Dark came down from the contestant's platform and regrouped with Dianna.
Dianna pouted, full of unwillingness; "If I had known that you didn't draw a magical spirit card, I would have summoned a new magical spirit in the second round. Even if it's a trash card, it could still be used as a ball!"
Dark chuckled: "So no matter what you do, you should use your brain first."
Dianna responded in frustration; "But I'm not that smart!"
Dark: "If you use your brain more, you will eventually be able to react faster. Anyway, let's go check out other people's matches."
Arena No. 2.
Also in the winner group, the duel of Emma Mortis continued.
Her opponent, Fool House ⑭, was unexpectedly tenacious. Although the white cards in this person's hand had no ultimates, the stats of his cards were good and his summoning speed was not slow.
With the help of a large number of white cards, he was able to drag the match on until now.
If students were to pay close attention, they would quickly realize that by the time the duel ended, the student from Fool House would have summoned a total of ten magical spirits!
Unfortunately, those magical spirits were not strong enough, so he still lost the match in the end.
...
"Is my opponent in the next round still Emma?"
As Dark sharpened his attention, he faintly felt Emma's gaze from the contestant's platform.
By the end of this round.
In the winner's group, ①Dark and ⑤Emma advanced to the next round, and ②Dianna and ⑭ from the Fool House dropped to the loser's group.
However, there were many examples of players who advanced from the loser's group winning the championship in the past.
In addition to the strength of the deck, luck and tactics were also very important for the outcome of a duel.
After players in the loser group learnt from their experience and arranged their decks or tactics, they were likely to turn defeat into victory.
In the loser's group, the results of this round were as follows:
⑨ Sara easily won against the ⑩ boy from Magister House.
⑦Knight House student narrowly beat ⑮Fool House student and successfully advanced to the next round of the loser's group.
⑩ and ⑮ were eliminated one after another.
...
The new schedule was sorted very quickly.
Winner group:
Arena ①: ① vs. ⑤
Loser group:
Arena ②: ② vs ⑦
Arena ③: ⑭ vs ⑨
...
Dark found a bench and sat down. He began to replenish the magic energy of his magic cards and adjust the deck!
Drawing on the experience of the previous match, Dark's adjustment to the deck this time mainly focused on the word "simplification".
In the situation where he was seriously lacking the first-tier magical spirit cards, and when his magic cards couldn't form a chain, he could only try to reduce the probability of having no magical spirits in his starting hand within the scope of the rules.
If possible, it was best to snipe Emma's deck as much as possible.
But in reality this was not easy to achieve.
Dark first put [Pride I] back into the deck.
Using [Pride I] to deal with [Golden Treasure Chest] was a relatively conventional method.
Then he temporarily cut down all the remaining magic spell cards, adding [Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee], [Trash Slime] and [Shuckle] to the deck. In terms of the magical spirit cards of the second tier, he hadn't decided yet.
Dark actually thought about carrying only five magical spirit cards as a deck...
In this case, he would immediately have five magical spirit cards in the beginning!
But after he gave it a little more thought, he realised that he could be countered easily if he took a combination of three first-tier magical spirit cards + two second-tier magical spirit cards. As long as his opponent could summon a strong enough 3-star magical spirit at the beginning of the first round, for example [Bear Spirit], then he would almost certainly lose!
From the beginning of the first match until now, most players' deck information had more or less been exposed.
When Dark gradually figured out other players' core magic cards, other players also learned about his core magic cards.
For example, in the previous game, Sara locked [Shuckle] with [Sphynx Cat], preventing him from performing sacrifice summoning.
And among his first tier magical spirit cards, [Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee] and [Trash Slime] were both super weak, which caused him to fall into a dangerous situation.
But this was actually not the optimal solution.
Sacrifice summoning a four-star magical spirit would require [Shuckle]+[Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee], or [Shuckle]+[Trash Slime].
Then if his opponent waited for him to summon [Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee] or [Trash Slime], and then kill them immediately...
That would not be a dangerous situation, but a desperate situation!
The weakness of [Shuckle]'s slow movement speed may have already been exposed, and Emma was likely to choose to ignore [Shuckle] and turn to the tactics of killing [Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee] or [Trash Slime].
As long as his first tier magical spirits could be killed before the sacrifice summoning was completed, Dark would not be able to summon the four-star magical spirit at all!
→ He still hadn't fully mastered the sacrifice summoning, so his speed wasn't fast enough.
Therefore if there were only five magical spirit cards in the deck, it would almost be a death sentence.
He needed to make sure that there were extra cards to keep [Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee] or [Trash Slime] alive.
"Then I can add a [Fade Spell]."
"In addition, in order to deal with the Bug tactic of throwing the Magic Ball into the sky, I need a [Push Push Curse]."
"[Magic Bullet Spell] and [Obstruction spell] can be taken out temporarily."
"In terms of [Blinking Spell's]... I'll put it aside for now."
"Three second tier magical spirit cards are too many."
"[Sylveon] has long-range attack skills, so it must be kept in the deck."
"In terms of [Gatomon] and [Miltank], I can choose either."
"[Gatomon] has the buff provided by the [Holy Ring] along with the best stats and the strongest mobility."
"[Miltank] is a meat shield, and it's unbeatable when it starts rolling!"
"But at this stage, [Miltank] is not as useful as [Gatomon], and [Gatomon] has a control skill - [Cat's Eye]."
...
So the final card arrangement was:
▼
[Phantom Magic Beast: Eevee], [Trash Slime], [Shuckle]
[Sylveon], [Gatomon]
[Pride I], [Push Push Curse], [Fade Spell]
▲
With only eight magic cards, the probability of not having the first-tier magical spirit card in the starting hand would be very low. In fact, if he cut down one more card, he would be guaranteed to 100% draw a first-tier magical spirit card.
But Dark didn't do that. He needed to add a little more fault tolerance.
Emma's summoning speed was faster than Dianna's, and her deck would definitely be more unpredictable than Dianna's, which would be difficult to deal with.
...
After the initial adjustment, Dark continued to think while replenishing the magic to his cards.
Then he suddenly had an idea: "Wait, if I reduce this deck to five cards, such as [Trash Slime], [Shuckle], [Sylveon], [Gatomon], [Pride Ⅰ], would this work?"
This thought made him wake up in an instant, and his mind suddenly became very clear.
In this game with no deck size rules, five cards were the bottom line.
[Pride Ⅰ] could be used to deal with [Golden Treasure Chest].
The bug tactic of increasing the height of the magic ball could be handled by [Sylveon].
Emma did not have a magic card like [Sphynx Cat] that could stop sacrifice summoning, so there was no need for having three first-tier magic cards!
As for how to ensure the survival of the sacrifices, and the necessity of the simultaneous existence of [Sylveon] and [Gatomon]...
Dark's thoughts became more and more clear, and he finally made the final decision.
The final result was:
▼
[Trash Slime]
[Shuckle]
[Sylveon]
[Gatomon]
[Pride I]
▲
...
Time passed away quickly.
Players needed to make good use of their time to replenish their cards' magic energy and rearrange their deck, but the interval of half an hour was not enough at all.
The students other than the contestants were still in the midst of a lively discussion about the previous matches, and didn't feel that the wait was boring.
Half an hour had passed in the blink of an eye.
A new round of competition finally began!
...
Professor Claire, who was temporarily in charge of Fool House, finally had free time as the number of dueling arenas went from four to three.
As a matter of course, she appeared at dueling arena ① to watch Dark's game.
Among the remaining students, students from Noble House and Knight House were almost all gathered here.
Most of Magister House's students went to watch Sara's game at arena ②.
The students of Fool House were gathered in arena ③.
...
When the games were about to start, Dark and Dianna encouraged each other and went to their own arenas, with Rose following Dianna.
Dianna's opponent this round was ⑦ from Knight House.
It was a sunny boy, who had once encouraged White after he lost the first intra-class competition.
His demeanor and physique resembled that of a typical paladin, and he was quite popular among the students of Knight House.
His name was Justin Wayne.
Although Wayne was in the loser's group, his strength was not weak.
So this duel might be another difficult test for Dianna.
...
Dark thought about Dianna's match as he stepped onto the player's platform.
It was still the red player's platform, a platform he was already very familiar with.
After he put the five magic cards into the card slot, the platform activated by his magic energy started to shuffle the cards automatically.
Looking at the deck that only had five cards which would all be in his opening hand no matter how it was shuffled, he inexplicably showed a smile.
"This is probably the last time in my life that I'll use this shameless tactic in a duel match."
...
On the other side, Emma Mortis also appeared on the blue player's platform.
Looking at the Dark Demon opposite from a distance, Emma clenched her hands into fists!
In the first intra-class competition, she was defeated by Dark.
That failure also changed her life.
She took Dark's "advice," attempted a slight change in herself, and ultimately arrived at where she was now!
Looking down at the classmates who cheered and encouraged her, Emma held back the urge to smile happily.
Although deep down in her heart, she really hoped to gain more recognition from others.
"It's time for revenge!"
Emma raised her head again, her eyes burning with fighting spirit.
...
Dark then heard Emma's declaration: "Dark, I will definitely win this time!"
Dark was stunned for a moment, then said with a smile, "Okay, I'm looking forward to it."
After the exchange between the two sides, the game entered the preparation countdown.
[Preparation Phase][30s]
Dark immediately focused his mind, and the magic flowing within him maintained an extremely high level of activity.
Then he directly pulled out all the five magic cards in the card slot!
At this moment, the sharp-eyed audience immediately noticed that on the projection of the card table, there were no more magic cards in the card slot of Dark!
"What happened? Did he only bring five magic cards?" Doron, who had been watching Dark, gasped in surprise.
The chubby classmate beside him asked in confusion, "Could it be that he got the wrong deck?"
That was of course impossible.
Several students around couldn't help but glance at him.
Not far away, two girls from Knight House, Susan and Lucy, who always sat on either side of Emma, also noticed the number of cards in Dark's deck.
One of them was overjoyed, the other looked very serious.
Susan, who was smiling, couldn't help raising her voice; "There are only five magic cards, what will he do if he runs out of cards? Our Emma won't take pity just because he is a handsome boy."
Seeing that the students in Knight House were glaring at her, Lucy nudged her arm and whispered, "Lower your voice. I have a bad feeling."
Professor Claire, who was standing behind the students, exchanged glances with Professor Jones, who was the referee, and then smiled.
In short, the audience suddenly became intrigued.
...
The two players on the platforms were not affected.
The thinking time of less than 30 seconds was not long. Emma was thinking of a strategy based on the cards she had in her hand. She did not pay attention to Dark at all.
Among the five cards in her hand, one was [Golden Treasure Chest] and the other was [Golden Beast]!
[Golden Beast] was a magical spirit card that Emma successfully refined in the magic class using an ancient gold coin as the core material.
At that time, Dark successfully refined [Shuckle], Dianna refined [Gaia Bear], White refined [Troll], and Robert refined [Cyborg Ratman].
It was a mech-type magical spirit with a height of about two meters and a shell made of gold!
The strength of [Golden Beast] had been shown in several games before, and Dark had already heard about it to some extent.
...
[Battle Phase][30s]
The moment the words displayed on the card table changed.
Both players started to summon at the same time!
"Magic summoning!"
"Magic summoning!"
Dark was still one step ahead. A white light shot out from his magic card landed on the red player's summoning area first.
After Shuckle appeared in the light, it stretched out its head and its four legs from its carapace.
It blinked, moved slightly on the spot, and then took its legs back into the carapace, leaving only its small head outside.
Since Dark gave it a "defense" order, it was being extra cautious now.
Then only a few seconds later.
Emma successfully summoned [Golden Beast] in the eighth second of Battle Phase!
The Golden beast that appeared in the blue player's summoning area looked like Suan Ni, the stone lion that was often placed on both sides of a gate, from its appearance!
But it was more powerful and ferocious.
Dark had seen something similar to this magical spirit in ‘The Gold King and the Secret Treasure'.
After Emma summoned the Golden Beast, she immediately ordered the Golden Beast to rush to the red side's summoning area!
On the surface, Shuckle and Golden Beast were not comparable at all. Shuckle looked like it could be killed by the Golden Beast in one bite.
But Emma certainly wasn't fooled by Shuckle's appearance, her mind was very clear.
She wanted to approach the summoning area first. Then after Dark summoned the second magical spirit, she would order her Golden Beast to kill that magical spirit that Dark was going to use as a sacrifice!
