Pocket System

[Darth Bayes]

My entire deck is sub-4 monster cards. My starting five-card hand, I trade it in for...Exodia! I win on turn 0.
I think the Heart of the Cards is a nudge thing, not absolute like what you're replicating here. If it was absolute, every high-level duel would be an FTK or better.

Also, with these rules it seem objectively optimal to just go for straight hand advantage, with pot of Greed, Delinquent Duo, etc.

Alternatively, Card Destruction is optimal if you're expecting it and your opponent isn't, because you just put 5 cards into the GY you wanted there, and they lost their FTK in hand. Card Destruction (holding light/dark and Mystical Space Typhoons) -> Chaos Emperor Dragon + Yatagarasu is another ~FTK.

If there is no soul cost for spell cards, there is probably a fully-accessible FTK/lock deck using forced discards or Royal cards?

I think using only one card type might be the easiest to ensure FTKs with, though having less than five exceptions you'll combo with searching is probably viable too, especially if you choose spells and if you draw a bad first hand (e.g. all 4 of your monsters you want to use searches for) you can just pick your spell to be Card Destruction.

(also, certain monsters have an "all monsters with this name in your GY" or similar, which I think should allow 3 copies, but some spells have "all/another monster with target's name", which might wind up allowing duplicating any monster.)

 

[Kurohyo]

As a former M:TG player, can someone explain this mess? Because I legitimately don't understand what's Story insanity and what's yugioh insanity.

IIRC there is an actual real-life TCG, right? How in the hell does it normally play if simple things like 'having to draw cards', 'deck construction', and 'sideboards' aren't a thing?

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tl;dr: Anime Card card game has Issues that the real world version just doesn't have, and John is making rules to mitigate what if it happened in the real world would be Literal Cheating as best he can. While trying to ignore the Extra Deck trying to claw in from the Future, way ahead of schedule.

Click to shrink...

having played both Magic and Yugioh in the time frame we're talking about, while watching the anime , this is pretty much correct. Ultimately in the anime it's easier to have everyone be treated as low level summoners with access to a "point pool" for their summons until the kaiba tournament where Kiba decided that he was done with this shit and implemented a more stringent set of rules that would start the codifying of the game to what it is now.

(granted I'm probably forgetting or misremembering some stuff but with the god cards in play it was neccessary. Also, he had the cash and fame to pull it off)

My entire deck is sub-4 monster cards. My starting five-card hand, I trade it in for...Exodia! I win on turn 0.
I think the Heart of the Cards is a nudge thing, not absolute like what you're replicating here. If it was absolute, every high-level duel would be an FTK or better.

Click to shrink...

So, I know I cut out a lot of the message here however I would like to point out a serious flaw in your argument.

I'm pretty sure that this is pre-duelist kingdom and your examples that I'm recalling require far more recent sets.

put it into perspective most of the known cards introduced in this time would have been from the Legend of the blues eyes, metal raiders, pharaoh's servant and spell ruler packs in our world with some cards getting pulled early based on individual synergies (per story) and others being far rarer due to mythical reasons (like the four blue eyes white dragons of the anime world)

Also the envoy of the beginning and envoy of the end cards wouldn't exist yet.

John himself is a walking enigma to the toad archetype that Pegasus hasn't figured out yet

 

[ForwardRewind]

I think there's also there's a competing of Souls bit for the Heart of the Cards. Since it's not something that is constantly done. Probably puts a bit of strain on the Soul to reach out. Along with the fact that the slightest doubt can interfere with it. If you don't trust it to get what you need? You won't get it.

And with the effect of Strong Souls, there's that added 'fear' factor, that likely disrupts it indirectly.

That... actually explains some of the mind games that some duelists go for, thinking on it.

Such as the routine for the Duelist Island, on the 'I can tell which card I have without looking, so I'm going to play it blind'. Which does seem like something John could straight up do without the trick used in the anime. Just not something he'd have any interest in doing. Except if it was as a training exercise.

I could actually see him set up 'strange rule' tournaments like that, later on. Or at least, matches with weird restrictions like that. Or alternatives of those rulesets. Like the motorcycle one, that had the speed mechanic. Which John might straight up try to build an arena for. With Jessica vetoing it, as being too excessive. At least for actual motorcycles. Well, that or John wants more people to be able to play said ruleset. (Or more likely, he's too small to actually play himself.)

And rather than do a 'board game' version of it, instead it's a life size board game setup. With cars on a track, which move forward automatically based on the speed stat.

I mean sure, he could set it up in a Virtual Reality setup (yoinking the Borg setup, but with the YuGiOh anime verse VR tech as a base), but really, that's not the same. He'd create both though. Possibly even creating all kinds of different rulesets/interactions of cards. With automatic-ish balancing as new cards/Archetypes come out.

There's probably a joke with a Parking Garage ruleset, but I haven't the faintest idea what the rules there would be. Some sort of territory taking thing, in a similar style to the Dice one? Doesn't feel right. Probably would end up just being a virtual zone, that there's a surprising amount of in there, since the Pocket System is so good at them. Maybe they even are 'connecting points' for different areas, in a way. Not the only way to transfer, but a possibility. Though it does bring up the idea of Vehicle related Archetypes ending up popping up...

Something else John might end up creating is an 'interact with the Soul Shards you have connected with in Virtual Reality'. More or less the same kind of thing that John and Jessica have now, just now even the weaker Souls can do so even if it's with assistance/not at any time. No game necessarily attached to it, just relaxation and helping to understand.

 

[theaceoffire]

My starting five-card hand, I trade it in for...Exodia!

Click to shrink...

You still have to PROVIDE The deck yourself you know, and don't forget that in world? Some cards are RARE.

There were only 4 Blue-Eyes White Dragons in the WORLD. Period. And Kaiba shredded one of them so it couldn't be used against him.

Now, could new ones spawn? Maybe. For you? Or for Duelist #923829432843? Ha! Good luck.

Further more, it was a BIG deal back when Yugi lost a few of the Exodia cards. He couldn't just call up his grandfather's card shop for some replacement copies. Or even open up new ones in a few booster packs... Nope! Off the table.

***EDIT***
Some counterfeit Exodia pieces showed up once, and another set was created in a virtual world (But were basically not real), so yeah. Rare.
***/EDIT***

Cards like the Red-Eye's Black Dragon wasn't just marked (R) for rare and then sold by millions of copies, it was RARE to the point where you may NEVER ACTUALLY SEE ONE YOURSELF! There were cards that might only be passed down GENERATIONALLY, and their children would be GRATEFUL at the opportunity to inherit something so powerful! ("My grandfather's Deck HAS no pathetic cards!")

So yeah, if you can stuff your deck with one turn or zero turn kills? Then you are ALREADY an all powerful Duelist and you would have won easily ANYWAY. Go for it.

 

[WolfsFamiliar]

So this got me looking at Yugioh stuff again and going through the wikis and I have to say that it's too bad Maximum summons is restricted to the Rush version because nothing screams Boss Monster quit like a card that takes up 3 spots on the board. Also some of these cards are good for a real laugh, look up Yugioh Barbeque Ox you won't be disappointed.

 

[Darth Bayes]

I'm pretty sure that this is pre-duelist kingdom and your examples that I'm recalling require far more recent sets.

Click to shrink...

I wasn't quite sure of the timeline, so I was restricting myself to Yugi-era/pre-GX sets. Chaos Emperor Dragon was April 2003, in Booster series 3. GX was series 4-5.
But the release order/existence in-universe correspondence really isn't clear.
The start of Series 6 and introduction of Synchro is a fairly clear cutoff, but there are plenty of cards that appeared in the Yugi or GX anime that weren't released IRL until a decade or more later.
(e.g. the Seal of Orichalcos (2012) was the mcguffin in the Waking the Dragons arc of the Yugi anime (2003), and in-universe has existed for 10,000 years).

So yeah, if you can stuff your deck with one turn or zero turn kills? Then you are ALREADY an all powerful Duelist and you would have won easily ANYWAY. Go for it.

Click to shrink...

Does that also apply to spell cards? Card Destruction (released 2000) still seems like an obligate pick, even if most cards that benefit from cards in the GY were not released yet. Delinquent Duo (2000) as well, there's a reason a lot of early spell cards are now banned, and 8000 LP removes most of the drawbacks of early pay-LP cards.
Also, that means that he can't really push further into skill-only games by allowing tournament participants to build their own decks with supplied cards, or do something virtual.
There are also a lot of possible turn 1 near- locks or kills that should be possible with very low-level cards.

(It does kind of seem like John is complaining about everyone else having terrible and underused cards, but then you say that all the strong cards are unobtainable.)

Spoiler: A specific, all-spell deck

First hand is Card Destruction, Mystical Space Typhoon, and 4 cards you don't care about or that can work from the GY. Play MST, then Card Destruction, using MST to defend it if necessary
New hand has Pot of Greed, so has 5 cards after playing that. Delinquent Duo, Smoke Grenade of the Thief, Monster Reborn, Mirage of Nightmare, Emergency Provisions. Play all; activate EP after MoN activates to destroy both MoN and SGotT.
Now your opponent has lost the five cards they most wanted in their starting hand, and three of the five they wanted next most, one of which you picked. In their next turn, they start with three cards. Your have four cards in your hand. You are up 1000 LP. Also, either you have MST set on the field, or you spent it to counter theirs.
One of those eight cards they wanted, if it's a monster (you could see the first 5 before deciding to make one of your spells Monster Reborn) is now on your side of the field. Alternatively, if you went second, you used Snatch Steal instead.

Your next cards may include Confiscation, The Forceful Sentry, Snatch Steal, Change of Heart, or Premature Burial. Maybe Megamorph, maybe a card that tributes that monster you stole with Change of Heart (Metamorphosis is banned for a reason). Mage Power is good. Raigeki has always been ridiculous. Mask of the Accursed is a nice blocker.

You could include up to five monsters and still 100% guarantee the full combo with careful use of set spells to dodge Card Destruction (you may need to also use Graceful Charity).
Good monster options include Morphing Jar, Jinzo, Magician of Faith, Jowgen the Spiritualist, and Magical Scientist. Yata-Garasu, of course. I had never heard of Swarm of Locusts before. If you do include a few monsters, Last Will is good.
The selection of cards is pretty limited. I've only mentioned 19 spells so far. Including 5 monsters might be almost necessary. Alternatively, given the small list of released cards in this era that aren't normal monsters (<200?) relaxing the 1-per-deck limit would help, or letting you take a second copy once you've drawn 20 cards or something.

(Another OP option is Royal Tribute. Necrovalley has the potential to shut down plenty of enemy decks.)

(All cards mentioned above were printed <=2002)
(The limit to only one MST is tough. I don't know if there even are any other quick-play counter spells at this point in the game. Maryokutai is a monster?)

(This isn't an FTK deck, the only ~FTKs I can think of right now are Chaos Emperor Dragon (2003)/Yatagarasu and a similar lock if going second using Delinquent Duo/etc and Yatagarasu (and probably Snatch Steal/Black Hole/Heavy Storm/Raigeki/MST). Also, any monsterless deck can be locked by Imperial Order+Royal Decree (you may need a set MST too to counter the enemy's single MST), but that can't happen on the first turn. Softer locks are pretty indistinguishable from just getting a huge board and hand advantage as the spell deck above is designed to do.)

 

[BRDman]

Didn't some other tournaments offer vague stuff like wishes or whatever?

Click to shrink...

I can just see Pegasus wishing for the return of his wife, and John somehow pulling it off with a 'wish granted' then 'pocketing' out of that reality... possibly inspiring a religion about him/tournaments/madness.

 

[theaceoffire]

So I got interested in this comment in particular:

It's a bit unclear on when the proxy gets swapped out for the relevant card. As soon as it's drawn? When you play it? And does the opponent know which pool you grabbed from?

Click to shrink...

And decided to look into it.

First of all! When a card is banished from the Deck, if it is sent into exile a random card is chosen from whatever pool it connects with. Same for when cards are sent to the graveyard from Deck, and for effects that shift 'random' cards from your deck into other areas such as 'fake hand of cards until end of turn', which apparently exist by the way.

Basically, if a card is pulled from the Deck to anywhere beyond the Players control, it tries to get randomly redeemed from the related pool if possible. Else? It basically becomes a time bomb.

Secondly! Each Duelist has this sort of personal shop terminal on their side of the Duel field. I am holding back some details about this because spoilers, but it seems pretty neat!

It's sort of like the computer terminal that each player had during the Dungeon Dice Monster episode, and it handles the exchanges or random discard or banishment bits to avoid spoiling stuff... Your opponent only sees you exchanging one unknown token for one unknown card, unless you brag about it or something.

Exchanges can happen at any point after the draw step and before the end step, by the way.

And finally, at the end of your turn? All proxies not in the Deck get destroyed, causing you 500 Life points of damage. That includes banished proxies, proxies that somehow got snuck into the graveyard or extra deck, etc... Basically, this currency has a HARSH restriction built into it. So I doubt any duelist will willingly hold onto a hand full of explosives without exchanging them for cards, and certain cards that instantly end the turn will be HORRIFINGLY powerful in this format if used just right on a lazy opponent...

It really adds an edge of danger to your choices between rounds... Since there are only 40 cards in your pool deck that can't change until after your three duels are over, do you dare increase the number of proxies for a specific pool despite the introduced risk? Because NOW your deck has some explosive surprises mixed in!

 

[Kurohyo]

I wasn't quite sure of the timeline, so I was restricting myself to Yugi-era/pre-GX sets. Chaos Emperor Dragon was April 2003, in Booster series 3. GX was series 4-5.
But the release order/existence in-universe correspondence really isn't clear.
The start of Series 6 and introduction of Synchro is a fairly clear cutoff, but there are plenty of cards that appeared in the Yugi or GX anime that weren't released IRL until a decade or more later.
(e.g. the Seal of Orichalcos (2012) was the mcguffin in the Waking the Dragons arc of the Yugi anime (2003), and in-universe has existed for 10,000 years).

Click to shrink...

Right now it appears that we're kinda in an off set of the pre duelist kingdom showcase where Pegasus is pulling primarily on the Egyptian influences still (probably linked to his millennium eye influencing him) with soul resonances for the various other cards that come into play. John? John is an ooc problem who just got a deep look into the spirit world's and probably doesn't realize that some of the archetypes havent even shown up yet.

so, im currently attributing it to soul shenanigans and Sight/Reality disconnect

Edit: sorry, posting on phone and page decided to turn and go"oh hey look, you clicked on this link in the middle of editing your post. You must want to go there and delete the edit." Ill continue on train of thought when not half asleep

 

[nytemaren]

Huh. If the proxies count as effect damage, it's too bad we're in the Duelist Kingdom arc. GX gets SO many cards to play with effect damage.

Extra good thing we're back in this arc, if only because John doesn't have to worry about one-card combos. Imagine this proxy system with an Albaz deck. Hell, if I could decide what spell I'm holding, a current Dark Magician deck would be nutty!

 

[theaceoffire]

Apparently his sister took a sudden and fairly long break from getting the castle set up (A [[Home]] needs a bit of loving care when you first move in) fairly soon after John's note.

Said break was due to, as one might expect, the sudden news of so many people theoretically showing up at said castle for a multiple day tournament.

So shortly after John reluctantly merged the 'Field Spells' pool with the 'Spells' one… Which he was completely against because they were NOT the same thing darn it! They should be considered separate, not just all lumped together... Plus, none of those 'Field Traps' had even been put into circulation yet, so those shouldn't even COUNT in the ongoing debate!

…Point was, AFTER he lost that argument, his sister showed up and sort of organized all the chaos, which led up to this sudden deluge of paperwork and 'being responsible' and stuff.

Jessica sighed. "Parking won't be an issue, considering how MASSIVE the underground log parking lot turned out to be… But we need to offer temporary housing for the duration. Both for the competitors and for the audience. Thankfully we can easily enough buy out the properties beyond our swamp and set something up there."

Huh? "What audience?"

Temptation was wearing sexy unneeded glasses as she worked on her OWN set of paperwork next to Grace's massive mountain. "Aside from broadcasting to various stations and selling dramatic recordings of each duel after they occur, both in person and online? I'm setting up a big audience seating area with space for merchandise and snacks to be sold."

His sister pointed at the woman. "That audience. Half the reason my agents were able to get all this approved so quickly was due to how eager the local politicians were to turn this whole chaotic idea into a media fiesta. There's a whole section of the tax code dedicated to encouraging that sort of event in this city, in most cities even… It simplifies a lot of problems to take advantage of it."

Grace hummed as she moved another page of information to a different stack. "I'm thankful this entire endeavor is going so smoothly and streamlined! Arranging temporary city wide transportation stops and advertising has been nearly automatic after just a few fundamental forms were submitted."

Jessica hummed. "Right, we shouldn't forget merchandise opportunities. Temptation, please look into getting licensed approval for us selling plushies of the various Duel Monsters that the Duelists end up playing with during their matches." "Will do!"

John couldn't help but feel a bit surprised as he accepted another form from his sister to sign. "Hey uh… Sis? Why are you so alright with going above and beyond with all this? Like, I'm GRATEFUL, don't get me wrong, but I didn't expect to expand this so much or do all this side stuff as well…"

Honestly he expected to get in trouble for nearly forgetting to tell her about his whole idea, NOT for his sister to jump in with both hands to make everything more epic and awesome!

She chuckled as she noted another form. "We already agreed to 'go loud', yes? And we are being observed by multiple organizations and a few government issues anyway."

Her hand ruffled his hair as she grinned. "I'm not going to stop you from dueling people, especially since Grace thinks it will at least be safe for YOU, if not your opponent… But if my little brother CHOOSES to have all the crazy people show up HERE, in our [[Home]] where I can set up all my agents and security measures? Well, that gets my full support!"

Temptation hummed as she tried to slip the idea of erotic cheerleaders past Grace again. "Plus we can filter out all the weaklings that kept trying to leech onto us every time we walk around the city. It was funny at first, especially since our Master never notices them before they nearly crap themselves and flee, but after a while it's just annoying."

Wait, what now? "I thought people only tried to duel us when we had that picnic at the park?"

Grace gave him a sympathetic smile while his demoness giggled. "No, my Lord. A substantial portion of the pedestrian traffic as we moved about the city was composed of weaker Souled Duelists attempting to overcome your ambient Soul Pressure to challenge you."

That… That didn't make ANY sense! "I shouldn't HAVE any Soul Pressure, my Soul is fully defended! ALL of ours are! That's why we had to set up that ambient resonance effect, so that we wouldn't accidentally crush anyone or something!"

Glancing at the two black and white beauties, his eyes narrowed. "In fact, I bet it was because YOU two were there that we had so many followers! After all, even BEFORE you both 'improved' your Avatars, you were near perfect visions of beauty!"

They paused and went red faced for some reason… Probably because they were embarrassed that he was right! Nailed it! "Yep, I'm sure they were just entranced and followed us like a cartoon mouse floats after a fresh baked cake!"

Temptation recovered first and snorted. "It was BECAUSE all them ignored us and tried to rush at you, clutching their decks and wheezing about defeating you, that we know it wasn't something like that. I doubt half of them even realized we were there in the first place!"

John blinked at that impossible sentence. "No, that doesn't make sense. How could anyone ignore you two?" Hmm. "Maybe they had mental issues… Or our Soul security settings are messed up?" Best look into that just in case.

His sister laughed, pulling his attention from the brightly blushing angel and her proud but still flustered sister. "Alright Romeo, enough flirting: I need you to sign these three documents as part of getting you diplomatic immunity."

Diplomatic… Hang on. "How did THAT make it into our paperwork mountain!?"

Jessica glanced at the pages and shrugged. "One of my agents argued that the Amphibian Alliance counts as a sovereign nation with its capital in your Pocket. As the primary member of their Royal Family, you checked a LOT of boxes and we are taking advantage of them all."

She shrugged at his shock. "It isn't OUR fault they allow this mess. And by the time they fix all the strange loopholes we used we will have likely moved on anyway…"

His sister blinked as another agent mentally pinged her. "Oh right, this changes which tax codes we need to work with, I nearly missed that…"

With growing grumbles, John slumped down and continued working on more and more paperwork.

Why was setting up a few card games so gosh darn complicated!?

~~~Pocket System~~~

"You heard about that frog dude?" "The local guy trending recently?" "Yep." "Oh yeah, what an odd ball." "Meh, I've dueled weirder." "More importantly, I saw his eye candy!" "Those chicks were smoking!" "Yeah, didn't think a girl or guy could rate above a 10 on my hotness scale, but damn."

Joey Wheeler held back a grumble as he tried to focus on his deck once more. He needed to shift it a bit, less of a focus on brute strength and more adaptability… Winning against Yugi might be a reach, but he refused to be curb stomped by everyone else too!

"My little sister won't shut up about it!" "Huh?" "She's a fan of those girls?" "Nah, but that dude, the Frog Emperor guy, he has a website now and she is fangirling all over it." "What, some sort of public idol page?" "I mean, my girlfriend thought he was cute in that goofy outfit, sure! But not enough to go online and obsessively watch the clips over and over again or whatever."

He felt his eye twitch. This was a LIBRARY, gosh darn it! A certain level of volume was expected!

Whatever, he could deal.

Now how could he best support his new Red-Eyes Black Dragon? It had only joined his Deck after a dangerous and risky bet back when he was Dueling against Rex Raptor, and he hadn't exactly had a LOT of time to adjust everything else he was working with back during an active Tournament he was only 'sort-of' participating in.

"Nah, nothing like that, she's too young to care about boys or whatever." "But you said…" "Bro, the website is selling these plush dolls of all sorts of Frog and Toad Duel Monsters! Sis won't leave our parents alone about it!" "What!?" "I think she wants a whole set or something…" "Give me the URL, let me see…"

He still needed to ask Yugi about some of the strange stuff that had been happening to him since that tournament as well…

Like how this card, 'Metalmorph', had ended up in his Deck. And how he just understood on a fundamental level that it could combine with his Red-Eyes to form the powerful Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon…

Which wasn't a real card, but somehow existed when it was needed.

He kept feeling like he should be telling people about this, or asking more questions… But things kept getting out of hand, or issues would come up, or his sister Serenity would need something…

"Holy crap, this online store has SO MUCH STUFF!" "Hey wait, half that wasn't there an hour ago…" "Is that an adult's only section!?" "WHAT!?" "Shit, don't look using MY phone, I don't want that in my history!" "Pfft, like we don't know the kinds of messed up stuff you search on there." "...Fair, but still! Not cool!" "See, they censored that stuff and… Oh my." "Uh, yeah." "I like Duel Monsters as much as the next guy, but it's a bit much to get customized 'toys' like that."

Joey felt his ears redden, but was DETERMINED to ignore the loud morons. Even if the topics got more and more X rated as they continued to scroll… What the hell!?

No. Ignore that.

Anyway, most of his time was allocated to helping his sis, so chances like this to consider his playing style and overall Deck composition were rare.

Not that he cared, of course. She was still recovering after her eye surgery, and anything he could do to make that process less burdensome was worth any hassle… And he'd have to find SOME way to repay Yugi eventually.

Just handing someone who lost 3 million dollars after winning a massive tournament was simply beyond what he could normally consider as acceptable, as his pride could attest.

But for Serenity?

Well, he had swallowed the urge to reject charity. Needs must and all that.

"Hang on! The Frog Emperor is going to do a big tournament!" "Wait, what?" "Yeah, he's going to host a huge competition at his swamp castle!" "Who the hell would have a swamp castle?" "I think it floats or something, hang on it says there is more on another page…" "I don't recognize that place, is it over in Europe?" "Yeah, Europe has tons of castles, right?" "...Shit, I think that's over near Becky's place. I recognize that street." "Hold up, when did Becky move to Europe!?" "Shut up, Gaven." "Shove off, Branden!"

Joey paused, still sorting his deck, as his attention was firmly grasped.

A tournament?

He ignored the bickering as his mind flashed back to the VERY intense recent past… And the dread of inflicting that sort of chaos on himself again. The impossible things he had seen and experienced, those moments of actual terror and fear and tribulation…

"This can't be right, it says the tournament will be here in the city." "Are they renting a stadium?" "No, guys online are claiming they like… Built that castle from the picture. Here. In our City." "...Da fuck!?" "Taking bets everyone! Are these people drunk or high?" "Shut up, Gaven." "I'm betting on high." "Holy SHIT (Shut up Gaven), have you SEEN these prizes!?" "What?" "Hang on! Can we go back to the 'They built a castle here' bit?" "No REALLY, look at this list!" """Daaaaamn…"""

…Yeah, that sounded like something he had to know. "Brandon, could I see that?"

His classmate blinked in surprise. "Holy crap! Wheeler, how long have YOU been here!?"

Since before you idiots came in here like a hurricane of stampeding rhinos, thank you very much. "Just now. You said something about prizes?"

A flicker of sympathy… Ah right, most of his classmates didn't know that Serenity's expensive operation had already been paid for, and they probably assumed he was still frantically searching for funds and loans.

Anyway, Brandon was helpful like usual. "Sure man, take a look! I know your circle of friends Duel a lot, maybe this is something you'll get in on!"

Humming, Joey looked over the prize listing… And blinked. "A million dollars earned after every round victory… Wait, you mean at least HALF the participants are guaranteed AT LEAST a million just for entering!?" Holy. Shit.

There were five rounds, each fight consisting of the best of three Duels between two Duelists.

So the final victor of this event would have what, five MILLION dollars!? And even if he was the runner up this time, that was still a million more than what the LAST Tournament offered!

There was more stuff there, like being able to trade in some amount of the cash prizes for wishes worth roughly the same amount and blah blah blah, but still! "Text me a link to this, would you Brandon?" "Sure man!" "Thanks."

Right! Cut all of his Deck rebuilding plans short NOW, there was no time to allow him to stumble his way through this mess like he so desperately wanted to do. This would require professional assistance.

First: He'd go get Yugi and maybe his grandpa involved with optimizing and customizing his deck. Winning this thing, or at least making it through a couple of rounds, could solve all SORTS of issues AND potentially pay his friend back!

Secondly? Tell the others.

Tristan and Téa needed to know, and his sister would be able to actually ENJOY hearing him Duel when the only thing on the line was a free spending budget and not her future or his death.

As for his own nightmares and dark memories and inner fears? They'd just have to set aside for now, along with his old plans and concerns and self doubt.

For now, it sounded like it was going to be time to Duel!

 

[Bloodalchemy]

time to Duel!

Click to shrink...

He said the thing!

I'm now imagining the QI klaxons going off.

 

[Hidden One]

It time to... merchandize! Next merch drop has gacha plush doll capsules!
This also makes me scratch my head about the timeline.
Didn't the Pegasus interlude part point at duelist kingdom not having happened yet?
This is clearly a Wheeler from after that.

 

[theaceoffire]

Didn't the Pegasus interlude part point at duelist kingdom not having happened yet?

Click to shrink...

Yeah I thought so too, but it's not like Pegasus got fired or something after that tournament happened. He seems happy to just keep an eye on what Yugi's up to while tracking down the other millennium items. Apparently these things tend to attract each other... And since he was unable to win the millennium puzzle directly he might as well use it as bait indirectly.

 

[TerraBull]

Is this going to introduce John and his sis to Joey's Time Wizard? As in a young frog Emperor to a Ancient version or a tadpole to an Emperor version?

I envision an Old Spymaster is a possibilities...

As in, to get there they must have done many missions, can old spies train young ones to a higher standard?

Will this lead to a SPYRAL: BIG RED DeLorean? As in Back to the Future edition?

 

[nytemaren]

Wait, Joey got Red-Eyes off Rex already? But... Max Peg still has the Eye. Did Bakura not yoink it here? Did Shadi return it? I am confusion.

 

[theaceoffire]

Wait, Joey got Red-Eyes off Rex already? But... Max Peg still has the Eye. Did Bakura not yoink it here? Did Shadi return it? I am confusion.

Click to shrink...

Huh... I'm not seeing him (Bakura) anywhere, and I have absolutely no idea why. Damn it, I might have to look into that...

 

[TerraBull]

Might be a Japan thing, they do lots the American censors find UNACCEPTABLE!!

 

[ForwardRewind]

I double checked and I guess the interlude doesn't say anything about Pegasus currently having the Eye on a skim through. And checking the wiki as to the exact timing of what went on with Pegasus. So it's after the Dungeon Dice Masters arc, given that he's around and not in a coma. (Which incidently, means that the VR stuff (or at least the first bit of that plot thread) has happened already, it seems. So John could easily implement it, and it's something he's bound to learn about soon if he hasn't already. Just he hasn't had a need to look at it.

And with Joey's sister still recovering from the operation, that puts this right around the Duel City tournament arc. Or rather right before. John's appearance, and thus subsequent Frog changes seems to have caught just before Kaiba would have been contacted to setup the tournament. That, or before it was announced. John might have inadvertently yoinked some of the preparation setup by his Castle Tournament being announced first.

The exact timing would effect some of it. But John's tournament would likely function much the same purpose. Kaiba might well end up contacting John to offer some assistance. Or have a 'pre-tournament/tourist' thing, if the prep work specific to dueling in the City itself was already done. Something for weaker Duelists to participate in, that would have still participated in that, just not made it to John's tournament.

Also might require John to rearrange things, to work in Kaiba's dueling disc tech, rather than the bulkier Island tournament setup. That is if John didn't accidentally yoink Kaiba tech when setting it up, matching what he already had to 'this is available in this world'. I could easily see John just quietly try to hide the fact that he didn't get permission ahead of time, and combine at least some of the elements Kaiba had planned out.

Kaiba may or may not find backdated paperwork leasing out his tech by board members, given he already knows they tried to take over. And they currently are missing/trapped, if that's the case. John might scoop up the shares of Kaibacorp they might have had, at that point. Depending on what Seto did with that here. Though that is something that John might well stumble upon. Or Spyral. Probably Spyral will end up finding the Big Five, knocking that continuation arc out of whack. It seems like something they would find. I'd imagine that the 'three God Cards' is also something they'd be scrambling about, but then they've been a bit focused on other matters until the switch to not stealth.

It's something that should be on their radar soonish, though.

 

[Kurohyo]

So, that opens up a bit more of the cards available since Pegasus has at least taken a hit to his ego/plans and is focusing more on his game. But hey, Wheeler call out on the Flux of the card

 

[maso96001]

Om wondering is he gona play or is he gona make it faire and only duel who ever vins?

 

[TerraBull]

Will Joey make a deck like this?


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JvrsMqB-Mw

 

[theaceoffire]

John held up a hand. "Give me one more try."

Focus on nothingness.

Feel the nothingness.

WIth one hand, he slowly reached for the proxy deck.

No expectations.

No desires.

He felt the sleeved proxy card touch his fingers.

The lights didn't dim, nor did odd sounds occur.

No odd smells, no looming shadows.

Slowly, he withdrew the blank card from the top of the deck and brought it towards the rest of his hand.

See? He could do this!

It just took a little more focus than exp̖̤̙̟ẹ̩͍̦̝c̱͙̳̭̬ͅţ͉͚̀e̙̭̝͘͟͢d̩̫̹̟̝͈̝͍̹̀… Oh shit. "Wait! That didn't count!"

Grace sighed while Temptation giggled to one side. "May I see what you drew, my Lord?"

Could he fix it!? "Sure…" As slowly as possible he began to expose the 'proxy card'. Maybe he could distract them too? Gain a few more seconds? "So the new website is live?"

His angel lit up with glee as she nodded, hopefully not noticing John's frantic attempts to fix this stupid proxy card as fast as possible. "Yes! And it is all AMAZING! Just the sells of our plushy line alone has technically covered the costs of the upcoming tournament, and seats have been sold out for hours!"

At least go back to being a WHITE card, damn it! Then he could just expose a corner or something… "Oh? So we will have a pretty big audience huh…"

Temptation hummed as she checked her data feeds. "This Realm doesn't offer as many streaming services as what Mistress expected, but the few that exist have already signed us up to steam the matches. It will also give competitors time to review each other between tournament rounds, if we space them all out a little bit."

Damn it, change! "I thought this was going to be on TV?"

The demoness nodded. "Yeah, but THOSE deals are already ironed out. This streaming stuff isn't as streamlined as the older media platforms, so they don't just have a standard contract for us to modify and sign like the others. Now, show us the card already!"

CRAP! "What card?" Come on, come on... Buy it...

…They both just gave him that look.

Which was fair.

John slumped, turning the card around. "Ta dah." Damn it. "I almost had it this time, I'm sure just a few more attempts…"

Grace sighed as she accepted the card from him. "Master, even attempting to draw blank cards in a calm and soothing environment ends up with things like this… 'Tode-al Obliterator' monster spawning into existence. Oh dear, this is a BIG one!"

Her sister giggled at his expression as he sighed. "I think it's being caused due to the proxies not even having an IMAGE of a Soul Fragment on them. My existence, even the faint echo being emitted by our defenses, it sort of FORCES them into acting like a newly drawn card from a booster pack."

Which should be impossible, because these were not primed Soul Fragments ready to bond. They were just newly Crafted cardstock with black text marked on one side and a Frog Kingdom logo covering the back.

Even with resonance damped to the point where powerful Duelists shouldn't be able to cheat out anything they desired at a whim, his raw Determination somehow STILL messed things up…

And this was AFTER ratcheting down all his energies as much as he could, and AFTER using all of Grace's tricks and earlier attempts! GAR!

In frustration, John grabbed another proxy… And did it too fast, and without focusing on nothingness first.

The entire deck flickered, the sounds of the Swamp echoed throughout the room, and a choir of frog croaks echoed majestically between the illusionary trees.

Shit, the entire proxy stack was ruined now. "I… I'm going to go work on the holographic emitter project some more."

Grace smiled wryly as she pulled him into a hug. "Don't worry John, I got GREAT data this time! When the actual tournament rolls around, you'll at LEAST be able to play against the most powerful Duelist at the end without altering reality!"

…Hopefully. "Thanks love." He hugged her back, slightly surprised by how quiet she had suddenly gone… Maybe she was also enjoying the moment? "I'm just getting myself a bit frustrated I guess… Let me go fiddle with this hardware and cool off a little, alright?"

John blinked at the red faced angel giggling to herself. "Grace?"

Temptation coughed as she gently took her sister from his arms and guided her to one side. "Don't worry Master, I'll fix her later. You go off and play with your near magic technological shenanigans, alright?"

Um. Okay? "Will do!"

Sigh… Apparently people were complicated sometimes. Oh well, let's go try to shove some Borg design schematics into local technology while attempting to only use local materials and construction capabilities! Woo!

~~~Pocket System~~~

As he had noted before: Technology here was WEIRD. Potentially due to how interdimensional this entire place tended to be.

After all, the empowerment of paper cards wasn't the limit: Constructing vehicles or buildings in the images of Duel Monsters could enhance them as well!

It had some odd effects in the world of research and programming.

Especially programming: Because designing models and characters for virtual reality or holographic projection also had a habit of tapping into that odd Soul connection on some level as well.

And that kind of thing could and WOULD taint everything else you were working on, altering the design schematics in ways that SHOULDN'T work but DO because something undefinable on the other end was holding bits together.

This was all important and relevant, because it meant John couldn't actually TEST any of the hardware or software he was Crafting more than one time.

Because then it would just… Change itself.

So to adjust that sort of hootenanny from convincing him to put in odd jank just because 'it works better this way!'... John was forced to recycle EVERY attempt at improvement and Craft a new copy of all of it after every try.

While this was mildly annoying for hardware alterations and testing improvements, it was annoying as HELL for software development!

After all, Crafting everything from scratch was trivial for his Pocket and related Systems.

But for software? Every edit, any bug fix, each adjustment or stupid typo… Gotta start over.

After every test. After every compilation. After every COMMENT alteration, which shouldn't affect anything AT ALL, damn it!

Scrap and rebuild.

It was an unneeded and frustrating annoyance spread evenly over the already agonizing process of code checking, but whatever: He'd adapt and get through it all.

In the end, his biggest concern was not accidentally leaving a technological or conceptual bomb behind when they moved on.

Either literally, because something John built to power this mess of hardware might accidentally connect to the Soul Fragment of a sun or demon or something…

Or figuratively, when other nations or Duelists wage war over the advancements being built under his castle.

Just to be safe, aside from only using hardware and software a few dozen percentage points better than local equivalents, John was attempting to avoid ALL those concerns by running the various specifications and idea attempts by his Sister's agents FIRST, before just installing impossible Borg technology on a defenseless planet like this.

Of course, they were ALSO Duel Monsters.

So every time he talked to, worked with, or in ANY WAY interacted with them?

Burn everything and build anew once more.

Sigh.

At least he was making some measurable process. Without the contamination of a dozen different Soul connections, the various holographic emitters he was developing were coming out unaligned with the more comment elements and energies.

In other words, John's new hardware was performing less than optimally than the competitions market offerings in most fields… But also LACKED the various detriments of said alternative options as well.

Some of the stuff he had already reviewed acted ODDLY, like only resonating with Field Spells or Monsters that could Conceptually connect with the local terrain or outright giving boosts and bonuses to the archetype belonging to the system's developer or owners.

Hopefully all THAT mess would be missing, at least initially, with his current design schematics… For a little while, if lucky.

But AFTER it was deployed for real in places like his castle? Each device would no longer be able to avoid being slowly altered by the holographic Soul Fragments being passed through them.

So their [[Home]] would likely be attuned to Swamps, Frogs, and SPYRAL agents in the future.

Which was fine, but John made a mental note to send out a letter to everyone warning them that they might suddenly start seeing 'not really a ghost' creatures and spies and stuff when visiting his [[Home]] in other Realms.

ANYWAY!

The newly designed emitter was roughly the size of a cell phone and had a shockingly low energy requirement.

True, this was mostly due to 'borrowing' some of the power requirements from the cards and stuff being played, using the dimensional resonance to sort of guide some of the energy those creatures naturally radiated into something more useful on a local level, but the POINT was that the required materials and energy need to run this stuff was DAMN efficient and shockingly low.

From what John could tell, the various dueling arenas only limited themselves to using twelve or so emitters because of conflicts during the manufacturing process… Most of the time, the holographic devices needed to sort of sync, both to a location AND to each other, or it could have bad reactions.

Like burn out.

Or explode.

Or pull people into a gap between realities, which was apparently either the Shadow Realm or LED to the Shadow Realm, which might be hell. Or not. It wasn't entirely clear or documented.

And people online didn't seem to be able to talk about the Shadow Realm at ALL, which hindered research even further.

Sigh.

Shouldn't be an issue HERE of course! John could put his 'unattuned' anywhere and everywhere, and as long as no one moved them or swapped them about they should easily adapt to each other, the ambient energies of their locations, and any incidental dimensional hullabaloo that might be going about.

So he would.

Emitters behind every light source.

Emitters along the floorboards.

Emitters embedded into wall decorations, picture frames, window sills, door hinges…

If anything, his [[Home]] seemed EAGER for this stuff! After all, his System already had basic holographic options even BEFORE coming in contact with the Borg, using magic or otherwise, and this simply added a new capability to interact with her family.

And John ALWAYS supported family interaction! If it was friendly of course. None of that abusive stuff, or neglect, etc.

Though, in his personal opinion, if someone treats you like crap? Biological relations or not, that isn't what family should do. Family means more than simple genetics, in the end… It was a social relationship.

John blinked as the newest emitter variant began to blink TOO quickly and… "Oh sugar."

BAM!

The black smog coated him in… Well, whatever. "Could you clean this up for me, [[Home]]?"

And his work space was spick-and-span once more. "Have to alter the power circuitry again… Stupid things are somehow SHARING energy distribution and they are NOT designed to network like that."

It wouldn't be an issue if everything was already installed, but shoving power into hardware AS it was being constructed? Dangerous and damaging… Hold up. "System, do another scan for me, I think something has been trying to connect these last few attempts."

[[Commencing scan… Soul Fragment connection attempts detected. Origin dimension: Scrap Archetype.]]

Hang on, that was a THING!? "Are you saying that I had so many failures that the embodiment of trash is trying to connect with the exploded remains of my attempts!?"

[[Connection attempts only detected over last four failures.]]

…So John couldn't get away with blaming ALL these issues on those guys. Damn it. "Run the isolation protocols on my lab again… And I guess we have to rebuild all the emitters, their software, and all that from scratch again."

[[Running isolation protocols.]]

Grr! "Sorry about this, I thought I had the issues mostly ironed out already. Any issues Crafting replacements for yourself, [[Home]]?"

His [[Home]] was MADE to hold his things, both good and bad, well designed and still developing. If he couldn't be himself here, where else COULD he be?

Aww. "Thanks… But this DOES mean I need to redo the last four tests and alteration confirmations…" Hmm. "Probably should do the last six, just to be safe… Crud."

Right, let's be DOUBLY sure that all this new equipment doesn't, in ANY WAY, resonate with the entire Archetype based on the concept of failure and abandoned hardware, shall we?

Good grief.

 

[Bloodalchemy]

Next up is connecting to the archtype of the Mad Scientist. After that is the archtype of Factory Workers making the same thing a million times.

And at the very end is the mythical archetype of Software Designers awake at 3AM with the deadline of 9.01AM.

 

[TerraBull]

Why do I expect the Muppet song "it's not easy being green" to be background music? That or the theme of Secret Agent man or another Bond songs..

Is yugi and Joey both showing up?? Will yugi blow things out of proportion? John is strong, will yugi's alt ego make it serious?

Will John use the arm loaders with attached deck?