Deck of Dogs (A litCCG accused of crimes against braincells.)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

A lonely pocket dimension.A couple of violent androids with dog heads.A card game surprisingly not made on pugs.

After passing away in an unfortunate incident that included a truck driver and funny cat videos, Mauro wakes up in what seems to be a hospital room. Soon enough, he notices that is not the case: he is covered by playmats instead of blankets and a floating card depicting a giant schnauzer is talking to him. Once he discards brain damage, the situation becomes obvious to him: he has been transported to a reality where he will have to play the card game if he wishes for certain luxuries (for example, the privilege of not starving to a second death).

Aided by his floating companion and an opinionated manual, he will need to find a way to win games against the huge robotic jackal that keeps him enclosed in that pocket dimension, survive trips to the local card shop, and (slowly but surely) build himself a deck of dogs that allows him to accrue the currency he needs to buy more booster packs, all to have a chance at drawing food items from them.

And, if and when the food crisis gets solved, there's the matter of finding a way of escaping back to Earth...

Warning!!!: Deck of Dogs is NOT A LITRPG. The progression element here is merely a growing collection and a deeper understanding of the game, not any kind of personal stats or levels. If you decide to ignore this warning and come in expecting a LitRPG and complain about it, I will laugh at you. Meanly.

If you, on the other hand, come here to see people assembling janky one turn kill combos featuring a bunch of dogs, you are in the right place!

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Lack of Poochline

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 69
Views: 46,255

Chapters(48 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(3)

fakerdakerhahahaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Gamers, let me ask you this. To cheese or not to eat? To dodge or lose to dogs? To see and not to be, for the nude is simply, too much?
If you understood none of the above, fret not! For you see, this mad dog of a novel is here to shuffle your entire world up, and you best prepare yourself for the treat it has to offer
Style and Story:
This novel is a novelty, similar to an acid trip where you are lucid the entire time. Of course, just like any out-of-body experience, those without any prior knowledge will most likely find themselves lost and confused. This is a shame, as it limits the range of audience that could enjoy this barking gem
Nevertheless, I would like to tell you that, even if you have never played card games before (like me) and find yourself lost whenever a duel happens (again, me…), you should still stay for the ride. See, there is comedy, and puns, lots and lots of dark comedy and puns, and it is absolutely hilarious! Thus, even if one can’t understand the in-between, one can still enjoy the fun and quirky journey for what it is
Regarding the lore… Ok, throw that into the bin, please. What are you, a nerd? There is a geeky Goddess that makes unlucky idiots play cards to fuel her life energy, so that she can send more unlucky idiots to this absolute dog-eat-dog world (read chap 6 for more details, I dog dare you). There are also some mysterious secrets of the universe, but at the end of the day, we are just here to see a fun and wholesome dog fight
Grammar:
The grammar is excellent. There are minor errors here and there, but overall, everything is well-crafted and cared for
Character:
The absolute mad dog, Mauro, is definitely the highlight of this novel. Similar to a chihuahua, the fella puts snark and sass on autopilot. His interactions with everyone, and I do mean everyone, is a joy to read. This is the guy that says “bros before hoes”, mean it, and still makes colorful plans to enact petty vengeance against the bro. Honestly, everything he says an
iridium248Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In Hell, no-one can hear you bark.
Before I start, I'd like to make something perfectly clear: This is an amazing bender of a novel. Don't expect deep characterization, an intricate, multi-faceted plot or a grand mystery to be unraveled. There's no world to be saved from a terrible evil, no (biological) women to romance, or expansive vistas to peer at.
Our protagonist, Mauro, has died and gone to TCG Hell. In TCG Hell, the only game on offer is Deck of Dogs, in which players use decks of cards that include Kibble generators, and play cards that consume that kibble to summon-
Look, it's Hearthstone meets Magic: The Gathering. You and I both know Magic: The Gathering, if only through cultural osmosis.
Except it's in Hell, but with dogs, and where the goddess is an e-girl who forces the damned to endlessly play her broke-ass card game in order to perpetually generate energy.
The prize? One bill-
The prize is not starving to death. Because in Hell, food's a luxury, and it only comes as a rare drop in booster packs. Fortunately, Mauro, being Argentinian, is very familiar with a situation just like this one - And so he decides to just roll with it.
Read it.
Read it immediately.
I feel a lot of the jokes won't land if you're not at least somewhat familiar with CCGs, but you'll probably enjoy it regardless. Unfortunately, the hiatus seems to have perma-killed this story, but that's okay - It ain't about an ending, but the fun you have along the way.
I add that this story is very, very much non-PC, but that's part of the fun. There's also an exceptionally dark take on monster girls, which had me grinning ear-to-ear.
Look, this is about forty chapters and it's fairly short. Don't take my word for it, check it out. This is one of the few stories on the platform that made me feel anything except ennui and vague self-pity, so that's a plus.
I give this story two thumbs and one card-shredder up.
A. StargazerRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
If you enjoy complex card games, sarcastic protagonists, and obsurd settings, then you'll likely enjoy this story. The MC is isekaied to a world in which his only hope of survival is to play a card game. And not poker.
That said, if you've never owned a deck of Yugioh or Magic the Gathering cards, then you might find yourself lost. While the author does provide a glossary of many of the terms and strategies used in these sorts of games, the body of the story expects you to know them thoroughly and does not go out of its way to explain them.
If you understand the jargon that the author throws at you and get their references, then it's a very amusing story. But this is a niche story that would be lost by the vast majority of the general audience.