Lost in Translation - Marvel Greetings duelist everywhere, it's me again Marvel on my second ever post on good 'ol pojo. This time I'm going to talk about WoTC's policy in changing some DM cards the day they go from east to west. The 2 changes are card names and card abilites. Changing card names seemed to be a common thing on a process of a TCG translation these days *cough*demon - fiend*cough* DM is no exception. The card name changes are pretty strange, and most of the time seemed uncalled for. The first set itself already present some strange changes in names. Most notably, Hanusa, a super rare card. She was supposed to be Shauna. (The change is an anagram in case you didn't notice). IMO the change was meant to make the card more "readable" and "pronounciable" (I don't care wether it's a real word or not, so stop complaining) for the western tounge, but I don't think it helped much. The other changes mostly come from the darkness civilization; Marrow Ooze was originaly Bone Slime, Bloody Squito was Bloody Earring, Terror Pit - Demon Hand to name a few. The changes didn't hurt, though it would be fun to have the original names intact. The 2nd and 3rd sets have some name changes too, but I'll save that for originality fanatics out there. What I really want to share here is my opinion and perception about the changes in card abilites. Some are made to balanced the game such as Cyber Brain - Brain Serum I prefer 2 cards anytime than having 3 but restricted to only 1 per deck. But there are also those who were 'balanced' so much, it hurts the card, not to mention its collectability. Meet valborg (Groblav, it's english name is actually valborg's name reversed, for those who didn't notice). A 3 mana for 5000 DOUBLE BREAKER human evolution creature. As seen on DM manga book#9 where Shobu plays a gett and slaps a valborg on the small fella at the same turn, attacked poor Kabutomaru immediately, burst 2 shields and won the duel. That, IMO is pretty sick. Valborg is waayyy too cheap for a double breaking creature, even if he's an evolution. The english version fixed the problem by raising the Casting Cost to 5, and giving an extra 1000 power to compensate for the higher cost. Yet, if you look at Armored Blaster Valdios, you'll see how inferior the supposedly "balanced" valborg is; Japanese Valborg Human Evolution - 3 Casting Cost - 5000 Power - Double Breaker - Gets a +1000 power when attacking for every fire creature in the battle zone English Valborg aka groblav Human Evolution - 5 Casting Cost - 6000 Power - Double Breaker - Gets a +1000 power when attacking for every fire creature in the battle zone Armored Blaster Valdios - Human Evolution - 4 Casting Cost - 6000 Power - Double Breaker - Gives a +1000 to all other humans in the battle zone. I'd take Valdios over groblav any day. Getting your other human hitters powered up (so you can bypass those annoying weenie blockers without casualty) is more worth it than having just one powered up, only to be blocked by a horde of blockers. In good ol' japan, valborg is far superior to valdios, but in the english version, it's the opposite. Is this a good thing WotC? Basically, You guys just destroyed one of the most powerful tool a fire rush deck could ever hoped for. Not to mention completely jeopardizing the original Valborg's card value. The original japanese version can cost a lot more than ever before, while the english version will be cheaper that it supposed to be. Oh yeah, say bye-bye to cross region playing too! Everyone should admit that 3 is way too cheap, but 5 is just too much. If only groblav would cost 1 less and retain all of its original power, he'll be waayy better than he is right now. It's a JDC promo card for cryin' out loud? How many people can get 4 copies of him anyway? Even though WotC's Valborg policy gives players quite a surprise, seeing both emeral (from the 3rd set) and astral reef's (from the 4th set) abilities intact is more astonishing. IMO they deserved the near broken title a lot more, compared to Valborg. But why did WoTC kept them as they are? I just don't get it... I've played DM for quite a while, even before the english version is released. Seeing some cards being changed scared me (not to mention all other duelist who have been playing the japanese version too) a LOT. Why? It forced us to buy new versions of the cards, ditching our old ones. And that my friend, is not a very cheap or wonderful thing to do. I just hoped WotC don't go berserk and do anything crazy anymore. One mistake (the valborg case) is enough. This is Marvel signing out, as usual if you have any thoughts, ideas, critics, or just want to chat. Email me on marvel_83@hotmail.com Adieu and Happy Dueling! Regards, Asian Kaijudo Duelist Marvel S.