'I don't know what kind of backwards world we're living in where card game players are some of the richest people in the world but as someone who was lucky enough to have these cards, I'm going to do everything in my power to get as rich as possible'
In the modern day, a card game called 'Conquest' had completely taken over the entertainment industry, players of the card game able to amass intergenerational wealth in under a decade due to widespread popularity of the game. Moreover, the Brilliant Group, the largest corporation in the entire world, were officially behind the game and pushing it as their flagship source of revenue, dedicating a nation's worth of resources to funding and supporting the industry.
Playing the game wasn't that easy though, as soon as the rights to the game were acquired by The Brilliant Group, the number of cards in circulation were drastically decreased, several players initially selling their cards back to the company for large profit, only to then realize that packs and product were cards could be acquired would soon become few and far between. In the vision imagined by The Brilliant Group, Conquest was a game that truly lived up to it's name, players primarily gaining cards by playing each other and wagering some of their strongest cards in order to empower their decks.
For this reason, the scarcity of playability set the already active community on fire, giants and monsters only getting stronger and stronger as they played more games. However, there were opportunities for individuals to acquire cards directly from the Brilliant Group, at tournaments that were held once a year each player would start with ten Conquest Coins and battle it out with other Conquerors for their coins, eventually able to cash in their coins for cards at the end of the tournament.
In preparation for the yearly tournament, a short and thin teenage boy sat hunched over the desk in his bedroom, his eyes wide open as his fingers routinely shuffled through several sets of cards, consistently ending with the same group of cards in front of him.
'This deck feels absurdly strong'
The youth exhaled softly, shuffling all the cards into his deck before he drew 5, gathering a sample hand as via game mechanics, each player started the game with 5 cards.
'This is even one of the better hands I could open'
[Abundance]
[Emergency Balance Update]
[Sacred Soldier]
[Temple of The Righteous]
[Elemental King Zariel: True King of Light]
'[Abundance] ha got to be one of the most insane cards ever printed'
[Abundance] - Tech Card
*Draw cards until you have doubled the number of cards in your hand
Just in terms of card advantadge, activating [Abundance] at the beginning of your turn was a clean +4, granting yourself one of the most unfair types of advantage you could have over your opponent in a card game.
'Simply having more cards'
While the threat of deck out and losing the game consequently did exist as a punishment to drawing too many cards, it was not a real deterrent for several reasons. First of all, via Game Rules, a player had to have a minimum of 30 cards in their deck anyway and was not allowed to have more than 3 copies of the same card in their deck, moreover, only 5 cards could be in the hand of the player at the end of any turn and in most advanced decks there were cards that could shuffle cards back into the deck for more advantadge.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
'The only concievable downside is that it eats away at my Tech Slots'
The absurdity of the text on the card was barely balanced by the fact it was what was known as a 'Tech Card', cards with such power and versatility that a legal deck could only play 10 of them without breaking the rules.
'I also drew another one of my busted Tech Cards in my opening hand'
[Emergency Balance Patch] - Tech Card
*You can remove the effects of cards in your hand until the end of the turn and if you do, apply the following effects based on the number of cards with effects removed
*3 - Negate the effects of all Summons your opponent controls
*5 - Set the ATK/DEF of all Summons your opponent controls to 0
*7 - The effect of this card cannot be negated
'This card is a bit tricky'
In the Conquest community, despite the effects [Emergency Balance Patch] being absurdly strong, it was looked down on quite considerably due to the steep cost. Because the condition for activation for the card was effect removal, it essentially meant that non-Summon cards in your hand would become bricks, the player getting negative value from playing them as via Game Mechanics, they had no effect. Moreover, in Conquest, there was no mechanics-indunced limit on the number of Summons that could be summoned on a turn, meaning that the Summons with their effects removed where pretty much completely open to disruption from their opponents.
'That's why practically nobody plays it, however, if you remove the effect of an Elemental King, you can summon it for free'
[Elemental King Zariel: True King of Light] - Summon (ATK/DEF:5000/5000)
*This card can only by summoned by tributing 5 Light Attribute Summons from your field.
*This card cannot leave the field via your opponents card effects.
*Once per turn, you can target a Light Attribute Summon your opponent controls and take control of it
*Once per turn, double your life points and if you do, draw cards equal to the number rounded to the rounded to the nearest 10,000
'And every Elemental King is effectively a win condition'
Elemental King Zariel was a boss monster from the Elemental King line, one of the strongest type of Summons that existed in the earlier days of the game and was balanced by the fact that 5 Light Summons had to be tributed for it's summon. In the modern game, getting 5 Summons at all on the field was extremely difficult, most opponent's able to disrupt and prevent such a board state which meant that Elemental King's were functionally unplayable.
'But what if it had it's effect removed?'
The youth smiled as he envisioned his strategy.
The entire aim of his deck was to remove the effects of as many Elemental Kings as possible with [Emergency Balance Patch] and summon them all onto the field, the rest of the deck designed to keep the beatsticks on his field until the turn ended and the Elemental Kings would all get their effects back, their powerful effects spelling defeat for his opponent.
'I'm just lucky I was able to find all of these cards before The Brilliant Group took over and more fortunate that I had the resolve to not sell them all off'
The father of youth owned a card shop and naturally had several boxes filled with Conquest cards that he got first pick from, crafting several decks when he was younger as mere hobby while he went to school. He never would have imagined that the cards he treated so trivially as child would become unfathomably instrumental to his wellbeing as an adult.
'Those cards are the reason why dad is still alive'
Just a few years ago, his father was diagonised with a treatable but deadly illness, the treatment only affordable due to the sale of his father's cards to the Brilliant Group.
'Still, I could tell that something was brewing'
The youth still had 3 complete and powerful decks which were the creme of the crop of all the cards he had played with, the rest permanently removed from circulation in alignment with the enforcement of the Brilliant Group's agenda.
'The tournament is only in a few days and if I can win or at the very least do well, I may not have to work another day in my life'
The sale of the cards, as profitable as they were, were used to finance his father's illness, not much left to actually support him for the future and given his current position, Conquest was a much more tantalizing prospect than slaving away in the education system to make a small contribution to society.
The youth packed all of his cards together, out of his three decks, this one was the most explosive and lethal, intended to kill the opponent in just a few turns.
'I'm going to give this tournament everything I've got!'