"Sour" Sweet

"Hmmm.... Ah! Ideeeeaaaaaa~" You went

"What do you mean?" Sour Sweet asked.

All that came upon your face was a sinister smirk.

Later that day you and Sour Sweet headed down to a location you so often visited on Sundays, a Card Monster Games/CM Games store. A place that sold things from board games, video games, and card games. Specifically on Sundays was a time to duel, a time to get your game on, a time to rev it up, a time to set the pendulum into scale, a time to play the icon of all card games, Yu-Gi-Oh!.

"Wow... you are such a nerd," Sour Sweet went.

"I know it and I love it," You said writing your name down on the tournament bracket, "You're free to join if you want. Entry fee is 4 dollars for two booster packs of your choice, and I've got a spare deck on hand if you wanna use it."

"Well... considering you went through all this trouble of bringing me down here, I suppose why not,"

"You shouldn't have too much trouble, it's a Traditional Style Tournament today anyway," You explained as Sour Sweet wrote her name down on the bracket.

"Traditional Style?"

"Meaning cards that are currently forbidden in the Advanced format of the game, used at Regionals, YCS's, and the likes, can be used at one copy per deck in the Traditional Format,"

"How do I know what's banned in the advanced format but okay in the traditional?"

"If it doesn't have a million restrictions on it, it's nothing short of broken and more than likely banned," You explained

"Okay..." Sour Sweet softly replied, "Like what?"

"Like this," You said pulling out..., "The Spell Card, Pot of Greed."

"What does it do?"

"It allows me to draw two more cards from my deck with no strings attached, something that is just WAY too powerful in the current form of Yu-Gi-Oh!, so because of that it's banned like this, Graceful Charity," You said pulling up said card, "This card allows me to draw three, and discard two cards of my choosing. These are two great cards to have in the traditional format but with how powerful they are nowadays they can never come back to the game no matter how much people beg for it to happen like with this card, Premature Burial. An equip spell card that allows me to bring back a monster at the cost of 800 life points, but those life points might as well not even be there because as a competitive player you learn quickly to get into the mindset that life points don't matter and because of that Premature Burial is probably gonna stay banned because of how powerful it is, and I'll say this. As long as Hidden Armory is still legal it will never come back because of its status as an equip spell card."

"The ban list sounds complicated..." Sour Sweet replied holding her head as if she had a headache.

"Actually it's not, and the reasons behind a card getting banned, currently banned, and will probably eventually be banned can be seen on the card text like Raigeki here, a card that allows you to destroy all monsters your opponent controls with no restrictions, a big no-no, so it was banned for a while before being limited to one, same thing with Monster Reborn, a spell that allows you to special summon back to your side of the field a monster from either player's graveyards with no strings attached. A big no-no so it was banned for a while before eventually returning to one copy per deck,"

"The ban list sounds complicated, but does seem to share some interesting stories behind it,"

"You think those are interesting? You should hear the one behind Elemental HERO Stratos's eventual return after 12 years,"

"Huh?"

"I'll explain later, the tournament's about to begin," You stated, handing Sour Sweet your spare deck and four extra dollars.

When you and Sour Sweet got your packs, you chose Legendary Duelists: Sisters of the Rose while Sour Sweet chose Legendary Duelists: White Dragon Abyss.

From your packs, you got Lunalight Blue Cat, Cyber Angel Dakini, Blue Rose Dragon, Black Rose Dragon, Magnificant Machine Angel, Lunalight Cat Dancer, Machine Angel Ritual, Cyber Angel Idaten, Night Express Knight, and Lunalight Emerald Bird.

Sour Sweet got, Abyss Actor - Trendy Understudy, Cyber Repair Plant, Black-Winged Dragon, Maiden with Eyes of Blue, Glowing Crossbow, Abyss Actor - Superstar, Cyber Eternity Dragon, Cyber Twin Dragon, Abyss Actor - Leading Lady, and finally...

"Abyss Actor - Mellow Madonna?! You lucky- I've been looking for that card!" You flustered.

"Why?"

"She's a pendulum scale of zero! She's probably the most useful card to have when trying to perform a pendulum summon of monsters levels one to seven!"

"Oh..." Sour Sweet went with wide eyes upon realizing the value of that single card.

Upon hearing the announcement that the tournament had begun, you and Sour Sweet found your opponents and began. Things were going relatively smoothly for you and Sour Sweet, the deck you gave her consisted of the Lunalight cards so she shouldn't have had much trouble. The Preliminary rounds went by quicker than you could think, you won 2 to 1 and Sour Sweet went 3 and 0, not bad for a rookie in your eyes. Soon came the top eight, you and Sour Sweet won, then the top four, you two won again. It all came down to the finals. It was you against Sour Sweet, but from the looks on her face, as you two went through the tournament, you could tell she was having more fun than she thought she would.

"It's time to duel!" You and Sour Sweet said at the same time.

You: 8000 LP
Sour Sweet: 8000 LP
Turn 1 - Your Turn

"I'll start this duel off with Graceful Charity, this card lets me draw three cards, and discard two," You said as you drew your three cards, "I'll discard Foolish Burial and Darklord Marie. Now that Darklord Marie is in my graveyard, once per turn during my standby phase, I gain an additional 200 life points as long as she remains in the graveyard. Next, I'll Special Summon Launcher Commander in attack mode,"

Launcher Commander
Lv: 4
1700 ATK / 1200 DEF

"But I'm not done yet! Now I use my normal summon for this turn to summon Bitron in defense mode,"

Bitron
Lv: 2
200 ATK / 2000 DEF

"But that's not all!" You smugly go, "Launcher Commander's first effect activates! Now, Bitron gains an additional 300 Attack and Defense points!"

Bitron
Lv: 2
500 ATK / 2300 DEF

"But we're only getting started Sour Sweet, cause now I activate Terraforming! This card allows me to add a Field Spell Card from my deck to my hand, and I choose Cynet Universe!" You said as you searched your deck for the card, took it out and then shuffled your deck, "Now I place Cynet Universe in the Field Spell zone, now all Link Monsters I control will gain 300 attack points, but that's not all it can do! It also allows me to target one monster in the graveyard and shuffle it back into my deck! Luckily for you, only Darklord Marie is in the Graveyard right now so I can't use that effect nor do I have any Link Monsters out, but that's about to change, I tribute Bitron to Link Summon Link Spider!"

Link Spider
Link - 1
ATK/1000

"Link Spider's effect allows me to Special Summon one Level Four or lower monster from my hand to the zone it points to and I chose Leotron!"

Leotron
Lv: 4
2000 ATK / 0 DEF

"Plus, now that Bitron is in my graveyard, I activate my Cynet Universe's effect, shuffling Bitron back into my Deck," You explained as you did the mentioned move, "Plus, Cynet Universe's first effect gives Link Spider an additional 300 attack points!"

Link Spider
Link - 1
ATK/1300

"Plus even more attack points by Launcher Commander due to Link Spider being a Cyberse type monster!"

Link Spider
Link - 1
ATK/1600

"Since I can't attack this turn, I'll just end my turn. It's your move," You stated.

You: 8000 LP
Sour Sweet: 8000 LP
Turn 2 - Sour Sweet's Turn

"My turn, I draw. First, I activate my spell card... Dark Hole!"

"Oh no I forgot that card was in that deck..." You muttered in horror.

"Now all the monsters on your side of the field are destroyed!"

"So much for that opening combo..." You groaned in annoyance as you sent your monsters to the graveyard.

"Second I activate Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two more cards from my deck," Sour Sweet went as she drew two more cards, "Next I activate the spell card, Polymerization!"

"P-Polymerization?!!?" You stuttered.

"I fuse the two Lunalight Kalido Chicks in my hand to summon forth, Lunalight Cat Dancer!"

Lunalight Cat Dancer
Lv: 7
2400 ATK / 2000 DEF

"This is bad, REALLY bad..." You went horror.

"Lunalight, attack him directly!"

"AUGH!!"

You: 5600 LP
Sour Sweet: 8000 LP

"Plus, since Lunalight declared an attack, you're inflicted with an addition 100 points of damage!"

You: 5500 LP
Sour Sweet: 8000 LP

"I set two cards face down and end my turn, your move," Sour Sweet said with a smirk.

You mirrored that smirk only in utter joy. You two were gonna get along just fine.