Eternal Arms

**Eternal Arms** (聖拳編) (DM Wiki Article) is the 3rd block of Duel Masters and is also one of its great moments, but it also caused the dark age of Duel Masters in the next year due to its improperly balanced cards. The 3rd set of this block is also the final set in the international versions of the game.

## World View

— Brief Plot

The World View of Eternal Arms changes slightly over the World view of the past 2 sets. The design of cards has started to turn from a western horror/comic style into a surreal fantasy horror style, with creatures having bizzare and surreal designs over their past counterparts.

The civilization alliances and relationships also begin to alter slightly as creatures with multiple civilizations are created, and creatures that are based on 2 enemy civilizations also started to appear. This is a stepping stone for the collapse of generic civilization alliances later on in Spectacle Nova.

## Metagame

This is basically similar to the "Urza's Saga" block of Magic: The Gathering as it featured so many highly powerful and versatile cards, that it would break the game's balance afterwards and the top players are still used even in today's environment.

The top players include Bombazar, Dragon of Destiny, Soulswap, Transmogrify, Upheaval, Miraculous Plague, Miraculous Meltdown, Miraculous Snare, Miraculous Truce, Auzesu, Demonic Holy Spirit, Dolgeza, Veteran of Hard Battle, Galamuta, Matchless Fear Lord, Death Phoenix, Avatar of Doom and the list goes on and on.

Out of them, Bombazar, Dragon of Destiny is the worst as its extremely cheap Extra Turn will ensure that there are very little ways to get around it. The next is the high efficency for no cost spells Soulswap and Transmogrify, which can be used for endless and often nefarious purposes and the 2 were banned later on. Upheaval would be a very powerful spell finisher than can cripple most modern mana ramp decks all by itself. The Miraculous spells were so powerful, that 2 of them, Plague and Snare were restricted, and Truce may be facing the restrictions soon. Multicolored powerhouses such as Auzesu, Dolgeza and Galamuta will become the most powerful finishers in the game for a while in somewhere. Vortex Evolution Creatures such as Death Phoenix provide excellent material for fun decks.

In the other hand, not all about it is good as the block is infamous for endless amounts of Junk Rares and Trash cards, including Gaulezal Dragon, Balza, Seeker of Hyperpearls, Klujadras, Eternal Phoenix, Phoenix of the Dragonflame, Punch Trooper Bronks, King Oquanos, Poltalester, the Spydroid and so on.

Overall, while it had an absurd amount of Metagame-changing cards, the resulting Bombazar catastrophe has threatened the end of the game and is one of the reasons why the english game was discontinued. In fact Bombazar was so powerful, that it basically caused the fall of the game's popularity for the next 2 years.

## Sets

### DM-10

(DM Wiki Article)

The first set of Eternal Arms, this set had many power cards that would become a must in most decks for a long period of time. For example, it had Soulswap, Transmogrify, Upheaval, and the highly nefarious Bombazar, Dragon of Destiny. In the other hand, there are many cards, especially in the Very Rare layer, that are total crap, such as Gaulezal Dragon, Balza, Seeker of Hyperpearls and Terradragon Cusdalf. Note that the Very Rare and Rare Layer of this set is also the most diverse in card power in any set, arranging from game breaking meta cards to totally worthless junk cards that would be mistaken for toilet paper. Overall, this set has made a massive impact on Duel Masters history and will continue to impact deck building for ages to come.

### DM-11

(DM Wiki Article)

The second set of Eternal Arms featured Wave Strikers which are popular among various players, and 2 cycles of Multicolored Spells, including the "Miraculous/Eternal" cycle of high rarity spells and a cycle of lesser uncommon spells, which are famous for their extremely high card power. The rest of the set also had other high power/versatile cards such as Warlord Ailzonius and Emergency Typhoon and thus while subtly fulfilling the Odd-Number Theory, it is nevertheless a powerful set.

### DM-12

(DM Wiki Article)

This set introduced the "Avatar" series of Vortex Evolution creatures which would feature high card power in the price of being difficult to evolve into. Out of them, Death Phoenix, Avatar of Doom is the most popular and would be cherished for time to come despite that it is not Meta. However, most of the other cards have pretty low card power and thus this set is the weakest of the 4.

### DM-13

(DM Wiki Article)

This set first introduced Enemy civilization creatures, with 3 out of 5 of the SR and VR cycle being metagame hits. However, the flagship card Eternal Phoenix is so weak that it is often treated as a big joke. Other cards are also extremely powerful, with The Grave of Angels and Demons being so powerful and cheap that deck building strategies were invented to get around it. Pacific Champion and Courtney, Summer Breeze Faerie would also get high attention due to their unique effects.

## Set Order

* Prequel:Invincible Soul
* Sequel:Generate Gear