You think trading card games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Duel Masters, and Pokémon are gentile? Maybe they are! But that doesn’t mean the matches aren’t intense. They are.
Twitter user Numa spotted this set-up at a local card shop in Japan for trading card cage matches.
How cool is this?
地元のカードショップなんだけど 決勝行くとここでプレイさせられるんだぜ(震え声) pic.twitter.com/Mk4oLEPQqH
— ぬま???????? (@nu_manumanuma) July 7, 2021
As you can see, there is a monitor outside the cage, showing what’s on the table so spectators can follow along. Spectators sit around the cage and can follow the action.
Inside, there are two gaming cards, plus a table, where the battlers can put the trading card smack down on each other.
All of this is encased in a wrestling style cage, which appears to be outfitted with metal chain links — as it should be, when things get rough.
“Unfortunately, there’s no electric current sent through the chain-link,” Numa joked on Twitter. “Even if you lose, you are allowed to leave.”
It is a most unusual set-up. As of writing, Numa’s tweet has been liked over thirty-seven thousand times and retweeted another nine thousand times. The set up is so unusual that another Twitter user also snapped a photo of it, showing another angle of the cage.
This was taken in a Book-Off retail shop, which typically specialises in used books, but also sells other items, including cards. As you can see, in the back row, there are glass cases filled with trading cards. On the opposite side, not in the photo, is the register. (Infamously, Book-Off also has a retail shop for hardware called Hard-Off. Heh.)
Cage matches, or ケージマッチ (keeji macchi) in Japanese, have been a longtime feature of hardcore pro wrestling. But, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cage like this for trading card matches. They definitely should become a standard part of tournaments.
Note: Tweet and photo used with permission.
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