CHAPTER 39: CHAPTER 39: THIS IS A REAL DUEL!

"My first move!"

Yuan Youxin’s lips curled up.

This duel is already won!

[Done for! How did this fish bastard get the first move again? I thought we’d see him get blown away by a newbie.]

The live chat in the stream started to lose optimism as well.

Everyone loves the underdog story where the weak defeat the strong.

And because Yuan Youxin has professional skills yet insists on competing in amateur matches for prize money, most viewers naturally sided with Shen Sui while watching the stream.

Of course, some extreme Xinyuan fans didn’t think so. They popped champagne when they saw Yuan Youxin get the first move.

[Hahaha! Ape God’s first move, isn’t that a sure-win scenario? Just bet on Ape God to win without a brain.]

In the past, some curious onlookers calculated Yuan Youxin’s win rate, finding that his first move win rate was as high as 65.2%. For a Life Card Duel that involves a bit of luck, a 65.2% win rate is astonishingly high.

This is related to Yuan Youxin’s deck composition.

This aggressively expanding deck, once it gets the first move, would deploy a field in the first round that the opponent simply can’t clear.

And unlike Xu Tianzhi’s neutered version of the deck used during the duel exam, Yuan Youxin’s deck has traps and some followers have resistance, so Shen Sui’s single [arson] can’t clear the field.

"Ready to meet your defeat? Kid!"

Yuan Youxin’s lips curled up, revealing a confident smile.

"Because I have no followers on the field! I activate the effect of the Follower Card [Cyan Mountain Guest Lin Yi] from my hand! Special summon it from my hand."

[Here it comes! Ape God’s classic guest expansion.]

[Fast forward, fast forward! I want to see that kid’s desperate expression.]

However, before the light of the special summon could shine, Shen Sui’s voice came through.

"At this moment." Yet Shen Sui slowly spoke at this time.

Yuan Youxin was shocked. It’s his first move turn, why is there an opponent’s timing?

"When the opponent activates an effect that involves special summoning or searching, I discard [Sinful Saintess Anna] from my hand to the graveyard to activate." Shen Sui drew Anna from his hand, "Nullifying that effect and sending the card to the graveyard."

The crisp sound declared the shattering of [Cyan Seal Guest Lin Yi].

"A hand trap? I didn’t expect you to have such a precious Life Card in your hand." Yuan Youxin was somewhat surprised since hand traps in Life Card Duels are as rare as Event Cards and Environment Cards.

"Just lucky."

Shen Sui lied.

Anna’s original effect didn’t actually include a hand trap, but Shen Sui felt his current deck lacked the necessary hand traps, and with few followers, Anna’s high star level allowed for stronger effects, so he wrote the hand trap effect on it.

Honestly, relying on fate to draw the card, who knows when it would ever come.

"But that’s useless~! In my first move, no one can stop my expansion!" Yuan Youxin snorted coldly, "Then let me show you what a real set-up looks like!"

"Pay 10 Soul Points! Activate from my hand! Spell Card [Cyan Seal Summoning Order]! Pay 3000 Life Value! Flip the top card of the deck, special summoning any [Cyan Seal] Follower Cards that are revealed! Until there are no empty Follower slots on my field!"

With the activation of [Cyan Seal Summoning Order], a light chant resonated from Yuan Youxin’s deck, followed by a divine light sprinkling onto the field.

His deck was flipped card by card, and each time a Follower Card was revealed, that follower was immediately summoned to the field...

"At this moment." As soon as Yuan Youxin’s first follower successfully special summoned, Shen Sui spoke again, "Activate the effect of [Sinful Saintess Anna] in the graveyard, when she is in the graveyard, and the opponent successfully special summons a follower, I draw a card from my deck, then take 500 points of unaccounted damage."

"????" Yuan Youxin was stunned.

Can effect activations be inserted into the middle of effect resolution?

Yet the activation of [Cyan Seal Summoning Order] couldn’t be stopped, as disciples of the Cyan Seal Sect were summoned one by one until all five of Yuan Youxin’s Follower slots were filled.

As a result, Shen Sui also drew five cards from his deck.

At the same time, his Life Value dropped to 3,500 due to Anna’s effect. No way around it, without this damage limitation, he wouldn’t be able to cram both hand trap effects into one card.

"Powerful cards often come with risks." Shen Sui said with a bit of regret, then grinned, "However, at this moment, I activate the effect of [Sinful Saintess Anna] in the graveyard, when she is in the graveyard, and the opponent successfully activates a Spell Card effect, I must reveal a card in my hand, lowering its star level to 0."

Yuan Youxin’s eyelid twitched: TM, again?

[Ugh! Fake card!]

[Damn, this card should be on the Forbidden Card List, right? Disgusting!]

[Just a First Encounter Kill, right? If worse comes to worst, I just won’t expand.]

[Have the people above not played cards? Cloud players?]

The chat also burst into a discussion over Shen Sui’s card.

Shen Sui actually felt this card was pretty fake. When writing effects on it, he didn’t expect Anna’s aptitude to be this good, letting him write all the effects he thought of on it.

So the question arose, would this card be banned?

First, the Life Card Association isn’t so idle as to always focus on banning the cards of unranked and low-ranked Life Card Masters. They mainly focus on maintaining the balance of strength in A-class and B-class events.

Second, due to previous abuse of the card banning system, the state strictly required the Life Card Association to rectify the card banning process. Now, for the same Life Card Master, the Life Card Association’s card banning process has a six-month cooldown, meaning that six months after a card goes through card banning review, your cards won’t undergo another ban process regardless of the number of reports. (A single card ban review does not mean only one card is reviewed, if your deck is controversial, the Life Card Association will batch review cards that might be banned for you.)

Unfortunately, it only treats the symptoms, not the cause, as the domestic environment remains the same.

Thirdly... hehe, this brings up a little bug in the Life Card Association’s card banning rules.

Due to the acquisition method of Life Cards, Follower Cards obtained from Soul Card World by Life Card Masters are far fewer than Spell Cards. In this case, if you ban the few Follower Cards in a Life Card Master’s hand, can they still duel? It’s unreasonable to let them win with pure spells, right?

Thus, the Life Card Association’s banning rules state that non-professionals’ Follower Cards cannot enter the banning process, and if a professional’s Follower Cards make up no more than one-third of the deck, then their Follower Cards cannot enter the banning process either.

Incidentally, to prevent professionals from circumventing the card ban review by altering their decks, the number of Follower Cards is based on the deck used in professional matches they won with.

You say all their professional matches were lost? If they’re all lost, how could there be banned cards in the deck?

Shen Sui had studied the card banning rules specifically to exploit the Life Card Association’s gold coins by banned cards.

When he saw the card ban cooldown rule, he even lamented heavily.

He dared to use Anna without fear of her being banned.

"Come on, let me see what a real expansion looks like." Shen Sui looked at Yuan Youxin and said with a smile.

Provocation!

This guy is provoking me!

Yuan Youxin’s eyelids twitched violently.