On Writing a Duel IV · 7:42pm Sep 5th, 2018
Last time we touched the topic of writing elaborate duels to make them more interesting and entertaining for your readers. Now, while I provided an example of two turns, I feel the need to clarify you don’t have to have your characters dumping the entire contents of their hands on the very first turn. Depending on the flow of the duel and number of turns, you can have both characters starting “slow”, escalating their plays and trading “blows” until the duel reaches its climax.
Now, I mentioned writing elaborate duels is good for showing the skill of your characters. If your character is an expert at playing Blue-Eyes, then you cannot have him start the duel by setting The White Stone of Ancients and hoping for his opponent to destroy it so he can summon a Blue-Eyes White Dragon from his deck at the end of the turn.
Instead, have him discard The White Stone of Ancients to pay for The Melody of Awakening Dragon and fetch a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and a Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon from his deck. Reveal the former to special summon the latter. At the end of turn, use the effect of the discarded monster to special summon a Blue-Eyes straight from the deck.
Extra tip: the duel will look even better if your characters make use of searching and drawing effects, not just having all the necessary cards in the opening hand or topdecking all the time.
Going on, if the other guy’s plan to deal with a Blue-Eyes consists in playing Double Summon, calling The Trojan Horse and tributing it for Insect Queen, then equipping his newest monster with Laser Cannon Armor and Insect Armor with Laser Cannon for a 3400 ATK beatstick with nothing to protect it in the next turn, that’s an awful play too. We’re talking about using five cards to summon a monster that can be easily dispatched with something as simple as Compulsory Evacuation Device.
“But Dashguy,” you may be saying. “What if I want to show how superior my character is to the other guy?” 
That’s an excellent point, but consider the following: you’re watching an MMA match. The first fighter is a tall, powerfully built guy while the second is a scrawny, twelve years-old. The fight begins and the former immediately knocks out the latter with a swift roundhouse kick to the head. Is the first guy strong? Yes. Is he superior to his opponent? Yes. Was the fight a satisfactory one? Hell no.
If one guy summons Battle Ox and passes his turn without doing anything else, then the other guy swarms the field with Six Samurai monsters and does a one-turn-kill, it’s exactly the same. I’ve read too many stories, not necessarily here, where the author expect us to see Character A as a great duelist for steamrolling his/her opponents, except said opponents play like a bunch of eight years-old.
In short, you want your character of choice to look good? Sure, but the other one has to look good too.
Then what happens to the opposite?
I mean when you have a character so incompetent that is a joke and is only there to lose?
Like this bufoon:
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If the character is a joke and a loser, then it's perfectly fine for him/her to play badly and for others to trample him/her. The problem comes when the character is supposed to have a certain level of skill, but it's not reflected in his/her dueling.
If Character A is (unironically) introduced as a master of Blue-Eyes, with access to all the support, but still needs to tribute two monsters to summon a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, then something has gone wrong.
“Show, don’t tell”.
You’ve “told” me he’s an expert, but you haven’t “shown” me.
For my second point, imagine if Brave Max was unironically referred by other characters and the narrative itself as one of the top duelists in LINK VRAINS. Imagine if the duel played exactly the same, but without the jokes and imagine if Ghost Gal got widely praised for defeating him. You would think it was piss poor writing.
Remember when Siegfried defeated Haga/Weevil and Ryuuzaki/Rex at the same time back at the first series? How impressive his OTK would have been if the two had summoned Basic Insect and Little D instead of Insect Queen and Black Tyranno respectively?
There’s a reason comic book writers have the newest villains beat Wolverine to show how fearsome they are and not some random mutant with the power to make his hair change color. And there’s a reason shonen heroes defeat guys three times their sizes to show how badass they are.