I too started the game not too long ago, but I have been studying up on it every day, along with visiting the message boards and trying to help out the other duelists there. I made a simple mental note of what cards were good, okay, and bad, and I also made a note on what a beginner (like myself) should be doing/looking for in the cards.

First of all, there are five color types in the Duel Masters trading card game. There are: Nature, Fire, Light, Dark, and Water. Simple enough, right? Many of the players refer to the cards by their color. Personally, I use both colors and types, so I may be using both in this guide. Now, only one set has been released in English so far: the base set. There are 120 cards in this set, so there's a lot of variety.

As a beginner, you first want to learn how to play the game. Duelmasters.com has a fantastic demo on their site, so I would strongly suggest using the demo. Also, the site as a card database, so you can see pictures of every card of every type and see what they do. Pojo's Duel Masters message board is an awesome place to go to talk about Duel Masters' decks, single cards, and even the anime show! I'm there a lot; maybe you can catch me ;x

Have you visited the Duelmasters.com site? If you haven't you should soon, but it's no big deal right now. Now, let's look at some of the game mechanics. I believe there are essentially seven parts to the game (and I will explain more in a bit). They are:

Step one: If you have happened to play Magic: The Gathering, then you know what "tapping" and "untapping are. Tapping a creature or "mana" means to turn it sideways, which shows that you are using it. When you attack with a creature, you turn it sideways. When you want to use mana, you turn it sideways. And, when your opponent's turn ends, you can turn your cards upright, which is "untapping" your cards.

What is mana? If you look at any Duel Masters card you will find an upside down "1" on the bottom of it. This is how much Mana that specific card can produce. To use a card as mana, you set it into your Mana Zone upside down so that the "1" is now upright. You can't do anything with that card except use it for Mana. No attacking, no spell-casting; nothing. It's simply for Mana.

Step two: This is the easiest part of the whole game! =) To simply draw a card, just take the top card of your deck and put it into your hand. Told you it was simple! However, when you draw your last card you lose the game, but I will discuss some rules later on.

Step three: I went over this a little bit earlier. To lay a card for Mana, simply put any one card upside down into your Mana Zone. You can only lay one card into the Mana Zone from your hand unless another card tells you otherwise. I will discuss more of this later on also.

Step four: This is basically the same principle as laying a card in the Mana Zone. To use a creature, you must tap enough Mana in your Mana Zone as what the number says in the upper left hand corner of a creature card. Creatures that are just put into battle have "summoning sickness" and therefore can't attack that turn. Your opponent can attack that creature, but you can only attack with it on your following turn.

Step five: Playing a spell is very easy. Much like playing a creature, to play a spell you must check the upper left hand side of the card and see its Mana cost. Then simply tap the required Mana and do what the card says to do. Easy, huh? After you're done, you put the spell into the graveyard (unless stated otherwise).

Step six: Ah! The best part of the game! =) When you are able to attack with a creature, always do it. When you decide to attack with a creature you must turn it sideways (tap it) to show that you are attacking. You have three options when attacking: attack your opponent's untapped creatures, attack your opponent's shields, or attack your opponent (you can only attack your opponent when you have broken all your opponent's shields). The object of Duel Masters is to break all your opponent's shields, and then attack your opponent directly once to win the game. When attacking a shield, your creature's attack power doesn't matter. Did you notice that number in the lower left hand corner of a creature card? That is its Attack Power. When attacking another creature, you must compare attack powers. The creature with the greater attack power wins the battle, and the losing creature is sent to the graveyard. Of course, this works the same for your opponent, so be on guard! =)

First of all, a Duel Masters deck has to have at least forty cards in it, and you can't have more than four of a single card. In the upper left hand corner of all cards is the Mana cost. Take, for example, a Fire card with a Mana cost of 2. To use this card, to have to tap a Mana that is the same color type as the card you are using. So, let's say you want to cast the Fire creature, "Immortal Baron, Vorg." This card's Mana cost is 2, but since it is a Fire creature we must tap a Fire Mana in our Mana zone, then any other type to use this card. Does that make sense? Also, "graveyard" is your discard pile, Mana Zone is where you place your mana, and creature zone is where you place your creatures. Simple, right? And you are free to set up your Mana and creature zones however way you feel most comfortable.

To win a game, you must either: break all of your opponent's shields, then attack them one more time, or your opponent draws the last card in his deck. Remember to keep an eye on your deck! Don't get too involved in the game and notice too late that you are running out of cards. Play smart!

For a beginner, I would strongly recommend Fire as a main theme in your deck. Fire has excellent creatures of all Mana costs, as well as some awesome spells. It is not a good idea to run one color, so let's trying making a two color deck; but what other color should we use? Let's try Nature. It's a solid back-up type.

Okay, so now we have our two types. What cards should we run? Well, when I made a deck, I break it down into Mana cost, starting with creatures. Let's start with one Mana creatures. Some one-Mana creatures cards are: Deadly Fighter Braid Claw and Artisan Picora. Great thing for us is that both these cards are commons! Excellent. However, they each have specific text on them. Deadly Fight Braid Claw says that it attacks every turn if able, which means we would HAVE to attack every turn following the turn it was put into play. But we'll be attacking a lot anyway, right? ;) Artisan Picora says that when it comes into play, destroy a Mana. Ouch. Artisan Picora does have a 2000 attack (Deadly Fither Braid Claw has 1000), but destroying a Mana is rough. But! We are also running Nature, which specializes in producing a lot of Mana! Let's add four Deadly Fighter Braid Claws and keep Artisan Picora in consideration. The bad thing about Nature is that it does not have any one-Mana creatures. =( That's okay! The best is yet to come.

Now, let's move a bit faster, okay? Let's check out some of the two-Mana to five-Mana creatures. We'll cover spells after this. For Fire I would recommend: Immortal Baron, Vorg (2-Mana), Onslaughter Triceps (3-Mana), Fire Sweeper Burning Hellion (4-Mana), and Stonesaur (5-Mana). Solid choices! Now, for Nature I would suggest: Burning Mane (2-Mana), Mighty Shouter (3-Mana), Fear Fang (3-Mana), and Coiling Vines (4-Mana). Great as well!

Spells are always the toughest part of deck building. They have to support the theme you're going for. We are going for a tough, fast beat-down deck. There most certainly are cards to help us with that, and Fire fits the bill nicely. Burning Power is a one-Mana spell that gives one of our creatures "Power Attack +2000). When a creature has Power Attack +XXXX, that means, in addition to its regular Attack Power, whenever it attacks it gets +XXXX. That's awesome! That means if we have a Deadly Fighter Braid Claw with an Attack Power of 1000 and use Burning Power on it, then when it attacks, its attack is actually 3000! That's fantastic! The only side-effect is that you can only use Burning Power for that turn, as the effect goes away after your turn. For Nature, let's look at Dimension Gate. It's a 4-Mana card, but it's a shield trigger that lets you search for any creature card in your deck and put it into your hand. A card with shield trigger means that if your opponent breaks one of your shields and you see that is has a shield trigger, then that means you can play it right away without paying the Mana cost! That is awesome. We have to add Dimension Gate to the deck. Other great cards are: Ultimate Force for Nature and Crimson Hammer for Fire.

What should you do next? Well, I would suggest you to go out and buy the Starter Deck along with a few packs. Read over the rules and terms and construct your own deck! Then, buy some more packs and see if anyone around you is playing Duel Masters too. Try to get your friends to play as well.

I hope I helped you in your quest to become a new member of the Duel Masters' society! Remember to go to Duelmasters.com and check out the online demo and their card database! Also, visit the Pojo Message Boards and find the Duel Masters section. You can find me there. =) Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.