Episode 22. - Engineered Lull In The Action

Gene needed a way to build it up more. He needed to hold the attention of the viewing audience for longer before the final. They were probably already hooked. Those that were watching. He needed something both thought-provoking and time consuming, to stave off the end of the tournament, and therefore give him more room to slip in more advertisers. Never had a card game tournament attracted so much attention, as far as he knew. He was determined to milk it for everything it was worth. Now, his business-savvy mind hit upon an idea.

"Excuse me... Pikaye, Yodaz, Ryoma... oh, and you there, the one with the Darkness deck. May I ask a favor of you all?"

Pikaye seemed interested. Ryoma did not respond much. Yodaz raised the usual suspicious eyebrow, and Shu stared blankly at the one who had asked.

"I was wondering if you four would mind, before the final match, letting yourselves be interviewed by the news crew. In order to possibly help raise awareness and interest in the game?"
His voice was encouraging, but the four of them could easily sense what his real motive was. Yodaz scoffed at him. Pikaye seemed about to decline, then a smile crossed his face. He whispered something to Ryoma, who shared an equal smile a few moments later. Their communication with Shu on the matter seemed to be of the psychic variety, evoking no smile, but Shu seemed to nod either in agreement or acceptance. Yodaz sighed, and decided to humour Gene, considering that the other three were apparently willing to. He wondered why Gene had not asked Blood instead of Shu, wondering if somehow Kirricort knew of the strange history between him and the darkness dragon.

Whilst the officials 'set up' the final match, the four duelists would sit in the lounging area as if on a regular talk show. The cameramen lined everything up, and, much to their surprise, Gene actually had managed to find a reporter unaffiliated with the television station itself, to conduct the interview. A perky young woman who seemed to know at least the basics of what was going on, yet had no idea of the Kaijudo involved. The perfect person to tell the story without telling the whole story.

"They must be making a lot of money off those advertisements if they're going to let you bring in a reporter from a magazine for their televised feed..." Yodaz whispered to Gene as he passed him to take his seat. The four duelists' attitudes could be easily seen even in the way they sat. Pikaye sat in quite a proper, confident manner. Yodaz did the same somewhat, but seemed more relaxed. Shu slouched a bit, giving himself an air of nonchalance, and Ryoma actually sat with deck in hand, making himself out to be the 'visual aids' person of this little presentation.

The woman began her interview quite professionally. Apparently this was a lucky break for her also. She had intended to do just such an interview with the champion after the final match. As it was, she would get not one, but four points of view, and she would have it on camera. Probably one of the biggest breaks of her career and she was determined to get it right.

"Good afternoon to all viewers. My name is Dahlia Raizmin, and I'm here with four Duel Masters tournament finalists to discuss the game, strategies, and perhaps even uncover a little about the personal drives that brought these young men here. On the left we have North American champion Yodaz, to his right Ryoma Echizen, an up and coming duelist who has quickly risen to the top... continuing to his right I present Japanese champion Pikaye, and on the far right a mysterious duelist that prefers not to disclose his name, but was recently eliminated from the finals during an excellent duel by Pikaye himself. So, gentlemen, let me begin by asking, to any of you... Why do you play Duel Masters? Or perhaps a better way to put that is, why should we play Duel Masters? There are plenty of other card games out there. For that matter, there are hundreds of other games we could play. So then what is it about Duel Masters that you like?"

"Well, first, allow me to give those viewing who do not know of it, a little background information," Pikaye began, "Duel Masters, hitherto referred to simply as DM, is a turn-based game. One player takes his turn and makes various moves, then lets the other player do the same, and so on until the end of the game. Unlike other games, you don't need hand-eye coordination, sharp reflexes, or even quick thinking. Since physical ability isn't a factor, there are three factors that do come into play. Your deck, your playing skill, and your luck."

As if on cue, Ryoma took over the little 'presentation', holding up the deck of Survivors in his hand.
"First of all are the cards in your deck. For most people, options are limited by how many cards you are willing to or able to buy. Through the correct channels, however, four copies of any card you might want are available to you, and you may build as many decks as you like. One of the appeals to DM is that though it may have only a fraction of the cards of certain competitors, the vast majority of cards are playable. This gives us options. It allows us to build decks to suit our style. This uniqueness that comes with each deck we build is one of the major reasons we like this game I think. Otherwise we would be playing games where the playing field is exactly level, like Go and Chess."

Yodaz's turn came now. The hidden tiny interactions of Kaijudo were totally invisible to the viewers. None could tell what exactly it was that would cause one duelist to stop speaking and another to begin...
"Next is luck. As Las Vegas clearly shows, humans enjoy games of luck. Even though being unlucky is devastating, especially when it drains your wallet, there are few things as exhilarating as being lucky. Even though you can minimize the luck factor in DM, luck will always be a factor in the game. And some of us like that."
The pause and pointed statement at the end of Yodaz's words implied at least slightly that he was speaking about someone other than himself, but he ended his part now, allowing Shu to speak.

"Finally, we are left with the factor of skill. Skill is DM is easy to obtain. The game has a finite number of options and only a few tricks you can use to tip the scales in your favor. One skill in DM, probably the hardest one, is the ability to play your mana wisely. To play your mana effectively, you have to plan ahead, and you have to shape your plans to the opponent you are playing. Some choices are easy. For instance, tossing a blocker destroying card like Rikabu's screwdriver into the mana zone is an obvious choice when you are facing a mono fire or nature opponent who has no blockers. Playing mana is basically limiting your choices, choosing which of the few cards in your hand are going to be the most effective against your opponent."
Shu threw this in as mentally agreed amongst them. Though he was the mono player, in some ways this made him the most suited to speak on the necessity of mana choices and conservation. The next subject again reverted to Pikaye.

"Another skill, though not so much a factor, is breaking shields. Unlike every other card game, attacking your opponent gives them card advantage. This unique mechanic helps restore a sort of equilibrium to the duel, helping to prevent one duelist from dominating the entire match. Since breaking your opponent's shields gives them an advantage, you must do so carefully. Despite the required caution, there are a variety of ways to go about it. One way is to rush the opponent, breaking shields at every opportunity. If you can end the duel quickly enough, it doesn't matter how much card advantage your opponent has."

The reporter chimed in here, more to get her piece in than anything else.
"I notice that none of you use such a strategy, however. Is it unpopular due to the risks?"

Yodaz smiled. This woman knew exactly what she was doing and how to go about making the interview into exactly what she wanted. They each gave their respective opinions on the subject.

"Everyone has their ways," Ryoma contributed, "Personally I have nothing against such a strategy and I have seen many good duelists use it. A little aggression in shield breaking tactics can keep an opponent on a defensive that can be hard to escape from. I personally will occasionally use such a tactic if the situation warrants it."

"As someone who plays the Darkness civilization of the game, I too can speak of the usefulness of such a tactic, however players such as I combine that with consistent depletion of the hand advantage we give. Often, the flaw in it is merely exhausting oneself before you exhaust the opponent. Since Darkness can do this easily, it is often to my detriment to rush for shield breaking before I am ready."
Shu had perked up a bit. He was not used to his opinion mattering this much outside of their small dueling circle.

"The other tactic, one I more often employ, is to wait until you have significant card advantage and then start breaking shields, slowly, so that you can keep advantage," Pikaye mentioned, "This works best, of course, when your opponent is not rushing at you themselves. I do not fault the rushing tactic very much, but I find it can be rather luck dependent."

"On the opposite end of the spectrum from the rush duelists are those that totally ignore shields, focusing solely on destroying the opponent's field and hand advantage, then breaking all the shields in one turn," Yodaz now explained, "As many of you know, this is the style I prefer. I am not an advocate of luck or the 'rush' of hurling myself at my opponent in an effort to pressure them. In my personal experience, it can be very hard to achieve and is often not worth it."

Yodaz paused a bit, waiting to see if either the reporter or the others would say anything. A gentle mental nudge prompted her to speak and take the spotlight again. He found her interesting and was not averse to letting her achieve her goal of furthering her career.

"I see. So what would you say is the most important of the three factors, if any, for gameplay? You mentioned Go and Chess, and as we know, such games are based almost totally on skill."

Yodaz answered her first. "Of all these, I would say deck building is easily the most important factor. Luck, at least in the long run, is equal for all players and so cancels itself out. Skill isn't, but there are a finite number of options in DM, and so skill eventually levels out."

Pikaye waited to see if Yodaz's pause was meant to be a prompt for any of them to speak, and realizing so, decided to continue his rival's words.
"If I had to make a ratio, I would say it goes like this, deck:skill:luck is 3:1:1. That is, the deck you use is three times as important as either skill or luck. Fortunately, when two decks are about equal in strength, that ratio goes down drastically. In a mirror match, it can even be eliminated, leaving your deck nullified as a factor and leaving only luck and skill. A mirror match between players of equal skill will leave only luck as the dominant factor."

"Hence why many top class duelists all respect each other highly regardless of who wins a particular duel. We all know that at the highest levels, it is mostly the draw that decides the winner, though there is something that can be said for knowing how to respond to what you draw, and anticipating your opponent well. Playing badly will almost always result in loss, but playing well does not assure a win against someone who is playing well themselves."
Ryoma's opinion was the last in that vein. Shu apparently had nothing to say regarding their analysis of the ratios of factors to one another.

Gene was practically rejoicing behind the scenes at this point. This was perfect. Exactly what he had envisioned in exactly the way he had imagined it. As if each duelist knew exactly what to say, and at what time, to make this a success. It could not have gone any better if he had scripted the interview himself.

"So now I must ask," the woman admitted, "What ratio is the best? What is the ratio that the game should be striving for? Is it currently perfect as it is? Should deck building ability be that much more important than luck and skill?"

Pikaye was the first to reply to this one. Gene's expression had already changed to one of slight panic. That was certainly not one of the questions he would have expected or wished for her to ask. He could only hope that the duelists supported the game exactly as it was. Even the slightest dissent could lose him some sales. Ryoma's reply, however, did not bring him any comfort.
"It is my opinion that a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio would be nice. Each factor is important and is a part of what makes the game so much fun to play. Your deck is a representation of your style and it lets you express yourself so. Skill is earned as you play and get better. Luck makes each game exciting, since neither player can be sure who will win."

Yodaz seemed more contemplative before giving his opinion. Gene felt himself breathe a sigh of relief when he realized that Yodaz was the one about to speak. He could count on the champion to like the game exactly as it was. Of that, he was certain.
"I personally like the fact that deckbuilding is the majority of the influence on this game. I do not think that any card game can rely too heavily on in-game skill, and luck seems to me to be something I just can't find myself enjoying in most games. However, I do understand that this is probably because I find most of my time and enjoyment of this game comes from deckbuilding and analysis rather than play. I think it would be interesting if the people who build decks to represent themselves could do so more easily, but that would require luck to become a bigger factor in this game. To tell the truth, aside from liking to build, I have no real opinion on this."

Gene wrung his hands, a little more nervous now. Yodaz had managed to skew the conversation back towards positive vibes regarding the game, but not far enough that either of the other two could not begin discussing their contrary opinions.

"As for what Pikaye said about your deck representing your style and neither player being sure who will win, I find that that is simply not the case," Ryoma began, "As it stands, certain cards are more powerful than others. Simply adding these cards to your deck automatically makes it better than the same deck without those cards. Since most people don't want to be put at an unfair disadvantage, they start running these cards. This messes up the ratios. When two duelists play and only one uses these unbalanced cards, the one who does not is at a disadvantage and unless there is a huge difference in skill combined with a large amount of luck, they'll lose. If both players use the same cards, the deck becomes unimportant, leaving luck to be the major factor. Either way, the ratios are messed up and the game can not be played to its fullest in its current form."

Gene's expression had now changed to one of almost abject despair. How could they, as champions, not see how this could detrimentally affect sales on a mass scale? If the leading players of the game went around purporting that the game in its current state was flawed and could not be played to its fullest, then what was there for new players to think? Nothing would cause them to rush out there to buy more cards...

"Yes, this is quite true," Shu said, "The primary point of the game is that players should not generally be using very similar decks unless they are very similar people. Skill should probably be more a matter of skill in control of your own chosen style of play, rather than the 'skill' allowed to flourish by certain cards... After that, well... some luck, good or bad, is okay, as long as you don't let bad luck discourage you, or let your good luck go to your head."

In the hobby shop, watching the interview, both Maze and Libra took heart in that last statement. Do not let your bad luck discourage you...

"It would indeed be nice if deck building skill and playing skill could be combined into one concept," Ryoma said, "If one could build a decently good deck, and through constant practice and understanding of it, come to be able to use it very well in most situations. This is what I, and many other duelists here, in fact, have been striving to do. Unfortunately, sometimes one builds a deck that does not include the unbalanced cards we have cursorily mentioned, and, as stated, at that point it does not matter too much, if you are going up against a deck that does have them."

"This aspect of it is very interesting. Can you give us any information on what exactly these cards are? Perhaps see if everyone has similar opinions, or if we are all just being a little bitter against the cards that tend to defeat us?"

Pikaye and Shu both simultaneously laughed at her question. Gene was devastated, and anxiously looking for some excuse to cut the interview short, and cut the feed, before any more marketing damage was done by their 'truths'.

"If it were up to me to make a solution to this," Pikaye laughed, "I would humbly propose a restrict list, similar to the one used in particular events in Japan. That is, allow only one copy of certain cards in decks until their replacements can be made more fair. The original cards in Japan are not all still in use. For the most part, the distributor has done an excellent job in ummm... 'nerfing', I believe is the term? Yes, nerfing the unbalanced cards in Japan when they cross the ocean, so that their release never affects the game here the way it did there. While this is clearly a good thing, it has also made your starting metagame very unlike what Japan's was."

"I see. But again I must ask, are player's opinions on these cards that are currently unbalanced rather unanimous in general?"

Gene's mind was desperate now to find some form of damage control that would not result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of profit...

Pikaye continued speaking.
"I usually prefer not to voice such opinions due to the large outcry that often accompanies them, but for today, I will do so. Firstly, I would restrict the low cost Cyber Lord Emeral. If absolutely necessary, this creature would require a change in race, for a balanced version to be made."

Yodaz piped up here. "Heh, I know someone who would curse you forever if you got Emeral restricted, though she might relent if you offered a replacement, since its race does not help her."

Ryoma interrupted politely also at that.
"You mean that girl I eliminated earlier? The blue haired one that was with you... yes, I did find it very odd for one to use so many Emeral and not try to use the Illusionary Merfolk with it. Quite a strange young woman. Yes. I suppose we could all stand to see Emeral take such a change, even if it is only to stop it from being Cyber Lord. Speaking of which, there is Corile..."

Pikaye nodded.
"Oh, yes, indeed. Corile is perhaps the most hated creature in all of DM. There are few things as unpleasant as two or three Coriles in a row, locking you in place. Also, if both Corile and Emeral were restricted, Illusionary Merfolk would have to work a little bit for its draw power. I cannot even offer an alternative to this card."

"Indeed," Ryoma pointed out, "The fact that no other card has ever borne a similar effect is quite possibly the greatest testament to everything that is wrong with Corile."

"Yet, both the North American champion and Japanese champion are rumored to use the full possible complement of that card," she pointed out.

Shu was the one to reply to that, "I think, ma'am, that your observation is more of an argument against Corile than one for it..."

Yodaz had pushed down the odd surges of Kaijudo that had been seething in him since Ryoma had mentioned the Corile, and now attempted to shift the topic away from the Cyber Lord, both to assert his beliefs, and to quell the burning feeling inside.
"Indeed. I am not one to claim that simply because I use a card in a championship, that the card is fair. For example, there is the fire card Searing Wave which I do have in my deck. It destroys nearly anything that can be reasonably played before the turn on which it can be played, and it can be played with no detriment to you if you are 'on the ropes' as they say."

Pikaye continued that train of thought with his own opinion also.
"Yes, it is quite true, and I concur with Yodaz. Searing Wave can destroy more than half of the creatures in the game. The downside of losing one shield is too minor to make up for the utter devastation this card can cause. When one truly understands that you have a card that can destroy half the game's creatures, regardless of how many of them are actually there, with no effect on the caster's battlefield whatsoever, then one can see how some adjustment might be necessary, and until then, a restriction would most definitely be in order."

"I see. Are there any other cards like these? You mentioned an... Illusionary Merfolk?"

Ryoma gave her that answer. "With respect to that card... there are other similar ones. The adjustments to the two Cyber Lords would probably be enough to reduce that one to balanced."

Pikaye had one more card to add to his 'list'...
"Finally, there is Terror Pit. While I don't believe it do be broken per se, it is definitely a staple card at many tournaments. There are many considerations to be made when tackling this one, however, and it is very open for debate. For example, decks like Shu's in some ways need and deserve to have this card, but if it could somehow be adjusted, that might be helpful. That's it. Four cards, only three of which I'm sure something needs to be done about. I'm not saying everyone should follow this list. I'm just saying that it is an alternative to those who grow weary of seeing the same decks, who want to see more variety, and have what I believe to be more enjoyable games. Just my opinion."

"I thank you all, but that's all the time we have. Good luck in your final duel, Pikaye and Ryoma, and thank you to all of you for your time."

The duelists nodded, rising from their seats as the feed faded to commercial. Yodaz passed by Gene Kirricort again.
"Be careful what you wish for in future, because sometimes you have to take the bitter with it..."

The young sponsor fumed. Only time would tell if their words had ruined him and his plans, or if somehow he could twist the interview in his favor. He began to make some calls.