Yu-Gi-Oh! The Magician's Journey

by doctorcakey

In the not-too-distant future, to protect the freedom and prosperity of humanity, people capable of using magic were systematically purged, leaving few survivors. One girl discovers that her own fate and the fate of the world have become intertwined. Uses an original setting and characters, but retains the focus on the Duel Monsters card game.

1. Preliminaries

Foreword: To My Mentors

This story came to be last year when I went back to read some Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction I hadn't read since high school. Looking at them with adult eyes (I'm 30 now), I was struck by how my perception of them had changed. Much of what had seemed fair to me 15 years ago was now foul, and some things that seemed foul to me then were now fair. And there were things that shone, but with a different light.

In returning to this ancient well, I came back in touch with old ways of thinking, and my creativity was stirred in ways it hadn't been for a long time. I realized that the authors of these works, these authors whose grasp of English was often even shakier than their grasp of storytelling, these authors with names like Wyhe, Epic Hero Saber, Matt Bahamut, and legendhiro... they were my mentors. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Magician's Journey is written in gratitude to these mentors.

I have received a great deal from them. The overall plot, especially in the early acts, is derived in large part from a fanfic called Key of the Mind. Each of my chapters is titled after an existing Yu-Gi-Oh! card; this is in imitation of Saber's Dead Zone. Perhaps I have borrowed too much.

But I think that's okay, in its own way. I leave so I can return, I venture into yesterday so I can find tomorrow. A thank you to my masters is a goodbye to my past self. In writing The Magician's Journey, I am — as the cliche goes — bidding farewell to my youth.

Thank you, and goodbye.

But for now, let's have fun.

The Rules of the Game

The duels in The Magician's Journey take heavy inspiration from those that appeared in the manga and Duel Monsters anime. Thus, there's a certain 'looseness' to how the games are played, the sense that there's a little more to each card than what is recorded on its text. But I also play the TCG, and I'm pretty good at it — for a certain definition of good — so I'm seeking a balance between various extremes.

In short, the duels are played under the New Expert Rules (the rules immediately prior to 5D's), with the following exceptions:

-Monsters can be Normal Summoned in face-up Defense Position.
-As in the manga and early anime, if an attack target leaves the field, the attack fails.
-There is no Ignition Effect priority (if you don't know what Ignition Effect priority is, don't worry, it was removed in Master Rule 2 and it was always stupid).

And also...

Ritual Monsters
I wanted to make Ritual Monsters a focus of The Magician's Journey, but to do that in this retro (or pseudo-retro) format, they needed an overhaul. For that reason, I have placed Ritual Monsters in the Extra Deck (you're welcome). In exchange, most Ritual Spells can only Tribute monsters from the field, not the hand. The end result is halfway between Fusion and Synchro, I suppose.

Speed Duels
Duels with both 4000 and 8000 Life Points will appear over the course of the story. For convenience, within the story I call the 4000 LP duels 'Speed Duels', but other than the lower starting LP their rules are the same as typical Master Duels. The exception is that most burn damage effects and LP costs are reduced during Speed Duels, with the exact reduction decided on a case-by-case basis. If I were to pick a median, I'd say most burn has been reduced by a third.