Grafas looked at the monitor with attention. The goblin was getting close to the human and a confrontation was inevitable. While it was unlikely it would happen in the first two days of a new tournament it was a possibility.
“BIX,” he yelled out.
“Sir,” the demon called Bix responded.
“Get the caster desk ready and get the on-call guys over here ASAP they have five minutes,” Grafas commanded his junior.
“Right away sir,” Bix replied and quickly made his way out of the directorial room. He rushed through the studio corridors towards the casting floor.
“Grunk,” he called out to the orc floor manager. “You have three minutes to get the desk ready. There’s going to be a duel very soon and the boss wants the play-by-play on air”.
Grun just nodded his big head and started to direct his crew. Bix pulled out the on-call roster and quickly made his way over to the resting lounges. According to the roster Bella was on play-by-play and Annavalaz would provide the analytical insight. The duo wasn’t all that well known yet since they were all the way down in the hundred-plus zones but they were steadily building up a fanbase. Any duo could quickly climb the popularity ladder if winners from their zones kept advancing in the tournament. He quickly made his way to their lounge and took a few winded breaths before loudly knocking on the door.
“What,” a very grumpy high-pitched female voice sounded from the other side of the door. “You’re needed at the caster desk. We have an incoming duel on our hands”. Bix could hear stumbling sounds coming from the room followed by a thud and swearing. “Anna wake up we’re up for a duel”. “How much time,” a deeper female voice sounded from the room. “You have maybe three to four minutes”. Some more explicit cursing could be heard.
Bix waited outside the room for the woman to get ready. Annavalaz came out first. She was a female lizardman and stood at seven feet tall slightly glaring down at the six feet demon. Bix quickly buried his thoughts about the cold beauty stepping on him. Her scales glittered in greens and blues in the bright corridor lights. She wore a short-sleeved black dress shirt with a white type of skirt. Bella quickly followed after her. The pale-skinned vampire girl was busy tying up her auburn hair in her ‘signature’ twin tails style. Vampires preferred bright and dark red colour and she was no different. She wore a black long-sleeved dress shirt covered by a bright red waistcoat and an identical white skirt. With her five feet, she had to look up at Bix gesturing about what the hold-up was. Bix snapped to attention and quickly led the woman to the casting desk. As they entered the studio he threw a quick look at Grunk who just gave him a thumbs up.
Bella and Annavalaz took their seat behind the desk. An assistant quickly placed a few sheets of paper on the desk with all kinds of analytical data. Annavalaz quickly picked them up to get the basis of the available data. While Bella would start them off she could formulate her analysis based on their decks, current battel records, and any items they might have. Just going over their deck lists made it clear the human had a very big advantage over the goblin. She was still going over the other data before her thoughts were interrupted.
“We’re live in five, four, three,” the floor director called while counting off two and one with his hands.
“Welcome you die-hard fans out there to the first duel of zone one forty-three,” Bella said as she winked with a smile while holding her hand sideways next to her mouth making a V sign with her fingers. “We have an interesting duel coming up very soon. Our first-ever human player Michael is facing off against Un’Gol of the Purple Eye clan. In an upcoming epic battle of undead versus Greenskins, skeletons versus goblins. I’m told that the duel is vast approaching so let’s quickly go over what we know of our duellists”.
“That’s right Bella, a classic tale of green vs undead. Michael currently stands at seventeen life points while Un’Gol is down to thirteen. The battlefield will be an open location either inside an old elven keep or in the courtyard. With no battlefield variable, it will be a straightforward fight. While both duellists started out by clearing roaming packs, Michael has cleared an easy dungeon picking up some extra power.” With that, a list of both duellists decked popped up on the screen in between the two casters.
“With eighteen cards in the deck and with a total attack power of twenty-seven, Un’Gol is facing an uphill battle with his twelve cards and twenty attack power. We’re also seeing three creature equipment cards on Michael’s creatures while Un’Gol has none of his own. With their power difference of seven might seem possible I want to highlight two cards from Michael’s deck,” Annavalaz said before pressing on the interactive screen and selecting the bloated zombie and the tomb guardian.
“While the zombie has an attack power value of zero it does have a poisonous effect and with five health points, only the goblin brute can take it down in one attack. Luckily for Un’Gol it has the defender tag and won’t be able to directly attack him. The tomb guardian applies the same pressure in the form of a stack of block. If Un’Gol misplays that matchup he’ll quickly run out of options. Taking all that into,” Annavalaz started to say but was interrupted by Bella.
“While I always enjoy your insights, we’re now switching to our live feed”. The screen changed to an overview of the main hall of the keep. Bella and Annavalaz were visible in a picture-in-picture screen in the bottom right with the top left and right holding a box for the player's hands.
==
I had just clothed myself again before something pounded on the keep’s door. With the deck still in hand, I burst from the kitchen into the main hall. I was just in time to see a goblin forcing its way into the main hall. To my complete surprise, it started to speak.
“Human! Un’Gol has come for battle,” the goblin exclaimed proudly.
“I’m kind of wet and tired, any chance we can just talk it out,” I asked.
“The only talking we’ll be doing is on the battlefield.”
The battlefield overlay came to life but there the pulling force was absent. Instead, a notification screen popped up.
Player duel initiated.
Please enter your player zone in twenty seconds.
Failure to comply will result in life point damage every ten seconds.
Un’Gol already stood in place and I took my own place. It was good to learn that these duels were unavoidable.
==
“With both of our duellists ready, let's see those opening hands,” Belle said. “A basic opening hand for Un’gol with three (1/1) goblins and luckily for him his goblin brute at (5/3). Over on Michael’s side, we have not one but two surprises. Not only does he have five cards in hand but he also has a card with innate.”
“His fifth card is from his item Sleight of gloves. A price he picked up from the dungeon. It lets him draw an extra card for the opening hand,” Annvalaz explained as she quickly queried the spider egg card. “This is an uncommon spider egg effect card which gives it an upgrade. The upgrade that was chosen gave it the innate ability. This is a clever choice since the viability of the card rapidly goes down after the first two turns.”
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“Very interesting Anna. The rest of his hand are two (1/1) skeletons, a (2/2) horse skeleton, and a (4/4) skeletal commander. With both duellists having their most expensive card in hand we can expect an explosive turn three.
I observed the goblin in the same way as the mummy from the dungeon. He picked a card from his hand and played on somewhere on his left. I wasn’t able to exactly see the lane but the first one was most likely. I made a show of pulling my own card from my hand and eyed my lane five opposite what for him would be lane one. I folded my cards and mentally played the spider egg card hoping he wouldn’t see the field effect card in play.
“A sneaky play at the end of the turn there from Michael with the stealth spider egg play. The misdirection with the overly acted card play could seriously throw Un’Gol off unless he spots it. But even if he does spot the effect he’ll be hard-pressed to play a counter even if it’s only a (1/1) spider,” Bella called the play-by-play. “And we’re off to an even trade in the first round with both duellists playing their cards in the bottom lane.”
The skeleton and goblin charged each other. As the skeleton's axe came down the goblin was too late to dodge and its free hand got chopped off. On the counterattack, the goblin slammed its club into the skeleton's skull and shattered it. The goblin clutched the stump and fell to its knees. It quickly died afterwards from blood loss.
“An even trade in round one. Both duellists currently have a turn-two play with two one cost cards in hand. Michael has the advantage since one of his cards sits at (2/2). But does the draw change anything for either duellist? Let's find out,” Bella continued. “Another (1/1) for Un’Gol and a (3/3) for Michael. What’s the play here Anna?”
Anna cupped her chin with one hand and quickly went over the options. “Un’Gol only has one play and that’s playing two cards. While Michael could play the tomb guardian it would be a net loss. He would take damage and lose the stack of block.”
I observed the goblin again to determine his plays. He grabbed two cards and looked at the floor in front of him. With two gems to play cards with, they had to be one-cost cards. I wanted to save the tomb guardian for the next round so I played my own two one-cost cards opposing his. Depending on my draw and his play I could play either the commander or the guardian.
“Hang on viewers, does he see the future, is he all-seeing, a master tactician, or just plain lucky? We’re once again trading blows between duellists. Both plays were copied and are now outdone. It’s looking bad for Un’Gol coming at the end of turn two.” Bella was really getting into her caster persona now as the battle went forward and the human seemed to have a solid grasp on the game so far.
The lizardman skeleton hoisted its massive club and turned the, in comparison, tiny goblin into paste. The second goblin smashed apart the lizardman’s torse. In the continued momentum of the swing, it clipped the horse and cracked a bone before it was trampled by the horse.
Un’gol was seething. How had the weak human countered both of his plays? He was even down a card with the horse surviving the encounter. Luckily it was the third turn and with his brute in hand, he would deal a decisive blow. It would also be the fourth creature he played and he would use his enrage token on his brute. He heard a cracking sound like something breaking out of something and to his utter surprise a spider descended from the ceiling and into one of the human's vanguard slots. He barely got a glimpse of the field effect icon blinking out. The damn human had somehow tricked him or lured him into an ambush. He quickly drew his card but it was a useless dire wolf card. He played his brute in the centre lane and ended his turn by empowering it with the enrage token.
“Here it comes people, the explosive turn three we’ve been waiting for. Un’gol didn’t hesitate to go full out with an enraged brute in the centre lane. Now how will his opponent respond?” Bella was giddily bouncing on her seat while Annavalaz looked on with interest. The camera focussed on Michael’s hands to see the play he’d make. He picked out the skeletal commander and played it in the top lane.
“Hold your demons people we have a fight on our hands,” Bella yelled out. This is the first round there won’t be a trade on creatures but on health points. There are seven points of damage on Michael’s side while Un’Gol will only deal six. That’s only one point of difference but that one more point Un’gol will be behind the four he already is. If he doesn’t stop the charge next round he’ll be eliminated from the tournament.”
“It’s a trap,” Annavalaz proclaimed. Her eyes were going over the notes on her desk and her smile spread wide.
The cards materialized on the field and Un’gol was pleased. His brute went unopposed and he could finally deal damage to the human.
The skeletal commander marched forward flanked by the spider. With a nice diagonal swing, it cut across Un’gol’s chest while the spider bit him on the leg. The brute charged ahead and was opposed by the horse briefly before the brute pushed it aside with a should check. It raised its twin axes high and chopped down on the human.
Out of nowhere a giant wall of stone appeared and intercepted the brute’s attack. The axes barely left a scratch on the slab of stone before it retreated back into the ground.
“WHAT IN THE SEVEN HELLS WAS THAT,” Bella couldn’t help but shout as she looked at her partner with a questioning gaze.
“You remember that dungeon we mentioned earlier,” Annavalaz asked with Bella nodding her head. “Well, he picked up a very interesting item,” and with her words, the description of the minor ring of stone interposed itself onto the screen to inform all the viewers of its ability.
“He knew the brute was in the centre lane and instead of intercepting it with the tomb guardian or his skeletal commander he played the commander for damage and blocked with the ring instead. It‘s a brilliant play from someone who’s completely new to our tournament,” Annavalaz explained with a hit of admiration. She loved tactical plays like that where one duellist outsmarted the other.
I was very pleased with myself. That play was executed perfectly. Going into round four we would stall play a bit since I would have a full field on vanguards and Un’Gol could empty his hand of three cards. But that would be his last turn. My board state was too dominant and he would lose out when we started top decking. I had to also centre myself. While this duel was in my favour from the start I should assume it would be the same for even other duel in this first round of the tournament. And it would only get rougher further in.
Un’Gol was too confused to grasp what had happened. His all-powerful brute was blocked by a wall of stone. The only upside was that it still lived and could attack again this round. Al he needed to do was block the four-power commander and take out the damn horse. He drew one of his (3/2) enforcers and unloaded all the cards in his hand.
“Un’Gol is going for a full send. He emptied his hand in an attempt to block out Michael’s attack. For someone on the back foot he’s making smart plays but will it be enough? In a mirror draw, Michael also drew a two-cost card but his only sat at (2/2) compared to the enforcers (3/2). Do you think this will turn into a reversal Anna,” Bella asked her partner.
A cold no was her answer. “That stone ring play was the final nail in the coffin. Un’Gol will not be able to muster enough damage anymore with his deck,” she explained further.
I played my tomb guardian in the centre lane to kill the brute and my knight in the last open vanguard slot in the bottom lane. The dire wolf bit down on the commander's leg and was promptly stabbed to death by it. The enforcer pummelled the spider to death with its gauntleted hand and only received a few weak stabs in return that couldn’t kill it. The brute once more charged forward. Its muscles ripped with power as it swung both axes in a horizontal attack from the right. The tomb guardian slammed the bottom of its shield into the ground and braced for impact. With two loud thuds, the axes bounced off the massive shield. Before the brute could find its balance again after being rebounded by the shield the sword spear shot forward from a special side slot on the shield and pierce it straight through the heart. With the same speed, the blade was retracted gain. The brute took a few unsteady steps as its arms limply hung to its side. Before dropping to its knees the axes dropped from its hand and it slumped over dead.
The horse charged the last goblin on the field. It held up a spear and nicked several bones as the horse charged straight into it and crashed into the goblin. Sharp pieces of the nicked bonus embedded themselves in the goblin. The knight strode up the Un’gol and stabbed his sword into his chest where it only left a slight mark.
Un’gol drew one more dire wolf card and without hesitation played it to block the skeletal commander. He used his second enrage token on the enforcer but he knew it was a useless gesture. He had underestimated the human too much.
I drew a common skeleton and filled up the empty vanguard slots with my last two cards. The commander killed another dire wolf and took a spear through the chest before bashing in the skull of the skeleton. The tomb guardian advanced with its shield still raised and another lightning-fast spear thrust left another small wound on the goblin’s chest.
“For the honour of the Purple Eye clan,” the goblin exclaimed in his final act. A pale blue light winked out around his body and he looked straight into the hollow eye sockets of the approaching skeleton. With a horizontal chop of an axe, Un’Gol’s head was severed from his body.
With a bright flash both the head and the body vanished leaving behind the same backpack I had and a deckbox.
“And there we have it folks. Zone one forty-three’s first player duel. An intense first duel if I say so myself. Personally, I’m very much looking forward to Michael’s future in the tournament,” Bella said. “Be sure to tune in for the Midnight lounge with Vix tonight as she’ll surely deep dive on today’s duel. This were Bella and Anna live from the caster desk and we’ll see you next duel.” And with that outro, the screen faded into a commercial.