To Be The Best

Jamie was someone who did not really know me. We met through her boyfriend who was sympathetic towards everything that happened as well as playing me in Yu-Gi-Oh. She has wanted to spend more time with him, and thought the best idea was to play the game next year. The summer was coming up fast, and mom was trying to light all of her finances that were joint with pops in to a bonfire. Wondering why I was the one she had asked to teach her, and she told how everyone would ask for different handicaps to play against me.

Others had believed me to be one of the best especially since we had our five on one contest that I still had won. Considering she also wanted to be competitive against him then she would like to learn from the best person she could find. She knew how I would take jobs, and just wanted to spend one summer training how to play this game. Hearing how much her boyfriend complained about me winning nearly every time we decided to talk over the job. Adding the cherry to the cake was that there was no female players despite the group being fairly large when it came to trading card game groups. She wanted to be the representative.

She would need multiple sessions a week to catch up as her boyfriend had been playing for a few years. Payment would be in cards after she felt comfortable playing, soda when I was there, and an open mind. Living a few blocks away from the house it would not that hard to walk there. There was enough cards in my own stores that we could use until she felt comfortable. Each training session would be for an hour minimum. We could go longer if we were both up for it and no plans had to be changed.

Going over the various basics, media, mistakes that were common, how to test a deck, how to make a deck, what you want in a deck, sizes and proportions. After that it turned into how to play the people because the person’s style was a strong variable when it came to preferred strategy. We would have lessons once or twice and sometimes three times a week. We had asked her boyfriend to play seriously against her after the first day of school giving a good test of her skills. I couldn’t help her in any way when they had their game, but I could watch.

Over the summer her ability to learn was on full display taking more time with the difference between the actual game. The difference of the card types working in to combinations were something that intrigued her. Working from my extras after half the summer she had begun to get cards to flesh out a style that was her own. Teaching someone to play that was always one of the hardest parts I found out because when you teach someone one of the things that you would need to be clear is where style differs from technical ability. You do not want someone to just mirror your style because while the teacher has had experiences over their time that maybe the student would not understand. While she would gather information there was extra efforts to go over what was more of style. Doing that she had actually began to feel comfortable with cards that while I would not play could be used in a very competitive match.

Harpies were the cards that she had really fallen in love with. That was a set of cards based around the Harpie Lady all the cards that worked well with were tracked down within reason of cost because one would be surprised how expensive some cards can be. Building her own deck she had asked for some of my extras that were not expensive, but as it was easier for her to use I had decided at the end of the summer to do something.

My tournament had not gone well, and it had gotten around from other sources. I was just boiled at the incident rather choosing to wave off the question. Judging seemed to be a better fit doing it when there was need at some of the smaller stores in the city. People enjoyed that it was more about the players and the experience while keeping things fair. A judge should never have to be calculated on in a game like that because it can ruin the entire experience. Back to the point at hand she picked the game very quickly and to act as the cherry because she did push herself to learn.

Respecting that intensity, and feeling that the game did not have a whole lot of love left. My deck became hers with it all the cards in it that she had hated when she was practicing were now hers. Black Tyranno had been able to find a new home with someone who had found a love of the game which was good enough for me. She wanted to use those cards in the deck in the match with her boyfriend, but she thought better of it. Playing him in a three match series she had swept it easily earning the ire of her boyfriend even going through a game without taking damage making him rage for a moment leaving a smile on my face.

When she left high school she had begun to make her way to California where her tournament lifetime in the state went better in mine, and one of my favorite moments was an email about her successes including a picture from one of her events after a match she had won. The picture showed her field with the various cards that could be called beautifully artistic cards except for one. Sitting in her monster field years after she had been taught was the Black Tyranno in attack mode ready to go. It was a sign of something that made me smile all those years later. Games really can be so magical when you think about it, and getting someone to find a passion for a game was a nice little thing in a world that seems to be bass ackwards.