Mana-Your Options

Hey! This is cgman(getting tired of me yet?) with another tip for your decks. 
Mana is an essential part of every Duel Masters deck. You see, the more mana 
that is in your mana zone, the more you can do during your turn. Even though 
most of you know this, I don't think that too many people consider mana while 
putting their decks together. This could lead to problems, because you could 
be placing valuable cards into your mana zone instead of playing them. I have 
run into this problem several times while I was playing. Now, I'm beginning 
to understand what has to be done in order to keep your mana open, thus giving 
you more options. I will discuss some options for what you can do about placing 
cards in your mana zone. Nature cards: I'm sure most people have realized that 
putting nature cards into your deck most often means that you will be able to 
quickly aquire mana to use. In fact, most of the focus of the Nature civilization 
is mana acceleration. Since this has already been discussed in other tips, I won't 
go into detail. Don't be afraid to sacrifice: Even though some cards are crucial, 
I have a tendency to try to save as much as possible. While some of those cards 
could help me in the long run, it seems to me that it is much better to use it as 
mana, especially if you only need one extra mana to play a different card in your 
hand. While this could create some problems in a "casual" deck, most tournament 
level decks should be running multiple copies of the same card. This means that 
you will also be able to play this card, or, rather, a copy of it, later on. 
Also, playing that card sitting your hand now could save your butt during your 
opponent's turn. Plan for your mana zone: Think about a few cards that you would 
be willing to give up for your mana zone before you have to decide during a duel. 
If you think early on about certain cards that can be played in your deck as a 
creature or spell when you need it or as mana when you need it, you will hardly 
ever have to worry about which cards you feel should be placed into your mana 
zone and what should be kept. Run multiple copies: I've already mentioned this 
before, but playing multiple copies of card allows you to know that you will 
have some of the same resources to use later on in the game. This means that 
playing it into the mana zone won't be as costly. Think about the focus: 
The main cards you need to worry about saving are the cards that comprise 
the strategy of your deck and, earlier on in the duel, the low cost creatures 
and spells, but only in the early portion of the game. Ummmmmm... not much else 
to say about that! Thanks to all who read this, and I hope this gave you some 
ideas about your mana zone. Though you really can't use the cards too much, 
it is still essential to keep a good amount of cards there.                

-cgman
(p.s.-for those of you wanting to know, the full version of my name comes 
from what used to be one of my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh cards-Celtic Guardian, 
and it's supposed to be celticguardianman88, but I don't like typing it 
out all the way!)