On the way to the Obelisk Blue dorm library, Phil and Bastion hung back slightly from the rest of the group to discuss in muttered conversation, all the while watching with great amusement as Jaden attempted to cheer Chazz up on the journey.

"Ah, I tell ya Bastion. It's been a real hot minute since I've been able to bust out Demise and Ruin." Phil wistfully reminisced. "It's a pity the deck doesn't have legs to stand on its own, though. Not without some stall cards, draw power, and life gain."

Bastion nodded in agreement, his face set in a serious look while he continued to digest the moves both players had made in the duel. "Indeed. I can see Demise's effect backfiring severely on you. In fact, it nearly did. Without the healing you had enjoyed earlier from Solemn Wishes, Chazz would have likely had enough damage to end the duel before you would have been able to rebound with summoning Ruin. Not to mention the undeniable fact that without Gravity Bind, your draw engine would have died before it could see any use."

Phil perked up at the last bit Bastion mentioned. "Yup. Gravity Bind is good, but anyone packing a Mystical Space Typhoon can out it. However, at least that's the main concern I have to watch out with that card. I've been keeping my eyes peeled, and I've noticed for the most part, duelists in this generation seem to trend towards the near complete absence of just about any monster under level four. Obviously Jaden has a few with his weaker heroes, but those usually don't stay on the field long. Syrus would have a handful as well, I would think, but I would have to ask to be sure. You, Chazz, and Alexis, on the other hand, either only have maybe two at most, or none at all."

Bastion fell silent for a few seconds in consideration as he mentally went through the current iteration of his deck in his mind, and then sighed, shaking his head in defeat. "You're right. I don't think I have a single monster under level four in my deck, though I do have a decent amount of spell and trap card removal available. But, you have to remember, Phil. I have watched countless televised professional duels of the current era, along with tapes of older ones like Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. No one uses lockdown cards like that. Not even Weevil Underwood bothers with tactics as bad as that, though in Battle City I believe he got quite close with his insect lockdown strategy against Joey Wheeler. I don't know if you could call it chivalry, honor, or something else, but even professional duelists who have to keep winning if they want to make enough money to eat likely wouldn't consider strategies like that."

"I get it." Phil replied. "It's pretty satisfying to keep dropping your strongest monster on the field to challenge your opponent's strongest monster, and then find a way to go even further beyond that in the case that your strongest monster dies. It's like a contest of strength. Is your best monster better than the opponent's? Can you summon something that can beat the monster that beat your best one?"

Bastion quickly stepped forward, catching the library door as it closed to let himself and Phil in, and then returned to the conversation. "Phil, I pride myself on my research. On my formulas that allow me to calculate a path to victory. But after our duel, after watching your duel with Chazz, I understand that my formulas were too… limited back then. I still believe that at the time I used them, they were the correct formulas for the most part, but I failed to allow for variables in the equation." Then, a cold shiver curled its way down Bastion's spine as a realization hit his brain with the force of a meteor slamming into a planet. "Phil, I don't think anyone has ever considered those variables as well."

Phil winked at Bastion with a cheeky grin plastered on his face. "Nope! By all means, go with chivalry if you want to in a normal duel. But, if another fuckwad like Jinzo decides to show his face in a shadow game, hows about you show them those variables for me?"

Bastion couldn't help himself. Despite his mild dislike for Phil's foul language, he began to laugh as their group started to seat themselves around one of the circular tables in the library. "Yes, I think that would be optimal indeed." Bastion shook his head, doing his best to dispel his own laughter as he looked towards Chazz, who had just told Jaden to 'shut the hell up like the third place he was'.

"Right!" Phil shouted over Chazz's and Jaden's increasingly loud replies to each other. "Mr. Chazz sir, since you lost to yours truly, gimme your deck so Bastion and I can look through it and see what work needs done."

Chazz feel eerily silent while his head creaked in movement so that his eyes looked straight into Phil's.

Ooohhh he's pissed.

Yet, the prideful Obelisk Blue said not a single word, only sighing as he popped open his deckbox and placed the stack of cards in it into Phil's eager hands.

Phil looked at Bastion, and Bastion looked at Phil. At exactly the same time, goofy smiles poured over both of their faces and they began to laugh creepily to each other as they dashed over to a whiteboard that was hanging on a nearby library wall, one presumably used for lectures but was currently abandoned.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Chazz, Alexis, Jaden, and Syrus stared at the pair with a mixture of interest (in the latter three's case) for what they would come up with, and disgust for what they would do to his beautiful deck (in Chazz's case). Within seconds of the two excitable boys reaching the whiteboard, they had already found a basket of erasable markers and had split them up evenly. However, as Alexis noted with equal parts amusement and exasperation, while Bastion seemed to fill his half of the board with complex equations, Phil seemed to have… other things on his mind. She considered the circumstances for a few seconds, and then, with a sigh and shake of her head, moved out of her chair to walk up to the board where Phil was scrawling extraordinarily rude words next to what she assumed (and hoped) were abbreviations for card names.

Thus, a balance was found. Bastion hummed to himself in thought as he worked through multiple complex equations, Phil got his immaturity out of his system, and Alexis followed up with an eraser to make sure they wouldn't be kicked out of the library.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

An entire hour passed until both Phil and Bastion were finally satisfied with their work and stepped away from the whiteboard. The object in question was almost completely filled up with numbers and words to the point that only slight dots of white could actually be seen.

Phil nudged Bastion, who nudged him back immediately. "Yo. You first, or me?" Phil whispered to Bastion as Alexis seated herself back at the table with the rest of the boys, prodding them awake from their naps with a sharp elbow.

Bastion considered Phil's question, ultimately realizing that it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. "I'll let you do the honors, Phil."

"Right then, I'll do you proud mate." Phil whispered back, and then cleared his throat to grab everyone's attention. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter if you guys pay attention as long as Chazz does, since this is for him." Phil then slightly tilted his head to look Chazz in the eyes, which the boy responded back in kind with his own challenging stare.

Hm. Chazz still doesn't fully believe that we can improve his deck. Good thing he's a prideful little shit or I would be worrying about him blatantly ignoring our advice, even after I won the wager.

"Chazz, I'll be level with you. The deck you used against me, it isn't terrible. It ain't great, but the power it should be able to bring out and the power I saw it bring out against me and Jaden was adequate for dealing with the stuff that people try to call 'a good deck' here on the island. And I mean 'good deck' as in they summon a level four monster with 1500 or more attack, set a trap or two, and pass. However, Bastion and I have collectively decided that what people think is a good deck on this island is horseshit. So, I consider it my duty as your friend, yes Chazz I can see your expression, shut the hell up. I consider you a friend, and there's nothing you can do about that. I consider it my duty as your friend, however unwilling you may be to accept that, to start this episode of 'pimp my deck'. We gonna make your deck into one sexy love-beast that will get you all the ladies. Bastion, would you mind impressing The Chazz by saying something smart?"

Bastion stepped forward, adjusting an imaginary pair of glasses as he tried to ignore the fact that Jaden and Syrus were silently cracking up in their seats, and Alexis was still giving Phil an exasperated look.

"I suppose I can say this a bit more eloquently than my friend. Chazz, your deck is filled from top to bottom with powerful dragon monsters. You obviously value them highly, which is something I have come to the understanding after viewing the replays of the tournaments you participated in prior to attending Duel Academy. However, the ratios you employ show a certain lack of flexibility, one that Phil exploited in your duel earlier with his trap cards. This has left both of us to conclude that your deck does need to change, but it is important that the core identity that you are so appreciative of remains the same since we want this to be your deck, not ours."

Bastion stepped backwards to let Phil take the floor once more.

"Perfect, thank you for sounding and being smart at the same time, Bastion. Now, what do we mean by this, you may be wondering?" Phil waited a few seconds for a response, continuing with an over-exaggerated sigh when there was only silence. "We mean that the entirety of your deck doesn't need to be tossed. Light and Darkness Dragon is an excellent card, we'll keep that." Behind Phil, Bastion began to use a bright orange marker to circle multiple card names on the whiteboard, including the aforementioned dragon. "Dark Armed Dragon will be kept, obviously. I gave it to you since I could tell by just looking at it that it's a good card. It also happens to fit with the new identity of your deck. Dragon Shrine is a keeper, along with that sneaky Dragon's Mirror you had in there. Don't look at me like that Chazz, I saw that Five-Headed Dragon in your extra deck and it bloody well nearly made me pass out in fear. Properly supported, that card has the potential to be an absolute beast. However, a good chunk of the rest of the deck is simply too bad to keep. Every normal monster is going to be sent to the time-out corner to apologize for being useless. The Armed Dragon series, as much as I love level monsters, has got to go. Too slow and they can't kill face down monsters with their effects. Plus, you have to draw into LV10 in order to summon it. Dragonic Knight has pretty badass card art, but it doesn't really do much for your strategy other than being a big stick you can beat people with. Drop that sucker like it's a hot potato. Mirage Dragon is funny, it's a nice counter to the over reliance on battle traps people around here have, and it is a light monster, so I suppose that can be kept. Now, that gets us to the core identity of your deck. Dragons are nice, but what if we refine it even further? What about utilizing the light and dark with… chaos dragons?"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Chazz didn't know whether to puke in his mouth over the fact that two Ra Yellows were trying to give him, of all people, advice, or be genuinely interested over the fact that even he could see that their suggestions were… actually good, for the most part. It was a pity that his Armed Dragons had to go, but Bastion's argument over the mathematical inefficiency was convincing enough, at least mixed with his own gut feelings that the line never truly was able to perform to its fullest potential against worthy opponents. In addition, the focus the changes to the deck had on sending his own cards to the graveyard was disgusting, but… once Phil had gone on a completely insane hour-long rant over the usage of the graveyard as a 'second hand', even Chazz had a difficult time objecting to the idea once the flexibility of the graveyard was fully impressed upon him. Besides, despite his own anger over the results of the duel, something that burned like hot coals at the bottom of his stomach, Chazz was forced to admit that the two boys were obviously attempting to make him stronger in every way they could. Even the nasty voice at the back of his head, the one that whispered that they were trying to hold him back, was slowly beginning to get quieter and quieter. With all the careful research that Bastion had shown specifically relating to Chazz's deck, with the sheer passion that leaked through every word Phil uttered on the subject…

Chazz mentally shook himself out of thoughts like that. Worthless feelings like that could wait until after he outperformed both Jaden and Phil in the tournament. He would not let Obelisk Blue and their school achieve anything else than a total, crushing victory. Only that would bring him a step closer to the level that Koyo Hibiki, one of the few men he respected, had been at before the world champion had fallen ill.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Nice and easy does the trick. Phil thought to himself as he watched Chazz shuffle through his deck to familiarize himself with the changes. Play on his damn pride, that way he willingly accepts our help and eventually finds that we legitimately were trying to assist him. Chaos dragons should be more than enough to deal with anything that comes his way, unless some asshole gets their hands on a modern deck. Now I just have to go in all sneaky beaky like in getting Jaden's, Bastion's and Syrus's decks stronger. I was able to intercept the guy who was gunning for a shadow duel with Jaden earlier, but there's no telling if I can keep doing that. There's only one of me, after all. Now of course I doubt they'll fully accept any drastic changes I want to make out of the blue, but that's what the sneaky beaky approach is for. Jaden's already got good use of my Stratos's in a few duels, and in all honesty Bastion doesn't need much help, but Syrus is going to need some more Roid support if I can find some. Alexis should be fine, as long as she realizes the key to victory is her ritual monsters, not that horrendous fusion she has. I'll keep doing my best to upgrade their decks as I am able to, though. No sense in leaving it to chance. Well, at least we should be able to wipe the floor like we're a trio of janitors at the tournament. Though, I am quite interested that Ms. Hibiki mentioned my countrymen from America will be participating. Does this mean… does this mean that Tragoedia is running around in this world too, since the American academy is involved?

Phil suppressed a shiver of concern that ran down his spine. As someone who was a bit more familiar with the manga than the anime, even though he never finished either of them he knew that Tragoedia was as bad of news as Yubel was.

Well, at least I know that guy won't do anything too drastic until he gets his hands on the full 'Planet' series, and I saw Elemental Hero Terra Firma sitting nice and tight in Jaden's extra deck. Shit. This is gonna mean more work for me, isn't it?