How to play

Duel Masters is a card game for two players. You build a deck of creatures and spells, grow your mana a card at a time, and send your creatures to break through your opponent’s shields. Everything here is how this site plays it: the server keeps every rule and card effect, so you only make the choices.

1. The goal

Each player starts with 5 shields: face-down cards from the top of their deck. Attacking your opponent with a creature breaks their shields, one at a time (or more, with the right creatures). Once they have no shields left, land one more attack on them that they don’t block, and you win.

A duel can also end in these ways:

  • Deck out: a player whose deck runs out of cards loses straight away, so keep an eye on how many cards your deck has left.
  • Forfeit: a player who forfeits loses.
  • Disconnect: a player who loses their connection has 2 minutes to come back to the game (unless the site’s admins changed it), or they lose.
  • A few cards win or lose the game by their own effect, as their text says.

2. Your first game

  1. Make an account

    Sign up with a name, an email address and a password. You may be asked for a code the site emails you, to confirm the address.

  2. Pick a deck

    You don’t have to build one first. Every player can play the starter decks, one for each civilization (Fire: Bolshack Rush is chosen for you). Later, copy one into your decks to change it, or build your own (see Building a deck).

  3. Find an opponent

    Go to Play and choose Quick match to be paired with a player near your rating, Open a game to wait for someone to join, or Vs computer to practise against a computer opponent. Games against the computer never change your rating, so it is the place to learn.

  4. Play

    The duel starts with a coin toss, then the turns begin. The board tells you what you can do at every moment, and this page explains the rest.

3. The cards

Every card belongs to one or more of the five civilizations, shown by its colour. Each has its own way of playing:

  • Light:Blockers that guard your shields, and spells that tap the opponent’s creatures.
  • Water:Drawing cards, sending creatures back to their owner’s hand, and attackers that are hard to block.
  • Darkness:Destroying creatures, slayers that take their killer with them, and using the graveyard.
  • Fire:Fast, hard-hitting attackers, and spells that destroy creatures and blockers.
  • Nature:Extra mana, powerful creatures and boosts to power.

There are three kinds of cards:

  • Creatures are summoned to the battle zone, where they attack and defend. Each has a cost (the number in its top-left corner), a power (how strong it is in a battle) and a race, such as Armored Dragon. Their abilities are written in their text box.
  • Evolution creatures are put on top of one of your creatures already in the battle zone: the card says what it must evolve from, such as a creature of a certain race. They have no summoning sickness, so they can attack at once. The cards underneath stay with them, and leave the battle zone with them.
  • Spells do what their text says the moment you cast them, then go to your graveyard.

To read any card, hover over it (on a computer) or tap it (on a phone). The card list has every card the game can play, with filters to search them.

4. The zones

Each player has the same zones. Yours are on the lower half of the board, your opponent’s on the upper half.

Deck
Your 40 cards, face down and shuffled. You draw from the top. Nobody can look through it, but both players see how many cards are left.
Hand
The cards you hold. Only you see them; your opponent sees how many you have.
Mana zone
Cards you put here pay for your other cards. Each turn you may add one card from your hand. Mana cards are tapped (turned sideways) when you use them, and untap at the start of your turn.
Battle zone
Where your creatures are. Untapped creatures stand upright; a creature taps when it attacks, blocks or uses a tap ability.
Shield zone
Your shields, face down. When one is broken, it goes to your hand, and it may be a shield trigger (see Shields and shield triggers).
Graveyard
Destroyed creatures and cast spells, face up. Some cards bring cards back from here.

5. Starting a duel

  1. Both decks are shuffled.
  2. Each player puts the top 5 cards of their deck face down as their shields.
  3. Each player draws 5 cards.
  4. A coin toss decides who starts. One player calls heads or tails (chosen at random, or in a rematch the player who lost the last game). Both players watch the coin, and its winner chooses to go first or second.
  5. The player who goes first doesn’t draw on their first turn, to make up for starting first.

6. A turn, step by step

A turn has five phases, shown in the phase bar on the board. The draw and end phases pass by themselves; in the mana, summon and battle phases, the turn waits for you. The turn only moves forwards: once you leave a phase, you can’t go back to it this turn.

  1. Draw phase

    Your tapped creatures and mana cards untap, then you draw a card.

  2. Mana phase

    You may put one card from your hand into your mana zone, or none. Any card will do: it gives you one mana of its civilization from now on. When you’re done, press Go to summon phase.

  3. Summon phase

    Summon creatures and cast spells, as many as your mana can pay for (see Mana and paying for cards). Then press Battle phase. If you could still play a card or add mana, the board asks you first, because neither is possible after that.

  4. Battle phase

    Attack with your creatures and use their tap abilities, one creature at a time (see Attacking, battles and blocking). Nothing can be summoned, cast or put into mana any more this turn.

  5. End phase

    When you press End turn, effects that happen at the end of a turn take place, and it is your opponent’s turn.

End turn is there in every phase, so you can end your turn early, skipping whatever phases are left, such as when you have nothing to attack with.

7. Mana and paying for cards

Every card has a cost. To play it, you tap that many untapped cards in your mana zone, and among them must be:

  • at least one card of the card’s civilization. A 5-cost Fire creature needs 5 mana, at least one of them Fire.
  • for a multicolored card (a card of two or more civilizations), at least one card of each of its civilizations.

A multicolored card in your mana zone counts as only one of its civilizations each time you pay, never several at once. Multicolored cards also go into the mana zone tapped, so they can’t pay for anything on the turn you put them there.

When you play a card, the board asks you to choose the mana cards to tap. It only lets you summon or cast a card you can pay for, and a greyed-out Summon or Cast button says why you can’t yet.

8. Attacking, battles and blocking

In the battle phase, any of your untapped creatures can attack, except those summoned this turn: they have summoning sickness and must wait until your next turn (unless they are speed attackers or evolution creatures). Attacking taps the creature, and each creature attacks at most once a turn. You can attack:

  • Your opponent, to break their shields. You choose which shields to break. If they have no shields left and the attack isn’t blocked, you win.
  • One of their tapped creatures, to start a battle with it. Untapped creatures can’t be attacked, unless the attacker has an ability that allows it.

Battles

When two creatures battle, the one with the higher power wins and the other is destroyed (put into its owner’s graveyard). If their power is the same, both are destroyed. Before an attack, the board shows both creatures’ power and how the battle would end, and asks you to confirm.

Blocking

When your opponent attacks you or one of your creatures, and you have an untapped creature with blocker, the board asks whether you want to block. If you block, your blocker taps and battles the attacker instead, and the attack breaks no shields. You don’t have to block.

This is why untapped creatures matter: a creature that attacked stays tapped through your opponent’s next turn, where it can be attacked, and can’t block.

9. Shields and shield triggers

A broken shield isn’t lost: the card goes into its owner’s hand, so taking hits gives the defender more cards to play.

Some cards are shield triggers. When a shield trigger is broken out of your shield zone, you may play it at once, for free, even during your opponent’s turn: summon the creature or cast the spell without paying its cost. When several are broken together, you play them one at a time. A well-timed shield trigger can turn a game around, so it is worth having a few in a deck.

Creatures with double breaker or triple breaker break 2 or 3 shields in one attack.

10. Using the duel board

Taking actions

Click or tap a card to see what you can do with it. Actions you can’t take right now are greyed out, with the reason:

  • A card in your hand: Summon or Cast, and Add to mana.
  • A creature in your battle zone: Attack player, Attack creature, and Use tap ability for creatures that have one.
  • Any face-up card: View, to read it, with all its keywords spelled out.

Or drag cards where they should go: from your hand to your mana zone to add mana, or to your battle zone to summon or cast. Drag a creature onto your opponent’s shields to attack them, or onto their battle zone to attack one of their creatures.

Choices

When the game needs a decision, such as which mana to tap, which creature a spell targets, which shields to break, whether to block or which shield trigger to play, a panel explains what to choose. Pick the cards, then confirm. Some choices can be cancelled, such as summoning a creature after all.

The rest of the board

  • The phase bar shows the turn’s phases, with the current one lit, and how many turns have been played. Hover over a phase for what happens in it. Beside it are the button for the next phase and End turn, and a short hint tells you what you can do now.
  • Each creature shows its power, and badges above it for its most important keywords (see Keywords and badges).
  • The game log lists everything that happens; click a card name in it to see the card. The chat is beside it.
  • The red forfeit button (an arrow heading out) gives up the game, after asking you to confirm.

If your connection drops, open the game again to carry on where you left off: your opponent is told while you are away.

11. Keywords and badges

Many creatures have keywords: short names for abilities. The duel board shows the most important ones as badges above each creature, so you can read the board at a glance. A badge with a yellow ring was given by another card’s effect rather than printed on the card, and +2 beside the badges means 2 more, which View lists.

  • Blocker. When an opponent’s creature attacks, you may tap this untapped creature to make the attacker battle it instead. A blocked attack breaks no shields.
  • Speed attacker. Has no summoning sickness: it can attack the turn it is summoned.
  • Power attacker. Gets extra power while it attacks, by the amount on the card (such as +2000). It has its normal power when it is attacked or blocks.
  • Double breaker. Breaks 2 shields when it attacks a player, instead of 1.
  • Triple breaker. Breaks 3 shields when it attacks a player.
  • Slayer. When it loses a battle, the creature it battled is destroyed too, whatever that creature’s power.
  • Can’t be blocked. Blockers can’t stop its attacks.
  • Stealth. Can’t be blocked while the opponent has a card of a certain civilization in their mana zone (such as water stealth).
  • Attacks untapped creatures. Can attack the opponent’s creatures even when they are untapped.
  • Attacked as if tapped. Can be attacked even while it is untapped.
  • Can’t be attacked. Opposing creatures can’t choose it as the target of an attack.
  • Can’t attack players. It may only attack creatures.
  • Can’t attack creatures. It may only attack players.
  • Tap ability. In the battle phase, instead of attacking, it can tap to use the ability written on the card.
  • Silent skill. At the start of your turn, a tapped creature with silent skill can stay tapped instead of untapping, to use its ability.
  • Survivor. Each of your survivors has the survivor abilities of all your other survivors in the battle zone.
  • Wave striker. Its wave striker ability only works while 2 or more other wave strikers are in the battle zone.
  • Can’t be chosen. The opponent’s spells and abilities can’t choose it.
  • Can’t be tapped. The opponent’s spells and abilities can’t tap it.
  • Doesn’t untap. Stays tapped at the start of your turn.
  • Destroyed after battle. Is destroyed after it battles, even when it wins.
  • Summoning sickness. A creature summoned this turn can’t attack or use a tap ability until your next turn. The board also dims it.

Keywords without a badge

  • Shield trigger: can be played for free when it is broken out of your shields (see Shields and shield triggers).
  • Evolution: put on top of one of your creatures, as its card says (see The cards).
  • Charger: after you cast this spell, it goes into your mana zone instead of your graveyard, so it adds mana as well.
  • Multicolored: a card of two or more civilizations. It needs mana of each to play, and goes into the mana zone tapped.

12. Building a deck

A deck has exactly 40 cards, with at most 4 copies of any one card. You can save a deck before it has 40 cards and finish it later, but only a full deck can be played.

Every game is played in a format, which decides the cards a deck may use: Open allows every card the game can play, and DM-01 to DM-12 only the first twelve sets. A format can also ban cards, limit some to 1 or 2 copies, or set how many civilizations a deck may have. The deck builder shows, for each format, whether your deck is legal there and what breaks the rules.

In the deck builder, the trunk on the side lists every card. Search it, sort it, or open Filters to find cards by civilization, cost, type, race, set and more. Drag cards into your deck, or use the + and − buttons. The stats show your mana curve and civilizations. Decks can also be exported and imported as text, one line per card, such as 4 Bolshack Dragon.

A first deck

  • Start with one or two civilizations. More makes it harder to have the right mana.
  • Keep it cheap: plenty of cards costing 2 to 4, so you have something to play every turn, and only a few big ones at 6 or more.
  • Add some shield triggers and blockers to survive attacks, and a few ways to destroy or remove the opponent’s creatures.
  • Use 4 copies of your best cards, so you draw them more often.

13. Finding games, ratings and rematches

  • Quick match: choose a format and a deck, and you are paired with the waiting player whose rating is closest to yours. The longer you wait, the wider the search, so a match is found sooner.
  • Open a game: name your game, choose its format and your deck, and whether it is listed in the lobby or private (only your invite link leads to it), and whether others may watch. Then wait for someone to join.
  • Vs computer: play one of the site’s computer opponents, whenever you like.
  • Watch: logged-in players can watch the lobby’s games that allow it.

Ratings and ranks

Every player starts with a rating of 1000. Winning raises it and losing lowers it, more so against a stronger opponent: beating a higher-rated player gains more than beating a lower-rated one. Games against the computer, and very short games (under a minute), don’t count. Your rating gives your rank:

RankRating
Bronzebelow 1100
Silver1100 to 1299
Gold1300 to 1499
Platinum1500 to 1699
Diamond1700 and above

Each rank but Diamond is split into III, II and I, from low to high. The rankings list every player who has finished a game that counted.

Rematches

When a game ends, either player can offer a rematch from the result screen, and the other can accept or decline. Before accepting, each player may switch to another of their decks. The offer lasts 2 minutes, and a rematch starts with a coin toss of its own.

14. Tips for new duelists

  • Add mana every turn early on. Missing a mana drop leaves you a turn behind. Put in cards you can spare, such as a second copy of an expensive card.
  • Plan your turn before the battle phase. Once you move on, you can’t summon or cast until your next turn.
  • Think before attacking. An attacking creature stays tapped, where your opponent can attack it, and can’t block. Breaking shields also hands your opponent cards, and maybe a shield trigger.
  • Count the shields. When your opponent is down to one or two, a few unblocked attacks in one turn can end the game.
  • Keep a blocker back when you are low on shields.
  • Practise against the computer to learn a deck before taking it to a rated game.
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