Disclaimer: 'If only, if only,' the woodpecker sighs. 'If only I owned Yugioh... the things I would change...'
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The king of games looked down at his hand intently. Across from him sat Malik, his current opponent. Yugi studied his cards carefully. The next move would be a crucial one. Their game was nearly even, but Malik was ever so slightly in the lead. Everything was depending on the next card Yugi would play. He looked down at the cards on Malik's field, and smiled. He had just the card to beat Malik's monster. Drawing the winning card out of his hand, he confidently laid it on the floor.
"I attack with--" Yugi started.
"You don't have enough mana to play that," Malik said. Yugi fell over.
"Not again!"
"The number is how many mana you need plus the island, not the number of islands," Malik explained patiently. Yugi's former nemesis was trying to teach him to play Magic: The Gathering. So far, things weren't going very well.
"So I can't play it?" Yugi asked.
"No," Malik replied.
"Okay, well what if I play this..." Yugi set a card down on the floor and looked up at Malik.
"Don't forget to tap your mana," Malik said.
Yugi groaned and turned a few blue mana sideways. As always, he turned them left, as though they were going into defense mode. Malik smirked at that.
"Then I can counter with this." Malik tapped a red mana and his creature.
"But that's a monster--" Yugi started.
"Creature," Malik interjected.
"Right, creature effect--"
"Ability--"
"Ability... then how can it counter an instant?" Yugi finally managed to finish his sentence without mixing up Duel Monsters and Magic terms.
"There are no spell speeds in Magic," Malik said, removing Yugi's card from the field.
"So you can counter an instant with anything?" Yugi asked, amazaed.
"You can counter anything with anything," Malik replied. "My turn." He returned all of his cards to their original, untapped positions, and drew a card. He turned a few of his red mana sideways again and put a new card on the field.
"So I can counter with this, then," Yugi said, placing an instant on the field, and tapping an island.
Malik looked at the card in surprise. "Yeah," he said as he removed his creature from the field. "Okay, now we go into the Battle Step. First, I declare an attacker." He turned his creature sideways.
"Now, I declare a blocker," Yugi replied.
"But my creature has flying," Malik said smugly. "You can only block with other flying monsters."
"Right," Yugi said. "Well... what if I just play this?" He played a card from his hand, and tapped two islands.
"'Destroy target flying monster'..." Malik read. "Kso," he said under his breath. "Fine, your turn."
Yugi untapped all of his cards and drew. He quickly counted all his mana, and smiled.
"Just enough," he said confidently. The king played a new mana, then tapped all his islands. Placing two new creatures on the field, he tapped all his creatures.
"I attack with everything," Yugi said. Malik looked down at his empty field. "Kso," he said again. "That's game."
"All right!" Yugi said. "I think I like this game!"
Malik sighed. "You really never lose, do you?"
Yugi shrugged. "I don't know. Want to play again and find out?"
"I'll go first," Malik grinned.
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Disclaimer 2: I don't own Magic: The Gathering, either.
Kso - mild Japanese curse word, means something like "darn!"