Tay really supposed he should’ve counted himself lucky.

He wasn’t facing Mond. That, in itself, was a blessing bestowed upon him by the Fourteen. He come into the tournament today prepared to just about face anyone in Peace and Quiet, barring Mond.

Instead, he was up against the one person in the whole world who probably knew his deck better than he did. But, even then—even as he finished cutting Atro’s snowy white glowing deck—one sole fact still comforted Tay.

He’d beaten Atro before.

And he’d do it again. Because he had to win. Otherwise, what else would all that practice have been for?

“Okay,” Tay said. “I’ll start the game by attuning myself into Chaos 1, and then playing the Wandering Mage.”

(10) Wandering Mage Stable Shout: Shuffle any number of cards in your hand into your deck. Draw the same number of cards. Replenish < 2

The Will of the Warlock deck hosted about as many mysterious and ghastly creatures as it did ordinary and plain people. The Wandering Mage definitely fell into the latter category, but didn’t lose any mystique of the former. He bore a tall, pointed hat and a gnarled staff as he made a bitter climb up what seemed to be an otherwise impassable mountain.

“That’s an interesting play to drop on turn one,” Atro said. “Are you just going to draw another hand then?”

Tay pursed his lips and shook his head at Atro for knowing his plays before he even got to announce them, but he nevertheless shuffled three cards back into his deck and drew three brand new ones. Among them, was the Warlock of Midnight Darkness, his trump card.

Satisfied with his hand, Tay announced, “That’s going to be it for me. I have more than four cards in my hand, so I’m not going to be drawing during my End Phase.”

“Very well. Then I’ll draw and then attune to Order 1.”

“In all our practice games, you were playing me with Chaos decks. Didn’t want to represent Will of the Warlock with me?”

Atro threw his head back and heartily laughed. “Heh, I wish, Tay. But Will of the Warlock or not, you’ll find that this deck isn’t going to be easily pushed through—especially considering your cards. Actually, why don’t I show you?”

Atro then placed a snowy white card down on the table in front of him, and fished out a second card from his belt. He placed the second card across the table from his deck. It was as if it was floating off to the side of the arena instead of being contained within it.

(15) Lattice Nurturer Stable Shout: summon 1 Heavy Shard Fragment (Barrier, 2 Power) 1 >

Much to the card’s name, it displayed a man standing a field of crystals. They seemed to not only be alive, but to be growing at his command, as he had his hands raised to the sky with crystals cascading upward around him.

Stranger than that was the second card. It, so far as Tay could tell, didn’t have a cost next to its name. He thought it was trying to hide its information from him, but none of the other text blurred or shook. It was something entirely different.

Heavy Shard Fragment Barrier 2 >

It looked like a blue chunk of floating crystal, hovering in a void. It had faint energies zipping about within it, like spores from a mushroom.

Tay had to ask about it. “Why’d you place it so far over there? And what’s a Fragment? I think I remember Em showing me one, but I don’t know much more than that.”

Atro leaned back and then chuckled. “Is a tournament really the best place to be answering questions about the game? But this is a matter of ruling, and your two questions happen to have the same answer.

“A Fragment is a revenant-type that allows them to be played outside of the three-revenant maximum. It doesn’t actually take up space in the arena. Also, while you can choose to attack it like any other revenant, you can also choose to ignore it and just attack me, if I have no non-Fragment revenants.”

“Okay, so they’re just like a little bit extra then?” Tay asked.

“Exactly. Just little fragments of revenants that can get overwhelming if they grow in power.”

“Can they fuse, on that note?”

“Only with themselves. And even, not very well. But this is only one lone Fragment, and I’ve still a play yet to make. I’m going to throw down a Crystalling, if it’s all the same to you.”

(5) Crystalling Stable At the start of your turn, sacrifice this revenant and summon 1 Crystal Shard Fragment (3 Power). 1 >

Just like Tay had a theme to his own deck, it seemed Atro’s has one of his own—except, instead of moody mages, his was circling around crystals and getting these Fragments in play.

Crystalling was this idea at its core, as it was simply a chunk of crystal that had grown two stubs for legs. It also bore a pair of the largest, glowing eyes Tay had ever seen.

Back when Em had been trying to sell him on a deck, she’d mentioned a Fragment deck and told him it was a form of aggro. In his time playing against Atro, he’d faced many different playstyles.

And the Will of the Warlock sucked against aggro.

Tay’s was a deck all about deck controlling the board to the heaviest degree. But if his opponent could smack him down and spam the board to the point where he couldn’t recover—if Warlock of Midnight Darkness hit the board too late—he’d lose. Unquestionably.

If he was going to win this, he’d needed to favor strategy over brute force, as was the case in his victories with Will of the Warlock thus far. He needed Atro to play enough to be vulnerable, but not outright deadly. Only then, could Tay count on his Warlock to save him.

“Now I’ll fuse my Quyll Sharpshot on top of my Lattice Nurturer,” Atro said. “And I’ll follow that up with a Nourishing Hedgehog.”

(15) Quyll Sharpshot Stable Whenever a Fragment Leaves the arena, your opponent loses Life equal to its Power. Barrier 1 >

Funnily enough, they were both hedgehogs, but the Quyll was something more. It stood on two stubby legs and had a back full of sharp quills dripping with venom as white as snow.

As for its counterpart, the Nourishing Hedgehog seemed very much like what one would expect. Though, Tay noticed that it didn’t have any feet, and seemed to simply be a spherical creature with the same sort of venomous quills as the Sharpshot.

(10) Nourishing Hedgehog Fragment Gain 5 Life at the end of your turn. Barrier, Passive 0 >

Tay noticed it was a Fragment too, and pointed it out.

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“Observant,” Atro said, placing it out next to the Heavy Shard. He didn’t fuse them together though, even though he could have. Tay figured it was because Atro didn’t want to give the Heavy Shard the Passive aura, rendering it unable to attack. With it giving Atro 5 Life per turn, he’d need to take care of it quickly or else it could swing the game in Atro’s favor fast.

“Then, I’m going to end my turn by using my Resilient Tassix, which gives my Crystalling Barrier until the start of my next turn.”

Atro raised his left hand to show three rings on his index, middle, and ring fingers, all connected by a short chain. Socketed into the back of the middle one was a star-like white ley-crystal.

(5) Resilient Tassix Target revenant gains Barrier until the start of your next turn. @2

It was pretty obvious why Atro had used his Talisman to protect his Crystalling. At the start of Atro’s next turn, not only would it sacrifice itself to create another Fragment, doing so would cause the Quyll Sharpshot to take a potshot at him.

It would only be a single point of damage, but that could quickly get out of hand if left unchecked. If there was anything Tay had learned while practicing with Atro, it was that decks were more than a random sum of cards added together.

For better or for worse, Rantho had been right—they had synergies. Cards worked together in particular ways, like this Crystalling and the Quyll Sharpshot. Strung together, these synergies would present a deck and its runekeeper their possible win conditions from which they could take home the game.

Which meant Atro’s Crystalling was really a false threat. It wasn’t the real problem he’d have to deal with, and maybe the Hedgehog wasn’t so bad either. If Quyll Sharpshot was a combo piece to one of Atro’s win conditions, Tay needed to deal with it as soon as possible.

Tay’s Life: 90 Atro’s Life: 55

During his next turn, Tay immediately placed a card down to attune himself up to Chaos 2, and then played his Headhunter of the Warlock down on top of the Wandering Mage.

(20) Headhunter of the Warlock Stable Shout: target foe revenant loses Power equal to this revenant’s Power until the end of the turn. Then, add a card from your deck to your hand with Power equal to or less than the Power lost. << 2

“I’m targeting your Quyll Sharpshot with it,” Tay said.

Atro scratched at his chin, and then said, “Of course. And I suspect you’re going to search out Skull of Dark Insights too, right? That’s your plan. It’d be a good play to further develop your board and keep up with me so I don’t overwhelm you. That is, unless I have a way of running over whatever you fuse onto it and take it out before it has a chance to get too much value.”

Tay grimaced and almost wanted to tell Atro that was wrong, but that had been his original plan. And regardless of whether Atro knew what he was planning, it was still his best play for staying in the game. He’d just have to try continue with the knowledge that Atro was going to know all his plays before he made them.

(10) Skull of Dark Insights Stable

Dormant: gain Life equal to the cost of the revenant fusing with this revenant.

Shout: if this revenant was summoned from Echo, add Warlock of Midnight Darkness from your deck of Oblivion to your hand.

Echo < 1

Tay admired the Skull as he placed it down on the table, with its crown of spikes and violet gemstones socketed into its eyes. He liked things that looked valuable, and Tay had seen a fair number of pricey skull in shops claiming to deal in the occult, even though anything resembling the occult had left the world centuries ago.

“So, develop my board, as you so put it, I’ll be fusing my Enforcer of the Warlock on top of it.”

(15) Enforcer of the Warlock Stable Shout: reduce target foe revenant’s Power by half (rounded down). Then, if its Power is less than this revenant’s, it is obliterated. << 3

The card itself was a black-energy wreathed thug, complete with a knuckle duster and iron helmet. Visible winds of dark magic gusted behind him. He had the strength of the Warlock on his side.

“When its effect resolves, it’ll have a total Power of 4 from its fusion, and I’ll target your Quyll Sharpshot, which’ll put it at 0 Power.”

“Ah, I see. So you’re not going to let me—”

“That’s right,” Tay interrupted. “Sharpshot goes to Oblivion and then I’m going to be running my Headhunter into your Crystalling. With its Barrier gone, my Enforcer can then finish it off before you get to transform it into a Fragment. See? I can read your plays too.”

Atro rolled his eyes and moved his obliterated cards into Oblivion. While he did so, Tay glanced around the shop quickly to see if anyone had noticed how loud he’d gotten. No one was looking in their direction, but he noticed that two of the contestants in the losers’ bracket—a man and a woman—were already talking with Em. If they were already done, they’d have a while yet to wait for the third round.

Tay was going to need some time before he cracked Atro’s shell.

He grinned as he ended his turn, and Atro crossed his arms before he begun his. Atro shook his head and gave a bit of a chuckle to punctuate it.

“You’re quite happy about being able to kill my Sharpshot, aren’t you?” Atro asked.

Tay shrugged, and then said, “Didn’t know it was that important to you.”

“It was the best play to make, Tay. You may not have played against this deck before, but you’re playing well enough that you might as well have.”

One could have easily taken what Atro had said as a compliment. But although Tay might’ve been terrible at reading people, he’d known Atro for a few weeks now. And he would’ve been a terrible friend if he had failed to hear the hurt laced within Atro’s voice.

And he would’ve been an even worse friend not to immediately realize what was causing it.

If Tay beat Atro here, his friend would be given his final, fifth loss stamp, and that Bronze card would become null. For Tay to win, Atro would have to lose.

In the past, Tay would’ve stuffed this thought into the back of his brain. Atro’s problems were Atro’s problems, after all. Tay had enough on his plate. But then Atro sighed and said, “Pass.”

Nothing more. Nothing less.

“Pass?” Tay asked.

“Pass. You’re turn, Tay. My Talisman comes off recharge next turn, but for now, pass.”

No, something didn’t feel right here. Had Atro not really drawn a play that could do him much good. He wasn’t out of the game yet, but now Tay had a clear shot to do whatever he wanted toward him.

Or…

Atro did know exactly what cards Tay could play. Perhaps he just wasn’t scared of what Tay had to offer? Perhaps he was confident he could survive a turn while stockpiling up his power?

Or maybe he’d decided to hand Tay the win? Tay almost called him out for that, but he’d play along for now. Whatever Atro was doing would become more apparent during his next turn.

Tay’s Life: 70 Atro’s Life: 70

For his own turn, Tay attuned himself all the way into Chaos 3, and then played one of his strongest late game cards. Though, admittedly, it was probably the slowest of its ilk.

(5) Unthinkable Fiend Inert

Shout: add Unspeakable Horror from your deck or Oblivion to your hand.

This revenant gains +4 Power if you control Unthinkable Abomination.

Provoke <<< 3

This card was one of three—and all cards in the set had tentacles quite like this one. It seemed something straight from a nightmare, and if it hadn’t been a decent card, Tay would’ve taken it out of his deck the moment he’d laid eyes upon it.

Tay pulled out the Unspeakable Horror from his deck, and then checked the board to see what his best play would be. Atro had no revenants, except for his Heavy Shard and Nourishing Hedgehog Fragments. Tay could either swing at Atro directly, or take out the Fragments.

But considering that the Hedgehog had already healed Atro for 10 Life, that would have to go.

After he declared that his Fiend would be doing just that, he also said, “And my Headhunter will hit your Heavy Shard, just for good measure. My Enforcer will be coming for your Life though.”

“Sounds good,” Atro said.

Something was definitely wrong, because never in all their games against one another had Atro ever said merely two words to him when Tay had made an excellent play. Atro was bothered, plain and simple.

But how was he supposed to confront that? Tay was good at many things, but he wasn’t good at asking people what they were bothered by. Most times, it was obvious—him.

Tay wasn’t prepared to throw the game. He wasn’t going to stop in his pursuit of his mother’s amulet. By the Fourteen, he finally knew a clue about who she was—he wasn’t going to give that up just because one of his only friends got a bit heated at the thought of losing.

And yet, his mother wasn’t a definite. She hadn’t been there for him when he’d needed her. In fact, she left him behind. Nobody had told him why. Nobody had known why.

Atro, on the other hand, had been here for him. The only reason he’d beaten Purvon in the first round was definitely due to all his practicing against Atro. His whole deck had been crafted by Atro, after all. Was he really prepared to do his friend a disservice like taking his Ranking Card away from him?