WAIT... Remember Duel Masters?

Wait, you're telling me that Duel Masters was instead born from Magic: The Gathering and somewhat a competitive version of Pokemon rather than being a Yu-Gi-Oh rip-off? That's crazy! Well today, let's take a look into what Duel Masters was all about and what happened to it!
Use Code: FRINGE for 10% off your Gamer Supps order here: gamersupps.gg/...
Jordan Fringe Gaming: ‪@JordanFringeGaming‬
Written By: Jordan Fringe & David Strickland
Edited By: Jordan Fringe & Violabun
Channel Art By: Jerry Meehan

[@JordanFringe94]

Thanks so much for watching! Were you ever a fan of Duel Masters? Did you give the Kaijudo 2012 series a chance when it came out? Let me know all of that along with your thoughts on the series!

[@pokebreederrichard1200]

I had one of their GBA games

[@shywitchanimations5235]

WAIT... remember: Jimmy Two-Shoes? Camp Lakebottom? The Troop? Dan Vs.? The Mr. Bean cartoon? Yvon of the Yukon? The Garfield Show?

[@monkeystuff661]

Idk wut Kajiudo is

[@nathanielschaper295]

I watched it and I thought it was cool.

[@missingnovgc]

My youtube channel is like 90% Kaijudo content and deck profiles.

[@JM-jn4il]

Bro, this game was AWESOME. I’m 28 and I swear I was the only person to ever watch and obsess over this game/ show. Tried to find tournaments but it just never took off like Yugioh. I’ve literally met ONE other human in my life who has seen and actively remembers this. Much love bro

[@chaseperkins6949]

Remeber the GBA game?

[@darkwarrior32]

Same brother not a single other person in my childhood. the gba game kept me sane for the long car rides. Never got too far I was bad at games as a kid lol

[@jasonblyer7173]

My guy I’m right there with you, a little older but damn dude. I miss this, the game play was fun and complex but not too crazy, the cards were super cool looking, it hit just right for me.

[@suprememaz]

I loved the card game. Shame the dub of the show was such a disappointment.

[@richardleemangum5023]

I had the ps2 game and I loved the card game. I had a red deck and a light deck, I remember my light one focused on a group of cards that had an evolving structure, my main three being a small satellite thing that turned into a flying drone before finally becoming this big robot thing that was really powerful granted, I'm 30 now and this was back when I was 10 lol

[@michaelagallucci9342]

I still maintain that Duel Masters had the best mana system of any card game - even better than MtG. Rather than wasting space in your deck with lands that are ONLY lands, you have to decide which nonlands you want to use as mana sources and which you want to play - never getting flooded, never getting mana screwed, and presenting with interesting strategic decisions. Absolutely love it.

[@MrHj123]

It really was amazing. Couldn't find a lot of people to play with though

[@P4NKROCKER]

I believe right now Lorcana has a similar mana system

[@MrHj123]

@@P4NKROCKER But I would never want to play that.

[@dittmar104]

Buddy fight used a similar system

[@dirx1996]

I just played a game of magic yesterday and literally went 15 rounds with only 3 land cards 💀

[@cactus-mcjacktus]

The art for Duel Masters cards is second to none, i think it still beats most contemporary card games and beat everything out at the time easily. Amazing stuff.

[@Aceinine]

Agreed! The art and character design for some of the cards was by far among the highest quality even by today's standards

[@nocsiou]

couldn't have said it better, the designs, themes and artstyle together are unbeatable

[@Doomroar]

This was the main reason why i liked it over other TCGs, i still have my Gatling Skyterror toy, which is to this day, still the most baddass dragon toy i have ever seen

[@AbyssWatch3r]

true they are dark af too

[@alexander1989x]

I was first exposed to YuGiOh but after I found out about Duel Masters, i never looked back. The TCG gameplay is so much better that the quick maths you have to do in YiGiOh.

[@tamska]

Duel Masters is one of the biggest card games in Japan. One theory why WoTC pulled the plug from Duel Masters in the West was that it became a direct competitor of Magic the Gathering and started to cannibalize sales. It was relatively popular in Europe, and that is still one of the reasons why there are still Duel Master collectors and players in Europe.

[@vullord666]

I was gonna say I easily found duel masters cards when I was in Japan.

[@Mr_Slime842]

My understanding from watching TCG channels was that the anime didn't generate enough interest in the west possibly due to the borderline gag dub confusing people about it being a serious card game.

[@JinchurikiDemon]

It's so strange it got a gag dub, it's almost like they didn't care if it was going to succeed or not, I just don't understand why you'd market an anime to kids at the height of yugioh and the dub turns out to be all gags.@@Mr_Slime842

[@christopherblackwell9543]

This game is the first tcg I ever got into. I was obsessed with it as a child and the game itself actually led me to find my best friend, as we both knew the game. One day we played it at recess and to this day were inseperable. I still find it hilarious that this game still lives strong in Japan with even a mobile game out over there. Its a shame it wont be popular enough to launch the app internationally.

[@BramLastname]

The mobile app was fun for a while, But having to rely on fan translations is problematic However I did play the Shobu era to completion, So it's not as big an issue as people seem to think.

[@Kaos9696]

Looking at those old Duel Masters cards brought about so many good memories. Bolshack dragon was awesome

[@k27ism]

Pyrofighter magnus, cuz no summoning sickness 😅

[@fluffyking94]

I could never find the game as a kid, but when I played Yu-Gi-Oh with friends, and we didn't have a way to track LP, we would instead take 5 cards off the top of our decks and use them as shields. I lovingly referred to this as "Duel Masters style"

[@LittleAl016]

NGL, that's a really interesting way to play Yu-Gi-Oh.

[@whitedragonzerureusu4480]

Yoo that's a really cool and creative way to shape up Yu-Gi-Oh to make up for what you had and lacked

[@honmanchan7375]

You guys didn't have calculators?

[@rampagephoenix1735]

Neat idea, actually!!!

[@twaggytheatricks4960]

​@@honmanchan7375 I didn't either, so my brother and I just used pen and paper. The Duel Masters style is a sick idea, though.

[@fleecyformula7365]

I'm so happy to know that this game actually existed and i didn't simply imagine my older cousin gifting me the box with all his Duel Masters cards, i remember that even if as a kid i played Yugioh, this game's Artworks for the cards were something so fascinating to me, almost felt alien in a certain way

[@salvsays]

Dual masters is so far the only property until literally just now i had completely forgotten about but had such fond memories of it as a kid. The minute i saw the cards i instantly remembered everything but i know that had you asked me about the anime, described the plot or even showed me the back of the cards id have had zero memory of it. Thank you for a real dose of nostalgia for something long gone.

[@nothenking4546]

i played the gba game like no tom

[@salvsays]

@@nothenking4546 YAASS!!

[@belstar1128]

i just remember it as being the "other trading card game"

[@Gaarafan007]

I loved both the tcg and the anime as a teenager, I was deeply saddened when it died out. I never got into Kaidjudo other than catching the occasional episode while channel surfing or waiting for something else to come on. It wasn't until I saw Rothus the Traveler that I learned the two series were connected.

[@Photogenic_Rat]

Crazy how much duel masters has changed since it's first release, I have been slowly getting my hands on the current cards from Japan and they are sick

[@BramLastname]

Yu-Gi-Oh fans going crazy when they find out there's decks in Duel Masters that have 2 extra decks.

[@muarekh4118]

​@@BramLastname Hyperspatial Zone and Super Gacharange Zone right?

[@BramLastname]

@@muarekh4118 yeah, I don't know how the latter works, But I heard it's important to keep them separate.

[@StigmaKRL]

​@@BramLastnamethe two "Extra decks" are differentiated by the cards they hold, Hyperspatial zones are occupied by two sided cards (Psychics and Draghearts) while the Super Gacharange Zone(shortened to GR zone) are occupied by GR creatures, single sided cards that have a different card back (white instead of blue) you can have between 0 to 8 cards in your Hyperspatial zone, but you must have either 0 or 12 cards in your GR zone cards in the GR zone are shuffled at the beginning of the game, and as the name implies, you "gacha" from it through various card effects via a mechanic called Gacharange summon: which is to flip the top card of your GR zone and summon it without for no cost(the cost is treated as paid though, this is important for certain card interactions) also unlike your main deck or Hyperspatial zone, you can only have up to 2 of the same cards in your GR zone

[@Shuwa217]

​@@muarekh4118Oh, so that's the new mechanic I've noticed from the JP version decks I saw in card shops

[@NaldoNidoking]

I'm a Magic player, and I'm tangentially aware of Duel Masters. I know there are some MTG crossover cards in the game, namely Jace and Nicol Bolas. They even recently released a promo for Magic of the original Nicol Bolas with the Duel Masters art. It's sweet as hell.

[@StigmaKRL]

I have the DueMa version of Black Lotus and to this day it is the centerpiece of my collection binder

[@TheArceusftw]

Duel masters is part that weird catagory of shows I vaguely recalled watching as a kid, but kind of fell off by the wayside. Beyond that from a combination of watching other peoples' videos on the show and card game, and rediscovering the show on Tubi did it spark some core memories. It's a shame it did fall off the way it did in the United States. I'm even more suprised that it didn't develop more of a cult following here stateside. I would love to see the card game make a comeback in America, because it seems like a very beginner friendly TCG.

[@statesminds]

I love Dual Masters! I knew it was Magic the Gathering for kids. I had a game on the gba too and some physical cards. I miss this series. I enjoyed it, playing and watching. I still remember some of the card monster names.

[@XtraLargerock15]

I collected Pokémon, Yugioh, and Duel Masters cards but DM was easily my favorite card game to actually play. I was hooked on the anime in middle school but it got relegated to a 5:30am timeslot

[@EskChan19]

I really liked the card game. It did fix a few issues that I always had with other TCGs. It's kinda like Magic, except you don't have to waste half your deck on land cards, and the shield breaking giving you a card is a neat rubberbanding mechanic where attacking the enemy gave them card advantage to allow them to get back into the game if they are behind. It was pretty good!

[@cyberdragoon1432]

I mean the game and anime are still big in Japan, with a bevy of fun mechanics being added to the deck building roster. With writing just recently moving away from the Kirifuda family.

[@HunterStiles651]

As someone who briefly played the Duel Masters mobile game back when it released in 2019 and made it to Platinum Rank before uninstalling, I assure you that Shields are a contender for the worst mechanic in card game history. It heavily punishes you for actually playing the game instead of just sitting on your laurels amassing resources until you can OTK. That big push you just made on your last turn where you broke four of their shields in one go? Your opponent probably let you do that and now they're going to demolish you with the free +4 you just gave them.

[@castanha6226]

@@HunterStiles651 1 out of 2 things, skill issue or you played unga bunga red deck

[@Ragnellrok]

This game fixes the main issue with prize cards from PTCG

[@HunterStiles651]

@@castanha6226 Bruh. The best deck at launch was literally 4-color Bolmeteus Control because it didn't have to care about getting punished for breaking shields.

[@Jake-fm5my]

The way you just dive into my deepest memories and childhood obsessions is everything i need. I audibly gasped when i saw Duel Masters

[@missingnovgc]

Shameless plug but my channel is mostly Kaijudo content. I grew up in a farm town so card games were not popular in my area. I had nobody who would play with me so never got into Duel Masters but loved the show. Shortly after i graduated and moved out, i had joined a local card game community where i made most of my best friends. Shortly after meeting them, the Kaijudo card game came out and we were all hooked. I still play Kaijudo to this day and have even taught my step daughter how to play. I owe both Duel Masters and Kaijudo a huge thanks for being such a huge part of my life despite their short runs.

[@SprightBlueBruh]

I knew I would see you in these comments plugging. Can confirm. He posts a lot of Kaijudo

[@castanha6226]

btw, you ever heard of duelmasters plays?

[@missingnovgc]

@@castanha6226 i have! I had it on my phone for the longest time but them I focused too much on Yugioh Master Duel and I didn't keep up with the pack releases. I was a lot of fun though for the year I played. I feel like I'm too far behind now

[@The-Shadow-Realm]

I’m proud to say that I’m still a massive fan of “Duel Masters” and “Kaijudo” - and the fact that I have a few binders worth of sleeved, mint condition cards for both! 🤓

[@thebrycerik9891]

With double the fringemas I hope that means we'll get an episode about Zoids

[@SilverKing56]

I feel like the 2020 and still on-going Digimon TCG has its roots in Duel Masters, and that's one of the many reasons I love it, especially as a big fan of Duel Masters as a kid. Feels nice to see even some fans call Security Attack + 'Double/triple breaker'.

[@Chimeragui]

Even having the same five card colors from Kaijudo (Yellow, Blue, Purple, Red and Green) along with Black and White from the original Duel Masters with the first five even corresponding with the elements of the five civilizations (Yellow = Light, Blue = Water, Purple = Darkness, Red = Fire, and Green = Nature) with Black in Digimon representing Metal, Earth and Machinery and White being treated as being Colorless just as it is in Duel Masters

[@Necromancyyy]

Also Battle Spirits

[@drunkcrunkfranken]

Fun fact: the designer that made Duel Masters also made Digimon CG.

[@BramLastname]

It's interesting that despite it's failure in the west, Modern card games that took inspiration from it are quite well received, They're all mechanically different, But they do share elements that were exclusive to Duel Masters at the time.

[@parsath_2584]

The Digimon TCG is very much inspired by Duel Masters

[@BramLastname]

@@parsath_2584 Yeah definitely, However you can tell they wanted to have their own spin on things, As all the mechanics that are different from Duel Masters Are not present in the big 3 either. Which sets it apart from the established ones. (Also most of the cards are made to be compatible with Digimon Lore presented in the anime, Which is good marketing, but also very difficult from a game design perspective.)

[@SeekerTheFalcon]

Fun fact: I’m from Hong Kong and when I was young, there used to be official Chinese version of Duel Masters manga until its sequel “Fighting Edge” and the English season “Sacred Lands” was aired. Sadly I didn’t understand English at that time so I had no idea about the anime plot.

[@StigmaKRL]

I remember the manga being way darker, with characters getting unalived every now and then

[@SeekerTheFalcon]

@@StigmaKRL Yes, the manga is dark. In case you missed the story of manga, I have a recap video on my channel :)

[@oblivionslefthand]

I played Duel Masters a bit when it was out. I remember looking into the OCG a few years back, and really liking a lot of the unique mechanics the game had, like folding cards, multiple types of Extra Deck with different rules, dual cards, multiple art card sets, all stuff TCGs we have over here would adopt over time.

[@muarekh4118]

Well, they literally called the extra deck as "Hyperspatial Zone"

[@harutakami1313]

Kaijudo was a wild ride, but didn't really have anything to do with the card game (Which they did try and re-launch *as* "Kaijudo" here in the west). Duel Masters the card game in Japan though... Damn that thing has gotten WILD. Multi-faction creatures, faction-less creatures, double- and even triple-sided cards, cards that combine with others into bigger cards. All while keeping the game true to its core gameplay.

[@MrBonessss]

As someone who's kind of digitally introducing my friends to this in the TCG side, really fun & i wish we could somehow get the packs goin worldwide again outside of Japan.

[@StigmaKRL]

They actually expanded outsde to other Asian regions since last September iirc

[@selfloathingweekly]

​@@StigmaKRL"other Asian regions" LOL

[@Chimeragui]

Fun fact: I was an administrator for the Kaijudo wiki before it was discontinued and I moved on to becoming admin for the Digimon wiki. While I didn't follow DM after it ended in the US and so had to catch up with the Japanese DM card game, I still have a soft spot for both DM and Kaijudo.

[@MD0Hatter]

Played and enjoyed the ps2 game, when i went to try it years and years later with my getting back into tcgs I found out it was only in Japan. The new Digimon tcg has a similar defense with security so I also thought about it as I started to play that.

[@cybersandalphon]

As Duel Masters media archivist in a way, it is nice seeing people talking about it and putting some research into topic (hearing people genuinely going "ygo rip-off" can get tad tiring) It really managed to become my favorite TCG franchise in span of just few years just from everything it has to offer, shame it never was able to stick in the west despite some other TCGs, that did end up having localization, or were made in the west, borrowing some mechanics/taking inspiration from it even. The way they handled the dub of Shobu era still baffles me to this day, that to say, my friend got to ask Kevin Rubio once about it and his response was: "When Magic hired me their specific direction was "we want you to do what you do"-"Oh! You wan me to make shit up!?"-"Yes"", so ig that explains some of that, alongside with the budget reasons

[@chorko696]

I think Duel Masters was more of a competitor to Magic The Gathering than Yu Gi Oh.

[@Auracian]

I do still remember this series from my childhood and it was honestly my gateway into Magic the Gathering

[@Liikasamppa]

In Finland where I'm from we didn't get Yu-gi-oh when I was young, and the Pokemon tcg was way too complicated for kids my age we found the perfect game in Duel Masters. So many great memories from dueling and trading cards with my friends and opening Ballom, Master of Death from a pack. Thanks for the nostalgic video!

[@TheHeavenlyCzar]

So it's based on MTG, no wonder the card art was so amazing. They really left an impression on me. I still have dreams about that awesome dragon that was the ace of the main characters deck.

[@jintheinformer]

Duel Masters has been among the big 3 in card games in Japan along side Pokemon and Yugioh. I think it's only recently that the One Piece TCG has made its way in and is vying for a slot in that said big 3. Anytime I visit my folks out there, it's always a surprise to see hobby shops still lined with Duel Masters singles. Many stores even specialize in just Duel Masters, which would've been unheard of outside of the country. I appreciate this little trip down memory lane!

[@fawkes6352]

This was my childhood as a kid, and it got me into Magic as an adult.

[@CandeIero]

Thanks for the big nostalgia flash! Seeing those card illustrations opened up some childhood memories that I didn't know still existed. I fondly remember collecting and playing the game, though mostly versus myself as a child, since I don't think any of my friends actually played Duel Masters in addition to the usual Yugioh or Pokémon. I also barely watched any of the anime and had completely forgotten that it existed at all.

[@ededdneddy4ever34]

I love all your hard work Jordan keep it going man and happy holidays!

[@harryclifford168]

I LOVED Yugioh as a kid and my Dad always tried to learn it to play with me, however he just was unable to grasp it as a game (mostly due to me being unable to differentiate between the show rules and the official rules). Instead we used to play the PS2 game of Duel Masters together and even today we often chat about how much fun it was. That PS2 game, along with Star Wars Racer Revenge and the Ratchet and Clank series, created so many foundational memories for me. I never knew that it had a series though! Mind blown ahaha

[@markmorales7958]

Fun fact: This series is the sole reason why the Yugioh Rush Duels format, along with Sevens and Go Rush Anime series exist in the first place after Yugioh Vrains.

[@zephshoir]

Can you elaborate on that? Or have any sources?

[@KaiserVarius]

Really? How so?

[@Lucario1121]

Yes explain please

[@KingNexusMOCs]

No, it isn't.

[@markmorales7958]

In Japan, Duel Masters is more popular than how it went down in the west. And after the (pardon the pun) rushed conclusion of YGO Vrains. Konami looked at it and decided to make the next era be more towards the younger audience, and rework on the major issues that has plagued the Master Duels Format of the YGO Cardgame for the last few decades.

[@AreorLeafra]

I still play Duel Masters! There is a game for everyone to play - Duel Masters Play's. It's originally in japanese, but there is a way to play in english :) I love the machanics of the game, artwork and flavor.

[@SquigglyTheAsianPotato]

I remember getting both the ps2 game and the Gameboy game and ima tell ya those were some of my first rage quits

[@chadthomas587]

That gba game was hard af

[@HyouVizer]

PS2 game was hilariously bad haha. Could only have 5 creatures max on battle zone. Gringe music wasnt too bad tho

[@AngelCopout]

I used to watch it in Nicaragua and sometimes late at night on Toonami when I was really young. Ended up thinking it was some fever dream for years before realising it was real.

[@dragoon1090]

I never got to watch this show as a kid but always wanted to. The card game seemed really cool.

[@whitedragonzerureusu4480]

It was awesome but everyone else was obsessed with Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh back then so it was almost impossible that you would find someone to play the game with or even just find the cards in the shop

[@luminous3558]

Its basically mtg but every card is a land for its color, so better mtg. Sadly the design went into a bad direction after the first few sets but its probably my favourite manabased card game concept.

[@fisheye44i]

i remember duel masters fondly from when i was a kid. the artworks are really amazing and i sometimes go back at look at them

[@supershadowman6478]

I remember this series I loved it so much especially all the fourth wall breaking

[@bookmaster621]

I had a book from this series when I was younger. Recently tried remembering what it was and felt crazy when I couldn’t find it online. Thanks for covering it

[@ThomasTenma]

i blame the dub for the duel masters lack of popularity.

[@SchwarzAnthonyBoys18]

How can't i remember Duel Masters ? Some of their cards was awesome and i'm looking for those one: - Billion-degree Dragon - Alcadeias lord of spirits - Giriel the ghastly warrior - Astrocomet dragon - Crystal Paladin - Earthstomp Giant - Stratosphere Giant In Japan duel masters become Kaijudo and they have a lot of strong cards too

[@benfleming8127]

Loved this when it came out with the card game and the show 😁 wondered where it had gone 🤔

[@JA432123]

That’s too weird I just started rewatching this show yesterday! I love the over the top “this is a show that knows is a show” gags and jokes

[@mystery8820]

Duel Masters English gag dub truly was built different (and it's only in English that it's a gag dub, the Japanese one plays it straight).

[@otakunemesis34]

People still play it on their phones.

[@20stardust]

How????

[@helderjones4962]

You say this likes its common knowledge (it isnt)

[@013wolfwarrior]

DUDE hell yeah I remember, I loved this shows, it had good story and jokes (it was probrably the american translated to local but still funny) I loved the monsters art and how cool they were. There was one store in town that sold basic decks and I had the fire and darkness decks combined. I managed to introduce it into school and played alot with class mates, I was shit at it but, good times...

[@bajanyaoikaizer6902]

I didn't mind Duel Master; but I think the reasons why it struggles is due to the cards being near impossible to find; and that it was too comedic. And where the heck is Shobu getting all these brothers from when his dad is constantly missing.

[@muarekh4118]

Kinda ironic since in the anime when Shobu's younger Brother (Katta) took the protagonist role, Shobu is the one who is constantly missing

[@belstar1128]

i remember them being in shops a lot but the game wasn't very popular. so for every 10 yu gi oh fans there was maybe 1 duel masters fan and they gave up quickly .nobody cared about it anymore after 2006 while yu gi oh remained mainstream until at least 2011 and probably longer but i am not sure since i grew out of it. my friends were still into it at age 16 while duel masters was just a distant memory .

[@MeizarFarizky]

Shobu only has one brother.

[@MF_ZORO]

Huge props for making english Duel Masters content man. We love that! Myself and a few other members of the community have translated the CCG, Duel Master's Plays. Stop by the Discord server and give it a shot!

[@dragonking46107]

GET IN THE BATTLE ZONE!!!!

[@MisaelNikkus]

5th grade days wow! KZbin indeed is the closest thing we've got to time machine. I remember trading almost my whole deck for a single card Bolshack Dragon or whatever the name of that card is lol.

[@_ThatJaceKid]

Me and my buddy actually got really into Duel Masters when we were kids. We worked part time jobs at 15 just to buy cards. Dope times. Still got my cards

[@Roadburner4]

Is this the show where as show of disrespect the opponent released a guys cards to wind and passed gas at the same time?? I distinctly remember that happening in a show.

[@sariozuma9775]

Yep, that happened. The dub was weird lol

[@GodShadowdeath]

“I am an evil genuis. I know everything.” That line got me in so much trouble quoting

[@FlameThe4]

RIGHT?! I remember in elementary saying that and teachers getting mad

[@kevin7416]

I used to watch this all the time as a kid, I even had the Duel Masters Codex will all of the creature information. No wonder I like MTG so much as an adult.

[@oliverjamesatkinson]

The talent of the artists was phenomenal. Almost every single card had dark, striking artwork that went so damn hard and impressed me when I got the original run as a kid. The actual creatures all look like 80's, traditionally painted heavy metal album cover artwork. I thought they were so badass; they were much scarier, more detailed and more powerful looking than almost all of Yugioh's run at the time and probably still are. It gave the physical actual cards a real sense of quality; and *lore* that made it feel like part of a more intricate world the art was giving you a glimpse into; that was only ever suggested and hinted at with the little flavour text quotes at the bottom of almost every card that made it even more unique. Combine this with all of the factions; what with Light being these biblically accurate looking angels and stuff; it's kind of a shame really, that the actual original anime featuring them never really explored any of that and packaged it all as a discount yugioh with less memorable character design for the *anime*. One glance at the artwork and design of all the cards would make you think it was far closer to something along the lines of Soulsborne or Warhammer - what with how you had to piece together it's world that so openly seemed chock-full of grimdarkness, imposing creatures and eldritch intrigue from little drips and puzzle pieces of the setting's excerpts - and I'm fairly certain that originally it was actually intended to be - When it was released originally I would've been a little younger than 9 years old; and even then I remember really enjoying the fact that the actual gameplay mechanics and card games' rules itself felt far, far more more in-depth, complex and exciting than Yu-Gi-Oh's at the time. I had no idea that MTG was really a thing even them as nobody around me played it then or since or introduced me to it in any significant capacity so I never got into it, but I do believe that SM was sort of also intended to be something of a simplified version of MTG; but if I'm completely honest I'm not so sure. From the art; maybe DM was intended to be as 40K was to MTG's Warhammer. Doesn't explain how vicious it's monsters were if it was supposed to be MTG for kiddies. But have I got this right; WOTC commissioned DM to advertise or gateway the Japanese into MTG in Japan . . . by releasing a non-compatible, unconnected original game? Or was it supposed to be that DM was originally a sort of soft remake of MTG exclusively for Japan? Anyway - I think half the problem was probably that compared to Yugioh, which had incredibly an strong marketing engine in it's iconic, memorable, dramatic and cheesy anime released originally alongside the CCG with incredibly simple rules to begin with - and the card reprint was probably far cheaper since YGO cards are smaller and simpler and over the years the rules got more complicated, the library bigger and the release of new rules was updated along with the anime once Konami felt like the edition had run it's course. Whereas the MARKETING for Duel Masters as mentioned, is sort of the opposite - Shobu looks far simpler than Yugi (I enjoyed the anime as a kid) and it's almost like - the reverse is the case; if this makes any sense: Yugioh's anime implies that there is all of this hidden lore and occulture to the cards and world; but playing the actual physical card game; you wouldn't know this whatsoever - the cards themselves, 98% of the time outside of some cool names; really are quite crudely drawn and patched together; the monsters really have no pattern and there isn't any through line or flavour implied to any individual card outside of mechanics that state they react with another card; but the distribution of creatures and monsters are almost entirely random and no further lore or world is really implied anywhere on the physical cards themselves. Duel Masters; it's the opposite. There is lore all over the cards that are depicted often as quite gruesome and adult themed with connecting flavour text and a dedicated world and themes; but it's marketing engine of it's anime and all of it's packaging is a rather basic and childish looking affair that is best described as "we have yugioh at home" - which I'm assuming american audiences projected onto the CCG itself. DM's anime is serviceble; but ultimately I believe did a huge disservice to western sales as the target audience got older. If WOTC scrapped it because it challenged MTG in sales that would be a silly business move.

[@seasaltcosmos]

duel masters looks like one of those anime parodies you'd see the main character watching for like one episode

[@Bigparr43]

This reminds me of the series Chaotic. I saw it as a kid and it was underrated...then again it was on 4 Kids TV, so there were a lot of underrated series like Mucha Lucha and especially Xiaolin Showdown

[@shadowguner]

Not only have I've seen duel masters. This a few others are some videos I hoped you would go over this year. I remember the 25 days if frindgemas that you were trying to find your Christmas spirit again. That's how I've found you and just kept watching.

[@MeizarFarizky]

"Remember Duel Masters?" How can I not? I'm literally playing it right now on my mobile phone.

[@GreenDinoRanger]

Wow, nostalgia unlocked. I'd forgotten about Duel Masters. Although listening to you describe characters and plot points, it really drives home how similar Yu-Gi-Oh, Duel Masters and Cardfight Vanguard animes are to each other in regards to the main character speaking to his cards, the monsters actually being from another realm/world, and believing in your deck to achieve victory.

[@SamuraiEchidna]

I enjoyed the Duel Masters anime! The first season was hilarious. You didn't need to know how it originally went because they were clearly doing something creatively different. Like watching an abridged anime. However, that tone change felt out of place in later seasons, where they tried to translate the show a little more directly. I would love to see the anime get a new, uncut release for all to enjoy, especially with a dub.

[@dizzygoboom847]

So funny (to me) story, about a year ago my buddy asked me to play mtg for the first time. As I never played an actual card game before they sat there and explained the rules and while they were explaining it all sounded kinda vaguely familiar to me. Maybe halfway into the game my brain goes “oh this is like that one game we used to play on that old gameboy we used to have”. So anyway time passed and I didn’t think much of it. This was randomly in my recommended and you just answered so many questions, thank you sir.

[@Wortigon2000]

back in my highschool days, Duel Masters was THE one TCG that was going around. We were all playing it. My personal favourite was, when I challenged a guy saying I'll put togethera deck from his cards up for trading, and beat his "competitive" deck with it. If I win, I can pick one card from the deck I built from his cards up for trade. I beat the ever loving sh*t out of his worm deck with a random nature deck that focused on low cost monsters to beat him up as fast as possible. Heck, that was the time that I grew to like a specific type/card, called Cavern Rider (and Beast Folks in general, since I got 2 nice evolution cards for them). Search cards in Duel Masters are much rarer than in Yugioh, and Cavern Rider was one, who allowed me to search out an extra body every turn I used it, and my opponent was damned when I kept searching out cheap cards that I could flood the field with. As he used a Darkness deck (all worm cards are darkness, and his deck focused on those) and darkness decks generally don't run many blockers, he was a poor matchup against the low cost field flooding deck I built. Than again, my 2 custom decks are weird. 1 uses fire and light, including, but not limited to Armored Dragons/Armored Wyverns/Humans in fire, and Guardians/Angel Commands in light, with a few initiates sprinkled in for good measure. And as anyone who played fire knows, they're the bane of light decks, because of 1 specific card, that can instantly finish off light (and kind of hit water/darkness too, in a bad spot) called Scarlet Skyterror. the only card that can protect from a massive attack from a full field when Scarlet Skyterror hits the field is Bodacius Giant, who's the 1 "blocker" of the nature cards. (Technically not a blocker, but has an ability that makes it even better than most blockers; while also staying immune to Scarler Skyterror) So as fire and light don't work well to support each other, I used them in a weird way. First: build a "wall" with my crapton of light blockers. Play it safe. And also throw in a bunch of fire monsters to take care of opposing monsters, and attck when I have the chance. Than depending on what I end up drawing first, either use holy ave, diamond cutter, or scarlet skyterror to finish the game without my opponent having a way to bock my attacks, of just simply having so much more cards to attack with due to my blockers attacking using diamond cutter. Too bad I only had 1-1 copy of all of these. The other one used Darkness and Nature. Mostly Beastfolk, and worms, but also had some other random janky nature stuff, and some demon command cards threwn in there. As darkness cards (at least the ones I like) have high mana costs, I preferred drawing a hand full of nature cards early on, because they can speed up mana generation quite a bit. That's why the 2 worked so well together. Bronze arm tribe for example was a nice way to get an extra mana. Also, I could evolve it into barkwhip for only 2 extra mana, so imagine going ham on round 4, with bronze arm tribe for 3 mana, adding an extra mana, and using the extra I just got and the one I had left to go into Barkwhip, to also have a 5k attack beatstick, that also buffs my other beast folks? fancy stuff. Or evolving it furthr into Fighter Dual Fang, to gain an additional 2 mana. Heck, one of my biggest plays with that deck was evolvng something into Fighter Dual Fang, gaining the 2 free mana, than using those 2 mana toevolve another creature into Barkwhip, attack with barkwhip, so it can buff fighterdual fang, and that way, with 10k attack, it was strong enough to beat over a monster that was beating the ever loving snot out of me until than. but yeah, there was also a guy like 1 year above my grade, who had 5 decks. 1-1 for each element. And he never lost. Regardless of which deck he used, agaisnt which opponent. Only player who got close to beating him that I know of was the very P2W guy in my class, who paid a fortune to get a very damn rare Armed Dragon evolution monster, that can remove mana from the opponent, meaning for anything other than nature decks, it's priority #1 to get rid of that monster, but with 13k atk, it wasn't so simple. (yes, I mean Überdragon Bajula. That card was cancer...) He also had a few copies of Bolzard dragon, that had a similar effect, without having to use an evolution for it... that was Duel Master's fire element's type of a floodgate. Light had Kuukai, Nature had Bodacius Giant, Darkness had slayer blockers, and I don't even know what water had, as the only 2 good water cards I had weren't enough for even half a deck. (1 spell and 1 monster.) Wow this turned out to be such a rant... Nice throwback video anyway!

[@gundambassexe31]

Duel masters from Toonami era ! Awesome callback but it just came and left similar to yokai watch on DisneyXD channel

[@Saito57G]

Here where I live the show was INCREDIBLY popular -you could find cards and of course - bootleg versions of cards in like every corner store. The game itself...did not take off, since no one knew how to play it from the show. We did play it tho - not in an intended way I guess. We would each bet a card, then rock-paper-scissors together. The winner takes the cards, bets on the side it will land on (or which will be face-up, it was all up to negotation beforehand), place the pile on their fist and then flick into the air using the thumb. Whichever card landed on the side he bet on - he would take these cards as his own. Then you repeat the rock-paper-scissors with the remaining cards as stakes - until no cards were left, then you bet cards yet again. Until you get bored of it and/or someone eventually went to cry cause he lost his property in this childhood gambling session.

[@johannesmakila2459]

Not only DM is still alive and well in Japan but also one of big 3 TCGs there. Oh and it's also very influencial with many TCGs taking some things from it. Mainly some variation of it's life decking system but some times it's resource system. Current Digimon card game pretty much uses same life decking system.

[@muarekh4118]

Kinda funny when I found out that Xyz summon from Yu-Gi-Oh is literally just Vortex Evolution with Meteorburn ability While Legion Mate from Vanguard and Maximum Summon from Rush Duel is literally just God Link

[@armageddon_gaming]

I made a card game of my own using duel master's mechanics. Most of them anyway. As for monsters and spells I used monsters from one of my favorite video games and turned the spell cards into item cards using items from the same video game

[@ajalferez5927]

Duel Masters is still my favorite TCG of all time. I had a damn good fire deck back in elementary and into early high school. I remember the sheer rush of joy when I opened the booster pack I asked my dad to get me to find a foil Bolshack Dragon. I wish this game was still alive. I wish I had my old Fire Deck. Man, such good memories.

[@drjones1020]

So I really enjoyed duel masters. A big part that drew me in was the art work of the cards. I kept up with it all the way to threw Duel Masters Victory. I was able to keep up with it because I was able to find a lot of the episodes on Vimeo (albeit most of the time not subbed). Like I said before the biggest fascination for me with this series was the art work of the cards. It was just so different from Yugioh and Pokemon cards and honestly at times seemed better because it seemed like the creators put a big more work into it with the details.

[@gualavibes9542]

DUDE!!! You opened up a whole missing memory!!! I’m 30yrs old and now I actually remember collecting the cards THINKING they were yugioh cards 😅 I remember watching the show alil bit too.!

[@muarekh4118]

Not only Duel Masters is one of the most influential tcg, it's also one of the most innovative one. Many cards game taking one or two mechanics from it. To the point where Yu-Gi-Oh even taking mechanic from here at least twice (namely Xyz summon and Maximum Summon from Rush Duel)

[@brucegusler5208]

My friends and I absolutely loved this series! We played the hell out of the card game. Spent so much money on it

[@quetzypoo]

I still remember when I was like 8 or 9 and I was playing duel masters on my playstation 2 and was super addicted

[@feartheoldblood7222]

Im 30 and I still have my duel master cards. Their in a tin packed away but i still got them. My little brother and some friends played when we were kids. I have fond memories of this card game.

[@thai33oz]

That was the last trading card game that i played when i was a kid. I stopped playing it around 2004-5. I loved playing it. I taught my brothers and cousins how to play it. And we used to have team battles and free for all with like 6-8 people.

[@BlackWolfHate]

We went crazy for Duel Master here in Italy around 2005. Still have my collection and my deck, the official magazines and a flaming grudge for those who never published my Urth The Purifying Elemental drawing on those magazines

[@mtamer2943]

The toys were such HIGH quality, I loved them. Still have the Bolshack Dragon.

[@purewhiteloverbizarrejelly]

I was so nostalgic for this card game, I bought an Abzo Dolba off eBay during quarantine. I used to play the PlayStation card game all the time in middle school.

[@BillyGodd]

I bought one pack of the actual cards, and never bought more. I wish I kept now! I also remember watching this and beyblade back to back and thinking ‘wow they look so similar’

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

My two brothers and I were definitely fans of both the show and the card game. Like you, we hopped on anything card game-related we could.

[@007massey]

Duel Masters used to be my shit bro, I remember playing the hell out of one of the gameboy games and had searched it on KZbin not too long ago trying to remember which one it was that I played. That's probably why the algorithm showed me this video, and I can definitely appreciate it for that. Dope video, glad to see other people remember this as well.

[@babyrath8621]

Finding this video is insane because just yesterday I was with the only one other person I know in my whole life that plays this game and we had a nostalgic duel with basic red and blue decks lmao

[@NsABullitzZ]

I've had the soundbite for the guy saying 'bloody squito' (one of the black monsters) stuck in my head since I was a kid

[@hellniran]

Found my old deck a couple of months ago when i was cleaning out some old stuff. It brought back memories

[@ez-code5448]

I played the card game with my friends back in elementary school. But then, they lost interest and went back to playing Pokémon TCG as the fad passed for them. However, I never quit liking Duel Masters. While the card game died where I live, I discovered the mobile game Duel Masters PLAY'S is still going strong, which I play to this day.

[@LeonTheFallenOne]

I was a fan of everything, watched the show, had all the games, even collected the cards and went to tournaments. I was the local first place champion at them and won handfuls of packs everytime I got first place. (I got my butt kicked AT FIRST, but after fine tuning my deck and getting my ace card from a draft tournament, I was unbeatable)

[@Jargonfox]

In Finland we just didn't get Yugioh on TV until GX, yet we did have Duel Masters and maaany at my school collected the cards, we used to play with em on the ground during breaks. I only knew a single guy who had Yugioh cards, and when I got some as a present I just went all "these are lame" lol. The new Digimon TCG has almost the same game system, me and buds I've taught the game to even lay out the game's "security" cards like "shields" in Duel Masters.

[@berchisergiu9810]

This game was played in Romania so much but people in my town didn't understand the rules until i had to tell everyone how to do it. It was amazing, some friend and thousand of cards, some had less, but it's a fun memory i have from my childhood.

[@bernifitzsimmons176]

Me and my big brother used to buy cards and play it but nobody else did. Eventually we were buying booster packs for £0.50 because the shop just couldn’t sell them. Was a really cool game man, I miss it.

[@PushSnooze]

I have a very strong memory of daycare playing this game with a friend of mine for a few hours. Once I got older, I found the PS2 game and played it relentlessly. i wish i knew where those cards went.

[@noworldforeric]

One of my favorite games. I used to play an Aqua/Light control deck with Aqua Hulcus (MVP) and the evolve card, Lancer. When I first got the game I bought like 3 of the same precon and built the fastest RDW I could build.

[@Commodore128]

I distinctly remember one Summer when everyone seemed to have Duel Masters cards, and I really got into it then. I never watched the anime (although, I'm tempted to go back and do so for a few laughs), but I built several decks and played the game quite a bit with my friends. The game itself has a solid set of rules and I like it a lot, it's a shame it didn't stick around for long after that. Of course, I still have all my old cards!

[@AFPride0764]

Absolutely loved this game. I still have all my cards in mint condition. Military guy so I lived in Japan for 5 years and got ti see how much the game evolved overtime there. Miss playing it. Also loved the video games.

[@FlagsWS]

Duel Masters for me was a lot like Medabots, Zatch Bell, and even Shaman king. Of course I was born in the early 90s and so really grew up with all of these niche card game/collectible shows/games. I absolutely loved all of these series and I still reminisce sometimes of good times growing up. Without Bey Blade, medabots, yugioh, shaman king, Zatch bell and even Duel masters, I don’t know if I would have ever gotten into some of the bigger anime’s that I grew to love/grew up with. Thank you for making this video and reminding me of a good time in my life!