Hajime Kano finishes second to honor student Emi Sawatari in everything at Tokiwagi Middle School, and spends every break playing the trading card game Magic: The Gathering with his friends. Emi scolds the group for hauling cards to class, until a trip to a newly opened game store pulls her into the game as well. Their classroom rivalry follows them to the table in the Japan of the late 1990s, and the cards slowly close the distance between them. The title riffs on the rules text of a Magic card.