"That surprised me."
"Since you had Royal Decree, why didn't you use it when I activated Counter Gate?"
You Chen raised an eyebrow. Hai Zhu's Royal Decree had genuinely caught him off guard.
Hai Zhu lifted his eyes and said unhurriedly in a deep voice, "An ordinary person probably would have used it."
"That was what I thought at first, too."
"But I was still waiting."
"There were several reasons. First, I didn't know whether your set cards included Spell/Traps that could destroy or negate cards. They probably didn't, but I still had to guard against it. That was one reason."
"Second, if I had used Royal Decree early, your tactics would have shifted. My main goal was to bait out your cards. See? If I'd used it early, would you still have used Wall of Disruption? Once I baited out your Wall of Disruption, even if Royal Decree got destroyed afterward, more than half the threat would already be gone."
"The frightening part of your strategy lies in that instant chain burst. Only unleashing it when your opponent is caught off guard maximizes the payoff, because all your cards are bound to be setting up for that burst. And once you've used up most of your cards, it'll be time for me to reap the harvest."
"Unless my safety is threatened, there was no need for me to activate Royal Decree so early."
"Look, wasn't the current situation the best proof?"
"All your set cards had already been exhausted for Warm Worm."
"If I'd activated Royal Decree early, perhaps the monster you Special Summoned with Resonance Worm wouldn't have been Warm Worm. You might have had another monster capable of dealing with destruction effects, which would have been unfavorable for me."
"But before I revealed Royal Decree, you naturally