Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 144: …You Already Built the Decks?!

Back when Tang Yao first told Si Jinliang the rules of the card game could be optimized further,
He hadn’t ignored her.
He and Shi Wanglin had been researching how to further simplify traditional TCG complexity ever since.
Unexpectedly,
Shi Wanglin turned out to be a fellow TCG enthusiast.
The two of them hit it off like a spark to dry wood, spending their “honeymoon phase” joyfully trying out every TCG on the market.
But that was only in the beginning.
Before long,
These two overconfident guys realized: TCGs are fun!
But when moved online, copying them 1:1 might satisfy hardcore players—
But the moment they thought about onboarding new players, their heads started to hurt.
On the flip side, if they tried to simplify the game—
It just became bland. Without multidimensional strategic depth and tons of flashy card effects, it simply wasn’t fun.
They spent weeks scratching their heads, tweaking things here and there—
And all they achieved was turning the whole game into an unrecognizable mess.
That was why Si Jinliang had looked so awkward earlier.
As for what Tang Yao said at first—like replacing the traditional TCG golden trio of “collectible cards, mana system, and color factions” with “collectible cards, mana crystal system, and class system,” while removing off-turn interactions to make the game faster, simpler, and more web-adapted...
Well, she never gave them the design doc.
Si Jinliang assumed she’d given up on the idea herself.
He thought her initial confidence came from being a newcomer, just like he once was—underestimating how delicate the balance between “fun” and “simple” really was.
It’s extremely hard to make something that’s deep, easy to learn, and genuinely fun.
But now here she was, bringing up the project again this morning—
And handing over the proposal.
Suspicious, but curious, Si Jinliang slowly opened the document.
On the side, Shi Wanglin was curious too, but didn’t move in—
The boss was right there, and he had to save some face.
However…
As soon as Si Jinliang opened the proposal, he didn’t lift his head again.
He looked completely absorbed.
Tang Yao waited a bit, got bored, pulled out her phone to kill time—
but it kept ringing, so she gave up. She wandered around, poked at a few things, then just sat down nearby and started writing something.
Shi Wanglin: “…”
At first he could hold it in.
Watching Tang Yao walk around was kind of fun, honestly.
But now that she sat down, he couldn’t resist anymore. He leaned over to peek at what Si Jinliang was reading.
Once he got close,
He realized—Si Jinliang was breathing heavily.
What the heck was he reading?
Shi Wanglin craned his neck.
And then—
The moment he looked, he too froze, staring motionlessly at the proposal.
Time passed slowly.
By the time Tang Yao finished writing,
Si Jinliang finally finished reading the entire proposal.
He jumped up suddenly, voice shaking with excitement: “Tang Yao!”
But… Tang Yao wasn’t in front of him.
He looked around, dazed.
And Shi Wanglin looked impatient: “I haven’t finished yet!”
Not far away, Tang Yao looked up at the sound. “Finished reading?”
“Yeah.”
Si Jinliang spotted her and quickly walked over.
Shi Wanglin followed right on his heels.
Once they reached her—
Si Jinliang raised the proposal in his hand, visibly thrilled: “How did you come up with this elegant resource system design? It’s amazing!! With this kind of entry barrier, I swear—anyone could start playing instantly!
“This simplified resource system! Mana grows automatically! Players gain a fixed amount of resources each turn! Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?
“This completely avoids the frustration of getting mana-screwed. You don’t need some overly complex mana pool mechanic anymore—strategy can now shift toward deck-building and tempo control! How did I miss that?!”
In most mainstream TCGs—including Magic: The Gathering from her past life—land cards are the central resource mechanic. They’re what give TCGs both depth and complexity.
How many lands you run, your draw probabilities, your ability to play the right spells at the right time—it all hinges on that.
But this also means the game’s complexity ramps up significantly.
Too few lands? You get mana-screwed.
Too many lands? You get flooded.
This land system problem—the tight coupling of randomness and strategy—is a core flaw of traditional TCGs. With 30% of a deck taken up by lands, even the best builds can lose to bad draws.
But Tang Yao’s proposal ditched all of that.
She replaced it with a clean, automatic mana crystal system—
Effectively decoupling resource generation from the draw system.
But it wasn’t just subtraction. Her plan said explicitly: the mana curve becomes the defining constraint per turn.
Like: 3-mana turns are for board control, 7-mana turns are for “boss” units. Pair that with thoughtful card design and each turn becomes a natural strategic pivot point.
“And this fixed turn sequence—no manual reactions, no responding during the opponent’s turn—this makes the game nearly zero-complexity in terms of operations!”
Si Jinliang’s eyes sparkled as he continued, “And what you wrote about using keywords—like Battlecry, Deathrattle, Charge—to standardize mechanics… It’s so intuitive! It helps new players understand core concepts fast, and cleans up the ridiculous mess of legacy keywords and rules in traditional TCGs. It’s genius!!”
He truly meant it.
She was a genius.
To simplify the rules like this without killing the fun?!
And then there was the removal of off-turn interactions. At first glance, it might look like depth was sacrificed—
But then she introduced a mechanic called “Secrets.”
It captured the core spirit of TCG responses—without the headache of timing rules!
Freaking brilliant!
“You didn’t just hand me this to brag about how simple it is, right?”
Tang Yao blinked at all the praise.
“...The rules are simplified, yeah. And really smart.”
Si Jinliang looked a little embarrassed, but quickly moved on. “Auto-mana, no off-turn actions, keyword-based system—it all lowers the barrier. But how do you preserve strategic depth?
“You mentioned controlled randomness and resource-tempo tradeoffs—but I don’t quite get it.”
The system was interesting, but he still couldn’t tell if it was fun.
It was hard to imagine from words alone.
“I should’ve included examples of controlled randomness—like the ‘Discover’ mechanic or random summon pools.”
Tang Yao explained, “As for the resource-tempo tradeoff, that ties back to what I said earlier. Since mana crystals grow automatically, deck construction becomes a balance between aggro and control.
“You have to manage your mana curve. As crystals increase, do you prioritize board control or direct damage? That decision tree creates strategic depth.”
“……”
Seeing that they still looked a bit confused,
Tang Yao wasn’t surprised. She picked up what she had been writing and handed it to Si Jinliang.
“What’s this…?”
Si Jinliang took the pages and looked at them, puzzled.
“These are two prototype decks I built using the new rules—one is called Control Warrior, the other Zoo.”
Tang Yao smiled. “The first is all about stalling and surviving—board control and defense. The second is aggressive, relying on low-cost minions and face damage to win fast.”
“If you still don’t grasp the depth of the tempo-resource game, you and Shi Wanglin can set up a match. Pick one of these decks each, play a game under the proposed rules—you’ll understand immediately. I’ll give you the actual card text and effects tomorrow or the day after.”
“……”
“……”
Si Jinliang and Shi Wanglin both froze.
Then slowly looked up at Tang Yao, faces full of disbelief.
A question mark practically floated in the air between them.
Ssss—
Hold up.
You already built the decks?!