A short young man with black hair was standing in Kame Game talking to a slightly not as short old man with starfish shaped hair. The younger one's long black hair was in a ponytail that swayed like a pendulum as he shifted during the conversation. His emerald green eyes looked around the game store, pupils dilated in excitement.
"So young man, you're interested in Duel Monsters?" The younger one paused for a moment before smiling broadly and returned his gaze to the older man.
"Sure am, but all of my cards are back home in... America and I always just dueled with my grandma using custom rules!" The older man thought for a moment and then started searching for something behind the counter. It didn't take long for him to find a thick book that had a couple weaker Monster cards on the cover with the big gold letters TDMOR.
"Ah here it is. The Duel Monsters Official Rulebook. This is a new version that just updated the day before yesterday!"
"So... any chance I could read it over once for free?"
"Trying to scam an old man?"
"I'll buy cards! I promise!" Suddenly the old man laughed.
"Here you go kiddo, I actually give this book away for free to all new duelists. Duel Monsters has become my favorite hobby and I even host tournaments here every Tuesday! So, if you want to pay me back, let's get you set up with a deck so you can enter tomorrow!"
"Awesome, thanks old man!" He soon grabbed the book a little impatiently and began flipping through. Rather than taking offense the old man just chuckled and let it be, the excitement on the young man's face reminded him of his grandson in fact. They spent some time in the store like that before the young man was finished reading. He put down the book on the counter and closed his eyes for a moment. "Save this copy, I got these rules memorized."
"Are you quite sure of that?" He simply nodded in response and kept his eyes closed for a small while before opening them along with a wide smile on his face.
"I know! Hey old man do you know if there are any 'limited tournaments' around here?"
"A limited tournament, what's that?"
"Y'know like a booster draft or sealed." The old man still seemed confused so with a sigh the explanation was given. "I'm a little disappointed that's not a feature yet, but hey this is a living breathing world, and you can learn, old man so hopefully once you know you can host them yourself and the tournaments will be a hit! Okay let's start with the simple one, sealed. You get enough duelists for a tournament, give everyone say like eight booster packs, and then because your card pool is limited let's say they only have to build a deck of 20 cards. Also, here's the real kicker, because they're opening a limited amount of product no matter how many copies of a card, they open they can play it. Other than that, standard rules." The old man listened to this and was lost in thought.
This... was a good idea. It allowed for a more level playing field because that Kaiba kid couldn't just walk in here and dominate with his money, it also allowed for an intense level of skill expression when it comes to dealing with the limited hand you're dealt with. Making the most with what little you have. It truly tested a Duelist's skill in both building and playing a deck. Not to mention, to even hold this tournament, he could forego most of the entry fee, because most of the entry fee would be them buying packs from his store! Something that duelists loved doing! This old man wasn't any ordinary old man, he was in fact a legendary figure known for many things. The great Solomon Muto was a legendary gambler, a daring archeologist, a caring grandfather, and right now he was an astute businessman who could smell the prospect of money.
Neither of them noticed as a short young man with blonde and black starfish shaped hair was listening intently alongside a small group of friends that accompanied him there. There were two brunettes, one male and one female as well as a blonde male.
"Ohohoho, I think Pegasus will be jealous he hasn't done that first. What was this booster draft idea?" The black-haired young man smiled and soon they began chatting extensively. The group listening in on the side, actually quite interested in hearing about these ideas on how to play Duel Monsters.
"A way to Duel where those rich schmucks don't have an advantage, I like it!" The taller blonde exclaimed.
"The strategy needed is definitely extensive when it comes to dueling with your limited options. It's like a similar but very different game." The short one responded.
"It sounds like a lot of money though, I'm fine schooling Joey with my fairies for now."
"The grumbles of a poor person." The other brunette responded, a little smug but also conflicted at having come into knowledge that he will carry on the family business.
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"So these Pack Wars you call them, a way to play Duel Monsters from a single pack of cards?"
"Yeah but imagine this, what if you didn't have it with just two people but a whole tournament, winner gets a booster pack to add to the deck. You keep going until you have a champion!"
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"These structure decks and starter decks are a fantastic idea!"
"Well, you can even host a tournament for them like with everything, everyone gets a deck and however many packs you want, could be zero, winners get packs as usual. Could also allow for mid-tournament upgrades if you dish out packs won each round."
"You're always thinking of ways to turn these products into tournaments, aren't you?"
"I'm thinking of ways to get people to experience playing with these cards in new ways on similar playing fields to others so we can have great competition that's a true test of skill! It's always so exciting instead of... losing to some super powerful combo deck because your grandma has all the best cards and you didn't have your allowance yet to buy cards to counter her strategy and by the time you get your allowance, she has a completely different deck! The power of adults she called it!"
"Now, now, let's get back to the task at hand, you said you had deck lists?"
"Right, they're on my PDA, Personal Dueling Assistant." The young man replied as he pulled up his left sleeve revealing a rectangular black box on it. He pressed a button and it unfolded. He pressed a few buttons on it and then came to a screen. "Here ya go, this thing is kinda permanently attached to my arm, but we can browse the sample deck lists here."
Solomon Muto sighed wistfully, and the crowd gathered to look at the deck lists. The young man seemed incredibly surprised to notice that it wasn't just the old man looking at his PDA now. The revelation that a miniature crowd had formed though was pushed back as conversation continued, the old man either noticed a while ago and didn't care or was so engrossed he hadn't noticed yet.
"Are you trying to buy my Blue-Eyes White Dragon in a roundabout way?"
"Why would I want a torn card? I can earn currency called credits by dueling when I get some cards and I can use these credits to buy any product in the catalog!"
"My Blue-Eyes White Dragon isn't torn!" Solomon then stopped for a moment and took in exactly what he just heard as did others. To some of course they had never heard of the legendary might of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
"So, you're saying that you have a miniature store on your wrist that sells some of the most exclusive cards in Duel Monsters, some I didn't even know there were more copies of some I didn't even know existed, and you're here."
"Well, they're my grandma's cards but she wouldn't just want to give them to me for free. I gotta earn them by dueling, this thing keeps track of all of my duels, my wins and losses. I can get and lose credits that way however to get anything in there I gotta duel first and I don't have any cards so I'm here. In fact, not sure if there's a limit to how many I can purchase and not to mention the packs. If I set my mind to it, I could probably get out a playset of the Blue-eyes for every duelist in the local high school!" The group was so engrossed in this stranger's words that they didn't even notice the current individual that had just entered with a swagger. That swagger was soon lost however and was replaced with shock and some sort of anger as he shouted in surprise.
"HOW MANY BLUE-EYES DOES YOUR GRANDMA HAVE!?!" Everyone turned to look at him, a young man too tall and handsome for his age. One would be surprised he was in the same math class as most in the group even. He was the man that everyone was surprised he went to school instead of buying the entire thing, Seto Kaiba.
"I don't know man, a lot. Different art versions too. Why, wanna get your little brother a playset?"
