Hoskins smiled, though he was still a little confused. But he figured he just needed to find two cards of the same color and keep playing them alternately.
He still has yellow and black cards in his hand, plus the two cards he gets each turn. If he's lucky, he could even use this strategy to play until the end of the game!
"Mr. Jiang Ran, it seems I'm quite lucky, aren't I?"
Jiang Ran currently only has one red doll on the field. This means that without any information, he can only try and fail to find a color that matches red. In this process, Hoskins can gain an unimaginable advantage!
"Round four, please play your cards."
The current situation on the field can be described as extremely bad for Jiang Ran. The two cards dealt in the new round, red and blue, seem to be mocking his wrong choice in the previous round.
Yellow, red, green, blue, black.
This is his current hand.
So far, no sixth color has appeared, so is it possible that... there will only be five colors for the dolls?
Round 1, Red, Black – Draw.
In the second round, Huang lost.
In the third round, Blue lost to Black.
"There are five colors in total. The previous card can affect the next card. If I'm not mistaken, he will play yellow again in the next round."
That's right, Hoskins has already taken down a yellow doll.
"Mr. Jiang Ran, please hurry!"
There were ten minutes allotted for thinking, and less than a minute had passed. Hoskin was clever; he was subtly putting pressure on Jiang Ran, trying to compress his thinking time as much as possible and make him anxious!
Jiang Ran kept silently reciting all the known information in his mind. Suddenly, he seemed to grasp a glimmer of light. This guess was bold, but it did fit the current situation on the field!
If this idea is correct, then Jiang Ran will have a huge advantage over Hoskin in this game!
"If I'm not mistaken, yours should be yellow." Jiang Ran drew a red doll from his hand and slammed it face up on the table!
Hoskins was puzzled. Two different cards could work together, so it seemed impossible to play the same color as the previous card.
"Mr. Jiang Ran's puppet killed Mr. Hawkins' puppet in this round. The current ratio of surviving puppets on both sides is 2:3!"
Now it was Hoskin's turn to be dumbfounded. He really didn't expect to lose this round. Could it be that cards of the same color have a higher priority than cards of different colors?
Jiang Ran finally smiled in this game, something he hadn't done in a long time. The red card had eaten the yellow card, just as he had expected. Now it was time to verify the next game rule.
"Round 5, please play your cards."
In this round, Jiang Ran drew two green and two blue cards, which replenished his two least numerous cards.
Yellow, red, green, blue, black.
Besides the red cards, there are two of each of the other four colors.
"Mr. Hoskins, please hurry."
While Hoskin was still pondering what card to play this round, Jiang Ran immediately played a card as soon as he received his hand, a speed that was completely different from the previous rounds!
"Damn it...this is bad!"
Jiang Ran must have figured out some hidden rules of this game, which is extremely disadvantageous for Hoskin!
"We have no choice but to take a gamble!"
Hoskin played a black doll because his yellow card was taken away in the previous round, which meant that his previous card was also black. He wanted to verify whether there was some kind of combination between cards of the same color!
Jiang Ran also played a black doll.
"The fifth round has ended, and the current ratio of puppets on the left and right sides is 3:4."
Nothing happened? Jiang Ran frowned slightly. Could his guess be wrong?
Just as he was thinking this, the referee reached out to Hoskins's hand, snatched three of the cards, and threw them aside.
"Hey, what are you doing? Can the referee interfere with the game?!" Hoskins slammed his hand on the table in anger, clearly displeased with the referee's sudden act of taking away his cards!
“I’m enforcing the rules,” the referee explained expressionlessly. “Mr. Jiang Ran activated [Earthquake], so I need to remove three cards from your hand.”
earthquake?
Hoskin was taken aback. In other words, Jiang Ran had activated the puppet's special effect just now, and he had indeed seen through something!
"Why can he start it, but I can't?"
“I need to correct you on one point, Mr. Hoskins.” The referee’s next words caused Hoskins’s brain to freeze on the spot: “You were the first person to activate a special effect in this game. You activated [Sharpness] in the second round.”
The referee offered no further explanation, only saying one thing—
"Round 6, please play your cards."
"An earthquake, sharp? Just as I suspected!"
Jiang Ran nodded to himself. He thought he could take down one of Hoskin's puppets this round. It seems that different cards have different effects!
Hoskin's "Sharpness" devoured the puppets of Jiang Ran and the same person.
Jiang Ran's "Earthquake" caused Hoskins to lose three cards in his hand.
The essence of this game is not some so-called "puppet trick" at all. You could say that if you suddenly removed the puppets from the painting and only kept the colors, it would have no impact on the game. The puppets were just a smokescreen used to influence the judgment of both sides.
The real name of this game should be "Five Elements Cards"!
The five colors—yellow, green, blue, red, and black—correspond to the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth! Reviewing the game from this perspective again reveals—
In the first round, Hoskins played [Earth], while Jiang Ran played [Fire], so nothing happened.
In the second round, Hawkins played [Gold], and Jiang Ran played [Gold] as well. However, due to the mutual generation of the five elements, earth generates metal, so Hawkins was able to use the skill of the metal-attribute puppet - [Sharpness]!
It was this skill that destroyed Jiang Ran's metal-type puppet, because Jiang Ran's attribute in the previous round was [fire], which could not synergize with [metal].
In the third round, Hoskins played [Earth] and Jiang Ran played [Water]. It was clear that neither of these cards could be combined with the previous card, meaning they couldn't use their skills. However, due to the elemental interactions, Earth counters Water, so Jiang Ran still lost this round.
Now that the rules are clear, what happens next is not surprising.
In the fourth round, Hawkins played [Gold], and Jiang Ran played [Fire]. Although Earth generates Metal, which would allow Hawkins to activate [Sharpness] in this round, it is clear that the priority of the five elements' mutual restraint is higher. Fire restrains Metal, so Jiang Ran won this round!
This also explains the effect of [Sharpness]: as long as the opponent's attribute is not countered by your own, then you will kill the puppet that the opponent plays this turn!
In the fifth round, Hoskins played [Earth], and Jiang Ran played [Earth]. According to the Five Elements theory, Fire generates Earth, so Jiang Ran activated the Earth-type puppet's skill [Earthquake] in this round!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
