Hasty Apprentice

Peanut

The apprentice who runs before he walks

The temple's apprentice. Quick, scatterbrained, sweet; sometimes holds his cards upside down, but always smiles.

12 seconds

The story

Every temple has someone who sweeps the courtyard at dawn. In the night temple, it is Peanut. The squirrel arrived with pockets full of hazelnuts and a head full of questions, and stayed because nobody could make him leave.

Peanut watched the masters duel for a long time. He learned the cycle faster than anyone before him. He learned to hold his cards, mostly the right way up. What he never quite learned is to wait. When a card looks shiny, he plays it.

Tosby says the apprentice is the most important master in the temple, because every player meets him first and every player once was him.

The way of Peanut

The first lesson of a dojo is not how to win. It is how to begin. Martial arts call it the beginner's mind: curiosity without fear, energy without a plan.

Peanut is that mind in its purest form, with its gift and its flaw. The gift is that he is never afraid to act. The flaw is that he acts before he looks. Beating him is how you learn that a good card played at the wrong moment is a lost card.

How Peanut plays

More than half of the time, Peanut simply picks a card from his hand on a whim.
When he does think, he looks for a good card, but even then his attention wanders and he sometimes takes the second best one.
If he has peeked at your hand, he only uses what he saw about half of the time.
He gives you 12 seconds per turn, the most time of any master.

How to beat Peanut

Do not rush just because he does. Read the cycle and play the element that wins.
Build your shelf steadily. Collect different seal colours rather than big numbers.
Save Power for a same-element clash where +3 turns a loss into a win.

In Peanut's words

Hop! I'm Peanut! Uh-huh, here we go!

How the masters differ

	Peanut	Tosby	Huma	The shadow masters
Time per turn	12 seconds	9 seconds	6 seconds	6, then down to 4 seconds
What they pay attention to	Mostly their own hand. More than half of their picks are made on a whim.	Your shelf and the elements you play most often.	Your habits: the order you play in, what you do after a win or a loss, and what your shelf needs.	Everything Huma watches.
When you are about to win	Sometimes, mostly by luck.	Closes the door: plays against the element that would finish your shelf.	Closes the door, and expects the move you will try next.	Like Huma, with less time for you to think.
How to beat them	Play sound cards and build your shelf. Patience is enough.	Keep two ways to win open, so one closed door is not enough.	Break your own patterns. Do not answer a loss the same way twice.	Everything you learned, faster. Decide before the clock decides for you.

The other masters

Haste makes waste. Sit; let us play.

Tosby

Patient Master

9 seconds

Sit. Your habits will speak, not your cards.

Huma

Grand Master

6 seconds

A black belt is not enough. The shadows were waiting for you.

The shadow masters

The ladder has no last step

6, then down to 4 seconds

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