Duel Masters Revamped – A Look at ‘Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters’

Elliott MillerSep 8, 2012

Game Name: Kaijudo – Rise of the Duel Masters

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Designer: Multiple

Year: 2012

Players: 2

Ages: 8+

Playing Time: 20 Minutes

Retail Price: Depends on what you buy, 2 Deck Battle Set is $19.99

Category: Card Game

Components:

80 Cards
2 Deck Boxes
2 Code Cards
2 Playmats
1 Quick Start Guide

From Wizards of the Coast:

Dark forces are rising. To defeat them, begin your training to become a true Kaijudo Duel Master in the ultimate test of high-action creature combat with the Kaijudo Trading Card Game. Catch new product updates, featured cards, and first looks at the mighty creatures featured in upcoming releases. Grow strong in your dueling skill with strategies and tips, and discover new creature allies that you can summon to challenge your opponents in any battle. Be ready for battle when the Veil tears near you!

Although is has been a big hit in Japan, Duel Masters never really took off in the United States. Wizards of the Coast decided to revamp the entire trading card game, and relaunch with a multimedia blitz of products, including an animated series (showing on The Hub), a fully interactive website where you can play against other players or practice your dueling skills in the training room against a computer opponent, and a new line of TCG products.

The entire game is designed for the younger crowd, and will appeal mostly to the 8-12 year old boys group. The package that I played with is the Kaijudo Battle Decks: Tatsurion vs. Razorkinder set. This comes with two complete premade decks of battle cards, with two super rare foil cards on the package (Tatsurion and Razorkinder), and one additional very rare foil card in each deck.

I’m assuming that it will be mostly parents reading this, wanting to know more about a new game for their children. This is a very simple trading card game designed in the fashion of other anime battle style card games like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. It is easy enough for parents to get a kick out of playing it with their kids to hone their skills so that they can challenge their friends.

The artwork is appropriate for children. One of the things that I liked about the Battle Deck set is that it comes with two card boxes, big enough to hold two decks, the playmat, and rules. These are sturdy boxes with magnetic connectors to keep them closed. Each one is themed toward one of the five civilizations represented in the game. These are Light, Water, Darkness, Fire, and Nature. The boxes make it easy for a youngster to carry their game to play with friends or in a local tournament.

If you are reluctant to spend money on a new game before your kids have a chance ot try it out and see if they like it, then I recommend that you take them over to Kaijudo.com. At the website, you can set up an account for the kids, where they are taken through a full training program which teaches them how to play the game. The site is ESRB Privacy Certified for kids, so even though they might fight against other players in duels, there is no way for them to communicate with each other. Additionally, as a nice safety touch, you get to choose your username from several generic options along with a generated 4 digit number. So your child cannot use their own name as their username, further protecting them online.

I’ve played through some of the online game, and I still haven’t gotten to where I can challenge another player. You can see clips and episodes from the show, learn about the creatures and places, unlock and build different decks to try out, and earn virtual goodies for your avatar. When you buy some of the actual game decks at the store, you can get cards with promotional codes on them that allow you to earn online rewards, like items or special cards for your online deck.

I think the website is excellent. It blends in nicely with the show, has some great animated effects, and lets you learn and practice the game. Different masters will pop in what looks like a page from a comic book to teach you Kaijudo, a nice touch. The one problem that I has was that the site was slow. The screen took a long time to refresh when playing the game and got to be pretty annoying. I’m assuming that this was because my computer isn’t the best in the world, but I have played World of Warcraft on it with no problem, so it might not be just my computer, I can’t say for sure. It works much better with Internet Explorer than it does with Firefox.

On to the card game itself. There is a paper playmat that each player sets in front of them. You take five cards from your deck and place them face down as shields on the mat. When you destroy all of your opponents shields, then attack them one final time, you win (the same goes for your opponent).

You each draw five cards from your deck. If you are familiar with Magic the Gathering (MTG), you will recognize Kaijudo as a simplified, streamlined version of MTG. You can play one card into your mana pool. It will have no other effect from then on other than to provide you mana. Every time you cast a spell or summon a creature from your hand to the table, you must use at least one mana of the same color as what you are attempting to cast, and then use enough total mana to meet the cost listed on the top left of the card. For example, Fumes, a purple card, costs four mana to cast. You need to tap (turn sideways) four mana cards in order to summon Fumes, and at least one of those mana must be purple.

You will spend your turn casting spells and summoning creatures to the battle area of the table. A creature cannot attack on the turn it is summoned though, just like in MTG. On the next turn you can attack with that creature, or all of the creatures that you have that can attack. They atttack one at a time, and you can choose to attack either your opponent directly, or one of their tapped creatures. The only way a player can stop an attack against them directly is if they have a blocker creature on the table. This can intercept the direct attack.

If the attack on the player gets through, then they lose a shield. The shield card goes into the defender’s hand and they can use it on their next turn. Some shield cards have the “Shield Blast” ability, this allows the defender to cast a special spell for free right away if they so choose.

If the attack is on another creature, then the strength of both creatures is compared. This is listed in the lower left corner of the creature cards. The highest number wins and the loser is banished (to the discard pile). In the event of a tie, both creatures are banished.

Fighting continues back and forth until one player runs out of shields and is attacked with no shield defense. So since you have five shields, it will take six direct attacks against you to lose. The game ends and then you can revel in your triumph (or failure).

The rules included in the battle deck pack are very basic, and are not really sufficient to understand everything about the game. You need to go to Kaijudo.com/TCGFAQ in order to learn all of the rules. You’ll also be able to find places to play the TCG in your area.

It is a well done game for kids with lots of tie in to the TV show. So if they like the show they will probably enjoy playing the game. In addition to the battle deck packs, there are booster packs so that you can customize your deck. As of Sepember 7^th, there are new competitive decks and booster packs available, with exclusive promo cards only available at Walmart. If you like exclusives, then Walmart is the place to to get your Kaijudo promos.

Take note that this is a collectible card game, just like Magic the Gathering. So if your child becomes addicted, you’ll be buying booster packs (for $3.99 each) and competitive decks so that the young ones can put together the perfect deck of cards.