Dragon Saga

Dragon Saga (ドラゴン・サーガ, ) is the 13th block of Duel Masters and the last of the "Victory" series of Duel Masters new age expansions. It is often known as "Year 13".
==World view==
Unlike past stories, it does not run in one path; instead each civilization has its own storyline, and unlike past civilization war, each civilization is an individual with personality. This is as of the following;
===Light Civilization===
Unlike the Light civilization of the past, this one was built after more realistic structures such as churches and contained mostly organic creatures such as human-like creatures or Dragons.
They were a bunch of arrogant and cold justice-makers who would attack other civilizations in the name of "Justice", and often attacks relentlessly. They were led by Everrose and Everlast who were a pair of companions who fought for the prosperity of the Light civilization. While first arrogant and cold, the civilization has experienced the loss of Aries, Dragon Edge in an incident about Gaiglen, Violent Dragon Incident which caused the structure of the civilization to divide, but it was bought back to unity when Everlast returns from meditation into a new form and realizes that his true objective is to defeat the person who sealed him. Since no person is capable of doing this himself, they learned the need to cooperate with other civilizations. After then, Everlast (Neverend) was freed.
===Water Civilization===
The Water Civilization were an organization of super heroes who protect weaklings against strong enemies. They were led by and their strongest warrior was Metal Avenger and Q.E.D.. The civilization encountered massive setbacks right at the start, but soon recouped. While being a group of scientists who research "Dragments" for spells, there was a new sect of Liquid people who found another possibility in the "Dragments" and turned them into magic, creating the "Dragon Pulse" sect. Initially this caused division, but under the threat of The=Deadman, the civilization united and their messenger, Aqua Mediacreator was the first to persuade other civilizations to fight it and successfully had Glenmalt and Deathgoros to join them in fighting The=Deadman. After The=Deadman was defeated, their strongest dragheart, Q.E.D. (Q-END) was freed.
===Darkness Civilization===
the Darkness civilization unlike the civilization in the past, was built on top of clean air and a surface environment. The creatures inside also look much less terrifying than their old world counterparts. 
They were mostly consisted of Funky Knightmares who are a group of suicide happy, living toys which enjoy being killed by the Demon Command Dragons inside the civilization. They were led by Ulvorof and Deathshiraz who were among one of the most dangerous competitors in the "Duel Masters" survival match and outright killed all other competitors with their powers. Just the lone presence of Tsumitobatsu, Misfortune Hero is capable of crushing whole Water Civilization fleets. In order to cope with the environment, aside of suicide Funky Knightmares, ninja Funky Knightmares who assassinate competitors also appear. It was later known that Deathshiraz was sealed by The=Deadman a long time ago and he decided to leave Ulvorof and attack himself, which failed and caused them to cooperate with the other 4 civilizations. they also persuaded Glenmalt to join them, and after The=Deadman was defeated, Deathshiraz (Deathgoros) was freed.
===Fire Civilization===
The Fire Civilization was the main character of the Dragon Saga storyline and has anime-styled Humans (Human Baku) living along with Armored Dragons and Red Command Dragons, but these later became Gaial Command Dragons. They were the strongest of the five civilizations.
They were once led by Dorago the Great, Dragon World but since he was overthrown, the civilization does not have a central leader. Instead, a boy called Glenmalt was there to find the strongest Dragheart, Gaiheart/Gaiginga and used it to attack against other civilizations. While Glenmalt at first was able to make a friendship with this Dragheart, it was so immensely powerful that its power fused with him and this created Gaiglen, Violent Dragon Incident which violently attacks all regardless of friend or foe and also drains the fire Civilization's energy. Therefore, his teacher, Fiddich and his friend Macallan were there to stop him, which they succeeded and sealed Gaiheart and Gaial inside Glenmalt. After rigorous training, Gaial became Gaiohburn/Gairaoh and Gaiheart became Gigaheart/Ohginga and only them Glenmalt realizes that Draghearts were actually the sealed winners of "Duel Masters" by The=Deadman after meeting Sasoris. He was also informed that his father was transformed into a Demon Command Dragon by The=Deadman, and so he went out and defeated The=Deadman and his dragheart, Niga=Vermut. However The=Deadman's soul still remains and he createed and controlled the ultimate Dragheart, All Over the World, Supreme True Dragon Soul and it was so immensely powerful, that in spite of Glenmalt becoming MaltNEXT, Ultra War Dragon Ruler, the strongest Draguner, was incapable of defeating it and so the cooperation of other civilizations were required. He was persuaded by Aqua Mediacreator and Ulvorof to join them and upon fighting All Over The World, he fused Ohginga and Gairaoh into GuyNEXT and it and MaltNEXT crushed All Over The World in just three hits. After then, Ohginga and Gairaioh were freed and Glenmalt continues his adventure in Rando.
===Nature Civilization===
The Nature civilization lives in the rainforests along the planet and is consisted of a multitude of environments; Tropical rainforests consisting of palm trees, ruins where Beast Folk live in, and some snowy terrain where Snow Faeries and Mammothdon lives.
They were a primitive society who were consisted of Beast Folk Go shamans and Jurassic Command Dragons, and were led by Sasoris. Unlike other civilizations, they do not participate in "Duel Masters" and is an enemy of nobody (At least not mentioned in the story). However, the creatures there will still attack invading creatures of other civilizations. Sasoris used acorns to summon Jurassic Command Dragons, but they were also used as food so Sasoris starved. So as he awoken Dragons with Judaina, Jurassic Hammer, it also created Domitius, Evil Emperor of Five Dragonskind which is an evil dragon who wants to destroy the world. Followed by it was one of the beast folk, Imen=Bugo, Dragon Ruler who betrayed and used the power of the five civilizations to his advantage, which caused a civil war to break in Imen and Sasoris.
However at the same time the true mastermind of this, The=Deadman appears and tries to use his greed to conquer the 5 civilizations using his dragheart Niga=Vermut. Since he sealed all other winners of Duel Masters into Draghearts, he was hated by all civilizations and was defeated by Malt "King", Dual Sword Dragon Ruler, but his soul still remains and is creating the strongest dragheart, All Over the World, Supreme True Dragon Soul. Eventually the civilizations cooperated and defeated it.
After the war, Saurpio (Sauzaurpio) was freed.
==Metagame==
The Dragon Saga metagame is among one of the most powerful and balanced metagames in Duel Masters history with each type of deck being equally strong, as well as being filled with Draghearts which are both flashy and highly useful.
Unlike past blocks, Dragon Saga promotes a mono-civilization strategy. While being looked down at first, due to high-power cards continiously being introduced, at the end of Dragon Saga all civilizations save for the Water Civilization have their own deck types.
The first Dragheart to make it is Gaiginga, which fit for its 1 to 12 box Double Victory packaging rate, was insanely powerful as it is impossible to remove properly and works well with mass creature spamming. 
Since then, powerful Draghearts of other civilizations had appeared, including Evidegoras/Q.E.D. Plus which is known for its insane extra draw and finishing capabilities, Boaroaxe, Evil Tomahawk which is known for its out of scale spamming powers and is currently being put into the Hall of Fame due to its versatility, and Welcome Hell/Deathgoros which was known for almost the same thing as Boaroaxe, and is thus the second Victory to be put into the Hall of Fame. As for Light Draghearts, Neverlast became an efficent Blocker spammer and high power finisher in Heaven's Gate while Neverend became a difficult to deal with finisher in light decks. At the end of Dragon Saga, MaltNEXT, Ultra War Dragon Ruler and GuyNEXT, Super Battle Victory Dragon was capable of a one man one shot that is able to take down opponents all by itself.
Other cards are no slouch either; The most prominent of them is Sr Spellcyclica, Dragment Symbol, whose spell recycling and casting effects made it a must in all slower control decks later on. The=Deadbrachio, World Evil Dragonkind is serving as an excellent defense against threats, especially Mega Manalock Dragon right after Dragon Saga. Gaial Mobius, Victory Emepror, Lionel, Lion Zenith Dragon and Kiriko Cubic, First Model Dragon Emperor was capable of ending whole games all by themselves. Emeralda, Pitch Dragon Elemental is so versatile, that it became a must for light decks.
Unlike most other blocks, the whole block of Dragon Saga, from start to end, has at least meta migh rarity card in each set, greatly fueling up the card pool and the possible choices of the metagame. 
However, aside of Victory and Double Victory rares, there are many bland and low card power cards in the rarities below, with the most infamous being Zeek Cavalie, Lord of Dragon Spirits and Fulboko Donacle, Ultra Passion. While the first few sets contain absurdly low packaging rates for high card power cards (Espeically 1 out of 12 box Double Victories), this has been improved soon after and Double Victories and Victory Rares have the same packaging rate as Super Rares.
It is also well known for its Fire bias and makes the Fire civilization the strongest of all civilizations by making lots of broken Draghearts and Glenmalt Draguners for it.
This is also the last expansion with Victories and they were later replaced with the 100% get Legend Rare in Revolution Saga.
==Expansions==
===DMR-13===
This set introduced the new Double Victory rarity Gaiginga, Passionate Star Dragon which appears 1 out of 12 boxes, as well as the sinister Sr Spellcyclica, Dragment Symbol. There were also a few good rarity cards such as Judaina, Jurassic Hammer and Wald Brachio, World Dragon King, but there are much more chances of obtaining junk cards and 70% of the boxes had Zeek Cavalie, Lord of Dragon Spirits and Fulboko Donacle, Ultra Passion which are extremely terrible Junk Rares. Mana Arms also first appeared in this set, but they were not commonly used due to the monocolor limit at that time...Until near the end of the block. For more, see our article on this set.
===DMR-14===
This set introduced the mana arms infinite attack card Gaiglen, Violent Dragon Incident which was pretty low rated and easily forgotten due to the sheer difficulty bringing it out and using it as well as it not fitting to the MaltNEXT play style (At least it is better than the Emperor of the Gods). The true flagship card is more like Q.E.D. Plus, Final Dragon Logic which is an extra draw card that can become an extremely powerful finisher, fit for all sorts of control and heavyweight decks, including those involving Kaiser "Baki", Zenith of "Certain Victory". It is also a new card type called "Dragheart Fortress" which is a card that is indestructible without card removal. Stronger ones also have Dragon Evade which makes the Dragheart Creature invincible.
===DMR-15===
This set introduced Escape which makes tough defense against hard destruction for predominantly light, and also the second double victory, Ohginga, Strongest Passion. Despite being a Double Victory, it has the same packaging rate as a Super Rare and fit to its rarity, it is capable of winning the game all by itself. It also introduced the true mastermind of Dragon Saga, The=Deadman and his Dragheart, Niga=Vermut. True to its christmas expansion status, card power is relatively high, although the Super Rares are underwhelming.
===DMR-16===
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This set is split into 2 sets, a "Darkness" set called "Kyoku" and a "Light" set called "Shin". "Kyoku" involves recycle, a series of spells that allow the player to pay an additional cost to cast it again once, and the creatures in the set have a darkness tone, holding scythes as weapons and such and featuring skeletal features. "Shin" involves Escape in all civilizations and has creatures in a "Light" tone, holding weapons such as swords and spears and appearing in a brighter tone. Both also introduce "Guerrilla Division" which are a series of cards that allow the player to pack any number of them into the deck, and the infamous and sinister MaltNEXT and GuyNEXT combo which can easily destroy empty fielded opponents. Unlike other last sets, this last set maintains an extremely high-cardpower tone and is thus liked by many players.
===Other points of interest===
====Beginning Dragon Decks====
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These are a series of starter decks that only sold for 500 yen but in contrast, had extremely high card power for a starter deck. (Best Challenger Starter Set, anyone?) However since they have beginner oriented content, they were not very meta.
====DMX-16====
This is a strategy pack set which allows the player to use monocolor strategies, with it being the pioneer of Mono Darkness Control, as well as Dorago the Great, Dragon World which was used in the last few days of Miramisu. The other victory card, Baradios, Lord of Dragon Spirits in the other hand did not fare well as it is a blocker removal fodder.
===DMD-18 and DMD-19===
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These were a series of super decks which introduced Victory Rares into Super Decks. There are 2 Victory Rares per deck, with Gaial Kaiser and Gaiburn being in "Gaial" and Diajogoku, Annililation Demon Dragon and Devil Diabolos Double Zeta, Ultimate Awakened in "Diabolos". While "Gaial" contained stronger cards, it was consisted of only fire cards and was thus considered difficult to use. "Diabolos" in the other hand contained weaker cards, but it was more versatile.
===DMX-17===
This set is aimed on helping players construct Dragon Decks, with over 90% of the set's content being Dragons while others provide Dragon support. It also acts as a revival pack as many of the set's new content were reincarnations of past creatures. DEspite being a revival pack, the cardpower of this set is STILL extremely high and thus sold for extreme prices shortly after its release.
===DMX-18===
This set is more strategy packs, now introducing a new "3D Dragsolution" pattern. 3D Dragsolution is a card made out of 3 thick cardboard connected by a film that acts as the Dragheart Creature's foil and picture. Therefore, they are very delicate and break easily, but in the other hand their card power is extremely high. Emeralda, Pitch Dragon Elemental and Boaroaxe, Evil Tomahawk/Imen=Bugo, Dragon Ruler were also introduced here, starting a set of new nightmares in the metagame.
===DMD-20===
This was the single strongest theme deck in Duel Masters history and introduced a super royal roster than cannot be compared by anything else. Gairaioh is the key card here and Gaial Ore Dragon, the Vainglory and Onimaru "Head", Victory Rush were also reprinted, giving a total of 4 Victory Rares. The set's content also contained Fire and Nature multicolored basic setup cards and is thus the stepping stone for a quasi-mono fire deck, a decktype that lingered until this day. However, reproduction of the set is suddenly cancelled and thus it became among one of the most highest priced theme decks in DM history.
===DMX-19===
Total insanity, see our report.
==Set Order==
*Previous: Episode 3
*Next: Revolution Saga
Category:Set Blocks