“I’ll take the first turn.”
Yu Xuan took the initiative without hesitation. Facing a Deck of the Deceased, he dared not let the opponent go first.
Otherwise, by the time it was his turn, he would likely die from having no cards to draw.
Isis said nothing, simply drawing her initial five cards. She didn’t even look at them, as if she already knew what they were.
Yu Xuan looked at the six cards in his hand: Big Wave, Gem-Knight Seraphinite, Gem-Knight Fusion, Bright Fusion, Gem-Knight Obsidian, and Gem-Armadillo.
His starting hand was quite good, though he couldn’t attack on the first turn.
But once he got going, he had the potential for an OTK. As long as he reached his next turn, Yu Xuan was confident he could clear his opponent’s Life Points to zero.
However, the strength of Isis’ Deck wasn’t in her monsters, but in that Deck of the Deceased.
Once Isis activated Deck of the Deceased, he would face the predicament of having no cards to draw.
Luckily, he had a Big Wave in hand.
Big Wave destroyed both players’ spells and traps on the field, and according to the tournament rules, magic cards could be activated at any time.
This meant Big Wave could be activated as a quick-play spell during the opponent’s turn.
Deck of the Deceased, on the other hand, was a trap card that needed to be set for a turn.
He could simply set Big Wave first, as a precaution.
Though Yu Xuan preferred not to make moves that violated the master rules, against a Deck of the Deceased that hadn’t been used in a duel yet, he could not afford to be picky.
“I Normal Summon Gem-Armadillo. Using its effect, I search my Deck for Gem-Knight Lapis Lazuli and then activate Gem-Knight Fusion. Sending Lapis Lazuli and Seraphinite to the Graveyard, come forth, Gem-Knight Blue Diamond!”
Gem-Armadillo, with eyes made of orange gems, appeared on the field, its small paws raised as it handed a card to its master.
A dazzling fusion light lit up the field, and a knight clad in blue armor appeared in a defensive stance.
Against an ordinary opponent, Yu Xuan would have ended his turn there.
After all, he couldn’t attack on the first turn. Summoning more monsters with no resistance or interference abilities would be pointless.
But his opponent was Isis…
“Then I activate Bright Fusion. I send two Xiaoli and one Xiaolu from my Deck to the Graveyard and Fusion Summon, Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant!”
Summoning Brilliant on the first turn was mainly for Yu Xuan to add cards to his Graveyard and retrieve resources from it.
As Brilliant appeared, waving her cloak, the two Xiaoli in the Graveyard activated their effects, returning Xiaolu and Lapis Lazuli to Yu Xuan’s hand.
“Then I activate Brilliant’s effect, releasing her to Special Summon Gem-Knight King Avra!”
Yu Xuan used Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant’s ability once more to bring Avra onto the field.
“Then I set one card face-down. My turn ends.”
Yu Xuan covered Big Wave on the field and ended his turn.
Yu Xuan now had two high-attack, high-defense Fusion Monsters on the field, along with a four-star Gem-Armadillo.
His Graveyard contained two Gem-Knight Xiaoli, Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant, Gem-Knight Seraphinite, and a Gem-Knight Fusion, totaling five cards.
It should be stable now, right?
Even if Isis drew Deck of the Deceased, she would have to send fifteen cards to the Graveyard to activate it. Moreover, he could activate Big Wave to destroy her spell and trap during the end phase after setting it.
While doing something like that was a bit unfair, his opponent was playing Deck of the Deceased, so Yu Xuan couldn’t afford to be a stickler for the rules.
Furthermore, he still had five cards in his Graveyard, even if Isis successfully activated Deck of the Deceased.
Even if his Deck and Graveyard were reversed, he could still hold out for five turns.
Plus, he had plenty of resources in hand and on the field. Five turns would be enough for him to do a lot.
After all, Gem-Knights was a Fusion Deck, relying on its Extra Deck rather than the main Deck.
This was undoubtedly an advantage compared to summoning with higher-level monsters.
“My turn, draw.”
Isis drew a card from her Deck and glanced at Yu Xuan, saying without looking at it: “Actually, not just the battle for the eight best, but today’s duel with you—even before it started, I had already anticipated it. Now, let me show you how, in the visions of the future, I will defeat you.”
Isis’ words put a lot of pressure on Yu Xuan.
He had a certain understanding of Isis’ Deck, and likewise, he believed she had a good grasp of his Deck too.
She had the Millennium Necklace, and had seen visions of the future, so she must have seen a good deal of his Deck and tactics.
Moreover, it wasn’t hard to find his duel data. If Kaiba could collect his duels, then Isis, as the director of the Egyptian Bureau of Archaeology, could surely obtain it with some effort.
In other words, both sides had a general understanding of the other’s Deck.
This was a battle where both players knew the other’s situation, where ultimately, it came down to mental fortitude.
You know what I know, and I know what you know, and you know that I know what you know, and I know that you know that I know…
Basically, it was a game of who was on the higher level.
It must be said that this duel against Isis was the most nerve-wracking one Yu Xuan had faced so far.
The psychological warfare and offensive and defensive predictions were all on full blast.
“I activate Big Wave. Are you going to activate your set card now?”
Isis, with an expressionless face, placed a magic card in the spell and trap zone.
Yu Xuan: “…!”
Was she starting off this way? A Deck of the Deceased actually had a wind card—this was unscientific.
The only reasonable explanation Yu Xuan could think of was that Isis had seen the future and knew exactly what he would do on the first turn, and had counter-prepared for it.
The first barrier Yu Xuan used to defend against Deck of the Deceased was broken.
His set Big Wave was now useless, whether he activated it or not.
It was now Isis’ time to make her move, and Yu Xuan had no way to interfere.
However, Yu Xuan wasn’t too worried. After all, Deck of the Deceased’s powerful effect had a precondition—it needed to send fifteen cards to the Graveyard.
In the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh!, there were no insane cards like “graveyard farming” that could send a large number of cards to the graveyard. It would not be easy to send fifteen cards to the graveyard in one turn.
“Then I activate Sangan’s Gift.”
After Isis cleared away the trap that Yu Xuan had set, she activated the almighty, draw-three-discard-two spell.
In an instant, Isis’ Graveyard had four cards, including Big Wave and Sangan’s Gift.
“Sangan’s Gift.”
Another Sangan’s Gift, and Isis’ Graveyard now had seven cards.
And after two rounds of drawing three and discarding two, there was no doubt that Isis now had the cards she wanted in hand, and her unstoppable rampage was about to begin.
“Next, I activate the magic card, Painful Choice.”