19. It’s time to D-D-D-Duel
Chapter nineteen
It’s time to D-D-D-Duel
“You’re zegged if anyone knows how to play well. I love you, Pet, but–”
“You really think that low of me?”
“I just–Look, I love yah, babe, but experience here–”
“Experience here doesn’t matter. Our Gui are piloting our decks, right? Isn’t that what you just said? I’d bet on an ancient spirit’s wisdom over some try-hard shac who thinks he can win just because he beats his coworkers, you plug?”
“That’s what I was looking for!”
“So you believed in me this whole time?”
“Well…”
“Come on, Ral.”
“I just wanted you to realize that you should trust your Gui before relying on your wisdom.”
“Of course.”
“Not everyone is as great as I am.”
“Use Sha, too. We’re too close to the end to wager everything on your confidence.”
“After the end, do you think–”
“I don’t want to think right now. Any guesses we make will probably be wrong. Just teach me how to play.”
“Right. So, your legends deck consists of twelve legend cards–did they mention that already?”
“I don’t know. I probably forgot, so just keep talking.”
“Legends are the creatures or characters, like the ones made for our Gui. You can play up to four at a time and sometimes their position on the field matters based on their abilities or ability cards. Each round you have fifty health points but subtract from your total for every ability card you add to your deck, depending on the ability card’s cost. Eliminate the opponent’s health and you win, but you often have to defeat their legends before attacking the player themself.
Every legend has its own health and damage remains after your turn ends.
The game ends when you eliminate all twelve legends in your opponent’s deck or when you bring their health to zero.
There is no right way to form a deck. I prefer to play a thirty-health deck, but that doesn’t mean the legends they are giving us are optimal for that kind of deck.
I’ve played against people who use a tank build with all their focus on legend synergy, using no ability cards, and others who focus on manipulation by having a ten-health deck.
That being said, there are certain ability cards that cost more health than others.
I’ve seen some that cost anywhere from ten to twenty.
I assume we’ll be able to choose the ability cards or at least the amount before the battles start, but assumptions haven’t been helpful so far. Is this all clicking?”
“Yeah, I think I got it.”
“I wish I could give you pointers, but it’s hard to tell you how to play based on one card. Win the first game and you should be able to grasp the strategy of your deck for the next round.”
“What are these numbers below the image? One through four what?”
“Legend charges or abilities, if it’s easier to see it that way.
Each turn you have ten lumens to spend. That is subject to change based on abilities and on you and your opponents’ charges, attacks, and so forth.
Notice that there are four options, each ascending number is stronger than the lower.
Typically you spend four on one legend, three on another, two on another, then one on the last. Oh, and you need to pay a certain amount of lumens to play each legend, so you want to be strategic with your expensive and cheap cards…
but you don’t have any freedom in this Test, so work with what you have, I guess.
That is basic play, but often you’ll use four for two of them or two on all to use your energy on something else like the gamble deck. ”
“And now you want me to ask what that is?”
“Just making sure you’re paying attention.”
“No matter how interested I am, I have to pay attention.”
“Doesn’t it sound fun though?”
“Ask me again when everything isn’t on the line.”
She tilted her head from side to side.
“The gamble deck?”
“Right. When you play, you bring your own cards to contribute to the gamble deck. Each player chooses ten and shuffles them with their opponent’s to form a neutral deck.
At any point in the game, a player may spend four points to play a card from the gamble deck.
There are endless ways to play this. Certain ability cards help you look at cards in the deck, arrange them, and so forth.
Some gamble cards increase the strength of certain kinds of legends, while others have some other global ability.
Sometimes players will add bomb cards to the deck which cause the drawing player to lose a fat amount of health. ”
“Each draw is a gamble.”
“Wow! So insightful! If we were in a mindshow called the zegging genius, now would be the time where you would say ‘I feel like a zegging genius’ Applause! Pure wit from you!”
“Piss off.”
“Now that would be the title for Boyband’s mindshow. Enough from me. You’ll figure out the rest on your own.”
“What? No tips? No–”
“Each player is their own, as is every deck. You’ll figure it out. You’re sharp, even if I make fun of you.”
“Anything you can tell me about this card, at least?” I held out Zhu’s card. “Or do you have any idea what these Light Leechs actually are?”
“I’ve never heard of them in the game, but maybe they are a new expansion that has materialized to help real-world assassins? That is, if you think the people who tried to kill you were elite Luminate League players.”
“I have no zegging idea.”
“Great, because neither do I. It’ll be one of our many questions for the shac at the end of the line.”
“Then can you tell me anything about my card?”
“Let me see. It’s an elite rare–”
“Is that the best?”
“Yeah, but like most games, all it really means is that it is valuable. A lot of guk cards are ER, but you’ve got a better chance at something worthwhile.
He’s a spirit type card, go figure, which means your deck is probably all spirit based.
Duo-type decks are quite uncommon, especially for beginners, so I would go for a spirit-based strategy.
I’m not sure if you’ll be able to choose your ability cards, but you’ll want to focus on cards that increase team synergy. His abilities though, well–”
Ralia disappeared. My card floated before me and increased in thickness.
The deck had formed and joined me in the starry ether of black and grey pixels.
I couldn’t see anything besides my cards and the empty abyss around me.
There were no walls or ceiling. I could not see the solid ground beneath me, but I felt something supporting me.
Despite my trembling, I didn’t dare move, worrying that I might plummet to some absence of existence.
The number fifty appeared before me in bright white light. A subtraction sign floated on the left with an additional sign on the right.
The announcer spoke with subtitles appearing below the number like game captions. “Please select your preferred ability card count.”
“Can I look at them before I choose?” I shouted into the ether.
I had no idea what my strategy would be, especially not knowing any of the cards in my deck, but I figured reading through the ability cards would give me a better idea of how to play.
Abbas, when he had been Ali, had been into some complex strategy games.
I wonder if he still was. Back when we used to play together, I had figured out that the best way to learn was through immersion and feigned confidence.
“Please select your preferred ability card count.”
“Can I look at my deck?
“Please select your preferred ability card count.”
Frightened that I would lose any choice, I adjusted the number to thirty. I paused and a green accept button appeared below the number. Just before hitting accept, I moved to thirty-five, feeling that I might play a more conservative style than Ralia.
I hit accept.
The pixelated abyss shifted into a colosseum with rows of spectators cheering.
I would have been terrified if their shouts didn’t have the off-human aftertaste of programmed beings.
I stood on a platform that I felt was ten feet by ten feet.
A few feet in front of my panel four rectangular panels floated beside each other, each a metallic platform the size of a skyride with the numbers one through four.
The other side of the colosseum floor was a reflection mine, though there was a field between us, large enough for a soccer match.
The field was a blank canvas of multicolored pixels that appeared more substantial than the abyss that had previously encased me.
To my misfortune, I had not left the pixelated abyss.
Despite the augmented scenery, the abyss spanned below the platforms like a ghastly ocean.
My gaze shot up to avoid the haunting sight below.
The ten by ten platform across from me was no longer empty.
A woman, though not the neurocore outline that I had grown used to seeing, stood in extravagant Violet-district-worthy apparel with cartoonish accents that made me feel like I was in some kind of animated card battling mindshow.
A deck appeared on my right and five cards floated before me with a slow bob.
A video cube appeared in the air above the pixelated battlefield.
As it rotated, each side showed a different angle.
One focused on me, another on my opponent, with the other two forced on our respective platforms for playing our four legend cards, if my assumption based on Ralia’s rules was correct.
I prayed she taught me well, knowing that Ralia had her own set of rules for almost everything out there. Programming, hacking, speaking to authority; anything that required constraint usually changed according to her preferences. Unfortunately, it worked for her.