Exhibition Team Battle: West Bank Preparatory JV vs. Engine City High TCG Club
Individual Results: Felix Westing (L: 0 Points) vs. Lane Ramsay (W: 2 Points)
Benny Peters (W: 4 Points) vs. Tai Longham (L: 0 Points)
Jaime Cortes (L: 0 Points) vs. Harvey Gutierrez (W: 3 Points)
Team Results: West Bank Preparatory JV (4 Points) loses to Engine City High TCG Club (5 Points)
The rest of the matches only began to pick up speed after Felix and Lane had finished. Despite his grandstanding over Lane, Tai lost his match against West Bank’s representative and only managed to take one prize card. Harvey won her match with one Prize card of her own remaining.
Felix modestly clapped when Harvey won her match, ending the team battle. The event had only lasted about half an hour or so. Lane caught the fourth member of their team immediately send someone a text once the individual games had ended.
“Good game,” Harvey shook her opponent’s hand. “Thanks for letting me film.” Jaime nodded, gathering up his cards. Harvey turned off the camera over the desks, careful not to break the small device’s fragile setup.
“Do you mind if I record your decklist?” The fourth member asked Harvey. She nodded, flipped over her deck and spread the cards across her playmat. Tai did the same. Lane quickly followed suit, but tapped Tai on the shoulder.
“What?” he asked him. The loss had not sat well with Tai. Lane pointed to the overturned cards and opened his hand, trying to ask why they were complying. “It’s a matter of course for event matches. Most casual events won’t really care, but if you’re asked to show off your deck, it’s to make sure you complied with the game’s rules. You didn’t sneak in any duplicates or play any banned or illegal cards so don't worry.”
“It’s also for our own record keeping,” the fourth member of the West Bank team explained. He took a picture of Tai’s cards and the kingdom he used. “I’m Morton, by the way.” The kid was lean, but not super tall. His face was flat and his wire-frame glasses kept trying to slip off of his snub nose.
Lane nodded and dutifully spread out his cards to reveal the deck.
Lane Ramsay Decklist -
Kingdom: ClockWorkshop
Rulers: The Lonely Repairman
Proud Inventor
Subjects: Dream Invader
Memory Fairy, Ardem
Ill Equipped Knight
Canyon Ogre Grifter
Canyon Ogre Hero
Canyon Ogre Scout
Canyon Ogre Bard
Crow of Foul Omen
Renewed Emperor
Fatal Stagehand
ClockWork Prototype
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ClockWork Android
ClockWork Ursine
ClockWork Wyvern
Squire Under Pisces
Famished Djinn
Severe Librarian
Garrison Warrior
Resources: Lost in Translation
Blackout Curtain
Cannibal Course
Tranquility
Tears of Rage
Reserve Power
Minted Coins
Lead the Charge
Archaic Watchtower
Troubled Digsite
Morton looked to take a picture, but paused after really examining the deck.
“Is this a draft deck?” Morton asked Lane. Lane couldn’t ask what that was, or explain how rushed he’d been to put the cards together. “Why would you only run four Canyon Ogres? And why would you only run one Memory Fairy… and Squire without their Knight counterpart?”
“Yeah, Lane, could you explain your choices in detail?” Tai asked, finding some satisfaction in taunting the new kid.
“There was strategy in what he built,” Felix said. He got up from the desk. “You never need to explain your choices.” Morton shrugged, took a picture and moved on from the desk.
“Did you wanna play some more friendlies?” Harvey asked the visiting team.
“No, we should get back,” Morton said. The other kids seemed like they might have agreed, Felix especially. But once Morton answered, they didn’t argue. “We’ll host the next event. You can try our AR rig.”
--
Lane helped return the classroom to being a classroom, reorganizing the cards he’d scattered and the desks they’d rearranged. He felt some hesitation about returning the borrowed cards.
Despite protesting his involvement with the club, he’d won his match.
That part still didn’t feel real. Every time a teacher or a classmate or someone threw him into some new activity, Lane expected to fail and did. Or, he failed to fit in and just stopped showing up. It felt good to play a game with a stranger and shake his hand as a competitor at the end of it. Lane had even spoken up. Was this finally the club where he belonged?
“Thanks for your help today,” Tai said. He reached around Lane, prone before the tub of cards and mats, and pushed it away. “We’ll let you know if we need your help again.”
Harvey was downloading the footage from her cameras to a laptop, already editing the matches into videos. The work had engrossed her totally and her ears were cushioned by thick headphones.
“Oh, I’ll take that,” Tai said. He waited for Lane to finally hand him the ClockWorkshop playmat. Once Lane complied, Tai showed him the door.
Lane tried to think of something to say on his way out, but nothing came to mind. Even if it had he wouldn’t be able to really say it. And so he just left, even more embarrassed. In all those other opportunities, Lane had hated what he was forced to do and was happy to leave. Now, having finally found something worth doing, he couldn’t find the words to stick around.
----------------------------------------
Mr. Seitz-Khund looked up from one of the last of his essays, reminded again of the club he was supposed to be moderating.
“Where did Mr. Ramsay go?” he asked the room. Harvey looked for him too, broken from her editing trance. “I need him to sign a membership form if he’s to join the club.”
It wasn’t lost on him how good it would look to the administration if he was responsible for helping out one of the school’s “problem children,” especially when the English department’s chair was soon to retire.
“He’s not actually joining,” Tai said. He was assembling a new deck. After Lane had left, Tai immediately went into the card library to fish out what he’d used, trying to piece together a better version of the slapdash deck. “We’ll find someone else to be our third member.”
“What?” Harvey looked up from her work. “Did you do something?”
“He didn’t want to join,” Tai smiled. “At least he didn’t say so.”
“Ass-” Harvey started.
“Language, Ms. Gutierrez,” the teacher said. “There’s nothing more important in this classroom. And, Mr. Longham, if this club's membership can’t reach minimum capacity by the end of the week then it is officially disbanded. I suggest you try to reach out to Mr. Ramsay before that happens.”
“Agreed,” Harvey said. Tai grimaced and started getting his stuff together. He didn’t want to care about this new interloper who’d showed him up in their matches. He wanted to find Callum. He was supposed to be their third member, not some new kid.