Helmos and Critias to attack God of Serpent. Yugi plays Attack Transferal Barrier to transfer God of Serpent’s attack on Critias to Helmos. Yugi removes the three magnet warriors in his graveyard to activate Helmos’s ability: it’s attack is equal to three times the monster it is attacking. Then, Yugi uses Timaeus’s ability to fuse the three Legendary Knights into United Dragon Divine Timaeus with triple infinite attack. God of Serpent is destroyed, and Dartz loses. (But the real action is further along.)