Tournament of Souls- Chapter 10
Regional Semi-Finals.
"In every man there is a desire to be savage for a good cause. What separates the good men from the bad is the cause."
Editors' Note: At the end of the duel there is a questionable chaining of a card. The author knows this, and has decided upon a ruling that furthers the story whether or not Upper Deck agrees with it. After all, here Industrial Illusions makes the rules.
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Lucien looked at the field. All he had was Morphing Jar and Servant of Catabolism face down and some traps. His hand had potential, but he would have to do to proceed with the utmost precision. He couldn't afford any mistakes, after all Todd had a 3500 attack monolith on his side of the field.
Why couldn't I have included a Legendary Jujitsu Master? In this deck it would qualify as removal. Because it's counter intuitive. Adding cards to the opponent's deck is just plain stupid. Especially when the entire point of the deck is to take away cards from your opponent.
"I flip summon Servant of Catabolism and activate my face down Robbin' Zombie. Do you know Servant of Catabolism's ability Todd?"
"It can attack my life points directly regardless of what monsters I have on my field." Todd looked bored out of his mind. As he said this he was cleaning under his nails with one of the cards in his hand. Strangely this seemed to irritate Aliya and Raoul.
"Correct. I attack your life points directly with Servant of Catabolism." Todd, still looking bored flipped over a card.
"I chain with Widespread Ruin. As your little creature is the only monster on your side of the field, it qualifies as the strongest despite its pitiful attack score." With a growl Lucien put Servant of Catabolism into the graveyard. At this point he was going to deck out before his opponent.
"I set a card and end." Todd didn't even look at his next card as he added it to his hand.
"I summon Masked Sorcerer. Attack your face down monster with Gemini Elf." Lucien smiled weakly and revealed Negate Attack.
"I think I have another turn to live."
"The end outcome is the same. Your turn." Lucien hesitated uncertainly and drew his card.
"I think I'll set this card down. Then I'll play Card Destruction." Todd smiled as he slipped his hand into the graveyard. As spoke as he drew his new hand.
"You really are a fool, aren't you? I know your strategy. You want me to deck out. But you fail to realize that at the same time, you're giving me more cards to ensure that you never do so. Allow me to show you just how stupid your deck is. The more cards you make me send to the graveyard from my deck, the more likely it is that I will draw any given card when I need it because there are fewer cards in my deck." Lucien glared.
"You can't draw it if I've sent it to the graveyard." Todd just shook his head grinning.
"First of all, I can draw a card to help me recover whatever you destroy. Premature Burial, Magician of Faith, Mask of Darkness. Second of all, it is more likely for me to draw a card than for you to discard it. Do I need to explain how that works?" Lucien shook his head, but Raoul decided it was worth the shame to learn about statistics before college.
"Well I don't know about the genius duelists here, but I don't get it. Why is it any more likely for you to draw the right card than it is for him to discard it?" Todd was only too glad to show off his smarts. You could almost tell that after every sentence he wanted to add "You poor uninformed individual." Lucien guessed that the only thing stopping him was that at some point an Honors English teacher had marked an essay down for doing just that.
"Let's say I have 17 cards left in my deck. Lucien has a Robbin' Zombie on the field and a Servant of Catabolism. He attacks my life points directly, and I decide to take the hit. He has a one out of seventeen chance of hitting the card I need. The next turn, thanks to his help, I have a one out of sixteen chance of drawing it. The odds are in my favor. Why did you even for a moment consider creating a deck that would help your opponent achieve his or her aims?"
Lucien was shaken. It had never occurred to him before that his strategy was, in fact, non functional. How could I have been so stupid? I thought my idea was brilliant, taking a thrust at opponents in a way that they would never expect, one that they might even encourage. I never thought for a moment that I was helping them. Well, maybe for a moment, but not for any longer than I would think that they person directly behind me has an anvil labeled "ACME" ready to drop on my head.
"Because he has faith." Everyone turned to face Raoul.
"Lucien doesn't need to have math on his side. He doesn't need logic or science. He has faith in his cards, his abilities, and I should hope as I count myself among them, his friends. As long as he believes that he can win, he will find a way, no matter what the odds are." Raoul blinked away the tears that had started to gather in his eyes.
"Can anyone tell me the mathematical odds of someone, anyone disappearing into thin air right in front of you? I don't need Todd's intellect to know that it's just about impossible. If it was less likely than that for Lucien to win, I'd still vote for Lucien, because not only does he have his faith in himself, but he has my faith and his friends' faith in him. I must say that with all that riding with him, I don't give a damn what the odds are, Lucien's going to win."
Todd stared, open mouthed and stuttering at Raoul; he couldn't believe that one of his opponents 'low life' friends had spoken up against him of all people. More to the point Todd couldn't believe that he had believed Raoul.
Lucien allowed himself a small smile. He had forgotten that he had more behind him than the tangible odds. Meanwhile Todd had collected himself and attempted to form a rebuttal.
"Faith has nothing to do with it. If you believe you are going to draw a Gaia the Fierce Knight, it doesn't change the position of the card within your deck. The statistics are unaffected."
"I'm sorry Lucien, but our friend Todd here has never been very good with anything that he hasn't seen in number theory." Mockingly Ray had come in and put a hand on Todd's shoulder holding a greasy bag from the nearest hamburger joint in the other.
His confidence fully restored now, Lucien drew the cards required by Card Destruction.
"First off I'll set a card face down. Then I'll activate my face down Call of the Haunted. I'll revive the Vampire Lord that I had to discard for Card Destruction. Now I'll use that to attack your Gemini Elf." For once Todd had nothing he could do so Lucien took first blood in the long and frustrating duel.
Todd: 7900
Lucien 8000
"Because of Vampire Lord's own ability I'll force you to send a trap from your deck to the graveyard. Robbin' Zombie in turn discards the top card of your deck." Todd chose another Widespread Ruin to send to the graveyard and winced as Robbin' Zombie sent a Magician's Circle to the graveyard from the top of his deck.
"Is that all you've got?"
"Do I need anything else? I think not. It's your turn." Todd drew and smiled cruelly.
"You may wish you had some greater defense by the end of this turn. I'll summon Gemini Elf. I'll also set a card face down. My Silent Magician Lv10 will attack your Vampire Lord." Lucien simply nodded as his vampire was destroyed.
Todd: 7900
Lucien: 6500
"Then my Gemini Elf will attack your face down card." Lucien smiled and flipped up Morphing Jar. They discarded their hands and drew five cards each.
"Now Injection Fairy Lily will attack directly."
Todd: 5900
Lucien: 3100
"Last of all, Masked Sorcerer will attack directly."
Todd: 5900
Lucien: 2200
"I draw by its effect and set a card. Enjoy your last turn." Lucien drew his next card and looked at his hand frantically. This is it, I'm gonna lose. I don't have anything to stop him. He barely has any cards in his deck, but I can't eliminate those with what I have here and what he has on the field. If I had another few turns maybe. If I'm lucky I'll survive his next attack, it all depends on how he plays it. Then Lucien conceived of a play. It was crazy, and if he had told it to Todd right then, Todd would have told him the odds were about 2.
"If I go down, I'm going down fighting. I play Bait Doll on your face down card. Bait Doll forces its activation and if the timing is off it is destroyed. Bait Doll returns to my deck." Todd turned over Mirror Wall.
"It looks like you've revealed my secret defense, not that it looks like I'll need it." Then Lucien conceived of a play. It was crazy, and if he had told it to Todd right then, Todd would have told him the odds for success were about 2.
"I summon Cliff the Trap Remover(1200/1000) and its attack is halved (600/1000). Now I'll have it attack Masked Sorcerer, destroying itself." Todd frowned as his opponent, who ought to be lying prostrate started killing himself against his monsters.
Todd: 5900
Lucien: 1900
"I don't know what your doing, but that made me draw a card." Lucien responded sarcastically.
"Really? I never noticed. Now I set a card face down and end my turn."
"First off I won't pay for Mirror Wall. You really want do die don't you? Well I think I'll just-, unless that's what you want me to do." Todd looked at Lucien's face down cards uneasily.
"It's too bad I haven't drawn my Heavy Storm yet. But I know just how to solve that. You don't know this, but you discarded my trump card, Double Spell with Card Destruction. And now I have just what I need to ensure my victory. I play The Shallow Grave. We each get to special summon a monster in face down defense mode from our graveyards." Lucien picked up Morphing Jar and set it. Todd took Magician of Faith.
"Now I'll play Book of Taiyou to flip my Magician of Faith up into attack mode. Its effect activates and I recover Double Spell. Just to ensure my survival I'll set a card face down. Now I play Double Spell, discarding my only copy of Graveyard in the 4th Dimension. I'll now play your Card Destruction. I just barely have enough cards left in my deck to do this and survive." Lucien looked up.
"Not after this you don't. I chain, Assault on GHQ. I tribute my Morphing Jar and you loose two cards from your deck. After Card Destruction resolves…" Lucien shrugged. "Why don't you see for yourself?" Todd, horrified counted off the last cards of his deck and looked around as if he might have miscounted. If he had one more card in his deck he would have survived.
Stricken, Todd looked around for a friendly face, someone to tell him it was ok. It seemed like all he was going to get was Ray noisily eating his hamburger on his way out the door; a rather unpleasant sound in the silence. Then Lucien stood up and proffered his hand.
"Good game." Todd took it and shook. Just those two words had calmed him down. After all, he was just a kid, used to looking to parents for approval and his supposed peers for worship. The loss would have been too much for him; if Lucien hadn't shaken his hand.
Aliya however hadn't quite forgiven Todd for his insolence.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Todd stood, still as a statue for a single moment until he jumped and cleared up his cards and handed them to Lucien in a sloppy stack, again the terrified child. Lucien had no idea what was going on until Aliya saw fit to inform him.
"He's an eliminator. So was Ray. They were given there decks, pre-made. They were allowed to duel with them in the tournament on the condition that they give their decks to anyone who defeats them. You had run off before Ray could give you his deck after your duel with him. So he surrendered to me and gave it to me so I could present it to you." Aliya took her deck box out of her pocket and removed Ray's deck, handing it to Lucien. Lucien accepted the deck from Aliya as well as the one that Todd handed to him first and the boy scampered off into the crowd. He looked at them for a moment and shook his head.
"I don't need these. Aliya you take Ray's deck. It will work well with your strategy. Raoul, take Todd's. You could use a few of his Spellcaster support cards." Aliya and Raoul took the decks amazed. Raoul was the first to give his surprise voice.
"But… why? You could use these cards perfectly well yourself." Lucien smiled.
"Because you're my team mates, and if I could have chosen any well themed decks to give you two, I would have chosen these."
"Thanks man."
"Just don't expect anything for your birthdays." On their way to the front of the shop, Aliya shook her head and looked worriedly at Lucien.
"Ray told us something else too. No matter who won the other semi-final match, you're going to be playing an eliminator. If you win, you'll not only be champion, but you'll win both of their decks. On the other hand, if they can beat one of their own, then they're bound to be tough, whoever wins. How do you plan on beating the eliminator in the final round?"
"By trying. I can't afford to lose. If I lose its all over. We'll never avenge Laronn. Your efforts would have been wasted. I need to win." And as he said this, a fire burnt in Lucien's eyes that they had never seen before, and when he swept away his bangs, his bracelet glinted in the electric light.
"They won't even know what hit them."