Introduction to Duel Tactics - The First Year Experience

The first required standard class for all freshman and transfer students at the Academy. The class is designed to cultivate skills in implementing standard strategies and logical problem solving. The class had rows of seats arranged like an auditorium with the teacher's desk in front of a massive projector screen. The seats were quickly filling up, the occupants either excited or tired due to this being a 9am class and all first-years had to experience the long walk to get from the dorms to the class buildings for the first time.

There was a rumor going about the student body. The professor of this class was a top-class pro-duelist who boasted a high win-loss ratio. They were both a famous and infamous name: Dr. Alexander Crowley. They were famous for using a wide-variety of decks of tactics in their career and infamous for never actually showing up to matches! Whenever Dr. Crowley would have a match, they would send a proxy to appear publicly and would instruct them on what to do through an earpiece. This created some skeptics, but all professional judges and administrators guarantee that no cheating had occurred and that it was the same individual each time.

Dr. Crowley had never made a public appearance in professional dueling, but now the person was about to show up in front of these eager young duelists! Many of the waiting students were whispering among themselves their own theory on just what kind of person Dr. Crowley was.

Yuriko could hardly sleep because she was excited with her first class, so much so that when it came for the hour for her to get ready, she was already halfway dressed and was a little tired. She quickly packed her school satchel with her deck and left to head to Crowley's class.

"First day, don't mess it up." Yuriko said to herself as she had soon arrived at the classroom. Looking around, she found an open desk which she quickly sat down at.

And placed her satchel around the chair as she yawned.

This is it! I can't believe I'm going to be learn tactics for once! Akiha told herself excitedly as she entered the classroom.

The mint-haired girl seemed to be in a considerably chipper mood, especially considering how neurotic she was the first few times. She had come in just a little after Yuriko and sat next to her.

"Hey, Yuriko-san~!" she beamed. "This is going to be so cool right?"

Akiha's chest swelled with pride as she rubbed her chin smugly.

"Once I gain the knowledge of tactics, me and my Fluffals will be unstoppable," she said in a rather low and maniacal voice. "My sisters will never see it coming! 'Oh, Akiha! Your skills are sooo much better than mine! How did you get so good?' Upupupu! Foolish sisters! You were idiots to underestimate my ability to learn from the best academy ever!"

"Don't your sisters also study here and learn from the best academy too, though?"

"Gupaa!"

Akiha leapt from her seat, seeing Shiki who had been sitting primly in the seat behind her. Akiha pointed an accusing finger.

"Gah! You again! Why do you know that!? Are you psychic!? And why do you keep sneaking up behind me!?"

Shiki blinked and then started counting on her fingers.

"Yes, it is me. I know that information because you have a tendency to do this egomaniacal monologues aloud when you don't realize it. I am not psychic, but my cards allow me to see the future. And I like sneaking up behind you because your reactions are so funny."

Shiki said all of this coolly, with nary a smile or giggle.

Akiha squinted before grabbing her bag and moving two chairs away.

"Creepy..."

Shiki then turned to Yuriko and gave a small wave.

"Hi, Yuriko," she said calmly. "Had a hard time sleeping last night?"

The class was chattering and and gossiping away. The clock kept ticking closer and closer to the start of the class time, but there was no sign of the teacher. It was only a minute before the scheduled start time of the class and people were getting antsy when the door opened and someone stepped through. It looked like a young boy, somewhere around junior high age. He was wearing a coat a little bit too big for him and a vest and dress shirt. No matter how you looked at it, he looked like a kid playing dress-up.

He walked to the direct middle of the large screen in front of the class and rummage inside his coat, pulling some thin object out. In silence, he pulled at it and it extended. It seemed to be some sort of pointer with an ornate end. Just as people were wondering who the kid was, the clock ticked marking the turn of the hour and

*slap*

"Class has begun," a deep, masculine voice announce as the boy in the coat slapped the end of his pointer against the board. Students looked around in confusion, wondering where it came from until they realized...

"Allow me to introduce myself," the strong voice announded as the boy turned to face the screen behind him. He picked up a digital stylus and started scribbling and large script letters started to appear on the screen. "I am Dr. Alexander Crowley."

Spoiler:

"I will accept Prof. Crowley," the boy(?) stated, turning back around to face the classroom.

The class was in an uproar and people were exclaiming skeptism, but with a loud slap of his pointer against the board, the students hushed.

"Quiet during lecture hours," Prof. Crowley commanded with an authoritative, deep tone that completely contradicted his appearance. "Now, welcome to Introduction to Duel Tactics. This class is designed to instruct utilization of strategies and techniques for general situations. Since you're all first years, as an icebreaker we should go around saying names and mentioning something about yourself..."

The professor stepped up the the desk and lifted up a coffee mug that was sitting there, He sipped it and set it down before continuing.

"Is what I would say if I cared about remembering any of you," he deadpanned with sheer bluntness. "If you want me to remember your name or face then you'll have to do exemplary in this class. Now before we begin the lecture, does anyone here have a question about the course?"

Yuriko noticed the boy as she was waiting for class to begin, she was about to ask if he was going to be in the class when she noticed that it was about to begin, so she remained quiet. She turned to Akiha and Shiki who were approaching her.

The latter of whom asked if she had any sleep last night.

"Hello you two." Despite being tired, Yuriko was still excited for her first lesson of the day.

"Sort of, but I won't let it get to me, i'm doing well see." Yuriko, was going to sleep as soon as she gets back to the dorm, just then the boy just now. Begun the lesson.

It seems he was going to be the teacher. Yuriko was surprised by this but kept quiet. He didn't seem to care about names, just questions before he begins the lesson.

Which Yuriko had none so far, she just wanted the lesson to begin already.

When the professor came in, much like everyone Akiha stared in utter confusion and when he spoke, she actually almost fell back in her own desk.

What...how...eh???

Who was this kid(?) and how was he even a professor here?

Akiha herself had no questions just by default of being far too confused about the situation. Shiki, however, didn't seem to really be surprised, or at the very least she didn't look like it. Under her desk, she tossed her runes when he asked about the questions, and she merely shook her head. She then put her runes away and started listening keenly.

The classroom was at a tense silence. It seemed nobody was going to speak up, but eyes shifted about expectantly. Then, a single hand went up.

"Uhm..." Yato spoke up, "Are you really the professional duelsit Alexander Crowley?"

He asked the question everyone wanted to ask! was what went through everyone else's mind in unison.

".... Yes, that is correct," Dr. Crowley stated plainly. "Now to begin, I shall explain what the fundamentals of tactics are."

He's not going to explain further! was what everyone thought at the same time.

Crowley started scribbling on the screen behind him using the stylus and it appeared magnified in real-time on the larger projection.

"Tactics and strategies refer to the play style and directive utilized by the player. A person will usually design their decks with a specific intention in mind," the professor explained. "This is done by formulation and combining cards of similar design. These strategic choices are designed to meet a specific win-condition.

"Win-condition refers to a specific goal or field-state a player is intended towards in order to win a given match."

Crowley has sketched onto the board a diagram of a standard duel field while he was talking and turned back to the class when he was done.

"Now, can anybody tell me the 4 ways to achieve victory in Duel Monsters?" Prof. Crowley asked aloud to the class.

Yuriko took out a notepad and a pencil and began to write down some notes to keep note of so she can look at them later at the dorms, remaining quiet besides scribbling with her pencil. The teacher kid, Alexander Crowley, a well known duellist asked about the four win conditions in a duel.

And so Yuriko might as well give an answer from what she had learned.

"Um, if the opponent surrenders, loses all of their LP, runs out of cards or get's disqualified?" Yuriko slightly heard about the win conditions before, though she can vaguely familiar.

"68 pts miss Yamashita," Crowley sighed with disappointment in his tone, not bothering to turn around as he scribbled on the board. "The three conditions of victory are: reducing opponent's life points to 0, opponent not being able to draw, opponent conceding, and fufilling the conditions for a card effects that allows one to win automatically."

"While there's no real means of making your opponent surrender, tactics and strategies revolve around meeting the other three conditions. The most basic and standard one to focus on is depleting your opponent's life points to 0.

"The playstyles and strategies to achieve this are varied, but can be categorized in two different approaches, battle damage and effect damage.

"Battle damage is damage caused by an attacking monster. Effect damage is direct damage to life points as a result of a card effect. Today we will focus on the former.

"The oldest and most basic strategy that capitalizes on battle damage is known as beatdown or ramp tactics. In this approach, the player makes use of monsters with high attack points to overpower their opponents with brute force tactics. Here is an example:"

"Player 1 has a Luster Dragon with 1900 ATK and Player 2 has a Komouri Dragon with 1500 ATK. Player 1 activates Shrink, which causes the Komouri Dragon with lose half of its attack points. Player 1 then tributes Luster Dragon in order to summon Luster Dragon #2 which has 2400 ATK. Player 1 uses his Luster Dragon #2 to destroy the weaker Komouri Dragon and inflicts damage."

"Now what can somebody tell me about this scenario?" Prof. Crowley asked allowed.

"Player 1 won because he had the stronger monsters?" a male student from the back answered.

"63 pts Mr. Tenzin," Dr. Crowley sighed. "Player 1 sacrificed his weaker monster to summon an even stronger one. This is the basis of beatdown strategies, capitalizing on raw ATK value over anything else. However, Player 1 made a mistake. Can someone tell me where and why?"

Did she do well? She did get 68 points for her answer but the teacher sounded disappointed. Yuriko remained quiet and continued to take down notes from the board, while doing so the Teacher asked another question and Yuriko was about to answer.

When someone else did before her, so she remained quiet again. "Hmm, maybe I should let someone else answer the next few questions." Maybe Shiki or Akiha can answer the current question while she continued to take on notes.

Since she already answered one, she can answer the one after that.

A soft pale hand raised after tossing a set of runestones.

"Focusing on attack points alone runs a huge risk," Shiki said softly. "A trap card or a sudden turn could easily take a card you build up away and leave you with nothing."

Her voice showed no hesitance but also no confidence. She merely blinked. Meanwhile, Akiha fidgeted in her seat, averting her gaze so the professor didn't call in her.

"84 pts Ms. Murasaki," the prof stated. "Yes. This is a fatal flaw in this sort of strategy. Allocating all resources into a single card leaves you open if something occurs. Afterall, no matter how many cards you spend reinforcing your monster, your opponent only needs one card to get rid of it."

"Now there is another playstyle that directly opposes beatdown tactics. In this method, rather than raw attack power, a duelist maximizes on using spells and card effects to manipulate the flow of the battle. Can anyone tell me what this playstyle is called?"

Shiki got more points then Yuriko. I guess she only gave out a sort of correct answer to the teacher's question. Yuriko had to try harder in the next question, since it's about time that she should start to answer questions again.

And the answer to this question was one that she couldn't figure out, although she had one answer that she thought of, even though she's not sure if it's correct.

Yuriko raised her hand. "Stall playstyle?" She gulped.

"Ten points," Crowley deadpanned with the dryness of a desert. "The answer is Control. It's called this because a player uses card effects to control the game. Here's an example."

The board displayed another play field. On one side were three monsters called "Armed Dragon Lv 7" each possessing 2800 ATK points. The other side had a monster called "Command Magician" which possesses 2400 ATK and three set cards in the spell and trap area.

"Armed Dragons possess a rather dangerous effect," Crowley explained. "By discarding a monster from the hand, they can destroy all monsters with less ATK value on the opposing side. So say Player 1 discards Despair from the Dark on their turn for this effect.

The display reflected what Crowley describes.

"Command Magician would be destroyed, however..."

Player 2's side flips one of their facedowns, a trap called Dimension Gate.

"By using this card, Player 2 is able to prevent their monster's destruction. It is moved out of the field but now they'll be able to access when they decide is necessary. Next, Player 1 attempts a direct attack, but Player 2..."

The screen shows player 2 flipping another facedown, this time a card called Wall of Disruption. All three Armed Dragons have their ATK reduced to 300 each. And then Player 2 sends Dimension Gate to the grave, bringing Command Magician back to the field.

"Player 1 at this time has a chance to recall their attack, and in the second main phase they have an opportunity to used their Armed Dragons effects again to destroy their opponent's monster, however..."

Player 2 activates the last facedown card, Final Attack Order.

"With this, Player 1 is forced to attack with all monsters they have available whether they want to or not," Crowley explained. "As you can see, Control decks are a little more difficult but can adapt to many situations. Their weakness is that most monsters compatible with control playstyles tend to lack the same high ATK value as Beatdown."

Crowley continued teaching, showing examples and applications in an easy to follow manner. After some time, he pulled out a pocket watch and remarked on the time before turning back to the class.

"Your assignment before next class is to come up with and example of one of the two playstyles we covered," he stated. "Also, for attending today's lecture, you will each receive this card. If used correctly, it can be integral during a match. You're all dismissed."

As he said so, a slot opened up in front of everyone's seat and ejected a card.

Yuriko looked at the example for a control match, remaining quiet as the teacher gave an example of the play style and just like that class soon ended once the example ended, with the students being given there first assignment which is to cover one of the two play styles that they have just learned.

And they were also given a card called half shut for attending the lecture, which Yuriko soon collected. "Woah, my first new card." And the first card that doesn't belong to Ryouta. Yuriko was already a pro at collecting cards already.

And all she did was attend a class. She'll probably get more new cards as she attends more classes.

Shiki was calmly talking notes as the professor discussed. Akiha, on the other hand, was tense in her seat. She was having a hard time grasping the concept. She was honestly relieved when she got through the class without the teacher calling on her. Once the professor was gone, Akiha let out a large sigh of relief.

"Pheeeeww..." she said as she sprawled across her desk. "Maybe sis was right. I didn't understand any of that. Maybe I should just read up tonight."

"I have notes if you like."

Akiha flinched, grabbing her bag and using it to shield her. When she looked, it was Shiki with her arms wrapped around her books. Akiha squinted.

"What's the catch?"

"No catch," Shiki answered with a head shake.

Akiha continued to squint incredulously. Shiki handed her notebook.

"See?"

Akiha quickly swiped it before dropping it on the desk. She was inspecting it the same way one would an bomb that hadn't detonated yet. She flipped through the pages, expecting some sort of prank but all there was were tidy notes. She glanced at Shiki, who in turn tilted her head. Pouting, Akiha took the notebook and hugged it, her eyes low and her expression bashful.

"Mmn...thank you," she said. Shiki nodded.

Akiha then turned to Yuriko. "Ah...Yuriko-san, you wouldn't happen to know what our next class is right? I, eh...accidentally forgot where I put my copy of the class schedule."

As Akiha spoke to Yuriko, Shiki scanned the room.

She made her way towards one particular desk.

If Yato tried to get up from his desk, he'd find Shiki standing right in front of him, expressionless and still embracing her books. She said nothing and merely blinked.

Yato quietly followed along the lecture, scribbling in his notebook quietly. As the period was ending, he was tapping his chin with the eraser of his pencil in thought. There was a fine line in what was considered genuine beatdown and control tactics. All decks use spells and card effects and plenty use monsters with high atk power, but only ones that truly specialize are considered one or the other. Most people don't care about the descrepency but Prof. Crowley seemed to be a stickler for the smaller details.

Just as Yato was mulling over how to approach the assignment, a shadow was cast over his papers. He looked up and flinched back.

"A-Ah... Do you... need something?" Yato asked meekly. What could this girl possibly want with him?

As Yuriko examined her new card some more, she quickly turned when Akiha tried to get her attention, which she had succeeded with. Unfortunately for Akiha however, she's asking the wrong person about what their next class was. "Oh, I don't know myself. I've been sort of hectic trying to get to this class today that I forgot." She then noticed Shiki talking to Yato.

"Maybe they know." She had also heard that Akiha was planning to read a few things tonight regarding class.

"Oh are you studying tonight? Do you want me to join?" Yuriko happily offered.

Akiha laughed nervously at Yuriko's question.

"Eheh...well, I suck at studying so help would be great," she said. She then looked in the direction of Shiki and Yato when Yuriko pointed them out. Akiha frowned.

"Mmm, I guess we could go to them."

Akiha was honestly still on edge with Shiki, but she supposed that her lending her notes was proof she wasn't completely harmful.

Meanwhile, Shiki blinked at Yato before giving him a small bow.

"Thank you," she said. When she straightened up, she elaborated. "Everyone left in such a hurry the other night that I never got to thank you properly for being my battle partner. I probably would have lost the battle for us had you not stepped in."

"A-ahm...sorry! Do-do you guys know what our next class is?" Akiha suddenly piped in from the side.

"O-oh..." Yato looked down bashfully, pinching and rolling a tuft of his oversized bangs between his fingers. "Y-You don't need to thank me for that. I'm not all that great. I just didn't have confidence to fight before with those other guys. Uhm... You were-"

Yato yelped out loud when Akiha suddenly cut in.

"A-Ah.. Sure. Just a minute..."

Yato pulled out his gray-colored D.D.D and tapped at the screen.

"Next class is... Main Deck Construction," Yato stated. "You can access your schedule on your D.D.D the same way."

Yato hurriedly tucked away his things in a bag and got up.

"A-Anyway, I won't bother you anymore, so I'll be going. Good luck!"

He scurried off, his eyes staring at his own feet as he did so.

Yuriko approached Shiki and Yato by following behind Akiha. She hoped that they would be quick since she didn't want her or her new friends to miss their next classes. Ryouta would be disappointed in her if she was tardy, but he wasn't around anymore sadly, so she stayed quiet and stood behind Akiha when she asked the two what their next classes were.

It seems it was main deck construction, which Yuriko wanted to go to the most. She also learned that she could of easily checked her schedule using the D.D.D "Oh yeah, I, didn't think of that." At least Yuriko knows now.

"Anyway we should get going as well." Yuriko said to Shiki and Akiha.

Shiki tilted her head as Yato rushed off.

"Curious..." she murmured to herself.

Akiha meanwhile barely managed to call out. "Okay thanks!"

The two girls huddled closer to Yuriko. Shiki hugged her books.

"Perhaps we should start going then?" she asked.