Jewels paused, taking a moment to look at the card shop. It looked rather boring, but there was an odd aura around it… maybe it was just his imagination. Still, he hesitated to open the door. The sign read closed, but Aniki did ask him to come here in the afternoon. Jewels just interpreted that as “after school.”
Ugh, school was awkward. He, Slim, and Shark hadn’t spoken all day, and he was pretty sure that Shark was hanging around Yuma of all people. Yuma! Mr. “Summon Gogogo Golem in attack mode!”
Whatever, that wasn’t important. Sighing, Jewels pushed on the door, and it was unlocked, surprisingly. A little bell chimed as he walked in, signaling to whoever was in there that he’d just entered. Looking around, it was rather boring, if well kept. Shelves with card packs, sleeves, and different accessories for duel disks and gazers. Nothing stood out to Jewels, but he was never really into any fancy accessories.
Still, that aura only grew stronger as he perused, and Jewels took a moment to glance around once more, finding a side room attached to the main salesfloor, out of which stepped the slim, fit man he was now hoping would teach him his secrets.
“Heya. Nice to see you’re here, come and sit down, I’ll get right into it.”
Aniki sat Jewels across from him at one of the backroom tables, which he had all set up for their little tutoring lesson. What to cover first… huh, that was actually a question he’d had all day. Well, whatever. Deckbuilding was what he wanted to cover first originally, so he’d just go with that.
“Alright. So, first things first, your deck sucks. That sounds mean, but I’m gonna tell you why it sucks.” Jewels looked miffed at the idea that his deck was bad, but he at least looked like he was paying attention.
“Fantastic, see, your deck and mine don’t actually aim to do different things. That sounds weird, but hear me out. Your deck aims to beat down the opponent with big attack monsters, like Garnet, yeah?”
Jewels looked… suspicious, but nodded. Alright, step one, he agrees. “Right. Now, how did you lose our duel?” Step two, make him figure out what he lost to, and see the similarities.
The kid’s eyes widened a bit, and he seemed to get it. “You… did exactly what you described my deck doing… but better?”
Aniki nodded with a smile. This was the best part of teaching kids. They learn much quicker than you’d expect. “Yes! Alright, now, why do you think my deck is better? I’ll start out by saying “better cards” is a copout, and obvious. That’s not why you lost, but it’s a good place to start.”
That one seemed to stump the kid for a while, which was fine. Theory was hard, and if he didn’t get it in a while, Aniki would probably give him a pretty good hint.
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“Any thoughts, Jewels?” Aniki’s question seemed to startle the kid out of his thoughts, but he nodded eventually.
“I think so, yeah. Like you said, you’re playing better cards, but I was wondering why they were better. Eventually, I realized that the reason you won was because your cards can do things. Their effects were what won the game.” A surprisingly in-depth answer, but not quite there. Almost, he was just about there, but he was still missing something.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Alright, you’re pretty close. What effect do you think was most important? Which one won me the game?” This was the golden ticket question, if he got this one, it was gonna be smooth sailing from here.
“...Doki Doki. It was pretty much what let you set up Gallant Granite in the first place, and that let you get Megarock.” Congratulations, Jewels. By anime standards, you’re a genius of unparalleled wisdom.
“Good job, you’ve officially climbed the first hurdle to becoming good. You can now recognize just how good card advantage is. Card advantage is probably the most important facet of Duel Monsters. The more you have, the better. Doki Doki is especially good because it gives me two bits of card advantage for one effect.” Aniki was curious if he’d catch this one.
“Wait, two? You only get one card on the field, unless… your deck wants rock monsters in the graveyard, so Doki Doki putting them there is card advantage too?” Yup, this kid was great. Quick to pick up knowledge, and actually wants to learn.
“Yes! Alright, so, your deck is bad because it doesn’t have card advantage, but it's also bad because it doesn’t really have an endboard” Step three is done, now on to step four, actually getting him a better deck.
“What do you mean?” Jewels looked enraptured by this point. Good. Aniki wasn’t the best player in the world, but here, where normal summoning and setting one was the norm? What he was saying was as good as gold.
“Well, what do you want to get out past turn 1? More Garnets? That’s pretty bad, especially since your opponent could just get out a bigger monster. Beatdown is a fine strategy, but Garnet isn’t a great boss monster to have. Instead… why not this?” Aniki reached into his binder to pull out probably the worst Gem-Knight boss monster ever printed. Gem-Knight Pearl, 2600 attack, 1900 defense. A bad beatstick, but it was a hell of a lot better than Garnet.
“This isn’t the greatest monster, certainly, but it’ll be way better than Garnet past turn 1. All you gotta do is get two level fours, and you’ve got an easy, quick beatdown strat.” Jewels looked confused at that.
“Wait, are you… giving me cards?” Is that the weird part? He owned a card shop, but was that not normal here?
“Yes..? Your deck is bad enough that I’ve decided to give you a bit of a boost.” The look on Jewels’ face could melt the heart of any Grinch. Truly, teaching kids was gratifying.
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After a good afternoon of theory-crafting, Jewels left rather satisfied. Honestly, he’d expected to go in, and get nothing but smug bragging, or be talked down to, but… Aniki was nice. Nice enough to give him cards, even. He still wouldn’t call his deck good, not after he’d gotten his butt kicked by Aniki’s Megarock Dragon beatdown deck, but… it was a step in the right direction. One he felt good about, for the first time in a long time.
Maybe he ought to challenge Shark to a duel, just to see what happened. He’d lose, definitely, but winning or losing wasn’t the point. His deck had just come a very long way in a very short time, and a proper duel would be the best way to get familiar with how it worked now.
Yeah. This was a good feeling. Improvement, that’s what it was. He was improving. Jewels felt giddy at the idea that one day, he might actually get to be a pro duelist. And it all started in a card shop, and a guy nice enough to teach him.
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Reginald Castle, or Shark to anyone who didn’t want to lose teeth, was having a rough day. He’d lost to Yuma yesterday, and that was… humiliating, though he’d be the first to admit he didn’t really remember the duel. Still, he’d lost, and that was plenty for Jewels and Slim to run off.
Shark sighed. He didn’t really know what to do now that he’d basically lost all his reputation. Whatever, he’d decided he needed a walk to clear his head, and he was beginning to think that was a bad idea.
His thoughts had been disjointed lately, quick and meaningless. He didn’t have anywhere to belong, not after his loss. He didn’t go to school today, maybe he should just drop out? He could find a job easy enough… Yeah. He’d do that. At least that way, those idiots would stop trying to make fun of him.
Shark wandered until he found himself in the bad part of town. Small-time gangs usually hung out around here, and it wasn’t odd for someone’s deck to go missing if they left it unattended. That was fine, Shark wasn’t even sure if he wanted to duel anymore. If his deck went missing, that’d just be another sign he wasn’t cut out for the pro leagues, just like everyone said.
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Aniki took a look from the roof of his card shop and smiled at the sunset. It looked nice, and today was honestly pretty fun. Getting together baby’s first decent deck was always an exciting experience, even for those who know it isn’t all that great. Jewels left with a mile-wide smile and Aniki would bet good money that he was off to go find one of his friends to duel with his new-and-improved deck.
It was a good feeling. He’d slowly started working on his plan to train duelists to find the number cards, he was helping kids learn to duel, and he’d even gotten the card shop mostly ready for business today.
Yes, today was a fine day. The only thing that could make it better was if the coffee machine he’d ordered would actually arrive any time soon.