It's all about the numbers...

dcphipps@academicplanet.com

Hey pojo fans! For those of you who, for some reason, don't know me, 
I'm cgman, and, after a long, long time of debating about what to 
write, I decided to write this article explaining about the numbers 
involved in Duel Masters. While some of you may be thinking "Well, 
that's obvious, there's power and mana cost, as well as the amount 
of mana a card gives.", that is not all that there is. While all of 
those are correct, every single aspect of the game has to do with 
numbers, whether you realize it or not. First of all, there are 
the most obvious of them all: power and mana cost. Power allows 
you to destroy creatures with a lower attack or block creatures 
with a lower attack. Also, this is often used in offsetting a card 
effect, otherwise the mana cost is raised greatly. The mana cost 
tells you how long it will take you to summon the creature or cast 
the spell you want. Since these two are the most self explanatory, 
I don't think I'll need to go into too much detail with that. 
Also, whether you think it's important or not, the number of cards 
in your deck determines the choices you will have during a duel. 
The number of cards in your deck will often depend upon your style 
of play. For example, if you want to quickly destroy your opponent's 
shields with fast creatures, you should have a 40 card deck, period. 
However, if you plan on running your opponent out of cards by stalling, 
it would not be uncommon to see a large deck, and it is most likely 
expected from most Duel Masters players(what are we called anyway, 
duelists, players(that sounds weird)). I've even seen, or, rather, 
heard of, a deck containing about 80 cards in it(message boards, 
which I am a member of, but I can't remember my password, and I have 
requested it...)! Another factor is how many of a certain card is in 
your deck. If you have four of a certain card in a 40 card deck, then, 
theoretically, you should draw one of those every ten turns. However, 
this does not take into consideration your starting hand or shields, 
as well as deck manipulation, such as drawing and searching. Even the 
rare occurence of creature class has been added to list of numbers 
involved. With the new promos released, the number of Humans or 
Beast Folk in your deck could very well effect game play. The most 
rare occurence, I believe, of numbers in Duel Masters is how many 
of a certain civilization you have. For example, almost all of a 
deck based on Bolshak Dragon should be Fire. 
The last thing I can think of right now is how much mana you have 
in the mana zone. The mana you have gives you the options you can 
use. The more options you have, the better. That's why hand management 
is such an important factor in card games: the simple fact that you 
have more options, and without options, you cannot win. I hope this 
enlightened someone on...something! If anyone has any questions,
feel free to email me. Thanks for reading!             -cgman