Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters Battle Decks: Tatsurion vs. Razorkinder

     So, what happens when you take the card game equivalent of the Megaman Legends series (or in other words has a cult following, yet seemingly gets not enough love) like Duel Masters, which is still selling in Japan, but not here in America and still has fans and is a well designed game to boot?  Well as Wizards of the Coast, which distributed Duel Masters in America (and their site will link to the Japanese site of the game, if you don't believe me go to wizards.com and highlight brands at the top, its still listed), is a subsidiary of Hasbro, Hasbro brought it back, basically, in the form of Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (and I see what they did there, as I recall a video game called Duel Masters: Rise of Kaijudo being made).  As the backs of the cards are different and it basically is a different game, with classic cards brought back like Bronze-Arm Tribe (and a few prominent cards of the past I recall seeing in clips of the show, as well as on the online version, but more on that later), but functions just the same.
      Kaijudo has two types of cards, creatures and spells.  Any creature can attack unless it has an ability that prevents it from doing so, and only creatures that have "Blocker" written on them can block attackers from their intended targets.  Like Duel Masters, there are five Civilizations that creatures and spells belong to.  Fire is typically aggressive when attacking and for example has spells to deal with an opponent's blockers and a few "destroy a creature with x or less power" for example, however Fire is not known for its blockers. Water is typically more defensive at it has plenty of draw card effects and return effects mixed in between creatures and spells, but outside of a few of the higher cost cards and the blockers their creatures will typically be a little weaker to offset the draw and return effects.  Nature tends to be a bit beefy with its creatures, while at the same time maintaining a number of cards that revolve around putting extra cards in the mana zone.  Darkness is a tricky lot full of cards that might cost cheaper but have a downside to them (like Skeeter Swarmer, which is a cheap 4000 Power blocker, but only has one block in it and then off to the discard pile) or straight up banish (other tcg's might refer to destroy or send to grave, it simply means it goes to the discard pile).  Light (which was not included in the Battle Deck) has a number of effects that tap opponents creatures, as well as a fair number of blockers, and is arguably the most defensive of the five civilizations.

   
      Now, on to the card's themselves.  Let us take a look at the two 'silver foils' (as I'll refer to them), Tatsurion and Razorkinder here for the card designs.  Creatures and spells all have a name in the top white box.  The top left corner has the cost to play and below that is the civilization's symbol as a double confirmation with the color coding of the cards (Fire is red, Water is blue, Nature is green, Darkness is purple, and Light is yellow).  Beneath the creature's name (if its a spell, it does not have this) is the type of creature it is, for instance Razorkinder is an "Evil Toy" and Tatsurion counts as "Armored Dragon" and "Beast Kin."  Beneath the name (and the creature type in the case of creatures) is the art box of the card, and beneath that it'll have another box separating the art box from the text box declaring if it is a creature or spell, as well as having first edition on the right side of that separator for the edition (at the moment everything is first edition, although I have not seen if it lacks that or will list something else for reprints in the future).  In the text box, It will list any abilities by name, such as "Double Breaker" or "Blocker" for example, as well as what the abilities do (for creatures) or the effect of the spells, and lastly all the cards appear to have flavor text on them (which plays no factor rule wise, but a couple are good for a chuckle, or the TV series lore is included).  If the card is a creature, it will have its power in the lower left corner.  If a creature fights another creature (through blocking, or if it attacked a tapped creature) then the one with the higher power wins (if it is a tie, then they both go to the discard pile).  In the lower right corner of all cards, it will list the order number the card is of the set, the set code, and who illustrated the artwork, as well as the trademark information below that.  That is the detailed explanation of the card frames.

     Overall it so far seems to be a rather good card game, and this two pack starter is only $19.99US retail for two complete decks and two very nice deck cases to hold them in (they keep shut with a magnet clasp, you can actually easily pick up both with no fear of them breaking apart from each other, but they open a little odd from the side) and easily is very good product quality to money spent.  My only complaint is the two "silver rares" as they tend to be a bit too shiny, but the other two rares that come in the deck are almost as shiny, but lack the silver edge.  If you are interested in trying the game, go to the official website (http://www.kaijudo.com/) and you can easily create an account to log into with a password of your choice (but beware, lose/forget the information to log and you have to make a new account, no way to retrieve lost data) and you can play the Kaijudo Online game to go through a tutorial and mess with some cards that aren't printed yet against some cpu opponents.  Overall I recommend a peak at the game, and I also have a demonstration duel between a friend of mine (Signas) and myself.  With that below there are also some pictures I took of what came in the box  if you want to get a closer look.