The card game is a trap. What matters is the girl holding the card, the wish she made before understanding the cost, the LRIG that becomes a person she has to sacrifice to get what she wants. Ruuko's desperation feels real because the show refuses to let her win without breaking something. By episode three you stop caring about Wixoss tournaments and start praying she finds a way out that doesn't exist.

Ruuko Kominato gets a deck for Wixoss, a popular card game, and finds that her LRIG, or avatar card, holds a girl trapped inside. Such cards have personalities and wills of their own, and few players know they exist. Meeting others in the same position, Ruuko learns she is now a Selector, one of the girls who battle in a dark, strange plane for the chance to have their deepest wishes granted. Winning brings glory, but a player who loses three times has her life destroyed. Surrounded by lies and deceit, Ruuko and her new friends must uncover the truth behind Wixoss and decide what matters most to them before time runs out.