It's Time To D-D-D-D-Duel!
Author's Note
Based on a real duel
It's Time To D-D-D-D-Duel!
“Is it true that you play Duel Monsters, Trixie?”
Trixie nearly dropped her backpack – school was over for the day and she was ready to leave, but Sunset Shimmer’s question caught her off guard. She quickly recomposed herself and straightened up.
“O-Of course not!” She shrugged dismissively, but couldn’t help but stammer a little bit. “Only losers and geeks would play such a childish game. The Great and Powerful Trixie would never touch a deck unless it was being used to perform a card trick.”
“Ah, that’s a shame.” Sunset Shimmer reached into her pocket, retrieving a deck of her own. “I was cleaning up my room and found my old deck, so I got nostalgic and wanted to play a game with someone, but I don’t know anyone who still plays. My friends said you played it a lot back in the day and I was hoping you still did, but I guess not.” Sunset put the deck back in her pocket and walked out of the room. “Sorry to bother you, Trixie. See you tomorrow.”
Sunset’s exit was interrupted by the sound of chairs being dragged across the floor. When she turned around to see what was happening, she saw Trixie had pushed two desks together facing one another, sitting on a chair on the other side with an empty chair on Sunset’s side. Sitting neatly on top of Trixie’s desk were two piles of Duel Monsters cards, a main deck and an extra deck.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” She asked. “The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t have all day.”
With a smile on her face, Sunset Shimmer sat across from Trixie.
“Can we start with 4000 life points each? Or do you want the standard 8000?” Sunset asked as she placed her own main and extra decks on her desk.
“You’re the challenger. If that’s what you want…”
They handed each other their decks so they could shuffle them before handing them back and drawing five cards each.
“Who goes first?”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie will grant you the honor.”
“Sure thing! I draw—” Sunset Shimmer placed her hand on her deck to draw a card, but was stopped by Trixie grabbing her wrist. “What?”
“You can’t draw a card on the first turn.”
“Really? But that’s how they do it in the cartoon.”
“Anime!” She corrected before clearing her throat with a little blush of embarrassment on her cheeks. “They added that rule years ago.”
“My bad. It’s been a while, so my knowledge of the rules is a pretty archaic. Feel free to correct me any time I make a blunder.”
“Will do.” Trixie finally let go of Sunset’s wrist, who focused on the cards already on her hand.
“Let’s see, let’s see… I summon a monster in face down position and place this card face down.”
Trixie waited, but Sunset didn’t make another move.
“So?”
“So what?”
“That’s it?”
“Do I have to do something else? Oh right, I’m supposed to say ‘I end my turn,’ right? I end my turn, there you go.”
“No, it’s just… The Great and Powerful Trixie is used to opponents that make big combos. It’s how these things usually go nowadays.”
“Oh. My deck is pretty old, so I don’t really know much about these things.”
“Your funeral. I draw.” Trixie drew a card and smirked before taking a deep breath. “Let’s go! For starters, I summon Wind-Up Magician in attack position.” The illusionist placed the face up card on the center of her desk. “Now, since a Wind-Up monster was summoned to my side of the field, I can Special Summon Wind-Up Shark from my hand.” She placed another card on the field.
“Wait, you can summon multiple monsters?” Sunset asked, genuinely curious.
“If the card effect allows it, sure. Anyway, since I activated the effect of a Wind-Up monster, I can use Wind-Up Magician’s effect, which allows me to Special Summon a level 4 or lower Wind-Up monster from my deck in defense position.” Trixie picked up her deck and searched the card she was looking for. “Here we go, I summon another Wind-Up Magician!” She placed the card in face up defense position before quickly shuffling the deck and putting it down again.
“Another of the same card? Why?”
“I’ll get to it. For now, I’ll use my first Wind-Up Magician and Wind-Up Shark to Link Summon my Wind-Up Zenmaintenance to the extra monster zone on the left.” Trixie placed the two cards in the graveyard before picking up a blue card from the extra deck and placing it on top of the division between the two desks.
“Wait, wait, wait, Link Summon? Extra zone? What’s happening? What are you doing?”
“Don’t ruin my flow, Sunset! I’ll explain it to you once I’m done, but for now, zip it!”
“And isn’t that a Ritual monster?”
“No, it’s a Link monster. It has arrows, see? Where was I? Right, since I Link Summoned Wind-Up Zenmaintenance I can add a Wind-Up card from the deck to my hand.” She once again dug through her cards before pulling a spell card. “I choose Wind-Up Factory. And since I used a Wind-Up monster’s effect, my second Wind-Up Magician’s effect activates, allowing me to Special Summon another level 4 or lower Wind-Up monster from the deck in defense position.”
“Ah, so that’s why.”
“Exactly, and I choose Wind-Up Rat. Now, I activate Wind-Up Factory!” She placed the continuous spell card in the middle of her backrow. “Then I activate Wind-Up Zenmaintenance’s second effect: I banish Wind-Up Rat to summon a second Wind-Up Rat!” She pushed the card off to the side, but not into the graveyard.
“But you already had one, why—”
“Wind-Up Factory’s effect activates!” Trixie was no longer paying attention to what her opponent was saying. “When a Wind-Up monster’s effect activates, I can add another level 4 or lower Wind-Up monster from the deck to my hand. I choose my second Wind-Up Shark!”
“How long is this going to take, Trixie?”
“I activate Wind-Up Rat’s effect!”
Sunset Shimmer sighed as she placed her elbow on the desk and rested her chin on the palm of her hand.
“By switching it to defense position, I can Special Summon a Wind-Up monster from my graveyard, also in defense position. Come back to me, Wind-Up Magician! And since I summoned a Wind-Up monster to the field, I can Special Summon my second Wind-Up Shark from my hand. Here we go! Now that I re-summoned my Wind-Up Magician to the field I can use its effect one more time, allowing me to Special Summon another level 4 or lower Wind-Up monster from my deck after another Wind-Up monster’s effect activates. Say hello to my third Wind-Up Magician!”
Sunset was paying as much attention to Trixie as Trixie was paying to Sunset, which it to say she was looking at her phone instead, scrolling through her feed and looking at memes.
“Now I use my first Wind-Up Magician, Wind-Up Rat and Wind-Up Zenmaintenance to Link Summon Saryuja Skull Dread on the right extra monster zone.”
“Oh wow, a monster that isn’t a Wind-Up monster?” Sunset Shimmer commented after looking up from her phone for a moment. “For a moment I thought that was all you had.”
“I activate Wind-Up Shark’s other effect: once per turn I can raise or lower its level by 1. I choose to lower it, now my Wind-Up Shark is a level 3 monster. And you know what that means, I can activate my third Wind-Up Magician’s effect. I summon Wind-Up Rabbit from my deck!”
“Oh, a fresh face! What does it do?”
“I send Wind-Up Magician number 2, Wind-Up Magician number 3, Wind-Up Shark and Wind-Up Rabbit to the graveyard and Link Summon Borreload Dragon to the middle main monster zone!”
“3000 attack points, wow! Wait, what does ‘Link-4’ mean? Where are its defense points?”
“That’s not all! Since I used two or more monsters to Link Summon Saryuja Skull Dread, every monster in a zone one of its Link Arrows is pointing to gains 300 attack points, meaning my Borreload Dragon now has 3300 attack points. And since I Link Summoned Saryuja Skull Dread with three or more monsters, I can use another of its effects: Special Summon one monster from my hand, and I choose Rescue Cat!”
“Aww, a little kitty wearing a safety helmet. That’s cute.”
“I activate Rescue Cat’s effect: by sending it to the graveyard I can summon two level 3 or lower Beast-type monsters from my deck, but their effects are negated. I summon Valerifawn, Mystical Beast of the Forest and another Wind-Up Rat!”
“If you keep that up you’re gonna end up with no cards left in your deck.”
“Unfortunately monsters summoned by Rescue Cat’s effects are destroyed when I end my turn, but that’s ok because they won’t be staying long anyway. I tune my level 3 monster Wind-Up Rat with my level 2 tuner monster Valerifawn and Synchro Summon the level 5 Synchro monster Naturia Beast!”
“You what summon?”
Trixie slapped the white border card on the field. “Now, let’s battle!”
“Finally!” Sunset put her phone down and sat up straight.
“I attack your face down monster with my Borreload Dragon!”
“And I—”
“Not so fast! Borreload Dragon’s effect activates: when it attacks one of your monsters, I can take control of it by placing it on a monster zone one of Borreload Dragon’s Link Arrows is pointing to.” Trixie picked up Sunset Shimmer’s monster card and placed it on the monster zone to the left of her dragon’s. “You have no monsters left on the field to protect you. Saryuja Skull Dread has 2800 attack points and Naturia Beast has 2200, totaling 5000. And since you insisted on starting with 4000 life points, that means victory belongs to the Great and Powerful Trixie! One Turn Kill!”
“It’s not a victory until you land the finishing blow.”
“Fine, if you insist. I attack you directly with Saryuja Skull Dre—”
“You just activated my trap card!” Sunset Shimmer flipped the last card left on her field. “Mirror Force! When you declare an attack, all of your monsters in attack position are destroyed!”
The shocked and immobile Trixie stared at the trap card with her mouth gaping open.
“And that’s all of your monsters, meaning all of them are gone. How about that?”
“I, uh… Oh no, would you look at the time! I have— I mean, the Great and Powerful Trixie has things to be and places to do, so if you’ll excuse me…” Trixie quickly picked up all cards on her side of the field and placed them all in one pile before standing up with her deck in one hand and backpack on the other. “We’ll continue this some other time. See you tomorrow, Sunset!”
Without waiting for a response, Trixie quickly rushed out of the classroom.
“Wait, you promised you would explain things to me after you were done!” Realization quickly hit her and she exited the room just as fast. “Hey, give me back my face down card!”
