Duel Masters 101 - How to Play, and Why it's Important

Duel Masters is a TCG that is phenomenally successful, has elegant gameplay that is easy to learn and strategically deep, and is largely unheard of in English markets. So how do you play it?
0:00 Intro: A brief history
1:28 Set up
2:16 First turn: An overview of steps
4:22 Summoning a creature
6:19 First attack: Damaging the opponent
7:59 Blocker
8:49 Gameplay continues
10:27 Keywords and evolution
14:13 Discussion: Why is DM so important?
18:26 Conclusion/Ending
Between corrupted video files, a new job, and me missing that evolution creatures don't have summoning sickness the first time around, this video took way too long to finish. Hopefully now I can get back into a more regular release schedule - the next video is already half-done. Hopefully this was worth the wait, and have a happy new year, everyone!

[@aezogeus]

This is probably the best and only tutorial which showcases OCG cards in the tutorial itself - kudos for that. As I often say, Duel Masters is probably the most well designed TCG of all time. Till date, all you need is your deck and an opponent with their deck to play the game - no tokens, counters, dice - no paraphernalia. A group of friends and I still play regularly, and I myself am also working on translating a lot of the cards to make English proxies to play with.

[@tcgacademia]

I really love the 'just deck, no accessories' aspect. It's like the Platonic ideal of how a tcg should be. It really says something that even now, there are tons of new tcgs being released using a DM-style engine, from One Piece to Lorcana. It's become THE standard of modern tcg design.

[@aezogeus]

@@tcgacademia Agreed! It's a real pity that the game was discontinued in English, but I'm glad to see it thriving in Japan to this day with official distribution in select countries across SEA.

[@sadiqullah3265]

I would love to see revival of this game with all the old cards . This game was one hell of strategic game among our friends .

[@clydenavs8498]

I want to this game to come back to TCG so we all can play it globally this is such a good game and nostalgic for me

[@xshobux]

They already tried a revival with Kaijudo and a lot of the old cards came back, but unfortunately it was just as doomed as the original DM was. It didn't last more than a few years.

[@BirdieImagineeBCH]

Man I miss Duel Masters soo much. Honestly thought this tcg was a fever dream since it kinda disappeared pretty fast but it made an impact on me as a kid and I really enjoyed the anime too. Wish it was popular in english as it was in japan

[@tcgacademia]

There's definitely some alternate reality out there where DM thrives and takes over the EN market. Not this timeline, though :(

[@andrewnuernberg3283]

I agree with every word you just said right down to it feeling like a fever dream ... just recently for past 2 weeks I been in a hyper focus on trying to find a new tcg to play and I don't want to go back to starting from scratch with mtg I want something new that feels like magic .... and all I I keep coming up in my mind is I wish I could make then give duelmasters another shot in the US!

[@rouviews1864]

This seems a lot more straightforward but more elegant than Yugioh and Magic, no counting points, life system is meaningful, and your monsters double as your mana so you don't have to worry about drawing lead weights.

[@tcgacademia]

Elegant is a good way to put it. Combat is also an interesting twist on the usual formula - since creatures can't naturally block without a keyword, the game avoids most of mtg's problems with board stalls. And it's not just a pure aggro game, either - one interesting consequence of the shield system is that control-style decks will often avoid damaging the opponent at all until the very last turn, when they can clear all opposing shields in a single turn so the opponent isn't able to use the shields as they hit their hand.

[@rouviews1864]

@@tcgacademia What do you mean by Magic's board stalls?

[@tcgacademia]

@@rouviews1864 Because the defender decides where to assign blockers in MTG, you can often get into boards where neither player can attack - a simple example is one player has a 5/5 and the other has two 3/3s. They're stuck staring at each other until one player can pull ahead and break the stall.

[@YGOHermit]

its way better than magic

[@craigjones9992]

I loved Duel Masters so much and still do. Wish it was easier to get my hands on more sealed product.

[@bnzi2470]

There’s a 20th anniversary Duel masters promo card with the Japanese Corocoro magazine this month (Feb 2022) in case anyone was interested.

[@vapiant13]

A game that deserved so much better, fun to play.

[@faereman]

This was one of my favorites next to Yugioh back in the day. I still have all of my cards too, shame it went nowhere outside of Japan.

[@sadiqullah3265]

What are u saying man , kids used to buy Duel master and pokemon cards like crazy here in Pakistan . I dont know why they stopped making those cards . They should hVe promoted it more becuze mostly people didnt know how to play they were just collecting cards here

[@SGD_ToysDownUnder]

I think DM's influence is greater than anyone could imagine, more so than any other game. I can say that my work couldn't be much further from Duel Masters than it is, but DM still had a major influence on me in terms of being a streamlined game. I think that is always a goal worth pursuing and you should always reflect on your work as to keep to that goal. Games shouldn't be frustrating or hard to get your head around, being easy to learn, pick up and play is desirable. Since day 1, I wanted to be just like DM in that regard as I hold DM itself to such a high esteem. One of my favorites and it's one of the few games from the past I get just as much enjoyment going back to.

[@tcgacademia]

I'm not the most knowledgeable historian of tcg history, particularly on the japanese side of things, which is why I hesitate to put too much on DM alone without full knowledge of what else was in the market at the time. That being said, every japanese tcg I've tried has at least one element I can trace back to DM, and as you point out, that's not even getting into the more abstract ideas it really pushed forward, like the polish of its gameplay rules, and its overall sense of pacing.

[@SGD_ToysDownUnder]

@@tcgacademia The other games with massive influence in the Japanese sphere are Monster Collector and Dimension Zero. I also have some suspicions the Bandai One Piece card game might be influential, but it's just speculation based on it's board layout and later games using very similar board layouts.

[@tcgacademia]

@@SGD_ToysDownUnder Moncolle is a game I've only recently started learning about, which has been really interesting, especially when you consider its clear influence on the early chapters of the yugioh manga. I've heard even less about Dimension Zero. I really love learning about the history of the tcg scene, but finding good content on the topic can be a bit of a hunt.

[@Deadlatinotaku]

The grand father of the life system (in some TCGs). There was various reasons people's eluded to it's discontinution in the states; didn't sell well, marketing via show or commercials didn't catch on, couldn't compete against the big 3, or even the same thing my friend told me when WOTC had Pokémon; they couldn't those players into MTG. Regardless glad there's an online community for it and it's still going to this day. Even if some of can't read Japanese cards. The only recent thing I've heard was a trademark renewal from some time ago, but not keeping my hopes up when it comes to WOTC. Regardless, I'm grateful for your video because learned new stuff.

[@acorn301]

Comments are good for the KZbin algorithm! Also, big fan of the theory series you've been making, they're a ton of help and interesting insight into mechanics that has been helpful in making my own.

[@tcgacademia]

That's awesome to hear! I'm always glad to hear when these videos are interesting to people as they work on designing their own games,

[@jenjentendo]

I dabbled in DM when it made its debut in the U.S. back in the day, and I remember being a part of that mail-rewards program that WoTC had where they would send you free cards and stuff. I play a few TCGs now, but after doing some good ol' Google-searching, I saw the current line of DM cards and was blown away as to how dynamic and beautiful they are. I really wish DM could come back to the U.S., but I know that may very likely not happen, considering WoTC's history with it and the fall of Kaijudo--not to mention WoTC has their full focus on MTG. It'd take a miracle to have DM come back, but for now, imported sealed product will fill in the void.

[@tcgacademia]

It's kind of interesting seeing how the Japanese tcg market is fairly fragmented, with each tcg much more focused on a specific niche, while in English WotC just tries to make Magic the everything tcg for everyone.

[@jenjentendo]

@@tcgacademia Facts! Don’t get me wrong: MTG as a card game is a great game; however, its a game that has mechanics that may not be everyone’s cup of tea. We got to have variety in the TCG world globally!

[@rockmanfan5104]

Ever since duel masters died I lost interest in card games. It was always my favorite. I was hyped for kaijudo but I knew it would fail with the godawful cartoon tie in that made it a laughing stock. It was still very solid gameplay wise. I always maintain that the flow of this game was always amazing and the resource system is beautiful. Very good

[@tcgacademia]

It really sucks seeing a great game you're really invested in close down. It's great it's still chugging along in Japan, but it's really unfortunately it never stuck here. And yeah, Kaijudo felt somewhat like it was doomed from the start - the player confidence in it sticking around just wasn't there.

[@haseo]

@@tcgacademia I am in Japan. And here DM is probably the 3rd or maybe 4th most played game behind Pokémon, Vanguard, and Magic

[@pronumeral1446]

There is more out there than just TCGs / CCGs (Magic, Pokemon, Duel Masters, Yugioh). Modern board games and boxed card games have gotten much better.

[@dominickprive2271]

Thank you, it's really cool to hear the history of these mechanics and the impact they've had on other cars games

[@tcgacademia]

Thank you! It was really cool playing this game and realizing just how much of its DNA is still in modern tcgs!

[@Majoralink100]

Recently replayed the game on my PS2, it honestly feels kinda like a middle ground between Magic and Wixoss. Wish this tcg did better outside Japan....

[@tcgacademia]

Yeah - at least it's still doing well in Japan. Playing the game is really interesting because it really does feel like a 'missing link' between older tcgs and newer tcgs.

[@BramLastname]

Apparently it did surprisingly well in Germany and Finland, The two countries who apparently still host events for Duel Masters players. But WotC lost too much money on promotions outside of Japan (mostly in the USA, because they kinda forgot people could easily paint the similarities between their products, MtG and DM, in a bad light.) To the point that they actually pulled the plug months before the full trial run was over. Which can also be seen in the set releases, Since the Japanese actually got more sets than other countries for the second half of the trial run, Despite all sets up to that point being identical in all countries.

[@j453]

Great vid, very informative. Tcg design is one of my favorite topics, you cover it very very well thank you.

[@tcgacademia]

Thank you! I'm glad this video especially came across well - the how-to-plays have been some of the trickier videos to format - I'm glad this one's worked out.

[@Yinyanyeow]

Is it just me or does anyone else think Duel Masters is getting so much love and people are begging for it when at the moment it is at a bad spot with the Gatcha system?

[@tcgacademia]

DM has been a game I've wanted to try for ages now. I have heard bad things about gatcha, and it is kind of funny this particular timing is when I finally get around to trying it.

[@Artster900]

Gacharange block ended ages ago (even when taking into account the age of this comment), and they pretty much recognise its issues (ahem mizzail and other easy ways of spamming it) and nuked the mechanic with means of floodgates like USA brella. It's a lot more tolerable of a mechanic now

[@Yinyanyeow]

@@Artster900 I hope so since the idea of intense summoning is a dangerous thing when it comes at nearly no pressure. Yu-Gi-Oh comes to mind with this...a lot.

[@monarch2500]

Yeah I wish it came back to USA, I think if they do it right , it can last more than 2 years lol

[@Yinyanyeow]

@@monarch2500 With how many games are copying that formula? I would press X to doubt.

[@dvdboy3993]

I love the game and I love the mechanics that has gotten from the other games like Digimon and Dragonball super and others that I want to try thank you for the video 👍👍

[@rondeseo]

recently found my old DM cards and watched this to recall how to play. this is my favorite tcg of all time, bought some 20th anniversary jp packs too! I hope we can get a global release again soon 🙏 or even just an English translation of the mobile app!

[@tcgacademia]

Glad this was a useful refresher! Honestly, that's one of the reasons I'm making these - just so I can remember the rules of the various tcgs I have kicking around. It's all fun to pull out a random tcg to play, only the realize you forgot how the mulligan worked in that game specifically, or some other small detail. The decks I'm using here were also released for the 20th anniversary, and I was really impressed with how well they played. Not sure how competitive they are, but the gameplay between them is solid.

[@BramLastname]

2 years ago people still had hope for an English Mobile Game, Nowadays people either play in one of the few surviving custom formats, Or simply play the mobile game without reading cards.

[@metroghost8428]

@@BramLastname hey there... can you te me what exactly are the "custom surviving formats"? please explain.

[@BramLastname]

​@@metroghost8428 well for a start there's obviously the standard legacy formats everyone immediately thinks of usually refered to as just TCG and OCG (which include DM-01 to DM-12 of the respective country) There's DM-13 which adds DM-13 to the mix, However DM-17 is widely accepted to be the intended legacy format as it seems this was originally intended to be the capstone set before the TCG would retire. Then there's the variants on the TCG format, Which were barrowed from MtG, called Pauper, Silverblack and Highlander, Which restrict you to Commons, common/uncommons and 1-of's respectively. There's also rules for Commander, However if you are a newer player this might be a bit overwhelming. There's Booster Count, Draft Masters, DM Progression (not to be confused with DMP) and Sealed, as the different draft formats. There's also Kajudo, Kajudo vs DM and Mix of the Duel Masters that make use of the reboot. Then finally there's DMP ND and DMP AD, which are the official Japanese mobile game format with and without set rotation respectively. And that's not even mentioning the 3+ player formats like Open Game and Two-headed Giant.

[@metroghost8428]

​@@BramLastname Wow...that is wonderful..but i need some enlightenment since these seem to be a recent format..could you please tell me what exactly is the diffrence between DMP ND and DMB AD...? another one:are the 3+ formats a copycat form MTG or they have thier respective rules? where i can find trused resources on these great DM formats? many thanks to you man.

[@StigmaKRL]

really glad to hear DueMa has expanded out to other Asian Regions, hopefully it's able to expand further

[@phamquang7885]

Nice guide. Would you do more about different type of cards and keywords? I remember seeing some cards that can be put together like Maximum cards in Rush Duel.

[@tcgacademia]

I'm definitely interested in exploring Duel Masters more, but I've also got a pretty big list of other video ideas, so it might be a while before I can get to it. It's definitely a game I want to explore more, though!

[@BinaryDood]

Can't do crazy combos like Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic. However, Duel Masters had the best core ruleset. I made some fake cards in an attempt to migrate such a play style to MTG. If anyone is interested I can send those cards in and explain. I also have some life defining anecdotes relating to Duel Masters. Aparently, a very similar ruleset as DM lives on through the new Digimon TCG

[@tcgacademia]

It's honestly amazing how many tcgs out there borrow from DM - it's just most of them are JP only. It's nice we're getting a few in english now.

[@metroghost8428]

I am interested...

[@BinaryDood]

​@@metroghost8428 Essentially, I kind of brought DUEL Masters into my school as a kid. Making it popular. One of the last memories with my grandfather is that one day he simply decided to buy me a kajillion cards from the newest set at the time. I had a ridiculous collection for a kid, and the strongest and coolest cards I knew of. As the craze continued, I realized one of my colleagues had a game I had lost, Golden Sun the Lost Age. It was my favorite game at the time, and I had lost it at school, and that guy had the exact same savefile as me! Essencially, he wouldn'y give it back just because I tolf him so. Because DM was popular at the time, kids saw them as really valuable. I didn't want to trade the unique cards my grandpa bought me, however, I had so many cards and the game was so popular at the time that I simply put together as many repeated commons and uncommons I had and he ended up agreeing to trade with me! Tadam I got my favorite game back, and I actually got to finish it this time. It fostered a huge love for JRPGs. I remember around middle school I was extremely depressed and the one thing keeping me going (stupid) was the release of the third Golden Sun game. At the time I had been wating 7 years, an eternity for a kid, and I was hoping it was going to provide the same sense of wonder The Lost Age did. It didn't. In fact it was extremely disapointing. It only depressed me more if anything. It is ridiculous to place such value in these things. However, around at the same time, the english version of Chrono Trigger came out in Europe. Knowing it was a JRPG classic, and being disapointed by Golden SUn Dark Dawn, I gave it a try. It became my favorite game of all time, still to this day. It filled me with hope and creativity I haven't had before. And in the game of determinism and fate, themes in the game itself, I link that to the spontaneous act of my grandfather, who had passed away shortly after. To give me all those Duel Masters cards. I dream to find a way to migrate the best of Duel Master's ruleset to Magic. I made 2 cards which attempt to do that, and inspire a new playstyle or mode. How many of us got pent up with genuine friends due to the frustration of its terrible RNG=Playing the Damn Game at All system of lands? How many tournaments need to be determined by a guy who drew too many or too few lands? Such a flawed core aspect... which Duel Masters fixed and made even the most basic of games fun. That is what I hope a live game like Magic to have, to inherit the best of a dead one. To learn from it and make it better. Both are WIzards games, designed by the same people, however it is likely a pipedream. Unless a bunch of people start playing in an imaginary ruleset out of the blue to the point Wizards cannot ignore its popularity,

[@metroghost8428]

@@BinaryDood Wow.... Honestly i don't that will ever happen..each game is different beast itself.

[@TheGauntletDM]

Very cool video! Please make more Duel Masters videos! 😁

[@tcgacademia]

I've definitely got a lot of video ideas ahead, but there's plenty more to say about DM, so I'd love to revisit it further down the road!

[@ezkillionaire3276]

I STILL have my old cards. I'm sentimental with them lol i really enjoyed playing it :)

[@emjehobby]

Cool my friend

[@missingnovgc]

I loved the Duel Masters show as a kid but living in a farm town, nobody around me really cared much about card games. That said, Kaijudo came out after i graduated high school and is now my favorite card game. I still regularly upload Kaijudo content and have been considering doing a how to play Kaijudo video for a while but in all honesty, they could just watch this and it would be almost the exact same thing. I loved this video

[@tcgacademia]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked the video! And yeah, loving card games but not having anyone around to play with is rough. Glad you're still enjoying Kaijudo!

[@mikigzaielart]

Bring back Duel Masters to the west! ❤️

[@lesssugarcandy6011]

the thing i like about it is they are really simple and idont have to do a lot of maths, and over complicated effect. i really wish one day they make english version of it again.

[@tcgacademia]

It's a really good system! I like the general base rules more than Magic, but it keeps Magic's good sense of streamlining card effects with keywords. With how long the game's gone on in Japan I'm not sure how they could release it here at this point, but who knows? I though there was no way Wixoss made its way here, so maybe we'll get lucky and DM will get another shot?

[@alfonsopayan09]

Appreciate the video, love the fact that every year we get to see more and more videos on DM, hopefully one day we’ll get DM back or everyone learn Japanese and upload videos to English and Japanese audiences 😂 💀

[@kristophermichaud4467]

I remember playing with a friend as a kid, loving it, then never playing it again

[@user-wo7tj8fd2c]

I love Duel Masters due to it fixing magic problem ( I tried but magic wasn't fun at all to me) so i went back to DM After that the closing of sale, i learn Japanese and up to the day still playing DM, recently start joining the big event like DMGP 1st 2023 it was a lot of fun with all kind of different deck The thing about DM standing out against the "big" 3 card game is that old cards like Faerie Life/Deadly Fighter Braid Claw is still valid and being use in deck.

[@tcgacademia]

It's awesome you're still playing! Duel Masters is definitely a special game, I can understand why it's so popular.

[@muhammadrafi4723]

This is my first ever TCG lol. Nowadays i mainly plays Magic but DM was the one introduce me to Magic. Back then the most bonker card in our playgroup was Deathliger , Lion of Chaos and Explosive Fighter Ucarn!

[@rynemoots6212]

i always liked duel masters here in the us i didn't know it only ran 2 years though. i never got into the pokemon tcg but i played yugioh primarily and some mtg. i still have all the cards i believe

[@BoBnfishy]

I actually just dug out my old cards. I had a small box full of them and I found when I was a kid I'd made a deck for each color. I checked them out and played them against each other and I think my biggest takeaway was that I had such a fundamentally incorrect understanding of how decks were made but it was fun rebuilding them now.

[@facundogorla8772]

Nice video, really helpful. Why would the last creature break 3 shields if it was a double breaker? when you get certain amount of attack power you break more shields?

[@tcgacademia]

The last creature had 'Powered Breaker', which is like double breaker except it specifically scales based on unit power (breaks 1 extra shield per 6000 power). Glad you found the video helpful!

[@duyknguyen]

Just hoping for its comeback with original set with proper Starter Decks for newbie along with this era of a lot of new TCG imports like Battle Spirits, Digimon, One Piece

[@tcgacademia]

That would be really great! Not sure of the odds of it happening since the card pool is so deep at this point, but with all the TCGs crossing over lately, who knows?

[@Idkwhoisthisplz]

I used to play the OG DM back in the day but stopped after WOTC stopped printing English cards. What a shame for such a fun game

[@tcgacademia]

I really do wonder that the NA tcg scene would look like if DM stuck around. It's had a huge influence on the development of tcgs in Japan.

[@HaiseKuromeruMMD]

Wait i thought the mana zone is below the shield zone? Also you can attack untapped monsters?

[@tcgacademia]

Might be, I didn't dig too deeply into the usual set up. Coming from Wixoss, I just put the shields where I normally set life cloth.

[@Makwayne]

Does a creatures health reduce when I attack it or does it reset every round? For instance I attack a 3000 health blocker with a 1000 health attack does the blocker become 2000?

[@tcgacademia]

Pretty sure I made an error in this video mentioning damage - you just compare who has the higher number, no damage is exchanged. A few games do mark damage with only power numbers, so I think I got a bit confused here. But yeah, no damage, it's closer to yugioh's combat where you just compare numbers.

[@Makwayne]

@@tcgacademia cool thank you.

[@kylespevak6781]

I played Duel Masters as a kid when it first came out and I liked the cards and battle system. (Beat down Yugioh was really slow at the time, so it felt faster) I remember seeing Kaijudo as I got older, but didn't realize it was a rebrand. Does that mean the cards are compatible with each other? I was thinking about picking this game up since it's big in Japan and I need a fun way to practice Japanese

[@tcgacademia]

I haven't tried it, but Kaijudo very subtly changes a few rules, just enough to make it so the two systems aren't really cross-compatible. Duel Masters is a good way to get comfortable with Japanese, though! Since it's aimed at a younger audience, it has furigana to help you figure out what any tricky kanji say - by the time I was recording this video, I didn't need translation sheets since the written Japanese was so straightforward and painless.

[@thoughtprism2963]

Interesting. It's almost like a halfway point between MTG and Wixoss.

[@tcgacademia]

Chronologically it's about half-way, too. It's a weird feeling, half the time it feels like you're playing mtg, and the other half it feels like you're playing a much more recent tcg - it really feels like discovering a missing link in the evolution of tcg design.

[@christaylor3572]

So for those who don't know, this game was intended by WotC to be a "stepping stone" from games likes Pokémon tcg and Wixoss to MTG, and due to the poor animation that was released to help promote the game (and the constant rumours of being a rip off and overlooking of similar games at the time); the game never really took off outside of Japan

[@tcgacademia]

I honestly think the name of the game itself did some damage. The yugioh tcg is called 'Duel Monsters' in the anime, and calling your weeb game that's trying to tap the same audience 'Duel Masters' feels a little too obvious. The games themselves are worlds apart, but that doesn't really change the first impressions of someone who's just window shopping and not delving too deeply into the gameplay.

[@christaylor3572]

@@tcgacademia I agree. Its a shame it was presented in such a lazy fashion as near everyone I know who knows about the game remembers it fondly and enjoyed playing it... Who knows, maybe one day it might make a comeback, but that's just wishful thinking on my part haha

[@jadenyuki6558]

How would I know how to play individual cards if I dont know how to read japanese text. Do you have an app to know the text in english?

[@tcgacademia]

The wiki keeps a pretty up-to-date database of translations.

[@SnowCompanion]

Really love the shield mechanic as life and the spells themselves being the mana resource. It allows for more decisionmaking compared to magic where you're dependent on your land count or where games just give you the mana hearthstone/shadowverse/runeterra just so the game is slowed. I think if they brought this game back with an online client, it would definitely do well. The only card games left that have an anime aesthetic are shadowverse/yugioh/digimon and it could definitely find a core audience since shadowverse is waning, modern yugioh mechanics are too crazy, and digimon for some reason doesn't want to make an online client.

[@tcgacademia]

It's a really good resource system! There's actually a surprising number of weeb tcgs alive at the moment in english - One Piece, Weiss Schwarz and Vanguard, Wixoss, Battle Spirits Saga, Dragonball Super. Although you're definitely right about the lack of online clients - it woud be really nice to have some more options there, and I think bringing over DM that way could really work!

[@RAISEYOURDONGERS1]

I absolutely adore the OG Duel Masters card back

[@tyquanfleming8218]

👏 on 857 subscribers

[@tcgacademia]

Oddly specific number to celebrate, but still feels like something worth celebrating. Thank you!

[@tyquanfleming8218]

@@tcgacademia anytime tcgacademia and 🙏 for the videos

[@zegodhand]

Duel Masters!!!!

[@slimanal2497]

Best card game ever.

[@armageddon_gaming]

I'm looking to make my own card game similar to this but something more simple for the wife who's never played these kinds of games. In your opinion and experience what's more important? Focusing on killing monsters or ignoring them and taking out shields? Or is the strategy to win finding the balance of both?

[@tcgacademia]

There's some balancing, but it mostly depends on your deck. Some decks just want to rush damage and target shields as much as possible. But damaging shields early in the game adds more cards to your opponent's hand. Other decks try and avoid dealing damage - they try to destroy all shields in one turn, to stop the opponent from being able to use their shield cards. These strategies tend to attack the opponent's creatures much more aggressively. Have fun making your game - DM is a really solid place to look for inspiration!

[@user-pq4yz7nx6z]

私は海外デュエルマスターズが遊ばれていてとても嬉しいです

[@tcgacademia]

海外にもまだまだファンがいる!

[@rizqihidayatullah6474]

And no need to worry, the tempo of playing this game is not slow as it was, as almost all each Civilizations capable of spamming cards for now. Even a player can literally win only in Turn 3 (since this game need resource to use cards, and it's very few powerful cards can be used with 1 mana card), either by totally rushing to opponent or by doing some combos

[@hyoroemongaming569]

1:41 i thought the mat was a picture to explain the video 😧

[@akaiyui9300]

Wait. So you don't need to tap your attacking creature if you're going to attack an opponent's creature?

[@tcgacademia]

Unless I've made a mistake somewhere else, the reason Moel Mohitch didn't tap was because its ability was causing the battle. Attacking an opponent's creature during the battle phase still causes your creature to tap.

[@equinox3861]

I want to get into this game, but it's so unfortunate that the Japanese GBA games and the Japanese PS2 game haven't beem translated. I wish passionate Japanese-speaking gamer(s) would help us appreciate Duel Masters by translating the games!

[@jorgerangel4603]

How do you get the cards translated into English?

[@tcgacademia]

DM has a fairly active wiki - I just copy-paste the translations into a single-page table, print it, and use that for reference. It works well enough as long as there aren't too many unique cards in the deck.

[@MajorSquiggles]

I used to love this game as a kid. I still have some of my cards. These new cards though are extremely anime. Not that i dont like anime but the artwork for the cards doesnt hold a candle to the original release. It was a mix between MTG with some japanese influence. Its not weird that the art shifted for a japanese market. But even if i wanted to get my hands on cards it'd be hard for me to get into a game with angry glover as a card.

[@tcgacademia]

I don't mind the new art, but the early art did a really good job of designing just the right level of detail for the size of the card - it wasn't too simplistic or too busy.

[@SirThanksAlot9000]

is there a way to play this online with other people?

[@muarekh4118]

I think for now the only way possible is playing the Mobile version Duel Masters Play's.

[@areksobierajski7109]

Can someone point me to somewhere where i could have the Japanese DM translated?

[@tcgacademia]

Best source I've run into is the DM wiki - they seem to keep it pretty up-to-date.

[@TheSpuros1997]

Indeed seems like a promising game and I love it. Too bad English release has failed twice

[@tcgacademia]

Yeah - if it only failed once I could see them trying again, but since it's failed twice, I think there's really no chance of it making its way back over to english at this point. Unfortunately.

[@bigguns2224]

If they would have just brought back this game duel masters instead of kijudo masters it would have made a come back

[@leishemba1000]

from where to download? please inform. thanks

[@justacatwithghostlygibus9823]

Duel Masters Play's can be downloaded from Japanese apps

[@triger2770]

I like the game,but I think it’s has core design problem,where game marketed as “play cool big creatures” and cuz of that we have a lot spells which cheat them out,creatures themselves being easy to cheat out or people just running green in almost every deck,but overall fun game due to its simplicity and some insane mechanics(like Dormageddon). I wonder,can you make video about Dimension 0 TCG?

[@tcgacademia]

The 'big ace monster' vs 'army' divide of card game flavour is interesting, possibly worth an entire video later. Definitely not surprised to hear DM leans more the to the 'big monster' side. And Dimension 0 is definitely a game I'm interested in, but is realistically quite a ways away from me getting around to playing. It's on my list, though!

[@triger2770]

@@tcgacademia to me “big ace monsters” is a bit problematic design,because it’s makes one color(green) superior than others and it’s also can make game snowballish(thx to cards which can cheat stuff out),like for 5 mana you can destroy a creature,but also for 5 mana you can make big board or summon big creature which locks down opponent or just cards which instantly kills opp even before you get 5 mana.

[@PlaneswalkerChris-ms9iq]

Such a well-designed game. The resource system imho is far superior to Magic, where you can be locked out of the game with bad draws.

[@tcgacademia]

I definitely prefer it. I think it's fine to lose a game to bad draws - that's just part of shuffled card games. But not being able to play at all because of bad draws feels like a significant design miss.

[@devilmask4964]

We never knew the ywhole rule,part of the reason was coz dubbing was bad in Hindi,show was midiocare at best, but the actual game is good 👍😊

[@JboBakey]

I played duel masters on the PS2

[@Palocles]

Vampire the Eternal Struggle did away with resource (land) cards in favour of something better and Battletech had “cards as life” too, both in the 90’s. I wonder if the Japanese were looking back at the US innovations?

[@tcgacademia]

Definitely is interesting - on the one hand, it would make sense for TCG fans to look into a ton of different TCGs to see what they do differently, but on the other, the language barrier and product access were much more difficult to overcome before online ordering and fan wikis were common.

[@vipyhidadovic2385]

Where can I play DM digitally? I tried looking for it so hard and unfortunately only got the older games from the consoles.. Any platform that supports modern DM is appreciated! Preferably English but it's okay if it's Japanese too

[@tcgacademia]

No idea, unfortunately. I know there's some kind of DM Discord out there, which theoretically plays games? My experience with DM has been fully paper based, except for printing translation sheets based on the wiki.

[@duelmastershideout278]

There’s duel masters plays The official Japanese simulator you can also get it on PC

[@BramLastname]

Duel Masters Plays It's a Japanese mobile game, But it's a genuinely good simulator.

[@BramLastname]

There's a handful of simulators that allow you to play Duel Masters manually, Octgn and Tabletop Simulator come to mind, But Duel Masters Plays has AI battles, online ladder, online events and set releases and rotation (though everything under All Division doesn't use set rotation, so you can ignore set rotation if you want to.) The main downsides are that you have to build your collection and everything is in Japanse. (Tho you get a bunch of free packs when you make an account and the starter decks, while pretty bad, are strong enough to beat all 15 fights in episode 1, you just need to get the hang of the game.) Currently the Quintessential Quintuplets event just ended, the ladder reset and draft event is back.

[@roercula8425]

I still have my cards from the release of the game.

[@tcgacademia]

I've heard that from a surprising number of people. The number of folks still holding onto their cards decades later really speaks to just how good this game was/is.

[@PopoTCG]

I won a 9 pound box of Japanese Duel Masters on Buyee. It is nice, but I fear a lot of the cards might have been confiscated.

[@tcgacademia]

A giant box of cards of always exciting, although it's unfortunate they can be a bit questionable sometimes.

[@chikeedoo]

yea but where and with who r u goonna play with?

[@tcgacademia]

With friends, or even on your own just to see how it plays. There's also discord groups out there that still seem pretty active with the game.

[@KenLinx]

I vaguely remember seeing Duel Masters cards as a child and watching the anime so I thought I'd revisit some existing Japanese TCGs today. Duel Masters sticks out as being the most refined. What we knew Yugioh as is completely destroyed with its modern-day powercreep, Pokemon is annoyingly slow and requires micromanagement with counters and tokens, and MTG bricks half the time at the start or down-the-line due to not being able to draw and play the right mana. None of these problems exist in Duel Masters so its such a shame to see it disappear in the west.

[@tcgacademia]

It's a really well-designed game. It was really interesting playing it years after hearing about it - even the weird stuff like not being able to block without a keyword ends up working really well in gameplay.

[@royalecrafts6252]

But why mana cards if the monsters are mana already?

[@tcgacademia]

There are no mana cards, just monsters.

[@royalecrafts6252]

@@tcgacademia oh I see, why you have some monsters in the backrow then? Or are they magic cards with mana?

[@tcgacademia]

@@royalecrafts6252 If they're in the back row they're being used as mana. If they're in the forward row they're being used as monsters. Each card can be used as a monster or mana, but not both at the same time. So when you play a card, you have to decide if you want to use it as mana, OR as a monster. Hope that makes sense?

[@royalecrafts6252]

@@tcgacademia and that mana stays there on the field or can it be destroyed since is also a monster?

[@tcgacademia]

@@royalecrafts6252 Just stays on the field. If you're familiar with MTG, it might be easiest to think of every card in the game as a double-faced card that you can play as a land or a creature/spell - like Emeria's Call etc.

[@eye1dry138]

I totally bought a duel masters deck when i was a kid, i thought it was awesome, it disappeared, and i went to magic, so i guess their scheme worked😂

[@tylergower9887]

Can you mix normal duel masters cards with Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters cards?

[@tcgacademia]

Both games are dead (in English, which is the only language Kaijudo is really a thing), so realistically I don't think anyone will stop you. That being said, it was never intended for the two games to be mixed. I didn't dive super-deep into Kaijudo, but the gameplay has a few tweaks (you can only have 3 of the same card in your deck, as opposed to 4 in DM, and mana works slightly differently), and several cards were rebalanced with the benefit of hindsight. So even ignoring the different card backs, mixing the two might be a bit awkward.

[@yhany8438]

I have some cards growing up so I know I didn't just made it up or dreamt about it😂

[@RonLarhz]

8:47 you just summon the creature so it has summon sickness and cant use it on the blocker.

[@muarekh4118]

Moel Mohitch first effect allow you to force battle with another creature. And forced battle (not via regular attacking) can't be blocked.

[@sebastiancintron29]

I used to play this when I was really young. Looking back this really is a very streamlined and dumbed down Magic the Gathering. If I want to get my card game fix I'll stick to Yugioh and Magic. Still love the art of the cards themselves though.

[@tcgacademia]

I think dumbed down is a bit harsh - it's a common mistake I see a lot of mtg and yugioh players that assume simplified rules means simplified decision-making. Personally I prefer more streamlined games, but I definitely understand why some prefer Magic and yugioh's more open interaction.

[@sebastiancintron29]

@@tcgacademia yeah dumbed down does sound a bit harsh

[@tcgacademia]

@@sebastiancintron29 I get the point you're going for, though - and you're not wrong.

[@danurkresnamurti3598]

i have question. DM monster can direct attack shield right? i mean you dont need clear all your oponent monster to attack shield just like yugioh. so why you brother attacked your opponent monster. because it is not give you a benefit. because DM did not have attack gap system

[@tcgacademia]

That's right, you can attack the opponent's shields without clearing their creatures. Generally, you attack their creatures to get rid of their attackers. Control decks especially try to kill all creatures on the opposing side, run them out of cards in hand, then take all the opponent's shields in one turn so they can't use all the cards they get from their shields.

[@danurkresnamurti3598]

@@tcgacademia interesting. the mechanic is slow but at same time feel fast. really have late and early game theme.

[@BramLastname]

Sometimes they need to keep a creature on the field to win, Or at least to not lose the next turn. This means that sometimes you should be attacking your opponents creatures instead.

[@danurkresnamurti3598]

@@BramLastname i dont get it

[@BramLastname]

​@@danurkresnamurti3598 Well for example, Some creatures have on attack effects, So if you can't win that turn, It's better to prevent that creature from attacking you next turn if you're able to. Similar to using status moves in Pokemon. Similarly, attacking an opponent's field won't deal any damage, But still increases your tempo to allow you to deal more damage on subsequent turns. Similar to attacking Defense position monsters in Yugioh. Preparing benched pokemon in the Pokemon TCG or Counterspelling a spell in MtG or D&D. This is also why you'll sometimes see players kamikaze their own creatures Because neutralising a threat to the other creatures or your life total Allows you to stay alive and/or weakens the opponents defenses. Which is something most card games do in some form, Neospacian Grandmole, D.D. Warrior Lady, Stardust Dragon, Dark Hole, Perish song, Explosion and Destiny Bond are well known examples of this.

[@agungxs9715]

Hopin this card game ( due master plays ) coul beat vanguar fight bro :(

[@tylergower9887]

Question if say you had a card that cost 2 but you need a dark and light mana can you use 1 just light and 1 just dark mana? Also if a card cost 1 to play but need say agin a dark and light mana to play it can u use 2 mana to play it 1 with dark and 1 with light if that makes sense 😂

[@tcgacademia]

Good question - I had to look this up myself when I was learning! You need one of each colour to play it (so 1 dark and 1 light is fine). Multicoloured cards will always cost 2 or more because of this.

[@tylergower9887]

@@tcgacademia that’s great thank you 🙏

[@BramLastname]

There's no card in the game that can cost less mana than the amount of colours (aside from cards that can change their cost to 0) Meaning that this will never come up. Granted a lot of cards do not clarify this in their effects, But everyone still has to follow this rule Because when multicoloured cards were introduced this ruling was applied to cost altering effects retroactively. (At least in the TCG, since OCG, DMP and Kaijudo may use different rules) (Also effects that reduce a cost to 0 are the exception, since they don't tap any mana.)

[@hiteshvevo]

hasn't anyone tried building a mobile game for DM lately?

[@muarekh4118]

Well they already have a mobile game for Duel Masters (region locked for Japan lol)

[@hiteshvevo]

@@muarekh4118 Has anyone tried VPN with japan server to download and play it?

[@mrmeow2297]

Really wanna try this game

[@jedsai]

Yugioh is like Tekken Dm is like Virtua Fighter

[@tcgacademia]

I don't know anywhere near enough about fighting games to know what that means, but sounds like a good analogy!

[@jedsai]

@@tcgacademia to explain my analogy, Tekken surpasses Virtua Fighter about almost everything(Marketing, Presentation, Story, Characters, easy to understand gameplay) but when it comes to the depth of the game, Virtua Fighter's technicality surpasses Tekken, it is just, the marketing of that game did not go well, that's why only few people knows how awesome the game is. Additionaly, Virtua Fighter is more popular in Japan than Tekken, but Tekken is more popular outside Japan

[@tcgacademia]

@@jedsai Ah - that does make sense!

[@clydenavs8498]

Can someone with connections or with multi million dollar company bring this game back into TCG so people can play this game again globally to have fun and earn money like what yugioh doin nowadays

[@drago939393]

Wonder how playable the game is just with the original English card pool (base release and 10 boosters sets)? I assume the more modern Japanese cards are more creative and intricate, but not sure if the game's elegant design still shines through with the more basic original cards. Also, not sure if Kaijudo is literally the same gameplay or not... But something about the aesthetic is far inferior. Finally, not sure if Duel Masters still has a place or have its successors (like that Build Divide game you highlighted as adapting much of DM's design) just surpassed it...

[@joseprodiguez6792]

Duel Masters and Build Divide were made for the same person.

[@tcgacademia]

I know there's still a pretty active fan community out there using just the english cards, so it sounds like they offer plenty of depth. And I've not seen the most recent sales figures, but DM is absolutely still huge in Japan. In some ways its a lot like mtg - there have been plenty of games released inspired by it, with rules that are very similar, but the original just has so much momentum behind it, it still holds the top spot.

[@tcgacademia]

@Maldito Mur I always really love seeing how fans can keep games alive long after they've stopped receiving support. It's awesome the english DM fanbase is still going!

[@travis51killer01]

i have a lot of nostalgia and love for DM but maybe i'm yo used yo YGO speed that My major complain is setting only one mana per turn, it feels slow as hell

[@travis51killer01]

@Maldito Mur hhhhmmmm that sounds more .... Sweet, full speed ahead

[@coffeepot3123]

I have a deck of cards that will blow the wig off anyone bro..

[@kennethlim6217]

12 boosters in English

[@tcgacademia]

Thanks, I appreciate when viewers correct my misses. I definitely let a few more mistakes than usual slip into this one (like the notes on damage that show up in the video - I somehow confused DM's power comparison with Z/X's turn-limited damage).

[@idongesitusen5764]

Why not just go the YGO Master Duel route with translating Duel Masters for western fans.

[@FlameJackstar]

If they would only localize the Japanese mobile game...

[@kindlepops]

Do you play Yu-Gi-Oh?

[@tcgacademia]

Off and on, mostly off, and usually pretty casually. I wanted to jump back in for a bit with Master Duel, but my computer can't handle it. The game is really interesting to follow from a design standpoint though, since they keep butting into the limits of their design and having to reinvent the game (synchros, links, hand traps, etc).

[@kindlepops]

​@@tcgacademia Hey man thanks for the reply. Yeah Yu-Gi-Oh is quite something, always needing to update the ban list cause someone found a broken combo and it starts killing the game. I dont think Konami know what they're doing half the time. But then again I personally feel introducing Links kinda saved the game. Was in a bit of stale state before that. Also, if your phone has 6gb ram you could easily play Master Duel on there.

[@tcgacademia]

@@kindlepops My phone is so old it runs on Windows 7... 🤣Links were a really clever idea as a kind of speed-bump for the game. They ended up being just another spam archtype, but the concept was really neat, and adding the positional aspect to yugioh's field of play feels like such a natural fit it's kind of amazing it wasn't implemented sooner.

[@GalacticBlader]

wish instead of pokemon we got THIS card game because i feel like this main character wouldn't lose consistently and take over 25 FREAKIN YEARS TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIPS

[@vollied4865]

Wizards of the coast is a death knell to any game they touch and magic is only alive due to nostalgia lets be honest, theyve made nothing but bad decisions for the past decade but for some reason nostalgia keeps people playing. If another conpany got ahold of Duel Masters properly in the west i know itd do way better now considering its main competition (Yu-Gi-Oh) is in a horrible state right now and players are desperately looking for anything similar or adjacent, but vanguard the only other similar game is also near death.

[@sebastianwardana1527]

seriously, those have been around forever... nobody wanted to play them... idk... now with digital peoples tokens and mechanics understanding are taken care... its simple card games like these that... you know... give everybody a cance to understand the game... and thus to play it right...

[@RonLarhz]

Where can i play this without having to restart the gba game??? Eww kaijudo. OG duel master is better. And i dont think the new digimon card game is related to this mechanics.

[@tcgacademia]

It's not all the same, but combat specifically is very similar, in that creatures can't attack the turn they're played, and you tap to attack the player, or attack a tapped creature.

[@RonLarhz]

@@tcgacademia I think summoning sickness is a general thing. Not counted?🤣 😜 Sadly konami yugioh f2p app is the only good quality card game app i know. I'd love to have a similar one for pokemon, Duel master, Naruto as well.

[@codenamexelda]

But Magic the gathering is so fucking boring... people only like it cause of the dnd asthetic

[@essential67]

The gba game, really kept my attention to build different deck for different reasons, but I remember red being very powerful in late game.

[@OoO-rf2gt]

If who gives a fuck was a game lol