Traveling in reverse through the Yu-Gi-Oh! world with the MD system

"Come on, Yamashiro, this [Gear Gear Gear XG] is yours from now on."

"Thank you, Professor Soreva."

Taking the card from Soleva, Tatsuya Yamashiro politely bowed and thanked her. Having been very attentive during Soleva's lecture, he immediately recognized the black card Soleva was giving him as an Xyz Monster card.

However, after receiving the reward, Yamashiro Tatsuya did not share his joy like Harada Taishi and Ayukawa Ayumi, but remained standing in front of Sorewa.

For Tatsuya Yamashiro, there was something very important he wanted to ask Soreva, but he didn't know how to bring it up.

However, his stare at Soreva made Soreva feel a little uneasy, and he immediately asked with an awkward smile:

"Mountain City, is there another question you want to ask me?"

As soon as Sorewa spoke, Hiiragi Yuzu, Harada Taishi, and Ayukawa Ayuto, who were still sharing their harvest, all turned to look at him, making Yamashiro Tatsuya blush instantly.

But after taking a deep breath, Yamashiro Tatsuya's expression returned to normal, and he asked the question that had been bothering him all day:

"Teacher Soleva! Ever since I witnessed Yuya-nii's entertaining duels, I've admired him greatly and wanted to become a duelist like him! That's why I chose to join the Yusho Juku."

But, Professor Sorewa, you so vehemently oppose Yuya's duel. Was Yuya's duel wrong?

After hearing this, Soreva understood why Yamashiro Tatsumi also wanted to ask him questions.

He's clearly a big fan of Yuya! He probably felt indignant for Yuya after hearing himself criticize Yuya's deck.

However, this made things even more difficult for Soreva.

If it were Yuya Sakaki who questioned him like that, he would definitely pull out his Odd-Eyes deck, which he used for both entertainment and learning Pendulum, to open Yuya Sakaki's eyes.

But what about this kid, Yamashiro Tatsuya?

Sorry, he doesn't have a habit of ruining children's beautiful dreams; after all, he's not a demon.

Chapter 16: The Concept of Deck Building

"Tatsuya Yamashiro, since you say you admire Yuya Sakaki's duels, why don't you tell me what aspects of Yuya Sakaki's duels you admire?"

After a moment's thought, Soreva posed the same question back to Yamashiro Tatsuya, catching Yamashiro off guard:

"What...is there that I long for?"

"That's right, Yamashiro-kun, please answer freely. Anything is fine, whether you admire Sakaki Yuya-kun's comedic performances or something else, just tell me what you really think."

Encouraged by Soleva's words, Yamashiro Tatsuya's mind flashed back to the duel between Sakaki Yuya and the strong Ishijima, which finally gave him the courage to give his answer:

"Teacher Soleva, what I admire is the courage and perseverance of Yuya-nii when he defeated the strong Ishijima, never giving up even when at a disadvantage, and relying on the bond between the deck and the opponent to defeat a strong enemy."

Upon receiving Tatsuya Yamashiro's reply, Sorewa felt a pang of bitterness in his heart:

Goodness, these are all things I'm worst at.

It's worth noting that ever since Soleva became a casual player who farms diamonds in the Gold rank to build his deck, one of his favorite ways to win is by winning at five speeds – surrendering in the top left corner.

Can't establish dominance first? Throw! No resistance second? Throw! Stuck in the middle? Throw! Losing points? Throw!

As for synergy? That's even more ridiculous. If he really had synergy with the deck, the surrender situation mentioned above probably wouldn't have happened!

On one occasion, Soreva even tried to bully the AI ​​with his fun Light Angel Seven Emperors deck, but he drew both of his deck's only two [Rank-Up Magic: Seven Emperors' Sword] cards at the start of the game.

These cards, which can only be used in the turn you draw them, often result in Soreva having a terrible hand when drawing cards at the start of the game, and he was completely bullied by the AI.

Therefore, Soreva no longer believes in any synergy with the deck.

But then again, it makes sense. Someone like Soreva, who builds a deck and then immediately starts thinking about building the next one, and who doesn't even bother to adjust his deck after the game environment changes, is a total jerk. How can he possibly develop a bond with his deck?

Soreva has his reasons. I've built over twenty decks. If I had to adjust and strengthen each deck according to the meta, wouldn't that kill me? Would I even be able to build new decks?

In the end, for some fun decks or decks that are still playable, unless there is a major buff, Soreva will stick to the same deck build until the end.

But now, facing Tatsuya Yamashiro's expectant gaze, Soreva, despite his teacher's title, could only try to appease him with words for the time being:

"Yamashiro-kun, I suppose you joined the Yusho Academy to learn dueling so that you could defeat your opponents in duels, right?"

When Soleva asked this question, Yamashiro Tatsuya naturally nodded, which relieved Soleva. Fortunately, the kid didn't say anything like, "I learn to duel not to defeat my opponents, but to bring smiles to everyone."

Otherwise, Soleva would really have to hand him over to Yuya Sakaki to train, since judging from the few duel videos of Yuya Sakaki that he had watched, Yuya Sakaki was indeed good at bringing smiles to others.

He makes the audience laugh with his comical circus clown performance, then defeats his opponent with a single monster summoned in a duel that doesn't even cover the backstage area.

As long as he doesn't pick up that action card.

After all, if a series of brilliant plays created a great opportunity to take down the opponent in one fell swoop, only to have it blocked by an action card, Soreva felt he would probably get high blood pressure from anger.

"Well then, Yamashiro, although you may not like to hear this, since you joined Yusho Juku in pursuit of victory in duels, I need to warn you that the way Sakaki Yuya builds his decks is wrong, and you absolutely cannot learn from him."

Seeing Soreva's righteous and earnest admonition, Yamashiro Tatsuya couldn't help but ask:

"why?"

"This is a very simple probability problem. You know a deck has a minimum of 40 cards and a maximum of 60 cards in the main deck, right? So, when you need one of the key cards, do you think it's more likely to draw one from 40 cards or one from 60 cards?"

Upon hearing Sorewa's example, Yamashiro Tatsuya immediately gave his reply:

"Of course, the probability of drawing one out of 40 is higher!"

"Correct answer. So, now a deck can hold a maximum of 3 copies of the same card. Do you think the probability of drawing one out of 40 cards is higher, or three out of 40 cards is higher?"

Soreva asked the question again, and Yamashiro Tatsuya answered almost instinctively:

"Of course, the probability of getting three cards is higher!"

"Very good! Very smart, you answered very quickly."

Ruffling Yamashiro Tatsuya's hair and giving him an encouraging sound, Soreva continued with a smile.

"So, to build a deck, you should aim for a main deck with as many cards as possible (around 40), and ideally, you should have at least three copies of the cards you need. This way, you're more likely to draw the cards you need."

Yuya Sakaki's deck construction was the complete opposite; not only did it approach the 60-card limit, but he also included only one copy of each card.

"I understand. So, Professor Soreva, you weren't criticizing Yuya's duel, but only his deck, right?"

Now, Yamashiro Tatsuya understood exactly what Sorewa had criticized and blurted it out.

Seeing that Yamashiro Tatsuya understood so quickly, Sorewa nodded in satisfaction:

"That's right. Now that I've explained it to you, you should understand why I criticized Yuya Sakaki so much back then, right?"

Yamashiro Tatsumi didn't say much about it, just nodded silently, which was considered as agreeing with what Sorewa said. Then he joined Harada Taishi and the others to start sharing their cards.

At that moment, Yuzu Hiiragi walked over from the three children, her eyes filled with admiration as she looked at Soreva:

"Mr. Soreva is amazing. The deck-building concept you just taught Yamashiro is something I've never heard of before, but it sounds really impressive."

"Yes...really?"

Scratching the back of his head, Soreva blushed with embarrassment. He hadn't expected that simply teaching them to place three cards would earn him such praise from Hiiragi Yuzu.

Just then, the classroom door was flung open, and everyone looked to see that Yuya Sakaki had returned excitedly, followed by a blue-haired boy.

"Yo! Everyone! I'm back!"

After cheerfully greeting everyone as he entered, Yuya Sakaki excitedly recounted his day's experiences, including how his Pendulum Monster Card was stolen by an LDS student and how he managed to retrieve it during a duel.

As he excitedly boasted about defeating an LDS student in a duel, a paper folding fan mercilessly landed on his head.

"Yuya! Why didn't you come back and tell us when something so dangerous happened?!"

Without a doubt, the one who was angry at this moment was Hiiragi Yuzu, Sakaki Yuya's childhood friend.

Chapter 17: Yuya Sakaki Forced to Duel with Sora

"Hey! Yuzu, look, I'm fine, aren't I? There's no need to be so angry."

Dodging Yuzu Hiiragi's swung paper fan, Yuya Sakaki tried to defend himself. However, his explanation clearly failed to convince Yuzu, who huffed in frustration and continued her accusations:

"If I hadn't run away from Mr. Soreva's class, I wouldn't have run into this mess! I really should let you hear how Mr. Soreva just taught Yamashiro-kun how to build a deck, so you could realize your mistake!"

Upon hearing Hiiragi Yuzu use Soleva to belittle him, Sakaki Yuya immediately pouted in anger and pulled over the blue-haired boy, who was already chatting with the three little ones, to defend himself:

"Don't underestimate me! I've gained something too! Look, this child followed me all the way here because he witnessed my duel and admires me!"

As he spoke, Yuya Sakaki's face was filled with pride.

The blue-haired boy, who had been pulled in front of Sakaki Yuya, noticed the gazes directed at him. After a shy smile, he raised his hand in greeting:

"Hello everyone, my name is Shiyunin Sora. After witnessing Master's duel, I was amazed by Master's Pendulum Summoning and I want to become Master's disciple!"

"master?"

Although they didn't realize it at first, they quickly figured out who he had come to Yushojuku with, and considering Sakaki Yuya's smug expression, that the "master" the boy named Shiunin Sora was referring to was probably Sakaki Yuya.

Sakaki Yuya seemed to only realize something was wrong at this moment, and quickly shook his head in denial:

"No, no! I haven't agreed to this yet! I'm not your master!"

"Eh!"

Seeing Sakaki Yuya's resistance, Shiunin Sora's face showed a deep disappointment. Then, she opened her big, watery eyes and pleaded with Sakaki Yuya with a sparkling gaze.

"Master, duel with me! Let me see your pendulum summoning skills again, okay?"

"I've already told you I'm not your master! Besides, why would I duel you?"

Although Sakaki Yuya refused again, Hiiragi Yuzu and the other three kids were quite receptive to his words. Seeing the cute boy Sora's aggrieved expression, they all pleaded for him:

"Brother Yuya, please say yes! He looks so pitiful."

"Yeah, Yuya, it wouldn't be a big deal if you dueled him, would it?"

Seeing that even Yuzu Hiiragi wasn't on his side, Yuya Sakaki had no choice but to cast a pleading look at Soreva, the only one in the classroom who hadn't spoken yet.

However, Soreva wanted to see Yuya Sakaki's duel again, so he smiled and agreed:

"Isn't this a good thing? If this child wants you, Yuya, to be his teacher, wouldn't that mean he'd also join the Yusho Academy? That would mean one more person paying for his tuition! So, Yuya, just agree."

Unexpectedly, even Soreva, on whom he had placed high hopes, failed to help him. Frustrated, Sakaki Yuya could only distance himself from Shiunin Sora, pointing at her and shouting:

"Listen carefully! I agree to a duel with you! But if I win, you are not allowed to hang around me anymore, nor are you allowed to call me master, and I will not accept you as my disciple, understand?"

"Ok!"

Just as Sakaki Yuuya was about to breathe a sigh of relief after hearing Shiunin Sora agree, he heard her next words.

"So, if I win, I can become your disciple, call you master, and then hang around you, right?"