Disclaimer: I don't own Magic: The Gathering

A/N: What do you mean by deck list? I'm just wondering if you mean my deck or the deck being used in this story.

Warning: I'm trying to make this cheesy!

The Shuffler and the Newbie

Jacob finally got around to putting his deck back together, putting his cards back where they belong and organizing his side deck when a young man scooted across the table from him.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully and Jacob looked up and glared. Not another person. It wasn't even lunch time yet. The man had blond hair and deep grey eyes, which seemed to clash with one another. He was what Jacob would define as a pretty boy though. The man took out a deck of cards and began to shuffle them.

"What are you doing?" Jacob asked, "The tournament hasn't even begun!"

"Yes, but you see, I'm a master at shuffling the cards. Any way you can shuffle the cards, I can do it better..." he said, "By the way, I'm called Max."

"Creative shuffling eh?" Jacob asked, pretending to be interested as he continued to put his things together, "Isn't that also clever cheating?"

"No, not at all," Max said, "I just make it look clever enough... I get all the ladies..."

"I probably know one lady that wouldn't like it," Jacob said thoughtfully, wondering for a moment if that would impress Teresa. Probably not, she'd just be interested in the green cards the Max had and not how he shuffled.

"There's always one, but I'm always ready for a challenge..." he said with a shrug, "So, who are you?"

"I don't want to tell you I just want you to go away!" Jacob said.

"The silent type?" Max asked, "No, you don't look like you're the silent or secretive type, c'mon, what's your name?"

"Jacob," he replied with a sigh, "Jacob Aryan."

"A good strong name," Max said, "I like your last name, it seems so very interesting..."

"Can you go away? I'm trying to do something!" Jacob said a little loudly and Max laughed at him.

"Sure Aryan," Max said, "Hey, by the way, I play Blue and Red, Burns and Counterspells... I would love to take you on!"

"Sure you would... My blue and white deck would be your better..." Jacob murmured as Max strolled away. The local pretty boy in this tournament.

"Now I might be able to finish something..." he muttered and sighed. He took out his dragon deck and looked through it again, something was calling out to him, it seemed like it because ever since he arrived he's wondered whether the deck would be any good in this tournament or not. Jacob let out another sigh as he saw a boy about his age sit down across from him. He was wearing a green shirt and had wild, unkempt hair, which Jacob took as a light brown. He was surprised though when the boy didn't talk at all, merely took out his deck and started looking through it nervously. Jacob turned back to looking through his own cards, but the silence irked at him, because this was the first guy to not talk to him. Jacob looked up at the boy again and the boy met his eyes and smiled nervously.

"Something wrong?" Jacob asked, deciding he might as well start the conversation before it was started for him.

"I'm kinda new to the game; I'm just wondering if I put all the right cards in my deck," he said, "My name's Sean."

"What colors do you play?" Jacob asked. He knew he was going to regret getting involved but he was now.

"I play with a Black and White cleric oriented deck," Sean said, "At least that's what I think it is..."

"Let me see," Jacob said and Sean handed over the deck and Jacob flipped through it, "Wow, it actually looks quite good. You like clerics?"

"Yeah, I love how they heal..." Sean said.

"But black clerics don't," Jacob said and Sean nodded.

"I've heard from a friend that it was bad to have a pure color deck," Sean said, "And Black has clerics..."

"There're advantages and disadvantages to a single color deck. I myself have a blue/white deck that I enjoy. It actually is very cleric based," Jacob said, "But there are a few blue cards I like in there more than the clerics."

"Do you know a lot about battling?" Sean asked.

"I've been playing for a while...here, to make your cleric deck better, use this," Jacob said, deciding to help out a little. He went into his extra cards pile and pulled out an Akroma's Devoted. He tossed it over to Sean who caught it and stared at it.

"It's not rare or anything but I didn't see one in your deck and maybe it could help..." Jacob began and Sean smiled broadly.

"Thank you so much!" he exclaimed, "I know it's not rare but I've been looking for one of a long time and my booster packs never yielded me any luck! I have to go now, but I hope to see you in the tournament! Maybe I can learn a few of your tricks!"

"Yeah," Jacob replied, finding he didn't mind Sean as much as everybody else. Maybe it was because of the fact Sean was a newbie or something like that. Jacob continued to look through his cards as Sean went away. The most interesting people were here for this tournament, never mind the fact that they're all weird...

TBC

A/N: I never expected any sort of a following on this story. I'll only write it really when the mood strikes me and such, I originally wrote this on a whim. Anyways, just let me know what you think if you want. Flame me (as long as it's rated G-PG) or not that's your choice.