Wizard's Soul: Koi no Jihad

nathandouglasdavis Jan 5, 2020

5

As a casual Magic: the Gathering player and collector, I definitely understood where this story was coming from. Control decks are notorious for being un-fun to pay against, so I thought it was clever to have the main character be somebody who played with that type of strategy but didn't enjoy it. So neither fe nor feir opponents enjoyed their matches. Why does fe choose to play such a strategy if fe hates every moment of it? Because fe needs to win the Grand Prix to get the prize money to pay off feir family's debts. And in this fantasy world, playing "Wizard's Soul" seems to be the primary method of making money (at least for a high schooler like fem). All of society, including career and romantic prospects, revolves around this card game, which is pretty amusing. I appreciated how they said that feir deck was made up of a bunch of janky, niche cards that shouldn't be able to function let alone have a consistent win-rate. But because fe's such an adept player, fe's able to react to feir opponents' biggest threats while ignoring their weaker ones, and create combo situations where fe comes out on top. And on the one hand, that is accurate--skilled players are able to make timely decisions based on reading the boardstate. But on the other hand, feir deck seems to shift a bit too much and it seems a bit too versatile and adaptable to be believable. They tried to include a variety of opponents, and also tried to make each of them relatable in feir own way. I was fine with this. But I didn't like how as the series goes on, all feir opponents turn out to be friends and start hanging out in a pod. And then how they befriend fem. One of the best aspects of the manga was how it exaggerated the frustration and disdain feir playstyle caused. How it made people literally hate fem. But once it started having people come to terms with their losses and even learn to applaud fem, it felt like all the tension was gone. That might be part of the reason why the ending of the series felt dull. That, and maybe just burnout after so many matches in a row.