“Are you done conferring?”
“Yes. You may be the Yunico, but I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.”
“I’ll let you pick who goes first, mademoiselle.”
“I’d like to go first.”
Yunico grinned again, as if to mock me for being a beginner. One rule of Yugimaster was that you couldn’t attack with a monster during the first turn. It was generally thought that the person who went second had the advantage because they could attack on their first turn.
“This isn’t your first time playing, non? If you only invoquer weak monsters, I’m going to activer True World on my turn.”
“I won’t let you use True World. I’m settling this match in the first turn.”
Though the person to go first couldn’t attack, depleting your opponent’s life points wasn’t the only way to win Yugimaster. Yunico looked dubious upon hearing me declare I would deliver a one-turn kill, but he was the creator of this game, and he immediately remembered the special win conditions.
“An alternative win condition. Out of the ones that let you win in un turn... You must be going for the Exodriver win.”
Exodriver wasn’t the name of a single card. There were five different cards named Head of Exodriver, Chest of Exodriver, Belly of Exodriver, Wings of Exodriver, and Legs of Exodriver. The moment you had all five in your hand, you would meet the alternative win condition.
Just looking at its effect, it seemed like a strong group of cards, but no one used a deck that revolved around Exo. The reason for this was that while Yugimaster usually allowed up to three copies of a card in any deck, you were only allowed one of each Exo card.
That meant that you only had five total, one of each, in your deck of forty cards, which made the probability of drawing all five on your first turn roughly one in six hundred and fifty thousand. As the game progressed and you made your way through your deck, the chance of having all five would increase, but that meant that the individual cards, which were useless unless you had all five, would take up space in your hand, so it would be disadvantageous towards regular gameplay.
“So you’re relying on luck, mademoiselle? What a letdown. Or are you going to cheat?”
“I won’t cheat, nor will I rely on luck.”
With Yunico having looked down on me, our match began. We each shuffled our own decks, then we exchanged our decks and shuffled our opponent’s. Yunico was suspicious that I’d planned something, and was thoroughly shuffling my deck. Satisfied with his shuffling, he spoke before returning my deck.
“I will draw your first five cards. Since you can’t see what they are, it doesn’t change anything, oui?”
“Go ahead. I don’t mind.”
Yunico drew five cards from the top of the draw pile, then laid them out on the table with the back of the cards facing up. I picked them up so I was the only one who could see them, and Yunico flashed a confident smile.
“So? Since the first to go can’t draw at the start of le turn, you have to fight with those five cards.”
“I don’t have all five...”
“Ha ha! Now my victoire is guaranteed! Let me share this little secret with you. I have True World in my starting hand. It looks like this match might be settled in my first turn.”
I hadn’t pulled all five of the cards I needed, and Yunico had pulled the one trump card he needed. Both Yunico and the gallery watching probably thought that the match was set. The only ones who thought I could still win were me...and Patrick.
“Are your cards any good? You were talking big, so you can win, right?”
“Yeah, leave it to me.”
“Though, will you really be okay with this hand? What was it? Exodriver? You don’t have a single one of those?”
Don’t worry, Patrick. It’s true that I didn’t draw a single one of them, but all of the cards in my hand are specialized in the same thing. I glanced at Yunico, who was calm and collected, out of the corner of my eye and began my turn.
“Activate spell card: Humble and Steady Pot. I can draw two cards. Next, I’ll use the spell card Express to Hell to send the Head of Exodriver in my draw pile to the discard pile. Spell card: The Professor’s Research. I discard my entire hand and draw seven. I’ve pulled another one, a Humble and Steady Pot.”
“Wh-What are you trying to do...?!”
Surely you know what my plan is after seeing how many draw-type cards I have. I’m going to draw a bunch of cards in my first turn and gather all the Exodriver’s parts. I’d built this deck so that I could draw all five parts, even if they were at the bottom of the deck.
I continued to use various cards that allowed me to draw more and dug through my deck, and eventually...
“I summon the monster card Mister Garbage-Lover. When I summon him, his effect lets me move the Head of Exodriver in my discard pile to my hand—”
“C’est Pas vrai?! I’m using Black Flash of God! I pay half my life points to nullify l’effet of Mister Garbage-Lover.”
Yunico was probably worried that I was close to getting all the Exo parts, and he used a card that could harm me even during my own turn. But everything was fine. It would’ve been bad if he’d used it earlier, but I already had a card to counter him in my hand.
I looked for the card I needed in my hand that now had too many cards in it, and Yunico began shaking with anger.
“What are you doing? The effect of my Black Flash of God.”
“Black Flash of God.”
“What...?”
“I’m using one too. My Black Flash of God nullifies your Black Flash of God.”
“Huh...?” he finally responded after a short pause.
I’d nullified his card, which nullified my monster card, with the same card. Yunico’s face had frozen up, so I checked with him one more time.
“Are you done? If one of the four cards in your hand is another Black Flash of God, you can use it. Oh, but I have one more, so unless two of your four cards are Black Flash of God, then you can’t nullify my Mister Garbage-Lover.”
Yunico didn’t respond, so it was safe to assume that he had nothing to hit back with. I collected the Head of Exodriver from my discard pile, and...
“I have them now. I have all five of Exodriver’s parts, granting me the alternative win.”
Yunico was frozen. A battle began and ended with thanking your opponent. Even if my opponent was someone who mowed down and ravaged his enemies, I wouldn’t forget to do the final ritual.
“Thank you. That was a good game. It was just as fun as playing solitaire.”
The shop had fallen silent upon seeing the respected creator face total defeat. The silence was broken by the sound of the door opening. Everyone turned to see who it was, and it was a man with a shaved head.
“Mi scusi, I am Yunico Xyloford, the creator of Yugimaster. I have come to say ciao since it’s been a while—”
“There’s two of them! One of them is an imposter!” the patrons roared in unison.