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1034777 No. 1034777 ID: 8483cf

Attention, duelists! It’s time for a massively multiversal Questden card tournament!

The quest will follow the duelists of Group A in their quest to win the grand prize: their heart’s deepest desire, to be granted by the host of the tournament.

Group A’s Duelists
Name, Author, Quest Title, Wiki Link)
- Lady Serah Kensington, Donut, Lazy Fairy, https://questden.org/wiki/Lazy_Fairy
- Enid Anderson and Franklin, Himitsu, Perpetuity, https://questden.org/wiki/Perpetuity
- The Mystery Duelist, Clockwork Seal, ???, https://questden.org/wiki/ClockworkSeal
- Carl Marks, tippler, Good Impression/Girl Talk/STAY INSIDE https://questden.org/wiki/Good_Impression

Host
- Companionship (and Attendants), Donut, Mosaic, https://questden.org/wiki/Mosaic

Many thanks in advance to all the guest artists providing card art and depictions of duelists!
274 posts omitted. Last 100 shown. Expand all images
>>
No. 1062938 ID: 3b86e0
File 168349108081.png - (116.60KB , 372x594 , Soul_Coalescence.png )
1062938

Quite something, actually. Just the right ingredients for a killer combo, pun intended.

Time for the closing act.

-“I’ll start by sacrificing Sekiel and Nickel to tribute summon Alice Dietrich.

-“Pay up, life is struggle.”

The possum preacher grumpily flicks a nickel at Nickel, she catches it mid-flight before they both disintegrate into motes of light. Wonder when they had time to make a bet. At any rate, new motes of light appear and coalesce in the form of a green, ghoulish woman.

[Alice Dietrich, 8 stars, Type: Plant/Mutant, 1750 ATK 1750 DEF]

“With Sekiel now in my graveyard, that makes the raises the bonus of Soul Coalescence to 800 points, giving Alice a formidable 2550 attack and defense, making her more than a match for your General Halsner, but before I attack, I’ll use Deflated Ego to take away the attack bonus he’s gained.”

The game itself seems to have a sense of humor, as it illustrates the General’s return to 900 attack points by making three of the four stars on his pauldron fall off, making him swear loudly.

-“Alice, attack!”- I command.

-“Oh, blast it all.”- Halsner sighs as Alice falls upon him and… swallows him whole after pummeling him with her fists.

-“Ew, what in the hell!”- Selma exclaims.

-“A..apologies, this must be the way the game represents Alice’s special ability, Mass Gain, which raises her attack and defense by 500 points every time she defeats an enemy.”

-“Why did they have to show that ability so ghastly-like?”- She drawls.

-“We did tone it down.”- I hear a voice to my left; it is the tall gray bird serving as one of the judges, –“The original display had her chomping down on the bodies as she usually would in the real world,”- she grimaces quite expressively for someone with a beak, –“We… may change it further, after seeing your reaction.”

-“Please, I’d really appreciate it.”- Selma replies.

-“As would I,”- I bow my head slightly,- “Thank you, miss…”

-“Tiana.”

-“Thank you, Tiana. No need to do it right now, however; the duel is almost over.”

At this, Selma’s ears perk up. “Wait, how many life points did I lose from that attack?“- The score keeping sign appears once again in front of us with the result and she stammers, -“What? No, wait…that’s…” she begins counting with her fingers, -“Let’s see, I lost 800 from the Butthead attack, I sacrificed 1000 to summon Astrolysis, then another 500 from hitting the Wall of Flesh, and this attack would be…?”

I complete the thought matter-of-factly, -“1650 points of damage, which lowers the total down to 50.

-“Are you kidding me right now?!”- She says, raising her arms in exasperation.

-“Now, now, remember it was your choice to spend that thousand points, and besides, I cannot attack again this turn, so I’ll just place a trap card and let you draw your three cards.”

Selma stops staring daggers at me and looks quizzically at her deck when she remembers the effect of her spell card. The frown on her face is still there, though. I can tell she doesn’t hold out much hope. To be honest, neither do I.
>>
No. 1062939 ID: 3b86e0
File 168349122301.png - (328.71KB , 628x1000 , Burnt_Bakery.png )
1062939

Selma is not happy. 50 life points, holy moly, talk about cutting it close! If she has any chance left to win, it better show up now.

She draws her three cards.

……

A plan takes form.

-“Alright, I’ll place two trap cards on the field. Since their combo’s already broken, I’ll finish my turn by tributing Astrolysis to summon a monster card in face down position.”

-”Will that be all?”- Xerin asks.

-”Yeah, y’all said it yourself, I don’t have many options right now.”

-”Hm, well, then,”- Xerin motions to draw his next three cards. -”Let’s conclude our little game, shall we?”

-”Sure, man, it was fun while it lasted.”- Selma shrugs.

-”I can tell you are trying to set me up, so let’s play it safe: I cast Rubber and Glue. For one turn, every effect or attack targeted towards either my monsters or myself will instead backfire, and I summon Youngblood Martinet in attack mode, to destroy your face-down card.”

[Youngblood Martinet, 4 Stars, Type: Military/Beast, 1000 ATK 1000 DEF]

-”With 800 bonus attack it will likely be more than a match for your last remaining monster. If not, at least it will serve to test your defenses.”

-”You may be right about that, I have more than one defense, bud! You just activated my trap card: Magic Annulment, which removes every spell currently on play from the field to the graveyard!”

-”Now what did we promise about wiping the board again?”- Xerin wags a finger in mocking reproach.

-”It’s not the entire field, y’know?”- Selma crosses her arms.

-”No matter, I can counter it with a second Suspicion Intent.”- Xerin’s trap card lifts up to reveal the same type of card with the same shoddy art as before.

-“You had more than one of it?”

-”It is a very versatile card, why would I have only one?”

Selma frowns doubtingly, -”It still feels like bad form.”

-”It feels repetitive, I know, but well within the rules; isn’t that right, Miss Tania?”- Xerin lifts his head towards the secretary bird, now perched on one of the seams of the roof, still watching the duel. She leans down to reply.

-”Most cards can be added up to three times to the same deck; the move is valid.”

-”Thank you. Now,”-Xerin looks back down at the table, -”Youngblood Martinet, attack!”

The young fuzzy soldier charges forward and sinks his spear into the face-down monster. The card flips onto its face. A drawing of Selma is visible for a moment before the card shatters like stained glass, disappearing and then reforming on top of the graveyard stack.

[Selma, Shy Librarian, 6 Stars, Type: Beast/Savant, 1500 ATK 1500 DEF]

-”A card of yourself…?”- Xerin arches an eyebrow skeptically.

-”I was meaning to use it with the cards from my own set, but I needed something to stall your monster, and like we say back home, y’all play with the cards that’ve been dealt to ya.”- Selma says with a marked southern drawl and a resigned posture.

-”What is its special effect?”

-”Dying like a bitch, apparently.”

Xerin gives an expression between a repressed frown and smirk at the unexpected remark. -”Hmph. Well, then, if there is nothing else,”- he looks down at his side of the field, -”Alice, attack her life points directly.”

The green ghoul raises her right arm, quickly reshaping it into a large, boney spike, then shoots it forwards, elongating it into a seemingly impossible stretch, speeding towards Selma.

-”That’s a duel-ending attack, alright, but not for you,”- Selma says, tilting her head forward with sinister glee, “I activate my last trap card, Burnt Bakery, which makes an attack aimed at my life points bounce back!”

-”I just activated Rubber and Glue, remember? You cannot destroy my monster with its own attack.”

-”Oh, but the attack is not aimed at the monster, but at the bakery.”- Selma points a finger at Xerin’s deck (grow up), -”The diverted attack translates as 1 discarded card for every 500 attack points.”

Xerin thinks a moment before replying, -”6 cards is a lot, but I can still launch another attack next turn.”

-”No, you don’t! I told you my card’s special effect was dying, and I meant it: when Selma, Shy Librarian gets sent to the graveyard, it activates her special ability, One Last Edit, which allows her owner to change one non-thousands place digit from one card for one turn.”

-”That’s rather specific, but also…”

-”Overpowered if used well? Yeah, and I’m changing the 1 card per 500 points effect from Burnt Bakery, to 1 card per 100 points!”

-”What?! That’s ludicrous!”

-”But still within the rules, right, Tania?”- Selma, Xerin, and even the monster on the field all turn their sights toward the regal bird above.

-”The effect of the Shy Librarian is specific enough that it was considered apt for play, and the effect of the trap card employs the monster’s attack, not the monster itself. I deem the move valid.”- As Tania finishes speaking, Alice’s spiky arm, which had been hovering in place since the start of the argument, quickly changes direction towards the stack of cards at Xerin’s side.

His eyes widen.

-”Wait!”
>>
No. 1062940 ID: 3b86e0
File 168349127494.gif - (192.19KB , 1194x1002 , Duelbonk animado.gif )
1062940

>>
No. 1062942 ID: 3b86e0
File 168349142158.png - (491.06KB , 1194x1002 , Duelbonk 2.png )
1062942

Phantoms, your advice is rubbish!


I was this close, THIS close, to winning. And suddenly I get trumped just because of some…cheap… ass pull…ARGH!

Right. Things have not gone as planned, I was hoping I would at least make a couple steps up the ladder before meeting such a defeat.



I really did not want things to come to this so soon, but it seems I am left with no other choice…
>>
No. 1062944 ID: 3b86e0
File 168349154855.png - (383.36KB , 968x790 , Duelhandshake.png )
1062944

…But to get off my seat and shake her hand.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-“Congratulations Miss Selma, that was a fine turn of tables.”

-”Yeah, sorry about the snide remarks from before. I tend to be mean without meaning to around new people.”

-”Happens to the best of us, my dear. I confess I was rather rude myself.”

-”I’ll say. That “Volin card set” jab was really uncalled for.”

-”I apologize for that. I will endeavor to be more polite next time we duel, should you ever want a rematch.”

-”Sure, I’d love to win best 2 out of 3 one day!”

-”Ahahahaha…… please, quit it!”

SELMA WINS!
>>
No. 1064797 ID: 6be1bd
File 168546149034.png - (116.74KB , 426x425 , 1.png )
1064797

The young aardvark has traveled far on missions from The Order. She has taken many aliases and been to plenty of strange places. Vast mountain ranges, deep caves and breathtaking valleys.

However, when word came of a select magical card tournament, with invitees from far off worlds and a grand prize bestowed by a godlike being, “Mademoiselle” Genevieve readily agreed to take on the invitation, familiarize herself with the rules of the game, and investigate this unique yet suspect gathering.

Genevieve got her first clue that something was awry two steps after entering the tournament grounds. She was greeted by a trio of talking birds, who told her they would be serving as the judges. Her second clue came when she was matched against two diminutive beings, a girl of noble birth and her timid manservant. It was then where she saw the cards come alive before her eyes.

And the third came when she began getting trounced.

Seriously, what was she doing wrong? Her defense was solid, her Chastity Cage and Hidden Blade trap cards worked well, she had even managed a good character card combo with Paladin and Priestess of Agnieszka. And yet still, after a few turns she now had only 2100 life points, while her opponents remained perfectly unscathed!

“Those are some fine characters you've managed to pull. You’re going to need them.” says the pink girl in a tiara, who goes by the name Strawberi. ”Servant, you have given good advice so far, how do you suggest I deal the next blow to this low-breed miscreant?”

That girl had been like this since the duel began, and her gradual victory had only made her worse! Genevieve tries her hardest not to scream in frustration and leave the tournament altogether. Instead, she sighs and replies with a measured tone.

“I am right here, you know? Do you always say such things to your opponents?

“Oh where are my manners? I apologize for my choice of words.It’s as you say, I should not disrespect my dueling partners, even if they are hardly a match.”

Strawberi lets that final remark hang in the air as if it was more an astute observation than an outright insult, and goes back to listening intently to the advice of her purple servant, Warwick. Genevieve can’t quite tell how much of Strawberi’s strategy is actually hers and how much was her butler’s. She sees Strawberi shift in her seat and hum happily as she prepares her next action.

“I hope you haven't forgotten about Zecia’s Panties, which are still equipped to Marge. They let me replicate the effect of normal spells set to my field by sending them to the graveyard. And wouldn't you know it Clothes Off Your Back is a normal spell! With it, I'll be able to replenish my hand.” Strawberi beams.

Right, time to get serious.
>>
No. 1064798 ID: 6be1bd
File 168546158291.png - (126.61KB , 502x800 , 2.png )
1064798

“That’s not happening, Miss Strawberi,” Genevieve says. ”I chain the effect of my character, Niccolo, to flip both him and Marge face-down.”

[Niccolo, 5 Stars, Type: Spellcaster, 1500 ATK 2000 DEF]

Marge, 4 Stars, Type: Beast, 1400 ATK 1200 DEF

Niccolo quite literally draws a whip and hauls it around Marge’s big lizardly body. She gives an expression of shock as he pulls and pulls, until the both of them spin into the air and faceplant on top of their respective cards, flipping them face down.

“And since face down cards can’t have equip spells on them, your…Panties get sent to the graveyard.”

“Servant, your tactic didn’t work at all,” Strawberi yells at Warwick, who looks down sheepishly at her. ”And it cost us a card, too! Be a dear and try to come up with a better idea while you fetch me a milkshake, would you?”

“Y-yes, Miss Strawberi.” He responds, stepping down from the stool he’s been standing on (he had not been offered a chair). He runs off, tray in hand, towards the bar at the corner of the tournament hall. Genevieve scowls.

“So, may I continue with my turn?” She asks.

“Oh! Yes, of course. He will be back shortly, so he won’t miss much.” The noble replies with a handwave.

“Well then, I will use my trap card Stance Change to flip Niccolo back into attack position.” says Genevieve. Niccolo emerges back from his card, jumping out with arms outstretched in a jovial pose. “As per Stance Change’s effect, I can flip it back down instead of sending it to the graveyard, letting me use it again next turn.”

“Wonderful. I suppose we’ll be seeing it again at this rate.” Strawberi grumbles.

“After that, I will now…sacrifice?

“They seem to prefer the word tribute.

“Right. I will Tribute the Paladin and the Priestess of.. Ag..ñi..eska?”

“You aren’t much for these kinds of games, are you?” Strawberi asks as she rests her head on her hand, before remembering her manners and removing her elbow from the table.

“I must admit, I am pretty new to this one.” Genevieve shrugs with an apologetic expression.

“Understandable. Few people have time for such pastimes when they are out tilling the fields or running their shops. I do appreciate your hard work, mind you. I just don’t find it very glamorous.”

If a deadpan expression could simultaneously express anger, Genevieve’s face would be reflecting just that.

“I will tribute my Paladin and Priestess of Agnieszka to summon The Avatar of Purity, and then I’ll send it on the attack against your Bruce character!”

[Bruce, 4 Stars, Type: Beast, 1000 ATK 1000 DEF]

[The Avatar of Purity, 10 Freaking Stars, Type: Spellcaster, 3300 ATK 3000 DEF]

As the monastic pair vanishes from the field into the graveyard, an angelic cyclopean entity rises into being on a set of bright imposing wings. Bruce can only look up and let out a meek "meep” as The Avatar (of Purity, don’t get too excited kids) swoops down and flings a ray of burning light upon the brutish lizardman.

“I will send Niccolo to attack Marge as well.”

Niccolo draws a whip once more, and flicks it onto Marge’s face down card. It shatters on touch, reforming on top of Strawberi’s graveyard above her fellow lizard thug.

Strawberi is seething in her seat as her life points drop to a mere 1700.

“Here is your vanilla and chocolate, Miss Strawberi,” Warwick says, methodically climbing back onto his stool without spilling his tray.

“Where were you?” The now slightly pinker girl says. She swiftly snatches the milkshake from Warwick’s tray, spilling some droplets on his overalls. “Look at this! Over half my life points gone and only one character left on my field! You should be faster next time!”

She takes a sip from the milkshake’s straw while Warwick gives a puzzled look to Genevieve, who returns one of her own. She does the waiter a favor and diffuses the situation. ”Well, you should have plenty of opportunity to plan your next move now. I’ll be ending my turn.”

Strawberi puts her now half empty glass back on the tray, and gives a short sigh. Her lacteous break having improved her mood somewhat.

“Ah, marvelous!” she exclaims to no one in particular. She gestures with a finger for Warwick to lean closer. “Alright, my dependable, if flawed, advisor, confer with me. We cannot let this affront to my perfect score go unpunished!”

She draws a card to join the other 2 in her hand, turning her head away from her opponent. He does the same, and they both whisper conspiratorially for a minute or two, before turning back towards their opponent.

“Pardon the interruption, I will begin my turn presently,” she says with a curtsy bow of her head.
>>
No. 1064799 ID: 6be1bd
File 168546173388.png - (686.80KB , 1256x2000 , 3.png )
1064799

“I will use my spell card, Concentration Break, to destroy your Chastity Cage,” the young noble starts, laying down her spell card. The Chastity Cage, upon having its concentration on chasteness broken, gets sad and dies. “I will also use the effect of my remaining character, Servant of Humility. By discarding a card from my hand, I can destroy a spell or trap that you control. Let’s say, your Stance Change you seem so fond of.”

[Servant of Humility, 4 Stars, Type: Fairy, 1100 ATK 1000 DEF]

Genevieve grumbles, ”Fine, but I’ll chain its effect to flip Niccolo into defense position one final time.”

“No scruff off back,” Strawberi replies with a dismissive gesture, ”unlike the equipment card I discarded: Starter Gear! Did you know its special effect lets me bring it back from the graveyard to the field? I simply have to choose a character to equip it to, and back it comes!” She smiles, as The Avatar of Purity gets equipped with drab and low-quality garments. “And if I want it back in my hand, then I can place it back by returning the card it has equipped itself to as well. Although if I send one of your characters back like this, I will sadly have to banish Starter Gear in exchange. But I believe it’s well worth sending your Avatar of Purity out on its ear, or in this case, wing,” she adds, smirking as finishes at her clever witticism.

“That’s a price you won't have to pay, as The Avatar of Purity won’t be affected.” Genevieve says.

“What?” Strawberi leans over the table, as Genevieve lifts the card to show it to her. The tiny wings of The Avatar of Purity’s follow the card’s unexpected displacement.

“It says it right here: ‘This card is unaffected by your opponent’s card effects’,” she reads off matter-of-factly.

Strawberi takes the card, and she and her purple peasant page both look at it for a moment.

“Servant Warwick,” she says, making him wince at the uttering of what passes for his full name in her eyes, ”why didn’t you inform me of this card's effect before?”

“I’m sorry, miss, but I was not familiar with it. It must be from one of the new expansions.”

“Hmph!” she pouts. ”Nevertheless, I will take Starter Gear back onto my hand, as well as summon a new character: Sertis, The Cleaner.

As soon as it is placed on the table, a dangerous-looking reptilian with four beady red eyes, a membranous hood on his head, and a sharp electric saw in his hands springs out of the card.

“Time to take out the trash!” he says, with a fang-filled smirk. The humble fairy servant beside him takes a step away from him.

[Sertis, the Cleaner, 4 Stars, Type: Alien, 1200 ATK 800 DEF]

“Your Servant of Humility appears a bit distressed.”- Genevieve remarks.

“Hm, a pity, since I will be using her and Sertis to make an X-y-Z-”

“Um, I think it’s pronounced ekseez,” Warwick quips.

“What? No! It’s an acronym. X. Y-” She protests.

“I believe it’s an X, a Z-” Genevieve says.

“You read it wrong, you illiterate plebeian!”

A very curious scene is witnessed by all closeby, as the three duelists erupt into an argument where increasingly inaccurate pronunciations and acronyms are thrown to and fro, lined by the sound of the Avatar of Purity enthusiastically swaying and singing YMCA.

After a few minutes and a judge-fiat to refer to it as “ekseez”, the match continues.

“Anyway,“ Strawberi says, mustering back her composure, “I will now use my Servant of Humility and Sertis, the Cleaner as materials for an ekseez summon.” The bitterness in her voice as she says the last part is palpable to all listeners.

“You made me listen to that whole mess just for that?” Sertis asks in frustration before he and the Servant vanish and their cards are sent to the Graveyard.

Strawberi clears her throat, “Now, with these materials, I will summon my new champion. Witness now, the grand and only, Headmisress Juliana!

As she says this, Strawberi dramatically lifts a card from her hand and slams it upon the table. A curvilineous dragoness emerges from the card, inviting pose and seductive gaze betraying her nature.

[Headmistress Juliana, 4 Stars, Type: Dragon/XYZ, 1900 ATK 1800 DEF]


“With her, I now have the perfect combination. You see, Headmistress Juliana can strip herself of one material, the cards used for her summoning, allowing me to trade an equipment card from my hand with any of my choosing from the deck!” The pink petulant pipsqueak pontificates, putting forth a play-by-play, “And what better card to use than Starter Gear, which can be brought back from the graveyard by equipping it onto a character? It can even come back to the hand if I’m willing to return said character as well. Like, say, one that cannot be affected by opponent effects?

The image of Juliana leans forward in a provocative fashion, grabbing the card of Sertis underneath her own. In a deft motion, she throws it all the way into the graveyard pile. As it flies away, Genevieve thinks she can see an expression of disappointment etched on Sertis’ painted cardboard face.

As she said she would, Strawberi discards Starter Gear, peruses her deck, and then takes the Equip spell she looked for into her hand. She then brings Starter Gear back to the field by equipping it onto the Avatar of Purity. And since it doesn’t affect the angelic being, its effects simply return it to her hand. The combo quickly repeats, as Juliana flings the other card away. In the end, while Juliana was out of material, Strawberi had two new equip spells in her hand.
>>
No. 1064800 ID: 6be1bd
File 168546179907.png - (1.47MB , 1256x2000 , 4.png )
1064800

“A most astute strategy, Strawberi.” Warwick smiles.

“Thank you, Servant, it was quite ingenious of me to bring you along to lend me ideas.” She beams back, taking her milkshake for another sip. Genevieve starts doubting the validity of inherited ruleship as Strawberi finishes her glass and speaks again in a delighted tone.

“Where was I? Ah, yes! I now activate my trap card Shared Shame, which allows me to summon an XYZ character with the same number of stars as one on the field lacking any material. I’ll summon Troublesome Tripod Trio.

A threesome of small green aliens appear on the table, only to promptly disappear as she continues.

“With both of these rank 4 XYZ, I will call on a special character from my extra deck. One that lets me use two rank 4 XYZ characters with no materials on them as such.” She proceeds to stack the two cards, overlaying a card atop them. ”Prepare for the end of our duel, as I now summon The-”

”I BELIEVE I CAN SPEAK FOR MYSELF, YOUNG LADY,” a reverberating voice echoes far into the corners of the hall. The ground begins to rumble as the figure of an aged yet imposing man, bald of head yet magnificent of beard, slowly emerges from the card of-

”I SAY AGAIN, I CAN SPEAK FOR MYSELF. I AM THE GOD OF HUMILITY.”

[The God of Humility, 8 Stars, Type: Fairy/XYZ, 1800 ATK 1800 DEF]

“I HAVE COME WITH SINGULAR PURPOSE: TO BRING LOW THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS, THE ARROGANT AND THE VAIN.”

“So why are you not fighting her?” Genevieve nods her head towards Strawberi.

“Hey!” The noble girl protests.

”THIS CHILD, SELF-CENTERED THOUGH SHE MAY SEEM, IS STILL A CHILD, WITH AMPLE TO LEARN AND AMPLE TIME TO CHANGE. YOU, HOWEVER, HAVE GROWN IN AGE AND SO TOO HAVE THE THORNS IN YOUR HEART, FILLING IT WITH LONG-FED FEELINGS OF RESENTMENT AND VENGEANCE.”

”Oh, gods.”

”YES?”

”No, I meant…” Genevieve sighs, ”sorry, this is a bit too grandiose for a card game, let’s just… let’s just continue.”

”Yes, let’s,” Strawberi replies, ”Another aspect of The God of Humility you should know, is that he grows stronger with each equipment spell card in the graveyard.”

”EACH TESTAMENT TO THE PRIDEFUL BEING STRIPPED DOWN AND MADE VULNERABLE AND ASHAMED GIVES ME STRENGTH!” the deity bellows.

“Yes, 500 ATK and DEF points per discarded equip card, to be exact.” Strawberi says.

“That’s a ridiculous amount!” Genevieve answers.

“IMMENSE POWER IS THE GET OF THE DIVINE.”

“I didn’t make the card, I merely employ it, my dear adversary.”

Genevieve sighs once again, “Alright, so, how many discarded cards do you have?”

“Servant, please count the cards.”

“I’m… not sure where to put the tray, Miss Strawberi.”

“Tch! Fine, I’ll do it myself. Can’t have any…” Strawberi mutters something under her breath while she counts the cards. After a moment, she sits up straight again and looks back at Genevieve, ”Five! Five equipment spell cards are in the graveyard, giving my God of Humility-”

YOUR GOD OF HUMILITY, YOUNG MAIDEN?” the figure on the table roars more than asks.

“Um… THE God of Humility.”

“THANK YOU,” the god booms calmly.

“Who gains an extra 2500 ATK and DEF points, giving him a total of 4300!”

Genevieve gasps in awe, or rather, that’s what Strawberi wished. Instead, she scowls and gives a dissatisfied “hm” upon hearing the number.

“But I’m not done,” Strawberi continues, ”because I also activate my set spell Clothes off your Back, which lets me discard as many equipment cards as I choose from my hand, and draw an equal number of times from my deck. By discarding the 3 cards I have in hand, that gives The God of Humility a grand total of 5800 points!”


“That is quite an impressive combo, and all in a single turn. I must applaud,” Genevieve says, ”but remember that my Hidden Blade will destroy any opponent character that tries to attack mine.”

“Oh, I remember, alright”- Strawberi replies cockily, -”and as luck would have it, one of the cards I just drew is the ideal one to counteract it: Edited for Broadcast.

Strawberi places the continuous spell card on the table, the art for which is very lewd and therefore edited for this thread.

“This card prevents any card effect from being activated, either by you or me, during damage phases.”

“You cheater! You couldn’t possibly have such a specific card in store without seeing mine! Judge!”

“Oh, don’t flatter yourself, Genevieve dear, once you’ve seen as many decks as I have, one learns to plan ahead for any eventuality.”

“Erhm…I may have noticed your deck had a large number of traps while you were taking inventory and suggested adding this one just in case,” Warwick interjects.

“Yes, well, that too. But at any rate, I now can attack your Avatar of Purity with impunity! God of Humility, make away with this riff-raff!”
>>
No. 1064802 ID: 6be1bd
File 168546211635.png - (358.18KB , 1280x851 , Duelthingy 2.png )
1064802

The God of Humility, empowered by the discarded cards such as to tower over the heads of the sitting players, paces step by rumbling step towards the small cyclopean Avatar.

“YOU CLAIM TO BE A BEING OF PURITY,”-the looming god speaks, “BUT PURITY IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT HUMILITY,” the god takes another step forward, the avatar a step back.

“PURITY ALONE IS BEREFT OF DIMENSION, OF PERSPECTIVE,” another thundering step makes the Avatar jump up. The cyclopean godling begins flinging scalding beams of light and all manner of destructive spells towards the approaching deity, to no avail.

“WITHOUT PERSPECTIVE, WITHOUT CONSIDERATION, PURITY CAN LEAD TO CRUELTY, TO NARROW VISION, TO ELITISM,” The Avatar of Purity amasses a grand sphere of energy and throws it at the god, who simply lifts his massive hand to stop it. Exhausted, the Avatar lands back onto the table, unable to do anything but what as the energy balls ebbs away to nothing.

“ALREADY YOU STRIKE OUT AT ME, NOT STOPPING TO WONDER WHETHER THAT WILL AMOUNT TO ANYTHING,” The Avatar tries to take flight again, but is soon caught by the long reach of the God of Humility.

“YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD YOUR WHOLE LIFE THAT YOU WERE ABOVE THE REST AND HAS THUS LOST VISION OF THOSE BELOW,” holding the Avatar on one hand, the divine being raises the other one with punitive intent. The Avatar lets out a scream of desperation.

“IT IS TIME YOU LEARN HOW TO BE HUMBLE!” The lord of all demureness concludes his verdict. The outstretched palm falls.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cries and sobs of the Avatar can be heard all across the hall as the spankies hit his bum-bum. After a couple minutes, the God of Humility lets go of the chastised cherub.

“NOW GO HOME AND REFLECT ON WHAT YOU DID! SHOO! SCRAM!”

“Boohoo-hoohoo!” The angelic child cries once more, rubbing his battered tushie as he slowly flies all the way to the graveyard.

The scoreboard appears one last time over the field and shows Genevieve’s life points quickly drop to 0.

STRAWBERI (and Warwick) WIN!


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


“That….it….. GAAAAAH!”

Genevieve is angry. More than angry. She is borderline livid. Did she really have to go through all that arguing and veiled insults from that insufferable kid only to lose after watching two full minutes of… a godly spanking?!

“Huzzah! Victory is mine!” Genevieve’s attempt at figuring out where her life went wrong is interrupted by her opponent’s cheering. Indeed, both Warwick and Strawberi are so elated by their win, that they both share a high-five. Strawberi then remembers their respective stations, and tells him to fetch her a victory ice cream cup.

Genevieve feels tempted to fume, to rage, to wring Strawberi’s little neck and toss her across the hall onto a trash bin, which admittedly would be pretty funny to watch…

Oh, but then, she sighs, deeply, but not for too long. Maybe it was true, maybe she did hold a lot of resentment in her heart. She raises an arm towards Warwick.

“Wait,” she says. Both her opponents turn to look at her, ”fetch one for all three of us, would you? It is a victory celebration, after all.”

Warwick turns to look at Strawberi, who looks right back at his expectant, somewhat confused face.

“Hmph! I suppose a small moment of commingling is fine, given the circumstances,” she says, facing Genevieve again.

Warwick’s eyes brighten and an excited smile parts his lips as he runs towards the bar.

“But don’t get into the habit!” Strawberi yells at him, “this is a special occasion and we have only three more duels to go!”

This is fine, thinks Genevieve, she is no longer a contestant, but she is still a guest. She can still find out the true nature of this tournament and its grand prize some other way.

She has traveled far. She has used many aliases and been to many realms. She has plenty of skills to make up for this setback. She can still hang around and witness more, learn more.

And as she looks at her two tiny opponents clinking their cups and laughing, she thinks maybe also make a couple new acquaintances.
>>
No. 1065588 ID: 629f2e
File 168645577882.png - (83.64KB , 626x430 , Deck Building.png )
1065588

Enid and Franklin make their way to rest area after their match against Bonnie. She sets their current deck out in front of them, a pile of cards towering about 80 high.

“So, I think we need to take out about half of these.” Enid says.

“Do you mean my half?” Franklin asks.

“Not at all! What I mean is, playing like this isn’t really… good? Having a lot of cards is actually really bad for us.”

“Really? But we have more options.”

Enid sighs. “Yes, but that makes it so much harder to draw the ones we need when we want to.”

“I don’t get it.” Bonnie says, stopping as she’s passing by. “More cards are better, aren’t they?”

“We could put more stuff in that’s good to draw whenever.” Franklin points out.

Seeing that her point wasn’t being understood, she takes a moment to rethink her explanation. She then riffles through the deck, pulling out a few cards.

“Alright, look at these.” She displays a number of spell, traps, and high-leveled characters. “These aren’t bad cards, right? We picked them for a reason.”

“Mhmm.” Franklin nods.

“Buuuuut, these cards aren’t always good. These characters can’t be summoned without tributes, these spells only help when we have certain cards in the hand or on the field, and some of these traps are even more situational. These are Sometimes cards. We only want to draw them some of the time.”

Franklin and Bonnie nod, following along. She continues. “Now, look at this.” She holds up Louie, The Class President (E). “Louie’s effect is always going to help us stack our field. He’s good when we have characters, and he’s good when we don’t. This is an Always card, because we’d always be in a better position if we have it.”

Franklin rubs his chin thoughtfully. “So… You’re saying we want more always cards? But wouldn’t we still want to have as many of those as our deck can fit?”

“The problem is that we don’t have a full deck of always cards. At best we have a bunch of Usually or More Often Than Nots. Some of our cards are even ones we don’t want to draw, since they’re better for us in the deck, or because we have other cards that can get them to us. Like, since Phillip can get Lillian from our deck to the field, it’s bad when we end up drawing Lillian, right?”

“Uh… Hmm…” Franklin rubs his head, staring at the deck with a look of concentration. “So then… When we have a lot of cards, it’s harder to draw the ones we always want?”

“Exactly!” Enid cheers. “It’s not bad to have cards we don’t always need of course, especially when their uses come up. Sometimes an "almost never" card might beat out an "always", but our deck isn’t as good when we’re relying on cards like that all the time.”

“Maybe it’d be better if you could play with 30 or 20 cards instead of 40 then.” Bonnie says.

Franklin nods, finally understanding. “So, we want to get our deck down to just 40 then. What about the extra deck?”

“Well, we don’t exactly draw those cards. They’re just always available, so it’s actually good to have as many of those as possible.”

“So… we should keep it at 30?”

She thinks for a moment, before shaking her head. “No, that feels like cheating. It was fine when we were just slapping our decks together, but if we’re gonna try to improve it…”

He nods in agreement. “Okay, I think all of that sounds good. Do you know if we’re allowed to swap in cards from the draft we didn’t end up using in our decks?”

Naturally, while they’d each put about 40 cards in their main deck and 15 in the extra, they’d ended up leaving a good amount of drafted cards out. It made sense why the judges had them do it like this, as it gave them wiggle room in putting their decks together. If they couldn’t make the idea they wanted work at the start of the draft, they could pivot to alternate strategies. And afterwards they might find good synergies between cards they weren’t thinking about, or realize that powerful cards they’d pulled didn’t quite fit with the rest of their strategy.

She hums to herself in consideration, before standing up and announcing she’d ask one of the bird judges if that’s okay.

With Enid gone, and Franklin petting Rathoney, Bonnie starts going through her own deck. “Man, there were so many monsters I wanted to see the holograms for. Do you think we can get in a quick game before your next round?”

Franklin shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Rats.”

Rathoney perks up for a moment.

She stares at one card for a minute, before shoving it in Franklin’s face. “Hey! Why don’t you play it! You still get to use the hologram floors, right?”

He slowly takes the card from her hand and reads it.

[ Big Angry Dog, Beast-Warrior-Type, Level 8, ATK 2500, DEF: 2400 ]

He scratches at his cheek while humming to himself. “...I could talk to Enid about it. I don’t know if this is one of those Always cards though.”

“Well, I have monsters with more attack than that, but there were a lot of words in its effect, so I feel like it’s gotta be something useful.”

He peeks down and squints to read it.

“Once per turn, if a monster on your side of the field is sent to the graveyard by an opponent’s card effect, you may special summon this card from the hand. When this card is summoned, you may activate one of the following effects:
This card gains 1000 ATK/DEF.
Destroy one monster on your opponent’s field.
This card may attack twice during your next battle phase.”


He blinks, reading the three listed effects again. “Huh. That does seem useful.”

“I knew it! I think I’m figuring this game out. You want cards that either have a lot of words, or a really big number. If you got both, you probably win.”

“...That doesn’t sound wrong…”
>>
No. 1065589 ID: 629f2e
File 168645582086.png - (61.00KB , 500x383 , Finished Deck.png )
1065589

Enid eventually returns, and Bonnie splits to check out some of the other duelists (she seemed especially interested in the gray glasses girl who looked like a rat). She confirms that the judges didn’t mind anyone altering their decks, as long as they weren’t cheating. Franklin brings up asking if they’re allowed to use cards gifted by other duelists, but Enid points out that Bonnie had been playing with cards she traded for in their duel. If it wasn’t allowed, the birds would have said something then.

What follows is a slow hour of staring at cards and discussing interactions, consistency, and a bunch of other stuff. There’s plenty that the pair agree on, but it’s revealed quickly enough just how much they don’t.

“It can get us out of a bad situation though. We could even win the game.” Franklin argues.

“Yeah, but if we roll badly, then we could also make it so that we lose the game.” Enid fires back.

“If we were already going to lose, then that’s fine. This card gives us the chance to win when we would lose, so it’s good.”

“If we’re losing badly, then we’d be better off drawing something more consistent.”

“But even a lot of our consistent cards aren’t always good though… Plus, if we roll two sixes, we win the duel with this effect.”

“That’s a really low chance though.”

“But it’s higher than our chance if we don’t use this.”

After much debate, they reach a compromise on how to structure their deck. They’d keep the majority of it consistent and well-tuned, but they’d leave four cards in that didn’t quite fit in with the rest of what they had. One-tenth of their deck.

The die-rolling spell Franklin was arguing for was counted as the first. Bonnie’s contribution surprisingly didn’t get counted among them.

Their deck may not be as consistent with them, but Franklin did have a point. They basically won their last game because of the card Reboot, which wasn’t really part of any sort of gameplan. It was simply a card with explosive potential, which could have gone either way for the duo. There is a place for cards of that nature in their deck, even if they don’t always want to draw them.

Plus, they were fun. Enid definitely couldn’t argue against that.

They both nearly melt into the table when they’re finished, staring at their neat stack of 40 cards. She smiles weakly at it.

“Do you think we’ll win our next match?

He thinks for what is a normal amount of time for him. “...I want to.”

“Me too. I don’t want to make any obvious mistakes, like with last match.”

“We won that one.”

“I know, but it still feels bad. We almost didn’t.”

“...But we did?”

“Yeah.”

“So… It’s fine to make mistakes. We can still win, even when we do.”

“...Thank you.”

He pats her shoulder and smiles. She smiles back, taking their cards and rising to her feet.

“Come on. We can try to duel some of the people who got eliminated for practice.”

“Do we have time?”

“Maybe? Who knows when those birds are gonna start the next round?”

"You may want to reconsider that plan," The Masked Duelist says as they approach the duo. "The matches in the first round were all simultaneous, and my opponent was far too strong to pay attention to any other duels. I assume most everyone here," they wave their gauntlet around the arena "was in a similar situation. But if you go around to play games against eliminated players now, the other players still in the game will have an easy time observing your strategy and preparing to crush you. You'd be giving yourselves a large disadvantage."
>>
No. 1070211 ID: 52a586
File 169198606845.png - (105.96KB , 500x500 , Birbs.png )
1070211

“Attention, duelists!” booms a massive albatross from the rafters. “The first round of matches has concluded. The round of eight is nigh. To those who have advanced, please accept our congratulations and prepare for the next round. There will be only one match held at a time from this point forward. Those who have been eliminated are welcome to either return to your homes or remain here as spectators, but interference of any kind will be punished. By me. So don’t interfere. That is all.”

“Excuse me, Mr. Bird With Helmet? I have a question,” Ceridwen asks. “Um… is my opponent from the last round okay?”

“He is resting. On that chair. I have been instructed to inform you that he has clearly walked to the bleachers under his own power, and not been dropped there by a large bird that specializes in carrying fish.”

“It’s just… he’s starting to smell, Mr. Helmet.”

“Pardon me, I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Justice, and I am the one in this conversation who is not judging others’ personal hygiene. Oh, look. He just gave a wave of his flipper. Clearly he is conscious and all right.”

From behind Carl’s corpse, a small blue bird is poking his flipper.

Ceri sighs.

“Can’t you magic away the stink?” Tianna hisses to Toffles. “I thought cleanliness was your divine portfolio.”

“It is,” the fiery bird says. “Pan has forbidden me from incinerating Carl’s corpse, despite the fact that disposing of the evidence would be the most prudent option.”

Pan flutters from behind Carl up into the rafters. “Carl’s not dead,” he says. “He’s just back home. I checked, his soul made it back just fine, so I haven’t let The Formless down. There’s no evidence to dispose of! Nobody got hurt on my watch!”

“He’s not dead, he’s just in a better place?” Tianna rolls her eyes. “You really expect our contestants to believe that if you tell them, much less our creator?”

“I don’t understand!” Pan says. “He’s not supposed to be able to be hurt here! Not unless he preferred death to playing in this children’s card game tournament and decided to send his soul home early.”

“I feel a strange kinship with this fish,” Tianna says.
>>
No. 1070212 ID: 52a586
File 169198615892.png - (202.95KB , 1800x940 , Updated_Brackets.png )
1070212

“Is the bracket for the round of eight done?” Pan asks nervously. “I’d like to get Ceri off the bleachers right this moment. She’s starting to stare a little too closely at Carl.”

“Yes,” Tianna nods. “It’s not technically the round of eight, it’s the round of ten, mostly due to your overly permissive interpretation of how two duelists combining their card pools into a single deck might possibly affect competitive balance in a limited draft pool, but apparently my opinion is worth as much as Carl’s dignity. I’ve delegated this to an assistant who’s more comfortable with your management style.”

“My management style?” Pan cocks his head, which is also his entire body, to one side. “I’ve just been flying by the seat of my tailfeathers.”

“Exactly. Here’s what my assistant drew up to accommodate you.”

The birds crowd around the revised paper.

There’s silence, then a stifled screech.

“None of these make any sense!” Tianna pokes at the lineup. “Why is Lady Kensignton facing Princess Reefa? She was in a whole separate division! And why are Strawberi and Warwick on the entire opposite end of the lineup? This should be simple!”

“Who did you delegate this to?”

“Phail Yurr,” Tianna says. “Why?”

Pan lets the question linger in the air like Carl’s wafting, fishy scent.

“Okay,” Tianna sighs. “Okay. I deserve that.”

“It’s okay, we can still use it. Let’s go! Ahem! It’s my turn to say the catchphrase!” Companionship announces. “Attention, duelists! We are going to start the next round immediately. Ceridwen versus Strawberi and Warwick, you’re up! Come on, hop to it! Off those bleachers!”

The first duel of the Round of Eight is about to begin!
>>
No. 1070474 ID: 918cdb
File 169258397483.jpg - (23.99KB , 512x423 , Strawberi Courtesy.jpg )
1070474

“This might make a good deck,” Ceridwen says, giving a look over at her cards one last time, “These two cards go well together, right?”

“Attention duelists!” Companionship’s voice rings out across the tournament grounds, calling out for the next duel. Her time is up.

“Oh, no! I thought I had enough time to test this new strategy with someone!”she exclaims, as she gets up and rushes towards the dueling table. “I guess I’ll have to find out the hard way,” she sighs, with a saddened look in her eyes.

“Take your seats, please, and don’t forget to introduce yourselves. It makes the game more fun!” Companionship raises his adorable little wings and lifts off towards the rafters, leaving Ceridwen alone with her two newfound rivals.

“Why greetings. I am Lady Strawberi of House Sugarfield, and this is my manservant Warwick,” the finely-dressed girl gestures towards herself and her overburdened companion. “Pleasure is mine almost as much as yours, I’m sure.” She concludes with a light bow.

“Um… yes, I suppose, your… ladyship.” Ceridwen politely returns the bow with a quizzical expression, “My name’s Ceridwen, by the way. Um, sorry if I seem a little nervous. I was hoping I’d have more time to prepare. Also, I think I knocked my previous opponent out cold?” She points a clawed hand toward the bleachers where Carl is now beginning to fester, a couple flies and pixies already gathering above his fishy carcass.

Warwick squints. “He looks kind of-”

“I’m sure the judges would have taken him away if something really bad happened!” the scaly teenager interrupts, raising her hands defensively. “I mean, they wouldn’t just let someone who was seriously hurt for real just lie around in the middle of a crowded building, right?”

“I suppose…” Warwick answers with a raised eyebrow, his frown only increasing as he readjusts his grip on his lady’s luggage.

“Right,” Strawberi focuses her gaze once more on Ceridwen, “they would have done something if that was the case. Though I can’t figure why they would let him lay up there like a drunkard, so unsightly! Let us try to finish this quickly before those flying bugs around him make me lose my lunch.”

“It may have been a bad idea to have had so many sweets in place of a proper meal, Miss Strawberi.”

“Hush, peasant!”

“Well, those pixies do look rather aggressive…” Ceridwen nods, nervously eyeing the feisty fae-folk hovering above Carl’s crater. “Alright, we have kept the crowd waiting long enough. Let’s see who goes first.”

“Of course. Servant, my deck, if you would,” Strawberi replies, raising her open palm.
As soon as Warwck places the stack of cards on her hand, Strawberi lays it on the table and begins drawing cards in tune with Ceridwen. After a few seconds, the first character card is revealed.

Strawberi draws: Chester, the Jolly Seamstress, 800 ATK.

“Confound you! Peasant, why did you convince me to include such low-leveled dreck in my deck?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Strawberi. I’m sure it will pay off once the duel starts.”

“You mean after SHE starts it.” She scowls at Warwick for a second, before sighing as she turns back to look at her opponent, “Go ahead, draw your card, if only for the sake of custom at this point.”

Ceridwen can’t help but feel concern at the angry exchange between Strawberi and her servant. Nevertheless, she nods and, right on cue, draws a character card.

Ceridwen draws: Egg of Spades, 0 ATK

“Oh, crud,” she exclaims.

“Oh, wow,” Warwick can’t help but blurt out.

Strawberi, on her part, arcs an eyebrow at the unlikely outcome.

“What is that?” she asks, pointing a finger at the odd-looking card.

“I-it’s a new mechanic I was planning to test,” Ceridwen replies, her face drooping for a moment, “Before I ran out of time to prepare, that is. These are egg type cards. They technically count as characters. They’re pretty much defenseless, but If I let them hang on the field for a certain number of turns, they hatch into more powerful characters. I can also force them open earlier to summon weaker characters, or use them as tribute material!” She cheers up a bit at having the chance to explain her new strategy.

“Hmph, doesn’t seem to have availed you much so far; a bad start, but thank you for allowing me the chance to open up our duel.” Strawberi says, smiling full-of-herselfely,”Now, let’s shuffle!” she finishes with a snap of her fingers.

Before Ceridwen can protest at the unwarranted jab, Warwick picks up their deck and begins shuffling. The young dragon decides to respond in kind.

After the usual splitting and reshuffling, both dueli- err… both team- no, uh… both the pint-sized pair and the lusty lizard draw five cards and the duel begins in earnest.
>>
No. 1070475 ID: 918cdb
File 169258406850.png - (110.38KB , 266x423 , Chester_Adventuress.png )
1070475

“This could work. Not a bad hand to start with.” Strawberi chirps contentedly, inviting Warwick to take a look.

“Hey, that card is ba-”

“Hush, not in front of my rival, you dolt!” she scolds him, before looking back at her cards pensively. “Hmm, still, we could use it now, couldn’t we?”

“Why, yes, I think we could, Miss Strawberi!” He perks up, as the gears in his head turn in tandem with his charge’s.

“Very well, then,” the cherry colored noble says, as she plays her first card. “I place a trap card, and then summon Chester, Intrepid Adventuress in defense mode.”

[Chester, Intrepid Adventuress, 3 stars, Type: Beast/Clothier, 800 ATK, 800 DEF]

“No guts, but hopefully some glory,” the small dog-like creature says, as she appears over her card, posing intrepidly.

“That will be all for my first turn. Let’s hope yours is a promising one, you will need it.” Strawberi smiles, not un-unkindly.

“Thanks,” Ceridwen replies rather dryly before looking down at her hand. She hesitates for a moment, unsure if the idea going through her head is the right decision, but then creases her brow and lays a card on the table. She has thought long and hard on this strategy, she is not going to let a few negative comments discourage her now.

“I summon Egg of Hearts!” she exclaims resolutely. Sure enough, a child-sized egg with pink heart-shaped splotches appears on the field.

[Egg of Hearts, 2 stars, Type: Egg, 0 ATK, 100 DEF]

“This egg will hatch in three turns, not including this one, or I can tribute it before then to gain 500 life points. If anything else destroys it, I will lose 500 life points.”

“Wait, does the three turns countdown include our own?” Warwick asks, raising his head over his lady’s beach umbrella.

“No, just three of mine,” Ceridwen replies.

“Interesting trade-off. I take it those 500 life points are a penalty on top of any other battle damage?” Strawberri asks.

“That’s right, and to make sure that doesn’t happen, I will use Nothing To See Here.

[Nothing To See Here, no stars, Type: it’s a spell card, ATK and DEF sold separately]

“Nothing To See Here keeps a character card from being targeted by any attack or spell for one turn,” Ceridwen says, “It can also keep it from being blocked when attacking the other player, but there’s no need to worry about it right now.”

“Sounds like you are putting a lot of eggs in that basket, spending so versatile a card like that,” Strawberi quips.

“Myeeeah,” Ceridwen quirks her lips in annoyance, “anyway, that will be my turn for now.”

At this raise a finger emphatically, “Then let proper duel be-”

“Oh, no, wait, I forgot to put down a trap card!” Ceridwen says, hurriedly putting said card down on the field, “Haha, sorry, now I end my turn.”

“Ahem.” Strawberi feigns clearing her throat, “As I was saying: then let the duel proper begin!”

Drawing a card, Strawberi shows it toWarwick and, after some small murmuring back and forth, she looks back again at the field with a roguish smile. “I summon Millie, Flamboyant Firestarter in defense mode!”

[Millie, Flamboyant Firestarter, 3 stars, Type: Beast/Clothier, 800 ATK, 800 DEF.]

“Millie! Millie!” the little bird boy exclaims.

“Huh?” Chester looks at him in confusion.

“Sorry, I thought we were doing the Pokémon TCG.”

“You got a card in that one?”

“You don’t?”

“What can I say? I always pick cards of good renown,” Strawberi interrupts, “Now, I will equip Millie with a Patchwork Crossbow.

As she puts the equipment card under Millie’s, a rather large mix between a one-handed crossbow and a sewing machine forms in the little bird’s hand.

“Woah, nice.”

“This allows my character to increase their attack and defense points by 200 for every equipment card they destroy; which mixes perfectly with Millie’s ability to destroy any card equipped to a character he attacks.”

“Ooh, nice combo. I bet it even adds up to another card down the-” Ceridwen suddenly stops herself in realization, “...oh.”

“Astute observation, my dear rival,” Strawberi replies, “but you shouldn’t concern yourself with that right now. Instead, you should steel yourself as I put Chester in attack mode. And since I cannot target your egg, what do you say if we break the ice by doing so with your life points?

Upon hearing this, Chester perks up and digs a hand through one of her back pockets, from which she pulls out a FUCKHUGE SPELUNIKING SHOVEL, and charges with a defiant scream!

The sight of the diminutive dog charging towards her with an oversized digging tool and the fury of a sun is enough to alarm Ceridwen, but only for a moment, as she swiftly swipes a hand toward the cards on the field.

“You just activated my trap card!” she says, in a time-honored tradition. “A continuous trap, to be specific. Formican Reductor shrinks any attacking enemy, permanently lowering their attack and defense by 500 points.”

A stream of light arcs out of the trap card and envelopes Chester, whose resounding “AAAH” turns increasingly softer and high-pitched until the now barely visible poochingus swings the normal size-ified shovel and hits Ceridwen’s arm with a tiny “thunk.”

Ceridwen now has 5700 life points.

“Uh, um, ow?”

“Take that, you jerk,” Chester squeaks out, raising her shovel triumphantly, “And thanks for the loot!” she says, pulling out a card with her other hand.

“Huh? Wha-?” Ceridwen looks up and down from her, to her deck on the field in confusion.

“Aaand that’s the special ability of my Intrepid Adventuress: when attacking an opponent’s life points directly, Chester can steal an equipment card from their deck and add it to my hand.”

“Aww, no fair!” Ceridwen protests.

“All’s fair when it comes to a duel, lady Ceridwen.”

“Aren’t duels supposed to be honorable?”

“Well, my honor would be on the line should I lose, would it not?” Strawberi shrugs, “at any rate; come, my little excavator. Let’s see what you’ve unearthed.”

“Sure thing!” Chester says, walking back towards her side of the field. After about ten seconds of seeing her teeny tiny frame slowly crossing the distance, Strawberi sits up and grabs the doggy digger and her ill-gotten card herself.

“Let’s see… uh, a Feather Duster?
>>
No. 1070476 ID: 918cdb
File 169258412271.png - (80.74KB , 266x423 , Dusty_Egg_Caretaker.png )
1070476

“Sorry, chief,” Chester gestures apologetically on Strawberi’s hand, “it was the first thing I could find.”

“‘At the start of each turn, select an opposing character. This character cannot attack during the opponent’s next turn.’ Hmm, that’s actually rather useful, well done, little servant.”

“Please don’t call me that,” Chester rubs her arm self-consciously.

“My apologies, little Chester, you may return to your post,” she replies, lowering the shrunken puppo back onto the field, “I think this is a good point to end my turn, wouldn’t you say, servant Warwick.”

“A fine turn, my- oop!” He corrects his posture, as Strawberi’s picnic basket and spare shoebox start slipping from under his arms, “A fine turn, my lady!”

“I must say, this is quite a peculiar card,” Strawberi says, looking at the equipment spell pensively, “I wonder, what tale or character is it linked to?”

“Ah, well,” Ceridwen says, looking away and shrugging slightly “I think it will be best to show when it comes up.” She draws a card, and her eyes light up. “Speaking of! I activate Dungeon Entrance, which allows me to special summon the owner of that feather duster!” she says, laying the spell card on the field and searching her deck energetically, “Meet Dusty, Egg Caretaker!

[Dusty, Egg Caretaker, 6 stars, Type: Beast/Spirit, 1800 ATK, 2000 DEF]

“Greetings adventurers. Please stay away from the eggs.” The dust bunny lifts her skirt in a little curtsy, before immediately shaking her first at Chester and Millie.

“Any attack or effect aimed at an Egg-Type character is instead aimed at Dusty herself,” Ceridwen explains. “She is a very dedicated nanny.”

“Quite a nice card combination, I applaud,” Strawberi softly puts her hands together, barely making any noise. “I do hope I don’t draw any characters stronger than her, now that her attack-annulling tool is out of her grasp, hmm?”

“Err, right!” Ceridwen stammers, looking back at her hand with renewed focus.

She hesitates, assessing both her cards and the field. She could lay another egg on the table, now that her trusty protector is in place, though she is not confident that Dusty will be sufficient now that she can’t use her Feather Duster to prevent enemies from attacking. She isn’t sure that her Formican Reductor can hold off the strongest ones either. She could reinforce her defense further by tributing her Egg of Hearts to summon a stronger creature now, a decision she is not fond of, as she has worked hard to put out that egg and it would hurt to not see it hatch.

She could also simply attack, as Dusty is currently in attack mode and Strawberi’s current characters are somewhat puny, though the trap card Strawberi placed earlier makes her feel a bit uneasy.

What should Ceridwen do?

>Lay a new egg.

>Tribute an egg to summon a stronger character.

>Go for the eyes, Dusty!
>>
No. 1070477 ID: 273c18

Tribute. Your intended combo to protect the egg won't work, so it's now dead weight.
>>
No. 1070478 ID: a7a180

Lay egg is true
>>
No. 1070481 ID: 4481aa

Laying another egg would probably be the safest option for Ceri right now. If your opponent wanted to go into a rank 3 Xyz monster using Chester and Millie, they probably would have done so already. And they certainly wouldn't be equipping damage boosters to them if they were just meant to be material.

Charging in could easily result in losing Dusty to a trap card, which would leave your eggs defenseless. They take a long time to hatch, and you've clearly built your deck around keeping them safe to stretch out your time limit. Even if your opponent's get a card that can take out Dusty, you might at least have one egg left in the end, which you can still use as tribute material. If they don't, then they may just have to pass the turn straight back to you, letting you potentially draw more safety/stall options.

Assuming you have 3 cards, including a tribute monster and an egg, that leaves you with just 1 extra card. If you commit too hard and lose your current field, that won't give you many options to recover. Play the long game your deck wants to, and Lay another egg for now.
>>
No. 1070491 ID: f12747

Attack without mercy.
>>
No. 1070662 ID: a04542

L'egg

I mean, lay egg.
>>
No. 1070663 ID: 00444f

Give us an eggy
>>
No. 1072931 ID: fb8a42
File 169543992734.png - (322.20KB , 628x1000 , Lost_In_The_Woods_s.png )
1072931

>Jingle bells, Warwick smells…

Once again, Ceridwen decides to have faith in her current strategy. She shifts herself on her seat and lays her next egg card on the table.

“I summon Egg of Spades in defense mode.”

[Egg of Spades, 2 stars, Type: Egg, 0 ATK, 200 DEF]

“This one hatches in two turns, but I can open it earlier to summon a smaller character,” Ceridwen explains, “and since there is not much point in it, I will switch Dusty to defense mode.”

Upon Ceridwen saying this, the card shifts horizontally under Dusty’s feet and she changes her pose ever so slightly. This impresses Warwick, who unlike the other two duelists doesn’t get to play fancy video games with idle animations.

“And… I suppose I’ll place a card face down in the spell and trap zone before I end my turn,” Ceridwen sighs.

“Running out of cards already, Miss Ceridwen?” Strawberi chides.

“Don’t be so sure of yourself, lady, I am building up to something, and my defense is pretty solid right now,” Ceridwen answers, crossing her arms.

“Hmm, yes. We should do something about that, shouldn’t we?” Strawberi says, drawing a card from her deck and placing another on the field, “I cast Lost In The Woods. This spell sends a character on the field right back to the deck, and since she’s taking all the hits for her little eggs, that character would be Dusty.”

At this, Dusty’s card flies off as if of its own volition to the top of Ceridwen’s deck. The figure of Dusty herself holds on desperately to the table for a couple seconds, before she too is sucked and vanishes into the pile of cards. This also impresses Warwick, who doesn’t own a vacuum cleaner.

“Don’t forget to shuffle, it’s part of the effect,” Strawberi points out; Ceridwen huffs and gives her a dirty look as she does so, “Now that your caretaker is gone, your eggs are left exposed, and I know who to call to deal with it. I summon Trapinch on attack mode.”

[Trapinch, 4 stars, Type: Bug/Pervert 1000 ATK, 800 DEF]

“Trapinch! Trapinch!” the abnormally large termite cries out.

“They let Pokémon cards be in other games?!” Chester asks in surprise.

“You don’t?” Trapinch replies.

“Enough chit-chat. Trapinch, use tackle!”

“Trapiii- ah, crud,” Trapinch’s battlecry is cut short as he leaps forth when the Formican Reductor shrinks the attacking port-a-monster midair, reducing his attack and defense by 500. This, however, does little to protect the Egg of Hearts, which cracks in a splash of pink and red yolk under Trapinch’s brutal headbutt.

“Oh, no!” Ceridwen exclaims in frustration.

“And did not you say that part of its effect is losing 500 points if it’s ever destroyed?”

“OH, NO!” Ceridwen exclaims even more.

[Ceridwen now has 5200 life points left]

Strawberi, on her part, puts a single coin on top of Trapinch’s card. “And that’s one victory token.”

“What is that for?” Ceridwen asks.

“For defeating one of your characters, of course. Something interesting will happen once Trapinch reaches 3, and on that note: Chester, smash that second egg!”

“Yaaaah!” the miniaturized spelunker screeches as she charges forward, the power of the cards making her lunge faster than her teenie legs would otherwise carry her.

“Eeep! Wait, no! Ohnonono, I activate and open the egg early!” Ceridwen blurts out, almost too fast to make out while tapping the egg card frenetically like a button.

As soon as the words come out of her mouth, the egg bursts into yards and a very confused kobold is smacked by Chester’s shovel. The kobold, however, rises an arm defensively before swinging it in a batting motion at his assailant, not only fending off the attack but making Chester recoil and land fall onto her back.

[Strawberi and Warwick now have 5300 life points left.]

“What?! You can’t do that!” Strawberi protests.

“Can and did. Look, it’s in the card text.” Ceridwen replies, grabbing the card with a claw to let her opponents have a closer look.

Strawberi and Warwick tilt their heads forward and notice the line of text at the bottom of the card reading:

>IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, YOU MAY BREAK EGG (that means during the opponent's turn, too).

“Who even writes rules like that? That’s such a dumb line.”

In a far off land, in the bowels of the Games4Children R&D department, a cutebold writer feels sad all of a sudden.
>>
No. 1072934 ID: fb8a42
File 169544000721.png - (547.67KB , 628x1000 , Pneumatic_Tubes_s.png )
1072934

On the dueling field, the slightly less cute ‘bold stands up, looming over Chester in all his three-foot glory, and proceeds to raise a spear threateningly until Chester goes back to her side of the field.

“Strawberi, Warwick, this is Germ.” Ceridwen says.

[Germ, the Kobold, 3 stars, Type: Lizard, 600 ATK, 1000 DEF]

“Hmph!” Strawberi scoffs, “A rather cheap move, but it’s in the rules, so guess I’ll let it slide this time.”

“All’s fair in a duel, am I right?” Ceridwen says.

Strawberi gives her dirty look, but her stink eye is interrupted as Warwick deftly leans his head over all the clutter in his arms to speak to her. “Umm, Miss, should we…?” he says, the rest being a whisper too soft for Ceridwen to hear. Strawberi turns from Warwick to look at her two remaining cards, considering for a moment.

“Hmm, no, not yet. I think it’d be best if we end our turn for now,” she says pensively, “I don’t have any useful spell cards at present and Millie is too meek to break through that kobold’s defense.”

“Ow.” Millie lowers his head somewhat dejectedly.

“Where the blazes did that character card come from, anyway?” Strawberi asks.

“Oh!” Ceridwen sits up in a mixture of excitement and embarrassment, “I kind of panicked and began tapping the egg hoping the magic of the duel would summon Germ from my deck,” she shrugs, looking away, “I can’t believe it worked.”

This explanation impresses Warwick, who has never seen cards moving on their own outside of that time he found a brown rabbit with a wristwatch while tending the gardens and followed him down a hole, only to be later kicked in the ribs for sleeping on the job.

“Aaanyway, if that's the end of your turn, I think I will just…” Ceridwen trails off as she draws a card and takes a look at it.

“Huh, that’s actually pretty useful!” she smiles.

“What is?” Strawberi asks, raising an eyebrow.

“A card that might just fix things up faster than I thought; I activate Pneumatic Tubes,” Ceridwen replies as she places a spell card on the field, “For the price of a 1000 life points each, I can summon up to 3 characters that aren’t higher than 4 stars from my deck, and I know which ones I’d like to bring out.”

“3000 life points for three minor characters?!” Strawberi says, bewildered for a moment, “you really spare no expense in pulling off your strategies, don’t you?”

“I mean, if you are going to do something risky, better be committed, right?” Ceridwen shrugs defensively as she grabs the cards she was searching for.

“Say hello to my little friends: Weasel, Kobold Wife, Chunky Slime and finally Egg of Clubs!

Alongside the kobold and the slime, the egg forms into view, bearing the black markings in the shape of blunt objects, strangely seeming the most vivacious of the three as it shakes and shivers, a faint growling emanating from its interior.

“That egg is aggressive,” observes Warwick.

“Oh, yeah, that’s the egg of clubs’ whole gimmick. It only hatches in attack mode and placing it in defense mode resets the timer, but you don’t want to deal with what will come out in 3 turns.”

[Weasel, Kobold Wife, 3 stars, Type: Lizard, 500 ATK, 1100 DEF]

[Chunky Slime, 4 stars, Type: Alien, 900 ATK, 900 DEF]

[Egg of Clubs, 3 stars, Type: Egg, 200 ATK, 0 DEF]

[Ceridwen now has 2200 life points left]



“Hey, honey!”

“Hey, dear!”

Germ and Weasel wave at each other happily as they lock eyes.

“I sure want something tender to serve when we get home!” Weasel says.

“What about those bozos over there?” Germ replies, pointing at the enemy characters.

“Sure! Worm could practice-hunt with the little one.”

“Just try it, you ugly newt!” Chester raises her oversized shovel and waves it threateningly.

“Feisty pair, aren’t they?” Warwick comments.

“Yup! When Germ and Weasel are together on the field, they gain 500 extra defense points,” Ceridwen explains, “But that’s not all! Their protective nature makes it so that when there is another lizard type character by their side, they both gain 500 attack points, and that includes each other!” she finishes, beaming proudly at her clever combo.

“So they gain 500 attack and defense points just for being together? Sound rather sappy,” Strawberi remarks.

“You will get it when you are older,” Weasel says dismissively, then she walks up to Germ and they kiss. It is very sappy.”

“Ugh! Can we return to the battle at hand, please?” Strawberi says, craning her head back in annoyance.

“Yes, actually, I will now send Chunky Slime to attack Chester.” Ceridwen replies.

“Eee-ulp!” Chester’s squeak is cut short as the Slime lunges at her and she is swallowed up into the creature’s bright green goop.

“Chester, you alright in there?” Millie asks, concerned.

Chester’s figure disintegrates into little bits that quickly fade to nothing.

“OH, NO!”

[Strawberi and Warwick have 4700 life points left]

“Drat.” Strawberi says flatly, resting her head on her arm and arm on the stool Warwick so helpfully procured.

“No more stealing from you!” Ceridwen wags her finger, “and now, before I end my turn, I will tribute Chunky Slime to summon Jekkesson Terrorscale, Faithful Father in defense mode.”

A fearsome yet kind-looking green lizardman appears on the table as Ceridwen places the card on it.
>>
No. 1072937 ID: fb8a42
File 169544012795.gif - (1.37MB , 1600x1600 , Jekesson.gif )
1072937

[Jekkesson Terrorscale, Faithful Father, 6 stars, Type: Lizard, 1300 ATK, 1600 DEF]

“Hello, little fellas, are you perchance children?” the lizardman politely turns toward Germ and Weasel.

“Um, we are 8, but we are grown ups.” Germ says.

“Kobolds age fast.” Weasel adds.

“Ah. Still, I believe that’s good enough.” Jekesson says, nodding. Immediately, a counter appears above the field, showing Jekesson’s defense points rising by 1500.
“Aw, what?” Strawberi leans over the table in surprise.

“Ah, yes. That’s the Faithful Father’s special effect,” Ceridwen explains, “For every underage character on his side of the field, Jekesson gains 500 points and will defend them from any attack or effect should they be targeted, at the expense of losing 1000 attack points whenever he is attacking an underage enemy character.”

“Preposterous. They are not underage!” Strawberi lifts herself up and motions at the kobold couple.

“Yeah, they are married with children and everything!” Warwick chimes in.

“What kind of trick are you trying to pull with such loose criteria?” Strawberi puts her hands on her hips indignantly.

“Eesh, fine, fine, You’d think you’d care about protecting the little ones,” Ceridwen replies, raising her hands and craning her head back. The counter pops back, showing Jekesson’s defense returning to a lower, but still formidable 2100 points.

“That’s somewhat better! Now, you said that was your last action this turn?”

“Err, yes. Yes, I believe it will be.”

“Very well, then,” Strawberi smiles, drawing a card, “Hmm. You know, Millie’s special ability involves destroying equipment cards, but seeing as you don’t have many of those, I think I will tribute him to summon this new character in attack mode: Njar, the Constructor.

“I’m coming Chester!” the itty bitty black bird boy exclaims, extending his arms as he vanishes.
In his place, a gaunt, tall and rather fluffy alien woman appears on the field, swirling shapes of pink holographic light dancing around her fingertips. All eight of them.

[Njar, the Constructor, 5 stars, Type: Alien, 1500 ATK, 1300 DEF]

“Now… hmm… servant Warwick, let’s talk strategy for a moment.”

“Y-yes, Mis Strawberi,” Warwick says, heaving the pile of luggage and knick-knacks and half resting it on the stool.

“Alright, so my options are a bit limited,” Strawberi whispers, her face nearly touching Warwick’s, “right now, there is that Feather Duster I so cleverly purloined from our rival, and also Tantalizing Outfit.

“Yes, the one that forces the character wearing it to-”

“Be the target of all enemy attacks, quite right, my servant. Now, I think it goes without saying we should equip Njar with the Feather Duster so she can’t keep a character from attacking each turn, and probably use Tantalizing Outfit on an enemy, though I am not sure which one it should be.”

“Yeah, that ‘protect the kids’ ability of the lizard guy will be a bigger problem when another egg shows up, not to mention all three other characters on Miss Ceridwen’s field are parent figures.”

“That’s true, her entire deck seems built around protecting those eggs of hers.”

“Whatever they summon once they hatch must be very powerful.”

“Indeed, servant, and that blasted Formican Reductor keeps shrinking any character I attack with. Her defense is so fiendish, it’s almost perfect!”

“What about that trap card you placed earlier?”

“Oh, right, I almost forgot, Invigorating Reagent. It raises the attack points of my characters by 1000 until the end of the turn! We could use it along with Tantalizing Outfit to destroy that feisty little egg.”

“Well, yes, but maybe we should attack the Jekesson card first. If we destroy that character now, we might not be able to beat him later.”

“Hmm, true, and maybe we should use the Outfit on Trapinch instead. Look at him, he’s all tiny and weak! I don’t think he will make it to three kills now.”

“I’m not so sure, Miss Strawberi, Trapinch also has an ability that would mix well with Feather Duster, now that I think of it.”

“The Sand Attack?Well yes, but it’s not nearly as good as Feather Duster, it only makes a character have a ¼ chance to miss.”

“Even so…”

“Uhm, sorry to interrupt but, are you going to take much longer?”

“Just a moment, dear Ceridwen, we are almost done,” Strawberi raises her voice before turning back to Warwick, “Now, then, I think I know what to do now…”

>Use Invigorating Reagent and Tantalizing Outfit to destroy the Egg of Clubs.

>Use only Invigorating Reagent and destroy Jekesson Terrorscale.

>Save Invigorating Reagent for later and use Tantalizing Outfit on Trapinch.
>>
No. 1072953 ID: a7a180

Only use Invigorating Agent.
>>
No. 1072966 ID: 58dd24

just think how happy trapinch would be to have a pretty dress
>>
No. 1072987 ID: fb8a42

Save the Agent, use the outfit!
>>
No. 1073209 ID: 4481aa

>>1072987

Use just the outfit. We need to see a Trapinch wearing it.
>>
No. 1076560 ID: 3c2dff
File 169923542880.png - (18.75KB , 700x500 , BleacherView.png )
1076560

Genevieve looks down at the ongoing duel, paying close attention to every move and every snippet of conversation that reaches her ears, which is no easy task amid the din and hubbub of the audience.

Like most everyone around, she is at the edge of her seat. Mostly because the benches don’t have much room. Nonetheless, she is quite attentive at her vanquishers’ latest next move, the mysterious lizard lady Ceridwen having cemented her defense so well, the two small pastel duelists are left stumped and whispering to each other.
So avid is she in trying to read their lips, Genevieve almost jumps out and all the way down to the floor as the odd fellow sitting next to her speaks up.

“Nice match, huh?”

“Eep!”

“Oops! Sorry, didn’t mean to startle ya, name’s Conway, Conway Killjoy.”

The character, who looks like a man sporting a bright sunny dress, a long face-obscuring mane, and a smile that could light up the entire courtyard, lifts a hand out to the disquieted aardvark, after a second’s hesitation, she finally offers hers in turn and they shake.

“Uh, nice to meet you mis..ter?”

“Yup!”

“Nice to meet you, Mister Killjoy,” she says, more confident this time, “That’s… quite the name, if you don’t mind me saying.”

“Heh heh, I’m kidding, nobody calls me killjoy. Matter of fact, usually I’m the life of the party!” He chuckles, his grin somehow actually widening.

“I see.. say, you are one of the duelists here, right?”

“Yes ma’am, and so are you! Sorry I missed most of your match, was busy losing mine at the time. I saw what that nasty god guy did to your poor little angel. Not cool, bro. I mean, the booming voice and the final showdown were kinda awesome, but still, it’s an ugly way to defeat someone.”

“Hmph, tell me about it.” Genevieve folds her arms, focusing again on the duel below.

“Come to check how those two kids are doing, yeah?” Conway leans down, also looking at the ongoing game.

“Hmm, yes, I suppose I am… Mostly, I wonder what this whole tournament is all about.”

“Oh, it didn’t say anything on your invitation?” Conway says before extending his arms like a ringmaster putting on a show, “play a card game of magic and awe, meet new and strange people, make unique friends, and the winner will be given a prize of their choosing!”

“Yes, I gathered as much, but… why?”

“I dunno,” Conway shrugs as he sits up, “maybe it’s to get the different people of the cosmos to bond and form a grand alliance, or maybe it’s some big publicity stunt. I’ve heard the birds who are acting as judges are also powerful gods, but frankly it’s probably one or more of them are of a wish-granting class.”

“Class?”

“Oh, yeah! A type of person born with an innate talent that grants them amazing abilities! It’s pretty common where I’m from.”

“I see… so what do-?”

“Oh, shh shh, the little guys are doing something!” Conway raises his hand in front of Genevieve and ushers her to look down at the duel.

The aardvark turns back to watch and squints for a moment “Wait.. is that..?” she asks in disbelief.

“Nice getup!” Conway smiles once again.
>>
No. 1076561 ID: 3c2dff
File 169923547536.jpg - (570.62KB , 1383x1641 , traphinch_dress.jpg )
1076561

>Save Invigorating Reagent for later and use Tantalizing Outfit on Trapinch.

Exotic and enticing, intriguing and bewildering. Men want to be with him, ladies want to be him. Or something.

The now dazzling bobble-headed termite is so eye-catching, all enemy characters will lunge at him either in passionate abandon or mind-clouding envy. Even noble Jekesson can’t help but feel inadequate at his bedazzling opponent, just look at him pout!

Njar on her part looks just as puzzled and unamused, as she finds her holographic tinkering interrupted when a feather duster suddenly manifests in her hand.

“And I will now use the Feather Duster, of course, on your “germ kobold”, so he may not attack next turn,” Strawberi points a finger at the chivalrous child protector.

Sure enough, Njar waves the Feather Duster at Germ and a cloud of detritus falls on his eyes. The effect is not very noticeable beyond a light flinch, however, as Germ’s eyes, besides being small and beady, are also red with violent jealousy at Trapinch’s captivating looks.

“And then, I will… Uh,” Strawberi trails off, snapping her fingers a couple times, to which Warwicks leans next to her once more and whispers something in her ear.

“End my turn!” she declares triumphantly, “...wait, seriously?” she turns to her servant/advisor in puzzlement.

“I warned you using the outfit wouldn’t be much use, Miss Strawberi,” Warwick replies with a shrug.

“Hrrmm, fine. Let it not be said I cannot accept my misjudgments.” Strawberi proclaims, chin and index finger raised solemnly, “And anyways, now all of her attacks will be aimed at a single creature. I’m sure that will be useful soon enough.”

“Oh, yes, it certainly will,” Jekesson hisses, staring daggers at the pervy pokémon. Germ nods in agreement. Everyone else stares at him for a moment.

“Aaaanyway,” Ceridwen segues, “Now it’s my turn again, let me draw a card and..” she trails of and she looks at the new piece of cardboard in her hand, “Hmm, put it in face down position for the moment,” she finishes.

“That’s it?” asks Starwberi, arching an eyebrow.

“Uh, Miss Strawberi…” Warwick says tentatively.

“Well, not all of it. I guess I could also send Weasel to attack your Trapinch while his distracting outfit is still not a big deal,” Ceridwen replies, flipping Weasel’s card to attack position.

“Not the face, that’s my moneymaker!” yells the alluringly-dressed pokémon, but to no avail, as he is mostly face.

As Weasel’s spear pierces Trapinch’s chitin, he and his mouth-watering clothes vanish in a cloud of pixelated dust. On their side of the field, Jekesson and Germ share a high-five.

“I just had to ask, didn’t I?” Strawberi pouts, crossing her arms.

“I was going to warn you, Miss Strawberi-”

“And yet you didn’t, servant. Some good you are!” she harrumphs.

“Now that will be the end of my turn,” Ceridwen butts in, before her opponents’ quarrel escalates.

Strawberi grumpily aborts her tirade to draw a card, but her face suddenly lits up as she sees what she now has in her hand.

“Aha, A chance to redeem yourself, servant Warwick! Come here now,” Strawberi draws a card and motions for her pigmented plebeian pal to once again make his way around the clutter in his hands to be close enough to whisper. After a few moments of inaudible to and fro, they turn back towards Ceridwen.

“I cast the spell Puddle Jacket, which allows me to destroy one trap or spell card on your side of the field for each equipment card my characters have.”

“But I just destroyed the Outfit that Trapinch was-” Ceridwen starts before her expression turns indignant, “Wait… oh no, you don’t!”

“Oh, yes I very much will!” declares Strawberi triumphantly, “your handy Feather Duster is still equipped to Njar, thus allowing to get rid of your pesky Formican Reductor, and with that out of the way, I will also activate my trap card Invigorating Reagent, which gives Njar 1000 extra attack points until the end of the turn, and you know what that entails…” the little cherry-coloured lady pauses for a second as she lifts her finger dramatically, “Njar, the Constructor, destroy Weasel the Kobold Wife!”

Weasel barely manages to open her mouth before a gush of bright pink bolts pierce her chest and her body shatters like the other defeated characters before her. Germ falls to his knees and screams in anguish as he feels a piece of his heart (and the bonus ATK and DEF points from being together) be ripped out from his chest.

Ceridwen has 1200 life points left.
>>
No. 1076562 ID: 3c2dff
File 169923565669.png - (294.87KB , 628x1000 , Species_Swap_s.png )
1076562

“Auugh! I needed that character!” Ceridwen protests, both exasperated at her own Feather Duster being used against her and saddened at seeing Germ’s grief.

“Now, now, you knew the risks when sent your kobold on the offensive, I just responded in kind,” Strawberi places a hand on her chest and bows her head in feigned modesty, “Naturally, I will once again use the Feather Duster to prevent your “Faithful Father” from attacking, and with that, I believe I will end my turn, but know that I have plenty more aces up my sleeve.”

“Your dress doesn’t have sleeves, don’t you mean up your skirt?” Ceridwen asks, unimpressed.

“How dare you!” Strawberi lifts herself in her seat in indignation. She hears Warwick stifling a chuckle, to which she tips him slightly with her hand, making him fall off his stool.

“Don’t forget the beachball, it was a holiday gift,” she says as Warwick paws the floor trying to pick all her scattered baggage back up, “And that tea set better not be cracked!” she adds.

“R-right,” Ceridwen hesitantly draws a card as she witnesses the display. As she sees what card she picked, however, her eyes grow wide, “Ha! Get ready to say hello again, because guess who’s back for round 2? I tribute Germ and my face-down Cryluk (sorry guys), to summon Dusty, Egg Caretaker back onto the field!”

At this, both the sorrowful Germ and the now revealed figure of a tiny two-legged creature with a long trunk of a nose and a singular, ever-crying eye, lift off the ground and turn into clouds of dust. A moment later, a gust of wind burst from within the dust, blowing it away as Dusty steps onto the field, a cheery expression etched on her face.

“But that’s not all,” Ceridwen says, “I will also use Species Swap, which allows me to change the Type of one of my characters, to change to… Child.”

“Child?!” Strawberi asks in bewilderment.

“That… doesn’t sound like a real Type,” Warwick adds.

“Yes, it is! It got added in the Questden Babies! Limited Edition a couple years back. It was first made as a Kid’s Game charity edition run, but it was so successful that it got re-released as a more kid-friendly version of the main game.”

“A children’s version of a children’s card game?” Strawberi asks, “Who even thinks of that?”

“Awww!” up in the rafters, Toffles lowers his head with a saddened expression while Companionship places a wing over his head to console him.

Back at the table, the spell card activates, shrinking Dusty into a young, bright blue, marketable version of herself; her being now a minor, Jekesson’s defense rises to 2600 points.

“Now my Egg Caretaker’s got a caretaker of her own! I’d like to see you get through that before my Egg of Clubs hatches next turn,” Ceridwen says, crossing her arms contentedly.

“And I will, you plebeian!” Strawberi says, her cheeks somehow turning even more pink,”All it takes is one good draw to tear your silly little combo down!”

“Hope you’ve been trusting the heart of the cards then, my fair lady, because it’s your turn now,” Ceridwen replies, her lips being the ones curling into a sarcastic smile for a change.

Strawberi lets an exasperated shrill pass through her clenched teeth, before finally sitting back down and grumpily drawing a card, an attitude which changes once she sees what the card is.

“Ah, finally!” she says in a mix of enthusiasm and relieved frustration, “I activate Change of Wardrobe, which lets me draw one more card for each equipment card in my graveyard. Servant Warwick, kindly count the equipment cards I’ve in the pile, please.”

“Erhm..” Warwick lifts his arms slightly, highlighting the large pile of knick-knacks he is still carrying.

“Tch, fine! I’ll do it myself.” Strawberi rolls her eyes, before browsing the small stack of graveyard cards, mumbling inaudibly all the while.

“I-I think there were the Patchwork Crossbow and the..” Warwick begins recalling in an apologetic tone.

“The Tantalizing Outfit, yes,” Strawberi finishes, putting the graveyard pile back in its place, “so that would be two cards. More than enough to deal with the likes of you!” She adds, looking pointedly at Ceridwen, making her roll her eyes.

“Now let’s see here…” Strawberi says, drawing two cards and raising them to eye level, “Aha! I told you it only takes one good draw to turn the tables, watch and learn! I summon Godrender, Eager Blade.

[Godrender, Eager Blade, 4 stars, Type: Construct, 500 ATK, 500 DEF]


“I put the ‘more’ in ‘claymore’!” Godrender exclaims as they rise onto the field.

“That was terrible,” Njar opines.

“AND IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE THE CLAY!” the sword yells confrontationally.

“Oh, no, actually. She will be your wielder for the evening,” Strawberi declares, raising a finger.

“Ahahaha, that’s more like it!” Godrender laughs in anticipation.

“Huh? Wielder? What does that mean? And is it actually evening?” Ceridwen asks all confused-like.

“Ah, that’s the beauty of this card, my scaly rival. Godrender, Eager Blade doubles as an equipment card, adding their ATK and DEF points to the character who wields them, and because it is an eager blade, Godrender also allows their wielder to attack twice per turn.”

“What?! That’s ridiculous! A card that powerful can’t be worth just a couple stars!”

“I don’t know what to tell you, my dear, that is how the card was released and I considered it rather ludicrous not to add it to my repertoire.” Strawberi shrugs quizzically.

“No way! I want my rules lawyer!” The aquamarine dragon protests.

On cue, the cranky secretary bird Tianna swoops once again to the table to settle the dispute.
“You will have to forgive us, Miss Ceridwen,“ she says, “we were not quite so thorough in reviewing the most recent sets of cards, and a couple unbalanced ones such as this may have been allowed into the tournament. Blame Pan for focusing on ‘fun.’”

“What was that last part?” Ceridwen asks.

“I mean to say that, at present, it would be rather poor form to ban a card at the last minute, overlooked as it may have been. Rest assured that we will review the Eager Blade card once the tournament, and likely prohibit it from future one, or at the very least lower its potency.”

“Hey, if you wish to strip me of my power, you will have to come and TAKE it!” the bellicose blade goads the feathery judge, who simply ignores them.

“It seems the judges have come to a decision, Miss Ceridwen,” Strawberi butts into the conversation, “do not worry, though. If your defense is as sound as you worked so hard for it to be, a little extra attack power won’t make it buckle.”

Ceridwen lets out a sigh before speaking, “Fine, I guess I don’t have much of a choice, and besides, that only boosts your ‘Njar Constructor’ by 500 points, which is the same as my characters’ defense.”

“Glad that’s settled,” Tianna gives an appreciative nod, “I will be right above in case you need me again. If you’ll excuse me…” and with that, she swoops over the table and flies back up to her impromptu perch.

“I must concede you are right, my soon to be former rival,” Strawberi says once Tianna returns to her previous post, “I can only raise Njar’s attack points so far by using Godrender, but I’m afraid that doesn’t mean I can’t lower your characters’ points as well. I now use the trap card I’m Dazzling, You’re Baffling, which lowers the ATK or DEF of every character wearing no equipment cards in the field until the end of turn. Of course, I choose defense.”

As Strawberi lays the card upon the table, Godrender and the Feather Duster shine with an enchanting light in Njar’s hands, beautiful sparkles dancing around them.
Jekesson and Dusty’s attire, on the other hand, takes on a dirty, patchy appearance, akin to decades old hand-me-downs.

Filled with a new sense of inadequacy, both Jekesson and Dusty see with saddened eyes as their defense drops by 1000 points.

“1000 points less?!” Ceridwen cries, “Aw, man! At least tell me they’ll get their clothes cleaned when the turn ends.”

“I suppose so… but that’s a moot point, as they won’t last until the turn’s end! Njar, the Constructor, take Godrender and, well, rend!”

There are no words to describe the ensuing carnage, the horrifying violence, the sight of a red-eyed llama-dog woman, feather duster in one hand and a large living sword on the other, pink holographic lights dancing around her all the while, striking a raggedy lizard guy and bunny girl, making them land flat on their backs in the middle of a table, all in the name of a children’s card game.

Truly, a display that defies all sane description.

“This game sucks.” Ceridwen remarks, resting her head on her hands.

“A magnificent card combination, Miss Strawberi,” Warwick perks up, a smile across his face for a change, “but it seems we have no more characters with which to attack Miss Ceridwen’s egg, and it is about to hatch.”

“Hmm, yes, I suppose I have run out of actions for the remainder of this turn.” Strawberi muses, then gives a dismissive flick of the wrist, “ No matter. Whatever lies inside that egg is surely no match for your sage advice and, of course, my astounding intellect.”

“So, you will be ending your turn now?” Ceridwen asks.

“Not like there is much else I can do anyway. Go on ahead, do your worst!” Strawberi teases.

“If you insist,” Ceridwen replies as she draws a card, and gives a light nod towards her Egg of Clubs.

As if on cue, the egg hatches and a burst of smoke and fire suddenly envelops half the table, accompanied by a loud, heart-pounding roar.

“Goodness gee!” Strawberi says, startled.

“Eep! Better get that astounding intellect working, my lady!” Warwick helpfully adds.
>>
No. 1076563 ID: 3c2dff
File 169923569810.png - (300.58KB , 628x1000 , Mai_Terrorscale_One_Dragon_Army_s.png )
1076563

Mai Terrorscale, 8 stars, Type: Dragon, 3500 ATK, 3000 DEF

Grand. Ominous. Powerful. Pissed.

As the trails of flame vanish and the smoke clears, the mighty dragon known as Mai Terrorscale rises over the dueling field, meeting all players at eye level and far dwarfing the alien and sword in front of her.

“Haha! Almost a worthy opponent!” Godrender declares.

“Hello, dear,” Mai hears a faint, trembling voice from the ground beside her.
She looks down, and smiles.

“Hello, husband,” she says, her toothy grin giving way to confusion, “Why are you dressed like a pauper?”

“Card effect,” the lizardman simply states, a light smile on his lips.

“Say no more,” the terrible dragoness says with an understanding growl, “I can see this game has taken a hard toll on you, but I know you held the line, you always have.”

“Were that I had held it for longer, my love,” the scaly paladin replies mournfully, his voice fading.

“Hush, sweet champion,” Mai answers in turn, in a voice as deep as it is soothing, “You have done enough, it is time for me to finish the fight.”

Jekesson nods, his smile widening for an instant, before closing his eyes, his expression turning resting, serene.

“This is scaring me more than the roar,” Strawberi whispers into Warwick’s ear.

“Go give them hell, lady!” Dusty turns her head towards Mai with an encouraging expression, before she and Jekesson finally fade into motes of light.

“Oh, I most certainly will!” Mai gives out a wide grin.

Immediately she lets out a vengeful roar that resonates across the entire atrium and, in spite of her diminutive size, manages to once more startle everybody around the table, and even the front bleachers!

“Nevermind, that’s also pretty scary,” Strawberi says.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mai’s fiery, furious and wide (in a good way!) figure looms over the humble Constructor, ready to strike the moment Ceridwen gives the command.

Before she does, however, she pauses, looking at the card she has just drawn: Quest Resurrection. A card that lets her bring back one character card from the graveyard.
She comes to the realization she can back up her formidable doom dragoness with one of previous characters, and so thinks back for a moment on the ones that were most useful.

First she considers Jekesson Terrorscale, the in-story husband to the terrifying firedrake. He has a decent 1300 ATK and 1600 DEF, and gains 500 more defense points for each underage character he fights alongside, not to mention he would be a perfect thematic fit to fight alongside Mai. However, he has the disadvantage of losing 1000 ATK points when he himself is attacking an underage character. Such is the lot of the Faithful Father.

Next, she thinks of Dusty, the magical dust bunny spirit. She has the best stats all her dead characters, with 1800 ATK and 2000 DEF points, and is great to protect any new eggs that Ceridwen may be able to summon onto the field, as her special ability as Egg Caretaker makes it so any effect or attack that might endanger an egg type creature targets her instead. However, Ceridwen considers, egg cards take a couple turns to hatch and by that point, Mai or another powerful character may have ended the duel.

Finally, she remembers Germ the Kobold. The unassuming creature has some of the weakest stats in all her deck, with only 600 ATK and 1000 DEF. His special ability, however, is gaining 500 extra ATK points for every other lizard type character on Ceridwen’s side of the field, which her deck has plenty of. She knows that Mai is a dragon, though, not a lizard, and that she would require some rather lucky draws in order to summon enough lizards to bring Germ up to strength.

Strawberi and Warwick look at each other in confusion for a moment as they notice Ceridwen’s trembling. Her One Dragon Army gives her the advantage for the moment, but she is low on lifepoints, and she can’t shake the feeling that this next decision will define the outcome of the duel. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

Which character should Ceridwen bring back?

>Jekesson Terrorscale, Faithful Father

>Dusty, Egg Caretaker

>Germ, the Kobold
>>
No. 1076572 ID: eb0a9c

I think Strawberi is too arrogant (rather than narcissistic) to bluff about her belief in her superiority. Which implies that she does not have any Child-themed cards in her deck! Her last thief couldn't steal magic cards, so there's little chance of her stealing Species Swap from the graveyard!

Summon Jek and punch her in the neck!
>>
No. 1076574 ID: 273c18

Why is it even called Human Resources when there are no humans here?
>>
No. 1076620 ID: 84ef90

It's gotta be Jekesson!
Win or lose, he guarantees a most dramatic climax!
>>
No. 1076654 ID: 9640d4

Jekesson and Germ both gain attack per friendly on the board, but Jekesson starts with more attack, enough that he is still nearly as strong as Germ even if he is taking the penalty. Unless Germ has a combo with his kid that you can heart of the cards, he is out.

Dusty's ability probably isn't going to come into play before the end of the game, but Dusty is still a big beat stick, and the only one who can natively trade with the buffed Njar. Until the feather duster is neutralized, Mai doesn't get to attack, so you need somebody who can get through Njar right now. Dusty is the choice.
>>
No. 1076657 ID: a7a180

Jek sweep!
>>
No. 1076658 ID: 3ea497

>>1076654
For clarification: Jekesson gains 500 DEF per kid he's fighting along with. Germ is the one that gains extra ATK when he is with other lizards.

>>1076574
HR stands for Helpful Resources in the simulation and it's been played in the cibercafé next door.
>>
No. 1076661 ID: 7543e9

I think Germ is out of the question, even if you manage to get some good dragons, that defense is too low at this point of the game
Jek seems good but a species-swap effect or straw and warwick putting any child to defend means he's done for
I'd say go for Dusty,very good base stats and defense, and if she survives you'll get the ball rolling again next turn
>>
No. 1076712 ID: b6ec4d

Okay, I swear I already voted here, but I guess I didn't submit it?

This decision seems pretty easy. Jekesson and Germ both require setup to surpass Dusty, but you can't really afford that right now. And even if it is unlikely, Jek wven introduces an additional loss condition if Strawberi can get a child type character. Dusty's stats are the most consistent, and they're high enough to pumch over Njar to get rid of the Feather Duster. Dusty is the play.
>>
No. 1076715 ID: e51896

Go dusty and have them eat our dust... but not literally our dusty, i meant dust as in... forget it, just play Dusty.
>>
No. 1079408 ID: fb32ab
File 170286260197.png - (474.51KB , 628x1000 , Njar_Constructor_Defaced_s.png )
1079408

Of course! With greater stats and her spell card enabling Ceridwen to summon her without paying tribute, Dusty is the most logical choice!

Deftly, the cerulean saurian plays what remains of her hand.

“Before I declare my attack, I’ll use Quest Resurrection to bring Dusty, Egg Caretaker back to the field,” she says, pulling the dust bunny out of the graveyard swift as a magician, “in attack mode!”

“VENGEANCE!” Dusty shrieks out like a banshee as she appears on the field for the third time.

“Haha! Another fearsome foe to fell!” Godrender, Eager Blade yells in excitement.

“The foe who will be fallen..err, felled… is you. Mai Terrorscale, obliterate!” Ceridwen commands.

A cry of alarm from Njar, of defiance from Godrender, and of annoyance from Strawberi are all drowned out as a gust of flame engulfs the Constructor and the Eager Blade, erasing them from the face of the field.

Strawberi and Warwick have 320-

“And now that the way is clear, I use Dusty to attack your life points directly!” Ceridwen says again.

“No, wait- EEP!” Strawberi cries.

Strawberi and Warwick have 1400 life points left.

In a matter of seconds, Warwick rummages through his mistress’ luggage and pulls out a pair of pliers to pull the biting bunny maid off of Strawberi’s face.

“Down! Down, I say!” he says as he puts the growling Dusty back on her side of the field, raising the pliers menacingly.

“Ow, ow, ow. How DARE you inflict pain onto me!” Strawberi bellows, rubbing her now even rosier nose, “a lady of noble birth such as myself CANNOT be stricken! Your impudence must be twice repaid!”

As she says this, she gives Warwick a nod, which he immediately returns with a furrowed brow.

In a coordinated motion, both pint-sized duelists lean onto the edge of the table and, with all the reach their diminutive arms can muster, pinch the edge of Ceridwen’s snout.

“Haha! Take that, you fiend!” Strawberi yells, raising her fists victoriously.

“Are you done now?”Ceridwen asks, scratching the leathery hide around her nostrils in annoyance, “because that’ll be the end of my turn, so you better get serious if you don’t want Ms. Bunny biting you again.”

Dusty growls menacingly again.

“Oh, fine, fine! We’ll get serious. Not that it’ll be necessary; everyone nose I’m the better duelist.”

Strawberi and Warwick share a high-five at their clever jab, without breaking eye-contact with Ceridwen. The dragoness rolls her eyes.

“Now, let’s see..” Strawberi says as she draws a card, “Oh, this will be interesting! Servant Warwick, fetch me the pizza box!”

“The… pizza box?” Ceridwen asks, arching an eyebrow.

After another brief moment of rummaging, Warwick pulls out a small cardboard box with a pizza and a logo Ceridwen doesn’t recognize drawn on top of it. Strawberi quickly grabs and opens the box, revealing a greasy, cheesy pizza, half its slices missing. Strawberi pulls out one of them and places it on the table, the grease oozing out from under it.

“Uhm..” Ceridwen stammers.

“Disgusting, I know, “ Strawberi interjects, “but part of my next move, I assure you.”

“Is.. this meant to be a token for something?”

“Not a token; a tribute,” Strawberi replies, placing her new card on the table, “You see, the card I just drew is a 6 stars character, which allows me to bypass its character tribute by instead giving it a…”

“Pizzid Pizza slice!” a stinky green ratman jumps out of the newly-placed card, throwing himself at the greasy slice and biting it voraciously.

“So anyways,” Strawberi continues, watching the display with a grossed out expression, “this is Eugene, the Mischievous Rat Boy.

[Eugene, Mischievous Rat Boy, 6 stars, Type: Beast, 1000 ATK, 1100 DEF]

“Eugene has the ability to-”

“E- eat the entire slice just like that!” Ceridwen points at the rat in surprise, who indeed lays pleasingly on his back with a swollen tummy where a greasy triangle three times his size used to be.

“Wow, these cards-come-alive duels really go the extra mile,” Warwick says.

“Huh, yeah..” Strawberi looks at the contented rodent in bewilderment for a moment, before remembering herself, “but nevermind that. There is something almost as impressive this character can do!”

“From the turn I summon it, until it is removed from the field, Eugene, Mischievous Rat Boy makes it so that, during each of my turns, it will provide me with either a HELP or SABOTAGE, which will be decided with the flip of a coin.”

At this, Strawberi pulls out a tiny embroidered purse from a fold in her dress and produces a coin, an ornate coat-of-arms on one side and the bust of a very Starwberi-looking lady on the other.

“Great-granny, don’t fail me now,” Strawberi says, flipping the coin in the air.

As it lands, the contented smile on Cheri Sugarplum III very much reflects Strawberi’s.

“Ha! And now, to choose for the HELP it’ll bring me,” she says looking closer at the list of card effects:

-Unbreakable defense barrier for 1 turn.
-Shift any characters from to defense or attack mode 1 extra time this turn.
-Summon a 5 or 6 stars character without paying tribute.
-Player’s characters in attack mode to make a direct hit at the opponent's life points.
-Draw 3 cards.
-Player gains 2000 life points.

“Those are some very strong effects! You mean I could also choose from these if the coin had landed on tails?” Ceridwen asks.
“Yes, that’s the risk and reward of this card. Be thankful it’s the new version too. The original one had ‘make opponent eat paint’ on that list,” Strawberi says.

“Oof,” Ceridwen winces, “Old editions were hardball.”

“You’d think so, but some species can actually digest paint just fine, so it wasn’t as funny.”

“Some Slissas and Golemites even brought buckets of lead paint to the duel themselves,” Warwick adds.

“It got…out of hand,” Strawberi winces as well, “Anyways, I believe blocking Miss Ceridwen’s attacks this turn will be a good choice this time around, don’t you think, servant Warwick?”

“If you think it’s best, Miss Strawberi,” Warwick shrugs.

“I do,” she replies with a smug smile, “Right then, I believe that will be all for this turn. Let’s see you try to brute force your way past my defenses, knave!”
>>
No. 1079409 ID: fb32ab
File 170286264334.png - (560.02KB , 1416x694 , Dueladvice.png )
1079409

Ceridwen looks at the new card in her hand and her snout twists into an irritated pout.

Had it shown earlier in the game, it would have been quite useful, but as it stands, it doesn’t look like it would last much longer, making it feel rather redundant.

She considers simply ignoring it, then suddenly remembers the card’s secondary effect and considers the current state of the board, both on her end as well as her obsessively opulent opponent’s.

Seeing nothing wrong with being on the safe side, and having no other choices left, unable to attack as she is, Ceridwen makes a decision.

“I summon Egg of Diamonds in defense mode!” She says, placing the character card on the table.

[Egg of Diamonds, 2 stars, Type: Egg, 0 ATK, 200 DEF]

“Which I choose to crack right now to summon Pesi, the Skull, in defense mode,” she adds.

Upon saying this, the egg breaks in half, a pale smoke and a soft hissing noise emanating from within. As the smoke clears, a jet black lizardwoman with a dolphin’s tail, bone-white markings and curves for days stands proudly over the shell’s remains, tapping her skull-tipped staff on the table.

[Pesi, the Skull, 4 stars, Type:Lizard/Waterfolk, 1000 ATK, 1000 DEF]

“And I will use one of her ritual effects to take control of your rat in exchange for half my life points.”

“Ritual effects?” Strawberi arches an eyebrow.

“She may not have much in attack or defense, but Pesi is a powerful sorceress, which gives her several spells for me to use. Look.” Ceridwen explains, moving Pesi’s card to Strawberi’s side of the table so she and Warwick can read it.

During either of the controlling player’s main phases, and up to once per turn, Pesi, the Skull may cast one of the following effects:

Rite of Fertility: If another character under your control appears capable of laying eggs, Pesi will summon an X amount of token egg characters on your side of the field, with X amount not exceeding the number of character slots available at that time. Said eggs all count as Egg-Type, with 0 ATK and one-fifth of the DEF points of the character selected to spawn them. Each egg may be sacrificed at any time to give you a number of life points equal to its DEF points. Pesi, the Skull may not cast any special effects for 2 of your turns after casting this ritual.

Rite of Transformation: All characters on your side of the field are indefinitely transformed into Volins like Pesi, which makes them Lizard/Waterfolk Type until the end of the game, or until this ritual is counteracted. You may also make a drawing of said characters as Volins on top of their existing card art! Uh.. provided it can be erased once the effect ends. Pesi, the Skull may not cast any special effect for 1 of your turns after casting this ritual.

Rite of Mind Control: Select a character on the opposing player’s control, in exchange for half of your current life points, place said character on your side of the field under your control until for 1 turn.

“Hmm, I see,” Strawberi mutters, taking her eye away from the magnifying glass.

“Err, may I give it a read as well, Miss Strawberi,” Warwick asks.

“Fine, but I will not hold the lens for you,” Strawberi says, tossing the magnifying glass in the air, which Warwick deftly catches with his mouth, the numerous knick-knacks in his arms barely shaking.

“Sorry for the wait, my dear rival,” Strawberi continues, “You may go on with your.. peculiar tactic.”

“Rude,” Ceridwen replies, “But, yeah, I’ll take.. huh?”

“Yeah, I’m already here,” Eugene says, now standing on Ceridwen’s side of the field.

“Oh, nice,” Ceridwen says.

“I also took the life points you promised,” Eugene adds with a cheeky smile.

“Figures.”

Ceridwen now has 1100 life points.

“But I won’t be using his coin flip ability,” Ceridwen continues, “I just don’t want you to use it in your turn.”

“Oh, that’s quite alright. The HELP or SABOTAGE effect only comes to play during the owner’s turn anyway,” Strawberi says with a wry smile.

“Oh, I see.”

“And it must be activated during each of my turns, not just when it’s convenient for me… or for you.”

“Oh..OH.. I did not know that.”

“Oh, poor, careless Ceridwen, you really should pay more attention to what’s written on the cards.”

“You didn’t show me what was written on the card!” Ceridwen protests.

“You had plenty of time to read it once you stole it from me, brigand!” Strawberi protests back.

“I only did that right n… why complain about stealing when you… I…. you can’t… ugh, fine, I’ll end my turn; toss the coin… But don’t call me a brigand!”

“I believe your nature makes it plain enough for anyone,” Strawberi says as she draws a new card. Ceridwen harrumphs loudly.

Once again, Strawberi flips her cherished coin and once again, her grandnanny shows her favor with her family’s signature smile.

“All as it should be,” Strawberi raises her chin, pleased, “Hmm. Now, I believe the circumstances merit I once cast a defensive barrier to-

“Um, my lady, if I may interrupt,” Warwick interrupts, “ I think stalling like this will not work much longer. Our luck is bound to run out sooner or later.

“Then what effect do you suppose I should pick, servant?” Strawberi asks, half annoyed and half curious.

“Well…”


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Genevieve looks at the duel with a mix of interest and incredulity.
Warwick and Strawberi are yet again arguing over their next move, and this time they are no longer trying to be discreet about it. From her seat, she can easily make out their indecisiveness.

“Maybe those extra life points would help, if we have anything to back them up with.”

“That would still leave us with barely more than 3000 life points. The dragon alone has more attack than that, and I only have one 6 star character at hand.”

“We can also use Eugene’s effect to summon it, and then use the new character’s special effect to help us!”

“I don’t think that’d work. And she would likely destroy it with one character and attack with the others anyway.”

“..Maybe the extra three cards would help?”

“Could be, but if they are a bad draw, she would still pummel us. No, I think using the barrier again is our best choice.”

“Are you sure, Miss Strawberi? She could draw something that counteract it next turn.”

“Yes, but what choice do we have?”

“Wow, they really are between a rock and a hard place,” Conway says to Genevieve over the din of the other onlookers, “those are some good card effects, but that dragon lady really put those two in a bind.”

“Yes..” Genevieve agrees, still staring at the dueling table.

A bind indeed. Ceridwen’s egg-hatching strategy had truly paid off, and now her One Dragon Army, large enough to reach eye level with the players at the table, was ready to deal the final blow, with at least two other characters backing it up.

Considering they had been the ones to take her out the tournament, Genevieve feels she would be happy about this. And yet, she cannot help but think this isn’t really quite right. Maybe it has something to do with camaraderie born of a good game; perhaps it would be a blow to her pride to be defeated by those who can in turn be brought down so easily; maybe it’s because she feels a sense of responsibility to this quirky odd couple duo…

Or, if nothing else, maybe it is that the best bet was so glaringly obvious.

With a sudden motion, Genevieve jerks forward.

“Hey!” she yells, startling Conway and making all three duelists turn their heads in her direction, “Draw the 3 cards! You’ll have more chances if you draw the cards!”

“How are you so sure?” says Strawberi after a moment’s hesitation, putting her hands on her hips. “There is no guarantee it can get us something that can stop all her attacks.”

“You and Warwick built that deck together, you had plenty of good cards when you defeated me. I’m sure there is something there that can stall her better than just a barrier!” Genieveve raises her voice further over the annoyed groans of the audience.

“Please don’t try assisting the duelists,” Companionship says kindly yet clearly from the rafters. “It disrupts the game and can give a sense of unfairness for the other players.”

“What if nothing there helps?” Strawberi asks, in a tone that conveys an end to the conversation.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Genevieve asks in kind.

Strawberi and Warwick look at each other for a second, after which Strawberi turns to look at her deck, an expression of defeated consternation forming on her face for once.

“Well, here goes nothing,” she says, drawing the three cards. She looks at them a moment, her eyes widening for an instant, “...Oh.”

“...Miss Strawberi?” Warwick asks with a worried expression.

“I think I’ve got an idea,” she replies.
>>
No. 1079410 ID: fb32ab
File 170286270814.png - (408.16KB , 628x1000 , Veisar_Engineer_s.png )
1079410

“First things first, I will place a card on my spell/trap zone, and then also cast Nope!, which negates any non-continuous effect, be it from a spell, trap, or character, and I will use it to bring back my Mischievous Ratboy”

“Oh, yeah, no more messing with my head, missy. I’m my own rat!” Eugene says, already back in Strawberi’s field and making a mocking gesture at Pesi.

“And will tribute him to summon Veigar, the Engineer in defense mode.”

“Why, you sleazy, two-faced-” the viridian vermin starts, before Veigar’s card falls on top of his, unceremoniously replacing him with the equally green gard.

Gard is what these aliens are called, by the way.

[Veisar, the Engineer, 6 stars, Type: Alien, 1600 ATK, 1300 DEF]

“Veigar’s special ability is that, once per turn, he can bring back one equipment card back from the graveyard to my hand, which I’ll use to reclaim my luxurious and Tantalizing Outfit.”

“Is that ability also mandatory every turn? Ceridwen asks.

“No, but I will have something ready should you try to steal one of my characters again, you ruffian. And speaking of other people’s characters, I will now use the last of the cards I just drew, Starter Gear, on your Mai Terrorscale, banishing it from the game in exchange for sending your dragon back to your hand!”

With a surprised roar, the terrifying figure of Mai Terrorscale shrinks and fades and her card flies into Ceridwen’s palm.

“Wow, alright, I can’t get mad at that. That was kind of an impressive turnaround,” Ceridwen says, arching her brows in bewilderment.

“I take your boorish compliment graciously, my lady,” Strawberi bows her head, palm on her chest and coy smile on her lips, “ and now, I will equip Tantalizing Outfit on your Pesi sorceress to-”

“Erhm, Miss Strawberi, a moment if I may?” Warwick asks, then leans to whisper into what might be Strawberi’s ear.
She whispers in kind and, after a few seconds of back and forth, she nods and turns back to Ceridwen.

“Very well, I’ll withdraw that last move. I’ll save Tantalizing Outfit for later,” she says. Someone in the audience boos.

“So I guess that’ll make it my turn again?”

“Astute deduction, Lady Ceridwen!” Strawberi says with feigned mirth. Ceridwen stiffles a groan as she draws a card.

“Hmm,” Ceridwen looks at her card quizzically, before placing it on the table, “I will put this card face down in the spell/trap zone and use Pesi’s Ritual of Fertility to produce three eggs.”

“Huh?” Strawberi tilts her neck, confused, “Excuse me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the card say that ritual could only happen if there was another character that could lay…. What in.. the…?” she trails off, eyes big as plates.

On Ceridwen’s side of the field, three cheerfully painted Easter eggs stand in line, beside Pesi and Dusty.

“Don’t look at me!” the flustered rabbit spirit says, desperately trying to cover her face with her skirt.

“Sorry about that,” Ceridwen says to the embarrassed creature, “I need those eggs for my next move, which is to tribute them to summon Mai Terrorscale ba-”

“W- woah, wait, wait. Hold on a moment!” says Strawberi, snapping out of the trance witnessing the Rite of Fertility left her in, “You.. you just activated my trap card! I activate Noble’s Kidnap, which lets me permanently take control of a character with 4 stars or less, and cast on one of your eggs!”

“Uhm, alright, then. I only need two to bring back Mai.”

“Ah! But what was your Egg Caretaker’s special effect again?” Strawberi leans forward with a toothy grin.

“...Oh..” Ceridwen says after a moment’s pause, a dumbfounded expression on her face, then begins laughing, “Oh, man. Ha ha, that’s a good twist. Hee hee. Oh, I’m really not having a good day, am I?”

She puts one hand over her snout to cover her giggling, while shuffling Dusty’s card to her opponent’s side of the field with the other.

“Brilliant move, Miss Strawberi! Using Dusty effect-deflecting against her was a splendid strategy!” Warwick quips enthusiastically.

“Why, indeed! It was only a matter of time before I drew the right card to take advantage of such a double-edged ability!” she answers pleasedly.

“Hee hee, yeah, I guess I should have seen it coming, ha ha,” Ceridwen chuckles again. Then the chuckles stop, replaced by an icy glare, “but it’s still my turn and if that’s how you are gonna play after calling me a thief…” she says in a dead serious tone.
An instant later, the glare fades. Her face shifts into a determined smile. The dimmed lights return to normal.

“I’ll still tribute two eggs to bring back my One Dragon Army, and I will bring it bearing down on your engineer Veisar!”

The two eggs banish and Mai’s crimson-scaled form looms once more over the field, Veisar’s four eyes all turn upwards to face his doom. He gulps and lifts his drill to shield himself from the ensuing flames, to no avail. A pile of ash lingers for a moment before it too fades into nothing.

“That will be the end of my turn. I’m still keeping the last egg, instead sacrificing it for life points. I might need to tribute it in case you want to send one of my characters away again, you never know.” Ceridwen says, crossing her arms and squinting at her two little adversaries.
>>
No. 1079412 ID: fb32ab
File 170286286554.png - (199.98KB , 628x1000 , Biggering_s.png )
1079412

“Hmph! You’ll see I won’t be needing such subterfuge again to deal with the likes of you!” Strawberi harrumphs as she reaches for her deck. Laying eyes on the new card in her hand, her frown turns into a wide smile as she lets out a self-congratulatory laugh, “Ah hah hah hah hah hah! It seems our duel has finally come to an end, my persistent rival. You’ve proved a fiendish foe, but every fiend is ultimately defeated by a… work of…” She starts trailing off.

“A noble cause?” Warwick offers.

“That’s right! A noble cause, and a noble’s ability to call her troops at..” she says as she plays the spell card in her hand, “... Atten-shun! This spell card makes all characters on either side of the field to shift all together into the same position, so I will now turn your remaining egg token into attack position to match your Terrorscale Dragon AND use Tantalizing Outfit on it!”

As Strawberi places the card on the egg, the Tantalizing Outfit manifests loosely yet ever dashingly over it. An audience member boos again. Another cheers wildly.
“And now that your humble little egg is the center of attention, I can attack it and do away with your remaining life points! And how fitting that your own character, the Egg Protector, should be the one to do it,” Strawberi’s smile shifts from coy to cruel as she looks down at the field, where impotent tears began forming on Dusty’s eyes. Raising an arm, the pink princess gives the command “Dusty, finish this!”

“No,” says Ceridwen calmly, resting her head on her hand.

“Huh? Why not?” replies Strawberi indignantly.

“Because Nope!” replies Ceridwen, revealing the card on her spell and trap zone…

A copy of the Nope! trap card.

“What?!” say Warwick and Strawberi in unison.

“Yeah, I had a couple of these in my deck,” says Ceridwen nonchalantly.

“Liar!” Strawberi exclaims, “you must have seen mine and decided to copy me, somehow!”

“What are you talking about? It is a very handy card, why would I not have one with me?”

“It’s still a totally copycat move!”

Ceridwen rolls her eyes, irritated, “Well, whatever! I’m using it to break your Noble’s Kidnap trap and get Dusty back!”

“That card can counter continuous effects!”

“Continuous spells stay on the field. That was a one time effect, and the card used is now in the graveyard. It’s a valid move.”

“It’s true, taking control of an opponent’s character with a single-use card, even if indefinitely, does not count as a continuous effect,” Tianna says, perched above the players.

“No!” Strawberi protests futilely.

“And now that you have no more cards on your field, or hand, I believe your turn is over,” Ceridwen continues, as impavid as before.

“Y- you- you toyed with me!” Strawberi cries, standing up in her seat.

“It’s a card game, it’s only natural to adopt a poker face sometimes,” Ceridwen replies with a shrug.

“Y- you- you can’t do this to me! You are a blackguard! A cheater! A- a- AN ASSHOLE!”

“Wow, uhm.. Ouch?” Ceridwen says furrowing her brow, before shrugging again, “Anyway, I’ll draw a card now….Huh, I guess I can use this one,” she says before playing the card, “I cast Biggering: a spell card that makes one of my characters occupy 2 slots on my character zone, but doubling their ATK and DEF points for turn, or indefinitely in exchange for occupying 3.”

“N-now you are just being petty!” Strawberry says.

“Look who’s talking,” replies Ceridwen, before turning her gaze downwards, “Dusty, do the honors.”
>>
No. 1079416 ID: fb32ab
File 170286581758.png - (17.77KB , 500x500 , Strawick v Ceri Finale.png )
1079416

Everyone present came to know something new that day:

The audience knew what it was to see a bunny woman in a french maid uniform growing several times her size, so big as to make the table beneath her creak with strain, before lunging forward with a bestial roar.

Strawberi knew what it was like to be punched in the face, hard enough as to send her seat tumbling backwards to the floor.

And Warwick knew what it was like to feel shocked enough to drop all his lady’s luggage to the floor completely dumbfounded.

“Miss Strawberi! MISS STRAWBERI! OH, HEAVENS ABOVE, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” He screams, rushing to his charge’s side in a split second. Amidst the exclamations, cheering, and cackling from the crowd, two other figures rush to their side.

“Ow, ow ow! That hurt! That actually hurt! I’ve struck! I’ve been wounded! Someone please, fetch a physician!” Strawberi mewls and hollers.

“Uhm, Lady Strawberi...” Genevieve says once she reaches the pair, “The game’s apparitions can’t cause actual harm, only a brief sensation of it.”

“It still hurt!” the little noblegirl says, then points a finger towards Ceridwen, “she is a dangerous criminal. She struck a member of nobility! Someone arrest her!”

“Wow, wow, relax gi- err, lady,” says Conway, raising his arms in an appeasing fashion, “I don't think we are in a country or, um, jurisdiction where that is considered worthy of jail time. And besides, like Gevieve says, no real harm was done!” He shrugs, smiling confidently.

“Ow, ow, my pride!” Strawberi moans.

Still sitting at the table, Ceridwen takes in all this without a word, calmness still etched on her face.

Then a smile briefly breaks the edge of her mouth with a twitch. A moment later, it twitches again, and again, until a wide grin is etched on her face from ear to ear.
Suddenly, she stands up, raising her fists and knocking the table and all it carries to the floor.

“I won! I WON! I can’t believe it! Ican’tbelieveit!” She exclaims, spinning and jumping around the chairs and littered cardboard pieces, “Iwassonervous IthoughtIwouldnotbeabletokeepthewholestoicthing togetherandshewouldseewhaIwasdoing andshewouldcounteritagainandsteal morecardsbecauseImusuallysoclumsy atlyingandkeepingastraightfacebutshe couldnttellIwaspretendingsoshewentalong andIbeatherandIactuallywonanotherduel andImgoingtothe quarterfinalseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEH!”

“What is she even rating about?” Strawberi asks, finally standing up as Warwick offers her his hand.

“I think she is just really happy she won,” says Genevieve, not knowing whether to feel amused or annoyed at the absurdity of it all.

“Hmph! There truly is no justice when a vile bigrand like her gets to celebrate over such travesty!”

“I’m just glad you are unharmed, Miss Strawberi,” says Warwick, patting her comfortingly, not quite daring to hug her, despite his relieved expression. “To be honest, we got pretty close to winning! And there was no way to tell whether she would pull something out to counteract your brilliant combo.”

“Yeah, that was an amazing last few moves you guys pulled,” says Conway with an encouraging fingergun, “you kept throwing all kinds of effects and countereffects, I could barely even keep up! Kind of a shame that lady pulled one of her own at the last second, really.”

“Yes. All things considered, it was a very good duel and there was no shame in how it came to end,” Genevieve adds reassuringly.

“Hrmph…I’m still not happy about it, but…thanks, I… appreciate your plebian assurances.”

“Yes, don’t mention it,” says Genevieve with a mildly amused expression.

“I also appreciate your advice from earlier, “Strawberi says hesitantly, “Futile though it was, it did help us stay in the game a while longer.”

“You are welcome,” replies Genevieve, now showing a genuine smile, “It was a pleasure watching you play, honestly.”

“Hey, this was a fun game overall, right?” Conway says, “Speaking of fun games, what say we go play a bit at the penny arcade the dimensional portal over? Or, wait! It’s almost time for lunch, right? We can hang out in the food courtyard outside the main atrium and order something. My treat.”

“Thank you, Mr. Conway,” says Genevieve, “But I wouldn’t want to take advantage of someone I’ve just met. I’ve plenty of money to pay for my own meal.”

“Please, I insist. I have enough money to spare and you guys look like you could use some cheering up,” Conway replies, with gestures as wild as his ever-present smile, “and just Conway is fine.”

“Well, in that case, thank you kindly, Conway.”

“Anytime!”

“Hey, uh…” Ceridwen waves her hand towards the quartet, her expression turning apologetic, “I, uh, couldn’t help but hear what you were saying… Sorry for playing coy at the last moment, but I needed to do it if I wanted to stand a chance at beating you. Can I come have lunch with you as well? You don’t have to pay for it or anything, I just want to hang out with you a bit, you seem like nice guys,“ she gives a shy smile, then frowns slightly, “Well, most of you at least.”

As Ceridwen finishes making her request, all eyes silently turn to look at Strawberi.

“...I suppose I can be magnanimous and forgive your earlier slight, given your present groveling. Mind you, I still think you are miscreant, but never be said that Lady Strawberi Sugarplum is not gracious in defeat!” she proclaims.

“Good enough for me!” Conway shrug merrily, “ let’s go get some grub.”

“Yeah, I’m starving!” Says Ceridwen.

“Very well, then,” says Strawberi, “Onward to the luncheon courtyard!”

“Ooh, could I have some scones for dessert, my lady?” Warwick asks.

“No. Also, pick up my things.”

“Aw.”

[Ceridwen Wins!]
>>
No. 1080180 ID: fb32ab
File 170415528488.png - (24.58KB , 610x717 , SvR1.png )
1080180

Serah examines her sideboard smugly. Her character cards are fantastic, and she's fairly certain she's figured out how to best utilize all her fairies with the Link mechanic. Extra decks are so useful!

Serah is confident that her opponent, Princess Reefa, will continue to use clothing-based Equip spells. Serah's Taranis, Clothing Thief card as well as his accompanying Raelynn, Elven Exile will be her aces in the hole. Of course, Dotti and Landi will return.

Who else does she bring in for this match?

Nominate one character from Donut's quests to cameo in a card. No card design necessary; just pick a character.
>>
No. 1080181 ID: e51896

We need a good fighter.
How about...

NACHA!
>>
No. 1080185 ID: a7a180

Oh wait, that means I can say... Tineola!
>>
No. 1080188 ID: 0d1c28

Go with Petra! Dotti will fight harder to protect her
>>
No. 1080189 ID: b6ec4d

As much as I wanna say Ginerva, we are STARVING for Elaine content.
>>
No. 1080204 ID: eb0a9c

Card for Elaine:

Elaine, Mendicant Druidia
****
800 ATK
1200 DEF
When played, Elaine is given a Mendicant counter, which prevents her from obtaining any equipment or stat boosts directly from an effect on her side of the field, but increases her ATK and DEF by 50%.
However, when an equipment item or stat boost is redirected from the opposing side to any character on her side, the Mendicant counter is removed. If this would remove all Mendicant counters, then Elaine, Mendicant Druidia can take the equipment or stat boost for quadruple the effect for one turn. When the turn ends, remove all equipment and stat boosts on Elaine, Mendicant Druidia and give her X+1 Mendicant counters, where X was her previous maximum number of counters, with an appropriate boost to ATK and DEF.
>>
No. 1080512 ID: f6204d

The gnome mage that helped Dotti fix her issues! He needs more love!
>>
No. 1081036 ID: 75b262
File 170528813320.png - (385.04KB , 500x500 , Reefa.png )
1081036

This duel allows NSFW cards.

Serah spies a masked fighter bunny on a spell card, Change of Heart with the effect Target 1 monster your opponent controls; take control of it until the End Phase. She saves it for later, as well as a character card with a robed minotaur-gazelle girl. Petra, Devoted Mother is in her deck too, and its effects synergize with Starving Fox and Dotti, Trash Fox. Targeting Petra with any card effect or battle phase is a bad idea when Dotti’s on the field.

Satisfied with her cards, Serah heads to the arena in front of the bleachers slowly filling with defeated duelists. Her opponent resembles a dragon, with the bearing of royalty and the garb to match. Serah introduces herself first, as is only proper.

“I am Lady Serah Kensington, Heir Countess of Kensington,” she says, giving a low curtsy.

“I am Reefa Multero, Princess of Terroth,” she says, not curtsying in return, but instead giving a warm smile, befitting her station. A princess will only defer to the King or Queen. Anything more would be unflattering to the nation’s dignity. “It does your House credit to advance in these games. Nobility such as ourselves must rise to the occasion, to inspire our people.”

“Quite right, your Highness,” Serah nods. “I strive to be a beacon of pride in my adventures, and I hope our duel here will be a sporting affair.”

“Splendid.” Reefa smiles even wider. “I’m something of an adventurer myself, you know.”

“Truly?”

“I go on many adventures with my entourage. Allow me to introduce you!”

Reefa raises her card and draws the character card Sir Garrin. Serah counters with Jekster Terrorscale, Half-Dragon Jester, whose ATK is less than Garrin’s.

“I go first,” Princess Reefa says. “As is my right.”

“Indeed.”

There’s the sound of a kangaroo gagging in the bleachers.
>>
No. 1081037 ID: 75b262
File 170528821859.png - (646.82KB , 628x1000 , Tawny_Lanix_s.png )
1081037

Princess Reefa begins the duel by primly normal summoning Tawny Lanix.

[ Tawny Lanix, Beast-Cleric-Type, Level 4, ATK 1000, DEF: 1000 ]

“Sister Tawny, it is good to see you again,” Reefa says. “I should so love to hear your teachings this day.”

“What is a lesson without a congregation?” Tawny says. “On your next turn, we will be joined with my flock. Patience is a virtue, my dear.”

“If Sister Tawny is equipped, her effect triggers that once per turn during my Standby Phase, I may Special Summon from my deck any character that is equal to or less than Sister Tawny’s level.”

“A tutor card,” Serah says. “I expect you’ll be equipping her, then?”

“How ever did you know?” Reefa gives a Cheshire grin and plays Ballroom Best.
>>
No. 1081038 ID: 75b262
File 170528826196.png - (514.62KB , 628x1000 , Ballroom_Best_s.png )
1081038

Ballroom Best: Equip Spell. The equipped character gains 1 level. Once per turn, the equipped character cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. If this face-up card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 character you control; equip this card to that target. You can only use this effect once per turn.

Ballroom Best on Sister Tawny is a huge problem if not addressed right away. If not removed, that fabulously fashionable outfit will allow Reefa to special summon a level 5 or lower monster from her deck, every one of Reefa’s turns! She can set up any combo she wants!

Not only that, but even if Serah destroys Ballroom Best, it comes right back once per turn. She has to remove it twice!

Finally, Reefa places a card face-down in the spell/trap zone and ends her turn.
>>
No. 1081039 ID: 75b262
File 170528829226.png - (109.92KB , 502x800 , Free Art.png )
1081039

Serah draws her card and examines her hand. She immediately plays Free Art.

When this card is activated, perform a Link Summon using this card as material. You may treat this card as being up to 2 Link Material for the Link Summon of a character. If this card is sent to the Graveyard for the Link Summon of a character, you may set it to your field face-down. If 3 standby phases have passed since setting this card to the field, you may treat this card as up to 4 Link Material for the Link summon of a character. You may only use each effect of Free Art once per turn.

Basically, Free Art, allows Serah to skip summoning Landi, Party Animal and go straight for her stronger fairies like Ellie the Librarian or even Sunshine, Dungeon Master if she waits a few turns. It also lets her Link Summon a fairy during Reefa’s turn if needed.

Serah can only normal summon one monster, and she has two: Starving Fox and Taranis, Clothing Thief. She doesn’t have any protection or negation in her hand.

She ponders her options.

1. Summon Starving Fox face-down in defense mode and play it safe, knowing that if Reefa attacks, it’ll help summon a trash fox later.
2. Play Taranis, Clothing Thief to use his special effect to try and swipe Ballroom Best from Tawny. However, if Reefa placed something to remove Taranis or protect Tawny from his clothing-stealing attack, Taranis and his paltry 800 Attack will be vulnerable to Tawny’s counterattack, since he has to be in attack mode to use his effect.

Or Serah could play dirty and choose option 3:

3. Choose 1 (safe) or 2 (risky), and then also play the field spell card Clothing Damage Quest. Serah will be dragging this duel into the mud and ruining the dignity of this sporting event, tarnishing her House’s dignity in front of royalty and a crowd of commoners… but it will allow her to stop Tawny’s effect from triggering.

Choosing Option 3 is BAD NEWS. You have been warned.
>>
No. 1081040 ID: a7a180

1 and 3. Honor is for corpses.
>>
No. 1081042 ID: b6ec4d

1 and 3, we ball. Plus, you put the card in your deck. Whatever it's gonna do, the commitment to doing it was made in deckbuilding already. It's too late to change course and not go with it.
>>
No. 1081043 ID: e51896

2 and 3
>>
No. 1081044 ID: 0d1c28

2 and 3! go big or go home!
>>
No. 1081047 ID: f2cf5a

>>1081039
Only 2. I'll listen when Tippler says 'don't'.
>>
No. 1081063 ID: b3eab7

Do not do 3. Firstly, because of this. >>1081047
Secondly, because this kind of stuff is what you should bait your opponent into doing, not do yourself.
>>
No. 1081065 ID: 87e33c

2, I've learned my lesson of not listening to advice
>>
No. 1081069 ID: d98cb8

Dignity is a foolish thing for people who don't mind losing! Go big or go home!

2 and 3!
>>
No. 1081073 ID: 273c18

Only 2.
>>
No. 1081074 ID: aa99fa

>>1081039
2.
&
3.
>>
No. 1081133 ID: 71143c

3, option 2. Go big or go home.
>>
No. 1081401 ID: 75b262
File 170571618184.png - (374.59KB , 628x1000 , Clothing Damage Quest s.png )
1081401

Drafting a card like this is one thing, but playing it is another. Serah gulps, realizing she’s about to play an incredibly lewd card in front of royalty.

“Eyes on the prize,” Serah whispers to herself. “It’ll all be worth it.”

“Are you talking to yourself already?” Princess Reefa asks. “Did you not draw what you wanted? This best-of-one format does have the risk of some quite dull outcomes; I would question the hosts about their tournament setup, but some of their justifications will be, I suspect, for the birds.”

“Aww,” mumbles the blue bird in the rafters. Their flaming companion gives them a pitiful pat on the back.

“I know what I need to do,” Serah says. “I’ll stop your combos before they start, no matter what. I’m going to win, and I beg your forgiveness for what comes next. I’m sorry for what I’m about to put your summoned companions through, but they are my opponents.”

Serah summons Taranis, Clothing Thief.

[Taranis, Clothing Thief: 3 stars, Type: Bird, Attribute:Wind, 1100 ATK, 1000 DEF]

When Taranis, Clothing Thief declares an attack, he may negate that attack and instead choose one target Equip Spell attached to one eligible attack target and equip it to himself.

“Well, that’s awfully convenient,” Reefa sniffs, examining her face-down card. “Very well, are you going to enter the battle phase?”

“Not yet,” Serah says. “I play… uh… this field card first.

Clothing Damage Quest: Field Spell. Players only take battle damage from direct attacks, and characters cannot be destroyed by battle. If a character is the target of an attack, destroy an Equip Spell attached to it of the attacker’s choice. If an attack target has no spells equipped, place 1 Exposure Counter on it instead. While this card is active, change all face-up characters on the field with Exposure Counters to Defense Position. If the only characters your opponent controls have Exposure Counters, you may attack your opponent’s Life Points directly. Whenever you equip a spell to a character, remove any Exposure Counters from that character. All cards on the field are considered NSFW while this card is in effect.

Reefa gasps.

“Oh dear,” Tiny Sister Tawny says.

A blue bird shrieks.

The collection of defeated duelists lets out an excited murmur.

“HAWT!” Charisse gives a wolf whistle.

“They about to do the no pants dance?” Conway asks.

A tiny eyeless fox snickers loudly.
>>
No. 1081403 ID: 75b262
File 170571626158.png - (235.35KB , 970x1309 , SevRe2.png )
1081403

“FOUL!” Reefa shrieks. She stomps over to Serah’s side of the battlefield. “Why, is this what passes for a civilized duel where your ill-bred lot comes from?!”

“U-uh,” Serah stammers. “The effects are so good as a stall engine, it’s also a hard counter to a good amount of cards in your deck, I couldn’t in good conscience not include it in my sidebo-”

“You dare speak of conscience?! Don’t take me for a fool! I can figure out exactly what happens when one of my characters is placed into ‘defense mode’ after one of these attacks! You just had to turn this duel into a tawdry tale of burlesque and debauchery, is that it? You lowly, lascivious, licentious, lewd Lady! You shame your house!”

Far above in the rafters, Toffles gives Pan a deadpan stare. “Did you know about those cards? They tend to make messes. Hard to purify. Very unclean. Very annoying.”

“As long as Tianna keeps the youths far away, it’ll be fine,” Pan says nervously. “And, ah, no, I didn’t know we’d, um, contaminated the draft pool. Tianna was supposed to filter out those cards.”

“And how much have you been pushing her buttons lately?”

“A lot?”

“So much that she’d do something she knows you’ll freak out about and doesn’t affect the organization of the tournament bracket?”

“Ohhhhhhhhhh.”
>>
No. 1081404 ID: 75b262
File 170571630350.png - (193.85KB , 628x1000 , Small But Deadly s.png )
1081404

Serah clears her throat and tries to look as small as possible, which is unfortunately not that small at all.

“I enter battle phase and use Taranis, Clothing Thief’s effect to steal Sister Tawny’s Ballroom Best and equip it to Taranis instead of attacking, then end my turn,” Serah says hurriedly.

Reefa doesn’t activate her face-down card during Serah’s attack, either because of the sheer audacity of Serah’s strategy or because it doesn’t do anything. She starts her turn and draws a card, bringing her hand size up to three.

“I play Tirzaea, Nervous Noble. She has an effect that creates a Suspicious Vial Equip Spell and automatically attaches it to her. Normally,” Reefa seethes, “The Suspicious Vial would enable any combat damage Tirzaea deals to destroy the target it affects. But since you’ve gone and prevented all combat damage with your Clothing Damage Quest, its only use is to let Tirzaea take a hit without suffering the horrid effects of Clothing Damage. Hmf! Well, you’ve made a critical blunder. I go first, which means so long as I summon at least one more character than you each turn, you will never be able to attack me, since I can just use a single monster to place yours into defense mode, no matter how weak mine is!”

Reefa is correct: since all combat damage is prevented and the card is worded only to benefit attackers, defensive strikes don’t exist anymore. All Reefa has to do is win the war of attrition with sheer numbers: an easy feat with her Royal Guard cards that summon two at a time. Thankfully, Reefa didn’t play any of those, but she still has two characters out (Tirzaea and Tawny) to Serah’s one (Taranis).

“Attack!” Reefa orders both her characters. The first strike destroys Taranis’s Ballgown Best, but the effect gives it a second life. The effect re-summons it equipped to him, and the second strike destroys it without being able to be re-summoned thanks to its effect only being able to trigger once per turn.

Taranis squawks loudly at the destruction of his prized trophy, though he has no Exposure Counter on him thanks to the trophy taking both hits.

“You’ve clearly not thought this through,” Reefa says with a haughty laugh. “You assumed I would rely entirely on my mother, Queen Gorgammar Multero, a strong and mighty defender- but why would I even need to, when I can summon many Small but Deadly characters instead?

Small But Deadly: Spell Card. You may special summon up to three level 3 or lower characters from your deck in Defense Position, but negate their effects.

Quick as a flash, Reefa summons Snowpea, Gerbera and Azzeki as her trusty Royal Guards, ready to defend their Princess from the Lewd Lady Kensington.
>>
No. 1081406 ID: 75b262
File 170571642774.png - (879.25KB , 628x1000 , Petra DM.png )
1081406

Serah is faced with a dilemma. Next turn, Reefa’s newly summoned characters will overwhelm her defenses. Right now, she has only Taranis, and the card she just drew is Petra, Devoted Mother. She has Alluring Defense as one of the other cards in her hand, which is a defensive trap, and her trusty Solvent Bomb trap that only really works if she’s going on offense.

Serah plays Starving Fox and sets Alluring Defense face down.

[Starving Fox: 2 stars, Type: Beast, Attribute:Fire, 900 ATK, 700 DEF]

If Starving Fox is sent to the graveyard by any card effect, tribute, or other means after hitting the battlefield, I may special summon Dotti, Trash Fox two turns thereafter.

[Petra, Devoted Mother: 6 stars, Type: Human, Attribute:Earth, 1200 ATK, 1700 DEF]

Petra, Devoted Mother can be special summoned by tributing one Starving Fox. If Petra, Devoted Mother is either (1) targeted by any of your opponent’s card effects or (2) is the target of combat, then if Dotti, Trash Fox is on the field, destroy all your opponent’s characters.

Serah has a moral choice to make. She can summon Petra this turn, then in two turns she can use Petra as bait to use Dotti’s special effect and wipe Reefa’s board, eliminating her advantage. However, if Reefa’s attacks destroy Petra’s clothing before Dotti is summoned, Dotti’s effect won’t have the chance to trigger since Petra won’t be able to block due to the Exposure Counter from Clothing Damage Quest. Serah can activate Alluring Defense to protect Petra when Reefa attacks next turn, but it’s not a perfect solution; what if Reefa negates it somehow?

The safest option is to tribute Starving Fox on Reefa’s turn and use Free Art to summon a powerful Link Character and surprise Reefa with its effects However, if Serah does that, then she’d have to tribute Taranis (a powerful ally) to summon Petra.

1. Go big or go home: Tribute Starving Fox and summon Petra, then protect Petra with Alluring Defense next turn and set up for a board wipe with Dotti if all goes well; or
2. Play it safe and tribute Starving Fox on Reefa’s turn to summon a more powerful Link Character, but leave Reefa’s board in a strong state.
>>
No. 1081407 ID: a25322

1, Summon out Petra. Leaving Reefa her full board might mean leaving her the resources to play through our defenses and make us pay. We need to start cutting through her forces as soon as we can.
>>
No. 1081408 ID: 0d1c28

1: Summon Petra immediately! giving Reefa more time will just let her play more defensive cards!
>>
No. 1081410 ID: a7a180

1. Look how profanely she displays that slaughtered bird!
>>
No. 1081433 ID: e51896

1, if only to reunite Dotti with Petra!
>>
No. 1082047 ID: 75b262
File 170649989814.png - (0.96MB , 1200x1200 , hors.png )
1082047

Serah decides to play to her outs. In layman’s terms, she’ll play according to the path that will lead to victory, regardless of how rough a journey it will take to get there. Keeping her board wipe will require Petra to be attacked while Dotti is on the field, and if Petra has an Exposure Counter on her before Dotti shows up, then there’s no reason to attack Petra again. Serah decides to take the risk.

“I Special Summon Petra, Devoted Mother by tributing Starving Fox,” Serah says as the little fox disappears into thin air. “Sorry, Dotti, but you’ll have to wait two turns to be reunited with Petra. It’ll just be a little while.”

“Who’s Dotti?” asks the newly-summoned Petra.

“The fox who saved you,” Serah sighs. “From those awful creatures in the woods?”

“Oh!” Petra says. “You mean Foxie. Such a wonderful, fluffy fox; I miss her dearly. She was so precious, letting me pet her soft little tummy and squeaking her little fox squeaks. My children love to hear stories about Foxie. Why, there was this one time I brought along a boy from my village and she chased him away, would you believe that? So protective and fierce, but she calmed right down whenever I brought food. Her favorites were…”

Serah and Reefa exchange a glance. Neither wants to interrupt a Mom Story, so they whisper to each other as Petra rambles.

“Do you intend to declare an attack?” Reefa asks.

“Um, yes,” Serah whispers back. “Taranis will steal Tirzaea’s Suspicious Vial, and once he’s done that, Petra will attack Tirzaea to put an exposure counter on her.”

Taranis nods in agreement, swooping in toward Tirzaea, but not finding the vial anywhere visible. He decides to do some up-close investigation.

“Aaaahh!” Tirzaea shrieks in a flurry of slicing and dicing talons. Taranis shreds her dress, revealing a racy leather set of underwear where she keeps her deadly implements. He swoops in and promptly swipes the vial from the panicked noble as she tries in vain to re-clasp her buckles.

“Oh, dear,” Petra says, her story trailing off. “Is that hoofer clutching the scandalous hallmarks of an assassin, with all that leather and space for hidden vials? I’ll have none of that in my household. Come on, drop those! No leather for you, and no poisoning at the dinner table!”

Though Taranis was the one to strip her of her equip spell and clothes, Petra is the one who applies the Exposure Counter with two swift, firm slaps to Tirzaea’s trembling hands clutching the scraps of her secret assassin underwear. She drops the garments in shame.

Serah ends her turn, leaving Trizaea to deal with her dressing-down and Reefa’s Royal Guards cowering in justified fear of an irritated mother.
>>
No. 1082049 ID: 75b262
File 170650000337.png - (252.08KB , 628x1000 , Oh_Is_This_Yours_s.png )
1082049

“I should summon my own mother to deal with this situation,” Reefa muses, “But I hesitate to put her at risk for a second round of clothing damage this tournament. It just isn’t right what you’re subjecting our minions to, Lady Kensington. Your tactics are crude and uncouth, and you’ve forced me to take drastic measures. I’ll have you know I only drafted this card so no one else would see it.

Reefa carefully places the card so that its image can only be seen for the briefest of moments before she resolves its effect by taking Tirzaea’s vial spell from Taranis.

Oh, is This Yours? Target one equip spell attached to an opponent's character; equip that spell to a character on your side of the field. If you are the owner of the targeted spell, draw a card.

“Why, yes,” Reefa says, drawing a card. “That is my equip card. Tirzaea, I have returned your equipment spell to you, and as such, you may now attack proudly.”

“But I’m still naked,” Tirzaea whimpers.

“Well, then you shouldn’t have chosen to moonlight as an assassin,” Reefa shoots back. “Don’t you want to be a fille fatale?”

“Not like this,” Tirzaea says, holding her vial gingerly while also trying to cover her chest with her golden mane. “C-can you get me my old dress back?”

“When we win,” Reefa replies. “We still have work to do here. Let’s deal with the biggest threat first.”

“That bird!” Tirzaea says with an angry nicker. “He shred my clothes!”

“I said the biggest threat.”
>>
No. 1082050 ID: 75b262
File 170650004799.png - (413.76KB , 1000x1000 , Petra_Stripped_s.png )
1082050

Serah straightens up. She needs to activate her trap card to protect Petra immediately after Taranis is attacked. So long as Reefa attacks Taranis, everything will go according to plan, and-

“Azzeki, attack Petra!”

“What?” Serah gasps. “Wouldn’t you rather go for Taranis? He steals panties, you should attack him! He’s a lewd bird!”

Taranis squawks.

“Do you take me for a court jester?” Reefa says. “I made it to the second round of this tournament, did you honestly think I got here by not reading the card text? I know a board wipe combo when I see one, and I’m defusing that bomb now. Azzeki, continue!”

“Oh, goodness!” Petra squeaks as Azzeki swoops in. “Stop that! Keep your mitts away from that clasp, or I’ll- ahh!”

Serah pulls at her blouse strings nervously. This wasn’t the plan!

“Now for the bird,” Reefa says. “Tirzaea, you may have your revenge and pluck that chicken! Go forth and-”

“Uh… time for plan B!” Serah declares. “I activate my trap card anyway!”

Alluring Defense: Continuous Trap Card. This card’s controller’s attack position characters cannot be targeted for battle while there are face-up defense position characters on the same side of the field.

“What is this?” Reefa examines the card closely. “So… you’re forcing me to only attack defense-position characters, which is Petra… and because of Clothing Damage Quest, all combat damage is prevented… and she already has an exposure counter. What good would giving her an additional exposure counter do?”

“Nothing!” Serah says. “So you now have no way of applying exposure counters to my other characters, and therefore no way to deal damage to my Life Points. You should give up now.”
>>
No. 1082051 ID: 75b262
File 170650010953.png - (226.42KB , 628x1000 , Alluring_Defense_s.png )
1082051

“Why would I give up?” Reefa asks.

“Well,” Serah says, “I haven’t actually lost any life points yet, and neither have you. Alluring Defense means you can’t attack anyone but Petra, so your attacking is useless while I work toward my win condition. Don’t you worry about losing LP when Clothing Damage Quest is on the field? What if what happened to Petra happens to you?”

“I presume you mean to intimidate me,” Reefa sniffs. “From such a weak position? I think you are bluffing. Clothing Damage Quest says nothing about what happens to duelists when attacked. Do you intend to call a judge to obtain a ruling and find out?”

Serah pauses. She can’t see any judges nearby other than one particularly goofy-looking bird whose name she remembered as Phail Yurr, and she definitely does not want to have that particularly named judge making the rules for this game. She searches for the friend-shaped blue bird and has no luck spotting it.

“I thought as much,” Reefa says. “So, as you say, there’s no reason to attack Petra again… but there’s also no penalty.”

“Wait, what?” Petra clutches her chest.

“Guards! Give this woman more exposure counters!” Reefa orders, and Gerbera obliges with a quick tug on Petra’s pantaloons.

“Hey! Let go of those!”

Petra Exposure Counters: 2

“Go on, you’ve got three more attacks,” Reefa sighs. “Make an example of this misguided commoner and take her boots.”

Petra Exposure Counters: 3

Tirzaea takes a little too much enjoyment in getting her revenge for Petra’s earlier attack.

“Yiee!” Petra squeals. “Oh, you’re so lucky that Usiel isn’t here right now!”

Petra Exposure Counters: 4

“She’s already naked, Princess Reefa. Should we handcuff her?”

“There has to be a tactical advantage to the extra counters, I’m sure of it,” Reefa says. “That does seem lewd, but by all means, please restrain this criminal who dared to lay hands on a noble.”

Petra Exposure Counters: 5

“You, Reefa!” Petra shouts after the deed is done. “I’ll make sure you go to bed without dinner! You’re so skinny, your tummy will hurt all night!”

Reefa ignores the toothless promise from the apprehended criminal.

Serah ducks her head and begins her turn, trying to ignore the sight. She draws a card; and then, right on time, the triggered effect of Starving Fox two turns ago summons Dotti, Trash Fox. The pink-bedazzled Dotti pops onto the field with an excited sniff of the air: Petra is here! At last, her journey is complete and she can live happily with the best, most generous, most loving woman ever, and… and… she’s been stripped and bound! Humans are NEVER supposed to be naked in public, especially not the best mom ever!

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Dotti wails with magic and a full-throated animal scream. She tries to jump out of her card frame and cover Petra up, but her card’s border locks her in like a cage. “Petra, I’m so sorry! I couldn’t find you in time to save you from everyone seeing your saggy boobs!”

“It’s not your fault, but, ah…” Petra huddles low to the ground. “You didn’t need to say that so loudly, Foxie.”

“Noooooooooo,” Dotti says very quietly.
>>
No. 1082052 ID: 75b262
File 170650033534.png - (290.58KB , 628x1000 , Consumable_Combustion_s.png )
1082052

Serah sets a trap card, hoping to catch Reefa off-guard later:

Consumable Combustion: Trap Card. Any effects in the current chain that would make your opponent gain Life Points makes them lose Life Points instead.

Unfortunately, it does nothing to clear Reefa’s board so that she can strike at Reefa’s LP directly, and nothing else in her hand can summon out enough characters to put Exposure Counters on all of Reefa’s army. Reefa has also played around Dotti’s board wipe effect by putting Exposure Counters on Petra. Even if she's the only attack target now, due to Alluring Defense, there's no guarantee Serah's trap will remain by the next battle phase.

There’s no point waiting any longer to activate Free Art. Serah activates the trap to provide a whopping four Link Material to Link Summon Zinnia, Guardian of Melodies.

[ Zinnia, Guardian of Melodies, Link 4, Type:Fairy, Attribute:Earth, ATK: 1300. ]

Must be Link Summoned. Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the Special Summon of this character. Unaffected by your opponent's card effects. When an opposing character declares an attack (Quick Effect): You can send this card to the GY. If you do, banish cards from your opponent's field up to the number of materials used for this card’s Link Summon. During your standby phase, you can draw 1 card. You may banish this card from your GY to use it as two Link Material for the Link Summon of a Link Character.
>>
No. 1082054 ID: 75b262
File 170650041839.png - (624.49KB , 628x1000 , SolventBombTrap_s.png )
1082054

“And now,” Serah says with a grand gesture, “Prepare for my all-out assault! You may have the numbers, Princess, but I have one advantage you sorely lack: fairies! Go, Zinnia!”

“Hey!” Zinnia objects. “Don’t say that so loud, you jerk! My public name is Clover. Do you really want my in-box to be full of spam now that everyone knows my true name? There’s gonna be auto-contractors flooding my summoning line now!”

“Oh. Uh, sorry. I’m just reading what’s on the card. Could you please attack Tirzaea anyway?”

“Hmf!” Zinnia zips over to Tirzaea and gives her a tiny kick, shattering the suspicious vial and spilling it all over the nude blonde hoofer.

“No! My vial!” Tirzaea gasps. “That could have been poison!”

“But it wasn’t,” Zinnia says, as if it was obvious. “Oh yeah, I gotta ask! Do you wanna join my bard companion’s band? He could use a backup dancer with huge boobs. We’re a little short on cash, so we’ll pay you in exposure.”

“I have enough of that now!”

Serah, meanwhile, decides the time is right to set Solvent Bomb now that Reefa’s board is vulnerable to another all-out attack. Next turn, Serah will be able to spring the trap and attack Reefa directly by AOE-ing three of Reefa’s remaining clothed characters with Exposure Counters with Solvent Bomb:

Solvent Bomb: Put Exposure Counters on one character as well as any adjacent characters.

With that and just one more attack from Taranis or Dotti Serah can deal direct damage to Reefa’s LP. Unfortunately, Petra is adjacent to the target AOE, so she’ll be caught in the splash, destroying the very last shreds of her outfit she’s managed to scrape together despite the handcuffs- and Dotti will have a front-row seat to the horror.

Serah tries to remind herself that Dotti, Trash Fox isn’t really Dotti, and that Petra, Devoted Mother isn’t really Petra… but Dotti’s whining and failed attempts to leave her card to go cover Petra up are doing a fantastic job of pretending.
>>
No. 1082055 ID: 75b262
File 170650045830.png - (158.13KB , 630x1003 , Pride Goeth.png )
1082055

Reefa, for her part, has reached the bottom of her well of patience with Serah’s lewdity.

“I have had enough of this clothing damage debauchery!” Reefa declares. “Lady Kensington, you have combined your cards to essentially prevent me from ever dealing damage to you directly via battle. Well, if you shall build an impenetrable wall around your life points, then I shall simply fire my troops right over it!”

Reefa tributes Tawny Lanix to summon:

Lord Lung, Invader of Beta-Earatone: 5 stars, Type: Aqua, Attribute:Water, 1000 ATK, 2000 DEF

You can Tribute 1 character to inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of its ATK.

“Oh, dear,” Serah says upon reading the card’s effect. “But you can only use that effect once per turn, right?”

Reefa smiles.

“...Right?”

“I tribute all four of my loyal guards!” Reefa announces. “Lord Lung, launch Tirzaea (1500 ATK), Azzeki (1700 ATK), Snowpea (1800 ATK) and Gerbera (1600 ATK) straight at this lewd Lady’s life points!”

“Wait, wait, wait! Please don’t shoot, I still need to get a favorable rules interpretation from a-”

Lord Lung flings Tirzaea at Serah, who tears off Serah’s belt and pouch. Serah shrieks, realizing what’s next as Azzeki goes for her corset. Gerbera flies in and seizes her blouse, and Snowpea shreds Serah’s skirt with a skillful strike, leaving her standing in naught but her boots, garter belt, stockings and a pair of woefully undersized panties.

With 3,300 LP of clothes gone, Serah is at 2,700 LP. Less than half her LP remain, and a bare fraction of her dignity.

“No!” Serah wails, covering herself up as best she can. “This wasn’t supposed to happen! Judge! Judge! I need a judge! Clothing Damage Quest card says nothing about stripping the duelists! Oh, where are those birds when you NEED them?!”

“No judge can save you from the consequences of your actions,” Reefa sniffs. “You played the lewd cards, now suffer the lewd consequences. I play Render Unto Chinzebeth and end my turn.”

Render Unto Chinzebeth What is Chinzebeth’s: Each time your opponent Special Summons a character, you gain 500 life points. If that character is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, you instead gain 1000 life points.

“W-w-well, then…” Serah stammers. “Y-you’ve left yourself open to an attack! I still have Taranis and Dotti, and can summon another character. You’ll take clothing damage too when I attack, with only Lord Lung out on your field.”

“No, I won’t,” Reefa smiles. “As soon as your turn began, I activated Pride Goeth, which prevents you from declaring an attack this turn. I’ll have plenty of time to build up my board again, and remain fully clothed while doing so, thank you. And while I’m at it, why shouldn’t I build my clothing defenses up even more? Need I remind you of the continuous spell card I placed last turn: Render Unto Chinzebeth. Now, if you try any special summon shenanigans, you’ll only be buying me more fancy accessories to wear!”
>>
No. 1082057 ID: 75b262
File 170650061214.png - (1.48MB , 1256x1335 , Serah_Audience.png )
1082057

Sweat slides down Serah’s brow. She’s standing here in a quite compromising position, and things are only about to get worse if Reefa has her way. She has to focus on victory, not her lack of clothes. She takes a deep breath and tries to calm her mind…

“WHOO!” calls a kangaroo from the audience. “Take it off, girl!”

“I thought I would be the only duelist getting stripped today,” Momo adds with an enthusiastic double thumbs-up. “What a delightful surprise.”

“Please don’t look!” Serah says, shocked.

“What’s happening?” Warwick asks. “Miss Strawberi, may I look?”

“NO,” Strawberi says firmly. “Didn’t you hear what the Lady said?”

“Why, Serah, I’m ashamed of both myself and you.” Petra gives Serah a disapproving glare as only a mother can. “Thank you oh so much for giving them yet another denuded blonde to gawk at. You’re not helping prove any stereotypes wrong today.”

“It’s not my fault!” Serah whines, trying to cover herself while drawing a card and coming up short.

If Reefa draws another two-for-one Royal Guard or summons more cheap minions, Serah will be in danger of losing the duel to burn damage from Lord Lung. She prays for a card that will help turn the tables. What kind of card does she draw?

1. Serah draws removal that will get rid of Lord Lung, but it will also damage Serah’s LP- and her clothes, too. This is a terrible option for Serah’s dignity.
2. Serah draws a very strong fairy-themed card that will draw her a lot of cards, but will give her fairy allies a chance to embarrass her further. Can she trust them?

And finally…

Does Serah have the heart to activate Solvent Bomb, even if it will cause Petra to get yet another Exposure Counter right in front of Dotti?
>>
No. 1082059 ID: e51896

1. We need to get rid of Lord Lung asap. drawback is the loss of all our clothes, but it's a sacrifice we need to make at this point

and go ahead and activate the solvent bomb. don't worry, these aren't real petra and dotti.
>>
No. 1082062 ID: eb0a9c

>>1082050
I did not expect the quest to use this level of sexual liability.

Oh well.

>>1082057
Screw it, we've already entered "By the Book" territory.

2 and yes.
>>
No. 1082063 ID: a7a180

Option 2, but hold the solvent bomb back.
>>
No. 1082080 ID: 273c18

>>1082057
2. You have a trap card that will spell doom for your opponent if you can summon a bunch of characters, even if you have to sacrifice those characters to summon more.

And yes, if solvent bomb needs to be played, then it gets played. You can talk to the cards beforehand to tell "Dotti" it's not as bad as she thinks.
>>
No. 1082082 ID: 0d1c28

1: gotta get rid of Lung

with him gone you'll go back to being invincible.

also use solvent bomb! Petra and Dotti can take it
>>
No. 1082085 ID: 101092

2. We can trust fairies that aren’t Landi, right?

Throw the solvent bomb. In for a penny, in for a pound.
>>
No. 1082087 ID: 4a4bd1

2, We haven't gotten to see Serah dig into the Extra Deck much yet. I want to see fairies, certainly, but I also just wanna see her start Link climbing a bit. Show off some of what her deck is capable of!
>>
No. 1083870 ID: 75b262
File 170848805888.png - (370.09KB , 628x1000 , Material_Cannibalism_s.png )
1083870

Serah is in a precarious position. Her board is stronger than Reefa’s since she has Taranis, Dotti, Petra and Zinnia, compared to Reefa’s only monster of Lord Lung. However, Reefa has the potential to deal direct damage to Serah’s LP if she has even the slightest chance to summon more characters.

Serah’s reputation and outfit is already in tatters- she has to end this as soon as possible. If that means putting poor Petra through some friendly fire, then she’ll have to suffer through it. These simulacra aren’t really her friends and compatriots, they’re just elaborate replicas, no matter how lifelike they look. Once they’re gone, they’re gone- unlike Serah herself, who has to live with the consequences of losing more LP. They’ll understand. Right?

Serah draws Summoning Salt, a Ritual Spell that, uh, summons Salt, a great Djinn with 3500 ATK and immunity to Reefa’s card effects. Summoning Salt needs Salt herself in Serah’s hand, plus Moonshine, Responsible Adult on Serah’s field- meaning Serah will have to find a way to get all the way up to a Link-6 fairy. It’s very, very powerful- but it’s very hard to pull off, and prone to interruptions. Thankfully, Free Art and Zinnia both make getting up to Link 6 a lot easier, but if Reefa somehow gets rid of Zinnia, Serah’s work could be undone. Serah decides to keep Free Art set face-down and not activate it this turn- that way, in case Reefa gets rid of Zinnia and Serah’s other characters, she will still be able to get up to Link 6 quickly with Free Art’s 4 free link material.

“Time to climb the link ladder,” Serah says to herself, then clears her throat and summons all her courage to speak up in her current state of affairs. “I send Taranis, Clothing Thief[/i] to the graveyard in order to summon Rocio, Workout Trainer, a Link-1 fairy from my Extra Deck! Rocio’s effect special summons her boyfriend, Mr. Armstrong, from the deck to the zone her link arrow points to.”

“Thank you for the 1500 LP,” Reefa smiles at the activation of Render Unto Chinzebeth. “I think I’ll invest it into a nice necklace.”

“Not so fast,” Serah says. “I activate my trap card, Consumable Combustion! Your 1500 LP gain is 1500 loss instead.”

Reefa’s bracers and her overcoat are blown away from her LP going down to 4500. She grimaces, but knows Serah will be summoning more fairies to gain her life back.

“Now,” Serah says, “I send both Rocio and Armstrong to the graveyard to Link Summon Genice, Ice Djinn, a Link-2 Djinn with 1500 ATK. In addition to preventing you from attacking with any characters her arrows are pointing to, her effect allows me to add Salt to my hand, a Ritual Character who requires the spell Summoning Salt in order to be summoned. And then, I place a card face-down in my final open spell zone.”

“Thank you kindly for the additional extra 1000 LP from your Link Summon,” Reefa says, going back up to 5500 LP. “You’ve so rudely destroyed my overcoat and bracers, but I have plenty of adornments I can put back on. As for that card you just placed… you could be placing the ritual card, Summoning Salt... or you could be trying to convince me it’s a ritual, and instead placing a deadly trap card. Either way, my best strategy is to not play around that potential trap, since you already have another face-down card that could also be a trap. Are you trying to look smart? Because you certainly aren’t smartly dressed. You’re making a fool of yourself, Lady Kensington. Please, surrender now. Spare yourself and your characters further embarrassment.”

“Yeah!” Dotti growls. “Serah, you have to let Petra go! Please, please, please stop using her as a shield!”

“I’m sorry, Dotti,” Serah says. “I would, but… Alluring Defense is a very good combo with-”

“You’re being mean!” Dotti growls. “Really mean! I knew humans were all mean except Petra! Serah, you should be the one tied up and naked! Petra doesn’t deserve it, but you do!”

“Dotti, be quiet!” Serah huffs. “Just attack Lord Lung to put an exposure counter on him right now!”

Dotti is forced to shut up and attack Lord Lung- and Reefa laughs a high, noble laugh. “You silly Lady!” Reefa says, smiling broadly. “You didn’t have to use Dotti to do that. You could have used Clover instead and done an extra 1200 damage directly to me.”

“Ooh, Serah’s tilted for sure!” Charisse calls out. “Get your head in the game, girl! C’mon, put on a better show!”

Serah flushes. “Sh-shut up! It’s hard to focus like this! I… I command Zinnia to-

“Hey! Rude!”

“Ahem. I command Clover and Genice to attack Reefa directly, since she has no other characters on the field to put exposure counters on. Then I end my turn. Ugh!”

Reefa takes 1300 damage from Zinnia and 1500 damage from Genice, bringing her down to 2700 LP, which knocks off the extra adornments Reefa just put on from earlier as well as the remainder of her overcoats, leaving her in a simple purple dress and crown but still decent. Serah wonders if she’s just lost the match with her incredible unforced error, and missed the chance to expose Reefa’s undergarments- she’d lose her concentration for sure.

Reefa begins her turn and smiles at her draw. “Oh, Lady Kensington. You’re not the only one who can play with summoning shenanigans. I’ve just drawn the spell The Termination Orders were Terminated: "Special Summon two level 4 or lower monsters from your GY, but negate their effects.”

“S-so?”

“So I can now play it to Special Summon Tirzaea and Azzeki, who are both Level 4, to use them to Xyz summon Ulric Ikenhart, Nurturing Groundskeeper with 1500 ATK and 2100 DEF. He allows me to draw a card when my hand is empty, and also draw a card when he leaves the battlefield.”

Reefa draws a fresh card and laughs again. “What luck! I’ve drawn Material Cannibalism: “Target one Xyz character on the field. Send all material attached to that card to the graveyard. Then, draw one card for every material sent to the Graveyard by this effect. If this is the only card in your hand, then you may play this card directly from hand (without needing to set and then activate it).”
>>
No. 1083872 ID: 75b262
File 170848815563.png - (2.36MB , 1256x1335 , YuGiOhPetra2.png )
1083872

With this, Reefa has two cards in hand, and two characters on the field: Ulric and Lord Lung, the latter having an exposure counter. Critically, the counter does not prevent him from activating his card effect; meaning Serah is still in danger of being dealt damage, even through Alluring Defense and Petra, Devoted Mother acting as a shield (with a board wipe from Dotti) and Zinnia, Guardian of Melodies threatening a second board wipe if Reefa declares an attack.

“I will normal summon Noovin Sett,” Reefa says.

[ Noovin Sett: Warrior-Type, Level 4, ATK: 800 DEF: 1000 ]

“Normally, I would Xyz summon my mother, Queen Gorgammar Multero, but in this case with Clothing Damage Quest, having multiple level 4 characters is superior to having one single, stronger character. Once your board wipes are gone, you’re mine to attack with these characters, no matter how weak they are. And with both my remaining cards in my hand, I can-”

“No! No, no, no! No, you don’t!” Serah interrupts. “I activate my trap card, Solvent Bomb: Put Exposure Counters on one character as well as any adjacent characters. No attacks for you, no matter what your last card is! I’ll finish you next turn, and you can’t defend!”

“What?” Petra says, noticing that she’s in the blast zone. “Serah, you don’t have to- Ahh!”

Dotti watches, horrified, as Serah rushes to activate her trap to put exposure counters on Noovin and Ulric… and catches Petra in the blast, melting the final scraps of her barely-there clothing.

Petra Exposure Counters: 6

“Oh, not again!” both Petra and Noovin cry out.
>>
No. 1083873 ID: 75b262
File 170848820436.png - (307.60KB , 628x1000 , Change of Heart.png )
1083873

Dotti lets out an enraged yowl at Serah’s utter disdain for the dignity of her own cards. She curses Serah, stomping her feet, threatening fire and fury, and her undying hatred of someone who would do such horrible things to the best mom in the whole world.

“You… you… horrible human! I hate you!” Dotti says after she’s done yammering, gekkering and yapping. “I wish I was on Reefa’s team. Then I’d show you, Serah! I wish Reefa was the one who drafted Change of Heart, not you, so I could be the one to burn your clothes to ashes!”

“Dotti, shush! I command you to shush!”

“Interesting,” Reefa says. “Dotti, are you certain Serah has Change of Heart in her deck right now?”

“Yeah!” Dotti nods.

“Then I will play one of the two remaining cards in my hand: Lure of Laterna,” Reefa says proudly. “With this spell card, I can name a specific card, and if it’s in my opponent’s deck, I can add it to my hand. I choose Change of Heart!

Sure enough, a card flies out of Serah’s deck and straight over to Reefa’s hand.

Change of Heart: Target 1 monster your opponent controls; take control of it until the End Phase.

“Dotti, why? Why would you tell her about my deck?!” Serah wails.

“Because Petra’s a better mom than you! You treat me and her and all your cards like we don’t matter. Well, right now you don’t matter! How’s that feel?!”

“Now, to choose which of your characters would suit me best,” Reefa ponders.

“Pick me! Pick me!” Dotti says.

“Are you sure?” Reefa asks Dotti. “You would need to attack your beloved Petra.”

“Oh,” Dotti pauses. “Um… but I have 2500 ATK, and you could throw me and Ulric at Serah using Lord Lung to win!”

“Even if I use Lord Lung’s effect to launch himself at Serah’s LP, that would only do 2,500 damage. She would have 200 LP left.”

“But she’d be naked!” Dotti points out.

“Yes!” a foxy member of the audience agrees. “She’ll be knocked even more off her game. Easy pickings.”

“As much as I would like to take you up on your offer, brave Trash Fox,” Reefa says sadly, “Zinnia is the card that gives me the most trouble at the moment. Her board wipe triggers any time I take an attack, and I can’t remove her with any of my own cards.”

“You can’t remove her at all,” Serah says.

“Oh, I think I may,” Reefa says, and plays Change of Heart targeting Zinnia.
>>
No. 1083875 ID: 75b262
File 170848829749.png - (594.55KB , 600x810 , serah-small.png )
1083875

“Judge!” Serah shrieks. “I need a judge right now!

A particularly goofy-looking bird flaps down from the rafters. He’s wearing a lanyard around his neck reading Judge Yurr. “Whut seems to be the problem?”

“Princess Reefa just played Change of Heart targeting Zinnia, and Zinnia’s card states: ’Unaffected by your opponent's card effects.’ Zinnia can’t be affected by Change of Heart.”

“Oh, I see,” says Judge Yurr. “Who drafted Change of Heart?”

“Um…” Serah pauses. “Me.”

“Then it’s not your opponent’s card. It’s yours. Zinnia’s not being affected by Reefa’s card.”

“But… but… that can’t be how it works! Come on, really?!”

Not a single member of the audience steps in to defend Serah’s position.

“The ruling stands!” Judge Yurr declares. “Princess Reefa, Zinnia is your royal subject now.”

“Excellent,” Reefa smirks. “Zinnia, would you like to be returned to Lady Kensington’s side of the field?”

“Yeep!”

Lord Lung grabs Zinnia and launches her straight at Serah, causing 650 damage directly to her LP. She also launches Ulric for 750 LP damage, leaving Serah with a mere 1300 LP and just her stockings and boots remaining. If Reefa finds a way to deal just 800 more damage, she can use Lord Lung’s effect on himself to finish the duel and bring Serah to 0 HP.

“And now, I set the final card in my hand face-down in my spell zone,” Reefa says. “I only have Lord Lung on my side of the field, and he cannot defend me since he has an exposure counter. Surely you want to attack me with all your characters, yes? Oh, I hope you do.”
>>
No. 1083876 ID: 75b262
File 170848836122.png - (38.04KB , 750x518 , CoverupSerah.png )
1083876

“Whoo! Go Reefa!” Conway cheers.

“Very nice, Princess,” Selma says appreciatively.

“Justice for the best mom!” Dotti declares.

“Serah’s posterior is modest, compared to her bosom,” Basmati observes. “I did not expect this disparity. Very curious.”

The audience is rooting against her- Serah finds it even harder to acknowledge them now. She’s living a waking nightmare of nudity, and this time it’s not Landi’s fault: it’s hers!

Their disapproval and stares weigh heavy on Serah. Is this how it feels to be a bad card mom? Is there even such a thing? No, that doesn’t matter!

Or does it?

If Serah had treated Petra better, kept Dotti happy, would things have gone better? Would Serah have messed up twice in a row with attack order, and with unnecessarily Solvent Bombing too early, and Dotti’s betrayal leading to Zinnia being launched out of a cannon?

Serah prays for some way to negate Lord Lung’s effect. At this point, all Reefa has to do is summon a character with 1600 or more ATK, and Serah can do absolutely nothing to stop it. It’s all up to the luck of the draw, now. She begins her turn and looks at her card:
>>
No. 1083877 ID: 75b262
File 170848840268.png - (185.45KB , 628x1000 , Ass Day_s.png )
1083877

Ass Day: Quick-play spell. Target 1 face-up monster on the field; change that target to face-down Defense Position.

“This card is useless,” she mutters. She has no way to play around Reefa’s face-down card, and if she did nothing, she’d probably lose anyway.

“Don’t worry, Petra,” Dotti reassures the bound woman next to her. “Serah’s gonna lose soon, and you won’t have to be naked any more.”

“Finally,” Petra says. “I’ve spent enough time in handcuffs in my youth; I didn’t expect to have to deal with this again.”

Serah considers using Petra to summon a more powerful Link fairy, but she doesn’t need to, now that Free Art has recharged and is ready to go with 4 free link material. If Petra disappeared, then she would be at risk of getting exposure counters on Dotti. Serah needs all the ATK she can get to chew through Reefa’s healing from Render unto Chinzebeth.

“I send Genice to the graveyard and activate Free Art again to summon Moonshine, Responsible Adult!

[ Moonshine, Responsible Adult, Link 6, Type:Fairy, Attribute:Wind, ATK: 2500 ]

This Link Summon cannot be negated. You may choose to have this card not be affected by any effect that affects more than one card. If any card effect or declared attack would target Moonshine or any other character that this card’s link arrows point at, you may instead choose a character pointed at by any link arrow to be the target of that declared attack or card effect. You may move counters from one character whose link arrows this card points at to any other character whose link arrows this card points at, or Moonshine herself. Once per turn, you may place a Summoning Salt Ritual Spell from your graveyard to your hand.

“What?” Dotti blinks. “That doesn’t make any sense. Landi’s never gonna be responsible.”

“It’s a lot of work,” Moonshine says. “Dunno if it’s worth it. Way easier to be a lazy fairy.”

Serah’s summoning activates Render Unto Chinzebeth once more, bringing Reefa up to 3200 LP.

“And now,” Serah says, “I activate the ritual card Summoning Salt I placed earlier! It requires me to have Moonshine, Responsible Adult on the field and not Special Summon any more characters this turn, but there’s no way you’ll survive this attack now, Reefa! Even with the 500 LP gain you get from Chinzebeth, you’re done for!”

[ Salt the Greater Djinn, Djinn-Type, Level 8, ATK: 3500 DEF: 2800 ]

Special Summon only. Cannot be affected by your opponent’s card effects. If this card is sent to the graveyard by battle damage, send all characters your opponent controls to the graveyard.

Salt can’t be affected by your cards, just like Zinnia. Um, I mean, Clover. That reminds me… do you have a Change of Heart? I don’t want that judge coming back.”

“Not this time,” Reefa says. “I suppose you win…. Or do you?”

“Stop messing with me!” Serah shoots back. “If I really win, then just surrender!”

“You were the one who played that clothing damage card. Not me. If this round goes on forever, then it’s only fitting that you’ll have to suffer the consequences. If you’re truly committed to ending this, Lady Kensington, then attack!”

“Ugh!” Serah hisses. She’s been misplaying so many times this game, but she won’t be baited again. “You want me to attack with my most powerful card, Salt? No, I won’t fall for that. Dotti, attack Reefa directly.”

Dotti gekkers at Serah, and a cold, icy hand closes over Serah’s heart. Dotti raises her paws to summon fire at Reefa, but then...

“And here it is!” Reefa declares. “The final showdown, but not the one you were expecting. I activate Kalez’s Cunning Misdirection!”

Kalez’s Cunning Misdirection:
When an opponent's character declares an attack while they control 2 or more face-up monsters and you control a character: Target 1 face-up character your opponent controls, except the attacking character; change the attack target to it and perform damage calculation, with your opponent taking the resulting damage.

Dotti cackles in glee and lets loose her attack at not Reefa, but Salt! Dotti’s difference in ATK is a full 1000, meaning that if the attack goes through, Reefa will be able to tribute Lung to end the duel!

“Dotti, no!”

“Dotti, yes!”
>>
No. 1083879 ID: 75b262
File 170848853935.png - (636.78KB , 600x810 , reefa-small.png )
1083879

“You shouldn’t be able to target Salt with a card effect!” Serah hisses.

“Attacking isn’t a card effect.”

“Damn!” In the moment before Dotti fires at Salt, Serah makes the only move she has left: “I quick-play Ass Day on Dotti!”

Dotti is flipped face-down ass-up and placed into Defense Mode, canceling her attack and shoving her into a foxhole, with only her tails popping out. There’s the sound of rabid gekkering from inside.

“Oh,” Reefa blinks. “The attack doesn’t go through, then. And… you’re free to attack with Salt and Moonshine, for…”

“6000 damage,” Serah says, raising her arm to blast away Reefa’s remaining LP- and outfit. “Salt, Moonshine! End this!”

Reefa looks at her extra deck for options, her cards fluttering in the wind as the attack hits. There’s no options left, and the attack wipes out both her LP and her outfit.

The light settles after the attack. Both duelists have vanished.

“Oh, my,” Momo motions to Judge Yurr. “Did they both disappear?”

“Gak! They did!” the bird squawks. “They’ve vanished into thin air! This is horrible! Pan will be so upset… Oh! I know! Can you pretend to be a busty blonde to fill in for Serah?”

“Oh, I would be delighted to,” Momo says gleefully.

---—---

Meanwhile, the two indecent hide under the bleachers, huddled under a scrounged blanket.

“I don’t think anyone saw us sneak under here,” Reefa whispers. “Thank goodness for small favors. Did you really have to play that field spell?”

“The combo was too good. But, um, the price was a bit high,” Serah agrees. “Princess, you could have activated Lord Lung at the last moment and stripped me even more,” Serah says, grateful for even the smallest shred of dignity. “Thank you for not doing that.”

“Royalty should always show mercy to the lesser nobility and the commoners. That is the essence of noblesse oblige.”

“I… didn’t really deserve the win, did I? I misplayed. I treated my commoners, um, cards horribly. The audience was even rooting for you by the end.”

“Sometimes one does one’s best and still loses,” Reefa says. “That is, sometimes, also a princess’s duty. To see things through to the end. Perhaps you can seek forgiveness from your commoners the next duel.”

“Oh.” Serah grimaces. “I don’t think I can go out there again.”

“We don’t have to leave just yet,” Reefa nods. “At least, not before we find something to wear…”

[SERAH WINS!]
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