“You two see that stunning performance that happened just now?” asked Mr. wide-eyed and smiley.
“Uhm… yeah,” we both said, clicks apart from one another.
“That guy who won it, won it all because I had a hand in making it happen.” Then he made his introduction, “I’m Clarence P. F., and I make dueling dreams happen! That guy over there wanted to win against his friend, so I made his deck unbeatable.”
“Wow!” Rosie was genuinely impressed, “How were you able to do that?”
“I provided all the cards that he used in his match.”
“But how could you plan for a strategy if you didn’t know what the Opponent’s deck was going to be?” I was skeptical.
“No worries here,” he said, “We planned for this match ahead of time; those two are friends and he knew what his Opponent was going to be playing.”
“Isn’t that against the rules, or something?” I asked again, perplexed.
“No, actually it’s not. In official matches, players are allowed to analyze each other’s deck before a match to rule out a decided advantage. Since this one was informal, both players simply declined the privilege. There’s nothing in the rules that says you must review your Opponent’s deck.”
“Well what about those powerful cards? Don’t you need to go find the guy to get them back? They must have been worth a small fortune.”
“No need. I let him keep them.”
Both Rosie and I were stunned. Giving a player an entire constructed deck was something unthinkable… practically unbelievable. Extreme inquisitiveness took hold of Rosie.
“So why are you over here telling us, all this?” Rosie asked.
“Why? Because I’ve chosen that you will be the next one I’m going to help reach their dueling dreams!” Clarence beamed so brightly that we both thought he might extinguish the sun. He pointed to Rosie.
“Huh?” I uttered.
“Wha –?”, Rosie baffled.
“Go on, tell me what you most desire in this world of card games,” said Clarence, “and then I’ll try and make it happen.”
It took Rosie a minute. You could obviously see that she was having a hard time preparing a decision in her mind. However, knowing Rosie as well as I do meant that I was absolutely sure what was coming next.
Rosie projected out loud, “Okay, hot-shot. I want to be the first Machinist player to top the Red Diamond rankings! Well then, how’s that? Is it possible?”
Rosie was being cheeky.
“Wow, that’s a tricky one!” said Clarence with a chuckle, “Most people I ask, usually want me to give them a rare and powerful card, or inform them how to beat their next Opponents. You set the bar pretty high with that one.”
I was sure the kid was going to back down. Rosie thought so too, I’m sure. But then….
“Okay,” he said glibly, “I’ll do it on one condition. Prove it to me in a game of Red Diamond that you deserve to be on the top, and I’ll get you on a semi-pro team. I happen to know some league scouts who owe me a favor.”
You could see it on Rosie’s face that she was not expecting this.
Rosie asked, “So you’re telling me, if I beat you, you can get me on a league team?”
Clarence, Mr. bright and smiley, answered, “If you win.”
It took Rosie another minute to get her head wrapped around this. That was fine; my head was still swimming from five minutes ago when he had given some stranger an entire deck of cards for free.
Rosie took a deep breath, gathering up all her courage and said, “Okay Clarence, I’ll play!”
