Chapter 138 – A New Dark Horse?

The tournament had reached the point where the number of simultaneous matches was beginning to make it difficult to keep track of everything happening around the arena, but Alexander wasn't complaining; if anything, he was enjoying himself.

Sitting beside Julia, he watched as another match reached its conclusion on one of the large screens positioned around the venue.

"Yes! That's it! They did it!" Julia exclaimed.

Alexander glanced toward the screen and smiled. The reason behind the smile was that Ginny had won. That gave Promethean Academy another victory, securing a clean 2–0 win against Denver Summit High School.

Ginny's clean victory against Erik also gave another opportunity for the Academy's reputation to grow.

The whole idea of Promethean Academy being known as the "Birthplace of Duel Monsters" had initially sounded a bit too pretentious to him. Now, however, he was starting to realise just how quickly that reputation was spreading, and a decisive victory in the Top 32 certainly wasn't hurting.

Julia looked at Ginny's opponent as he looked at the field like he lost his soul or something and commented, "I feel a bit bad for him... Ginny didn't give him any chance to play at all. She just kept ripping cards from his hand."

Alexander raised an eyebrow and asked, "You're pitying our opponent...? I thought you were here to cheer for our friends."

"I can easily do both and... Well, I can also understand what he has gone through. After all, Ginny tested her deck on me, and it wasn't a pleasant experience..."

Hearing that, Alexander chuckled and said, "Heh... Yeah, that's a pretty nasty build, especially when she has such a killer initial hand."

Before they could continue, another result appeared on the screens.

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters had defeated Atlanta Peachtree High School 2–1.

Alexander watched the replay of the decisive moments with mild interest and saw that Xavier's team had lost the Single Duel.

The strategy their opponent had used was actually rather clever, even if a bit niche and cumbersome.

It revolved around Black Tyranno.

The duelist had built his entire strategy around bringing out Black Tyranno as quickly as possible, then using cards such as Stumbling to force monsters into Defence Position. Once that happened, Black Tyranno could exploit its effect and attack directly with its massive 2600 ATK. With a good combination of cards and a proper board, such a strategy can accumulate damage very quickly, especially if the opponent couldn't stop the setup; at that point, the duelist using it could win a duel in only two turns.

Still, Xavier's School had recovered during the second Tag Duel and secured the overall victory.

Alexander leaned back and commented, "That's a funny strategy..."

"A strategy that you would advise someone to use?" Julia asked.

"No. But it's not bad on itself, it just a bit too slow for my tastes and more importantly it relies too much on many different pieces clicking together to work. I may take some by surprise, but once properly studied it will crumble apart."

Hearing his explanation, Julian nodded and muttered, "I see..."

That was becoming a recurring theme. There were a lot of interesting ideas appearing throughout the tournament, but unfortunately, there were also a lot of people simply copying what had already proven successful.

Another result appeared.

Massachusetts Academy had defeated Birmingham Jefferson High School 2–0.

Alexander's attention immediately shifted, and he saw that the red-haired girl had indeed dominated the Single Duel using only Ultimate Baseball Kid.

The damage output of that card had been ridiculous, as she had practically bulldozed through her opponent's defences.

Anyone watching the duel without knowing what to look for would probably assume she had simply brought an extremely powerful FIRE deck, but Alexander wasn't convinced, not even remotely.

He kept his eyes on that duel often enough to have a clear grasp of the whole picture, and he had been paying attention to her hand throughout the duel.

There had been too many cards sitting there, cards that she hadn't played at any time, and that was strange, very strange.

The reason was that with the current card pool, building a genuinely competitive FIRE deck was already difficult enough, and a competitive deck couldn't afford to contain a large number of dead draws that simply sat uselessly in the hand, yet she had done exactly that and even won.

Alexander narrowed his eyes while thinking, 'She's holding something back... Likely the true core of her deck.'

He didn't know what it was yet, but he was increasingly certain that the deck she had shown everyone wasn't the entire deck and if that was true, then the red-haired girl was considerably more interesting than her easy victory suggested.

"You're doing that thing again," Julia said.

"What thing?"

"Thinking."

Alexander looked at her and said, "That's generally considered a good thing..."

"Yes, but you look like you're trying to solve a murder."

"I'm analysing the duel."

"Same expression."

Alexander laughed quietly, but before he could further explain himself, another result appeared on the screens, and this one caused considerably more noise throughout the audience.

Sioux Falls Black Hills High School had lost to Anchorage Northstar High School 0–2.

Alexander remained calm while the audience reacted, as he had already expected something like this to happen when he checked the ongoing match a few minutes ago; But naturally the same wasn't true for the rest of the audience. After all, Sioux Falls was one of the 14 schools that had received a bye thanks to their Qualifying Round results, and now they were out.

For the audience, that was the first real upset of the tournament, and the crowd's reaction made that obvious. Even the commentators Mike Patrick and Mike Gottfried talked about it.

"Well, Mike, I don't think anyone had Sioux Falls Black Hills going home this early," Patrick said, his voice carrying over the sudden roar of the crowd.

"No, they certainly didn't," Gottfried replied. "They came into this tournament with a bye and all the expectations that come with it, and now Anchorage Northstar has just sent them packing without dropping a single duel."

"That's what makes this championship so exciting, Mike. We're seeing reputations being made right here in front of us."

"And destroyed, apparently," Gottfried added dryly.

Patrick chuckled. "Well, that's tournament competition for you."

Alexander was a little surprised by everyone's reaction, but after thinking about it for a bit, he realised that the main reason behind their reaction was that this was the first edition of the Inter-School Duel Monsters Championship.

There were no decades of school rivalries, no established hierarchy, no schools with generations of championship history behind them, so most of these teams were effectively creating their reputations right here and being one of the teams who got a bye thanks to their result earned Sioux Falls Black Hills High School that bit of aura expected by a favourite team.

Promethean Academy was perhaps the closest thing to an exception, as its reputation as the Birthplace of Duel Monsters had already given the school and the team quite a bit of aura; and after that 2–0 victory over Denver Summit, Alexander suspected it would grow even further.

Once all the matches concluded for all the Regions of the bracket, the next round of matches began shortly afterwards, one after the other.

The raised platforms assigned to the four regions became once again the centre of attention.

Alexander looked toward Region I where the screens showed.

NEWARK IRONWOOD HIGH SCHOOL VS CLEVELAND LAKEFRONT PRIVATE SCHOOL.

He watched the Tag Duel for perhaps a minute and then another thirty seconds, but that was enough for him to reach a conclusion.

Alexander sighed in disappointment.

Both teams were using variants of successful decks from the Duel Monsters Grand Prix. Not identical, obviously, as there were personal choices and differences in card ratios, but the core strategies were unmistakable.

Alexander had already seen these decks succeed, and there wasn't much reason to watch someone else reproduce them, so he turned toward Region II's raised platform.

INDIANAPOLIS JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL VS OKLAHOMA CITY RED ROCK HIGH SCHOOL.

As soon as his eyes landed on the board and he watched a few turns, Alexander couldn't help but roll his eyes and internally exclaim in exasperation, 'Oh, come on!'

It was practically a mirror match.

Both teams were using similar decks, and while there were some differences, the fundamental strategies were almost the same, but that alone wouldn't have been a problem.

What annoyed Alexander was that neither team seemed particularly skilled at using them.

While they were playing strong decks, they simply weren't playing them particularly well.

Alexander watched one exchange and shook his head while thinking, 'What's the point of copying a meta deck if you're not going to bother mastering it?'

A powerful deck could give a competent duelist an advantage, but it couldn't magically give someone the understanding required to use it properly.

Alexander watched another turn, then another, but his expression became increasingly annoyed.

"Something wrong?" Julia asked.

"Nothing."

"You look annoyed."

"I'm surrounded by people using decks they don't understand."

Julia looked at the field. "How can you tell?"

Alexander gave her a look. "Because they're making the most basic mistakes. They miss timings, they focus on protecting the wrong card, they check their cards' text again and again. All this and many more small details immediately tell me everything I need to know."

She stared at him for a moment before she muttered, "Right... So, as Ginny says, it's a skill issue?"

Alexander nodded and decided not to elaborate further, as he could criticise them for hours; instead, he turned toward the raised platform assigned to Region III.

And finally, something caught his attention.

DES MOINES HAWTHORNE HIGH SCHOOL VS LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL.

Little Rock was another school that had also received a bye, but more importantly, their Tag Duel strategy and deck build were actually interesting.

Alexander's eyes immediately focused on the two players on their side of the table.

One was using a Warrior-focused deck; the other was using Spellcasters and support cards.

That alone wasn't enough to impress him, but then he saw the Warrior duelist summon Marauding Captain.

Alexander's eyes narrowed. 'Oh... Could it be that he is about to...?'

The Warrior duelist had one Marauding Captain on the field and then, using its effect, he special summoned another one.

Alexander immediately understood what they were doing.

Marauding Captain's effect prevented the opponent's monsters from targeting Warrior monsters for attacks except Marauding Captain itself, so one Marauding Captain forced attacks toward itself.

But two Captains created a problem, as neither could be targeted for an attack, and if neither could be targeted, the opponent effectively couldn't attack the Warrior monsters at all.

This was basically an Attack Lock.

It was simple. It was elegant, and, most importantly, it was actually clever use of the interaction between those specific cards.

Alexander leaned forward slightly and muttered, "Now this is something fun to see..."

Julia glanced at him and asked, "What's happening?"

Alexander pointed toward Little Rock's team and said, "They're locking attacks, making it impossible for their opponents to actually attack."

"How?"

Alexander briefly explained the interaction.

Once the second Captain was established, the opponent's options became severely restricted but, of course, it wasn't an unbeatable strategy.

Alexander immediately identified the obvious weakness.

Remove one of the Captains; something a Spell or Trap could easily do. That would break the lock, and the entire strategy collapsed.

Unfortunately for their opponent, the Spellcaster duelist seemed prepared for exactly that possibility, as he used cards such as Frontier Wiseman and other support cards to protect the field and stop them from using just those kinds of cards.

Alexander watched several more turns, and that was enough as he could already see where this was going.

Little Rock's strategy was not flawless, but it was coherent.

The two decks were actually supporting one another rather than simply being two strong decks placed beside each other.

Alexander appreciated that, 'At least someone here is thinking creatively. I've nothing against meta decks in general, as personally I find them a nice challenge to overcome... But for the meta-slaves that don't put any effort into building their own meta deck or even mastering what they've just copied... Well, if it were my choice, I'd send them all to the Shadow Realm!'

While thinking that, he turned toward the final platform, the one assigned to Region IV.

ALBUQUERQUE SANDIA HIGH SCHOOL VS OMAHA HEARTLAND HIGH SCHOOL.

The Tag Duel was already over, so Alexander looked toward one of the large screens to check the result and saw that Omaha Heartland was leading 1–0.

As a result, his interest immediately increased as he muttered, "Another school that got a bye, huh... Now this might be worth watching."

Alexander focused more and saw that the ongoing Single Duel had already reached a critical stage as he studied the two fields.

The Albuquerque Sandia duelist was using a Dragon Beatdown strategy.

Alexander immediately recognised the inspiration, 'That's similar to Chuck's deck. Another one who fell for the charm of Dragons.'

The general philosophy was way too familiar.

Powerful Dragons. Straightforward pressure. Overwhelm the opponent before they could stabilise.

The Omaha Heartland duelist, meanwhile, was using something that loosely reminded Alexander of Victor's deck.

Victor von Doom. The winner of the first Duel Monsters Grand Prix.

But this wasn't simply a copy, as there was clearly a personal twist to the strategy.

At first, Omaha Heartland had the advantage, and the field position was clearly in his favour.

Alexander watched the Albuquerque duelist draw, then announce, "I activate Dark Hole."

Alexander's eyebrows rose, as that was quite the bold choice. The reason was that Dark Hole was a card to clear not only the opponent's, but the whole field of all the monsters, which makes it often a subpar choice compared to Raigeki, yet it has its own use and advantages, especially against disadvantageous cards that end up on your side of the field because of an opponent, and you can't remove them by other means.

Once the field was wiped clean, the duelist didn't hesitate and continued, "Now I activate Monster Reborn."

The card was placed onto the table, and a moment later, his ace Tri-Horned Dragon returned from the Graveyard.

[Tri-Horned Dragon - 2850 ATK / 2350 DEF]

The Albuquerque duelist attacked directly, and the damage was enormous as Omaha Heartland's Life Points dropped to a dangerously low level.

The entire situation had changed in the span of two cards.

A moment ago, Omaha Heartland had been firmly in control; now, Albuquerque Sandia had cleared the field, revived a powerful Dragon, and left his opponent with barely any Life Points.

The spectators reacted accordingly.

Alexander leaned back while thinking, 'That's quite a comeback... but as many often say, the only important LP is the very last one.'

After thinking that, Alexander wasn't looking at the field anymore, but he was looking at the Omaha duelist.

The Omaha duelist sat on his chair with a very straight and rigid posture; he was a lean seventeen-year-old with dark, neatly combed hair and sharp, angular features that made him look slightly older than he actually was. His pale blue-grey eyes were fixed intently on the field, studying every detail with an almost clinical concentration. Even at his young age, there was something self-assured about him, a quiet intensity in the way he carried himself, as though he were already accustomed to believing he was the smartest person in the arena.

There was no panic, frustration, or hesitation. The boy simply looked at his hand.

Three cards.

At the same time, Alexander frowned slightly. 'Ooh... He is very calm... As expected, this isn't over yet.'

Then the Omaha duelist drew, looked at his new card and smiled slightly.

Alexander's eyes narrowed as the duelist placed a monster onto the table and announced in an even tone, "I summon Lord of D. in ATK position."

Alexander's attention sharpened instantly as the next card followed up, "Then I activate The Flute of Summoning Dragon to Special Summon from my hand..."

Alexander knew what was coming; He was about to Special Summon at least one Dragon from the hand, but what came next was something he absolutely wasn't expecting.

The Omaha duelist revealed the monster he was summoning, and Alexander froze before he muttered, "No freaking way..."

A familiar card depicting a white Dragon appeared on the field as the duelist announced, "... Blue-Eyes White Dragon."

[Blue-Eyes White Dragon - 3000 ATK / 2500 DEF]

For perhaps the first time since the tournament had begun, Alexander wasn't immediately analysing the strategy.

He was simply staring at the field while, in his mind, he was exclaiming, 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon!!'