Beginner's Block (Duel Masters)

**Beginner's Block** (基本編) (Duel Masters Wiki) is the 1st block of Duel Masters. The block name is read as "Duel Masters", but in order to avoid confusion, "Beginner's Block" will be used. It is often known as "Year 0" or "Year 1".

## World View

— Brief plot

The world view of the Beginner's Block is greatly different from the worldview now. There is no absolute explanation of good and evil, no explanation of what caused the war save for "A natural disaster", and no explanation on many other subjects, as many secrets had yet to be uncovered.

Unlike the Japanese teenage comic style used in card artwork in modern sets, the artwork of Beginner's block and the 4 upcoming blocks after it follows a western horror fantasy/American comic style and may not be that suitable for easily terrified people. The most infamous of them were the Darkness civilization cards which were hideous, deformed abominations instead of the super-cute plushies and super-awesome looking dragons we see today.

Idol Cards were virtually nonexistent (Honestly Idol Cards in Duel Masters are a pretty modern invention) and the only female creatures were Dark Lords who were total abominations. All Humans were burly looking, armor-clad men with the exception of Mini Titan Gett who is a partially armed boy, and was drawn as a ~~shota~~ teenage manga hero later on.

The Fire and Nature Civilization in Beginner's block acts as victims (Invasion targets, to be exact) of the Darkness and Water civilizations respectively, while the Light civilization acts somewhere between an arbiter and a ruthless attacker.

## Metagame

"A so-called tourneyfag Metagame".

As the first few sets are designed after the "Alpha" series of ancient Magic: The Gathering cards, the metagame basically follows the same rules. Weenie rushes and removal controls make up the majority of the metagame and Shield Triggers are considered very powerful as there are not many ways to get around them at that time and they can decide the outcome in an instant when cast. Out of them, Holy Awe, Terror Pit and Natural Snare are considered the "3 Great Shield Triggers" and are used in almost any deck at that time.

Unfortunately as a Tourneyfag metagame always suggests, the high-power, high rarity cards (To be exact most stuff with 6000 power or more) were not used save for children and inexperienced players which would either be defeated before the huge creatures kick in, or have their huge creatures removed next turn. The only creatures that appeared in the meta that have 6000 power or more are Crystal Lancer and Fighter dual Fang. The others are either Quasi-vanilla (Such as Deathliger, Lion of Chaos and Bolshack Dragon), too difficult to evolve at that time, (While it might seem awkward now, there aren't many easy to use Angel Commands to evolve Alcadeias or Ballom with at that time.) or have glaring demerits that prevents them from being used. However, one thing the quasi-vanilla, high rarity fatties are good for is their illustration have a unique sense of awesomeness, so they were often used as trade bait at that time.

Water is considered a powerful civilization as it had powerful draw cards such as Cyber Brain and Aquan, as well as speedy beatsticks such as Astral Reef and cheap shield manipulation such as Emeral. Unlike now where Fire is the king of all civilizations, fire is not used save for Human rushes as it does not have much other than Quasi-vanillas going for it.

While unusual now, as there are no proper Dragon support and powerful Dragons yet, in this metagame "Dragon Deck" is another term for a really weak deck. They do have a point at that time, sadly.

## Explanation of the sets

### DM-01

(Duel Masters Wiki link)

The first set that is heavily modeled after the "Alpha" series of MTG sets. It was basically consisted of very basic stuff, arranging from the broken Cyber Brain, to the highly useful holy Awe, Terror Pit and Natural Snare, to key compartments such as Bronze-Arm Tribe and Aqua Hulcus, to the quasi-vanilla, high rarity fatties, but most of the cards are literal junk.

Low-rarity cards tend to be stronger than high-rarity cards as the high-rarity cards were mostly quasi-vanilla fatties, and useful cards were all reprinted eternally in Duel Masters history.

### DM-02

(Duel Masters Wiki link)

This set introduces Evolution Creatures and contains many useful cards at that time such as Rumbling Terahorn, Crystal Lancer, Crystal Paladin and Fighter Dual Fang. In fact, it would be pretty much impossible to build a deck at that time without this set. It was so great, that many people felt grief when it became out-of-production.

The set also introduced the first creature with more than 10000 power, Ultracide Worm. While it's an Evolution creature and can attack instantly, it is rarely used as Parasite Worms were not good evolution bait. Now it is outclassed by Killer the Kill, Demon Dragon King and Deadzone, S-Rank Zombie.

### DM-03

(Duel Masters Wiki Link)

This set pushes further monocolored support and also renews the high power record with Miar, Comet Elemental. However, this set failed to promote Monocolored decks miserably as they did not compliment the civilization's weaknesses. Card power is also weak as well and this set was known as the start of the Odd-Number Theory.

Originally, the game was to discontinue after this set, but due to its popularity it continued.

### DM-04

(Duel Masters Wiki Link)

This set introduces the civilization alliances and hostilities and had cards that support allied civilizations, as well as pinpointing enemy civilizations. However, the civilization pinpointing tactic was so horrible that it is rarely seen now. It also introduced Alcadeias and Ballom which were not meta, but will be sung of the remainder of DM history.

Aside of this, it is also the birthplace of Astral Reef and Aquan who would plague the metagame after them.

### DM-05

(Duel Masters Wiki Link)

This set was the final set of the Beginner's Block and introduced creatures with Triple Breaker and overscale power compared to other creatures at that time, but as they were either poor in power-to-cost ratio, are quasi-vanilla or have extreme demerits, they were never seen in the metagame and were only used by kids and inexperienced players who were defeated easily. Neverthe less these cards would become the basis of all of the hard and heavy finishers right now.

## Block order

* Prequel: N/A
* Sequel: Invincible Soul