Strings

Strings/The Pantomimer, known as the "Quiet One," is one of Marik Ishtar's Rare Hunters during the Battle City arc.

Design
Strings is bald, has strangely pointed ears, and has very small blue pupils. He has many piercings all over his face, three near his left eye, one on each ear, three near his lip, one nose ring, and one lip piercing. He wears a black shirt and red pants with yellow suspenders. He wears a green bag across his chest. He wears clown like black shoes and his four spiked cuffs on his arms, one at his wrist and one near his shoulder on each arm. He also wears a chain around his neck with a keyhole pendent at the bottom. For some reason there is a large black outline around his eyes so he could be using eye make up or just have insomnia, the true answer is unknown. When he is under Marik's control (which is usually) a gold Eye of Wdjat on his forehead.

Biography
At first, he appeared to be a stationary mime in the park and was a curiosity for many of the people there, but when Marik took control of him, he went to confront Yugi and duel him.

Strings had a huge advantage up his sleeve, the Egyptian God Card Slifer the Sky Dragon. Using a five card combo involving Slifer, Revival Jam, Infinite Cards, Jam Defender, and Card of Safe Return, Strings put Yami in a tight situation. Every time he attacks, Strings can redirect the attack to Revival Jam, which automatically regenerates itself and thanks to Card of Safe Return, he can draw three cards from his deck whenever this happens and because of Infinite Cards, he can hold as many cards as he wants. This made Slifer practically unbeatable.

Yami is just about to give up until Kaiba arrives and encourages him to fight on. The two manage to figure out the weakness of this combo. Yami uses Brain Control to take control of Revival Jam, forcing Slifer to attack it with its second mouth. Then Revival Jam regenerates, forcing Strings to draw three more cards. Then Slifer attacks again. This continues in a never-ending loop until Strings' Deck is empty, and thus he loses the Duel. Yami gets Slifer the Sky Dragon for his victory.

Strings himself is entirely devoid of personality, and is merely a shell for Marik's will. This worked to Marik's advantage, since God Cards normally do not obey anyone without a Millennium Item, Strings' empty mind allowed Marik to bypass this restriction - Slifer obeyed Marik's will, though Marik didn't have to be there in person. However, Strings' lack of mental awareness also served another end - he had no conscience and could feel no pain, so would hold nothing back. Due to him losing to Yugi, Marik decided to talk through Strings one last time then released control of him and he collapsed. However, he was heard moaning so it is believed that he wasn't dead/sent to the shadow realm.

In the manga, it was explained that he was a mime that went mad after killing his parents, and sealed his own conscious away out of guilt.

Deck
Strings uses a Slifer Deck, which focuses on getting cards in Strings' hand to increase Slifer's ATK to be terrifyingly high and for the most part invincible in battle. Other than that, it appears to be a Slime Deck. The amorphous forms of the Slimes could represent Strings' mind being formed and shaped by Marik.

Strings' ultimate strategy is to get five specific cards out onto the field, which, in the manga and original Japanese anime, is called the "God Five" combo. These five cards are as followed:
 * Slifer the Sky Dragon: The main attack force with near infinite attack power.
 * Revival Jam: The ultimate defense, to defend Slifer in case necessary.
 * Jam Defender: To allow Revival Jam to automatically defend Slifer.
 * Card of Safe Return: Every time Revival Jam is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, Strings must draw three cards, and Slifer gains 3000 ATK points.
 * Infinite Cards: Removes hand limit, allowing Slifer's attack to climb virtually infinite.

However, despite Marik's claim that this combo will allow Slifer to have infinite attack, Yami Yugi proved otherwise, as he brainwashed Revival Jam and have Slifer to constantly attack the reviving monster, forcing Strings to keep drawing until a Deck Out occurred, thus losing. Therefore, this combo's greatest weakness is that God's power is limited by the number of cards within the player's deck.