A traditional story often focuses on a main character who learns to evolve through self-discovery or character development, and the mermaid is a great example of this. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, the trading card game, the gameplay focuses on how well each card synergizes with another in order to defeat an opponent, but a key component is a card’s artwork and how that artwork reflects the deck’s strategy. My favorite deck I recently decided to play is Tearlaments and their heavily lore-driven, expansive narrative.
The core story of the deck is that a mysterious being from another world named Visas Starfrost is searching across the universe for fragments of his emotions and memories. We come to find, through other decks such as Tearlaments, that these fragments have become their own personalities that emphasize the darker nature Visas Starfrost has forgotten, while each planet’s inhabitants represent different aspects of the protagonist’s emotions. The Tearlaments, being mermaids, inhabit the primeval planet Perlereino and are defending their world from the invaders known as Kashtira, who have come to enslave the inhabitants and capitalize on their resources. While the deck’s artwork builds a story of identity, the deck’s strategy encapsulates the metaphor of transformation.
The main strategy is to send Tearlaments monsters from the player’s Main Deck to the Graveyard in order to trigger their effects there. These effects shuffle other Tearlaments monsters back into the deck to summon even more powerful monsters from the Extra Deck, which can then shuffle the opponent’s monsters back into their deck. The name “Tearlaments” is a portmanteau of “tear,” “tiara,” “lament,” and “firmament.” Each idea appears in different aspects of the game. A player may feel devastated after losing a monster they invested resources into, and when the Tearlaments themselves feel lament in being sent to the Graveyard, they are reborn as stronger monsters with powerful effects. This strategy reflects much of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, in which the unnamed mermaid laments not being with the prince and sacrifices her own desires, ultimately transforming into a wind spirit with far greater power than she had as a mermaid.
While the artwork of the deck shows how Visas Starfrost must come to terms with his emotions, it also shows that each of his counterparts is not evil but angry that he had cast away these aspects of himself and is now trying to reclaim them. The Tearlaments, depicted as mermaids, are shown wearing lockets symbolizing their enslavement, and the actions taken against them represent the sadness or sorrow invoked in their name. Through encountering these creatures and fighting alongside them to defeat his counterpart Tearlaments Reinoheart, Visas Starfrost comes to realize that accepting sadness and transforming it becomes a powerful asset, similar to the Tearlaments’ strategy of transforming themselves into stronger monsters. Like mermaids, who traditionally transform themselves into humans or transform the world around them, individuals must determine whether their own transformations are beneficial or harmful to themselves and to those around them.
The card game designs the Tearlaments’ strategy to encapsulate transformation, identity, and emotional acceptance. By connecting these themes to The Little Mermaid, the Tearlaments show how sorrow, loss, and self-reflection can become a person’s source of strength rather than weakness. Visas Starfrost’s journey to reclaim his emotions reflects the Tearlaments’ ability to recover from destruction, reinforcing the idea that growth often requires confronting the parts of ourselves we try to reject. Through its intricate story and strategic depth, the deck becomes more than just an endless line of new cards and instead becomes a narrative about embracing change and discovering power in the very emotions that shape who we are.
