Masters of Magic: The Gathering

by Mod On Death

Facing the Annihilator

It was recess at the school. Everypony was playing around, swinging and chasing each other. A couple of ponies were playing the card game, each player avoiding Diamond Tiara's gaze. Unlike most days, however, Diamond Tiara would meet her match.

"Diamond Tiara!" a voice yelled across the playground. The students turned to see that it was Spike, followed by the CMC, Shining Armor, and Rarity. "I challenge you to a game of Magic: The Gathering!"

"Alright," she replied swiftly. "Any rules on what cards can and can't be played?"

"Nope. We're doing this without any restrictions." Spike knew that if he were to make his combo work, he couldn't have any restrictions on cards.

"Alright. Let's do it over on that table," she said, pointing to an empty picnic table. The challengers, along with their entourage of onlookers, went over to it and set up a mat. Silver Spoon handed Diamond Tiara one of her decks while Rarity did the same with Spike. The two cut each other's decks and began.

"So, you wanna play, or draw?" Spike asked.

"I'll draw," she replied, unexpectedly. Spike was sure she'd pick play so she could try her one-shot win maneuver.

"Very well. I-"

"Hold on." Diamond Tiara suddenly placed two cards from her hand on the battlefield. "Gemstone Caverns can be played immediately before anyone's turn if I'm not playing first." Interesting start. Hopefully Spike's combo would work.

"Alright. I start by playing an Island, then," he paused for a second, grabbing one of the cards in his hand, "I play Black Lotus!" Spike noticed Diamond Tiara's eyes arch when that spell was played. "Using it, I-"

"I exile one blue card and pay 1 life to cast Force of Will, stopping your combo," declared DT.

"Hah! I counter your counter with my own Force of Will, paying 1 life and exiling one blue card to....to...uh oh." Spike looked at his hand and then at his battlefield. He had suddenly realized that he played the only card that could even be considered a blue card onto the field. "I guess I don't."

"Alright. Anything else?" she asked, teasing him a little.

"No. That's my turn."

"Spike! Why?" Shining Armor screamed, grabbing his mane out of frustration.

"I overlooked that! I just needed 1 more mana to complete the combo!" he responded.

"It doesn't matter now. My turn," she told her opponent. "First, I draw a card. I then cast Summoner's Flash to search my Library for a green creature." She took a moment and looked through her cards, revealing Protean Hulk. "I then tap my two Gemstone Caverns to cast Flash with my Protean Hulk. Since I don't pay the full cost I then sacrifice it. Once it's sacrificed it's ability becomes activated, allowing me to search my library for creatures with converted mana total 6 or less." She started searching her deck again, grabbing a whole bunch of cards from it. "I first cast four Disciple of the Vault creatures. These cards deal 1 damage to target opponent's life for each artifact placed in a graveyard. I then play four Phyrexian Marauders for 0 mana, making them 0/0 creatures, meaning they go into my graveyard. Since these are artifact creatures, each Disciple of the Vault deals 1 damage per creature placed in the graveyard, equaling 16 damage. However, I also play Shifting Wall for 0 mana, sacrificing it as well. Since it's also an artifact, I deal 4 more damage to you, making your total 0 life. Game over."

"Woah," the ponies said quietly, reeling from that display of destruction. Spike was silent as he saw this occur. All those duels. All that practice. All that time was gone.

"I...can't believe it," he finally said, putting his face to the table. "I lost, and after all this time."

"Don't worry, Spike. I'll handle this." Scootaloo told him, pulling out a deck of her own. "I just need to borrow a couple of cards from your deck and I'll be set."

"Alright," he said, tears on his cheeks. "You can do it, Scoots."

"Thanks. I know we haven't really done that much, but the three of us have been learning from you this entire time. We know just what to do now. Just let me have those cards and I'll show her what it means to play Magic!"

The match started and ended quickly, the details of the match resembling almost to the exact letter the previous one. The only difference was Scootaloo managing to actually counter Diamond Tiara's counter, which was then ironically countered by Pact of Negation. She quickly lost, her combo barely starting before being destroyed.

"Alright. Is that it?" Diamond Tiara asked, looking around to see if there were any other players that would step up. "Very well. Good game," she said, gathering up her cards.

"Hold it!" Sweetie Belle yelled, surprising everypony. "What was that? You essentially did that exact same thing with Scoots that you did with Spike. That's not really creative."

"Why be creative when you can just win?" she replied.

"Hold on a sec," Shining Armor said, his mind finally putting the pieces together. "I know that phrase! It's a particular pony's tagline for the World Magic Tournament. Specifically, it's the tagline for Number 2 World Player, Diamond Destroyer." The onlookers gasped as he revealed this bit of information. "So, Diamond Tiara, by the guidelines of the World Magic Confederation, I hereby show my status of Number 5 World Player, Dauntless Defender," he said as he showed her his badge. "You are now required, if your status is legitimate, to reveal your own status, along with alias, in proof of identification."

"Wait, 'World Player Confederation'? That's a thing?" Sweetie Belle asked, noticing how ridiculous things were getting. While she stated this, Diamond Tiara slowly reached into her bag and revealed a badge, identifying herself as Diamond Destroyer. Everypony, even Shining Armor, was surprised to see this.

"Very well. You know it's me," she finally admitted.

"Wait a minute," Apple Bloom said, trying to understand all of this. "How is it that she's a top player in the entire world?"

"Allow me to explain," Diamond Tiara said, finally revealing her motives. "See, my dad always went on these business trips when I was younger and would always get me something. One day, when I was really young, he got me this pack of Magic cards. I apparently liked them so much that he always got me new packs whenever he went out. At one point, when he was gone for an entire month, even missing my birthday, he sent me a whole box of Rare and Mythic Rare cards, apparently getting them for a good deal. Eventually I ended up making several kinds of decks with them and got really good at the game. I also convinced him to allow me to enter the World Magic Tournament when I was just six, winning my first real tournament and establishing myself as one of the Top World Players."

"Huh. So that explains all those really good cards I heard about earlier," Shining Armor commented. "But the main question is why you're challenging all these new players."

"Well, to be completely honest, I could never find anypony in Ponyville who played the game, so what I did was that I started rumors around the school about Magic being a big thing, convincing other classmates to finally buy the cards without them knowing it was me. I just really wanted to find other ponies to play against. After all, the same couple of ponies over and over can get really boring, especially when they know all of your moves." The group was surprised by this answer. All along, Diamond Tiara was just looking for other ponies to play against.

"Okay. Anyway, this is just getting really crazy," Sweetie Belle told everypony. "Scootaloo and Apple Bloom declared a vendetta against you to try and fight you, Spike's been training for over a week, Twilight went insane trying to make a good deck, Rarity spent an actual fortune building her own deck, and Fluttershy apparently goes berserk while playing. And in all this time, literally the only full match I've played of this game has been against you that one time the three of us teamed up! So, now that everypony is satisfied, I'll play one more match against you and that's that. No more revenge or getting even. Just playing a card game. Alright?"

"Sure. You have a deck you wanna play?"

"Yeah. I just need to make it quick. You guys mind," Sweetie Belle asked her friends.

"No. Help yourself." In just a minute, Sweetie Belle had gathered the cards she needed to play and was ready.

"Okay. Can I go first?" Sweetie Belle asked before she'd even drawn her first hand.

"Yeah. I can wait," DT replied.

"Okay. I first play a Plains, then I cast Chrome Mox by removing Auriok Salvagers from the game. Then, I cast Black Lotus and-"

"Force of Will," interrupted Diamond Tiara.

"Pact of Negation," replied Sweetie Belle, countering Diamond Tiara's counter. The crowd looked at Diamond Tiara, expecting her to play some other card. To their surprise, she didn't. "Anyway, I use Black Lotus with my land to cast Auriok Slavagers. I then play Lotus Petal to give my Auriok Salvagers just the right amount of mana to activate it's ability, allowing me to search my graveyard for an artifact of 1 or less mana and return it to my hand. I do this with Black Lotus and cast it again for 3 white mana and place it in my graveyard. I then use the 3 white mana in my pool to activate the ability again, leaving 1 white left in my pool. I do this again...,"

Sweetie Belle continued the same pattern for a full two minutes straight, the crowd starting to get bored. Acting as a judge, Shining Armor decided to simply declare that, for all intents and purposes (and saving time), Sweetie Belle had infinite mana of infinite color in her pool.

"Okay. Anyway, I then cast Blaze, using all the mana I ever need to, dealing whatever amount of damage I need to cast in order to win," declared Sweetie Belle. "So, I guess I win. Alright. Good game! I can see why everypony enjoys it." She gathered up the cards and handed them back to Spike, the crowd looking shocked as they saw the little filly win without even recognizing her achievement.

"Wow. I lost," Diamond Tiara finally said, knowing that her reign of the playground was finally over. The crowd cheered as they realized this, finally free to play their card game with the knowledge that nopony was truly invincible. The CMC, along with everypony else, rushed over to Sweetie Belle and lifted her into the air, surprising her as well.

"Congrats, Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo said as she hugged her friend.

"Thanks. I'm sorry that I took your victory away from you. Know that you would've liked to beat her and all."

"Are you kidding? That was awesome! I mean, I was totally gonna do something cool as well, but she totally blocked me. That fact that you managed to do your thing was totally epic! Besides, now I can finally stop worrying about trying to beat her and just enjoy the game."

The crowd moved away, leaving Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon alone.

"So, guess that there was at least one pony that was good enough to beat you," Silver Spoon told her friend.

"Yeah. Surprised at how quickly she came up with that deck." Diamond Tiara was placing her cards in her pack when she said, "So I guess she's at least somepony else to consider when playing, huh?"

"I guess." Silver Spoon was awkward as she said this. "Well, to be honest, I kinda just miss playing with you. It was sorta our thing and all. Now it's everypony's."

"Well, think about it from my perspective," DT told her. "At least when I played against these ponies I actually got to be the winner."

"What else do you ever expect when you play against me?" her friend teased. "It's not like I got to be Number 1 World Champion by losing."

"Well excuse me, Miss Silver Sliver," she replied, using her friend's alias. "Anyway, thanks for holding onto my cards while I looked around. Was nice not knowing what deck of mine I'd be using."

"Yeah. I personally liked it when I messed with them and made my own for you to use."

"Ah. That explains a whole lot. Anyway, we've got about ten minutes before the bell rings. Anything you wanna do?"

"Oh, yes there is." Silver Spoon opened her bag and took out a deck holder, along with two white gloves she placed on her hooves. "You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," she replied, pulling out a random deck of her own.

At the same time, the two top players of the world looked at each other and yelled, "Let's Duel!"

Author's Note:

The End!

Hope you guys enjoyed the ride. Unlock the other ride, this one has finally come to an end. I may do other stories like this, but this tale is finished. Leave your praise and sacrifices for me in the form comments below, telling everyone you may have ever known about this story, and sending me money on Paypal!

Comments

[Gateless]

So DT isn't the champ. And I still expected Eldrazi

[Mod On Death]

4092060
Lol. I shall now feed off of your disappointment, leave you a dry husk, and then travel to another plane of existence to continue the cycle.

[Mystic Deadman]

4092132
...and now I have a sudden wish for you to make planeswalking a thing.

[Telaros]

Now that's about as much as I expected this to go after that Rarity chapter.

Loved the ending. That deck was totally preplanned by a certain filly for her to use. Me thinks DT was on to a certain filly helping her out. xD

I totally relate to that feel of opponents. It's what caused me to sell my collection before finding a few months later that they had a store that actually did weekend gatherings and tournaments for Magic. I felt terrible after finally finding such a place to play my favorite game only to realize I no longer had even a single deck to play with.

That was a great read, I really enjoyed the ride. I could not have been more happy with how this ended. <3

[Mod On Death]

4095166
Thanks! To be honest, the way the story was originally supposed to end was with a longer duel, but the more I saw how players do one-shot wins, the more I realized that DT would probably do the same.

[ThatClosetBrony]

Silver Sliver.

OH COME ON.

Everyone knows that Slivers can't win tournaments. Except for that one time when there was that two-headed giant game and the two teammates bith used slivers. BUT OTHER THAN THAT

[MrDenim]

4427745 Yeah none of my friends, even one that runs an artifact deck, has that so... yeah game over b*tch.

[Cocaine]

You...son of a bitch. You beautiful masochistic, AMAZING PERSON.

Thank you for writing this <3 Not going to lie, I saw a lot of it coming, but as a big fucking nerd in Magic, i Enjoyed every single bit of it. The first couple battles were pretty choppy, and...well, the last ones with Diamond were too quick for my liking- just one-hit kill decks, but...that's what happens, man.

Starts out with ghetto, 5$ decks and moves up to the insanely stupid, really overpriced Legacy decks. Which...oddly enough, suited this idea well!

I had a tone of fun reading and, as you very well have seen, I added this to every single praising bookshelf I have! Please, write a sequel, or something.

Much love~

[ThatClosetBrony]

5814575 gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=9774&type=card

[Mod On Death]

6105718
Sure? Lol it's been a while since I worked on this.

[Szalhi]

6715026 no, Diamond's playing modern. Pretty much all the other foals are playing standard.

[Gaegent]

I love these stories, card games from our world being appreciated and enjoyed in Equestria as well, it's too bad that only the big 3 get their chance in the spotlight, have you ever heard of Vanguard?