Playing cards, I am your ancestor!-Chapter 303: Mountain Ghost Training Match 4_1

Combat with SSR Cards is not like combat with A-Rank Cards. It drags on longer because SSR Cards are not easily shattered. Therefore, achieving a one-hit kill is not very realistic. A card like Hou Yi, with its unique traits, would typically not appear at the SSR Rank. Even Cloud River of Stars would need to steadily mark and eliminate two cards, and they must be shattered by Cloud River of Stars itself. Deploying several Support Cards was all to maximize the output of Sheng Hongying’s Cloud River of Stars. Therefore, Sheng Hongying’s operations could not afford mistakes; at the very least, nothing must happen to Cloud River of Stars.

The Mountain Ghost team narrowed their eyes upon seeing this lineup.

Luo Juerao, who was not only a support player but also the commander, saw this and said to the coach, "It looks like the opponents are going all out to protect Sheng Hongying."

Of their cards, only Sheng Hongying’s had the greatest output effect. Others, like Soul Severing the Other Shore, might have multiple statuses, but their actual lethality wasn’t very strong. Grinding down an SSR Card with them was quite difficult.

"Not necessarily," Tan Heming, who was now advising the coaching team, said from a team perspective. "Song Jue’s Quicksand Crow is a Heritage Card from his maternal family that hasn’t appeared in competition before. Since it’s an assassin role, it’s likely a card with extremely high damage. Be wary of Wen Jiang."

Luo Juerao was startled. He was talking about Song Jue, but why be wary of Wen Jiang?

However, being a commander, he responded quickly, "Are you worried Wen Jiang will protect Quicksand Crow?"

Tan Heming said, "With only two output cards, there’s a chance Sheng Hongying is a diversion." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Coach Su Yifeng couldn’t believe it. "It’s highly unlikely, isn’t it? To use Sheng Hongying as a target in the first training match?"

The tone here was very subtle. Sheng Hongying was the captain of Mount Flower. In competitions, there was often obvious behind-the-scenes influence. For instance, stronger players were deemed more suited to making better plays, leading all attention to subconsciously focus on them. Sometimes, even if other team members could also display stronger capabilities, people’s subconscious biases could change some tactics. It could happen in an official match, but in a private first training match, if they had chosen Cloud River of Stars, then it was obvious that the main output depended on Sheng Hongying. If they really used Sheng Hongying as a target, would she not have an issue with that?

"Sheng Hongying is not that kind of person," laughed Tan Heming. "I frequently watch Wen Jiang’s matches. You can’t judge her by common sense. If the situation looks dire, she’s definitely capable of using Sheng Hongying as a shield."

It was because Cloud River of Stars was so eye-catching that if Mountain Ghost focused all their attention on this card, Quicksand Crow would have a chance to find a breakthrough.

That’s what he was thinking, anyway. Just as he voiced this thought, Duan Yuleng smirked and said, "The Captain has so much free time he watches A-Level matches? Watching too many A-Level matches has affected your judgment. She performs well at the A-Level, but having just advanced to S Rank, do you think we’re the same kind of opponents she faced at A-Level?"

There was always a debate over the food chain among Spirit Card Masters, both domestically and internationally, with S Rank undoubtedly looking down on A-Level and A-Level matches.

Tan Heming smiled faintly and remained silent. He knew that no amount of talking would substitute for them actually facing Wen Jiang and learning her true depth firsthand. Anyway, he wasn’t the one competing today.

Coach Su Yifeng, nursing a headache, said, "All right, since today we’re testing new cards, let’s use the lineup we discussed before. Let’s try out the Four-Control System first."

The lineup had already been agreed upon. Mountain Ghost had indeed released two new cards that year. Although they weren’t created based on the mythological stories Wen Jiang had contributed, they were, to some extent, influenced by them. These two new cards were based on legends passed down in the post-millennial era. There was a sense of a story within a story.

One of the new SSR Cards released was called The God of Control Cards, but this card was honestly a bit difficult and nauseating to use. Because once this card was played, it could deploy five cards, each attaching to one of the opponent’s five SSR Cards, and then—initiate a card flip.

The flip was quite tricky. A total of five negative traits were possible: continuously draining spiritual power via a negative status, greatly slowing the Card Spirit’s speed for over ten seconds, immobilizing the target for three seconds, or directly halving the opponent’s Card Spirit’s spiritual power—effectively blasting away half of the opponent’s health. Its abilities were incredibly overpowered; releasing five at a time was truly terrifying, right? But it also had a negative trait: it might have no effect at all.

Ever since this card was created, they had tested it. Forget Eurocrats; most of the time, its effect depended on spiritual power. When a Spirit Card Master played it, four out of the five cards could turn out to have no impact. The remaining one might barely achieve one of the other four negative statuses. Undoubtedly, the hardest ability to trigger was the one that blasted away half of the opponent’s health.

That such a card could be created was truly a miracle in itself. Hence, it was quite normal for certain aspects of it to be greatly restricted.

So why would Mountain Ghost still want to use it? Naturally, it was because this card performed better in the hands of someone more powerful; after all, there was an element of desperation involved. When the team’s control players used this card, they could usually inflict two to three negative statuses. While strong control and health reduction were difficult to achieve, effects like slowing speed or continuously draining spiritual power were still quite formidable, so it made sense to use them. If a Eurocrat were to channel luck and deduct half the targeted Spirit Card Master’s health, well, that would spell doom for the opponent.

Mountain Ghost’s cards had always been known for their unpredictability, so their creation of such cards was indeed not surprising.

The other new card also provoked much interest. The new cards previously made by Wen Jiang had indeed caused a significant impact on the current market. Before, except for Xi Zhou, Yunxia had rarely released character cards, but this time, Mountain Ghost created a new character card. It depicted a very beautiful woman with an antique charm and quite the allure—only, she varied slightly in style from those created by Wen Jiang.

The emergence of this beauty was even influenced by the backstory of Wen Jiang’s cards—Lady Meng Jiang Weeping Over the Great Wall.

In Yunxia’s tales, Lady Meng Jiang was merely a legend, widely believed to have originated in the Qin Dynasty. So, when Wen Jiang was creating a mini-biography for Qin Shi Huang, she added a similar legend. Of course, other emperors also had similar contemporary mythical anecdotes. In the post-disaster era, there were also rumors similar to Lady Meng Jiang’s story, though they were not specific and carried mythical elements.

Later, a Card Maker had a sudden stroke of inspiration and actually created a card, which right off the bat was of SSR Rank. Normally, basing it on Lady Meng Jiang Weeping Over the Great Wall would lead one to create an offensive card to demonstrate its power, but for some reason, the card turned out to be a dual-status Support Card.

This card was thus called Lady Meng Jiang.

Only, Wen Jiang was still unaware of this at the time. She looked at the card Mountain Ghost had played. The image on the card—an anciently dressed woman weeping with her face covered—gave her a vague inkling. She thought for a moment and then said, "Those two new cards from the opponent are likely to be control and support type cards."