The white light settled and I found myself in another room roughly 5 by 5 feet in size. The room had no visible door or windows. The floor was covered in dark panels with the walls and ceiling in a dark blueish colour. The only light in the room was cast by a ceiling lamp. In front of me stood a display case lit by the ceiling light similar to a spotlight. Nine decks were on display inside the case. A sign stood atop the case.
Welcome player.
Before you lie the nine starter decks designed for the tournament.
Each deck contains twelve cards which include:
9x common 1/1/1
2x common 2/2/2
1x uncommon 3/3/3
Each deck will consist of creatures with the same type like Beast. Each card may be of a different subtype like Wolf or Bear. While no starting deck is better than the other, each will focus on a different style of play and synergy as it is built out over the tournament.
All the luck to you.
Mr. Richard.
The description was pretty clear and straightforward. It took a better look at the deck on display. Each deck has a very vivid art piece on the card's back. Time to pick a deck and have at it I guess. With no prior knowledge of the meta and progression of each deck, hopefully, the deck name and cards would give a clue as to how best to utilise the different decks.
Viewing the details of a deck only took a few seconds of focusing on the card stack.
Bloody Suckers.
9x Thrall, 2x Young vampire, 1x Vampire
Creepy Crawlers.
3x Spider, 3x Snake, 3x Roach, 2x Big spider, 1x Giant snake.
Fur(r)y Friends.
4x Bunny, 5x Squirrel, 2x Thumper, 1x Giant squirrel.
Green Meanies.
6x Goblin, 3x Warg, 2x Goblin enforcer, 1x Goblin brute.
Knights of Round.
2x John, 2x Jim, 2x Tom, 2x Bob, 1x Kevin, 1x Knight Frank, 1x Knight Dylan, 1x Commander Steve.
Recurring Bones.
9x Skeleton (varies), 2x Skeletal knight (human), 1x Skeletal commander (human).
Prowlers and Howlers.
9x Wolf, 2x Proud wolf, 1x Pack leader.
Skitter in the Dark.
9x Ratling, 2x Black rat, 1x Ratling lord.
Striking Scales.
6x Young Lizardman, 3x Lizard, 2x Lizardman, 1x Veteran Lizardman
Unfortunately, that was a lot less to go on than I had hoped to learn from these decks. Too much of what you see is what you get. The two decks that stood out the most were Knights of Round and Skitter in the Dark. The sheer number of named knights marked it as an upgrade deck. Rough early on until you got everything upgraded into a specific role most likely. The Dark part could go either being buffed by darkness. Travelling at night was always a bad idea especially since I could be attacked. It might be good to catch things off guard or any place where the sun didn’t reach, but I could not guarantee I’d meet the other players under those conditions.
Fur(r)y Friends, Green Meanies, and Striking Scales looked to be mixed army types. Do two things alright instead of one thing great. While diversity could lead to an early advantage they might miss that late-game synergy. The friends could also be an overwhelm or buff deck.
Creepy Crawlers looked to be a debuff-type deck. Where creature power was replaced by ability power. Debuffs would work very well against large targets. It looked like a decent choice since everyone started with the same base deck but he would fight the other players with his starting deck.
Bloody Suckers, Recurring Bones, and Prowlers and Howlers looked like tribal decks. Tribal decks would buff every creature with the same type. For special abilities I suspected Suckers would probably have some self-healing abilities, reanimation for the Bones as indicated by the name, and Howlers to really lean in the tribal synergy and perhaps something that would explain that Prowlers part.
With my hand on my chin, I glanced over the decks on display. A heavy sigh left my mouth. I had too little information to go on. I didn´t know what kinds of abilities a card could even have. Picking a deck at random had as much chance of success as whichever choice I´d make myself and that frustrated me. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. I let the air linger in my lungs for a few seconds before fully exhaling. I looked over the names again and made my decision.
The mixed decks were out. They held too much risk. The crawlers were tempting but I was never a debuff type player. And I was expecting that creatures would not stay on the board for long to full advantage of those debuffs. By the same logic, I cut the Howlers. What I needed was staying power. Most fights would simply come down to outlasting your opponent. Healing was one option to stay in the game but the recurring part swayed me in the end. Resurrection or cheating out more creatures than my opponent seemed the most likely way to victory.
With no visible way to grab the deck, I had chosen from the display case I was stumped on how to proceed. “Hello,” I called out to the empty room. No response came after a few seconds of waiting. I frowned before deciding to simply state my intention. “I choose the Recurring Bones deck”.
I heard a click come from the display case and when I looked over the glass portion above my chosen deck was lifted open. I stepped closer to the display case to pick up my deck. When I picked it up the back of my hand knocked against a glass pane which separated the spot my deck was in from others. Seems they had a mechanism in place so we couldn’t cheat by picking up more than one deck. The deck of cards felt light in my hands. The back of the cards held a very lifelike and shimmering 3d rendition of a skull like it was screaming at the world. Shimmering green and blue fire sparkled in the eye sockets.
The hairs on the back of my arms started to rise and a soft static filled the air in the room. I quickly connect the feeling to that odd teleportation sensation. And just as I had the thought I was whisked away again.
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“And there you have it folks,” the bald announcer said. He looked human with a pale complexion but his ears were long and his eyes were a brownish red. He wore a black buttoned-up shirt with a white necktie. “All our contestant for zone 143 have selected their starting decks and are now waiting for the first tournament round to start.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Indeed they have Khazilex,” his orcish co-host said. His skin was dark green and he had yellow eyes and was just as bald as his counterpart. “Let us go over our contestants and their decks while we wait on the final preparations.” The camera zoomed out from the close-up it had on the duo of announcers. It slightly panned to the left keeping both hosts in view to where a video screen displayed nine blue rows neatly divided down the middle.
Name
Deck
Or’Gall (Greenskin)
Green Meanies
Un’Gol (Greenskin)
Green Meanies
Lacravix (Vampire)
Bloody Suckers
Iphan (Primas)
Striking Scales
Skrissix (Darkling)
Skitter in the Dark
Sreavalax (Darkling)
Creepy Crawlers
Falliana (Elven)
Prowlers and Howlers
Michael (Human)
Recurring Bones
“Well, Bor’Gaful, it seems like the age-old tradition of speciesism will continue with this iteration of the Survival tournament.”
“Indeed it will. I’ll bet this trend will continue for as long as the tournaments will run,” Bor’Gaful replied. “But who would have thought that our zone would feature not one but two oddities? The Elven have always been against the tournament so why did this one join the tournament?”
The camera focussed back to both of the announcers.
“Well,” Khazilex started. “A little bat told me the ship of our little Elven friend, along with some of her friends, got caught in a storm and was found adrift in Triumvirate waters. That same little bat told me that if any of the seven contestants that joined win the tournament they, along with others that didn’t join, will be turned over to their homes in freedom.”
“That will be a tall order to fill for those Elven, but who knows they might pull it off. Everyone likes a good underdog story,” Bor’Gaful replied. “Would that same little bat have any information about this Human? It’s the first time anyone has heard from this species.”
“It so happens that it did! By a stroke of technological wonder, our top magi-technicians managed to use some sort of special magic to broadcast to another dimension or something. Using some of that lovely contract magic they bound the human to the tournament signup. After that I was…”
“I’ll have to cut you off there Khazilex. It seems that all the preparations have been done and our contestant will be dropped into their zone in 5.”
A Giant blue 5 filled the screen followed by 4, 3, 2, 1.
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My feet touched down on a rocky surface while I blinked away the bright spots from my eyes. The rollercoaster feel I got from being transported was fine but those damn lights made it very annoying. The first thing I noticed was the sound of waves coming from behind me as well as the salty smell of the sea. In front of me, a rocky slope went down to a tree line. The same rocky cliff and sea could be seen on my left and right. The blue sky overhead was sparsely covered with yellow clouds and an orange sun stood high in the sky above.
The sudden appearance of a blue screen made me jump back which promptly landed on my ass due to the weight of a backpack is wasn’t wearing before. I stood up and rubbed the dirt off my pants as I made my way over to the screen.
Greetings Michael,
Welcome to zone 143! You and seven other players have been scattered about this island.
The first round will last for seven days. The two players left after those seven days will go on to the next round.
If after seven days more than two players are remaining they will be transported to a randomly selected field where they will battle until there are only two players left to advance.
Each player is supplied with a backpack containing enough food rations to last you the first day, a canteen, a small knife, a small hatched, and a fire starter.
Your deck has been placed inside your deck box which is clipped to your belt. Each deck has an associated deck box so be sure to see which effect it has.
May your draw be fortunes.
As soon as I read the entire message it vanished into thin air. My first thought was to go through the contents of my backpack and check out my deck and deck box but despite only standing in the sun for no more than five minutes I was already starting to sweat. The short cliff I was teleported to had no beaches in sight and a quick look over the edge showed a steep wall with nothing but jagged rocks at the bottom. With the desire to no longer be slightly cooked in the blaring sun, I made my way over to the tree line.
Walking into the treeline and under the forest canopy was an instant relief from the oppressing heat of the sun. The small comfort was quickly replaced by the warm and humid air trapped under that same canopy. The sounds of birds and insects filled my ears. Which made me wonder if those were the regular garden variety birds and insects or the creature type that I could battle. Gazing over the forest floor my question was instantly answered as I spotted several garden-variety insects crawling around. This instantly made sleeping on the forest floor a bad idea. I wasn’t afraid of bugs but the thought of them crawling all over me in my sleep sent a shiver down my spine.
After a roughly five-minute walk, I spotted a pretty hefty tree. That was exactly what I was looking for and made my way over. The ground around the tree was only covered by weeds and short grass. The heavy canopy would not allow other trees to grow nearby since the tree soaked up all the sunlight. When I reached the base the tree’s heft became noticeable. I could easily wrap myself around the trunk four times. The lowest branches were roughly nine or ten feet off the ground. I doubted I’d reach them even with a running jump start but I had a plan for that.
I slung the backpack off my back before sitting down with my back against the tree and placed the backpack in front of me between my legs. I had a simple hole and pin clasp to keep it closed. Undoing the clasp showed that the top was pulled closed as well with a simple drawstring. I pulled it open and went over the content inside. The small knife was the same as the one I was handed in the tutorial by Rose. The only difference was that the bottom of the handle held a very small compass. So that would be used to skin and harvest animals for food. The small axe had a handle as long as my forearm with a blade the size of my hand on one side and a flat back similar to a hammer. The canteen would hold maybe two litres of water and in this warm climate, I would go through that pretty quickly. The rations contained some dried meat, hardtack and two apple-looking pieces of fruit. At least the message was correct that it would only last me the first day. Finding a source of water would be my priority. I could go a few days without food even if dropping to low would start eating at my health points.
The best outcome would be to find a clear water source. I could always make a dew trap but that would not supply me with enough water. I could try digging a hole and see if I would hit groundwater but I had no good way to filter the dirt out. Juicy fruit was a slight risk since I didn’t know if the fruit was even edible. And as a last resort, I could turn to animal blood. Drinking blood had the same downside as the fruit since raw blood can carry all sorts of other viruses, germs, and bacteria that can make me sick.
Just thinking about the prospect of drinking blood made me feel thirsty so I took a few sips from my canteen and enjoyed the warm and gentle breeze. I put everything back into my backpack and closed it up. Just as I was about to leave the final line of the message popped back into my mind. I had a deck box to examine.