Tournament Stories part 12
"Hmm… which card could I substitute for my Mystical Elf (800/2000)?" I said to myself as I heard the sounds of Doug lowly laughing. Wondering why he could be laughing even though he was losing by quite a few life points, I made the effort to crawl to the foot of my bunk, almost falling off in the process, and look at his hand. I saw Salamandra, Molten Destruction, Darkfire Soldier #1 (1700/1150), and some magic card I didn't recognize. It looked like a clown with cards in his hands, rapidly shuffling them. But it didn't take a genius to realize what he was planning. Figuring that this could get interesting, I reached back for my deck and spare cards and continued with my replacements. I looked for other monsters with 2000 defense points and my eye caught another Island Turtle. It was the same level and had 300 more attack points than the Mystical Elf. So I figured, why not. I put him in my deck and put the spellcaster into my "good-useless backup deck."
Continuing my deck alterations, I was also paying attention to Doug and Jack's duel. Jack saw me while it was still Doug's turn. He caught my attention and I looked up from my two sets of cards. While Doug's head was down, Jack pointed at me, his lips, himself, his hand of cards and then finally Doug to ask me, "Tell me what's in Doug's hand." I shook my head no as Doug made his next move, "I'm putting Darkfire Soldier #1 (1700/1150) in attack mode and changing the field to fire by playing the field magic card Molten Destruction! All fire type monsters get an attack boost of 500 points, and a defense loss of 400 points. And I also equip him with Salamandra, which raises his attack by 700 to 2900!" Doug triumphantly said. "Whatever. You're still gonna waste your attack," Jack said as he quickly took a look at the top card in his graveyard. "Right. Now I'm attacking your life points directly," Doug said as he held his card up and made in an X motion in front of Jack to signify a direct attack. "Activate trap card," Jack calmly said. "It's time for my favorite life point recovery card- Nutrient Z!" Jack stated as he flipped over the familiar looking trap card.
"What's that thing do?" Doug asked as he put his soldier back into its spot.
"If I'm about to take damage of 2000 points or more, I can activate this card. Before I receive any of that damage. I increase my life points by a whopping 4000 ufirst/u, then lose life points! I told you that you'd waste your attack. If anything, you've increased my life points, not damaged them," Jack gleefully said as Doug made a groaning noise in his throat. "So I'll get the math out of the way and add 1100 to my life points…" Jack said as he tapped away at his scientific calculator. He explained to me earlier that it was the only one in his house before the tournament, so he had to bring it. He was hardly a nerd. "That brings my life point total to 5000! Is your turn over?" he asked.
"Sure, why not?" Doug said as he leaned back against the bunk. I took this opportunity to look back at my cards and sort them out some more as Jack was looking at his hand. I actually finished my alterations of my deck before Jack began his turn!
"Okay! It's my standby phase, heh... And I'm activating one of my face down cards, Non Aggression Area. Its effect has me discard one card from my hand to the graveyard to prevent you from normal summoning, setting, AND special summoning on your next turn. So what monster you have on the field now is the only one you'll have until your turn after your next turn, get it?" Jack said slyly.
"Yeah, I get it. I've got that card too," Doug sighed.
"Me too," I chimed in as I put my deck in my special case and put that in my pack.
Doug looked behind him and titled up his head to see me looking down upon them both. "You better not be telling Jack what cards are in my hand, (my name)," complained Doug.
"Don't worry, I'm not," I replied as Jack continued his turn, "SO! I think I'll end my turn by summoning Woodland Sprite (900/400). Your move," intimidated Jack. Doug couldn't believe what just happened
"You're just leaving it in attack mode like that?!??" Doug exclaimed.
"What- you don't think it's a good idea?" asked Jack. He obviously had something planned. It was obvious to even Doug.
"But…? Forget it. I'll just draw and attack your puny plant with my soldier. Get ready to lose 2000 life points!" Doug said as he lifted his card up and placed it under Jack's sprite.
"That's where you are wrong! I'm activating Reverse Trap! Once activated, it REVERSES any and all increases and decreases to attack and defense. So since your equip and field cards boosted your soldier's original 1700 up by 1200, that 1200 now turns to subtracting and it's taken away from his 1700 leaving him at a measly 500 attack. As for his defense, since Molten Destruction brought it down to 750 from 1150, it's now added to make his defense a sturdy 1550! Finally, since you've declared an attack on my plant card, his attack is 400 more than your soldier, so your card is destroyed and you lose 400 life points!" Jack had perfectly countered his opponent's attack! Wow. Once Jack is in the lead, he holds onto it! I thought as Doug put his destroyed cards in the graveyard and tapped at his calculator, bringing his life points down to an ironic 1550. "For my main phase two, I'll set this magic/trap card face down," Doug replied scarily confidently as I looked at the clock. It was 8:54! I interrupted the duel before Jack could draw, "I'm going to head down to that room now. The practice duels begin at nine, and I want to have early pickings for opponents. I'll see you later. Oh, and tell me who wins!" I said as I walked out the door. I didn't mean to appear rude, but that's how I seem sometimes… About two steps down the hallway, I distinctively heard Doug's voice, "Ha, YES! You're done for!"
"Doug and his flaming army does it again!" I sarcastically said to myself with a laugh as the hallway emptied out with the sounds of me going down the steps.
Walking across the main lobby, I was shocked to see an actual practice duel going on INSIDE the lobby. But what shocked me even more were the duelists. It was the janitor I had once seen before versus the short blonde-haired lady! I stopped in my tracks and watched a bit of the duel along with others scattered about the lobby.
"I'll set two cards face down and end my turn," the janitor guy said.
"Not a bad move, Cal. But I'm surprised that you've kept your minion in attack mode…" the blonde-haired lady said. Both players at this point had four cards in their hands. They also each had 3400 life points, somehow along with one monster and two magic/trap cards. It was strange.
"My turn," she said. She drew a card and looked at it for a long time. It must have had a long description, or her eyesight was failing. Either way, I found myself getting bored, for some reason. But I watched for a few more short seconds before moving towards the door. "Alright, I'm flipping this magician of faith for a tribute summon. But first, I revive a magic card. Then I'm tribute summoning the monster Pumpking the King of Ghosts (1800/2000) in attack mode! Now attack his Winged Minion!"
"That's what you think, Linda. I'm activating the trap card –" and the loud door slammed behind me. As I expected, many duelists were already in the center talking to each other, slowly breaking apart from the group as they agreed on where to duel in this ridiculously enormous room. It still smelled something like cigars and was about as dim as before with that same square of dusty light in the center. And once again, the window above was looking down at all of us. Only this time, the rain bombarding it made it appear to be crying. But I wondered if the use of dueling arenas than pods were practical in this room. How can the duelists hear each other over everybody else? I'd soon find out!!
"Hey, (my name)!"
"Hi Doug, hey Jack. Who won?" I asked as Jack let out a sigh.
"I did, of course! There isn't a duelist alive that can take on my cards of fire!" Doug sophomorically stated.
"Is thaaat a faaact…?" I challenged him, purposely dragging out the a's in that and fact.
"Care to prove me wrong?" Doug asked.
"This should be good," Jack commented. Just then, some girl walked by. Seeing Jack looking at the two of us, she said, "HEY! You wanna duel? Come on, let's go!" She commanded happily as her gleeful eyes shone with positive energy. All the while she was dragging him along by the pulled-up sleeves of his shirt. Doug and I both shared a laugh as we went in search of an arena. We found one and rose up on the elevator things. Just then, we expected to see glowing zones ready for us to place down cards. But no lights were on inside the stands. I tried putting a monster in attack mode, but I heard no sound, I saw no monster. Everyone else noticed this as well. All the arenas were full! Yet that's just what the machines were waiting for.
The dueling arenas, one by one, began to slowly sink beneath the ground. Ours began to shake and rattle like an earthquake was coming. And soon enough, ours was slowly descending into the ground too. I was shamelessly nervous. I mean, we're going INTO the GROUND. There's something to be said for panic. But there was something about the slow speed at which we were traveling that made it seem not as bad.
Eventually it stopped with our arena about 10 feet below the floor level. I said something to Doug, and he heard it perfectly! They took care of the noise issue. The platforms booted themselves up. And even though we were below the floor, there was enough light to see the spots to put our decks for shuffling, just like during the preliminaries. I shuffled his deck, and he shuffled mine. They returned to us, unharmed- amazing. The duel had begun!
"I'll let you go first," I said. I offered him to go first because this whole tournament I felt pretty guilty being first almost every time.
"Great!" Doug said as he separated two cards from his hand, "I'm setting one card in defense mode, and putting one magic/trap card face down on the field."
"My move. First, I draw a sixth card," I began as I looked at my full hand: Waboku, Sangan, Magician of Faith, Sword of Deep-Seated, Non-Aggression Area, and Horn of the Unicorn. Oh, come ON! I can't beat Doug like THIS! I thought, "I'm putting two cards face down and this in defense mode," I said as he drew another card.
"I'll sacrifice what I've got here to tribute summon my Tyhone #2 (1700/1900)! Now he's attacking your face down card!" he commanded his dragon, if that's what it could be called. It was really tiny and red with yellow wings. It looked like a popped, sunburned balloon that spat fire and burned away my Sangan, whose effect I quickly used.
I calmly searched through my deck for a good enough monster with less than 1500 attack points. It was a tough choice, but I eventually ended up choosing my very own Mucus Yolk. I had one in my "good-useless backup deck" back at the hotel. But once I realized how useful it is, I made room for it to work in my deck. So I put it in my hand and reshuffled my deck.
"Before you begin your next turn, I'd like to place this card face down to end mine," he said as another magic/trap card accompanied his first one.
I drew my Giant Soldier of Stone and considered my options. I've got a Mucus Yolk and TWO equip magic cards all ready to go to do some serious damage to his life points. But his Tyhone #2 would be stronger than it even with his equipped cards. I put my mucus yolk at the edge of my hand to be used later. "I'm summoning my Giant Soldier of Stone and equipping him with the Horn of the Unicorn, raising his attack and defense by 700 points! So now he can destroy your dragon card. Giant soldier, slice his tyhone in two!" Following my orders, my soldier took his sword out of his holster and slowly threw it at his dragon yet with huge power. It made full contact and passed right through it, boomeranging right to my soldier. He caught it with a loud crash. Little pieces of rock dropped to the ground while he slid it back into his holster. Then he remained still.
"Looks like I take the first damage of this duel," Doug said as his life points went down to 3700. "But now it's my turn," he stated while he drew a card. "I'm activating the magic card Tremendous Fire! You lose 1000 life points, whereas I only lose 500."
Suddenly, gigantic shockwaves of flames erupted from the center of the field. They must have reached all the way up to the floor of the room above us- this was one of the most awesome displays I've ever seen so far this whole tournament. I remembered that Z.K. played one, but those duel discs had limited capabilities. These bright orange rings started small in the center but grew taller and faster as the approached each of us. Though some of them vanished gradually before even touching Doug. Ten touched me, only five made contact with him yet none of them hurt, and I was glad for that; fire is painful.
"Ahhh…" Doug heaved a relaxed sigh as my life points sunk to 3000. His weren't too far behind at 3200. "Finally, I'm putting this card in defense mode- ending my turn," he said.
"Very well," I stared at his defense card, wondering what it could be while I drew my next card- Rush Recklessly. "I'm putting this magic/trap card face down…" I paused for a second considering what card Doug may have hidden. Doug is a fire duelist. And they tend to have cards in their deck that go with burner type decks as well, like Z.K. So what card would he put face down for me to- OH! It could quite possibly be a Lady Assailant of Flames. That's the ONLY card that Z.K. set down. Luckily, I won before he could activate her effect. But whether that's the card Doug set or not, I'm not attacking. I finished thinking and said, "But I choose not to attack."
"Fine, my turn." He said as he drew a card. "BINGO!" he yelled spontaneously. "You're not going to like this at ALL!" Doug laughed as he took two cards from his hand, "First I'm putting my Robotic Knight (1600/1800) in attack mode. Next, I'll flip summon my Lady Assailant of Flames" Damn it. I was right. "and activate her effect. By removing from play the top three cards from my deck, I inflict 800 points of direct damage towards you!" he happily declared as my life points beeped to a kind of low 2200. "You're 45% dead!" he said. There was silence for a noticeable second before he continued with his turn. "Also, I'm activating this magic card Giant Trunade! With this card, I can return all magic and traps to their owner's hands, well, excluding my Giant Trunade. But I'll set my two cards face down again and attack your giant soldier with my Lady Assailant of Flames (1500/1000)!" With her dagger, she took giant leaps forward and leapt high into the air. The blade reflected the low light in this room onto her target. She dove down and clearly slashed through my stone soldier. He collapsed with a huge thud and disappeared from the field, bringing my life points down to an even 2000. "We're not done yet! Robotic Knight, attack his life points… DIRECTLY!" With a buzz of affirmative action, his machine's eyes glowed a brighter green. I could see a dark green crosshair slowly drifting from his robot across the field and fix right on my platform. He swiftly pointed his gattling gun at me and fired. A yellow barrage of bullets collided with my platform, making sounds of metal being pierced and small explosions. My whole platform vibrated as my life points diminished to a dangerously low 400. He still had his 3200. "Uh oh. You better think of something to do quick or you'll never get my life points down any further!" Doug boldly taunted.
"I'm not too worried about that," I snapped back as I drew my next card: SHARE THE PAIN?!?? Why me…? Oh well. At least I can discard it since I have more than six cards in my hand. I thought as I got rid of Share the Pain and Non Aggression Area.
"Here comes my comeback!" I amicably said while I prepared five of the six cards in my hand, "First off, I'm setting two cards face down. Next, I'm summoning Mucus Yolk (0/100) in attack mode!" I was interrupted by Doug laughing. "AHA HA HA HA HA! Mucus Yolk? It's got zero attack and a mere one hundred defense! That card must be more useless than Share the Pain! Ha ha ha…." I groaned and thought That's your opinion. "Anyway, next I'm equipping him with Sword of Deep-Seated and Horn of the Unicorn, brining his attack to 1200," "THAT's not enough to take out either one of my monsters, (my name)," he said a bit disappointed.
"Hey, you're right! Oh well. It looks like I'll just have to directly damage your life points, then- HA HA HA!" I said as he watched my glob gathered a tiny ball of white light within itself. It grew larger and larger, making a low, but audible noise of something being charged up. But in the blink of an eye, a blinding light filled the whole arena as a focused beam of white power plowed into his platform, shaking it torrentially. "Ahhh!! How is this happening??" he demanded. "It's his effect. His effect lets me directly attack you once per turn. And here's the best part, at my next standby phase his attack will increase by 1000, and will continue to grow, as long as he attacks, at every standby phase. "Rrrghh…" he grumbled as his life points beeped down to 2000. "But your next standby phase is a turn away. It won't last through my next turn," he drew a card. "Now I sacrifice my lady assailant to summon Twin-Headed Fire Dragon (2200/1700) to cause you 1000 points of damage- more than enough to take you out!" Doug said as his weird dragon turned its heads at my blob of jelly just wiggling around seemingly oblivious. They both took deep breaths and exhaled huge streams of red, white, and orange devastation. It sure was cool to watch, but I wasn't about to let that hit my monster, "I activate Waboku! It protects me for the rest of this turn!" Just then, protecting my Mucus Yolk was a clear bubble that the fire seemed to pass around and burn the ground. As soon as the orange and red light dissipated, it was my turn. So I drew one of my newer cards: Poison of the Old Man. Hey, cool magic effect! I thought as I set it down and prepared to end this duel. "Wait, you switched your Robotic Knight to defense mode?" I asked as I noticed his machine in a crouching position with his head down and sword pointed into the ground with his gattling gun arm lowered. "Of course. Your Mucus Yolk is too powerful for it by now," as his attack shot up to 2200, "So he's better off in defense mode so I don't lose life points," he said as I considered what I should do next.
I could definitely take him out right now because of his effect and his attack points higher than Doug's life points. But that's not how I would want to be defeated, by some monster effect. I think I'll attack his knight. "And now my monster will attack your Robotic Knight!" I declared. My aqua card aimed its eye at his shiny metal monster and gathered a more intense beam of power within itself and unleashed its destructive power. "HA! Gotcha now! I'm activating a quick-play magic card: The Reliable Guardian. He increases my knight's defense by 700 points, bringing it to 2500!" "Yeah? Well, I'm activating one of MY quick play magic cards called Rush Recklessly. It increases my monster's ATTACK by 700, brining his total to 2900! So your knight is destroyed! And while we're in this chain, I think I'll activate another quick play magic card called Poison of the Old Man. It gives me two choices. I can either damage you directly for 800 points, or increase my own life points by 1200. I'm increasing my life points to 1600!" And during all of that, the white light faded and intensified as the quick plays were activated. It was a bright show and eventually overpowered his machine. "To end my turn, I'll set this monster in defense mode because I haven't played a monster yet," I said as I set my Magician of Faith. "So now that we're practically neck and neck now, how are you going to spend your next turn?" I asked while he drew. "I'm doing nothing. Your monster's and my monster's attack points are equal. And since you didn't inflict any damage, your Mucus Yolk's won't go up next turn. So I'll end my turn now," he said. "Alright," I drew my Bait Doll and looked at his only face down magic/trap card on the field. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I played it. "I'm activating the magic card Bait Doll. It forces the activation of one face down trap card. If the activation isn't at a correct time, the trap card is negated and destroyed. If it's not a trap card, it's returned to its original position. So I think I'll force the activation of your card, there," I said as he flipped it over. It was Destruction Punch. "Yeah, if you hadn't played Rush Recklessly, I would have activated this last turn and destroyed your Mucus Yolk. But now it's destroyed, so I don't need to worry," Doug said while I returned Bait Doll to my deck and reshuffled it, like its effect requires me to do. "Is it my turn?" he asked. I nodded my head.
"Okay," he drew and put a card in defense mode.
I drew my Change of Heart and wasted no time. This duel was about to end, "I'm playing Change of Heart to take control of your dragon. Next, I flip my Magician of Faith to bring back a magic card. Now, I'm activating that magic card, Share the Pain! It forces both of us to offer a monster on our sides of the field as a tribute. I'm offering my Mucus Yolk." I said as I waited for him to take his only monster off the field. "At least I didn't lose by much- this monster I just sacrificed has a flip effect. It's the Fire Sorcerer (1000/1500). And if I remove two cards in my hand from play, I can inflict 800 points of damage to you, which brings you down to 800," he said as he emptied his field AND his hand. My life points went down to 800 after an image of a disappearing woman dressed in black with ice blue eyes pointed a fist at me and launched fire missiles. But I simply attacked him with his dragon, and I won.
As he helplessly watched his life points sink to zero, a light above me began to grow brighter and brighter. I had noticed it over Doug's head when my life points were at 400. At that time, the light was kind of bright. But it dimmed away as soon as I activated my Poison of the Old Man card to increase my life points by 1200. But as his life points dropped, the light above me shone brighter and brighter. I faintly head someone above us yell, "WHAT is going on down there?!" I laughed a little as soon as his life points hit zero. And the light was fully turned on. I gazed up to see where it was coming from. Above I could see a pair of two lights each fixated over either side of the dueling field. I guess there was some sort of computer chip within them set to get brighter as the other side's life points go down. I thought as I heard four loud clicks. The first three were in rhythm, but the fourth one was a bit delayed. But all of a sudden, the arena shook and rattled as machinery quietly pushed it up to the floor again. But the light was still relentlessly shining on me. As soon as it stopped, I heard a voice behind me say, "Congratulations! Now if you'll please come this way, the first round winners are to go through here, thank you!" a man said as he dashed off to another rising platform. I looked over at Doug seeing another man running toward the same platform. "What did he tell you?" I said a bit louder than in our duel. "He told me just to wait for further instructions. You?" he bounced the question back at me. "That guy told me to go that way," I said as I pointed my left finger at the man talking to a duelist whose light wasn't on and pointed to a door with my right hand that the man had showed me. "Alright, see ya!" Doug said as I waved goodbye with a single motion and walked to the door.
Admittedly, I was very nervous on my way there because it was a room I had never noticed before even when the pods were here. However, I bravely walked on and quickly opened the door surprised to see nobody there that I knew, well, except for Jonathon. I very much expected to see him there. And in a room of only ten or so people, it wasn't hard to take a glance at the person who had just walked into the room. Jonathon strolled over and talked to me but making sure to keep his distance. It became clear to me that he knew nobody in this room, either.
"You again…." He began in an annoyed voice.
"Me again?" I replied.
"Doing okay in this tournament?" he asked with a detectable note of negativity. But even so, I almost fell to the ground after hearing these words of near-caring.
"Uh…" I started, still a bit surprised, "I'm doing fine. I guess you're doing well, huh?" I said back as he took a half step back.
"I'm doing BETTER than fine. So YOU better watch out in our next duel. The only reason why you won in that virtual one is because I used my emergency deck by mistake. It's less powerful," he complained.
"Right, right- what's a Summoned Skull AND a Dark Necrofear doing in the supposed "greatest fiend duelist"'s emergency deck, huh?" I asked as I resented him being a fiend duelist. The fiend type is my favorite type of monster and it sickens me knowing that my enemy likes using them just as much.
"I have more than one Summoned Skull and my Dark Necrofear was in there because I was visualizing options for the future of my real dueling deck!" he snapped back. It was very believable.
I sarcastically said to him, "Oh so THAT'S why I snapped you like a large twig!" and I laughed as he made an angry face at me.
Just then, the short blonde-haired lady, or should I say Linda, walked into the room. Instantly, one of the other guys in the room asked, "So who won?"
"What kind of dumb question IS that? I won, of course! It was like that janitor was just handed a duel disc and sloppily put together a deck and challenged me. There was no challenge at all, boys… and girls," she said as she looked around at the few of us, "okay good. We have fifteen." Then she went silent and walked back out of the room. She didn't even bother to close the door on her way in. She was just interested in a head count so far.
I took the time to look at the room. Within it were four tables built into the ground shaped like octagons. The carpet unbrokenly continued up and over them and over the tables' surfaces. It was like they just sprouted up from the ground and the carpet just bent around it. I found it quite strange.
Then I looked at the people. The rare hunters more or less stood out with their generally dark clothing. But I had a few suspicions about some of the ones who weren't in black. The one who stood out of all of them was the one Andre and I saw back in the lobby. He was still very tall and had yellow hair contrasting with his black clothing. Then I got a thought, I wonder if some of the goths in our school are actually rare hunters? I thought as Linda followed Jack, surprisingly, into the room.
Taking a few steps away from Jon, I said hi to Jack. His eyes fell on the odd-shaped tables for a second before he said hello to me.
"Okay, people. Let's get this over with," and the room went quiet. Linda was giving us instructions on what to do, "You sixteen are probably the ones most likely to finish strongly in this whole tournament. But anyway, see these tables? Yeah, you and someone else will be dueling as a team against another team. One player will stand at each diagonal side. The turns alternate. It would go, you, the first duelist of your opponents, your partner, then the second opponent duelist. If you draw a card, such as The Dark Door that would change the normal rules to anything like Duelist Kingdom rules, discard it to the graveyard and draw a new card. You may activate trap or quick play magic cards if your partner is being attacked. And you may use one of your monsters to defend your partner if they are about to be attacked directly. And the rules are as follows just because we want to get this over with quickly. You all begin with only 2000 life points," instantly, gasps of shock came from about half the duelists. "If you or your partner loses all their life points, the one left must continue on. The first attack may not be made until everyone has taken his or her first turn. And you can only attack once per battle phase, much like duelist kingdom," she said as she whizzed across the paper she was reading from. "Okay! I'm pretty sure you all know how it works, then. So find yourself a partner, a set of opponents and get a good night's sleep tonight!" she finished as she leaned against a wall and watched us all disperse.
"Jack?" I asked.
"Without question," he replied while we tried to make eye contact with a group.
"Hey! Over here! Duel us, won't you?" a girl within a group of her and a guy asked. We accepted, shuffled each other's decks, chatted a bit and began the duel. The guy's name was Alex. The girl introduced herself quite politely as Christina.
"Who goes first?" I asked. Everyone looked at me. "Why not you?" Alex suggested. Everybody else nodded in agreement. "Uh… alright, then!" I said as I drew six cards. I discarded my Soul Exchange to the graveyard because it talks about tribute summons. This is a duel by Duelist Kingdom rules.
In my first hand was Bait Doll, Share the Pain, Princess of Tsurugi, Witch of the Black Forest, Wall of Illusion, and Mystic Plasma Zone.
"I'll play this field card Mystic Plasma Zone. It raises the attack power of all dark monsters by 500 points and decreases their defense by 400," I said as I put my field card in the center spot of the carpeted table marked for field cards. "Next, I'm putting Witch of the Black Forest (1100/1200) in attack mode. Her attack rises to 1600 because of my field card. It's your turn now, Alex," I said as he drew a sixth card.
"I'll put one card in defense mode and activate Dark Designator. This card lets me do some sneaky deeds, indeed. I'll say a monster card's name. If one or more of that card is in your deck, you must take one and put it in your hand, not shuffling afterward. So let's see… If either of you have a Magician of Faith, bring one of her to your hand, please," so Jack and I sifted through our decks and found one and put her in our hands. "Thanks! Now prepare to lose her! I'm activating Card Destruction! We all must discard our whole hand to the graveyard and draw from our decks the same number of cards we got rid of!" he proudly said. It was quiet for a few seconds as we all drew new hands and listened to the chatter and playful laughs among the other duelists, mostly boys, before we heard Jack said, "Uh…?" and we all looked at him. "I've got a few effect monsters here," he began as he reached back into his graveyard. "First, this card called Electric Snake lets me draw two additional cards if it's sent from my hand directly to the graveyard by a card effect of my opponent," he said as he drew two additional cards adding to his hand of six, making it eight. "Secondly, since my Minar has been sent from my hand to the graveyard, um, you lose 1000 life points…" he said a bit embarrassed. "WHAT!" he said sharply. "Alright!" I said excitedly. "Oh dear," Christina said as she picked her head up from examining her new hand. "RRggghh," Alex groaned.
"My turn?" Jack asked. He received an affirmative nod and drew a ninth card. "I'll discard three now," he assertively stated as he quickly got rid of three into his graveyard. "Now, I'm playing Dian Keto the Cure Master, giving me 1000 life points. Next, I'm setting one magic/trap card face down and summoning Dancing Fairy (1700/1000) to end my turn," he said as he looked across the table to Christina.
"First, I draw. Next, I'll boost EVERYone's life points by 1000 by playing Rain of Mercy! Now I'll play the magic card Giant Trunade which returns all magic and traps to their owners' hands. Finally, I'll set one monster. It's your turn, (my name)."
I had a killer hand! But my hand had seven, so I discarded my Karate Man because it wasn't too useful for the moment. The rest of my hand contained Tribute to the Doomed, Cyber Jar, Mask of Darkness, La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp, Mystic Plasma Zone, and my favorite monster card!
"I'm replaying my Mystic Plasma Zone and summoning La Jinn (1800/1000). His attack power goes up to 2300!" I then paused for a second and thought that I could easily take out Alex right now by using my Tribute to the Doomed Card and attack his life points directly. I was very tempted. But this is the duel's first attack. It wouldn't be too nice if I were to take him out before he could even attack at least once. "I'm attacking your defense monster with my La Jinn," I said as I flipped his defense card over with the corner of my fiend card. It was the Molten Behemoth (1000/2200). And it turns out I'm too nice…
"Hmph, MY turn!" Alex a bit angrily while he drew a card. "Alright!" his face perked up, "I'm summoning Ryu-Ran (2200/2600) in attack mode. Next, I'm playing the magic card common to many fire duelists' decks Tremendous Fire! You and Jack lose 1000 life points. I only lose 500," the scores stood at Jack and Christine with 3000. I had 2000. Alex had 1500. "And here's the best part. I'm equipping Salamandra to Ryu-Ran raising his attack to 2900! Now I attack your Witch of the Black Forest to inflict maximum damage on you, ha ha ha!" he laughed as he flipped over my spellcaster numerous times- right into my graveyard. My life points were drained to 700, but I was glad because now I could get a monster with 1500 defense or fewer into my hand. I explained the card's effect aloud and took my Summoned Skull into my hand and shuffled my deck. "You guys are losing," Alex said. "Only by 800 life points," Jack said back as he drew a card to start his turn. "I'm setting three additional cards face down, switching my Dancing Fairy to defense mode and summoning Harpie's Brother (1800/600)! Your move, Christina," he said.
That was quick. I thought. I hope he didn't rush that move without thinking about it… "First I'm drawing a card. Now, I'm setting one card in face down defense mode-" "Activate trap card!" Jack interrupted her as soon as she put the card on the carpeted table. Right at that moment, I noticed that this table had no legs and just appeared to have spurt out of the ground. "It's called Acid Trap Hole. When you set a monster in face down defense, it's flipped face up. Then if its defense is equal to or lower than 2000, it is immediately destroyed!" he demanded. "Fine…" she calmly said as she flipped over a Yomi Ship (800/1400). If any of your monsters were to send it to the graveyard, the monster that destroyed IT would be sent to the graveyard as well. But it's no matter. Now I'm removing it from play to special summon Aqua Spirit (1600/1200) in attack mode. Finally, I'll set one card face down to end my turn," she said as she signaled it to be my turn.
I drew my Spear Cretin, "It's your standby phase now, so I'm activating my Aqua Spirit's effect," Christina said out of nowhere. "During my opponent's standby phase, I can switch the battle position of one of my opponent's face up monsters. So I'm changing Jack's Dancing Fairy to attack mode so he doesn't get a 1000 life point boost like he would have if it had been kept in face up defense mode during his own standby phase." Jack looked, surprised at me as I looked across the table at Alex and Christina as they giggled a little bit, "Sorry Jack. I've got that card too. But anyway, you may continue your turn now," she said to me. "Alright! I'm summoning Summoned Skull (2500/1200) to the field in attack mode. And his attack shoots up to 3000 because of Mystic Plasma Zone! I'm attacking your Ryu-Ran with my fiend, Alex, to inflict 100 damage to your life points," as I flipped his card over with mine. "Whatever," he said as I set my Tribute to the Doomed down. It turns out I'm STILL too nice…
"My turn now," he said and drew a card, quite happy with the result. I'm summoning Spirit Ryu (1000/1000) in attack mode. And now this is your defeat, (my name). I activate Dragon's Gunfire!" "Gah!" I was completely panic-stricken after he played that card. My life points were only at 700, and I knew just what effect of his magic card he'd choose to activate. There was absolutely nothing I could do. I looked at Jack with wide eyes. He calmly glanced diagonally to the left ahead of him directly at Alex's dragon and nodded slightly with a straight face. "-I'm obviously activating the damage option. Prepare to lose the rest of your life points, (my name)!" he said louder than normal. "Not really," Jack interjected. "I'm activating the trap card Trap Hole. As the latest part in this chain, it destroys an opponent's normally summoned monster with 1000 attack points or more. You dragon just makes the cut. Now trap cards' "speed" is faster than normal magic cards, so it cancels out your card before its effect can take its course. So both those cards are sent to the graveyard, and my friend here is saved!" Jack finished as Alex angrily agreed with Jack, "Grr… you're right…" So he cleared his field.
"My turn," and Jack drew a card. "It's your standby phase which means I'm activating my Aqua Spirit's effect again. This time, I'm switching (my name)'s Summoned Skull into defense mode. That's it." "Okay, I'm first changing my Dancing Fairy BACK into defense mode. And now I'm summoning Curse of Dragon (2000/1500) in attack mode. His attack gets boosted to 2500 because of his field card. And now I attack, with Harpie's Brother, Alex's life points directly!" Jack happily said as Alex made a disgusted face as he prepared to remove his cards from the table. "Nope!" Christina flipped her face down card. "I'm activating my trap card Waboku. All damage done to him is reduced to zero. You wasted your attack, Jack," she laughed at how it rhymed.
"Alright, time to start taking sheer control of this duel," Christina said as she drew. "I'm playing the ritual magic card Turtle Oath! In order to summon my Crab Turtle, I must offer monsters whose level stars total 8. So it's a sad goodbye to my Aqua Spirit and hidden Island Turtle to call forth my Crab Turtle (2550/2500)! And now I'll have him attack (my name)'s Skull, destroying it!" she happily flipped my card over with hers. I wasn't mad one bit, though!
"Here I go," I said as I instantly flipped over my Tribute to the Doomed before even looking at the card I drew. "I play Tribute to the Doomed! I discard one card from my hand to destroy one monster on the field. I'm sending my Mask of Darkness to the Graveyard as a tribute to get rid of your Turtle!" I said as all three of the others gaped in amazement. "Why didn't you play that earlier?" Jack asked. "I was saving it for a dangerous time," I replied as I continued with my turn. I looked at the card I drew: Offerings to the Doomed. Heh… kind of ironic I thought as I set my Spear Cretin and Offerings to the Doomed face down and attacked Christina directly, carefree, because there were no trap cards out. She now had the same amount of life points as me: 700
"(My name) and I have taken definite control of this duel!" Jack said as Alex drew a card. His face remained unchanged as he set it in defense mode.
"Alright, my turn. I draw, and I now I can finally get the benefits of my Dancing Fairy card being in face up defense mode during my standby phase. My life points increase by 1000. And now I'll activate the card I just drew, Dimensionhole. It lets me remove one of my monsters from play until my NEXT standby phase. I choose my Dancing Fairy so I can increase my life points again next turn," said Jack as Christina calmly drew a card. It was like she had something hidden all along.
"I set this in defense mode," she said.
I drew my Nobleman of Crossout and got an easy idea, "I'm playing Nobleman of Crossout to destroy Christina's face down monster and remove it from play. If the destroyed monster has a flip effect, we all search our decks and remove from play the same monster and shuffle them. Otherwise, nothing," so she flipped over and removed from play a Serpentine Princess, leaving her field empty. "And now I attack her life points directly with La Jinn!" I said. "Oh dear…" she trailed off as she backed away from the table, leaving all her cards there. "Crap, I'm all alone now," Alex said. "You get to take her turn now," Linda, the short blonde-haired lady walked by.
"Heh, fine. My turn!" Alex drew a card and smiled… quite evilly. "First I'm flip summoning my Aitsu (100/100)!" He continued before Jack and I could comment, "And now I play Monster Reborn to revive Christina's Koitsu (200/100)! HA HA HA, now prepare yourself for complete annihilation! Koitsu is what is called a "union card." It's kind of like an equip card that can be equipped to a monster instead of being a monster if I choose. And that's exactly what I'm doing! I'm forming a union by equipping my Aitsu with her Koitsu. Due to one of Koitsu's numerous effects, Aitsu gets an attack AND defense boost of 3000 points!!! That's not bad for a fairy card… Now I attack your defense monster, (my name)." He said as I was shocked by such smooth playing as he flipped over my Spear Cretin (500/500). "And here's the best part," he added. "When the equipped monster destroys a defense monster with a lower defense than my card's attack, the difference is inflicted as battle damage to YOUR life points! Thanks to your field card, there, your Spear Cretin's defense is lowered to 100. Whereas my Aitsu's attack is exactly 3000 higher than that!! So you lost!" he beamed. "Not quite yet," Jack said as he swiftly flipped over his favorite life point recovery card, Nutrient Z! This is twice he saved my butt! "I'm activating it for him. He's about to take a 3000 point hit, that more than qualifies for the 2000 minimum. Before he takes that damage, his life points are increased by 4000 first, then damaged! So you just raised his life points to 1700, Alex!" Jack finished as he smiled toward me. I knew it. It's just like in the hotel room. When Jack is in the lead, he holds onto it! …but wait! Didn't Jack lose that duel? I thought as I flashed back to the practice duel earlier today. "Anyway, you still destroyed my Spear Cretin," I said. So now we revive a monster from our graveyards in face up attack or face down defense." I chose my Summoned Skull. Jack and Alex both set monsters.
"My turn," Jack said confidently. After he drew, he placed his Dancing Fairy back on the field because Dimensionhole's effect wore of. And since it was his standby phase, his life points were boosted to 5000. "Well, I suppose I'll switch my Fairy to attack mode since it has more attack points and would inflict less damage on me if it were destroyed by Aitsu… Anyway, I'm flipping over my Magician of Faith that you sent to my graveyard to bring a magic card in the graveyard to my hand. And now I'll activate it!" Jack proudly said as he slapped a magic card down onto the table. "Mass Driver! When I offer one monster on my side as a tribute, I inflict 400 damage points to you! So let's begin with my Magician of Faith. I'll send her to the graveyard to bring your life points down to an even 1000, your move." Alex looked a bit worried.
"Fine. I'll draw this… and play it! Block attack! I get to switch one of your monster's position to defense. I'll choose Jack's Harpie's Brother, heh heh heh! And now I attack. And you receive 2500 points of damage because of the difference between my card's attack and your card's defense!" "Holy crap! That's half my life points wiped out in one attack!" Jack said in shock.
I drew my Black Pendant (The kid I lost my first black pendant to still has it. The one I just drew was given to me by my brother. And it's been in my deck ever since.) and got the idea of equipping it to my fiend monster to deter Alex from attacking my monster. Besides, it would boost La Jinn's power. As soon as I played it on the field, I could hear Jack make a surprised, happy gasp. Looking at him with a minorly furrowed brow and then back at Alex, I said, "I guess it's your turn, then."
He drew a card, set it below his face down monster, and looked, tempted, back and forth between my monster and Jack's monsters. His were weaker. And destroying one of his monsters would mean damage to him and decreasing his Mass Driver's threat. All he had to look at on my field were the two magic cards, and his mind was made up. "And now my Aitsu will attack your Dancing Fairy, Jack." With nothing to stand in its way, Alex flipped Jack's fairy card into the air, destroying it and causing Jack to lose 1400 life points, sending his total down to 1100. I don't know why, but something told me not to activate my Offerings to the Doomed Card yet. I felt so bad knowing that I could have destroyed this powerful monster at any time… It was now Jack's turn.
Jack drew a card an immediately summoned it. "It's my Invitation to a Dark Sleep (1500/1800). Once summoned, one of your monsters can't attack as long as it's face up on the field. I'm, of course, choosing your Aitsu. And its attack is boosted to 2000 because of (my name)'s field card. So I feel safer about sacrificing my Curse of Dragon to the graveyard so your life points can go down to 600! " He smirked. "It's a minor setback, really," Alex shrugged. "My turn?" he asked and Jack nodded.
"Wow, I forgot I even had this card in my deck," Alex commented as we both looked at him. He made a face at Jack's spellcaster and just kept the card he just drew, "(my name)'s turn!" he cheerfully said. With caution, I drew my next card, Change of Heart! I gleefully played it. But to my horror, Alex activated his face down trap card before I could pick up his Aitsu, "No. No, I don't think so. I'm activating Last Turn!" I quickly lifted my head up from my hand of cards to make sure he wasn't lying. But no, there it was- another Last Turn just like the one I have. I panicked because I know exactly what it does. After explaining what it does, Alex said, "But it really only works if there's one other opponent. So you two can decide who will special summon a monster from their deck," as he went silent to leave us to decide. We turned our backs on him and talked, "What do you think that face down monster is?" Jack asked. "It must either have very high defense or a good effect. Other than that, I can't make a guess," I replied. "Well, I'm not sure we want me to attack it. My strongest monster has an attack of only 2600. I know there are cards out there with a stronger defense than that," he stated. "Yeah, there's Labyrinth Wall, and some fire spirit card my brother has. It's quite rare. But anyway, I guess I'll attack if you feel uneasy about it," I said. I hoped he had forgotten about my Black Skull Dragon in my duel against Steve. I turned around and walked back to the "table" and picked up my deck, "I'll attack it," I said.
"Oh THAT'S right! You've got a-" I interrupted Jack, "Shut up!" I said very fast. It sounded like "Shdup!" Alex was watching me calmly go through what was left of my deck. I found my Black Skull Dragon (3200/2500) and smoothly placed it onto the field.
"Whoa!" he said. "…And now I attack, right?" I asked with a small smile. He just nodded as I flipped over his Wall Shadow (1600/3000). "Sorry, Alex, but 3200 attack beats 3000 defense. Looks like we win the duel!" I reported. Alex made a small, disappointed noise and walked out of the room with Christina. I then quickly put my dragon card back into my deck before anyone could see what I card I won the duel with.
"What next?" Jack asked as we weren't sure if we should stay in this room or leave.