"My turn is over. It's your turn now, you little Malfoy."
Sirius Black watched Draco, absolutely brimming with confidence.
He felt his luck was top-notch, having drawn his best card right from the start.
He figured this one powerful card would be enough to steamroll his way to victory.
With that thought, Sirius looked over at Harry in the stands.
Once I win this championship, you'll see me in a new light.
This was Sirius's attempt to win Harry's favour.
But his high hopes were about to crash and burn.
"Using that card against me? How very amusing."
Draco drew a card as well, holding it with its back facing Sirius.
"Then I'll summon too! Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Another dragon, identical to the one Sirius had summoned, appeared on the field. It might have been an illusion, but Draco's white dragon looked a size bigger than Sirius's.
No, it wasn't an illusion.
"They're both white dragons, so neither of us can get the better of the other," Sirius said, recovering from his surprise and sounding confident once more.
He had plenty of other powerful cards in his hand anyway.
But what he didn't realize was that while his cards were strong, they were...
"Oh, really?"
Draco scoffed at Sirius's words and drew a second card.
No one understood the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" better than he did.
Sirius's move was, in his eyes, nothing more than a cheap trick.
"Summon the second Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
He drew a third card.
"Summon the third Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Draco summoned three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in one go, leaving Sirius completely stunned.
The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is a super-rare card, isn't it? How does he have three?
But that wasn't all. Sirius watched as Draco drew a fourth card.
Does he have four Blue-Eyes White Dragons?
No, this one wasn't a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
It was a spell card.
Its effect was just one word: "Fusion."
The card's effect activated, and Draco's Blue-Eyes White Dragons began to change.
The bodies of the three dragons started to merge together.
In their place, a brand-new, terrifying dragon appeared.
It had three heads, and its body was far larger than a single Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Sirius's dragon looked like a baby next to it. This was a legendary creature at the very pinnacle of the magical beast realm—the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!
"I've already won."
With a single "Burst Stream of Destruction," Draco's Ultimate Dragon obliterated the shimmering card image of Sirius's dragon into a shower of starlight.
"My turn ends."
Draco laid a card face down and ended his turn.
"That Black fellow is going to lose? Even his Blue-Eyes White Dragon was defeated."
The wizards in the audience chattered amongst themselves.
One of them pointed at Sirius on the stage. "No, not necessarily. He looks like he has something up his sleeve."
"Heh heh heh."
Sirius didn't panic at the loss of a single card. Instead, he calmly pulled out another one.
This was his ace.
"Summon—Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic!"
Suddenly, the whole arena seemed to change. Amidst a flurry of fancy magical formations, the image of a solemn-looking old man appeared, exuding an air of authority with every gesture.
He looks nothing like the real Fudge.
Although Sirius didn't like Fudge, he didn't care why the Minister's stats were so high. As long as the card was powerful, that's what mattered.
(In truth, this card was created at the Minister's own request. He'd dropped plenty of hints about wanting a more powerful version of his card, so Dudley had given him an epic power-up. His entrance was even flashier than Dumbledore's, and Fudge himself was quite pleased with it.)
But it was all for naught.
When Sirius made his summon, the wizards in the audience who were good at the card game all had a look of bafflement on their faces.
He summoned... Fudge?
Did I hear that right? He actually summoned Fudge?
How in Merlin's name did this guy make it to the quarterfinals?
How to put it?
Is the Fudge card powerful?
On paper, it looks incredibly strong, a match for even Dumbledore's.
But is the Fudge card easy to use?
Anyone who had used it knew that not only was it difficult to use, but if you didn't know what you were doing, it would become a terrible liability.
You absolutely couldn't be fooled by his stats.
"Defeat him, Fudge!"
Sirius yelled excitedly. Based on the raw numbers, Fudge was just a tiny bit stronger than the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
But the summoned Fudge didn't move. He simply gave Sirius a cold look, then disintegrated.
This was the tricky part of the Fudge card: without the right accompanying cards, he wouldn't listen to a single word you said, and he would waste your summon slot.
(Of course, Fudge himself had no idea about this. Even if someone asked, Dudley had a perfect explanation: "The Minister for Magic isn't someone just anyone can command," an explanation Fudge would surely love. As long as the card looked powerful on paper, what did it matter how it worked in a real duel?)
Sirius lost without a doubt, stopping at the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, Harry and Draco each faced an adult wizard and won without a problem.
The final duel was between Draco and Harry.
"Let's duel, Potter!"
Draco was thrilled, a look he always had when he faced Harry.
"I won't lose to you, Malfoy." Harry was just as happy.
This time, Harry didn't use his usual deck, but the one Dudley had given him.
Harry summoned...
"Summon—the Dark Magician and the Dark Magician Girl."
"Activate the spell card—Fiendfyre."
The deck Dudley gave him looked no different from a regular one.
On the other side, Draco made his summon: a dragon army made up entirely of dragon cards!
With the trademark "Blue-Eyes White Dragon," the monster appeared once again.
At the same time, Harry drew a special card.
"The Sealed Left Leg?"
Harry looked at the card, confused. Since its stats were so low, he put it aside for now and summoned other cards to counter.
"Special summon the Potions Master, Snape!"
"Activate the card—Potion Enhancement!"
With the unique power of the Snape character card, he managed to stabilize the situation, trapping two of Draco's Blue-Eyes White Dragons in a row.
Unfortunately, Draco drew his third Blue-Eyes at the perfect moment.
"Fusion... Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
The terrifyingly powerful dragon appeared once again, using its immense power to shatter Harry's potion deck.
But that wasn't all. Draco flipped over another card.
"Special summon—the Dragon Knight!"
"Perform a Super Fusion!"
Dragon Knight + Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon...
"Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon Knight!"
"Summon!"
Draco wasn't finished. He was going to use his most powerful strategy in one fell swoop.
He summoned five more dragon cards with varying attributes.
"Special Fusion—Five-Headed Dragon!"
As they saw the two legendary monster cards that far surpassed all the character cards, the wizards in the audience gasped in awe.
Was the dragon deck this powerful?
Draco stood with his hands in his pockets, feeling immensely proud.
He had been preparing for this day for a long time, all to give Harry a surprise.
Now, it was Harry's turn. He drew a card.
By this point, he had collected the sealed left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, torso, and head.
The card he drew was a hidden card: Senior Tom.
At that moment, the cards resonated. The seven cards fused into one, becoming a new card.
"Release—Tom, the Sealed Dark Wizard!"