Noah pulled the closest, and largest, cabinet open. Two things were revealed. The first was a pack of cards in a foil wrapper, like the booster packs of card games he had played in high school, and the second was a thin computer, the size of a piece of paper and not a whole lot thicker.
The screen read, The Doctrine of Mechos, God of Mortal Advancement. It had a start button below the words.
“Is the Bible of Mechos a Samsung tablet?” Noah asked.
Kevin gave one snort, but no one else responded.
“I’m ahead of my time,” Noah groused, but picked up the tablet and handed it to RED. “Hold this for me, please.”
Then he picked the pack of cards up. The front showed a city—maybe New York, but one on the water with skyscrapers for sure—being attacked by a near Godzilla-sized mechanical dragon. The words ‘Cycle of the Beginning, First Fall, uncommon Golem pack’ were printed across the glossy front.
“So… just open it?” Noah asked. “Nothing else to it?”
“Yeah, that’s it, I think,” Lika said, her eyes wide as she stared at it. “I’ve been taught about this, of course, but I didn’t think I’d ever see a pack.”
“So, what you’re saying is that all packs are rare, huh?” Noah joked.
“Droll,” RED said.
“But seriously, what does the pack rarity mean?” Noah asked.
“It’s a distribution chance of cards,” RED said, his voice bored. “All packs have six cards, but the rarity is different for each pack.”
RED thought for a moment. “An uncommon pack will have four common with a five percent chance to upgrade to uncommon, and two uncommon, each of which has a five percent chance to become rare and a twenty percent chance to become common. And everything normally has a two percent chance to be some kind of specialty card.”
“How do you know all this?” Kevin asked.
“I just do. I assume the gods decided, when they made the perfection that is me, to include all the knowledge necessary to help my poor, sappy deckbearer.”
“Sappy?” Emily whispered to Lika, who nodded solemnly.
Noah changed the subject back. “What does it mean that it’s Golem?”
“Any pack which declares a type means that each card has an eighty percent chance to match the type declared,” RED replied.
“So, should we open it, or…?” Noah asked.
“We should definitely open it,” Lika said, reaching out to grab it.
Noah held it high, and Lika whiffed before glaring at him with hands on hips.
“It’ll help us fight going forward in the dungeon,” Lika said. “That was an easy fight, but it was only the second one in the whole dungeon. As you said, we were way over-leveled. We have tons of fights to go, so we need as many good cards as possible.”
Noah nodded, his own anticipation rising. He took the pack and ripped it open across the top, then held it upside down. Six cards spilled into his hand.
He had, unfortunately, five common cards and one uncommon. No rare cards, and one uncommon had downgraded. None were specialty cards.
He stared at the commons. First was a Clockwork Viper, a Golem/Beast combination card that matched no keywords he used, and another Scavenged Battle Bot.
There was also an Elven Ranger Squire, which Noah handed off to Emily immediately.
But the last two commons were a touch more interesting.
Technomancer Tinkerer
Common Tier-1 Mortal/Golem Creature (Mage, Magitek, Scavenger, Technomancer, Cyber)
1 Mortal or Golem Power
Health: 9
Attack: 2
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Defense: 3
Magical Attack: 3[Lightning](ranged)
Magical Defense: 3
Special: Repair [3] Can heal 3 damage to any Golem card as a replacement action to attacking.
Special: Tinkerer: May combine any 2 Component or Machine tokens to create new overworld token cards.
“The merger of magic and the old tech will produce the most powerful things imaginable—” Larry Redtrack, Wasteland Tinkerer.
Discharge
Common Tier-1 Golem/Lightning Immediate
1 Golem or 1 Lightning Power (available)
This power makes a ranged Lightning Magical Attack against a single target. Strength is equal to the power cost of any of the deckbearer’s Golem creatures on the field. If that creature has the Scavenged or Cyber subtype, the strength of the attack is doubled.
“Yeouch!”—Desiree, Technomancer Tinkerer
The uncommon was a card he hadn’t seen before either.
Jury-Rigged Modding Station
Uncommon Tier-1 Golem Persistent
1 Golem Power
All of the deckbearer Golems with the keyword ‘Scavenged’ that have a base cost less than 2 power gain +2 to all stats.
“Put everything that can shoot or stab on this mo’ fo’.”—Lokri the Warrenless, Technomancer
“I thought Golem was supposed to be focused on larger creatures, not a lot of small ones,” Noah said to RED. “Isn’t that what you told me?”
RED shrugged. “I’m assuming that these are off-meta cards for the Cycle of the Beginning, probably because creatures after an apocalypse would be smaller—broken and reassembled things. But I couldn’t guarantee that knowledge.”
“Well, these cards are very off meta.”
RED gave an electronic huff. “You don’t know enough to talk about this Great Game’s ‘Meta’.”
Lika cut in. “Since I get one card in four, can I get the Assembly Line and the Technomancer Tinkerer? That Jury-Rigged card was made for my perk.”
“Your perk?” Emily asked, staring at her. “What’s your perk?”
Lika tossed her head. “I have a perk that says I can’t play any card with a power cost of four or higher, but Golems with a cost of one become just one available power.”
“Yeah, I could see how that would stack,” Kevin cut in. “It might make for a very powerful deck, except… do you even have Scavenged golems?”
Lika shook her head no. “I could easily, with the Tinkerer. Or with the Battle Bot. Those seem to be some of the most common creatures in this set.”
“Definitionally,” RED muttered.
Lika rolled her eyes at the companion card before facing everyone again, hands again on her hips. “I’m just sayin’—I think moving to a hybrid Golem Swarm and Token deck could really help me take the next step. I need some kind of strategy to compete since my perks aren’t the best.”
Kevin suddenly cut in. “How many cards are in a set, usually?”
Roidae answered him. “There are usually about twelve hundred or so cards per set, about eighty per type and forty per energy, that can be commonly encountered. But once you count odd unique cards, events rewards, modified cards, etc., the number can climb closer to ten thousand, maybe more. But like ninety-nine percent of those will be from the basic twelve hundred or so. Some sets have a few more of one or the other type, but it’s usually pretty balanced.”
“And how are sets determined?” Kevin asked. “I mean, will these be the same next drop night?”
RED shook his head. “Each drop night is an entirely different set, but they’re grouped into cycles, anywhere from a single drop night to eight drop nights long, I think. The cycles tend to have similar card types, subtypes, themes, and specialty cards. But they’re still different each set.”
“Enough teaching the newbs,” Lika said, causing Noah to blink at the very on-point translation.
She continued. “The question is, can I get those cards and make the switch in my deck’s focus?”
“Well… I’m thinking of switching myself,” Noah replied. “I think moving to my own hybrid deck might make sense.”
“Technomancers?” RED asked.
Noah nodded. “Well, that and Lightning cards, building cards, and some really big Golems. The Technomancers can support Golem Creatures and my Lightning immediates both, and if there are more named ones with interesting synergies…”
He dropped to a squat and faced Lika. “How about, I take the Technomancer and I’ll give you my two Scavenged Battle Bots?”
She flushed and waved at him. “Stand up when you talk to me, sheesh. Goblins aren’t kids just because we’re short.”
Noah stood, knowing his own cheeks were burning.
But Lika just said, “Yeah, that’s fine. I can work with the Jury-Rigged card and three of those Battle Bots.”
Noah took the Discharge and the Technomancer Tinkerer, and then removed two Scavenged Battle Bots from his deck.
He passed them over to Lika. “Here, take these. It’s not safe to go alone.”
“What?” she asked, but her eyes were on the cards.
They’re just two common cards. I guess her over-the-top reaction reminds me this was the only real way to power, to get past the terrible peasant grind, for everyone not in a tech world.
“You can use these, and when you have better low-power Golem cards, merge them. I don’t need them back.”
“Sucker,” RED whispered sotto voce.
Kevin gave a bark of a laugh and rubbed his hand through his close-cropped hair. “Yeah, I thought so too. But he’s a stubborn sucker, and he does okay.”
RED gave an electronic scoff but didn’t say anything.
“Thanks, Noah,” Lika said, then went about altering her deck, removing and adding cards.
Noah did the same, adding the Tinkerer and the Discharge to his own deck.
“Shall we continue?” he asked once he was done, half bowing and motioning to the doors with a sweep of his arm.
“You get odd when you’re not running scared for your life,” Emily said. “I’d be less goofy and more excited for an entire dungeon that fit my deck so perfectly. I mean, I’m legit jealous.”
A brief sense of dread filled Noah. “Well, I’m still running scared for Hope. Desperately afraid, really. I think being goofy is as close to happy as I’m gonna get for a bit. But, we need to get cards here, so I might as well enjoy it, huh?”
“Yeah, sorry,” Emily said, staring deeper into the dungeon.
“Let’s do this,” Kevin said.