The Technical
(the following is written by the Site Administrator with conceptual contributions from various duelists)

Duel Masters is one of the most balanced, technically fair games of skill available. In a sense, it follows the system of the well-known board game Chess. One must make certain moves before other moves become possible, and must aim for the most advantageous situation before making any large efforts. Unlike some other games where one simply hopes for one's most powerful cards as early as possible.

The game is built on a system of equivalence, with the general idea that, in order to achieve any given thing, something of approximately equal value must be given up. This is simplified into a mana cost system that most can easily recognize, but that system is only the beginning of a truly complex game balance.

On a player's first turn in a Duel Masters game, most cannot summon a creature. All creatures that could be summoned on this turn have some effect that either prevents them from attacking on the next turn, or slows down the player in some other way, be it by removing their mana, limiting their choices, or leaving play if they break a shield. The only civilization which can summon a creature on this turn without such a penalty is Light, and that creature is unable to win any battles whatsoever, unaided.

The second turn opens a wealth of possibilities for creatures and spells, too varied to list, but points of note are creatures that possess dual civilizations, the ability to summon these powerful ones acting as a sort of reward for having two specific types of mana so 'early'. Other notable abilities are Nature's ability to gain a creature and simultaneously accelerate mana growth, balanced by the fact that the mana card must be played from the hand... and the alternate ability to increase mana from the top of deck with a spell, but put no creature into play.

As mana increases, so too does the relative power of cards that can be used for that cost. The Light Civilization's creatures are the strongest, as their only method of defeating the enemy is through battle. Nature is similar, but has more ways of gaining extra power and the occasional means of removing enemies without battle, so there are some instances where they do not quite innately match the power of Light.

Fire has ways of dealing with enemies besides battle, and most Fire creatures are not as innately strong as their Light or Nature counterparts, but this fact is skilfully masked by adding very minor detrimental, occasionally conditional, effects, to them, and then boosting their actual combat ratings to the same level as the other two 'fighting' Civilizations.

The creatures of Darkness are almost as capable as those of Fire, but their strange and varied abilities hide that fact, and finally, the denizens of the deep, the Water Civilization, have the least combat capacity, but make up for it with their excellent abilities, which, unlike the abilities of most other Civilizations, are almost invariably effective regardless of the situation.

This structure gives us a game environment in which one can be more or less assured that at any given point of a duel, both players will have used roughly the same amount of total power, leaving skill and some luck to determine who is 'winning'. Luck can be turned mostly in one's facor through skilled deck building, and skill is a matter of knowledge and practice.

The technical nature of the game means that there is almost always something new that can be developed, learnt, or experienced, at least, by even the most advanced of players, especially in either the original Japanese play format, or the Alternative English Extended play format developed by KirriCorp.

Try it for yourself and see why players of this game, even those who have left, can say, without need for exaggeration or bias, that it is one of the best card games, and in fact, best games in general, in the world.