RETHINKING STRATEGIES
Yuka remained silent as the three of them made their way to a nearby hotel for the night. The duel against Cole was replaying over and over in her head as she thought about how it went and what she could have done differently. Then again, as she thought about it, there was nothing she could have done; her hand had bricked, giving her cards that she couldn't use. The only card she could have used was One Or Eight, and that backfired horribly.
She was barely aware of them checking in; she just went along with Hugo and Shelly, and when they got to their room, she just sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes fixated on the floor.
"Come on, Yuka," Hugo said. "You lost one duel. So what? It was just one duel."
"It wasn't a duel against a random duelist on the road," Yuka answered softly. "It was a duel against a gym leader. And I lost because I made a stupid play. If I do that and lose again, that's it; I'm out until next year. I don't want to risk that."
"Then get rid of that card," Shelly suggested. "It's that easy."
"It would be if it wasn't already registered on my deck list," Yuka replied. "If I do that, I'll be disqualified either way."
"Then just side it out with something else," Hugo said. "It's that easy."
"Is it, though?" Yuka asked. "What if I do that and lose again? That's what I'm most afraid of."
Hugo and Shelly shared a worried look with each other. They'd never seen Yuka this down before. This was so incredibly different than her normal self, where she was normally peppy and cheerful. They weren't used to seeing her this upset.
Of course, the two of them knew that there was the possibility that Yuka would lose at least one of these gym duels. After all, Duel Monsters was a game of luck as much as it was of skill. A duelist could have built their deck as perfectly as possible, but in the end, victory or defeat was all down to the cards they played and how well the deck had been shuffled. Even then, an experienced duelist might be able to make a bad shuffle work, but in some cases, like the one against Cole, there was sometimes no way to turn it around in the duelist's favor.
Still, though, you'd think that Yuka would know that she'd have to deal with losing a duel at least once, Hugo thought.
Shelly knelt down in front of Yuka, whose face was still focused on the floor.
"Yuka? Yuka, look at me," Shelly said softly. Slowly, Yuka raised her head to look at Shelly.
The hotel room echoed with the sound of Shelly's hand connecting with the side of Yuka's face.
"Get over it!" Shelly yelled. "One loss isn't the end of the world! So pull yourself out of this funk and try again!"
Yuka rubbed the side of her face, where Shelly had slapped her. "You didn't have to hit me, you know."
"It woke you up, didn't it?" Shelly asked.
"To be fair, can't argue with the results," Hugo added.
"Okay, fine," Yuka huffed. "But what can I do?"
"We can start by looking at your deck," Hugo said. "Let me see it." Yuka handed him her deck. He flipped through the cards until he found the trap card in question, One Or Eight. "Okay, this card has to go," he said. "Where's your side deck?"
"Right here," Yuka said as she handed him her side deck.
Hugo put the card into the side deck and flipped through those cards to find a replacement. One card in particular caught his eye.
"Why did you side out True Light?" he asked.
"Are you serious?" Shelly gasped. "Yuka, that card rocks. It kicked butt on the boat."
"I didn't think I'd need it," Yuka said.
"But, Yuka, this card protects your Blue-Eyes White Dragons and lets you summon one right from the hand or Graveyard," Hugo countered.
"I know," Yuka said. She let out a sigh. "Guess it was kind of stupid of me to take that one out."
"Then we put it back in," Hugo said as he put it into the main deck.
Yuka took her cards back, putting the main deck back into her duel pad and the side deck into her deck box.
"Yuka, listen," Shelly said. "I know that if you lose again you'll be out of the competition, but you shouldn't let this one loss get you down. Just rethink your strategies and try again."
"Besides, when you beat Cole, this loss will be reset, right?" Hugo asked.
"Yeah, I guess that's one way of putting it. I'm only out of the competition if I lose to the same gym leader twice," Yuka answered.
"Okay. Good," Hugo said. He gave Yuka a reassuring pat on her shoulder. "Now, how about we step outside and get in some practice with a duel?"
"Better idea," Shelly spoke up. "We'll make it a handicap. Me and Hugo against you, Yuka."
Yuka looked down at her duel pad, the deck still sitting in the deck slot. Maybe her friends were right, maybe she was letting this one loss get to her too much. After all, the chance of losing a duel was part of the game. Every duelist she'd gone up against had gone into a duel against her thinking they would win. And this depressed feeling; was that how her opponents felt when they lost to her?
"Okay. Why not. Let's go."
A few moments later, they were outside and soon found their way to a nearby park. Taking up their positions at an unused baseball field, they activated their duel pads, set their life points to 8000, and drew their first five cards.
"Let's duel!" they all cried.
"I'll start us off," Hugo said. "For my first move, I activae the spell card Fossil Dig, to add a Level Six or lower Dinosaur monster from my deck to my hand. And the dino I choose is Souleating Oviraptor, which I'm now going to summon." The flaming oviraptor appeared on the field and screeched at Yuka. "Next, I'll activate its effect to send a dinosaur from my deck to the Graveyard, so I'll send Babycerasaurus, which will activate his effect to Special Summon a Level Four or lower Dinosaur from my deck, so out comes Sabersaurus." A red triceratops appeared on the field.
"Now that I have two Level Four Dinosaur type monsters on the field, I can build the Overlay Network," Hugo continued. The holographic projectors of his duel pad projected the image of a black hole, which sucked in the two dinosaurs. "I overlay Souleating Oviraptor and Sabersaurus. I Xyz Summon Rank Four Evolzar Dolkka." Emerging from the black hole was a brilliant white dragon, its mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth. "Next I'll set one card face down and end my turn."
"Then I'll draw for my turn," Yuka said. She scanned the cards in her hand - the trap card Solemn Warning, the spell cards Lightning Vortex and Reload, and the monsters Blue-Eyes White Dragon, White Stone of Ancients, and Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands. She looked up at the field. The only monster on the field was Evolzar Dolkka, and Hugo had one card face down. No doubt that face down card was a trap card, and she knew Evolzar Dolkka could negate the Special Summon of one of her monsters as long as it had at least one Overlay Unit.
"Okay, then, I'll do this," she said. "I'll set one card face down." She placed Solemn Judgement face down. "And then I'll set one monster and end my turn." She set White Stone of Ancients face down in defense mode.
"My turn," Shelly said as she drew a new card. Her hand consisted of Shaddoll Squamata, Pot of Avarice, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Sinister Shadow Games, Shaddoll Beast, and Shaddoll Falco. "I summon Shaddoll Squamata in attack mode." The monster that appeared looked like a strange serpentine creature with puppet strings attached to it. "And now, Shaddoll Squamata's going to attack your defense monster." Shaddoll Squamata lashed out at Yuka's defense monster, destroying it and sending it to the Graveyard. "Now, Evolzar Dolkka, attack her directly." The blue orbs on the joints of Dolkka's wings started to glow, before firing a burst of energy at Yuka.
The energy hit Yuka head on. She let out a gasp of pain as the energy washed over her and dropped her life points to 5700.
"That'll bring my turn to an end."
"And on the End Phase," Yuka announced, "the effect of White Stone of Ancients activates, letting me Special Summon a Blue-Eyes monster from my deck, so I'll bring out Dragon Spirit of White." The white dragon appeared on the field, roaring loudly. "And now, I'll activate its effect to banish your face down card." The dragon started to flap its wings.
"That'll trigger the effect of my trap card," Hugo countered. "The Grand Horn of Heaven. Since your monster was Special Summoned, I can negate that summon and destroy it." A large, gold horn embossed with various gemstones appeared around the Dragon Spirit of White.
"Not if I activate this card," Yuka said. "Solemn Warning! I have to give up 2000 life points, but that's enough to negate the activation of your trap card and destroy it." The horn shattered, and Yuka's dragon was right where it had been, as her life points dropped to 3700.
"Hugo, why didn't you activate Evolzar Dolkka's effect?" Shelly asked.
"I thought my trap card would be enough," Hugo answered. "Total misplay on my part. Sorry."
"Next," Yuka continued, "I'll activate this spell card, Lightning Vortex. I have to send a card from my hand to the Graveyard to activate it, so I'll send Reload and destroy all your monsters." She placed the spell card Reload in the Graveyard, even as several bolts of lightning shot down from the sky, obliterating Hugo and Shelly's monsters. "Now, I'll attack with Dragon Spirit of White." The dragon shot a burst of bluish-white energy from its mouth, hitting Hugo and Shelly and dropping their life points to 5500. "I'll end my turn there."
"Since Shaddoll squamata was sent to the Graveyard by a card effect," Shelly said, "that activates its effect, letting me send a Shaddoll card from my deck to the Graveyard. So I'll send Shaddoll Hound to the Graveyard, which will in turn trigger his effect to change your Dragon Spirit of White from attack mode to defense mode."
Hugo drew a new card, Gilasaurus. "I'll start my turn by Special Summoning Gilasaurus in attack mode." The brown velociraptor appeared, its teeth and claws bared at Yuka's dragon. "And since you have a monster in your Graveyard, you can Special Summon it."
"Thanks," Yuka said. "I'll Special Summon White Stone of Ancients in defense mode." The glowing white stone appeared next to Dragon Spirit's foot.
"Next I'll set one card face down," Hugo continued as he set the trap card Survival's End face down on the field. "And then I'll summon Megalosmasher X." The cybernetic liopleurodon appeared next to Gilasaurus. "And now that I have two monsters with two different names on the field, that will let my circuit evolve."
"And here you go with the Link Summon," Yuka huffed.
"That's right," Hugo confirmed. "The summoning conditions are two monsters with two different names, so I set Megalosmasher X and Gilasaurus in the Link Arrows." The two monsters transformed into a blue and black tornado of energy respetively, which began to swirl together, forming the image of a pink and black phoenix. "I Link Summon Link Two Knightmare Phoenix." Knightmare Phoenix screeched as it flapped its feathered wings.
"Knightmare Phoenix, attack and destroy that White Stone of Ancients," Hugo ordered. Knightmare Phoenix flapped its wings, sending a barrage of of sharp feathers into the White Stone, destroying it. Since it was in defense mode, Yuka didn't lose any life points. "I end my turn there."
"On the end phase, White Stone of Ancients goes off again," Yuka said. "So this time I'll bring out Blue-Eyes Abyss Dragon." The silver dragon that appeared had four feathered wings, all slapping, all keeping it aloft. "That'll trigger his effect to add a Ritual Spell from my deck to my hand, so I'll add Advanced Ritual Art. And now that it's officially my turn, I draw." The new card she drew was Deep-Eyes White Dragon.
"First, I'll change Dragon Spirit of White to attack mode," she continued. "Then I'll summon Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands in attack mode." The hand-based monster appeared, being absolutely dwarfed by the two dragons. "I'll use his effect to add Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon from my deck to my hand." She added the proper monster to her hand. "Now I'll activate Advanced Ritual Art, sending a Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my deck to the Graveyard to Ritual Summon Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon." Chaos MAX Dragon appeared, the largest monster on the field by far. Its roar echoed even outside, catching the attention of anyone who hadn't already stopped to watch the duel.
"And now, I'm going to create my own circuit," she continued. "The summoning conditions are at least two non-Token monsters, so I'll set Dragon Spirit of White, Blue-Eyes Abyss Dragon, and Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands in the Link Arrows."
"Not yet, you won't," Shelly countered. "I activate Hugo's face down card, Survival of the Fittest."
"Beat me to it by half a second," Hugo laughed.
"This card destroys all Normal Monsters on the field," Shelly said, "and since your Dragon Spirit of White is treated as a Normal Monster, it's destroyed." Dragon Spirit of White vanished from the field. "This will in turn let Hugo Special Summon a Level Four Dinosaur Monster from his deck. Sure, it's destroyed in the end phase, but at least it'll provide some protection."
"It sure will," Hugo agreed. "So I'll Special Summon Miracle Jurassic Egg in defense mode." A silver-scaled egg appeared on the field.
"All you've done is change which monsters I'm going to use," Yuka said. "So I'll instead use Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon as my third Link Material to Link Summon Link three Triple Burst Dragon." The monster she summoned was a two-legged dragon in metallic armor, with a long whiplike tail and three guns protruding from it, two from the shoulders and one from the chest. "Triple Burst Dragon, attack and destroy Knightmare Phoenix with Triple Canon Burst." The dragon's three guns fired, hitting Knightmare Phoenix, destroying it and dropping Hugo's life points to 5000. "That'll end my turn."
"Then it's back to me, and I draw a card," Shelly said. The card she drew was Shaddoll Dragon. "I think I'll start by activating Pot of Avarice to send five cards from my Graveyard back to the deck so I can draw two cards. I'll give Hugo three monsters and give myself two. So Hugo gets back Gilasaurus, Souleating Oviraptor, and Babycerasaurus, and I'll get back Shaddoll Hound and Shaddoll Squamata." The five monsters went back to their respective decks, and after Shelly's duel pad activated its auto shuffle function, she drew two new cards, Armageddon Knight and Kuribandit.
"I'll summon Kuribandit to the field," Shelly continued. The small, sentient furball appeared on the field. It swiped one clawed hand at Triple Burst Dragon in an attempt to appear threatening. "And now I'll use his effect, tributing him to draw the top five cards of my deck, keeping any spell and trap cards and sending any monsters to the Graveyard." Kuribandit vanished from the field, and Shelly drew the top five cards from her deck.
Shaddoll Fusion.
Foolish Burial.
Shaddoll Core.
El Shaddoll Fusion.
Necro Fusion.
"This is what I'm talking about," she said with a grin. "I'll now activate Foolish Burial, sending a Shaddoll Monster from my deck to the Graveyard, so I'll send Shaddoll Squamata to the Graveyard, triggering its effect to send another Shaddoll monster to the Graveyard. So this time I'll send Shaddoll Hedgehog to the Graveyard, which will then trigger his effect to add a Shaddoll monster to my hand. I think I'll add Reeshaddoll Wendi to my hand."
"You're not just going to keep sending and adding cards, are you?" Yuka asked.
"No, I'm done with that," Shelly answered. "Now the real fun begins. First, I'll activate El Shaddoll Fusion. I'll use my Shaddoll Beast and Hugo's Miracle Jurassic Egg as Fusion Material. I Fusion Summon El Shaddoll Shekhinaga." The two monsters fused to create a new monster, a feminine porcelain doll, dark puppet strings connecting it to the large white and purple shields.
"Since Shaddoll Beast was sent to the Graveyard by a card effect, I'll activate his effect, which lets me draw a card," Shelly continued. The card she drew was Performage Trick Clown. "Now I'll activate Shaddoll Fusion, sending Performage Trick Clown and Reeshaddoll Wendi from my hand. Shine the light that casts the shadows and Fusion Summon El Shaddoll Construct!" El Shaddoll Construct apperaed next to Shekhinaga.
"I'm not finished just yet," Shelly said, "because summoning El Shaddoll Construct lets me send a Shaddoll Card from my deck to the Graveyard, so I'll send Qadshaddoll Keios to the Graveyard and use his effect to send Shaddoll Dragon to the Graveyard, which will give all monsters on our field an extra 400 attack points. And now, I banish Shaddoll Dragon and Performage Trick Clown from my Graveyard. The chaotic forces of light and darkness combine to let me Special Summon Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning." The blue and gold armored soldier appeared next to the two Shaddoll monsters.
Hugo let out an admiring whistle. "Not bad, Shelly."
"Thanks. Now, I'll attack wiht Black Luster Soldier. Destroy Triple Burst Dragon!" Black Luster Soldier slashed at Triple Burst Dragon, destroying it and dropping Yuka's life points to 2700.
"That triggers the effect of the Deep-Eyes White Dragon in my hand," Yuka announced as the shimmering white dragon appeared in Triple Burst Dragon's place. "First, you both lose 600 life points for each differently named dragon in my Graveyard, so say goodbye to 3600 life points." Hugo and Shelly's life points dropped to 1400. "Not only that, but Deep-Eyes gains the attack points of one dragon in my Graveyard, so it'll gain Chaos MAX Dragon's 4000 attack points."
"Shoot!" Shelly yelled. "That completely ruins my plan!"
"No worries, Shelly," Hugo assured her. "That was a darn good play. But now it's my turn, so I draw a card." The card he drew was Big Evolution Pill. "Since Qadshaddoll Keios's effect has worn off, all our monsters go back to thier normal stats, making them weaker than your dragon, so I'll switch them all to defense mode, then set another monster in defense mode and end my turn."
You could say that I'm letting Yuka have this next turn, and possibly the turns after that one, Hugo silently mused. Instead of setting Black Brachion, I could have summoned it, and then used our monsters along with Yuka's monster to Link Summon into Underworld Goddess of the Closed World. Oh well. I think after what happened earlier she needs the victory to lift her spirits. Though I still can't help but wonder what she would have done if she didn't have that Deep-Eyes and Shelly's monsers had defeated her.
"I draw," Yuka said. She drew into the spell card Trade-In. "I activate Trade-In, sending the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in my hand to draw two cards." She sent Blue-Eyes White Dragon to the Graveyard and drew two new cards, Monster Reborn and Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon. "Next, I banish White Stone of Ancients from my Graveyard to add Blue-Eyes White Dragon to my hand. Next, by revealing him, I Special Summon Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon." The new dragon appeared, roaring angrily as it hovered above the field. "Now I'll use his effect to destroy your face down card. Blue Lightning!" Alternative White Dragon shot a whitish-blue burst of energy from its mouth, destroying the defense monster.
"Now I'll activate Monster Reborn," Yuka continued, "to bring back Triple Burst Dragon." Triple Burst Dragon returned to the field.
"Why him and not Chaos MAX?" Shelly wondered.
"Because if I did that I wouldn't be able to do this," Yuka answered. "I set Triple Burst Dragon and Deep-Eyes White Dragon in the Link Arrows. I Link Summon Link Four Borreload Dragon." The red and green metallic armored dragon apperaed. "Borreload Dragon, attack El Shaddoll Construct!" A gun barrel extended from Borreload Dragon's open mouth and fired a blast that hit El Shaddoll Construct square in the chest, destroying it.
"That triggers El Shaddoll Construct's effect," Shelly said, "letting me add Shaddoll Fusion from my deck to my hand."
"Then I end my turn," Yuka said.
"I draw." Hugo drew a new card, Super-Ancient Dinobeast. "Well, this card isn't going to help, but what I can do is switch Black Luster Soldier to Attack Mode and attack your dragon. Sure, both monsters will be destroyed, but it'll be worth it to get rid of that Alternative White Dragon." He switched Black Luster Soldier to attack mode, and it got ready to charge.
"Not so fast," Yuka countered. "I activate one of Borreload Dragon's effects to reduce your Black Luster Soldier's attack points by 500." Black Luster Soldier's attack points dropped to 2500.
"Then I guess I do nothing and end my turn," Hugo said through gritted teeth.
Yuka drew a new card, Mirror Force. "I set one card face down, then go in for the attack."
"Did you forget that both your monsters have the same attack points as Shikhenaga's defense and Black Luster Soldier's attack points?" Shelly asked.
"Did you forget that Borreload Dragon can take control of one of your monsters?" Yuka asked in return. Borreload Dragon fired a blast from its mouth, this one taking the form of a large hand that grasped Black Luster Soldier and put it on Yuka's field next to one of Borreload Dragon's link arrows. "Now I'll attack with Black Luster Sodier, not to destroy Shikhenaga, but to banish it from the field." Black Luster Soldier slashed at Shikhenaga, destroying it. "Alternative White Dragon, finish the duel with your Blue Lightning!" Alternative White Dragon's attack hit directly, dropping Hugo and Shelly's life points to 0.
The monsters faded away from the field as the three of them shut their duel pads off. Yuka took a deep breath; she felt liberated. Maybe she had been in her own head after her loss to Cole earlier. Maybe she was overthinking her loss. Either way, this duel seemed to be just what she needed, whether she had won or not.
"Yuka! You okay over there?" Hugo called. "You're kind of spacing out."
"Yeah, I'm fine," Yuka answered. "I was just thinking, that's all."
"About what?" Shelly asked.
"About how stupid I was being earlier," Yuka answered. "I think you guys are right. One loss isn't the end of the world. All I have to do is try again. And not add that card to my deck again."
"Yeah, that second thing might be a good idea," Shelly agreed. "Hey, you used some good strategies on that duel. Maybe you can try those when you face Cole again."
"I could, yeah," Yuka said. "But what if I brick again? What if I can't do anything?"
"A good duelist can find a strategy in even the worst hands," Hugo answered. "And believe me, a deck like a Blue-Eyes deck can make any strategy work if in the hands of a good duelist. Heck, you've been using Blue-Eyes for a while, and I've seen you use a lot of good strategies."
"There's still one thing that's kind of bugging me, though," Yuka said. "That kid that dueled Cole before me...Where do you think he disappeared to?"
"Why?" Shelly asked.
"I don't know, I just think he could use a similar pep talk," Yuka replied.
"He probably wanted to be left alone for a while," Shelly guessed. There was an audible rumble as their stomachs growled. "And I think we should find some food."
"Good idea, I'm hungry," Hugo agreed.