"Luca! That was amazin'! He totally thought he had you, but then you Bwoosh, and you Bang! I've never seen anything like it."
John was gushing over Luca's performance fending off the invaders now that they were back in their familiar hang-out spot, the game cafe.
"Yeah! Ash's Lightspeed Legion deck is amazing.... Ash...." He clutched the deck when reminded of his friend.
"Luca..." Isabella layed her hand on his shoulder in concern.
"What's this? An amazing deck?"
The person addressing them was a regular in the game cafe, an older teen with unassuming green clothes and long scraggly hair.
"The lightspeed legion." Luca explained. "It's... kind of amazing. I'm still only discovering the possiblities."
"I'd love to see it. Hi, my name is Shively by the way. I think the best way to discover the potential a deck has is to playtest it."
"Hi, my name is Luca, these are Isabella and John. I mean, we're all duelists, but I don't know if the others..."
"You know I love to see you play, Luca." Isabella smiled.
John stretched his arms. "Sure, it'd be a relief watching a duel that didn't involve life or death stakes."

---

They took seats around one of the free tables in the establishment.
The surface lit up and it scanned the decks placed upon it.
"Is it broken?" Isabella wondered. "What's taking it so long?"
"Have some patience," Shively smiled, "it's not the most advanced piece of technology. This isn't one of those high-end clubs, you know."
"R-ight." She looked a bit ashamed at her spoiled attitude.
Eventually the computer was ready to allow play, lifepoints appeared at both sides of the board.

LUCA
4000

SHIV
4000

Both player drew four cards to start the match, then the randomized values selected Luca to go first.
He looked at his hand. "Heh, they keep surprising me. I thought going first with a deck like this would be bad."
Shively cocked an eyebrow, waiting for Luca's play.
"I cast Legion Barracks, with this Field Card multiple monsters can be normal summoned in one turn, as long as their combined level doesn't exceed four." Luca eagerly placed the spell in the field zone, the computer acknowledged it, but didn't show any fancy holograms to bring the card to life.
"This allows me to summon two Lightspeed Scouts and one Lightspeed Infantry. Because of my Scouts' effects I can now draw two cards." He pulled the top two cards from the stack and smiled when he saw the contents, to be fair, he probably would have smiled at any cards, they all seemed to have SOME great effects with each and every other card in the deck. "I now set a card facedown and end my turn."

---

With the first turn having just ended, both players still had all their life points, but one half of the board had a field spell, a facedown card and three monsters.

Lightspeed Scout [200/500]
Lightspeed Scout [200/500]
Lightspeed Cavalry [500/200]

---

Shively drew a card and scratched his head. He let his fingers glide over the different cards and eventually chose one.
"I summon Reptilianne Naga. This is a monster that reduces the attack power of the enemy. So I'll attack... your Lightspeed Cavalry."
"Uhhm, are you sure?" John asked apprehensively.
The Naga had an attack score of zero itself.
"Yes, I think so. My Reptilianne Naga can't be destroyed by battle, so I'm just taking damage in order to neutralize his monster."
As a result of the declaration of attack his lifepoints decreased by 500, and the Cavalry's ATK became zero after the battle phase completed.
"My Lightspeed Legion don't rely on their attack power though." Luca explained. "And you started the battle phase before making use of Legion Barrack's effect, you could have summoned more monsters."
"Oh... well... that was my turn."

---

The lifepoints now read:
LUCA
4000
SHIV
3500

Luca had two Lightspeed Scouts [200/500] and a Lightspeed Cavalry [0/500]
Shively had a Reptilianne Naga [0/0] and no cards in his field zone or spell/trap row.

---

"Well-" Luca chuckled, "since my Cavalry won't be attacking, I should probably get rid of it." He tapped the card with his fingers to alert the compute of his intentions. "I activate Lightspeed Cavalry's effect, shuffling it into the deck and drawing two cards."
He did as he said and when he drew his two cards he made a satisfied "ah", sound. "Because I drew Lightspeed Infiltrator because of the effect of a Lightspeed card I get to special summon him immediately."
He placed the level 1 effect monster on the field.
"I now normal summon two monsters, a Lightspeed Hoplite and anotheer Lightspeed Cavalry, since both are level two."
"You keep drawing and playing monsters." Shively said exasperated.
"The Lightspeed Legion lives up to its name."

---

At the end of the main phase of the third turn Luca's field was completely full with monsters, and he still had a card in his hand.

Lightspeed Hoplite [1000/0]
Lightspeed Infiltrator [200/200]
Lightspeed Scout [200/500]
Lightspeed Scout [200/500]
Lightspeed Cavalry [500/200]

"I will now attack your Reptilianne Naga once each with every warrior on the field. I think that's 2100 points of damage all together."
"noooo, well, at least they'll be de-fanged after this."
Luca chuckled "I wouldn't count on it." After the last Lightspeed warrior had attacked he flipped over his facedown card. "I activate a quickplay spell, Legion Unity, which tributes all Light Warrior monsters from my side of the field and replaces them with a monster from my extra deck, the United Legion, which possesses all the stats from the tributed monsters added together. Unfortunately, it can't attack this turn, what it CAN do is destroy all monsters with an attack lower than its defend, which includes your naga."

The computer flashed a red light for Shively to move the naga card to the graveyard zone, which he did with a sigh.
But then it kept on giving him a warning light, one that meant he had to confirm or deny activating a possible response.
"Oh! Right. You destroyed my naga, so I special summon Reptilianne Cobra, which I can do if a Reptilianne monsters is destroyed by a card effect."
He special summoned a level 5 monster to the field.

At that point Luca was out of cards he could play, he ended his turn.
LUCA
4000
SHIV
1400

United Legion [2100/1400]

Reptilianne Cobra [2000/2000]

---

Shively drew another card, he had only played one card the whole game and his hand was still full.
When he saw what card he had drawn he quickly placed it facedown in the spell zone. Then he readied a monster to summon.
"I summon Reptilianne Elapid, who I equip with Molting escape." The monster was a [200/0] level 3 reptile. He placed the equip spell. "Molting escape saves a reptile monster from being destroyed by battle once per turn, instead of dying it turns into a more powerful version of itself, with 300 extra ATK. And my Elapid deals effect damage if it destroys a monster. But first, let me increase the attack of my Cobra by sending a reptile from my deck to the graveyard."
Shively quickly searched for a weak reptile and discarded, he then reshuffled the deck.
"It goes a lot quicker in official matches, doesn't it?" Isabelle said.
Shively smiled affirmatively. When he was done he redirected their attention to the table. "Okay, as you can see, my cobra now has 2300 attack, which is more than your United Legion, so I think I just... attack?"

When the cobra attacked and destroyed the United Legion it dealt 200 excess damage to Luca's United Legion and destroyed it, but he didn't show concern.
"The final of United Legion's abilities..." Luca mentioned. "...when he leaves the field, he once again splits up in his component warriors. Who all enter the field from the graveyard at once-"
"That's what I was counting on." Shively said. "You see, when I attack with my Elapid I'll-"
"-and now that my scouts have been special summoned." Luca continued. "I once again get to draw two cards."
"...fine, now then. I attack your infiltrator with my Reptilianne Elapid."
Luca supressed a chuckle. "Unfortunately, what I just drew was a quickplay spell, Lightspeed Kamikaze, which allows me to quickly sacrifice all my Lightspeed warriors in order to deal damage to my opponent's lifepoints, equal to their combined level times 200."
"That's... exactly 1400."
The computer had it figured out too, it made a beeping sounds and hovered the text VICTORY over Luca's side of the board.
"How anti-climactic." Isabella pouted.

"Congratulations." Shively shook Luca's hand. "I can see you've got a high quality deck, and you're already quite good at using it."
"Thank you." he responded. "You've got some useful ones yourself, you should get more familiar with how they work."
"Yeah, you suck." John responded.
"Johnny!" Isabella poked him.
"What? It's the truth."

---

"I think we've gotta go." John said. "I promised my parents I'd help them out."
"Wait, one more game. How about this? We make this a little more interesting." Shively held up a card. "We play for the other's rarest card, with me it's Reptilianne Vaskii, she can be special summoned by tributing two zero attack cards from anywhere on the board and destroys and enemy monster each turn. It works with low attack monsters, but its own damage output is quite high."
"Hhhhm." Luca's eyes sparkled. "Interesting."
"Luca." John whispered. "I don't know about this."
"That card is exactly what the lightspeed deck is missing, a big swing." Luca responded. He fished out his own rarest card. "This is Lightspeed Commander, when he's on the field Lightspeed warriors can be summoned from the graveyard for the duration of your turn, it's a legendary card, there's only one."
"Are you willing to bet it on a match?"
"I am. But are you sure?"
"I feel like my luck is about to come around again."

---

The computer selected Shively to go first.
His demeanor was different now. His warm smile was gone, replaced by a crooked smile, and his hair covered his eyes. It made Luca uncomfortable.
"I summon a monster in face down defense position and I set a card."

Luca drew, it was a good hand, he always had a good hand.
"I summon Lightspeed Hoplite, and I discard a Lightspeed Augur in order to add a quickplay spell from my deck to my hand. I place two cards face down."
"You won't attack?"
"This isn't that kind of deck."
Their voices were suddenly cold towards each other, now that there was something at stake.
Luca ended his turn.
Currently they both had two cards in their hands, Luca had a [1000/0] hoplite and Shively a facedown monster, but they both had hidden cards in their spell and trap zones.

---

"I draw..." Shively didn't draw out the match with chatter, he went straight to business.
"I summon a Reptilianne Gorgon, and equip it with a Molting Escape." He put down a [1400/1400] reptile effect monster.
"What effects does the Gorgon have?" Isabella asked, but he ignored her.
"I attack your hoplite with my Gorgon."
"Not so fast, I activate Wall of Disruption, this attack position monsters' ATK by 800 times the amount of monsters they control, your Gorgon's attack becomes zero. Shively held his crooked smile as 1000 points were retracted from his lifepoints, because of Molting Escape the Gorgon earned 300 ATK back, resulting in it keeping 100 ATK. "I end my turn."
Immediately the Hoplites attack became zero, just like the Naga the Gorgon had a corruption effect that manifested after the encounter.

The field now had two face up monsters, of 100 and 0 ATK and one face down monster.
Luca drew his card, he didn't want to just attack a face down monster, but destroying it with a card effect could bring out the Reptilianne Cobra.
He looked at his hand. Perfect.
"I summon Lightspeed Saboteur, while my Saboteur is on the field Special Summoned monsters can't attack." It had decent stats too, for a level 2 monster. [500/1500]. He simply needed to put it in defense position next turn in order to protect is slightly better, speaking of which, it would be better to put the hoplite in defense too, since in attack position it was open to a lot of damage.
"I put my hoplite in defens-" The computer gave an angry beep.
Shively chuckled cruelly. "Cards affected by the Gorgon can't change battle position, they're made of stone, you see."
"Then I... then I... then I play Unjust Sacrifice and select my Lightspeed Hoplite, this sends the selected card and two of its copies in the deck to the graveyard and add a level 7 monster from my deck to my hand. I choose Lightspeed Commander.
Because my hoplite was send to to the graveyard by a card effect I may draw a card."
I drew and quickly looked at it, feeling relief at its sight. "I equip this card, Noble Arms of Destiny to my Lightspeed Saboteur. You'll recognize the effect, just like Molting Escape it allows the target to escape death once per turn, but this one also protects against card effects. Here, I'll demonstrate it now. Exchange of Lives!"
The card he played was supposed to destroy one monster at either side of the field, but because the monster on his own side was protected by its equip spell, only Shively's facedown card was send to the graveyard.

"finally." Shively sighed, still grinning. "Now that my Reptilianne Gardna has been destroyed I can finally add my Vaskii to my hand.
Luca became pale. His enemy just having the card in his hand wasn't a disaster, but the prospect of losing the card that meant so much to him made him nervous. He had to avoid two seperate zero attack monsters being on the field, or he had to find a way to counter Reptilianne Vaskii once it was on the field. For the former he needed to remove not low level monsters summoned by his opponent, but avoid his own monsters losing attack too, and not rely on reducing the attack of opposing monsters. For the latter he just needed a good combo, and good combos were this deck's specialty.
"I activate the card Call of the Haunted, which allows me to bring back one monster from the grave for as long as this continuous trap stays on the field. And I choose my Lightspeed Hoplite."

Shively wasted no time between the end of Luca's sentence and his own turn, he drew a card, and before looking at it he played a spell already in his hand. "I play Reptiliane spawn, which allows me to summong two 0/0 tokens on the field by banishing my Reptilianne Gardna from my graveyard. I use these tokens as tribute to special summon Reptilianne Vasii to the field. You're right, it can't attack right now, but that'll change when I use Vaskii's effect to destroy your Saboteur."
The computer showed clearly that the effect had been resolved, but Noble Arms of Destiny kept the monster undestroyed. Without saying much more Shively summoned a Reptilianne
"I attack your saboteur with my Gorgon."
The Noble Arms of Destiny were now spend, and the Saboteur was wiped off the field by the gorgon. Which inflicted 900 damage to Luca's lifepoints, the first he had received during the match.
"I'm not done for yet..." Luca groaned as he activated Noble Arms of Destiny's second effect. "Once per turn, instead of being destroyed, this card can be equipped to another warrior monster I control. In this case, my Lightspeed Hoplite! You're not clearing him from the board yet!"
"No, but I am dealing damage, I attack your Hoplite with my Vaskii."
Luca grimaced as he received another 1300 damage. He was now at 1800, while Shively was still at 3000. He had to get rid off Shively's ace monster, and quickly.
"I end my turn." Shively conceded.

---

"Okay, my turn." Luca took a deep breath. He could hear John and Isabella hold their breath right behind him too.
He was a bit afraid to look at his card, but then looked at it.
This... this could work.
"I banish an augur, a hoplite and a saboteur, three different levels of Lightspeed Warriors, from my graveyard in order to special summon my Lightspeed Commander."
He placed his ace monster on the field in all its glory. It was a [1500/1500], the highest raw stats in his low power deck.
"The power of the Lightspeed Commander allows me special summon as much Lightspeed Legion monsters that don't share the same name as the banished monsters as possible. So I end up with-"
He went through his deck, picking out the appropiate summonable monsters.
"-A Lightspeed Scout, Cavalry and Bannerman." He placed the special summoned mosnsters next to his surviving hoplite and newly summoned commander.
"And because I've special summoned a scout, I may draw another card, which is... an infiltrator. Since the infiltrator does not fit on the board I can discard it and deal 500 damage to you directly."
"He's done it, he has momentum again." John Quietely cheered.
It was hard for Luca not to feel like he was on a roll. "I now sacrifice my Lightspeed cavalry to draw another two cards. I then normal summon a Lightspeed Bannerman and discard a Lightspeed Augur to add Legion Unity from my deck to my hand. I now cast Legion Unity in order to form United Legion, with a defense of over 3000, which kills your-"
"No."
"No?"
"No, I activate Snake Bed, which prevents Reptile monsters from being destroyed by card effects."

"What!?" John couldn't believe it. "He had that card there since the beginning. He didn't activate it when Luca used Exchange of Lives."
"Isn't that card way rarer than Reptilianne Vaskii?" Isabelle wondered.
"He's been tricking us from the start!" John made a fist in anger.
At this point Shively began laughing, which served to anger the trio more. "Finish your last turn." He said.

Luca breathed out very slowly.
His United Legion couldn't attack the turn it was summoned, at the start of the next turn it would be destroyed by Reptilianne Vaskii's card effect and scatter into weak minions, minions that would cost him his last lifepoints when up against the Elapid or Vaskii. But there was no point focusing on the how to fail, what he needed to know was how to succeed.
He looked at his hand, a Lightspeed Warrior deck keeps you draw cards. He was almost at the bottom of his deck. There were plenty of cards here, had done it before, wrestle away victory from a hopless situation by killing the opponent first. But how would he do that here?
Perhaps Lightspeed Kamikaze? No good, the collected level of the 5 monsters were only 13, which would result in 2600 damage. Just shy of 3000. The effect damage of an infiltrator that's drawn because of a Lightspeed effect but can't find a place on the board would tip it over the edge. What he needed was a way to draw as much cards as possible before activating Lightspeed Kamikaze as a reaction when Shively first attacked next turn.
He layed down the proper trapcards and quickspells for his plan, and held the cards that had to be discarded correctly in front of him. He wouldn't be able to draw everything, so this plan was a last gamble, if the infiltrator was one of the very bottom cards of the deck, he had already lost.
"Alright, Shively, I end my turn."

---

"Do you play poker at all, Luca?"
"Poker?"
"Poker. Many people think it's a game of chance, but that's not true. It's a game of knowing your opponent, guessing what they think."
"I'm sure that's-"
"You see, I was just going to attack you to end this quickly, but I think I'll do something different."
With those words Shively sacrificed his Gorgon to summon a Reptilianne Medusa.
"The Medusa lets me discard a monster in order to turn an enemy monster's attack to zero. I will use it on your Lightspeed commander, but it's not that that I'm partiuclarly interested in. It's more the monster that I get to discard. This is the Reptilianne Boa, when it is send to the graveyard, FOR ANY REASON, my opponent must discard and draw as many cards as there are monsters with 0 ATK on the field. It's my go-to answer for clever kids like you that stare at their hand all happy-like, it make me nervous.
But before I make you replace the hand you've been cultivatingg, I first want to do this."
As he spoke he placed down a card called Curse of the White Snake. "This card returns our banished cards to our hands, but reduces the attack of our monsters based on the amount, for me, my precious Elapid become a 0 ATK card, with you, only your Scout. But that's two extra for the effect of my following card, that I have to stop you from mucking up my last sprint." As they were both adding the cards to their hands he put down another spell card, this one called "Charm Flute", "This spell lets me get rid of face-down cards, depending on how many 0 ATK monstters there are. I wanted to make sure aaaalll those trapcards are gone, well done. I actually do also have to remove one of my own, since I created just one too many useless monsters for my own purposes. Well, no skin of my back. Here it is, it was a Mirror Fore by the way."
As he so systematically deconstructed everything Luca had set up he became cheerier and cheerier. Eventually, when the computer flashed the VICTORY screen he laughed heartely as he yanked Lightspeed Commander out of Luca's hand. "Nice, that'll fetch a good price. Sorry kid, business is business."

---

"Hey! Stop right there." John stopped Shively before he could leave. "We were just talking to the owner, he says you're here all the time, he says you're a known HUSTLER."
"Yeah, so what?" Shively leaned challengingly on one leg. "Are you going to tell me that if you guys had won and I had lost, you'd give me the time of day? Please. If you underestimate your opponent, you've got nobody else to blame."
"You're evil." Isabelle gasped. "You're just... evil."
"Eh, whatever, out of my way." He pushed them aside to leave.
"Wait." John's voice cracked. "Just. Wait. Our friend Luca needs that card, he needs it for something really important."
"Why would I care?"
"I'll duel you for it!" John was almost screaming in the middle of the shop.
"I don't suppose you have a legendary card yourself, do you?"
"Here." He showed the man the ornament he wears on a chain around his neck. "You like money so much? Here you have it."
"John, no." Luca protested. "Not your mothers' heirloom! Not for me!"
"It's okay Luca, this isn't just for you anymore. This battle concerns all of us, so we have to get that card back."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Shively grins greedily. "But I'm not one to come between a fool and his mistake. Take a seat."