Masuzu was clearly bluffed; she did not dare to act rashly. Now it was her turn.
"Draw!"
She stared at her opponent's three face-down cards, then at her own monster. (I'll just gather tributes for now, in preparation for summoning the God later.)
"I summon Y-Dragon Head in attack position!"
Y-Dragon Head, ATK 1500, Level 4.
Ryunosuke furrowed his brow.
"There's Y-Dragon Head and X-Head Cannon on her field. Does she want to merge them?"
Sure enough, just as he suspected, Masuzu explained her monster's effect.
"If two out of X, Y, or Z are on the field, they can merge!"
"I combine X-Head Cannon and Y-Dragon Head to form XY-Dragon Cannon!!!"
XY-Dragon Cannon, ATK 2200, Level 6.
Masuzu immediately commanded XY-Dragon Cannon to attack Alpha The Magnet Warrior, as its defense was only 1700. As for Big Shield Guardna, which possessed a defense of 2600, Masuzu was temporarily unable to do anything about it.
Seeing that Ryunosuke did not use a single one of his three face-down cards, Masuzu assumed her opponent was merely bluffing. She lowered her guard, set one card, and ended her turn.
Now it was Ryunosuke's turn.
"Draw!"
The cards in his hand remained a mess because they had been craftily shuffled by Masuzu, while his opponent's hand was only getting better. Facing this situation, Ryunosuke knew he had to find a way out.
"The opponent's XY-Dragon Cannon monster is a trio Machine-type. If she adds one more, she can not only merge into XYZ-Dragon Cannon with 2800 ATK, but it can also serve as a tribute for a God."
"It is a perfect tactic to fulfill the requirements for a God summon. It's very difficult to stop midway because the attack power of that merged machine is already quite high. If I don't perform a Tribute Summon, it will be hard to find an equal monster."
"Relying solely on Big Shield Guardna's 2600 defense won't last long."
Ryunosuke decided to switch from defense to offense.
"I activate Graceful Charity! I draw three cards from the deck, then discard two to the graveyard."
He took this opportunity to discard Dark Magician—which required two tributes—to the graveyard, then stared at the cards in his hand.
"I flip my face-down card! Magician's Selection!"
"The effect of this card tributes one monster on my field and one monster on the opponent's field to special summon Dark Magician from the graveyard!"
"Oh no!" Masuzu realized the gravity of the situation. Her opponent was using this card to turn her monster into a tribute. Since XY-Dragon Cannon was two merged into one at that moment, it was counted as a single monster.
(Note: Even if using De-Fusion, this monster still could not escape that effect.)
A moment later, a magical casket manifested, prepared to pull Ryunosuke's Big Shield Guardna and the opponent's XY-Dragon Cannon to be used as sacrifices. Masuzu hurriedly tried to prevent it; she had to protect her XY-Dragon Cannon no matter what!
"I discard D.D. Crow from my hand! Activate its effect!!!"
D.D. Crow, ATK 100, Level 1.
"This card's effect can be activated during the opponent's turn. I target one card in the opponent's graveyard and banish it from the game."
"I banish your Dark Magician from the graveyard to stop the effect of your casket!!!"
Ryunosuke was stunned.
"Why is the opponent's card so perfectly timed to counter my strategy?"
Masuzu let out a sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. At least she had managed to save XY-Dragon Cannon. Fortunately, she had memorized the order of the cards she shuffled earlier, so she had intentionally left one D.D. Crow just in case. Otherwise, she would have truly been finished here.
(This person is truly terrifying. Even though I shuffled his deck as badly as possible so it would be impossible for him to perform a high-level summon, how can he still find a way to strike back?) Masuzu thought.
Is this the greatness of the deck belonging to Yugi, the King of Games? Even when it's as messy as porridge, can a path to victory still be found? Masuzu shook her head, forcing herself to stop daydreaming.
Ryunosuke was not discouraged even though his attack was thwarted. He began to think of another strategy. It couldn't be helped; his cards were truly bad—so bad it made no sense. There wasn't even a chance to summon a high-level monster.
(It feels like there's something strange with the cards today. Usually, it's never this bad. What exactly is happening?) Ryunosuke wondered why his luck was so abysmal. Under normal circumstances, he would have definitely finished off the opponent in a single sequence of attacks.
Meanwhile, Masuzu, standing on the opposite side, put her hands behind her back and whistled guiltily.
"Syuu syuu syuu~"
Ryunosuke harbored no suspicion; he only thought he was having an unlucky day. He continued his turn because his actions weren't finished yet. Even though Masuzu had sabotaged Ryunosuke's deck and memorized its contents, there were several cards she couldn't predict.
For example, the Change of Heart card drawn from the Magical Sanctuary effect; Masuzu hadn't expected that because the card was drawn directly from the deck, not a card that was in the starting hand.
However, for the casket card just now, Masuzu had predicted it, which is why she kept D.D. Crow. Ryunosuke still hadn't realized why he couldn't draw a high-level card at all; he didn't suspect his opponent of cheating in the slightest.
At the moment, Ryunosuke's hand was very bad and difficult to play. Masuzu was much luckier; although her deck had been shuffled by Ryunosuke, that shuffling was unintentional, so many good cards were still grouped together. For instance, her three Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards seemed to be stuck together as one. It was much better than Ryunosuke's condition.
This was because Ryunosuke's deck had been intentionally sabotaged by Masuzu in a specific order so that no support cards were connected. She had even "kindly" placed Slifer the Sky Dragon at the very bottom so that Ryunosuke would never draw it. A truly foul intention... To call her cunning was an understatement; she was acting like a total devil!
Ryunosuke continued his turn.
"I activate the Quick-Play spell card, Monster Recovery!"
"The effect: I return all monsters on the field and cards in my hand to the deck, then shuffle the deck and draw 5 new cards!"
He felt the cards in his hand were too poor, so he performed a total purge, including calling Big Shield Guardna back to the deck, then re-shuffling and drawing 5 cards.
This action completely destroyed Masuzu's plan. Because Ryunosuke re-shuffled his own deck, the order arranged by Masuzu became a total mess. Now, she could no longer predict what card her opponent would draw.