Duel Sluts

Stub. This page or section is a particularly incomplete work-in-progress.

Duel Sluts (or "Duel Monstersluts") is an absurdly popular trading card game (TCG), especially on our homeworld of Yutopia. When it comes to what You might remember, tropes involving Yu-Gi-Oh! are particularly beloved, but the rules (insofar as those even matter) more closely resemble other card games.
In our universe, this card game exists across multiple worlds and has been played in some capacity for millennia. Standards of what rules and cards are allowed vary immensely, and there are literally millions of different cards with differing levels of legitimacy. The details on this website focus on the most popular implementation of the game on modern Yutopia, but elsewhere and elsewhen things might differ.

Duel Sluts has two main ways to play:

Designed Ruleset. Realistic and functional. Descriptions here and on other pages cater primarily to the Designed Ruleset. Even within the confines of these rules, how much You want to play by the rules is entirely up to You; rules specifically apply only to rivals, never to You.~
Heart of the Cards. Literally fuck the rules, You fucking win. ♥ Cards and the sluts contained in them transform to be entirely new cards before they're even drawn, and card effects may activate seemingly out of nowhere. How much this game even resembles the Designed Ruleset (if at all) is decided entirely by whatever You specifically find hottest.

Basics

Individual cards have such unrestricted power that they can change literally every rule, such as omitting loss conditions or adding new win conditions.
Duels can be played either on a small table, or in colossal areans. Of course any duel featuring You deserves the most impressive arena there ever could be (and then some)!
In any duel, playing a card literally summons the slut appearing in the card's artwork, who appears from a portal on the card itself. In an arena duel she appears at full size (in most cases much larger than the players themselves), while in a table duel she appears as only card-size.

With some exceptions, each card correlates to a slut species, and each time the card is played only one member of that species is summoned—usually the same one(s) show up for the same rival. The main exception to this is for exceptionally powerful unique cards for one-of-a-kind goddesses.
Due to the sheer power required to create cards with fully-functioning portals that can summon goddesses at will, a legitimate and functioning card is rarely created by any slut who isn't at least a goddess-level herself. Amateurs primarily use bootleg cards, and normally only by providing oneself as an amateur is a slut bestowed with a fully functional deck and bestowed the status of a duel rival.

Each rival starts with 6 shields, which are normally represented with slut-equips worn on her body. A rival loses a shield for every 10 HP of damage she takes in one turn.

Deck Design

Each rival has a Main Deck of 40 cards, a Shield Deck of 6 cards, and an optional Side Deck of 0 to 20 cards.
Between these three decks, there can be no more than 3 copies of a card with the same name. For the Shield Deck specifically, no more than 1 card can have the same name.

Turn Flow

Draw. At the start of each turn, a rival draws 3 cards from her Main Deck. If immediately after this she has 6 cards or more in her hand, she must discard cards of her choice until only 6 remain. If the Main Deck is out of cards, for each card not drawn the rival draws from her Shield Deck instead.
Standby. The rival tallies the HP amounts of all cards in her Purgatory Pile, then discards those cards to the graveyard. This tally is combined with any damage tokens in her Purgatory Pile, which are also then removed. For every 10 points in this sum, the rival draws one card from her Shield Deck. (For example, taking anywhere from 10 to 19 total damage means 1 shield, while taking anywhere from 20 to 29 damage taken means 2 shields.) If a rival is forced to draw from her Shield Deck but it has no cards remaining, she is defeated.
Summon. The rival summons sluts by placing cards from her hand onto her back field (as opposed to her front field). Depending on the sluts played, some stay on the field, while others are discarded after her effect resolves. Some can be "set", or played face-down. Some cards have a "Support Cost" which must be paid with the Support actions of sluts who have already been fielded; a "Soul Cost" which must be paid by discarding sluts who have already been fielded; a "Mill Cost" which must be paid by discarding that many cards from the top of the Main Deck; or some combination thereof. Soul Costs and Sacrifice Costs can sometimes only be paid by sluts of a specific type or tier, as seen in the cost icons.
Act. Each fielded face-up slut can be tapped (turned vertically to sideways) to perform one action, if she hasn't already been tapped this turn. "Attack" is an action every slut can perform. Any slut who used an action to Attack or Defend is moved to the front line (center of the field). Attacking a rival when she has 0 shields left to draw defeats her. The rival's turn ends once she taps every summoned slut or she declares her turn over.

Actions

During each Act phase, a rival can have all of her fielded sluts take an action. A tapped slut cannot perform an action. Except where noted otherwise, when a slut performs any action she must immediately become tapped.
All sluts can use the Support action. Any slut with an HP number on her card can use the Defend action. Any slut with at least one Attack listed on her card can use it to perform an Attack action. A slut can perform any other action if that action is listed on her card, or if that action is granted to her by another card's effect.

Attacking

Any slut who can Attack has one or more Attacks listed on the face of her card. An Attack is distinguished from other actions by having a damage number listed to the right of the action's name.
When declaring an Attack with one of a summoned sluts, target a slut on the opponent's front line. If the Attack power exceeds the target's HP, target is popped, moving that card to the opponent's Purgatory Pile. If the Attack power falls below the target's HP, whoever controls the Attacker loses HP equal to the difference. (This HP loss is recorded by adding damage tokens to one's Purgatory Pile.)
If the opponent has no slut (remaining) on her front line, it is possible to Attack the opponent directly. A Direct Attack causes the opponent to take damage equal to double the Attack's power. This is tracked by placing damage tokens in the opponent's Purgatory Pile equal to double the attackers' combined power.
Whenever a slut Attacks for any reason, she is moved to the front line if not already there.

Defending

When a slut Defends, she is moves to the front line without declaring an Attack. A slut can only Defend if her card has a listed HP number.

Retreat

To remove a slut from the front line and place her in the back row, You must mill cards equal to her retreat cost as shown on the slut's card. Some sluts have a retreat cost of 0. Unlike most actions, Retreating doesn't tap the slut.

Support or Sacrifice

Some cards and some specific actions sometimes have either a "support cost" (represented with element symbols in circles) or a "soul cost" (represented with crossed-out element symbols). For a card, it can't be summoned that turn unless the full cost is paid that turn. For an action, it can't be performed that turn unless the cost is paid that turn.
When a slut performs the Support action, she provides 1 support to fuel an Action or Summon. A slut cannot Support her own action.
When a slut performs the Sacrifice action, she is discarded to the graveyard to provide 1 soul of her card's color to fuel an Action or Summon. A slut can Sacrifice for her own action, and she is discarded immediately after that action resolves or is negated.
Sometimes only sluts of specific types or tiers can fuel a cost, as shown with the symbols used in that cost itself.
A Support or Sacrifice action cannot be performed unless the fueled Attack or Summon has already been declared. If that Attack or Summon is negated, the Support or Sacrifice is wasted with no effect and cannot be repurposed to fuel something else this turn.