“Alright, I’ll go first!” Mike shuffled through the cards in his hands, sleeved and gently placed on a mat before him on the same table he played against Kyle earlier. Finally deciding on one card, he flips the fish rock he just set before him, “I spend one play point to summon Toaster Fibre!”

The card had a deep purple background, denoting it as a ‘Heathen’ type card. The picture showed a dented toaster missing a leg with a crudely drawn face upon its silver surface. The background depicted a junkyard of some sort, with the appliance taking center stage, complete with its own spotlight.

Sarah flipped through her own hand, finding nothing to compete against it on her first turn.

“You don’t gotta worry about this guy for now. He can’t attack at all.” Looking over the card, it cost only 1 play point, but had a strong 3 attack. But where the card lacked offensive capabilities, it was fantastic in defensive plays. Mike sat back, holding his typical smirk, “Go ahead.”

Taking the top card of her deck, Sarah scoffed. Placing down one play point, she collapsed the cards in her hand, “I got nothing. Your turn.”

Picking up his card, Mike adjusted his glasses, “You sure you got time just for a short game?” He gestured towards the three shields in front of him, “I’m sure we got time for something even longer, if you like…”

“Ew.” Sarah fanned her cards in front of her, “Just take your turn, dude.”

Unphased by her suddenness, he placed another play point in front of him before setting his cards face down on the table, “I'll pass, your turn.”

As she drew her next card, Sarah grinned, “Fucking finally!” Placing another point down and flipping it, she slammed her card down, causing Mike to cringe, “I summon Scrapper!” While the effect of Scrapper specifically required it to attack every turn, leading it to easily be stopped by her opponent’s Toaster Fibre, it was nice just to get something on the board. “Go ahead!”

Placing down his play point, Mike finally straightened up his posture, “I’ll play Sixth Storm Seer.”

As he placed another play point before him, Sarah groaned, “I fucking hate this guy! Every single ‘Behemoth’ player always runs this card!”

Resuming his slouch, Mike flipped his three remaining fish rocks, “Well yeah, he’s easy ramp, bruh.”

“Easy what?”

Mike leaned back in his chair, “Ramp? I forgot you’ve only played this card game.” He set his cards down before continuing, “Ramp is short for ‘Ramping up’ or gaining resources faster to speed up the game. Like, half of ‘Behemoth’ cards are in the upper range of play point cost.”

Thinking back to the prior day, Sarah shuddered, “Yeah, I know that.” Starting her turn, Sarah flipped through her cards, “I’ll go and summon Christened Collie. And…” Sarah reluctantly turned her ‘Noble’ card sideways, “I’ll attack your shield with Scrapper.”

“Cool, I’ll guard with Toaster.” Mike turned the card sideways to indicate the two battling. As Sarah picked up her card, Mike does the same.

“Your Toaster has, like, 3 attack, dude. Why are you putting it in the graveyard?”

“Bruh, you never read this card?” He held the card up so Sarah could get a better look, being sure not to actually hand it over, “If this card battles at all, it gets destroyed, win or lose.”

“Pssh. Doesn’t seem that useful…” After a quick shrug and shuffling of her hand, Sarah motioned for Mike to start his turn.

Despite being only his fourth turn, after playing Sixth Storm Oracle, Mike now had five play points compared to Sarah’s current three. “I’ll play Pippi, Fox Maiden.” The ‘Behemoth’ card only cost two play points and sported a hefty one attack point. “Cool. I’ll go and strike with Oracle.”

As he turned the card sideways, Sarah picked up one of her three shields. Nothing of use. Normally, a game has five shields, but with her brother showing up either in five minutes or five hours, Sarah asked for a short best of three game.

“With that, I will spend my three remaining play points to summon Meatgrinder Fibre.”

The ‘Heathen’ card cost four play points. While Mike was ahead on play points, two plus four equals six, admittedly higher than the five play points he had. “Is this what they’re teaching you in high school nowadays?” Sarah asked, work visor now beside her on the table.

“Oh, yeah. Pippi lets me summon creatures for one less play point, it’s kinda schnasty, really.” Mike slides the ‘Heathen’ card forward a bit, “Also when I summon this guy, I destroy one creature on my side of the field and you do the same.”

Scratching her head, Sarah swore under her breath. Mike placed his Oracle in the Graveyard, as she had no choice to place her Collie there. “Ugh. I kinda needed that.”

“Hey, I run a few spells, so I had to get rid of that dog ASAP.” He shrugged as Sarah drew and placed down a new play point. “Why do you run that card anyways? Aren’t you a rush deck?”

“What do you mean? All we got was a structure deck and, like, three booster packs.” With the game only coming out yesterday and initial reception reaching unprecedented heights, Manufacturing Mirages, the developer of World Game, made an emergency announcement limiting supplies to each customer.

Mike danced a fish rock between his fingers, “Yeah, but you can just trade for the cards you want. Did you ever talk with anyone else at the card shop?”

With a quick cough and a shuffling of her hand, Sarah continued her turn, “I’ll spend 4 play points to summon Revel Unit.” The ‘Noble’ card featured a giant robot with sleek white armor and gold trim. With just a quick skim of the flavor text, apparently giant robots exist in the same world as dinosaurs and angelic dogs.

“When I summon Revel Unit, it’s [Arrival] ability allows me to destroy every creature with 1 attack point!” With that declaration, Mike picked up his copy of Pippi and put it in the Graveyard. With her only card on the field just being summoned, Sarah ended her turn.

Mike flipped his now six play points, “I’ll go ahead and summon another Pippi.” He slowly pivoted the copy of Meatgrinder Fibre on his side of the field, the sleeved card making a slight rubbing sound against the plain black felt mat he brought to play on. “As much as I don’t want to, I’ll strike your shield with Fibre.”

“Oooh!” Sarah looked at the card she had just picked up, “[Shield Skill], I get to summon Prominence Vine,” With a slight chuckle, she continued, “When this card is summoned, I get to place the top card of my deck into my shields, keeping me alive for a bit longer!” As she followed the card’s instructions, Mike proceeded to end his turn.

Her smile soon went away as she drew her next card and flipped through her options. With a sigh, she turned Revel Unit sideways, “I’ll attack your Meatgrinder Fibre.” Thankfully, her card had 3 attacks points versus his 2, letting her keep her card on the field.

“Cool, I’ll go ahead and summon two more Toaster Fibres.” Despite his resource lead, and amassed board presence with his Pippi and two Toasters, Mike seemed to be running out of options. “Go ahead. I’m really starting to brick…”

“‘Brick’? What does that mean?” Sarah drew her card for the turn, noticing he chose not to attack with his Pippi.

“When you can’t draw the card you need to either get ahead or at least stabilize the game, it’s called ‘bricking’.” He flashed a 1 play point creature ‘Behemoth’ card from his hand, “Because I’m now at 7 out of 10 play points, I’m looking for some late game cards to take the lead and finish off this round. But as you can see, I’ve only got small cards…”

“Huh...” Sarah grinned wildly as she saw the 6 play points and the two cards on her opponent’s side of the field, “Well, I’m drawing pretty well myself!”

Slamming the table once more, Sarah thankfully caught herself as to not shout as loud as Mike’s previous opponent, “I’ll summon Shadowsmiter Unit!” The card was only as shiny as Gramadoron, or her own Sunlifter in the card’s name, but the small marking on the card indicated it as a ‘Rare’, so it had some kind of value, especially in this situation, “Shadowsmiter Unit destroys every card with the [Blocker] skill when it gets summoned!”

Mike suddenly shot up, “Bruh! That’s so busted!” After checking the card text for himself, he mumbled to himself as he placed both of his Toaster Fibres in the Graveyard.

“Sorry man,” Sarah exaggeratedly threw up her arms, “You know how ‘Noble’ cards are, super aggressive n’ stuff.” To punctuate, she stuck her tongue out a little. “I’ll go ahead and break two of your shields with Prominence and Revel.”

As she turned her cards sideways, Mike picked two his two corresponding shields. “Well, you love to see it…” Flipping over the second card he put in his hand, Mike showed a ‘Heathen’ card depicting a darkened bell tower showing an unfortunate figure clutching his head, doubled over in pain, “I’ll activate my own [Shield Skill], The Bell Tolls!”

While putting his hand to his chin to pull his own overexaggerated maneuver, Sarah took a second to read the 6 play point spell, ‘[Shield Skill] Destroy 1 card on the field’.

Plain. Simple. Efficient.

“I’ll pick your stupid Shadowsmiter.”

Sarah picked up the card, placing it into the graveyard mumbling all the while, “Giant robots are fuckin’ cool. You’re stupid…”

“YES!”

The sudden shout caused Sarah and the surrounding table-neighbors snap their eyes to Mike immediately. “Ehem…” Mike adjusted his glasses as a bit of red rose to his cheeks, “I finally drew something I can play.”

Placing down the card, it shimmered and shined in a way reminiscent of Sarah’s last game. “I’ll throw down Lucky Cricket!” His excitement still shown through, albeit dampened by the reaction to his sudden outburst, “If I drew this card earlier, you would’ve been dead, bro.” He made sure to touch the card as little as possible, “This card lets me discard up to two cards from my hand to gain as many play points. But since I don’t have an out to your board…”

He delicately placed down two of the four cards he was holding and brought out two fish rocks, giving him a total of ten, “I really should have pushed with Pippi, but still…” He flipped three play points, summoning a creature with a whopping 9 attack points.

Sarah eyeballed the card. How does that fucking make sense?! A four play point creature with that much attack? I haven’t even seen a card with that much!

“I’ll summon Machine Skull and have Pippi attack the shield you gained with Prominence Vine.” Mike turned the ‘Behemoth’ card sideways, “Now you better hope my last shield doesn’t have any surprisies, my dude.”

“Bru- Bro, did you really just say ‘surprisies’? Do they not bully kids in high school anymore?” Sarah laughed as her opponent did the same.

Ripping the top card off the deck and placing it into her hand, Sarah glanced at the card. Oh, it’s the card that guy gave me. When did I add it to my deck? Shaking her head, she turned Prominence Vine sideways, “I’ll break your last shield here.”

With a deep breath, Mike closed his eyes before bringing the card up. His shoulders drooped as he finally realized there was no coming back.

“Cool, Revel Unit will attack for game!”

“Alright, since you got the last game, you choose whether or not you want to go first or second.” Mike laid out the three cards in front of him, stopping himself from placing a fourth. “Just a reminder, you don’t draw going first, my dude.”

Finishing shuffling her deck, Sarah looked up, “Why’s that?”

“Well, it’s something about giving a chance for the player going second to catch up. A person going first has a massive advantage, so this narrows it down a bit, unlike chess.”

“Hmm…” Sarah placed her cards before her and drew her starting hand. Placing down the typical fish rock, she slid the ‘Noble’ card in front of her, “I’ll summon Scrapper. It’s nice to have something to play on the first turn!”

With his trademark ‘shiteatting grin’, her adversary replied in kind, “Hell yeah it is.” A ‘Behemoth’ card entered the field, Stormstrider Sprite. A simple card with 2 attack points but with no ability, Sarah scoffed.

“Well,” after setting up for her second turn, Sarah turned Scrapper sideways, “I’ll go ahead and take this second match!”

The events of the day caught up to her. Only the third day on the job, work as a concept, especially for money, was an activity Sarah never prepared herself for. Looking at the youngster in front of her, she smiled. Looks like he cooled it on the flirting. Was I that bad in High School?

“Oof..” Being shaken from her thoughts, Mike held up the card he just retrieved from his broken shield, “[Shield Skill], I get to summon Storm Silver Compass.” Another ‘Behemoth’ card to match his Stormstrider Sprite, the 5 play point card found its way onto the field after Mike only had one turn.

“Silver Compass lets me fetch any creature from my deck and add it to my hand when it’s summoned.” Thumbing through his sleeved cards, Mike finally settled on one, “I’ll bring out Sterben, Keeper of Fiction.”

Ignoring the grin that has seemingly been plastered onto his face this whole game, Sarah’s eyes were enraptured by the glittering piece of cardboard. Similar to Gramadoron and Lucky Cricket, Sterben shined even in the dying light from outside the window. A ‘Heathen’ card Sarah had never seen, the card cost 10 whole play points and sported a terrifying 11 attack points. Two ultra rare cards in three packs? Is this the luckiest fucker alive?!

“Wait,” Sarah wiped her mouth with her freehand, causing Mike to wince, “Why are you playing a quick game with me, when you’re carrying around that monster?”

Mike leaned back in his chair, lifting the front legs, “Well, I never got a game with you yesterday, so here was a good chance.” He shrugged, “Also, this is my only deck, so…”

Sarah felt flush.

“Alright dude, I’ll take my turn now.” Drawing his card and placing his second fish rock, Mike flipped the both of them. “I’ll play the spell Rapid Growth, this lets me gain an extra play point.”

“How many of those do you have?” Sarah looked nervously at her hand.

“Bruh, it’s a ‘Behemoth’ deck. It’s what they do best. Nearly everyone of them play four.” Turning Stormstrider sideways, he pointed at Sarah’s strikeless Scrapper, “And I’ll get rid of that card now.”

With a grumble, the card found its way to the Graveyard.

“Ugh,” As Sarah set up her turn, she held the card out she drew, “I’ll play Phantom Axe, a spell that lets me destroy a monster with two or less attack points on the field.”

As Mike set his card aside, Sarah looked at her hand. All high cost monsters returned her glances. Looks like I’ve bricked now… Despite being only on the third turn, this match would not last much longer at this rate.

With another summon of Sixth Storm Oracle, Mike now 5 play points while only being on his third turn. “Finally got the ball rolling!”

Shuffling through her hand, Sarah took the top card of her deck. “Jeez, this sucks.” Placing down another ‘Noble’ card, she grimaced, “I guess I’ll summon Ankleslicer. Normally, he lets me negate a keyword effect on your side of the field, but I really just need something out there.”

“Well, at least it is a body!” Mike took his usual place as ‘most punchable face’ and flipped his six fish rocks, “Anyways, here’s Lucky Cricket again!”

Sarah’s mind became a storm of swears.

After placing two cards in the Graveyard, Mike now had eight play points. “Wow, that was a nice curve!”

Throwing her hands up, she picked up her cards on the field. “Run it back.”

Mike snickered as he picked up his own, “Couldn’t even let me summon my big boy, huh?”

“Hell no, that’s the strongest card I’ve seen in this game!” Putting the rocks back in a small bag she had on hand, Sarah’s eyebrows furrowed, Shit. That means I need to beat him quickly.

Mike started to shuffle his deck, “Man, no one lets me play Sterben. Everytime I play with my sis, she always beats me out before I even get close.”

“I can see why…”