Disclaimer: I do not own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh, they are the property of their respective owners.
We all know Yu-Gi-Oh is a rip-off of Magic, right? So what if a Magic player challenged Yugi to a duel? Since the games do have slight differences, all the Magic creatures will have their stats boosted by 500 (i.e. a 3/4 would be a 1500/2000) and no mana will be used. For abilities like "Pay X mana", the number of cards in the player's hand will replace the X. Instants and sorceries need to be played on the field before they can be used (i.e. they work like trap cards). The duel disk used by the Magic player will be adjusted to take Magic cards, so the creatures can materialize on the field. The game play will be by the Magic turn sequence and there is no attack or defence position.
"Finally," though Arrathir.
After week of travelling, he'd finally arrived at Domino City, the one place where there was supposed to be a card shop that still sold Alpha Magic boosters. Arrathir had read about this place on an Internet forum and he'd spent the following week scouring books for the location of Domino City. Having found nothing but vague clues, he'd set out, with his life savings and a few Magic decks. He had mostly been wandering around, asking people if they knew where Domino City was. He'd gotten a lot of weird looks, some amused glances, but, fortunately, he'd stumbled across an old map in an antique store that showed the way to Domino City. Getting there had proven quite difficult. He had traveled for weeks through dense forests and to top it off, he'd gotten lost in a cave. Stumbling around in the dark, he had fallen and knocked himself unconscious. When he'd woken up, he eventually found his way out and he had stood in awe as he saw Domino City ahead of him.
He ran as fast as he could towards the city. He couldn't wait: Alpha boosters! He figured he'd buy a box of boosters and check this place out. Maybe he could see if there were any Magic tournaments going on. He had his three best decks with him; his zombie deck, his artifact sacrifice deck, and his elf deck.
His zombie deck was his favourite for battles. With his two Soulless Ones, even if his opponent killed off his weaker zombies, his Soulless Ones would only get stronger! He'd also thrown in a couple of Siphon Spirit to help boost his life, since his zombie deck sucked at gaining life. His favourite card in the deck was his Handcuffs. He loved the look of confusion, then irritation on his opponent's face, as they understood the very annoying effect of the card. His opponent had to keep both hands in contact with each other and if they didn't, they had to sacrifice three cards in play.
His artifact deck was a quick-kill deck. It hinged on two cards: Megatog and Second Sunrise. Once he got both Megatog and Second Sunrise in his hand, he would hopefully have a large amount of artifacts in play, as well as a Disciple of the Vault. Once he got Megatog out, he sacked all his artifacts into it, giving it +3+3 and trample for each artifact sacrificed into it. Then, he played Second Sunrise, returning all the cards he'd just sacked back into play! The damage inflicted by his Disciple of the Vault would greatly weaken his opponent, and then it would be a simple matter of equipping Megatog with Neurok Hoversail, if it was in play, and attacking.
His elf deck was a huge mana producer, thanks to Wirewood Channeler, One With Nature, and Elvish Guidance. On the offence, he had his two Heedless Ones with a couple of Timberwatch Elves and his Ambush Commander which turned all his forests into 1/1 elves to power them up even more. Like most elf decks, his deck was also a life-gainer, thanks to his two Wellwishers and his Wirewood Symbiote, which allowed him to return an elf to his hand and untap a creature.
He knew his deck weren't perfect, no deck was. He was continuously improving on his decks, spending hours trying to find out winning card combos.
As Arrathir entered Domino City, he quickly spotted his goal: a card shop. He figured he'd go in and see if they knew anything about where he could get Alpha boosters. Then he would get some rest. His non-stop traveling had really worn him out. It was a miracle he was still standing. He headed for the shop, but as he reached the door, he tripped on the steps and fell. When he hit the ground, his fatigue caused by his traveling caught up with and he fell asleep. Before his eyes closed, he saw an old man with a weird hairdo coming out of the shop, looking at him.
When Arrathir woke up, he found himself in bed. As he opened his eyes, he saw a kid sitting by his bed.
"Oh, you're awake. Are you OK?" the kid asked.
Arrathir took a good look at him. He was short, about up to Arrathir's chest. He was wearing black pants and a blue vest. He was also wearing a dog collar and had a weird pyramid thing on a chain hanging from his neck. Then he spotted the kid's hair. It was tri-coloured and arranged in long spikes that must have been held together with tremendous amounts of mousse and gel.
"I'm fine," said Arrathir "Who are you?"
"I'm Yugi Moto," said the kid "This is my house and my grandpa's card shop."
"Nice to meet ya, Yugi, I'm Arrathir."
"So what happened to you? Why did you fall asleep in front of our shop?" asked Yugi.
"I've been travelling fro a long time and I guess I was just too tired."
"So why are you in Domino City?"
"I'm looking for a card shop that sell Alpha Magic boosters," said Arrathir "Do you know where it is?"
"Magic?" asked Yugi "Don't you mean Duel Monsters?"
"Duel Monsters?" It was Arrathir's turn to be confused "What's that?"
"It's a card game where two players are duelling wizards who summon monsters and attack each other." said Yugi.
"Yeah, that's Magic: The Gathering," said Arrathir "Here, look." He handed Yugi his elf deck.
Yugi started to look though the cards, but when he saw Arrathir's Stonewood Invoker, he laughed.
"A monster with only 2 attack and defence points? Your monsters are so weak! What's your strongest card?" he asked.
"Well, I've had my Heedless One up to 47/47 once."
"47 attack and defence?" asked Yugi, disbelieving "Your deck wouldn't stand a chance against mine! Wait," he said, examining the card "This isn't a Duel Monsters card."
"No, I told you. It's Magic: The Gathering."
"This is too weird," said Yugi "This card looks a lot like a Duel Monsters card, except with much lower attack and defence points."
"But what is Duel Monsters?" asked Arrathir.
Yugi, still pouring over the card before him, handed Arrathir a card. He looked at it and his eyes leaped when he saw the stats: 1400/2000! Other then that the only other major difference was at the top of the card, under the card name. Instead of a mana cost, there were a bunch of orange balls with stars in them.
"So how do you play Magic?" asked Yugi.
Arrathir quickly explained the basics of magic to Yugi, mana, summoning, tapping, attacking, blocking, instants, sorceries, enchantments, and artifacts.
"That sounds a lot like Duel Monsters," said Yugi when Arrathir had finished "except for the mana, there's no attack or defence position, and you don't need to play trap or magic cards on the field to activate them. So where do you duel?"
"At school mostly, and we don't call it duelling, we call it battling."
"So where's your duel disk."
"Say what?"
Yugi crossed over to his desk, picked up a flat tray and brought it to Arrathir. The tray was about as long as his arm and had a "V" shape. In the middle, there was a circular piece with an LED readout on the top. On the side, there was a slot where, Arrathir guesses, a deck was stored. Along the top of the tray, there were five slots. Underneath, there were two straps so the tray could be fastened to one's arm.
"What does it do?" asked Arrathir.
"Watch."
Yugi powered up the disk. The LED readout flashed and displayed "2000". Arrathir guessed this was the way of keeping track of health points. Yugi took a card and inserted it into one of the slots. A giant facedown card appeared on the floor. From the card rose smoke that shaped itself into a graceful elf.
"Your duel disk makes cards come to life?" Arrathir asked, amazed.
"No, it's just a hologram. This is how Duel Monster tournaments are played. It's just so the audience can see what cards the player summon. It also makes the game more realistic. The monsters actually attack each other."
"Cool. Hey think that'd work with Magic cards?"
"Probably not. The duel disks are designed for Duel Monsters cards," said Yugi "Actually, Duel Monsters is designed after the Shadow Game."
"The what?"
"Legend has it five thousand years ago, ancient Egyptian Pharaohs used to play a magical game very similar to Duel Monsters. This ancient game involved magical ceremonies, which were used to foresee the future and ultimately, decide one's destiny. They called it the Shadow Game, and the main difference back then was that the monsters were all real! Soon the game got out of control and threatened to destroy the entire world! Fortunately, a brave Pharaoh stopped this cataclysm with the help of seven powerful magic items."
At this moment, the old man whom Arrathir had seen before passing out poked his head through the doorway.
"Ah, I see our friend is awake. How are you doing..."
"Arrathir."
"Arrathir. Hum...Now there's an unusual name."
"This is my grandpa." said Yugi.
"Nice to meet you, Moto-san," said Arrathir "Thanks for taking care of me after I fell asleep."
"Please, call me Grandpa, all of Yugi's friends do," said Grandpa "Why don't you come down for dinner and you can tell me all about yourself."
To be continued...
Author's note: Well, how is it so far? Review!