DUEL 决斗 (jué dòu)

Description:
Mano-a-mano. Grunt and spit as two characters prepare to do battle one-on-one. Who can outlast the other? That depends on how well you judged the capability of your opponent. True to the meaning, there is a very possible likelihood of causing yourself damage if you take on someone much more able. Got the balls?

What it does:
1 unit of health damage to the loser of DUEL. A useful side-effect of DUEL is it usually wipes out all the ATTACK 杀 cards of one (if not both) of the players involved in DUEL.

How to use it:
During your action phase, you can use DUEL on another player. Starting from the target player, each of the participants of DUEL need to play an ATTACK杀 (elemental ATTACK can also be played) in turns. The first player refuses/unable to play an ATTACK suffers 1 unit of damage from another participant.

If the target player does not have a single ATTACK card to begin with, or chooses not to use any, he or she immediately receives 1 unit of health damage. In that way, the advantage is tilted in favor of the user.

Historical basis:
There seems to be some strange ritual to battles in the era of the Three Kingdoms. Heck, I think this ritual exists in Western medieval history as well. In the depiction of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when two armies meet on the battle-field, the two sides exchange curses and insults before sending out a general each. These two generals then duel feverishly as both armies bring out the popcorn and enjoy the show. Sometimes, other generals rush out to join the duel and the fight turns into an orgy. By playing on tactical morale, leaders then decide when to launch the main force, then all hell breaks loose.

It was a lot more fun back then wasn't it? Nowadays we fight wars sitting behind a computer by pressing a single red button with the words "Nuclear Warhead Launch" written on it. Ho-hum.